Free Republic

Mideast: Iran tests an advanced warhead design as it gets caught shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Syria is reported to give the group operational control over Scud missiles. It's five minutes to midnight. Tyranny abhors a vacuum. While the U.S. and the West dither in Hamlet-like fashion over whatever we shall do in places such as Afghanistan and Iran, the Axis of Evil is in full swing in its plans to destroy Israel and threaten Europe and America. Israel last week seized what it said was the largest arms cache ever intercepted in the region. Israeli navy commandos boarded the Francop,...

Hundreds of tons of weaponry, ten times the size of the Karine A shipment of 2002, were seized in an overnight raid Tuesday by the Israeli navy, some 100 nautical miles west of Israel, officials said. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, intercepted near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and possibly also Hizbullah. The weapons seized on the ship, which was sailing under an Antiguan flag, included some 3,000 rockets of various types, as well as bullets and ammunition. The transfer of such large amounts of weapons out of Iran could "create a...

The Story of 'Operation Orchard' How Israel Destroyed Syria's Al Kibar Nuclear Reactor By Erich Follath and Holger Stark In September 2007, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a mysterious complex in the Syrian desert. The incident could have led to war, but it was hushed up by all sides. Was it a nuclear plant and who gave the orders for the strike? The mighty Euphrates river is the subject of the prophecies in the Bible's Book of Revelation, where it is written that the river will be the scene of the battle of Armageddon: "The sixth angel poured out his bowl...

Special Navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding the Francop some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hizbullah. More than 60 tons of weaponry were on board, in dozens of containers. The Francop carried hundreds of containers. A significant amount of 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, likely made in Iran, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades were found on board. Israel Radio reported that advanced anti-aircraft platforms not before...

Israel's military intelligence chief has warned that Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have successfully tested an Iranian rocket that can reach Tel Aviv, the Jewish state's largest urban conurbation. That adds a new urgency to Israel's efforts to develop an effective defensive system capable of shooting down short-range rockets that, if the warning by Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin is correct, are becoming a strategic threat. Yadlin says the rocket has a range of 37 miles, 8 miles longer He did not identify the Iranian system, but there have been reports that Iran has been seeking to smuggle Fajr-5 (Dawn)...

BERLIN - The Mossad espionage agency used Trojan Horse programs to gather intelligence about a nuclear facility in Syria that the Israel Defense Forces destroyed in 2007, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported yesterday. According to the magazine, Mossad agents planted the malware on the computer of a Syrian official while he was staying in London, at a hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Kensington. The program copied details about Syria's illicit nuclear program and sent them directly to the Mossad agents' computers, the report said. Israel's raid on the al-Kabir site in Syria's eastern desert on September 6, 2007...

In September 2007, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a mysterious complex in the Syrian desert. The incident could have led to war, but it was hushed up by all sides. Was it a nuclear plant and who gave the orders for the strike? The mighty Euphrates river is the subject of the prophecies in the Bible's Book of Revelation, where it is written that the river will be the scene of the battle of Armageddon: "The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from...

'There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government - for six decades the West's closest Muslim ally - since Erdogan's AK party came to power in 2002. Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate...

October 22, 2009, 0:00 a.m. Disconnecting the Dots An Afghanistan strategy is not enough. By Clifford D. May Don’t fault President Obama for reconsidering his strategy in Afghanistan. Fault him for reconsidering his strategy only in Afghanistan. Nearing the end of his first year in office, his administration has not yet developed a coherent and comprehensive plan to defend Americans from the movements, groups, and regimes that declare themselves our enemies, explicitly state their intentions — e.g. “A world without America�— and, unless we take steps to prevent it, will soon have nuclear capabilities to help them accomplish their...

BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans — in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said. Tarek Mehanna worked with the men from 2001 to May 2008 on the...

Arab media in the Persian Gulf have been reporting that Syria, apparently on the orders of Iran, has turned over about 300 long range ballistic missiles to Hezbollah control. The missiles have apparently not left Syria (they would be hard to miss, being driven around southern Lebanon). The reports add that Hezbollah personnel are being trained to operate the missiles. Syria has underground storage and launch facilities for its arsenal of over a thousand SCUD missiles. Armed with half ton high explosive and cluster bomb warheads, the missiles have ranges of 500-700 kilometers. Syria also has some 90 older Russian...

SNIPPET: "Security sources in Jerusalem told the paper that the missiles, now held by Hizbullah, could hit every part of Israel, Channel 10 reported. Iranian and Syrian officers were reportedly training the Hizbullah operatives in using the new missiles and in operating early warning systems intended to alert the group of Israeli jets."

DAMASCUS, Syria – Archaeologists have discovered two Crusader-era murals depicting heaven and hell in a medieval church near Syria's coast — a rare find that could reveal new information about the Christian knights who battled Muslims for control of the Holy Land hundreds of years ago. Experts are now renovating the 12th century paintings, which were discovered last year by a joint Syrian-Hungarian team excavating an old Crusader fortress on a hilltop near the Mediterranean Sea in the western province of Tartous. ... The murals, which measure about 8 feet (2.5 meters) high and 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide, were...

Can you yell, "Stop the presses!" in the computer age? We were going to interrupt our train of thought on Afghanistan and the Taliban to consider how Turkey's cancellation of a longstanding NATO exercise because of Israeli participation should have turned even Turkey's apologists into skeptics of the Islamist-leaning Turkish government's long-term intentions toward Israel, NATO and the West. The apologists have said Turkey is just balancing its secular, constitutional, 20th Century side with its history. And, anyhow, they continue, the increasing anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Israel (veering into anti-Semitic) venom from the Turkish government and media isn't actually Turkey's fault....

US soldiers in the Gulf of Suez raided a freighter that was apparently shipping arms from Iran to Syria or Hizbullah in early October, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported on its Web site on Monday.

Note: The following text is a quote: www.mnc-i.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RELEASE No. 20091011-05 October 11, 2009 Iraqi SWAT arrests 2006 sniper suspect Multi-National Corps-Iraq PAO RAMADI, Iraq - Elements of the Ramadi and Habbaniyah Iraq Special Weapons and Tactics teams, with U.S. Special Operations advisors, arrested an individual who is a suspect involved in multiple sniper shootings throughout Anbar Province Oct. 9 near Ramadi. The Magistrate Court of Ar Ramadi issued a warrant for Abd al-Qadir Afan Qafe’s arrest after his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi Army Soldier in 2006 and the shooting of a...

The Iraq Army, in an operation guided by the U.S. military, has captured about 150 suspected Al Qaida operatives in the north. Officials said the Al Qaida operatives and loyalists of the late President Saddam Hussein were arrested in a crackdown in October around the northern city of Mosul. They said the mission, titled "Nineveh Wall" and guided by the U.S. military, was meant to disband the core Al Qaida presence in northern Iraq linked to neighboring Syria. Officials said many of the Al Qaida fugitives were in contact with financiers and handlers in Syria. They cited Mohammed Yunis Al...

Somali pirates attempted to hijack a ship Thursday night in the Mogadishu port but were eventually scared away by a rescue effort. The Syrian captain on the Panama-flagged ship was killed in the incident. The African Union forces and Somali police responded after receiving a distress call from the ship. But Barigye Ba-hoku, the spokesman for African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, says that by the time his forces got there, the pirates had already climbed aboard the vessel. "We reacted very quickly and tried to prevent these characters from boarding on to the ship, but unfortunately...

We now know that Barack Obama  has sat  for almost a year on the information regarding Iran's "secret" nuclear plant. His hand was forced yesterday by the Iranians who were the ones that went public with the information when it appeared to them that their security had been breached. This led to Barack Obama disclosing the previously withheld information regarding the plant. The Iranians kept the plant secret and Obama aided them by his silence. So much for the transparency promise. What damage has been caused by Obama's withholding this information from the world? Instead of focusing his attention and...

"Moroccan police arrest 24 from network coordinating with jihadists "in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone"" SNIPPET: "The security services in Morocco have arrested 24 members of a "terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for suicide bombings in Iraq, the interior ministry said Wednesday. In a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, it said the network -- coordinating "with terrorists in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone" -- also sought recruits for Al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan and Somalia. The suspects -- now being questioned by police -- were arrested in several cities in Morocco, said...

Logging onto Facebook as a resident in the Golan Heights, should you enter Syria or Israel as your home country? Facebook now has 300 million users -- almost as many as the population of the United States. Decades of war and occupation have not provided an answer to that question -- but the social networking Web site now permits both options, sparking fears about an anti-Facebook cyber-war. The Golan Heights is Syrian territory that was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Since then it has been internationally classified as Israeli-occupied territory. Up until recently, Facebook fans in...

The Euphrates River, as seen from the Greco-Roman fortress of Dura-Europos. (Frederick Deknatel) Syria: Where war hides history By Frederick Deknatel | Contributor 08.26.09 DURA-EUROPOS, SYRIA – Syria is Damascus to the growing number of Western tourists here. A short trip to the Greek desert city of Palmyra, about halfway to the Euphrates from the capital, is often as far east as visitors go. Down the highway, however, where the Euphrates greens a strip of the rocky landscape, is a corner of the country less known for historical sights than for its proximity to war-torn Iraq. It is from here...

"The liquid bomb plot 'terror banker' still walking free in London as Yard chief accuses U.S. of rushing investigation" By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Last updated at 2:26 PM on 08th September 2009 SNIPPET: "And it also emerged today that a suspected key figure in the plot is still at large in Britain despite being pinpointed as an Al Qaeda financier with links both to the airline plan and the 21/7 bombers." SNIPPET: "Intelligence sources in the UK have indicated it was surveillance of Mohammed Al Ghabra, 29, who first led them to the airline plotters. He is suspected of being...

09 September 2009 JIHADIS REPORT OF SYRIAN MEDDLING IN YEMEN Not that I consider jihadis to be a reliable source on such matters, but you know what they say about broken clocks...

It is so refreshing to see that our own government helped create an Islamic stronghold within the Balkan Peninsula. Serbia jails 4 Muslims for plotting terror attack Tue Sep 8, 2009 12:28 BELGRADE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A Serbian court on Tuesday sentenced four Muslims to prison terms ranging from four to eight years for plotting to attack a football stadium in a southern town of Novi Pazar, a spokeswoman said.

The four MiG-31E fighter jets that Russia will deliver to Syria will be without offensive capabilities and used for intelligence gathering alone, according to reports that reached Jerusalem from Moscow this week. According to these reports, Russia did not sell more planes to the Syrians for the simple reason that Damascus does not have the ability to pay for any more. The reports said that two of the planes would be operational, and the other two would be purchased for "cannibalization" purposes, amid a Syrian realization that Russia would not provide effective "after-sale service," and that these planes would be...

Barry Rubin describes the latest example of the Obama administration's hard-wired inability to take the side of an ally if it means offending a bloodthirsty enemy. In this instance the parties are Iraq, for whose stability we have sacrificed hundreds of lives, and Syria, which has harbored and supported the terrorists who have taken many of those lives. The current disputes stem from a visit to Syria by President Maliki in mid-August. Malikii reportedly offered his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad economic concessions in exchange for expelling 271 Iraqi exiles involved in organizing terrorist attacks against their country. Assad refused and...

The Region: America's obsession with dialogue Sep. 6, 2009 Barry Rubin , THE JERUSALEM POST On August 26, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly was asked what the US thought about the dispute between Iraq and Syria. His answer shockingly recalls the last time a US government made that mistake. First, some background. Iraqi leader Nuri al-Maliki visited Syria on August 18 to discuss the two countries' relationship. He offered Syrian President Bashar Assad a lot of economic goodies in exchange for expelling 271 Iraqi exiles involved in organizing terrorist attacks against their country. Assad refused. Maliki left. The next day,...

DAMASCUS, Syria – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attacked Israel Thursday during his visit to Syria, calling it an imperialist nation that annihilates other people. ... "Israel has become a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace," he said, according to the Arabic translation of his remarks to reporters. In comments carried by Venezuelan state television, he also accused Israel of being part of imperialist efforts to divide the Middle East. "The entire world knows it. Why was the state of Israel created? ... To divide. To impede the unity of the Arab world. To assure the presence of...

<p>Russia has a contract to provide Syria with powerful MiG fighter jets but has not begun delivering the planes, according to a Russian newspaper report.</p> <p>Kommersant cited the head of Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corporation, Alexei Fyodorov, as saying that a 2007 contract to sell MiG-31E interceptor fighters to Syria has not entered into force.</p>

Nouri Kamal Al-Maliki, who became prime minister of Iraq in May 2006, was a compromise candidate. He was seen at the time as the weakest of the available candidates - a virtually unknown representative of the Islamic Al-Da'wa Party, at the time a junior partner in the predominantly Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). The occupying power, the United States, favored him because of his reputation as "independent of Iran," as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalman Khalilzad put it.(1)  To the surprise - and perhaps consternation - of both his critics and his allies, Al-Maliki not only won the elections, but...

Note: Photo included. Note: The following blog entry is a quote: NEW ON MEMRI TV : Muhammad Al-Shimari, an Al-Qaeda Terrorist Captured in Iraq: I Was Trained in Syria To view this clip, click here Posted at: 2009-09-02

While the Obama Administration has decided to send an ambassador to Syria, the Iraqi government has withdrawn theirs. After seven years of Syria supporting the insurgency, deliberately contributing to the deaths of Iraqis and Coalition soldiers, the al-Maliki government is standing up against Assad’s terrorism in a way the U.S. is currently failing to. The diplomatic crisis began shortly after twin bombings in Baghdad on August 19. The attacks occurred across the street of the Foreign Ministry and at the Finance Ministry, killing over 100 people. This was the deadliest incident since U.S. forces were removed from the cities, handing...

DAMASCUS -- Syria is accelerating its economic opening -- boosting U.S. hopes that its tight relationship with Iran might be weakened. For decades, Syria has been defined by its rigid socialist economy and its military ties to Iran against Israel and the West. Trade sanctions have taken a heavy toll: More than half the 16 jets in Syria's state airline can't fly for lack of spare parts. But President Bashar Assad -- heir to his family's political dynasty -- has started unshackling the economy by permitting private banks and insurers to open shop and by letting Syrians hold foreign currency...

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday described information he received from the Iraqi government on the crisis with Syria as convincing, noting that he will transfer it to Damascus. At a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad, the minister called on the two sides to exchange information on the current crisis without revealing them. The minister said that he discussed with President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Vice President Adel Abdulmahdi the latest developments between Iraq and Syria. “We understood the Iraqi stance and its persuasive information and I will carry them...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

Note: The following text is a quote: United States Transfers Two Guantanamo Bay Detainees to the Government of Portugal The Department of Justice today announced that two Syrian nationals have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of Portugal. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of these cases. As a result of that review, the detainees were approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. On Aug. 6, 2009, in accordance with Congressionally-mandated reporting requirements, the Administration informed Congress of...

After calling for a regional military alliance under the banner of the Islam's messianic "Mahdi," Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, along with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is continuing the push for a regional "resistance" army against Israel and the United States. Last week, WND reported Ayatollah Khamenei had called on the nations of Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan to unite militarily in response to the imminent coming of the Mahdi. According to a report in Al Arabiya, the purpose for uniting was to raise up a unified regional resistance to fight Israel and the U.S. - seen as the two greatest...

2. On 12 August 2009, Iran was feeding UF6 into Unit A24, and ten cascades of Unit A26, at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz.1 On that day, the eight other cascades of Unit A26 were under vacuum. Iran has continued with the installation of cascades at Unit A28; fourteen cascades have been installed and the installation of another cascade is continuing.2 All machines installed to date are IR-1 centrifuges. Installation work at Units A25 and A27 is also continuing.3. Iran has estimated that, between 18 November 2008 and 31 July 2009, 7942 kg of UF6 was fed into...

Al Qaeda front group the Islamic State in Iraq has claimed responsibility for last week's deadly truck bombings in Baghdad. The bombings, which targeted Iraqi's foreign and finance ministries, killed more than 100 Iraqis and wounded hundreds more. The bombings took place less than two months after the Iraqi security forces took control of security in the cities, and US forces withdrew to bases. The Iraqi government was also beginning to remove the concrete barriers that line the city streets. Al Qaeda in Iraq said its "sons launched a new blessed attack at the heart of wounded Baghdad," designed to...

Syrian President Bashar Assad's..visit was officially described as a goodwill trip to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his re-election as Iran's president. But what came out following Assad's meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was an idea for an unofficial quadripartite alliance between Syria and Iran, with Turkey and Iraq....Turkey has begun to accept the possibility that its European dreams are unlikely to materialize... Obama...appears determined to announce his Middle East peace plan next month in New York in the presence of both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hinted today that Syria was responsible for last week’s bombings in Baghdad. In an unusually belligerent tone Maliki added that Iraq could respond in kind but refrains from doing so because of “our values and keen interest to reach an agreement with this country to get rid of those elements they host”. This is the first time the Prime Minister points at a particular state for involvement in violence in Iraq. Previous statements usually used the loose “neighboring countrie(s)” term. Although he only spoke about Syria, he also hinted that Syria might have a partner in...

Syria: 5th century skeleton found in Byzantine cathedral Edited by Maha Karim Saturday, 15 August 2009 13:23 A cathedral with a skeleton remains in it, dating back to the Byzantine era, was unearthed by the Syrian excavation team in Tal Al-Hasaka site, north eastern Syria. The cathedral ,which dates back to the Early Christianity Era, is 18 meters long, and includes a four meter wide northern hall, a 6.5 meter wide middle hall and a three meter wide southern hall, Al-Hasaka Archeology Director Abdul-Maseeh Baghdo said in a press release on Saturday. It also includes two column bases, and the...

Israeli President Shimon Peres claims that Lebanon's Hezbollah now has an arsenal of 80,000 rockets to bombard Israel -- double the previous estimate by Israeli intelligence and almost four times the number the Iranian-backed militants possessed during their 2006 war with the Jewish state. Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh has dismissed as "lies" the claim made by Peres in an interview with the Kuwait daily Al-Rai published Sunday. "I don't know how he counted these rockets." But the Israeli leader's claim has fuelled regional fears that a new conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is brewing. There has been no independent...

Special Dispatch - No. 2499 August 21, 2009 No. 2499 In March 2009, Hamas held a festival at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria to mark "the victory of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades," its military wing, in the "Al-Furqan War," [1] i.e., the 2008-9 war with Israel in Gaza. The festival included a photo exhibit and the screening of films showing the Al-Qassam Brigades at their training camps; distribution of videos about the Brigades' operations during the war; and an evening poetry program featuring poets and children's choirs from across the Arab world. There were also speeches by...

Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber. Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said. Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli...

SNIPPET: "It is claimed that the secret police, aided and abetted by spies who have infiltrated the mujahideen, are arresting brothers who are trying to transit through Syria in order to join up with the re-vitalized jihad in Iraq." SNIPPET: "...so take this all with a grain of salt."

Note: Photo included. # Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Khamenei Praises Syria's Resistance, Stresses Cooperation Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei yesterday praised Iran's key ally Syria for its "resistance" in the face of world powers, in a meeting in Iran with visiting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. "Syria’s most important characteristic among Arab countries is its steadfastness and resistance," Khamenei said, stressing Syria's "excellent standing" in the region. Khamenei said "the resistance front" in the Middle East "should strengthen its cooperation and ties... "America’s blade has become blunter in the region," Khamenei added. He continued, "The unity between...

We all have heard the moralistic aphorism: “Man cannot live by bread alone.” However, in the Middle East the proper aphorism is: “Nations in the region cannot live on oil alone.” Water is, in fact, a much more valued commodity there. Conflicts and wars have arisen and may yet arise between nations in the region over the control of water resources. In late 1964, Syria and Israel were close to war when the Syrian government attempted to divert the rivers Hazbani and Banias, which flow into the Jordan River. Syria was determined to prevent Israel from using the waters of...

LONDON — Iran and Syria reportedly participated in a failed missile launch by North Korea. ShareThis Western diplomatic sources said Iran, North Korea and Syria joined in the firing of two new ballistic missiles in 2009. The sources said the North Korean missiles veered off-course and killed or injured scores of people. None of the three countries has acknowledged a joint missile test. In May, Syria was said to have reported a natural gas explosion in the area of Manbij. "The test took place in Syria in May and was a complete failure," a diplomatic source said. On Aug. 14,...