Breaking - US Arming Hezbollah With State-Of-The-Art Missiles

 

The U.S. delivered part of an $8.6 million military aid package to Lebanon today including laser-guided artillery shells and Hellfire air-to-surface missiles. This amounts to a doubling of military aid to Lebanon.

The story from the Obama Administration is that these munitions are to help Lebanon's military defend the country’s eastern border from what the State Department referred to as "violent extremists."

Just one thing...speaking of violent extremists, there's a peculiar thing about Lebanon's Army. Like the rest of Lebanon's military, it is now  totally integrated with Hezbollah. And it has been for years.

The armaments the Obama Administration is giving Lebanon will thus be freely available to  Hezbollah and used against Israel when the time comes.That's why the Israelis made a formal announcement  that if they were attacked from Lebanon again, unlike the last time they would consider it an attack on Israel by Lebanon, not just Hezbollah.

And it even gets worse than that.

Those extremists the Obama Administration  is blathering about?A reasonable person might think that would include Jaish al-Fatah, the Army of Conquest. These are the so-called  'moderates' funded, armed and trained by President Obama in conjunction with Turkey, Qatar and the Saudis. Jaish al-Fatah is primarily composed of 'moderates' like Ahrar ash-Sham, an officially designated terrorist group and  the al-Qaeda offshoot al-Nusrah.And they're right on Lebanon's border in Idlib province.

 

These are the same wonderful folks the Obama administration is complaining about Vladimir Putin conducting air strikes on:

“Greater than 90 percent of the strikes that we’ve seen them take to date have not been against ISIL or al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

“They’ve been largely against opposition groups that want a better future for Syria and don’t want to see the Assad regime stay in power.
Al-Nusrah isn't affiliated with al-Qaedah? That's certainly not what they say. Read up on al-Nusrah and Ahrar ash-Sham. You'll quickly find out what kind of future these hard line Islamists want for Syria, and their differences with ISIS could basically be summed up by the phrase 'Who's going to be king of the mountain ?'

And by the way, this is exactly how ISIS was created...out of the Syrian Free Army funded, trained and armed by the Obama Administration, Turkey and Qatar.

What we have here is material aid to terrorism, something that is clearly against U.S. law except when President Obama does it. Even more, we're aiding both sides in this conflict who, whatever their differences hate us and have plenty of American blood on their hands.Our president's actions have already ensured that we lose out either way.

At least Russia's Vladimir Putin seems to know whose side he's on. And he seems to be actually taking on those 'Sunni extremists' and 'al-Qada affiliated terrorists' John Kirby was talking about.

As for me, I have to confess something. When my tax dollars are going to a government that funds groups that would happily murder me and my family let alone my friends in Israel, it is definitely food for thought.

Certainly I never want to hear this president or any of his minions talk about how they 'have Israel's back' when they're arming. training and funding genocidal terrorists.

Israeli Strike Takes Out Iranian General And Hezbollah Leaders

Israel pulled off a very successful air strike today near Syria’s Quneitra border crossing.As many as 12 Hezbollah and Iranian officials took the dirt nap as an Israeli attack chopper scored direct hits on the three car convoy they were traveling in.

Among the dead were Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, who had just been promoted as the IRG commander in charge of Iranian troops and Iran trained Shi'ite militiamen fighting for Syria's Basher Assad. His aides were also killed, among them Iranian general Abu Ali Tabatabai.

Another was a prominent Hezbollah commander, Jihad Mugniyeh, the son of the late and unlamented Imad Mugniyeh.He was in charge of Hezbollah operations in Syria.

 

According to my sources, the Israelis got wind of a plan to ramp up terrorist attacks on their northern border and decided on a little preventive pest control.The idea, among other things, was for Hezbollah to put missile bases and terrorist camps in Syria to strike Israel while avoiding retaliation in Lebanon.

Kol Hakavod, Chevra...well done.

We'll see if Hezbollah responds. The IDF has already deployed troops and a couple of Iron Dome batteries in the Golan and they say they're prepared. My guess is that Hezbollah swallows this and limits itself to rhetoric, for now.  The Israelis have been crystal clear that unlike 2006, any attack by Hezbollah will be considered as coming from Lebanon, since Hezbollah pretty much runs that country as an Iranian colony now.

UPDATE: It's now been verified today that my sources were correct..this attack took out the Iranian and Hezbollah commanders whom were meeting to plan major attacks on Israel's north.

Murder Most Foul -To Protect Iran And Argentina's Corrupt President

Argentinian Federal Prosecutor Alberto Nissim was a dedicated and brave man, who was in charge of investigating the 1994 terror bombing at a Jewish community center in Buenos Ares that killed 85 people.

 

In 2007, Nisman issued a report that clearly showed that the bombing had been carried out by Iran and its Hezbollah surrogates. It made the case strongly enough that Interpol issued "red notices"—arrest requests—for five Iranian officials who still remain free today.

Nisman had continued to work on the case and provide more details, especially on the connections between Iran and Argentina's government and their joint efforts at a cover up. Just last year, Nisman was able to get an Argentine federal court to declare the 2013 agreement between Argentina and Iran to establish a joint "truth commission" to investigate the Jewish community center bombing unconstitutional.

Just last week, Nisman had filed a lawsuit accusing President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman of colluding with the Iranians in a cover up of the bombing for the quid pro quo of Iranian oil and personal bribes. A lot of the evidence reportedly came from phone calls between Kirchner's aides and Mohsen Rabbani, the former cultural attaché at Iran’s embassy in Buenos Aires and one of the Iranians subject to those Interpol arrest warrants.

Today Nisman was found dead in his apartment of a single gunshot wound, just hours before he was scheduled to testify in a closed hearing to the Argentinian Congress regarding his investigation of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s corrupt dealings with Iran.

A .22 pistol and a single shell casing were found in the bathroom next to the body, Although Nisman was supposedly under the protection of a ten man security team, none of them heard or saw anything - and of course, Argentine Security Secretary Sergio Berni quickly came out with a statement that 'all signs point towards suicide.'

Yes..just hours before he was supposed to present evidence to Argentina's congress on a case he'd worked on for years.His death is a major coup for Iran, not just because of the 1994 bombing but because of the loss  Nisman's first hand knowledge of Iran and Hezbollah's penetration into Latin America.

And this Iranian regime, these murderers is whom President Obama wants us to get close to?  

Hat tip y un abrazo to Fausta's superb blog, where more info on this is available.

Islamic State Captures Key Syrian Base In Major Victory - And What It Means

The Islamic State scored a major victory today over Syrian leader Basher Assad's forces when they broke through after a two week siege to capture the strategic Tabqa airbase southwest of their northern stronghold of Raqqa. Hundreds of the 1,000 Syrian soldiers trapped there were killed.

 

Islamic State  killed army commanders and pro-government militiamen, decapitating them before putting their bodies and heads on display.

This was the last Syrian base in the northeastern province of Raqqa, which means the Islamic Stae has now gained full control of an entire Syrian province for the first time in the civil war.

Islamic State is also close to complete control of the rebel-held; province of Deir el-Zour. They are picking off rebel strongholds one by one, and many members of other rebel groups  are flocking to join them.



The next move by Islamic State could be towards the strategic city of Aleppo.Assad's regime troops, Hezbollah fighters and Iranian Revolutionary guard are close to completing their capture of the strategic city from the Syrian rebels, but they could then end up encircled and cut off by Islamic State forces.

One of my sources told me that Islamic State is withdrawing its fighters from the central Syrian province of Homs, after handing over its headquarters to its allies, the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front. This could mean a two pronged assault on Aleppo from both the south and from Tel Abayad and Raqqa in the east.

Meantime, the official Saudi news agency reported that the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan are meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah for a major conference.

Here's what I'd bet money they're discussing:

What are Barack Obama and the Americans going to do? Islamic State is not only a threat to Iraq and Syria, not only a threat to the Sunni Arab countries but a huge security threat to the United States.Aside from a few arms shipments and air strikes, thus far the U.S. has not been overtly involved, certainly not the way President Obama was in Libya.

Islamic State has already rolled back almost a year of advances made by the Syrian military and their Hezbollah allies against the insurgency.Is President Obama going to go in full bore? And if he does, is he going to extend the U.S. military action to Syria?

If the president decides to go into Syria, Obama is basically preserving the rule of Basher Assad, and relieving pressure on Iran and Hezbollah, allowing them to consolidate their own Shi'ite bloc, something the Saudis, Egypt, the UAE and the other GCE countries see as just as much a threat to them as Islamic State...while Qatar sees Islamic State as a major force to combat the Shi'ites and supports them more or less covertly.

After declaring for nearly four years that 'Assad must go', Barack Obama is in a position where he just might end up sending in U.S. troops and air power to save Assad, believe it or not.That of course would put America on the same side as Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. And it would also have a direct effect on the security of Jordan and Israel, both of whom border Syria because taking out Islamic State would simply remove the counter weight to Iran and Hezbollah and facilitate their consolidating their own nuclear armed Shi'ite bloc.

Just to show you how convoluted this all is, at the same time the Obama regime is making air strikes on Islamic State (who are largely armed with SOTA U.S. weaponry captured in Iraq from the fleeing Iraqi army)an dmaking common cause with Hezbollah. Assad and Iran, the U.S. is completing an $11 billion arms deal with - wait for it - Qatar, who had been funding Islamic State and Hamas! Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is in this particular transaction with both hands.

Another point of discussion, probably on the sidelines is what to do if America does nothing much, a not unlikely scenario. What defense arrangements can be made to counteract both Islamic State and the Shi'ites if that happens, especially with Iran on the verge of going nuclear? Or should the Sunnis give limited backing to Islamic State against Iran and the Shi'ites?

And what role can Israel play? Yes, believe it or not. Faced with a war on two fronts and a dysfunctional American president, the Sunnis may even be looking at Israel, the most powerful country in the region in a new light.

What 'Demilitarization' Really Means

 

One of Israeli PM Netanyahu's problems with both John Kerry's Hamas friendly ceasefire offer and the UN's call for an unconditional ceasefire was that neither mentioned demilitarizing Gaza, which Netanyahu rightly considers one of the prime goals of the current conflict.

But when he mentions this as something 'the international community' should be calling for, he's kidding himself. And to go even farther, even if the 'international community' agreed to do so and put it in writing, Netanyahu and the  Israeli people would be incredibly naive to accept it at face value.

Does anyone remember the 2006 Lebanon ceasefire? That resulted in a binding Series 7 UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that guaranteed the disarming of a terrorist group , Hezbollah. In exchange for the IDF ending hostilities and withdrawing all its forces back over the border, UNIFIL and the Lebanese army were supposed to see to it that Hezbollah never returned to its strongholds in South Lebanon and to disarm Hezbollah and all other militias or 'armed groups' as the resolution put it. 



With Syria and Iran in mind, there were even mention of specific penalties to be evoked in UNSCR 1701 in the event of  any foreign entity rearming Hezbollah.Even Sheik Nasrallah of Hezbollah agreed to the resolution's terms.

So, what happened? Once the IDF pulled out all of a sudden things changed. Hezbollah refused to be disarmed, and the then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan suddenly came up with the brand new position that the UNIFIL troops were not going to take any responsibility to do so, and that it was up to the Lebanese government..who were far too weak to disarm Hezbollah on their own.

 
And when Hezbollah said that it was going to ignore UNSCR 1701's provision that Lebanon south of the Litani River was to be a Hezbollah free zone, did the UN or UNIFIL say one word? Maybe 'not our job' but not much else.

And in August of that same year, when Turkish authorities intercepted five Iranian cargo aircraft and one Syrian aircraft carrying missiles to Hezbollah forced them to land at Diyarbakır Airport in southeastern Turkey, did the UN do anything about it? Uhhh, no.

That is how the 'international community' does disarmament and demilitarization. Especially when it comes to Islamist terrorists where Israel is concerned.

My point here? Expecting the US or the UN to demilitarize Gaza and disarm Hamas is to believe in a fairy tale no matter what either of them put on a piece pf paper.Especially with President Obama in charge.

The only way to disarm and 'demilitarize' Gaza and make sure it stays that way is for the IDF to defeat Hezbollah completely. And Israel can only trust Israel to actually do it.

After that, to ensure it stays that way Israel needs to annex Gaza and and remove a substantial part of the population to UNRWA camps outside Israeli territory, or to Area A, or to a combination of the two Then repopulate Gaza with Jews and watch it become a Singapore or a Hong Kong.

This would not be a solution without cost. Solutions deferred for years never are.

But in the end, peace comes from victory. And after all of the 'sacrifices for peace' written in Jewish blood forced on Israel since the Oslo debacle, I think the Israeli people would support this over these constant wars of attrition that grow more costly each time. Enough of the balagan gadol.

Cross Posted at The Times Of Israel

Here's Why A Disproportionate Response To Terrorism Works

 

Here's a good example of why a disproportionate response to terrorist aggression works.

This morning, three Katyusha missiles were fired at Israeli towns in the north of the country from the Lebanese border.They landed near Kfar Yuval, between the northern Israeli towns of Metulla and Kiryat Shmona.



The IDF responded with heavy artillery fire, and lodged an official complaint with UNFIL, the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon not with any expectation of UNFIL actually doing anything but to document the incident.

 

Lebanon, which has no relations with Israel and is essentially ruled by Hezbollah immediately sent units of the Lebanese army into the area..not to attack Israel, but to find and stop the perpetrators who fired the rockets.

They found and disabled two rockets that had been set up for launch, and already have one suspect in custody. According to the Lebanese, the rockets were launched from the village of Hasbaya, near the border, and the rockets were likely fired by a splinter Palestinian group in Lebanon that identifies with Hamas.

In previous situations, the Lebanese government would have shrugged something like this off, and their military would have actively collaborated in any attack on Israel. But now, things are different. The memory of what happened in Lebanon in 2006 is still strong, Shi'ite Hezbollah has never been all that fond of Sunni Hamas or the Palestinians in general anyway and Hezbollah is otherwise engaged in Syria and in trying to hold Lebanon together.

As much as Hezbollah hates Jews, The last thing they want is a confrontation with Israel, so they stomped on this quick.

A strong response to terrorist aggression works.

The Other Foot Drops - Putin Defies Obama On Syria, Rearms Assad

 

Russia's Vladimir Putin if nothing else stands by his allies, a lesson America could profitably learn. In spite of threats from the Obama Administration, Putin is continuing to take his own sweet time to collect Assad's chemical weapons (no more than 5% have been collected thus far)and has been steadily shipping Assad arms that have enabled him to push back the insurgents in much of Syria, an effort that has been aided by the insurgent factions fighting among themselves. No one is even bothering to talk about Geneva III or IV since the Geneva II talks broke down in acrimony.

This one's going to be settled in traditional fashion, by boots on the ground.

In mid-March, Assad's forces, aided by Hezbollah seized the strategic border town of Yabroud, a huge blow to the rebels since it was a major smuggling hub and arms depot. A week after that, the Syrians recaptured Krak des Chevaliers, another rebel strong point near the Lebanese border that the rebels had held for almost two years.

Assad's forces are using longer range Russian Smerch and Uragan rockets to good effect now, as well as MiG 29 jets and Mi-24 attack helicopters, and Putin has continued to supply a steady stream of ammo, weaponry and spare parts to keep Assad's military on the move.

U.S. response to this has been along the lines of Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson's during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington on March 26.

“The stability that Russia seeks in Syria will not be achieved by providing planes, tanks, bombs and guns for use against the Syrian people,” Patterson said.

Except, you see, Basher Assad isn't seeking stability so much as victory, which is where stability really comes from anyway. That's something State Department fixtures like Ms.Patterson don't understand.

In any event,the entire Syrian insurgent movement is so scrambled that it's difficult to tell who's who and what side they're on. From that standpoint, President Obama's decision to stay disengaged is probably a wise one now, although things might have beenmvery different if the president hadn't insisted on getting the Muslim Brotherhood so entrenched within the Syrian resistance.. As for Vladimir Putin,he obviously no longer cares what President Obama thinks, and doesn't even seem to be making a pretense of taking him seriously any more.

 

At this point,Assad has pretty much maintained control of the capitol in Damascus and its outlying areas, the Mediterranean coastal areas, most of the Lebanese frontier area, and something like 80% of Aleppo, with the rest surrounded and under siege. The Mi-24s are using 'barrel bombs', oil drums filled with explosives and shrapnel on the remaining rebel areas, The rest of Aleppo will probably fall in the spring.

Assad's next focus after finishing off Aleppo will probably be re-establishing control over the border area that adjoins Turkey, a prime rebel area. Given the headbutting and tension between Assad and Turkey's Tayyip Erdoğan (the Turks shot down a Syrian MiG just last week that they accused of violating their air space)there a distinct possibility that things could escalate further if Assad mounts an offensive in this area, but the fact that neither country can really afford a war at this time might curb any potential hostilities.

Something like 150,000 people have been killed in this 3 year civil war, and perhaps as many as 9 million displaced, a horrible statistic. But this is the Middle East, and to someone like Basher Assad and probably Vladimir Putin, that's just the cost of doing business.

It's the end result that counts.

Justice - Canadian Court Seizes Iranian Assets To Compensate Terrorism Victims

The U.S.may have felt like it was 'unable' to enforce legal judgments against Iran for terrorist activities, but Canada is refreshingly different.

An Ontario court has ordered the seizure of more than $7 million in Iranian assets to compensate American victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism for judgments they received in American courts. The judgments were the result of court verdicts in America against Iran for the regime's role in training, arming and financing Hamas and Hezbollah.

The American victims and their families were previously awarded damages in US courts but were not allowed collect from any Iranian government assets in the United States. While lawsuits against countries like Iran that sponsor terrorism have been made possible by the "terrorism exception" Congress added to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice routinely attempt to block victims from collecting on the grounds that allowing the assets to be taken "can have a significant, detrimental impact on the conduct of our foreign relations" . They have successfully blocked victims of Iranian backed terrorism from collecting judgments in a number of cases.

However, many countries, including Canada have reciprocity treaties which allow judgments in one country to be valid in another. And Canada's 2012 Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act. The law strips state immunity in civil lawsuits from countries deemed to be “supporting terrorism.”

The Canadian courts ordered one bank account worth $1.47 million controlled by an Iranian diplomat, and another with a balance of $511,000 controlled by Iran’s charge d’affaires in Ottawa to be seized when evidence established that the funds were actually controlled by the Iranian government.

And two building labeled as 'cultural centers', one in Toronto and one in Ottawa with a combined estimated value of over $5 million will also be sold with vthe proceeds going to the defendants. Bioth building are actually owned by a front group for Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The plaintiffs are Edward Tracy and the family of Joseph Cicippio. Both men were captured and held hostage in Beirut from 1986 to 1991 and both got legal judgments in U.S. courts that they were prevented from collecting against Iranian assets in America. Several other plaintiff including a Canadian dentist who was badly wounded by a Hamas terrorist will also share in the award due to a side deal worked out between the lawyers.

Iran did not contest the case, but the regime responded in the usual vicious fashion against the ruling.

Kudos to Canada for having the courage to rule on the side of justice and decency. Hopefully Canada will set the example for other countries to do the same, including my own.

Iran Honors Man Who Helped Hijackers Pull Off 9/11 Attacks

 

While President Obama and his team talk about giving peace a chance and clear the way for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, the Iranian regime sent another crystal clear message to America about how much they hate us and want to destroy us.

Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Beirut, Lebanon and took time out to visit the grave of Imad Mughniyeh, make some effusive and laudatory remarks and lay a wreath at his tomb.

Who was Imad Mughineyeh? Here's a partial recap, for those of you unfamiliar with him.

He was one of the founding members of Hezbollah, a member of Yasser Arafat's Force 17 elite terrorist squad and briefly of al-Qaeda. He was a jihad superstar. If terrorism had an all star team or a World Cup squad, he'd be a prominent member. Before he was assassinated in 2008, he had spent literally decades murdering Americans, Jews, Lebanese, and anyone else on the hit list of his masters in Tehran.

Mughniyeh was in charge of the planning and execution of the deadly 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans and 58 French nationals as well as another half a dozen Lebanese. Until 9/11, he held the record for murdering the most Americans in one attack. He also engineered the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and the beating to death of Navy diver Robert Stethem, as well as the kidnapping and torture of Americans in Lebanon throughout the 1980s, including the CIA’s Beirut station chief Major William Buckley, who was eventually butchered after enduring 15 months of being tortured on film by Mughniyeh, with the videos being sent to the White House.

Mughniyeh was also indicted in Argentina for his role in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 with a death toll of 29 and the bombing of the Jewish community center in the same city in 1994 that killed 85 people and injured hundreds.

Mughniyeh was the liaison man between Iran, Hezbollah and the PLO who organized the infamous Karine A arms ship, which involved an illegal cargo of Iranian heavy weapons, paid for by Yasser Arafat and being trafficked to the PLO via Hezbollah on an Iranian ship with a PLO crew. The Israelis intercepted it, and Arafat's lying about it to then-President George W. Bush even though documents on the ship clearly showed the PLO's involvement was the final straw in breaking relations between the two.

And those are just the high points of his career, omitting literally dozens of less publicized murders. And of course, there's Mughniyeh's involvement in 9/11.

The 9/11 Commission stated in its report that there was "strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were the future 9/11 hijackers."

The Commission recommended that this be investigated further, but neither the Bush Administration or the Obama Administration chose to do so for reasons unknown.

Several families of the victims of the 9/11 attack filed suit in Federal Court and in 2011, Federal Judge George Daniels in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York ruled that Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, had joint responsibility with al-Qaeda for the 9/11 attacks.

On page 240 of the 9/11 Commission’s final report, it mentions that a “senior Hezbollah operative” accompanied some of the future 9/11 hijackers on their final airline flights into and out of Afghanistan, Iran, and Lebanon.

Thanks to the evidence that came out at the trial, including a great deal of recently declassified material and 25 hours of sworn testimony from three former Iranian intelligence officers, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the “senior Hezbollah operative” was none other than Imad Mughniyeh, the man Iran honored yesterday. Not to mention the direct participation of top Iranian government officials like former Iranian defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi.

Mughniyeh was the perfect liaison man between al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Iran, because he was one of the handful of people trusted implicitly by all three parties.And he had a track record.

As the evidence that came out in the trial showed, in addition to overseeing and financing Mughniyeh’s extensive involvement in recruiting, guiding, and training the hijackers, Iran provided vital material support to the hijackers by ordering its border and passport officials not to stamp their passports when they crossed Iranian territory. That meant they could enter the U.S. with clean passports, and no questions asked.

It's actually quite natural that Iran should honor the likes of Imad Mughniyeh, an important soldier in their de facto war against America and the West.

What's unnatural and disgustingly craven is how our president is reacting to it.And of course, the message this is sending to the Iranians.One can only imagine the contempt they must have for us.

Were The Saudis Complicit In 9/11? - What You Won't See Elsewhere

Something rattling the blogsphere thew last two days is an op-ed in the New York Post by investigative reporter, author and columnist Paul Sperry. It concerns an alleged cover up by the Bush Administration on Saudi involvement in 9/11:

After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.

But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.

It was kept secret and remains so today.

President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).

A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.

Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) can’t reveal the nation identified by it without violating federal law. So they’ve proposed Congress pass a resolution asking President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Some information already has leaked from the classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and it points back to Saudi Arabia, a presumed ally.

The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.

Sperry goes on to detail a number of specific instances, all of them factual, as is his habit. He cites Saudi diplomats like Saudi consulate official Fahad al-Thumairy, Saudi intelligence agents Omar al-Bayoumi, Osama Bassnan actually set up safe houses for the 9/11 hijackers and provided them with funds. He relates how these men set up private meetings for the hijackers with American al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who fled America to escape terrorism charges and was later killed by a drone in Yemen.Bassnan later fled America as well after 9/11.

He also says that then-Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar and his wife sent checks totaling some $130,000 to Bassnan, much of whom went to the hijackers and to al-Qaeda. The questionable donations are not actually not classified, but a matter of public record...yet nothing happened to Bandar and he was simply recalled.

it is also a matter of record that a number of Saudi government official and nationals were given priority after 9/11 in getting out of the country, including members of the bin-Laden family.

None of this is news, frankly, to anyone who took an honest look at 9/11. Nor is the news on how FBI attempts to investigate 9/11 were stymied by the Bush Administration.

Where Sperry and I part ways is his conjecture that this was an organized attack and an act of war by the Saudi government.

What we had instead, I think, was a number of high level members of the Saudi government and the royal family, plus others in the Gulf Emirates who funded and supported bin-Laden, mostly because, you know, jihad. Some were more involved than others, but probably few of them really believed a second attack on the WTC would succeed, or that it do the damage it did. If you recall, even bin-Laden was pleasantly surprised as how successful the attack went.There was no upside to the Saudis attacking the U.S.

So now we come to the Bush Administration's role in this.

Revealing that high level Saudis had been involved in 9/11 would have meant a declaration of war. Now had I been president, I would have had no problems going there, or at the very least getting a full Saudi mea culpa, financial compensation, the guilty Saudis repatriated back to America to stand trial and an end to their financing mosques and jihad friendly imams here in America.

But President Bush's relationship with these people was, shall we say, somewhat different.



As more than one Bush biography relates, the Bush family was so close to Prince Bander that his nickname within the family circle was 'Bandar Bush'. And a look at Neil Bush of Silverado Trust fame also reveals the family's close connections with the Gulf States.

Nor is it limited to the Bushes. A look at the 'bi-partisan' Carlyle Fund(a huge mega-hedge fund mainly run by former cabinet members, influential congressmen and yes, a few former presidents that included substantial investments by the bin-Laden family), the plethora of six and seven figure speaking and 'consulting fees' enjoyed by a number of political figures on both sides of the aisle including the Clintons, Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and former senators Bob Dole and Tom Daschle just to name a few, the vast amounts spent to fund presidential libraries and foundations, former president Bill Clinton's special 'business relationship' with the Sultan of Dubai that made him a multimillionaire and helped fund Hillary's Clinton's last presidential campaign..lots of members of our ruling class have had their snouts in the trough.

Which by the way, might just tell you why America has never sought to seriously become energy independent even though we have ample oil and are one of the top five petroleum exporters.

In any event. let's just say taking out Saudi Arabia would be bad for business with all that money involved...not to mention that as keeper of the Muslim shrines at Mecca and Medina, a strike at the Saudis might have widened the scope of the war just a bit.

Or would it? Aside from the Saudis and the Gulf Emirates, there was another Muslim country that was very much complicit in 9/11. And unlike The Saudis, we are talking about direct, proven government involvement.

Hezbollah and Iran were directly involved in the 9/11 attacks and it is a matter of record thanks to a federal trial that took place in response to lawsuits filed by families of 9/11 victims.

Iran facilitated the transit of the 9/11 hijackers into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, just like they allowed entry to al-Qaeda fighters after we invaded their stronghold in Afghanistan.

On page 240 of the 9/11 Commission’s final report, it mentions a “senior Hezbollah operative” who accompanied some of the future 9/11 hijackers on their final airline flights into and out of Afghanistan, Iran, and Lebanon.

It's now known beyond any doubt that the “senior Hezbollah operative” was our old friend Imad Mugniyeh. You'll remember that he was not only a member of al-Qaeda but a founding member of Hezbollah and a former member of Yasser Arafat's Force 17. He was the commander of the operation that killed 247 marines in Beirut, the man who tortured to death Marine Colonel William Buckley,videotaped the proceedings and sent it to the White House, and the facilitator in the Karina A arms shipment, which involved Iranian weapons sent to the PLO.

Mugniyah was the natural liaison man for the 9/11 hijackers as well,because he was one of the few people trusted by by all parties involved...Hezbollah, Iran and al- Qaeda. He was finally sent to hell in 2008, most likely by the Israeli Mossad.

The 9/11 commission report strongly suggested further investigation of the Iranian complicity at the time, but neither the Bush Administration or the Obama Administration ever saw fit to follow up.

As evidence given in the trials show, in addition to directing Mughniyah’s extensive involvement in recruiting, guiding, and training the hijackers, Iran provided vital material support to those hijackers by ordering its border and passport officials not to stamp their passports when they crossed Iranian territory. That meant they could enter the U.S. with clean passports, no questions asked and was of huge help in maintaining their cover.

Not only that, but there's evidence that emerged from the trials that the hijackers may even have received some training in Iran.

According to testimony by a former senior Iranian intelligence officer, Abolghasem Mesbahi, Mugniyeh helped train the hijackers in a camp set up by the MOIS, Iran's intelligence service. Mesabi, who has also been a witness for the German BND in investigating and trying cases involving Iranian assassins of expatriates and dissidents in that country, testified in Federal court that al-Qaeda received instruction in spy craft, explosives, communications, operational guidance and time on a flight simulator purchased by Iran from China for the exact model of domestic airliner the hijackers would use in the 9/11 attacks...which Iran did not have as part of its domestic air fleet in IranAir at the time.

None of this has ever been followed up on.

So, if we were actually talking about going after the perpetrators of 9/11, it seems like Iran Hezbollah, and probably the Saudis and some of the Gulf Emirates might have been on our list. Pretty specific targets, either for a diplomatic or military reckoning. Instead, we went after al-Qaeda, the jihad subcontractors, and we have done so in two consecutive administrations. Worse than that, we continue to appease these regimes who were involved in butchering 3,000 of our fellow Americans.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has talked several times about reconvening the 9/11 Commission to get some answers. As you might imagine, the response from the White House has not been overwhelming and I doubt it will happen.

The complicity of a number of Muslim countries is what they're not telling you about 9/11, and that's why more evidence of Saudi complicity in 9/11 is no big news.

The real story is how we got from there to where we are now over the past 12 years, and why. That's what we have yet to find out.

'Who Was That Maked Man'? - Senior Hezbollah Commander Assassinated

No, unfortunately, it wasn't Sheik Nasrallah..but it was a nice target all the same.

Hassan al-Laqis was gunned down near his house in Beirut as he was coming home from work last night, according to Hezbollah. And by the way, notice the Hezbollah flag on the police tape at the crime scene, a warning that Hezbollah controls the crime scene and is vetting who enters and who doesn't.

Now there's no telling what that 'work' consisted of, but Laqis was formerly one of the main commanders of Hezbollah’s rockets division in charge of firing missiles at Israel which caused major damage during the the 2006 Second Lebanon War ...and he had since been promoted The Lebanese media claims that Israel tried to assassinate him during the war and failed, which is worth about what you'd think it's worth.

Hezbollah, of course, is blaming Israel for the hit, and the Israelis are of course denying it.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that Israel was involved, the Associated Press reported.

“Israel has nothing to do with this incident,” Palmor said. “These automatic accusations are an innate reflex with Hezbollah. They don’t need evidence, they don’t need facts, they just blame anything on Israel.”

Now far be it from me to contradict the Israeli Foreign ministry, but the Lebanese papers are reporting that al-Laquis took five shots in the head and neck according to Lebanon's Daily Star. With an assault rifle, while he was sitting in his car in the parking lot. At midnight. Now, that's pretty good shooting, calling for a highly trained operative capable of getting off that many shots (and head shots no less) in a matter of seconds, which is pretty much how the IDF and Mossad train them...but that in itself doesn't prove anything. On the other hand, the word is that al-Laquis was left alive and died in a local hospital, which definitely doesn't sound like IDF or Mossad procedure in these kind of operations.

According to the Daily Star a group of Sunni Jihadis know as the “Free Sunni Brigades in Baalbek” claimed responsibility for the hit.

Sunni groups also claimed responsibility for blowing up the Iranian embassy in Beirut a few weeks ago, a delicious irony considering the support Iran gives to Islamic terrorism...including their proxy Hezbollah. In any event, al-Laquis is taking the dirt nap, and one only hopes the bullets were coated in pork fat when they entered his body.

Good riddance, and congrats to whomever took out the garbage.

23 Dead As Massive Blast Levels Iranian Embassy In Beirut

Two blasts near the Iranian embassy in Beirut killed at least 23 people and injured 146 today.The death toll is expected to go higher. Six buildings were destroyed in the embassy compound.

It appears that one bomb was set off by a bomber with an explosive belt while the second blast was a fairly sizable car bomb.

The Iranians, of course, blamed Israel, but the Israelis were quick to deny any involvement, which makes sense. The embassy is deep in South Beirut which is Hezbollah territory.When I first heard about this, I doubted the Mossad would risk personnel to take out an embassy target, especially in this fashion...nor do they use suicide bombers.

Sure enough, Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, the religious guide of the Sunni Abdullah Azzam Brigades, said the group had carried out the attack in a Twitter post. "It was a double martyrdom operation by two of the Sunni heroes of Lebanon," he wrote.

So I think we can chalk this up to the current Sunni vs. Shi'te war now enveloping the Middle East.
In any case, this w3as a devastating strike.

I must say though, it's darkly amusing to see a major fomenter of terrorism like Iran screaming about being victimized by tactics like these.

Syria-Ossity

The war drums are beating again on Syria. British Prime Minister David Cameron is mouthing off about being ready to commit the downsized, miniscule Royal Navy and what's left of the RAF to an effort to punish Syria's Basher Assad, France's Socialist President Hollande is making aggressive noises and our own John Kerry says that as far as he's concerned, he's one hundred per cent cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die certain that the recent poison gas attacks at Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus that killed a couple of hundred people are the work of Syrian dictator Basher Assad and 'a moral obscenity' that of course demands a military response - even though there's no actual proof who launched the attack.

It was not so long ago that Kerry, who used to be on the Senate Foreign Relations committee was one of Assad's chief backers and shills. He was always saying how we needed to 'engage' with Assad, give him aid, and show him how friendly we were by pressuring Israel to give him back the Golan Heights, the better to kill Jews with.

During the entire time when Senator Kerry was pimping for Basher Assad, Assad was a sponsor of genocidal terrorists like Hezbollah and Hamas. He gave the orders for the assassinations of numerous Lebanese politicians including Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, not to mention a lot of journalists, business people and others who simply got in the way in Lebanon, Syria and occasionally in Europe. Assad's regime deliberately impeded UN investigative tribunals convened to investigate some of these crimes. Not only that,but after the 2006 Lebanon War, Syria, along with its ally Iran cheerfully violated UN Resolution 1701 to rearm Hezbollah and then turned Lebanon into a colony.

And of course, during the Iraq war, Syria was an open enabler of jihadis headed over the border to fight our warriors there, even providing them with havens as well as open borders to dodge back over if they needed it.

None of these particular 'moral obscenities' mattered one whit to Kerry back then. And they certainly never bothered France or the Brits.

That fact ought to raise certain suspicions in your mind when it comes to the current push to 'punish' Syria.

Actually, the more I find out about this gas attack, the more something smells.

On Aug. 21, the Syrian opposition announced that there had been a massive chemical attack in Ghouta which allegedly inflicted about 1,300 fatalities including hundreds of children. As in previous chemical attacks blamed on the Assad administration, the attackers claimed the attacks used Sarin nerve gas, and they flooded YouTube with videos, especially ones featuring children.But there was no conclusive evidence about the attack or the perpetrators.

Then, there were those conflicting claims at first from the insurgents about how the gas attack had been delivered. First, the gas was supposedly delivered via missiles. When EU politicians and our own local critters like John McCain started yapping about enforcing a no fly zone, all of a sudden the rebels started claiming the gas come via an aerial bombardment - except there was no evidence of shrapnel wounds that normally come with both artillery or airborne attacks of this kind. It's also worth remembering that when news of the attacks first went public, the UN delegation and foreign diplomats were denied access to the attack site for a few days by the Syrian opposition because it 'wasn't safe' for them.

We also don't know who fired shots at the UN delegation when they were finally allowed to enter the attack site by the Assad regime. It could very well have been Assad's men...but it could also just as easily been the insurgents.

And according to one of my Lil' Birdies, there's something else interesting about this attack. Ghouta was the site of a failed attack by the jihadist Syrian Free Army, who along with the other insurgents have steadily been losing ground to Assad's forces. This was a failed attempt to secure the area south of Damascus for the presumptive no fly zone the Obama Administration has been trying to arrange.

That attack resulted in a number of former opposition leaders publicly switching sides to Assad and even going public on Syrian TV about it. While I haven't seen the TV clips, it makes sense that after a failed attack, some of the local players would go public in switching sides to the Assad regime as it becomes seen as the strong horse.

If that's the case, it makes no sense that Assad would gas people who just came out backing him, especially with UN inspectors already in the country.On the other hand, if the rebels had captured some of Assad's gas weapons and decided to punish defectors in a way that would also give them a propaganda coup....and apparently the rebels do have Sarin gas themselves:


 The point is there's no way to know for sure. In fact, this ought to remind us of another occasion where the West was manipulated into intervening just 18 years ago.

During the war in Bosnia, it was obvious that it was a brutal war with atrocities on both sides, and the West was leery about getting involved in what was a long standing sectarian war. Until August 28th, 1995, when a mortar shell hit a market in Sarajevo, killing 38 people and wounding another 90 people, many of them children. The pictures were horrendous, another chapter in the propaganda battle that the Muslims were far better at fighting than the Serbs..or maybe that's just the way the media wanted it.

 The carnage at the the Markale market place was the spark that brought NATO in, just as President Clinton had been promising Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic. Even though a team led by Russian Colonel Andrei Demurenko, then the commander of UN Forces in Sarajevo rushed to the areas where the Bosnian Serb mortar teams were stationed and reported that there was no way the Serbs could have been responsible, it wasn't enough. NATO, led by the U.S. and President Clinton began bombing the Serbs, a long time American ally - including civilian targets. That decided the outcome of the war in favor of the Muslims, led to widespread ethnic cleansing of Christian Serbs in Kossovo and established a Muslim state there in defiance of the norms of international law.

As it turned out, there's a very good possibility that the strike on the Markale market place was friendly fire, initiated by the Bosnian Muslims to bring in NATO on their side. Almost certainly an earlier attack on the same location on February 5th, 1994 was. The London Times, writing about an earlier attack ["UN tracks source of fatal shell," (London) The Times, 2/19/94]admitted that there was a UN report that was later buried showing conclusively the the Bosnian Muslims had fired on their own people. And General General Michael Rose, the British head of UNPROFOR, revealed in his memoirs that the shells fired in the February attack came from the Muslim positions.

Ghouta could easily be Markale, the sequel.

 For that matter, we don't even have to go back to Bosnia to see how this works. Remember the Houla massacre that was supposed to have been perpetrated by Assad's troops and had the usual suspects screaming for us to make a 'humanitarian intervention'? It turned out that atrocity was performed by the rebels as a false flag operation. With Ghouta, the insurgents could very well be upping the ante to bring us in.

All that aside ( because Muslim violence is pretty much an equal opportunity sport)  let's take a look at what could happen if we intervene in Syria. If we destroy Assad's forces and remove him from power, it will just lead to a bloodbath for Alawites, Shi'ites and what's left of Syria's Christians..the al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood rebels have provided ample proof they're just as bloodthirsty and insane as Assad if not more so.

Not only that, but given the factional fighting, it's going to be tremendously hard to tell who's who. As the clueless Senator John McCain proved, it's going to be pretty difficult if not impossible  to 'tell who the good guys are.'

Another thing to consider is that to take out Assad we'd have to send in ground troops...who'd be fighting against Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And it would be the same deal it was in Iraq, our forces being victims of covert terrorism from both sides while the American taxpayer pays to rebuild Syria and fund and train yet another anti-American Muslim Army. Seen our debt figures lately?
And remember, in Syria, there's no oil to help pay the tab.

 If we just bomb them, the first thing Assad and Hezbollah will likely do is is 'play the Jew card' and hit Israel. And Iran will get into it too as they did in Iraq. While I realize that President Obama and Secretary Kerry aren't all that concerned about dead Jews, the Israeli retaliation has the capacity to turn a localized sectarian war into a regional bloodbath. With U.S. forces caught in the middle, and Barack Obama as commander in chief.

I'd advise interested readers to look at what I wrote the last time the war drums were beating on Syria, after the Houla massacre. I stand by everything I wrote then, including what we're likely to face once we intervene in this viper's pit.

Nor do we need to provide the fascist Muslim Brotherhood with a reichlet courtesy of American blood and treasure. Recent polls show that American are overwhelmingly opposed to getting involved in Syria.  They're smart to feel that way. If President Obama gets us into an illegal war in Syria just to provide a diversion from the swamp of scandal his administration is mired in and we allow it, we'll regret the consequences.

There's nothing remotely beneficial to American interest in our getting involved here.

Mysterious Explosion At Hezbollah Headquarters After Ambush of Four Israeli Soldiers

There was a huge explosion today in Hezbollah's Lebanon stronghold in southern Beirut.

A powerful car bomb killed an estimated 20 people and wounded many more.

A Sunni group calling itself the Aisha Umm-al Mouemeneen (Brigades of Aisha) claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Shortly after the attack, an online video surfaced showing three masked men, two of them holding rifles, in front of a white flag inscribed with the Islamic shaheedah, the profession of faith.

"We... send a message to [Hezbollah chief] Hassan Nasrallah's pigs," said one of the men, wearing a white mask.They then claimed responsibility for the attack and promised more operations against Hezbollah.

"This is the second time that we decide the time and place of the battle ... And you will see more, God willing," the Brigades of Aisha statement said, describing Hezbollah and Nasrallah as Iranian agents.

"We send a message to our brothers in Lebanon, we ask you to stay away from all the Iranian colonies in Lebanon ... because your blood is precious to us," a masked spokesman, flanked by two men brandishing rifles, said in the video.

"But Hassan Nasrallah is an agent of Iran and Israel and we promise him more and more (attacks)."

Now just by coincidence, it was only a sew days ago that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah
went on Lebanese TV to claim that a blast that wounded four Israeli soldiers on the border was a Hezbollah ambush.

In a live interview with Lebanese television station Al-Mayadeen this week, Nasrallah said that two remote-control bombs detonated inside Lebanon when the Israeli force crossed the border. He said Hezbollah members knew in advance the Israelis were coming and planted the bombs in a deliberate plan to target them.

"It was a closely monitored and deliberate operation," Nasrallah said. "It was not an accident, and the explosion certainly wasn't caused by an Israeli landmine," he added, referring to Israeli reports that the Israel Defense Forces soldiers had accidentally activated a mine near the border.

There are a few interesting things about that claim by Nasrallah. The border is very well marked, since the Israelis actually went to the UN to demarcate it when they withdrew from South Lebanon. The Israelis doesn't cross it, under ordinary circusstances and especially not with a small patrol like that. And there's no conceivable way Nasrallah and his friends could have 'known in advance' where the small patrol was going to go - unless Hezbollah planted the bombs in advance on Israel's side of the border and either deliberately staged some activity to lure a small patrol there to check something out or simply planted the bombs and just waited for an opportunity to set them off.

That makes sense in view of Hezbollah's increasing unpopularity in Lebanon due to their full on intervention in Syria's civil war. They've been seeking to play the 'Israel card' lately in an effort to regain some cred on the Lebanese street, and Nasrallah's little chest thumping screed on Lebanese TV that revealed Hezbollah's participation might very well have been part of that.

So, was this a bit of payback by Israel? Hard to say. They normally like more surgical retaliation. Car bombs that also indiscriminately  target civilians are not their usual method. Could they merely have been taking advantage of of this anti-Hezbollah Sunni groups' activities? Again, who knows? The Israelis, as usual , have no comment and even if they denied it it's doubtful it would be believed in the conspiracy theory loving Arab world.

One the bright side, the Lebanese will blame Nasrallah for opening his big fat mouth and claiming responsibility for something the IDF was willing to write off as an accident. And Israel's reputation for being able to hit back here, there and everywhere has been enhanced, whether the Mossad had anything to do with this or not.

But it is ironic that Hezbollah, one of the most vicious terrorist groups on the planet is now being victimized by the very tactics it introduced into Lebanon back in the 1980's.

US Military Chief General Dempsey's Latest Brilliant Idea - 'Let's Arm And Train Hezbollah!"

 

General Martin Dempsey is President Obama's Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And in spite of a decent record as a  combat commander  in Iraq, it's pretty obvious that he fits in perfectly with this president and his policy goals.

Aside from being the point man in calling the Ft. Hood jihadi killings a 'workplace accident',  imposing ridiculous rules of engagement on our troops under fire and preventing them from being taught about the nature of Islamist fascism, he's come up with another brainstorm, undoubtedly via SecDef Chuck Hagel - wouldn't it be just splendid to arm and train the Lebanese military?

The top US military officer said on Wednesday he has recommended bolstering Lebanese forces grappling with the fallout from Syria's civil war by sending in military trainers and accelerating arms sales.

He was responding to a question at the news conference about whether Lebanon had asked for military help and whether the US military might go into that country.

"When you say would we send the United States Army or the United States military into Lebanon, I'm talking about teams of trainers, and I'm talking about accelerating foreign military sales for equipment for them," Dempsey said in response.

There's absolutely no sense in our providing shiny new equipment and training on how to use it to any Arab army...but it's particularly clueless when it comes to Lebanon.

You see, there's a peculiarity about Lebanon's Army. It's totally integrated with Hezbollah. And it has been for years.

Even Lebanon's current president, General Michel Suleiman is a  Hezbollah ally who as the  former Lebanese C in C refused to allow the Lebanese Army to fight against Hezbollah even when Hezbollah was killing Lebanese civilians during a series of attacks against the March 14 Lebanese government in May of 2008.

He has famously said on a number of occasions that 'Hezbollah is Lebanon'. That's why the Israelis made a formal announcement  that if they were attacked from Lebanon again, unlike the last time they would consider it an attack on Israel by Lebanon, not just Hezbollah.

This is whom General Dempsey (and former Sec Sate Hillary Clinton before him)  want to arm and 'bolster'. To assume that US military aid earmarked for the Lebanese forces won't somehow end up being used by Hezbollah is the sort of fantasy beyond even what you'd expect from today's White House.

Among other things, it presents the ludicrous picture of our arming the Muslim Brotherhood and  al-Qaeda allied  Syrian rebels with one hand and Hezbollah with the other. And of course, having any personnel we have there targeted by both sides. Remember what happened in Beirut at the hands of Hezbollah the last time we sent troops there?

Of course, it also provides Israel's enemies with armaments and support as well, which might be the whole point anyway.

Beyond ludicrous.

Israel And Russia At The Brink Over Arms Shipments To Syria, Hezbollah

 

A meeting between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu ended  in a deadlock earlier this week when Netanyahu's attempt to convince Putin not to send advanced Russian arms to Syria and Hezbollah fell on deaf ears.

In particular, the Israelis are concerned about Russia supplying Hezbollah and Syria with S-300 surface-to-air missile defense systems and Yakhont anti-ship missiles.

Putin was reportedly angry about the USS Kearsarge docking at the Israeli port of Eilat with 1,800 marines and a consignment of 20 V-22 Osprey helicopters, which Secretary of State Hagel had promised to supply Israel with during his last trip to Israel. From Putin's viewpoint, he sees it as duplicity for the Obama Administration to talk about Russia and the US working on a diplomatic solution to the Syrian War on the one hand while the US is bringing troops into the region and deploying them. The Marines are likely bound for the Jordanian/Syrian border.

Needless to say, Putin is not at all concerned about how the presence of Russian military in Syria looks to anyone else. He's committed to preserving Assad and Syria as a Russian client.According to US sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal today, Putin warned Israel not to interfere with the Russian arms shipments.

Actually, according to my sources, Putin even went further, warning the Israelis that any attempt to destroy the shipments could lead to a war in which Russia might conceivably get involved, especially if its nationals were killed. Netanyahu countered by telling Putin that Israel would continue to hit advanced weapons shipments bound for Syria or Hezbollah, and that if President Bashar Assad attacked Israel the Israelis would destroy Assad's military capabilities.

The Russians have doubled down in favor of Assad by vastly increasing their naval faces in the region.Russia currently has 11 ships in the eastern Mediterranean, organized into three taskforces, including destroyers, frigates, support vessels and intelligence-collecting ships. The group includes the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, two amphibious warfare ships called Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoi, a tanker and a tugboat.Another three-ship group of amphibious attack vessels is headed to the region.

The ships come from Russia's Pacific Fleet, the first time Russian warships from that fleet have ever appeared in the Mediterranean. Our Egyptian 'friends' allowed them to use the Suez Canal.

US CIA head John Brennan is in Israel today and Israel's Channel 10 is reporting that he's been in serious meetings with Israeli defense Minister Moishe 'Boogie' Y'aalon  and PM Netanyahu. The Israelis  are not going to allow advanced weapons to get into the hands of Syria or Hezbollah even if they have to kill a few Russian technicians and trainers to do it. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

In fact, during the '67 and especially during the '73 Yom Kippur War, the Israelis had no problems handling Soviet pilots flying the most advanced 'Egyptian and Syrian' Migs or dealing with Soviet military 'advisers' on the ground. In fact, a number of them were captured alive by the Israelis and exchanged later after a through debriefing by both the Shin Bet and our CIA.

What I'm reasonably certain is that Brennan is counseling the Israelis to hold off on any strikes to allow our clueless Secretary of State John Kerry to try and work out something with Putin.

The Israelis may wait for a short  time, but in the end, they will act, just as they ended up acting to put the cork in the bottle on Syria's nuclear reactor back in 2007, in spite of determined obstruction by Condi Rice and Robert Gates. If Israel had listened to them, Basher Assad would probably have a couple of nuclear warheads by now.

On the other hand, the Russians have backed down before when it comes to  shipments of S-300's and similar weaponry before.

Stay tuned..

EU Will Not Boycott A Palestinian Government That Includes Hamas

 

The Arab newspaper al-Hayat is reporting that according to a source they characterize as a high level European diplomat, the EU would not boycott a new Palestinian government that includes Hamas.

Hamas, by the way, is currently an official recognized terrorist group by both the EU, the U.S. and most of the rest of the civilized world:

On the political issue, the European official said France and the UK are waiting for the next US move which they will back once it happens, but will display their special peace proposal in case it will not happen.

He pointed out that the French-British proposal will be based on re-launching the peace process “on new bases and without preconditions”, adding the features of this proposal have not be finalized yet and dialogue over it is ongoing.

However, the European diplomat said that any kind of proposal necessitates that Palestinians unify their ranks, adding: “there won`t be a peace proposal to one part of the Palestinians without the other”.

He emphasized “the world is moving and Palestinians should form one government in the West Bank and the Gaza strip to be their reference in the next stage”.

Just this week Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh announced that the forming of a Palestinian unity government is dependent on non recognition of Israel.



According to Al Hayat the EU is also looking forward to play a political role in case the US role fails. Europe`s role will not be limited “only to financing and praying”, the diplomat said.

The same diplomat revealed that France is moving to hold a donors’ conference for the PA and that the EU will offer the PA an equal financial support to the one offered last year.

You have to wonder how many EU tax payers feel about their leaders shoving millions of Euros into a corrupt rathole like 'Palestine'.

Assuming this is an accurate reading of the mindset of the EU's governing class (and it probably is, especially in the UK, France, Spain, Ireland and Sweden), it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Having made Europe an increasingly difficult and dangerous place for Jews to live, they apparently plan to do as much as they can to repeat the process in Israel, even if it means collaborating with genocidal terrorists to do it. As I reported earlier, the EU has already signaled that it will not add Hezbollah, another entity with only genocidal intentions towards Jews to its official list of terrorist groups.

Not too different from how they behaved in the 1930's and 1940's, is it? The label on the bone in the cartoon above ought to be  'The Jews'.

IDF Takes Out Syrian Arms Convoy En Route To Hezbollah

 

Well, here's some good news to start the morning off with.

The IDF went into action and its pilots destroyed an arms convey en route from Syria to Hezbollah's bases in Lebanon. No one's certain whether the shipment contained any of Assad's chemical weapons, but it apparently did contain a number of sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles like the Russian-made SA-17s.

The SA-17s are not the kind of toys Israel would want Hezbollah getting its paws on. The self propelled anti-aircraft missiles are very portable and fairly good in trained hands at hitting something like an F-16 flying at a low altitude. And because the SA-17 and its launching system are easily moved, they're harder to trace and could constitute a surprise for jets flying within its range and not suspecting their deployment at a given target.

Thanks to the IDF, the SA-17s and the other goodies Assad was shipping to Hezbollah are about as dangerous now as last year's burned out Fourth of July fireworks.

Kol Hakavod! Nice shootin'....

You'll recall that I speculated here based on info from Iranian defector and ex-Revolutionary Guards commander Reza Khalili that in retaliation for what the Iranians believe is Israel's complicity in the massive explosion at the Fordow nuclear weapons facility, the Ayatollah's had ordered Hezbollah to launch a missile strike at Israel. That, of course, would launch another war between Israel and Lebanon.

As I also mentioned, the Iranians recently doubled down on Syria, sending in troops and armor to support his regime. Part of the price for that was almost certainly the transfer of some of Assad's arsenal to Hezbollah, and it looks like this was the first installment.

The Israelis certainly seem to think something is in the works. Record numbers of them are updating their gas masks, fixing up their safe rooms and getting prepared for what might be coming.

Stay tuned....

More Info On Fordow Nuke Facility Explosion - And Of A Possible Hezbollah Attack On Israel

As I reported yesterday, there definitely was an explosion at Iran's top secret nuclear enrichment plan at Fordow...and the jokes certain members of Israel's security apparatus were cracking after Avi Dichter's deadpan press remarks were apparently not without reason.

Iranian defector and ex-Revolutionary Guards commander Reza Khalili went into more detail in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, calling it the biggest act of sabotage in decades:

Speaking to the Post on Monday, Khalili expressed confidence that the alleged blast will receive "further coverage in the US," and that "more information" will become available to verify the incident.
"This is the center of the Iranian nuclear program. It's essential for the regime, its activities, and its nuclear program. If such a blow was given to Fordow, it definitely harms [Iran] drastically. They were reaching for 20 percent uranium enrichment, and were increasing output," he added.

Situated near the holy Shi'ite city of Qom, the existence of the Fordow enrichment plant, dug deep into a mountain, was kept secret by Iran, until it was discovered by Western intelligence in 2009, and the question of how long it had been in operation remains unanswered.

Kahlili, a pseudonym used to protect him from the Iranian regime, published A Time To Betray in 2010, in which he described a journey which took him from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards to being a CIA operative in the 1980s. He now resides in California, and says he is in touch with a number of insiders in the Iranian intelligence and security communities, as well as with the office of Iran's supreme leader.

Asked why satellite imagery was not being released of rescue efforts at Fordow, Kahlili said only state intelligence agencies have access to live satellite feeds. "Why don't they put it out? My only assumption is that no one wants to take credit because of what the consequences could be by the regime," he said. "This is a very sensitive time. I'm sure that soon, very soon, more information will leak out. Chatter will get loud enough to provide further information." Kahlili went on to say that the "first suspicion is Israel" within the Islamic Republic. "I have verified information that there was a meeting [called by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. A decision was made to act in Lebanon. A request was made to [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah to vacate southern Lebanese villages. Islamic Republic Guards are on their way there. A decision has been made to prepare for missile launch from a certain area in Lebanon against Israel," he said.

Khalili said one of the sources who initially leaked information of the blast came from within the security forces guarding Fordow, adding that precise information of the attack was not being released in order to protect the source. "The source has been collaborating for a long time," he said. A second source came from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, he said, adding that it was very difficult to safely get information out of Iran.

Iranian authorities have not yet made any progress in their attempt to enter Fordow, Kahlili asserted, adding, "I fear there is radiation involved." Iran's defense ministry dispatched drilling vehicles, "the same they used to carve tunnels and create underground facilities, to see if they can make any headway in opening emergency exists, because they collapsed. Among those stuck in the facility are dozens of foreign nationals. These are contracted scientists," he said.

Kahlili said a second mysterious blast occurred in Tehran last week, at an IRGC base called "21 Hamza." "There are injuries, and there have been arrests of IRGC members who are being questioned. The Intelligence Ministry suspects sabotage," he added.

Even more to the point, without admitting any Israeli participation, Israeli intel sources have confirmed that the blast at Fordow occurred according to the London Times:

“We are still in the preliminary stages of understanding what happened and how significant it is,” one Israeli official told the London Times. He did not know if the explosion was “sabotage or accident” and refused to comment on reports that Israeli aircraft were seen near Fordo at the time of the blast.

The Iranians actually went to the trouble of issuing a formal denial, which doesn't explain the cordon around Fordos, the shaking of buildings as far away as three miles or the road closures between Qom and Tehran, which I was able to confirm independently.

And there appears to be a connection between the Fordow blast, Hezbollah and a possible strike against Israel.

Kahlili's interview with the Jerusalem Post (fourth paragraph) mentions that the Iranian regime blames Israel for the Fordow blast and has made a decision to order its proxy Hezbollah to launch a missile strike against Israel.

More confirmation of Kahlili's information in this regard is the redeploying of two Iron Dome anti-missile batteries by the Israelis on the Israel/Lebanon border.

Hezbollah has constructed camps near sites in Syria known to contain chemical weapons, obviously with an eye towards adding them to its arsenal as the Assad regime totters. Both the Obama Administration and Israel have stated that Hezbollah obtaining these WMD's would be a red line.

At the same time, Iran recently sent large amounts of troops and armor into Syria, publicly stating that an attack on its ally Assad was an attack on Iran.

It's quite possible that if Iran plans to strike at Israel, part of the conditions of increased Iranian help for Assad would be the release to Hezbollah of some of his WMD arsenal.

Is Hezbollah's Sheik Nasrallah really prepared to start another war with Israel? A missile strike, whether it involved WMDs or not would do that, and as I reported here before, this time, since Hezbollah essentially controls Lebanon's government, Israel would treat it as a war between Israel and Lebanon, not just Israel and Hezbollah.

It's hard to say. Hezbollah has still not totally recovered from the 2006 War with Israel, especially in terms of its political capital within Lebanon. And it is still pre-occupied with events in Syria, where its fighters are still engaged in combat with the Sunni insurgents. A war with Israel might be ill-advised, especially with Hamas still licking its wounds over the damage to its missile arsenal during Defensive Cloud last year.

But if Hezbollah's Iranian masters are playing the hand organ, the monkey's probably going to dance.

Stay tuned...

France Blocking EU Concensus On Naming Hezbollah A Terrorist Group

 

There a new day rising in France, as the new Socialist government is bending over backwards to appease France's Muslim minority because of the role their votes had in bringing President  Hollande and the Socialists to power.

As my friend ace reporter Benjamin Weinthal reports in today's Jerusalem Post, it is the Hollande government that is preventing an EU consensus on declaring Hezbollah a terrorist group:

The EU has not reached a consensus among its 27 members to include Lebanon-based Hezbollah in its list of terrorist organizations, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry in Paris said on Wednesday.

“The designation of a terrorist organization by the European Union implies that precise legal conditions are met,” spokesman Philippe Lalliot said, according to the translated answer obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

“Under the common position of the Council of the European Union of 27 from December 2001 on the application of specific measures to fight against terrorism, any application on the list of terrorist organizations in the EU particularly is subject to a consensus among Member States. This consensus is not currently met,” he said.

A reporter at the Foreign Ministry briefing asked Lalliot about a January Israeli newspaper report detailing Israel’s new efforts to convince Europe to outlaw Hezbollah because of the group’s terrorist activities. The reporter cited Ma’ariv saying that “this failure is particularly the position of France, which would be opposed to such an initiative.”

France, the home of Liberté, égalité, fraternité is now protecting the genocidal, anti-semitic Hezbollah from being truly labeled for what it is.

It's a piece of particularly obscene hypocrisy on the part of France to oppose EU labeling Hezbollah as a terrorist group. One of Hezbollah's first major terrorist operations was the murder of 248 U.S. Marines along with 58 French paratroopers and 6 civilians at the US and French barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

There's also Hezbollah's providing fighters to Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria,several airline hijackings including TWA flight 847, the kidnapping of Israelis, Hezbollah's defiance of UNSC Resolution 1701, their involvement in numerous assassinations in Lebanon including that of Prime Minister Hariri, solid evidence pointing to Hezbollah involvement attacks on Israeli civilians at the Jewish Community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, the recent bombing of a tourist bus in Bulgaria, and Hezbollah’s involvement in the international narcotics trade, just to name a few items.

None of it means anything to the present French government. Not only are they obsessed with placating France's Muslim voters, they're also afraid of losing what little influence they have left in Hezbollah-ruled Lebanon and with Hezbollah's sponsor, Iran. And of course, they certainly don't want to appear pro-Israel in any way.

So thanks to the French, Hezbollah will continue to wear a blood stained hat of legitimacy in Europe.

Some things never change.