To ensure that its sellout to a nuclear Iran would make its way through Congress, the Obama administration withheld until after the Iran vote a letter written by al-Qaeda chieftain Osama Bin Laden pegging Iran as being the terror group's chief financier.
In a 2007 letter,
bin Laden criticized an operative for threatening to attack Iran. “We
expect you would consult with us for these important matters, for as you
are aware, Iran is our main artery for funds, personnel, and
communication, as well as the matter of hostages,” he wrote.
Ties between Iran and al Qaeda have been reported for years,
with numerous ways by which Iran served as al-Qaeda’s “main artery.”
The letter was part of a collection of 112 letters taken from bin Laden’s
compound by U.S. special ops forces after he was killed in 2011. The
collection was made public Tuesday by the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence. Long after the Iran deal was approved.
While I don't agree with everything in this analysis, Udi Segal raises much cause for concern regarding the current situation involving the 'Palestinians.'
Another reason that Islamism has for the most part been halted in Judea
and Samaria can be traced to the fact that the Fatah movement is in a
fight for its very survival. It knows that failure would spell the end
for it, and Hamas would show it no mercy. When it comes to religious
fanaticism, the formula of “bad is good” applies.
This formula
is what guides the spread of radical Islamism. It is the source of
horror and shock that is generated by the specter of Shi’ite Islam as
represented by Iran and the Revolutionary Guards. The Islamic Republic
has spent a great deal of money financing terrorism as well as a costly
nuclear program.
The extremist Sunni organization, Islamic
State, took things a step further. Its actions dwarf the brutality of
the Al Quds Force. Even al-Qaida looks like a cute, cuddly teddy bear in
comparison. Have the people who have come under ISIS rule seen their
lives improve? The answer is no. Bad is good.
If we were to take a
peek at what is going on with our neighbors to the northeast, we are
left to wonder - is there anyone enjoying the situation in Syria now?
No. There is a brutal civil war there in which a quarter million people
have been butchered. As a country, Syria is in ruins. Its infrastructure
is crumbling. Its economy is in shambles. Its citizens are being
slaughtered, and those who survived are witnesses to acts that will stay
with them as personal and national traumas for generations to come.
Millions
have become refugees who have streamed into Jordan and Turkey. Now,
wretched and without any possessions, they knock on the doors of Europe.
Is this Arab pride? Is this Syrian courage? Hezbollah has lost 1,400
guerillas, more than one-tenth of its fighting force. ISIS is conquering
territory and losing some as well, bombing and being bombarded. Things
are bad, for everyone involved.
And this is precisely the goal.
For extremist Islam, bad is good. Only the destruction of the
foundations of contemporary Western culture and a return to the stone
age - in its simplest and historic meaning - will usher in the rule of
sharia, the austere form of Islam that was in effect 500 years ago. That
will pave the way for the establishment of the Islamic caliphate.
It
is quite an ambitious goal - taking apart the artificial entities
imposed by the West, including statehood, institutions of law and order,
economic structure, and norms of morality and regulations. The goal is
to destroy everything and wash it over with Islamism, some of whose
adherents believe is engaged in a war of armageddon.
This toxic
mix could easily merge with the rising tide of terror and rebellion
percolating in the Palestinian territories. With despair the dominant
theme, the Palestinians could decide to take everything apart. Even
Abbas, the serial threatener, is planning a provocation of his own by
announcing at the United Nations that he is handing back the keys to the
Palestinian Authority.
Read the whole thing. My own view is that this is the time to rule with an iron fist. That's why (as those who follow me on Twitter already know) I am all in favor of the new rules of engagement that allow the police and the IDF to shoot at stone throwers. The stone throwers are attempted murderers, and showing them mercy is a mistake. They are a deadly force and the law of proportionality requires responding to them with deadly force. Fortunately, the IDF has been able to shut much of the weapons flow to Judea and Samaria that led to the 'second intifada' 15 years ago, and there is no reason to let up now.
Former DIA Director: 'Rise of Islamic State was a willful decision' by the Obama administration
President Obama's former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn has told Foreign Policy Journal that the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) was a willful decision by President Obama.
All that is noted, but if this transcript is accurate, former DIA
director Michael Flynn is confirming that the Obama Administration
knowingly decided to support al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in
Syria, and directly enabled the rise of the Islamic State. And given the
Obama Administration’s general stance toward the global jihad and
Islamic supremacism, what would be unbelievable about that?
In a sane political atmosphere, this would be enough to bring down
the Obama presidency. Instead, it will get little notice and no action
whatsoever.
“Rise of Islamic State was ‘a willful decision’: Former DIA Chief Michal [sic] Flynn,” by Brad Hoff, Foreign Policy Journal, August 7, 2015 (thanks to Joshua):
In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to
Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the
West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk
in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical
jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian
regime was “a willful decision.” [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo
begins at the 8:50 mark.]
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi
Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the
policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of
ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision
making:
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time
you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were
arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this
portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA
report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such
as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared
Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the
supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian
regime.”
Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these
startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release,
Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he
“paid very close attention” to this report in particular and later adds
that “the intelligence was very clear.”
Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest
ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States
and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political
backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the
Syrian regime:
Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to
those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why
did you not stop that if you’re worried about the rise of quote-unquote
Islamic extremists?
Flynn: I hate to say it’s not my job…but that…my job was to…was to
ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented
was as good as it could be….
And you all thought we were exaggerating when we said that Obama supported Islamic terror groups....
Obama's other Iran coverup: The Iran-al-Qaeda connection to 9/11 and other al-Qaeda terror
I'd like to show you a report that was played on Fox News back in May of this year.
Let's go to the videotape.
Hayes and William Kristol are demanding the release of those documents before the Congressional vote on the Iranian deal.
The bin Laden documents have long been the subject of a
behind-the-scenes battle between the White House and elements of the
intelligence community. After an initial scrub of the documents in the
months after the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad, the Obama administration
let them sit untouched for as long as a year. When officials at the DIA
and Central Command requested access to the collection to extract
intelligence and provide it to war fighters, they were initially denied.
And soon after the team from DIA and CENTCOM was given limited access
to the documents, they were ordered to stop their exploitation. What
they did see was illuminating.
Among the most significant were documents that shed new
light on the complicated relationship between Iran and al Qaeda. Even
the Obama administration has acknowledged the relationship. In 2011, the
administration designated six al Qaeda operatives who were responsible
for what officials described as al Qaeda’s lifeline. The network was
based in Iran.
“This network serves as the core pipeline through which
al Qaeda moves money, facilitators, and operatives,” according to the
Treasury Department’s designation. In an interview with The Weekly
Standard at the time, a senior Obama administration official involved in
the designation said, “Without this network, al Qaeda’s ability to
recruit and collect funds would be severely damaged.”
David Cohen, then undersecretary of the Treasury for
terrorism and financial intelligence and currently the deputy director
of the CIA, told The Weekly Standard the intelligence on Iran’s support
for al Qaeda was incontrovertible. “There is an agreement between the
Iranian government and al Qaeda to allow this network to operate,” Cohen
said. “There’s no dispute in the intelligence community on this.” Those
conclusions were based, at least in part, on the bin Laden documents.
Contacted about the status of al Qaeda’s Iran network
earlier this spring, two intelligence officials confirmed that it was
still functioning and still critical to al Qaeda operations. That’s not
all.
We are told that one document fills in the picture of
possible Iranian foreknowledge and complicity in the 9/11 attacks first
raised in the 9/11 Commission report, published in 2004. According to
the report, al Qaeda detainees in U.S. custody
described the willingness of Iranian officials
to facilitate the travel of al Qaeda members through Iran, on their way
to and from Afghanistan. For example, Iranian border inspectors would
be told not to place telltale stamps in the passports of these
travelers. Such arrangements were particularly beneficial to Saudi
members of al Qaeda. Our knowledge of the international travels of the
al Qaeda operatives selected for the 9/11 operation remains fragmentary.
But we now have evidence suggesting that 8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi
“muscle” operatives traveled into or out of Iran between October 2000
and February 2001.
The 9/11 Commission detailed much of that travel and reported:
There is 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 future 9/11 hijackers. There also is
circumstantial evidence that senior Hezbollah operatives were closely
tracking the travel of some of these future muscle hijackers into Iran
in November 2000.
The commission concluded: “We believe this topic requires further investigation by the U.S. government.”
The chief new reality is the de facto coalition among Israel, Egypt, and the Sunni Gulf states. This comprises a potential new source of stability in the region, a stability that has been lacking since the collapse of the Ottoman imperium. The dream of an Arab equivalent of Europe -- a region of independent nation-states united through ethnicity and religion -- lies in ruins. The possibility that it can revived are minimal. Libya, Syria, and Yemen are all failed states and, left to themselves, the UN, or Europe, will remain that way. The fantasy of nation building was punctured by Iraq and Afghanistan. These people are not only incapable of governing themselves, they are incapable of maintaining a viable social system. This role must be filled by an overarching power, as it was by the Ottomans and the European imperialists.
It must be done because we require order. This is not the 19th century. The Jihadis have clearly demonstrated a global reach. They can get at any target anywhere simply by parasitizing well-established Western communications and transportation systems. The sole way to deny them this capability is through control of the failed states that act as incubators for their mujahedin.
...
The two major goals in the Mideast are the defeat of the Jihadis and the denial of Iranian hegemony. The coalition can encompass both, with support from interested Western powers. Despite all the appeasement rhetoric, the Iranian nuclear threat can be shut down in short order. No one has considered the possibility that Israel might utilize tactical nukes fitted to bunker-buster warheads. These would “drill” deeply into the overhanging mountains before detonating, rendering the Iranian nuclear program unsalvageable with little in the way of fallout or residual radiation. This would a bold step on the part of Israel, but existential challenges encourage that kind of thing. Sanction from the Gulf States is likely to be easily obtained.
Iran would attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, but in the age of fracking, this is nowhere near the threat it once was. Fracking could take up a large part of the oil shortfall within months. There would be a serious economic earthquake, but the West has it coming.
Turning to the Jihadis, the long war, which the U.S. and Europe have proven incapable of maintaining, would probably be best fought by nations in the area. Saudi Arabia has valuable knowledge about these people. Israel has one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world. Pooling their efforts should bring results that would difficult for outside actors to match. The current collaboration between the Israelis and the Egyptians could act as a model here.
Failed states such as Syria and Yemen are likely to remain non-nations on the Somalia model. As such, they will have to be controlled. Civilized forces will need to enter these degraded pea-patches on an irregular basis on punitive missions, much the same as the British mounted expeditions into Afghanistan and Somalia during the imperial period. (Libya is different, virtually bordering on the West as it does -- it must be brought under control, the sooner the better.)
This is effectively a form of neocolonialism, one that should be carried out by locals with a deep understanding of the stakes. It could of course, be “better,” in the abstract, if Somalis and Syrians could govern themselves, but they can’t, and that’s the end of it. They are a problem, and a new Mideast coalition offers a solution. Such a coalition will share goals with the West: elimination of the Iranian threat, destruction of ISIS and similar Jihadi gangs, and beyond that, a new status quo. While such a solution is far from perfect, it is the best that can be expected from a horrendous situation.
What would the U.S. role be? Basically, everybody’s benign uncle. To act as an honest broker, mentor, and guide for both sides, to ease the natural conflicts between Jewish and Arab interests, to work out strategies and policies, and nudge either side in the right direction.
Even this is asking too much at this point. Obama has, of course, downgraded the U.S. relationship with Israel even as the new modus vivendi has been working itself out -- a remarkable development that he has ignored. There’s nothing that reveals Obama’s utter fatuity more than this.
Of course, if Hillary Clinton becomes President, things might not be any better. What could go wrong?
Barack Hussein Obama admitted on Thursday that contractor Warren Weinstein, an American Jew who was kidnapped because he was Jewish and was being held by al-Qaeda for ransom, was killed in a January by a US drone strike. Sadly, the US had no clue where Weinstein was. This is from the first link and was written by former Congressman Allen West (R-Fl).
As reported by USA Today,
“President Obama expressed “grief and condolences” Thursday for a
January drone strike against suspected terrorists in Pakistan that
accidentally killed two hostages, including an American aid worker.
Obama said he took full responsibility for the operation and apologized
to the families of the hostages. “I profoundly regret what happened,” he
said. The two Western hostages — one American, one Italian — were
killed during a drone strike that targeted members of al-Qaida, the
White House said. They were Warren Weinstein, 73, an aid worker from
Maryland who was a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International
Development, and Giovanni Lo Porto, 39, an Italian citizen working for a
German aid agency. Both were kidnapped by al-Qaida in Pakistan —
Weinstein in 2011 and Lo Porto in 2012. The White House said the
counterterrorism operation, and another this year in the same region,
also killed two other Americans believed to be working with al-Qaida. In
an extraordinary eight-minute statement to reporters, a solemn Obama
halted at points during his brief remarks, looking down at notes. “I
cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the Weinstein and Lo Porto
families are enduring today,” he said.”
The first issue has to be, why is the family just now finding
out about this fratricide by drone strike, which occurred in January? I thought this was supposed to be the most transparent administration in American history.
...
I understand Clausewitz’s “Fog of War” but I also realize
that something went terribly wrong in the decision-making authorizing
this strike.
“The site of the attack had been under surveillance for hundreds of
hours, and that surveillance was “near-continuous” in the days just
before the attack, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. The
spying used a variety of methods, including drone imagery, and
discovered a known al-Qaida operative driving into the compound, said
U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Based on that
intelligence, Earnest said, intelligence analysts concluded with “near
certainty” that al-Qaida leaders were present and that civilians were
not.”
What is apparent is that HUMINT intelligence assets were not used to
validate imagery. Then again, why would anyone want to support U.S.
intelligence gathering in Pakistan after how this administration has
treated Dr. Shakil Afridi who assisted in the identification of Osama
bin Laden’s hideout?
The preeminent question must be, who granted approval? If we
are restricting drone usage to the U.S. military, it is fairly easy to
ascertain the chain of command in the decision-making for this
engagement. But, if this was not within the military operational command
chain emanating out of Afghanistan — then we have a bureaucratic,
administration issue.
And based on the lack of transparency and length of
time before this was revealed, — it leads me to believe this decision
came from the latter, not the former. And that ladies and gents, is the
reason why the president of the United States took the podium.
Josh Rogin reports that the US had no clue Weinstein was there. That's because - as West noted as well - the US has no intelligence assets on the ground in the area.
One of the biggest questions following President Barack Obama’s
startling revelation Thursday that a U.S. drone strike had
killed Weinstein (and Italian hostage Giovanni Lo Porto) is how the
intelligence community could have been unaware that he was at the
al-Qaeda site where he became collateral damage in the effort to fight
terrorism. A lack of human resources on the ground and a total lack of
intelligence on Weinstein’s location contributed to the accident that
now has the administration and Congress rethinking how the
U.S. will conduct its secret war.
“We put a high priority in tracking and finding him and seeing what
we could do to rescue him,” Dan Benjamin, the State Department’s
ambassador for counterterrorism from 2009 to 2012, told me Thursday.
“The trail went cold quickly and we didn’t know where he was.”
...
Several officials told me that Weinstein, who worked as a business
development contractor for United States Agency for International
Development in Lahore, was nervous about his security just before his
capture. He had built a safe room in his house and told friends he was
hoping to leave Pakistan soon.
In 2012 and 2013, al-Qaeda release several hostage videos
of Weinstein begging the Obama administration to do more to retrieve
him. Several officials told me that although U.S. authorities
repeatedly raised his case with their Pakistani counterparts, there was
no direct interaction with al-Qaeda about any ransom or trade and no
real information on where the terrorist group was holding him for the
three years he was in captivity.
“I don’t think there was any attempt to rescue him because I don’t
think we had the slightest idea where he was,” said Rand Corporation’s
James Dobbins, who was the State Department’s special representative for
Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2013 to 2014. “I don’t believe there were
any real leads.”
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter said Thursday
that Weinstein’s death was the result of a broken interagency process
in which a Pentagon official, Jason Amerine, developed a plan for a
trade that would have included the return of Weinstein along with Army
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl was released by the Taliban in 2014 in
exchange for five Taliban commanders being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Warren Weinstein did not have to die," Hunter said in a statement.
"His death is further evidence of the failures in communication and
coordination between government agencies tasked with recovering
Americans in captivity — and the fact that he’s dead, as a result, is
absolutely tragic.”
But several officials told me today that a trade that included
Weinstein was never seriously entertained by the interagency team tasked
with retrieving him, which was led by the FBI and included the CIA,
State Department and Pentagon.
“It never struck us as a plausible option,” Dobbins said, noting that
Bergdahl was being held by the Taliban while Weinstein was being held
by al-Qaeda. The U.S. had extensive negotiations with the Taliban over
the years, but not with al-Qaeda, he pointed out.
This is why you can't lead from behind, and you can't pretend you're not fighting a war when your options are fight or surrender.
Moadim l'Simcha, a happy holiday to all of you, and a reminder that because I am in Israel, today is an intermediate day of the holiday, on which being on the computer is allowed.
Iran is certainly acting in the spirit of its newly-inked deal with Barack Hussein Obama, who declined to deter Iran's support of terror worldwide: Iran is financing the reconstruction of Hamas terror tunnels destroyed by Israel during last summer's war.
It is also funding new missile supplies to
replenish stocks used to bombard residential neighbourhoods in Israel
during the war, code-named Operation Protective Edge by Israel.
The renewed funding is a sign that the two old allies are putting behind thema rift caused by the conflict in Syria, where Shia Iran is backing President Bashar al-Assad against Hamas’s mainly Sunni allies.
Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshaal, who left Damascus for Qatar after
falling out with the Assad regime, has often fought with Hamas’s
military wing over the strength of the Iranian connection.
However, with the Sunni Arab world joining forces against Iran, led by
Saudi Arabia and President Abdelfattah el-Sisi of Egypt, who are both
hostile to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group has been left little
option but to accept the Iranian largesse.
At the same time,
Iran’s overseas operations arm, the Al-Quds force, led by its
charismatic general Qassem Suleimani, has been consolidating a broad
hold over the Middle East.
It is backing the Shia Houthi rebels
fighting the internationally recognised government in Yemen, and
actively supporting the Shia-dominated Iraqi government’s attempts to
recapture the northern city of Tikrit, the former stronghold of Sunni
dictator Saddam Hussein, from Islamic State (Isil) fighters.
However, Iran may have been forced to pull back, at least in the latter
case, senior diplomats say, adding there is growing evidence that the
Iranians are overplaying their hand.
No one should be surprised at this: The Obama administration has essentially given Iran a green light to become the dominant force in the Middle East. Israel will have to act alone (possibly with behind the scenes support from the Gulf States) to stop Iran.
Video: IDF assisting wounded civilians in Syrian civil war
The IDF operates a field hospital in the Golan Heights to treat wounded
Syrian civilians affected by the civil war ravaging the country. “We
help civilians who are injured by Syrian Army attacks or by the rebels,”
asserts Golani Company Commander Maj. Simon Sisso.
Obama: Islamic State and al-Qaeda have slick videos, 'peaceful' Imams are boring
Yes, President Obama thinks that Muslims are joining terror organizations because Islamic State and al-Qaeda make slick recruitment videos while more 'peaceful' Imams are 'boring.'
Must see video: Rudy Giuliani blasts Obama policies on Islamism and Iran
At times screaming with rage, Rudy Giuliani excoriates Barack Obama for
his weak and feckless policies toward the global threats of radical
Islam and a nuclear-armed Iran. This powerful speech was delivered at
the Iranian-American Community symposium "Countering Islamic
Fundamentalism, and a Nuclear-Armed Iran," February 13, 2015, in
Phoenix, Arizona. This is Part 1 of 2 parts.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Leah P).
Here's Part 2. Let's go to the videotape.
It's a pity Giuliani is unlikely to run for President again.
A terrorist attack on the Pakistani
national grid plunged more than 140 million people into darkness before
power was restored, prompting U.S. experts to warn that terrorist cells
and “lone wolves” in the United States could cause similar damage to the
vulnerable national electric-grid system.
The blackout in Pakistan affected more than 80 percent of the
country’s population and all public services in all the major cities,
including the capital, Islamabad.
A separatist group in the Naseerabad district of Baluchistan province
in the country’s southwest caused the blackout by blowing up a major
transmission line connected to the national grid.
It was the third such attack in two weeks.
“It shows the bad guys definitely do know what they’re doing when
they want to – in a country with upwards of 100 nuclear weapons,” said
Clare Lopez, vice president for research and analysis at the
Washington-based Center for Security Policy.
In the latest attack on a major transmission line in Pakistan, two
nuclear plants went offline after the outages while problems occurred at
the country’s main international airport in Lahore.
Confirmed: 6 Revolutionary Guards, 5 Hezbullah members, including Jihad Mughniyah killed in IAF strike, Hezbullah mobilizing
Lebanese sources are now confirming that six Iranian Revolutionary Guards and five Hezbullah members were killed in an IAF air strike on Sunday. The Hezbullah members included Jihad Mughniyah, the son of Imad Mughniyah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards included Iranian commander Abu Ali al-Tabtabani, the commander of operations in the Golan.
Jihad Moughniyah was killed with four other members of Hezbollah when
his convoy was hit, the sources said. His father, who was on the United
States’ most wanted list for attacks on Israeli and Western targets,
was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.
Hezbollah issued a statement in which it admitted that 5 of its
members were killed including commander Mohammad Issa from ArabSalim.
6 members of the Iranian Revolutionary guards were also reportedly killed in the strike according to Lebanese media reports.
Hezbollah issued a statement after the incident :
“The Israeli enemy’s helicopters fired missiles at a group of
Hezbollah’s fighters who were inspecting the town of Mazraat al-Amal in
the Syrian Quneitra region,” Hizbullah’s media department announced in
the statement.
The strike “resulted in the martyrdom of a number of jihadist
brothers, whose names will be announced later, after informing their
honorable families,” the Hezbollah statement added.
Al-Jadeed ( New) television for its part said “Iranian commander Abu
Ali al-Tabtabani was among the martyrs of the Israeli raid on Golan.”
The original Hezbullah announcement in Arabic may be found here.
1 hour ago
Information obtained by MTV: Nasrallah will tonight deliver a
speech in which he will announce that Hizbullah will retaliate against
Israel with a painful strike.
Breaking: Israeli strike in Syria targeted head of Hezbullah's Syria operations
A short while ago, I reported that Israeli helicopters had attacked al-Nusra forces on the Golan Heights. It now appears that there was a target there: The head of Hezbullah's operations in Syria.
Key target in Israeli strike apparently wasn't Jihad Mugniyeh, but Abu Ali Tabatabaie, head of Hezbo ops in Syria. V Big Deal.
— Lee Smith (@LeeSmithTWS) January 18, 2015
IAF choppers bomb al-Qaeda positions on Golan Heights
IAF helicopters fired missiles at troops from the Jabhat al-Nusra front - affiliated with al-Qaeda - on the Golan Heights on Sunday afternoon, after the Islamic terrorists were seen laying charges along Syria's border with Israel.
According to Al Manar, two rockets were fired at a target in Mazraat al-Amal near Quneitra.
Meanwhile, Al Mayadeen TV said that the missiles were launched by an IAF aircraft, without specifying that it was a helicopter.
Western security sources said that the missiles were fired at a team
of terrorists who had begun laying explosive charges on the Syria-Israel
border near Quneitra.
No casualties have been reported as of yet.
According to the report, shortly before the IAF struck, two drones
were seen circling above the area, apparently to collect intelligence.
Mazraat al-Amal is located in the Syrian Golan, near the border with
Israel, and recent reports said that Jabhat al-Nusra forces were
occupying it.
The IDF refused to confirm or deny the report of the strike and said that it “does not respond to reports in foreign media.”
Earlier in the day, it was reported that Israeli forces fired smoke
grenades and tear gas toward Lebanese territory. Three Lebanese soldiers
were taken to a hospital for treatment following that incident.
None of our borders are anything like the US border with Canada....
Paris terror cell had 8-10 members, international flavor
Said and Cherif Kouachi, the two terrorists who carried out the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, and Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered a police officer during the week, and four Jews at the Hyper Cacher supermarket on Friday afternoon, were part of an 8-10 member terror cell that had an international flavor.
Here is what has been reported so far from the investigation and by witnesses interviewed by police and the media:
--
Said and Cherif Kouachi carried out the attack on the magazine shortly
before noon Jan. 7 after forcing a cartoonist arriving for a staff
meeting to open the ground-floor entrance with her security key card.
The brothers -- hooded, clad in black and carrying assault rifles --
proceeded to the editor's office and methodically shot and killed editor
Stephane Charbonnier, his police bodyguard and seven staffers. A
visitor to the office, a maintenance man and a police guard at the
entrance were also killed.
-- Said Kouachi, 34, had traveled to Yemen in 2011 for weapons training
by militants of the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula affiliate, or
AQAP. Cherif Kouachi, 32, had been radicalized in prison while serving
time for a 2008 conviction on terrorism-related charges for recruiting
fighters for the insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq. The younger
Kouachi met the third gunman involved in last week's terror spree, Amedy
Coulibaly, while in jail after his initial arrest in the recruitment
case in 2005, the Associated Press reported.
-- The three gunmen slain in police operations on Friday were known to
international security monitors and were all on the U.S. and British
no-fly lists that bar air travel by suspected terrorists. The Kouachi
brothers told bystanders at the magazine attack that they were aligned
with AQAP and Coulibaly can be seen pledging allegiance to the Islamic
State extremist group in a video that surfaced on the Internet after his
death.
-- Said Kouachi returned from Yemen in 2011 with $20,000 provided by
AQAP to help finance the attacks carried out last week, CBS News
reported Tuesday. French police union spokesman Christophe Crepin told
journalists in Paris that an international hunt is on for several
suspects in the funding of the operations.
-- Coulibaly, 32, shot
and killed a policewoman in the Montrouge area of Paris a day after the
magazine attack and set off a car bomb in Villejuif in an attempt to
divert security forces searching for the Kouachi brothers, the AP said
it was told by a French police source.
-- The brothers and Coulibaly belonged to a terror cell that
consisted of eight to 10 members, including Coulibaly's companion,
26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene. She and at least five other suspected
accomplices may still be at large, police told the AP.
-- Turkish
authorities have disclosed that Boumeddiene appears to have traveled to
Istanbul on Jan. 1 and crossed into Syria ahead of the terrorist
strikes. Police were searching around Paris on Tuesday for a Mini Cooper
registered to Boumeddiene.
-- A Frenchman of Haitian origin,
Fritz Jolie Joaquin, was taken into custody in Bulgaria on Jan. 1 as he
attempted to cross into Turkey at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing, a
prosecutor in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, reported Monday. European
authorities issued an arrest warrant for Joaquin, 28, on Monday in
connection with reports he kidnapped his 3-year-old son and was
intending to travel to Syria. Police have said they believe Joaquin is a
relative of the Kouachi brothers.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen takes responsibility for Charlie Hebdo attack
Al-Qaeda in Yemen has taken responsibility for the terror attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week.
Al Qaeda in Yemen
claimed responsibility for the attack on French satirical newspaper
Charlie Hebdo, saying it was for insulting the Prophet Mohammad,
according to a video posted on YouTube.
"As for the blessed Battle of
Paris, we, the Organisation of al Qaeda al Jihad in the Arabian
Peninsula, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the
Messenger of God," said Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi of the Yemeni branch of
al Qaeda (AQAP) in the recording.
Don't hold your breath waiting for someone to come after them like George Bush went after Osama Bin Laden after the World Trade Center attack. It won't happen.
Holder: US 'still doesn't know' which group behind Paris attack
Eric Holder, the moron President Hussein Obama sent to Paris as the US representative in Sunday's mass march, told CNN on Sunday that the United States 'still doesn't know' what group is behind the Paris attack.
Attorney
General Eric Holder said Sunday that "we don't have any credible
information" yet on whether a terrorism organization sponsored the
attack in Paris -- and if so, which one.
Al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which Holder said "remains the most
dangerous of the al Qaeda cells," has claimed responsibility for the
attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
...
"We don't have any credible information, at least of yet, to indicate
who was responsible -- who sponsored this act. That is clearly one of
the things that we have to make a determination of," he said.
Because Muslims never commit terror attacks? What could go wrong?
Last spring, Hamas was already sensing isolation. Egypt had begun
curbing Hamas’s access to everything from cigarettes to guns. And a
widely touted merger with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank,
according to analysts in the region and Israeli security sources, had
brought Gazans limited economic benefit. Some observers—in Israel, the
Arab world, and the West—perceived Hamas to be on the ropes. Around the
same time, intelligence about a pending attack—electronic chatter and
word from informants—began setting off alarm bells inside Israel’s
stereotypically anxious security establishment.
“Hamas had a
plan,” says Lt. Col. Lerner, summarizing on the record what six senior
intelligence officials would describe on background. “A simultaneous,
coordinated, surprise attack within Israel. They planned to send 200
terrorists armed to the teeth toward civilian populations. This was
going to be a coordinated attack. The concept of operations involved 14
offensive tunnels into Israel. With at least 10 men in each tunnel, they
would infiltrate and inflict mass casualties.”
As a senior
military intelligence official later explained, the anticipated attack
was designed with two purposes in mind. “First, get in and massacre
people in a village. Pull off something they could show on television.
Second, the ability to kidnap soldiers and civilians using the tunnels
would give them a great bargaining chip.”
Mishal insists that
“the tunnels may have been outwardly called ‘offensive tunnels,’ but in
actual fact they are ‘defensive’ ones.’” When pressed to explain why
most of the tunnels actually ended up under or near civilian communities
or kibbutzim—not military bases—he concedes, “Yes, true. There are
Israeli towns adjacent to Gaza. Have any of the tunnels been used to
kill any civilian or any of the residents of such towns? No. Never! . . .
[Hamas] used them either to strike beyond the back lines of the Israeli
army or to raid some military sites . . . This proves that Hamas is
only defending itself.”
Reports would later surface that Hamas’s
main attack was planned to coincide with the Jewish New Year—Rosh
Hashanah—in September 2014. “It may have been,” says a top intelligence
official, in his office in the Kirya, Israel’s Pentagon. “But ultimately
everything was moved up. Hamas’s grand plan for the tunnels failed
because the kidnapping set things in motion before Hamas had everything
ready.”
...
On July 7, Israeli jets bombed a tunnel that began in Rafah, in the
southern Gaza Strip, and exited near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, killing seven
members of Hamas, who were trapped inside. To outward observers, it
looked as if the casualties may have been incidental. But highly placed
government sources tell Vanity Fair they feared these operatives
were the first wave. “When the operation started, we expected the mass
attack in July,” a senior military intelligence official explains. “We
suspected they would hurry up and do it during the air war, before the
ground operation.”
Hamas considered the men who died in the
tunnel bombing to be among its most elite, warning publicly, “The enemy
will pay a tremendous price.” The next day, all hell broke loose, with
Hamas firing some 150 rockets. Over the next 10 days, Hamas would send
some 1,500 more, while the Israeli air force and navy would pound sites
in Gaza with little letup. Despite warnings by Israel to leave their
homes, thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire. Human-rights
groups charged that Israel failed to exercise sufficient restraint when
hitting populated areas. Israel argues that Hamas used local citizens
as human shields and fired rockets from civilian areas.
...
Golani’s mission was to destroy what intelligence officials believed
were four particularly lethal tunnels that began in the Gaza Strip town
of Shejaiya and ended a stone’s throw from Israeli kibbutzim. Shejaiya
had long been Hamas’s first line of defense and Israel’s efforts to warn
its 100,000 residents to flee only reinforced its symbolic and
strategic importance in Hamas’s eyes. “In this war,” claims Alian, “the
biggest fight, the hardest battle, was for control of that
neighborhood.”
I.D.F. soldiers in Shejaiya and elsewhere quickly
came to understand that tactical tunnels presented as imminent a threat
as the strategic cross-border variety they were sent to find. On August
1—two weeks into Israel’s ground campaign—Lieutenant Matan (who offers
only his first name) was in the Gaza town of Rafah, when he and his
fellow soldiers heard shots, he says in his first interview about the
incident. Tracing those sounds to a nearby guard post, a tunnel opening
was discovered. He and another soldier clambered down three meters,
descending into the darkness. After firing some warning rounds, he
stopped in the dank passageway, only to find portions of a bloodied
uniform belonging to a 23-year-old lieutenant named Hadar Goldin, later
determined to have been killed and his body kidnapped, according to the
I.D.F. spokesperson’s office. (Goldin, unbeknownst to his abductors,
turned out to have been a relative of Israel’s Defense Minister, Moshe
Ya’alon.) “The Hamas operatives were like ghosts—honestly, like ghosts,”
recalls Golani’s Sgt. Rafi. “If they wanted to shoot, they came out of a
tunnel, shot, and ducked back into the tunnel.”
...
Israel’s troops, meanwhile, have moved north. On Vanity Fair’s
recent visit, some of the same soldiers who had swept into Gaza are now
manning a forward operating base in the Golan Heights—a contested
mountainous area between Israel and Syria. The Israelis watch as the
Syrian Army (unsuccessfully) battles rebels from the Nusra Front (the
Syrian arm of al-Qaeda). These insurgents, after kidnapping and later
expelling U.N. peacekeepers in September, have reignited a border that
had remained peaceful for four decades. Recently, Israel shot down a
Syrian aircraft that strayed into its territory. And to make matters
worse, ISIS elements are entrenched farther north, attempting to
establish a caliphate, using war-torn Syria and Iraq as their base.
Tensions have also escalated on Israel’s other
northern border—with Lebanon. In the past week a member of the Syrian
opposition was quoted as telling CNN that Hezbollah appears determined
to flex its military muscle on the Israeli border. I.D.F. troops have
fortified their positions there. And Israel has other worries as well.
Sources in these northern neighborhoods tell Vanity Fair that the
I.D.F. is planning to send an engineering team to one of the Israeli
towns whose residents have been awakened by the subterranean clamor.
Although some officials are publicly skeptical (possibly to avoid
alarming residents and parry criticism that they have ignored another
threat), privately they say they have serious concerns about what
Hezbollah might have in the works. A recent account in the Arab
newsmagazine Al Watan al Arabi quotes a Hezbollah member as
asserting: “Quality-wise, [our tunnels] are on par with the metro
tunnels in the major European cities.”
“We say in the I.D.F. that
‘procedures are written in blood,’” says one senior intelligence
officer. Harkening back to previous aboveground attacks by Hezbollah, he
continues, “I can see them doing it again and going underground to do
it.”
And the goal of at least one of these Israeli platoons
scheduled to arrive on the border with Lebanon? To plow deep into the
ground to find and, hopefully, silence the source of those noises in the
night.
'Peaceful' Mavi Marmara activist killed fighting for al-Qaeda in Syria
One of the 'peaceful' passengers on the Mavi Marmara, who tried to murder Israeli soldiers in May 2010, was killed in a US airstrike in Syria last week, while fighting for al-Qaeda's local affiliate against the Islamist State.
40-year-old Bulent Alniak was killed in a US airstrike in Idlib,
northwestern Syria, on a target identified as belonging to the "Islamic
State" terrorist group (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL), according to
the Turkish World Bulletin website.
According to that report, Alniak was carrying out "aid work" ahead of the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
But other sources have suggested a somewhat less peaceful motive. Another Turkish outlet, T24,
claimed Alniak was in Syria fighting alongside the Nusra Front - Al
Qaeda's official branch in Syria. It said he had arrived in Syria over
the past summer, on the second day of Ramadan, and also claimed he was
killed in Idlib.
Significantly, the Turkish Islamist group behind the Mavi Marmara
flotilla which Alniak was an active member of - the Humanitarian Relief
Foundation (IHH) - is suspected of having close ties to Al Qaeda.
And in case you're trying to keep score at home....
Nusra and Islamic State have been at loggerheads since the latter broke
away from Al Qaeda earlier this year, but both share a vehemently
anti-western ideology, and western security analysts fear a terror plot
by returning foreign fighters from either group could be just a matter
of time.
A curse on both their houses. I hope someone wraps his body in pig lard.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
