"Mujahideen-e-Khalq can perform 'Regime Change' in Iran..."

"... A number of top-level Bush administration officials and Iran scholars on Friday urged the Obama Administration to take an Iranian opposition group off the terrorism blacklist and to support regime change in Iran. 

Michael Mukasey, former Attorney General; Tom Ridge, former Secretary of Homeland Security; Frances Townsend, Former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Prof. Ruth Wedgwood of Johns Hopkins University; Professor Raymond Tanter, former senior NSC staff member; and Dr. Neil Livingstone, a terrorism expert, told a standing room only audience that time had come for the United States to change its wrongheaded policy of trying to engage with the Iranian regime and instead reach out to the organized opposition in order to thwart Tehran’s nuclear and terrorist threats by encouraging regime change by the Iranian people.The officials spoke in a symposium moderated by former Congressman, Tom Tancredo, and entitled “Iran’s Nuclear & Terrorism Threats; the Opposition’s Role: What Are US Policy Options?” was organized by the ExecutiveAction, LLC...."

"Not to my knowledge..."

February 25, 2010
QUESTION: Have the Dubai authorities, or the European partners, allies, asked the United States for help in the investigation into 
MR. CROWLEY: Not to my knowledge.

S E C R E T ABU DHABI 000103

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/24
SUBJECT: UAE REQUEST FOR USG ASSISTANCE IN INVESTIGATION OF KILLING
OF MAHMOUD AL-MABHOUH

¶1. (C/NF) On the margins of a meeting with visiting Secretary Chu, on Feb 24 MFA Minister of State Gargash made a formal request to the Ambassador for assistance in providing cardholder details and related information for credit cards reportedly issued by a U.S. bank to several suspects in last month's killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai. According to a letter Gargash gave the Ambassador (which transmitted details of the request from Dubai Security authorities to the UAE Central Bank), the credit cards were issued by MetaBank, in Iowa. Embassy LEGATT is transmitting the request and
associated details to FBI HQ. Gargash asked that Embassy pass any reply to the director of the General Directorate of State Security (GDSS) in Dubai.

¶2. (S/NF) Comment: Ambassador requests expeditious handling of and reply to the UAEG request, which was also raised by UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed in a February 23 meeting with Secretary Clinton in Washington.

¶3. (C/NF) Text of letter from GDSS to the Governor of the UAE Central Bank:


Excellency Sultan Al-Suwiadi

UAE Central Bank Governor
Subject: Credit Cards

MC 5115-2600-1600-6190
MC 5115-2600-1600-5317
MC 5301-3800-3201-7106

General Management of The State Security offers greetings, and asks your Excellency to direct the money laundry and suspicious transactions unit at the Central Bank to urgently obtain details of the above credit cards, in addition to details for purchases, accounts, and payments on those cards, as the users of those cards were involved in the murder of Mahmoud Mabhouh. Those cards were issued by META BANK in the state of Iowa, USA.

Thank you for your kind cooperation.

Netanyahu to Turkey: "You need to apologize to us!"

Netanyahu: No apology to Turkey - Israel News, Ynetnews

John Bolton's 'revelation': "Hariri tribunal will indict Hezbollah & Syria..."

".. John Bolton reveals that Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare will release the indictments in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri soon.... in Al-Hayat Monday: "It is almost certain that prominent Syrian officials and Hizbullah members will be accused of the crime." .."

You gotta love this 'Patriarchal-Muftiesque slugfest'... "الكمية و النوعية...."

"Mount Lebanon Mufti Sheikh Mohammad-Ali Jouzo criticized Sunday “political Maronism” in the wake of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir’s statement that “qualifications were equally important to demographics,” a reference to the decreasing numbers of Lebanese Christians in comparison to Muslims.

“The number of Christians is decreasing as they head East or West and most probably to the West,” Sfeir told a visiting delegation of nurses Friday in Bkirki. “But,” added the prelate, “Christ’s disciples were only 12 but they overran the entire world and thus large numbers do not count alone but also qualifications.” (meaning: Christians are brilliant but few, and Muslims are many but ....idiots!)

Jouzo said such statements harmed the “feelings of the rest of the Lebanese,” adding that qualifications were a shared quality among Christians and Muslims. “Holders of university degrees count more among Muslims than Christians,” he added.

Jouzo also seized the opportunity to slam Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun as an example that some Christians lack qualifications.

“It is enough that among Christians there is a man like Aoun and the rest of his team who insult everybody including the patriarch. Where is the quality in that behavior?” Jouzo asked...."

"Resistance will determine future of Middle East"

"... "We believe resistance will determine the future of this region," Baqeri said in a press statement after his meeting with Assad. "There are many countries in the region which believe resistance is the way to solve the region's problems, and at the center of this view are Syria and Iran," Baqeri added.
Baqeri held separate meetings with the Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Iranian news agency Al-Fars reported.
Baqeri is also reported to have met with senior Hamas officials in Damascus, as well as Hussein Khalil, a political aide to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah...."

Men of Ideas ...& Ideals

Israeli foreign policy: "Turks are liars, .. Abbas is illegitimate & Netanyahu is unrealistic"

"... Earlier Sunday, Lieberman personally attacked Mahmoud Abbas, saying that the Palestinian Authority is an "illegitimate government that doesn't conduct elections. We should not reach an agreement with them."..."

Over 80 dead in Bajaur suicide attack, ... With implications for US forces nearby

Over 80 dead in Bajaur suicide attack, raids

Syrian-Egyptian intelligence sharing ... 'the timing' is of essence!

"...A source in the Syrian foreign ministry has told Ahram Online that the Egyptian-Syrian security cooperation has not been damaged despite the sensitive political situation between the two countries.
On the contrary, they continue to work together in many cases, including the recently revealed network of spies, lead by the agent Tarek Abdel Razeq.
The source added that after the discovery of this conspiracy, Egypt handed over to Damascus a dossier of sensitive technical information relating to Syria’s nuclear program, including the project’s maps and strategic positions and means of obtaining nuclear materials. ..."

".. Sadly, the president's biggest disaster was with his signature issue, ...Palestine!."

"...Sadly, the president's biggest disaster was with his signature issue, Israeli-Palestinian peace. Obama was undone partly by his growing political weakness. I suspect that a stronger but still quixotic Obama will remount that horse next year. "

It says 'Mohamad Messenger of God ..' behind Samir Geagea' (who is accustomed to calling stray dogs Mohamad!)

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Samir Ja`ja` (Ga`ga` in Egyptian accent) meets wit...: "Of course, the meeting took place after the war criminal performed pilgrimage in Mecca. (Saudi news agency)"

Al Qaeda type leader killed in Lebanon ...

"... "The body of Ghandi Sahmarani, leader of Jund al-Sham, was found this morning in a garage inside the camp," Fatah official Mounir Makdah told AFP.
An AFP photographer who saw Sahmarani's body in the morgue in the southern coastal city of Sidon said his hands had been bound with wire behind his back and it appeared he had been killed with a single shot to the mouth.
Makdah said that Sahmarani, a Lebanese, had been "a friend" of Abdel Rahman Awad, the presumed chief of the shadowy Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist group which fought a deadly battle in 2007 against the Lebanese army at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in the country's north.in August, Lebanese troops killed Awad, a Palestinian, and his aide, "Abu Bakr" Mubarak, in a shootout in the eastern town of Chtaura in the Bekaa Valley.
Jund al-Sham, the Arabic for "Army of Greater Syria," is a radical Sunni militant group believed to be based in Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, and linked to Al-Qaeda...."

No Clemency for a spy!

"...Obama should remind Netanyahu that Israel is responsible for Pollard’s fate. In 1984, Pollard was an unsolicited walk-in who believed the United States was not properly sharing defense information with its ally and offered documents to the Israelis. He did not want to be paid for his services, but his Israeli handler insisted he take money to become a professional spy.israeli officials should have turned him over to US law enforcement when he first approached them. Not only did Israel’s manipulation of Pollard cast doubt on Israel’s willingness to help the United States; it also struck a cruel blow against American Jews, who have long had to combat the slur of being unreliable Americans torn between dual loyalties....."

A French booby-trapped car for the Iranian Embassy in Beirut & Saudi financed CIA plan to kill Fadlallah..... ...

The Casey-Fahd plan is known, but the French 'car' is news to me.

"...This was revealed by Pierre Lacoste, who was the DGSE director from 1982-1985 and served under French President Francois Mitterrand. The operation was planned to avenge the October 23, 1983 bombing of French and American army barracks in the Lebanese capital, killing 58 French soldiers and 241 American servicemen.....

According to the information received, they were from Hezbollah, which had just been established, prompted by the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. According to the intelligence, senior Iranian intelligence officials approved the attack in the hope that it would lead to an end to the French and international military presence in Lebanon.

Lacoste instructed the DGSE's operations people to prepare a revenge attack. In an interview he gave to Le Point journalist Jean Guisnel and film director David Korn-Brzoza he disclosed the details of the operation.... Lacoste says a booby-trapped car was prepared and it was parked near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut with the goal of blowing it up. As a backup, a bazooka was also prepared which was to fire bombs at the building. But due to malfunctions, the car did not explode and the bazooka did not work...... This dramatic revelation from Paris joins a similar, earlier revelation regarding what can be called "intelligence-agency sponsored terrorism," published in American journalist Bob Woodward's 1987 book "Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987"

Woodward's book is based on lengthy talks with then-CIA chief William Casey. Woodward writes that Casey decided on a revenge attack following the Beirut bombing. Casey, who received intelligence data from Israel, decided that the target for revenge would be Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died this summer. Fadlallah was then seen as the spiritual leader of Hezbollah .... In order to conceal the CIA's involvement and bypass Congress, which at the time banned the American intelligence agency from carrying out assassination operations, Casey was assisted by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who agreed to pay $3 million for the revenge operation. Through the offices of the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar, the money was deposited in a Swiss bank account for a mercenary, a British commando who was hired for the mission. The mercenary arranged the operation with the help of Lebanese collaborators.on March 8, 1985, a car bomb placed near Fadlallah's home exploded, killing 80 civilians, but not Fadlallah...."

Tabasco & Barbells 'undermine America's moral & diplomatic authority'....

Report: U.S. Treasury approved business with Iran - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Merry Christmas

المحاكمة بالنار: سياسات المحكمة الخاصة بلبنان

International Crisis Group : المحاكمة بالنار: سياسات المحكمة الخاصة بلبنان

"..We will not see anything final with respect to the accusations before March, or even April .."

"... The estimation at the tribunal is that the pretrial judge will take at least 6-10 weeks, perhaps longer, to confirm the indictments in writing. That means we will not see anything final with respect to the accusations before March, or even April, if Bellemare meets a mid-January deadline. Fransen has the latitude to dismiss all or certain charges, or to ask for more evidence, which could add to the time needed for the tribunal to present confirmed indictments.   
During the period when he is considering the draft indictments, Fransen has the option of accelerating proceedings by asking the appeals chamber to consider certain matters of law pertaining to the case. The pretrial judge will quite possibly take advantage of this rule, which involves holding public hearings. While no one would be named in these hearings, something would inevitably be revealed by the tenor of the legal discussions, which would provide the first real hint of the direction and substance of the prosecution’s case.
Until the formal confirmation of the indictments by Fransen, the contents will remain confidential.....
Does the prosecutor have evidence strong enough to prepare indictments that can pass Fransen’s muster? 
how can the tribunal function effectively, and credibly, if the entire trial is conducted in absentia? And how might the absence of the indicted impact on Bellemare’s case, if he relies substantially on circumstantial evidence? ...... ..."

'Lebanon war & Mabhouh assassination' Wikilieaks, .... coming soon

"... Assange, who was recently released from a British prison, said that he holds 3,700 more files related to Israel, and the main source of them is the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.
Assange said in the interview that WikiLeaks plans on releasing cables that were classified as top secret regarding Israel's month-long war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Moreover, he also claimed he holds documents indicating Mossad involvement in the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January.
Assange said that WikiLeaks had not had any direct or indirect relations with Israel, but said he was sure Israeli intelligence is monitoring WikiLeaks' activities closely...."