Palestinians Prepare for Potential Hizballah Confrontation

How badly is Syria's civil war spawning sectarian violence in the region? Palestinians in Lebanon fear looming violence from Hizballah – a "resistance" group created and underwritten by Iran to fight Israel.

According to a Daily Star report Wednesday, the spiritual leader of all Salafist groups in Lebanon's Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, believes that Hizballah's significant role defending Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could lead to violence. Many Palestinians from the camp have joined rebels fighting to topple Assad, and Hizballah's support has been openly criticized.

Any prospective violence between Hizballah and Palestinians would be inherently sectarian and could be worse than the bloodshed during the 1980s between Fatah forces and the Amal militia, said Sheik Jamal Khattab.

"When the war of the camps broke out in 1985, it did not pit Sunnis against Shiites," Khattab said.

Lebanese security sources revealed that various Palestinian Islamist and Salafist groups have finalized preparations to defend Sidon against any potential Hizballah attack. In 2008, Hizballah fighters conquered areas of west Beirut, attacking opposition offices in Sidon after the Lebanese government decided to dismantle the terrorist organization's telecommunications network.

News of high-level contacts between Hamas and Tehran could ease the tension in Lebanon. The relationship between Iran and Hamas frayed when Hamas backed Assad's opponents. But Hamas is politically isolated following Muslim Brotherhood's ouster from power in Egypt, and the terrorist organization is attempting to reinvigorate ties with its previous patron state.

This important development naturally raises concerns in American and Israeli security circles. The potential re-emergence of full out Iranian backing may embolden Hamas to engage in further terrorist activity in the Sinai or launch attacks against Israel.

These two seemingly contradictory developments illustrate the complex nature of the ongoing Sunni-Shia relationship between various factions within both religious camps. Iran previously punished Hamas for refusing to support the Assad regime; however, their mutual disdain for military-ruled Egypt and the Jewish state provides an opportunity for rapprochement.

10 Year Sentence for "Jihad Jane"

Updated Jan. 9:

Co-conspirator Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 35, received an eight year prison sentence Wednesday for her role in LaRose's jihad network. Ramirez pleaded guilty in March 2011 to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Ramirez agreed to seek jihad training in correspondence with LaRose. In 2009, she took her son to Ireland "with the intent to live and train with jihadists," a Department of Justice news release said. There, she immediately married an unnamed co-conspirator, until then a stranger, "in an Islamic ceremony, knowing and intending that her presence in Europe, her marriage ... and her future actions would provide support for the conspiracy" to one day carry out jihad attacks.

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Significant cooperation with federal law enforcement spared Colleen LaRose a possible life prison sentence for plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist and other conspiracies.

LaRose, known as "Jihad Jane," pleaded guilty nearly three years ago to conspiracy to support terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, lying to investigators and attempted identity theft. Since then, she met more than 20 times with "government agents from all around the country as well as other parts of the world," prosecutors wrote. That assistance led to the indictments of two co-conspirators and helped "other national security investigations" which prosecutors did not disclose.

A federal judge sentenced her to 10 years in prison on Monday. Prosecutors had asked for "decades" behind bars to recognize the severity of LaRose's plot and its lingering threats. An American passport she stole for a terrorist "brother" remains missing. And the target of her murder plot, cartoonist Lars Vilks, remains the subject of attacks. Vilks was among the cartoonists whose caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad prompted violent protests.

Vilks told American investigators that LaRose's plot "seemed to ignite other like-minded people." In 2010, Vilks was attacked during a lecture. He was not home when his house was attacked by arsonists that same year.

She already has been in custody for four years, and could be free four years from now with good behavior.

LaRose provided significant help, but remains "wistful" about ... prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. She appeared in court Monday wearing a black head scarf. She converted to Islam after dating a Muslim man and reportedly became radicalized watching Internet videos.

She told the court she remained a Muslim, but "I don't want to be into jihad no more. I don't think like I used to think."

In pleading guilty, LaRose admitted that she and her co-conspirators wanted to become martyrs for Allah." Her indictment cites an email in which she says she will make killing Vilks "my goal till i achieve it or die trying." She traveled in preparation for an attack and even tried to contact the cartoonist, the plea memorandum said.

Prosecutors are concerned that LaRose, 50, remains a threat. She "grew unmistakably wistful when discussing her 'brother' in Pakistan, for whom she professed lifelong loyalty and agreed to commit murder," the sentencing memo says. A lengthy prison sentence could "send a strong message to other lonely, vulnerable people who might be enticed by online extremists promising fame and honor," prosecutors argued.

"LaRose was working with truly dangerous people, and she proudly used her American background and looks to their advantage as they plotted against America."

Czechs Seek Answers for Palestinian Embassy Weapons Cache

An already strange story deepened when Czech police reported finding a dozen illegal weapons, including sub-machine guns, inside the Palestinian embassy complex in Prague.

Police searched the property after Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal died Wednesday when he tried to open a booby-trapped safe that had been in the Palestinian embassy for years. The safe was brought to Jamal's residence. He assumed the post in October. His death is being treated as an accident.

Palestinian officials say the weapons at issue were there legally, and were remnants of the Cold War that had not been touched in years. The Czech Republic's national police chief says the weapons will go through genetic and ballistic testing.

But local Czech and diplomatic officials reacted angrily to the discovery. The foreign ministry is considering a request by the local community to move the embassy. "The district feels betrayed by the behavior of diplomats who kept weapons and explosives at the embassy, violating Czech and international law," said Petr Hejl, senior councilor of Prague's Suchdol district.

Foreign ministry officials also say the weapons should have been registered and licensed, even if housed in an embassy. "In such case, the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations may have been breached and we will demand an explanation," it said in a statement.

Al-Qaida Linked Groups Spread Syria's Civil War

Syria's civil war is spilling over into Iraq and Lebanon. The al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra have announced plans to enter Lebanon militarily to counter Hizballah, which has played a key role in keeping Bashar al-Assad in power.

A car bomb went off in Beirut neighborhood Thursday killing at least four people and wounding 77 others. It came less than a week after another car bomb hit downtown Beirut, killing a prominent Hizballah critic. Two other bombs rocked Lebanon last summer and a suicide bomber attacked Iran's embassy in November.

Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper reported in November that security sources said that ISIS had decided to carry out suicide attacks in Lebanon against Shiite targets.

ISIS has also stepped up attacks in Iraq's Anbar province, the hotbed of the post-Saddam insurgency. The terrorist group killed at least 32 civilians Friday in clashes with Iraqi police and Sunni tribesmen. Gunmen also blew up the police headquarters, the office of the local council and the mayor's office in Fallujah.

The al-Qaida militants reportedly control half of the city. Violence also spread to nearby Ramadi after police tore down a Sunni protest camp that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the "headquarters for the leadership of al-Qaida."

The Maliki government's heavy hand has alienated many in Iraq's Sunni minority and has left them with few outlets to express their grievances.

Ramadi was a similar hotbed of insurgency violence during the Iraq War before the U.S. teamed with Sunni tribesmen to fight al-Qaida.

Large swaths of Ramadi have also been taken over by ISIS fighters. The New York Times reports that Abu Risha, a Ramadi tribal sheikh who fought alongside the Americans against al-Qaida, is considering helping the Iraqi government to fight the ISIS.

"We were all surprised that the terrorists left the desert and entered your cities to return a second time, to commit their crimes, to cut off the heads, blow up houses, kill scholars and disrupt life," Abu Risha told the Times. "They came back, and I am delighted for their public appearance after the security forces failed to find them. Let this time be the decisive confrontation with al-Qaida."

Iraq witnessed its largest death toll in five years during 2013. More than 8,800 people, including 7,818 civilians, were killed across Iraq in 2013. This includes the 759 Iraqis who were killed in December alone.

ISIS sees an opportunity to advance its cause of creating a single transnational state based on Islamic law by broadening Syria's civil war into neighboring countries.

Despite Israeli Strikes, Hizballah Gathers Sophisticated Missile Systems

Israeli defense officials announced the second successful test of their Arrow 3 missile defense system Friday.

The news comes amid new reports that Hizballah has moved sophisticated missiles piece-by-piece into storage facilities in Syria and Lebanon. The long-range missiles are considered much more advanced than Hizballah's existing arsenal of 100,000 unguided missiles, and are capable of striking ships, bases and fighter planes, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The weapons are Russian and Iranian made. Last year, the New York Times reports, a Syrian military officer who wanted to defect, acknowledged that the weapons were being dismantled and sent to Hizballah-controlled territory "for safekeeping."

Hizballah, at Iran's direction, has been fighting against rebels in Syria who want to topple dictator Bashar al-Assad. When Assad looked vulnerable, the weapons transfers to Hizballah grew more aggressive. In addition, Iran sees Hizballah's rockets as its "first line of defense" against potential Israeli airstrikes against Iran's nuclear weapons program, the Journal reports.

It cites current and former American intelligence sources who say that Iran's elite Quds Force is directing the weapons system shipments. They took to moving the missile systems in sections after Israel launched five air strikes against weapons convoys in Syria throughout 2013.

The Arrow 3 system sends anti-ballistic missiles into space, where they fly much faster, before locking in on the incoming target and aiming for a head-on collision, the Jerusalem Post reports. Friday's test did not involve intercepting a missile, but did send rockets outside the earth's atmosphere to test engines and maneuverability.

Officials hope to have the system fully operating by 2016. Another missile interception system called David's Sling could be operating next year. They would augment the existing Iron Dome system which can pick off short-range rockets.

Israelis: NATO Ally Turkey Now Hamas' Top Funder

Turkey has replaced Iran as Hamas' top financial backer since 2012, sources in Israel's intelligence community tell WorldTribune.com.

Relations between Iran and Hamas became strained because the terrorist group decided to fight against the Iranian-backed Assad regime in Syria's ongoing civil war. Iran responded by curtailing aid to Hamas, which has reportedly been recently restored.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government helped fill the void by transferring $250 million from private donor to Hamas, the report said. Israeli sources say the money has been transferred with "full coordination with Erdogan and his aides."

Turkey, a NATO state, has also have hosted Salah al-Arouri, a member of the Hamas politburo, whom the Israeli sources say runs operations and cash transfers, largely to the West Bank.

Erdogan has openly supported Hamas, meeting with top Hamas figures such as Khaled Meshaal, who heads the terrorist group's politburo, and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Meshaal reportedly spoke with Erdogan about relocating the terrorist group's headquarters from Qatar to Turkey.

His support for the terrorist group corresponds with an increasingly hostile tone toward Israel, once a close Turkish ally. He has called Zionism, the belief in a Jewish state, "a crime against humanity."

In 2011, Erdogan called for United Nations sanctions against Israel in protest of a raid on a Turkish-flagged ship that tried to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Nine activists were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara. Erdogan was not swayed by a United Nations investigation which found that Israel's blockade, implemented to prevent arms from reaching Hamas terrorists, was legitimate and legal.

Erdogan rejects the U.S. and E.U. designations of Hamas as a terrorist group and describes it as a "political party" instead. In 2011, he told PBS's Charlie Rose that Hamas as "a resistance movement trying to protect its country under occupation."

In October, the Washington Post reported that Turkey gave Iran the identities of 10 Iranians who met with Israeli Mossad officers inside Turkey last year.

American law prohibits providing financial support to terrorist groups. And such support has contributed to placing states such as Iran and Syria on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. The 2012 report on terror-sponsoring states include at least two, Syria and Sudan, due to support for terrorist groups such as Hamas.

Erdogan's government has been shaken by recent corruption allegations, and last spring he violently broke up peaceful protests in a major Turkish park by people opposed to a redevelopment plan. But it is his support for terrorists that should cause concern over Turkey's reliability as a Western ally.

Foes Suspect Hizballah in Beirut Car Bombing

Many Lebanese officials aren't buying Hizballah's denial that it is responsible for Friday's car-bombing that killed Mohammad Chatah, the country's former finance minister and ambassador to the United States.

The bombing, which killed at least five others and wounded dozens, took place near the site of the 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A United Nations Special Tribunal charged five Hizballah officials in that attack. They are scheduled to be tried in absentia Jan. 16.

Chatah, once a close aide to Hariri, reportedly was en route to a meeting with the anti-Hizballah March 14 coalition at Hariri's son's house when the bombing took place. Chatah was a strong critic of both Hizballah and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Less than an hour before the bombing, Chatah criticized Hizballah in a Twitter posting. The Shiite terrorist group, which is underwritten by Iran, "is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security & foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 yrs," Chatah wrote.

Hizballah issued a statement calling the attack "heinous" and something that "only benefits the enemies of Lebanon." But that hasn't proved very persuasive.

"Those who assassinated Mohammad Chatah are the ones who assassinated Rafik Hariri; they are the ones who want to assassinate Lebanon," Saad Hariri said in a statement Friday.

"The suspects are those who are running away from international justice and refuse to appear in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon; they are the ones opening the window of evil and chaos to Lebanon and the Lebanese and are drawing regional fires," Hariri said.

Hizballah fighters have played a key role in helping Assad fend off a rebel uprising. That, in turn, has sparked retaliatory strikes against Hizballah targets in neighboring Lebanon, increasing sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Last month, 25 people were killed in a double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Lebanon.

The al-Qaida linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed credit for that attack, calling on Iran to withdraw its forces from Syria. But the Christian Science Monitor reports that Friday's bombing "appeared more in line with a wave of assassinations of anti-Syrian political figures" dating back to Rafik Hariri's 2005 murder than as part of the new cycle of violence over Syria.

American Islamist groups and their supporters have hailed Hizballah as a "resistance group" when its violence struck Israeli and Jewish targets throughout the world. While many sympathize with the Syrian opposition, criticism of Iran and Hizballah remains muted.

Palestinian Incitement and Terror Attacks

Israeli officials are blaming Palestinian incitement for contributing to a string of attempted terrorist attacks.

Just this week, a Palestinian sniper shot and killed an Israeli who was working on a fence at the border with Gaza; a police officer was stabbed in the back near a West Bank settlement; and casualties were narrowly averted when a passenger noticed a suspicious bag on a public bus, allowing it to be evacuated moments before it blew up.

Palestinian violence has increased since the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks started last summer. Israeli economic minister Naftali Bennett, a critic of the talks, blamed the Palestinian Authority for not stopping the violence and said Israeli concessions don't lead to peace.

"When we concede, when we hand over territory, they murder us," he said. "We have to get this rule into our heads. When we stand strong, even if there are no negotiations, there is quiet."

Others say the attacks may not be the product of organized terrorist groups, but "atmosphere attacks." That atmosphere is "a direct result of the incitement and hatred propagated in Palestinian schools and media," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said in a statement on Wednesday. "We are disappointed that so far President Abbas has not condemned these acts of terrorism as one would expect from a partner in peace talks."

Bennett went deeper: "When you educate children in terror from the age of kindergarten, when your television broadcasts depict Jews as monsters, when even Tel Aviv is not on your maps — then you are a terrorist."

The Palestinian Authority has named public places, sports teams and even streets after terrorists. Palestinian Authority television features programs which deny Israel's existence and some children's programming can be rabidly anti-Semitic.

Some of that indoctrination also may be fueling a rise in terrorist groups even more radical than Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Security officials intercepted a West Bank Salafi-jihad cell that was en route to launching a series of terrorist attacks in November.

Netanyahu raised concern over the incitement in an August letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

"Incitement and peace cannot coexist," Netanyahu wrote. "Rather than educate the next generation of Palestinians to live in peace with Israel, this hate education poisons them against Israel and lays the ground for continued violence, terror and conflict."

After 3-Year Freeze, Government Seeks "Prompt Resolution" of Al-Arian Case

Federal prosecutors used a relatively innocuous defense request last week to remind a federal judge that she has held up Sami Al-Arian's criminal contempt case for more than three years.

Al-Arian has been on house arrest since 2008 after being indicted and charged with criminal contempt. He repeatedly refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating terrorist financing despite court-approved immunity. He claims that his 2006 plea agreement in a related case involving his support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad meant he'd never have to cooperate with the government again.

Nothing has happened in the case since 2010, when U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema canceled a hearing on pending motions, including a motion to dismiss the case. She had all the information she needs from briefs, she wrote, "and the Court is working on an opinion which addresses all relevant issues."

That echoed a similar written promise Brinkema wrote in April 2009: "The Court will issue a written opinion on the motion in the near future."

No opinion was issued, however, and Al-Arian remains on house arrest. In January, Brinkema dramatically reduced the restrictions on Al-Arian's activities in an unsolicited order.

On Friday, Al-Arian's attorneys petitioned the court for permission to move to a new home. Prosecutors filed no response, but told the defense that they would leave the decision up to the court, repeating their view that Al-Arian should be in custody until his trial.

"Further, it is the government's position that this motion highlights the need for a prompt resolution of the outstanding substantive motions in this case," the defense motion says.

Brinkema granted the motion on Monday allowing Al-Arian to move, court records show. She made no reference to the government's "prompt resolution" request.

Brinkema has not explained why she has refused to either dismiss the case, as defense attorneys want, or let it proceed to trial. Under terms of his 2006 plea, Al-Arian would face deportation if the case were dismissed. That could prove particularly problematic to carry out because he is a stateless Palestinian convicted of a terrorism support felony.

His claim about his plea agreement protecting him from testifying before the grand jury previously was rejected by the 4^th Circuit and 11^th Circuit courts of appeal, but those decisions came before the issue was the subject of a criminal case.

In addition, prosecutors made it clear that Al-Arian has produced no evidence to support the claim. It is not mentioned anywhere in the plea agreement and neither Al-Arian nor his attorneys mentioned it when he admitted his guilt in a 2006 hearing.

Al-Arian, meanwhile, appears to be using his legal limbo to his advantage. As the Investigative Project on Terrorism exclusively reported earlier this month, he is actively involved in a group advocating for the restoration of Muslim Brotherhood power in Egypt. That effort included his presence on Capitol Hill for a one-sided discussion of the situation in Egypt since President Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July.

Syrian Emergency Taskforce Head Urges Support for Islamic Front

The head of a major Syrian-American group said in a podcast earlier this month that American and other Western policymakers should not be concerned about the rise of the Islamic Front in Syria and should actively engage it.

The Islamic Front formed last month after seven Islamist rebel groups formed broke ranks with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), now the Syrian Rebel Front (SRB). The coalition's charter clearly states that it aims to replace the Assad regime with an Islamic state and that it rejects democracy and secularism.

"We have not seen serious engagement by the West with the biggest sort of united opposition armed element on the ground, and that's something I think they definitely should do. That's not to be written off," Syrian Emergency Taskforce Executive Director Mouaz Moustafa said in the podcast. "They should also be seen as the best hope against al-Qaida and the extremists in Syria and also against Hizballah and Assad."

His group has close ties with the U.S. State Department and holds regular meetings with it and with members of Congress.

Moustafa urged his listeners not to "pass judgment" on the Islamic Front based on its name alone.

"The focus now is to depose the regime and kick out people like Hizballah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and others that are killing us. And so that's the best way to describe their ideology," Moustafa said. "I think the international community and the West and in general must engage with the Islamic Front and need to be more pragmatic and realistic about what is going on ground in Syria in order to bring them on board with whatever political solution will happen in the future."

Many Islamic Front battalions have fought alongside Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), al-Qaida's two factions in Syria, or have endorsed them in interviews or on social media.

Hassan Aboud, the head of Ahrar Al-Sham, a faction of the Islamic Front, told Al-Jazeera in a June 8 interview that the main differences between his group and Jabhat al-Nusra came down to tactics. Abu Muhammed al-Husseini, the head of al-Sham's political office in Raqqa, agreed, telling Reuters in July that his group differed from al-Nusra only on "operational details."

Suquor al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham Movement, Jaish al-Islam and Suqour al-Sham – all components of the Islamic Front – signed a declaration with Jabhat al-Nusra in September saying they aimed to establish "the rule of sharia and making it the sole source of legislation" and unite the anti-Assad forces in "an Islamic framework."

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