Watchman Newsletter

Egypt intercepts shipment of missiles

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (August 28, 2010)

Egyptian authorities intercepted a shipment of at least 190 anti-aircraft missiles in Sinai probably destined for Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian news Agency Ma’an reported.

According to the report, the Egyptian police raided several storage areas in the area and discovered the secret cache hidden in a remote region in the center of the peninsula.

In addition to the anti-aircraft missiles, rockets and other ammunition were seized, as well as a large supply of illegal drugs.

Reports also stated that authorities raided several locations in Rafah, where they found more stores of explosives and weapons.

Report: Israel planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots in Syria

Haaretz (Link) - Jack Khoury (August 28, 2010)

Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported on Saturday.

The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas.

The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel’s intentions to carry out operations in the area.

According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets.

The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007.

According to the report, Syria’s military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria.

Guard troops to deploy to Arizona border on Monday

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Amanda Lee Myers (August 27, 2010)

The first of 532 National Guard troops are set to begin their mission in the southern Arizona desert on Monday under President Barack Obama’s plan to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security, although they won’t have any law enforcement authority.

About 30 troops will start their jobs on the border Monday, and waves of more troops will be deploying every Monday until all 532 are expected to be on the Arizona border by the end of September. In May, Obama ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to boost security along the border.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said the first of 224 National Guard troops allocated for his state have finished their training and are expected to be deployed to the state’s border on Wednesday.

Troops in New Mexico were in different stages of training and don’t yet know when they’ll be deployed on the border. A Texas National Guard spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

The troops will be “extra eyes and ears” for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, and though they will have guns for self-defense, they will not have the authority to arrest anyone, said Arizona National Guard spokesman Lt. Valentine Castillo.

He said if troops spot illegal immigrants, they must report them to the Border Patrol, whose agents would make the arrest.

Mexican massacre investigator found dead

Guardian UK (Link) - Jo Tuckman (August 27, 2010)

The body of an official investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants killed in a ranch in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas was found today dumped beside a nearby road alongside another unidentified victim, according to local media.

Earlier, two cars exploded outside the studios of the national TV network Televisa in the state capital, Ciudad Victoria. There were no casualties, but the blasts added to a growing sense of fear in the aftermath of the worst single act of violence in the country’s raging drug wars.

Meanwhile, investigators under armed guard continued the process of identifying the victims, with 20 named by midday on Friday, local officials said.

The migrants, 14 of them women, came from at least four countries, including Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil and Ecuador. They were found bound and blindfolded by the wall of a barn after navy personnel stormed the ranch on Tuesday.

The massacre was discovered after an Ecuadorian migrant, who had been left for dead with a neck wound, escaped. Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, 18, found his way to a navy road checkpoint.

‘Israel ready to destroy LAF in 4 hours’

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (August 27, 2010)

The US warned Lebanon that if it did not prevent any recurrence of the border-fire incident that occurred earlier this month, the IDF would destroy the Lebanese Armed Forces within four hours, Israel Radio cited a report by Lebanese newspaper A-Liwaa on Friday.

According to the report, Frederick Hoff, assistant to US Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell, told Lebanese Army chief of staff Jean Kahwaji that Israel was ready to implement a plan to destroy within four hours all Lebanese military infrastructure, including army bases and offices, should a similar confrontation occur in the future.

IDF Lt.-Col. (res.) Dov Harari, 45, was killed and Capt. (res.) Ezra Lakia was seriously wounded, as well three LAF soldiers and one Lebanese journalist killed, when both sides exchanged fire after IDF soldiers attempted to cut down a tree on the Israeli side of the border.

The IDF had informed the UNIFIL peacekeeping force along the border ahead of time of the intended tree-clearing operation.

UNIFIL later confirmed that the IDF troops were on the Israeli side of the border when the incident occurred, contradicting LAF claims that Lebanese sniper fire directed at the Israeli troops had been justified by an incursion upon Lebanese territory.

Weak GDP raises stakes for Obama, Fed

Los Angeles Times (Link) - Jim Puzzanghera (August 26, 2010)

The widening consensus that the U.S. economy has slowed to a crawl will be hammered home Friday with the government’s expected announcement that the nation’s second-quarter growth was far more anemic than previously estimated.

Many economists believe the Commerce Department will revise its estimate of growth in gross domestic product to 1.3% or lower, down from 2.4% — a dismal performance, especially as the country struggles to rebound from recession.

A bad GDP number would cap a week’s worth of troubling developments in the housing and financial markets, and ratchet up the pressure on President Obama and congressional Democrats heading into November’s midterm elections.

But just as there is widespread agreement that the economy is faltering, there is also a sense that the federal government is running out of options to rebuild momentum.

“Housing is in the tank. Confidence is going down. The stock market is going down. It’s hard to imagine how consumers will spend,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Cal State Channel Islands and former chief economist for Wells Fargo.

He put the probability that economic growth will slide back into negative territory — a double-dip recession — at “40% and going up.”

Mexico bleeding to death

The Independent (Link) - Guy Adams (August 26, 2010)

Another 72 corpses found in a new mass grave. Feuding cartels blamed for displays of mutilated bodies. Death toll in four-year drugs war passes 28,000.

The shootout left four people dead, but that was just the beginning. As dust began to settle on a ranch in north-eastern Mexico, thought to have been owned by one of the world’s most powerful drug cartels, the battle-hardened Marines stumbled upon their first decomposing corpse.

Minutes later, they found a second, then a third. By the time troops had finished searching the remote property, roughly 90 miles from the US border, a total of 72 contorted bodies had been laid out in rows beneath the summer sunshine. The 54 men and 18 women had all been recently murdered.

A lone wounded survivor, who was left for dead but later stumbled upon a military checkpoint, told local newspapers yesterday that he and the victims were illegal migrants from Central America trying to make their way to the US. They had been taken hostage by the Zetas, a gang of drug-runners who have recently taken to kidnapping and human trafficking. The Ecuadorian man said his group was taken to a ranch by gunmen and shot after they refused to pay ransoms.

Senior Iranian Officer: Dimona is a Target

Israel National News (Link) (August 26, 2010)

An anonymous senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was quoted by the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Thursday as threatening a number of targets if his country’s nuclear facilities are attacked. He said any attack, regardless of the source, would result in a massive launching of missiles against Israel, including its nuclear core near the southern city of Dimona.

The officer also said the Islamic Republic has thousands of missiles, which it will use to destroy the oil cities of its neighbors if they are used as a platform for an attack. He said the Patriot anti-missile system Kuwait purchased from the United States would not protect it.

France exploring tax harmonisation with Germany

EU Observer (Link) - Valentina Pop (August 26, 2010)

France is looking to bring its fiscal system closer to that of Germany, French budget minister Francois Baroin has said after visiting his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble.

“Germany is a model which should be a source of inspiration for us. The political consensus in the German society on reducing the deficits is quite spectacular,” Mr Baroin said Wednesday (25 August), Les Echos reports.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy intends to accelerate the harmonisation of both fiscal systems, on corporate as well as personal income taxes, the minister added.

Mr Sarkozy has requested the French court of auditors to issue a report looking at areas of fiscal convergence with the German system. The report is due by the end of the year, but a pre-report will be published at the end of September.

Is Iraq About to Fall to Iran?

The Trumpet (Link) - Joel Hilliker (August 25, 2010)

Iraq is headless, and America is leaving.

Since 2003, the U.S. has sacrificed over 4,400 of its soldiers and spent over a trillion dollars in Iraq. What is there to show for these enormous costs?

Iraq is bedlam. Violence continues to percolate. July was the country’s deadliest month since May 2008. Five and a half months after elections, a government still has not formed. In the meantime, the prime minister has agreed not to make any major decisions about Iraq’s future.

This is a shell of a country. Ripe for conquest.

This was the nation that once held Khomeini’s Iran—and the spread of the Islamic Revolution—in check. Then its dictator was ousted by the U.S. Seven years on, it remains bruised, weak, divided, deep in a midlife crisis.

At one time, Washington’s hope was that Baghdad would end up with a pro-American government. Now it doesn’t even have a working government.

Nonetheless, the White House is proceeding with its plan to pull out. As of last week, America’s combat operations in Iraq are officially over. The 140,000 troops there at the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency are now down to fewer than 50,000, and they are staying behind mostly to train Iraqis. These soldiers “will no longer be allowed to go on combat missions without being joined by Iraqi forces,” the Associated Press reports.

Tennenbaum’s kidnapper recruiting for Hezbollah

YNet News (Link) - Ali Waked (August 25, 2010)

The Palestinian security apparatus recently conducted a wave of arrests throughout the West Bank of current and past activists suspected of attempting to renew contact with Hezbollah in order to establish infrastructure for the organization in the area, Ynet learned on Wednesday.

A Palestinian security official reported that the Lebanese organization has made significant efforts in recent months to renew its presence in the Palestinian arena in order to carry out terror attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank and within Israeli territory.

According to the official, Kais Obeid, the man who kidnapped Israeli businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum to Lebanon, is coordinating the recruitment efforts.

The official said that Obeid has recently started contacted dozens of young adults in the West Bank in order to recruit them to Hezbollah’s ranks.

The PA estimates that the growing tensions within Lebanon, the increasing pressure on Iran, and the renewal of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians have all increased the organization’s motivation to claim a stake in the Palestinian territories. However, the source emphasized that the arrested suspects are thought to be low-level operatives with no real connection with the organization.

Hezbollah has made continual attempts in recent years to gain a foothold in the Palestinian arena. A senior IDF official said in the past that the organization is interested in violating the calm in Israel and carrying out terrorist attacks while heavily compensating others for their involvement in them.

Nasrallah: Lebanon must build nuclear reactor

YNet News (Link) - Roee Nahmias (August 24, 2010)

While a senior member of his organization was being killed, Hassan Nasrallah has his sights set on a nuclear reactor – in Lebanon. The Hezbollah secretary-general commented on the country’s electricity crisis for the first time on Tuesday and presented an original solution in a televised speech on the organization’s al-Manar channel.

Nasrallah urged the Lebanese government to draw conclusions from the current electricity crisis and follow in Iran’s footsteps and build a nuclear reactor to generate electricity like the reactor in Bushehr.

“The cost of building the Bushehr reactor was less than Lebanon’s investment in the electricity network. I call on the government to build a nuclear reactor to generate electricity, and then we can also sell energy to Syria, Cyprus, and other countries in the region,” he said.

The Hezbollah chief also commented on the Lebanese military’s armament and the recent border skirmish with Israel. “What happened in the al-Adeisa battle proved that the weapons the Americans give come with the condition that they must not be directed against Israel, but only towards internal affairs, which they call ‘the war on terror.’ Tomorrow they will condition it on fighting Hezbollah.”

In his last televised speech, given some two weeks ago, Nasrallah accused Israel of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He presented “evidence” tying Israel to the killing, as well as aerial photographs showing that Israel was allegedly tracking Hariri the days prior to his death.

U.S. warns Israel, Palestinians: Refrain from harming peace talks

Haaretz (Link) - Barak Ravid (August 24, 2010)

The Obama administration expects Israel to refrain from making any move that could potentially damage peace talks with the Palestinians once they begin, United States Middle East envoy George Mitchell has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mitchell conveyed the same message to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In recent days, Abbas has made clear that if Israel renews building in West Bank settlements, after a 10-month freeze on settlement construction on September 27, the Palestinian Authority will abandon the direct peace talks.

A senior American official well versed in the latest contacts between the U.S. and Israeli administrations refused to say whether Mitchell’s message explicitly mentioned the future of settlement building. The official said that the U.S. position on the settlements is already known and has not changed. He clarified by saying that the U.S. views Israeli settlement building as illegitimate.

Russia no longer ‘security threat’ to Turkey

Ria Novosti (Link) (August 23, 2010)

Turkey will strike four countries, including Russia, from its list of external security threats in a bid to revise the country’s national security strategy, national media reported on Monday.

The new national security strategy, the draft of which is to be considered at a National Security Council meeting in October, excludes Russia, Greece, Iran and Iraq from the so-called Red Book - a national security policy document - as “principal external threats,” the Milliyet daily said.

Turkey regards international terrorism and fundamentalism as its main external threats.

Ankara has been closely cooperating with the four former “security threats” in recent years and now regards them as its new partners.

Turkey’s relations with Russia have greatly improved since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Party of Justice and Development came to power in 2002.

The draft strategy highlights close bilateral economic cooperation with Russia, good potential in trade and energy, and “a shared vision of stability in the Caucasus.”

Report: Turkey says Iran no longer threat to its security

YNet News (Link) - AFP (August 23, 2010)

Turkey has decided to remove Iran from the list of countries threatening its national security, Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported.

According to the report, Turkish’s National Security Council is expected to approve in about two month a document stating that the Iranian regime is no longer a threat to Turkey.

Israeli official declares: ‘We’re preparing for war’

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (August 22, 2010)

While Israel is hoping for a peaceful resolution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Jewish state is also preparing for “a time of war,” declared a Knesset member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

“We are prepared for all risks,” said Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon. “And I think our enemies should know that even though we are speaking of peace, we are getting ready for a time of war, as well.”

Danon, the deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament, was speaking in a radio interview with WND senior reporter Aaron Klein, who hosts an investigative program on New York’s WABC 770 AM Radio.

Danon hinted that Israel may take action if the world does not stop the Iranian nuclear threat, recalling Israel’s lone strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.

Stated Danon: “We are ready for all scenarios, and we are able to defend our civilian population. I cannot tell you how long we can wait more. But we prefer to wait and see if the international bodies are acting, or [whether] it will be only the burden of Israel, like it was in the early ‘80s, when the great leader, Menachem Begin, [made] the great decision to bomb the nuclear reactor in Iraq.”