Free Republic

Damascus is preparing for a large-scale Israeli attack on Syria and Hizbullah, London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Wednesday. According to the report, the Syrian army has been maneuvering its forces and drafting some of its reserve forces in preparation for such a contingency. Damascus has also raised the alert level along its borders, and has placed three armored divisions, nine infantry brigades and special forces near its border with Lebanon's Bekaa valley, fearing an Israeli infiltration there. The report claimed that this would be a strategic spot for Israeli ground forces to strike, as it is both a Hizbullah stronghold and...

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...

It would be a miracle if the French cooperated with the US to save the situation in the Middle East. Here's how it would unfold. 1. Lebanon asks for French help. 2. France assembles a coalition to pacify Lebanon 3. US joins French coalition 4. France invades and cleans out Bekaa Valley 5. Syria provides a cause for war 6. France invades Syria from the South 7. US invades Syria from Iraq 8. Game over

The last week has been filled with interminable meetings and rapid-fire press statements about any number of equally stupid cease-fire proposals and proposals for peace-keeping troops of one kind or another. They all have something else in common. They are all irrelevant. Most observers agree that by standing up against Israel creditably, Hezbollah has already won the admiration of the whole Muslim world and greatly increased the power of its sponsors in Syria and Iran. Some kind of face-saving "cease-fire" will do nothing to sully what is being seen as this unprecedented military victory against the once-invincible Israeli military. But...

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located. Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq. Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com will report in tomorrow's new weekly edition. U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time. U.S....

CNN TV just had a reuters report that israeli troops have landed in the northern isareli city of balbeck. IDF officialy has no comment.

The relations between Russia and the Shiite's religious leadership in Lebanon started to develop in the beginning of the seventies. The spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community, Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, visited Moscow in 1972 and asked Soviet authorities to issue humanitarian aid to his people. At the same time cooperation between the Marxist factions of the PLO that were active in Lebanon and Soviet military intelligence – GRU, intensified greatly. Several soviet officers (speaking fluent Arabic) even visited Palestinian terrorist training camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon between 1972-1975. Using their connections in PLO they managed to establish...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian militant bases in Lebanon Sunday in response to a rocket attack on northern Israel, Lebanese officials said. One militant was killed and at least five were wounded. The Lebanese army said six rockets were fired at a base in eastern Lebanon while several others hit a base near the Mediterranean coast. "Lebanese army anti-aircraft units opened fire at the hostile warplanes," the army said. The jets targeted two militant command posts, one of which was used as a storage facility for weaponry and ammunition, the Israeli army said. The planes carried three raids...

Lebanon presents the US with an important oppurtunity in its global war on terrorism. It musn't stand down. Today the US is on a collision course with Syria. Monday, tipping its hat to international pressure, Syria began a redeployment of its military forces in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley. The Bush administration reacted to the announced redeployment plan by bluntly stating that it is insufficient. In so doing the US held to what has been its remarkably consistent policy since the current Lebanese crisis was instigated with the February 14th assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri: Syria...

Political bickering, poor governance and economic woes - with foreign debt of $53.7b - weigh down the country THERE'S much about Beirut that recalls Singapore: the greenery, the lively, urban lifestyle, good schools and eating places, a colourful port, low crime. But look again. One in four passers-by is not Lebanese, but Syrian - about a million of them in a nation of barely four million native Lebanese. Some 30,000 Syrian troops man roadblocks. Other Syrians work as labourers in the booming construction business. Some beg. And some - installed in Lebanon's intelligence service - help monitor the movements of...

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located. Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq. Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com will report in Wednesday's new weekly edition. U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time. U.S....

The end of the beginning Syria and Iran are preparing to launch a terrorist campaign against coalition forces, says Michael Ledeen. The only answer is regime change in both countries Washington DC The battle for Iraq is drawing to a close, but the war against terrorism has only just begun. As President George W. Bush has said since the first days after 11 September, this will be a long war, involving many terrorist organisations and many countries that support the terrorists. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was never the most threatening of those countries, even though Baghdad gave support to most of...

<p>Let's imagine that Hizbollah's stated policy of "mega-terrorism" bears fruit, and a second Pi Glilot attack succeeds. Alertness and sharpened contingency plans mean that the blast and oil-fed fires kill fewer Israelis than expected, and "only" 2,500 die. Two weeks later, Hamas' new strategic direction bears fruit and they manage chemical attacks at several points in and around Tel Aviv. A couple thousand people are hospitalized, a couple hundred die. The total for both attacks is now 3,000 dead and 6,000 injured, many severely.</p>