from:"Dietmar Muehlboeck"

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6204.shtml

Travel Warning: Bethlehem  Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
Press Release, Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied 
Palestinian Territory, 11 December 2006

This Travel Warning is being issued to update information on the general 
security environment in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza 
Strip, and to reiterate threats to foreign nationals, especially 
American citizens. Although the situation in Israel is seemingly calm, 
the fact of the matter remains that Israel continues to aggressively 
violate International Humanitarian and Human Rights Laws daily. A 
disconcerting development is the Israeli practice of denying entry of 
Palestinian Christians and Muslims to the Holy Land; embodying religious 
discrimination during the high holy season. As Palestinians, we have 
always looked forward to your being with us during Christmas, Easter and 
other holiday feasts. In the past, it has been a time to welcome you 
into our land, our churches, our mosques, and our homes, despite the 
troubled times we have witnessed throughout the decades.

In order to visit any of the Holy sites you must pass through an 
Israeli-controlled point of entry (airport or bridge), since Israel 
controls all access to the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory, where 
Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Church of the Nativity and Holy Sepulcher 
are located. Since March of this year, an extraordinary number of 
foreigners have been denied entry through Israeli ports. Many of these 
foreign nationals have been turned away at the airport or bridges and 
sent back to their country of residence or to Jordan. The Israeli 
authorities seldom give a reason for barring foreign tourists, so people 
find themselves spending money to fly into the Israeli airport or come 
to the Israeli-controlled border crossings not knowing that they may be 
turned away without having the opportunity to visit the Holy Land or 
visit their friends and families.

If this Israeli policy is allowed to continue it can literally empty 
Palestine of another half a million Palestinians. Given that four 
decades of Israeli occupation have already successfully reduced the 
Christian population in Bethlehem from 15% to less than 2%, it becomes 
clear that Israel's goal is to reduce the entire Palestinian population 
to insignificant numbers.

We would like to welcome you to Bethlehem in occupied Palestine this 
Christmas season. However, to avoid spending money unnecessarily and 
facing a humiliating experience, we recommend that you call the Israeli 
Embassy or Consulate nearest you before embarking on your trip this 
Christmas season. Please ask the Embassy or Consulate if you will be 
able to pass through the airport or via one of the bridges from Jordan 
in order to reach Bethlehem, particularly given the fact that thousands 
who are trying to reach the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory are 
being turned back.

While speaking to the Israeli Embassy officials, confirm that 
Palestinians - Muslims and Christians - have not been allowed to worship 
in their holy places for many years. In fact, no Palestinians from the 
West Bank and Gaza have been allowed to enter Jerusalem without Israeli 
military permission since 1993 and very few are granted permits to enter 
Jerusalem, whether for worship during Lent, Advent or Ramadan.

The building of the illegal Israeli Separation Wall (which is mostly 
built on Palestinian lands acquired by force 1967) has made it even more 
difficult for Palestinians and internationals to travel to Jerusalem and 
Bethlehem. The Separation Wall has not been built for security reasons, 
but rather to separate people from one another, from their livelihood, 
from their places of worship, and from their future. Walls do not create 
the conditions for peace with justice. Historically, walls separate and 
divide and bring widespread despair, which we are witnessing now.

Although the U.S. State Department's Travel Advisory for this same area 
urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to the West Bank and to avoid all 
travel to the Gaza Strip, we would ask that you rather not despair and 
actively attempt to join us in Bethlehem and Jerusalem this Christmas. 
If we acknowledge the international community's concurrence to allow 
Israel to get away with denying the world's citizens the right to 
worship and blatant, daily violations of human rights, then we would all 
be accomplices to the war crimes being committed against Palestinians.

Thus, we hope to see you all this Christmas season. Please contact us 
when you are here so we visit and worship with you. You may contact us 
either via email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or mobile at 059-817-3953.

If you cannot be with us, then please keep Bethlehem, Jerusalem and 
Palestinians in your prayers and actions this holiday season.

+++



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[osint] Quake jolts Rezvanshahr in Iran's Gilan

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=47964NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Quake jolts Rezvanshahr in Iran's Gilan

LONDON, December 12 (IranMania) - An earthquake jolted surrounding areas
of Rezvanshahr, Gilan province. It was measuring 3.6 degrees on Richter
scale, IRNA reported.

According to the report of seismography center affiliated to the ehran
University Geophysics Institute, the tremor occurred at 18:16 local time
(14:46 GMT) and its epicenter was at 37.50 altitude and 49.17 longitude.

There is no immediate report of possible casualties or damage.

+++

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[osint] Hizbullah Fighters Equipped in Uniforms Resembling those of Lebanese army

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=117112

Hizbullah Fighters Equipped in Uniforms Resembling those of Lebanese army
15:25 Dec 10, '06 / 19 Kislev 5767

(IsraelNN.com) According to the Beirut daily a-Nahar, Lebanese security 
sources have reported that Hizbullah has purchased a large volume of 
uniforms resembling those worn by the Lebanese army and Lebanese 
security forces from a merchant in southern Lebanon.

Under the terms of the ceasefire after August's war between Hizbullah 
and Israel, the militiamen were not to dress in uniform in areas 
patrolled by the regular Lebanese army - which deployed to the south of 
the country up to the Israeli border for the first time in more than 30 
years.

+++



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[osint] Iranian cloned sheep in good health

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=227210n=33

Iranian cloned sheep in good health

Iran and Middle East's first cloned sheep Royana is at good health 
conditions on 70th day of its birth, it was announced on Monday.

Born on October 1st, 2006, using cloning technology on fundamental 
cells, the Iranian cloned sheep weighs 40 kilograms and its physical and 
physiological conditions are quite satisfactory, according to it 
biologist care takers.

Successful birth of Royana thanks to tireless efforts of Rouyan 
Biological Research Center (RBRC) was a great scientific achievement for 
Iran, as the first country in the Middle East to achieve the cloning 
technology.

Research work in cloning field was launched in the year 2004 in Tehran 
and Isfahan simultaneously, focusing on cloning of sheep.

Finding the appropriate zygote and then the ovule into which the deal 
zygote was to be implanted was the first phases of the advanced 
biological project.

It was agreed finally to take advantage of the cells gained from the 
fibro-blast tissues of a sheep's earlobes for the purpose.

The study was pursued using the outside-womb-impregnation (IVF) 
technology in two phases of the sheep's cloning.

As a result of the IVF impregnation, that was tried for the first time 
in Iran, the first cloned sheep was born on October 1st 2006 in a 
caesarean operation in Isfahan.

The technique had never before been used in traditional artificial 
impregnation, that is used in animal husbandry.

The resulted embryos, inclusive of two to three sheep, were then 
transferred to the host sheep's womb, and the final result was the birth 
of a twin pair of sheep, one of whom died soon after birth.

In cloning phase of this study 230 cloned embryos were implanted in the 
womb of 77 host sheep, a twin was born alive as the result, each 
weighing around three kilograms.

The first of those twins died five minutes after birth due to problems 
it had suffered during its host's pregnancy, and the second, Royana is 
at good health at 70th day of its historic life now.

+++



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[osint] Hamas promises to dress up Bethlehem for Xmas

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/hamas-promises-to-dress-up-bethlehem-for-xmas/2006/12/12/1165685657342.html

Hamas promises to dress up Bethlehem for Xmas

Islamic militants may be in charge, but that doesn't mean there won't be
Christmas in Bethlehem this year.

The cash-strapped Hamas government is promising $US50,000 ($A64,000) to
dress up Jesus's traditional birthplace for Christmas, more than twice
the amount spent in previous years.

Yet even the extra cash - if Hamas pays up - may not be enough to bring
Christmas cheer to Bethlehem, hit hard by the past six years of
Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

The biblical town is now walled in by Israel's West Bank separation
barrier, poverty is deepening and Christians are leaving Bethlehem in
droves.

Palestinian Tourism Minister Joudeh Morkos has modest expectations.

Last year, only about 2,500 foreign visitors came to the city at
Christmas time, but he's counting on the usual busloads of Christians
from Arab towns in Israel to boost turnout. Before the outbreak of the
Palestinian uprising in 2000, Bethlehem drew more than 90,000 pilgrims a
month.

With just two weeks until Christmas, Bethlehem is only sparsely decorated.

Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh, a churchgoing Catholic from a leftist
party, said he won't start decorating until he has the money in hand.

A few neon stars are nailed to storefronts on the main streets. The only
decoration on the Lutheran Christmas Church in a busy market area is
spray-painted graffiti below the pointed steeple that reads Islamic
Jihad - a Muslim militant group.

In Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity, built over Jesus's
traditional birthplace, only two of six souvenir shops and a small cafe
were open on a recent afternoon. Many other nearby shops were closed as
well. A few tourists who sat outside a cafe, braving the dreary weather,
were thronged by peddlers trying to sell olive wood crucifixes.

Local businesses are suffering.

Abir Karram, who sells traditional hand-embroidered Palestinian dresses,
can no longer afford to pay the 700 shekel ($A147) monthly rent for her
workshop. Two years ago, she had 30 women working part time for her,
designing and embroidering gowns using ancient patterns. Now she has no
workers.

Karram and other merchants say six years of economic hardship during the
violence, including Israeli travel bans, have been compounded by an
international economic boycott of the government, imposed 10 months ago
when Hamas came to power. The militant group has struggled to pay
salaries to 165,000 public servants, who are the backbone of the economy.

The wall stopped tourists and Arabs from Israel, she said, referring
to the separation barrier, which is meant to stop Palestinian suicide
bombings, but also cuts across Bethlehem's main trade artery.

Now people here have no salaries. It's like a well that finished
drawing water, Karram said.

The economic squeeze has driven away growing numbers of Christians,
already a minority of 35 per cent in this town of 30,000.

Bethlehem resident Mike Salman, an amateur chronicler of Christian
affairs, said about 20 per cent of the town's 1,000 Catholic families
have left in the past six years. Salman said he's seen a similar rate of
emigration from other Christian denominations.

A 2004 UN report estimated about 10 per cent of Christians had left.

Amal Bandak, 39, a Christian, said her family of five wants to return to
Chile, their home until two years ago. The Bandaks had come back to
Bethlehem because her husband needed a back operation, more affordable
in the West Bank.

Amal's daughters, 13 and 17, will have what should be a storybook
Christmas, marching in the traditional Girl Scouts parade and attending
services at the Church of the Nativity.

Yet they enjoyed the holiday more in Chile, she said.

I used to tell the children of all the wonderful things that happen
here at Christmas, how everybody comes to town, the family visits. But
last Christmas, they went to sleep weeping. They said it was the saddest
Christmas they ever had. It broke my heart, she said.

Hamas's generous promise of funding has drawn mixed reactions among
local Christians.

Some said they suspect the Islamic militants hoped to score a few points
with the international community. It's just for show, said one elderly
woman who asked not be named, fearing retribution.

Salman, a Palestinian Catholic, said Hamas should have given the money
to the poor, but it was a sign of goodwill. I appreciate it, because
Bethlehem is the symbol of peace, he said.

The acting finance minister, Samir Abu Eisha of Hamas, said he'll write
the $US50,000 ($A64,000) cheque in the coming days.

Last year, the outgoing government run by Hamas's archrival, the Fatah
movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, didn't give Bethlehem
any money and the town had to rely mostly on international donations.
The year before, it received $US20,000

[osint] Pakistan, Yemen discuss ways to combat terror

http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/12/top7.htm

Pakistan, Yemen discuss ways to combat terror


SANAA, Dec 11: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met President Ali Abdullah 
Saleh in the southern port city of Aden on Monday, Yemen's Saba news 
agency said. Mr Aziz, who arrived in Yemen on Sunday on a three-day 
visit, has been holding talks on cooperation between Sanaa and Islamabad 
in the fight against terrorism. Mr Aziz met Prime Minister Abdel Kader 
Bajammal shortly after his arrival in Sanaa for talks that focused on 
political, economic and security cooperation between Yemen and Pakistan, 
Saba news agency reported.

The two countries stand in the same trench in the fight against 
terrorism in all its forms, Mr Bajammal said.

---AFP

+++



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[osint] 1.6M FOLLOWERS OF ISLAM LIVE IN UK

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=158768command=displayContentsourceNode=158432contentPK=16150362folderPk=87595pNodeId=158359

1.6M FOLLOWERS OF ISLAM LIVE IN UK

09:40 - 11 December 2006
Islam means both 'peace' and 'submission'. It is the second-largest
religion in the world, with more than 1.4 billion followers, of which
around 1.6 million live in the UK.Islam was revealed more than 1,400
years ago, in Mecca, Arabia.

Muslims base their laws on their holy book, the Qur'an, and the Sunnah.

There are five basic Pillars of Islam, which are the declaration of
faith, praying five times a day, giving money to charity, fasting, and a
once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.

+++

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[osint] Did CAIR founder say Islam to rule America?

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53303

Did CAIR founder say
Islam to rule America?
Muslims confront Omar Ahmad as newspaper
insists report of controversial remarks accurate
Posted: December 11, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Art Moore
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


Omar Ahmad
It's a citation used frequently by critics to argue the highly 
influential Council on American-Islamic Relations is an extremist 
organization -- founder Omar Ahmad's alleged 1998 assertion that Islam 
must one day dominate the U.S. -- but now Muslim leaders have confronted 
Ahmad, expressing concern that someone from their community could voice 
such radical sentiments.

Ahmad told the Muslim leaders -- and WND in an interview -- the 
attribution is a total fabrication and assured them the newspaper, the 
Fremont Argus in California, issued a clarification after he 
challenged reporter Lisa Gardiner.

That seemed to satisfy the Muslim leaders, but Gardiner told WND she 
continues to stand by the story, and Editor Steve Waterhouse said he's 
confident she got it right. After hearing that news Thursday, one of the 
Muslim leaders immediately resurrected the issue with his colleagues, 
declaring Ahmad and CAIR need to find a way to extinguish this fire.

She was a good, solid reporter, Waterhouse said of Gardiner. She was 
absolutely certain about what he said and what she reported.

Gardiner, who now works for a non-profit group, told WND last week she's 
100-percent sure Ahmad was the speaker and that he made those 
statements, pointing out nobody challenged the story at the time it was 
published eight years ago.

She's lying, Ahmad said upon hearing Gardiner's defense of the story. 
Absolutely, she's lying. How could you remember something from so long 
ago? I don't even remember her in the audience.

CAIR, which has enjoyed access to the White House as the country's 
largest Islamic advocacy group, recently defended the six imams removed 
from a US Airways flight because they were deemed a potential security 
threat.

Ahmad, who stepped down as CAIR chairman last year, maintained to WND he 
never uttered those words.

It is not my stance, it is not what I believe in, said Ahmad, CEO of 
SiliconExpert Technologies in Santa Clara, Calif. The year before (the 
1998 event) I was a commissioner for my city and took an oath on the 
constitution and never had a problem. It doesn't make sense for me to 
think that way. I was shocked to hear somebody reported that.

It was WND's 2003 story about Ahmad's alleged remarks that prompted the 
Muslim leaders to query the CAIR founder two months ago. In a string of 
e-mail correspondence copied to WND, the leaders first debated among 
themselves, then asked Ahmad to tell them whether the report is true 
and, if so, to repudiate the remarks.

Mike Ghouse, president of a Dallas-based group called World Muslim 
Congress, told colleagues in the e-mails that Ahmad allegedly has made a 
dangerously militant statement.

The harsh reality [that] we do not want to hear and acknowledge [is] 
that no Muslim in America or anywhere else in the world wants to live in 
an Islamic nation, Ghouse wrote.

The 1998 Argus article, also published in the sister San Ramon Valley 
Herald, paraphrased Ahmad saying: Islam isn't in America to be equal to 
any other faith, but to become dominant, and, The Koran, the Muslim 
book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam 
the only accepted religion on Earth.

In one of his replies to the Muslim leaders, Ahmad wrote: These 
statements are total fabrication and I never said them at all. Actually 
there (sic) were not direct quote and I challenged the reporter and the 
newspaper and they published a clarification 3 years ago.

The Muslim leaders, at the time, seemed satisfied with the denial, 
including Ghouse.

Ghouse told WND he understood Ahmad to be saying the newspaper and the 
reporter had backed off on their claim that the story is true, perhaps, 
at least, expressing some doubt about it.

But Waterhouse said flatly, We did not publish a clarification.

''This is not going to die'

The editor explained that after hearing from Ahmad in the wake of WND's 
May 1, 2003, article, his paper published a story of its own one month 
later referencing Ahmad's denial but also clearly stating the newspaper 
was not backing down.

Upon hearing that information Thursday from WND, Ghouse sent out an 
e-mail to colleagues on his World Muslim Congress list with a copy of 
the June 2003 story by Waterhouse's newspaper chain and stated: We had 
discussed this a few months ago, it appears that it still has some fire 
in it, this is not going to die.

I think Mr. Omar Ahmad and CAIR need to think hard and figure out a way 
to extinguish this fire, Ghouse wrote. The above statement is one of 
the most anti-Islamic, most arrogant, bullying statement[s] made in 
behalf of Islam. Let's strip this for good.

Ghouse acknowledged in the e-mail, Most of us do not

[osint] Fear of Islam can be treated, cured

[sure about that; best cure in their sense would be a sword in our 
necks... dm+]

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/12/Hernando/Fear_of_Islam_can_be_.shtml

Fear of Islam can be treated, cured

By Times editorial
Published December 12, 2006

Let the world know, American Muslims strongly condemn terrorism and all 
terrorists, whoever they are and wherever they may be. We love our 
country and are very proud to be American and Muslim.

Taking a scientific approach to the problem, first we should diagnosis 
it, then treat it.

The Diagnosis: The disease called Islamophobia (or fear of Islam and 
Muslims with the rise of terrorism). It has been perpetuated mostly by 
ignorance, and partly with deception and misinformation before and after 
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As much as terrorists hijacked our religion, extreme right-wing 
neoconservatives hijacked our administration, and it seemed to every 
Muslim that America is at war with Islam the religion, not with the 
terrorists who have hurt us. As you, we wanted to bring terrorists to 
justice. It seemed the facts did not matter anymore, as negative and 
false perceptions became the rule, not the exception, about Islam and 
Muslims.

Islam in the media is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, 
supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilization (an idea 
put in Samuel Huntington's 1998 book The Clash of Civilizations and the 
Remaking of World Order). Thus, anti-Muslim hostility is seen, which 
includes demonizing Islam and attacking our prophet and holy book (the 
Koran), and waging a smear campaign on radio talk shows, TV programs and 
the Internet.

The treatment: I believe the therapy will include education and outreach 
and kindness. Ignorance constitutes 90 to 95 percent of the problem; the 
remaining 5 percent of the problem will need to be dealt with by law 
enforcement.

In Hernando County, for the past five years, there has been ongoing 
education about Islam and the prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), 
including a radio show aired at 12:40 p.m. every Friday on WWJB-AM 1450.

There also have been many visits to a large number of churches, clubs 
and businesses to educate, share views and establish dialogue. There is 
a Web site, www.hernandomasjid.com, with all free materials in English 
and Spanish about Islam for those who are interested.

Naturally, we have to stop inflaming the feelings of the Muslim world by:

- Bringing our troops back home within six to 12 months and replacing 
them with a U.N.-led peacekeeping force, mostly from a very strong 
Muslim ally of the United States that also is a leading Arabic and 
Muslim country: Egypt.

- Becoming an even-handed broker in the Middle East conflict, especially 
if United States wants to maintain credibility as a broker in the peace 
process.

- Reviewing the parts of the Patriot Act that are damaging to our 
liberty and way of life, and makes us suspicious of each other.

- Reviewing policies and holding hearings on policies that unfairly 
target the Muslim community, such as wiretapping and denial of visas to 
Muslim leaders who advocate peace and justice, such as Yusuf Islam (also 
known as Cat Stevens).

- Establishing a special liaison between the U.S. State Department, the 
White House and American Muslims to discuss education, security and 
peaceful conflict resolution in the world.

- Reconnecting America to the Muslim world and re-establishing a healthy 
dialogue about mutual interests and the alliance of civilizations, not 
clash of civilizations. We need oil, which our lives and economy depend 
on, and which is found mostly in Muslim countries.

- Following through on the 9/11 bipartisan commission's recommendation 
to bring hope through human development and improved living conditions, 
especially in Palestine and in Lebanon, where witnesses reported 
massacres of children. America alone vetoed the U.N. resolution that 
condemned those acts and sided with Israel, a country that is given 
$200-million every day in U.S. tax money, part of which is used to kill 
innocent women and children. It makes our country look really bad in the 
eyes of the world.

Thus, we need the U.N. force monitoring the region while the peace 
process is being resuscitated and a final road map is being established 
to create two separate states living in peace and harmony and while 
attempts are made to replace extremism with moderation. This is the only 
way to bring sanity back to the world; clearly, wars will not achieve 
anything but destruction.

Finally, a very powerful treatment tool is to use the power of prayer to 
bring peace in this very special season, when our Christian friends and 
neighbors celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), along 
with their Muslim friends who celebrate Eid al-Adha, the feast of 
sacrifice, and with their Jewish friends who observe Hanukkah. All three 
religions have a common father: Abraham.

Peace on earth is the best gift

[osint] US concerned over extremist safe havens in Pakistan

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061212/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistantalibanunrest

US concerned over extremist safe havens in Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said it was concerned over safe 
havens being established by Islamic militants in northern Pakistan's 
tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan.
ADVERTISEMENT

The concerns stemmed from reports Monday that Pakistan's peace deals 
with militants in its tribal areas are helping to fuel Taliban's regrouping.

The militants are consolidating their hold in northern Pakistan and 
vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits 
and fortifying alliances with Al-Qaeda and foreign fighters, the New 
York Times reported Monday.

Their new strength has led to virtually a Taliban mini-state and 
portends an even bloodier year for Afghanistan in 2007, the report 
warned, quoting diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations.

Many Taliban guerillas fled to Pakistan's tribal zone after the US-led 
invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. 
The Taliban's subsequent insurgency has spiked in 2006 with almost 4,000 
deaths.

Clearly, you still do have cross-border infiltration and I know that 
that is a concern for the Pakistanis and the Afghans, State Department 
spokesman Sean McCormack said, commenting on the Times report.

But having safe havens and areas where these extremists can operate 
from is a real concern for us, he said.

The peace deals were signed by the Pakistani government in the 
semi-autonomous tribal regions of North Waziristan in September 2006 and 
neighbouring South Waziristan in April 2004.

Since the September accord,
NATO officials say cross-border attacks by Pakistani and Afghan Taliban 
and their foreign allies have increased, the Times reported.

US
President George W. Bush hosted talks between Pakistani President Pervez 
Musharraf and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at the White House in 
September to help ease the border tensions.

McCormack said Monday it was too early to tell whether the peace 
programs were succeeding.

But the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said in a report 
Monday that the peace deals had allowed the Taliban, once backed by 
Pakistan, to regroup and sparked increasingly deadly attacks on foreign 
troops in Afghanistan.

President Musharraf's policy of appeasing insurgents after the failure 
of army offensives has merely fuelled radicalism along the border and 
throughout Pakistan, it said.

Using the region to regroup, reorganise and rearm, they are launching 
increasingly severe cross-border attacks on Afghan and international 
military personnel, the think tank report said.

The Musharraf government's ambivalent approach and failure to take 
effective action is destabilising Afghanistan, it added.

Pakistan says it has 80,000 troops along the border tackling the problem.

NATO is battling a tough Taliban-led insurgency, particularly in 
southern Afghanistan, and it fears that if reconstruction does not 
happen quickly enough people may turn back to the fundamentalist militia.

+++



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[osint] 'Israel to go from doctor boom to shortage in decade'

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881873181pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

'Israel to go from doctor boom to shortage in decade'

Although Israel has one of the highest rates of doctors per capita in
the world, the retirement of large numbers of physicians in less than a
decade will lower the rate to a dangerous level and even below the
European average, Maccabi Health Services director-general Prof.
Yehoshua Shemer said on Monday.

Addressing the Third International Conference on Health Policy of the
National Institute on Health Policy and Health Services Research, Shemer
said that not only were budget restraints restricting the number of
Israeli medical students, the retirement of doctors now in their late
50s and early 60s would create a serious shortage of physicians in the
not-so-distant future.

In addition, said Shemer, a Tel Aviv University medical school expert on
health systems and policy and a former director-general of the Health
Ministry, technological developments in medicine such as gene mapping
and organ transplants would increase the need for doctors.

Although access to medical information via the Internet has turned
patients almost into doctors, they are overwhelmed with information
that requires mediation by a skilled and informed physician, said Shemer
at the three-day conference in Jerusalem's Binyanei Ha'uma, which is
being attended by 600 leading health policy experts from 70 countries.

Today, said Shemer, there were 3.5 doctors per 1,000 residents, while in
less than a decade, we are liable to decline to fewer than 2.5 per 1,000.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, who is familiar with health problems
due to his founding and continued involvement in the voluntary
organization Yad Sarah, surprised the audience when he said that while
there were excellent doctors in this country, there is something wrong
in the diagnosis and also the treatment of the leaders of health policy,
especially those who are sitting on the central arteries of the budget
and think they are above everything.

As senior Health Ministry officials were sitting at the dais and in the
audience, Lupolianski added that he was told the main issue on the
agenda of the conference is whether the era of health reform is over.

As someone who is close to the provision of health services, I ask:
Have all the hopes of past reforms been achieved? When the National
Health Insurance Law came into effect, we had many expectations. Can
those responsible for the law and its implementation honestly state that
this is what we had hoped for? Are these the changes we wanted? What in
the system can we be proud of? What has been changed? What can we be
proud of? I give expression to the pain of many citizens. We all agree
that reforms haven't been fully successful and didn't bring relief to
the terrible weaknesses of the system.

A Health Page feature on the conference will appear on Sunday, December 24.

+++

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[osint] Pakistan enables terror by neglect

http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=171593

Pakistan enables terror by neglect
By Peter Brookes/ Syndicated Columnist
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Pakistan's getting worse on the terrorism front - or maybe the problem 
has just grown more obvious. Either way, we've got a major terrorism 
threat on our hands.
 Britain's domestic spooks, the MI5, revealed last month that 
they've foiled five terror attacks since the horrific 7/7 subway-bus 
bombings in London in 2005. They're tracking 30 new plots, mostly of 
Pakistani origin.
 Of course, those are just the plots they know of.
 Worse, British intelligence said they believe that al-Qaeda is 
regrouping in Pakistan, which could put the United Kingdom at 
significant risk of more terrorism.


 And MI5 doesn't believe that Britain is al-Qaeda's lone target: It 
could be a stepping stone for Pakistani-originated or assisted terror 
attacks elsewhere, including in the United States (still al-Qaeda's No. 
1 mark), Canada and Europe.
 We've already had a close call on that nightmarish front - last 
summer's plan by U.K.-based al-Qaeda acolytes to bring down 10 or so 
U.S.-bound airliners. That plan, too, had ties into Pakistan.
 Then there's Dhiren Barot - the Pakistan-trained British convert to 
Islam. He was convicted last month for plotting to blow up the New York 
Stock Exchange and other sites with help from Osama's Pakistan crowd.
 Radicalized by local imams, British recruits head to Pakistan. Once 
schooled in terror, al-Qaeda's new foot soldiers return home, staying in 
touch with their Pakistani al-Qaeda contacts.
 The plucky Brits are doing all they can to prevent another 
terrorist attack. But that's not a direct answer to the Pakistan problem.
 Bad enough that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf eased off the 
Taliban a few months ago, resulting in a 300 percent increase in attacks 
across the border in Afghanistan. Now al-Qaeda is blossoming in the same 
lawless tribal regions that the Taliban uses to stage those raids.
 The question has become unavoidable: Is Islamabad serious about 
fighting extremism and terror?
 True, Pakistan has made invaluable contributions to combating 
al-Qaeda since 9/11. Musharraf took a political risk in October, OK'ing 
the missile strike against the compound thought to be hosting al-Qaeda 
No. 2 Ayman al Zawahiri. (It missed him by just hours.) But Musharraf's 
policy in the tribal areas isn't undermining the Taliban or al-Qaeda - 
and may be enabling their resurgence.
 Pakistan needs to do more to fully deny these, indeed all, 
terrorist groups the use of its territory. Otherwise, Pakistan and the 
rest of the world will pay a hefty price.
  Peter Brookes is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. This 
column first ran in the New York Post.

Talk back at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

+++



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[osint] Draft resolution on Iran names officials

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=47971NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Draft resolution on Iran names officials

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
Related Pictures

A retooled draft resolution on Iran's nuclear program presented to the
UN Security Council on Monday includes the names of top Iranian
officials and organizations that would be targeted by proposed
sanctions, The Associated Press reported.

LONDON, December 12 (IranMania) - A retooled draft resolution on Iran's
nuclear program presented to the UN Security Council on Monday includes
the names of top Iranian officials and organizations that would be
targeted by proposed sanctions, The Associated Press reported.

UN ambassadors said negotiators wanted to move swiftly on the draft,
which would punish Iran for refusing international demands to suspend
uranium enrichment and urge it to continue negotiations over its nuclear
program. They said they anticipate a Security Council vote before the
end of the year.

The organizations that would be targeted by sanctions include the
country's atomic energy agency, as well as companies involved in Iran's
centrifuge program, its pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the
research reactor being built in the city of Arak. Individuals include a
top official at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, senior officials
involved with the Natanz and Arak facilities and a university rector.

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said the list of those to be
targeted by sanctions was much-reduced and aimed at those directly
involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is purely peaceful, aimed solely at
producing nuclear energy, but the US and its allies believe Tehran's
enrichment activities are ultimately aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

The draft resolution, which was circulated to Security Council members
Friday, had been revised by France, Britain and Germany to try to
satisfy Russia, an Iranian ally and a veto-wielding member of the
Security Council.

The new draft specifies in greater detail exactly what materials and
technology would be prohibited from being supplied to Iran for possible
use in its nuclear and missile programs. The Russians and Chinese had
previously complained that proposed sanctions were too broad.

The draft also removes references to a nuclear facility being built by
the Russians at Bushehr, Iran, another demand by Russia. The facility,
expected to go on line in late 2007, would be Iran's first atomic power
plant.

Russia's UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Monday he was pleased with
the direction of the talks, though specific points still needed to be
worked out.

One important issue for us ... has been that we feel strongly that the
Bushehr project has nothing to do with the subject matter of this
resolution so now it's out of the draft and this is certainly an
important development, he said.

However, potential roadblocks remain in the text that could prevent
Russia from supporting it. The new draft keeps a travel ban and asset
freeze on companies, individuals and organizations involved in Iran's
nuclear and missile programs, which Russia has said it opposes.

UN diplomats said after the Security Council meeting that talks would
continue Tuesday on modifications sought by Russia. The diplomats spoke
on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to
the media.

+++

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[osint] In a Slip, Israel's Leader Seems to Co nfirm Its Nuclear Arsenal

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/world/middleeast/12olmert.html?ex=1323579600en=ca1a026490c4f45aei=5088partner=rssnytemc=rss

In a Slip, Israel's Leader Seems to Confirm Its Nuclear Arsenal

JERUSALEM, Dec. 11 --- Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to
acknowledge inadvertently during a TV interview shown Monday that Israel
has nuclear weapons, an issue on which the Jewish state has sought to
maintain ambiguity for decades.

However, Mr. Olmert's aides said later that there was no change in
Israel's policy of refusing to confirm or deny whether it has nuclear
weapons.

In an interview with the N24 cable news channel in Germany, Mr. Olmert
was asked about Iran's nuclear program. He gave a lengthy response,
saying that the United States, France, Britain and Russia had nuclear
weapons, and were civilized countries that do not threaten the
foundations of the world.

Mr. Olmert then added: Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens
to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level,
when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons as America, France,
Israel, Russia?

The interview was held Friday in Israel but shown Monday, timed to
coincide with Mr. Olmert's visit to Germany.

Mr. Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said by telephone, Israel's
policy has not changed. The prime minister and other officials have
consistently said that Israel would not be the first country to
introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

For decades, Israel has refused to say whether or not it has nuclear
weapons despite the seemingly universal belief that it possesses them.

While Israel prefers not to discuss the nuclear issue at all, the policy
of intentional ambiguity is seen as a way of creating a deterrent,
without making it explicit, a position that could invite sanctions or
encourage an arms race in the Middle East.

Avner Cohen, an Israeli who has written about Israel's nuclear program,
said that Israel's ambiguity policy has become so anachronistic.

The world has taken Israel as a nuclear weapons state for about 40
years, said Mr. Cohen, a senior research fellow at the University of
Maryland.

He said that in the 1970s, an Israeli president, Ephraim Katzir, caused
a stir when he accidentally acknowledged that Israel had nuclear
capability. An older generation of leaders had a real taboo about
talking about this, Mr. Cohen said. But Mr. Olmert, he added, is of a
younger generation that treats the issue much more normally.

Last week, Robert M. Gates also seemed to acknowledge an Israeli nuclear
arsenal, at his Senate confirmation hearing to become secretary of
defense. Of Iran, he said, They are surrounded by powers with nuclear
weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis
to the west and us in the Persian Gulf.

+++

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[osint] TOW-2A Anti-Armor Guided Missiles for Pakistan

http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/army/TOW-2A_Anti-Armor_Guided_Missiles_for_Pakistan11009424.php

TOW-2A Anti-Armor Guided Missiles for Pakistan
US Defense Security Cooperation Agency
Dec 12, 2006 - 5:36:51 AM

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible
Foreign Military Sale to Pakistan of TOW 2A Missiles as well as
associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are
exercised, could be as high as $185 million.

The Government of Pakistan has requested a possible sale of 2,769 Radio
Frequency (RF) TOW 2A Missiles, 7 RF TOW 2A Fly-to-buy Missiles, 415 RF
Bunker Buster Missiles, 7 RF Fly-to-buy Bunker Buster Missiles, upgrade
of 121 TOW Basic/TOW-I launchers to fire TOW II configuration for
wire-guided and wireless missiles, TOW Data Acquisition Systems, gunner
aiming sight, testers, cameras, spare and repair parts, technical
support, support equipment, personnel training and training equipment,
technical data and publications, U.S. Government and contractor
engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements
of logistics support. The estimated cost is $185 million.

This proposed sale will contribute to furthering the foreign policy and
national security of the United States by helping a friendly country
provide for its own legitimate self-defense needs and to enable Pakistan
to support U.S. operations against terrorist activity along its porous
borders. In addition, these missiles have most recently been employed in
several global war on terrorism operations in the tribal areas of
Pakistan and have allowed, when coupled with Cobra attack helicopters,
the Government of Pakistan to employ new tactics, techniques and
procedures that have proven highly effective against terrorists.

Pakistan will augment its land forces with these TOW-2A anti-armor
guided missiles. Pakistan will use these missiles to increase its
military defensive posture and will have no difficulty absorbing these
additional missiles into its armed forces. Pakistan's existing inventory
of TOW missiles will soon begin to be affected by its specified shelf
life. While TOW missiles can be employed beyond their shelf life, system
reliability and safety are eroded. Pakistan continues to expend TOW
missiles in both training exercises and combat operations.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not affect the
basic military balance in the region.

The prime contractor will be Raytheon Company in Tucson, Arizona. There
are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this
potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of
any U.S. Government and contractor representatives to Pakistan.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of
this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law; it does not mean
that the sale has been concluded.

+++

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[osint] `Star power' makes terror suspect risk, court told

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1c=Articlecid=1165877416252call_pageid=968350130169col=969483202845

`Star power' makes terror suspect risk, court told
Dec. 12, 2006. 01:00 AM
ISABEL TEOTONIO
STAFF REPORTER

A suspected terrorist, who once worked for Osama bin Laden, should not
be released on bail because that could present new opportunities for him
to draw on his star power and inspire impressionable Muslim youth, a
federal court heard yesterday.

An intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
testified someone with Mohamed Mahjoub's impressive pedigree, and
credibility could influence individuals in the global jihadist cause.

Young impressionable extremists have big buttons that could be pushed,
said the officer identified only as JP, adding Mahjoub could encourage
their development. You can have an inspirational influence that can act
as an accelerant.

Mahjoub has been held for six years on a national security certificate,
which allows suspects to be detained without charge and deported without
knowing the full evidence against them in terrorism cases.

Most of Mahjoub's celebrity comes from the media attention garnered by
his case and a handful of others like him, also held on security
certificates. Alexandre Trudeau, son of the late prime minister, and
former Iraq hostage James Loney have condemned the certificates. Trudeau
offered to be a surety for Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei, and Loney for
Egyptian refugee Mahmoud Jaballah.

When questioned by one of Mahjoub's lawyers, Barbara Jackman, JP said he
believes young Muslims could be drawn to Mahjoub, in part because he has
walked the walk in the company of Osama bin Laden.

A delayering of the global command structure of Al Qaeda since 9/11 and
increased `freelancing' of home-grown self-starters may present new
opportunities for Mr. Mahjoub to draw on his `star power' to motivate
impressionable young Muslims in Canada, regardless of whatever release
conditions the court might impose, according to court documents
provided by CSIS.

Proposed bail conditions include being allowed out of the home three
times a week for up to four hours with 48-hours pre-approval, wearing an
electric ankle bracelet, having no access to electronic devices,
allowing his phone to be tapped and mail opened, and ensuring all
visitors are pre-approved.

Mahjoub, 46, displayed little emotion as he watched the proceedings by
video from the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, which was built for
security certificate detainees and is located at Millhaven Penitentiary.
Almrei and Jaballah are also being held there.

According to Canada's spy agency, Mahjoub is believed to be part of the
Vanguards of Conquest, which is a radical wing of al Jihad, an Egyptian
Islamist terrorist group that wants to establish an Islamic state that
adheres strictly to sharia law.

Both groups have been linked to bin Laden, and al Jihad is suspected of
having been involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, according to CSIS. Mahjoub denies any links to the terrorist
group. Court heard yesterday that he was convicted in Egypt of belonging
to the Vanguards of Conquest.

Before coming to Canada as an Egyptian refugee in 1995, Mahjoub worked
for an agricultural company in Sudan owned by bin Laden and met the Al
Qaeda leader several times. Since leaving the company over a wage
dispute, Mahjoub says he has had no contact with bin Laden.He has since
married a Canadian citizen and fathered two sons. Ottawa issued the
security certificate in June 2000.

The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration ruled earlier this year that
even if Mahjoub were to face torture if deported to Egypt, the risk he
poses to Canada outweighs concerns for his safety.

That decision was reviewed last month in federal court, but there has
been no judgment on the matter.

+++

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[osint] Kidnapped South Africans still missing in Iraq

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/articleid=293053

Kidnapped South Africans still missing in Iraq
12 December 2006 08:15

There is no change in the status of the four South Africans who were
kidnapped in northern Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, the Department of
Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday morning.

At this stage it is not yet known who kidnapped them as no demands have
been made and no reasons have been given for the kidnapping, said
spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.

He said the department is in contact with the security company that
employs the kidnapped South Africans as well as their family members.

The names of the four cannot be released yet as the government does not
have express permission from the families to do so.

The four South Africans were kidnapped on Sunday travelling in a convoy
of four vehicles when they were flagged down at an apparent bogus
roadblock north of Baghdad.

They are employees of Safe Net security service, which is a
sub-contractor for the United States Department of Defence, Mamoepa
said. -- Sapa

+++

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[osint] 'Charity work streamlined to avert t error funding doubts'; 'Kuwait committed to combat terrorism'

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait/Viewdet.asp?ID=9374cat=a

  'Charity work streamlined to avert terror funding doubts'; 'Kuwait 
committed to combat terrorism'
CAIRO (KUNA): The State of Kuwait's work paper tabled during the 
regional Arab conference dubbed Impact of Terror on Social 
Development, unveiled that Kuwait has organized philanthropic action 
to fend off terror-funding skepticism. The work paper presented by 
Director of Philanthropic and Welfare Department, Ministry of Social 
Affairs and Labor during the conference convened in the Egyptian Sharm 
El-Sheikh sea-resort, focused on Kuwait's drive to combat all modes of 
terrorism. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor that handles the 
philanthropic activities in the country, has played a major role in the 
drive for coping with the new requirements, including the official 
application that should be presented to allow the off-border transfer of 
funds.

To protect the country's financial system, the work paper's 
recommendations included the activation of the articles 46, 52 and 56 of 
the Kuwaiti penal code No 16 of 1960 that completely bans the funding of 
terrorism. Also it recommended monitoring the media to avoid promotion 
of any terrorist ideas, adding that the NGO's were center of collective 
support because their sponsors are center of wide scale popular and 
official confidence. The regional Arab conference was convened in the 
Egyptian Sharm El-Sheikh resort during Dec 6-8.The three-day conference 
focused on issues of terror that hinders social development, Arab 
experience in combat of terror, impacts of terror on economic 
development as well as the impacts of terror on the political and social 
reform in the Arab region.

The work papers tabled during the conference touched among other 
subjects on impacts of terror on social development, the Saudi efforts 
for combating terror, challenges of social integration in Iraq, impacts 
of terror on Arab development, terror threats against social peace and 
civil security, the future of political reforms in light of the combat 
of terrorism, as well as exceptional laws and their impacts on social 
development.

+++



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[osint] New Intel Chief Reyes Flunks Terror Quiz

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/12/11/172306.shtml?s=ic

New Intel Chief Reyes Flunks Terror Quiz

Rep. Silvestre Reyes has been tapped by Nancy Pelosi to chair the House 
Intelligence Committee. But it seems the Texas Democrat suffers from a 
serious lack of intelligence about the terrorist organizations his 
committee will deal with in the war on terrorism.

During an interview with Congressional Quarterly National Security 
Editor Jeff Stein, Reyes was asked whether al-Qaida was a Sunni or 
Shiite organization.

Al-Qaida, they have both, Reyes answered. You're talking about 
predominantly? . . . Predominantly, probably Shiite.

In fact, al-Qaida was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni 
organization, and its members view Shiites as heretics.

Stein then asked if Reyes knew who Hezbollah was. Hezbollah, Reyes 
replied. Uh, Hezbollah . . . He never did offer an answer.

Stein told CNN that he was amazed by Reyes' lack of basic knowledge 
about the two terrorist groups.

If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference 
between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball, Stein 
said. You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with.

Reyes is not alone among elected officials when it comes to a lack of 
basic knowledge about Islam and the Middle East. Stein said that when he 
interviewed two other Intelligence Committee members last year -- Reps. 
Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., and Terry Everett, R-Ala. -- both were flummoxed 
by basic questions about Sunnis and Shiites.

The lack of familiarity with Islamic and Middle Eastern culture extends 
even to U.S. officials in Iraq. The recent report from the Iraq Study 
Group disclosed that only about two dozen of the 1,000 staffers at the 
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad have some knowledge of the Arabic language -- and 
just six are fluent.

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[osint] Suspicion about imams grows as terror links pile up

http://www.startribune.com/191/story/866867.html

Katherine Kersten: Suspicion about imams grows as terror links pile up
Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune

Last update: December 11, 2006 -- 10:00 AM


The grounded imams incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International 
Airport has been a public relations coup for the imams, their supporters 
and their claims that the group's only suspicious activity was saying 
evening prayers.

US Airways continues to defend its crew's decision to pull the imams off 
a plane last month, saying they took the seating configuration used by 
9/11 hijackers, requested seat-belt extensions that could be used as 
weapons and otherwise raised concerns.

Who are the parties involved here, who seem so interested in linking 
airport security with racial bigotry?

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the imams' legal 
representative, is an organization that we know has ties to terrorism, 
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in 2003. And the Muslim American 
Society, which is also supporting the imams? It's the American arm of 
the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Chicago Tribune, which called 
it the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group.

How about Omar Shahin, the imams' spokesman and also president of the 
North American Imams Federation? He is a native of Jordan, who says he 
became a U.S. citizen in 2003. From 2000 to 2003, Shahin served as 
president of Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT), that city's largest mosque.

The ICT is well known. The mosque has an extensive history of terror 
links, according to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, who testified 
about terrorist financing before the Senate Banking Committee in July 2005.

The Washington Post described these links in a 2002 article. Tucson was 
one of the first points of contact in the United States for the jihadist 
group that evolved into al Qaeda, the Post reported. And the ICT? It 
held basically the first cell of al Qaeda in the United States; that is 
where it all started, said Rita Katz, a terrorism expert quoted by the 
Post.

ICT members have included high-profile terrorists. Wael Hamza Jelaidan, 
the mosque's leader in the mid-1980s, was identified by the U.S. 
government as a  'co-founder' of al Qaeda and its logistics chief, the 
Post reported.

Another former member, Wadi Hage, served as Osama bin Laden's personal 
secretary after leaving Arizona, the Post said, attributing it to 
government sources. Hage established a bin Laden support network in 
Arizona and this network is still in place, Emerson wrote in his book 
Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S., citing a 
2002 Senate Intelligence Committee Report. In 2001, Hage was convicted 
of plotting the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The best-known terrorist with apparent (according to the Post and 
Emerson) connections to the ICT is Hani Hanjour, who piloted the plane 
that flew into the Pentagon on 9/11. Hanjour took aviation lessons in 
Tucson in the late 1990s.

Shahin has downplayed the ICT's connections to terrorism. The mosque 
should not be held accountable for former members who may have engaged 
in terrorism after they left Arizona, he told the Post in 2002. Al-Qaida 
nests in America? All of these, they make it up, he told the Arizona 
Republic shortly after 9/11.

But dubious activity continued when Shahin became ICT president. For 
example, the mosque raised thousands of dollars for an Islamic charity 
called the Holy Land Foundation in 2001, and Shahin served as the 
charity's Arizona coordinator, according to the Associated Press. Holy 
Land collects funds for widows and orphans and needy people, he told 
the AP.

In December 2001, the Treasury Department froze Holy Land's assets, 
citing its funding of the terrorist organization Hamas' efforts to 
recruit suicide bombers.

Shahin also told the Arizona Daily Star in 2001 that he would permit the 
Global Relief Foundation to raise funds at the ITC. In 2002, the U.S. 
government froze that organization's assets because of its support of 
bin Laden, Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

Another incident of interest occurred during Shahin's tenure at ITC. On 
June 13, 2003, the FBI arrested Muhammad Al-Qudhai'een, who was active 
at the mosque, and transported him to Virginia to testify as a material 
witness before a federal grand jury investigating 9/11.

Earlier, the FBI had investigated Al-Qudhai'een's involvement in a 1999 
incident. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Al-Qudhai'een and 
Hamdan al Shalawi, a fellow Saudi, were removed from an America West 
flight after engaging in what the flight crew considered suspicious 
activity. The crew asserted that Al-Qudhai'een had twice attempted to 
open the plane's cockpit door. After 9/11, FBI agents in Phoenix 
considered whether the incident had been a dry run for the attacks. 
The 9/11 Commission noted that Al Shalawi had reportedly trained in 
Afghan terrorist camps in

[osint] Iraq Is Failing to Spend Billions in Oil Revenues

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/world/middleeast/11spend.html?_r=1blex=1166072400en=0cecd9c762e2f4daei=5087%0Aoref=slogin

Iraq Is Failing to Spend Billions in Oil Revenues

BAGHDAD, Dec. 10 --- Iraq is failing to spend billions of dollars of oil
revenues that have been set aside to rebuild its damaged roads, schools
and power stations and to repair refineries and pipelines.

Iraqi ministries are spending as little as 15 percent of the 2006
capital budgets they received for the rebuilding --- with some of the
weakest spending taking place at the Oil Ministry, which relies on
damaged and frequently sabotaged pipelines and pumping stations to move
the oil that provides nearly all of the country's revenues. In essence,
the money is available --- despite extensive sabotage, the oil money is
flowing --- but the Iraqi system has not been able to put it to work.

The country is facing this national failure to spend even as American
financial support dwindles. Among reasons for the problems --- like a
large turnover in government personnel --- is a strange new one:
bureaucrats are so fearful and confused by anticorruption measures put
in place by the American and Iraqi governments that they are afraid to
sign off on contracts.

The inability to spend the money raises serious questions for the
government, which has to demonstrate to citizens who are skeptical and
suspicious of government corruption that it can improve basic services,
and that at a time when American funds for reconstruction are being
reduced, it can prove to other foreign donors that it can quickly put to
use the money they may be willing to commit.

After the expenditure of roughly $22 billion in American taxpayer
dollars on Iraq reconstruction, the increase of the Iraqi capital budget
was seen by many as a sign that oil revenues could finally begin paying
for the rebuilding, four years after Bush administration predictions
that the country could afford the program on its own.

Iraq's overall capital budget in 2006 was nine trillion Iraqi dinars, or
about $6 billion, said Abdulbasit Turki Saeed, president of the Iraqi
Board of Supreme Audit and a member of the Iraqi cabinet's economic
committee.

But Mr. Saeed said that across the entire government, only about 20
percent of the capital budget had been spent, according to the
committee's recent figures. A senior Western official agreed with that
estimate.

It's slow. It's disappointing, the Western official said, speaking on
the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the
subject publicly. In general, they have had trouble getting projects
started.

The problem was briefly acknowledged in the report last week by the
bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which gave similar figures for capital
expenditures and said that many ministries can do little more than pay
salaries.

In interviews, alarmed Western and Iraqi officials sought to put the
best face on the problem, saying they thought that the pace of spending
had picked up in the last two to three months as the government began
taking steps to improve its performance.

Those officials said that in a nation with reconstruction needs around
every corner, the puzzling phenomenon of unspent money was partly
explained by the rapid turnover in governments, security woes, endemic
corruption and a lack of technocrats skilled at jobs like writing
contracts and managing complex projects. In short, nearly all the ills
that have undermined the American rebuilding program seem to be plaguing
the Iraqi one.

Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, said he thought that he
could spend substantially more of this year's budget if he could resolve
administrative bottlenecks, like Finance Ministry delays in authorizing
payments.

It's the bureaucracy, Mr. Shahristani said. Particularly financial
people take too long to change their old habits.

But some American and Iraqi officials here are also saying that the
stringent measures they had favored to slow the rampant corruption may
be especially daunting for bureaucrats who have little experience with
Western-style regulations and oversight. Those officials say that Iraqis
who have seen their colleagues arrested and jailed in anticorruption
sweeps are reluctant to put their own name on a contract.

As it's applied right now, this new thing scares the hell out of
everybody, one Western official here said.

The colliding priorities of oversight and spending have left American
and Iraqi officials in a quandary as they work behind the scenes on the
so-called Compact with Iraq --- the centerpiece of the American
Embassy's effort to create economic and political milestones that this
nation promises to meet in exchange for pledges of foreign investment
and support.

Anticorruption officials themselves are facing a loss of support, with
the most serious impact felt by Rathi al-Rathi, the head of Iraq's
Commission on Public Integrity, who

[osint] Telekom Malaysia unit secures 40 mln usd deals from Telenor Pakistan -

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/12/12/afx3245934.html

Telekom Malaysia unit secures 40 mln usd deals from Telenor Pakistan - 
UPDATE
12.12.06, 1:14 AM ET

  KUALA LUMPUR (XFN-ASIA) - Telekom Malaysia Bhd said its unit Multinet 
Pakistan Pte Ltd has entered into capacity supply and service contracts 
with Telenor Pakistan.

The total value of the two contracts is estimated to be 40 mln usd, it 
said, adding that the contracts are for 20 years.

Telekom Malaysia controls 78 pct stake in Multinet Pakistan via TM 
international Sdn Bhd.

In a statement, Telekom Malaysia said the capacity contract will enable 
Telenor to utilise fibre optic cable pairs and associated co-location 
facilities along Multinet Pakistan's national long haul optical fibre 
transmission network, or the Ittehad project.

Project Ittehad is a 4,100 kilometers fibre optic backbone connecting 
107 cities across Pakistan.

Multinet will also provide maintenance and associated services to 
Telenor under the service contract, it said.

'Multinet is proud to play a key role in taking Telenor's network to 
reach more Pakistanis. We are fully committed towards supporting Telenor 
in strengthening its leadership in Pakistan, as well as retaining its 
competitiveness in the future,' said Adnan Asdar, chief executive 
officer of Multinet.

Under an arrangement called 'indefeasible right of use,' Telenor will 
have virtual ownership of four cores of optic fibre in the long haul 
network, according to the statement.

'We have confidence in Multinet's capability and rollout program. With 
this contract in place, Telenor Pakistan will ensure guaranteed service 
and will not be dependent on a third party because the fibre optic is 
wholly dedicated to us,' said Arve Johansen, executive vice president 
and deputy chief executive officer of Telenor and head of Telenor's Asia 
operations.

(1 usd = 3.55 rgt)

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[osint] Iran pledges $250m aid to Palestine

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=164306Sn=WORLIssueID=29267

Iran pledges $250m aid to Palestine

DUBAI: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Iran had pledged 
about $250 million (BD95m) in financial aid to Palestinians in 2007 to 
help ease an economic crisis caused by a Western aid boycott.

My visit to Tehran has achieved direct financial support with a sum of 
about a quarter billion dollars, he said after a visit to Iran in a 
tour of Islamic nations.

They offered a number of projects that represent direct financial 
support to the Palestinian government and people, he told Al Arabiya 
television in remarks aired yesterday.

The overall sum included $120 million in direct funds to the Palestinian 
government.

He said the Iranian government also pledged to pay the salaries of 
100,000 state employees for six months at the rate of $100 a month and 
to pay a

similar amount to 3,000 fishermen over the same period.

Last month a Palestinian minister said Iran had donated $120 million to 
the Palestinian Hamas-led government and said it was ready to give more.

+++



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[osint] Islam Based on Epileptic Prophecies, says Book From Iran-Native Neuropsychologist

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.storySTORY=/www/story/12-11-2006/0004489022EDATE=MON+Dec+11+2006,+10:48+AM

Islam Based on Epileptic Prophecies, says Book From Iran-Native
Neuropsychologist

CANTON, Ohio, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Religious prophet Muhammad
suffered from epileptic seizures, according to a book recently released by
a Tehran- native and Muslim-raised neuropsychologist. Abbas Sadeghian
delivers these findings in the book Sword Seizure, which is based on
historical text, including the Koran.
Sadeghian was inspired by a comparable paper he presented in 2001 at
New York University's Fielding Institute. He says Muhammad had suffered
from complex partial seizures, which are displayed through excessive
sweating and light trembling, olfactory, auditory and visual
hallucinations, epigastric sensations (bad taste), excessive perspiration
and hyper-religiosity. He says evidence of these is recounted throughout
the Koran.
When asked by a reporter from the Canton Repository if the same
diagnosis could apply to Jesus, Buddha or other religious figures,
Sadeghian replied there aren't nearly as many independent historical
documents detailing their lives.
In order to do proper analysis, you must have documentation
independent of what the person wrote, he said. Muhammad lived longer and
had people around him who were aware they were living in a historic moment.
They documented observations in extreme detail and in real time.
Abbas Sadeghian, Ph.D has been practicing neuropsychology for nearly 20
years and is a long-standing faculty member at Northeastern Ohio
Universities College of Medicine. His book is now available at both Barnes
Noble and Borders, as well as Amazon and the publisher's online store.
(http://www.annotationbooks.com/product.asp?pid=1374search=select=ss
=1)

+++

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[osint] Parliamentary committee OKs extended troop stay in Iraq

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20061212/41010020061212162219E1.html

Parliamentary committee OKs extended troop stay in Iraq

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- The parliament's defense committee on Tuesday 
approved a bill to more than halve the number of troops stationed in 
Iraq and extend their deployment by another year.

The bill, passed by a vote of 15 to one, specifies that the government 
should draw up a timetable for the eventual withdrawal of the Zaytun 
Division from Iraq sometime next year, lawmakers said.

+++



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[osint] 'Taliban regrouping on Pakistan border '

http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp?ArticleId=132781CategoryId=3

'Taliban regrouping on Pakistan border'

ISLAMABAD (AP)
Peace deals causing more attacks: Think-tank

A peace deal between Pakistan's government and Islamic militants in 
North Waziristan has created a virtual Taliban mini-state where mullahs 
dispense justice and fighters are launching cross-border attacks into 
neighbouring Afghanistan, a think tank reported yesterday.
The US military confirmed that attacks have risen sharply since the deal 
was reached earlier this year despite concerns it would give a freer 
hand to Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants who fled to Pakistan after 
the fall of the hardline regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
Over the past five years, the (President Gen. Pervez) Musharraf 
government has tried first brute force, then appeasement. Both have 
failed, said Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group that 
published the report.
Islamabad's tactics have only emboldened the pro-Taliban militants.
That grim assessment came against the backdrop of an alarming surge in 
violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year that has killed 
close to 4,000 people, threatening the Western-backed project to build 
rebuild the country and establish democracy.
Government policy has allowed militants to establish a virtual 
mini-Taliban-style state, the Crisis Group said, citing reports of 
pro-Taliban militants attacking music, video and CD stores, closing 
barber shops, imposing taxes and establishing courts to impose summary 
justice.
The Pakistani government rejected the Brussels-based group's report as 
baseless allegations and described the violence across the border as 
Afghanistan's internal problem.
There are no camps or centers where terrorists are being trained in the 
tribal areas, said Arbab Mohammed Arif Khan, secretary for law and 
order in Pakistan's semiautonmous tribal regions.
Pakistan, a key US anti-terror ally, has deployed about 80,000 forces at 
the Afghan border and launched numerous military operations against Al 
Qaeda-linked militants in the past five years, but with mixed results. 
In North Waziristan, heavy-handed offensives this year left hundreds 
dead and stoked local anger and support for pro-Taliban religious leaders.
The peace deal, inked in September after a June cease-fire, capped the 
fighting in Pakistan. But the Crisis Group reported increasingly severe 
cross-border attacks on Afghan and international military personnel, 
with the support and active involvement of Pakistani militants. It said 
the ambivalent approach of the Musharraf government was destabilising 
Afghanistan.
A senior tribal elder confirmed the Taliban had gained sway in North 
Waziristan. Tribesmen were bypassing the government and traditional 
tribal leaders and approaching their pro-Taliban leaders in the towns of 
Miran Shah and Mir Ali to settle land and money disputes. Religious 
students were even helping to direct traffic, he said. The elder 
requested anonymity because he had been threatened by militants for 
meeting government leaders.
Access to the heavily Pashtun tribal regions, a possible hiding place 
for Osama bin Laden, is restricted. Foreign journalists are not 
permitted there unless under government or army escort, and reports of 
militant activities are often difficult to verify.
In Afghanistan, US military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick said US 
and Afghan security posts along the eastern border with Pakistan had 
seen a spike in attacks from 17 in May, to 50 in August and 57 in 
October -- a more than threefold increase. Most of the attacks were in 
Paktika province, which lies opposite North and South Waziristan.
Attacks leveled off to about one a day in November, possibly because of 
the winter weather settling in, Fitzpatrick said.
He said the data were not conclusive but that the increase could have 
been influenced by the North Waziristan peace deal or by US military 
operations forcing more militants to operate close to the Pakistan border.

+++



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[osint] Unhappy With Democrats Over Iraq, Kucinich Plans Another Bid for White House

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101268.html?nav=rss_politics

Unhappy With Democrats Over Iraq, Kucinich Plans Another Bid for White House

By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Peter Slevin
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; Page A07

Citing dissatisfaction with his party's strategy on Iraq, Rep. Dennis J.
Kucinich (Ohio) announced yesterday that he would run for the Democratic
presidential nomination.

Again.

Kucinich, 60, a five-term House member and one of the most liberal
members of his party, made an unsuccessful bid for the nomination in
2004. He stayed in the race long after it became clear he had no chance
of success.

The congressman said he would announce his candidacy today at City Hall
in Cleveland, where he served as mayor in the late 1970s and plunged his
city into a celebrated budget crisis over the electric utility, Muny
Light. As a member of Congress, Kucinich has been a vocal critic of the
war and has complained that his party has not done enough to force a
withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Democrats were swept into power on November 7 because of widespread
voter discontent with the war in Iraq, Kucinich said. Instead of
heeding those concerns and responding with a strong and immediate change
in policies and direction, the Democratic congressional leadership seems
inclined to continue funding the perpetuation of the war.

While many fellow Democrats have strongly opposed the war, Kucinich has
suggested that Congress stop funding it. In the past, Kucinich has
proposed creating a universal health care system and a national peace
department.

+++

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[osint] Shared intelligence prevented terror attacks: Malaysia

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\12\story_12-12-2006_pg4_3

Shared intelligence prevented terror attacks: Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Monday said sharing quality intelligence with 
Indonesia had prevented militants from launching any major regional 
terror attacks since the second Bali bomb blast last year. Malaysia and 
Indonesia are quite pleased with the situation. There are many factors 
behind it, Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said. One of 
the factors is that we have been able to have quality preemptive 
intelligence reports to nip it in the bud, he told reporters. A triple 
suicide bombing last October on the resort island of Bali in Indonesia 
killed 20 people and the bombers. Najib, who is also the defence 
minister, said by obtaining intelligence early, authorities could detect 
groups that plan to conduct acts of terrorism long before they are 
able to do anything. He cited the example of Malaysian police's move 
against a local terror group, Darul Islam, in the eastern Sabah state 
before it could mount an attack. One example of the success is the 
uncovering of the militant group Darul Islam in Sabah. This is an 
example of the preemptive work we have done, he said. Malaysian police 
in May said they had crushed the militant group's underground network, 
which had collaborated with Indonesian militants, through multiple 
arrests between March and April. afp

+++



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[osint] 'Walking Dirty Bomb' Tells of London Meetings

SPIEGEL ONLINE - December 11, 2006, 08:34 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,453803,00.html
LITVINENKO MYSTERY
'Walking Dirty Bomb' Tells of London Meetings

By Anna Sadovnikova, Hans Hoyng, Thomas Hüetlin and Uwe Klussmann

A few days before he was put in quarantine in a Moscow hospital, Russian 
businessman Andrei Lugovoi, believed to be one of Scotland Yard's main 
suspects in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, spoke to DER SPIEGEL 
about his meetings with the former spy.

Andrei Lugovoi, 40, former KGB agent, currently a kind of mini magnate 
in the Russian soft drinks industry, is the man British investigators 
believe left an unmistakeable radiation trail across London.

Wherever the businessman appeared during his almost weekly visits to the 
capital of the United Kingdom, he left traces of radiation; in planes 
that brought him to Britain, in the hotels where he stayed, in 
restaurants and offices where he met contacts.

The Geiger counters even buzzed in the brand new Emirates Stadium where 
he watched a dull draw between Arsenal London and ZSKA Moscow on that 
fateful Wednesday, November 1.

Scotland Yard's specialists have given clear hints that they regard 
Lugovoi as the main suspect, the man responsible for the trail of the 
murder weapon, the isotope polonium-201 which points back to Moscow, 
where it's not exactly available on the open market -- only eight grams 
are exported a month.

They don't say so publicly but they think he brought the poison to 
London. Asked if they regard him as Litvinenko's murderer, they don't 
answer, of course.

And of course Lugovoi is professing his innocence. But that's not so 
easy for someone who is presumably surrounded by a whole corona of 
eastern and western secret service shadows.

He also wanted to give DER SPIEGEL his version of events. It was a 
complicated undertaking. To meet him we had to go to a small alley in 
the center of Moscow on the Saturday before last. There was not a soul 
to be seen until a grey jeep pulled up slowly. The driver and front-seat 
passenger were both in their mid-30s and identifiable as bodyguards from 
their build and short haircuts.

They scanned the street and asked us to get in. We drove southwest out 
of the city. All we were told about our destination was that the journey 
would take about an hour. After 40 minutes, Moscow seemed far away. We 
drove past Babushkas carrying buckets of water and old men sitting by 
the roadside selling apples. Time seems to have stood still here. The 
car turned into a street called 40 Years of October Revolution.

The jeep stopped at a large iron gate; a uniformed guard let it drive 
onto the property. In front of the two-storey brick dacha stood Lugovoi 
wearing a check lumberjack-style jacket. He tried to appear relaxed and 
introduced his colleague Dmitry Kovtun. An old pal from his army days, 
also an entrepreneur, oil and gas he said, whatever that means.

Kovtun attended the now world-famous meeting with Lugovoi and Litvinenko 
in London's Millennium Hotel. He is as bald as Litvinenko was when he 
was lying in intensive care in University College Hospital.

The sauna meeting

Kovtun chain smokes cigarettes. He said he burned himself while lying on 
a sunbed. That's why he shaved off his hair; otherwise it would have 
been too painful to stand. Five days later the authorities will announce 
that Dmitry Kovtun too has been exposed to radiation and taken to a 
Moscow hospital.

Lugovoi and Kovtun didn't go into the house; instead they headed for a 
sauna hut some distance away. The dacha was dirty, said Lugovoi. What 
did he mean? Contaminated with radiation? Bugged? Or just untidy? Later 
we saw door handles covered with sticky tape.

We got to the sauna. Lugovoi started out by speaking about his contacts 
with Litvinenko. He said he met him in the mid-1990s when both were 
working for the oligarch Boris Berezovsky. It was before Berezovsky had 
fallen out with Putin and controlled Russia's biggest TV station, ORT. 
Lugovoi was head of security there and Litvinenko had all kinds of jobs, 
including a role as assistant to member of parliament Berezovsky, who 
had been elected to the Duma for the northern Caucasian republic 
Karachay-Cherkessia.

Then came the big bust-up with Putin and Berezovsky and Litvinenko fled 
to London.

Lugovoi said he saw Litvinenko again for the first time in October 2004, 
with Berezovsky in London. He spent 40 minutes with him in a Chinese 
restaurant during which Litvinenko talked about how Russia is waging 
war on the émigrés and the émigrés are waging war on Russia. Lugovoi 
appeared as though the subject didn't interest him especially.

A year ago Litvinenko rang him again, said Lugovoi. He evidently wasn't 
doing very well. He wanted to arrange business deals for me so that he 
could get money. With a touch of vanity Lugovoi reports how Litvinenko 
envied him because of how well positioned he was, in which hotels he

[osint] Israel Doesn't Rule out Military Strike on Iran

DER SPIEGEL 50/2006 - December 11, 2006
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,453678,00.html
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH EHUD OLMERT
Israel Doesn't Rule out Military Strike on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 61, discusses his peace offer to the 
Palestinians, the threat of civil war in Lebanon and Washington's 
shifting strategy in the Middle East.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Prime Minister, in the United States President George W. 
Bush is thinking about a new Iraq policy and probably intends to call 
for an international conference at which the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict would also be discussed. Do you support this initiative?

Olmert: I do not expect a change of American policy towards Israel. The 
right way to advance our relations with the Arabs is by means of 
bilateral negotiations. The Iraq issue is a domestic subject of the 
United States. However, we always felt that the removal of Saddam 
Hussein was a major contribution to stability of our part of the world.

SPIEGEL: One of the recommendations made by the Baker Commission is to 
offer Syria the Golan Heights in exchange for a constructive role in the 
Middle East. Is this in Israel's interest?

Olmert: The question of what we will give to the Syrians interests me 
less than the question of what they will offer us.

SPIEGEL: Washington is also thinking about direct talks with Iran and 
Syria. Do you support this new approach?

Olmert: In my view, Syria's subversive operations -- its support for 
Hamas or Hezbollah, for example -- do not give much hope for 
negotiations with Syria any time soon. I do not know what the American 
president will decide to do with the report. I can only say that, in our 
talks, he did not favor American-Syrian or Israeli-Syrian negotiations. 
I count on his judgment and responsibility.

SPIEGEL: And what do you think about direct talks with Iran?

Olmert: Any compromise that will lead to Iran being unable to create 
nuclear weapons is a step in the right direction. As long as the final 
result of talks with Iran is an end to their nuclear program, I am not 
against them.

SPIEGEL: But are you dissatisfied with the delays by the international 
community in taking action against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Olmert: I am not happy at all with the pace. I expect more dramatic 
steps to be taken. Here is a leader who openly says that his goal is to 
wipe Israel off the map. Israel is a member state of the United Nations. 
For someone in the year 2006 to be able to say that publicly is 
absolutely outrageous.

SPIEGEL: Do you rule out a military strike?

Olmert: I am talking about effective measures that will be accepted by 
the international community to stop the Iranian danger.

SPIEGEL: So you don't rule out a military strike.

Olmert: I don't rule out anything.

SPIEGEL: Your neighbor to the north, Lebanon, is on the verge of a new 
civil war. Are you concerned about the images of Prime Minister Fuad 
Siniora's beleaguered office in Beirut?

Olmert: Of course I am not particularly happy with these pictures. It is 
important that democracy in Lebanon is protected and that Hezbollah will 
not be supported by outside forces like Syria and Iran. But I must weigh 
my words carefully, because if it appears that the Israelis are 
defending Siniora, it will not help him in Lebanon. I would have loved 
to meet with Siniora for peace negotiations. There isn't much that 
separates us. In one meeting we could agree on everything.

SPIEGEL: When Hezbollah kidnapped the two Israeli soldiers in July -- a 
declaration of war from the Israeli point of view -- you also publicly 
blamed the Siniora government. Do you regret today that you did not do 
more to stabilize him?

Olmert: There was nothing that could help Siniora more than the 
weakening of Hezbollah. The present turmoil in Lebanon is not the result 
of the strengthening of Hezbollah. Hezbollah suffered a major loss as a 
result of the war and is today fighting for its political survival. We 
tried a great deal to defeat the forces that are threatening Siniora.

SPIEGEL: But you did not defeat them. On July 18, six days after the 
start of the war you said: Only the return of the abducted soldiers 
will stop the operation. The war stopped long ago but the two kidnapped 
soldiers are still being held. What went wrong?

Olmert: This is not the only thing that I said at the beginning of the 
war. The goals we set forth for this war were to deploy the Lebanese 
army in the south of Lebanon and to remove the threat of Hezbollah from 
the townships of northern Israel. When I accepted the cease-fire on 
August 14 these two goals were to be implemented successfully. However, 
it was clear that Hezbollah would not release the two soldiers. 
Therefore, it would have been senseless to continue fighting and lose 
even more soldiers.

SPIEGEL: How optimistic are you that you can reach some sort of deal 
with Hezbollah to get the soldiers back?

Olmert: I am not

[osint] Dubai Ports sells U.S. operations

http://www.dailybulletin.com/business/ci_4822397

Dubai Ports sells U.S. operations
By Devlin Barrett, The Associated Press
Article Launched:12/12/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

WASHINGTON - Dubai Ports World, the company whose planned takeover of 
major U.S. port operations ignited a political firestorm earlier this 
year, has agreed to sell those operations to AIG Global Investment Group.

The company announced the deal Monday. The U.S. operations at six major 
U.S. seaports in New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, 
Tampa and New Orleans were valued at approximately $700 million, but DP 
World did not disclose the sales price.

The deal also involves stevedoring operations in 16 locations along the 
eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast and a passenger terminal in New York City.

While we are disappointed to be exiting the U.S. market, the price we 
received was fair, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the chairman of DP World, 
said in a statement announcing the deal.

One of the loudest critics of the original deal said he was pleased and 
expected the deal to clear the few regulatory hurdles that remain.

This is an appropriate final chapter to the book on the Dubai Ports 
World deal, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. This is very likely to 
receive broad support in Washington and throughout America.

AIG Global Investment Group is an asset management firm with more than 
$635 billion in assets. Its parent company is the New York-based 
insurance firm, American International Group Inc. AIG's managing 
director Christopher Lee said the company is very committed to ensuring 
that it continues to be one of the industry leaders in setting standards 
for port security.

DP World is based in the United Arab Emirates and is the largest marine 
terminal operator with 51 terminals in 24 countries.

The sale still requires regulatory approval from several port 
authorities, including New York and New Jersey. The sale is expected to 
close in the next few months, DP World said.

+++


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[osint] Hizbullah deputy leader calls on Siniora to resign

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3338233,00.html

Hizbullah deputy leader calls on Siniora to resign

Published:  12.10.06, 16:51

Hizbullah Deputy leader Naim Qassem called on Lebanese Prime Minister 
Fouad Siniora to resign: Walk down to the square of free Lebanon.


Convene a press conference tonight or tomorrow and declare our 
resignation to the Lebanese people who want a unity government. Then we 
will ask the permission our great people and will extend our hand to you 
for partnership, he said. (Roee Nahmias)

+++



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[osint] Manila freezes Saudi charity over alleged terror links

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_Newssubsection=Philippines+%26+South+Asiamonth=December2006file=World_News2006121242537.xml

Manila freezes Saudi charity over alleged terror links
Web posted at: 12/12/2006 4:25:37
Source ::: AFP

MANILA . A Philippine court has frozen the bank account of a Saudi
Arabian charity suspected of being a conduit for terrorist funds, court
officials said yesterday.

Anti-money laundering officials suspect the International Islamic Relief
Organisation (IIRO) is financing the activities of local affiliates of
Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, including the armed Abu Sayyaf
group, Court of Appeals officials said.

The appelate court last week handed down a 20-day writ on the funds
deposited at the Bank of the Philippine Islands, said the ruling written
by Associate Justice Arcangelita Lontok, which was made public only
yesterday. The amount involved was not disclosed. IIRO officials here
could not be reached for comment.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council, which is led by the central bank,
described IIRO as one of Saudi Arabia's largest charitable
organisations. The court freeze was sought by the United States, a key
ally, it added.

Washington, which considers the Abu Sayyaf a foreign terrorist
organisation, has accused IIRO of funding terrorist attacks in
different countries including the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in
Washington and the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Lontok's ruling said the court found probable cause to the Philippine
government allegation and handed down a freeze order effective for 20
days. The council sought the freeze, which it said was consistent with
the provisions of the UN Security Council's Resolution 1373 requiring
UN-member states to freeze terrorist assets without delay and to
prohibit their nationals or persons in their territories from financing
terrorism.

Considering the inclusion of the beneficiaries of Al Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf,
and Jemmah Islamiyah as well as the designation of Abdul Al-Hamid
Sulaiman Al Mujil and IIRO to the list of UN Sanctions Committee, there
is sufficient ground to freeze IIRO's assets in the Philippines, the
council added.

Al Mujil is the executive director of the Eastern Province branch of
IIRO in Saudi Arabia.

+++

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[osint] The Palestine Investment Fund

http://business.maktoob.com/company_news_profile.asp?id=20061211084844

The Palestine Investment Fund


The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) was incorporated in 2003 with the 
aim of consolidating the assets and investments held for the benefit of 
the Palestinian people. The PIF is registered at the Companied 
Comptroller as a public shareholding company. The fund is based in 
Ramallah and in Gaza City, with regional offices in Amman and Cairo. It 
is headed by a nine-member Board of Directors (BOD), with majority 
members of prominent Palestinian private sector leaders. PIF serves as 
an enabling catalyst for sustainable development in Palestine through 
undertaking and partnering in strategic investment projects in the areas 
of energy, information and communication technology (ICT), real estate, 
tourism, among other areas. PIF is dedicated to transparent and 
accountable corporate behavior, and strives to build a pool of top notch 
professionals who would become the future leaders of the Palestinian 
private sector. PIF aims to act as the sustainable anchor working for 
Palestine by investing in viable and strategic projects. All PIF 
activities and investment interventions: . Stimulate sound and 
sustainable private sector; . Contribute to enable business environment; 
. Promote job creation; . Generate profitable return for the 
shareholder; . Leverage Palestinian human and capital resources; . 
Contribute to the process of Palestinian economic independence; . Act as 
a key promoter of regional economic interdependence . Act as a role 
model for transparent and accountable corporate behavior.

+++



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[osint] Pakistan says Kashmir not its part, people there should decide

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/12/asia/AS_GEN_Pakistan_Kashmir.php

Pakistan says Kashmir not its part, people there should decide

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has never claimed Kashmir as an integral 
part of its territory, a foreign ministry official said, despite six 
decades of war and separatist insurgency in the Himalayan region that is 
bitterly disputed with neighboring India.

Tasnim Aslam, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said Monday it is up 
to the Kashmiri people to decide whether they would like to be part of 
Pakistan.

The mostly Muslim region, claimed in its entirety by both India and 
Pakistan, is currently divided between the two countries along an uneasy 
cease-fire line.

For the last 60 years, we have not claimed Kashmir to be an integral 
part of Pakistan, Aslam told reporters. In case the people of Kashmir 
are able to decide, it is our hope that they would opt for Pakistan.

The comments came a week after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suggested 
Pakistan was willing to give up its claim on Kashmir if India 
reciprocated and agreed to self-governance there. He proposed the South 
Asian neighbors could jointly supervise Kashmir.

India has long claimed that Kashmir is an integral part of its 
territory. The region was divided between them during partition of the 
subcontinent on independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistan has long demanded that Kashmiris vote in a referendum to decide 
whether the territory should become part of Pakistan or India. In his 
recent comments, Musharraf said neither country supported full 
independence for Kashmir.

The two nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over 
the region.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting an Islamic insurgency in 
India's two-thirds of Kashmir that has killed 68,000 people since it 
erupted in 1989. Pakistan says it only gives the rebels diplomatic and 
moral support.

The two rivals began a peace dialogue in January 2004, which has eased 
tensions but has made little progress over resolving the Kashmir dispute.

+++



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[osint] Pak-China anti-terror exercise begins

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2item_no=122053version=1template_id=41parent_id=23

Pak-China anti-terror exercise begins
Published: Tuesday, 12 December, 2006, 09:44 AM Doha Time
ABBOTABAD: More than 200 Chinese troops headed to Pakistan's mountainous
northern region on Monday at the start of the first ever joint military
exercise held here by the two allies.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers and their Pakistani
counterparts raised flags and played their national anthems at a special
ceremony in the hill station of Abbotabad, an AFP photographer said.
Two guns boomed to herald the start of the exercise and paragliders
showered fresh rose petals over the parade ground, before soldiers took
part in a folk dancing display.
The Chinese contingent flew in to the garrison city of Rawalpindi near
the capital Islamabad on Sunday to take part in the 10-day exercise
dubbed Friendship 2006.
PLA Major General Liu Minjiang said at the ceremony that the exercises
would foster a joint strategy and tactics to fight terrorism.
Pakistani Major General Mohsin Kamal said the manoeuvres would
strengthen co-operation.
The exercise comes around two weeks after Chinese President Hu Jintao
pledged to take strategic ties with Pakistan to a new level during his
first ever visit to the South Asian country.
This is the first time that a PLA contingent has arrived in Pakistan
on an exercise, a senior Pakistani military official said, adding that
Pakistani troops visited China for joint exercises in 2004.
The exercise is a display of the mutual commitment and resolve to fight
terrorism, besides bolstering time-tested friendship between the two
countries, the official said on condition of anonymity.
After the ceremony in Abbotabad the soldiers were due to head to the
mountains further north for the exercises, the official said.
Beijing remains Islamabad's largest arms supplier and the two are
jointly developing the JF-17 Thunder fighter jet. China is also
providing major industrial and economic assistance.
Islamabad meanwhile is helping Beijing deal with the perceived threat of
Muslim separatists in China's western Xinjiang region, which borders
Kazakhstan and Pakistan.
In late 2003 Pakistan said it had killed Hasan Mahsum, identified by
China as its top terrorist, in a raid in Pakistan's South Waziristan
tribal region. -- AFP

+++

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[osint] Islamic Hamas Donates Cash for Bethlehem's C hristmas

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/islamic.hamas.donates.cash.for.bethlehems.christmas/8685.htm

Islamic Hamas Donates Cash for Bethlehem's Christmas
The Hamas government has promised to donate US$50,000 to prepare
Bethlehem for the traditional Christmas holidays.

The Hamas government, often labelled by the international community as
Islamic militants, has promised to donate US$50,000 to prepare Bethlehem
for the traditional Christmas holidays. The offering will be twice as
much as given in previous years.

Known to be struggling financially, Hamas, has decided to donate the
cash to Bethlehem, which is currently only sparsely decorated currently.

Even though the extra cash has been promised, it may not be enough to
restore festivities to their fullest in the region, engulfed in
Israeli-Palestinian fighting for the past 6 years.

Poverty is known to be affecting the area, and with Israel's West Bank
separation barrier large numbers of Christians are now being seen
leaving Bethlehem.

In 2005, just 2,500 foreign visitors toured Bethlehem during the
Christmas season, compared to more than 90,000 a month prior to 2000
when the Palestinian uprising came about.

Local businesses are feeling the harsh reality of the ever-declining
tourist economy. AP has reported that Abir Karram, who sells traditional
hand-embroidered Palestinian dresses, can no longer afford to pay the
700 shekel (US$115) monthly rent for her workshop. Two years ago, she
had 30 women working part time for her. Now she has no workers.

The wall stopped tourists and Arabs from Israel, she said about the
separation barrier, which is meant to stop Palestinian suicide bombings.

Now people here have no salaries. It's like a well that finished
drawing water, Karram added.

A 2004 United Nations report has estimated that about 10 percent of
Christians had left Bethlehem following the violence up till that point.

The offering of extra funding has been greeted with mixed reactions
among local Christians. Some have said they suspect the Islamic
militants hoped to gain support from the international community; It's
just for show, said one anonymous elderly woman, according to AP.

Another Palestinian Catholic believed that Hamas should have given the
money to the needy, but was sure that it was a sign of goodwill: I
appreciate it, because Bethlehem is the symbol of peace.

The acting finance minister, Samir Abu Eisha of Hamas, said, We don't
fund any Islamic celebrations, but we want to fund this Christian
festival, which is a special part of Bethlehem. As a Palestinian
government, we hope our Christian brothers have a happy celebration.
They are an integral part of Palestinian society.

+++

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[osint] Berlin To Stage Controversial Opera

SPIEGEL ONLINE - December 11, 2006, 03:58 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,453770,00.html
THE HEAD OF THE PROPHET
Berlin To Stage Controversial Opera

By Michael Sontheimer in Berlin

Berlin's Deutsche Oper hasn't had much luck getting sell-out crowds 
lately. But with politicians, Muslims, international journalists and 
police turning out for its controversial staging of Mozart's Idomeneo 
-- complete with the decapitated head of the Prophet Muhammad -- the 
opera house's fortunes could change.

These days, Alexander Busche feels more like an actor in an absurd play 
than the spokesman of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. The opera employee 
has just received instructions from the Berlin police department on what 
to do in the event of a bomb threat. Ask what the bomb looks like and 
where it is, he says, reading from the document, which he finds highly 
amusing, adding that he hasn't had any bomb threats so far. Nor has he 
heard from al-Qaida. One week before the opening night of a revival of 
director Hans Neuenfels' staging of the Mozart opera Idomeneo, both 
the actors and the Berlin police are rehearsing for what promises to be 
a unusual event.

On Monday, December 18, the German cultural community will take a stand 
with an unprecedented production -- and with a manifestation of the 
freedom of art, one that will be led by none less than Interior Minister 
Wolfgang Schäuble, of the conservative Christian Democrats. Schäuble and 
nine of the 15 members of the conference on Islam he initiated will look 
on as, in the finale of what is otherwise viewed as a relatively 
cumbersome opera, the severed heads of Poseidon, Buddha, Jesus and 
Muhammad are presented to the audience.

Following the Danish caricature scandal earlier this year, the scene 
proved so sensitive that the revival of the opera was cancelled in 
September. The police feared attacks, even though no one had made any 
threats. Unlike the caricature episode, what outraged the international 
community this time was the cowardly fear of a nonexistent enemy -- an 
anger that reverberated around the world. And next week, members of the 
international press are certain to be manning their posts in Berlin. And 
those who want to see the divisive closing scene will have to sit 
through a lengthy two and three-quarter-hour performance before they get 
to the juicy bits.

Le Monde will be watching

Reporters from the Washington Post to Le Monde, and from Bulgarian state 
television to the Iranian and Saudi Arabian news agencies will be on 
hand. TV channel 3Sat, broadcast in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and to 
the rest of Europe by satellite, will feature a live broadcast of the 
grisly story of the king of Crete straight from the opera house. 
Deutsche Oper spokesman Busche says he is only slightly irritated by 
reporters who erroneously dubbed the Mozart work Odomino or Idomedea 
on their orders for press tickets.

Busche's feathers weren't even ruffled when the four scandal-ridden 
severed heads vanished without a trace late last week, triggering an 
opera house-wide search for the missing heads. In the end, the opera 
says it will make replacement models if the props aren't found.

In fact, all the uproar over the production has been a godsend to the 
Deutsche Oper. The 1,865-seat opera house has made headlines in recent 
weeks, less for cultural reasons than for the simple reason that it 
costs the city too much money. Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, a Social 
Democrat, said that the city could only afford two of its three opera 
houses.

Indeed, the employees at the Deutsche Oper are more terrified of the 
mayor these days than of all religious conservatives combined. Critics 
point out that the opera house has only been selling about two-thirds of 
its seats this year, leaving the city with the burden of servicing its 
more than €36.8 million in debts.

A slap in the face to art

But if the hopes of some opera employees come to fruition, that could 
all change with the new Idomeneo production. Their calculus? It would 
be difficult to cut city funding for an opera house that is so 
courageously defying Islamist intolerance and is even being supported by 
some Muslims.

The cancellation was a slap in the face of art, says Kenan Kolat, who 
heads the umbrella group of Germany's Turkish community and plans to 
attend the production. Kolat is disappointed that some of his fellow 
Muslims are not planning to see the opera, including Mounir Azzaoui, the 
spokesman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. Azzaoui said, 
simply and poignantly, that he has never been to the opera and does not 
intend to do so this time.

Kolat expects a quiet evening, and the police force in the German 
capital seems to agree. As relaxed as it may seem today, as recently as 
July Berlin police were warning against a threatening situation with 
unpredictable consequences for public safety and order.

Yet despite the more relaxed

[osint] WATANIYA INTERNATIONAL AND PALESTINE INVESTMENT FUND PARTNER TO ESTBLISH NEW MOBILE OPERATOR IN PALESTINE

http://www.babnet.net/en_detail-2738.asp

WATANIYA INTERNATIONAL AND PALESTINE INVESTMENT FUND PARTNER TO ESTBLISH 
NEW MOBILE OPERATOR IN PALESTINE
2006-12-12
Wataniya International and the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) signed 
today a shareholders' agreement to form a new mobile telecommunications 
company in Palestine.

Under the shareholder agreement, Wataniya International, the manager of 
the operations, will eventually own 40% of the new company, PIF will own 
30% and 30% will be offered to the Palestinian public through a public IPO.

We are proud to partner with the Palestine Investment Fund. Together, 
we will build a national asset that will enhance the lives of users, 
businesses and investors alike through the provision of communication 
services that will deliver high quality customer and employee 
experiences, said Faisal Al Ayyar, Chairman of Wataniya International.

The growth potential of the telecommunications sector in Palestine, 
supported by its liberalization and reform, present a highly attractive 
business opportunity, said Dr. Mohamed Mustafa, General Manager of the 
Palestine Investment Fund. By being part of the new company, we will 
work with our partners at Wataniya International to ensure this sector 
optimizes its contribution to the Palestinian economy and delivers to 
the level of the expectations of the Palestinian users and investors alike.


In September 2006, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information 
Technology in Palestine (MTIT) awarded Wataniya International, the 
company responsible for leading the pursuit of global expansion 
opportunities on behalf of the Wataniya Telecom group of mobile 
operations, the license to build and operate the second mobile 
telecommunication service in Palestine, with a bid of JD 251 million 
(Two hundred fifty one million Jordanian Dinars).

Wataniya International and PIF will announce the name of the new company 
and the composition of its board in the near future.

We believe that, with our partners in the country, we can build and 
maintain a healthy and sustainable operation while actively contributing 
to the growth and welfare of the people in Palestine. We will do that by 
being a significant contributor to the building of a strong and 
independent Palestinian economy, fuelling Palestinian economic growth 
through direct foreign investment, contributing to the advancement of 
the information and communication technology sector in Palestine, 
investing in the build-up and retention of human capital and by 
delivering direct and indirect employment opportunities, ended Al Ayyar.
About Wataniya Telecom
Commercially launched in December 1999, Wataniya Telecom is part of 
Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO), and has been a driving force in 
increasing the mobile communications market in Kuwait to more than 90 
per cent of the population. Wataniya Telecom is actively expanding its 
presence in the region serving more than 8.8 million customers in 
countries with a combined total population exceeding 92 million. For 
more information, please visit www.wataniyatelecom.com

About Wataniya International
Wataniya International is responsible for leading the pursuit of global 
expansion opportunities, as well as leveraging technical, financial and 
commercial synergies within the Wataniya Telecom group of mobile operations.

About The Palestine Investment Fund
The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) was incorporated in 2003 with the 
aim of consolidating the assets and investments held for the benefit of 
the Palestinian people. The PIF is registered at the Companied 
Comptroller as a public shareholding company. The fund is based in 
Ramallah and in Gaza City, with regional offices in Amman and Cairo. It 
is headed by a nine-member Board of Directors (BOD), with majority 
members of prominent Palestinian private sector leaders. PIF serves as 
an enabling catalyst for sustainable development in Palestine through 
undertaking and partnering in strategic investment projects in the areas 
of energy, information and communication technology (ICT), real estate, 
tourism, among other areas. PIF is dedicated to transparent and 
accountable corporate behavior, and strives to build a pool of top notch 
professionals who would become the future leaders of the Palestinian 
private sector. PIF aims to act as the sustainable anchor working for 
Palestine by investing in viable and strategic projects. All PIF 
activities and investment interventions:
- Stimulate sound and sustainable private sector;
- Contribute to enable business environment;
- Promote job creation;
- Generate profitable return for the shareholder;
- Leverage Palestinian human and capital resources;
- Contribute to the process of Palestinian economic independence;
- Act as a key promoter of regional economic interdependence
- Act as a role model for transparent and accountable corporate behavior.

+++



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[osint] Taleban commander among 12 killed in Afghan battles; Pakistan arrests 90 Afghans

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/world/Viewdet.asp?ID=8773cat=a

  Taleban commander among 12 killed in Afghan battles; Pakistan arrests 
90 Afghans
HERAT, Afghanistan (Agencies): US-led troops and warplanes attacked a 
Taleban hideout in western Afghanistan, killing at least nine rebel 
fighters including a regional commander, police said Monday. Police also 
killed three Taleban fighters after the insurgents stormed their 
checkpost in the south of the volatile country, a police commander said. 
Coalition troops, acting on intelligence reports, launched the operation 
in the Balabuluk district of western Farah province Sunday night, 
provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb said. We knew for a while that 
these Taleban had entered this district with an evil aim to sabotage the 
highway linking the western city of Herat to the insurgency-hit 
southern province of Helmand, Saqeb told AFP.

Nine Taleban guerrillas were killed in fighting lasting for several 
hours, including Mullah Abdul Samad, a regional Taleban commander, he 
said. The 10,000-strong US-led coalition could not immediately provide 
details. But the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force 
(ISAF), which has 30,000 soldiers across Afghanistan including several 
hundred in Farah, said it was aware of fighting in the area involving 
the coalition and the Taleban. Yousuf Ahmadi, a self-proclaimed Taleban 
spokesman, confirmed there had been a battle but said that several 
American troops were killed and only two of their own fighters died. 
His claims in the past have proved exaggerated.

Meanwhile dozens of Taleban militants stormed a police checkpost in the 
troubled southern province of Zabul on a key highway leading to the 
capital Kabul, police said. Three Taleban were killed in fighting after 
they attacked us said Noor Mohammad Pakteen, police chief of Zabul, 
adding that they fled after a battle lasting about 30 minutes. Violence 
linked to an insurgency led by the Taleban since their ouster in late 
2001 by US-led forces is in its bloodiest phase this year, with nearly 
4,000 fatalities.

Most have been rebels but around a quarter are civilians.
Border guards arrested 90 Afghans on Monday for illegally entering 
Pakistan and deported 43 others who were arrested several weeks ago, 
officials said. The 43 men were handed over to Afghan authorities in the 
town of Chaman, the main border crossing between southern Afghanistan 
and Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, said Abdul Basir, a 
border security official. The deported Afghans were arrested about 20 
days ago in Gawadar, an Arabian Sea coastal town in Baluchistan, Basir said.

Meanwhile, paramilitary troops arrested 90 other Afghans who had entered 
Chaman without travel documents, said Capt. Shahid, an official with the 
Frontier Constabulary, which guards the border near Chaman. Shahid uses 
only one name. The arrested Afghans will be questioned by the Federal 
Investigation Agency, which deals with immigration issues, Shahid said. 
Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital, shares a long border with 
Afghanistan and is home to a large number of Afghan refugees. In recent 
months, police in the province have arrested a large number of Afghans, 
including several suspected members of the Taleban militia. Many have 
been handed over to Afghan officials.

A US military invasion ousted the Taleban from power in Afghanistan in 
late 2001 for harboring al-Qaeda. The European Commission (EC) has 
agreed to give 30 million euros to the Afghan Interior Ministry for 
recruitment and better training of police to properly enforce the rule 
of law in this insurgency-wracked country. The announcement was made by 
spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan 
(UNAMA) Alim Siddiqui during a press conference in Kabul on Monday. He 
said the agreement to this effect was inked between the United Nations 
Development Programme --- Afghanistan and the European Commission on Dec 3.

+++



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[osint] Russia facing financial problem on Bushehr:Iran

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=47962NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Russia facing financial problem on Bushehr:Iran

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
Related Pictures

Archived Picture - Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI)
Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh said that the Russian contractor of Bushehr nuclear
power plant has financial problem in fulfillment of its commitments
regarding completion of this project and it expects Iran to provide
financial aid beyond the initial agreement, IRNA reported.

LONDON, December 12 (IranMania) - Head of the Atomic Energy Organization
of Iran (AEOI) Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh said that the Russian contractor of
Bushehr nuclear power plant has financial problem in fulfillment of its
commitments regarding completion of this project and it expects Iran to
provide financial aid beyond the initial agreement, IRNA reported.

He made the remark at a joint press conference with his Russian
counterpart Sergei Kiriyenko.

Aqazadeh declared Iran's readiness to attempt to solve the financial
difficulties facing the power plant project to facilitate finalizing it.

In response to a question whether the required fuel will be dispatched
to Iran towards the end of the current Iranian year (ending on March
20), he said that the relevant schedule has not changed.

The official said that in his meeting with Kiriyenko, the agreement
which was signed by Iran and Russia on September 26 was revised.

He noted that both sides are willing to finalize the project on schedule.

However, given that we are facing problems for implementation of
Bushehr nuclear power plant, both sides are required to cooperate, he
added.

For his part, Kiriyenko told reporters that some improvement is observed
in the trend of implementation of the project, but that it is not
sufficient.

He said that to expedite the project, Iranian and Russian experts are
required to further exchange views.

The Russian official referred to financial problems as one of the most
important impediments to the project as well as the failure in dispatch
of the pre-made equipment by third party countries.

Members of the Russian delegation accompanying Kiriyenko, who will leave
Tehran on Tuesday, are scheduled to pursue the problems facing this
project.

+++

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[osint] Hizbullah smiles on Arab League plan, but Cabinet stays quiet

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1categ_id=2article_id=77586

Hizbullah smiles on Arab League plan, but Cabinet stays quiet
Envoy says both sides have expressed 'initial agreement'

By Nada Bakri
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

BEIRUT: Substantial obstacles remained to an Arab League initiative to 
end the standoff between the government and opposition in Lebanon on 
Monday, with both parties showing little flexibility on key demands. 
Arab League envoy and Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Ismail, who 
arrived in Lebanon from neighboring Syria on Monday, said divided 
Lebanese leaders are still discussing his proposal.

We have suggested a proposal and we are now waiting for responses ... 
We will try to come up with acceptable suggestions that will pave the 
way for the resumption of dialogue, Ismail said after meeting with 
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.

Ismail also met with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Speaker Nabih Berri 
and Parliament majority leader MP Saad Hariri.

No statement was issued by the government, as hopes remained high that a 
deal might be reached with the arrival of Arab League Secretary General 
Amr Moussa in Beirut today.

Hizbullah and its allies are demanding veto power in Siniora's 
government, but the prime minister has so far refused the demand.

The anti-Syrian coalition accuses the opposition of wanting to block the 
formation of an international court to try suspects in the assassination 
of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday that Ismail had 
relayed an offer to Siniora from Hizbullah to trade the international 
court for veto power in the Cabinet.

LBC said the prime minister refused to make any deals involving the court.

Ismail said the opposition had told him it does not object to the 
creation of the tribunal, but only wants to be involved in the details.

Siniora's embattled Cabinet intends to convene today to submit a 
proposal to Parliament to ratify the tribunal, after pro-Syrian 
President Emile Lahoud refused to approve a draft to form the court. 
However, Berri has refused to convene a legislative session until the 
current crisis is resolved.

Ismail told journalists in Damascus earlier on Monday that leaders of 
Lebanon's two polarized political camps had expressed an initial 
agreement to his proposal.

He did not elaborate.

The Arab League has reportedly won vital Syrian support for its efforts 
to end the standoff, with Ismail vowing that the initiative would 
respect Lebanon's oft-touted principle of no victor, no vanquished.

I have received confirmation from the brothers in Syria that they 
[support] ... Lebanese consensus and support our efforts, Ismail 
announced after talks with President Bashar Assad in Damascus.

Hizbullah said it viewed the Arab initiative positively.

Hizbullah views any initiative that includes the formation of a 
national unity government in which we will have a blocking one-third 
minority in a positive light, a spokesman for the party said.

It is a start and we are awaiting the response of the government before 
discussing the details with our allies in the opposition, he added.

Moussa is now expected to cut short a trip to Washington

to travel to Lebanon at the request of both Berri and Siniora, local 
newspapers reported on Monday.

I will not judge things before I see something [concrete] in front of 
me, Moussa was quoted as saying by An-Nahar newspaper.

He had spoken on Sunday night by telephone to Siniora and Berri.

Both Ismail and Moussa were in Beirut last week to try to mediate 
between Lebanon's feuding factions, saying they had proposals to try to 
solve the deadlock but refused to provide details.

Lebanon's political crisis began after the Western-backed government 
refused demands from Hizbullah and its allies for veto power in a new 
national unity government.

In response, six pro-Hizbullah ministers resigned from the Cabinet and 
the party launched massive open-ended demonstrations in Downtown Beirut 
on December 1 in an effort to pressure the prime minister and his 
government to resign or accept a compromise.

During the largest anti-government rally in Lebanon's history on Sunday, 
opposition leader MP Michel Aoun gave Siniora a few days to either 
accept a national unity government or face further unspecified action 
that he said would eventually lead to a transitional government and 
early elections.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hizbullah, told 
protesters the opposition was willing to stay on the streets for months 
if necessary to achieve its goal.

However, Siniora shows no signs of backing down, and called on all sides 
Monday to stick to the democratic system and return to national talks.

The Arab League initiative consists of an end to street protests ... an 
agreement on forming a government that gives a blocking minority, 
according to rules

[osint] Muslim Theologians At Cairo Conference Say Female Genital Mutilation Irreconcilable With Islam

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=58468

Muslim Theologians At Cairo Conference Say Female Genital Mutilation 
Irreconcilable With Islam

Muslim academics and scholars at a conference last month in Cairo, 
Egypt, said female genital cutting -- a practice sometimes referred to 
as female circumcision or female genital mutilation in which there is a 
partial or full removal of the labia, clitoris or both -- is 
incompatible with Islam and called for the governments of countries 
where the practice is common to make it a crime, the New York Times 
reports. According to the Times, about 6,000 girls undergo genital 
mutilation daily, and the World Health Organization estimates that 100 
million to 140 million women worldwide are circumcised. At least 90% of 
women who undergo genital cutting live in developing countries -- such 
as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan -- while almost 
no women undergo the practice in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according 
to UNICEF. The two-day conference at Al-Azhar University -- titled The 
Prohibition of Violation of the Female Body Through Circumcision -- was 
organized by Rudiger Nehberg, who in 2000 founded Target, a human rights 
organization aimed at ending female genital cutting. Many Muslim 
scholars and theologians at the conference said the practice had no 
religious justification, and every doctor in attendance said it had no 
medical justification. Heribert Kentenich, physician in chief of the 
women's clinic at DRK Hospital in Berlin, said it is horrifying that 
75% of female circumcisions in Egypt are preformed by doctors, adding 
that the medicalization of female genital mutilation makes it seem more 
acceptable. According to the Times, some men at the conference defended 
the practice as a custom. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian religious 
scholar and journalist, said, We are on the side of those who ban this 
practice but added that physicians should have the final say (El Ahl, 
New York Times, 12/6).

+++



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[osint] Dubai Ports wants to bid for 49.9 pct stake in Hamburg port - report

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2006/12/12/afx3246078.html

Dubai Ports wants to bid for 49.9 pct stake in Hamburg port - report
12.12.06, 3:04 AM ET

  FRANKFURT (AFX) - Dubai Ports World wants to make a bid for the 49.9 
pct stake in Hamburg port operator Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG 
(HHLA), according to Die Welt, citing a spokeswoman for Dubai Ports World.

The newspaper, citing sources, said the most promising candidate is 
Germany's state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn AG.

It said around 30 bids are expected to be formally submitted to the city 
state of Hamburg by today.

 From January 2007, Hamburg city -- which will retain the remaining 50.1 
pct stake in HHLA -- plans to start negotiations with around 10-15 
interested parties.

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

mog/cml

+++


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[osint] Reid says two terror suspects still on the run

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1970081,00.html

Reid says two terror suspects still on the run


Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Tuesday December 12, 2006
The Guardian

Two suspected terrorists who broke their control orders by removing 
their electronic tags and going on the run in August are still at large, 
the home secretary, John Reid, admitted yesterday.

The home secretary also disclosed in his quarterly update to MPs on the 
operation of the emergency anti-terror regime that he has imposed a new 
control order on an unnamed British terror suspect in the last three 
months, bringing the total number in force to 16.

Mr Reid also revealed that three further control orders -which impose 
curfews and restrictions up to virtual house arrest - have been made but 
have not yet been served. The Home Office said this was because the 
three individuals involved, two of them British citizens, had either 
been charged and remanded in custody, convicted and jailed, or deported.

Lord Carlile, the government's terror law watchdog, said the continuing 
refusal to name the two absconded terror suspects - one an Iraqi who 
vanished from his home in Manchester and the second a 25-year-old 
British-born Muslim from Hounslow, west London - was justified and said 
the lack of publicity may actually help the authorities find the two men.

But he strongly recommended the anti-terror legislation to be published 
in the new year should include powers to publish the names, descriptions 
and details of those who abscond. He said he was satisfied the two on 
the run presented little direct risk to public safety.

+++



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[osint] Operational Risk - Challenges Facing Contemporary Corporate Defense

http://riskcenter.com/story.php?id=13964

Operational Risk - Challenges Facing Contemporary Corporate Defense

Location: New York
Author: Sean Lyons
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Contemporary Corporate Defence

The core objective of contemporary corporate defence is to defend an 
organisation from a multitude of threats and vulnerabilities.[1] To this 
end each organisation has already implemented a variety of what could be 
best described as corporate defence related activities. Each 
organisation will have its own structures in place to address the 
management of defence related activities in their broadest terms. 
Unfortunately very often those entrusted with the management of these 
activities are not always in alignment with one another, as a variety of 
individual activities may be in operation simultaneously.

These activities are frequently of a specialist nature (e.g. Compliance, 
Intelligence, Security and Assurance etc), with certain elements within 
these activities actually requiring a very precise expertise (e.g. SOX 
Compliance, Data Mining, Network Security or Forensic Accounting etc). 
For this reason they often tend be fragmented, disjointed and operating 
as discrete functions in isolation (e.g. in silos), thereby creating 
vulnerability, and reducing their potential for overall effectiveness.

Each of these activities represents an important link in the chain to 
help organisations defend against internal and external threats, however 
the situation represents an asymmetric challenge, as each individual 
link must be defended, for it is the weakest link which is most likely 
to be exploited. For corporate defence to be effective it must 
incorporate all of these activities in a co-ordinated and systematic manner.

In order to achieve this holistic solution to corporate defence, the 
symbiotic relationship which exists between these activities must be 
understood and fully appreciated. Corporate defence requires a strategic 
outlook, and the convergence and alignment of a number of existing 
activities under the one umbrella.

An evolution in cross-functional convergence

In recent years this imperative[2] appears to be at least partially 
recognised, with the emergence of a number of cross-functional 
initiatives including the following:

 *
   GRC Management (including governance, risk  compliance)
 *
   Integrated Intelligence (including business intelligence  
knowledge management)
 *
   Unified Security (including physical  logical security)
 *
   Enterprise Resilience (including business continuity  protection 
etc)

While this evolution is considered to be progressing in the right 
direction, a further transformation is still required. Unfortunately in 
many cases the progress to date has simply led to the creation of even 
larger corporate fiefdoms, with their associated power struggles and 
turf battles. Using advanced technologies however it is now possible to 
consolidate a sustainable fusion between these activities, and eliminate 
any disconnection or ?chinese walls? which may previously have existed. 
What needs to be created is a cybernetic loop whereby communication 
includes multi-dimensional feedback, both top-down and bottom-up, as 
well as operating in-depth horizontally, at every level within the 
organisation.This difficult challenge requires a flexible approach, and 
a strategic agility which will allow the organisation to quickly adapt 
to an evolving environment, and enable it to react in a speedy and 
integrated manner, to incidents which occur in an ever-changing set of 
circumstances. A successful integration program should involve 
understanding the complex interdependencies and correlations which exist 
between the various defence related activities, in order to avoid 
unnecessary duplication, omission or conflict. Effective enterprise-wide 
vulnerability and threat management requires co-operation from all of 
these activities.

The task facing Corporate Defence Management (CDM)

To do this effectively all activities need to be operating in unison 
with a common set of objectives, and with corresponding performance 
expectations. The task of CDM involves the consolidation of all 
defensive activities, including the alignment of a multitude of 
interrelated domains.[3] CDM must be all inclusive in order to be 
effective, as to be truly holistic it must include collaboration from 
Front, Middle and Back Office activities.

This management, co-ordination and supervisory role relates to a diverse 
group of disciplines, and people as individuals, with a diverse set of 
knowledge and skills. It also relates to diverse processes, systems and 
technologies. This task of integrating and co-ordinating all of these 
activities demands astute political insights and subtle communication 
skills from those entrusted in this role. Fundamentally it requires all 
parties involved to be working together in a positive and proactive manner.

[osint] Judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-228/02, Organisation des Modjahedines du peuple d'Iran / Council Common foreign and security policy

http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp06/aff/cp060097en.pdf

Judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-228/02 Organisation 
des Modjahedines du peuple d'Iran / Council Common foreign and security 
policy

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE ANNULS THE COUNCIL'S DECISION ORDERING THE 
FREEZING OF THE FUNDS OF THE ORGANISATION DES MODJAHEDINES DU PEUPLE 
D'IRAN IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

The full text of the judgment may be found on the Court's internet site 
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=ENSubmit=recherchernumaff=T-228/02

+++


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[osint] Plans for a mosque in central Munich are stirring sentiment against foreigners

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/08/news/mosque.php

Plans for a mosque in central Munich are stirring sentiment against 
foreigners
Some Christians protest as Muslims raise their profile

MUNICH: Helga Schandl says she has nothing against Muslims. For three 
decades, she worked in Munich's wholesale food market, where many of her 
colleagues were immigrants from Turkey. I have experienced integration 
firsthand, she said.

Yet Schandl, a 67-year-old Bavarian, is leading a fierce campaign to 
halt plans to build a mosque in a working- class district here.

It is a provocation, she said of the mosque, which would sit across a 
graceful square from her Roman Catholic church --- its minarets an exotic 
counterpoint to the church's neo- Baroque steeples. The mosque doesn't 
have anything to do with religion, she said. It is a power play.

In the many ways that Christians and Muslims rub up against each other 
in this country, the construction of mosques has become one of the most 
contentious. Symbols of a foreign faith, rising in the middle of German 
cities, they are stoking anti-foreign sentiment and reinforcing fears 
that Christianity is under threat.

Why, Schandl asked, do the Turks want to build their mosque right here, 
on a site opposite St. Korbinian? Like churches everywhere in Germany, 
it is struggling to survive in a secular society. A few empty churches 
are being converted into banks or restaurants.

For Onder Yildiz, a soft-spoken but intense leader of the Turkish 
community, the answer is simple: A mosque next to a church helps 
intensify dialogue between the religions, he said.

On one level, Yildiz is right: St. Korbinian, and the mayor of Munich, 
Christian Ude, have welcomed the mosque, which would be the third, and 
most prominent, in Munich, the heartland of German Catholicism.

But a vocal minority of residents has resisted, holding protest 
meetings, collecting signatures and filing a petition with the Bavarian 
Parliament. Bavarian life, the petition declares, is marked by the 
drinking of beer and the eating of pork. In Muslim faith, both are 
unclean and forbidden.

With the support of Bavaria's conservative state government, the 
residents have been able to tie up the project in court.

Mosques have existed in Germany for decades, but only in recent years 
has there been a building boom. There are now 150 mosques in Germany, in 
addition to some 2,000 Muslim prayer rooms in cellars, warehouses and 
other converted industrial spaces.

As Germany's 3.2 million Muslims put down deeper roots, they are no 
longer willing to worship furtively. A few of their projects, like a new 
mosque in the city of Duisburg, have a hint of the grandeur of great 
European cathedrals. More than 1,000 people can pray under its soaring 
domes, which are meant to evoke the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Whenever Muslims in Germany come out of their closets or hidden places, 
the controversy starts, said Claus Leggewie, a political scientist at 
the University of Giessen who has written about mosques in Germany.

The protests begin on technical issues, like parking problems and 
noise, he said. But it has a cultural bias. There is a nationalist 
minority, which opposes immigration and especially Muslim immigration.

Rightist politicians pander to these sentiments, Leggewie said, helped 
by the specter of Islamic terrorism and by a number of extremist mosques 
in Germany that have rattled even some open- minded Germans. Muslim 
groups aggravate the tensions, he said, by not talking to their 
non-Muslim neighbors.

The Munich dispute has an added edge because Bavaria is the most 
religious and conservative state in Germany. Pope Benedict XVI was born 
near here and once served as archbishop of Munich. He delivered his 
now-famous speech, in which he appeared to equate Islam with violence, 
at the nearby University of Regensburg.

I understood his message, Schandl said, nursing a beer at the market 
where she used to work.

Munich has between 80,000 and 120,000 Muslims, the bulk of them from 
Turkey. Muslims constitute nearly 10 percent of the city's population. 
The city's first mosque was built in the 1960s on the outskirts of town 
and caused little comment.

The proposed mosque is designed to take the place of an Islamic prayer 
center that is now housed in an old furniture warehouse nearby. As the 
Turks see it, having a proper mosque is a sign of their maturity as an 
immigrant group in German society.

Turks are now in their third generation in Germany, said Metin Avci, 
the imam of the community in Sendling. In the first generation, they 
only wanted to work to earn money. In the second and third generations, 
they developed a desire to worship in a more visible way.

After a competition, the group chose a local architect, Walter Höfler. 
He says that his contemporary design does not compete with that of the 
church. The minarets of the mosque, he noted, would rise about 40 
meters, or 130 feet, which

[osint] FBI papers on terror expertise to released

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fbi_terror

FBI papers on terror expertise to released

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for a once-decorated terror-fighting
FBI agent will make public hundreds of pages of testimony from the 
bureau's top brass declaring that terrorism expertise has been given 
little weight in promoting agents since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
click here

The evidence gathered during Agent Bassem Youssef's ongoing lawsuit 
against the FBI includes statements from the agency's director, Robert 
Mueller, and many of his top supervisors on how little Middle Eastern 
experience, Arabic language skills or formal anti-terrorism training has 
played in promotion decisions.

The testimony, some of which was reported by The Associated Press in 
2005, is being posted Wednesday to a Web site for the public to see. It 
includes:

_Mueller defending the 2003 appointment of agent Gary Bald to the top 
terror-fighting job on grounds that he was qualified because he ran the 
Baltimore office when it investigated the 2002 Washington-area sniper 
shootings.

He had the sniper case, which I don't know whether it was actually 
documented as a domestic terrorism program, but certainly it could fall 
under the category of domestic terrorism. So running the office gave him 
some exposure to terrorism matters, Mueller testified.

_Bald, who retired earlier this year, was asked about his grasp of 
Middle Eastern culture and history, and testified: I wish that I had 
it. It would be nice.

_The agent assigned to oversee the Sept. 11 investigation at the
Pentagon acknowledged she had no formal terrorism background. I do not 
have a terrorism background myself, agent Ellen Knowlton testified.

_John Lewis, a deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, testified 
that there was no difference in recruiting an informant to infiltrate a 
white supremacist group or al-Qaida. It doesn't make any difference 
whether somebody's from the Middle East or a white supremacist or from 
Australia, he said.

Youssef, the agent suing the bureau, alleges he was passed over for 
several promotions that could have better utilized his skills in the war 
on terror. The FBI denies discriminating against him.

Youssef's lawyer said Tuesday he was making the depositions public so 
Americans can see the FBI answers for themselves. The American public 
has a right to know what really happened inside the FBI counterterrorism 
division after Sept. 11, attorney Stephen Kohn said.

The documents are to be posted Wednesday to 
http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/inside_the_fbi.html

An FBI spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment 
Tuesday. In the past, the FBI has declined to discuss the Youssef 
litigation but has said the agency has fundamentally reshaped itself to 
ensure the field agents on the ground who work the cases have the 
necessary skills, training and background for fighting terrorism. It has 
noted it hired or redeployed more than 1,000 agents to counterterrorism 
and hired an additional 1,200 intelligence analysts and linguists.

Youssef was credited with improving relations with Saudi Arabia during 
the late 1990s as the threat from al-Qaida leader
Osama bin Laden grew and the bureau struggled to solve the case of the 
1996 Khobar Towers bombing. He received special awards for his performance.

But after Sept. 11, Youssef repeatedly was passed over for top-level 
headquarters jobs in terrorism. Instead, he was offered same-rank 
positions in budgeting or exploiting intelligence from terrorism documents.

Louis Freeh, the former FBI director who left that job three months 
before the terrorist attacks, testified he believed Youssef should have 
gotten an important terror-fighting job in the post-Sept. 11 era

And one FBI supervisor, just-retired agent Paul Vick, testified he was 
concerned that Youssef's skills weren't utilized after Sept. 11 and that 
some colleagues had mistaken him for another agent who was Muslim and 
had refused certain work assignments on religious beliefs.

Youssef is Christian and never refused any assignments, his lawyer said.

+++



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[osint] Pakistan, Saudi Arabia to intensify coop in war against terrorism

http://www.pakistantimes.net/2006/12/13/top3.htm

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia to intensify coop in war against terrorism
By Maria A Khan 'Pakistan Times' Diplomatic Correspondent

RIYADH (Saudi Arabia): Pakistan and Saudi Arabia Tuesday vowed to 
continue to play their active role in ensuring peace in the region 
through increased cooperation.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz soon after his arrival here went into a 
meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, discussed the 
situation in region, particularly Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, 
Afghanistan and Kashmir and expressed the resolve to seek their 
solutions by unifying the Muslim world.

The two leaders during their over an hour and a half meeting focused on 
further intensification of their ties in political, economic, defence 
and security areas.

Prime Minister Aziz said, Pak-Saudi ties were holistic, historic, 
broad-based and rich. Both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia vowed to intensify 
cooperation in the war against terrorism.

The two leaders said their countries were already united against 
terrorism and condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. 
They, however, also stressed for identifying and addressing the root 
causes that lead to such behaviour.

Prime Minister Aziz and the Saudi Crown Prince called for removing the 
misperceptions that create any linkages between Islam and terrorism.

Prime Minister Aziz said that reaction of a few should not be taken as a 
point of view by all. Shaukat Aziz also briefed the Crown Prince about 
the situation in the region and Pakistan's stance.

He told the Saudi Crown Prince about the ongoing Composite Dialogue 
between Pakistan and India to seek a peaceful and negotiated settlement 
of the core issue of Kashmir according to the aspirations and wishes of 
the Kashmiri people.

Prime Minister Aziz also expressed his views on Iran's nuclear issue and 
said Pakistan does not support nuclear proliferation by any country.

The two leaders also took into account the situation in the Middle East 
and called for an early resolution of the Palestine issue to bring peace 
not only to the region, but also for the world at large.

They also called for the resolution of the Palestinian issue in 
accordance with the UN Resolutions and the wishes of the Palestinian people.

The two leaders also expressed concern at the deteriorating security 
situation in Iraq and the suffering of the Iraqi people. Both leaders 
emphasized the importance of Iraq's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called for formulating a gradual and careful 
strategy, which does not mean a cut-and-run approach.

On Lebanon, Prime Minister Aziz said all efforts should be made to avoid 
civil war. He appreciated the efforts of Saudi Arabia in this regard. 
The two leaders said keeping in view the challenges faced by Muslim 
Ummah, there was a need for reviving and revitalizing the Organization 
of Islamic Conference (OIC).?

+++



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[osint] Undermining democracy, again, in Palestine

http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/opinion/opinion2.htm


Undermining democracy, again, in Palestine



Hasan Abu Nimah

The PLO Executive Committee's recommendation that Palestinian Authority 
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas call for early elections, both for his post and 
for the legislative council, is ill-advised and wrong.

The Palestinian Legislative Council was elected less than a year ago. It 
barely had a chance to function, due to the Western-backed boycott and 
to the fact that Israel has kidnapped and is holding hostage large 
numbers of its elected members. But to dissolve it now would be a 
prescription for additional turmoil and political conflict.

The idea of dissolving the Hamas-led government and the PLC has been 
contemplated (and declared) by Abbas for a long time. Abbas, his local 
cronies in the Fateh movement, and the foreign powers which encourage 
and support them, have never reconciled themselves to the fact that 
Hamas won the PLC election fair and square. Rather than stand aside and 
allow Hamas to govern, as the rules of democracy dictate, they have 
hatched various plans to try to overthrow the Hamas Cabinet and replace 
it with one to their liking.

In order to disguise the blatantly undemocratic nature of this effort, 
Abbas has been seeking ways to make the attempt to remove Hamas appear 
legal. But one major obstacle is that the law developed by Palestinians 
under occupation does not grant Abbas the power to dissolve the 
legislature. He had hoped that the international siege, Fateh-organised 
strikes and other forms of pressure would force Hamas out. Instead, 
Hamas seems to be doing much better than expected. The strikes are 
crumbling, and Hamas has gained sufficient international support and 
financing to begin to counteract the effects of the siege.

So now, the so-called institution of the presidency, the EU and 
US-backed shadow government made up of Abbas and his numerous advisers, 
are racing against time. Hence, the engineered recommendation by the 
unaccountable and unelected PLO Executive Committee to dissolve the 
democratically elected legislature.

The new theory is that if Abbas does not have the power to call an 
election for the PLC, by resigning he would trigger one automatically. 
Even this is not true, based on precedent. When Yasser Arafat died, 
elections were held only for his office. Nevertheless, Abbas' apparent 
willingness to stage new elections indicates a certain confidence that 
his discredited party, which failed to win the elections even though it 
had millions of dollars in secret support from foreign sources, can now 
win. That is a possibility, but what if Hamas wins the elections again? 
And what guarantee does the institution of the presidency have for the 
planned results unless the outcome of the elections is to be decided 
beforehand: this kind of democracy.

All these underhanded manoeuvres are being wrapped up in the claim that 
there is a national crisis and therefore the people should decide on 
the way out. But this is totally manufactured. The crisis exists only 
because Fateh refuses to recognise the clear result of the election: it 
lost. More importantly, it refuses to recognise that Hamas won on the 
basis of a political programme which is radically different from its 
own, including an end to the corruption and defeatism that Fateh made 
the hallmark of the Palestinian Authority since that body was 
established in 1994 under the Oslo accords.

As soon as it was elected, Fateh colluded with a Western campaign to 
force Hamas to adopt its failed policies, above all to unconditionally 
recognise Israel's right to exist as a racist state, without defined 
borders, but with illegally annexed Arab lands and annexed Jerusalem --- a 
state which gives special, superior rights to one group of people based 
on their religion.

Hamas refused these conditions, but did not shut the door to a 
reasonable accommodation with Israel. What it rejected was the same path 
of sterile negotiations, which, after more than a decade, left the 
Palestinians with even less than before, as rapacious Israeli colonists 
gobbled up their land. Hamas won the right to redefine the terms of 
negotiations so that Palestinian rights and interests, not Israeli ones, 
guide Palestinian participation in any peace process. Actually 
redefining the terms has become an absolute necessity, after the mess 
and the endless concessions the PA had offered, for redirecting the 
straying course of the peace process.

Yet, by refusing to again unconditionally recognise the right of Israel 
to exist as a Jewish state (there have been many similar Palestinian 
recognitions before), as well as the other agreements reached previously 
between Israel and the Palestinians (none of which Israel ever 
respected), Hamas was declared unfit to remain in office and, 
consequently, was subjected to an international boycott led by Israel's 
blindly supporting so-called

[osint] Iran leader says Israel will end like USSR

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iran/10089096.html

Iran leader says Israel will end like USSR

Agencies


Tehran: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Israel 
will one day be wiped out as the Soviet Union was.

His comments were said during a two-day conference aimed at casting 
doubt on the Holocaust.

The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union 
was, and humanity will achieve freedom, he said.

He called for elections among Jews, Christians and Muslims so the 
population of Palestine can select their government and destiny for 
themselves in a democratic manner.

Ahmadinejad has previously referred to the Holocaust as a myth used to 
impose the State of Israel on the Arab world.

He said the conference would set up a fact-finding commission to 
determine whether the Holocaust happened or not and help end a 
60-year-old dispute.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that the conference was 
shocking beyond belief and a symbol of sectarianism and hatred.

In Washington, the White House condemned Iran for convening a conference 
it called an affront to the entire civilised world.

+++



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[osint] Hamas judge gunned down at Gaza courthouse

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16181407/

Hamas judge gunned down at Gaza courthouse
Al-Fara was also a member of group's armed wing; fears of civil war rise

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip - Unidentified gunmen dragged a judge from the 
Hamas Islamist movement out of a taxi and shot him dead in front of his 
courthouse in Gaza on Wednesday, increasing fears of a Palestinian civil 
war.

Officials from the governing Hamas faction said Bassam al-Fara, 28, was 
a judge in a civil court but also a member of the group's armed wing.

Witnesses who declined to be identified told Reuters at the scene the 
gunmen had eaten breakfast in a nearby restaurant in the town of Khan 
Younis while waiting for Fara to arrive. They shot him at point blank 
range after pulling him from the car.

Tensions and violence have spiraled in Gaza and the occupied West Bank 
between Hamas and the rival Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas 
after attempts to form a national unity government failed.

Internal Palestinian tensions have increased further this week following 
the killing of three young sons of one of Abbas' top intelligence 
officials in Gaza on Monday.

No one claimed responsibility for the shooting of the judge. Hamas, 
which accuses Fatah of trying to topple its government, issued a 
statement blaming the killing on a Fatah death squad.

The seekers of the coup in Fatah bear the responsibility for all 
actions of chaos taking place in the Palestinian streets, senior Hamas 
lawmaker Mushir al-Masri told Reuters.

A Fatah spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, criticized Hamas for blaming the 
once dominant faction.

The brothers in Hamas must be accurate and not throw quick accusations 
before an investigation has yet to start, he said.

Residents described the Fara family as one of the biggest clans in Khan 
Younis, one of the most volatile towns in Gaza.

Political unrest, clan fighting
In the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian security forces said police 
shot a militant of unknown affiliation in the town who had opened fired 
on them.

Security forces loyal to Abbas traded gunfire with Hamas policemen in 
Gaza on Tuesday, wounding four people.

A senior official from Fatah has said the Hamas government bore 
responsibility for Monday's unprecedented attack on children. Hamas has 
angrily denied the movement was involved.

Besides internal political unrest, Gaza is plagued with clan fighting 
and a surge in crime following a Western aid embargo on the government 
that has deepened poverty.

The main source of the recent tensions has been the failure of Hamas and 
Fatah to form a unity government that Palestinians hope might end the 
Western boycott.

Abbas aides have said he planned to call early elections on Saturday 
after talks on a unity government foundered. But they said he would 
leave the door open to dialogue with Hamas.

Hamas came to power after beating Fatah in elections in January. Unity 
talks broke down partly over Hamas' rejection of Western demands to 
recognize Israel.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or 
redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the 
prior written consent of Reuters.

+++



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[osint] US Military's No. 2 In Iraq Says Jobs, Services May Be Key

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20061213\ACQDJON200612130508DOWJONESDJONLINE000460.htmselected=selecteddisplaysymbol=StoryTargetFrame=_topmkt=WORLDchk=uncheckedlang=link=headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

US Military's No. 2 In Iraq Says Jobs, Services May Be Key

BAGHDAD (AP)--The U.S.' outgoing No. 2 commander in Iraq has said that
curbing unemployment and improving services would help reduce the
violence in the country, warning that military muscle can't win the war
alone.

Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, in the last days of a second Iraq tour, also
drew a picture of daunting challenges facing the U.S. military in Iraq
as it strives to keep up with a constantly changing enemy whose
knowledge of the terrain and culture give it an edge over the Americans.

At times during his farewell news conference Tuesday, Chiarelli - in
charge of day-to-day combat operations throughout Iraq - sounded
exasperated, almost despairing, over what he said were misperceptions
that U.S. forces were fighting a conventional war or that they can
achieve victory without improvements on other fronts.

I know everybody wants us to charge on out there and make everything
OK, he said. But you cannot if you don't get those other things
moving. I don't know why it's so hard to get people to understand that,
he said, alluding to the need to create jobs and improve services in Iraq.

I also get frustrated at times that everybody compares us to other
conflicts we have fought, like somehow there is a defined enemy out
there, a group of individuals that if you can just go out and either
kill, capture or put in jail or do whatever, everything will be all
right, he said. I don't believe that, I don't believe that.

There is no doubt in my mind that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and
Marines that we are bringing over here are trained for the fight at
their hands. Is it tough? Yeah, it's really tough, it's very tough, he
said.

Chiarelli's assessment of the U.S. military's predicament in Iraq came
as President George W. Bush was continuing efforts to formulate a new
approach for Iraq following the release last week of a report by a
bipartisan committee that described the situation here as grave.

We don't have to drive unemployment down to 4% like in the United
States, that's not what I am talking about. We don't have to have 24
hours of electricity in Baghdad, he said. But if we can increase the
power in Baghdad back to 12 hours a day, it would be huge.

With reduced unemployment and fewer power cuts, he said, I think we
will see things here change in ways that are hard to believe right now
when you see the level of violence out there.

Chiarelli's notion that the fight against the Sunni-led insurgency and
efforts to disband Shiite militias would have a better chance of success
if the use of force went hand-in-hand with stepped up economic activity
is not new.

The U.S. military has tried this, without much success, from as early as
2003 - a time when many were upbeat about Iraq's future after the ouster
of Saddam Hussein, with foreign aid money flowing in and a free-market
economy swiftly taking hold after decades of state control and crippling
U.N. sanctions.

For its part, the U.S. military has given out hundreds of contracts to
local firms to repair schools and overhaul medical facilities, power
transformers and roads. But with widespread corruption, mismanagement
and relentless insurgent attacks, little has changed on the ground.

Nearly four years after Saddam's ouster, Iraq's economic woes are
staggering.

Unemployment is thought to be anywhere between 20% and 60%, inflation
above 50% and more than 1.5 million Iraqis, mostly professionals, have
fled abroad, according to the Iraq Study Group report and U.N. figures.
Lengthy power cuts are routine, fuel shortages are chronic and health
care is close to collapse.

Putting young men and middle-aged men to work will have a tremendous
impact on this level of violence we are seeing in and around Baghdad and
in other provinces, Chiarelli said.

He said that because of military sweeps, life is returning to normal in
some areas of the capital, including the mainly Sunni districts of Dora
and Amariyah.

People are out, about, walking around, markets are open, fruit stands
are open and commerce is bustling, he said.

Residents of Dora say the area has been quiet in recent weeks, but that
they are too afraid to leave their homes after dark and that a Shiite
enclave in the district is frequently shelled by mortars fired from
Sunni areas. Amariyah is quieter, but bodies of apparent victims of
sectarian violence are found there almost daily, according to residents.

Violence in Baghdad districts often goes in cycles, with turbulent areas
becoming quiet during and immediately after large-scale
counterinsurgency operations -only to flare up again when the focus of
the U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies shifts

[osint] Saudis Give a Grim What If Should U.S. Opt to Leave Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/world/middleeast/13saudi.html?_r=1blex=1166158800en=e7382703d5b0a0f6ei=5087%0Aoref=slogin

Saudis Give a Grim What If Should U.S. Opt to Leave Iraq

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 --- Saudi Arabia has told the Bush administration that
it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against
Iraq's Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq,
according to American and Arab diplomats.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia conveyed that message to Vice President
Dick Cheney two weeks ago during Mr. Cheney's whirlwind visit to Riyadh,
the officials said. During the visit, King Abdullah also expressed
strong opposition to diplomatic talks between the United States and
Iran, and pushed for Washington to encourage the resumption of peace
talks between Israel and the Palestinians, senior Bush administration
officials said.

The Saudi warning reflects fears among America's Sunni Arab allies about
Iran's rising influence in Iraq, coupled with Tehran's nuclear
ambitions. King Abdullah II of Jordan has also expressed concern about
rising Shiite influence, and about the prospect that the
Shiite-dominated government would use Iraqi troops against the Sunni
population.

A senior Bush administration official said Tuesday that part of the
administration's review of Iraq policy involved the question of how to
harness a coalition of moderate Iraqi Sunnis with centrist Shiites to
back the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

The Saudis have argued strenuously against an American pullout from
Iraq, citing fears that Iraq's minority Sunni Arab population would be
massacred. Those fears, United States officials said, have become more
pronounced as a growing chorus in Washington has advocated a draw-down
of American troops in Iraq, coupled with diplomatic outreach to Iran,
which is largely Shiite.

It's a hypothetical situation, and we'd work hard to avoid such a
structure, one Arab diplomat in Washington said. But, he added, If
things become so bad in Iraq, like an ethnic cleansing, we will feel we
are pulled into the war.

The Bush administration is also working on a way to form a coalition of
Sunni Arab nations and a moderate Shiite government in Iraq, along with
the United States and Europe, to stand against Iran, Syria and the
terrorists, another senior administration official said Tuesday.

Until now Saudi officials have promised their counterparts in the United
States that they would refrain from aiding Iraq's Sunni insurgency. But
that pledge holds only as long as the United States remains in Iraq.

The Saudis have been wary of supporting Sunnis in Iraq because their
insurgency there has been led by extremists of Al Qaeda, who are opposed
to the kingdom's monarchy. But if Iraq's sectarian war worsened, the
Saudis would line up with Sunni tribal leaders.

The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who
told his staff on Monday that he was resigning his post, recently fired
Nawaf Obaid, a consultant who wrote an opinion piece in The Washington
Post two weeks ago contending that one of the first consequences of an
American pullout of Iraq would be massive Saudi intervention to stop
Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.

Mr. Obaid also suggested that Saudi Arabia could cut world oil prices in
half by raising its production, a move that he said would be
devastating to Iran, which is facing economic difficulties even with
today's high oil prices. The Saudi government disavowed Mr. Obaid's
column, and Prince Turki canceled his contract.

But Arab diplomats said Tuesday that Mr. Obaid's column reflected the
view of the Saudi government, which has made clear its opposition to an
American pullout from Iraq.

In a speech in Philadelphia last week, Prince Turki reiterated the Saudi
position against an American withdrawal from Iraq. Just picking up and
leaving is going to create a huge vacuum, he told the World Affairs
Council. The U.S. must underline its support for the Maliki government
because there is no other game in town.

Prince Turki said Saudi Arabia did not want Iraq to fracture along
ethnic or religious lines. On Monday a group of prominent Saudi clerics
called on Sunni Muslims around the world to mobilize against Shiites in
Iraq. The statement called the murder, torture and displacement of
Sunnis an outrage.

The resignation of Prince Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and a
son of the late King Faisal, was supposed to be formally announced
Monday, officials said, but that had not happened by late Tuesday.

They're keeping us very puzzled, a Saudi official said. Prince Turki's
resignation was first reported Monday in The Washington Post.

If Prince Turki does depart, he will leave after 15 months on the job,
in contrast to the 22 years that his predecessor, Prince Bandar bin
Sultan, spent as ambassador in Washington.

In Riyadh, there was a sense

[osint] Turkey Prevented Establishment of US Military Bases in North Iraq

http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n101438

  Zaman: Turkey Prevented Establishment of US Military Bases in North Iraq
13 December 2006 | 11:26 | FOCUS News Agency
Ankara. The USA planned to establish 14 new military bases in Iraq that 
will guard the oil pipes in the country and to be used in leading of new 
military operations in the region, the web edition of Zaman reports. 
Similar bases have not been planned in the Northern parts of Iraq 
because Turkey has played a serious role in that. Kurdish leaders in 
Northern Iraq were worried from similar decision. According to the 
newspaper the building of the bases will cost USD 4 billion and 100,000 
soldiers had to be deployed in them.

+++



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[osint] Report: Saudis Warns it Could Back Sunnis if U.S. Pulls Out of Iraq

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236180,00.html

Report: Saudis Warns it Could Back Sunnis if U.S. Pulls Out of Iraq

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Saudi Arabia has warned it could decide to provide financial support to 
Iraqi Sunnis if the U.S. pulls its troops out of Iraq, where sectarian 
violence between the minority Sunnis and majority Iraqi Shiites has 
threatened to tear apart the country, The New York Times reported.

Saudi Arabia is a majority Sunni country and up to now has promised U.S. 
officials that it would not intervene to assist Iraq's Sunni insurgency, 
according to the report, appearing in Wednesday's edition of The Times 
and citing anonymous American and Arab diplomatic sources.

Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Iraq center.

But that promise might not hold if U.S. troops leave Iraq, the newspaper 
said. The Bush administration has repeatedly said there are no plans for 
the immediate pullout of U.S. troops.

The Times reported that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sent the warning 
to Vice President Dick Cheney two weeks ago during the vice president's 
visit to Riyadh. The message also emphasized the kingdom's displeasure 
with proposed talks between the U.S. government and Iran.

Iran -- a majority Shiite country -- is believed to be providing 
military and financial support to Shiite elements. The recently released 
Iraq Study Group report suggested the Bush Administration engage Iran 
and neighboring Syria in talks aimed at applying pressure on Iraqi 
Shiites to keep what some analysts are calling a civil war from 
spiraling into a regional conflict.

Saudi Arabia has expressed concern that once U.S. troops leave Iraq that 
the controlling Shiite majority could massacre the Sunni minority, 
believed to comprise a large faction of the deadly insurgency that has 
claimed thousands of Iraqi civilian and U.S. military lives.

The Times reported that Saudi Arabia's fears seemed to have been 
exacerbated by growing discussions in Washington aimed at accelerating 
the timeframe for bringing troops home.

+++



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[osint] Iraq, IAEA form committee for clearing out nuclear facilities

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=enDSNO=933697

MIL-IRAQ-IAEA
Iraq, IAEA form committee for clearing out nuclear facilities

BAGHDAD, Dec 13 (KUNA) -- Iraq and the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA) have formed a joint committee for clearing out destroyed 
and abandoned nuclear facilities, said the Ministry of Science and 
Technology in a statement on Wednesday.

It added that Iraqi officials and IAEA experts met in Vienna to discuss 
technical cooperation in this area after radiation contamination was 
measured in these areas and the level of danger on humans and the 
environment was evaluated.

IAEA experts -- from the US, UK, France, Canada, Italy, Germany, and the 
Ukraine -- expressed readiness to support Iraq in this area through 
providing consultations and training, it concluded.(end) ahh.
ema


KUNA 131259 Dec 06

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[osint] Massive turn-out in elections will secure Iran's power: MP

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0612133517121840.htm

Massive turn-out in elections will secure Iran's power: MP
Zahedan, Sistan-Balouchestan Prov, Dec 13, IRNA

Iran-MP-Elections
A Majlis deputy said here Wednesday that massive participation of the 
Iranian people in the upcoming Assembly of Experts and local council 
elections will guarantee the country's power and prestige in the 
international arena.

MP Peyman Forouzesh, representing the southeastern city of Zahedan, told 
IRNA that the great and wise Iranian nation will be a thorn in path of 
the enemies through their massive participation in the upcoming elections.

People have proven to the world they are committed to the ideals of the 
Islamic Revolution and the late Imam Khomeini, he added.

The massive turnout of Iranians in the elections will mean they have 
entered into a pact with officials to confront the enemies through unity 
and devotion.
The MP said public participation and active involvement of the nation in 
its affairs will be crucial in preserving the national interests.

The MP further said that people's massive turn-out in the elections will 
play a role in stabilizing the system and progress of the Islamic 
Revolution.

The wise use of all opportunities has neutralized the threats of enemies.
Iranians go to the polls on Friday to elect members of the Assembly of 
Experts and city and village councils.

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[osint] Mystery swirls as Saudi ambassador to US exits

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/December/middleeast_December207.xmlsection=middleeastcol=

Mystery swirls as Saudi ambassador to US exits
(AFP)

13 December 2006

WASHINGTON - A Washington diplomatic mystery swirled around the sudden
resignation of Saudi Arabia's ambassador here, baffling foreign policy
experts and injecting new intrigue into US-Saudi relations.

Prince Turki Al Faisal, one of the most influential foreign envoys here
and steward of the key and sometimes uneasy alliance between the world's
sole superpower and the Gulf oil state, abruptly quit on Monday, Saudi
sources said.

The shock resignation --- after only 15 months on the job --- and the
Prince's immediate departure from the United States, came after he told
staff on Monday he wanted to spend more time with his family, an embassy
official said.

It is very strange, and to most of us very surprising, said Michael
Hudson, a Saudi watcher and professor of Arab Studies at Georgetown
University.

What goes on in Saudi Arabia, it is a very opaque kind of place, is
very hard to tell. This sudden, very abrupt departure is very unusual
and makes you think something else is going on, he said.

Theories, ranging from suggestions that Prince Turki had won a sudden
promotion or was the victim of bureaucratic back-stabbing in Riyadh,
soon spread among diplomats and officials in Washington.

Some observers toyed with outside speculation that Saudi Arabia may even
be sending a message to Washington over its dismay with Iraq's descent
into chaos and could send a replacement less acceptable to Washington
than Prince Turki.

More outlandish theories of palace turmoil in the Saudi royal family
meanwhile spawned on Internet websites.

The Washington Post floated an early theory Tuesday, hours after Prince
Turki's departure, suggesting he may be in line to replace his ailing
brother Prince Saud Al Faisal as foreign minister.

Online intelligence service Stratfor also lent credibility to the idea.

His likely grooming for the foreign ministry is further evidence that
both Riyadh and Washington hold him in a favourable light, it said.

The official at the Saudi embassy declined to discuss various theories
of Prince Turki's departure but did say: All we know is that his
brother is very ill, it could be that he might be taking over, but we
don't know.

Asked about such a scenario, a source in Riyadh told AFP: I doubt it.

Steven Clemons, foreign policy analyst at the New America Foundation, a
Washington think tank, said Saudi insiders told him Prince Turki had
simply had enough of back-stabbing by those opposed to reform in the
Saudi government.

It's terrible for us if he leaves. His departure is a huge negative for
us, said Clemons, arguing Prince Turki's influence would have been felt
in Washington as President George W. Bush gropes for a new strategy in Iraq.

Prince Turki's shrewd manoeuvring in the Gulf and the Middle East could
also have smoothed any subsequent US outreach to Syria, Iran or regional
states and if Washington tries to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace
talks, he said.

The shock departure thickened intrigue in Saudi-US relations, amid signs
Riyadh may be concerned about the US failure to quell raging violence in
Iraq.

An opinion article last month in the Washington Post by Prince Turki's
then security advisor Nawaf Obaid, jolted Saudi watchers here with a
warning that a US pullout from Iraq would lead to massive Saudi
intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering
Iraqi Sunnis.

The article said Saudi King Abdullah had fended off intense pressure to
provide financial and arms support for Iraq's Sunnis from Sunni leaders
inside Saudi Arabia.

Prince Turki was forced to distance himself from the article and said he
had dispensed with Obaid's services.

But the piece appeared days after Vice President Dick Cheney paid a
sudden visit to Saudi Arabia, and stoked speculation of rising dismay in
Riyadh with the Bush administration.

Cheney's trip was billed as a chance to consult the Saudi government on
regional matters, but some observers here suspect he was instead
summoned to Riyadh.

Prince Turki's departure will also deprive Washington's diplomatic
circuit of one of its banner stars.

The ambassador made a series of pointed critiques of US policy in the
Middle East and Iraq in particular in recent months, drawing large
numbers of analysts, diplomats and reporters.

Prince Turki said he believed Washington should engage Iran and press
for progress between Israel and the Palestinians.

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[osint] In presidential statement, Security Council reiterates full support for democratically elected government of Lebanon

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-6WF575?OpenDocument

In presidential statement, Security Council reiterates full support for 
democratically elected government of Lebanon


SC/8898

Security Council
5585th Meeting (Night)

Condemns Any Effort to Destabilize Country; Reaffirms Strong Support For 
Lebanese Sovereignty, Territorial Integrity, Unity, Political Independence

Reiterating its full support for the legitimate and democratically 
elected Government of Lebanon, the Security Council this evening 
condemned any effort to destabilize Lebanon, calling upon all Lebanese 
political parties to show responsibility with a view to preventing, 
through dialogue, further deterioration of the situation in that country.

In a statement (document S/PRST/2006/52) read out by its President for 
December, Jamal Nasser Al-Bader of Qatar, the Council reaffirmed its 
strong support for Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity 
and political independence within its internationally recognized borders 
and under the Government's sole and exclusive authority. It also called 
again on all parties concerned to cooperate fully and urgently with it 
for the full implementation of all relevant resolutions concerning the 
restoration of Lebanon's territorial integrity, full sovereignty and 
political independence.

Calling for the full implementation of resolution 1701 (2006), the 
Council urged all concerned parties to cooperate with it and the 
Secretary-General to achieve that goal. Welcoming the 
Secretary-General's indication in his letter of 1 December 2006 to the 
Council (document S/2006/933) of the continuing commitment of the 
Governments of Lebanon and Israel to all aspects of the resolution, the 
Council urged both Governments to strictly abide by their commitment and 
to pursue their efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire and a long-term 
solution envisioned in the resolution.

The Council also noted that important progress has been made towards the 
implementation of resolution 1701, in particular through the cessation 
of hostilities, the imminent withdrawal of all the Israeli forces from 
Southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in the 
south of the country for the first time in three decades, together with 
the deployment so far of more than 10,000 troops from the reinforced 
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Welcoming the maintenance of the 14 August cessation of hostilities and 
supporting the UNIFIL's work, together with the parties, to finalize the 
Israeli withdrawal from the remaining area inside Lebanon and set up 
temporary security arrangements for the part of the village of Ghajar 
inside Lebanese territory, the Council positively noted the decision of 
the Israeli Cabinet in that regard and looked forward to its early 
implementation.

Expressing deep concern at the continuing Israeli violations of Lebanese 
airspace, the Council appealed to all parties concerned to respect the 
cessation of hostilities and the Blue Line in its entirety, to refrain 
from any act of provocation and to abide scrupulously by their 
obligation to respect the safety of UNIFIL and other United Nations 
personnel, including by avoiding any course of action which endangered 
United Nations personnel.

Reiterating deep concern at the latest reports, though unverified, of 
illegal movements of arms into Lebanon, the Council welcomed initial 
steps by Lebanon's Government, notably the deployment of 8,000 troops 
along the border, to prevent movements of arms in conformity with 
relevant resolutions, and called again on Syria's Government to take 
similar measures to reinforce controls at the border.

Mindful of the conclusions of the team of border police experts 
dispatched by the Secretary-General at Lebanon's request, the Council 
invited him to pursue further technical and independent assessment of 
the situation along the border and to report back to the Council.

Welcoming the concrete steps by Lebanon's Government -- with UNIFIL's 
assistance -- to establish between the Blue Line and the Litani river an 
area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of 
Lebanon's Government and UNIFIL, the Council called on the Lebanese 
Government to strengthen its efforts to that end and reiterated its call 
for disbanding and disarmament of all militias and armed groups in Lebanon.

Expressing deepest concern at the presence in very high numbers of 
unexploded ordnance in South Lebanon, including cluster munitions, the 
Council deplored the death and injury of dozens of civilians, as well as 
several de-miners, caused by those munitions since the cessation of 
hostilities.

Reaffirming the urgent need for the unconditional release of the 
abducted Israeli soldiers, the Council further encouraged efforts aimed 
at urgently settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.

The meeting began at 6:05 p.m. and adjourned at 6:22

[osint] Pakistan Plans to Contest EU Trade Advantages for India at WTO

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087sid=at9RYA5VWdwIrefer=worldwide

Pakistan Plans to Contest EU Trade Advantages for India at WTO

By Warren Giles

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan plans to challenge European Union trade 
policy for poor nations through the World Trade Organization, concerned 
that among India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it's the only one not given 
equal advantages.

In April 2004, WTO judges said the EU could exempt Latin American 
nations and Pakistan from import tariffs as long as it made the 
qualifying criteria open to all developing countries. That ruling 
followed a complaint by India that Pakistan's textile exports unfairly 
benefited from the EU measure, putting Indian rivals who paid higher 
duties at a disadvantage.

The EU revised the criteria for its preference programs a year ago to 
include duty-free imports for goods from South Asian nations such as Sri 
Lanka. The new criteria for the preferential measures exclude any nation 
that accounts for more than 1 percent of EU imports, catching Pakistan 
with 1.1 percent. Pakistan's complaint also comes just weeks after the 
EU said it wants to begin negotiations on a free-trade accord with India.

``The EU set very arbitrary criteria,'' Manzoor Ahmad, Pakistan's 
ambassador to the WTO in Geneva, said in a telephone interview 
yesterday. ``They chose a 1 percent threshold just to exclude us. It's 
neither unconditional nor treating similar countries in a similar way,'' 
as stipulated by the WTO's ruling, he said. ``The only countries left 
out were India and Pakistan and now they're working on a free-trade 
accord with India.''

A request by Pakistan for consultations with the EU would start a 
two-month period of talks under WTO rules. Unless the two sides resolve 
their differences, Pakistan may press ahead with litigation, asking the 
WTO to rule on the EU measures.

European Commission spokesman Peter Power declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Warren Giles in Geneva at 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Last Updated: December 13, 2006 04:22 EST

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[osint] 104 people convert to Islam

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\13\story_13-12-2006_pg7_45

104 people convert to Islam

THATTA: About 104 people, including 50 women, from 21 families of Adam 
Bhael village of Tuluka Jati converted to Islam. The announcement of 
conversion was made formally at a Mehfil-e-Naat programme on Tuesday.

Later, former provincial minister Ghulam Qadir Malkani, MPA Haji Usman 
Malkani and Haji Amir Bux held a reception in honour of the converted 
people. The party was also attended by Maulana Ghulam Muhammad, Maulana 
Alam Jutt and Maulana Zia Ahmed and others. online

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[osint] History, Hezbollah and Lebanon's resurgent Shias

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2006/December/opinion_December43.xmlsection=opinioncol=

History, Hezbollah and Lebanon's resurgent Shias
BY MATEIN KHALID

13 December 2006

A QUARTER century after it emerged as a shadowy Shia militia armed and
financed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah is the political
kingmaker of Lebanon.

Lebanon's Prime Minister and his Cabinet are literally besieged behind
barricades and barbed wire as Hezbollah demands a new government,
ironically using the same street demonstrations that defined the Cedar
Revolution against the Syrian occupation. Downtown Beirut, the
promenades and piazzas that symbolised the postwar reconstruction of
Lebanon with million dollar condominiums and extravagant Solidiere
projects, is now a sea of tents pitched by Hezbollah supporters
determined to topple the elected government of Fuad Siniora.

The Lebanese Shia were an impoverished, disenfranchised community of
peasants and farmers in the south and the Bekaa Valley ruled by a
handful of landowners whose feudal pedigree went back to Ottoman times.
Yet history thrust the Lebanese Shia in the cauldron of the Arab Israeli
conflict when the PLO set up Fatahland, its state within a state in
South Lebanon after its commandos were expelled from Jordan in Black
September. Israel subjected South Lebanon to savage aerial bombardment,
followed by two invasions in 1972 and 1978 in its quest to vanquish the PLO.

The Lebanese Shia, caught in the brutal crossfire, faced economic
devastation even as the Lebanese state in Beirut disintegrated into
sectarian cantons. The slums of Beirut swelled with Shia refugees and
Israel carved out a cordon sanitaire in South Lebanon ruled by its agent
Major Haddad in their ancestral land.

The charismatic Iranian expatriate cleric, Sayyed Musa Sadr, organised
the Shia into a new movement called Amal (hope), giving the community a
political voice, weakening the power of feudal landowners and staking
its place in Lebanon's communal politics. Yet Musa Sadr vanished on a
trip to Libya just as history intervened once again with a vengeance in
the politics of the Lebanese Shia. In the autumn of 1978, as Musa Sadr
boarded his last fateful fight to Rome, the Shia clergy orchestrated the
street riots that were to drive the Shah of Iran from his Peacock Throne
and change the balance of geopolitical power in the Middle East forever.

Revolutionary Iran used the unique pathology of Lebanese sectarian
politics for its own national interest. Mired in an existential war in
the Gulf with Baathist Iraq, allied to the minority Alawite dictatorship
in Damascus, Iran armed Hezbollah as its own anti--American, anti--Israeli
weapon of resistance and terror. Hezbollah suicide bombers gutted the US
Embassy in Beirut and killed 241 of President Reagan's Marine
peacekeepers in their barracks, a clear win for Syria.

Hezbollah, allied with Syrian military intelligence to navigate the
treacherous minefields of Lebanese politics after the Taif Accords
ostensibly ended the civil war in 1990. Yet Hezbollah also created a
network of schools, hospitals and orphanages for the Shia the Lebanese
state had so often ignored and scorned.

Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah is the most compelling and charismatic leader of
Shia Lebanon since Musa Sadr. He plunged Lebanon into the 34-day summer
war with Israel by ordering a cross--border raid to kidnap two IDF
soldiers that was certain to provoke Zionist retaliation. He has used
Shia Islam's powerful, messianic symbols of martyrdom and suffering to
castigate the Lebanese government as corrupt and complicit in Israeli
atrocities. An ubiquitous Hezbollah slogan in the Beirut protests is no
to the pourers of tea (Lebanese policemen served tea to IDF troops in
Marjayoun during the summer war) and no to the government of Feltman
(the name of the current US Ambassador to Lebanon). Anti--Israeli and
anti-American rhetoric defines Hezbollah's political DNA. Its alliance
with Syria and Iran and the Beirut government's ties to France, the US
and Saudi Arabia mean that yet another regional proxy war is being
played out on the streets of Beirut. The confrontation in Beirut,
branded a coup d' etat by Siniora and the widow of an assassinated
Maronite Christian President, has taken Lebanon to the precipice of
civil war. The fragile sectarian equation, the traditional warlord
politics of money and patronage dominated by clans like the
Gemayels/Jumblatts and Siniora's technocratic, pro--West elected
government, all seem doomed.

Hezbollah's blood feud with Israel, its umbilical cord to Iran's
theocratic elite in Qom, its formidable arsenal of missiles and its
militant anti -- Zionist, anti -- American ideology will define the
destiny of Lebanon. The Arabian Switzerland that Hariri tried to create
with Saudi petrodollars out of the ashes of the civil war seems a cruel,
surreal illusion now.

[osint] BOUCHAOUI ATTACK: QUESTIONS AND LESSONS

http://www.esisc.eu/Bouchaoui%20eng.pdf

BOUCHAOUI ATTACK: QUESTIONS AND LESSONS
By ClaudeMoniquet, President of ESISC
Summary
- The Bouchaoui attack demonstrates the reality that the GSPC
(Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) is rallying behind al-
Qaeda.
- For the first time in years, western interests are once again being
targeted in Algeria.
- The GSPC seems to have recovered some of its strike force and, in
any event, is present in Algiers.
- Other attacks are feared, in Algeria and perhaps elsewhere in the
region; they will be directed mainly against French and US
interests.
A) Preliminaries
Late last Sunday, an attack carried out in Bouchaoui (15 kilometres from 
Algiers),
targeted two buses transporting employees of the US company Brown Roots and
Condor (BRC). In short, one person was killed, and nine were wounded 
(see our
analysis brief issued on 11th December at 7 :12 p.m.).
At first glance, this would seem to be a commonplace event in a country 
where a type
of terrorism that the Algerian government is desperately trying to 
describe as
residualkills at least several hundred people each year. And, of 
course, this cannot
be compared with the daily massacres that are taking place in Iraq. Yet 
this minor
attack -- inasmuch as that term can be used when people have been killed and
mutilated -- deserves to be pondered since it could very well be highly
2
significant for three reasons: the location of the attack, the target, and
themodus operandi.
B) The location of the attack
First of all, the location of the attack: it took place in a large 
suburb of Algiers,
in an extremely well-protected neighbourhood where several top
government officials live and where a number of foreign companies and
an international luxury hotel, the Sheraton, are located. This neighbourhood
has been specifically developed over the past decade precisely because 
it was a spot
not far from the capital where people could live and work away from any 
terrorist
activity. The Sheraton serves as a home for expatriates who live there 
throughout
the year and is where official government guests stay. We stayed there 
several years
ago when we attended an international conference, and we can thus 
confirm that the
location is particularly well-covered by security.
And yet, a heavily armed commando (see below) managed to get past the
security, prepare an attack in the neighbourhood, carry it out, and
apparently slip away afterwards without incident.
Moreover, we observe that, over the last several years, most of the 
violent acts
involving terrorists have generally been skirmishes in mountainous or wooded
regions and have, for the most part, taken place very far from the 
capital. For several
years, no attacks had taken place in the city. Then, on 29th October, 
attacks on police
stations in Reghaia and Dergana (neighbourhoods on the outskirts of 
Algiers) had left
three dead and 24 wounded. The latest attack this past weekend is thus the
third attack to take place not only in the Algiers metropolitan area, but
also, moreover, the third to be perpetrated in the immediate vicinity of
the capital. This act leaves little room to doubt that at least one active
terrorist cell (and, undoubtedly, given its modi operandorum, a rather
large and highly structured cell) exists in or around Algiers. This is 
the first
such cell since the dawn of the new millennium and, in any event, is bad 
news for a
government that has put so much emphasis on its policy of national 
reconciliation
as it has attempted to put the country's dark years behindit once and 
for all.
C) The target
The selected target is particularly symbolic because it involved 
employees of a
US company. At first sight, two observations come to mind: first, 
foreigners had not
been targeted by terrorism in Algeria for several years and, second, 
never before, not
even at the height of the crisis of the 1990s, had US nationals or 
interests been
attacked. By striking out at foreigners working for a US company, the
terrorists have consequently taken two conclusive steps at the same time.
Moreover, the GSPC, which claimed responsibility last night for the 
Bouchaoui
attack, warned against new attacks against US interests, advising 
Algerians to
keep away from the infidels' interests so that you can avoid any harm 
that may
come to you if you happen to be associating with them when they are 
targeted.
3
We emphasise that the GSPC, which, for a long time, had demonstrated a
wait-and-see attitude regarding the global jihad's sphere of influence and
had focused on the local jihad, officially joined the cause of al-Qaeda in
2006.
The official announcement of this turn of events was made on 11th 
September, five
years to the day after the attacks on New York and Washington, by Ayman al-
Zawahiri, number two in the al-Qaeda network, who, in a videotaped 
statement,
claimed that the GSPC had pledged its allegiance to Osama Bin Laden and had
joined the al-Qaeda network. Al-Zawahiri did

[osint] UK troops risk failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, warn MPs

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0612136388133222.htm

UK troops risk failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, warn MPs
London, Dec 13, IRNA

UK-MPs-Iraq
British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are too thin on the ground, do 
not have the equipment they need and there is a significant risk they 
will fail in their mission, a cross-party committee of MPs warned Wednesday.

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are at vital stages and success in 
either operation is not assured, the Defence Select Committee said in a 
report, reflecting fears of an impending military disaster.

The current level of deployments poses a significant risk to the MoD 
(Ministry of Defence) achieving success in its military objectives, the 
report warned.

It added that British troops are operating in challenging conditions in 
insufficient numbers and without all the equipment they need.
The report is seen as the clearest warning to date that the military may 
be unable to maintain its commitment to the two wars that has taken a 
heavy toll on the British Army because of a shortage of manpower and 
equipment.

It reflects fears voiced by the chief of General Staff, General Sir 
Richard Dannatt, that there was a widely held view in the armed services 
that relations between the armed forces and the government could be 
undermined if current commitments are maintained.

It is clear that the current level of commitments is impacting on 
training. Over time this will impact on military effectiveness and on 
the armed forces' ability to `fight the next war', which could present 
entirely different challenges, the MPs warned.

The committee also raised concerns about equipment shortages -- 
particularly the availability of serviceable battlefield helicopters in 
Iraq and Afghanistan and air transport to ferry troops to and from their 
theaters of operation.

Our service personnel always rise to the challenges that they are set, 
but that should not lead us to take them for granted, said the 
committee's chairman, James Arbuthnot.

The opposition Conservative Party said the report showed that Britain's 
armed forces, which currently total 180,690 and are some 5,000 below 
targeted strength, was overstretched.
If we damage the morale of our troops by overdeploying them in this way 
and then on top of that adding insult to injury on their allowances, 
it's much more difficult to retain them in the services, shadow defence 
secretary Liam Fox said.

The MoD insisted in a statement that it was keenly aware of the 
burdens which operations place on the military, but said the report 
commended efforts to improve the retention of armed forces personnel.

Although the current level of operational activity is higher than 
planned, it is sustainable, the statement said.

Commanders are content that the armed forces can cope with the current 
level of military commitments, it said.


+++



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[osint] Pakistan's Taliban pact criticised

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6BC80BC4-F32D-4FEF-AACC-1A4C4D002B29.htm

Pakistan's Taliban pact criticised

Pakistan's appeasement of Taliban sympathisers has resulted in a base in 
its tribal areas that fighters are using to destabilise Pakistan and 
Afghanistan, a think-tank says.



The Musharraf government has tried first brute force, then appeasement. 
Both have failed, Samina Ahmed, International Crisis Group's South Asia 
project director, says.

The ICG has suggested in a report published on Monday that instead of 
appeasing fighters, Pakistan must impose the rule of law in its 
semi-autonomous tribal lands on the border, where Taliban and al-Qaeda 
sympathisers have sheltered since 2001, disarm the fighters and shut 
their training camps.


Islamabad's tactics have only emboldened the pro-Taliban militants, 
Ahmed said.



The government, which made deals with pro-Taliban groups in 2004 and 
2006 in South and North Waziristan respectively, has released militants, 
returned their weapons and agreed to let foreign terrorists stay on a 
promise to give up violence, the report says.



The ICG states that this has simply given pro-Taliban elements licence 
to recruit and arm, resulting in a serious increase in cross-border 
attacks against US, Nato and Afghan forces.



Tribal agents



Pakistan's seven tribal agencies have never been brought under the writ 
of any government, including British colonialists who saw the 
mountainous region as a buffer on the northwestern border of their 
Indian empire.

  The region, which was a base for US- and Pakistan-backed Afghan 
mujahidin fighters in the 1980s, became a refuge for Taliban and 
al-Qaeda after US-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in 2001.



According to ICG, Pakistan, a major US ally in the war on terror, 
launched badly planned and poorly conducted military operations in 
2004 to deny al-Qaeda fighters sanctuary and stem attacks into Afghanistan.



After clashes in which hundreds of Pakistani troops were killed, 
Pakistani authorities forged pacts aimed at ending attacks on Pakistani 
forces and raids into Afghanistan.



The pacts, however, served only to strengthen tribal fighters, and 
pro-Taliban elements now have a free hand to recruit, train and arm, 
said the report.



The militants now hold sway in South and North Waziristan Agencies and 
have begun to expand their influence not just in other tribal agencies 
such as Khyber and Bajaur but also in NWFP's settled districts, it 
said, referring to North West Frontier Province.



A lack of control



The seven tribal districts, known as the Federally Administered Tribal 
Areas (FATA), are ruled by repressive colonial-era administrative and 
judicial systems inherited from Britain, the think-tank said.

The state's failure to extend its control over and provide good 
governance to its citizens in FATA is equally responsible for empowering 
the radicals.



The area has to be integrated into Pakistan's system of provincial 
governments and its inhabitants given political rights. Broad-based 
development also has to be generated, the ICG report says.



The Pakistan government has defended the pacts saying they were struck 
with tribal elders and are aimed at reinvigorating tribal power 
structures and isolating the tribal fighters.



Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, has spoken about the need for 
reform in the tribal areas and the need to promote development.



Recommendation



ICG further stated that the US and EU need to tie economic and 
diplomatic support to Musharraf to reform and free, democratic elections 
in 2007.



The US and Europe need to realise that democratic, civilian government, 
not military rule, is their best and natural ally against extremism and 
terrorism, Robert Templer, ICG's Asia director, said.



Ahmed said: These border areas are still run under colonial-era laws 
that make their people second-class citizens in Pakistan. Unless the 
government institutes real democratic change, extremism and terrorism 
will quickly overtake the entire region.

+++



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[osint] Saudi ambassador to U.S. quits

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/NEWS/612130319/1024/NEWS04

Saudi ambassador to U.S. quits

December 13, 2006

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON --- Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States is resigning
after only 15 months on the job, possibly to take a more senior foreign
policy post in the oil-rich kingdom.

In his brief tenure, Prince Turki al-Faisal did not approach the
celebrity status of his predecessor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who held
the post for more than 22 years and had exceptional access to U.S. power
brokers.

The ambassador's post is a crucial link between the United States and
Saudi Arabia, one of the chief U.S. allies in the Middle East. Prince
Turki's abrupt departure comes when the U.S. is seeking Riyadh's help in
calming the violence in Iraq and dealing with Iran, which has been
attempting to expand its influence in the region.

It also comes as the Bush administration is trying to work up a new Iraq
policy to stop the violence there. Vice President Dick Cheney visited
Saudi Arabia last month, asking the Saudis --- a Sunni-ruled country --- to
encourage Iraq's Sunni Muslim Arabs to reconcile with the country's
majority Shiites.

The Saudi government has not formally announced the resignation or a
successor.

Prince Turki, a son of the late King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz, was
outspoken in conveying the kingdom's views. In late October, he said
U.S. standing in the Middle East was at an all-time low and could be
helped only by pressing Israel to relinquish all land held by the Arabs
before the 1967 Mideast war as well as Jerusalem.

We want you to remain friends with Israel, he said at a news
conference, but this friendship should be used to push Israel.

In early October, he said Saudi Arabia will reform but at its own pace
and not because of outside pressure. We are not going to change just
because you tell us to, the ambassador said in a Washington speech.

We often hear political rhetoric and bombast and not constructive
commentary, he said.

A Saudi official confirmed on Tuesday that Prince Turki was leaving his
post. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter, did not say why the change was occurring.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington, where Prince Turki has been posted
since September 2005, said he would leave for Saudi Arabia early next
year to spend more time with his family.

A State Department official, also declining to be identified because of
the sensitivity of the departure, said Prince Turki may be under
consideration for a higher-ranked post in Riyadh.

His older brother, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, has had back
problems. He has held the post since 1975.

But a retired official with knowledge of the situation said rumors that
Prince Turki might succeed his brother were untrue.

The Saudi embassy told The Associated Press abroad that he was going
home to spend more time with him family.

The ambassador met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday,
but spokesman Sean McCormack declined to provide details.

The president thanks Prince Turki for his service as ambassador and
wishes Prince Turki and his family well as they return to the kingdom,
said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for President Bush's National Security
Council.

Prince Turki is a former head of the Saudi intelligence services and a
graduate of Georgetown University.

+++

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[osint] Saudi Telecom makes ISO grade for information security

http://www.itp.net/news/details.php?id=23170

Saudi Telecom makes ISO grade for information security


Saudi Telecom has been awarded ISO/IEC 27001 certification for 
information security from BSI Management Systems. Saudi Telecom worked 
with Riyadh-based solutions and service provider I(TS)2 on strategic 
implementation advice, consulting, training and documentation ahead of 
the ISO certification.

The ISO/IEC 27001 certification confirms Saudi Telecom's compliance with 
the requirements of the international standard and endorses its strong 
capabilities in the information security field.

Our information security goal in Saudi Telecom is to ensure that we are 
providing the company, its employees, customers and investors solid and 
robust security, said Omer Al-Nomany, information security general 
manager at Saudi Telecom. ISO 27001 initiative and certification is 
only the first of more in this area, we hope to announce subsequent 
certifications in the near future.

Saudi Telecom claims that the certification is recognition of several 
major achievements the company has made in the information security 
field. These include the establishment of a 24x7 security operation 
centre (SOC), the implementation of a disaster recovery centre, the 
implementation of a revenue assurance and fraud management 
infrastructure and the implementation of a number of technical security 
solutions. Some 95% of Saudi Telecom's information security staff are 
Saudi nationals.

I(TS)2 has played a significant role in assisting Saudi Telecom on its 
path to ISO/IEC 27001 certification. I(TS)2 boasts a regional security 
academy providing professional and international certifications and is 
the only platinum consultancy partner for BSI Management Systems in 
Saudi Arabia. I(TS)2 also holds Cisco advanced security and Microsoft 
gold partnerships. The company now has more than 50 employees in Riyadh, 
the Eastern and Western Provinces of Saudi Arabia and also in Jordan.

Saudi Telecom is leading by example, and it will undoubtedly be the 
leader in a growing number of Saudi and Middle Eastern organisations 
seeking independent, third-party verification of their information 
security management systems, said Samer Omar, general manager of 
I(TS)2. The significance of this milestone should not be understated.

Robert Whitcher, global product manager at BSI Management Systems, 
added: More than 3,000 organisations worldwide have already been 
certified against ISO/IEC 27001 and its predecessor BS 7799. Saudi 
Telecom has demonstrated great leadership in the Middle East by 
implementing and certifying to ISO/IEC 27001 and we expect other 
successful organisations to follow their example.

I(TS)2 has shown remarkable leadership working with BSI and the 
standards community. I(TS)2 risk mitigation credentials are 
unassailable, he concluded.

+++



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[osint] PM: Military Strike on Iran a Possibility

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=117339

PM: Military Strike on Iran a Possibility
09:41 Dec 13, '06 / 22 Kislev 5767

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, visiting Berlin on Tuesday, 
said he did not rule out a military strike against Iran's nuclear 
program, but said he hoped other peaceful ways could be found to keep 
Teheran from gaining the atom bomb.

Olmert told a news briefing that Israel would prefer to see concerns 
about Iran's nuclear program defused by economic sanctions.

+++



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[osint] Japan to give Pakistan loan of USD 207 million

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=enDSNO=933694

ECO-PAKISTAN-JAPAN-LOAN
Japan to give Pakistan loan of USD 207 million

ISLAMABAD, Dec 13 (KUNA) -- The Government of Pakistan and Japan 
Wednesday signed a soft-term loan agreement of USD 207 million for two 
projects under Official Development Assistance (ODA) program to Islamabad.

The Secretary of Federal Economic Affairs Division, Muhammad Akram 
Malik, and Ambassador of Japan, Seiji Kojima signed the agreement here.

The USD 174 million of the soft loan would be allocated to the Indus 
Highway Construction Project (Phase-III), while USD 33 million to 
Dadu-Khuzdar Transmission System Project that would supply sufficient 
and stable electricity to the Southwestern Baluchistan Province.(end) amn.
tg


KUNA 131255 Dec 06

+++



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[osint] Saudi beheaded for murder

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/regional.asp?dismode=articleartid=654737498

Saudi beheaded for murder

RIYADH: A Saudi man convicted of murder was beheaded by the sword 
yesterday in the capital of the Gulf Arab monarchy, the interior 
ministry announced. The ministry, in a statement carried by state news 
agency SPA, said Mosfer bin Mubrak Al-Qahtani had shot dead a fellow 
Saudi, wounded a number of other people, and damaged homes and cars. The 
beheading in Riyadh brings to at least 36 the number of executions in 
Saudi Arabia this year. At least 83 were put to death in 2005 and 35 the 
year before. Executions are generally carried out in public in the 
oil-rich kingdom, which applies a strict form of Islamic law. The death 
penalty is applied for murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug 
trafficking.

Hamas gunmen wound four

KHAN YOUNIS: Hamas gunmen opened fire on demonstrators from the rival 
Fatah movement yesterday, wounding four people in the first sign of 
factional violence following the deaths of three children in a drive-by 
shooting, officials said. The killings of the three small boys, whose 
car was riddled with bullets as they rode to school in Gaza City, 
sparked widespread rage, grief and soul-searching in the Palestinian 
areas. Demonstrations erupted throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 
children stayed home from school and stores were shuttered to protest 
the violence.

Palestinians protest in Jordan

AMMAN: Dozens of Jordan-based Palestinian civil servants yesterday held 
a brief and peaceful protest outside the Palestinian embassy in Amman 
demanding their salaries be paid. Around 60 protesters holding up 
Palestinian flags as well as pictures of the late Palestinian leader 
Yasser Arafat demonstrated outside the embassy in western Amman, an AFP 
photographer said. They also held up signs saying we have a right to 
live in dignity and no to hunger, no to blockades. The demonstrators 
met with the Palestinian ambassador and gave him a letter of grievances 
for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, an embassy spokesman said.

+++



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[osint] US blames Syria for blocking progress in Lebanon on Shebaa Farms issue

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=enDSNO=933568

POL-US-LEBANON-SYRIA
US blames Syria for blocking progress in Lebanon on Shebaa Farms issue

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (KUNA) -- Responding to remarks by Lebanese Prime 
Minister Fouad Siniora that he was not receiving concrete support from 
the US as he tries to keep his embattled government in place, State 
Department spokesman Sean McCormack Tuesday said one key problem is that 
Syria is blocking resolution of the Shebaa Farms issue.

About 14 kilometers long and 2.5 kilometers wide, the cluster of 14 
abandoned farms has been a flash point for violence since Israel 
withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.

The United Nations designated the area a part of Syria, currently 
occupied by Israel. But Hezbollah says it is Lebanese territory that 
Israel continues to occupy. Hezbollah has repeatedly targeted Israeli 
troops patrolling the area.

It is a difficult situation in Lebanon right now, and I can understand 
the desire of Prime Minister Siniora to move forward and solve some 
problems, McCormack said during a briefing. One big problem that he 
sees and that he has on his plate is the issue of Shebaa Farms. I 
understand his desire to resolve that issue. Right now it is very 
complicated, gets into maps and which ones are valid, which ones are 
not. But fundamentally it boils down to one point, McCormack said, and 
the biggest single obstacle to resolving the Shebaa Farms issue right 
now is Syria.

 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other UN powers have drawn 
certain lines regarding the territory, McCormack said.

There is a process that everybody agreed would be a step along the way 
to resolving the situation, he added. And to this point, Syria has not 
moved at all in trying to resolve the situation. So they are the single 
biggest stumbling block, actually. If there is anything the United 
States can do to help resolve the situation, McCormack said, we will 
try to do what we can. But Syria is the stumbling block right now. 
Regarding the effort by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to 
broker a compromise that would defuse the political crisis in Lebanon, 
in which hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah backers are calling for the 
Siniora government to step down, McCormack said that ultimately, this 
needs to be the Lebanese that come to any solution. Maybe there are some 
outside ideas that may be flowing in. That is fine. But fundamentally, 
they (the Lebanese) have to decide what is the political way out from 
the current situation. It is not a matter for the United States to 
support the Moussa effort or not, McCormack said.

It is a matter for the Lebanese government led by Prime Minister 
Siniora to assess whether or not there is any merit in the ideas, and if 
so, to act on it, McCormack said. But that is completely a decision 
for the Lebanese government to make. (end) rm.
bs

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[osint] Too few British troops with too little equipment in Iraq, Afghanistan: report

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/246951/1/.html

Too few British troops with too little equipment in Iraq, Afghanistan: 
report
Posted: 13 December 2006 1726 hrs

  LONDON : There are too few British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 
they do not have all the equipment they need, increasing the risk they 
may fail in their missions there, a parliamentary committee report due 
out Wednesday will warn, The Guardian said.

The House of Commons defence committee will also question the Ministry 
of Defence's (MoD) claims that it is achieving its objectives in both 
countries.

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are at vital stages and success in 
either operation is not assured ... the current level of deployments 
poses a significant risk to the MoD achieving success in its military 
objectives, the report reads, according to The Guardian.

The report adds that British troops there are operating in challenging 
conditions in insufficient numbers and without all the equipment they need.

According to the committee of MPs, when they visited Iraq, they were 
told there were insufficient numbers of all types of helicopters 
available to commanders and that those that were available were overused.

The committee also questioned the defence ministry's claims that it was 
succeeding in both Iraq and Afghanistan, saying: It is just not good 
enough for the MoD to assure us that it is achieving its objectives in 
Iraq and Afghanistan without demonstrating how it has reached that 
conclusion.

A spokesman for the defence ministry was quoted as saying in The 
Guardian that the ministry was keenly aware of the burdens which 
operations place on our people and although the current level of 
operational activity is higher than planned, it is sustainable.

- AFP

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[osint] UK Government needs to reassess Iraq policy -- Beckett

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=enDSNO=933703

POL-UK-IRAQ-BECKETT
UK Government needs to reassess Iraq policy -- Beckett

LONDON, Dec 13 (KUNA) -- The British Government must consider whether a 
change of policy is needed in Iraq, Britains Foreign Secretary Margaret 
Beckett said Wednesday.

But she insisted there had been security improvements in areas of 
British-controlled Basra and cited the recent Iraq Study Group's warning 
that there was no magic formula. Asked whether a new policy was 
required on Iraq, she told BBC domestic radio I agree that we need to 
reassess whether change is needed. But can I remind you that the Iraq 
Study Group says there is no magic formula. Her comments came as it 
emerged that US President George W Bush has delayed an announcement on a 
possible change of policy in the light of the Iraq Study Group report, 
published last week.

Beckett denied that Britain was waiting to take its lead from 
Washington, saying No doubt there will be discussions in the American 
Government. There are and will be discussions in our Government and we 
will come to our own conclusions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair 
indicated yesterday that moves towards withdrawal would take place more 
quickly in Basra than US-controlled Baghdad, where much of the violence 
is concentrated.

The Foreign Secretary stressed today the difference in circumstances 
between Baghdad and Basra.

The situation in Baghdad is unquestionably extremely difficult, she 
said, adding that the capital accounted for 80 percent of the violence.

She went on A lot of work is being undertaken in Basra with an enormous 
contribution from the British Army. There are many areas of Basra where, 
yes, things are better (than six months ago). Beckett said the British 
Governments aim in Iraq was to ensure there was an administration which 
could manage security and was in charge of events. But she conceded 
that there were some areas where the Iraqi Government was struggling to 
assert its authority.

The Foreign Secretary called for an intensification in the process of 
reconciliation, but warned that the actions of Iraqs neighbours were 
having catastrophic consequences for the country.

She insisted, however, that a strong, stable Iraq was absolutely 
possible. Responding to predictions that Iraq could break up into three 
different parts, Beckett said There is nothing in the present 
circumstances that says that has to be the outcome.(end) he.
rk


KUNA 131307 Dec 06

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[osint] Pakistan, China joint military exercise gears up

http://www.pakistantimes.net/2006/12/13/top8.htm

Pakistan, China joint military exercise gears up
'Pakistan Times' Staff Report

RAWALPINDI: Pak-China joint exercise Friendship-2006 geared up Tuesday 
as troops from both sides engaged in joint operations.

Senior military commanders and troops of Chinese Liberation Army 
expressed their appreciation of professionalism and dedication of 
Pakistan Army troops, especially its expertise in counter terrorism 
operations, said ISPR.

A group of officers and troops from Chinese Liberation Army also visited 
Pakistan Military Academy Kakul, the Baloch and Frontier Regimental 
Centres Abbottabad. They were briefed regarding professional matters.

It may be mentioned that ten days long exercise Friendship -2006 started 
Monday in NWFP, Pakistan. The exercise is aimed at strengthening the 
existing bonds of friendship between Armies of the two countries.

The exercise will be second of its nature, while the first exercise was 
held in China in the year 2004. The focus of exercises will be to 
mutually benefit from each others experience in planning and conducts of 
anti-terrorist operations.

It is worth mentioning here that it will be for the first time that 
troops from Peoples Liberation Army are carrying out joint exercises in 
Pakistan.?

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[osint] EU sources: MKO will not be removed from terror list

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0612130536114208.htm

EU sources: MKO will not be removed from terror list
Brussels, Dec 13, IRNA

EU-MKO
A European Union diplomat in Brussels has stressed that there is no 
chance of any political change to review the status of groups which are 
currently on the EU terror list.

Definitely there will not be any change. The MKO will stay on the 
terror list, the EU diplomat told IRNA, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, the European Court of Justice annulled a decision by the EU 
to freeze the assets of the terrorist MKO grouplet.

The diplomat, however, explained that the case was annulled on 
procedural matters.

The court said the MKO was not given a fair hearing to defend itself 
against the move to blacklist it.

The EU, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the European bloc now 
intends to provide a statement of reasons to each person and entity 
subject to the asset freeze, wherever that is feasible, and to establish 
a clearer and more transparent procedure for allowing listed persons and 
entities to request that their case be
re-considered.

Jean-Claude Piris, legal counsel to the Council of the EU, told a news 
conference in Brussels Tuesday that the EU will examine in a thorough 
way the judgment of the European court.

Piris said the decision to include the MKO was taken by consensus of all 
EU member states. It was not arbitrary.
The Council of the EU represents the governments of the 25 member states.

He said the MKO remains on the terror list and its assets in Europe will 
remain frozen.

The EU will consider whether to make an appeal limited to points of law 
to the Court of Justice against this judgment, noted the EU statement.

The EU put the MKO on its terror list on May 2, 2002.

Since then, the EU has updated the blacklist several times and the MKO 
has been maintained on the list.

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[osint] KARACHI: Changed mindsets can tackle West-Islam conflict

http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/13/local8.htm

KARACHI: Changed mindsets can tackle West-Islam conflict

KARACHI, Dec 12: The need for changing the respective mindset in Western 
and Muslim communities was emphasized by scholars at an international 
conference. The participants also expressed the belief that the conflict 
between Muslims and Christians was not based only on religion. The 
day-long conference was organized by the Area Study Centre for Europe, 
University of Karachi in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in 
Karachi on Tuesday.

Speaking at the conference on Dialogue versus Confrontation: Different 
perspectives of expression and respect for religious sensibilities some 
of the speakers maintained that unwarranted statements originating in 
the West had changed the nature of conflict and exacerbated the element 
of insecurity among the Muslims.

Mr Hans-Joachim Kiderien, Consul General of Germany, in his key note 
address focused on The Basic Right of Religious Freedom as the 
Foundation of Inter-religious Dialogue.

He said in Europe, more precisely in Western Europe, religions, the 
Christian churches in particular and European Christianity in general, 
since a long time were not seen as having an important direct impact on 
politics, or themselves an important political force. This has now 
changed, particularly with the second advent of Islam in Europe, mainly 
following labour migration to Western Europe after the Second World War, 
and more currently with the acknowledgement of rising Islamist 
activities all over the world, he said. Islam, as newly arrived in 
Europe, but also as it presents itself in other parts of the world, is 
perceived in Europe more as a political religion than Christianity, 
may be just because of the lack of novelty in the Christian of the close 
integration of Christianity into state and society and its relative loss 
of' importance for day-to-day life.

Hence in Europe they speak of an intercultural dialogue between the 
West and Islam than of on inter-religious dialogue, he pointed out 
that in Pakistan and other Islamic countries the tern inter-religious 
dialogue would probably be better accepted. Under these circumstances 
of a partly unequal dialogue, secular western culture versus Islamic 
culture, determined to different degrees by religion looking for common 
grounds, from where to start the dialogue, becomes a problem.

The German envoy was of the view that the current pressure for 
globalisation and democratisation brought to bear on religions, 
societies, and states, often coming as a projection of power from 
outside and as a claim of ideology, is probably not leading the way to 
widespread recognition of the freedom of conscience as the guiding 
principle in inter-religious and intercultural relations. This process 
has to grow from within, and must not be overtaken or hijacked from 
outside, he emphasised.

Participants noted that the year, 2006, was full of numerous cultural 
clashes between the Western world and Islam. They stressed that in the 
contemporary globalised world, it was important for Muslims to 
comprehend the European social order based on individualism, which 
espouses the right to freedom of speech as absolute. The West, on its 
part had to make an effort to fathom the Islamic social form which is 
communitybased, with emphasis on collective interests and deep reverence 
for religious faith and its sacred personalities and symbols.

Dr Khalida Ghous's paper on The Changing Security Spectrum: Issues of 
Cultural Identity, touched on issues of cultural identity and religious 
extremism having generated new threats which had an element of fear 
prominent in them. The obvious divide, existing between the developing 
(Muslim) and the developed (West) had added new dynamics to 
securityissues, she said while examining the new challenges confronted 
by Muslim countries/societies and their vulnerabilities, besides looking 
into existing paradigms on which overall securityissues are viewed and 
understood.

Ambassador Kazi Anwarul Masud discussed Religious Sensibilities and 
Freedom of Expression and rejected the western propaganda that Islam 
was a religion propagated through violence, and not prepared, either in 
theory or practice, to accord full equality to those holding other 
beliefs. The terrorist events of 9/11 and the Madrid and London bombings 
have created in the ordinary Western mind a phobia about Islam and the 
Muslims. To the Muslims, the lack of Western countries to solve the 
Palestinian problem and the invasion of Iraq has produced a sense of 
uncertainty about Western intentions. This has produced Islamic 
terrorism in the West and in some Muslim countries. This phenomenon 
needs to be seriously tackled

Javed Jabbar spoke on Inevitable Exclusions: Inescapable Imperatives 
and maintained that unlike the theoretical equality of all human beings, 
all freedoms are not equal but hierarchical. Human spirituality and the

[osint] Nato-GCC meeting and fight against terror

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/localnews.asp?dismode=articleartid=1688021986

Nato-GCC meeting and fight against terror

By Jamal Hmoud
The Nato meeting with GCC states, which concluded yesterday, made me 
think deeply of the strategic importance of this region in the fight 
against terror. But to achieve success, how do we approach it in the 
first place?
1. Terrorism must be defined first:
a. Do the Nato countries define terrorism, as we understand it?
b. Our understanding of terrorism is to defend ourselves against an 
enemy who occupies others' territories by force, and where the UN 
Security Council issued resolutions against this enemy, but did not 
comply with them nor did it implement or worse still even recognize them.
c. The failure of the Nato countries in not enforcing the enemy to 
implement the resolutions of the international community.
d. If all the above reasons make any sense, then Israel should be 
labelled as the source of terrorism because it occupied Arab lands by force.
2. These principles were not in the best interests of Nato countries 
considering the popular resistance against Israel. A case in point is 
that if Hamas was a terrorist organisation, we should remember that the 
Palestinian people under international observation elected it.
3. The Lebanese Resistance (Hezbollah) considers the US as the first 
state, which gave birth to terrorism when it resisted the American 
colonisation. After it was liberated under the leadership of George 
Washington, they made him a hero and named the capital after him.
4. Now even if the national resistances are interpreted as something 
else, the US still remains the official sponsor of terrorism 
(financially, militarily and morally).
5. The US sponsors Israeli terrorism materially by granting Israel the 
largest financial aid. It supports Israeli terrorism morally, as when 
Israel commits a crime or aggression against civilians, then the state, 
which was attacked files a complaint, but the US abuses the veto so that 
Israel is not condemned. A major example is the Qana massacre in 2002 
under the UN banner. The case was sent to the General Assembly and all 
peace-loving countries voted against Israel except for some European 
countries, which abstained from voting to appease the US. If the dead in 
Qana were Israelis, then hell would have broken loose as was the case, 
when two Israeli soldiers, who were actually murderers carrying weapons, 
were glorified when an envoy from the Security Council came to see them. 
Nobody comes to see or ask Israel about the Lebanese or Palestinian PoWs 
as well as all those who died in the massacre. If the dead people in 
Qana in 2002 were Israelis, then they would ask for compensation, as was 
the case with Germany, when Israel exaggerated the Jews Holocaust in 
Germany and demanded Germany pay the compensation through pressure from 
the alliance when Germany was defeated.
6. When the war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel, the UN Security 
Council wanted to pressurise Israel to stop the fighting, but the US 
Secretary of State said, that it was a labour for the birth of a new 
Middle East, where the battle lasted for more than a month and the 
result was not as the foreign secretary predicted. We apologize to the 
minister because the results were contrary to her expectations. We are 
sorry and apologize to the foreign secretary, despite the fact that the 
weapons were sent by air, aboard Boeing aircrafts, and even made a 
detour to UK. This is just a summary, and if I allowed myself to write 
further, then hundreds of papers would not be enough to mention the 
crimes committed by the US.
7. Let us remind ourselves that it was the Hezbollah, which not only 
forced the Israelis to go under shelters for the first time since its 
existence, but also almost divided the Israeli state, as was the case 
when tensions and rifts arose between the Israeli government and the people.

+++



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[osint] Pakistan behind Afghan insecurity -state newspaper

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=ISL39010

Pakistan behind Afghan insecurity -state newspaper
Wed 13 Dec 2006 9:24:10 GMT

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan's government is equipping and sending 
militants into Afghanistan, a state-run Afghan paper said on Wednesday, 
the harshest criticism yet against Islamabad in the face of the 
bloodiest violence since the Taliban's fall.

The United States and its Afghan allies say the Taliban has been able to 
regroup since its 2001 ouster using safe havens in Pakistan and drugs money.

For a long time, our country has been exposed to invasions and 
threats, Anis, the leading government-controlled paper, said in an 
editorial.

The country's current crisis of military challenge is the result of 
direct and indirect interference of Pakistan.

It is the toughest statement made by a government paper against Pakistan 
since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban's government in 2001 and 
came after President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday terrorist nests were 
operating from Pakistan.

This year has seen the worst fighting in Afghanistan since the Taliban's 
overthrow in 2001, with about 4,000 people killed, around a quarter of 
them civilians.

Pakistan denies it supports the insurgents.

Both countries are planning tribal councils in a bid to stem the 
violence. But no date or venue has been set for the meetings, called 
jirgas, in which Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart President Pervez 
Musharraf would also take part.

The Taliban on Monday backed away from comments they, too, might join 
the councils, saying they would not do so as long as 40,000 foreign 
troops remain in the country under separate NATO and U.S. commands.

Pakistan was once the Taliban's main sponsor, but officially dropped 
support for the radical Islamic movement after the Sept. 11 attacks on 
the United States. It has since arrested hundreds of al Qaeda and 
Taliban members, including top lieutenants of Osama bin Laden.

Islamabad concedes there is some cross-border infiltration by militants 
into Afghanistan, but says the problem is a matter of government 
inefficiency as opposed to policy.

Relations between the two neighbours, both allies in the U.S. war on 
terror have gone through long periods of strain ever since Pakistan was 
created in 1947, due mainly to border disagreements.

The Taliban, most of them from Afghanistan's ethnic Pashtun majority, 
typically have tribal links on both sides of the porous border.

Islamabad, the newspaper Anis said, wanted a weak government in 
Afghanistan that will not raise the issue of the Durand Line, the 
Afghan/Pakistan border drawn by the British.

The paper said the core problem with Pakistan was a border dispute that 
has rankled for more than a century.

After being defeated in two wars against Afghans, the British in 1883 
imposed the Durand Line dividing Afghanistan from was then British India.

The border was drawn intentionally to cut through tribal areas occupied 
by Pashtuns, whom the British feared and may have tried to disunite. 
About 28 million Pashtuns are found on the Pakistan side od the line, 
and around half that on the Afghan side.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

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[osint] Kerry to Meet Soldiers, Leaders in Iraq

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2006/12/13/ap/politics/d8lvqkp00.txt

Kerry to Meet Soldiers, Leaders in Iraq

By ANDREW MIGA
*

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry, whose botched joke about U.S. troops in 
Iraq dealt a blow to his presidential ambitions, will travel to Iraq 
this weekend to meet with soldiers, political leaders and military 
officials.

I've talked to plenty of guys who've come back from Iraq, who are there 
now, who understand exactly what happened, Kerry said of his joke in a 
telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. They laugh at it.

The Iraq stop will be part of a nine-day Mideast trip that includes 
stops in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

A week before the midterm elections, Kerry told a group of California 
students that individuals who don't study hard and do their homework 
would likely get stuck in Iraq. He said he meant to say get us stuck 
in Iraq, but the botched joke intended to criticize President Bush 
forced the senator to apologize and then lay low for the remaining days 
of the campaign.

The Massachusetts senator, who was widely criticized for the quip, said 
he'd be happy to apologize to any soldiers he encounters in Iraq who 
don't understand what happened.

+++



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[osint] Tense alliance

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4397890.html

Tense alliance
The United States needs Pakistan, despite its lapses in democracy and 
human rights.


When Pakistan's ambassador to the United States recently presented his 
credentials to President Bush, the president asked what he did before 
arriving in Washington. The ambassador, a political appointee from the 
private sector, said he told Bush, I was having fun.

Me, too, Bush said.

Neither can be having much fun today. Bush struggles to justify a war in 
Iraq that he can't end. Pakistani Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani told the 
Chronicle editorial board last week that he spends his days discussing 
the quality of Pakistani democracy, human rights and nuclear 
nonproliferation, all issues that make the U.S.-Pakistani alliance 
problematic.

While Pakistan frequently strays from elected government, gives women 
few rights and protections, and engages in a nuclear arms race with 
India, the ambassador said there is one sin of which Pakistan is not 
guilty: supporting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Durrani admitted 
that Pakistan had supported the mujahedeen freedom fighters (as had the 
CIA) during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan also backed the 
fighters when they became the Taliban as a means of stabilizing an 
Afghanistan torn apart by war lords.

For years the U.S. invasion of Iraq has distracted U.S. commanders, who 
diverted resources needed in Afghanistan. Financed by money from the 
opium poppy trade and supplied with munitions from Iraq, Durrani said, 
the Taliban once again own the night.

Durrani said Pakistan wishes to be an Asian energy and commercial hub. 
For that, he said, it needs stability in the region, particularly in 
bordering Afghanistan. It has nothing to gain and much to lose from the 
resurgent Taliban. Durrani said his nation was providing maximum 
cooperation in the war on terrorists.

Durrani took pride in the progress he said Pakistan is making in women's 
rights. It had nullified a tribal law that allowed raped women to be 
punished as adulterers. A progressive media and enlightened 
nongovernmental organizations were battling the illiteracy and 
vengefulness of Pakistan's tribal areas.

The U.S. alliance with Pakistan is as old as it is difficult. Because of 
the war on Islamic terrorism, the United States needs Pakistan as an 
ally now more than ever. However, differences between national aims are 
likely to keep the alliance as tense as ever.

+++



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[osint] A statement from Left Behind Games Inc.

2006-12-17 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/controversy.htm

LEFT BEHIND: ETERNAL FORCES
A statement from Left Behind Games Inc.
Troy A. Lyndon, Chief Executive Officer

Recently, much controversy has ensued due to published articles in the 
media which discuss the violence in our upcoming game, Left Behind: 
Eternal Forces. However, references to praise the lord and pass the 
ammunition or kill in the name of God or others were made by 
journalists spreading misinformation, which is absolutely not true. And 
for this reason, I have published this statement.

There is no blood or gore in Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The game is 
designed to be a classic battle between good and evil, but it does not 
gratuitously depict violence or death.

Others are concerned about the pre-trib religious doctrine believed by 
the Left Behind authors. Left Behind is not the Bible, it is a fictional 
story and accordingly, situations resulting from the stories' 
post-apocalyptic time-frame are used to encourage gamers to think about 
matters of eternal significance, a topic largely ignored by modern games.

Because our game is a 'strategy' game, never does a player click a key 
or press a button to actuate a first-person violent act. Instead, 
control is managed by the player in much the same way as an animated 
chess game would be when pieces fight for position, except that in 
'real-time' strategy games, many pieces fight for position at the same time.

In Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the players' objective is to find 
'tribulation clues', which include Bible mysteries, codes and 
fascinating and eternally relevant information. In the initial missions, 
there is little emphasis on physical warfare and gamers are introduced 
to powers of influence which result in a battle for the hearts and minds 
of people. As missions progress, there are no 'objectives' to cause war 
physically. However, physical warfare results when the player is 
required to defend against the physical forces of evil; led by the 
Global Community Peacekeepers.

Several months ago, there was a news story with erroneous information 
about the game. Unfortunately, some readers accepted the misinformation 
as being factual, and then the rumor mill and the blogs were off and 
running.

If you hear someone making negative statements about this game, we 
encourage you to ask if they have personally reviewed the game. If they 
are merely passing on hearsay, it is false and misleading information.

At Left Behind Games, we are dedicated to making great games. Left 
Behind: Eternal Forces is coming to the PC and will be released on 
October 2006. We believe it will be a great day!

+++


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[osint] Swiss Cabinet gives go-ahead for surplus arms sales

2006-12-18 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://swissinfo.org/eng/politics/detail/Cabinet_gives_go_ahead_for_surplus_arms_sales.html?siteSect=111sid=7354886cKey=1166262043000

Cabinet gives go-ahead for surplus arms sales

The Swiss government has authorised the export of war material to Saudi
Arabia, India and Pakistan.

The approval follows controversy surrounding planned sales of surplus
Swiss army equipment in the recent past, in particular to the United
Arab Emirates.

At its meeting on Friday, the cabinet gave the green light to the deals,
to be worked out by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).

The sales include 20 air defence systems with ammunition to Saudi Arabia
valued at SFr375 million ($309.27 million) and 21 air defence systems
for Pakistan worth SFr136 million.

India wants to buy 140 assault rifles with accessories and spare parts
for SFr519,000.

According to the government, these sales do not present any problems.
The air defence systems are defensive weapons that cannot be used
against the civilian population, noted Othmar Wyss at Seco.

In the case of India, he said the European Union was also exporting war
material to the country. Declarations of onward export to another
country had been supplied, he added.

Hot potato

The sale of surplus war material has been a political hot potato in
Switzerland, with such exports to the United Arab Emirates suspended for
a year after 40 M109 armoured vehicles were later transferred on to Morocco.

The controversy surrounding such exports began with the planned sale -
authorised in 2005 -- of 180 M113 armoured vehicles to Iraq via the UAE
and 736 others to Pakistan.

Both deals fell through, in the case of Iraq after reports that the
armoured personnel carriers would not be used for civilian purposes.

Requests from India and South Korea to purchase war material also came
up against opposition.

In March the government told Pakistan that the 736 tanks were no longer
for sale following a tightening of legislation on war material exports.

However, Pakistani authorities told visiting Swiss Defence Minister
Samuel Schmid in October that they were still interested in buying the
vehicles.

Current law

Under current legislation, obsolete army equipment has first to be sold
or given back for nothing to the producer country.

Failing that, it can be offered, with the consent of the producer
country, to other states that agree not to re-export and that are
parties to international export controls.

As a last resort, it can be stocked in Switzerland or even scrapped.

A committee of the House of Representatives called on the government to
be stricter on the issue and a people's initiative against exports of
war material was launched in June.

Its supporters have until the end of December to collect the 100,000
signatures needed to force a nationwide vote on the issue.

In a reaction to the cabinet's decision, an official of the country's
leading pacifist organisation -- Switzerland without an army -- said the
group was shocked by the government's position.

Slap in the face

It is a slap in the face of a key parliamentary committee which had
come out against arms exports to India and Pakistan only in November,
commented Reto Moosmann.

The decision by the government confirms us in our endeavour to seek a
general ban on arms exports. We're campaigning for a nationwide vote on
the matter. After only six months we have already collected half the
signatures necessary.

The federal administration has recently refused other demands for such
exports on account of concerns for maintaining peace, international
security and regional stability.

For legal and diplomatic reasons, names of companies and countries
concerned are not published.

swissinfo with agencies

CONTEXT

By 2010 the Swiss army has to dispose of surplus army equipment worth
SFr10 billion ($7.7 billion), including 1,200 M109 and M113 armoured
vehicles, the oldest of which are 40 years old.

In June 2005 the Swiss cabinet approved the sale of 180 used M113 to
Iraq via the United Arab Emirates, but suspended the sale in August,
following reports that the carriers would not be used for civilian purposes.

In March 2006 the government decided to tighten licensing procedures for
army exports. This led to the UAE and Pakistan cancelling their deals.

The Swiss government then decided to scrap 550 M113 in Switzerland. All
steel and aluminium components are being recycled.

In July, Bern lifted its ban on the sale of such equipment to the UAE.

KEY FACTS

* Switzerland has so far this year exported SFr321 million of war
material (end of October).
* It authorised sales of SFr259 million in 2005 and SFr402 million
in 2004.

RELATED SITES

* State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco)
(http://www.seco.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en)
* Seco statement (German, French and Italian)
(http://www.seco.admin.ch/news/00893/index.html?lang=de)
* Swiss defence

[osint] SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH US GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS

2006-12-19 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,455199,00.html

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH US GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS
We Have to Raise our Sights Beyond the Range of an M-16

In an interview with SPIEGEL, General David Petraeus, a former commander 
in Iraq who is now responsible for training United States Army troops, 
discusses the lessons of Baghdad, the reasons a war can't be won using 
weapons alone and why America's future warriors need a post-graduate 
education.

SPIEGEL: General Petraeus, you were in charge of combat operations in 
Iraq, you supervised the built-up of the new Iraqi security force and 
now you oversee the training and education of Army officers here at Fort 
Leavenworth. Would you agree that you are trying to impose a sort of a 
cultural revolution on the United States Army?

Petraeus: There is quite a big cultural change going on. We used to say, 
that if you can do the big stuff, the big combined arms, high-end, 
high intensity major combat operations and have a disciplined force, 
then you can do the so-called little stuff, too. That turned out to be 
wrong.

As I came here to Fort Leavenworth late last year everybody knew, from 
the chief of staff of the Army on down, that we needed to make 
substantial changes as an Army. My predecessor here, General William 
Wallace, actually coined the phrase engine of change for the overall 
organization the we oversee and that's what we try to be here for our 
Army. We're dealing here with new doctrines, new concepts on all levels, 
that, in turn, shape the education of our commissioned, warrant, and 
non-commissioned officer leaders, and then, in turn, influence the 
training of our units at our Army's major combat training centers. All 
that had to be modified in light of the lessons we've learned in our 
ongoing operations, and that is what we have tried to do.

SPIEGEL: What are those lessons?

Petraeus: We brought a lot of experiences back from Iraq but also from 
Central America and to some degree from other places like Haiti, Bosnia, 
Kosovo. But there was a general awareness of the importance of 
understanding the huge impact of cultural, religious, and ethnic factors 
-- that knowledge of the so-called cultural terrain was as important 
in many cases as knowledge of the physical terrain in contemporary 
operations. We had to deal with these new challenges because it turns 
out they are key elements when you plan and conduct military operations.

SPIEGEL: You are the co-author of a new counterinsurgency doctrine that 
will be published this week. When one reads the draft version, one has 
the impression that the Army of the future will not only be a 
war-fighting organization, but also a nation-building agency.

Petraeus: We went over that paper again and again to avoid any 
misunderstandings. But overall we're talking about extremely complex 
problems here. In key areas we had a lot of paradoxes, great paradoxes. 
What we are trying to do is to present counter-intuitive situations to 
people to really make them think. And counterinsurgency operations are 
war at the graduate level, they're thinking man's warfare.

One of the paradoxes, for example, said: The best weapon for 
counterinsurgency is: Don't shoot. Well, that's true if you're in Mosul 
and the violence level is low, then you have a situation where you can 
say, as we used to do: Money is the best ammunition. But it is not true 
if you're in a section of Baghdad that is very threatened by violence. 
Then the best weapon is to shoot, and the best ammunition is real 
ammunition. Everything depends on the situation, and it is vital that 
our leaders understand that reality and constantly assess and reassess 
the situation in their areas of operations

What we simply don't want anymore is to give people a checklist of what 
to do. We want them to think, not memorize. You know, a lot of this is 
about young officers. But we have to be clear with them, they have to 
know: You must be a warrior first, that is true, that's why we exist, we 
exist in many cases to kill or capture the bad guys. But on the other 
hand, we have to teach them: You're not going to kill your way out of an 
insurgency. No: you have to take out the elements that will never 
reconcile with the new government, with the system, but then try to win 
over the rest. And this part is not done with tanks and rifles.

SPIEGEL: Is that a view widely shared within the army?

Petraeus: Yes. You know, of course this is much less straightforward 
than the fight to Baghdad, but don't get me wrong. The fight to Bagdad 
was not easy. It was very, very hard, real people died and bled and we 
really blew things up, but -- we always knew how to do that, we have it 
refined to a very high level, we did combined operations that were 
really at the high end of our business. In fact, you could say that we 
practiced that stuff by and large for 25, 30 years while we were waiting 
for the big roll of Soviet tank armies at the Fulda

[osint] CIVILIZED WARRIORS

2006-12-19 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,455165,00.html

CIVILIZED WARRIORS
The US Army Learns from its Mistakes in Iraq

By Ullrich Fichtner

Weapons alone aren't enough to win a war -- you also need to dig wells 
and build schools. Lessons from the war in Iraq have caused nothing 
short of a cultural revolution in the United States Army. In Fort 
Leavenworth, leading officers are training troops for the wars of the 
future.

Fort Leavenworth, where America's armies of the future are being shaped, 
is a perfect optical illusion. The camp looks like an idyllic, small 
American city, where walnut trees provide shade for the verandas of old 
houses, the Stars and Strips flutter in the wind from every gable and 
the gray fast-moving waters of the Missouri River are visible from the 
hills to the north.

Bulky American-made cars are parked along quiet streets in a community 
complete with its very own Burger King restaurant, health club, shopping 
mall, golf course, baseball field, movie theater and church. But the 
aura of serenity is deceptive. Everything in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 
revolves around war.

The headquarters of the US Army's officer training program was long seen 
as a last stop for deserving soldiers en route to retirement. In the 
20th century, anyone who was transferred to Leavenworth was no longer 
considered part of an active-duty unit. Nowadays, says Army spokesman 
Stephen Boylan, a colonel with a moustache who served for several years 
in Germany, everyone knows that the road to Baghdad leads directly 
through Leavenworth.

The best way to fully understand Boylan's comment is to take a grueling 
tour of the 16 schools, institutes and colleges at the fort where about 
2,000 young officers enroll each year for special training. The tour 
passes through windowless conference rooms, classrooms and lecture 
halls, and it requires enduring hours of slide presentations and talks 
by generals, historians, diplomats, Vietnam veterans and soldiers 
serving in Iraq. It also means wading through documents filled with 
unfamiliar acronyms, but in the end the visitor is left with the feeling 
that a revolution is being launched here in Fort Leavenworth, one that 
will radically change the face of the United States military and the 
wars it will fight in the future.

The military's conscience

Scott Lacky, a civilian with a doctorate who speaks fluent German and 
wears a dark suit, is in charge of one of the schools, the Center for 
Army Lessons Learned -- that is, lessons learned from past and current 
operations. Lacky studied in Munich and Vienna and was even a visiting 
scholar at the German parliament, the Bundestag, when it was still in 
the former capital, Bonn. When his workday has ended, Lacky, a heavyset 
man, can be seen strolling through the fort wearing a Tyrolean hat. 
Lacky is the US military's conscience.

His job here has changed by quantum leaps in recent years. It all 
started with the computer and Internet revolution of the early 1990s, 
and it continued after Sept. 11, 2001, a day Lacky sees as marking a 
radical turning point. Before this seminal date, Lacky says, it would 
take two to three months until the information gleaned from an 
experience with value for the entire army had been processed, printed 
and distributed.

But these days, when a brigade reports from Iraq that the insurgents are 
hiding their roadside bombs in dead cats, all it takes is a few 
inquiries, a few e-mails and a few mouse clicks and, within the space of 
a few hours, the news has been distributed to everyone. Lacky and his 
staff used this approach to develop concepts for building checkpoints 
after US military personnel had repeatedly fired unnecessarily at 
civilians in Baghdad. The regulations for convoys were rewritten, as 
were those for how to behave during mass gatherings and while on foot 
patrols.

Lacky's department now has precise location descriptions for every 
sector of every Iraqi city, descriptions that are a far cry from the 
information the military would gather and disseminate in the past. While 
the old documents described the world topographically merely as a 
battlefield, officers nowadays can consult information that tells them 
where kindergartens, mosques, Koran schools and meeting points are 
located. They can also learn a great deal about the social makeup of a 
neighborhood, including ethnic affiliations, local customs and unwritten 
laws.

Military leaders used to view these soft factors as secondary details, 
at least until they began learning from experiences in Afghanistan and 
Iran. The Army's worldview was still colored by the logic of the Cold 
War, which divided the world into clear-cut blocs. Military leaders were 
primarily focused on in a big picture that envisioned a decisive battle 
against the Soviet military, where tank divisions would clash with tank 
divisions and where the chains of command practiced over and over again 
for the eventuality that

[osint] Foreign medics sentenced to die in Libya HIV case

2006-12-19 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNewsstoryID=2006-12-19T100916Z_01_BAN922935_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-LIBYA-TRIAL-PREVIEW-20061219.XML

Foreign medics sentenced to die in Libya HIV case

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and
a Palestinian doctor to death on Tuesday for deliberately infecting
hundreds of children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

Justice has been done. We are happy, said Subhy Abdullah, who daughter
Mona, 7, died from AIDS contracted at the hospital in the town of
Benghazi where the medics worked.

They should be executed quickly, Abdullah told Reuters after the
guilty verdicts were announced by judge Mahmoud Haouissa at the end of a
seven-month retrial of the case.

The six were accused of infecting 426 Libyan children, more than 50 of
whom have since died, with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi in the late
1990s. The prosecution had demanded the death penalty. The medics deny
the charge.

They were first convicted in a 2004 trial and sentenced to death by
firing squad. But the supreme court quashed the ruling last year and
ordered the case be returned to a lower court.

European Union Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said he
was shocked and disappointed by the ruling.

Rights groups the world over had rallied to the medics' defence to stop
what they say may be a miscarriage of justice.

After reviewing the documents and hearing the arguments by lawyers of
both sides, the court decided on death sentences, Haouissa said. They
caused the spread of the disease that caused the death of more than one
person.

Relatives of the children attending the hearing broke down in tears of
joy and shouted, God is greatest.

Referring to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, relatives shouted: Go
ahead, our falcon, in defiance of the West.

The six medics sat calmly as the verdicts were announced.

The verdicts will change nothing. we are innocent, the Palestinian
doctor, Ashraf Alhajouj, told Reuters from behind the bars of the dock.

Luc Montagnier, a French doctor who first detected the HIV virus, has
said the infections were first present in the Benghazi hospital in 1997,
a year before the medics arrived.

Some Analysts say freeing the defendants would put the focus on alleged
negligence and poor hygiene in Libyan hospitals, which Western
scientists say are the real culprits in the case.

The case has hampered oil producer Libya's rapprochement with the West,
which moved up a gear when it abandoned its pursuit of nuclear, chemical
and biological weapons in 2003.

Washington backs Bulgaria and the European Union in saying the medics
are innocent.

Tripoli has demanded 10 million euros in compensation for each infected
child's family -- blood money under which Islamic law lets victims'
relatives withdraw death sentences in return for reparations.

Bulgaria and its allies have rejected the idea, saying any payout would
be an admission of guilt. But, led by Brussels, they are trying to
arrange a fund for training and treatment at European hospitals for the
children and their families.

The EU's Frattini, who has sought greater cooperation with Libya on
migration control, said: My first reaction is great disappointment. I
am shocked by this kind of decision. I strongly hope that somehow the
Libyan authorities will rethink this decision.

Analysts have said the case is embroiled in power politics and forecast
a solution could take many more months.

+++

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[osint] Ben Laden, les ratés d'une traque

2006-12-20 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://www.hamsa-press.com/video/

Ben Laden, les ratés d'une traque : Extraits du documentaire de 52 mn 
d'Eric de Lavarène et Emmanuel Razavi - Une coproduction Hamsa Press / 
Ligne de Front


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[osint] French troops had bin Laden in sights - documentary

2006-12-20 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNewsstoryID=2006-12-20T072559Z_01_BAN026744_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-FRANCE-BINLADEN-20061220.XML

French troops had bin Laden in sights - documentary

PARIS (Reuters) - A documentary says French special forces had Osama
bin Laden in their sights twice about three years ago but their U.S.
superiors never ordered them to fire.

The French military, however, said that the incidents never happened and
the report was erroneous information.

The documentary, due to air next year and seen by Reuters on Tuesday,
says the troops could have killed the al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan but
the order to shoot never came, possibly because it took too long to
request it.

In 2003 and 2004 we had bin Laden in our sights. The sniper said 'I
have bin Laden', an anonymous French soldier is quoted as saying.

The documentary 'Bin Laden, the failings of a manhunt' is by journalists
Emmanuel Razavi and Eric de Lavarene, who have worked for several major
French media outlets in Afghanistan. A cable television channel plans to
air the documentary in March.

Razavi said the soldier told them it took roughly two hours for the
request to reach the U.S. officers who could authorise it but the
anonymous man is also quoted in the documentary as saying: There was a
hesitation in command.

Razavi told Reuters several sources told them the sightings were six
months apart and they declined to be more specific.

French armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck said that never
happened when asked about the bin Laden sightings.

Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, is believed to be hiding in the mountains
along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

France has roughly 200 elite troops operating under U.S. command near
Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Paris announced on Sunday it was
withdrawing them at the start of 2007.

France is part of the 32,000-strong NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force in Afghanistan, which took over command of a war
against the Taliban from U.S.-led forces in October and has launched a
series of military offensives.

Its special forces were deployed in 2003 to bolster Operation Enduring
Freedom, a U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda in
response to the September 11 attacks.

Afghans questioned in the documentary said they believed the United
States was not interested in finding bin Laden, despite the $25 million
price Washington has placed on his head.

The documentary stopped short of that conclusion but raised questions
about the U.S. hunt for bin Laden, such as whether Washington is more
concerned about preserving stability in Pakistan, where many support bin
Laden, than in finding him.

In September, U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed as an urban myth
the idea his administration had become distracted from its effort to
track down bin Laden.

+++

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[osint] Saudi Arabia frees 11 former Guantanamo detainees

2006-12-20 Thread Dietmar Muehlboeck

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\21\story_21-12-2006_pg4_10

Saudi Arabia frees 11 former Guantanamo detainees

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has freed 11 former Guantanamo Bay detainees after 
they completed their jail sentences, the Interior Ministry said on 
Wednesday. It said the men were among 28 Saudis handed over this year by 
the United States from the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. The cases 
of the rest of the accused are still under review until a final ruling 
is issued, the ministry said in a statement carried on state media. 
Earlier this month, 16 Saudis held at the naval base returned home and 
the kingdom said it would continue efforts to seek the return of other 
Saudi citizens, but did not say how many remained in US custody at the 
controversial prison. Many of the men held at Guantanamo Bay were 
captured in Afghanistan in the US-led war to oust the Taliban after the 
Sept. 11 attacks. Many have been held for years and nearly all are being 
held without charge. Most of the 19 suicide hijackers who carried out 
the attacks on US cities in 2001 were Saudis. Public anger over the 
treatment of Saudi detainees in Guantanamo has been high in the Gulf 
Arab state, a key US ally. reuters

+++



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[osint] Saudi IPO gets lowest demand since '02

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Business_Newssubsection=market+newsmonth=December2006file=Business_News200612218033.xml

Saudi IPO gets lowest demand since '02
Web posted at: 12/21/2006 8:0:33
Source ::: Reuters

Riyadh . An initial public offering by a Saudi Arabian carpetmaker has
had the lowest oversubscription rate since 2002 due to negative
sentiment in the local bourse which is still struggling to recover from
a crash this year.

Al Abdullatif Industrial Investment Co's SR819m ($218m) was 61.5 per
cent oversubscribed, lead manager Samba Financial Group said yesterday.

This was the lowest oversubscription rate in the last 20 initial public
offerings, said Abdulhamid Al Omari, a member of the Saudi Economic
Association.

It's the lowest since 2002, a huge difference with the rates we have
seen in 2005 and 2006, he said.

+++

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[osint] Suez-led group gets $3.4 bln Saudi power, water contract

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/suez-led-group-gets-34-bln/story.aspx?guid=%7BFEA0D8A9%2DFBB8%2D47B8%2D9559%2D3BF320214216%7D

Suez-led group gets $3.4 bln Saudi power, water contract

PARIS (MarketWatch) -- Suez Energy International, a unit of the French
energy group Suez (12052.FR), said Wednesday a consortium that it leads
has been awarded a $3.4 billion contract to build the world's largest
power and desalination project.
Suez's partners are Gulf Investment Corp. and Arabian Company for Power
Water Projects. The consortium will own 60% of the project.
The project will make Suez the leading power production developer in the
Middle East, and will lift its total power capacity in the region to
8,200 megawatts.
The BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) contract is for a power
station with a capacity of 2,750 MW, and a 800,000 cubic meters per day
desalination facility, to be located at Jubail, northeastern Saudi Arabia.
The contract was awarded by the Power and Water Utility Company for
Jubail and Yanbu (Marafiq), and will supply water and electricity to
industrial and non-industrial customers in the Jubail Industrial City
and eastern province.
The sale of the plant's entire energy and water output to the off-taker
Marafiq is guaranteed under a 20-year Power and Water Purchase Agreement.
The project will be funded by debt and equity in a ratio of 82:18, and
the contract will generate a total turnover of $8.5 billion over 20
years, Suez said.
The Marafiq project represents approximately 10% of current total
installed capacity in Saudi Arabia of 29,000 MW, which is planned to
increase to 60,000 MW by 2020 to meet the country's rapidly increasing
energy demand.
The desalination plant will also be a substantial contributor to the
country's water supply when it comes online in July 2009.
The Suez-led consortium has appointed GE Power Systems, part of General
Electric Co. (GE), Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (009540.SE) and Sidem,
as the contractors to build the facility, a Suez spokeswoman told Dow
Jones Newswires.
The project will come on stream in four phases between July 2009, when
the plant will start up producing 650 MW of power and 267,000 cm/d of
desalinated water, and February 2010, when it will reach its full
production capacity, the spokeswoman said.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, needs international
investors to help it meet soaring demand for electricity and water as
the country's economy continues to expand on the back of high oil prices.

+++

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[osint] Top cleric's star rises in Iran after vote

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=48246NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Top cleric's star rises in Iran after vote

Archived Picture - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has not
commented on Friday's elections, felt the heat personally during a
speech Tuesday in the western town of Kermanshah. During his address,
some in the crowd chanted, unemployment, unemployment, unemployment is
a major problem, the pro-government daily Keyhan reported.
Archived Picture - Elder statesman Hashemi Rafsanjani, a mercurial
cleric who has played both sides of Iran's reformist-conservative
divide, is rising again as a key challenger to Iran's president after
local elections show deep discontent with the president's hard line, The
Associated Press reported.
Archived Picture - Former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami's meeting
with Rafsanjani on Sunday suggested reformers could turn to embrace him.

LONDON, December 21 (IranMania) - Elder statesman Hashemi Rafsanjani, a
mercurial cleric who has played both sides of Iran's
reformist-conservative divide, is rising again as a key challenger to
Iran's president after local elections show deep discontent with the
president's hard line, The Associated Press reported.

Last week's elections for local councils in towns and cities across Iran
were seen as a referendum on hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 18
months in office, and results so far were showing widespread victories
for his opponents.

Since taking power, President Ahmadinejad has escalated Iran's
confrontation with the United States and the West on multiple fronts, in
particular drawing the threat of U.N. sanctions for pushing ahead with
uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear program. He has also sparked
widespread international outrage for his comments against Israel and
casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust, the report added.

On Wednesday, a leading newspaper that usually reflects the thinking of
many in Iran's conservative clerical leadership said in a blistering
editorial that the election results showed it was time for Ahmadinejad
to moderate his tone and concentrate on improving the ailing economy, AP
noted.

The election could be very instructive to those who have been in
power, the Jomhuri Eslami editorial said. Arrogance, disregarding
people's economic situation, insulting respected people and high-flying
policies were among the elements of the failure of those who could not
imagine such a failure.

Ahmadinejad, who has not commented on Friday's elections, felt the heat
personally during a speech Tuesday in the western town of Kermanshah.
During his address, some in the crowd chanted, unemployment,
unemployment, unemployment is a major problem, the pro-government daily
Keyhan reported.

The results showed a partial comeback for Iran's reformist movement,
which was crushed over the past five years by hard-liners who drove them
out of the local councils, parliament and the presidency. The reformers
seek closer ties to the West, even the United States, and a loosening of
the power of Iran's clerical rulers.

But the big winners were moderate conservatives, who support the
clerical regime but have become disillusioned by Ahmadinejad, saying he
needlessly provokes the West, isolates Iran and ignores economic reform.

According to the report, many analysts were now predicting a coalition
between reformers and moderate conservatives to oppose Ahmadinejad and
his hard-line allies in parliament and presidential elections in 2009.

Talk of a political bloc was fueled after two top reformist politicians,
former president Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi, met on Sunday with
Rafsanjani, a top moderate conservative.

Rafsanjani's status was boosted in a parallel election held Friday
picking members of the Assembly of Experts, a body made up of 86 clerics
that oversees Iran's supreme leader and picks his successor.

Rafsanjani won the most votes of any candidate in Tehran for the
assembly, half a million more than his closest competitor, a strong show
of support for Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in June 2005
presidential elections.

The people's vote for Rafsanjani meant they hope he will create and
improve the moderate line, said Amir Mohebbian, a political analyst and
columnist in Resalat conservative daily.

Final results from the local council election in Tehran were expected on
Thursday. The interior ministry said only a few thousand of the 1.9
million votes still remained to be tallied, blaming the delay on the
large turnout and the simultaneous vote for the Experts Assembly, AP stated.

But partial results showed Ahmadinejad's allies won only two seats on
Tehran's 15-member council, one of them going to his sister, Parvin
Ahmadinejad. Conservative moderates were on track to take eight seats,
and reformers four. The last seat appeared set to go to

[osint] UK Stewardess Challenges Bible Ban On Saudi Flight

http://www.bosnewslife.com/preview/2643-uk-stewardess-challenges-bible-ban-on-saudi-f

UK Stewardess Challenges Bible Ban On Saudi Flight
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 (9 hours ago)

  LONDON, UK (BosNewsLife) -- A stewardess in the United Kingdom on 
Wednesday, December 20, was preparing a legal challenge against an 
airline she claims banned her from taking her Bible to Saudi Arabia, 
industry officials said.


BMI, formerly known as British Midland Airways, told her that it is 
against Saudi law to bring in religious books other than the Koran. The 
unidentified woman, a devoted Christian who takes her Bible with her 
everywhere, has said she is taking the airline to an industry tribunal 
claiming discrimination on religious grounds, BosNewsLife learned.

But BMI said it was merely following the UK Foreign Office's advice 
allowing no non-Islamic materials or artifacts into the country.  The 
importation and use of narcotics, alcohol, pork products and religious 
books, apart from the Koran, and artifacts are forbidden, the Foreign 
Office said on its website.

BMI officials said they had made clear to all staff and passengers that 
these are the guidelines to be followed and that the Christian 
stewardess knew about the airline's policy.

RULES VIOLATED

She is saying she wants to carry her Bible with her. We are saying we 
can't start designing rules around individuals when we've got several 
hundred members of staff, an airline spokesman said. To take every 
personal preference into account would be impossible, he reportedly added.

BMI said it offered the stewardess the opportunity to transfer from 
long-haul duties to short-haul, but she refused.

The case follows that of British Airways worker Nadia Eweida who 
objected to BA rules forbidding her to visibly wear a cross. It is an 
expression of my faith, based on the Christian religion which I adhere 
to, his coming back in glory to take me home with him, she said, 
referring to her crucifix.

CROSS CONTROVERSIAL

I didn't realize that the cross would carry such weight but it only 
confirms and brings me closer to my faith because Jesus is alive, 
Eweida added in statements monitored by BosNewsLife.

The case led to a review by BA of its uniform policy and to concerns 
among Christian rights groups about what they perceive as the impending 
persecution of Christians in the UK.

UK-based Barnabas Fund, an advocacy group, told BosNewsLife recently 
that it had long been working to make known cases of anti-Christian 
injustice around the world, and where possible to assist. Now we see the 
same thing increasingly happening within the UK. (With BosNewsLife 
reports and BosNewsLife Research).

+++



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[osint] Saudi Aramco Introduces Second Grade Gasoline

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6section=0article=90257d=21m=12y=2006

Saudi Aramco Introduces Second Grade Gasoline
K.S. Ramkumar, Arab News


JEDDAH, 21 December 2006 --- Saudi Aramco is introducing a second grade 
gasoline across the Kingdom from Monday. The Premium 91 gasoline, as it 
is called, will cost 15 halalas less per liter than Premium 95, 
Mohammed H. Al-Gahtani, general supervisor, domestic sales and marketing 
division, Saudi Aramco, told a meeting yesterday attended by officials, 
traffic police chiefs and businessmen at the Jeddah Hilton.

The Premium 95 gasoline is being sold at 75 halalas a liter, while the 
Premium 91 costs 60 halalas only. The new gasoline is aimed to provide a 
more economical choice for most of the car owners and drivers in the 
Kingdom. The fact is that most vehicles in the Kingdom have been 
designed to use 91-octane grade gasoline, which is the new Premium 91 
gasoline, he said.

Explaining which type of vehicles can use the new gasoline, Al-Gahtani 
said: If your car can use Premium 91 then that is the right choice for 
you. If your car needs Premium 95 then that's the right choice for you. 
Premium 91 will perform perfectly in cars designed to use it.

Al-Gahtani clarified that the difference in price between Premium 91 and 
Premium 95 will let the car user save a significant amount of money by 
switching to Premium 91 but only if your car is supposed to use it. The 
choice is yours, so choose wisely.

Explaining in details the right selection of gasoline for the smooth 
operation of the vehicle, Al-Gahtani cautioned that using gasoline with 
a lower octane than that required by the vehicle could cause the engine 
to knock or decrease its power and acceleration.

Vehicle owners are advised to consult the Owner's Manual or talk to 
the car dealer to find out which gasoline is right for the car. Saudi 
Aramco's help desk can also be contacted on 800-124-9195 or at 
www.9195.info. website.

+++



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[osint] Iran to replace dollar with euro for deals

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=164956Sn=BUSIIssueID=29274

Iran to replace dollar with euro for deals

TEHRAN: Iran yesterday announced it has ordered the central bank to use 
euros for foreign transactions and transform the state's 
dollar-denominated assets held abroad into the single European 
currency.The government has ordered the central bank to replace the 
dollar with the euro to limit the problems of the executive organs in 
commercial transactions, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told 
reporters.

We will also employ this change for Iranian assets (in dollars) held 
abroad. Elham implied that the move would apply to oil revenues from 
the world's number four crude producer, although it remains to be seen 
how this would be received by the market.

Foreign income sources and oil revenues will be calculated in euros and 
we will receive them in euros in order to put an end to our dependence 
on the dollar, Elham said.

The move comes amid mounting pressure from the United States for the UN 
Security Council to agree sanctions against Iran over its controversial 
nuclear programme.

Bankers in Iran have complained in recent weeks that it was becoming 
increasingly difficult to receive Iranian-held money denominated in 
dollars from European bank accounts.

They said that this was because of US pressure on European banking 
giants not to allow dollar-denominated funds to be sent into, or out of, 
the Islamic republic.

Elham added that Iran's budget would in future be calculated in euros. 
Until now the budget has been calculated according to revenues in 
dollars, but this calculation will now change, he said.

Iranian press reports have said Iran has, since at least 2003, been 
shifting reserves out of dollars to other currencies or assets, 
encouraged by pressure from the United States which has been seeking to 
isolate Tehran over its nuclear programme.

+++



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[osint] CIA exercise reveals consequences of defeat

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061221-122441-5208r.htm

CIA exercise reveals consequences of defeat

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 21, 2006

The CIA this month conducted a simulation of how the Iraq war affects 
the global jihadist movement, and one conclusion was that a U.S. loss 
would embolden al Qaeda to expand its ranks of terrorists as well as 
pick new strategic targets, according to sources familiar with the 
two-day exercise.
 CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield confirmed to The Washington Times 
yesterday that the simulation took place in Northern Virginia. He 
declined to discuss its findings, saying that a final report is not 
finished and that the report will not be the intelligence community's 
official view. It will, however, be circulated within the community and 
possibly to U.S. policy-makers.
 The exercise involved 75 CIA analysts and outside specialists. It 
was conducted by the CIA's Office of Terrorism Analysis, within the 
agency's Counterterrorism Center.
 A source familiar with the simulation said it was a red team 
exercise in which participants played the role of global jihadists and 
war-gamed how the U.S. involvement in Iraq will influence their terror 
movement.
 Although it takes no policy positions, the simulation's key finding 
appears to bolster Mr. Bush's contention that a U.S. loss in Iraq will 
have far-reaching ramifications.
 At a press conference yesterday, Mr. Bush said, A lot of Americans 
understand the consequences of retreat. Retreat would embolden radicals. 
It would hurt the credibility of the United States. Retreat from Iraq 
would dash the hopes of millions who want to be free. Retreat from Iraq 
would enable the extremists and radicals to more likely be able to have 
safe haven from which to plot and plan further attacks.
 Al Qaeda has made stopping democracy in Iraq a top priority, 
according to U.S. military officials. It has recruited hundreds of 
suicide bombers to come to Iraq and inflict mass casualties to spur a 
Sunni-Shi'ite Muslim civil war. The group wants to wear down U.S. troops 
to the point where they will retreat. Al Qaeda's ultimate goal is to 
turn Iraq and other Middle East countries into hard-line Islamic states, 
U.S. military officials say.
 One key finding from the red team exercise is that al Qaeda will 
follow past practices. Jihadists perceived the victory over the Soviet 
Union in Afghanistan in 1988 as a seminal event that spawned the 
creation of al Qaeda under the direction of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda 
leaders thought that if jihadists could defeat a global power in one 
theater, it could bring down governments in other nations.
 Six years later, when U.S. troops left Somalia after taking 
casualties at the hands of al Qaeda-trained Muslim fighters, it 
reaffirmed its feeling of invincibility and its belief that Western 
powers have a low threshold for casualties. After Somalia, al Qaeda -- 
and like-minded jihadists -- began attacking U.S. targets in the Persian 
Gulf region and ultimately struck America on September 11, 2001.
 The CIA-sponsored simulation predicts that al Qaeda will view a 
U.S. defeat in Iraq as another jihadist victory over a superpower and 
one that will bring it even more terrorist recruits.
 When we did the simulation, the ramifications were enormous, said 
the source, who asked not to be named. The source said al Qaeda will 
proclaim, God has given us a second victory over a superpower.
 Imagine what defeat in Iraq would do, said the source. Al Qaeda 
picks new targets after it thinks it's won.
This person expressed unhappiness that the Iraq Study Group, a 
bipartisan panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and 
former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, devoted less than a page to what a loss in 
Iraq would mean for global terrorism.
 The source said he hopes the CIA report is circulated within the 
administration to drive home the point that the stakes are high in Iraq. 
Mr. Bush is set to announce early next year new strategies and tactics 
for winning in Iraq. He previously has dismissed proposals from 
Democrats to pull out all 135,000 U.S. troops now or withdraw them on a 
set timetable regardless of events on the ground.
 Mr. Mansfield said the Counterterrorism Center this year has 
sponsored 20 internal simulations, seminars and conferences using 
outside experts to examine issues related to the war on terror.
 He added, We frequently reach out to experts outside of government 
and solicit their views on a range of matters. It is done routinely, and 
it is a very important aspect of our work. The simulation consisted of 
officers from around the intelligence community as well as outside experts.
 Such events are held, he said, to better understand emerging 
threats to the United States.

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[osint] U.S. plans naval buildup in Gulf

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16281057/

U.S. plans naval buildup in Gulf
CENTCOM plans to use 'gunboat diplomacy,' officials tell NBC News
NBC News and news services
Updated: 10:53 a.m. ET Dec. 19, 2006

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Central Command is aggressively planning a naval 
buildup in the Persian Gulf, including the addition of a second aircraft 
carrier, in response to a series of aggressive actions by Iran, U.S. 
military officials told NBC News on Tuesday.

The officials pointed to Iran's interference in Iraq --- including its 
support for Shiite militants and shipments of improvised explosive 
devices into the country --- recent military naval exercises in the Gulf, 
and its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The attempt at gunboat diplomacy is in its final planning stages. 
Although it has not been approved yet, it appears likely the increase in 
U.S. warships into the Gulf could come as early as January, the 
officials said.

U.S.: Iran making headway on weapons
On Monday, the Bush administration said Iran was making headway in 
building nuclear weapons as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to 
iron out differences with Russia over a U.N. resolution designed to stop 
the program with economic sanctions.

While not predicting when Iran would join the nuclear club, State 
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Iranians were trying to 
perfect technology to enrich uranium. Iran has denied an effort to build 
nuclear weapons and says its work is for energy development.

It's a very tricky matter of perfecting centrifuge technology so you 
can actually enrich all the uranium, McCormack said. So, yes, they are 
going along their way in trying to go down the various pathways.

The spokesman provided no details of Rice's telephone conversation with 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They went over some of the 
outstanding issues, McCormack said.

'Time for a vote'
Russia, which has close economic ties with Iran, has favored diplomacy 
over punitive sanctions, but the Bush administration is hoping Moscow 
may be prepared to approve a watered-down resolution at the U.N. 
Security Council.

We are hopeful that we can get a vote in the very near future. It is 
time for a vote, McCormack said. I think we need to see a vote on this 
in a matter of days.

The United States and its European allies have proposed offering Iran 
economic concessions in exchange for halting its enrichment of uranium, 
a key part of the process of building nuclear weapons.
© 2006 MSNBC InteractiveNBC News' Jim Miklaszewski and the Associated 
Press contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16281057/

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[osint] Only Jihad Will Liberate Palestine

http://www.iran-daily.com/1385/2739/html/politic.htm#s197313

  Only Jihad Will Liberate Palestine
066306.jpg
Ayman Al-Zawahiri
DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 20--Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri said in a new 
video aired Wednesday that only jihad, not elections, can bring about 
the liberation of occupied Palestinian territory, AFP said.
Any road other than jihad will only lead to loss, Osama bin Laden's 
right-hand man said in the video broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.
Those trying to liberate the land of Islam through elections based on 
secular constitutions or on decisions to surrender Palestine to the Jews 
will not liberate a grain of sand of Palestine.
On the contrary, their attempts will lead to choking jihad and 
besieging the mujahedeen, said Zawahiri, wearing his trademark turban 
and beard.
It was not immediately clear when the videotape was recorded, and its 
authenticity could not be independently confirmed.
However, it was released against the backdrop of escalating factional 
fighting in the Palestinian territories following a call by moderate 
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for new elections.
Abbas said in an address Saturday that new elections were the only way 
to end the bitter power struggle between his Fatah movement and the 
ruling Islamist movement Hamas.
But Zawahiri also slammed Hamas, without naming it, for recognizing 
Abbas and taking part in elections on the basis of a secular 
constitution, in a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera television Wednesday.
Hamas--taking part in elections for the first time in January--scored a 
shock victory over Fatah and took power in March, but its government is 
boycotted by Israel and the West.
The turbaned Zawahiri frequently speaks for Al-Qaeda in video or 
audiotapes, some posted on the Internet and others aired by Qatar-based 
Al-Jazeera.
In a video in late September, he lashed out at both Pope Benedict XVI 
and US President George W. Bush. In a previous video marking the fifth 
anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, 
Zawahiri warned that the Persian Gulf and Israel would be the next 
targets of Al-Qaeda.
The Egyptian-born Zawahiri is regarded as the ideological powerhouse 
behind the terror group and carries a 25-million-dollar US bounty for 
information leading to his arrest or death.

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[osint] Pragmatic Non-Royal to be Next Saudi Ambassador to the United States