The bodyguard who assassinated President Hamid Karzai's brother had been working closely with US Special Forces and the CIA before he was recruited by the Taliban, raising fears over the Islamist movement's increasingly sophisticated intelligence apparatus which has managed to threaten the inner circles of power in Afghanistan.
Then again, he may always have been a Taliban agent and played a double game against the CIA.
Sardar Mohammad, who shot Ahmed Wali Karzai at his home in Kandahar City on Tuesday, also held regular meetings with British officials, and had two brothers-in-law serving in a CIA-run paramilitary unit, the Kandahar Strike Force, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
Yet evidence is emerging that the Taliban recruited Mohammad -- who was believed to be a friend, confidant and trusted lieutenant of Ahmed Wali Karzai -- in an infiltration of the Afghan government's security apparatus. "Our investigation shows that for the last three months he was acting out of character, not normal, erratic," said Mahmoud Karzai, another Karzai brother. "He wasn't sleeping, he was nervous, he was getting phone calls in the middle of the night, and our information shows he made a trip to Quetta [in Pakistan] and met with some Taliban. His father was a mullah. So all these things combined, plus the Taliban claim of responsibility... but our preliminary investigation indicates this was the work of the Taliban."
Security analysts say that, if true, it shows not only the problems facing the Afghan army and police as they start taking control of the country from Nato, but also how sophisticated Taliban intelligence operations have become.
The immediate assumption after Ahmed Karzai's death was that Mohammad was pursuing a personal vendetta, largely because the notion of defection to the Taliban was so hard to credit. But that seems to be what happened. The insurgents "get these very big victories quite often and I think probably we underestimate the [Taliban's] intelligence components," said one Western analyst. "They do have dedicated intelligence officers. And that's not just about gathering information but also about infiltration, using whatever combination of blackmail or ideological levers [they need to ... The killing] is a really excellent indication of the sophistication of Taliban intelligence networks. It's something we don't know enough about -- how it breaks down," the analyst said.
But what makes Mohammad's defection so remarkable is just how close he was to Ahmed Wali Karzai. The Washington Post says he met the Kandahar strongman six days a week. Ahmed Wali Karzai would pay the salaries of his policemen if the government was in arrears, and had taken his mother to Mohammad's house.
The real question is, what was going on with Ahmed Wali Karzai such that the Taliban wanted Mohammad to whack him that day? You'd think Mohammad, being a personal bodyguard, was more valuable for what he'd hear and relay back to the Taliban. The Taliban could have whacked Ahmed any day given that they had Mohammad in place. What was going on that day?
A Somali terror group has allegedly recruited more than 20 young men from Minnesota to fight against the Ethopian army.
Details of how a carefully-organised Islamist cell raised money, created fake itineraries and held secret meetings have emerged ahead of the trial of one suspected leader. Omer Abdi Mohamed, 26, is one of 18 men charged with recruiting young Somalis from Minneapolis to join terror group al-Shabab, which has links to Al Qaeda.
Since 2007, at least 21 men have left Minnesota for Somalia, where they arrived at safehouses and were given AK-47s and weapons training, court documents claim, before fighting Ethiopian troops. Back in Minnesota, members of the cell raised money for their trip by duping the Somali community into thinking the cash was to give aid to their home country. Mohamed never travelled to Somalia, but he is accused of helping others who did.
His lawyer has dismissed the allegations as ridiculous. Peter Wold said: 'Omer was never involved in terrorism. It certainly stirs the public sentiment to suggest that, but it is not part of this case, not a part of Omer, and that will be abundantly clear.'
Standard pious verbiage about Somalia being without a functioning government since the year dot removed on the grounds that even small children know that by now.
According to prosecutors, from September 2007, Mohamed and others conspired to raise money to send men to Somalia so they could oust the Ethiopians with violence. Others were also recruited to the cause. The group held meetings at mosques and restaurants, and took measures to keep things secretive.
Prosecutors said: 'The defendant and his conspirators strove to keep the plan secret, reminding members not to discuss it with anyone outside of the conspiracy, and policing entry into the group.
Mohamed and the other 17 men who have been charged allegedly went to malls and apartments, falsely telling members of the Somali community they were raising money to build a mosque or help relief efforts in their home country. The money actually went to the travellers, who planned to join one group member's relative - a senior member of al-Shabab - in Somalia.
The group stopped two recruits from leaving Minnesota in the fall of 2007 because they were too young, and decided their disappearance would draw attention to the plan, the documents said.
It read: 'They challenged members of the conspiracy who had planned to travel, questioning their commitment, dedication, and knowledge of both the religion and events in Somalia, before ultimately assisting them with the trip.
In Minneapolis, the conspiracy focused on travelling and funding trips and in Somalia, it focused on the use of safe-houses and weapons training, prosecutors said. Some Minneapolis men helped clear brush for a training camp, and some participated in a July 2008 ambush of Ethiopian troops along a road in Somalia. The preparations and the ambush were filmed as part of a propaganda video. Prosecutors say in that video, a man from Minneapolis encourages more men to join the fighters in Somalia.
Mohamed's trial starts on Tuesday with jury selection.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A hospital on Sunday denied a report No, no! Certainly not! that Egypt's ailing former president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... had fallen into a "full coma," two weeks before he is due to go on trial for murder and corruption.
"The former president is in a full coma after his health suddenly deteriorated," state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
quoted Mubarak's lawyer as saying.
But minutes later, the head of the hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where Mubarak is being treated denied that the former strongman, now 83, had gone into a coma, the channel reported.
"Sharm el-Sheikh hospital chief denies reports of Mubarak coma," according to a scrolling headline on the television.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... another medical source was less clear cut, telling AFP: "It seems there has been some deterioration in his health, but the reports of a coma are still unclear."
Mubarak has been in the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital since April when he suffered a heart attack during questioning over alleged fraud and the killing of protesters during the uprising which ousted him in February.
The former president has denied accusations he was involved in corruption and ordered the killing of protesters during the unrest that broke out on January 25, leaving nearly 850 people dead and more than 6,000 injured.
"I would never participate in the killing of Egyptian citizens and would never seize state money and I have never acquired anything illegally," he told Sherlocks, in a transcript published by the independent daily Al-Dustur.
"I gave orders to deal with the protesters without violence, peacefully, without the use of weapons, or bullets or even carrying weapons during the protests," Mubarak reportedly said.
The former president is due to go on trial on August 3.
On Saturday, officials said Mubarak's trial would most likely be held in Sharm el-Sheikh for security reasons.
He could either be put in the dock or questioned by court officials in his hospital room, with the rest of the trial proceedings taking place in a court room, the official said.
An interior ministry official told AFP the trial location "has not been completely settled, but Mubarak will most likely be tried in Sharm el-Sheikh."
It was not immediately clear whether his two sons would be transferred to a Sharm el-Sheikh prison from Cairo if the hearings take place in the resort.
Protesters who have staged a sit-in for more than a week in Cairo's Tahrir Square, epicentre of the demonstrations that ousted Mubarak, demand his transfer to Cairo and accuse the ruling military of delaying the trials of former regime officials.
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The trial of five bloggers who demanded democratic reforms in the UAE is set to resume on Monday.
Ahmed Mansoor, Nasser bin Ghaith, Fahad Salim Dalk, Ahmed Abdul Khaleq and Hassan Ali al-Khamis stand accused of "publicly insulting" top officials in the UAE after being arrested in April.
On Sunday, four international human rights groups released a statement condemning the trial and called for their release of the five activists.
Ahmed Mansoor, an engineer and human rights advocate, and Nasser bin Ghaith, an economist and lecturer at Sorbonne University in the UAE, have been charged with using the site, UAE Hewar (Dialogue) to "conspire against the safety and security of the state in association with foreign powers."
Mansoor also faces charges of inciting others and calling for demonstrations. In March, he backed a petition signed by more than 130 people demanding an elected parliament with legislative powers.
May explosion attributed to PKK was meant to be retaliation for Mossad's alleged hit on Iranian nuclear physicist, Italian newspaper reports.
A bomb hidden on a motorcycle that exploded in the Etiler district of Istanbul injuring eight people in late May was carried out by members of Hezbollah and targeted Israeli Consul General to Istanbul Moshe Kamhi, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Monday. According to the report, the plot came in response to the Mossad's alleged assassination of Iranian nuclear physicist Masoud Ali Muhammedi in Tehran in 2010.
A bit delayed, but ok.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack but officials pointed to the Kurdish militant organization the PKK.
According to the report, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Al-Quds Force carried out surveillance of the area, noting the route that Kamhi commonly took. They then contracted Lebanese members of Hezbollah to carry out the attack itself. The report stated that the plan failed because of countermeasures taken by the Israeli diplomat and Turkish counter-terrorism services.
Israel denied knowledge of the Hezbollah plot. Turkish intelligence sources also denied the report, saying,"Israel carries out similar disinformation campaigns through newspapers from time to time," Hurriyet reported.
* MEMRI.ORG > SYRIAN TRIBAL LEADER AHMED AL-SHLASH THREATENS TO BARBECUE US AMBASSADOR TO SYRIA "WITH OR WITHOUT SALT", oer the latter's visit to Deir-al-Zoun].
Ay Pee summarized: Father of Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan-American who was arrested for plotting to blow up New York City's subways in 2009 at the behest of Al Qaeda in Yemen, is going on trial for obstructing justice by tampering with evidence and lying to authorities about his son. The senior Mr. Zazi's brother-in-law will testify against him.
One hates to do such things to a venerable paterfamilias, but one of the costs of citizenship is not protecting relatives committing war against the neighbors .
AHMEDABAD: Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen has tied up with Taliban for sinister plans in India. Crime branch officers, who arrested a key IM operative, Danish Riyaz, in June claim to have unearthed details of the joint venture between IM and Taliban.
A senior crime branch officer said, "Emails and correspondence of Danish with five top terror operatives, including Haroon of Kolkata, have revealed this conspiracy across international borders. Haroon had also been to Hyderabad to meet Danish to discuss their plans."
These developments had taken place before Danish was arrested from Vadodara railway station in June. "According to Haroon's emails, 10 hand-picked youth from across the country were to be sent to Pakistan and then Afghanistan for terror training," said another senior officer of the crime branch.
Haroon is a suspect in the Mumbai blasts case and is believed to have been in touch with Taliban leaders, said the police. They are now probing whether the 10 youth were selected and sent for the special Taliban training programme.
"Danish has made crucial disclosures in this regard. We cannot reveal more at this juncture," said a crime branch officer. Danish, while in Jharkhand, had provided shelter to 2008 blast accused Tauqeer, Mujib and Abdul Raziq. He was wanted by the crime branch for this role in the serial blasts.
Danish was headed towards Gujarat with one objectiveasking youth from the state to join IM. After the 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad, a number of IM men were arrested. This had weakened the IM network in the state.
Crime branch investigators said: "We believe that Danish had spoken to some people in Gujarat before he came to the state. We are working to identify these local contacts."
To tide over a financial crisis faced by IM, the operatives had carried out a robbery in Madhya Pradesh. Later, 17 people were arrested in this regard and they confessed to their involvement with IM and that the money was to be used for terror strikes.
"Danish acted as the treasurer and head-hunter for IM. He used to manage all the funds generated by various means. The money was used to support families of IM operatives who have been caught in various terror attacks," said crime branch officers.
It's a good thing the one thing India has plenty of is people willing to work, whatever the task.
MUMBAI/AHMEDABAD: Police have zeroed in on a suspect at the site of the Opera House bombing after scanning the CCTV images they have retrieved from the 13/7 site. Investigators said the movements of one particular man, who locals and office-goers at the diamond-trading hub did not recognize, appear suspicious and they have prepared a sketch of him. The sketch has been sent to security agencies across the country, but won't be released to the public so that investigations are not hampered.
Eleven people died in the Opera House blast in Wednesday's triple bombing. Another eight died at Zaveri Bazar.
Investigators said the Opera House suspect is seen roaming the area for around two to three hours before the blast. "With the help of eyewitnesses and locals we are trying to identify individuals in the images. One such person has not been identified by the locals. We have prepared a sketch of this man. We have good leads with us," said Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Rakesh Maria.
The police are also focusing on 15 faces seen in CCTV images taken from the Zaveri Bazar blast site as locals, shopkeepers there could not recognize them.
Maharashtra ATS teams also fanned out to places like Gujarat, Bengal and Bhatkal in Karnataka to follow up clues.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat police believe they may have previously overlooked clues to the Mumbai blasts in emails sent by an arrested Indian Mujahideen (IM) member. The emails of Danish Riyaz, 29, who was arrested nearly 20 days before the Mumbai blasts, appear innocuous, but may have hidden information that could provide leads, said investigators. Danish was held for the July 26, 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts.
The Ahmedabad crime branch is looking for leads in four emails sent by Danish to IM top brass, including Abdus Subhan alias Tauqeer, Manzhar Chaudhary, Abu Faisal and Mujeeb Sheikh. TOI reported on Saturday that Faisal and Sheikh were caught by the ATS recently and were a focal point of the investigation. Investigators believe that Mujeeb may know the identity of the five to six bombers. The Gujarat police have also found the name of Haroon, who is from Kolkata and a suspect in the Mumbai blasts, in Danish's mailing list.
When Danish was first probed, the emails didn't make sense, but now the Ahmedabad crime branch is taking help from central agencies to read the fine print. The police suspect he knows the whereabouts of Tauqeer and Chaudhary. Tauqeer, who allegedly masterminded the Ahmedabad blasts, is said to be at the UP-Nepal border. The Gujarat police suspect that youths from Azamgarh, UP, were also used in the 13/7 blasts and have sent a team there. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) interrogated Danish two days ago and is sure that Faisal and Sheikh know about the Mumbai attacks. Faisal practises alternate medicine in Indore, MP, and is Danish's senior in the IM. Sheikh belongs to Juhapura, Ahmedabad.
Interestingly, 35 detonators and explosive substances, including ammonium nitrate, went missing from the Silvassa police's custody in Gujarat in May-June. The equipment had been seized from suspects.
Maharashtra ATS teams have left for various locations, like Gujarat, West Bengal, Bhopal, Pune, Sarai Mir in Uttar Pradesh, Bhatkal in Karnataka, Delhi and so on. "The NIA and other central agencies are also assisting the probe," said Maria at a press briefing on Saturday.
Maria has sought details of two associates of Abdullah, a Kolkata resident, from West Bengal Special Task Force chief, Rajib Kumar. The two, like Abdullah, are missing. Maria was tightlipped when asked whether there was local support or if the Mumbai underworld played a role in the blasts.
"All three bombs were of high intensity," he said. He said three digital timed devices were used in the bombs. "We still don't know whether a cellular phone was used to trigger the bombs. A forensic report is awaited," he added. "We are ruling out the possibility of a suicide bomber."
On the explosives used, he said, "The strong presence of ammonium nitrate has been found but we are trying to find out the other ingredients." Sources said that TNT, which has been used in blasts in India, could have been used along with ammonium nitrate. Sources said that if TNT was mixed with ammonium nitrate, it would suggest good skills in bomb making. It is learnt that several police teams are being helped by "neutralized" IM and Simi members. They are helping police visit suspects across the country. It is learnt that at least 10 neutralized IM or Simi members are assisting the police.
A joint Mumbai ATS and crime branch team returned empty handed from Indore on Saturday morning. The team had questioned eight suspected Simi members. "Five of them are still in jail while three have been granted bail," said an ATS source.
At least six teams are scanning the CCTV footage. "It's a voluminous and tedious process," said Maria. An ATS officer said, "We are working on all unidentified people. Each CCTV frame has more than six to seven people at a time and we have to check the whole day's CCTV images."
"The forensic experts have collected debris that contain metal, which we suspect was part of containers used to store and transport the bombs.... However, it's too early to say whether they were tiffin boxes," Maria said. The forensic experts said the metal pieces found at the three sites are similar, but tiny. Forensic experts are yet to conclude whether the metal is steel or aluminum. The Zaveri Bazar blast took place outside a scrap shop, which already had a lot of metal pieces.
"Several motorcycles and scooters were recovered from the spots and the owners are being called and verified. Investigators are still working on one scooter which has not been claimed," said Maria.
Phone interceptions are on and over a hundred new phones are under surveillance. The police are also examining two calls made after the blasts from Jalna and Aurangabad districts to the police control room. Forensic experts and investigators will be recreating the blast scenes to verify the intensity of the blasts.
ISLAMABAD: The Sikh community in the eastern city of Lahore has been barred from organising a religious ceremony at a disputed gurdwara after a religious group persuaded authorities that celebrating the Muslim holy day of 'Shab-e-Barat' is more important than the Sikh festival. The musical equipment of the Sikhs was thrown out and their entry to the gurdwara barred due to the efforts of the Dawat-e-Islami, a Barelvi proselytising group,
Barelvis are the Jets to the Deobandi Sharks, the native Sufi-based variety of Islam vs.the imported-from-Arabia Wahabbi Deobands. While believing themselves moderate, they aren't much nicer to kaffirs.
a Pakistani newspaper reported on Sunday.
Police were deployed outside the gurdwara to prevent Sikhs from conducting the religious ceremony until after the end of Shab-e-Barat, which falls on Monday. The Sikh community wanted to commemorate an eighteenth-century saint at the gurdwara on Friday.
Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore was built to honour the memory of a Sikh saint who was executed in 1745 on the orders of the Mughal governor of Punjab, Zakaria Khan. Every July, Sikhs hold religious ceremonies to commemorate his sacrifice.
Though the gurdwara was taken over by the Evacuee Trust Property Board after Partition, Sikhs were allowed to continue using it with relatively few restrictions. Four years ago, the Dawat-e-Islami claimed the gurdwara was located on the site of the grave of a 15th century Muslim saint, Pir Shah Kaku.
The group claimed Kaku was the grandson of Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar, an "implausible claim" since Ganjshakar died in 1280 while it claims that Kaku died almost 200 years later, in 1477, the daily reported.
[Dawn] Pakistain on Saturday offered to assist India in investigations into the Mumbai triple bombing that left 19 dead.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. , during a telephonic conversation with his Indian counterpart P Chidambaram, expressed the confidence that the culprits would be unmasked and brought to book.
He hoped that cooperation and good neighbourly relations between the two governments and the nations would continue in future due to the earnest desire and endeavours of the leadership of the two countries.
He offered his heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in the recent Mumbai blast and expressed his sympathies to the Government of India and bereaved families of the victims of tragedy.
Three kabooms rocked the financial capital of India in the biggest terror incident since the 26/11 incident in 2008 that had brought tension in Pak-India relations and stalled composite dialogue process between the two South Asian nuclear powers.
The 26/11 attacks had been blamed on Pakistain even before the start of investigations, but this time sanity appears to have prevailed with the clear indications that the upcoming foreign secretary level talks between the two countries were on track.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics:... Indian detectives "have good leads" on the three blasts which rocked the country's financial hub, a top official said on Saturday, as the corpse count from the coordinated kabooms rose to 19, adds AFP.
Two men who were seriously injured in Wednesday's rush-hour bombings died in hospital, a home ministry statement said.
Twenty people remained in a serious condition in hospital as a result of the blasts in which a total of over 130 were hurt, the ministry said.
The rise in the corpse count came as Mumbai residents held candle-lit vigils to mourn the victims of the blasts, the deadliest attacks in the city since the 2008 siege by Islamist beturbanned goons in which 166 people died.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the latest attacks in Mumbai, located in the western state of Maharashtra, but police say their investigation is making headway.
"I can very confidently say that we have got good leads," Rakesh Maria, head of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad, said at a news conference in the city.
"We have a reasonable assumption as to what happened at the three locations."Investigators have been scrambling for a breakthrough in the case, amid fears torrential downpours that have hit Mumbai since the kabooms may have washed away
vital clues.
Police have been questioning two suspected members of the Indian Mujahideen A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor... , a domestic Islamist group with links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistain-based turban outfit blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Home Secretary R.K. Singh told news hounds in New Delhi that "people are being questioned based on our previous databases and previous known linkages"to help find those responsible for the blasts.
Teams of detectives were also scouring hours of grainy security camera footage taken from the bomb sites in south and south central Mumbai to try to assemble a full picture of what happened.
"We are taking the help of technical experts to improve the quality of the (grainy) image and I think in 24 to 48 hours we should able to get a better image," Maharashtra state's anti-terrorism squad chief told news hounds.
He said that authorities also expected to produce a sketch of a suspect soon.
Police examination of debris has already indicated that the bombs, hidden in the crowded streets, used ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser ingredient commonly used in improvised bombs.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata that beturbanned goons were mistaken if they thought that they would be able to destabilise India through "terrorist acts".
"If the faceless myrmidons feel that they will be able to destabilise India, then they are utterly mistaken and we will be able to overcome the challenge," he told news hounds, according to the Press Trust of India.
"Incidents of such a nature will only strengthen our resolve to fight terrorism," he said.
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#1
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during a telephonic conversation with his Indian counterpart P Chidambaram, expressed the confidence that the culprits would be unmasked and brought to book.
The OJay response. We'll find the real killers for ya. In other words cover up evidence.
#2
It's a good analysis, JohnQC, well worth your time to go read at the link. Bottom line, Hamas has something like 10,000 rockets and missiles, quite a few capable of hitting the northern part of Israel with professional accuracy -- because they were manufactured and supplied by Iran. While this is an escalation from the very low levels of the last few months, it is nothing like the 120 missiles Hamas shot off over one weekend In April that triggered the last biggish response. Finally, Israel isn't ready for the big war that's coming.
My personal feeling is that Israel did well with the Gaza Flotilla and doesn't want to give various "friends" any excuse to vote for Palestinian nationhood at the U.N. In September, or be otherwise "helpful" -- including those wonderful people in the White House.
#3
To put it another way, while the increase is huge on a percentage basis (orders of magnitude of the previous months), the previous months were hugging the lower end of the range near zero, nowhere near the historic average, let alone above it.
#5
Israel is extremely concerned by the major increase in weapons and explosives smuggling into Gaza since Hosni Mubaraks downfall in February.
T.W. The increase in smuggling ought to be a concern for the West--Three times the amount of arms smuggled into Gaza since the turnout of Mubarak compared to all of 2010. Unfortunately, we do not have a president who shows much concern for Israel. Hopefully 2012 will change that.
(KUNA) -- Israeli defense officials showed on Sunday increased support for resolving the crisis between Israel and Turkey following the Mavi Marmara affair, even at the price of an apology to Ankara by Jerusalem, daily reported.
The Haaretz daily said that internal discussions between defense officials and Justice Ministry officials over the past few weeks have suggested that a cautious apology could stop possible lawsuits by Turkish organizations against Israel Defense Forces officers and bring the affair to an end.
A report by the UN-sponsored Palmer Committee on the incident, of which Israel received a draft earlier this month, is scheduled to be released in a few weeks.
The report focuses on the events of May 31, 2010, when nine Turkish nationals were killed and dozens of participants were maimed after Israeli commandos took over the ship, which was part of a flotilla to Gazoo, the daily added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end... UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... has been trying to reach a compromise between Turkey and Israel.
Haaretz said, the committee determined that Israel used excessive force and said deaths could have been prevented in several cases - although participants armed with clubs and iron rods attacked the commanders as they descended from a helicopter to the ship.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has recently come out publicly against an apology, which he said would humiliate Israel and serve as a blow to national pride.
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[An Nahar] A French general specialized in anti-terror operations headed the team that won the release of the seven Estonian tourists in the Bekaa valley on Wednesday, Ad-Diyar daily reported.
The newspaper said that the general is a member of the French intelligence and expert in Lebanese affairs.
The team from the Direction Centrale du Renseignement Interieur (D.C.R.I) won the release of the Estonian cyclists in the Bekaa town of al-Taybeh, Ad-Diyar reported.
It added that the general had worked as an investigator into the liquidation of the military attache at the French Embassy Col. Christian Gouttierre near the French mission's building in the Beirut suburb of Mar Taqla in 1986.
The Estonians, in their 30s and early 40s, were kidnapped at gunpoint on March 23 while on a cycling holiday near the eastern town of Zahle, after arriving from Syria.
The identity of the kidnappers remains unknown and the extent of the Lebanese authorities' involvement in the release is also unclear. The media has said that top Lebanese officials weren't aware of the operation and only knew about it the last minute.
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[An Nahar] Two Syrian officials are among the names included in new arrest warrants to be issued by the Special Tribunal for Leb, the Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa reported Sunday.
It quoted sources close to the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... -led opposition as saying that two Syrian officials will be accused of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 liquidation.
They warned that the naming of the two persons in public would shake the situation in both Syria and Leb.
Al-Anbaa reported on Saturday that the STL will issue 14 arrest warrants against officials and military figures from Lebanese and other nationalities.
The STL submitted a confidential indictment and arrest warrants for four suspects in June. The names were not released but were leaked to the media.
Mustafa Badreddin, Salim Ayyash, Assad Sabra and Hussein Anaissi are all members of Hizbullah.
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[An Nahar] The prosecutor investigating the worst terror strike on Argentine soil, the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charities building that killed 85 people, urged Iran Saturday to hand over any suspects in the case.
The comments came after an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement said earlier in the day that Tehran, suspected by Argentina of being behind the attack, is "ready for a constructive dialogue" in the case and to cooperate with the Argentine government.
"If the Iranians and their government are ready to cooperate, they should do so once and for all, and the only way possible: by handing over all of those accused in this terrible terrorist attack... and not making statements devoid of content which lead nowhere," prosecutor Alberto Nisman said in a statement.
Iran said it wanted "to shed all possible light within the framework of the law and to help in preventing the investigation from continuing on an erroneous course."
Monday will mark 17 years since the strike, which Argentine justice officials believe Tehran ordered. Iran has denied the allegation.
Iran "condemns all terrorist actions, especially the one against the Argentine Jewish center in 1994, and declares its solidarity with the families of the victims," the Iranian statement added.
Israel has pointed the finger at Hizbullah for carrying out the attacks, which the Jewish state believes were criminal masterminded by Tehran.
Argentina has issued warrants for the arrest of Iranian Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi along with five other Iranians and a Lebanese accused of planning and carrying out the AMIA bombing.
Both Iran and Hizbullah have consistently denied any involvement in the attacks.
In the 1994 attack, the bomb that leveled the seven-storey AMIA building also maimed 300 people.
Two years earlier, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was hit by a bomb which killed 29 people and maimed 200.
In June, Argentina's Jewish community was outraged after a visit to neighboring Bolivia by Vahidi, noting that there had been an international arrest warrant out on Vahidi since 2007.
The La Paz government, in a letter to Argentina, said it had been unaware of any charges against Vahidi and said Bolivia "had taken steps to ensure that that Mr. Ahmad Vahidi left Bolivian territory immediately."
But a leader of Argentina's Jewish community, Aldo Donzis, said the Bolivian government's actions fell far short of what was required under the circumstances.
"What was called for was not his expulsion, but his arrest."
Earlier this year, a press report in Argentina claimed Foreign Minister Hector Timerman had offered to shelve a probe into Iran's involvement, which he strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! .
The March 26 report quoted a "secret" Iranian memo purportedly sent earlier this year from Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad which said: "Argentina is no longer interested in solving those two attacks, but would rather improve its economic relations with Iran."
According to the memo, allegedly written after a meeting in January between Timerman and Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... , Buenos Aires was said to be "prepared to drop" the investigation in order to better its financial ties with Tehran.
Timerman said in April that the report was illogical and that Buenos Aires had nothing to gain economically by shelving the investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"Hizbullah ... ...criminal masterminded by Tehran" > as does most of the rest of the World, ala INTEL, back then + AFAIK even now.
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.
The bodyguard who assassinated President Hamid Karzai's brother had been working closely with US Special Forces and the CIA before he was recruited by the Taliban, raising fears over the Islamist movement's increasingly sophisticated intelligence apparatus which has managed to threaten the inner circles of power in Afghanistan.
A hospital on Sunday 
[Dawn] Pakistain on Saturday offered to assist India in investigations into the Mumbai triple bombing that left 19 dead.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Mahmoud 
President-for-Life Bashir 
