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Crisis File, November 28, 2006
OSINT - Powered Offsite Daily Report
Lawmakers Lose Patience With Iraq Gov't
more - Congressional leaders displayed eroding patience in the Iraqi government on Sunday, adding pressure on President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to find a faster path to peace when they meet this week. "It is not too late. The United States can still extricate itself honorably from an impending disaster in Iraq,"...
'Army of Islam' rejects cease-fire between Israel, Palestinians
more - The Army of Islam, one of the three Palestinian groups involved in the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in June, has rejected the cease-fire reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority Saturday evening. "The Army of Islam does not recognize the truce. We warn whoever prevents us from fighting the Jews", a statement from this almost unknown group writes...
Major terror attacks triple in '04 by U.S. count
more - Intelligence briefing renews debate over war on terrorism. The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, a rise that may revive debate about whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said Tuesday. The number of "significant" international terrorist attacks rose to about 650 last year from about 175 in 2003...
British terror trial centers on alleged homegrown plot
more - More than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer suitable for making bombs was locked in a rented storage warehouse. A cookie tin of aluminum powder was hidden behind a garden shed. Young British Muslims underwent military training at guerrilla camps in remote parts of Pakistan. Suspects, surreptitiously taped by the police, talked about bombing targets in Britain...
Russians Blame Litvinenko Ally In Former Spy's Death
more - Russian parliamentarians and the country's state- owned media Friday pointed a finger at exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky in the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko, 43, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, died Thursday night in a London hospital after saying he had been poisoned November 1...
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood members to stay in jail
more - Two senior members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood who have been in prison for six months have had their detentions renewed for more than two weeks, police and group Web site said. Essam el-Erian and Mohammed Morsi, who were jailed for organizing pro-reform protests in May, had their detentions extended for 15 days on Saturday, said police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media...
US carried out madrasah bombing
more - The bombing of a Pakistani madrasah last month, in which 82 students were killed, was carried out by the United States, a Pakistani official has admitted, writes Christina Lamb. The madrasah in the tribal agency of Bajaur was bombed during a visit to Pakistan by the Prince of Wales amid allegations that it was being used to train suicide bombers...
Iran's Suicide Brigades
more - More than five years after President George W. Bush's declaration of a global war against terrorism, the Iranian regime continues to embrace suicide terrorism as an important component of its military doctrine. In order to promote suicide bombing and other terrorism, the regime's theoreticians have utilized religion both to recruit suicide bombers and to justify their actions...
Pope's Turkey Trip Stokes Muslim Rage
more - Pope Benedict XVI is set to arrive in Turkey on Tuesday, and tensions are running high. Several weeks ago, a Turk named Ibrahim Ak stood outside Italy's consulate in Istanbul and fired a gun while proclaiming his desire to strangle the pope. As he was arrested, Ak shouted: "I am happy to be a Muslim!" He said that he hoped his actions would inspire other Turks to violence: "God willing, this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims...
Europe's spy in al-Qaida's camp
more - A Muslim man who was a spy in the mid-1990s for several European intelligence services inside the global jihadi network that later became al-Qaida has written a memoir saying the agencies did not understand the nature of the threat it posed. "Inside the Jihad," written under the pseudonym Omar Nasiri, is an astonishingly detailed account of a young man's journey from the fringe of the Islamic extremist movement in Belgium to two terrorist training camps in Afghanistan...
U.S. study group on Iraq weighs overture to Iran and Syria
more - A draft report on U.S. strategies for Iraq, which will be debated here by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables for a military withdrawal, according to officials who have seen all or parts of the document...
Afghanistan's fledgling army joins fight
more - Bandoliers draped over their chests and rocket-propelled grenades slung on their backs, Afghan soldiers venture slowly out of their base of mud huts and green tents for a patrol with Canadian troops through this restive southern town. Such operations are at the heart of efforts by the United States and NATO to bolster Afghanistan's security forces and open the way for the departure of Western troops...
French secret service agent killed in Iraq
more - A French secret service agent was killed by militiamen last week at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the French defence ministry said on Monday. France never releases operational details about its DGSE foreign intelligence service and announced the death only after Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had attended the dead man's funeral...
Syria calls for industrial cooperation with Iran
more - Syrian energy minister Ahmed Khaled al-Ali called for further cooperation with Iran in industry sector, IRNA reported. "Syrian economy is growing, and grounds are paved for trade and industrial cooperation with Iranian firms in the form of finance," Khaled al-Ali said on the sideline of a visit paid on Monday to Azarab Company of Arak, in Markazi (Central) Province...
Released death row Briton tells of turning to Islam while in prison
more - Released death row Briton tells of turning to Islam while in prison. Mirza Tahir Hussain, the British man released from a Pakistani jail after spending 18 years on death row, spoke of how he turned to Islam for solace as his situation worsened in prison, in an interview published in The Times. In his words, he survived the ordeal "because I kept praying and kept close to religion."...
Lebanon's reality
more - Geographically, Lebanon is a torn country, and there lies a part of the secret of its beauty. But Lebanon is also torn socially. The two schisms are inter-connected: in the course of history. Much nonsense is being spoken and written about Lebanon, as if it were a country like any other. George W Bush talks about 'Lebanese democracy' as if there were such a thing, others speak about the 'parliamentary majority' and 'minority factions'...
US envoy: Iran nears nuclear weapons
more - There is no time for complacency on Iran because US intelligence suggests it could have the capability to produce a nuclear bomb as early as 2010, a senior US diplomat said, according to The Associated Press. "Our assessment ... the assessment from our intelligence community, is that the soonest they could produce a nuclear weapon would be the beginning of next decade, 2010 to 2015," said Gregory L. Schulte, US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency...
Iraqi president in Iran for talks
more - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived for talks in Iran amid growing calls for Washington to engage Tehran in dialogue to help stop Iraq sliding into civil war, Reuters reported. Talabani's trip had been delayed because of a curfew imposed on Baghdad following a bomb attack on Thursday that killed 200 Shi'ite Muslims. The curfew was lifted on Monday...
Ahmadinejad says will do all it can to help Iraq
more - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday Iran would do whatever it could to help provide security to Iraq amid warnings the country was on the brink of civil war. The White House, acknowledging violence in Iraq was in a "new phase", said the issue of talking to Iran and Syria about Iraq was likely to be raised at a meeting this week between President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki...
Abducted Christian Relief Worker in Darfur Still Missing
more - A driver for Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) employed to deliver relief in Darfur, Sudan, remains missing after being abducted en route from a food nutrition centre Wednesday afternoon. A driver for Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), employed to deliver relief in Darfur, Sudan, remains missing after being abducted en route from a food nutrition centre Wednesday afternoon...
Ex-SAS Iraq critic to seek Stirling preselection
more - Former SAS major and critic of the Iraq war Peter Tinley will nominate for preselection as a Labor candidate for next year's federal election. Opposition leader Kim Beazley yesterday asked Mr Tinley, who has described the war in Iraq as immoral, to seek endorsement for the federal Perth seat of Stirling held by Liberal incumbent Michael Keenan...
Hunters track five women of terror
more - Philippine troops, on the offensive for nearly four months against Islamic militants on a remote southern island, are hunting five female members of the Jemaah Islamiah group. According to Lieutenant-General Romeo Tolentino, half of the 10 foreign rebels hiding out on Jolo Island are women. Among them is the wife of Umar Patek, one of two prime suspects in the 2002 Bali suicide bombings that killed 202 people...
Lebanon and the Political context of the Assassination of Pierre Gemayel
more - As usual the Western Media has blamed the assassination of Pierre Gemayel on Syria. The bias of the Western Media led by the BBC, CNN and FOX was evident during the Israeli aggression on Lebanon. They continue to refer to the present Siniora government as anti-Syrian, even though it is a proxy for the US-Israeli-French-Saudi axis. On the other hand they continue to insinuate that the political parties led by the Hizbullah and its allies...
In Lebanon, a crisis for Christians
more - Pierre Gemayel's murder is yet another blow to the Christian bloc, sidelined by a Sunni-Shiite political divide. As this mountain town in the Christian heartland north of Beirut mourns the murder of one of its most revered leaders, Pierre Gemayel, its residents ponder a future that many fear is slipping toward civil conflict. "The Shiites want everything now and they are armed and we Christians...
U.K. anti-terror list found in rental car
more - Senior British anti-terror officials narrowly avoided being outed after a 33-page restricted list of their names and addresses was found in a rental car. Vehicle assessor Andy Erleback, 38, contacted The Sun newspaper in London when he found the document behind the seat of the Peugeot about to be auctioned off in Camberley. "Basically it was an A-Z of all the people that al-Qaida would love to see taken out," he told the Sun...
Former Marseilles Mufti Soheib Bencheikh: 'Islam Must Be Criticized'
more - Former Marseilles Mufti Soheib Bencheikh: 'Islam Must Be Criticized, Just as Christianity Was [Criticized] During the Enlightenment; Islam is a Message for All Humanity -- Therefore It Is Not the Property of Muslims [Alone]' Dr. Soheib Bencheikh was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1961, studied Islamic theology at Al-Azhar University and received his doctorate from the prestigious Parisian Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE)...
Olmert: Palestine will get independence
more - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered wide-ranging peace concfessions to the Palestinians if they turned away from violence, saying on Monday they would be able to achieve an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in real peace talks with Israel. In what was billed as a major policy speech, Mr Olmert directly addressed the Palestinians, promising to reduce checkpoints...
Talabani seeks Iran's help on security
more - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visits Iran on Monday seeking Tehran's help in stemming the bloodshed in its war-ravaged neighbour, even as the United States accuses Iran of fomenting the turmoil. Talabani's trip will last a "couple of days", his spokesman Hiwa Othman told AFP. It will be his second visit to Iran as Iraqi president, and comes a year after he left Tehran with pledges to help his country battle the daily bloodshed...
Britain to cut thousands of troops in Iraq next year
more - Britain said it expected to withdraw thousands of its 7,100 troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, in the clearest pledge yet of a pullout from a country gripped by growing sectarian violence. Other members of the dwindling US-led coalition echoed those moves as Italy said its 60 to 70 remaining troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of this week and Poland promised to pull its 880 troops out by late next year...