Free Republic

Iran has helped Hizbullah form an operational network for attacks on Western targets, officials said. The officials said the Hizbullah priority was to strike Israeli and U.S. interests in Turkey. "Hizbullah established an operational cell in Istanbul that included members of Iran's IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]," an official said. Officials said Hizbullah organized a safe house and formed a front company in Istanbul. They said IRGC helped Hizbullah set up a tourist agency that would enable Iranian agents to easily enter Turkey. In mid-2009, officials said, Turkey foiled a Hizbullah strike on an Israeli target. Officials said the attack,...

The Argentinean prosecutor who ferreted out Iranian links to Argentina's largest terror attack warned Wednesday of Teheran's growing terror network in Latin America. "The Iranians are moving fast," assessed Alberto Nisman, who has secured Interpol backing for the arrest of several Iranians, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires. "We see a much greater penetration than we did in 1994." He said that Iran, particularly through Lebanese proxy Hizbullah, has a growing presence in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, using techniques it honed in Argentina before the...

Iran's harsh condemnation of Western meddling in its election has triggered an alert over a new wave of international terrorism after the regime backed a dramatic expansion of the network operated by Lebanon's Hizbollah movement. The country's leaders have repeatedly lashed out at the West, blaming British and other foreign agents for inciting the biggest demonstrations, which were ignited after presidential candidates accused officials of rigging the election in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline president. Intelligence experts have warned that rather than merely seeking to distract attention from its domestic turmoil with rhetoric, Iran will seek retaliation beyond its...

Six Missing Israeli Soldiers By Norma Zager and Ari Bussel “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see…” Ayn Rand Three years ago a Jewish son was taken from his parents. Hamas terror organization kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad during an incursion from Gaza into Israel. His captors have denied access to him by Red Cross workers in violation of the Geneva Convention. For three years his parents have suffered with worry for their son. For three years a merciless enemy has held captive a young man, a soldier. While Gilad Shalit became...

Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Monday accepted the results the Lebanese parliamentary elections in which the guerrilla group and its allies were defeated by the Western-backed coalition. "We accept these results...with sportsmanship and in a democratic way and we accept that the ruling camp has achieved the parliamentary majority," Nasrallah said in a televised address, adding that opposition leaders would meet soon to agree on a joint stance over the naming of a new prime minister and the formation of a new government. He went on to congratulate "the Lebanese people for this national electoral achievement," adding that the...

The publication of Hizbullah's subversive plan against Egypt and the exposure of a Shiite group headed by a Hizbullah activist that planned to act against Egyptian targets diverted attention from the challenge that Hizbullah has made against the very foundations of Lebanese authority. On April 3, 2009, Hizbullah published its political platform in advance of elections to the Lebanese parliament scheduled for June 7, 2009. The document calls for the abolition of sectarian politics and for the enactment of a new election law that would alter the equation of sectarian forces in Lebanon. In this manner, Hizbullah seeks to destroy...

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said in an interview to Russia TV on Thursday 16/4/2009 that the Egyptian security service has detected moves by Hizbollah organization, denying reports that Egypt had got intelligence information from abroad... He dismissed reports that Egypt had got intelligence information from abroad saying those who promote these reports are attempting to fish in troubled water... He described the issue of Hezbollah as dangerous, saying nobody can work on Egypt's soil except with a consent from Egypt's authorities and any violation of Egypt's legitimacy will be unacceptable... Abul-Gheit described Egyptian-Iranian relations as cool, saying the Iranians...

Egypt's High State Security prosecution has asked the death penalty for a Hizbullah activist on charges of plotting attacks in the country with the purpose of "overthrowing the regime," according to Sunday press reports. Defendant Mohammed Youssef Mansour, also known as Sami Shihab, was among 49 suspects detained over the past five months and accused of plotting attacks in Egypt on behalf of the Shiite movement. The pan-Arab daily al Hayat reported Sunday that during a hearing on Saturday Egypt's High State Security prosecution "officially charged Mansour with joining a secret and illegal organization with the aim of overthrowing the...

Egypt terror cell planned to strike in Tel Aviv Almasry Alyoum reports two Palestinian Fatah operatives suspected of membership in Hizbullah cell uncovered in Sinai confess to planning to infiltrate into Israel to carry out suicide attacks Roee Nahmias Published:  04.16.09, 15:38 / Israel News   Members of the Hizbullah cell uncovered in Egypt planned to carry out terror attacks inside Israel, Egyptian daily Almasry Alyoum reported on Thursday.  According to the report, two of the cell's members are Fatah operatives, who confessed to having planned to enter Israel and carry out massive suicide attacks, "maybe even in Tel...

Tensions between Egypt and Lebanon’s Hizbollah group have escalated after the Shia movement admitted that one of its members had been smuggling weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian authorities were chasing 10 Lebanese men on Monday, allegedly members of a Hizbollah cell, on the Sinai peninsula, which shares a border with the Gaza Strip, in a crackdown on a group that they claim was planning to attack Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.

Last week the Washington Times reported that Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S. Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael...

In February, the British government announced it would begin contacts with the non-military wing of Hizballah. Now this strategy has been further clarified. The specific target—perhaps not the best choice of words since it is Hizballah that really targets people—are Hizballah legislators. The goal is to talk to Hizballah members of the Lebanese parliament to get them to encourage their organization to abandon violence and play a constructive political role in Lebanon. This approach is based on the assumption, of course, that parliamentarians are parliamentarians, friendly, outgoing chaps who know how to kiss babies and slap backs in the local...

The British government’s announcement that it would resume dialogue with the “political wing” of Hizbollah has stirred controversy. Some have welcomed it as an overdue international recognition of Lebanon’s most powerful political player, others have decried it as a dangerous accommodation of a violent Islamist organisation. Certainly, for a government that designates the Lebanese Shia party’s “military branch” as a terrorist organisation, this reflects bold thinking whose merits may nevertheless not convert other Western governments. This discussion is not happening in a vacuum and it is certain to heat up in the coming months. Ever since September 11, the debate...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday that Syrian President Basher Assad told him last month in Damascus that Syria is prepared to resume peace negotiations with Israel and embrace a 2000 Arab initiative offering peace in exchange for territory captured from the Arabs in the 1967 Mideast war. "Syria would like direct American participation in these peace talks," said Kerry, D-Mass., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Reversing the Bush administration's dismissive stance on Syria, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Tuesday during a visit to Israel she would send two senior officials to Damascus...

Pakistani authorities have given an ultimatum to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hizb-ul Mujahideen terror camps in Meerpur and Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, to restart anti-India activities and push trained operatives into India, intelligence sources told this newspaper. They have been given one month to carry out terror acts or face closure. Intelligence sources claimed that Pakistan’s ISI area commander, one Col. Musa, called a meeting of zonal heads of the LeT and Hizb in Rawalkot, PoK, on February 13 and instructed them to send trained operatives of defunct camps into India. "The ISI has told all defunct terror camps in Meerpur and...

Israel's relentless offensive to crush the radical Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza is the opening salvo of the country's wider campaign to confront the mounting threat posed by Iran to the survival of the Jewish state. While the Israeli military's immediate focus is to destroy Hamas's ability to terrorise Israel's southern border, the military campaign should be seen within the wider context of Israel's growing resolve to deal with the combined danger of Iran's continuing support for Islamic terrorist groups and its controversial uranium enrichment programme. The Israeli government sees both of these as direct threats to the country's existence....

LastJanuary Hamas destroyed a section of the Sinai- Gaza border wall. Egyptian Security caught some Hamas operatives before they were able to carry out some of the plan mass murders. Hundreds of Hamas fighters were able to infiltrate the Sinai and take care of other plans, securing rockets manufactured in China. After the free 12-day pass to transport above ground was stopped, Hamas continued to smuggle rockets into Gaza thru the network of tunnels that is presently the focus of the Israeli attacks. The rockets pass thru many hands on their way to Gaza, Iran, Hizbullah, Yemem, Sudan, Egypt. Yet...

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora warned on Friday that Israel was seeking to draw Lebanon into its intensifying conflict in Gaza, and called for Arab solidarity in the face of the Jewish state's military offensive against the coastal strip. "Israel is working on entrapping our country," Siniora told reporters after Friday prayers. "As long as the Palestinians remain united, we are capable of convincing the Muslim and Western worlds of our cause." His comments come after media speculation earlier in the week that Turkey and Egypt were planning to warn Israel that any ground invasion of Gaza could trigger a military...

Two years after the Israeli-Hezbollah war which left much of south Lebanon's infrastructure in shambles, military analyst W. Thomas Smith, Jr. offers new insight into recent developments surrounding Hezbollah's quest for power in that country. Lending a trained eye to the strength and activities of Hezbollah, challenges faced by Lebanese Army and police forces, as well as sharing a portion of a personal conversation with President Michel Sleiman, Smith unveils the truth behind Hezbollah: He describes the extremist state within the legitimate state, and expounds on the regional dangers of the Shiia terrorist organization and its newly acquired political powers.

BEIRUT: Former President Amine Gemayel said in remarks published Thursday that Lebanon was being held hostage by Iran, adding that Hizbullah's authority stretched beyond that of the Lebanese state. "Lebanon is the captive of an Iranian strategy that is being implemented by Hizbullah," Gemayel told the Arabic daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat. Gemayel added that Hizbullah's arms were not aimed at liberating the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms. "These weapons are part of a broader regional strategy ... Hizbullah is part of Iran's strategy and nothing else ... the entire situation will change if Iran reconciles with the West." The Phalange Party leader said...

The political and military group's senior commander in southern Lebanon said in a rare interview that Hizbollah was far stronger now than when it fought the Israeli army in a conflict in 2006. Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, who leads Hizbollah's forces on Lebanon's border with Israel - the crucial battlefront of any future war, was speaking in the port city of Tyre. "The resistance is now stronger than before and this keeps the option of war awake. If we were weak, Israel would not hesitate to start another war," he said. "We are stronger than before and when Hizbollah is strong,...

srael’s Military Intelligence chief said Tuesday that the Lebanon-based terrorist army Hizballah has constructed a massive underground military infrastructure under the noses of U.N. observers, The Jerusalem Post reported. "The only thing that is different from the situation before the war is that Hizballah flags aren't being flown," said Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence's Research Division. In the nearly two years since Hizballah's war with Israel, which was ended by a U.N. Security Council Resolution calling for the terrorist army's disarmament, Hizballah has doubled the size and scope of its rocket arsenal with weapons smuggled from Iran and...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Hizballah’s advance on two key Lebanese locations Saturday, May 10 had immediate effect on the strategic balance between the Iran-backed Shiite group and Israel. Sidon in the south, Lebanon’s second largest city, which provides Hizballah with control of a continuous coastal strip from its southern Beirut district all the way to Tyre. The second point is on the northern slopes of the Hermon range. After Hizballah seizes control of this enclave and the Syrian 10th and 14th armored divisions step over the border into Lebanon, the two forces can join to form a strong military line...

Two men on the "national terrorist watch list" have been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following a routine traffic stop, according to Patagonia Police Chief Ed Dobbertin. Dobbertin said that on Feb. 12, between 9-9:30 a.m., he was patrolling State Route 82 near milepost 28 when he pulled over a car for a traffic violation. "There were just indicators that something wasn't right with the vehicle," said Dobbertin. "We searched. My dog indicated that there was the presence of narcotic odor in the vehicle," he added. Dobbertin said he then called Border Patrol to assist. "They...

Barack Obama's real thinking about Israel and the Middle East continues to be an enigma. The words he chose in an address to AIPAC create a different impression than the composition of his foreign policy advisory team. Several advisors have evidenced a history of suspicion and worse toward Israel. One of his advisors in particular, Robert Malley, clearly warrants attention, as does the reasoning that led him to being chosen by Barack Obama. A little family history may be in order to understand the genesis of Robert Malley's views. Normally, one should be reluctant in exploring a person's family background...

Senator Barack Obama went on the record about the never-ending political meltdown in Lebanon, and for a moment there I thought he might have it just right. “The ongoing political crisis is resulting in the destabilization of Lebanon,” he said, “which is an important country in the Middle East. The US cannot watch while Lebanon’s fresh democracy is about to collapse.” So far so good. “We must keep supporting the democratically-elected government of PM Fouad Siniora, strengthening the Lebanese army and insisting on the disarmament of Hezbollah before it leads Lebanon into another unnecessary war.” This is all excellent, so...

Several ministers called for the assassination of Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, one day after the guerilla leader claimed to possess the body parts of IDF soldiers who fought during the Second Lebanon War. "We shouldn't be afraid of Nasrallah, we should eliminate him," Internal Affairs Minister Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) said. Before the meeting, newly appointed Minister of Religious Affairs Yitzhak Cohen said Nasrallah was a lunatic that must be eliminated. Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim (Kadima) referred to Nasrallah as a "sewer rat" and said that he should never see the light of...

Imad Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus. I'm wondering whether Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) still believe that their private consultations with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad were successful, especially given that the Syrian president had, apparently, continued to give one of the world's most notorious terrorists free passage and haven inside Syria. 02/13 11:16 AM

The German weekly Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to declare the two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah, Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, dead. Olmert was in Germany last week, and the Germans are the chief mediators between Israel and Hezbollah on this issue. The likelihood that they are dead increases with every day that goes by with no sign of life from them. Israeli security sources confirmed last night that the intelligence community is reassessing the kidnapped soldiers' situation and is likely to make "difficult decisions" on the matter in the coming weeks. But Israel is...

As a young reporter working in Beirut 25 years ago, when my daily routine consisted of dodging car bombs and the attentions of Shia kidnappers, one name guaranteed to spread terror throughout the beleaguered community of foreign nationals was that of Imad Mughniyeh. The 1980s were the heyday of the celebrity terrorist. There was Carlos the Jackal, the Venezuelan-born Marxist who led the team that took 42 Opec ministers hostage during a conference in Vienna in 1975; he was then living under the protection of Syria in Damascus. And there was Abu Nidal, the radical Palestinian terrorist, who thought nothing...

This is the website for "Hizbollah in Iraq": http://www.alasaeb.com/ = 67.228.114.198 Hezbollah in Iraq's website is hosted by SoftLayer Technologies in Dallas, Texas: abuse@softlayer.com The website features many videos of American and Iraqis being killed. Guess who hosts all of Hizbollah in Iraq's videos? YouTube. YouTube user "qasimhaider2007" has 21 videos. Most of them are embedded on Hizbillah in Iraq's website. User "habebalmurshid" has 24 videos, most of which are also embedded on the Hezbollah Iraq website. [...] Call me "old fashioned", but am I the only one in the room who has a problem with two American companies helping...

Iran builds a new road to aid Lebanese allies By Tim Butcher in Jezzine Last Updated: 2:53am GMT 07/12/2007 Under the cover of an aid project, Iran is consolidating Shia control over southern Lebanon by building a large mountain road that critics believe is a supply route for Hizbollah. The Iranian flag is displayed on the road building equipment While Iran claims the road is nothing but a reconstruction project after the 2006 war with Israel, some observers believe it is a key component of the militant group's rearmament programme. Iranian money is also creating two new Shia villages to...

WASHINGTON - A suspected Hezbollah mole who penetrated who penetrated the ranks of the FBI and CIA pleaded guilty Tuesday to falsely getting U.S. citizenship and snooping in FBI terrorism files. Former waitress Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, of Vienna, Va., admitted arranging a sham marriage with an American in Michigan to win U.S. citizenship. She parlayed that into sensitive jobs as an FBI special agent and a CIA operations officer, sources said. Sources told The News that Prouty is believed to be a double-agent planted in the agencies by Hezbollah or its supporters, though government officials downplayed her ties to...

A high-ranking official with the Detroit office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (“ICE”), formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and four other metro-Detroit men were indicted by a federal Grand Jury with multiple counts of bribery, conspiracy and extortion, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced today. U.S. Attorney Murphy was joined in the announcement by Thomas M. Frost, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago, Illinois office of the Department of Homeland Security - Office of Inspector General, and Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit, Michigan, office of the Federal...

A former FBI agent who pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship and then improperly accessing sensitive computer information about Hizbollah was working until about a year ago as a CIA spy assigned to Middle East operations, Newsweek has learned. The stunning case of Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese native who is related to a suspected Hizbollah money launderer, appears to raise a nightmarish question for U.S. intelligence agencies: Could one of the world's most notorious terrorist groups have infiltrated the U.S. government ...

Nasrallah terms Iran's stance on Palestine as progressive Beirut, Oct 6, 2007 IRNA Lebanese Hizbollah Chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah here on Friday evening termed Iran's stance on Palestinian issue and liberation of the holy Qods as courageous and progressive. Addressing a gathering held on the occasion of International Qods Day in southern Beirut, he said the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, had attached special importance to the issue of Palestine from the very beginning. Changing the embassy of the Zionist regime in Tehran to the Palestinian embassy was one of Imam's first revolutionary measures following the victory...

Jewish and Christian Lebanese community leaders in the Canadian city of Windsor united in calling for the removal of a billboard depicting Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah that was erected over the weekend by one of the city's advertising companies. One of the men responsible for the sign told the Windsor Star newspaper that the billboard was removed on Monday because Shiite Lebanese community members had paid to have it up over the weekend, rejecting allegations that they were caving in to fierce public backlash. "What ever we believe, we'll speak about it anytime," Hussein Dabaja told the Windsor Star. "We...

Hizbollah is buying up large tracts of land owned by Christians and other non-Shias in southern Lebanon as the militant group rebuilds its defences in preparation for a new war with Israel, The Sunday Telegraph has been told. The land grab is thought to be driven by the Iranian-backed guerrillas' efforts to rearm themselves and fortify the strategically important ravines north of the Litani River, just north of the front line in last year's 34-day conflict with its Jewish neighbour. Here, Hizbollah has been free to press forward without harassment from the 13,000 United Nations peacekeepers and 20,000 Lebanese army...

The Party of God continues to receive weapons and ammunition, it is strengthening its positions and even moving into areas patrolled by the Lebanese army and blue berets. On the other side, some experts maintain, that the Jewish states army needs to reinforce its military superiority, undermined in last summers war.

In a significant diplomatic shift, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will invite Hizbullah to take part in a conference on Lebanon scheduled for later this month in Paris, and begin "engaging" Syria, The Jerusalem Post has learned. New French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has invited delegates from across Lebanon's political and religious divide to the conference aimed at quelling Lebanon's violence and political strife. In another sign that France has decided to step up its involvement in the Middle East, Sarkozy is to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Tuesday.

Why Hezbollah LOST the War in Lebanon! On July 12, 2006 Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers that led to Israel's war with them and, by extension, Lebanon itself. Hezbollah has been on Israel's fence since the latter's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Israel always requested from the international community and from the Lebanese government to deploy its Lebanese Army there instead of Hezbollah's terror troops. Hezbollah, quite naturally, refused! Hezbollah vowed to NEVER allow any other force other than itself to occupy southern Lebanon. Even during the conflict, Hezbollah said it would never agree to allow either the Lebanese army...

All of Hizbullah's policies and activities are coordinated with the leadership of Iran, including the firing of rockets into Israeli population centers for which direct Iranian approval is required, said a senior Hizbullah official in a rare admission. "Even when it comes to firing rockets on Israeli civilians, when they (Israel) bombed the civilians on our side, even that decision requires an in-principle permission from (the ruling jurisprudent)," said Sheikh Naim Kassem, the deputy chief of Hizbullah, in an Arabic language interview translated Sunday by the Information and Terrorism Center at Israel's Center for Special Studies. Organization's deputy leader stresses...

US 'in covert war against Hizbullah' Clancy Chassay in Beirut Tuesday April 10, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) The Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. His deputy accuses the US of waging a covert war against their organisation. Photograph: Getty Images Washington is waging a covert war against Hizbullah, according to the militant group, which accuses the US administration of arming anti-Hizbullah militias and seeking to undermine the Lebanese army in moves that could plunge the country back into civil war. "[The US vice president] Dick Cheney has given orders for a covert war against Hizbullah... there is now an American programme...

The current debate in Israel, over military strategy used against Hizbollah last year, brought out an old, and ongoing, debate between armies and air forces. For thousands of years, it was the army that called the shots when it came to military strategy. Even nations with large navies, let the generals have the final say. There have been a few exceptions, mainly powerful island nations like Great Britain. But for the vast majority of nations, it was generals, not admirals, who had the last say. When air forces appeared 90 years ago, they were seen as a support service for...

Husham Al-Husainy With heads bowed reverently, Democrats were led in prayer yesterday by a Muslim imam who essentially asked Allah to assist in converting the party members to Islam, according to a scholar and author. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Truth about Muhammad," took note of the invocation given at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting by Husham Al-Husainy, imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich. According to a transcript of the prayer, which can be seen on a video clip provided by HotAir.com, the imam said: In...

New Fears: The Return of a Superterrorist Feb. 5, 2007 issue - Before Osama bin Laden, there was Imad Mughniyeh. The Lebanese terrorist from Hizbullah was considered the most dangerous in the world. Now the White House worries that he's back, after years of lying low. Four serving U.S. intel and counterterrorism officials, anonymous when discussing sensitive material, said Mughniyeh is prominent in recent reporting from the field about Hizbullah activity. Bruce Riedel, a veteran Mideast expert recently retired from the CIA, told NEWSWEEK there is "no question he is heavily involved in [formulating] terrorist contingency plans in case of...

Hezbollah America Latina: Strange Group or Real Threat? Dr. Ely KarmonDownload as pdfNovember14, 2006 The October 23, 2006 failed explosive operation in CaracasOn October 23, 2006, the Baruta Municipality police found two explosive devices near the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. One of the bombs was found in a box containing leaflets making reference to the Lebanese radical Islamic group Hezbollah. The local television news network, Globovision, reported one of the devices found in a flowerpot near the Embassy, while the other device found outside a school, near the diplomatic premises.Wilfredo Porras, acting director of the Baruta police, said they arrested...

CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah By Toby Harnden, US Editor Last Updated: 1:47am GMT 10/01/2007 The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to take covert action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora. The finding was signed by Mr Bush before Christmas after discussions between his aides and Saudi Arabian officials. Details...

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a speech aired Sunday urged his supporters and anti-Syrian allies to be "psychologically" ready for street protests to demand for a national unity government. But Nasrallah, who did not set a date for the demonstrations, warned that the protests should be peaceful and avoid riots. "We have to be psychologically prepared to take to the streets because we may send for you 24 hours ahead or 12 hours or even 6 hours (in advance)," Nasrallah threatened. "There has to be a patriotic opposition in the street … our action is peaceful and civilized,"...

LONDON (AFP) - Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens before he became a Muslim in the 1970s, has released his first commercial album for nearly three decades -- but reviewers seemed unimpressed. "An Other Cup" went on sale in along with a single, "Heaven/Where True Love Goes", while the album was to be released in the United States on Tuesday. With his telegenic, part-Greek good looks, Stevens scored international hits in the 1960 and 1970s with songs like "Wild World", "Moonshadow" and "My Lady d'Arbanville". But in 1977 he decided to hang up his guitar -- changing...