Tehran Seeks Sinai Terror Infrastructure

Iran is taking advantage of chaos in post-Mubarak Egypt to bolster its weapons-smuggling capabilities in the Sinai Peninsula, Israeli defense officials say. Tehran's goal is to build a new infrastructure there to enable it to smuggle advanced weaponry into Gaza.

"Iran wants to take advantage of the current anarchy in Egypt and establish a stronger foothold in Gaza," a senior Israeli defense official told the Jerusalem Post. "They are building new capabilities, upgrading smuggling mechanisms and studying the new military presence there to see how it will affect them."

One Iranian weapons-smuggling route starts in Sudan or Eritrea, where ships unload weaponry. They are then taken by truck through Sudanese and Egyptian territory until they reach the Gaza/Egypt border. Then they are smuggled into Gaza using hundreds of tunnels running along the Philadelphi Corridor.

Although weapons were smuggled there during the reign of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian security officials sought to prevent weapons trafficking using methods like building an underground steel wall. It is unclear to what degree Mubarak's successors will continue security cooperation with Israel in this area.

Another complicating factor is the Bedouin population in the Sinai, which Cairo has struggled to exercise control over for generations. "The Sinai is already known as a lawless land," a senior Israeli defense official said in mid-February. "There is real concern that if the Egyptians don't get the Sinai back under their control, it could develop into a major threat to Israel."

Egyptian authorities have abandoned dozens of Sinai police stations after attacks carried out by Bedouins carrying assault rifles and missiles. Concern over this situation prompted Israel to allow Egypt to deploy 1,000 soldiers in Sharm el-Sheikh and Rafah.

Israel and neighboring Arab states have long been concerned that Hamas, al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations might use the Sinai in order to carry out attacks.

In August, members of Hamas' military wing operating out of the Sinai fired a barrage of Grad rockets that landed in Israeli, Jordanian and Egyptian territory. One of the rockets killed a Jordanian cab driver at an Aqaba hotel. Israeli authorities believe the same Hamas squad carried out an April attack during which rockets were fired at Eilat and Aqaba from the Sinai.

The most deadly terrorist strike in the Sinai occurred in July 2005 when more than 90 people were killed and nearly 240 wounded in three bomb blasts at hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh. Al Qaida and another jihadist group claimed responsibility.

Iran: Zionists, Freemasons Hijack Olympics

As it comes under increasing fire for its poor human-rights record, Iran has decided to change the subject by focusing on purported Zionist and Freemason "conspiracies" against Muslims.

On Sunday, the United States condemned Iranian repression of opposition supporters, and the following day Great Britain called on the United Nations to appoint a special investigator of human rights abuses in Iran.

So Tehran struck back with a complaint of its own: that the logo for the 2012 London Olympic Games is a "disgraceful" reminder of the word "Zion." In a statement on the website of the Iranian Students News Agency, the National Olympic Committee of Iran warned that if a new logo was not designed, then the Islamic Republic might not participate.

The secretary general of the Iranian Olympic Committee, Bahram Afsharzadeh, said a Freemasonry organization designed the London Olympic Games logo and inserted the word "Zion," he said.

"This is the first time that it has happened in the history of Olympic (sic). Zionists have exercised influence in Britain and based on our information, designer of the summer games' logo has been a Zionist organization linked to Freemasons," Afsharzadeh added.

Mohammed Aliabadi of the Iranian Olympic Committee called the symbol a sign of "racism." In a letter to the president of the International Olympic Committee, he wrote that "The use of the word Zion by the designer of [the] Olympics logo…. in the emblem of the Olympic Games 2012 is a very revolting act."

A spokesman for the London 2012 games denied any claims of a pro-Israel conspiracy. "The London 2012 logo represents the year 2012, nothing else," he said.

British Airways Worker Convicted on Terrorism Charges

Rajib Karim, a "mild-mannered, well-educated and respectful" IT worker for British Airways, has been convicted on four counts relate to a plot to blow up an airliner. His plot was influenced by Jammat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and included sharing airline security information with al-Qaida preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.

"Karim's deep determination to plan terror attacks whatever the cost was frightening," said Colin Gibbs, a counter terrorism lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service. "He found a position as a software engineer, which the prosecution said he considered the perfect job, giving an opportunity sooner or later to fulfill his deadly objective."

Karim, who moved to Britain in 2006 from Bangladesh with his wife and son, admitted his involvement in the production of a pre-2006 terrorist video for JMB. But the prosecution exposed Karim as a man who "hid his view hatred of Western ways from colleagues by joining a gym, playing football and never airing extreme views," in order to pass sensitive information to Awlaki and plan a suicide attack on a British Airways flight.

"Although Rajib Karim went to great lengths to disguise his activities, experts from the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command spent nine months decrypting 300 coded messages found on his computer hard drive," stated Deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Stuart Osborne. "It was the most sophisticated decryption task of its kind ever undertaken by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command."

Al-Shabaab Threatens East Africa Amid Heavy Fighting

The Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab issued a stern warning Sunday against the neighboring country of Kenya, following the deaths of 115 civilians and soldiers in several days of fighting in Mogadishu. The battles reflect a renewed push by the Transitional Federal Government [TFG] and African peacekeeping force ANISOM to overthrow al-Shabaab, as political wrangling threatens the future of the relatively moderate TFG.

"Previous warnings to Kenya were nothing compared to this one. We are going to retaliate against it (Kenya) harshly," al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told a news conference. "Kenya has long been working to undermine the existence of the Islamic sharia in Somalia… We shall no longer tolerate the constant aggression and ill acts of Kenya against our Muslim society. Kenya will bear responsibility for the consequences of the continuing aggression."

The tiny territory held by the TFG is surrounded by al-Shabaab, the dominant force in nearly all of southern and central Somalia. Previous offensives have faltered over disagreements between African Union and anti-Shabaab forces, but the new offensive by the 17,000-strong combined force of the TFG and AMISOM is set to put up a strong fight against the Islamist militia. "The operations we started will continue until we defeat the enemy and we will not repeat the past mistakes in which territories reclaimed by our armed forces were abandoned," said Somali Defense Minister Abdihakim Fiqi.

Burundi and Kenya, whose forces make up a large percentage of the AMISOM troops, have also responded with a pledge to "crush" al-Shabaab forces. Colonel Bierk, spokesman for Burundian troops in Somalia, claimed to have dislodged al-Shabaab from its main military base in Mogadishu. He also said that the fighting in recent days had killed 70 al-Shabaab fighters while losing seven of his own troops. Kenya pledged to beef up troops along the border, especially in the besieged Kenyan town of Mandera, and warned of attacks in shopping centers. "We have taken measures to provide adequate security," said Public Commissioner Mathew Iteere.

The offensive comes four months before the transitional government's mandate is due to expire. That will leave the TFG with the right to hold parliament, but with as much political legitimacy as the other militias and autonomous regions in the fractured nation.

U.S. Concerned Libya May Use Chemical Weapons

The U.S. government has expressed some concern about Libya's chemical weapon supplies and dictator Muammar Gaddafi's irrationality, as protesters march on the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The demonstrators claim to be acting to preempt any Gaddafi's retaliation, in light of his comments Friday about arming loyalists to strike back at the rebels and brutal government crackdowns.

"When you have a guy who's as irrational as Gadhafi with some serious weapons at his disposal, it's always a concern," an unnamed U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal. "But we haven't yet seen him move to use any kind of mustard gas or chemical weapon" during the unrest. The official was referring to Libya's aging Scud B missiles, 1,000 metric tons of uranium yellowcake, and significant quantities of mustard gas.

The crackdown on protesters reached new levels as Gaddafi promised to arm anyone who would retake the country for his "Green Revolution." In comments before supporters in Tripoli's Green Square, he said that his forces would defeat the protesters as they had driven out Italian imperialism many years before. The police and the army also heavily redeployed on the route to Mitiga airport near Tripoli, where unconfirmed reports stated that the air force had staged a key mutiny.

The anger of the protesters has reached a high point, as the people are taking more territory in advance of a feared retaliation by Qaddafi. "I have many friends in Benghazi and we want to go to Tripoli," said Essam al-Mansouri, who was at the forefront of an attack on the last stronghold of pro-Gaddafi forces in the capital. "We have many guns from the army. If Gaddafi doesn't leave, we will have to go to his palace."

Gaddafi's message to the protesters today was just as stark. "I'm in central Tripoli now. The nation that doesn't love me doesn't deserve to live," he said.

The international response is also intensifying. The United States said it was moving forward with sanctions against the Libyan government. In addition, more Libyan ambassadors turned on the regime. The Libyan ambassador to the United States said he would be raising his country's former flag – before Gaddafi's reign – over the Washington ambassador's residence.

Tehran Courts Pariah Leaders In Uranium Search

Iran is expanding its covert global effort to obtain uranium, according to a new intelligence report from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member nation. The Associated Press reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly expressed interest in Zimbabwe's uranium supplies since visiting the country in April and meeting with President Robert Mugabe. Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met secretly with top Zimbabwean mining officials to resume negotiations dealing with Iran's uranium procurement plan.

According to a summary of the intelligence report, Salehi's meeting followed efforts by Iranian engineers to create a map of uranium deposits in Africa, along with the amounts they contain. The summary says that Iran seeks to get a foothold in African countries including Zimbabwe, Congo, Senegal and Nigeria. One potential site is located in the Kanyemba district of Zimbabwe, an area located about 150 miles north of Harare, the capital. The site is estimated to have 450,000 tons of uranium ore, which could produce 20,000 tons of enrichable uranium.

U.S. officials neither confirmed nor denied the report. Instead, they issued a warning against violating U.N. Security Council-passed sanctions on Iran.

"We know Iran is looking for countries that might be willing to violate the Security Council resolution to address its uranium shortage," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "We urge all countries to abide by their international commitments." Vietor was likely referring to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737, which bars "the supply, sale or transfer" of items that would contribute to Iran's uranium-enrichment efforts.

The London Sunday Telegraph reported that a senior aide to Mugabe visited Tehran last March to seal an agreement in which Iran would receive access to Zimbabwe's uranium ore in exchange for supplying oil to the African nation. A Zimbabwean government official said the deal was the product of more than three years worth of efforts that began with a 2007 visit to Iran by Mugabe.

Mugabe, who has an abysmal human-rights record, is not the only international pariah courted by Tehran in its search for uranium. Iran has also worked with strongman Hugo Chavez in an effort to gain access to Venezuelan uranium deposits.

Hamas Tries to Capitalize on Egypt's Revolution

Hamas is attempting to strengthen its status with Egyptian authorities by bolstering the position of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) spiritual guide Sheikh Yussuf al-Qaradawi, according to an analysis in a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

On Feb. 19, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, contacted Qaradawi to invite him to visit and lead prayers. He also congratulated Qaradawi and the Egyptian people on the "victory of the revolution," as well as expressed his appreciation of Qaradawi's call for the lifting of the Israeli economic blockade on Gaza, made during the theologian's sermon in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Feb. 18. Qaradawi accepted Haniyeh's invitation and wished Palestinians victory and liberation.

Qaradawi was banned from Egypt approximately 30 years ago and found refuge in Qatar. He delivered a Friday sermon in Egypt in 1981 after the assassination of former President Anwar el-Sadat and returned to speak at the mass rally in Tahrir Square. He ended his speech with calls for the "liberation" of the Al-Aqsa mosque, an opening of the Rafah crossing and the allowance of convoys to enter the Gaza Strip.

Hamas was formed in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamist terrorist group has praised Qaradawi for his support of "jihad" and "martyrdom operations." Qaradawi has issued fatwas calling for jihad against Israel and the Jews and sanctioning suicide bombing attacks. Qaradawi's fatwas echo the writings of the Hamas charter, whose slogan is "Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Qur'an its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most sublime belief." Hamas, like the Muslim Brotherhood, wants Israel eliminated. The charter states in its beginning, "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors."

The Muslim Brotherhood and Qaradawi provide political, ideological and material support to Hamas. Qaradawi helps fund Hamas through his organization Union of the Good, a conglomeration of dozens of Islamic charities that raise money for Hamas and other Islamist causes around the world. The Union of the Good was designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2008 as "an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization."

Senior Egyptian MB figure Essam al-Arian confirmed that the Muslim Brotherhood wants to give Hamas financial aid during a 2006 interview, according to the Meir Amit Intelligence report. "According to the Egyptian media, after Operation Cast Lead the Muslim Brotherhood established a fund for the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip with the objective of raising $50 million for Hamas. It is unclear if the commitment was fulfilled."

Cast Lead was Israel's 2008-09 incursion into Gaza launched to stop Hamas rockets from being launched at Israeli cities.

Qaradawi is also hostile to Hamas' rival the Palestinian authority. In January 2010, Qaradawi called on the Arab league, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and other parties to investigate whether Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas instigated the Israeli war against Gaza. "If it is proven that Abbas instigated the Israeli war against Gaza, he deserves to be publicly stoned in Mecca because this would be a betrayal on his part," Qaradawi said.

U.S. Allies Slammed, While Gaddafi Gets a Pass

The U.N. and the Obama Administration seem more interested in condemning Israeli settlements than in denouncing Arab dictators who commit atrocities against their own people, according to the Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh.

Settlements may be a problem, he writes, but they are not more dangerous than the massacres of Arabs by dictators such as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Yet it took the U.N. Security Council more than a week to hold a closed-door meeting and issue a tempered statement condemning the violence in Libya and calling for its immediate end.

The Security Council members saw no need to vote on the slaughter of thousands of Libyans by the Gaddafi regime and stopped short of calling for Gaddafi's ouster before passing a resolution of condemnation Friday.

The Security Council was much more forceful in denouncing Israel, Abu Toameh writes. Last week, it held an open special session to condemn Jewish settlements, during which it voted 14-1 in favor of a resolution demanding that Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem." The United States, which vetoed the resolution, also denounced Israel, with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice stating that continued settlement activity "devastates trust between parties, and threatens the prospects for peace."

According to Abu Toameh, there's another double standard at work: the relatively deferential approach that Washington has taken toward Gaddafi when compared to its handling of the uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak "who for over 30 years served Western interests in the Middle East and did his utmost to preserve the peace treaty with Israel and support moderate Arabs and Muslims, was thrown to the dogs by the Obama Administration as soon as his people started demanding regime change," Abu Toameh writes. "Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seem to be more troubled by the death of 300 Egyptians than the brutal massacring of thousands of Libyans. Obama and Clinton seem to be more worried about construction in Jewish settlements than war crimes and serious human rights violations in the Arab world."

Read the full article here.

Gaddafi Blames Drugs, Osama for Libyan Uprising

Libyan opposition protesters may have seized key oil facilities Thursday and continued to fight over towns in Western and Central Libya.

Strongman Muammar Gaddafi, meanwhile, called in to state TV, saying the protesters "are listening to [Osama] bin Laden," or are young people who had been drugged. "No one above the age of 20 would actually take part in these events," he said, which are "run by al Qaida."

He also claimed that he was now "more of a symbolic leader," even as his army units continued to fire into crowds with heavy weapons.

Acts of random violence from "mercenaries" has caused much of eastern Libya to remain under siege, with shops and schools still closed, but the major fighting has shifted westward as protesters secure the area. Heavy fighting broke out in the towns of Tajura and Misurata, both to the east of Tripoli but still squarely part of western Libya. Meanwhile, the defection of Zawiya and Sabratha, both to the west of the capital and in the north-west of the country, and Sabha in the central south, sparked a military intervention.

Gaddafi expressed his rage during his telephone address. "People claim they are engineers and teachers and lecturers, so they should have reasonable demands," Gadaffi said. "But these people have no reasonable demands. Their demands are being dictated to them by bin Laden. People of Zawiya, your sons are being duped by bin Laden." Ironically Gaddafi also told listeners that "a real man doesn't use arms against innocent people."

Rebels claimed control over key oil facilities along the central coast of the country, at Ras Lanuf and Masra el Brega. "Regarding Ras Lanuf, a large port for exporting oil, and el Brega, and the gas pipelines from the desert to the ports ... the (anti-Gadhafi) revolutionaries have taken control of them," said Soliman Karim, a 65-year-old lawyer involved in committees set up to run Benghazi that is now outside Gadaffi's rule. "Exports are going on as usual, the same amount as have been agreed before," Karim added, citing "people in the area where the rebels are in charge." However China's National Petroleum Corporation evacuated some employees and said that its facilities were under attack.

A cousin and close advisor of Gaddafi, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, defected to Egypt "in protest and to show disagreement" with "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws." The defection is the latest in a series of high-level officials abandoning Gaddafi, including that of the Libyan ambassador to Jordan today.

Qaradawi Targets Jews, Gaddafi for Death

Writing on his blog at The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg shows the absurdity of the argument that Yusuf al-Qaradawi is an Islamic moderate.

He cites a 2007 article by two British researchers documenting Qaradawi's record of anti-Semitism and advocacy of violence. Quoting extensively from Qaradawi's 2003 book, Fatwas on Palestine, Mark Gardner and Dave Rich demonstrate that the imam believes that God has mandated Israel's destruction and that hatred of Jews is sanctioned by Islam.

According to Qaradawi, Palestinians lack the competence to discuss Jerusalem's fate "without resorting to [consulting] the Muslims all over the world." It is "obligatory upon every Muslim wherever he is to defend Jerusalem, and al-Aqsa Mosque," Qaradawi writes. If they fail to do so, "a punishment from Allah shall descend on the whole nation."

Qaradawi's ideology is drawing new scrutiny, given his influential role as a Muslim Brotherhood theologian and his popular television program "Shariah and Life" broadcast from Qatar. He was honored with the chance to deliver a speech to hundreds of thousands of Egyptians at the first Friday prayer since Hosni Mubarak's ouster in Tahrir Square last week.

He believes Muslims must act against international Jewry, which he blames for oppressing the Palestinians with the connivance of the United States. The conquerors of Palestine "are those with the greatest enmity toward the believers, and they are supported by the strongest state on earth - the USA - and by the world Jewish community," he writes. "If every Jew considers himself a soldier, and supports Israel as much as he can, surely every Muslim should be a soldier using his very soul and wealth to liberate al-Aqsa. The least the Muslim can do is to boycott the enemies' goods."

A chapter of Qaradawi's book is devoted to his analysis of an anti-Semitic saying of the prophet Muhammad: "The last day will not come unless you fight Jews. A Jew will hide himself behind stones and trees and stones and trees will say, 'Oh servant of Allah – or O Muslim – there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' " This anti-Semitic hadith is Article 7 of the Hamas Charter.

Qaradawi emphasizes that Muslim anti-Jewish grievances are not limited to the war with "Zionists," but involve "the collective body of Muslims and the collective body of Jews - i.e., all Muslims and all Jews."

His blood lust is not limited to Jews. On Monday, he issued a fatwa calling on soldiers to kill Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. "Whoever in the Libyan Army is able to shoot a bullet at Mr. Gaddafi should do so," Qaradawi said.

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