Revolution Spreads beyond Arab World and Iran

Protests have been quelled in China and sub-Saharan Africa in the first signs that the "Jasmine Revolution" of Tunisia is spreading beyond the North Africa and the Arab heartlands. China moved in to head off the protests before they occur, while other Africans are trying to start their own democratic or populist revolutions.

"From Dakar to Tunis, Algiers to Cairo, fire continues its macabre waltz. It's fashionable, people are manifesting their distress through sacrifice," said Senegalese newspaper, Walfadjri, after a man lit himself on fire outside of the nation's presidential palace. Oumar Bocoum's action in Senegal was done in protest over his army pension, but was meant to spark the same sort of national rage that occurred after a Tunisian protester's self-immolation over poverty and government failures.

"When we see continued uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and in other places, we find dictators who stayed in power for long with the so called dominant party state," said Dr. Negasso Gidada, a leader in Ethiopia's main opposition party, the UDJ. "All these hardships, socioeconomic and political conditions are also a reality here and they exist in Ethiopia even in worst degree."

The calls resembled those in Nigeria, Djibouti, and Kenya, where populations are analyzing the Arab example as a solution for widespread poverty and government corruption. These have met with varying degrees of success, as organization efforts have been hindered by tribalism and the lack of internet penetration, as well as the lack of attention garnered by Arab states.

The revolution has also moved east. Chinese security officials questioned and detained scores of activists over the weekend, and warned against protests in response to an online call for a "Jasmine Revolution in China." The message said: "You and I are Chinese people who will still have a dream for the future ... we must act responsibly for the future of our descendants."

"[The message] linked it to the jasmine revolution and I guess that made the government nervous," Wang Songlian of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said about the call for protests. "It really shows us how much the government has identified with regimes in the Middle East where people are so aggrieved about social injustice." The revolution has so far fizzled, as few protesters turned out for poorly organized demonstrations.

Unrest Turns Violent in Bahrain and Libya

Anti-government protests in Libya and the island nation of Bahrain turned violent Friday, as troops opened fire on protesters seizing control of important positions in both countries.

At least three people were killed when troops in Bahrain opened fire on protesters even as the king promised to negotiate with opposition, saying that Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa had been given "all the powers to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of all gracious citizens from all sections." The nation's leading Shiite cleric called the attacks a "massacre" as mosque crowds shouted "victory for Islam," "death for Al Khalifa [the ruling family]" and "we are your soldiers."

Protesters seized control of the Pearl Roundabout Thursday, a major road in the capital of Manama, and were violently removed by police. Bahrain's foreign minister Khalid al Khalifa told state television that troops had not deliberately opened fire on protesters and that called it a "regrettable accident." But he defended the move by police and the army as necessary to bring the nation back from "brink of a sectarian abyss." The nation's Shiite opposition also resigned from the parliament and later called for the resignation of national leaders and the formation of a new government.

Dozens of people were reported killed during clashes in Libya. Protesters claimed control of the city of al-Bayda, next to the nation's second largest city, Benghazi, where protests have been raging. They have also seized control of a government radio station in Benghazi and are broadcasting their message from it. Libya, which holds the rotating Arab League presidency, has also announced that the upcoming session next month will be delayed. However, the chief of the group, Egypt's Amr Moussa, claimed he had not heard of a formal request to change the date.

The response from a pro-government newpaper Al-Zahf Al-Akhdar, promised more violence. "Any risk from these minuscule groups [protesters] - this people and the noble revolutionary power will violently and thunderously respond," the paper said. "The people's power, the Jamahiriya [system of rule], the revolution, and Colonel Gaddafi are all red lines and those who try to cross or come near these lines are suicidal and playing with fire."

President Obama's response to the latest crisis was more sympathetic to the protesters than it was during the initial Tunisian and Egyptian protests. "I am deeply concerned by reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen. The United States condemns the use of violence by governments against peaceful protesters in those countries and wherever else it may occur." Obama said. "The United States urges the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests, and to respect the rights of their people."

Report Claims Syria Helped Hizballah Terrorist Flee Egypt

Syria's embassy in Cairo helped a Hizballah terror operative escape from Egypt by issuing him a false passport, the Arabic-language Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyasseh reported Wednesday. Sami Chehab, who had been serving a 15-year sentence for planning terrorist activities in Egypt, took advantage of the recent chaos to escape with assistance from Syrian intelligence, a Syrian source told al-Seyasseh.

After Chehab escaped, Hizballah boss Hassan Nasrallah sent an advisor to the head of Syrian intelligence asking for a fake Syrian passport and other documents. Embassy officials in Cairo issued Chehab a new passport which he used to travel from Egypt to Khartoum, where members of Hizballah's Sudanese cell put him on a flight to Syria. Chehab crossed into Lebanon, where he appeared at a Hizballah "Martyrs' Day" rally in Beirut's southern suburbs Wednesday.

Egyptian authorities claimed that in his 2009 confession, Chehab said he was ordered by Hizballah to carry out terrorist attacks targeting Israelis and other foreigners in the Sinai Peninsula. The attacks, (planned to avenge the February 2008 assassination of senior Hizballah official Imad Mugniyeh) were to have been carried out simultaneously at three locations in the Sinai.

According to the Egyptian version of events, Chehab's duties included the production of explosive devices and belts and finding places to put vehicles the terror cell would use to travel around Egypt.

For their part, Hizballah officials denied Chehab had any plans to target Egypt, although they admitted that he monitored the movement of Israeli tourists there. The organization said Chehab's goal was to help the Palestinians fight Israel.

Chehab and 25 others were convicted in Egypt last year of spying for Hizballah and plotting attacks in Egypt. He was among thousands of prisoners in Egypt who reportedly escaped after unrest against President Hosni Mubarak erupted last month.

Qaradawi Holds Court in Cairo

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians returned to Tahrir Square Friday for a victory celebration, one week after a broad-based, peaceful revolt ended President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rein.

Amid a festive atmosphere that featured a marching band and chants of unity were some indications of concern.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Muslim Brotherhood theologian, addressed the crowd. While his remarks were largely devoid of Brotherhood rhetoric, his prominent role in the event and the crowd generated "was also a reminder that political Islam is likely to play a larger role in Egypt than it has for decades," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

He called for freedom for thousands of political prisoners in Egyptian jails and the end of the country's blockade against the Hamas government in Gaza. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that he also called for the reconquest of Jerusalem so he could lead Muslims in prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Qaradawi made a point of saying he was speaking to all Egyptians, including Coptic Christians. "The revolution," he said, "is not over" and he warned "infiltrators" who may try to sabotage Egyptian unity and hijack the revolution.

Ironically, reports indicate that some of that happened on the very stage from which Qaradawi spoke. Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive credited with helping ignite the popular uprising, was blocked from getting on stage by Qaradawi's guards. According to a news report, "Ghonim left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag."

As the IPT reported Thursday, there are increasing signs that the Muslim Brotherhood, which deliberately maintained a low profile during the three-week street protests, is flexing its muscles as Egypt tries to build a new government. It is well represented on a committee charged with recommending changes the country's constitution and has announced plans to form a political party to run for parliamentary seats.

Despite being banned under Mubarak, 88 Brotherhood-affiliated people were elected to the parliament in 2005. The body has 444 members.

Hizballah's Intimidation Efforts Target Israelis and Lebanese

Hizballah is menacing its enemies inside and outside Lebanon, with mixed results. On Wednesday, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah called on followers to be prepared "to take over the Galilee" in the next war with Israel.

In the past, "nobody even imagined that anyone in Lebanon could possibly take over the north of Palestine, or the Galilee," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast on Hizballah's al-Manar television. The debate used to be about whether Israel would occupy Lebanon.

But today "there are serious discussions in Israel about whether the resistance in Lebanon is capable of occupying the north of Palestine and taking over the Galilee region," Nasrallah said. "I say to the mujahideen of the Islamic resistance: be prepared for a day when war is forced upon Lebanon, and the commanders of the resistance may ask you to take over the Galilee."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, apparently unimpressed, responded that Nasrallah would be a fool to send his forces across the border.

"Nasrallah said he would capture the Galilee, I have news for you - you won't," Netanyahu responded. "We have a strong army. We seek peace with all of our neighbors, but the IDF is prepared to defend Israel from any of its enemies."

Netanyahu warned Nasrallah "that he should stay in his bunker" – a reference to the fact that the Hizballah boss spends much of his time in hiding to prevent Israel from assassinating him.

But Nasrallah's intimidation efforts have apparently been more successful inside Lebanon. The pressure appears to have worked in the case of Walid Jumblatt, a Druze member of Parliament who had been one of the most outspoken critics of Hizballah and its Syrian backers since the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Today, Jumblatt is a supporter of Hizballah, and to his former political allies in Lebanon's Future Movement (the party headed by Sa'ad Hariri, Rafik's son), there is no question why his views have changed so dramatically. "Jumblatt twists and turns to justify his stance," a Future Movement official said Friday. "The fear of arms is what led to…Jumblatt's shift in alliance."

Turkey, Israel Feud as New Flotilla Looms

The Turkish-based organization behind the deadly confrontation with Israel in the Mediterranean Sea last spring pledges to have its second Freedom Flotilla reach the Gaza strip by the end of May, according to an article from a Hamas-affiliated website.

Muhammad Kaya, head of IHH's Gaza branch confirmed the plan during a meeting with Hamas minister of transport and communications Osama Al-Aisawi. Kaya added that the flotilla of ships would come from various European countries.

Kaya, who works with Hamas on behalf of IHH, assisted with the logistics of last year's deadly flotilla. In December, Kaya said that IHH would continue to provide financial and moral support to Palestinians, including through the group's willingness to "sacrifice their lives and shed their blood." The Investigative Project on Terrorism has documented IHH's extensive ties to Hamas here.

An IHH delegate was part of a meeting for the second flotilla, held in Madrid, Spain from Feb. 4-6. The meeting drew delegates from Canada, Scotland, Algeria, Spain, France, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Last year's flotilla raid increased tensions between Israel and Turkey. Nine passengers on the ship Mavi Marmara died in a confrontation with Israeli troops last May. Tapes show the passengers attacked the troops as they rappelled onto the ship's deck.

Hostilities between the two countries flared last month following Israel's release of the Turkel Commission report on the Mavi Marmara incident. The report found that the Israeli blockade on Gaza is lawful according to international law, and that Israeli commandos acted in self defense when they boarded the Mavi Marmara. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the report's findings, as did the terrorist group Hamas. "It is an attempt to display [Israel's] image as civilized and democratic and save the occupation government from its predicament stemming from its involvement in terrorist acts," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum stated.

On Feb. 11, Turkeyreleased the final results of its own investigation into the Mavi Marmara incident, submitted to the Panel of Inquiry set up by the UN Secretary-General. In addition to slamming the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip as a violation of international law, the report concluded that the "Israeli attack" caused passengers to react in "self-defense." However, video evidence, first hand testimony and equipment found on the ship indicate that the attack was orchestrated in advance in attempt to create a violent confrontation with Israel. In fact, seven of the nine passengers on the Mavi Marmara expressed their desire to die as martyrs in the mission.

On Tuesday, Turkey insisted that Israel issue an apology for the killing of the nine activists on the Mavi Marmara. "We expect that the UN investigation will be balanced, and that Israel and Turkey will get out of it what we are seeking. An apology and compensation, however, constitute a red line for us," a Turkish diplomat told journalists.

JFK Plotter Gets Life Sentence

A terrorist who plotted to destroy New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was sentenced to life in prison Thursday. Russell Defreitas, a former air-cargo worker at the airport, was convicted in August of conspiring to bomb fuel tanks at JFK that run through an adjacent Queens neighborhood. If successful, the plot could have killed thousands of people, crippled the airport and caused massive damage to the New York economy.

"It will take out the whole, entire area," Defreitas told a government informant. "The whole of Kennedy will go up in smoke." Defreitas added that "A few people might escape, but to where? The Jamaica Bay?"

Defreitas was angry that military parts were being shipped through JFK to Israel, where he believed they would be used to kill Muslims. More than a decade after his retirement, he decided it was time to find a way to "get these bastards" at the airport.

A naturalized U.S. citizen from Guyana, Defreitas brought in others including Abdul Kadir, an engineer and former member of the Guyanese Parliament. Kadir was sentenced to life in prison in December for his role in the conspiracy.

Evidence introduced last year's trial showed that Defreitas originated the plan to attack the airport and recruited Kadir and others during trips to Guyana and Trinidad in 2006 and 2007. Defreitas and his associates tried to win support from the Iranian government and prominent international terrorists, including senior al-Qaida operative Adnan El Shukrijumah and Abu Bakr, leader of Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a militant Trinadadian group.

But one of those Defreitas tried to enlist turned out to be a government informant. Between January 2006, when investigators learned of the plot, and his arrest in June 2007, authorities monitored Defreitas and company as they videotaped and took photographs at the airport and attempted to win outside support for the attack.

"Russell Defreitas plotted to commit a terrorist attack that he hoped would rival 9/11," said Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "But law enforcement detected and thwarted the plot, saving lives. Now our courts have dispensed justice by handing out the life sentence that Defreitas richly deserves."

Read the criminal complaint in the case here. Read the indictment here.

Radicalization Problems Facing Guantanamo and American Prisons

America's jails are becoming a breeding ground for extremism, while many more prisoners released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center are turning to violence, according to a new op-ed by forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner. Problems ranging from basic statistical errors to a failure to see ideological violence in a different framework are creating a vast underestimation of Jihadist violence.

"Assessing future risk of dangerous Jihadist activity necessarily recognizes that an approach may borrow from clinical understandings about criminal and violent recidivism, but has to stay true to context (actual ideological violence or otherwise facilitating violence) in order to gain relevance," writes Welner.

A problem with providing inmates with legitimate, moderate Islamic materials compounds the problem in our own jails. The nature of jail life, where prisoners are in close proximity with violent offenders and extremist ideologies, makes the problem all more challenging. Western nations often do a poor job of assessing Islamic chaplains and imams who interact with the prisoners. They judge some radical imams to be permissible because they are only preaching political Islam or anti-Western though, instead of al-Qaida-style violence.

The problem in American jails is most serious in Guantanamo, where it is difficult to obtain accurate data on recidivism among released prisoners.

Prisoners who now are in jail abroad are counted, skewing the data about how many prisoners can commit violence. In addition, not all prisoners are properly identified and countries receiving prisoners are often poorly equipped to monitor them.

"If our government does not actively deradicalize with the message that Islam must seek equality rather than theocracy, tomorrow's prisoners be they in Gitmo or in any other prison in America -- will continue to amiably soak in hate and find comrades-in-arms who buy into that now-dominant message of Islamist supremacy and entitlement to violence," Welner writes.

U.S. May Back Security Council Condemning Israel

Update: The United States cast the lone dissenting vote, vetoing this resolution Feb. 18.

As the winds of revolution are sweeping the Middle East, the UN Security council is getting down to business-as-usual – condemning Israel – according to Pajamas Media's The Rosett Report. However, this time the United States may be joining the China, Lebanon, and others in condemning the Israelis.

"For the Islamic despotisms of the Middle East, it's an old rule of thumb. When things get tough, or confusing, or frustrating, or when you simply want to deflect anger in the direction of a communal scapegoat, go on the offensive and blame the Jews," writes Claudia Rosett. Others UN branches, like the Human Rights Council, have bypassed chronic violators of human rights like China and Zimbabwe to devote approximately 70% of their resolutions to bashing the Middle East's only liberal democracy.

The United States, traditionally Israel's only ally in the UN's hostile halls, may participate in the latest attack on the isolated nation. "So, according to a Foreign Policy report by Colum Lynch, the Obama administration has been haggling behind the scenes - not to use America's clout to persuade the Security Council members to drop the entire thing, but to hash out with Arab regimes a Security Council "statement" that attacks Israel," Rosett notes.

ABC News reporter Jake Tapper asked new White House spokesman Jay Carney about the prospective resolution Thursday. Carney did not provide a direct answer saying no resolution has been put forward. But he did criticize Israeli settlements.

"But I would also say that I'm not going to get into details of ongoing private diplomatic discussions in New York, the United Nations, regarding this matter," Carney said. "We, like every administration for decades, do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity. We believe their continued expansion is corrosive not only to peace efforts and a two-state solution, which we strongly support, but to Israel's future itself."

Rosett finds the timing of such U.S. pressure misguided.

"Israel, a democratic ally of the U.S., is right now quite beleaguered enough," she writes. "[W]hen the going gets tricky, never mind the real problems and the real dangers. Go along with the free-riders of the Security Council, placate Nigeria, bow to Russia and China, follow the lead of Lebanon - and slam Israel. Is that really what Americans want?"

U.S. Designates Iranian Bank Refah

The U.S. Treasury Department again is taking aim at Iranian banks funding the military, designating Iran's Bank Refah. The bank allegedly helps the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODALF) and the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) purchase missiles and tanks, as well as maintain Iran's other conventional weapon systems.

"MODAFL is the arm of the Iranian military that oversees Iran's ballistic missile program," a Treasury statement said.

"Treasury has now exposed and sanctioned 20 banks owned by the Government of Iran for supporting Iran's nuclear and missile programs or terrorism," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. "The pervasiveness of this illicit conduct explains why legitimate financial institutions everywhere are deciding to shun Iranian banks."

The European Union imposed sanctions against Bank Refah in July 2010 for taking over Bank Melli's ongoing operations following the sanctions imposed on the latter bank by the European Union. The Wall Street Journal saluted those sanctions for finally giving teeth to the EU's efforts to counter Iran's nuclear program.

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