Ahmadinejad boosted by NY visit?

Ahmadinejad a Hero for Arabs -Jeffrey Fleishman

Iranian President Ahmadinejad has transcended national and religious divides to become a folk hero across the Middle East.

Ahmadinejad's appeal is especially strong in Egypt, where he is compared to the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose bold, yet doomed, vision of pan-Arabism in the 1950s was also aimed at stemming Western influence.

What's striking in Ahmadinejad's case, is that the leader of a non-Arab Shiite nation has ingratiated himself with the Middle East's predominantly Sunni Arab population.
(Los Angeles Times)

The "power of weakness"

A Ritual Move in a Virtual Process -Amir Oren

Abbas is a continuation of Arafat in his exploitation of the power of weakness.

The more Abbas is weakened, the more Rice is willing to give him, at Israel's expense, so he won't get lost entirely.

The result is a shelving of the staged approach at the heart of the "road map"...

(Ha'aretz)

Abbas outdoes Hamas

Abbas' Morality Police Enforce Ramadan -Dalia Nammari

A new squad of morality police has begun detaining Palestinians in the West Bank who eat or drink in public during Ramadan.

The sudden deployment of Ramadan police was unexpected in Ramallah, the most cosmopolitan and well-to-do of the Palestinian cities.

Morality police Lt. Murad Qendah got a radio call telling him a suspect had been spotted in the street imbibing a soft drink. Police spokesman said police have arrested at least 50 alleged public morality offenders in Ramallah since the start of Ramadan.

Hamas has imposed no Ramadan patrol of its own in Gaza...
(AP)

Military strategy works

It's Possible to Defeat Terrorism -Amos Harel & Avi Issacharoff

It's common to claim it is impossible to defeat terrorism. But the IDF and the Shin Bet have reached the closest possible point to achieving a victory.

Since the beginning of the year, two soldiers and six Israeli citizens were killed as a result of terrorism. At the high point of the intifada, 450 Israelis were killed in 2002. The last suicide bombing in central Israel occurred 18 months ago, in April 2006.

The winning formula is a combination of aggressive intelligence-gathering by the Shin Bet, the obstacle created by the separation fence, and the complete freedom of operations granted to the IDF in the Palestinian cities.
(Ha'aretz)

The "Nonexistent" Military Solution? -Evelyn Gordon

In March 2002, Israel reconquered the West Bank in Operation Defensive Shield - and Israeli fatalities dropped dramatically, that year and every year thereafter.

In 1993, many Israelis hoped that a peace agreement would end terror. Fourteen years later, after having suffered more fatalities from Palestinian terror post-Oslo than during the entire preceding 45 years, most Israelis have concluded that the allegedly nonexistent military solution does a much better job of protecting their lives.

[U]ntil there is concrete evidence of Palestinian willingness and ability to do the job as well or better, there will be no Israeli majority for any deal with the PA.
(Jerusalem Post)

Torrid Terror

Allegations fly in Fatah-Hamas conflict -Khaled Abu Toameh

The Hamas-Fatah power struggle has descended into the gutter, with both parties trading allegations about the involvement of their members in homosexual relations and adultery.

A DVD distributed among Hamas representatives features a former PA official having sex with another man. The disc, according to a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City, is being sold on the black market...

According to one document, “[s]ome of them had individual sex, while others preferred group sex. Some of them paid money for sex, while others performed sexual intercourse with males in front of their wives.”

According to Fatah, a Hamas imam was recently caught having sex with a male minor in a mosque basement...a Hamas man was caught naked together with his neighbor’s wife in her bedroom.
[Jerusalem Post]

Glick bites Bollinger

Columbia's choice, and ours -Caroline Glick

[B]y inviting Ahmadinejad to campus, Columbia has made the pros and cons of genocide a legitimate subject for debate. By asking Ahmadinejad challenging questions, Bollinger has reduced the right of the Jewish people to live to a question of preferences.

No doubt, Bollinger prefers to see the Jewish people remain alive. But this is beside the point. The point is that by debating the issue with Ahmadinejad, Bollinger just put the right of the Jewish people to exist on the table.

[B]y inviting Ahmadinejad to its campus, Columbia University announced that supporting or opposing the genocide of the Jews is a legitimate topic for discussion. In so doing, Columbia has taken itself beyond the pale of legitimate discourse.

As an institution, Columbia has embraced depravity...
[Jerusalem Post]











Caroline Glick, a Columbia graduate

Evasion

Columbia President Stuns Ahmadinejad with Blunt Rebuke -Annie Karni

President Lee Bollinger of Columbia, in a dramatic speech, delivered an oratorical haymaker to President Ahmadinejad, attacking his record on human rights, Israel, and terrorism in remarks that will likely overshadow anything the Iranian might say during his diplomatic rounds in America.

"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said, after challenging the Iranian to admit a delegation from Columbia to speak at an Iranian university.

Many audience members expressed some disappointment, if not surprise, that Ahmadinejad evaded answering almost every question posed to him...

When asked if he sought the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, Ahmadinejad said many Jews live in Iran peacefully and with security. "We love all nations. We are friends with the Jewish people," Ahmadinejad said.

When pressed for a "yes" or "no" answer, he prickled. "You asked the question and then you want the answer the way you want to hear it - that isn't really a free flow of information," he said.
(New York Sun)

Redux: Hosting evil

No red lines at Columbia University -Shmuley Boteach

The invitation by Columbia University to Ahmadinejad of Iran brings one of America's foremost institutions of higher learning into disrepute.

Columbia's president defended the invitation as being in keeping with "Columbia's long-standing tradition of robust debate." [T]hat is nonsense.

Does anyone seriously believe that Columbia would invite a politician or scholar who denied that American slavery took place, or alleged that its effects on African-Americans was benign or exaggerated? Would Columbia host a Grand Wizard of the KKK who called for African nations to be wiped off the map?

It is time for the world to boldly sound the clarion call of a new generation: No tolerance for intolerance.

When I read about the Holocaust, I often ask myself how the world allowed Hitler to rise to prominence. But in light of Ahmadinejad being invited to speak at Columbia University, I now get it.
[Jerusalem Post]

Columbia Dean: We Would Welcome Hitler

"If Hitler were in the United States and he were willing to engage in debate and a discussion, to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him," said John Coatsworth, dean of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
(New York Sun)

Feeding the Beast while UN shields Gaza

Israel Retaliates -Marty Peretz

A short while ago a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza wounded some 60 soldiers in training, only a bit after another rocket had hit a school with children in it.

Israel has now decided to cut off fuel and electrical power from Gaza. Not water, mind you...[but] Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the UN, says that this would violate international law. What international law? There isn't any that prohibits such action in these circumstances.

When does a country, which is attacked daily, supply an enemy population with provisions necessary to carry out aggressive action?
(New Republic)

Completing disengagement

IDF Plans Total Separation from Gaza -Yaakov Katz

Now that Israel has defined Gaza as "hostile territory," the IDF is working on a proposal for a "complete disengagement" - involving the closure of all border crossings with Israel and the transfer of all responsibility over the Palestinian territory to Egypt.

While Israel removed its military positions and settlements from Gaza in 2005, it has maintained a certain level of responsibility for the Palestinian population there, including coordinating the activities of humanitarian organizations...

According to the proposal, Israel would completely disconnect from Gaza by closing the Erez, Karni, Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossings and directing humanitarian organizations to work with Egypt.
(Jerusalem Post)

Secret details emerging on Syria strike

Shock Waves from Syria -Editorial

It is beginning to look as if Israel may have carried out the boldest act of nuclear preemption since its own 1981 raid against Iraq's Osirak nuclear complex.

(Washington Post)


VIDEOBITE
The title-link below will take you to an excellent 2 minute video clip, giving previously secret details of this amazing operation:
Video: Israel Bombs Secret Syrian Nuclear Facility
(Infolive.tv)

Syria Nuclear Program Since 1986 -Benny Avni

A former Syrian military officer who has had access to sensitive military information confirmed that Syria has been working on a clandestine nuclear program since 1986. He said many North Korean nationals are in Syria in relation to that program.

He claimed that Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan has visited Syria several times since 1989...
(New York Sun)


Reckoning with Syria -Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

[U]nconventional Syrian weapons transfers to Islamist terrorists are an ever-present danger. America cannot vacillate in the face of Syria's ominous behavior.

The U.S. and its allies must act promptly and effectively to neutralize the Syrian menace and target Syria's wherewithal to continue such destructive polices.
(New York Sun)

Hosting evil

Ahmadinejad in New York -Editorial

[T]he bizarre request of President Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at ground zero has been put to rest once and for all...[but] next week, Columbia University is planning to host on its campus the Iranian leader who denies the Holocaust, is pursuing a nuclear weapon, and calls for Israel to be destroyed.
(New York Sun)

Abbas kicks sand in US' face

Abbas Not Interested in U.S. Peace Conference -Khaled Abu Toameh

Mahmoud Abbas and his top aides in Ramallah are no longer interested in attending the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in November.

The shift in the PA's position is largely attributed to Abbas' failure to persuade the majority of the Arab countries to take part.
(Jerusalem Post)

Another terror doc?

Armed Hizbullah Sympathizer Arrested in Michigan -Niraj Warikoo

Houssein Zorkot, 26, the son of Lebanese immigrants and a third-year medical student at Wayne State University, was arrested in a Dearborn park, armed with an AK47 automatic rifle.
A website he created displays his sympathies for Hizbullah.
(Detroit Free Press)

UPDATE:

Scottish Student Guilty in Terror Case -David Stringer
A jury at Glasgow found Mohammed Atif Siddique, 21, a Scottish college student, guilty of four terrorism offenses Monday.

Siddique had stored and posted guides to bomb-making, guns and explosives on a network of Web sites, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyer Aamer Anwar claimed Siddique was merely conducting research into his religion.
(AP)

Redux: Palestinian Joy

Palestinian Authority Celebrates 9/11 again -Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook

The PA celebrated the World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily, that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks.

Th[e] cartoon shows Bin Laden smiling while making the victory sign with two fingers in the shape of the burning Twin Towers.

The PA daily is owned and controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas. The U.S. continues to fund the PA and to support it politically, while ignoring the continued promotion of Palestinian hate against the U.S.
(Palestinian Media Watch)

The move on Syria

Syria, Nukes and Deterrence -Elliot Chodoff

As the cloud of secrecy continues to hover over the Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike against Syria some ten days ago, a number of conclusions may be drawn from the event...

[I]t is unlikely the IAF strike was aimed at arms shipments to Hizbullah. While these...are both a violation of UN resolutions and a threat to Israel's security, it is highly unlikely that Israel would commit aircraft to such an operation deep in Syria.

Syria, having acquired and deployed an extremely dense array of Russian antiaircraft weaponry, was shown to be incapable of preventing the IAF from reaching its target and returning home safely.

[T]he objective of the strike was not to send messages to either Syria or Iran. Israel has a rather well developed telephone network for that purpose. If the North Koreans feel that they have lost something in the operation, and we presume that their protests are not referring to the "cement" listed as cargo on the ship from that country that docked in Syria days before the strike, it would seem that the axis of evil -Iran, Syria, and North Korea- is still alive and kicking.

The strike was meant to destroy a target of strategic importance, and it succeeded. [T]here is now one less [threat] to concern ourselves with for the time being. Maintaining national security is an ongoing, endless task.

If a message is to be understood from the operation, it is to the West: pay attention ladies and gentlemen, this is how it's done. Again.
[Mideast: On Target]

UPDATE:

Nuclear Suspicions Linked to Raid in Syria -Mark Mazzetti & Helene Cooper

American and Israeli officials who have received briefings from Israeli sources said that the raid was an attempt by Israel to destroy a site that Israel believed to be associated with a rudimentary Syrian nuclear program.
[New York Times]

Everything old is new again

Anti-Semitism Rises Again -Victor Davis Hanson

The latest anti-Semitism is also now mouthed by world leaders and sophisticated politicians and academics. Their loathing often masquerades as "anti-Zionism" or "legitimate" criticism of Israel. But the venom exclusively reserved for the Jewish state betrays their existential hatred.

Mass murdering in Cambodia, the Congo, Rwanda, and Darfur has earned far fewer condemnation[s] than supposed atrocities committed by Israel.

For many abroad, attacking Jews and Israel is an indirect way of damning its main ally, the United States - by implying that Americans are not entirely evil, just hoodwinked by those sneaky and far more evil Jews.
(Washington Times)

Brits Hug Hamas

Engaged to Hamas
-Melanie Phillips

In Britain, the number of voices insistently urging "engagement" [of] Hamas has made such a proposition respectable.

[T]he "engagement" rationale appears to mean that we should talk to tyrants simply because they have won power, a doctrine which effectively holds that power confers legitimacy, however illegitimately it has been pursued.

It is hard to imagine an argument that hands terror a greater victory.
(Jerusalem Post)

A message for Iran

Iran Policy -Helene Cooper

An Israeli airstrike in Syria last week kicked up speculation in the Iranian press that Israel, in alliance with the United States, was really trying to send a message to Iran that it could strike Iranian nuclear facilities if it chose to.

“If I were the Iranians, what I’d be freaked out about is that the other Arab states didn’t protest” the airstrike, said George Perkovich, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The Arab world nonreaction is a signal to Iran, that Arabs aren’t happy with Iran’s power and influence...
[New York Times]


Sources Confirm Israeli Airstrike on Syria

The strike may have targeted Hizbullah weapons coming into Syria or transiting through the country from Iran, according to sources in the region and in the U.S.

Sources said the military operation may have also involved Israeli ground forces who directed the airstrike... The Israeli government is very happy with the success of the operation, the sources said.

Sources in the U.S. government and military confirmed that the airstrike did happen, and that they are happy to have Israel carry the message to both Syria and Iran that they can get in and out and strike when necessary.
(CNN)

Israel Eyes Possible Nuclear Installations in Syria -Mark Mazzetti & Helene Cooper

One administration official said Israel carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading nuclear material on Syria.
(New York Times)

The Airstrike in Syria Is a Secret that Cannot Be Kept -Amos Harel & Avi Issacharoff

The Syrians are not talking about the "strategic" target that was bombed in their territory - according to the Lebanese press.
(Ha'aretz)

Barak sounds tougher

"Every Palestinian Rocket Should Carry a Price" -Barak Ravid

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that every Palestinian rocket fired at Israel from Gaza should carry a price: "We'll announce that every Kassam is an hour of [electrical] blackout."

"That way, whoever launches the Kassam knows he's cutting the power."
(Ha'aretz)

Singing tolerance

Symbol of hope in Muslim world -Mona Charen

Ahmad Dhani, a devout Muslim and Indonesia's leading pop star, has a tune that topped the charts called "Warriors of Love."

The lyrics are derived from the Koran: "If hatred has already poisoned you against those...who worship differently, then evil has already gripped your soul, then evil's got you in its damning embrace."

Dhani is a soldier in the culture war within Islam. With 190 million people, Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country - but its religious culture is far more tolerant and humane than that of many other Muslim lands. (Washington Times)

More Palestinian joy

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad supporter distributes sweets in Gaza City as he celebrates the rocket attack on an Israeli army base,
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Bruce's Note:
This is reminiscent of similar celebrations held by Palestinians on September 11th, 2001.
View the video at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4XGyc8tAuk&mode=related&search
[Hat tip: Little Green Footballs]

UPDATE:

Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues, 40 Remain Hospitalized after Rocket Attack on Army Base
-Shmulik Hadad

Forty soldiers remained hospitalized overnight following the attack on the Zikim army base Tuesday morning, out of which one soldier was severely wounded, seven were moderately wounded, and 32 suffered mild injuries. Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the attack, celebrated in its mosques in Gaza, using loud speakers to announce the number of casualties.
(Ynet News)

Bin Laden in poor health?

White House Adviser Calls Bin Laden 'Virtually Impotent'

Al Qaeda terror network leader Usama bin Laden is a "man on the run" who has demonstrated in his latest videotape release that he is "virtually impotent," the White House's chief homeland security adviser said Sunday.

[FOX News]

[Hat tip: Cox & Forkum]

Rethinking Palestinian joy

Rethinking the Local Nuclear Option -Yoram Getzler

It is one thing for the Palestinians to have cheer[ed] while viewing Iraqi missiles falling on Tel Aviv. It is another issue if the missiles are carrying nuclear war heads.

In that case I would advise them to view the event on cable or satellite TV, and to celebrate from within deeply buried, well stocked and sturdy bomb shelters.

No doubt the Iranians will arrive sooner or later to rescue them.

[IsraelSeen.com]

More than cutting the wires

Cut Gaza's Electric Power? -Daniel Pipes

[S]ix years ago, I called for shutting off utilities to the Palestinian Authority as well as a host of other measures, such as permitting no transportation in the PA of people or goods beyond basic necessities, implementing the death penalty against murderers, and razing villages from which attacks are launched.

Then and now, such responses have two benefits: First, they send a strong deterrent signal "Hit us and we will hit you back much harder" thereby reducing the number of attacks in the short term. Second, they impress Palestinians with the Israeli will to survive, and so bring closer their eventual acceptance of the Jewish state.

As for the inevitable objection that tough measures will generate ill-will toward Israel, the reply is easy: back when the IDF did deploy deterrent tactics, the country enjoyed a much higher standing internationally. Since 1993, its weakness has earned it not just scorn but also heightened hostility.

[Jerusalem Post]


The Imperatives of War -Caroline Glick

The Palestinians have good reasons to continue their attacks.
[A]ttacks guarantee continued Iranian, Syrian, Egyptian and Saudi military and financial support...

By maintaining their offensive they daily portray the government and the IDF as impotent. Israeli society, in turn, is demoralized and its demoralization prolongs the paralysis of the IDF and the government.

The IDF must take the western Negev out of rocket range by conquering northern Gaza. It must cut off the Palestinians' supply lines by retaking control over Gaza's border with Egypt. And the IDF must establish a two-kilometer-wide security zone within Gaza along its border with Israel to prevent terrorist infiltrations.
[Jerusalem Post]

Laughing at the MidEast

Arab Satire Slaps Anti-America Reflex
-Youssef Ibrahim

The brilliant Egyptian playwright Ali Salem, the Arab world's equivalent to Neil Simon, [described] in a cute essay how Arabs are programmed to oppose anything America says or does.

Secretary of State Rice ends a fictitious press conference somewhere in the perpetually angry Middle East by sighing that, when all is said and done, "The sun shall again rise in the east." A crisis immediately ensues.

A talk show host at an Arab network launches an instant survey inviting viewers to respond to the question, "Does the sun indeed rise in the east as the Americans assert?" Within minutes, the network reports that 89% have responded with an assertive "no," and 5% of the viewers said "yes."

In the following days, airwaves from Cairo to Riyadh buzz with weighty analyses of Rice's true intent: American politicians, many note, never speak of the sun nor the moon nor the weather without ulterior motives. In Saudi Arabia, one bearded and disheveled-looking blind sage opines that the American infidels are planning to block the sun from ever again rising from the "Muslim East." With mounting emotion, he calls for jihad against "all American science."

In the Egyptian Parliament, one member of President Mubarak's majority National Assembly Party says, "Just because the Americans give us a couple of billion dollars a year does not mean they can tell us where the sun rises."

Ali Salem's opposition to Arab dictators, rotten regimes, and faux militancy has long been a hallmark of his humorous plays and film scripts. It has not earned him friends in high places, but to judge from his immense commercial success, it seems he speaks for a silent majority.
(New York Sun)

"Economic Miracle"

Israel's Economic Miracle -Amotz Asa-El

An economic miracle has turned the Jewish state into the developed world's fastest-growing economy.

Israel's lack of natural resources, like Japan's, was a blessing, as it forced it to seek wealth in human brains rather than natural resources. The bottom line of all this is that there are ways to thrive in the Middle East, even without oil.

It would help if objective parties, such as the EU and UN, would tell Arab governments that their economic condition is self-inflicted and treatable; all they need to do is look at Israel a little less emotionally and learn from its efforts.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Military analysis of Gaza move

Strike Gaza now -Ron Ben-Yishai

[I]f it doesn't embark on a large-scale Gaza operation now, Israel may end up doing it in the near future, but under much worse conditions.

[A] lethal attack on Sderot would force the IDF to embark on such operation hastily, for example... Also, the international conditions, during the [planned November, US sponsored] peace conference or after it, would portray Israel as the party attempting to disrupt Washington's peace efforts.

In light of all this, we should start getting the move underway.
[Ynet News]

The Heart & Soul of Israel

Why Is the Temple Mount So Important? -Dr. Gabriel Barkay

The Temple Mount is the heart, soul, and spirit of the Jewish people. It is the only holy place that Jews have.

This is the place believed to be the site of the binding of Isaac. This is the place where David built the altar... This is the place where the First and Second Temple[s] w[ere] built. This is the place of the third edifice built on the site by King Herod the Great - the building so frequently mentioned in the New Testament.

The Temple Mount represents the Near Eastern conflict in a nutshell and whatever happens to the Temple Mount will happen to the rest of the country. If the Temple Mount is under Palestinian rule and there is no accessibility for Jews to the Temple Mount and no control on the antiquities discovered there, that means that the legitimacy of Jews in the entire country is questioned.

The gigantic stones of the Temple Mount are mentioned in the New Testament: Jesus was brought to the Temple Mount as an infant, and later in his career he chased away the money changers from the Temple Mount. There are approximately twenty references to the Temple Mount in the New Testament and beyond any doubt the Temple Mount is an integral part of the Christian heritage.

I am amazed that there was a world outcry concerning the blowing up of the statues of Buddha by the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, while the destruction on the Temple Mount didn't hit the media and there was no outrage expressed.
(One Jerusalem)

Ancient honey

3,000-Year-Old Beehives Found in Israel -Matti Friedman

Archeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old honey industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found.

The findings include 30 intact hives dating to around 900 BCE... The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay, have a hole at one end to allow the bees in and out and a lid on the other end to allow beekeepers access to the honeycombs inside. They were found in orderly rows, three high, in a room that could have accommodated around 100 hives. The Bible repeatedly refers to Israel as a "land of milk and honey."
(AP/Washington Post)

Hamas hits Sderot hard

Israel May Cut Gaza Power, Water in Response to Rocket Attacks

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon on Tuesday threatened to cut electricity, water and fuel supplies into Gaza if militants in the Hamas-ruled territory continued to fire rockets into Israel.

On Monday a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza exploded near a nursery school in the Israeli town of Sderot.
(AFP)


Sderot Father: "I Thought I Would Die on the Spot" - Shelly Paz

"We heard that the fifth Kassam [rocket] fell at the day care center. I thought I would die on the spot," said Meir Ben-Zikri, Idan's father.

He raced to the scene, where he found shocked teachers and other horrified parents. "Children were crying and there was a lot of glass all over the place," said Meir.
(Jerusalem Post)


Waiting for Babies to Die Is No Strategy -Amir Mizroch

Imagine if, God forbid, 12 children had been killed Monday in the rocket attack on a Sderot kindergarten instead of "just" being sent to Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital and treated for shock.

Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit said, "Our strategy should be one of offense, not defense...
(Jerusalem Post)

Possible plan

Pentagon Three-Day Blitz Plan for Iran -Sarah Baxter

The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians' military capability in three days.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said that U.S. military planners were not preparing for "pinprick strikes" against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They're about taking out the entire Iranian military," he said.
(Sunday Times-UK)

Victory in terror war

Militants Are Driven From Refugee Camp -Nada Bakri

The Lebanese Army wrested a Palestinian refugee camp from the control of Islamic militants, ending three months of fierce fighting that took more than 300 lives and transfixed Lebanon.

The surprise end to the camp standoff came when about 70 militants tried to escape at dawn...

It was unclear why the group, Fatah al Islam, made up of radical Sunnis inspired by Al Qaeda, chose Sunday to attempt its breakout. The remaining fighters were thought to be running out of ammunition and food.

President Émile Lahoud said the army “has achieved what superpowers could not in confronting terrorism.”

[New York Times]