U.S. Official: Iraqis Told Me WMDs Sent to Syria

The truth continues to eke out. From U.S. Official: Iraqis Told Me WMDs Sent to Syria:

Don Bordenkircher, who served two years as national director of prison and jail operations in Iraq, said that about 40 prisoners he spoke with "boasted of being involved in the transport of WMD warheads to Syria" in the three months prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. He said he was told the WMDs were shipped by truck into Syria, and some ended up in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Prisoners who said they worked at the al-Muthana Chemical Industries site said the cargo included nitrogen mustard gas warheads for Tariq I and II missiles.

French Military Against Assad's Presence at Bastille Day Parade

Do the French really feel this way? From French Military Against Assad's Presence at Bastille Day Parade:

The French government has banned a demonstration by French veterans meant in part to protest against the presence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as an honored guest at the July 14 Bastille Day military parade, French media reported on Friday. French veterans blame Syria for the deaths of 58 French members of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon in 1983. The FNAME veterans group has called on soldiers marching in Monday's parade to wear black armbands to protest Assad's presence. Former French President Jacques Chirac has previously said he would not be at the July 14 ceremonies because of Assad's participation. Chirac blames Assad for the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, for which Syrian intelligence services have been implicated.

The Iranian Roots of Hizbullah

The Iranian Roots of Hizbullah(1)

By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli*

Iran/Lebanon #448 June 17, 2008

Table of Contents:

<#1>Introduction
<#2>Akhteri's Background and Proselytizing Activity
<#3>Facing the First Crisis
<#4>The Splintering of Amal and the Creation of Hizbullah
<#5>Syria Allowed the Passage of Military Aid to Hizbullah
<#6>The Establishment of Al-Manar TV
<#7>Hizbullah's Social Institutions ñ Identical To Iran's
<#8>Refusal to Pay for Electricity
<#9>The Shi'ization of Syria
<#10>Conclusion
<#11>Notes

"Iran is the only country that does not interfere in Lebanon." - Mahmoud Ahamdinejad(2)

Introduction

Ahmadinejad's absurd statement coincided ironically with the publication in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat of an extensive interview with Mohammad Hassan Akhteri, who has recently completed a total of 14 years as Iran's ambassador to Syria. By his own admission, Akhteri was the most senior Iranian liaison official with Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, and the architect of the special relationship between Iran and Syria. Akhteri was also the founder in Damascus of the Palestinian-Iranian Friendship Society.

In the interview, published in two parts on May 14 and May 15, 2008, Akhteri distinguishes between the spiritual father (al-ab al-rouhi) of Hizbullah, the one who initiated the idea, and the "field father" (al-ab al-midani). Akhteri considers himself the latter, while his predecessor in Damascus, Ali Muhtashemi, was the former.(3)

Akhteri's Background and Proselytizing Activity

Akhteri was born in Qom in 1928, and came to diplomacy from his position as Friday preacher at the Samnan mosque, north of Tehran. He studied religious jurisprudence at a hawza (a Shi'ite religious center) in Qom. Concurrently with his role as ambassador to Damascus, Akhteri has served for the last four years as the head of the International Society of aal-al-beit, the Prophet Mohammad's descendents, who are viewed by the Shi'ite branch of Islam as the legitimate rulers of Islam. The Aal-al-beit Society is also engaged in spreading "Shi'ite Islamic consciousness," essentially a proselytizing organization which seeks converts to Shi'ite Islam.

Akhteri served two terms as ambassador to Damascus: the first, longer term from 1986 to 1997, and the second from 2005 to January 2008. But before serving as ambassador, he had accumulated a record as a proselytizer: He spent some time in Homs, Syria in 1969, and from there he went to Lebanon for two and a half years, through 1972, to carry out religious activities and tabligh (spreading of Islam).

Facing the First Crisis

Akhteri arrived in Syria in 1986, at a time of conflict between the Palestinians and the Shi'ite Movement ñ Amal ñ that was created by Imam Moussa al-Sadr in the 1960s as a social-service organization intended to improve the living conditions of the Shi'ite community in southern Lebanon, one of the poorest communities in the country. Al-Sadr, born in Iran and educated in Qom, also established the Shi'ite Supreme Islamic Council in 1969. Al-Sadr flew to Tripoli, Libya on August 25, 1978 and there he disappeared. His disappearance, six months prior to the success of the Iranian revolution, was a key factor in the marginalization of the Amal Movement, and the birth of Hizbullah.

The Splintering of Amal and the Creation of Hizbullah

The Islamic regime of Iran after the revolution regarded the Amal Movement with suspicion because it seemed insufficiently religious, and lacking the suitability or will to be an instrument of spreading the Iranian revolution. In addition, it was led by politicians, many of them were secular, rather than by clerics. In fact, the very name Amal (Hope) lacked religious ring. On its part, Amal was disenchanted with Iran because during its conflict with the Palestinians Iran supported the latter.

As a result, Iran encouraged elements from the Amal Movement to splinter and establish a religious party that would be more in tune with the concept of wilayat al-faqih, [the Rule of the Jurisprudent] introduced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual and political leader of the Islamic Republic. Once that party, Hizbullah, was established, Khomeini ordered elements of the Revolutionary Guards to go to Lebanon to train its young cadres.

The Iranian ambassador to Damascus from 1982-85, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, was quoted by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat as telling an Iranian newspaper that Hizbullah gained part of its battle experience through its participation in the war against Iraq. According to Mohtashemi, more than 100,000 young Lebanese received military training both in Lebanon and in Iran in groups of 300 fighters. Akhteri has also conceded that elements of Hizbullah fought in the war with Iraq "either within our ranks or by themselves."

Akhteri recalls that five planeloads of Revolutionary Guards and Basij (youth militia) landed in Damascus to stand with Hizbullah during the 1982 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, but Khomeini stopped any further dispatch of Iranian forces to Lebanon because of logistical problems. According to Akhteri, supplying a military contingency in Lebanon would have been difficult with the war raging between Iran and Iraq. The only other alternative would have been to go through Turkey, but Turkey was a member of NATO. Hence, the real alternative was to train Hizbullah's cadres in Lebanon itself.

Syria Allowed the Passage of Military Aid to Hizbullah

The arming of Hizbullah could not have been possible without the support of Syria. When Hizbullah was established, Syria was in control of Lebanon, and no one could come and go without the approval of the Syrian regime. In fact, Akhteri admits that throughout his "diplomatic" mission to Syria he coordinated his activities in Lebanon with Ghazi Kandan, who was chief of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon from 1982-2001, and who became minister of interior in October 2003 and who in 2005 allegedly committed suicide. (Kandan may have been involved in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. As the international investigation of the assassination was beginning to implicate the Syrian regime, Kandan may have been silenced by a staged ñ unexplainable ñ suicide.)

In his interview with Al-Asharq Al-Awsat , Ambassador Akhteri stated with evident pride that Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas are the "legitimate children of the Iranian revolution," and that Iran has supported them financially, politically, and morally. There was coordination between Iran and each of these organizations, but Akhteri argues that any final decisions were taken by these groups themselves.

The Establishment of Al-Manar TV

To solidify its control over its supporters and to spread Shi'ite Islamic fervor, Hizbullah needed its own television station, but Lebanon was reluctant to approve an independent station for Hizbullah. According to former Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam, now living in exile in France, the Iranian president at the
time, Hashemi Rafsanjani, called Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad to obtain a license for Al-Manar TV. Assad told then-Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri to grant the permit, and the permit was granted. The establishment of Al-Manar was one of the steps that, Akhteri stresses, "strengthened the independence of Hizbullah on the Lebanese political scene."(4)

Hizbullah's Social Institutions ñ Identical To Iran's

In addition to Al-Manar TV, Hizbullah was able, with Iran's financing, to establish a wide range of social, financial, and economic institutions that strengthened the loyalty of the Shi'ites in Lebanon to Iran. One of the significant financial arms of Hizbullah is the Shahid Foundation (Martyrs Foundation), an Iran-based organization established in 1982 in Iran to assist victims of the Iran-Iraq war. In 2007, the U.S. Treasury targeted "Iran-based Martyrs Foundation," including its U.S. branch, and the finance firm Al-Qardh al-Hassan (Good Deed Loan) as front organizations for Hizbullah. According to the Treasury, the Martyrs Foundation branches in Lebanon provided financial support to the families of killed or imprisoned Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad members, including suicide bombers in the Palestinian territories. Al-Qardh al-Hassan created the Goodwill Charitable Organization (munatzamat al-niyya al-hasana al-khairiya) in Dearborn, Michigan as a fundraising office for the Martyrs Foundation.

According to the U.S. Treasury, Hizbullah used the Al-Qardh al-Hassan's financial arms as cover to manage its financial activity. Al-Qardh al-Hassan is run by Hussein al-Shami, a senior Hizbullah leader who has also served as a member of Hizbullah's Shura Council and as head of several Hizbullah-controlled organizations.(5)

Hussein Raslan, in charge of the social functions in the Martyrs Foundation, told Islamonline on August 13, 2006, that the idea for the Foundation originated with Khomeini, who provided the financing from zakat (alms contributed by Muslims). Raslan said that the first Hizbullah school was established in Beirut in 1988, but that eventually the school was incorporated into the Imam al-Mahdi Foundation in 2002. The flow of funds [from Iran], Raslan said, nabled Hizbullah to establish a series of enterprises including those dealing with food supply, gasoline and printing houses. Hizbullah schools in Lebanon, either under Khomeini or al-Mahdi Foundations, follow the Iranian curriculum.

Hizbullah has also established a network of hospitals (dispensing Iranian-made medicines), banks, and cultural organizations. Finally, there are the Hizbullah police, who are responsible for maintaining "good manners" on the street ñ meaning, among other things, that women are always veiled in public. Money from Iran keeps this massive apparatus running.

Refusal to Pay for Electricity

One of the least-known facts about the dominance of Hizbullah in parts of Lebanon is the refusal of its members to pay their electric bill. Without the means to force them to do so, the Lebanese government is left with one of its largest budgetary problems ñ the growing subsidy the government has to pay to the national power company, Electricite du Liban.

The Shi'ization of Syria

The International Aal-Al-Beit Society, which operates under Iran's supreme leader, currently Ali Khamenei, and whose primary function is to spread Shi'ism (tashayu') in the rest of the Muslim world, took advantage of Iran's special relations with Syria in order to establish Shi'ite religious seminaries in Damascus. In fact, Damascus has now at least three hawzas (religious centers,) and is considered the third largest Shi'ite center in the world after Najaf and Qom. While Akhteri minimizes the proselytizing functions of the Aal Al-Beit society in Syria, there are concerns sounded in both Syria and the Arab world about the tashayu' effort ñ not only in Syria but in other countries, such as Egypt and Sudan.

Conclusion

This paper highlights two significant facts: first, Hizbullah was created and sustained by Iran. Iranian financial support has made it possible for this political organization to build a network of schools, hospitals, social welfare organizations and above all, military prowess. It now serves as an extension of Iran's strategic
expansion into the Mediterranean.

Second, it is absolutely evident that Iran's extended arm into Lebanon would not have been possible without the collusion or approval of the Syrian regime. Syria is also the main conduit of arms from Iran to Hizbullah.

*Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli is the Editor of The MEMRI Economic Blog,
http://www.memrieconomicblog.org.

Notes

(1) This dispatch is based on a presentation made by the author at a
panel on "The Iranization of Lebanon?" at the Potomac Institute on
May 23, 2008.
(2) Press conference in Tehran, May 13, 2008.
(3) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 14 and May 15, 2008.
(4) Manal Lutfi, "The Limits of the State of Hizbullah," Al-Sharq
Al-Awsat (London), May 20, 2009
(5) http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/200772410294613432.htm,
July 24, 2007.

MEMRI
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
www.memri.org

The Golan Heights and the Syrian-Israeli Negotiations

By Dore Gold

1) Israeli negotiators will quickly discover three core areas in their discussions with the Syrians that they will not resolve easily: delineation of an agreed boundary, security arrangements, and the Syrian-Iranian alliance.
2) Just prior to the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syria deployed 1,400 tanks along the border against a total Israeli force of 177 tanks (a force ratio of 8 to 1 in favor of Syria). Should Syria's considerable missile forces be used to delay Israel's reserve mobilization, then the importance of the Golan terrain will increase as Israel's small standing army will have to fight for longer without reserve reinforcement.

3) When Israel reached its Treaty of Peace with Egypt in 1979, it agreed to fully withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula to the international border. Syria illegally occupied Israeli territories during the 1950s that were within Israel's international borders: the southern demilitarized zone at al-Hamma, the Banias area, and the strip of coastal territory along the northeast shoreline of the Sea of Galilee.

4) If Israel were to agree to the June 4, 1967, line, as Syria demands, it would be rewarding Syrian aggression. Moreover, it could compromise Israel's control of its largest fresh water reservoir. Israel should not have to be arguing with the Syrians over the question of whether a future Israeli-Syrian boundary should correspond to the June 4, 1967, line or to the older international border, for neither of these lines is defensible.

5) The U.S. has given Israel repeated diplomatic assurances in the past that Israel will not have to come down from the Golan Heights, beginning with a September 1, 1975, letter from President Gerald Ford to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was renewed prior to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference by Secretary of State James Baker. During the Clinton administration, Secretary of State Warren Christopher renewed the Ford commitment in a letter dated September 19, 1996.

6) Even if, by prior agreement with Tehran, the Syrians took steps that appeared to be downgrading relations, Israel's concession of the Golan Heights would be irreversible, while the political orientation of states in the Middle East is notoriously changeable. It would be a cardinal error for Israel to put into jeopardy its own security by agreeing to come down from the Golan Heights.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/6qxgmz to read the full article.

Israel Never Pledged Full Withdrawal from Golan

Get your facts right, Syria, and quit your stinking mendacity. From Israel Never Pledged Full Withdrawal from Golan:

Israel never pledged to withdraw from the Golan Heights and return to the 1967 borders as part of peace negotiations with Syria, despite declarations of officials in Damascus, Israeli sources told Israel Channel 10 Thursday. The sources said Israel had initially intended to wait for direct negotiations to begin before publicizing news of renewed contact, but Syria had wanted the talks to be made public.

Exclusive: Hizballah received 35 new Iranian speedboats shortly before current crisis

DEBKAfile's military sources report that three weeks before Hezballah seized western Beirut, the Shiite terrorist group took delivery of 35 fast speedboats for use with explosives from Iran. The craft can threaten US Sixth Fleet and Israel Navy shipping close to Lebanese shores, reach Israel's Haifa and Ashdod Mediterranean ports and raid its coastal oil installations.

The speedboats were tailor-made for Hizballah by Iranian Revolutionary Guards shipyards at Bandar Abbas as the only marine terror fleet operating in Mediterranean waters. Our military sources report the boats are capable of carrying chemical, biological and radiological weapons systems.

They were delivered in mid-April by an Iranian freighter at the Syrian port of Latakia and trucked to Naimah port south of Beirut. There they were hidden in the subterranean hangars belonging to Ahmed Jibril, head of the Palestinian Liberation Front-General Command. Today, the PLF-GC is financed and directed by the Revolutionary Guards. The hangars were constructed in the seventies by East Germany engineers with a protected Mediterranean anchorage and made virtually impenetrable by sea or air.

CIA Confirms in Video: Israel Bombed Nuclear Reactor in Syria

Once again Israel does the job America won't do. The entire civilized world can once again thank Israel for preventing another Muslim dictatorship theocracy from using nuclear weapons against infidels.

Later today U.S. intelligence officials will show members of Congress a videotape and other evidence supporting their case that Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance before it was bombed by Israeli planes in September 2007, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

Intelligence officials who have seen the evidence consider it "extremely compelling," the anonymous U.S. official said. He said it was gleaned from a variety of sources, not just Israeli intelligence.

U.S. officials said Israel shared intelligence with the United States before the bombing after administration officials expressed doubts that the site was a nuclear reactor built with North Korea's assistance.

The Syrian reactor was similar in design to a North Korean reactor that has in the past produced small amounts of plutonium, the official said. It was not yet complete but was far enough along to demonstrate a resemblance to the North Korean reactor at Yonbyon.

Shortly after the Israel attack, Syria bulldozed the area and constructed a new building there, which it has not allowed foreign visitors to enter.

Syria did not declare the apparent reactor to the International Atomic Energy Agency nor was it under international safeguards, possibly putting Syria in breech of an international nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

The irony in this is that there is a Congressional subcommittee session to deal with Syrian-North Korean relations, amidst reports that a possible deal is in the works to remove North Korea from the American list of of state sponsors of terrorism. The video being released later today should blow that idea out of the water, that is, if there are any Americans left in Congress that have any guts.

Iran: Syria Arrests Saudi Official Over Mughniyeh Assassination

It wasn't the Mossad, Jew bashers, it was archetypical Muslim vs. Muslim carnage. From Iran: Syria Arrests Saudi Official Over Mughniyeh Assassination:

In a move that could have far reaching consequences, Syria arrested a Saudi official in connection with the assassination of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported Tuesday. A high-ranking defense official in Saudi Arabia's embassy in Damascus, who was connected to a Syrian woman in whose name the two explosives-laden cars used to kill Mughniyeh were registered, was arrested by Syrian security forces.

An Iranian source said locals with Syrian, Jordanian and Palestinian citizenships executed the operation. The men rented apartments near Mughniyeh's residence in Damascus and surveyed his activities from there.

Report: Assad's Brother-in-Law Behind Mughniyeh Death

I had suspected the murder of Mugniyeh was an inside job - although I thought that it was the bloated puke Nasrallah who wanted Mugniyeh dead. Now some evidence is leaking out - from Arab sources, no less - that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's brother-in-law is behind the assasination of the filthy terrorist pig, Mugniyeh . But no suprise here; Muslims never had any qualms about offing their political rivals. From INN:

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's brother-in-law is suspected of engineering the assassination of Hizbullah's operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, according to a report Saturday in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siasa ("Politics"). The news report appeared under the headline "Mughniyeh's elimination breaking the back of Damascus regime."

The suspicions against the man, Colonel Wasef Shweikat, surfaced after his wife, Bashar Assad's sister Bushra, relocated to Paris with her children following the assassination. The move followed a split between Bashar and Bushra, which began when Mughniyeh informed Bashar of a plot against his regime.

The paper said Shweikat met with a senior American intelligence officer in a European country. Mughniyeh got wind of the clandestine meeting and informed Bashar personally about it. This is what caused the rift between Bashar Assad and his sister.

Bashar slapped his sister in the face in the course of one of their arguments, after he informed hBashar slapped his sister in the face after he informed her that her husband was involved in an attempted coup d'etat.er of the suspicions against her husband. Assad told his sister that Shweikat and the American agent met to discuss a possible coup in Syria, in which Shweikat would seize power.

Tension between Mughniyeh and Shweikat was not a new thing, Al-Siasa explained. Mughniyeh had repeatedly attempted to weaken Shweikat's standing in the Syrian power echelon. This is why Shweikat is a major suspect in the planning of the assassination.

Suspicions against Shweikat have increased since Bashar Assad appointed Hafez Makluf, the Head of General Intelligence, to head the investigation of the assassination. Makluf is considered to be a political rival of Shweikat.

Click here to read the full story.

Report: Syrian Man Butchers Baby Nephew in Supermarket

Documenting the innate pathology of Arab culture. From FoxNews:

A Syrian man decapitated his 15-month-old nephew with a knife before his mother's eyes at a supermarket in Jeddah, according to an Arab News report.

The 25-year-old man beheaded the baby following a dispute with his sister and brother-in-law in front of stunned shoppers at the Al-Marhaba supermarket Tuesday morning, police say.

"The murderer was in a dispute with the boy's mother and her husband," a police officer who would not release his name told Arab News. "He chopped off the boy's head in front of the mother to get back at her."

The baby's mother and a nearby shopper fainted while other witnesses stood in shock over the grisly murder. The mother is hospitalized.

Syria upgrades missiles thanks to Iranian support

Syria has successfully developed a new surface-to-surface missile that would enable it to target with greater accuracy Israeli installations - such as airports, ports and factories - according briefings recently presented to senior ministers. According to the information, Syria developed the new missile with Iranian support, which is further indication of the tight strategic bonds between the two countries. Much of these strategic ties revolve around military and intelligence cooperation.

"The problem is that their missiles are being transformed from less-effective weapons into precision weapons that will enable their use against military bases, airports and military depots, which is a very worrying development," the source said.

Beirut Bomb Kills Ten

From Beirut Bomb Kills Ten:

A senior intelligence officer investigating killings largely blamed on Syria was slain with three other people in a car bombing in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday, officials said.
Captain Wissam Eid, 31, a member of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), was among the dead along with his bodyguard, a security official told AFP. He said 36 other people were wounded, with nine taken to hospital. Two of the wounded were in critical condition.

"Eid was a key member of the ISF and was involved in many investigations concerning bombings in Lebanon, including a February 2007 bombing in a Christian area," the official said. "He was involved in sensitive probes and this is a major loss for us."

Many of the bombings over the past three years have been blamed by Lebanon's Western-backed parliamentary majority on neighbouring Syria, a charge denied by Damascus.

The Syrians lie again

What bullshit. The lying Syrians claim that Golan never belonged to Israel. Guess what. There is no negotiation over the withdrawal of the Golan Heights in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. Syria already turned down Israel's offer to return all the Golan Heights in exchange for peace. The warring Arabs lost the Golan Heights because they attacked Israel. Arabs chose war. Arabs must face the consequences of their aggressive barbaric 7th century warring nature.

The intended destruction of Israel has been frenetic since 1947 and is still going on, 60+ years later. The results of each defeated act of Muslim aggression perpetuate excuses for more Arab aggression against Israel. A Muslim Syrian barbarian organization, the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, says it is holding missing Israeli soldier, Guy Hever, missing since August 1997. Ten years, folks. The Muslim vermin have been holding onto Guy Hever for ten years. We really don't know if he is alive or if he is dead. In late 1966, a youth was blown to pieces by a mine while playing football near the Lebanon border. In hundreds of incidences, attacks on Jews were carried out by the dead puke Arafat's Fatah, which Syria allowed to operate from its territory.

Most importantly, the Golan is Israeli. Why does no one in the White House know this? Via INN:

The Syrian and Lebanese delegates to the Annapolis conference Tuesday were provided a forum in which to express their countries' views, but were not accorded the privilege of delivering a speech to the conference plenum.

Speaking at a workshop entitled "Towards a Comprehensive Middle East Peace," Syrian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Faisal al-Mekdad insisted that Israel must hand over the Golan Heights and totally withdraw from the "1967 Arab land." Only then, he declared, would Damascus consider "normalizing" ties with the Jewish State. He then said Syria "is sincere in seeking a comprehensive and just peace and possesses the political will to achieve it."

Israeli officials said the Syrian delegate also demanded that Israel withdraw from the Har Dov (Sheba'a Farms) area as well.

Hamas "to Step Up Attacks" After Annapolis

President Bush, goddamit, what kind of myopic, ignorant madman are you? How DARE you force Israel to negotiate with terrorists! How DARE you!

From Hamas "to Step Up Attacks" After Annapolis:

Syrian-based Musa Abu Marzouk, the number-two man in Hamas, said the post-Annapolis period would witness a dramatic escalation in anti-Israel attacks.

"Resistance operations will be escalated in all forms and methods," he said.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhr said the Arab League decision to send Arab foreign ministers to the Annapolis conference came as a shock to most Palestinians because it paved the way for normalization with Israel.

What Happened to Saddam's WMDs?

We are convinced that mobile weapons were transferred from Iraq to Syria. Why is the rest of the world resisting the facts evident in satellite footage of that weapons transfer? From What Happened to Saddam's WMD?, via Daily Alert:

Former federal prosecutor and the head of the non-governmental International Intelligence Summit, John Loftus, has released a report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, based on a private study of captured Iraqi documents. As Loftus summarized, "Roughly one-quarter of Saddam's WMD was destroyed under UN pressure during the early to mid-1990s. Saddam sold approximately another quarter of his weapons stockpile to his Arab neighbors during the mid-to-late-1990s. The Russians insisted on removing another quarter in the last few months before the war."

"The last remaining WMD, the contents of Saddam's nuclear weapons labs, were still inside Iraq on the day when the coalition forces arrived in 2003. His nuclear weapons equipment was hidden in enormous underwater warehouses beneath the Euphrates River. Saddam's entire nuclear inventory was later stolen from these warehouses."

Loftus then cites Israeli sources who claim that the Iraqi nuclear program was transferred to Deir az Zour province in Syria. Israel reportedly destroyed a Syrian nuclear installation at Deir az Zour.

For more on Satellite Images, see this.

Satellite Photos Show Cleansing of Targeted Syrian Site

From Satellite Photos Show Cleansing of Targeted Syrian Site:

New commercial satellite photos show that a Syrian site that Israel bombed last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor. A senior intelligence official said, "It doesn't lower suspicions; it raises them. This was not the long-term decommissioning of a building, which can take a year. It was speedy. It's incredible that they could have gone to that effort to make something go away."

Report: Iran Worried Over Syrian Air Defense Failure

From Report: Iran Worried Over Syrian Air Defense Failure:

Iran is concerned over the failure of Syria's air defense systems to detect the Israel Air Force non-stealth aircraft that reportedly carried out an attack inside Syria last month, Aviation Week reported Wednesday. According to the report, Israel used highly advanced equipment to jam Syria's defenses, thus neutralizing the defense missile systems which rely on it. Iran is especially concerned over the failure of Syria's Russian-made radar systems. Iran is slated to purchase more Russian radar equipment to protect its nuclear facilities in a future deal worth $750 million.

Report: Dozens dead in Syrian chemical weapons experiment

Dozens of Syrian military officers and Iranian engineers were killed about two months ago in an a chemical weapons accident, Jane's Magazine reported Monday, revealing new details on the incident which took place in a secret weapons facility. According to the report by the British magazine, the explosion occurred early in the morning on July 26, in a factory in the city of Halab, as the officers were attempting to mount a chemical warhead with mustard gas on a Scud-C missile.

A fire which started in the missile's engine led to an explosion near a storage location of chemical substances. The blast spread lethal chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX gas and sarin nerve gas, which are considered extremely toxic and are banned for use according to international treaties. Jane's Magazine reports that the explosion killed 15 Syrian officers and dozens of Iranian engineers who were in the facility. Dozens of people were injured. The incident was reported at the time by Syria's official news agency, but the report only included information on the Syrian casualties and did not mention the Iranian representatives.

The Syrian report also claimed that the explosion was caused by a "heat wave" in the country, although the blast took place at around 4:30 am, and that the Syrian government rejected the possibility of sabotage.

According to the British magazine, the facility where the accident took place was built as part of a cooperation agreement signed between Syria and Iran in 2005. The joint activity included technological supply and assistance from Syria to Iran.

Defenseless enemies are fun

Folks, you know that photo of that smirking, arrogant cocky Muslim who holds a protest sign that says "May allah make a mushroom cloud over Israel" to represent how peaceful his fake religion is?

The following article is for him.

Keep smiling, punk. The next mushroom cloud you beg for, could very well be over Mecca and Damascus. So be careful what you wish for, cur.

Folks, I encourage you to read the following excellent article from Dr. Jack Wheeler, Silence in Syria, Panic in Iran, which can be read in full only if you register:

Wednesday, 19 September 2007

One of India's top ranking generals assigned to liaise with the Iranian military recently returned to New Delhi from several days in Tehran - in a state of complete amazement.

"Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing," he reports. "No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over and over again, 'Do you think the Americans will attack us?' 'When will the Americans attack us?' 'Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation with the Israelis?' How massive will the attack be?' on and on, endlessly. The Iranians are in a state of total panic."

And that was before September 6. Since then, it's panic-squared in Tehran. The mullahs are freaking out in fear. Why? Because of the silence in Syria.

On September 6, Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16s conducted a devastating attack on targets deep inside Syria near the c ity of Dayr az-Zawr. Israel's military censors have muzzled the Israeli media, enforcing an extraordinary silence about the identity of the targets. Massive speculation in the world press has followed, such as Brett Stephens' Osirak II in yesterday's (9/18) Wall St. Journal.

Stephens and most everyone else have missed the real story. It is not Israel's silence that "speaks volumes" as he claims, but Syria's. Why would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about an act of war perpetrated on their soil?

The first half of the answer lies in this story that appeared in the Israeli media last month (8/13): Syria's Antiaircraft System Most Advanced In World. Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree spending vast sums on Russian systems, "considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology."

Syria now "possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world," with "more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types," some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria "before being introduced into Russian operation service."

While you're digesting that, take a look at the map of Syria:

Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cuttin <> g edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th.

Nothing.

El blanko. Silence. The systems didn't even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn't even know they were blinded.

Now you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless. They thought they were protected - at enormous expense - only to discover they are defenseless. As in naked.

Thus the Great Iranian Freak-Out - for this means Iran is just as nakedly defenseless as Syria. I can tell you that there are a lot of folks in the Kirya (IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv) and the Pentagon right now who are really enjoying the mullahs' predicament. Let's face it: scaring the terror masters in Tehran out of their wits is fun.

It's so much fun, in fact, that an attack destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and the Revolutionary Guard command/control centers has been delayed, so t hat France (under new management) can get in on the fun too.

On Sunday (9/16), Sarkozy's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner announced that "France should prepare for the possibility of war over Iran's nuclear program."

All of this has caused Tehran to respond with maniacal threats. On Monday (9/17), a government website proclaimed that "600 Shihab-3 missiles" will be fired at targets in Israel in response to an attack upon Iran by the US/Israel. This was followed by Iranian deputy air force chief Gen. Mohammad Alavi announcing today (9/19) that "we will attack their (Israeli) territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack."

A sure sign of panic is to make a threat that everyone knows is a bluff. So our and Tel Aviv's response to Iranian bluster is a thank-you-for-sharing yawn and a laugh. Few things rattle the mullahs'cages more than a yawn and a laugh. Yet no matter how much fun this sport with the mullahs is, it is also deadly serious. The pressure build-up on Iran is getting enormous. Something is going to blow and soon. The hope is that the blow-up will be internal, that the regime will implode from within.

But make no mistake: an all-out full regime take-out air assault upon Iran is coming if that hope doesn't materialize within the next 60 to 90 days. The Sept. 6 attack on Syria was the shot across Iran's bow.

So - what was attacked near Dayr az-Zawr? It's possible it was North Korean "nuclear material" recently shipped to Syria, i.e., stuff to make radioactively "dirty" warheads, but nothing to make a real nuke with as the Norks don't have real nukes (see Why North Korea's Nuke Test Is Such Good News, October 2006).

Another possibility is it was to take out a stockpile of long-range Zilzal surface-to-surface missiles recently shipped from Iran for an attack on Israel.

A third is it was a hit on the stockpile of Saddam's chemical/bio weapons snuck out of Iraq and into Syria for safekeeping before the US invasion of April 2003.

But the identity of the target is not the story - for the primary point of the attack was not to destroy that target. It was to shut down Syria's Russian air defense system during the attack. Doing so made the attack an incredible success.

Syria is shamed and silent. Iran is freaking out in panic. Defenseless enemies are fun.

The Arabic Channel: The Islamist Trojan Horse

From The Arabic Channel: The Islamist Trojan Horse:

Have you watched the Arabic Channel, also known as TAC, which serves the New York region? If you are among the estimated 1 million viewers, Arabic-speaking immigrants to the tri-state area, who tune in to Channel 507 on Time Warner Cable, this is what you can get: A daily dose of Islamic jurisprudence from Egyptian sheik Amr Khaled, direct from Cairo, on how the duty of every Arab-American is to become first, second, and only, a member of the Muslim Ummah. A nightly helping of Syria's CNN-style digest of the world, sent fresh from Damascus.