SYRIA MOVES 800 SCUD D MISSILES TO BORDER OF SYRIA AND LEBANON AND PLACED THEM IN FIRING POSITIONS
MAY 28 2010
Remember the Cuban Missile crisis was actually a Russian Missile crisis which must have looked like this.
An Unheard-of Number of 800 Scud Missiles Ready to Fire
A single Patriot anti-missile battery was stationed Monday, May
24, at Morag in northwestern Poland, less than 40
miles from the Russian naval and air bases in the enclave of Kaliningrad. A
hundred US troops were attached to the site for training Polish soldiers in
its use.
Although the Patriot was a pale relic of the missile shield President George
W. Bush planned for East Europe, it drew deep frowns in Moscow. Seekers of
comments were referred to the Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei
Nesterenko's statement of a month ago that such unilateral moves by the US
cannot be left unaddressed.
Russian pundits specializing in US-Russian relations took a somewhat sharper
tone, describing the move as a deliberate attempt to undermine
Russian-American relations.
What would the Russians have said if the United States, or any foreign power,
had parked not a single air defense Patriot, but 800 Scud-D surface-to-surface
strike missiles with a 700-1,000-mile range, capable of carrying chemical or
nuclear warheads - not 40 miles, but less than 16 miles
from their territory?
That is exactly what Syrian President Bashar Assad has
done, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources reveal here. They are not
part of the Syrian Army's array of missiles for deterring an Israeli invasion
of Lebanon and Syria, but parked on the Syrian-Lebanese border,
painted in Hizballah battle colors and assigned
Hizballah store serial numbers. Each battery has its own Hizballah unit,
attached after learning how to operate them at Syrian bases for the past half
year.
Unparalleled bonanza for Hizballah
Wednesday and Thursday, May 26-27, tensions shot up several notches when
Beirut lined up behind Damascus and Hizballah and
boosted its army units on the South Lebanese-Israel border "against any
emergency" and the Syrian army placed all its units on
war preparedness, ordering its ballistic missile units to switch to firing
positions.
Israel, which ended its homeland defense exercise against missile attack
Thursday, May 27, prepared to join Greece next week
in a joint naval and aerial exercise for practicing
in-flight refueling.
(For details, see also HOT POINTS below) You will need
to go to the
ORIGINAL ARTICLE to view the Hot
Points Link. Be aware of Biased propaganda through out this Article but very
clear message = Major War on the Brink of breaking out with these recent
developments <---Abbaswatchman.
The stages of the buildup approaching its peak
were progressively covered in DEBKA-Net-Weekly and debkafile's reports. Even
so, all our experts were astounded to learn that the unheard-of number of 800
Scuds had been assigned to Hizballah, a fact never disclosed until now.
The entire Scud D behemoth is now positioned ready for removal into Lebanon at
one and-a-half hour's notice from Assad's green light. The Hizballah crews
have been taught to launch them on the move at predetermined Israeli targets.
Syria, Iran and Hizballah have made military history - and that is why the
Middle East is teetering on the brink of war.
Four armies were on combat
readiness Wednesday, May 26 after the Lebanese Army lined up behind Syria and
Hizballah against Israel's Defense Forces and Syrian ballistic missiles were
placed in firing positions.
Never has any army, least of all a terrorist organization like the Shiite
Hizballah, ever commanded so many surface-to-surface strike missiles and held
them ready to fire on a neighbor's cities.
By comparison, North Korea's arsenal is also estimated at around 800 ballistic
missiles. They include long-range systems which could one day strike South
Korea and Japan. But even that rogue nation has never placed those weapons in
firing position at points abutting the borders of South Korea and Japan.
Deeply ingrained collaboration with North Korea
And how would the strategic position of the 100,000 US troops fighting in
Afghanistan be affected if the Pakistani government were to suddenly and
covertly let Taliban have 800 Ghauri surface-to-surface missiles (similar to
the Scud D) for firing at Kabul from its South and North Waziristan
sanctuaries?
This scenario would sound absurdly unreal anywhere in the world even in
trouble spots. Yet, in the Middle East, it is a cruel reality.
The Scud concentration on the Syrian-Lebanese border came off Syrian military
industry production lines, our military sources report. Their manufacture is
based on North Korean technology, diagrams and licenses. They are in fact a
Syrian adaptation of the North Korean Rodong-1 missile, whose 1,000-mile range
brings Japan within firing distance.
This missile is essentially a hybrid: Its Isayev 9D21 engine was upgraded with
the help of Russia's Makeyev OKB industries as well as China and Ukraine,
while the new TEL uses an Italian Iveco truck chassis and an Austrian crane.
Pyongyang's Rodong program was itself largely financed by Iran in return for
permission to reproduce it as the Shahab-3 ballistic missile.
Iranian-Syrian military collaboration with North Korea is thus deeply
ingrained with Hizballah now brought into the equation for the first time.
Yet for reasons outlined in the next article, no Western power has hindered
the coming together of these hugely destabilizing elements.
A Strategic (or Guilty) Secret
All Hands Join to Hide Number of Scuds - 800 (!) - Bound
for Hizballah
For ten days, the US and Israel improbably joined forces with Syria, Lebanon
and South Korea for a mighty effort to conceal the mammoth figure of 800 Scud
missiles held ready for Hizballah in custom-built Syrian bases a
15-20-minute drive from the Lebanese border.
This effort was exhaustive enough to magic away the only media reference; an
item in the Japanese Sankei Shimbun of Sunday, May 23; vanished overnight from
the paper's Web site and the Internet.
But DEBKA-Net-Weekly managed to pin it down. Here is the quote:
North Korea has agreed to Syria's shipment of long-range Scud missiles to the
militant Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Syria is reportedly obliged to
receive approval from North Korea the technology provider when handing over
missiles to a third party. Citing unidentified sources, Japan says the North
Korean embassy in Syria said it has "no intention to object to Syria's
transfer of Scud missiles to Hezbollah." We speculate that the model Syria
plans to provide the Lebanese militant group with is the Scud D with a range
of 700 kilometers."
The Japanese item included the disclosure that the Syrian president needed
North Korean approval for transferring the Scud Ds to Hizballah. Given the
structure of the ruling regime in Pyongyang, the handover would have
necessitated a nod from Kim Jong-il in person.
Red faces in Washington
All the parties concerned one way or another found the
Japanese disclosure embarrassing enough to kill it.
The United States, for one, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's Washington and military report,
was not prepared to own up to the failure of its every effort (going back to
the Clinton and Bush administrations) to curb the massive proliferation of
nuclear and missile weapons technology originating in North Korea - most
damagingly to the Middle East. Worse still, for the first time, the North
Korean ruler actually authorized their transfer to a militia officially listed
by the UN and the US as a terrorist organization.
As long as this level of nuclear and other dangerous weapon proliferation goes
on unchecked, questions must be asked about the point of the "bold and
pragmatic" program President Barack Obama submitted to the Washington summit
of 47 world leaders on April 13, asking for their commitment to eliminate or
lock down their nuclear materials within four years.
With US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Beijing this week (May 23-25)
for discussions centering Iran's nuclear program and a bid for Chinese support
for UN sanctions, Washington could not afford to let it be known that the
world's top nuclear violator Kim Jong-Il had more leverage over war and peace
in the Middle East than any other Asian, or even European, leader.
There might also have been quite a few red faces if the presence of 800 Scud D
missiles under Hizballah's hand had been discovered during Lebanese Prime
Minister Saad Hariri's first White House visit Monday, May 24. It would have
signaled the collapse of the Obama administration's policy of wooing Assad and
exposed a US intelligence fiasco, to boot.
How would Netanyahu and Barak explain how it happened?
In any case, no sooner was Hariri home to Beirut when he lined up behind Syria
and Hizballah in boosting his southern units against "a war emergency,"
despite his promise to the US president to try and abate rising war tensions.
Israeli leaders would also have been seriously discomfited by this discovery
(see the separate item on the debate over Israel's restraint in the missile
threat), because the public would demand answers to at least three questions:
1. How did North Korea, a country far from Israeli consciousness, manage to
grab a leading role in the schemes for its destruction for the second time in
three years? The first time was in 2007, when Pyongyang helped construct the
Syrian plutonium reactor at A-Zur which Israel destroyed before it was up.
2. How could Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak
let 800 Scud missiles pile up on the Syrian-Lebanese border for no purpose
other than to destroy Israel's cities without stepping in to destroy them?
That many Scuds imperils Israel's very existence no less than the plutonium
Syria would have produced had the Israeli Air Force not bombed its reactor in
2007.
3. Hizballah's leader Hassan Nasrallah makes no secret of his plan to
devastate Israel's population centers with hundreds of missiles and rockets
while at the same time fighting to capture sections of northern Israel. (See
Issue no. 430 of DNW from January 22 Iran-Hizballah Mark out Patches of
Northern Israel for Capture). So is the Netanyahu government sitting on its
hands and letting it happen?
Lebanon's leaders President Michel Suleiman and the prime minister had an
obvious interest in keeping the 800 Scuds hidden from sight. Their discovery
would have shown them up as the stooges of Syrian president Bashar Assad and
Iran's surrogate Hizballah who are free to manipulate Lebanon according to
their interests.
Assad capitalizes on the secrecy for buck-passing on the impending war
As for Bashar Assad, who built up the Scud stockpile, he is exploiting the
missile controversy to pass the buck for the flare-up of hostilities he is
engineering to the United States and Israel.
In an interview with the Rome newspaper La Repubblica on Monday, May 24, the
Syrian ruler said the United States had lost its influence in the Middle East
by failing to contribute to regional peace. In his view, US President Barack
Obama had "raised hopes" in the region but failed to follow through with
substantive peace moves.
Assad also boasted about a new world order which, he said, had cut the United
States down in the world by refusing to wait for roles to be handed out by
Washington. He was referring to the bloc formed by Turkey, Brazil, Syria and
Iran and sponsored on the outside by Russia and aiming a side swipe at Obama's
White House welcome for Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, by showing that
Damascus calls the shots in Lebanon - not Washington.
By keeping the 800 Scud D stock poised for handover to Hizballah dark, the
United States and Israel played into Assad's hands and let him get away with
engineering the elements of an impending Middle East war
while pinning the blame on them.
Desperate US Bid to Avert Hostilities
Middle East Time Bomb Ticks Faster as Syrian Missiles
Placed in Firing Position
On Wednesday afternoon, May 26, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel handed
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an
invitation from President Barack Obama to meet him for a
working meeting at the White House Tuesday, June 1 on his way home from
Canada.
Emanuel's visit - he arrived on May 23 - was described as a private family
trip to celebrate his son's bar-mitzvah in Jerusalem. But the US president
found his right-hand man's journey useful for tying the hands of prime
minister Netanyahu and Defense minister Ehud Barak, in case they contemplated
mounting an attack on the 800 Syrian Scud-D missiles piled up on the Lebanese
border to prevent them reaching the hands of the Lebanese terrorist Hizballah
or even going ahead and striking Iran's nuclear sites.
(See the first item in this issue on the placement of these missiles on the
Syria-Lebanon border).
A day earlier, May 22, John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, was dispatched to Damascus to try and dissuade Syrian president
Bashar Assad from shifting the Scuds the last few miles into Lebanon.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources in Washington report the Obama administration is
going all out to ward off a military showdown in the Middle East because it
would interfere with his plans to resume nuclear dialogue with Iran.
But Thursday, May 27, brought high noon closer.
Netanyahu flew off on trips to Paris and North America that morning and
Israel's five-day homeland defense exercise drew to a close. However,
the night before, Syria placed all its armed forces on
combat readiness for the first time since the
2006 Lebanon War and ordered its missile units to take up firing positions.
(See HOT POINTS below for details)
Washington turns its face to diplomacy, not war
In the midst of these war signals, Washington forged ahead with its policy of
diplomatic engagement for solving conflicts on all fronts - against all the
odds. But President Obama did not neglect to shore up his assets ahead of the
talks by sending a nuclear submarine to cross the strategic Strait of Hormuz
past the Iranian coast Thursday, May 27.
Tuesday, May 25, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton summed up her two days of
talks with Chinese officials in Beijing to reporters: "We discussed at some
length the shortcomings of the recent proposal put forward by Iran in its
letter to the IAEA. There are a number of deficiencies (in the
Iranian-Turkish-Brazilian nuclear agreement) which do not answer the concerns
of the international community."
Her comment could be taken to mean that there is some basis for discussion in
the new proposal and if the flaws are repaired, the agreement may be
acceptable.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 446 of May 21 (It May Not Be All Bad, Say Obama's People)
outlined the changes the administration wants to see.
The day before (Monday, May 24), Washington asked the UN Secretary General to
pass on the message that if the Brazilian-brokered enriched uranium deal for
half of Iran's stock to be swapped for nuclear rods in Turkey were accepted
and implemented, it might serve as an important confidence-building measure
for opening the door to a negotiated resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.
In other words, there was room for discussion.
To persuade the American public that the administration was not again bending
over backward to let Iran get away scot free, a leak was dropped into the
Tuesday, May 25, US media revealing that Gen. David Petraeus, chief of the US
Central Command, had last September signed an order authorizing clandestine
military operations in allied and hostile Middle East, Central Asian and Horn
of African nations for surveillance and cooperation with local security
forces. Iran appeared from the document to be singled out for covert
operations most likely for gathering intelligence about the country's nuclear
program or identifying dissident groups that might be useful in a future
military offensive.
It was hoped in administration circles that people would forget how cynically
Tehran trifled with the sharp ultimatums President Obama slapped down exactly
a year ago when Iran was discovered to have hidden a clandestine uranium
enrichment facility (since abandoned) in a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
Israeli leaders agreeable
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu had no trouble giving Rahm Emanuel the same promise
Assad gave Senator Kerry, namely that, barring unexpected events, he would do
his utmost to cool border tensions and keep them from flaring into a
fully-fledged war.
The Israeli prime minister was delighted with the affection showered on him
now by the White House in Washington after a year of Obama's icy aloofness -
which, incidentally, helped him keep his government coalition on an even keel.
He expects his White House welcome Tuesday, June 1 will be a lot warmer than
the last two.
For both Israeli and Syrian leaders, "barring unexpected events" is a catchall
caveat in case they choose to be let off the hook of their promises.
Netanyahu in particular may not be allowed to stay the course of restraint in
the face of rising criticism from Israel's military and security chiefs.
(This is discussed in detail in the next article.)
Grumbles in Israeli Military
End Restraint, Stop the 800 Scud D Missiles Reaching Hizballah
When the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu returns from his working
meeting with President Barack Obama in the second half of next week, he and
defense minister Ehud Barak will have their hands full dealing with
disgruntled generals and security chiefs, our military and Middle East sources
report.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is of one mind with the
policy-makers (and Washington) on the need for utmost military restraint, but
most national security and military leaders maintain that the 800 Scud D
missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear or chemical warheads, pose too
great a peril for Israel to allow them cross into Lebanon and become
operational.
They offer three arguments:
1. Israel stood idly by for the build-up of thousands of Iranian and Syrian
missiles smuggled to the Lebanese Hizballah, but the Scud D missiles' presence
in Syrian bases minutes away from the Lebanese border must be seen even in
Jerusalem as the last straw which broke the camel's back.
The scenario of a chemical attack on Tel Aviv was drilled Tuesday, May 25, the
third day of the Israel Home Front defense drill, 'Turning Point 4' (May
23-27).
The results and conclusions were disturbing.
More than 65 percent of the population lacks protection against an attack
using toxic chemicals. Israel may suffer an estimated 3,300 casualties
including up to 200 dead in conventional Syrian or Hizballah long range
missile attacks, but if those missiles carry chemical warheads, the casualty
figure would soar to 16,000 and leave more than 200,000 homeless.
Tiny Israel with its small population cannot possible afford casualties on
this scale, say the government's critics.
2. Iran and Syria will use the Scud D menace as a card for squeezing more
concessions when the US faces Iran in negotiations on the new enriched uranium
swap deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil. By allowing this to happen, Israel
will strengthen Tehran's hand and help bolster the hostile "Northern Alliance"
of Iran, Turkey, Brazil and Hizballah.
3. In the view of most Israeli military and security leaders, if Netanyahu and
Barak hold back from a timely strike against the menacing Scud missiles, they
will ultimately shrink back from hitting Iran's nuclear facilities as well.
This pattern of non-response will lead Israel into coming to terms alongside
the Obama administration with a nuclear-armed Iran.
Lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi, Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee, has been going around later warning that Iran's attainment of
nuclear weapons would pose Israel with mortal danger. He speaks for a large
body of well-informed security and military chiefs - and is not the only one.
Israel's top security-military echelons up in arms
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources disclose comments at a closed-door lecture
by General (res.) Amos Gilad, senior political-security advisor at the Defense
Ministry, which are gaining ground among broad circles of high-ranking IDF and
junior officers.
After serving a series of Israeli defense ministers as senior strategic
adviser, Gilad is now voicing in private circles, exasperation with the
policies Israel has followed in the decade since Bashar Assad came to power
and vis-ΰ-vis Hizballah. These policies, he maintains, were costly in terms of
Israel's deterrent strength and have left the country exposed to the current
outburst of aggression from the North.
Unusually outspoken, Gen. Gilad says Israel came away from the 2006 Lebanon
war, which was triggered by a Hizballah cross-border attack, with hardly a
single strategic gain. Its outcome was harvested by Syria and Hizballah to
upgrade Hizballah and transform the terrorist militia, ordered by the UN
Security Council to disband, into a professional military force for
confronting Israel's armed forces.
Gilad asserted that the relative calm of the ensuing four years on Israel's
borders with Syria and Lebanon owed nothing to Israel's deterrent power, as
defense minister Barak and Chief of staff Ashkenazi were fond of stating; they
owe everything, he says, to the quiet needed for Iran and Syria to finish
arming Hizballah with the sophisticated tools of war for attacking Israel at
the earliest opportunity.
Assad is not susceptible to diplomacy, only force
Regarding Israel's waning deterrent strength, the Defense Ministry adviser
drew attention to the fluctuations in Syrian ruler's bellicosity, which peaked
before Israel demolished his North Korean-built plutonium reactor in September
2007 and damped down right afterwards. But when Assad realized eighteen months
later that the attack was a one-off, he went back to his threatening rhetoric
for Israel and the open pursuit of brutal steps for subjugating Lebanon.
By May, 2010, his stridency and aggressiveness had reverted to their old
level.
It's about time we took Bashar Assad's measure, said the defense ministry
adviser. We all know he is tremendously cunning, but we have to remember that
this guy gets up every morning, looks in the mirror and asks himself What
can I do today better than my late father (Syrian President Hafez Assad, who
ruled Syria with an iron fist from 1971 to 2000)?
Gilad stresses that Bashar's driving force is the urge to out do his father.
Therefore, because Hafez forged a strong alliance with Tehran to preserve his
regime at the head of his minority Allawite sect, Bashar felt compelled to
deepen that alliance still further. In following in his father's footsteps, he
constantly needs to go that extra step.
The Obama administration and Israel have made no impression on the Syrian
ruler because they missed his most basic motive, which is the compulsion to
beat his father at his own game, according to Gilad. It explains why he is so
unresponsive to any form of diplomacy rooted in rational political expediency,
or even gain. But he is very sensitive to any display of force, especially if
it menaces his dynastic grip on the regime
Ex-General Gilad's arguments have been making the rounds and influencing
members of the IDF high command.
The high command and its ministerial supporters are increasingly critical of
the way the Netanyahu-Barak duo is handling the 800-Scud D missile crisis.
Their clamor for Israel to take the weapons out before they cross into Lebanon
is getting louder.
Al Qaeda, Iran and the World Cup <--- this is
grouse propaganda as Al Qaeda is
a C.I.A. creation
and a C.I.A. controlled organization. Iran has absolutely nothing to do with
them period <---Abbaswatchman.
Is Al Qaeda Plotting to Strike the US-England
World Cup Match?
2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer Match 5 takes place between the US and British
national teams at 20:30, June 12 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg,
South Africa.
The event would undoubtedly be an attractive draw for many jihadist terrorist
organizations. An attack would be witnessed live by a worldwide television
audience and it would target not one - but two - of the leading Western powers
fighting Islamist terror in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Middle East and
Europe.
It would become the most talked-about terrorist outrage since the Palestinian
Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Rustenburg ("Town of Rest" in Afrikaans and Dutch), where the Royal Bafokeng
Stadium is located, is a city of nearly half a million inhabitants situated at
the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range in the North West Province of
South Africa, close to Phokeng. It is there that the England national football
team is setting up base camp.
This too could be a possible terrorist target.
The US team' chose Irene Country Lodge, between Johannesburg and Pretoria and
a twenty-five minute drive from Johannesburg International Airport, for its
base camp because it offers better protection against attack than the
locations chosen by the other 31 teams taking part in the tournament.
A notorious Al Qaeda mastermind surfaces
Irene Country Lodge is a lot like the Camp David US presidential retreat and
has served as such for a number of South African leaders. Surrounded on three
sides by forests and gardens, its faηade overlooks a large lake.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's counter-terrorism sources report the site is already
off-limits to guests and visitors. South African security services are
guarding the grounds, while US security is responsible for the site's interior
and training facilities.
Meanwhile, several Western intelligence agencies took anxious note of the
release of a US report on May 13, under the caption: "Iran eases grip on Al
Qaida." The report reveals how Al Qaida operatives detained in Iran for years
are quietly making their way in and out of the country, suggesting that Iran
is loosening its grip on the terror group to let it replenish its ranks.
What most worried the agents engaged in combating Al Qaida was the following
paragraph:
"Most recently, the concern (of the U.S.) focused on Saif al-Adel, an
Egyptian-born confidant of Osama bin Laden, who is on the FBI's most wanted
list in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania. In the past year or so, intelligence officials circulated a bulletin
saying al-Adel, one of al-Qaida's founding fathers, was traveling to Damascus,
Syria. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for his capture.
The Damascus connection ultimately was disproved but, underscoring the
difficulty of monitoring the men, U.S. intelligence officials are divided on
whether Saif has been allowed to travel in the region. The senior
counterterrorism official said there's no clear evidence Saif has left Iran."
Al-Adel suspected of plotting World Cup attack
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's counterterrorism sources suspect, like the other Western
officials, that US intelligence agencies inserted this paragraph for fear that
Saif al-Adel was on an al-Qaida mission to organize a terror attack at the
World Cup match between the US and England, or possibly, one of their base
camps.
Our sources note that Al Qaeda has chosen him to orchestrate from inside Iran
every politically-oriented wave of terror of major significance, with the
exception of the 9/11 attacks in America.
In 2003 and 2004, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri put Saif al-Adel in
charge of organizing a series of devastating strikes in Saudi Arabia against
the Royal Family and American and British targets in the kingdom. Their
objectives were to topple the throne - or at least enfeeble it, and eliminate
the Western and pro-Western presence in Riyadh and other major Saudi cities,
including entities linked to the oil industry.
Some of those attacks, which took three years to curb, focused on gated
Western residential compounds.
Al Qaeda experts in US, Saudi and Egyptian intelligence identified Saif
al-Adel as the live wire behind this outbreak of terror. They knew he was
working out of a headquarters in Iran.
Tehran, of course, denied this outright, but did not refuse to negotiate terms
with Saudi and Egyptian secret service chiefs for his extradition. Typically,
the Iranians did not engage in diplomacy for the sake of results - any more
than they do in the dialogue on their nuclear violations - but rather as a
tactic for squeezing political or economic concessions, while buying time to
keep going - in this case, with their policy on Al Qaida.
The Pentagon: Iran is behind deniable attacks against US and Israel
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's counterterrorism sources suspect, like the other Western
officials, that US intelligence agencies inserted this paragraph for fear that
Saif al-Adel was on an al-Qaida mission to organize a terror attack at the
World Cup match between the US and England, or possibly, one of their base
camps.
Our sources note that Al Qaeda has chosen him to orchestrate from inside Iran
every politically-oriented wave of terror of major significance, with the
exception of the 9/11 attacks in America.
In 2003 and 2004, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri put Saif al-Adel in
charge of organizing a series of devastating strikes in Saudi Arabia against
the Royal Family and American and British targets in the kingdom. Their
objectives were to topple the throne - or at least enfeeble it, and eliminate
the Western and pro-Western presence in Riyadh and other major Saudi cities,
including entities linked to the oil industry.
Some of those attacks, which took three years to curb, focused on gated
Western residential compounds.
Al Qaeda experts in US, Saudi and Egyptian intelligence identified Saif
al-Adel as the live wire behind this outbreak of terror. They knew he was
working out of a headquarters in Iran.
Tehran, of course, denied this outright, but did not refuse to negotiate terms
with Saudi and Egyptian secret service chiefs for his extradition. Typically,
the Iranians did not engage in diplomacy for the sake of results - any more
than they do in the dialogue on their nuclear violations - but rather as a
tactic for squeezing political or economic concessions, while buying time to
keep going - in this case, with their policy on Al Qaida.
The Pentagon: Iran is behind deniable attacks against US and Israel
The same officials perked up again when shortly after this incident, small
groups of jihadis were spotted on their way to Europe to set up attacks. They
took it to mean that al-Adel, notorious for his high-speed reflexes, had
hardly gained his freedom when he was again activating the Al Qaeda
sleeper-networks under his exclusive control.
The Al Qaeda mastermind's freedom to resume his jihad against the West aroused
another pressing concern.
According to intelligence reports, when al Adel arrived in Iran in December
2001, after Kandahar fell to the US-led NATO forces, he was described as
having with him a nuclear device called "The Fridge" - a version of the
infamous "suitcase nukes," whose existence Washington and Moscow have denied a
thousand times.
The Fridge is essentially a mini-nuke with the explosive equivalent of 6
kilotons of TNT. Reports still persist that several Soviet-made "nuclear
suitcases" did in fact reach the hands of Al Qaeda.
Would it still be operable after a decade or more? The experts say yes.
One Western nuclear source reckons they can survive for many years if wired to
electrical power. They also have battery backup. If this runs low, the
weapon's transmitter sends a coded alert to its owner.
The possibility can therefore not be ruled out that the Al Qaeda ace, now on
the loose, may be plotting to hit the 2010 FIFA World Cup with a nuclear
device or dirty bomb.
HOT POINTS
A Digest of DEBKAfile Round-the-Clock Exclusives in the Week Ending May 27,
2010
May 21, 2010 Briefs
Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel arrives in Israel with family Friday to
celebrate son's Bar Mitzva at Western Wall. From Ben Gurion, he flew for the
weekend to Eilat, from which he dropped in to Aqaba, Jordan.
New Iran sanctions will not prevent Russia supplying Iran with advanced
S-300 interceptors, says Russian lawmaker.
US Congress overwhelming approves President Obama's $205 million request for
developing Israel's Iron Dome anti-rocket system. It is designed to counter
Hamas' Qassams, Hizballah's rockets against civilians.
Israeli air force strikes three Gaza tunnels after Qassam fired Thursday
night.
Troops shoot dead two Palestinian gunmen from Gaza. Israeli soldier hurt
21 May: A Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip injured an Israeli soldier
Friday, May 21, shortly after a firefight with Palestinian gunmen who managed
to cross into Israel from the southern Gaza border and advance some 100 meters
into Israel while exchanging fire with troops of the Givati Brigade. The
incident ended with two terrorists killed by tank fire, no Israeli casualties.
Hamas spokesman said the gunmen were sent on "an operation to attack Israel."
Jihad Islami also claimed responsibility.
debkafile's military sources report a rising number of Palestinian
infiltrations from the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, although they were never
got as far as they did Friday. The Palestinian Hamas, Hizballah, Jihad Islami
and al Qaeda-linked groups are believed to be bringing pressure on Israel's
borders ahead of the countrywide homeland security exercise Turning-Point 4
beginning Sunday, May 23.
Hizballah's South Lebanon commander Nabil Qauq announced Friday his
organization was on war preparedness and thousands of fighters were on their
way to the Israeli border region.
Lifting US ban on Russia's S-300 sale to Iran blows hole in Israel's security
22 May: Israel's security suffered a major setback exercise from three Obama
administration concessions, granted to buy Moscow's backing for a weak UN
Security Council sanctions against Iran. It scrapped sanctions against the
Russian state arms export agency and three other Russian entities that were
penalized in the past for transferring sensitive technology or weapons to
Iran. Also lifted were penalties against a fourth Russian entity for illicit
arms sales to Syria, including technology for developing the very missiles
against which Israel's five-day exercise is preparing the public next week.
May 23, 2010 Briefs
Israeli ministerial panel approves "Gilead Shalit Bill" cancelling visits
and other privileges for jailed Hamas terrorists. Hamas's Israeli captive has
had no visits of any kind since he was kidnapped four years ago.
US-born Imam Anwar al-Awlaki urges Muslims to kill US soldiers in Iraq and
Afghanistan and on their way there. On new videotape from his hiding place, he
said was proud of protιgι Nidan Hasan who murdered 13 US soldiers at Fort
Hood.
Taliban claims Sat. night attack on Kandahar Air Field, NATO's biggest base
in S. Afghanistan.
Special NYPD protection for Fifth Ave. Salute Israel parade
The New York Police laid on exceptionally heavy measures to protect the annual
Salute Israel parade on Fifth Avenue, New York, against terrorist attack.
Sunday, May 23. debkafile's counter-terror sources report that all the
entrances to Fifth Avenue between 55th and 83rd Streets were blocked by patrol
cars and huge trucks packed with cement as counter-measures against car bombs,
as around ten thousand marchers celebrated Israel's 62nd anniversary under a
sea of waving blue and white flags.
Israel general: IDF can be ready to fight within hours
23 May: Three top US emissaries, Sen. John Kerry, Rahm Emanuel and Jeffrey
Feltman, are in the Middle East to try and allay the war tensions as Lebanon
and Syrian play up Israel's homeland missile defense exercise.
As the exercise began, OC Northern Command, Brig. Gady Eisenkott, said: "No
party concerned has an interest in another showdown, but the IDF could be
ready to fight within hours. [If confronted] Israel could take on both the
Syrian-Lebanese front and Gaza."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting that the
drill is just routine, not the consequence of any unusual security event.
Israel seeks calm, stability and peace, he stressed, adding: "It is no secret
that we live in a region beset with rocket and missile threats."
The five-day exercise covering the whole country will test local and national
authorities' responses to simultaneous missile and rocket attacks against
civilian locations from Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the Gaza Strip.
Syria has placed its air force and air defense forces on high alert, while
Hizballah has transferred thousands of its militiamen to South Lebanon and
placed the border region on a war footing against a supposed Israeli attack.
May 24, 20101 Briefs
Only 60 pc of all Israelis are equipped to withstand chemical attack, says
Homeland Defense Chief Brig. Yair Golan on Day 2 of exercise.
Iran notifies nuclear watchdog of uranium swap deal struck with Brazil and
Turkey, but says deal is off if US imposes sanctions.
Ahmadinejad says Israel's destruction is near.
Egyptian intelligence minister Omar Suleiman in Israel, holds talks with
Israel's Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.
Ex-PM Ehud Olmert is questioned for 8 hours by police Tuesday on bribes
charges - for the first time as a private citizen.
Ankara threatens reprisals if Israel halts flotilla for Gaza
24 May. A secret message from Ankara to Jerusalem threatens reprisals if
Israel impedes the Turkish-led "Freedom Flotilla" of nine vessels reaching
Gaza Port for the avowed objects of breaking Israel's naval blockade on the
Gaza Strip and delivering humanitarian aid. Israel has imposed a 20-nautical
mile closure on the enclave, beefed up its naval forces and warned Turkey the
convoy will be stopped before it reaches Gaza's shores.
It is backed by the unreported presence of a helicopter on one of the Turkish
vessels for challenging Israeli Air Force support for the naval blockade.
The venture, on behalf of the Hamas-linked Turkish-based Humanitarian Aid
Foundation is sponsored personally by Prime Minister Recep Erdogen.
In Gaza the UN Relief and Works Agency protested the vandalization by
extremist Islamic groups of one of its 435 holiday camps for a quarter of a
million Palestinian teens and children.
In the past month, the Hamas regime has sanctioned five executions - three
last Tuesday in front of their families - and dumped their bodies in the Shifa
hospital.
May 24, 2010 Briefs
Hizballah leader Nasrallah threatens to sink any vessel bound to or from
Israel if its navy blockades Lebanon and its ports.
North Korea cuts all relations with South amid war preparations.
Gaza offensive against Ashkelon continues with two mortar shells on coastal
farm-land after two missiles which fell short earlier Tuesday. No one hurt.
Iron Dome in numbers planned is not an effective shield against short-range
missiles-rocket attacks.Avi Dichter, chairman of Knesset subcommittee on
security, said military systems must guarantee civilian populations against
becoming a front line of attack.
Australian opposition accused government of expelling Israeli diplomat to
win Arab support for UN Security Council seat. He was expelled because
Canberra accused Israel of faking Australian passports for Dubai hit against
Hamas leader. Dep. opp. Leader Julie Bishop retorted: Australia forges
passports too, and there is no hard proof against Israel.
North Korean army on war readiness
25 May: North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il ordered his military to prepare for
all-out war after Barack Obama ordered the 28,000 US soldiers stationed in
Korea to "work closely with the Republic of Korea to ensure readiness and
deter future aggression."
Military observers in the Korean Peninsula and Japan were predicting limited
skirmishes on land, sea and air or even that North Korea might go all the way
to test-fire a nuclear warhead for the first time. Iran is closely following
the crisis - especially China's reactions, which have disappointed
Washington's hopes of a move to calm the dispute caused by the North Korean
torpedo attack on a South Korean Chenan in March.
debkafile's military sources point to the Korean crisis's impact on current
Middle East war tensions. North Korea and Iran have worked closely together in
their clandestine nuclear weapons programs. The two rogue powers often pursue
the same diplomatic tactics for fobbing off international pressures. For
Syrian president Bashar Assad, the brazenly defiant Kim Jong-Il is a role
model.
Above all, Pyongyang is the primary source of nuclear technology and
sophisticated missiles for Iran and Syria.
May 26, 2010 Briefs
Netanyahu is invited to meet Obama at White House next week.
White House C-of-S Emanuel meets PM in Jerusalem Wednesday with the
invitation.
Netanyahu denounces Iran's uranium swap deal with Brazil and Turkey as a
piece of trickery.
Homeland defense exercise sirens are heard across Israel at 11 a.m.. It was
the signal to run for cover in sheltered spaces. and test emergency, first aid
and police responses to missile attack.
Air Force attacked Hamas training base, Rafah airfield, two tunnels
following concentrated missile-mortar attacks on Ashkelon Tuesday.
Syrian points 1,000 ballistic missiles, Hizballah 1,000 rockets at Israel
26 May: The colossal Syrian-Hizballah missile deployment funded by Iran points
in only one direction: Israel. It is controlled from a joint
Iran-Syria-Hizballah-Hamas command center established in March at Syrian GHQ
in Damascus for coordinating attacks on Israeli military and civilian sites,
including the Tel Aviv region's dense population.
Syria has smuggled most of its stock of liquid-fuel powered ballistic missiles
over to Hizballah in Lebanon, while its own production lines have been working
day and night for five months to upgrade its stock solid fuel-propelled
missiles, so improving their accuracy. North Korean military engineers and
technicians are employed on those production lines.
May 27, 2010 Briefs
Gazan Palestinians intensify missile-mortar attacks. Wednesday night, a
Qassam explodes outside a kibbutz south of Ashkelon, two mortar rounds land
near another kibbutz in Eshkol region, a third blows up over Gaza fence. No
one hurt.
South Korean Navy, Air Force launch major anti-submarine exercise off
western coast. Obama announced earlier the US military would take part.
Netanyahu sets off Thursday for Paris, Canada and a White House working
session with Obama Tuesday. Before leaving, he orders Navy to prevent
Turkish-led flotilla from anchoring in Gaza - politely without jeopardizing
lives. Aid supplies aboard the 9 vessels to be requisitioned, inspected for
terrorist materials and sent overland to the Gaza Strip. The pro-Palestinian
activists aboard will be detained.
Syrian ballistic missiles on standby
27 May: As Israel's homeland defense exercise entered its fifth and last day
Thursday, May 27, debkafile's military sources disclose that all Syrian
military units were placed on combat standby with missile batteries ordered to
take up firing positions and armed with new "target updates."
In Athens, it was announced that a joint Israeli-Greek air force exercise
focusing on new in-flight refueling methods begins next Tuesday, June 1.
Western intelligence sources report that Wednesday night, long military
convoys carrying mobile missiles were sighted rolling down Syrian highways -
especial in the North.
In Athens, Greek military sources announced a joint Israeli-Greek naval and
air force two-day exercise beginning next Tuesday, June 1, over the mainland
and the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Exercise Minoas 2010 would serve Israeli Air
Force F16s and F15s (five each) for drilling long-range flights covering
roughly the same distance as between Israel and Iran and new in-flight
refueling methods using Israeli KC-807 flying fuel tankers. Greece will deploy
15 F16s.
With all parties on the move, including the boosting of Lebanese army units on
the Israeli border, the war tensions swirling around Israel's northern borders
show no signs of early dissipation.
US nuclear sub in Strait of Hormuz
27 May: Western sources confirm Tehran's report that an Iranian naval patrol
Thursday, May 27, detected a US nuclear submarine sailing through the
strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which most of the oil produced by Persian
Gulf states passes on its way to world markets. Tehran placed its navy and air
force on high alert.
The arrival of a US nuclear submarine in the Persian Gulf also ties in with
rising Middle East war tensions. It confirms debkafile's May 20 report that
President Obama had decided to boost US military strength in the region.
Prophecy News - End times Prophecy News for Russia, China, Iran, Bush, World, America, Iraq, Syria, North Korea,
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