Says Damascus flooding country with nationals, reports of workers fleeing 'unfounded'
By Aaron Klein
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt (radiofarda.com)
Widespread media reports of Syria warning its nationals to flee Lebanon ahead of a major outbreak of violence and civil war there are "unfounded," contended Lebanon's Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt in an interview today with WND.
Jumblatt insisted instead of evacuating its citizens, Syria has been sending "thousands of so-called workers and tourists per day," possibly ahead of an attempt to destabilize the country.
"There is no evacuation of Syrian workers. Instead, thousands are coming a day, including so-called tourists. I am worried, because our working sector is paralyzed, our economy is down, we have no tourism and yet you have this strange influx of many Syrians and also many Iraqis into Lebanon," said Jumblatt."
"I am not dismissing that Syria will start major trouble for us to delay the tribunal," said Jumblatt, referring to a special tribunal set up by the U.N. Security Council to try any indicted suspects in the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a car bombing in 2005.
(Story continues below)
Syria was widely blamed for the Hariri assassination
Also, the U.N. is ...   more »

 August 14 Attila Somfalvi Published:
The Likud Central Committee approved Tuesday party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to push forward the internal elections, and decided that the primaries would be held on August 14. If a second round is required, it will take place a week later, on August 21.  
Following MK Silvan Shalom's withdrawal from the race for Likud leader Monday, the only other contender against Netanyahu is Moshe Feiglin, head of the extreme-rightist Jewish Leadership faction of the party.  
During their meeting at the Tel Aviv convention center, Netanyahu told the Central Committee members that "we believe that we can take the country out of the mud, we can take a different road."  
At a press conference Monday, MK Shalom slammed Netanyahu for the decision to push up the primaries without enabling the other candidates to prepare a campaign; he accused the chairman of aggressiveness and opportunism, and compared the Likud to the Syrian Baath party.  
Netanyahu's aides responded by saying that Shalom knew he would crash in the primaries, and was only looking for excuses for his withdrawal.
Original Source
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MARK WEISS, THE JERUSALEM POST  Jul. 9, 2007


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A group of 10 EU foreign ministers has called for an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling the road map peace plan dead.
In a letter to the Quartet's new Middle East envoy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the foreign ministers said the status quo that had prevailed since 2000 was leading nowhere.
Signing the letter, which was published in the French daily Le Monde on Monday, were the foreign ministers of France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Slovenia and Malta.
They called on Israel to make more concessions to boost the standing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, such as the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners including Fatah leaders, and the immediate release of all the frozen Palestinian customs duties.
A senior official in Jerusalem noted that the letter did not constitute a change in policy of either the EU or the Quartet, and both bodies remain officially committed to the road map.
The official also noted that individual European foreign ministers would sometimes state opinions on Middle East issues that actually contradicted the policy of the governments in which they serve.
Foreign Ministry spokesman ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Jul 10, 2007
Less than half Israel’s citizens have gas masks, and many masks of those who do have are out of date.
According to reports in Israel Monday, the country will not be equipped with effective protection against non-conventional attack for another two years.
Israel’s leaders, who face the threat of war virtually 24/7 in any given year, have to judge when and where to direct the resources for Israel’s defense.
While rumors remain rife, and some intelligence estimates continue to give substance to the likelihood that war could break out with Syria sometime this year, the Olmert government does not seem to be taking the threat as seriously as it might.
Sunday saw a mere NIS 100 million ($24,000) allocated to the Home Front Command for the acquisition of gas warfare protection kits.
Concerned home front officials say they will be looking into ways to acquire all necessary equipment from local or US firms in the event of an emergency.
Damascus, meanwhile, continues rattling its swords.
The Jerusalem Post reported Monday Syria is believed to have a large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
“According to the Global Security Web site, the Syrian arsenal is ...   more »

Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler: Threat to Israel and Diaspora at level unprecedented since 1938
Yaakov Lappin
The Jewish people are facing a "gathering storm" in the form of threats posed by a genocidal Iran, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and local terror cells which target Diaspora Jews, former Canadian Justice Minister and Jewish activist Irwin Cotler told a conference on the future of Jewish people in Jerusalem on Tuesday.  
The conference, organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI) attracted Jewish leaders and representatives from around the world who came to discuss strategies for ensuring Jewish continuity.  
During his address, Cotler described the current threat level to the Jewish people as being "without parallel or precedent since 1938." 
He added, however, that "2007 is not 1938. There is a Jewish State, an antidote to vulnerabilities. There are non-Jews prepared to join the Jewish people. Israel has diplomatic relations with the two emerging super powers, India and China."  
"Ahmadinejad's Iran is threat not only to Israel but to international stability, peace and security as a whole," Cotler added.  
"I do believe there is a gathering storm, but there is no inevitability about the negatives," Cotler said. ...   more »

MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. navy has sent a third aircraft carrier to its Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes Gulf waters close to Iran, the navy said on Tuesday.
"Enterprise (aircraft carrier) provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries, as well as support our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan," a U.S. Navy statement said.
The move comes weeks after a flotilla of U.S. warships sailed through the narrowest point in the Gulf to hold exercises off Iran's coast in a major show of force.
Tension over Tehran's nuclear ambitions has raised regional fears of a military confrontation. Recent U.S. naval presence in the Gulf has been the largest since the 2003 Iraq war.
The Fifth Fleet area of operations includes the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.
Original Source
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Predicting that sanctions will ultimately fail to stop Teheran's nuclear program, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of Military Intelligence's Research Division, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that time to launch an effective military strike against Iran's nuclear installations was running out.
According to Kuperwasser, who stepped down from his post last year, Iran is "very close" to the point that it will cross the technological threshold and have the capability to enrich uranium at an industrial level. Once they master the technology, the Iranians will have the ability to manufacture a nuclear device within two to three years, he added.
"The program's vulnerability to a military operation is diminishing as time passes," Kuperwasser said, "and they are very close to the point that they will be able to enrich uranium at an industrial level."
Report: Iranian general providing top intel. to US
In an article entitled "Halting Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program: Iranian Vulnerabilities and Western Policy Options" published this week by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs - run by former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dr. Dore Gold - Kuperwasser spells out what he believes is the only course of action that will stop Iran's race to ...   more »

By Bob Unruh
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul
Presidential candidate Ron Paul says unless U.S. policies are changed, a conflict with Iran is "about as inevitable as you can expect."
Paul, a Texas Republican congressman who espouses libertarian ideals, told WND in an exclusive question-and-answer session that people need to understand that such a conflict would be just one more result of a long history of U.S. intervention in actions in the Middle East.
"I think if our policies don't change it's about as inevitable as you can expect because we're unwilling to talk to them and every week we're passing more sanctions and rules and intimidations and accusations and provocations," he said.
"We're surrounding Iran and there's very, very little understanding of that history, the American people don't know how we have been involved since 1953 in interfering with their government and it has hurt us," Paul said. "We're failing in Iraq and our government would like to have a distraction from that so they are blaming the Iranians."
He said that's why "the war propaganda is building."
"I don't think we'll have an old-fashioned invasion but, you know, when you put blockades around a country and people suffer from ...   more »

America's deep-seated sensitivity about the privacy rights of its citizens is being challenged in New York where police want to set up a London-style "ring of steel" to protect the city against terrorism.
Officials say that 116 licence-plate reading cameras will have been installed in Lower Manhattan by the end of the year, the initial phase of a $90 million (£45 million) surveillance programme that will be the first in the United States.
The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative will resemble the security surrounding the City of London, with cameras and pivoting gates at key intersections that could isolate suspicious vehicles. The usefulness of CCTV cameras in helping police track the movements of the July 7 London bombers and the terrorism suspects last month impressed many US police chiefs who previously had reservations about introducing them.
Raymond Kelly, the police commissioner of New York City, said Lower Manhattan, which includes the Wall Street financial district, was "very critical to the lifeblood of this nation … we want to make it less vulnerable".
Under the plan, 3,000 surveillance cameras would be installed below Canal Street by the end of next year, some of them owned by local businesses. Critics believe the NYPD ...   more »

The true extent to which the ocean bed is dotted with volcanoes has been revealed by researchers who have counted 201,055 underwater cones. This is over 10 times more than have been found before.
The team estimates that in total there could be about 3 million submarine volcanoes, 39,000 of which rise more than 1000 metres over the sea bed.
"The distribution of underwater volcanoes tells us something about what is happening in the centre of the Earth," says John Hillier of the University of Cambridge in the UK. That is because they give information about the flows of hot rock in the mantle beneath. "But the problem is that we cannot see through the water to count them," he says.
Satellites can detect volcanoes that are more than 1500 m high because the mass of the submerged mountains causes gravity to pull the water in around them. This creates domes on the ocean's surface that can be several metres high and can be detected from space.
Data overload
But there is a multitude of small volcanoes that have gone undetected. The only way of identifying them is to manually find their outline on sonar measurements taken from ships.
Since ...   more »

While tension is mounting in the Golan Heights and senior defense officials are warning of the possibility of imminent war with Syria, less than 50 percent of the population will have their gas masks renewed by the end of the year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The cabinet on Sunday decided to cut NIS 480 million from the overall defense budget - mostly from administrative expenses - and instead redirect the funds to the Home Front Command and for defense procurement.
What price might Israel pay for a preemptive attack on Iran?
In total, the defense establishment received in Sunday's decision NIS 400 million for procurement of new weaponry and military platforms as well as NIS 344m. for the home front, out of which NIS 110m. is designated for the renewal of gas masks.
Syria is believed to have a large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons. According to the Global Security Web site, the Syrian arsenal is comprised mostly of large amounts of Sarin and mustard gas and is reportedly producing and weaponizing VX. The US, the report says, has estimated Syria to possess several hundred liters of chemical weapons with hundreds of tons of agents produced annually.
Acknowledging ...   more »

Syrian official threatens 'resistance' by September, warns Damascus preparing for large-scale conflict
Aaron Klein,
If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights b y August- September, Syrian fighters will immediately launch "resistance operations" against Jewish communities in the Golan Heights , a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told WND.  
The Baath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said Damascus was preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following these attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September. He said Syria ha d the capabilit y of firing "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv.  
"Syria passed repeated messages to the US that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the Golan Heights)," the Baath official said from Damascus.  
The Baath official said a new group called the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights ha d been training and was ready to mount attacks against Jewish communities in the Golan in August or ...   more »

By Aaron Klein
Syrian President Bashar Assad
GOLAN HEIGHTS – If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights before September, Syrian guerrillas will immediately launch "resistance operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities, a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told WND.
The Baath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said Damascus is preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerrilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September. He said in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capabilities of firing "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv.
"Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the Golan Heights)," the Baath official said.
The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on Israeli population centers captured by Israel after Syria twice used the territory to attack the Jewish state.
The Baath official said a new purported guerrilla group called the Committees for the Liberation of the ...   more »

Syria calls on citizens to evacuate Lebanon, reports say; Expert: Civil war possible
Yaakov Lappin
Syria has called on its citizens to leave Lebanon ahead of an expected "eruption" in that country, Arab and Iranian press reports have said. 
The media reports were translated and made available by MEMRI in a special dispatch on Sunday.  
"In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said.  
July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border, in order monitor the ongoing illegal cross border arms traffic to Hizbullah, thought to be originating from Iran and Syria.  
The UN Security Council is also expected to meet next week to discuss a key report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a development which may bode badly for Syria.  
"On July 5, 2007, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Syrian authorities had instructed all Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon to return to their country by ...   more »

BAGHDAD: Turkey has massed 140,000 soldiers on its border with northern Iraq but so far there has been no violations, Iraq's foreign minister said Monday.
The Turkish military had no comment to the remarks by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, and it was unclear where he got the figures.
If they were accurate, Turkey would have nearly as many soldiers along its border with Iraq as the 155,000 troops which the U.S. has in the country.
Zebari's comments came amid calls by Turkey's military for the government to give it the green light to carry out military operations in northern Iraqi against the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
"Turkey is building up forces on the border. There are 140,000 soldiers fully armed on the border. We are against any military interference or violation of Iraqi sovereignty," Zebari said during a news conference in Baghdad.
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Turkey has been pressuring the United States and Iraq to eliminate PKK bases in Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Iraq and has said it's ready to stage a cross-border offensive if ...   more »