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2596
3DHS / Iranian President AhmaIslamoNazijad
« on: September 25, 2007, 10:41:53 AM »



"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do"

(Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Speech - Sept 24, 2007)






2597
US Acts to Curb Nuclear Proliferation

Israel's Syria Air Raid Used to Twist Nuclear Arms in Tehran, Damascus and Pyongyang

The Israeli air strike in northern Syria of Wednesday night Sept. 6 was not the big deal presented in most reports, hyped up as they were by the shroud of official secrecy drawn over the event by Jerusalem, Damascus and Washington.

Military and Middle East experts have told sources that the Israeli warplanes surgically targeted a small area, a facility disguised as an agriculture research center at Bir al-Harj on the Euphrates River near the Turkish border, which Israel believes is used for testing new weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological.


Syria's Vulnerability Immobilized by American-Israeli Cyber War Tactics

Three groups of air defense and early warning systems experts are hard at work in Damascus. Syrian president Bashar Assad has ordered them to find out why Syria's two early warning stations for protecting its skies against air and missile intrusion failed to detect or identify an Israeli air force raid on Sept. 6.

The Syrian group was handpicked by a very worried president. It is assisted by Russian experts, who are anxious to find out what caused the failure of the electronic systems and the radar of the Pantsyr S1-E air defense missile batteries purchased from Moscow.

A third group is made up of Iranian air force and missile corps officers who badly need to know what went wrong with the Russian early warning systems installed in both Iran and Syria.

Military sources report that the Syrian early warning station, positioned at Marj as Sulta, 15 km east of Damascus and north of the Syrian air base at the international airport, is there to secure the Syrian capital and monitor Israeli air or missile activity on the Golan and from northern Israel.

The Shinshar station south of Homs, near the small Syrian air base of Al Qusayr Shayrat, is located opposite northern Lebanon. Its function is to sound the alarm if airplanes, missiles or warships approach Syria from Lebanese territory of from the eastern Mediterranean.

When the early warning stations in Syria were silenced, some communications systems, computers and cell phones were also knocked out in neighboring Lebanon evidence that Syria had been bested in a cyber war against its electronic and radar systems.

Syrian war planners were blinded and left groping for answers to several questions:

1. From which did direction did the warplanes enter Syria airspace ? the Mediterranean, Israel or Turkey?

2. Were the trespassers Israeli or American air force jets or both? Damascus suspects they operated under an air umbrella provided by American aircraft flying in from Iraq or a US carrier in the Mediterranean.


The Turks refuse to cooperate with Damascus

3. The removal of markings from the ammunition and disposal fuel tanks dropped on both sides of the Syrian-Turkish border has left the Syrians uncertain about the identity of the planes which attacked them. All they could deduce was that meticulously planning must have gone into the attack for these telltale traces to have been removed.

4. Turkey sharply dismissed Syrian appeals for cooperation in getting some of these mysteries solved. On Sept. 13, Assad sent his foreign minister Walid Mualam to Ankara with this request. He found that the Americans and Israelis had got there first, posting high-ranking military delegations in the Turkish capital from the beginning of the week.

Sources were able to extract very little about this from a very high-placed Turkish military source, who would only say: We saw what they showed us and those images and explanations convinced us to continue to stay mum.?

Our intelligence sources assume that the Americans and Israelis showed Turkish officials the satellite images of the targeted Syrian facility, convincing them that it posed a danger to Turkey as well.

According to military sources, the three groups looking for answers in Damascus have made little if any progress in cracking the mystery, because two weeks after the initial attack, the United States-Israeli cyber war tactics against Syria are still going strong. Unknown forces, which none of those groups have been able to trace or identify, continue to jam Syria?s electronic networks, including air force computers, radar and early warning stations, with only very brief occasional letups.

The waves were powerful enough to disrupt Israeli satellite television broadcasts this week. Commercial firms complained and ran a notice to viewers that the cause of the trouble was being investigated with the assistance of defense specialists.

Western military experts comment that never before has a military cyber war been conducted at this level and for this length of time.

Our military sources account for its duration by two considerations:

One: To deter President Assad from any attempt at reprisal against Israeli or American targets in the Middle East. He is given to understand that hostile cyber activity against Syria can be intensified still further, blacking out all of Syria?s strategic and military facilities and endangering his regime.

Two: The electronic warfare systems employed against Syria proved to have a small loophole. While jamming the larger early warning and radar systems, a small Syrian electronic station managed to detect the Israeli air raid over northern Syria and alert the president and military command to the intrusion.

While Syrian, Russian and Iranian experts delve into the mysterious immobilization of Syria's main systems, the Americans and Israelis are curious to find out more about the small gap in their cyber offensive.

North Korean experts are known to visit the facility from time to time and assist in the experiments, although probably not on the night of the Israeli raid, while Iranian engineers are to be found everywhere in Syria?s military industry.

The number of Israeli air force planes which carried out the operation is not known, but they included F-15s, as attested to by the falling ammunition fragments picked up on the Syria and Turkish sides of the border.

According to Washington sources, the Israeli air force was harnessed for a US campaign larger than a single Syrian WMD facility: scare tactics to frighten Tehran and Damascus into backing away from their nuclear weapons ambitions and from black market purchases of elements of Pyongyang's dismantled program.

US officials now fear that the massive proliferation generated by Iran's steady progression towards a nuclear bomb and North Korea's renunciation of nuclear weapons has begun to run out of control in the Middle East and parts of Asia.

The first to jump into the nuclear race were Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and even Libya. Each wants to own a national nuclear program and an autonomous uranium enrichment capability. Nuclear fever has also infected Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.


Israel air force employed as scare tactic for Syria, Iran and North Korea

Yet the Americans refrained from intercepting, halting or searching the vessel before it docked on Sept. 3.

Our sources in Washington and Vienna have not learned from any American official why this was not done. But instead, the Israeli air force was deployed to attack the Bir al Harj facility three days after "the cement" was offloaded inTartus port.

Israeli intelligence had for years closely monitored the phony Syrian agricultural station on the Euphrates, keeping a wary eye on the development there of various weapons of mass destruction. Recently, they picked up unusually frequent visits by Iranian and North Korean scientists and engineers.

Israel clearly welcomed the opportunity to destroy a Syrian facility engaged in developing nuclear weapons. The advantage lay not only in aborting a potential threat, but also possibly ensuring that Syria would not think of resorting to nuclear arms against Israel for a very long time.

The attack served the United States as an unambiguous warning to Pyongyang to call off its roaring trade of bits and pieces of its nuclear program, as well as issuing a tangible caution to Syrian president Bashar Assad that he is now in Washington's military sights, direct or indirect.

This caution is addressed equally to Damascus and its strategic ally, Tehran.

A senior American source said that the episode which centered on the Israeli air attack is part of a comprehensive campaign which has only just begun.

This is no one-shot exercise against a Syrian target involving Iran and North Korea. The Bush administration has embarked on a course of unrelenting pressure on Pyongyang, Damascus and Tehran, targeting the Syrian regime as the first object for punishment.

Assad can look forward to more surprise operations like the one which caught him napping at Bir al Harj.

Syria and Iran's vulnerability to Israel air and missile attack was demonstrated in that operation when the Pantsyr-S1E air defense missile systems they purchased from Russia were jammed without downing the invading Israeli jets.

{source:e-mail}



2598
3DHS / An interview with the "Lion of Arab Jabour".
« on: September 24, 2007, 03:45:32 PM »
An interview with the "Lion of Arab Jabour"
By Bill Roggio
September 22, 2007 10:18 AM

Battle Position Murray, Baghdad Province: While in the Arab Jabour region, The Long War Journal had the opportunity to interview General Mustaffa, the architect of the Concerned Citizens movement. Mustaffa has recruited 537 volunteers, and works closely with the 1st Battalion, 30th Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division to secure the region. His Concerned Citizens turn over weapons caches, find and dismantle IEDs, man checkpoints, provide intelligence for US forces on al Qaeda in Iraq cells, and battle al Qaeda when attacked.

Mustaffa was a captain in Saddam Hussein's army. He served as an administrative officer in Baghdad, reported Lieutenant Colonel Ken Adgie, the commander of the 1/30. While Arab Jabour is predominantly Sunni, Mustaffa is married to a Shia and has given one of his four sons a Shia name.

Mustaffa has looked beyond the security piece in Arab Jabour and has reached out for assistance from the Iraqi National Team, a nongovernmental organization in Baghdad. The Iraqi National Team provides humanitarian aid in Arab Jabour, where the national and provincial governments have no presence.

Mustaffa and his officers and men are by and large trusted by the American soldiers serving in Arab Jabour. To conduct the meeting and interview with Mustaffa, Adgie, the interpreter, and I entered the school with Adgie?s personal security detachment, a fire team of four armed soldiers. The personal security detachment remained outside the office as Adgie, the interpreter, and I removed our body armor. Mustaffa and his men were armed with pistols.

Adgie refers to Mustaffa as the "Lion of Arab Jabour" and praises his efforts to build the Concern Citizens. Adgie and numerous officers and enlisted at Patrol Base Murray have seen the dramatic improvement in security in just three short months since engaging in Arab Jabour.

Mustaffa has begun to receive national attention in Iraq. Prior to the interview, Mustaffa conducted an interview with a television crew from the Al Rashid network.

LWJ: What motivated you to organize against al Qaeda in Iraq?

Mustaffa: They are criminals. There is no law, no order here. No system of government. We needed to organize against al Qaeda to protect ourselves.

LWJ: What has al Qaeda in Iraq done to the people of Arab Jabour?

Mustaffa: They killed our sons, ruined our infrastructure, displaced families, used sectarian violence against the people. They killed our electricians, our engineers, the technicians that run our water pumps and [water filtration] plant. They cooperated with foreign powers, with Syria and Iran, to kill us.

LWJ: Did al Qaeda in Iraq attempt to enforce Shariah?

Mustaffa: When al Qaeda announces its Islamic State, it forced people to obey their godless laws. The people of Arab Jabour would not submit to this. Al Qaeda are godless criminals.

LWJ: What support do your Concerned Citizens need from the central government to restore order to Arab Jabour?

Mustaffa: The central government hasn't dealt with us. There is no provincial government. Every time we try we have been rebuffed. All of the help and support has been from the Coalition. With support like ammunition, we can destroy al Qaeda. We believe al Qaeda is 70 percent finished here. The central government does not want to establish security here. They have an agenda with foreign powers.

LWJ: Do you believe that, given time, reconciliation is possible?

Mustaffa: We certainly hope so.

LWJ: How do you envision the Concerned Citizens integrating into the Iraqi Security Forces? Should they become part of the Army, the National Police, or local police?

Mustaffa: There are two projects that should be undertaken. Many of the Concerned Citizens don?t have the ability to be in the military. They should become part of the local police. Those who served in the Army prior [to the fall of Saddam Hussein?s rule] should be allowed back in the Army.

LWJ: Do you want an Iraqi Army presence in Arab Jabour?

Mustaffa: Yes, we hope so. We will create the stability so the Iraqi Army can come in and then they can establish themselves here.

LWJ: Do you have plans to expand the Concerned Citizens beyond where you have created this security zone?

Mustaffa: Yes, we hope so. But right now we do not have the ability to expand due to a lack of ammunition and al Qaeda?s strength in some areas.

LWJ: How has the Iraqi National Team helped the people of Arab Jabour.

Mustaffa: The Iraqi National Team assists the people of Arab Jabour by providing needed food and water. They rebuild homes, repair the water services and are helping with our schools. We are grateful for all of the help the Iraqi National Team has provided us in Arab Jabour.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/09/an_interview_with_th.php

2599
3DHS / Baghdad violence has dropped about 50 percent since January
« on: September 21, 2007, 04:32:07 PM »


Iraq Violence Lowest Since 2006

Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, MNF-I #2 commander, reported that Iraq violence is at its lowest level since the February 2006 al-Askaria mosque bombing by al-Qaeda that touched off the wave of sectarian violence al-Qaeda desired. Lt. Gen. Odierno pointed to Baghdad specifically, where attacks have ?dropped about 50 percent since January, and the number of civilian casualties also has fallen.?

[source: e-mail]





2600
3DHS / Iranian Qods Force agent captured in northern Iraq
« on: September 21, 2007, 03:41:58 PM »
Iranian Qods Force agent captured in northern Iraq
By Bill Roggio
September 20, 2007 12:48 PM

Camp Victory, Baghdad Province: The US and Iraqi Army continue to target Iran's surrogates inside Iraq. Today, US forces captured an officer of Iran's Qods Force during a raid in the northern Kurdish province of Sulimaniyah. US forces also conducted a series of raids against Mahdi Army and Special Groups cells inside Baghdad and Diwaniyah over the past 24 hours.

The Qods Force officer was identified as an Iranian citizen. Coalition forces identified the individual on the scene from a photo, so we are confident we have the guy we were looking for said Major Winfield Danielson during an inquiry with Multinational Forces Iraq. The Iranian officer's rank has not been identified at this time, said Danielson.

US Intelligence indicates the Iranian officer has been involved in transporting improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators into Iraq and is involved in the infiltration and training of foreign terrorists in Iraq. Danielson indicated it was likely the officer was smuggling members of the Iranian-backed Special Groups, which has been organized along the lines of Lebanese Hezbollah.

US and Iraqi special forces conducted a series of raids against the Special Groups and the Iranian-backed rogue Mahdi Army in Baghdad and Diwaniyah. On September 19, Iraqi Special Operations Forces killed three Special Groups fighters and captured three others while targeting a Special Groups battalion commander in Baghdad.

The targeted militant extremist Special Groups battalion commander is wanted for launching rocket and improvised explosive device attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. Intelligence indicates he is also the media representative for the Jaysh al-Madhi militia [Mahdi Army] in al Bayaa. Eleven other Special Groups weapons smugglers were captured in raids in Diwaniyah. On September 20, Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured seven "Shia insurgents" during a raid in Sadr City.

Coalition forces began targeting the Iranian networks and captured senior members of Iran's Qods Force in Baghdad in December 2006 and Irbil in January 2007. Iranian surrogates -- the Qazali and Sheibani networks, which are now collectively referred to as the Special Groups -- stepped up their attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces in January 2007.

The Qazali network conducted sophisticated operations against US forces at the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center, kidnapping and killing five US soldiers during the aborted operation. Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces have been heavily targeting these "Special Groups" and "Secret Cells" since General David Petraeus' briefing on the Qazali and Sheibani networks on April 26.

In March 2007, Coalition forces captured Qais Qazali, his brother Laith Qazali, and several other members of the Qazali network. Qazali was a spokesperson and senior aide to Muqtada al Sadr. The Qazali network was behind the Karbala Provincial Joint Command Center attack, which resulted in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers. Multinational Forces Iraq has stated Iran is behind the Karbala raid, and satellite imagery discovered a mock up of the Karbala complex at a camp inside Iran.

In July, US forces captured Azhar al-Dulaimi, the tactical commander behind the Karbala PJCC attack. In early September 2007, Multinational Forces Iraq announced the captured of ?a highly-sought individual suspected of being an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force operative in Karbala.

The most significant capture occurred in the spring of 2007, when the US captured Ali Mussa Daqduq. Daqduq is a senior Hezbollah operative who was tasked by Iran to organize the Special Groups and "rogue" Mahdi Army cells along the lines of Lebanese Hezbollah. Documents seized during Daqduq's capture, along with statements made during interrogations and information given by other captured Special Groups operatives confirmed Iran's significant role in the Shia terrorist insurgency.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/09/iranian_qods_force_a.php



2601
3DHS / They better not let Iranian President "Ahmanutcase" Visit Ground Zero
« on: September 20, 2007, 11:39:46 AM »
Ahmadinejad In New York
New York Sun Editorial
September 20, 2007

 
If the bizarre request of President Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at ground zero has been put to rest once and for all, New Yorkers can thank three persons ? the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly; Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Gillerman, and Matt Drudge. That, at least, is how we reconstruct the events that yesterday stunned and briefly outraged thousands of New Yorkers, a number of candidates on the hustings, and even the White House, as it looked for a while that consideration might be given to the idea that the Iranian anti-Semite and terror master, due in town for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, might be allowed downtown to visit the scene of Al Qaeda's crime.

That was certainly the request from the Iranians, and our interpretation of the events is as follows. We can't vouch for every syllable, but this is what we are told ? or on one point, deduce ? happened. Mr. Kelly understood that this was a non-starter from the moment he heard about it, but (this is the deducing part) wanted to make sure that key figures in the city, and elsewhere, understood what was afoot. So when, at a private dinner party at which Ambassador Gillerman was also present, Mr. Kelly was asked what he thought Mr. Ahmadinejad would want to do at ground zero, the commissioner growled that the Iranian wanted to "scout the next attack."

We interpret that remark not as the commissioner saying literally that the tyrant wanted to scout the next attack (though Iranian diplomats posted to the United Nations have been expelled from America in recent years for doing just that), but, figuratively, that the commissioner was aware that there was no benign logic to such a visit. Mr. Gillerman is nothing if not a savvy player in this arena. So he told the story to a meeting of a couple of dozen Jewish leaders, while Mr. Kelly himself, at a routine press briefing at police headquarters, said that an Ahmadinejad visit to ground zero was "something that we are prepared to handle if in fact it does happen." Our Sarah Garland put the story up on www.nysun.com, and within minutes, the eagled-eyed Mr. Drudge linked it on his Web site under a banner headline in red.

The idea was immediately recognized for what it is ? an offensive absurdity, a provocation. A leading spokesman for the Jewish community, Malcolm Hoenlein, said the idea was an offense to the memory of those killed at ground zero. Senator Clinton, in a blunt statement, called the prospect of such a visit "unacceptable." Mayor Giuliani, Governor Romney, Senators Dodd and Obama, and a former senator running for president, Fred Thompson, rushed out strong statements, as did a future candidate for mayor, Rep. Anthony Weiner, and a number of members of the City Council.

Then the White House put out a remarkable statement through a spokesman for the National Security Council. The question of Mr. Ahmadinejad going to ground zero "is a matter for the City of New York to resolve," the spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said. He added pointedly: "It seems odd that the president of a country that is a state sponsor of terror would visit ground zero." In other words, as a headline writer for www.nysun.com put it, "Bush to New York ? You Deal With It." The president's no fool. If he had big-footed the idea, he'd have embarrassed the mayor, and if he'd failed to drop a hint, well, let's just say the White House didn't want to take chances. The state department issued a stronger statement.

In fact, the idea that Mr. Ahmadinejad visit the pit itself at ground zero had already been pronounced as a non-starter at a meeting earlier this month of advance persons from the police department, the United States Secret Service, and the Port Authority. There was a report yesterday evening on a WNBC Web site quoting unnamed security officials as saying that there may be little U.S. officials can do to prevent Mr. Ahmadinejad from visiting the area of the 9/11 attacks. But the city officials were saying privately that it wasn't going to happen ? and in strong enough terms that if Mr. Ahmadinejad is permitted anywhere in Manhattan south of Canal Street, the Bloomberg administration will look disingenuous.

http://www.nysun.com/article/63059




2602
3DHS / Bush Approval 29% - Democrat Controlled Congress 11%
« on: September 19, 2007, 04:18:19 PM »

Bush, Congress at record low ratings: Reuters poll

Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:41am EDT

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.


http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1844140220070919?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

2603
3DHS / Iran Draws Up Plans To Bomb Israel (now this is funny)
« on: September 19, 2007, 02:23:04 PM »
quite funny
oh yeah, like the US would not be enforcing a "no-fly zone" if Isreal destroys the Mullahs nuke factory
the Iranian airforce would be blown to smithereens if they attempt to use their bombers on Isreal.
try using the iranian air force on isreal and there will be no iranian air force afterwards
try again mullahs, that won't work

Iran Draws Up Plans to Bomb Israel


By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Sept 19, 2007
 
TEHRAN,Iran (AP) - The deputy commander of Iran's air force said Wednesday that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if the Jewish state attacks Iran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

The announcement comes amid rising tensions in the region with the United States calling for a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israeli planes having recently overflown, and perhaps even attacked, Iranian ally Syria's territory.

"We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake," deputy air force chief, Gen. Mohammad Alavi was quoted as telling Fars in an interview.

The Fars news agency confirmed the quotes when contacted by the Associated Press, but would not provide a tape of the interview. The Iranian Air Force, for its part, had no immediate comment on the interview.

Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar, however, did tell the official IRNA news agency Wednesday that "we keep various options open to respond to threats ... we will make use of them if required."

Iran has threatened in the past that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States. But Alavi's comments were the first word of specific contingency plans for striking back on Israel.

Many in the region fear Israel could launch airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.

Alavi also warned that Israel was within Iran's medium-range missiles and its fighter bombers, while maintaining that Israel was not strong enough to launch an aerial attack against Iran.

"The whole territory of this regime is within the range of our missiles. Moreover, we can attack their territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack," the general said.An upgraded version of Iran's Shahab-3 missile has a range of 1,200 miles capable of reaching Israel and carrying a nuclear warhead.

Alavi said Iran's radar bases were monitoring activities at the country's borders around the clock and boasted that it had the capability to confront U.S. cruise missiles.

"One of the issues enemies make publicity about is their cruise missiles. Now, we possess the necessary systems to confront them (cruise missiles)," Alavi was quoted as saying.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070919/D8ROI5JO0.html

2604
3DHS / Sheika Sattar assassin captured in raid on al Qaeda safe house
« on: September 18, 2007, 11:02:09 PM »
Sheikh Sattar assassin captured by US forces
By Bill Roggio
September 16, 2007 7:31 PM

Forward Operating Base Delta, Wasit Province: Less than one week after the assassination of Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of the movement fighting al Qaeda in Anbar province and beyond, US Special Forces captured one of his killers. Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas al-Jumayli, also known as Abu Khamis, was captured in a raid in al Qaeda safe houses west of Balad in Salahadin province along with three associates.

Al Qaeda in Iraq took credit for the assassination of Sheikh Sattar. But Sheikh Sattar was just one of al Qaeda's targets in Anbar province. "Intelligence reports indicate al-Jumayli is involved in a plot to kill key leaders in the tribal awakening," Multinational Forces West stated. "He is also reportedly responsible for car bomb and suicide vest attacks in Anbar Province, and is closely allied with senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders in the region."

Last week, the Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda in Iraq's political front group, announced it has created "special security committees" with the purpose to "assassinate the tribal figures, the traitors, who stained the reputations of the real tribes by submitting to the soldiers of the Crusade. ... We will publish lists of names of the tribal figures to scandalize them in front of our blessed tribes." In a separate statement, the Islamic State of Iraq also announced the onset of its "Ramadan Offensive."

Al Qaeda in Iraq carried out another attack on Sunnis aligning themselves with the Awakening movement. Al Qaeda in Iraq attacked two villages near the city of Muqdadiyah in Diyala province. Fourteen civilians were killed and 12 shops were burned to the ground. The villagers were "members of a tribe which has aligned against al Qaeda and joined Diyala Awakening Council to fight them," a military intelligence source told The Long War Journal.

In Wasit province, Shia tribes are beginning to organize along the same lines as the Anbar Awakening and local Concerned Citizens groups south of Baghdad. "The leader of the Migasees tribe here in Wasit province, acknowledged tribal leaders have discussed creating a brigade of young men trained by the Americans to bolster local security as well as help patrol the border with Iran," the Associated Press reported. "The death of Sheik Abu Risha will not thwart us," said Sheik Majid Tahir al-Magsousi. "What matters to us is Iraq and its safety."

The Shia tribes began to organize after the murder of two provincial governors and last month's clash between the Mahdi Army and security forces in Karbala during a religious festival. Security forces, which are officially sanctioned by the Iraqi government, are being organized much like the Provincial Security Forces were in Anbar.

"Army Capt. Majid al-Imara, who said he has been charged with establishing the new force, said each battalion will be made up of 350 men chosen by tribal leaders, and they will be armed and equipped by the Iraqi government and paid $300 monthly," the Associated Press reported, with the goal of integrating "those tribal volunteers into one branch of the Iraqi security forces, be it the army, the police or ? here in Wasit ? the border patrol."

Here in Wasit province, the Georgian Army deployed an additional brigade of light infantry as Coalition partners are beginning to draw down. Over 2,000 soldiers from the 3rd Georgian Infantry Brigade deployed to Forward Operating Base Delta on the outskirts of Al Kut in early July. Their mission is to interdict the Iranian ratlines that are funneling weapons, arms, and Special Groups terrorists into Iraq to attack the Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition forces. Georgian troops will establish a series of combat outposts along the major roads in an attempt to stem the flow of Iranian aid. Georgian officers have been reluctant to speak about their interactions with Iraqi tribal auxiliary police units being formed.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/09/sheikh_sattar_assass.php



2605
3DHS / Petraeus's Success
« on: September 14, 2007, 06:35:28 PM »
Petraeus's Success
Follow the general.

By Charles Krauthammer

As always, the inadvertent slip is the most telling. Discussing the performance of British troops, Gen. David Petraeus told Sen. Joe Biden of the Foreign Relations Committee that he'd be consulting with British colleagues in London on his way back home. He had meant to say Iraq, where he is now on his third tour of duty. Is there any other actor in Washington's Iraq-war drama from Harry Reid to the Joint Chiefs who could have made such a substitution Anyone who not only knows Iraq the way Petraeus does, but feels it in all its gravity and complexity?

When asked about Shiite militia domination of southern Iraq, Petraeus patiently went through the four provinces, one by one, displaying a degree of knowledge of the local players, terrain, and balance of power that no one in Washington and few in Iraq could match.

When Biden thought he had a gotcha contradictions between Petraeus's report on Iraqi violence and the less favorable one by the Government Accountability Office Petraeus calmly pointed out that the GAO had to cut its data-gathering five weeks short to meet reporting requirements to Congress. And since those most recent five weeks had been particularly productive for the coalition, the GAO numbers were not only outdated but misleading.

For all the attempts by Democrats and the antiwar movement to discredit Petraeus, he won the congressional confrontation hands down. He demonstrated enough military progress from his new counterinsurgency strategy to conclude: I believe we have a realistic chance of achieving our objectives in Iraq.

The American people are not antiwar. They are anti-losing. Which means they are also anti-drift. Adrift is where we were during most of 2006 the annus horribilis initiated by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?s bringing down the Golden Mosque in Samarra until the new counterinsurgency strategy of 2007 (the surge) reversed the trajectory of the war.

It was being lost both in Iraq and at home. On the home front, Petraeus deftly deflated the rush to withdrawal that appeared poised to acquire irresistible momentum this summer. First, by demonstrating real and irrefutable territorial gains on the ground. And second, by proposing minor immediate withdrawals to be followed by fully liquidating the surge by next summer. Those withdrawals should be enough to hold the wobbly Republican senators. And perhaps even more important, the Pentagon brass.

The service chiefs no longer fight wars. That's now left to theater commanders such as Petraeus. The chiefs job is to raise armies to recruit, train, equip and manage. Petraeus's job is to use their armies to win wars. The chiefs are quite reasonably concerned about the enormous strain put on their worldwide forces by the tempo of operations in Iraq. Petraeus's withdrawal recommendations have prevented a revolt of the generals.

Petraeus's achievement is no sleight of hand. If he had not produced real demonstrable progress on the ground reported by many independent observers, including liberal Democrats, even before he came back home (i.e., the U.S.) his appearance before Congress would have swayed no one.

His testimony, steady, and forthright, bought him the time to achieve his realistic chance of success. Not the unified democratic Iraq we had hoped for the day Saddam's statue came down, but a radically decentralized Iraq with enough regional autonomy and self-sufficiency to produce a tolerable stalemated coexistence between contending forces.

That's for the longer term and still quite problematic. In the shorter term, however, there is a realistic chance of achieving a separate success that, within the context of Iraq, is of a second order but in the global context is of the highest order the defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Having poisoned one country and been expelled from it (Afghanistan), al Qaeda seized upon post-Saddam instability to establish itself in the very heart of the Arab Middle East Sunni Iraq. Yet now, in front of all the world, Iraq's Sunnis are, to use the biblical phrase, vomiting out al Qaeda. This is a defeat and humiliation in the extremean Arab Muslim population rejecting al Qaeda so violently that it allies itself in battle with the infidel, the foreigner, the occupier.

Just carrying this battle to its successful conclusion independent of its larger effect of helping stabilize Iraq  is justification enough for the surge. The turning of Sunni Iraq against al Qaeda is a signal event in the war on terror. Petraeus's plan is to be allowed to see it through.

2007, The Washington Post Writers Group

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWRiNjRjNGM5NzE1MDIyN2U1MjJlNTVkYjFkM2IzYTg=

 

2606
3DHS / Wealthy Canadian Politician Comes To US For Medical Treatment
« on: September 14, 2007, 09:29:41 AM »


STRONACH'S HEALTH-CARE CHOICE
TheStar.com | Canada |
Stronach travels to U.S. for cancer treatment
Sep 14, 2007
Susan Delacourt
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA?Belinda Stronach, the MP for Newmarket-Aurora and former cabinet minister, travelled outside Canada's health-care system to California for some of her breast cancer treatment earlier this year.

Stronach, diagnosed in the spring with a type of breast cancer that required a mastectomy and breast reconstruction, went to California in June at her Toronto doctor's suggestion, a spokesperson confirmed.

"Belinda had one of her later-stage operations in California, after referral from her personal physicians in Toronto. Prior to this, Belinda had surgery and treatment in Toronto, and continues to receive follow-up treatment there," said Greg MacEachern, Stronach's assistant and spokesperson.

Speed was not the issue, MacEachern said ? it was more to do with the type of surgery she and her doctor agreed was best for her, and where it was best performed. The type of cancer Stronach had is called DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ, one of the more treatable forms.

Stronach, who has announced she is leaving politics to return to executive duties at her father's Magna empire, paid for the procedure.

"As we said back in June when we confirmed the surgery, this is a personal and private matter between Belinda, her family and her physicians. I think you'll understand that because of respect for Belinda's privacy, we refrained from offering specific details around her medical treatment," MacEachern said.

It is unusual for a federal politician to travel outside Canada for private medical treatment, especially given the hallowed status of the Canadian, publicly financed health-care system in the realm of political debate.

MacEachern stressed that Stronach's decision had nothing to do with her confidence ? or lack of it ? in Canada's cancer-treatment facilities or public health care.

He pointed out that there is a cancer-care facility in Newmarket named after the Stronach family, after Frank Stronach donated $8 million toward its construction in 2004.

"In fact, Belinda thinks very highly of the Canadian health-care system, and uses it when needed for herself and her children, as do all Canadians. As well, her family has clearly demonstrated that support," MacEachern said.

"This was about a specific health-care procedure, unrelated to any views about the quality of Canadian health care, a decision based on medical advice and a referral from her Toronto physicians, and just one part of several areas of treatment. Belinda has nothing but praise for the community of health-care professionals in Toronto who supported and treated her throughout the last six months."

MacEachern did not want to answer questions in detail about the type of surgery, what she paid for it or where exactly it was performed in California.

He did say, however, that Stronach underwent the operation in June, roughly around the time she would have had the procedure had she remained in Canada.

The Canadian Cancer Society also says it is impossible to determine how many citizens of this country travel each year to the United States for private cancer treatment, since records are only kept if they apply in some way for compensation.

Similarly, the U.S. Cancer Society says it is impossible to calculate, even roughly, how much Stronach paid for her treatment in California, since costs vary so much from state to state and even within cities.

Stronach will be back on Parliament Hill in October when the Commons resumes, MacEachern said.

Though there are repeated rumours she is going to resign sooner than the next election, she appears to be ready to take up her MP's duties again in the fall.

She was spotted last week at the Toronto International Film Festival, her first public sighting since the cancer treatment and also since the news of her breakup with NHL hockey player Tie Domi.

Privacy was also reportedly a factor in Stronach's decision to seek treatment outside Toronto, where she is easily recognized.

An on-line tabloid magazine reported a sighting of her earlier this year at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto, which has a cancer-care facility, before Stronach had told her family of her cancer diagnosis.

In addition, Stronach has had repeated problems with harassers and stalkers, as biographer Don Martin wrote in his book, Belinda, last year. Just last December, at the Liberal leadership convention, police had to intervene when a person under legal injunctions against approaching her, got past security at the convention centre and near enough to make the MP and her staff nervous.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/256600

2607
3DHS / New York Times Gave Huge Discount To MoveOn.org on "Betray Us" Ad
« on: September 13, 2007, 06:20:08 PM »


New York Times Gave MoveOn.org Discount for 'Betray Us' Ad
Thursday, September 13, 2007

By Charles Hurt - New York Post

WASHINGTON:  The New York Times dramatically slashed its normal rates for a full-page advertisement for
MoveOn.org's ad questioning the integrity of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Headlined "Cooking the Books for the White House," the ad that ran in Monday's Times says Petraeus is
"a military man constantly at war with the facts" and concluded -- even before he testified before Congress --
that "General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us."

According to Abbe Serphos, director of public relations for the Times, "the open rate for an ad of that size
and type is $181,692."

A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed to The Post that the liberal activist group had paid only $65,000 for
the ad - a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate.

A Post reporter who called the Times advertising department yesterday without identifying himself was
quoted a price of $167,000 for a full-page black-and-white ad on a Monday.

Serphos declined to confirm the price and refused to offer any inkling for why the paper would
give MoveOn.org such a discounted price.

Citing the shared liberal bent of the group and the Times, one Republican aide on Capitol Hill
speculated that it was the "family discount."

"I'm surprised they had to pay anything at all for the ad," the GOP staffer said. "They could have just
asked the editorial page to run it and it wouldn't have cost them a cent."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09132007/news/nationalnews/times_gives_lefties_a_hefty_di.htm


 

2608
3DHS / US to attack Iran in 8-10 months
« on: September 13, 2007, 06:12:36 PM »

Report: US to attack Iran in 8-10 months
Sept 13, 2007

Germany's unwillingness to impose further sanctions on Iran has pushed the United States
closer towards a decision on a military strike, FOX News reported on Wednesday.

A satellite image showing the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant.

Photo: AP [file]
 
According to the report, Germany's decision has spurred senior US army officials to try and convince US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice
to abandon once and for all the diplomatic route of preventing a nuclear Iran. The report further stated that the date of preference for an
attack against Iran is in eight to 10 months - after the US presidential candidates for both the Democrats and the Republicans have been
chosen, but before the major presidential campaign kicks off.

The report stated that the attack would be comprised of two main strategies: cutting off the Iranian gas supply, which the US hopes would
pressure the Iranian people towards action against their government, and an aerial bombing campaign, which would be meant to paralyze
Iranian defenses and allow American bombers to destroy the nuclear facilities.

Opponents to a military strike claim that an attack would require at least one week of intense bombing, and that it would only set the Iranian
nuclear program back a few years, the report said. Two other claims of the opponents is that an American strike would provoke Iran into
attacking Israel, and that abandoning diplomatic action would negatively impact Iraq and the US troops stationed there.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411396419&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

2609
3DHS / Making Mullahs Nervous
« on: September 10, 2007, 10:35:27 AM »

Two US carrier-strike groups are bound for Persian Gulf region, bringing number back to three

September 10, 2007
     
USS Truman Strike Group heading for Gulf


   
Military sources report that from the third week of July, the only American strike force- carrier in the Persian Gulf-Arabian Sea region was the USS Enterprise. By the end of September, it will be joined by the USS Nimitz and the USS Truman Strike Groups. Sources note that with their arrival, three American naval, air and marine forces will again confront Iranian shores at a time of crisis in the military and civilian leadership of Iran - signaled by the abrupt change of Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders, rising Israel-Syrian tensions and a troubled situation in Lebanon.

The Nimitz left the region to take part in large-scale Malabar 2007 II exercise with five Asian nations, termed by Indian military observers ?the first step towards establishing Asian NATO. Since the maneuver ended Friday, Sept. 7, the Nimitz has been on its way back to the Persian Gulf. The Truman group, made up of 12 warships and submarines, including a nuclear sub, with 7,600 sailors, air crew and marines aboard, has just completed a long series of training exercises and is preparing to set out for its new posting. It carries eight squadrons of fighters, bombers and spy planes.

The Truman force's battle cry is: Give 'em hell.

The combined naval strike groups include the Monterey-CG 61 guided missile cruiser, the USS Barry DDG 52 and USS Mason-DDG 87 guided missile destroyers, the USS Albuquerque-SSN 706 fast nuclear strike submarine and the combat logistical USNS Arctic T-AOE 8.

In the last week of August, the USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group took up position opposite the Lebanese coast amid trepidation over the September presidential election. Military sources reported that aboard the group's vessels are members of the 22nds Marine special operations-capable Expeditionary Unit, who are ready to execute landings on Lebanese beaches.

(source: e-mail) 

2610
3DHS / Don't let the door hit ya in the ass....GOODBYE
« on: September 08, 2007, 02:24:49 PM »

Hagel is calling it quits

Omaha World Herald, by Jake Thompson
9/8/2007


WASHINGTON - Chuck Hagel will announce Monday that he is retiring from the U.S. Senate and will not run for president next year, people close to the Nebraska Republican said Friday.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel plans to leave the Senate after two terms as a Republican Party maverick, people close to him say.Hagel plans to announce that "he will not run for re-election and that he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008," said one person, who asked not to be named.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10126829

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