Syria Suspected Of Concealing Nuclear Activity

It appears Iran may not be the only nuclear concern in the middle east. WTOP reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency ‘IAEA’ and Syria are walking a tightrope and appear to be headed toward a collision over two nuclear sites where undeclared uranium was recently found.

The agency found traces of uranium at the Dair Alzour nuclear site that are not included in Syria’s declared inventory, according to a just released report. The Syrians said the uranium came from the Israeli missiles used to destroy the nearby al-Kibar reactor in September 2007.

The presence of uranium particles was detected at a second site near Damascus — the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor. Syria said it came from the accumulation of samples and reference materials used in neutron activation analysis.

The IAEA is not buying either of the two explanations and is pressing Damascus for more answers and wants to know from where the uranium came. The agency has run its own tests and is certain the Syrian government is not telling the truth.

That’s where the tightrope act comes in. The IAEA won’t comment on what clearly appears to be evasive behavior by the Syrian government because of concern about its tenuous relationship with Syria.

The Syrian government, also aware of the slippery state of affairs, tells WTOP:

“We are taking up the matter with IAEA, and are in constant consultation with them. We are going through appropriate channels and Syria stands by its legal obligations to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty).”

A U.S. counter-proliferation official is not convinced.

“Syria has a record of concealing nuclear activities. The whole world saw that with the al-Kibar reactor, an undeclared facility, destroyed in 2007.

via Read Full Article.

Authorities To Seize Properties Of Group With Alleged Iran Ties

Federal prosecutors in New York took legal steps on Thursday to seize four mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper from a Muslim group suspected of having ties to the Iranian government.

The US government, which has accused Iran of financing terrorism and trying to get hold of nuclear weapons, filed a civil complaint in federal court seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million (£301 million) in assets controlled by a Shia Muslim charity called the Alavi Foundation.

The assets include Islamic centres in New York, Maryland, California and Houston, more than 100 acres of land in Virginia, and a 36-storey office tower in Manhattan.

Prosecutors claimed that the Alavi Foundation and a front company called Assa Corporation illegally funnelled millions of dollars in rental income back to the state-owned Bank Melli in Iran.

The US Treasury has accused Bank Melli of financing Iran’s nuclear programme and it is illegal in America to do business with the bank.

It is very rare for the US government to seize places of worship, but officials have long suspected the foundation was a front for the Iranian government.

The 97-page complaint claimed several very senior Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister, have been involved in the charity’s business.

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Al Qaeda Calls For Home-made Bomb Attacks in West

The leader of al Qaeda’s wing in the Arabian Peninsula called on militants to attack airports and trains in the West and said they could easily make bombs from household materials, the group’s Internet magazine said.

The Islamist group has been trying to secure small victories to maintain its feared image after its leaders’ threats to carry out large-scale attacks on Western targets have been discounted as words without deeds, analysts say.

Abu Basir Nasser al-Wahayshi, in an article in the e-magazine Sada al-Malahem, also urged militants to assault secular media figures and columnists who promote the policies of rulers in the world’s top oil exporting region.

“You do not need to exert great effort or spend a lot of money to make 10 grams of explosives, more or less. Do not spend a long time searching for materials as they already exist in your mother’s kitchen,” Wahayshi wrote in the article, posted on an Islamist website on Sunday.

“Make them (bombs) in the shape of a bomb you hurl, or detonate through a timer or a remote detonater or a martyrdom-seeker belt or any electrical appliance.”

Wahayshi said bombers should attack countries involved in wars in Muslim countries as well as government figures and security bodies in the Middle East.

via Al Qaeda calls for home-made bomb attacks in West | Reuters.

Israeli Jets Scramble – Hijack Alert Activated By Mistake

Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Delta Air Lines plane flying from New York to Tel Aviv after the pilot activated a hijacking alert by mistake.

Transportation ministry official, Dani Shenar, told Israeli media Saturday that nobody was hurt in the incident.

He said two jets hovered briefly over the plane carrying over 100 people and escorted it safely to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.

A technical malfunction had prevented the pilot from communicating with the airport’s control tower.

The transportation ministry said it will launch an investigation.

Source

Al-Qaeda Claims S Korean Convoy Attack

An al-Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy carrying the South Korean ambassador in Yemen last month.

In a statement posted on a website on Friday, ‘al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ claimed responsibility for the attack, boasting that it was a ‘well-planned’ operation which demonstrates the ‘incapacity’ of the Yemeni security forces.

It also accused the Yemeni Foreign Ministry of trying to ‘hide the number of losses in the operation’.

The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed, a US-based monitoring group said.

Korean forces, who were investigating an earlier bombing that killed four of their compatriots in Yemen, were attacked on their way to Sanaa international airport on March 18.

The bomber apparently missed his target by triggering his explosive belt seconds after the convoy passed by, leaving no casualties behind.

Yemen is considered an al-Qaeda stronghold and has witnessed a number of attacks on tourist sites, foreign missions and oil installations in the past few years.

Source

al Qaeda-Taliban Combo Has Chemical Weapon Formula

The al-Qaida-Taliban combo plans to use parts of the Middle East as launch pads for attacks against the west. Not only so, the groups

have also developed some expertise in making bio-chemical weapons, NWFP police chief Malik Navid told a Pakistan National Assembly’s standing committee.

Navid warned that the Pakistan government needed to urgently focus on containing militancy as it spread from its bases. “Taliban’s philosophy is to create pockets everywhere,” he said, adding that jihadi groups were moving through southern Punjab and eventually aimed to reach the financial hub of Karachi.

The frank assessment of the police official serves to confirm concerns about whether Pakistan and its military complex in particular was prepared to clearly acknowledge the threat posed by jihadists given the army and ISI see Taliban as allies in ensuring a “friendly” dispensation in Afghanistan while also feeding the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The army’s sporadic efforts to roll back jihadis lacked conviction and have predictably shown poor results.

Navid’s testimony also points to the virtual merger of al-Qaida with Taliban, with the latter being both part of the core and the major striking arm. Indian intelligence assessments see anti-India groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba being very much a part of this conglomerate.

via ‘Qaida-Taliban combo has chemical weapon formula’ – South Asia – World – The Times of India.

NYPD Secures Synagogues Against Retaliation

The New York Police Department has put together a response plan that includes deploying extra officers, including heavily armed Hercules Teams, at synagogues, Jewish community centers and Israel diplomatic offices, out of concern that Muslim extremists might retaliate if Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Similar precautions were taken last year after Hizballah commander Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus, for which the Lebanese terrorists blamed Israel. Read more

A New Type of Biker Gang In Australia

They call themselves MBM – the Muslim Brotherhood Movement – a gang of 600 men who boast they are the toughest and best young street fighters of Middle Eastern descent in Sydney.

MBM claims to be the biggest of four new gangs to emerge on Sydney streets in the past year. Its numbers rival those of the state’s largest biker gang, the Rebels.

The sudden appearance of MBM, with its growing membership recruited predominantly from the city’s south-western suburbs, has alarmed senior police already battling to combat open warfare among outlaw motorbike gangs.

Even hardened private security guards have expressed concern to police about the indiscriminate “punch and run” tactics of MBM members who, in the past two weeks, have arrived in large numbers at city nightclub venues and who walk the streets in intimidating mobs. But the objectives of MBM – its emblem features two crossed pistols and a hand grenade – and its leadership remain unclear to officers of both the Organised Crime and Gang Squad and Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad.

Police say that a fortnight ago MBM members embarked upon a campaign of random assaults on men who crossed the path of a mob of about 100 toughs stalking Darlinghurst and Kings Cross during the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

A week ago about 30 MBM members intimidated private security guards at government car auctions at Smithfield.

The emergence of MBM also coincides with the rise of two other urban Sydney gangs – the Parra Boyz or Asesinoz MC and Brothers For Life or BFL.

Police say BFL – with a logo featuring crossed machine-guns – is not dissimilar to MBM in its extremist views, but membership numbers are unknown. Police describe Asesinoz, comprising teenagers of Middle Eastern decent, as “tough kids” who use the video-sharing website YouTube to promote Islamic extremism and anti-Australian actions such as flag burning.

Source

Tensions Rise In Israel After Jerusalem Bulldozer Terror Attack

A Palestinian construction worker crashed his bulldozer into a bus and sent a police car flying in the air in Jerusalem as tensions escalated following fresh Israeli air strikes on Palestinian militants.

The worker wounded two policemen before he was shot and killed by the officers who were in the car he rammed. There were no other injuries.

Overnight the Israeli air force struck a group of Palestinian militants, killing two. They were attacked after they fired an anti-tank missile towards an army patrol along Israel’s border with Gaza, the army spokesman’s office said in a statement.

On Wednesday night two other militants, also from Islamic Jihad, were targeted for assassination in an Israeli air strike that killed one and seriously injured the other.

The two Israeli targeted killings were the first since a massive operation into Gaza by Israel to halt rocket-fire into the country ended in mid January.

Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza vowed revenge.

“Our rockets and our resistance will not stop,” he said. “We know where and when we will take revenge for these crimes.”

A taxi driver identified by the first name of Dor said he witnessed the bulldozer attack and was the first to shoot towards the Palestinian bulldozer driver.

“I saw the police car fly into the air. He flipped it over twice, then continued dragging it toward a bus that was stuck in traffic,” he told Israel Radio adding he had fired four shots at the Palestinian and wounded him.

“Then a policeman came with his M-16 and finished him off finally,” he said.

It was the third such incident in the city in the past eight months. In the first one, in July, three bystanders and dozens other were wounded before the attacker was shot to death. In September the attacker was also shot after driving into a group of soldiers. Both men were residents of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, Palestinians who have Israeli identification cards, but are not citizens.

Source

Syria Building Chemical Weapons Plant

Syria has been conducting extensive construction work on a chemical weapons facility in the country’s northwest, satellite images obtained by the defense analyst group Jane’s reveal.

‘Syria building chemical weapons plant’

The images of a chemical weapons facility identified as al-Safir were taken by several commercial sources from 2005 to 2008, the analyst group said.

Imagery obtained by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 satellite shows that extensive construction has taken place at the facility, as well as at an adjacent missile base, the group wrote. In addition, the images showed that the site contained a number of the “defining features of a chemical weapons facility.”

Al-Safir is home to a chemical weapons production facility and a missile base that holds a significant part of Syria’s long-range Scud D ballistic missiles, according to foreign reports. The Scud D has a range of 700 kilometers and al-Safir is reported to have several dozen underground fortified bunkers where the launchers and the missiles are stored.

Source

Unprecedented Global Alert Issued In Saudi Arabia Terror Threat

In what is being described as an “unprecedented global alert,” the International Criminal Police Organization today issued its largest-ever most wanted list for 85 terrorist suspects, who are sought by Saudi Arabia for allegedly plotting attacks against the country and for suspected links to al Qaeda.

“Never before has INTERPOL been asked to alert the world about so many dangerous fugitives at one time,” said Secretary General Ronald K. Noble in a statement. “We know that we are approaching the 16th anniversary of the first World Trade Center bombing on Feb. 26, 2009 and therefore must be especially vigilant of fugitive al Qaeda terrorists.” Read more

Yemen On High Alert For al Qaeda Terror Attack

Over the last several weeks a growing number of al Qaeda operatives have entered Yemen from Saudi Arabia and have established a renewed network that potentially threatens U.S. and Saudi targets in the region, both U.S. and Yemeni officials have told CNN.

As a result Yemeni security forces have gone on high alert.

CNN spoke with three U.S. officials and a Yemeni embassy official who outlined new concerns about al Qaeda in Yemen that all three said go beyond the usual worries about the terror organization in Yemen. None of the officials could be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the information.

“There are strong indications of heightened activity in Yemen,” one U.S. official told CNN. “There is real concern in the U.S. government that al Qaeda is trying to mount attacks in Yemen.”

The United States continues to worry about attacks against the U.S. embassy or other U.S. business interests in Yemen the official said. But there are also growing concerns that a renewed al Qaeda network in Yemen could plan attacks against Saudi oil infrastructure or the massive cargo shipping operations that run through the immediate region — potentially disrupting an already shaky world economy.

The official said there is a flow of intelligence information in recent weeks backing up that assessment. “There are clear indications al Qaeda is placing emphasis on Yemen as a place to conduct operations and train operatives.”

Source

Israel Issues Terror Warning

Israel’s counter-terrorism bureau warned Sunday night of a “concrete, high-level threat” that the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group planned an attack against Israelis to avenge the February 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyah, its deputy leader. “The Hezbollah organization is apparently prepared to carry out a serious attack (assassination, kidnapping) against an Israeli target, including abroad. This attack threatens every Israeli, especially those holding senior position,” a statement from the counter-terrorism bureau said.

The statement warned Israelis travelling overseas to take precautions, and to avoid visiting countries the bureau has warned against.

Israelis abroad should be on the alert and avoid, for example, tempting offers, whether for business or pleasure, from suspicious or unfamiliar persons, and should refrain from unscheduled meetings in remote areas after dark.

Israelis staying abroad for long periods of time should also vary their routine, for example by changing hotels or switching between restaurants and other venues visited frequently.

Netanyahu Says Iran Will Not Get Hands On Nukes

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran “will not be armed with a nuclear weapon.”

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu, the current opposition leader and head of the hardline Likud party, called Iran the greatest danger to Israel and to all humanity.

When asked if stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions included a military strike, he replied: “It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true.”

Iran has denied it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and says it is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful uses. It also denies it is engaged in terrorism, instead accusing Israel of terrorist policies against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, which were occupied by Israel after the 1967 Mideast War.

via Source

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