(via Debka)
A large Lebanese army force which raided the Lebanese Internet network center on Mt. Barukh east of the Lebanese town of Jezzine Saturday, Aug. 8 was dismayed to discover the exchange center which carries all of Lebanon's Internet links using equipment made in Israel. An intelligence sweep found the servers were routed to an exchange center in Haifa.
The soldiers impounded piles of equipment and rounded up several detainees at the mountain center and several Lebanese Internet companies.
Upon learning of the discovery, Hizballah demanded an immediate and thorough investigation of how all of Israeli intelligence acquired free access to all Lebanese internet communications like an open book.
In recent months, Lebanon has seen one suspected Israeli spy network after another exposed across the country. Wednesday, Aug. 5, DEBKAfile first disclosed that the spy rings were not busted by Lebanese intelligence but by agents of the Russian Federal Security Service - FSB working undercover in Lebanon since early this year at the invitation of the Lebanese Shiite Hizballlah.
Russian agents may also have led the Lebanese army to their discovery of the Israeli data center on Mt. Barukh.
Continued on Page 47
Strained relations between Britain and Iran have been aggravated by the inclusion of an embassy worker at a mass trial in Tehran.
The Foreign Office said it was "outraged" that the British embassy's chief political analyst was on trial. It said his appearance contradicted assurances given by senior Iranian officials and was "completely unacceptable".
Hossein Rassam, an Iranian national, has been accused of spying and inciting unrest after the disputed presidential elections.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was deeply concerned at the "unjustified charges" laid against Mr Rassam. "Hossein is a member of our embassy staff going about his legitimate duties," he said. "Iranian action against him, and [others]... only brings further discredit on the Iranian regime."
Mr Rassam was one of nine embassy staff arrested in the wake of protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11139 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Iran Press TV Latest] Only days after his inauguration, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will submit his new Cabinet line-up to Parliament for a vote of confidence early next week.
"I will introduce the tenth government's cabinet to the Iranian Parliament early next week," President Ahmadinejad was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying. The Iranian president, however, did not provide a specific date for the announcement.
Ahmadinejad was sworn in on Wednesday for a second four-year term following widespread opposition protests against the result of the June 12 election that granted him a landslide victory. Despite the opposition's refusal to acknowledge Ahmadinejad as president, Iran's Guardian Council, the body responsible for overseeing the election, disputed all allegations against the validity of the vote.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, for his part, formally endorsed the president on Monday.
The newly-installed president has two weeks to set up a government and submit the new Cabinet line-up to Majlis for approval. Earlier in June, Ahmadinejad announced that the cabinet will undergo "major changes" to comply with the needs of his second term in office.
In line with his decision for major changes, the Iranian president said on Saturday that there will be "an unprecedented number of young people" in the new Cabinet.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Shines with splendor Hunh?
I recall dead folks shine as they decay.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/09/2009 14:16 Comments ||
Top||
An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.
The European Union, France and Britain all condemned the trial. The Swedish EU presidency said in a statement "action against one EU country, citizen or embassy staff, is considered an action against all of the EU."
"This is obviously a show trial directed against the EU," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told Reuters.
It was the second mass trial in a week aimed at uprooting the moderate opposition and putting an end to protests that erupted after the disputed June 12 presidential election.
At least 26 protesters have been killed and scores arrested in post-election violence. Moderates say the poll was rigged for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win, but officials say it was the "healthiest" vote since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The protests have exposed deep rifts within the clerical establishment in Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil producer.
French citizen Clotilde Reiss was charged with "acting against national security by taking part in unrest ... collecting news and information and sending pictures of the unrest abroad," state news agency IRNA said.
Espionage and acting against national security are punishable by death under Iran's Islamic law.
Reiss, a teaching assistant, confessed her "mistakes" and asked for clemency, IRNA said. Nazak Afshar, an Iranian working for the French embassy, was also charged with "providing information over the vote unrest to foreigners."
"We were not authorized by the embassy to go to rallies but we were told to shelter protesters if necessary," Afshar said.
The British embassy employee, Hossein Rassam, was charged with espionage and confessed to handing information about the unrest to Washington, IRNA said.
"The local staff were asked by their superiors at the British embassy to attend the riots," IRNA quoted Rassam as telling the court. Rassam was freed on $100,000 bail on July 19.
"Several British diplomats attended rallies ... The British ambassador and the charge d'affaires also went to a rally."
Lebanese Druz leader Walid Jumblatt says the language used against Iran, which put Tehran on a similar level of hostility as Israel, was "mistaken".
It seems that Jumblatt, who recently played the leading part in a major political power shift in the country, has now changed his tune on Iran as well. The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, who has recently been making the headlines in Lebanon, told the local As-Safir daily that Iran's role in the region could not be ignored. In a keynote address at Beirut's Beaurivage Hotel on August 2, Jumblatt sent shock waves around the Lebanese capital by announcing that his alliance with the Western-backed March 14 coalition had been "driven by necessity and must end".
The development proved that his alliance with the March 14 coalition was the key to the group's victory in the recent parliamentary elections. That announcement, shifted political balance in favor of the Hezbollah-led opposition, which had won a total of 57 seats in parliament in comparison to the US and French-backed ruling majority's 71 seats. Guess they met Wally's price, huh?
The former March 14 heavyweight's dramatic U-turn has taken Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri by surprise, forcing him to stall efforts to form a cabinet. According to comments by Caretaker Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Hariri left Lebanon on Tuesday for a brief vacation in France to "reflect and think quietly."
During the interview with As Safir, Jumblatt once again clarified his position by criticizing the March 14 group on matters such as their "unrealistic" and "insensitive" attitude toward the Palestinian issue and Israeli occupation of Arab land. Commenting on the issue of Hezbollah's arms- weapons which the group insists will help resist Israeli invasions- Jumblatt also said that dialogue must continue to determine how they can be absorbed and used in time.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
One more side effects of Obama behavior...
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
08/09/2009 12:33 Comments ||
Top||
[ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - A distant cousin of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been tipped to be chosen as the new commander of the Pakistani Taliban. Sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Hakimullah Mehsud is likely to be the new leader, but the move will be decided by Pakistan's shura or tribal council.
Hakimullah Mehsud, the deputy of the Pakistani Taliban, is the current leader of the militant Fedayeen al-Islam, or "Islamic Patriots", believed to be responsible for the bombing of the Islamabad Marriott which killed more than 54 people and injured 260 others in September last year.
Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US airstrike in the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan earlier this week, sources told AKI.
US and Pakistani officials were said to to be checking the reports while Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik confirmed he had "been taken out".
Some Taliban sources confirmed for the first time late Friday that Baitullah Mehsud was immediately killed in the drone strike while he was staying with his second wife.
His face and body were said to have been completely disfigured in the bombing raid and the Taliban immediately cordoned off the area for up to five square kilometres.
A Taliban shura or tribal council immediately met to discuss candidates to replace the slain leader.
There are several contenders for the position but the fierce Hakimullah's name is at the top of the list.
Hakimullah Mehsud currently commands the Taliban in the tribal areas of Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram, bordering Afghanistan.
He also has strong influence in Peshawar and other areas. Considered less intelligent than his predecessor, Hakimullah is known for his cheap jokes.
But he also has a merciless reputation and considered responsible for several high profile abductions including the abduction of an Afghan diplomat and an Iranian diplomat.
With Qari Hussain, a cousin of both Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud, Hakimullah established a reign of terror in the places like Dera Ismail Khan in North West Frontier Province, Orakzai agency and Peshawar with the targeted killings of Shias.
Supporters of Qari Hussain contacted AKI late Friday to say that Baitullah Mehsud was unharmed.
Hakimullah is also known for kidnappings in several Pakistani cities, and is believed to be responsible for orchestrating attacks on NATO supply routes from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Only days after his inauguration, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will submit his new Cabinet line-up to Parliament for a vote of confidence early next week. 
An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.
Lebanese Druz leader Walid Jumblatt says the language used against Iran, which put Tehran on a similar level of hostility as Israel, was "mistaken". 
[ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - A distant cousin of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been tipped to be chosen as the new commander of the Pakistani Taliban. Sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Hakimullah Mehsud is likely to be the new leader, but the move will be decided by Pakistan's shura or tribal council. 
