Free Republic

SNIPPET: "In recent days Egypt has been disclosing details about uncovering a major Hezbollah espionage ring on its soil. AP cites a cabinet minister saying 25 of its 49 members have been arrested so far. The arrests began back in November, but the disclosures have started only now. The leader of the espionage ring—who is among those detained—was a Hezbollah agent named Sami Shehab, and the group he recruited included Lebanese, Syrians, Sudanese, and Palestinians along with 12 Egyptian Shiites. Not surprisingly, they planned attacks on Israeli vacationers in the Sinai, apparently as revenge for the February 2008 killing of...

Feb. 12 will mark the one-year anniversary of theassassination of Imad Mughniyah, one of Hezbollah’s top military commanders. The anniversary certainly will be met with rejoicing in Tel Aviv and Washington — in addition to all the Israelis he killed, Mughniyah also had a significant amount of American blood on his hands. But the date will be met with anger and renewed cries for revenge from Hezbollah’s militants, many of whom were recruited, trained or inspired by Mughniyah.

Two brothers held in Lebanon as Israeli spies are linked to a team responsible for the assassination of a notorious terrorist leader, Lebanese security sources have claimed. Ali Jarrah, 50, a Lebanese citizen, and his brother Youssef, from Marj in the Bekaa valley, were arrested last week by the Lebanese army, which charged them with espionage. A third suspect has also been held, sources close to the investigation said. All three face the death penalty. The spy ring has been linked to the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a leading figure in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia, who was killed in...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Syria on Alert 'Because Hizbullah Revenge Attack is Near' Syria is about to publish its report on the death of Imad Mughniyeh. Lebanon's army has ordered southern residents to move away from the border.

The London based Arabic publication, al-Quds al-Arabi, reported Tuesday that Syria is delaying the publication of its report on the assassination of Hizbullah leader Imad Mugniyah, which was scheduled for Sunday, due to tension and fears generated in both Syria and Lebanon by the wide-scale Home Front Command drill taking place in Israel. Publication of this report, senior Damascus officials have indicated, could do serious damage to Syria as it would expose the involvement of Arab intelligence officials, as well as that of Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese personnel in the Mugniyah assassination. Lebanese sources close to Hizbullah noted that Syrian...

[url=http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107729.html]Jewish groups placed on security alert [/url] Citing an increase in threats and attacks, a U.S. Jewish security network warned its members to be alert to a "new set of circumstances." "The convergence and timing of several events coupled with escalating tensions in the Middle East create a new set of circumstances that have commanded our attention," said the alert issued Tuesday by the Secure Community Network. "The current heightened threat environment poses challenges and issues, particularly when there is a need for a balanced approach to securing our institutions, agencies and organizations." The alert cited among other circumstances the...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

"The one who killed our commander must be punished. The killers must be punished and they will be punished, God willing," Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Monday. In a televised address in Beirut to mark 40 days since the slaying of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Nasrallah drew cheers from the crowd saying, "We will choose the time, place and manner of punishment." Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus, in February. Hizbullah and Iran have accused Israel of the assassination. Israel has denied involvement. "We feel Mughniyeh's presence more than ever. Our brothers have found nothing...

Syria has deployed three military divisions along the borders with Lebanon amidst mounting tension in the region, press reports said Sunday. The leading daily an-Nahar attributed the report to well informed sources, noting that the deployment backs a similar massing of fighters by pro-Syrian Palestinian factions in the Bekaa valley, especially Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in the Qoussayah area. The development followed Hizbullah's open war declaration against Israel after the Feb. 12 assassination in Damascus of the party's Imad Mughniyeh by a bomb explosion. Hizbullah is sponsoring a major rally in south Beirut's...

Beirut - Israel recently conveyed a warning to Syria through a third party that it would hold Damascus accountable if Lebanese Hezbollah launched attacks on the Jewish state, Israeli and European sources said on Friday. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the warning stemmed largely from Israeli concerns that Hezbollah would launch salvos of cross-border rockets to coincide with any major Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The sources said the message was conveyed in February through at least one European intermediary following the assassination of a top Hezbollah commander ( pictured) and before this month's five-day...

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's brother-in-law is suspected of engineering the assassination of Hizbullah's operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, according to a report Saturday in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siasa ("Politics"). The news report appeared under the headline "Mughniyeh's elimination breaking the back of Damascus regime." The suspicions against the man, Colonel Wasef Shweikat, surfaced after his wife, Bashar Assad's sister Bushra, relocated to Paris with her children following the assassination. The move followed a split between Bashar and Bushra, which began when Mugniyeh informed Bashar of a plot against his regime. The paper said Shweikat met with a senior American intelligence officer in...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy has moved the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and other ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon, Pentagon officials said Thursday. (snip) The destroyer and two support ships are close to Lebanon but out of visual range of the coast, Pentagon officials said. Another six vessels, led by the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau, are close to Italy and steaming toward the other three, the officials said.

(RTTNews) - Syrian sources on Wednesday told London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newpaper that several Arab nations conspired with Israel's intelligence service Mossad, to assassinate Hizbullah chief of operations Imad Mughniyeh earlier this month. The latest speculation on the assassination of the Hizbullah terror chief comes two days after the former Hizbullah commander's widow accused Syria of being behind her husband's assassination. According to the Syrian sources, Damascus was making considerable progress in the investigation of Mughniyeh's death, and would publish the results of its inquiry following the Arab league summit in Damascus in March. ... Mughniyeh was killed in a car...

Syria has reached "important results" in its investigation of the assassination of Hizbullah commander Imad Mugniyah earlier this month, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported Wednesday, quoting Syrian sources. According to the report, the Syrian regime has decided to wait with the publication of the investigation results until after the Arab League meets in Damascus next week. According to the sources, these results prove that an intelligence organization of an Arab country helped Israel assassinate Mugniyah and that Lebanese and Palestinian elements had also assisted in the killing. Arab sources interpreted the remarks as a Syrian signaling to Arab...

Tehran, 25 Feb. (AKI) - The wife of assassinated militant leader Imad Mughniyeh, claims that Syria was behind the killing of her husband, reported Alborz, a pro-Iranian government source. Her husband, Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a bombing in Damascus on 13 February and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Syria and Iran have blamed Israel for assassinating him. Mughniyeh was the intelligence chief of Hezbollah's secretive military wing, the Islamic Resistance. "The Syrian traitors assisted in my husband's murder," said the wife. Saudi daily 'Okaz' has also entertained the idea of Syria being behind the murder of Mughniyeh. It hypothesises a...