The King of The "North" Is Coming!

[Madmary1]

CLASHES CLOUD LEBANON NATIONAL DAY


by Aljazeera + Agencies
Source of Article
Tuesday 22 November 2005 5:56 PM GMT


Deadly clashes between Israel and Hizb Allah on Lebanon's southern border have shadowed the country's 62nd Independence Day anniversary.

A fresh Israeli air attack in the south and shelling across the frontier on Tuesday followed the previous day's bloody clashes in which four Hizb Allah fighters were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers wounded.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said the attacks in the past 24 hours were the fiercest by both sides since Israeli troops quit south Lebanon after 22 years' occupation, a withdrawal claimed as victory by Hizb Allah.

Meanwhile, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, under pressure since Syria pulled out its troops from Lebanon in April, sat in frosty silence next to his rival, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, at an Independence Day military parade.

In a gesture towards Damascus, he said Beirut wanted good relations with its large neighbour, which had been active in Lebanon since its troops were sent to the country in 1976 after a resolution at an Arab summit in Cairo.

But it depends on Syria, Siniora said. "We want to have excellent relations with Syria, based on mutual respect."

He added: "The problem is not on the side of Lebanon, which unceasingly expresses its stand for ties based on cooperation and mutual respect."

Relations between Damascus and Beirut deteriorated dramatically after the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri in February and led to the pullout of Syrian forces two months later.

Confrontation

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli artillery shelled a Hizb Allah post in the divided village of al-Ghajar (Gypsies in English), said an AFP correspondent. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Part of al-Ghajar lies on Lebanese territory and part in the occupied Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokesman said: "This attack targeted a position used by Hizb Allah to fire rockets and mortar shells at the north of Israel."

Hizb Allah forces were on high alert in the disputed Shebaa Farms district, where Monday's clashes took place. The area was captured by Israel from Syria at the same time as the Golan but is now claimed by Beirut.

Siniora blamed Israel for the latest clashes, saying that Israeli aircraft "have never stopped violating Lebanese airspace in the past weeks", fuelling tension at the frontier.

An official with the UN peacekeeping force said that the situation in the southern frontier zone remained "very tense and dangerous".

Chants

The Islamic Resistance (the armed wing of Hizb Allah) on its website accused the Israelis of entering al-Ghajar village, prompting Hizb Allah fighters to respond.

The website said its fighters inflicted deaths among the Israeli attacking force.

Chants of "Death to Israel, Death to America" rang through village Zibqin as thousands of Hizb Allah supporters attended the funeral of Yussef Ali Barak, one of the four fighters killed on Monday.

"Islamic Resistance has given one of the most beautiful pictures of defending Lebanon's sovereignty and independence against Israel," Shaikh Nabil Qauq, the local Hizb Allah official in the south, told mourners.

"We are determined to free Shebaa Farms and release the prisoners held in Israeli prisons," he added.

***

[Madmary1]

AMERICAN HIROSHIMA – THE NEXT 9/11?


Aljazeera
by Shaheen Chughtai in London
Source of Article
Friday 25 November 2005 10:55 PM GMT


When Australian police announced recently that eight men arrested on terrorism charges were planning a bomb attack against a nuclear reactor near Sydney, many security observers elsewhere were not surprised.

Officials and analysts in the United States have been warning that al-Qaida or associated groups are planning such attacks on American soil.

Dubbed American Hiroshima, the plan apparently targets New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston and Washington, DC.

Former US Defence Secretary William Perry says there is an even chance of a nuclear attack on the US this decade. Renowned investor Warren Buffet has predicted "a nuclear terrorist attack ... is inevitable".

David Dionisi, a former US army intelligence officer, is convinced that plans for a nuclear attack are under way.

Once a conservative Republican, Dionisi enjoyed success as a Fortune 500 business executive after leaving the army. But he later rejected his political beliefs and now advocates peace, social justice and humanitarianism.

In his new book, American Hiroshima, Dionisi argues decades of unjust US foreign policies will be largely to blame for sowing the seeds of hostility and vengeance which could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.

Aljazeera's Shaheen Chughtai caught up with Dionisi in London.

Dionisi had just flown from Liberia where he helps run a Catholic orphanage.

Aljazeera.net: You were once a conservative Republican. What made you change your beliefs?

Dionisi: The transformation was a discovery process. When I joined the military, I had a very limited view of what the US was doing around the world. Through my experiences as a military intelligence officer and later as a business executive doing international volunteer work, I started to see our foreign policies were often hurting people and making the world more dangerous.

One of the more dramatic moments in this process was when I was assigned to a unit focusing on implementing US foreign policy in central America. I was part of a rapid deployment team designed to go in and suppress forces working for social justice in places such as Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

You describe the US public as uninformed - why?

The major media outlets are owned by a handful of corporations interested in promoting advertising and pro-government messages. Anything that challenges the existing power structure very often fails to receive air time. I highlight Fox as an extreme example of the Republican propaganda machine.

But when your country is fighting a war, you have an obligation to understand what's really going on. If you don't, you can become an agent of injustice. If people can find the time to watch baseball or soccer etc, they can make an effort to read, travel, talk and not be limited to the messages of fear.

They also need to understand their history. In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff presented a plan called Operation Northwood, which is now declassified. It proposed conducting mass casualty attacks on American targets and blaming it on Cuba to rally public support for war against Fidel Castro. President Kennedy rejected the plan. So we shouldn't just assume any future attack on our soil is the work of al-Qaida.

Your book condemns alliances with repressive regimes. Can't these be justified if they serve a greater cause?

History teaches us that when you form alliances that promote injustice, you can only expect injustice in the future. Kindness begets kindness and the inverse is also true.

The US fought the largest secret war in its history during the 1980s in Afghanistan - over $6bn was funnelled into that war. As a result, US collaboration with and responsibility for al-Qaida goes well beyond what most even informed Americans understand.

If you consider that there are over 500 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay from over 40 countries - though not a single one is from Iraq - and that the CIA recruited thousands of people from over 40 countries to be part of that war - none from Iraq - you can better understand how the US played a direct role in creating what became the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Bush supporters argue the removal of Saddam and the Taliban was beneficial and therefore justified military action.

That starts from an artificial premise. When the Bush administration says, "Well, it's great that Saddam's gone," it fails to acknowledge that Bush's father and President Ronald Reagan were key forces that helped create Saddam Hussein.

Looking at what happened in 1979 it can put a lot of this in perspective. As Reagan came into office, the US embassy hostages in Iran were released after 444 days in captivity. Americans don't know this wasn't a coincidence. The US had agreed in writing not to attack Iran and also paid Tehran $8bn. That's why that media event (of the hostages' release during Reagan's inauguration ceremony) occurred with such precise timing.

How do you know this?

These are facts that were subsequently published. The agreement with Iran was submitted for review by the current administration to see if it would be binding and prevent an attack in the near future.

Bush administration attorneys concluded it was signed under duress and therefore not binding. I know this from a former senior member of the Bush administration, a seasoned CIA officer named Ray Flynn.

The US felt humiliated; the Reagan administration wanted to hurt the Iranians but its hands were tied. So Saddam Hussein was used as the agent for that. He ended up invading Iran ... and you had this brutal war from 1980 to 1988 that killed over a million people.

What was the US role in that war?

By 1982, Iran had recaptured lost territory and Saddam asked the US for help. So President Reagan signed a National Security Decision Directive - NSDD 114 - to provide all means of support to Saddam Hussein. Donald Rumsfeld then went on a very sensitive mission to deliver satellite intelligence, other forms of intelligence and weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

That's why the current Bush administration was so confident Saddam had chemical and biological weapons; they knew the US had supplied the ingredients in the 1980s.

Saddam broke with the US, however, when he found out we were selling weapons to Iran in the mid-1980s - the Iran-Contra affair. All this puts the invasion of Kuwait into perspective. Saddam got clear messages from the US saying he could invade; plus he felt the US owed him one after betraying him over Iran.

All these wars form a continuum of injustice. Look at the UN economic sanctions in the 1990s that the US and UK refused to lift: over a million Iraqis died, including 500,000 children. That's more than the number who died from the Nagasaki and Hiroshima atomic bombings.

You list numerous "unjust" actions that led to attacks on US targets - isn't that justifying terrorism?

I talked to the CIA's Michael Scheuer, head of the "find Bin Ladin" team, and he stresses that people in the Muslim world are not fighting us because of our freedoms or elections but our foreign policy. This is something the Bush administration constantly twists.

The basic principle is: if you hurt someone, they're going to want to hurt you. We need to ask questions like: Why did 9/11 happen? Bin Ladin has a very clear articulation of why he's at war with the US, Britain, Israel and others. If Americans read it, they'll see it's very clear about things such as US forces on Arab land.

And it's not just an Arab or Muslim issue. I learnt this in South Korea where the US has had troops since 1950. When you're there that long, it sends a powerful message that you're not there to liberate, you're there to occupy.

You describe the US as the biggest WMD proliferator. Why?

The US has spent $5 trillion on 70,000 nuclear weapons since 1945 - more than the rest of the world combined. A Congressional report in 1999 found the designs for every deployed nuclear warhead - and for some not built yet - had been stolen and passed to China. Israel acquired its programme from the US too.

Despite this, ordinary Americans are more concerned about the Bush administration's lies and hyped-up warnings about WMD in places such as Iraq.

Is Iran really a threat to the US? An alliance between Shia Iran and Sunni-led al-Qaida seems far fetched.

Iran will not attack the US if the US does not attack Iran. Congressman Curt Weldon (who accuses Tehran of plotting to attack the States) talks about attacking Iran but such talk makes the world more dangerous. If we were Iran, we'd develop nuclear weapons simply because Israel has them. So the US should facilitate a process whereby Israel eliminates its nuclear weapons.

As for the religious differences between Iran and al-Qaida, yes, that's been true - but Bush's War on Terror has been pushing the sects together. Intelligence reports indicate Bin Ladin's son Saad has been based in Iran. No, we can't be certain they're helping each other. But in any case, the Bush administration does not want peace with Iran.

You say "kindness begets kindness". What's your evidence?

After the first world war, the Treaty of Versailles punished Germany harshly, producing hardship and hostility that the Nazis exploited. But after the second world war, when the Marshall Plan helped rebuild Germany and Japan, the US did more to promote democracy than at any time during the Cold war.

To make the world a safer place, we must aggressively attack the causes of suffering and hostility. Imagine if Bush had said after 9/11: "People are capitalising on our mistakes in the Middle East. So, let's ensure there is no hunger, lack of clean water, lack of education etc in the Muslim world." We would have made more friends and drained support for our enemies.

If we can't expect US foreign policy to change soon, isn't it too late to stop an American Hiroshima?

It's not too late although your point is realistic. But we can still influence the US response. Far more people will die in the retaliation and the counter-retaliation.

If the US had the wisdom, we could make the world safer. The US military budget was over $420 billion in 2005. We could split that three ways: a third on economic development in the Middle East, especially Iraq; a third on tackling injustice at home, such as providing universal healthcare - and that would still leave us with the world's biggest military budget.

People have to become more involved. The anti-Vietnam war movement is an example - but it failed to hold government to account. If we had tried (former Defence Secretary) Robert McNamara or (former Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger for crimes such as the illegal bombing of Cambodia, it would have sent a powerful message to future leaders. The Bush government today wouldn't have been so bold.

Ultimately, Americans need to understand many of them will die and parts of their country will become uninhabitable unless they hold their government to account.


***

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

AL QAEDA VIDEO IS 'GREEN LIGHT' FOR ATTACK, ANALYST WARNS

By Sherrie Gossett
Source of Article
Jan 11, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The recently released video message from al Qaeda's number two leader is part of a pattern that signals a countdown to a major terrorist attack within the next 30 days, warns a Washington D.C.-based analyst.

The new video was aired by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite network on Jan. 6. In it Ayman al-Zawahiri portrays U.S. government discussion of troop withdrawal from Iraq as a victory for Islam.

"If your forces with all its aircraft, missiles, tanks and fleets are moaning, bleeding and looking for an escape from Iraq, then will the hypocrites, conspirators, infidels (the Iraqi government) resist what the 'greatest power in the world' has failed to resist?" al-Zawahiri asked.

But it is not the content of the video that is a sign of a possible imminent strike, said terrorism expert Christopher L. Brown. Instead, it is the timing of the video that is consistent with previous patterns. Brown, a researcher with a Washington think tank, has briefed members of Congress and senior administration officials on key threats, and he has prepared testimony and briefing materials for officials at the Department of Defense, State Department, CIA, National Security Council and the White House.

The pattern Brown observed is that each Zawahiri video appears to be part of a pair, with the second video followed by a significant attack within 30 days, outside of the major combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The videos released on Sept. 9 and Nov. 9, 2004, were the first "set" and were followed by the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, bombings on Dec. 6, 2004. The second "set" of videos was released Feb. 20 and June 26, 2005, followed by the July 7 London bombings. A third set of videos was released Aug. 4 and Sept 1, 2005, followed by the bombings in Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 1, 2005.

A Cybercast News Service exclusive report on Sept. 8 of last year detailed Brown's warning regarding an impending October attack.

The fourth set of videos, according to Brown's theory was released on Oct. 23, 2005 and last week -- Jan. 6.

"This pattern has held for at least three of al Qaeda's last large-scale attacks," said Brown, "This most recent video is likely a signal that a large-scale operation is about to be launched within the next 30 days. The question is where."

A clue may be found in the Internet postings of the enigmatic Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades, said Brown. The brigades appear to be 'green-lighting' coming attacks prior to the release of the second video of each pair, Brown said.

The video that preceded the London bombings was itself preceded by a post by the "European division" of the brigades under the title, "Letter to mujahedeen in Europe." The posting stated in part, "We now call on the mujahedeen around the world to launch the expected attack." The message appeared on an al Qaeda-linked Internet forum.

Brown believes the larger pattern of two videos sandwiching an Internet posting by the Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades was repeated when a November web message declared that the upcoming attack would occur in the "land of the Romans," widely seen as a reference to Italy.

The Internet posting, under the name of al Qaeda's reputed military commander Saif al-Adel, mentioned future attacks involving unidentified poisonous substances and surface-to-air missiles procured from Chechnya. Brown notes that the Abu-Hafs Al-Masri Brigades are overseen by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top al Qaeda terrorist in Iraq who is also known to have ties to Chechnya.

"It is even more interesting to note that Western intelligence officials believe that al Qaeda has had some of the most advanced Russian man-portable surface-to-air missile systems (the SA-18) within Europe for at least one year."

On Oct. 29, 2005, the London Telegraph reported that Abu Atiya, an al Qaeda operative close to al-Zawahiri, revealed to French authorities that a group called the "Chechen network" entered France with the missiles and chemical and biological agents such as botulin, ricin and cyanide. The missiles were reportedly purchased in 2002 and eventually smuggled through Georgia and Turkey to be used in a planned attack against French airliners in 2004.

Following the London bombings the brigades posted a communique on the Internet, stating: "We are in Italy, and not one of you is safe as long as you refuse [Osama bin Laden's] offer. Get rid of the incompetent (Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi or we will truly burn Italy."

A July 19, 2005, story in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper indicated that Italian intelligence feared the statement was a coded message activating known cells in Italy, which had previously been providing only logistical support.

Three more messages from the Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades were posted in July, promising to "burn Italy down.

"We will raze the cities of Europe to the ground and you will be the first, Berlusconi!" one of the messages declared. On July 31, the brigades claimed to be "calling up all our cells in Rome and other Italian cities for this war ..." Another Internet message followed in August.

However, the November reference to the "land of the Romans" could be misdirection Brown said, since al Qaeda is known to use coded language in many of its communications. The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) has indicated that al Qaeda intentionally labeled Italy as its target, prior to the London bombings.

If the "land of the Romans" doesn't refer to Rome, what might it refer to? Dan Darling of the Manhattan Institute believes it could be a reference to the United States. "It could just as easily apply to the U.S. -- America as the new Rome," said Darling.

Brown also believes the al Qaeda threat could apply to the U.S. and that America is the likelier target.

The "land of the Romans" could be a symbolic reference to the "countless examples of Romanesque architecture in Washington, D.C.," said Brown.

The missiles reportedly obtained from Chechnya have not been located and Brown believes it is possible that some of the weapons have been smuggled into North America since individuals involved in the "Chechen network" who procured the missiles were allegedly involved in the 1999 conspiracy to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

About Brown's theory of a timing pattern and imminent strike, Dan Darling said "I definitely think there's something behind this theory. One of my earliest observations about al Qaeda is that when people look for patterns they tend to forget to include events in places like Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq. "

Darling also noted that analysts often fail to take into account thwarted attacks. "Italy has arrested several members of GSPC cells intent on attacking Italy or U.S.-related installations," said Darling. The GSPC is also known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian group linked to al Qaeda. Italian officials announced on Dec. 23 that the suspected terrorists had plans to carry out attacks against the U.S. that would have surpassed 9/11.

Terrorism expert B. Raman told Cybercast News Service that Brown's theory is "fascinating" but that he was not in a position to agree or disagree with it.

"I personally feel that while the London explosions were externally inspired from Pakistan, the timing and the modus operandi used were decided locally. I would have difficulty in connecting it to Zawahiri's second message," said Raman. He also believes that Zawahiri's importance as an operational head tends to be over-estimated by many Western analysts.

"I also feel on the basis of my reading of the situation that there is a very high probability of a terrorist strike against Italian lives and interests this year," said Raman.

"In Europe, Al Qaeda's next targets in the order of probability are Italy (its Prime Minister is closely identified with Bush), France (ban on head scarves, its interior minister is hated in the Islamic world) and Germany (its role in Afghanistan)."

Raman is the former head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis Wing in India's external intelligence agency and director or the Institute of Topical Studies, Chennai, India.

Italy has been bracing for possible attacks targeting the February Winter Olympics in Turin or the April 9 general elections. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told media last month, "The global resonance of the Games, and the coincidence with the election campaign could be of great interest to terrorist organizations, which carry out major attacks in order to rock public opinion and influence political stances."

The CIA has declined to comment on Brown's theory. "We don't comment on our own analysis. And we can't comment on Mr. Brown's theory either," said the spokesman.

Regarding the video release pattern, "once can be an interesting anomaly, twice could be a coincidence, but three times is a pattern," Brown said, indicating "that in all likelihood al Qaeda will launch a major attack sometime in the next month."


***

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

BUSH SAYS NUCLEAR-ARMED IRAN A THREAT TO THE WORLD


January 13, 2006
Source of Article

President George W. Bush said that Iran would be a threat to the world if it had a nuclear weapon but that he wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis with the Islamic Republic.

Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bush said that the United States and its European allies believed a nuclear armed Iran was "unacceptable" and that going to the UN Security Council would be the "logical" next step.

"The reason it's unacceptable is because Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a grave threat to the security of the world," Bush told a press conference.

He highlighted how Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel. "And that's unacceptable," declared the US leader.

"And the development of a nuclear weapon seems to me would make them a step closer to achieving that objective."

Highlighting the new rappochement in German-US ties, Merkel said Western countries "will not be intimidated" by Iran's decision to resume sensitive nuclear research.

Germany, Britain and France have led efforts over the past two years to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear programme, which the European allies and the United States believe is intended to produce a nuclear weapon.

Ahmadinejad said Friday that Iran will not back down from its nuclear programme, which his country insists is peaceful.

Representatives of the European Union, United States, China and Russia are to hold talks on Iran in London on Monday. They are expected to set a date for a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which could refer the case to the UN Security Council.

Bush made no mention of any possible sanctions and stressed the need to search for a diplomatic solution.

The US president said that he and Merkel "spent some time talking about the Iranian issue and the desire to solve this issue diplomatically -- by working together."

Bush said he would not "prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do" and also emphasized the multilateral stance that has also been stressed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"What we're doing now is beginning to lay out the strategy of what happens in the Security Council. That's what friends do. We consult, we talk, we strategize as to how to achieve an important objective, which is for Iran not to have a nuclear weapon."

Bush said he and Merkel discussed reported opposition to UN Security Council involvement from China's envoy to the United Nations.

"We did talk about the Chinese statement. Our job is to make it clear to all parties that it is in the world's interest that Iran not have a nuclear weapon, in other words."

"You're going to see a lot of public discussion about this matter. And the Chinese have got an opinion, the Russians have an opinion. We have opinions. Everybody has opinions."

Bush praised Germany's role in efforts to negotiate with Iran. "Germany's played an incredibly constructive role in this dialogue," he said.

Merkel said she was "greatly encouraged" by the talks with Bush and indicated that her country would take a hard line with Iran.

"To us Germans too, it is totally unacceptable, what Iran has said recently, for example as regards questioning the right of existence of Israel, the statements that were made with reference to the Holocaust," the chancellor told the press conference.

"And it's essential, we feel, that the EU-3, together with the United States, take a common position here, become active, that we try to persuade as many other countries as possible to join themselves to us, to ally themselves with us.

"And we will certainly not be intimidated by a country such as Iran," she declared.

US-German ties were tense following opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq which was opposed by Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder.

Merkel, who was on her first trip to Washington since becoming chancellor, returns to Germany on Friday.

***

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

PAKISTAN CONDEMNS PURPORTED CIA AIRSTRIKE


By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
January 14, 2006
Source of Article


Pakistan on Saturday condemned a purported CIA airstrike on a border village that officials said unsuccessfully targeted al-Qaida's second-in-command, and said it was protesting to the U.S. Embassy over the attack that killed at least 17 people.

Thousands of local tribesmen, chanting "God is Great," demonstrated against the attack, claiming the victims were local villagers without terrorist links and had never hosted Ayman al-Zawahri.

Two senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that the CIA acted on incorrect information in launching the attack early Friday in the northwestern village of Damadola, near the Afghan border.

Citing unidentified American intelligence officials, U.S. news networks reported that CIA-operated Predator drone aircraft carried out the missile strike because al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, was thought to be at a compound in the village or about to arrive.

"Their information was wrong, and our investigations conclude that they acted on a false information," said a senior Pakistani intelligence official with direct knowledge of Pakistan's investigations into the attack.

His account was confirmed by a senior government official who said al-Zawahri "was not there." Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

Washington had no comment on the reports that the attack was aimed at al-Zawahri, who has a $25 million U.S. government bounty on his head. Like bin Laden, he is believed to have been hiding along the rugged Pakistan-Afghan frontier since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Pakistan says it does not allow Afghan or the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan to cross the border in pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaida believed to be hiding there. The war on terror is opposed by many in this Islamic nation of 150 million people.

Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, called the "incident" in Damadola "highly condemnable."

The Foreign Ministry later issued a statement saying a protest had been filed with the U.S. Embassy.

"According to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area and that in all probability was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan," the Foreign Ministry said.

"The investigations are still continuing. Meanwhile the Foreign Office has lodged a protest with the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad."

U.S. Embassy spokesman Rakesh Surampudi said the protest had not been received by Saturday evening.

An AP reporter who visited Damadola about 12 hours after the attack saw three destroyed houses, hundreds of yards apart. Villagers had buried at least 15 people, including women and children, and were digging for more bodies in the rubble.

Villagers denied hosting al-Zawahri or any other member of al-Qaida or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, and said all the dead were local people.

More than 8,000 tribesmen staged a peaceful protest in a nearby town Saturday to condemn the airstrike, which one speaker described as "open terrorism." Police dispersed a smaller protest in another town using tear gas. A mob burned the office of a U.S.-backed aid agency near Damadola, but nobody was injured, residents said.

NBC News reported that U.S. and Pakistani officials said Predator drones had fired as many as 10 missiles at Damadola in the Bajur tribal region. ABC quoted anonymous Pakistani military sources as saying al-Zawahri could have been among five top al-Qaida officials believed killed.

A second Pakistani intelligence official told AP that the remains of some bodies had "quickly been removed" from Damadola after the strike and DNA tests were being conducted, but would not say by whom. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

The official said that hours before the strike some unidentified guests had arrived at the home of a tribesman named Shah Zaman.

Zaman, who said three of his children were killed when his home was destroyed, told AP he was a "law-abiding" laborer and had no ties to al-Zawahri or any other militants.

"I don't know him. He was not at my home. No foreigner was at my home when the planes came and dropped bombs," Zaman said.

Local lawmaker Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, who visited Damadola soon after the attack, said the dead had been buried and that no foreigners were among them. They came from a local family of jewelers, he said, adding that none of the bodies was burned so badly that identification was difficult.

In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials all said they had no information on the reports concerning al-Zawahri. A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, Lt. Mike Cody, referred questions on the matter to the Pentagon.

Doctors told AP that at least 17 people died in the attack, but residents of Damadola, a Pashtun tribal hamlet on a hillside about four miles from the Afghan border, said more than 30 died. They recounted hearing aircraft fly overhead before explosions in the village that were felt miles away.

Speaking as he dug through the rubble of his home, Zaman said he heard planes at around 2:40 a.m. and then eight huge explosions. He said planes had been flying over the village for three or four days.

At another destroyed house, Sami Ullah, a 17-year-old student, said 24 of his family members were killed and vowed he would "seek justice from God."

The attack was the latest in a series of strikes on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan that have not been explained by authorities but are widely suspected to have targeted terror suspects or Islamic militants.

Pakistan lodged a protest Monday with the U.S. military in Afghanistan after a reported U.S. air strike killed eight people in the North Waziristan tribal region last Saturday. Pakistan says it does not allow U.S. forces to cross the border in pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

In Afghanistan, Mohammed Hasan, deputy police chief of Kunar province, which is opposite Bajur, said U.S. forces had for weeks been patrolling in airplanes along the rugged border, which he described as a hide-out for Arab terrorists.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, has appeared regularly over the Internet and in Arab media to encourage Muslims to attack Americans and U.S. interests worldwide.

___

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Sadaqat Jan and Matthew Pennington in Islamabad contributed to this report.



*******

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

OFFICIALS: AL-ZAWAHRI EVADED U.S. ATTACK


By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
January 15, 2006
Source of Article

Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader was invited to a dinner marking a Muslim festival on the night of the devastating U.S. missile strike in a Pakistani border village, but he failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday.

Ayman al-Zawahri sent aides instead, the officials said, and investigators are trying to establish if any of them were among the at least 17 people killed in the attack, which sparked a second day of anti-U.S. protests across the country Sunday.

Some 10,000 people rallied in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, chanting "Death to America" and "Stop bombing against innocent people." Hundreds also protested in Islamabad, Lahore, Multan and Peshawar, burning U.S. flags and demanding U.S. troops leave neighboring Afghanistan.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., and other American lawmakers on Sunday defended the airstrike.

"This war on terror has no boundaries," McCain, a former Navy combat pilot who challenged George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, told CBS. "We have to go where these people are, and we have to take them out."

David Almacy, a White House spokesman, declined to comment directly on the airstrike, saying only, "Pakistan is a valued ally on the war on terror."

Pakistan says it does not allow American forces on its soil to attack or hunt militants. On Saturday, the government condemned the attack and lodged a diplomatic protest, saying it had killed innocent civilians.

In a sign of tensions over the attack on Damadola village, two top Pakistani officials — one from the military, the other from the civilian administration — said privately Sunday that the government was only informed of the strike after it happened.

However, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he had "every reason to believe" high-ranking officials in the Pakistani government knew in advance.

Many in this nation of 150 million people oppose the government's ties with Washington and there is increasing frustration over a recent series of suspected U.S. attacks along the rugged frontier aimed at militants.

Bayh said the problem is the Pakistani government does not control the border region where Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahri and other militants are believed to have been hiding since the U.S.-led military ouster of Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime for hosting al-Qaida.

"It's a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do?" Bayh told CNN. "The Pakistani border is a real problem."

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday that al-Zawahri, who has a wife from a tribe prominent in the region around the attacked village, had been invited to a dinner in Damadola to mark last week's Eid al-Adha holiday, but apparently changed his mind.

One of the officials said al-Zawahri sent some aides instead and investigators were trying to determine whether any were in the three houses destroyed in the attack.

The officials agreed to discuss the situation only if their names were not used, because they are not authorized to speak to journalists. They said their information came from Pakistan's own security agencies and intelligence shared by the CIA after the attack.

The second intelligence official said 12 bodies, including seven foreigners, had been taken from the village, which is about four miles from Afghanistan. He said the bodies were reclaimed by other militants, but another Pakistani official said Saturday that some were taken away for DNA tests.

It was not possible to reconcile the conflicting accounts, which reflect widespread confusion over the attack and the refusal of the government to comment publicly on the details of what happened.

Residents of Damadola, which is in the tribal region of Bajur, insisted no militants were staying in the village and all the dead were local people.

But the civilian Pakistani official said the government had been investigating reports that al-Zawahri had visited Bajur in recent months — a tip gleaned from the interrogation of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a senior al-Qaida figure arrested in Pakistan in May.

Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two failed assassination attempts on Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in 2003 that killed 17 people. He was interrogated in Pakistan and later handed over to the United States.

Thousands of men from Bajur and other nearby tribal areas crossed into Afghanistan to fight against the U.S.-led offensive that toppled the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America.

They were mobilized by Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, a radical movement that demands enforcement of Islamic laws in the region. It was outlawed by Pakistan in August 2002.

Two clerics linked to that group are suspected of having been invited to the same dinner as al-Zawahri, and according to a report in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, helped remove bodies of militants killed in Friday's airstrike.

The governor of the Afghan province across from Bajur said Afghanistan's government had formed a 1,000-man tribal militia to watch the border and stop Islamic militants from infiltrating.

"But the border is so long and so rugged that it's easy for them to come and go," Kunar Gov. Assadullah Wafa said.

The United States has 20,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, but military officials declined to discuss troop movements or say whether they had stepped up their presence in Kunar in case al-Zawahri fled west into Afghanistan after the airstrike.

___

Associated Press writers Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad, Zarar Khan in Karachi, Daniel Cooney in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

US SENATORS: IRAN STRIKE AN OPTION


by Reuters
Sunday 15 January 2006 8:13 PM GMT
Source of Article

Republican and Democratic senators have said the United States may ultimately have to undertake a military strike to deter Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but that should be the last resort.

"That is the last option. Everything else has to be exhausted. But to say under no circumstances would we exercise a military option, that would be crazy," Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said on CBS's Face the Nation

Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Illinois, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there are sensitive elements of Iran's nuclear program, which, if attacked, "would dramatically delay it's development".

"But that should not be an option at this point. We ought to use everything else possible keep from getting to that juncture," he said on CNN's Late Edition.

Bayh accused President George Bush of undermining the US national interest and creating this "dilemma" by ignoring the problem of Iran for four years.

A growing nuclear fracas exploded last week when Iran, defying the United States and major European powers, resumed nuclear research after a two year moratorium.

Iran says it aims only to make power for an energy-needy economy, not build atom bombs. But it hid nuclear work from the UN nuclear watchdog agency for almost 20 years before exiled dissidents exposed it in 2002.

On Sunday, Iran said that only diplomacy, not threats to refer it to the UN Security Council, could defuse a standoff over its nuclear work and warned that any Western push for sanctions could jack up world oil prices.

Common strategy

The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany planned talks in London Monday on a common strategy to tackle the controversy.

McCain called the nuclear standoff "the most grave situation that we have faced since the end of the Cold War, absent the whole war on terror".

"We must go to the UN now for sanctions. If the Russians and the Chinese, for reasons that would be abominable, do not join us then we will have to go with the (states that are) willing," he said.

While acknowledging that President Bush has "no good option", McCain said "there is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option, that is a nuclear armed Iran".

Oil exports

"If the price of oil has to go up then that's a consequence we would have to suffer," he said.

Iran is the world's fourth biggest exporter of crude oil and the second biggest in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Experts and officials say it may be impossible to destroy Iran's nuclear program because much of it is underground and dispersed at numerous sites.

In addition, they have said an attack on Iran could further inflame anti-Americanism in the Middle East and prompt Tehran to interfere more in Iraq and encourage Islamist fundamentalist groups to launch new attacks on the West.

Another Senate Intelligence Committee member, Republican Trent Lott of Mississippi, said that despite a massive military commitment in Iraq the US has the capability to strike Iran, but it would be "difficult" and other options must be tried first.


*****

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

THE DRONE, THE CIA AND A BOTCHED ATTEMPT TO KILL BIN LADEN'S DEPUTY


In the hunt for al-Qaeda, a missile attack on a mountain village killed women and children. The attack was precise, the intelligence was flawed, and the strained relation between Pakistan and the US has been pushed to breaking point


Jason Burke and Imtiaz Gul in Islamabad
Sunday January 15, 2006
The Observer
Source of Article


The missiles were deadly accurate. In the pitch dark of a night in Pakistan's sparsely populated North West Frontier Province, they not only located the three targeted houses on the outskirts of the village of Damadola Burkanday but squarely struck their hujra, the large rooms traditionally used by Pashtun tribesmen to accommodate guests.
Yesterday some of the results of the strike were very clear: three ruined houses, mud-brick rubble scattered across the steeply terraced fields, the bodies of livestock lying where thrown by the airblast, a row of newly dug graves in the village cemetery and torn green and red embroidered blankets flapping in the chilly wind. Four children were among the 18 villagers who died in the brutally sudden attack on their homes.

Yet evidence emerging appeared to indicate that, though the technology that guided the missiles to their targets at 3am on Friday was faultless, the intelligence that had selected those targets was not. Even as American military and intelligence sources spoke of the possible death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda and the man considered to be the brains behind the militant group's strategy, Pakistani officials said that there was no evidence any 'foreigners', shorthand locally for al-Qaeda fighters, were among the 18 victims, though they said that 'according to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area'.

In a bid to distance themselves from what was looking like a tragic and counter-productive tactical error that had cost many innocent lives, Pakistan announced it would file a formal protest with the Americans. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference that the Pakistani government wanted 'to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to recur,' adding that the government had no information about al-Zawahiri.

'We deeply regret that civilian lives have been lost in an incident. While this act is highly condemnable, we have been for a long time striving to rid all our tribal areas of foreign intruders who have been responsible for all the misery and violence in the region. This situation has to be brought to an end,' he said.

But his words did little to calm the anger in and around Damadola, a bastion of conservative religion and tribal chauvinism, and elsewhere in Pakistan. The village lies in the semi-autonomous Bajur tribal region around 120 miles northwest of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. It is a rugged and desperately poor region, until recently a centre of opium cultivation, where local men habitually go armed and government authority is limited to main roads. Thousands of local men marched in a series of protests yesterday, one crowd attacking the office of a US-funded aid group. In another incident, police were forced to fire tear gas to disperse as many as 400 protesters chanting anti-American slogans and waving banners condemning the Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf, who came to power in 1999, has maintained a difficult and domestically unpopular alliance with Washington since 2001 and has deployed unprecedented numbers of troops on bloody operations to capture senior al-Qaeda figures. However, to the Americans' intense annoyance, he has not granted US forces in Afghanistan the right to cross the border into Pakistan, even in pursuit of militants. American-led coalition forces clashing with militants in the mountainous province of Kunar, immediately adjacent to Bajaur which lies a mere four miles from the frontier, say they have often been frustrated by their enemies' use of Pakistan as a sanctuary. Yesterday the Pakistani Foreign Ministry took pains to point out that 'in all probability [the village] was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan'.

Tensions between Washington and Islamabad have grown in recent weeks as American troops have stepped up operations against militants. Pakistan has already lodged a protest with the US military six days ago after a reported US airstrike killed eight people in the North Waziristan tribal region, an almost deserted area of mountains 300 miles south of Damadola. In Damadola itself, locals said they had never sheltered any al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders, let alone al-Zawahiri, an instantly recognisable 54-year-old Egyptian-born ex-doctor.

'This is a big lie... Only our family members died in the attack,' said Shah Zaman, a jeweller who lost two sons and a daughter in the attack. 'They dropped bombs from planes and we were in no position to stop them... or to tell them we are innocent. I don't know [al-Zawahiri]. He was not at my home. No foreigner was at my home when the planes came and dropped bombs.' Haroon Rashid, a member of parliament who lives in a village near Damadola, told The Observer that he had seen a drone surveying the area hours before the attack.

'A drone has been flying over the area for the last three, four days, and I had a feeling that something nasty was going to happen,' he said in a phone interview. 'There was no foreigner there - we never saw a single foreigner here. They were all local people, jewellers and shop-keepers, who used to commute between Bajaur and their village. We knew them.'

The dead were reported to include four children, aged between five and ten, and at least two women. According to Islamic tradition, they were buried almost immediately. One Pakistani official, speaking anonymously, told The Observer that hours before the strike some unidentified guests had arrived at one home and that some bodies had been removed quickly after the attack. This was denied by villagers.

US and Pakistani officials have also said that the missiles were launched from American pilotless predator drones, which have previously been used to target senior al-Qaeda figures. A man alleged to be al-Qaeda's third-in-command was killed in a 'stand-off' missile attack around a month ago. However, several eyewitnesses spoke of seeing planes and illuminating flares over the village, which if true would indicate the use of missiles from planes guided in by special forces teams on the ground rather than CIA-operated drones.

Obaidullah, a local doctor, said he saw the airstrike from his home about five to six kilometres away. 'There was one plane flying (overhead). Then more planes came. First they dropped light and then bombs,' he said. If US troops have crossed the frontier from Afghanistan in pursuit of militants, it would be a major diplomatic incident and a domestic disaster for Musharraf.

The Americans have become increasingly frustrated by their inability to catch al-Zawahiri, whom analysts see as the strategic mentor of Osama bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri was already a hardened Egyptian militant when he joined bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian six years younger, in the late 1980s to form the al-Qaeda group out of the remnants of Arab 'mujahideen' who had fought the Russians in Afghanistan. After masterminding a series of attacks, culminating in the 11 September atrocities, from camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, al-Zawahiri has been on the run. However, this has not stopped him providing broad strategic direction for the international Islamic militant movement and, through appearing in frequent propaganda videos, becoming almost as well known as bin Laden himself. Despite a huge manhunt and a $25m reward, he has escaped capture. Strong local sympathy for al-Qaeda fugitives in the harsh hills that line the Afghan frontier with Pakistan has been a major advantage.

'The Americans are really not much closer to finding him than they were years ago,' said one intelligence analyst. 'They are hunting in an area that is about a thousand miles long and two hundred miles wide. That is a tough job by anyone's standards.' The carnage at Damadola indicates that the hunted is still a step ahead of the hunters.

The Al-Zawahiri file

· Born 1951, Cairo. Son of a chemistry professor. A trained paediatrician.

· Travelled to Pakistan in 1985 after being arrested, imprisoned and tortured in sweep of militants following killing of President Sadat.

· Spent 1991-1996 in Sudan with Osama bin Laden before moving to Afghanistan.

· A key theorist of modern Islamic militancy, he developed strategy of using spectacular violence against American interests to 'wake up the masses'.

· From series of mountain hideouts along Pakistan -Afghanistan frontier he has issued videos and communiqués aimed at inspiring militants

****

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

U.S.: 'VERY HIGH' CHANCE OF WMD TERROR STRIKE

Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Posted: 3:43 a.m. EST (08:43 GMT)
CNN World News
Source of Article


LONDON, England (AP) -- There is a "very high" probability that a terrorist group will strike using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said in comments published Tuesday.

"I rate the probability of terror groups using (weapons of mass destruction) as very high," U.S. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper. "It is simply a question of time."

Crumpton said a biological attack was potentially the most troubling scenario. He said evidence from Afghanistan suggested al-Qaeda had been seeking to develop anthrax before the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001.

"It is not just the nuclear threat that bothers me," he was quoted as saying. "I think, if anything, the biological threat is going to grow."

"As catastrophic as a nuclear attack would be, it would be self-contained. But if you look at a worst-case scenario for a biological attack, it would be difficult to determine whether or not it was a terrorist attack, and it would be far more difficult to contain."

Crumpton told the newspaper that U.S. and international efforts had severely disrupted the al-Qaeda network since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, but that "in all probability" Osama bin Laden was still alive.

***

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

BIN LADEN OFFERS AMERICANS TRUCE


by Aljazeera
Source of Article
Thursday 19 January 2006 3:39 PM GMT


Bin Laden had not been heard from since December 2004


In an audio tape broadcast on Aljazeera, Osama bin Laden has warned that al-Qaida was preparing an attack very soon, but also offered Americans a "long-term truce".

"The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures. It is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon," the voice attributed to bin Laden said, apparently addressing Americans.

But the voice on the tape, which appeared to be aimed at the American public, also offered a truce: "We do not mind establishing a long-term truce between us and you."

The tape, broadcast on Thursday but dated to December last year, comes after a year of silence from the al-Qaida leader.

"This message is about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how to end those wars," it began.

"It was not my intention to talk to you about this, because those wars are definitely going our way.

"But what triggered my desire to talk to you is the continuous deliberate misinformation given by your President [George] Bush, when it comes to polls made in your home country which reveal that the majority of your people are willing to withdraw US forces from Iraq.

Americans want peace

"We know that the majority of your people want this war to end and opinion polls show the Americans don't want to fight the Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their (US) land.

"But Bush does not want this and claims that it's better to fight his enemies on their land rather than on American land.

"Bush tried to ignore the polls that demanded that he end the war in Iraq.

"We are getting increasingly stronger while your situation is getting from bad to worse," he told the US, referring to poor US troop morale and the huge economic losses inflicted by the war.

"The war in Iraq is raging and the operations in Afghanistan are increasing."

Truce offer

"In response to the substance of the polls in the US, which indicate that Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stick to.

"We are a nation that Allah banned from lying and stabbing others in the back, hence both parties of the truce will enjoy stability and security to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, which were destroyed by war.

"There is no problem in this solution, but it will prevent hundreds of billions from going to influential people and warlords in America - those who supported Bush's electoral campaign - and from this, we can understand Bush and his gang's insistence on continuing the war."

Addressing Americans again, he said: "If your desire for peace, stability and reconciliation was true, here we have given you the answer to your call."

Bin Laden, who had not been heard of since a 27 December 2004 audiotape in which he anointed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, also said his network was winning the war against the US.

"I would like to tell you that everything is going to our advantage and the number of your dead is increasing, according to Pentagon figures."

Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy, said in a September videotape that his leader was still alive and leading the jihad against the West.


***

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

Purported bin Laden tape: 'IT'S ONLY A QUESTION OF TIME'
Voice Warns Americans Of Impending Attacks

January 19, 2006
Source of Article


(CNN) -- An audiotaped message purported to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warns the American people that plans for terror attacks in the United States are under way.

"I would like also to say that the war against America and its allies will not be confined to Iraq. Iraq has become a magnet for attracting and training talented fighters," the voice said.

CNN could not immediately confirm that the voice in the poor-quality audiotape, which was aired on Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera on Thursday, was that of bin Laden. However, CNN senior editor for Arab affairs Octavia Nasr said it does sound like the al Qaeda leader.

"Our mujahedeen were able to overcome all the security measures in European countries and you saw their operation in major European capitals," the voice on the tape said.

"As for similar operations taking place in America, it's only a matter of time. They are in the planning stages and you will see them in the heart of your land as soon as the planning is complete."

There is also no way to determine when the message was recorded, but the reference to attacks in European cities could indicate it was recorded after the July 7 bombings on London's transportation system that killed 52 people.

There was no mention in the portions of the tape that were broadcast of the CIA strike on a home in Damadola, Pakistan, on January 13 that targeted senior al Qaeda members who had been expected to attend a dinner there that night. It's not clear if any of them were among the 18 killed.

The man speaking in the audiotape also cited American opinion polls, saying that most Americans want U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq.

"Your President Bush has been misleading you. He has lied when he said that the people are behind him. Opinion polls have indicated that the overwhelming majority of you want him to pull the troops out of our land.

"We have the answer to these misleading information. The situation in Iraq is getting worse for you and the dead and the injured among you is on the rise," the voice on the tape said.

It's not clear exactly what polls he's referencing, but CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls released January 11 regarding the Iraq war showed that 53 percent of those questioned felt things were going badly for the United States in Iraq, and 46 percent thought things were going well.

Half the respondents said it was a bad idea to send U.S. troops to Iraq, while 47 percent said it wasn't. Fifty-two percent said it wasn't worth going to war in Iraq, but 46 percent felt it was.

The message also offered a truce.

"It is obvious now that Bush has been misleading the people. It is better for you not to fight the Muslims on their territory and we offer a long-term truce.

"We are a nation that will not stab people in the back. We would like to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. There is nothing wrong in this approach. We are aware that the warmongers are against this option," the voice said.

If the voice on the tape is determined to be that of bin Laden, it would be the first message from the al Qaeda leader since he released two audiotaped messages in December 2004.

The first of those messages mentioned the attack on the U.S. Consul offices in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier that month that left five people dead. In the second message, bin Laden anointed terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq.

The last videotaped message from bin Laden was seen just before the U.S. presidential election in 2004.


****

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

TRANSLATION OF ALLEGED BIN LADEN TAPE


Jan. 19, 2006
Source of Article
CBS News


(CBS) The following is a CBS News translation of an audiotape — purportedly of Osama bin Laden — broadcast on Arabic television station al-Jazeera.

The message of mine to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how to end it.

I did not have the intention to speak to you about this issue, because it is a forgone conclusion to us. Iron is only blunted with iron. Our situation is with the grace of Allah from good to better and your situation is the opposite of this.

However, what prompted me to speak is the repeated deceptions of your president Bush.

In respect of his comment on the opinion polls in America, which alluded to the fact that the overwhelming majority amongst you are in favor of withdrawing the troops from Iraq. However, he objected to this wish and said that the withdrawal of troops would send the wrong message to the enemies … and that it would be better to fight them in their own lands, rather than to have them fight us on our own lands.

And in my response to these deceptions I say: Indeed the war in Iraq is ablaze relentlessly and the operations in Afghanistan are on constant escalation in our favor, with the grace of Allah. The figures released by the Pentagon indicate an increase in the number of your dead and injured, in addition to the tremendous material losses.

Just to reiterate, I say: the result of the survey does satisfy the wise people; and the objection of Bush to them is wrong.

Anyone can testify that the war against America and her allies is no longer confined to Iraq as he claims. Iraq has rather become a point of preparation and mobilization of the qualified capabilities.

On the other hand, the Mujahideen have with the grace of Allah succeeded in breaking through all the security measures undertaken by the transgressing nations time after time, and the evidence for this is what you saw in terms of explosions in the most important capitals of the countries within this belligerent alliance.

As for the delay in carrying out similar operations in America, this was not because of a failure in breaking through your security measures. The operations are being prepared and you will see them in your own backyard as soon as they are ready with the leave of Allah.


****

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

Below is a link for a SPECIAL CBS News Broadcast talking to a CIA agent who tracked Osama Bin Laden for ten years about this latest threat.

Just click on it and it will load up for you on Windows Media Player.

***SPECIAL CBS NEWS interview with an EXPERT on Osama Bin Laden.***



This tells the whole story.

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

ISRAELI HINTS AT PREPARATION TO STOP IRAN

By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press Writer

Source of Article

JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister hinted Saturday that the Jewish state is preparing for military action to stop Iran's nuclear program, but said international diplomacy must be the first course of action.

"Israel will not be able to accept an Iranian nuclear capability and it must have the capability to defend itself, with all that that implies, and this we are preparing," Shaul Mofaz said.

His comments at an academic conference stopped short of overtly threatening a military strike but were likely to add to growing tensions with Iran.

Germany's defense minister said in an interview published Saturday that he is hopeful of a diplomatic solution to the impasse over Iran's nuclear program, but argued that "all options" should remain open.

Asked by the Bild am Sonntag weekly whether the threat of a military solution should remain in place, Franz Josef Jung was quoted as responding: "Yes, we need all options."

French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France could respond with nuclear weapons against any state-sponsored terrorist attack.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Saturday that Chirac's threats reflect the true intentions of nuclear nations, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"The French president uncovered the covert intentions of nuclear powers in using this lever (nuclear weapons) to determine political games," IRNA quoted Asefi as saying.

Israel long has identified Iran as its biggest threat and accuses Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is peaceful.

Iran broke U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant Jan. 10 and said it was resuming nuclear research after a 2 1/2-year freeze. Germany, France and Britain said two days later that talks aimed at halting Iran's nuclear progress were at a dead end and called for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will meet Feb. 2 to discuss possible referral.

Israel's Mofaz said sanctions and international oversight of Iran's nuclear program stood as the "correct policy at this time."

In Germany, Jung called himself "confident that there will be a diplomatic solution in the case of Iran."

Israeli leaders have also repeatedly said they hope the crisis can be resolved through diplomacy, and they said any military action would have to be part of an international effort. They have denied having plans for a unilateral preventive strike.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Tehran might still agree to Moscow's offer to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, a step backed by the United States and Europeans as a way to resolve the deadlock.

Israel's concerns about Iran have grown since the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said last year that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

On Friday, Iran's Students News Agency reported Friday that Central Bank governor Ebrahim Sheibani said Iran had begun moving its foreign currency reserves from European banks and transferring them to an undisclosed location as protection against possible U.N. sanctions.

Sheibani backed away Saturday from his statement that the transfers were already underway, and Iran's Central Bank said there had been no change in its currency policy.

Estimates put Iranian funds in Europe at as much as $50 billion.

[Abaddon (Revelation 9:11)]

IRAN WARNS ISRAEL ABOUT ATTACK

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 22, 2006

Source of Article

(AP) Iran on Sunday said Israel would be making a “fatal mistake” should it resort to military action against Tehran's nuclear program and dismissed veiled threats from the Jewish state as a “childish game.”

On Saturday, Israel repeated its stand on the issue, saying it would not accept a nuclear Iran under any circumstances and was preparing for the possible failure of diplomatic efforts.

While Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz stopped short of an outright threat of military action, he said Israel “must have the capability to defend itself, and this we are preparing.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Israel was only trying to add to Western pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear program.

“We consider Mofaz's comments a form of psychological warfare. Israel knows just how much of a fatal mistake it would be (to attack Iran),” Asefi told reporters. “This is just a childish game by Israel.”

Israel views Iran as its biggest threat and has joined Washington in charging that Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation.

Israel, whose warplanes destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, maintains a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East. While it neither acknowledges nor denies nuclear arms, Israel is thought to have about 200 nuclear warheads deployed on ballistic missiles, aircraft and submarines, according to the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Asefi's threats were not limited to Israel. He said dialogue was the best way to settle the dispute and issued a harsh warning to European powers to resume talks.

“We advise them (Europe) not to choose any path except dialogue. If there is retribution to be paid, that will include Europe too,” Asefi said, adding that Iran plans to continue cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Last week, European powers drafted a resolution calling for Iran's referral to the U.N Security Council to resolve its nuclear issue. The resolution, however, stopped short of calling for sanctions.

Several days later, French President Jacques Chirac said that France could respond with nuclear weapons against any state-sponsored terror attack. The comments were seen by some as a reference to Iran.

Iran's nuclear dispute with the West intensified when it removed U.N. seals from its main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran, on Jan. 10 and resumed research on nuclear fuel, including small-scale enrichment after a 2-year freeze.

The removal of the seals caused alarm in Western capitals, where Iran is suspected of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop an atomic bomb.

Iran has repeatedly said it is willing to offer guarantees that its nuclear program won't be used to manufacture weapons but it has so far refused to give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.