Libyan Rebels Collapsing

Libyan rebels are retreating to their stronghold in the eastern city of Benghazi, as Dictator Muammar Gaddafi's forces bombard isolated pockets of resistance in the towns of Misrata and Ajdabiya. The advance has prompted strong calls to impose a no-fly zone over the country, and even a U.S. reversal in support of the idea, as well as the possibility of "other measures" like air strikes to aid the beleaguered opposition forces.

France and England have been the strongest proponents of a no-fly zone. "Only the threat of force can stop Kadhafi. It is by bombarding, with the few dozen planes and helicopters he really has, his opponents' positions that the Libyan dictator has turned the balance," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe wrote on his blog on Wednesday. "We can/could neutralize his airborne means by targeted strikes… On two conditions: getting a mandate from the United Nations Security Council, the only source in international law for using force; acting not only with the support but also with the concrete participation of Arab nations."

"This second condition is in the process of being satisfied: several Arab countries have assured us that they would take part," Juppe also wrote. Lebanon's ambassador to the U.N. echoed Juppe's call, saying that a "number" of unspecified Arab countries would be willing to participate in the no-fly zone and "other measures to protect the civilian population."

The United States also recently issued statements showing an "urgency" to set up the no-fly zone and other unspecified measures to protect civilians. "We want to do what we can to protect innocent Libyans against the marauders let loose by the Kadhafi regime," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with CBS television. "For the Arab League to call for military action to protect civilians in Libya, against a member of the Arab League, was an extraordinary statement of leadership and real conviction."

Despite mounting international condemnation, the regime has pressed its advantage in recent days, ousting the opposition from key oil ports and nearly every major city in the west. Gaddafi dismissed the no-fly zone while his son Saif al-Islam told Britain's Channel 4 to "wait and see what will happen in the next two days in the east of Libya." Saif also stated that "millions" would be happy to be "liberated from dark forces." So far, government liberation has meant the use of air, land, and sea forces against Libyan towns in rebel hands.

A no-fly zone against advancing troops may not make the difference, according to some experts. "Air strikes would be needed to stop Kadhafi from encircling the city," said Gary Li, a defense expert for the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). Li also noted the regime's willingness to use artillery and ground forces, which would mean at least five to ten days to position sufficient forces to strike or surround the rebel capital of Benghazi.

More Iranian Arms Intercepted

Iran appears to be busy moving heavy weapons throughout the Middle East. A day after Israeli commandos seized a huge cache of weapons bound for Gaza come reports of two more shipments that were stopped before reaching their destinations.

Egyptian forces intercepted mortars, rocket propelled grenades, rifles and explosives that were being trucked in over Egypt's border with Sudan. The weapons were destined for Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

An inspection of an Iran Air plane forced to land at a Turkish airport uncovered weapons suspected of being tied to Iran's nuclear program. The plan was bound for Syria.

On Tuesday, Israeli commandos raided a Liberian flagged ship 200 miles off the Israeli coast, finding 50 tons of Iranian weapons including mortar shells, C-704 anti-ship missiles that have a 35 km range, radar systems and nearly 67,000 bullets for Kalashnikov rifles. The ship had sailed from Syria and stopped in Turkey before being boarded by the commandos.

The weapons were found hidden beneath containers loaded with Syrian cotton and lentils.

"Every day there are efforts by Iran, Syria and terrorist organizations to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "There is an axis of terror in our region, and we have to confront it if we want to prevent terrorism and create a chance for peace."

Acknowleding that Israel's naval blockade against Gaza draws international criticism, Netanyahu said "our answer is here today at the Ashdod port" where the shipment was unloaded and displayed.

An Iranian army commander dismissed the Israeli raid of the ship Victoria. "The Zionist regime's diet is mixed with lies, lies and more lies," said Commander-General Amir Ataollah Salehi. "We deny all false reports."

U.S. Designates Libyan Assets as Rebels Retreat

The Treasury Department designated Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa and 16 major entities owned or controlled by the Government of Libya. The effort is an attempt to isolate Libyan officials, as the government's forces crush Libyan rebels that had conquered large portions of the country.

The move freezes any U.S.-based asset of those designated, and makes it illegal for people in the United States to do business with them. The other entities targeted are part of Libya's banking, oil, aviation and investment sectors. Officials say they want to use some of the $32 million in frozen assets to help Libyan rebels. The U.S. has been more cautious about imposing a French-led no-fly zone over the North African country, a move supported by the Arab League and a strong rebel demand repeated in a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

U.S. officials nevertheless touted the action as a "strong" step against Libyan government finances. "Today's designation of Moussa Koussa builds on the strong steps taken by the United States to apply targeted, financial pressure on the Qadhafi regime," said Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. "The identification of state-owned companies furthers Libya's isolation from the U.S. financial system."

In continued fighting in Libya Tuesday, rebels lost the important town Ajdabiya along the coast to government advances, while the control of the rebel-held port of Brega remains contested. The frontline of their force is being pushed back in the direction of the rebel capital, Benghazi, as Muammar Gaddafi's forces bombard eastern cities from the air, land, and sea. U.S. officials "understand the urgency of this," Clinton said, and are looking for ways to support the opposition.

New Indictment in Zazi Case

A superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday charged fugitive Canadian citizen Ferid Imam with a variety of offenses in a plot to blow up New York subways. Ringleader Najibullah Zazi was arrested in September 2009 after driving from Colorado to New York in hopes of carrying out a "martyrdom operation" for al-Qaida.

Attorney General Eric Holder called the plot "one of the most serious terrorist threats to our nation since September 11th, 2001 … it could have been devastating."

The charges in the Eastern District of New York court include providing material support to al-Qaida; aiding and abetting the terrorist training of Zazi and co-conspirators, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin.

According to the indictment, Imam helped the three plotters receive military training from al-Qaida when they traveled to Pakistan in 2008. Zazi, Ahmedzay and Medunjanin later returned to the United States to carry out their plot of bombing American targets on behalf of the terrorist organization.

This plot was uncovered and disrupted by law enforcement authorities in September 2009. Zazi pleaded guilty to his role in the plot on Feb. 22, 2010, while Ahmedzay pleaded guilty on April 23, 2010. Canadian authorities issued similar charges against Ferid, a former Manitoba resident, Tuesday. He remains at large in Pakistan.

Israelis Seize Ship Carrying Iranian Arms

Israeli commandos intercepted a ship loaded with tons of Iranian-supplied weapons that was destined for Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, reports indicate.

The elite Naval Commando 13 unit, the Shayetet, boarded the Liberian-flagged ship Victoria 200 miles off Israel's coast in the Mediterranean Sea Tuesday. Its last port of call was in Turkey.

Haaretz reports that the cargo started in Syria, stopped in Turkey and was to arrive in Egypt's El-Arish port. From there, it would be sent by land into Gaza. Crew members apparently were unaware of the nature of their cargo, and an Israeli military official said Turkey was not responsible "in any aspect."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to release more details about the shipment in the next day. He gave the order to board the ship based on what the Jerusalem Post called "firm intelligence" it carried Iranian arms headed to Gaza.

"The attempt to smuggle weapons into Gaza shows that there are radical forces who continue to try and harm Israel and undermine stability in the region," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

It's the latest successful interception of arms shipments by Israeli commandos. This 2009 story offers more examples.

Israel Protests Reaction to Family's Slaughter

Israel is demanding that CNN apologize for "tendentious and deceptive" coverage of Friday night's brutal slaughter of five members of a family as they slept in their home in a West Bank settlement.

Authorities are unsure whether one or two terrorists apparently scaled the security fence surrounding Itamar, an Israeli West Bank settlement, forced their way into the home of Udi and Ruth Fogel and went from room to room stabbing people as they slept. The Fogels (a rabbi and a schoolteacher) and three of their children were killed. Yoav Fogel was 11. Elad was three, and their sister Hadas was just three-months-old.

An early version of a story on CNN's website carried the headline "Israeli Family of five killed in 'terror attack.'"

"Only you decided to use the term terrorist attack in quotation marks, as if this were not necessarily the case," wrote Oren Helman, director of Israel's Government Press office, in a letter to CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Kevin Flower protesting the coverage. "There is a limit to the extent of objectivity regarding such a horrific deed."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to forcefully condemn the attack in Palestinian media. Abbas did condemn the attack in an interview with Israeli radio, but Netanyahu said that

Three other Fogel children survived the attack. Tamar, a 12-year-old girl, was at a neighbor's house at the time. She discovered the carnage when she returned home. Two brothers, ages two and eight, were in a side room and were unharmed.

In an interview with Ynetnews.com, a neighbor described the aftermath, as the surviving children learned their parents and sibling dead. One of the surviving sons had blood all over his clothes. He was crying: "Where's my daddy? Where's daddy? I want my daddy," the neighbor said. "I changed his clothes, he was tired, and I cleaned the blood off his legs."

"The children were literally slaughtered," an IDF officer said, describing the scene in the Fogel house, where blood-soaked toys were strewn across the floor. "This is one of the most brutal attacks we have ever seen."

Israeli soldiers are searching for Palestinian terrorists in connection with the massacre. Relatives released gruesome photographs of the victims. Israel Today explained the family wanted "to show the world the kind of cruelty with which Jews are targeted in their homeland."

Libyan Rebels Claim Gains as Government Pushes Back

Libyan rebels claim to have retaken the important oil town of Brega, capturing elite soldiers in a rare victory after a week of setbacks at the hands of Dictator Muammar Gaddafi's troops. Protests elsewhere in the Middle East have put increasing pressure on local governments, several which were previously considered stable.

Libya's central government has reconquered several areas from rebels along the country's coast, accelerating efforts led by France to impose a no-fly zone after receiving the approval of the Arab League. The Libyan air force bombed targets in eastern cities Bengazi and Ajdabiya, putting pressure on the area most firmly in rebel hands.

Despite the government gains, rebels claim to have retaken the strategic town of Brega, capturing and killing government troops. The insurgents also said that the government advance was delayed by a mutiny near the rebel-held town of Misrata, a fact backed up by an offer of amnesty to troops by Libyan State TV. The Libyan opposition is also meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, making clear to the United States the composition, strategy, and aims of the anti-Gaddafi troops.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain to stabilize the Sunni monarchy against largely-Shiite protests, a move supported by the regional Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC and the Saudis have stated that they will not let the Bahraini regime fall, but that has not impeded anti-government protests. "The entry of the Saudis does not mean these people are going to go back to their villages quietly," said Toby Jones, a Gulf expert at Rutgers University. "It raises the stakes."

In Yemen, a provincial governor was stabbed in the neck by protesters, as demonstrations spread. In the port city of Aden, protesters set a police station on fire on Monday. The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh also deported three journalists and a researcher, trying to take control of coverage as the civil strife worsens.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman conceded key legislative and audit powers to the Council of Oman, an advisory board for the monarch. The demands have pleased many protesters, but others remain unsatisfied with the economy and education in the kingdom. "We are grateful to His Majesty the Sultan for initiating reforms like removal of corrupt ministers and announcement of social welfare measures," protester Salima Al Rajhi told the Times of Oman. "But our demands like higher salaries, better education system, trial of corrupt ministers and justice to be done in Sohar firing incident are yet to be met."

A Facebook campaign has also begun in the West Bank and Gaza, where protesters are demanding an end to conflict between political groups Hamas and Fatah.

Nine Fort Hood Officers Face Disciplinary Action

Army Secretary John McHugh has ordered disciplinary action for nine unnamed officers in the Fort Hood shooting, according to NBC News. Although the Army's investigation noted that "no single event" led to the massacre, "certain officers" in command of Major Nidal Hasan "failed to meet the high standards expected of them," ignoring signs of his increasing radicalization.

Hasan currently faces the possibility of military court-martial for a shooting attack on Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan is accused of murdering 13 people and wounding more than 30 others in the attack, before he was shot and paralyzed at the scene of the crime. The subsequent investigation showed signs of radicalization before the attack, including a presentation to fellow medical workers that outlined his religious motive for the attack.

The nine officers will face "non-judicial punishment," a non-criminal sanction, and will remain anonymous because of their right to appeal. McHugh further ordered the Army surgeon general to review the Medical Command's training and evaluation of medical officers. This follows reports that Hasan's evaluations were inflated for promotion and to alleviate a shortage of military psychiatrists.

The orders come after last month's bipartisan Senate report found intelligence failures in the lead up to the Fort Hood shooting, by the DOD and FBI. The agencies had sufficient evidence of Hasan's radical leanings "but failed both to understand and to act on it." The senators said their investigation found "specific and systemic failures," although Hasan's radicalization "was on full display to his superiors and colleagues during his military medical training."

"Not only was no action taken to discipline or discharge him, but also his Officer Evaluation Reports sanitized his obsession with violent Islamist extremism into praiseworthy research on counterterrorism," the report noted. "DOD possessed compelling evidence that Hasan embraced views so extreme that it should have disciplined him or discharged him from the military, but DoD failed to take action against him."

The report commended the flagging of Hasan's name by an initial FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force team, for communication with terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki, but condemned subsequent failures by a follow-up team. The second team relied on army assessments of Hasan and dismissed the communication as "legitimate research." The matter was eventually dropped "rather than cause a bureaucratic confrontation" between the two teams.

"The JTTFs never raised the dispute to FBI headquarters for resolution, and entities in FBI headquarters responsible for coordination among field offices never acted. As a result, the FBI's inquiry into Hasan ended prematurely," the report said.

CAIR Officials Misrepresent Court Ruling

CAIR officials have misrepresented a ruling made by a U.S. court as they tried to discredit Thursday's hearings on the radicalization of the Muslim community. In its written "testimony" submitted to the House Homeland Security Committee, CAIR failed to mention that a court ruling, unsealed in November 2010, ordered that CAIR's name should remain on a list of un-indicted co-conspirators in a Hamas financing case.

In a written statement, CAIR correctly noted the ruling concluded that the U.S. government violated the rights of Muslim Americans when it made its list of un-indicted co-conspirators public. The list, in addition to containing CAIR's name, also included the Islamist Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).

However, CAIR failed to mention that the court declined "to strike CAIR, ISNA and NAIT's names from those documents." "Maintaining the names of the entities on the List is appropriate in light of the evidence proffered by the Government," ruled U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis.

Solis affirmed that "the government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with NAIT, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas."

As an example of evidence that established these ties, the ruling cited a 1994 Palestine Committee memo naming CAIR and other groups as "working organizations for the Palestine Committee." According to internal documents submitted as evidence in the 2008 terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation, the Muslim Brotherhood created the Palestine Committee with a "designed purpose to support HAMAS" politically and financially.

NAIT, unsatisfied with Solis' ruling, appealed its case. The group asked the court to strike any reference to its organization and Hamas.

In its written statement submitted to the committee for Thursday's hearing, CAIR cites from the resulting 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision, rather than Solis' original ruling.

According to CAIR, "The court also ruled that inclusion on the list was the result of 'simply an untested allegation of the Government, made in anticipation of a possible evidentiary dispute that never came to pass.'" This section of the appeal opinion was referring only to issues surrounding the constitutionality of the list being unsealed so that it could be viewed by the public.

CAIR quotes the court document up until it mentions that the allegations against the groups were "offered in furtherance of a legitimate purpose, a purpose that could have been equally well-served by filing" the document under seal or in an attachment.

The court granted NAIT's request in part only. It ordered that the lower court's opinion and order be unsealed, but declined to "expunge the mention of NAIT in the newly sealed attachment." As the 5^th Circuit described it, the government made only a "procedural error" for failing to file the list under seal, but it did not err in "its decision to try to characterize the scope of the charged conspiracy."

Saudi Indicted for Plot Targeting Bush, Nuclear Plants

A federal grand jury in Lubbock, Texas, has indicted Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari on one charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The indictment was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Lubbock in connection with an alleged plot by Aldawsari, a 20-year-old Saudi, to attack various U.S. targets including the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush. He faces life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Aldawsari, who claimed to be in the United States to study English and pursue a chemical engineering degree, had his university classes and living expenses funded by a Saudi-based firm. An entry in a journal found in his apartment says Aldawsari chose the scholarship because it brought him to the United States and aided him financially, which "will help me tremendously with the support I need for Jihad."

The entry continued: "And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad."

Prosecutors say electronic surveillance and searches of his home showed that Aldawsari used to e-mail himself information about topics like how to prepare a booby-trapped vehicle and how to turn a cell phone into a remote detonator.

Aldawsari was arrested Feb. 23. Court documents say that on Feb. 1, he attempted to purchase phenol, a toxic chemical used to build the explosive TNP. He tried to have it shipped to Con-Way Freight in Lubbock, which alerted authorities.

Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., is also being praised for reporting Aldawsari's alleged attempt to use TNP to build produce a massive amount of explosives.

Prosecutors say Aldawsari scouted a range of possible targets including the Bush home (which he referred to as "Tyrant's House"), nuclear power facilities, and 12 reservoirs or dams located in California and Colorado. According to court documents, Aldawsari wrote in his journal about a plan to travel to New York, place bombs in rental cars, and detonate them at several locations during rush hour.

Other targets mentioned by Aldawsari were said to include the homes of three former American soldiers who had been stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Shortly before his arrest, Aldawsari allegedly tried to find out whether Dallas-area nightclubs allowed people to bring in backpacks.

Read the criminal complaint in the case here. Read the Justice Department press release here.

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