Keep that name in mind, Arkadi Gaydamak is probably Israel’s next # 1 politician.
I was watching a documentary on this guy and i read a bit about him and he is quite impressive and apparently on his way to rule Israel after he conquered Jerusalem and has become a celebrity in Israel.

The man is doing step by step a perfect job to gain people’s trust and their votes, and is helping the Israeli & Jewish community like no one is, something not very familiar to the Lebanese politicians

During the July war, he built a huge refugee camp for Israelis endangered by the rockets launched by Hezbollah’s Terrorists and provided shelter and entertainment for over 27000 jews.

He has a media group, a political party, sport clubs, president of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia etc etc ..

He bought one of the most popular Football clubs in Israel (Beitar Jerusalem) and his son has another club in England ( Portsmouth F.C).

The man however is accused of tax evasion and illegal arms dealing in France and has fled the country since then and currently travels with his Angolan passport ..

It is mostly rumors till now, and most officials are denying it ..

I found an article i could not open on that site , it is entitled : The Planned US Airbase at Kleiaat, Lebanon ( Under Industry News : Future Growth ).

Here is a snapshot:

Now if you google this title, you will find other articles on this issue, but not sure if it is the same.

Excerpt from another article on that issue :

On July 14, 1982, (Bastille Day) the late Bashir Gemayel sat with Ariel Sharon, Raphael Eytan, and Danny Yalon at the French flag draped Le Chef Restaurant in Ashifeyih, east Beirut for one of their working lunches [...] .

I dont honestly see how could an American/NATO base harm us, on the contrary it will boost the economy in some regions and it will strenghen the security as well .. You tell me it will attract more terrorists, i tell you close the Syrian borders, you wont get anymore terrorists .. we all know where they are coming from, what is needed is a decision to stop them from coming in ..

I hope we will have this base by the end of this year.

Now i understand some countries are for death penalty while others are against .. but hanging 5 criminals and leaving them for hours for all to see …

Why would anyone wanna do that ??
Well Our ‘non-enemy’ friendly and peace-loving ( mahek ?) Syrian regime apparently enjoys doing that ..

Here is the article & picture.

Written by Malaysia Sun

Saturday, 12 October 2007

Syria should immediately release writers and activists detained solely for expressing their opinions or reporting information online, Human Rights Watch said this week.

Syrian authorities have held two men in incommunicado detention since June for expressing online views that are critical of the Syrian government. Authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts of the detained men to their families. On September 23, the Supreme State Security Court sentenced a third man to two years in prison for posting online comments that displeased the authorities.

“The fact that Syria arrests people solely because they criticize the state speaks volumes about the government’s utter disregard for the most basic human rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Even worse, Syrian intelligence has the nasty habit of not telling families where their loved ones are being detained – in effect, disappearing them for periods of time.”

On June 7, the Mantaqa Branch of Military Intelligence detained Karim `Arbaji, 29, allegedly for moderating www.akhawia.net, a popular online forum for Syrian youth covering social and political issues. Persons familiar with the case told Human Rights Watch that the Mantaqa Branch may have transferred him to the Palestine Branch in Damascus, but the authorities have provided no official notification of `Arbaji’s whereabouts.

On June 30, 2007, Military Intelligence in the coastal city of Tartous arrested Tarek Biasi, 22, because he “went online and insulted security services,” according to a person familiar with the case. Biasi remains in incommunicado detention, his whereabouts unknown. On September 23, the Supreme State Security Court sentenced Ali Zein al-`Abideen Mej`an to two years in prison for “undertaking acts or writing or speeches unauthorized by the government … that spoil its ties with a foreign state” because he posted comments online attacking Saudi Arabia.

The UN General Assembly condemned “enforced disappearances” as “a grave and flagrant violation” of human rights, and defined the violation in these terms: “[P]ersons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government … followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.” The UNGA Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that enforced disappearance violates the right not to be subjected to torture, and constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.

Syrian security services frequently require Internet cafe owners to spy on customers that access “sensitive” sites. On December 13, 2006, Political Security arrested `Ahed al-Hindi, 23, and one of his relatives, in an Internet cafe in Damascus, because al-Hindi was sending comments and information to opposition Web sites outside Syria. The owner of the Internet cafe had filmed al-Hindi posting the comments. Al-Hindi and his relative were released on January 15, 2007.

Syrian authorities recently took measures to restrict the use of anonymous comments that many Syrian writers rely on to escape state surveillance. On July 25, 2007, the Syrian minister of communications and technology, `Amr Salem, issued a decree requiring all Web site owners to display “the name and e-mail of the writer of any article or comment [appearing on their site] … clearly and in detail, under threat of warning the owner of the Web site, then restricting access to the Web site temporarily and in case the violation is repeated, permanently banning the Web site.” In the first documented application of the directive, the Ministry of Communications and Technology restricted access to www.damaspost.com, a popular Syrian news Web site, for 24 hours after a commentator identified as “Jamal” criticized the head of the Journalists’ Union and the al-Ba`ath newspaper for nepotism.

Under international law, the rights to privacy and free expression entail a corollary right to communicate anonymously. Allowing persons to speak anonymously, without fear of reprisal or stigma, encourages the sort of expression that is critical to protection of rights and a democratic society – from political pamphleteering, to anonymous tips for journalists, to “blowing the whistle” on corruption by officials or companies. While the right to anonymity is not absolute, the restrictions imposed by the Syrian decree eliminate it altogether in the name of repressing purportedly “criminal” expression.

The Syrian government blocks Web sites that span a range of categories. Authorities impose most substantial filtering against sites that criticize government policies or support Syrian opposition groups. Censored Web sites also include Arabic newspapers outside Syria that carry materials critical of the government, such as the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi (www.al-quds.co.uk) and al-Sharq al-Awsat (www.asharqalawsat.com), the Beirut-based al-Mustaqbal (www.almustaqbal.com.lb), the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah (www.alseyassah.com), as well as Web sites belonging to Syrian opposition or Kurdish political parties and Islamist Web sites. OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of four leading universities in the US, Canada and the UK, which monitors government filtration and surveillance of the Internet, says that filtering of political Web sites in Syria is “pervasive.” The Syrian government’s censorship also covers popular Web sites such as Google’s blogging engine, www.blogspot.com, and www.youtube.com.

The last six years have seen an explosion of Internet use in Syria, with close to 1 million of the country’s 18 million people now online, compared to just 30,000 in 2000. The Arab Advisors Group, an Amman-based business-consulting firm, projects that the number of Syrian Internet users will exceed 1.7 million by 2009.

Human Rights Watch called on Syria to cease blocking Web sites that carry material protected by the right to free expression and access to information, and to release all those detained solely for exercising these rights, online or otherwise.

http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/290301/cs/1/

Bloody Savages !! what kind of people are those ??

Apparently the woman married a Sunnite And Al-Qaeda took revenge by killing hundreds of Yazidis in that village ..

Shaker el Abssi’s brother is apparently accepting condoleances for his “martyr” brother who fell in Nahr el Bared.
His residence is in Jordan, you can visit him anytime you want …

Too bad Jordanian authorities refused to even accept Shaker Abssi’s body.

Quite impressive ..

What the hell is going on in Iraq ??

BAGHDAD - Emergency workers and grieving relatives uncovered dozens of bodies in the wreckage of clay houses in northwest Iraq on Wednesday, sending the death toll from suicide truck bombings of a small Kurdish sect to at least 250 — the war’s ]deadliest attack on a single area. [...]

I was going through blogs and found this interesting post on The American Israeli Patriot blog, based on an article from the Telegraph:

Hizbollah is buying up large tracts of land owned by Christians and other non-Shias in southern Lebanon as the militant group rebuilds its defences in preparation for a new war with Israel, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.

Hizbollah is buying land beyond the reach of the UN

The land grab is thought to be driven by the Iranian-backed guerrillas’ efforts to rearm themselves and fortify the strategically important ravines north of the Litani River, just north of the front line in last year’s 34-day conflict with its Jewish neighbour.

Here, Hizbollah has been free to press forward without harassment from the 13,000 United Nations peacekeepers and 20,000 Lebanese army troops who were deployed south of the Litani as part of the ceasefire agreement that ended the conflict.

Just south of the Litani, the UN is conducting hundreds of patrols each day in a bid to keep Hizbollah weapons out of the area, but the peacekeepers’ mandate ends at the river.

Continue reading it here :

I dont know how true this is, but it is not that easy to get someone to talk in the name of Hezbollah and claim such things, specially that it would not benefit Olmert not 1 %, and i was having a chat with an Israeli, he mentioned on whether the Israeli government is behind that propaganda “Quite the contrary, it buries them deeper by placing the blame for the war’s eventual inefficiency directly on the shoulders of those who signed the ceasefire.”

Here is the link to the article from Jerusalem Post.

Well well looks like Syria is running out of smart 7omsis ( if that’s possible).
An explosion was heard in Syria, killing 15 soldiers and woudning at least 50, looks like our friend was too excited and detonated it in Syria before it reached Lebanon

An official at Aleppo University Hospital said the bodies of five dead soldiers and 10 wounded were brought to the facility.(AP-Naharnet)

A year later from the «Divine Victory», maybe we should face the «Divine Difference».

First, there’s the difference between two societies. Even though one seems more homogeneous than the other, both of them are pluralistic. The Israeli society is, to a certain extent, as fragmented as the Lebanese one but it when it comes to politics, the rules are different.

At least fifteen different political parties are represented in the Knesset. The Israeli Jews who constitute around 80% of the Israeli population are divided into at least four ethnic groups. But when it comes to electing a Prime Minister, the Israeli citizens vote according to the candidate’s platform regardless of his political and ethnical affiliation. This being said, the Israelis remain loyal to their parties when it comes to legislative elections.

Then, there’s the difference in democracy. Every decision that is taken by every Israeli politician is subject to scrutiny and accountability. And this doesn’t end here: even when the disaster befalls on non-Israeli citizens, whoever is in charge is liable. Two great examples that the Lebanese could remember are the «Kahan» and «Winograd» commissions that were established after, respectively, the Sabra and Chatilla Massacres in 1982 and the Lebanon Summer War in 2006.

Last but not least, there’s the difference in global activism. Israel the state acts as a nation in the world. Every Israeli citizen in the world defends Israel, struggles for Israel, lobbies for Israel and, mostly, optimizes the support of the International Community for Israel.

In Lebanon, everyone’s divided, everyone wants to be the leader and everyone wants to be the President and the Prime Minister. And if your – tribal, feudal, confessional, party, whatever – leader is not the President or the Prime Minister, you’re willing to destroy the country to have him or her rule.

In Lebanon, if someone screws up, a shift of alliance will allow you to forgive and forget. Oh wait! Forgive? That’s not sure, you just keep his errors in the archives to use it against him once another shift of alliance will occur. Accountability? What does that mean? Oh yes! This could be used for selective criticism or selective justice.

In Lebanon, if someone tries to rally the support of the International Community to build a better country, what do you do? You do better. You rally the support of the rogue states to counter this attempt of having a better country…

Back to this «Divine Victory», Michael Young does a very good job demystifying it.

The main characteristic of the Baath regime and any dictatorial regime is that it eliminates physically anyone who presents a threat to their plans, specifically when it is one of their allies or should i say loyal followers.

Syria assassinated Kamal Jumblatt when they saw in him a strong leader threatening their future plan to invade Lebanon and control it, even though he was on the “right” side back then with the National front, they later killed Hassan Khaled as well, who started critisizing their role, and of course assasinated most of the politicians who opposed them, from Bashir Gemayel till Walid Eido few days ago ..

Hassan Nasrallah is becoming a threat to Syrian interests in my opinion, he has become too powerful and has a certain independant status in few internal decisions. After the July war, UNIFIL were sent to monitor the borders and the Shebaa farms issue was neutralized and will probably be solved in the UN. And now, after the peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins and the bombings occuring and the victory of the army in Nahr el Bared, Nasrallah held his followers from getting involved in inner-sectarian fights, and did not directly ask the army not to intervene, but just sent an indirect message.

Syria wants trouble in Lebanon, something Hezbollah cannot bare right now, probably cause of the presence of the Sunnite Jihadist groups, and because it got itself involved in a political crisis, that requires from it to avoid showing its chaos-making side so that it stays credible to its allies, mainly the Christian ones.

Jumblatt raised an important issue in his latest interview, something few people noticed or commented on.He stated that Nasrallah was “reading” his speech last time he talked, something unusual, and he seems bothered and uneasy. He questioned also of how influential has Imad Mughnieh become in the HA-decision making, and of whether he has become stronger than Nasrallah himself ..

For all those who dont know who that man is, he was on the top most wanted terrorists of the FBI and he is a senior member of the Hezbollah and head of its security section, he has links to Al-Qaeda and has performed numerous kidnappings and assassinations in the past.

Hassan Nasrallah could be the “bouc emissaire” of a general regional settlement and has to take a decisive move in either breaking up with Syria once and for all, or bare the consequences of putting obstacles on its way even though indirectly ..

The only guarantee that he might have is the Iranian side but Iran knows it is almost impossible for HA to make its Islamic Republic in Lebanon while Sunnites and Christians are still around and while the Shiite community is going backwards on all levels instead of integrating the socio-economical life, all that cause of its leaders.

Sending the UN troops to monitor the Syrian borders will be a major blast for Syrians and they might ask impossible tasks for their allies to perform … or else ??

Johnny Kairouz, a Lebanese living in Canada, has contributed this article to The Beirut Spring.

The issue tackled here does not imply that the crisis in Lebanon today is solely a Palestinian one. In fact, the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are far from being held responsible for the recent events. Determining the actual culprits is a totally different subject which is anyhow far from being mysterious.

The Palestinian predicament in Lebanon mainly involves the refugees themselves, the Lebanese state, Israel and the Arab countries. All of the concerned parties, except Israel, long for their return to their homeland. Obviously, every faction has its own reasons.

The Palestinian refugees have been in constant dismay and dissatisfaction since their arrival to Lebanon more than five decades ago. The idea of being expelled from their homeland was their first and foremost consternation. Then came the meddling of their paramilitary groups in the maze of Lebanese internal – and external – politics: this era could be denoted as their rise and fall in Lebanon.

The rise was represented by the strong financial and military support they were receiving from international, regional and local actors. While the Soviet Union was provided them with the weapons and the logistics, the Arab countries offered them financial, political and media coverage. Most importantly, a big part of the Lebanese people sided with them.

Their decline started when they were opposed by another big part of the Lebanese people and when consequently Lebanon’s two neighboring countries intervened. This is when the Palestinian civilians started to pay the price of their armed groups’ adventures. Many civilians became victims of atrocious massacres – many of which were a reaction to what their armed groups had committed to other parties.

As a result of their contribution to the civil war, the Palestinians were severely reprimanded by almost everyone in Lebanon. Ever since the Taef Agreements, they were virtually condemned to stagnate in their camps.

The human rights and humanitarian situation they are undergoing is certainly undesirable. They are subject to many restrictions such as building and reconstruction in the twelve overpopulated camps they are confined to. Furthermore, while education is practically out of reach, they are prohibited from practicing more than 72 professions. In other words, their situation is not viable.

Although most of the Lebanese people are against nationalizing them, every group has its own reason. The first opinion, which is also upheld by most of the Arab countries, advocates their “right of return” to their homeland. This staunch Arab nationalist stance views the integration of the Palestinians – into the Lebanese society – as an admission of defeat in their ongoing conflict with Israel.

The second opinion views the settlement of the Palestinians in Lebanon as a destabilizing factor: it would threaten – the already shaky – demographic balance among the different religious communities in Lebanon. This opinion is mainly shared by the Christian and the Shia groups but also by the Sunnis who view them as potential rivals within their own community.

The Lebanese people also view the Palestinian camps as an imminent threat to their national sovereignty. Ever since the Arab-sponsored 1969 Cairo Agreement, the camps’ security is exclusively maintained by their armed element. The absence of the Lebanese Army in these areas has come to be known as “Security Isles” within the Lebanese territory.

The lack of the state’s full control over its territory has allowed several foreign powers to use these “Security Isles” for arms smuggling as well as hindering Lebanon’s internal security. The loose security surrounding some of the camps can allow, for instance, cars to be loaded with explosives in these areas and be sent to potential targets all over Lebanon.

The paramilitary groups in these camps can burst at any moment by reacting to a regional event thus create turmoil in Lebanon. Furthermore, the camps are allegedly being used to recruit and train terrorists who are later on sent on missions to Iraq. By harboring recruit camps, Lebanon is certainly attracting the entire nuisance that comes with it on an international and regional level.

Lebanon has many security deficiencies and not all of them are due to the Palestinian camps. Blaming all of Lebanon’s perils on the Palestinians would be excessively unjust. However the presence of the Palestinian camps does impede the process of building a better future for Lebanon.

For the three reasons stated above – the right of return; the demographic issue and; the security aspect – a solution certainly needs to be fostered. Without any doubt, the Palestinian civilians must have more rights and benefit from social welfare. The only problem is that Lebanon has – literally – other fish to fry.

Because unfortunately Lebanon cannot afford to grant the Palestinian refugees the treatment they deserve, because unluckily they have been used as scapegoats more than often and because their situation has been increasingly unbearable to them and to Lebanon, a radical decision is needed.

The matter has been procrastinated for years and maybe today is an auspicious time to deal with it once and for all. Lebanon has offered them shelter for more than half a century. Lebanon has also contributed its considerable share in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It’s now time for other Arab countries to offer the deprived refugees what Lebanon could not afford but that they sure can: Land, rights and money.

The resettlement of the Palestinians to other Arab countries will be a win-win situation. Lebanon will get rid of one of the major obstacles that are impeding the implementation of a strong sovereign state and the Palestinian civilians will have a better prospect in obtaining a brighter future pending to their hopeful return to their land.

By Nicholas Blanford, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Fri May 11, 4:00 AM ET

After scrabbling up a slope in this desolate valley amid Lebanon’s craggy southern hills, I found it: an ominous pitch-black hole partially blocked by a layer of rock.

It would be a tight squeeze to get in. And going farther was potentially risky.

Our discovery was so rare and revealing that it could have been booby-trapped with explosives. I checked for tripwire, but didn’t see any.

“Found it. It’s open. We can get in,” I called to my two colleagues, laboring up the hill.

We were about to enter the secret world of Hizbullah, the militant Shiite group that battled Israel from this perch, and dozens of other hidden positions, last summer. We weren’t sure what we’d find below, but were certain it would tell us a great deal about the capabilities of the Lebanese guerrillas that fought from these steep limestone hills covered in a dense undergrowth of scrub oak and juniper bushes.

Pausing to catch my breath, I shrugged off my backpack and reached inside for a head lamp.

As we climbed in, air chilled by the deep subterranean passageways wafted out of the entrance, a refreshing contrast to the blazing heat of the valley.

Bunker huntingI had been hunting for one of Hizbullah’s bunkers since the end of the 34-day war.

It had been a frustrating exercise, to be sure. The bunkers and rocket-firing positions had been constructed in great secrecy, the entrances cunningly camouflaged, in remote valleys along the Lebanon-Israeli border.

In addition to possible booby traps, cluster bombs, and other unexploded ordnance litter many of Hizbullah’s abandoned “security zones” in valleys and hilltops along the border.

In March, I was fortunate enough to have received map coordinates from a source that led me to a bunker, which could be accessed by a 20-foot shaft.

A second series of map coordinates, which I tapped into a global-positioning system (GPS) device, led us to this spot about two miles north of the Israeli border near Rshaf, earlier this week.

As we followed the arrow on the GPS, we could hear the whine of an Israeli reconnaissance drone, invisible against the brilliant blue sky, as it slowly circled high above us. It was probably searching for signs of new Hizbullah activity.

Going inShining my head lamp into the entrance, I could see that the pile of boulders only ran for a few feet, after which the opening widened into a passageway.

The walls and ceiling were reinforced with steel plates and girders painted black to prevent stray reflections from the sun giving away the concealed entrance.

As I crawled in the tunnel, I watched carefully for scorpions and spiders. The passage ran horizontally for about 10 yards before doglegging to the right.

It was little more than shoulder-width, and we had to stoop slightly to avoid hitting the ceiling with our heads. Once around the corner, the steel plates were painted white, this time to better reflect the electric lighting.

Electric cables ran through white plastic tubes, fixed to the walls, leading to switches and glass-encased light sockets. A blue plastic hose running along the top of the wall carried the bunker’s water supply.

The first room we encountered was a small bathroom complete with an Arab-style latrine, a shower, a basin with taps, and a hot water boiler. There was even a drainage system constructed beneath the concrete floor.

The air was blissfully cool after the sun-drenched heat of the valley. In two places along the main passage – which must have been more than 60 yards long – were vertical ventilation shafts covered by metal grills, ensuring a steady flow of fresh air.

We were perhaps 100 to 150 feet underground at this point, deep enough to withstand almost anything in Israel’s arsenal. I let my colleagues walk on and then switched off my head lamp.

The sudden darkness and utter silence was unbearably oppressive.

What must it have been like for the dozen or so fighters housed in this bunker, awaiting the advancing Israeli troops?

There was a kitchen with storage shelves and an aluminum sink and taps. The white metal walls were mottled with brown rust. Every 10 yards or so along the passage was a heavy steel blast door that could be locked from the inside with a bolt.

As far as I know, this is the largest and most elaborate bunker discovered so far.

Just the effort that went into building it was extraordinary, and yet, it was constructed in complete secrecy.

Most likely, no one outside Hizbullah knew it existed until two weeks ago, even with peacekeepers from the UN force known as UNIFIL (UN Interim Forces in Lebanon) patrolling the ground and Israeli aircraft watching from the skies above.

Every piece of equipment, every steel plate, every girder, every door had to be carried by hand up the side of the valley and fitted into place inside the bunker.

And there was no clue as to what happened to the hundreds of tons of quarried rock during the excavation work.

Six years of buildingWhile it was widely suspected that Hizbullah had been building underground facilities in the six years prior to the war, it was only after the Aug. 14 cease-fire that their scale and sophistication was understood.

Israel had seriously underestimated its foe and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials are fighting for their political survival as a result.

“It was a combination of a monumental intelligence failure – the Israelis only found these bunkers by stepping on them – and extremely professional and efficient work by Hizbullah,” says Timur Goksel, a Beirut-based consultant on Mideast security issues and a former senior adviser to UNIFIL.

Now, the bunkers are useless. Their locations having been compromised.

Hizbullah has abandoned all the bunkers in the UNIFIL-patrolled zone along the border, redeploying to a newly constructed line of defense farther north.

In this bunker, only a green sleeping mat and a simple metal bed frame remained. At the far end of the bunker, the narrow steel-lined passage broadened out into a rock cavern.

In a niche to one side were four metal water tanks with the Arabic word for “sacrifice” painted across them. A twist of a tap at the bottom of one tank, and icy water gushed out. Several steep steps cut into the rock at the end of the cavern led to an access shaft about 15 feet high with a ladder soldered onto the lining of black metal plates.

Climbing up led us back outside into a thicket of stubby oak trees about 40 yards from the entrance and farther up the hill. The Israeli drone still prowled overhead, its cameras perhaps hunting for the three mysterious people who had suddenly disappeared into thin air on the hill.

I was discussing that with a friend and to be honest , i dont buy it ..
172 arrest without a single shot .. i remember more drama when arresting a dozen or even less …
Weapons hidden in the desert ??

It just doesnt add up .

Riyadh - Police in Saudi Arabia arrested 172 suspected militants linked to seven terrorist cells including Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network in a series of raids in different cities, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry said Friday.

The suspects included several Saudi nationals and people of Yemeni and African origin, mainly Nigerian. Observers in Saudi Arabia said the raids had been staged over several months.

They had been planning terrorist attacks on oil facilities and refineries and military bases using aircraft, spokesman Mansur al- Turki said, adding that several suspects had been trained as pilots.

The largest cell had 61 members, and had been planning to assassinate officials in Mecca, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Nine members had planned to free their comrades from a prison in Jeddah.

Their leader had apparently selected them while they were going around the Kaaba in Mecca, as Muslim pilgrims do during Hajj.

The leader of the cell had operated several sports’ clubs where the recruits were being trained, the source added.
Other cells had been planning to assassinate public figures and officials and attack military bases.

Five of the 172 suspects were reportedly involved in a terrorist attack last year. On February 24, 2006, Saudi security forces foiled an attempted suicide attack on an oil processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia.

A weapons cache including several weapon and more than 20 million Saudi riyals (around 5.3 million dollars) had been seized, the spokesman added said, adding, ‘…al-Qaeda was still trying to revive its activities.’

Islamist militants linked to the al-Qaeda network have staged a series of attacks in Saudi Arabia in recent years, targeting mainly foreigners and security personnel.

Probably the biggest joke ever, Elections in Syria.

Why bother organize elections and insult the world’s intelligence by claiming that those are democratic elections ?

All Independant MPs were thrown in jail last year, one of them MP Maamun Homsi who fled to Lebanon earlier this year. Michel Kilo, another opposition member is still in jail.

There is no opposition in Syria, no one is running against the Baath party, the 99.9998% of the Syrian people will vote once again for Bashar el Assad and Baath, as they have been doing since the coup in 1973.

There are no reports on those elections from any paper, no international surveillance, no nothing, and from what i read in the papers, barely anyone is voting.

Well well,
I didnt hear Nasrallah mentioning this in his speech ?? Or such information should not be heard by his followers ??

Syria negociating with Israel while Hezbollah is thanking Syria and attacking Sanioura of collaborating with Israel and the Americans !

Stop insulting our intelligence, HA will pay a very heavy price if a deal is made btw Syria and the Americans ..

Here is the article :

Assad-Offered Peace with Israel Cuts off Hizbullah Link

Syrian-American negotiator Ibrahim Suleiman said Thursday Syrian President Bashar Assad was ready for peace with Israel in six months that could cut his links with Lebanon’s Hizbullah and allow him to fight terrorism.

“Since 1948 Israeli leaders have said they are ready to talk peace anytime and anywhere,” The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Suleiman as telling reporters at a news conference after addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Syria right now is ready to speak peace.”

“I challenged the Israeli government to answer President Bashar [Assad]’s call for peace and sit down together,” he added. “I think it can happen in six months.”

David Baker, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, said in response: “The position of the Israeli government remains the same. The Syrian government is not pursuing peace but is merely posturing.”
(more…)

I posted earlier asking who will strike first ?
Well Israel apparently is gonna be the one to strike first, at least according to several articles i wrote about an upcoming regional war.

Even though i highly doubt the US or Israel will go after such an insane hit, there are talks and even plans on how this operation will be executed in few days or weeks time.

How will the operation be executed ??

Rumors are spreading that Israel is stockpiling for an attack, it acquired 30 long-range F-15 from the US and bought more than 5000 bunker-busters, missiles that can penetrate up to 10 metres of earth and concrete.

Israel will take off with three squadrons of six F-15’s - fly over Iraq, and hit Iran’s three key facilities. The US is expected to provide satellite information and refueling as the Israeli jets exit.

Iran will see this as an attack by America, and will threaten to retaliate. Israel will launch a Sunburn 22, taking out a carrier, and Iran will get blamed.

You can read the rest of this disastrous scenario for the whole region on this link.

I will post later on on the Sunburn 22 missile which is the prime target of The Americans and Israelis added to the Nuclear installations in Iran.

The consequences of such a hit will be a retaliation from Iran and the straits of Hurmuz will be their first target to stop the flow of oil, and plunge the world market into a serious crisis.