What happened to "the principles of truth and nonviolence?" I was taught they were "as old as the hills."

Apparently Arun Gandhi forgot these basic principles preached by Grandpa Gandhi. Or did the truth get the best of him in a public forum. I think the latter.

Gandhi Grandson Quits After Criticizing Jews

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson resigned from the peace institute he co-founded after condemnation of his comments that Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in a culture of violence that “is eventually going to destroy humanity.” Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of the revered pacifist, said on Friday that his comments, which were posted on an online forum, were meant “to generate a healthy discussion on the proliferation of violence.”

“Instead, unintentionally, my words have resulted in pain, anger, confusion and embarrassment. I deeply regret these consequences,” Gandhi said. He apologized “for my poorly worded post,” saying he should not have implied that Israeli government policies reflected the views of all Jewish people.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called it “shameful that a peace institute would be headed up by a bigot.” The board of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence based at the University of Rochester accepted Gandhi’s offer on Thursday to step down as its president.

Gandhi went on and described Israel as “a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs.” He then asked whether it would “not be better to befriend those who hate you?”

“Apparently, in the modern world so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept,” he wrote. “You don’t befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.” He wrote that the Jewish identity “has been locked into the holocaust experience — a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of (how) a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. “The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his followers into doing something dreadful ... The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on, the regret turns into anger.”

WOW! Piling on the Jews at the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.

 

In a recent, inadvertently released Canadian training manual on "Torture Awareness," Canada has linked the United States and Israel among others like China, Syria and Iran as countries that have prisoner interrogation techniques that include Torture. The manual mistakenly came to light during an investigation of abuse by Canadian soldiers against prisoners in Afghanistan.

Canada puts U.S., Guantanamo and Israel on torture 'watch list'

Canada has put the United States and Israel on a torture watch list, according to CTV. A Canadian government document cites the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and interrogation techniques that include "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation."
...

A Foreign Affairs Department training manual, titled "Torture Awareness Workshop Reference Materials," provides legal definitions of torture and instructs Canadian consular officials how to detect signs of abuse among detainees held abroad. It lists Guantanamo Bay and the United States, along with Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The manual was inadvertently released to lawyers working on a lawsuit involving abuse of Afghanistan detainees by Canadians, the Canadian Press reported.

One Canadian prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr, is due before a U.S. military commission in early February. The Pentagon has charged him with "murder by an unprivileged belligerent" for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadar was 15 at the time.

This year Islam and Judaism's holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days. Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10 countries during this time... while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Prize.

Could this be the start of the build up to the inevitable Iran/Saudi conflict in Iraq?

Many Sunni regimes in the region have felt vulnerable since last years election of the Iranian-backed Shiite government in Iraq. Saudi Arabia in particular has said that it would not allow Iran to build a puppet government in Iraq.

"There's a sense here and in the region of the need to build up defenses against Iranian encroachment," said a U.S. official familiar with the deals.

US 'plans huge Saudi arms deal'

The United States is reported to be preparing a major arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth $20bn (£9.8bn) over the next decade.

It is said to be part of a strategy for countering Iran's growing strength.

Defence officials quoted by US media and the AFP news agency said it would include missile guidance systems, upgraded fighter jets and naval ships.

To counter objections from Israel, they said, the Jewish state would be offered significantly increased military aid.

But the New York Times says Bush administration officials are concerned that the size of the package and broader concerns about Saudi Arabia's influence in Iraq could prompt critics in Congress to oppose the package.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates is said to be planning to discuss the proposals in a visit to Saudi Arabia next week with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The officials said discussions with Congress on the arms package had just begun, and that no announcements were expected during the visit.

Other US allies in the region - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - could receive equipment and weaponry as part of the deal, the officials said.

The writing's on the wall, or is it just graffiti?

One down... several more to go.

The Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, also known as the Mossad, is being accused by a U.S. intelligence company of assassinating a high level Iranian nuclear scientist.

Israel has made claim many times that it will not stand by and allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I think they mean it!

FoxNews Report:

A prize-winning Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the U.S. State Department and broadcasts to Iran.

An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service.

Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour’s death emerged on Jan. 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as “gas poisoning”. The Iranian reports did not say how or where Hassanpour was poisoned but his death was said to have been announced at a conference on nuclear safety.

Rheva Bhalla of Stratfor, the U.S. intelligence company, claimed on Friday that Hassanpour had been targeted by Mossad and that there was “very strong intelligence” to suggest that he had been assassinated by the Israelis, who have repeatedly threatened to prevent Iran acquiring the bomb.

Hassanpour won Iran’s leading military research prize in 2004 and was awarded top prize at the Kharazmi international science festival in Iran last year.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to announce next Sunday — the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution — that 3,000 centrifuges have been installed at Natanz, enabling Iran to move closer to industrial scale uranium enrichment.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency say that hundreds of technicians and laborers have been “working feverishly” to assemble equipment at the plant.

Two Russian Chechen platoons, Vostok and Zapad, already deployed in Southern Lebanon, are setting up surveillance posts on the Lebanese border with Israel and are giving Russian, Syrian and Hezbollah intelligence agencies detailed and real time information on the movements of all military operations including the IDF in Israel.

Caroline Glick writes of the reappearance of past hostilities toward Israel by Russia and it's absolute support for Hezbollah in their recent conflict.

As the storm of war approaches

The clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.

The Russian bear has awakened after 15 years of hibernation. Under the leadership of former KGB commander President Vladimir Putin, Russia is reasserting its traditional hostility towards Israel.

On Tuesday, Russian military engineers landed in Beirut. Their arrival signaled the first time that Russian forces have openly deployed in the Middle East. In the past Soviet forces in Syria and Egypt operated under the official cover of "military advisers." Today those "advisers" are "engineers." The Russian forces, which will officially number some 550 troops, are tasked with rebuilding a number of bridges that the IDF destroyed during the recent war. They will operate outside the command of UNIFIL.

Mosnews news service reported on Wednesday that the engineers will be protected by commando platoons from Russia's 42nd motorized rifle division permanently deployed in Chechnya. According to the report, these commando platoons are part of the Vostok and Zapad Battalions, both of which are commanded by Muslim officers who report directly to the main intelligence department of the Russian Army's General Staff in Moscow. The Vostok Battalion is commanded by Maj. Sulim Yamadayev, who Mosnews refers to as a "former rebel commander."

With the deployment of former Chechen rebels as Russian military commandos in Lebanon, the report this week exposing Russia's intelligence support for Hizbullah during the recent war takes on disturbing strategic significance. According to Jane's Defense Weekly, the Russian listening post on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights provided Hizbullah with a continuous supply of intelligence throughout the conflict.

Much still remains to be reported about the impressive intelligence capabilities that Hizbullah demonstrated this summer. But from what has already been made public, we know that Hizbullah's high degree of competence in electronic intelligence caused significant damage to IDF operations. Now we learn that Moscow stood behind at least one layer of Hizbullah's intelligence prowess.

Moscow's assistance to Hizbullah was not limited to intelligence sharing. The majority of IDF casualties in the fighting were caused by Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles that made their way to Hizbullah fighters through Syria. Indeed, as we learn more about Russia's role, it appears that Russia's support for Hizbullah may well have been as significant as Syria's support for the terror organization. And now we have Chechens in Lebanon.

Russian backing of Hizbullah, like its support for Syria and Iran, has been matched by its extreme, Cold War-esque hostility towards Israel. On Tuesday, Channel 2 reported that for the past few months Putin has been obsessively demanding that the government transfer proprietary rights and control to the Russian government over the Russian Compound, which has served as a police station since the British Mandate, and other Russian historical buildings in central Jerusalem.

Putin's demand, which has no legal foundation or diplomatic precedent, exposes startling disrespect for Israeli sovereignty. According to Channel 2, Russian diplomats have been raising this obnoxious demand at the start of every meeting they have had with Israeli officials for the past several months. This most recently reported slap in the face joins a long list of diplomatic crises that Russia has fomented in the past few months.

Read the rest of her article.

Alexandra at All Things Beautiful has more with: The Russian Bear Awakes

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan helps Iran deliver weapons and re-supplies to Hezbollah via Beirut airport.

By insisting that the UN will monitor all deliveries into the Beirut airport, Israel agreed to end the air embargo on Lebanon to allow shipments of needed goods to enter the country.

As soon as the embargo was lifted the Lebanese prime minister, Siniora barred all UN personnel from the airport.

DEBKAfile has this report.
Iran resumed weapons airlift to Hizballah via Beirut Friday as soon as Israel ended its air blockade.

Iran’s first post-blockade arms flight departed Dubai Friday, Sept. 8, to test the ground at Beirut international airport for Israeli air force or UN reactions. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the forbidden goods were unloaded and sailed through the airport unhindered. Tehran therefore determined to send two further bulk consignments in the next 48 hours aboard commercial flights from the Persian Gulf.

Our sources report the arms crates listed were on the documents as “computer equipment. Handle with care.” They were off loaded onto trucks which drove in convoy to Hizballah headquarters in Baalbek.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, determined to end Israel’s air blockade on Lebanon, promised solemnly that UN monitors would control incoming passengers and goods at Beirut airport. But he failed to make the Siniora government follow through on this pledge. The Lebanese prime minister immediately barred the airport to UN inspections. The five German air monitors agreed on were only allowed to establish a checkpoint for controlling arms smuggling at a distance of one kilometer from the international airport. DEBKAfile reports they are standing idle because the trucks carrying forbidden cargoes are able leave the airfield and bypass their checkpoint by alternative routes.

At the same time, DEBKAfile’s diplomatic sources report the Israeli government and the UN are colluding to present the expanded UNIFIL project as a big success and a satisfactory formula for enabling Israeli troops to quit Lebanon and fully implementing UN resolution 1701.

In actual fact, the UN deployment by land and sea does nothing to curtail Hizballah’s recovery and rearming. Its only achievement thus far is the acceleration of Israel’s disengagement from the Lebanon scene empty-handed.

Our military sources disclose that Iran is sending Hizballah fresh supplies of anti-tank weapons and for the first time a large quantity of anti-air missiles. The war materiel is coming in by land, sea and air.

The promised Italian, French and Greek rival presence, on the strength of which Israel lifted its air blockade, has been pushed by the Lebanese government out to sea and restricted to a 12-km radius from the coast. The European warships can keep an eye on big freighters approaching Lebanese ports, but cannot keep track of the small vessels reaching Lebanon ports from the northern Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia. That is where Iranian cargo vessels have been unloading large quantities of arms for Hizballah outside the European fleets’ limits in the last two weeks. Furthermore, Friday, as soon as Israel was persuaded to lift its sea blockade, three Lebanese and Syrian ships crammed with arms for Hizballah departed the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli and after a short voyage hugging the Lebanese coast put into the southern Lebanese port of Sidon, where willing Hizballah hands unloaded their cargo.

On land, the Lebanese-Syrian border is wide open. Three or four arms truck convoys cross into Lebanon every day.

How much longer are we going to take this man serious?

Israel should now finish what it started and be done with it once and for all.

The fact that Hezbollah lost all their primo, top of the line Iranian built, Zelzal-2 missiles in the first half hour of the war with Israel, has really gotten their panties in a wad.

They had no idea that Israel knew exactly where they were, and they were devastated when Israel wiped them out first thing.

They are now out looking for and arresting people they suspect of collaborating with Israel against the guerilla group.

First wave of arrests inside Hizballah of suspected informers to Israeli intelligence

No commissions of inquiry for Hassan Nasrallah. Our exclusive sources learn that Hizballah’ special security service has begun rounding up suspects in the northern Beqaa Valley, Baalbek and South Lebanon of members and others suspected of tipping off Israel intelligence on the location of the storehouse holding the heavy Zelzal missiles.

Those missiles, no more than three or four, were held in reserve as Hizballah’s most devastating strategic weapon against Israel, capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

Monday, Aug. 28, prime minister Ehud Olmert revealed for the first time that the Israeli air force destroyed those missiles in the first 34 minutes of the Lebanon war on July 12. Nasrallah needs urgently to find the leak through which the missiles’ place of storage and very existence, one of Hizballah’s most tightly kept secrets known only to very few top leaders of the organization, reached Israel.

The first arrests were made among people living in the vicinity of the missile cache.

More arrests have been carried out in the Shiite communities who live near or are connected with the Hizballah intelligence and secret command centers in Baalbek, which were targeted by Israeli air strikes and commando forays.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources reveal that Hizballah’s special security apparatus is focusing on two lines of inquiry:

1. Israel’s Aug. 1 commando raid on the Deir al Hikhma hospital in Baalbek.

2. The series of Israeli incursions in the course of the war in the hills northwest of Baalbek, where Hizballah’s main command center, including its intelligence headquarters, are hidden underground in well fortified quarters – and are still in place.

Some have claimed that Hezbollah did not fire these missiles into Israel during the war because of Tehran's opposition, but I think the real truth may lie right here.

If they had them, they would have used them. No doubt in my mind.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah mis-calculated the Israeli response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah which started a war beyond his belief.

He said in a TV interview on Sunday that if he had known it would lead to a war, he would never have ordered the capture of the two Israeli soldiers.

"We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," he said.

Nasrallah, who went into hiding on the first day of the war, also said he did not believe a second bout of fighting would break out with Israel, even though he said more than half his group's rocket arsenal was left intact.

"The current Israeli situation, and the available information tells us that we are not heading to another round," he said.

Although Nasrallah claimed victory over Israel as the cease fire took hold, he did apologized in the interview for the suffering of the Lebanese people, caused by the war.

Who really won the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict?

It is a temptation among most international pundits, in the midst of a cease-fire in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, to proclaim the Israeli government, specifically their Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the loser and Hezbollah the winner.

There may be some truth to this premise. I mean, it is a fact that Israel did not do a very good job waging this war right from the start. They never really committed themselves to winning at all cost. With an air campaign which appeared restrained at best and not having enough boots on the ground to take the war right to the militants, they were not able to prosecute this war against Hezbollah effectively enough to disarm it.

So now what? They end up with this extremely weak, poorly supported, UN sponsored truce, which only a moron would believe will actually result in anything positive, like Hezbollah being disarmed, putting a halt to the resupplying of weapons by Iran and Syria, or Lebanon getting it's country back from the terrorist grip of Hezbollah.

Not to mention Israel's main objective was never accomplished. The return of the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah that started the whole thing.

But is Hezbollah a winner?

I don't think so, once reality sets in.

Casualties among the Lebanese people were very high, and were mostly civilian, due to the cowardly manner in which Hezbollah used the Lebanese people as human shields while firing off their missiles and rockets into Israel. The infrastructure of the entire country of Lebanon has been destroyed by the IDF and will cost billions of dollars to reconstruct.

And yes, Hezbollah is out front showing the world that they are the true keepers of Lebanon by giving citizens money to rebuild their lives. I don't know how much life building you can do with $12,000, but it's better than nothing and the Lebanese people are happy with it none-the-less. But how long is this going to last before the money runs out and Lebanon, with it's people, are left with a country in ruins for years to come.

How about Syria?

Well it looks like Syria is no more than a puppet of Iran, being used as a gateway to Lebanon so Iran can get it's weapons into the hands of Hezbollah where they need them. And, well, Syria has it's own problems politically speaking. It seems that President Bashar Assad lashed out at the moderate Arab countries because of their lack of support for Hezbollah in the beginning of the conflict, calling them in essence, "half men." This, needless to say, did not go over very well in the Arab world.

So the way I see it, the winner is Iran.

It used Hezbollah as it's proxy to start a war with it's arch-enemy Israel at a time when the pressure was on them by the UN and the world over it's nuclear activity and while Israel was bogged down in Gaza with Hamas and the Palestinians.

Iran also wins in the arena of public opinion, because of the damage done to America's image in the Muslim world, as they were seen as supporting and directing the "deliberate destruction of Lebanon" using Israel as their proxy. Obviously an inaccurate image, but a real opinion held by many Muslims around the world anyway.

The conflict also effected the oil markets, driving prices to all time highs, while filling the pockets of the Iranian government at the same time. You got to love it, if you're the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

And while all this is happening the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is put on the back burner, at best, or maybe deemed completely unobtainable now. The latter has been a goal of the Iranian mullahs for a long time. It appears they won this one also.

So, as I see it, it's was a win-win situation for Iran, and a lose-lose situation for America and Israel.

And we still have Aug. 22nd to look forward to.

Let's just hope it's not radioactive...

Well it certainly appears that Iran's return on it's investment in Hezbollah, was not quite what they expected.

After two decades and billions of dollars spent in Lebanon, on a massive cache of weapons, training of personnel and the construction of a high tech military infrastructure designed to be a formidable deterrent to the Israeli military, Tehran could do nothing but sit back and watch the rout.

It's becoming obvious that Iran had plans for Hezbollah, but it was not to start a war prematurely with Israel and lose most of the weapons it spent years stockpiling for their own mission. It appears Hezbollah prematurely ejaculated.

Perhaps they were suppose to be part of something much larger planned by Iran for August 22, the date Iran says it will give the world it's final answer to the UN Security Council resolution to halt uranium enrichment.

The writer of this report is furious over the waste of Iran’s most important military investment in Lebanon merely for the sake of a conflict with Israeli over two kidnapped soldiers.

Tehran Takes Gloomy View of the Lebanon War and Truce

While the damage caused Israel’s military reputation tops Western assessments of the Lebanon war, DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report an entirely different perception taking hold in ruling circles in Tehran.

After UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for a truce was carried Friday, Aug. 11, the heads of the regime received two separate evaluations of the situation in Lebanon – one from Iran’s foreign ministry and one from its supreme national security council. Both were bleak: their compilers were concerned that Iran had been manipulatively robbed of its primary deterrent asset ahead of a probable nuclear confrontation with the United States and Israel.

While the foreign ministry report highlighted the negative aspects of the UN resolution, the council’s document complained that Hizballah squandered thousands of rockets – either by firing them into Israel or having them destroyed by the Israeli air force.

It took Iran two decades to build up Hizballah’s rocket inventory.

DEBKAfile’s sources estimate that Hizballah’s adventure wiped out most of the vast sum of $4-6 bn the Iranian treasury sunk into building its military strength. The organization was meant to be strong and effective enough to provide Iran with a formidable deterrent to Israel embarking on a military operation to destroy the Islamic regime’s nuclear infrastructure.

To this end, Tehran bought the Israeli military doctrine of preferring to fight its wars on enemy soil. In the mid-1980s, Iran decided to act on this doctrine by coupling its nuclear development program with Israel’s encirclement and the weakening its deterrence strength. The Jewish state was identified at the time as the only country likely to take vigorous action to spike Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

The ayatollahs accordingly promoted Hizballah’s rise as a socio-political force in Lebanon, at the same time building up its military might and capabilities for inflicting damage of strategic dimensions to Israel’s infrastructure.

That effort was accelerated after Israeli forces withdrew from the Lebanese security zone in May 2000. A bunker network and chain of fortified positions were constructed, containing war rooms equipped with the finest western hi-tech gadgetry, including night vision gear, computers and electronics, as well as protective devices against bacteriological and chemical warfare.

This fortified network was designed for assault and defense alike.

Short- medium- and long-range rockets gave the hard edge to Hizballah’s ablity to conduct a destructive war against Israel and its civilians – when the time was right for Tehran.

Therefore, Iran’s rulers are hopping mad and deeply anxious over news of the huge damage sustained by Hizballah’s rocket inventory, which was proudly touted before the war as numbering 13,000 pieces.

Hizballah fighters, they are informed, managed to fire only a small number of Khaibar-1 rockets, most of which hit Haifa and Afula, while nearly 100 were destroyed or disabled by Israeli air strikes.

The long-range Zelzal-1 and Zelzal-2, designed for hitting Tel Aviv and the nuclear reactor at Dimona have been degraded even more. Iran sent over to Lebanon 50 of those missiles. The keys to the Zelzal stores stayed in the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers who were in command of Hizballah. Nasrallah and his officers had no access to these stores.

But Tehran has learned that Israel was able to destroy most of the 22 Zelzal launchers provided.

What will Iran do now? I think we'll see sooner than later.

The New York Times is reporting Saturday the delivery of U.S. high tech weapons to Israel, which they say may anger some Arab governments and others due to the appearance that the United States is aiding the Israeli military in their bombing campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. To the NYT, it's no different than the support Iran is giving to Hezbollah by arming and resupplying the terrorist organization in it's war against Israel.

Well there is a big difference, but of course the NYT has a different agenda so it's blind to the truth.

U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis

WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.

The new American arms shipment to Israel has not been announced publicly, and the officials who described the administration’s decision to rush the munitions to Israel would discuss it only after being promised anonymity. The officials included employees of two government agencies, and one described the shipment as just one example of a broad array of armaments that the United States has long provided Israel.

One American official said the shipment should not be compared to the kind of an “emergency resupply” of dwindling Israeli stockpiles that was provided during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when an American military airlift helped Israel recover from early Arab victories.

David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said: “We have been using precision-guided munitions in order to neutralize the military capabilities of Hezbollah and to minimize harm to civilians. As a rule, however, we do not comment on Israel’s defense acquisitions.”

Israel’s need for precision munitions is driven in part by its strategy in Lebanon, which includes destroying hardened underground bunkers where Hezbollah leaders are said to have taken refuge, as well as missile sites and other targets that would be hard to hit without laser and satellite-guided bombs.

Sources include "anonymous employees of two government agencies".

Again I would like to thank the Times and the "anonymous losers assholes of two government agencies" for their unwavering support to the U.S. in this War on Terror.

More with HEZBOLLAH'S FAVORITE NEWSPAPER

Many in the US think that the terrorist group Hezbollah is only Israel's problem and contained to the middle east. Well people, think again. They are here in large numbers and are ready, willing and able to strike.

Michelle Malkin is on the mark in her syndicated column over at Jewish World View.

Hezbollah is already here

Sheeple thought of the day: "Hezbollah is not my problem."

You think Hezbollah is only Israel's headache? Wake up. Iranian Hezbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli's threat on Tuesday to dispatch 2,000 operatives "to every corner of the world to jeopardize Israel and America's interests" is more than just idle Islamic heavy-breathing.

The Jew-hating terrorists of Hezbollah who call themselves the "party of God" are already here. In America. Plotting attacks. Raising money. Slipping through the cracks.

In May, the New York Post reported on Hezbollah's plans to activate sleeper cells in New York, Los Angeles , Boston and Detroit as the nuclear showdown with Iran heats up. One focal point: "the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, where there have already been three episodes in the last four years in which diplomats and security guards have been expelled for casing and photographing New York City subways and other potential targets." Heightened alert comes in the wake of reports that Iranian crackpot president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Hezbollah leaders in Syria earlier this year.

Four years ago, I reported on how information-sharing walls between federal immigration and law enforcement agencies created a path to citizenship for at least one known Hezbollah member. He walked through our figurative front door. The then-assistant district director for INS investigations in New York City and two FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) officials were placed on administrative leave when the bungle was discovered.

Sources informed me the unidentified Middle Eastern male — now a fellow American — appeared on terrorist watch lists and is a member of the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Despite numerous calls from adjudicators in Newark, N.J., handling the alleged terrorist's naturalization case, the FBI and INS reportedly did not respond to requests to turn over the individual's "alien file." The A-file includes biographical and status information and investigative data. It is unclear why INS and the JTTF did not turn over the file, or why the New York office neglected to order the adjudications branch in Newark to put the naturalization process on hold.

Why did INS adjudicators in Newark proceed without viewing the alleged terrorist's file? Adjudicators to this day remain under intense pressure to meet naturalization "quotas." Job-performance ratings and cash bonuses are based on the number of naturalization approvals processed. It's standard operating procedure.

Hezbollah has also enlisted the aid of gullible American women to ease their way into the country.

Jessica Yolanda Fortune hooked up with Lebanon-born Chawki Youssef Hammoud in 1994. The marriage enabled him to obtain a green card-and the cover to operate a Charlotte, North Carolina-based cell that smuggled cigarettes to raise cash for Hezbollah. The terror cell reportedly answered to a senior Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon and was part of a broader North American network responsible for also obtaining dual-use technologies for Hezbollah — including goggles, global positioning systems, stun guns, naval equipment, nitrogen cutters and laser range finders.

Fortune was convicted of marriage fraud in October 2001. Hammoud was convicted of smuggling, credit card fraud, money laundering, and racketeering in June 2002. Fortune's brother-in-law, Mohammed Hammoud, married three different American women. After arriving in the United Stateson a counterfeit visa, being ordered deported, and filing an appeal, he wed Sabina Edwards to gain a green card. INS officials refused to award him legal status after this first marriage was deemed bogus in 1994.

He then married Jessica Wedel in May 1997, and while still wed to her, paid Angela Tsioumas to marry him in Detroit. Tsioumas entered a plea agreement in March 2002 on charges of conspiracy. Her "husband" was convicted on 16 counts that included providing material support to Hezbollah. A total of 25 people connected to the ring were nabbed.

Does the name "Hammoud" sound familiar? Earlier this month, the FBI announced the capture of Assem Hammoud — also a Lebanese-born Muslim like the members of the cigarette-smuggling Hammoud gang. He is suspected of working for al Qaeda on a plot to blow up PATH train tunnels between New Jersey and lower Manhattan with a team of suicide bombers. The 1998 terrorism indictment of Osama bin Laden notes al Qaeda's forged alliances "with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah."

Together, they've killed American servicemen and civilians around the world.

Not in your backyard? Think again.

Michelle has more here
Zombie has more pics.

As the Israeli air force continues tightening the noose around Lebanon by striking at strongholds in southern Beirut, where Hezbollah is headquartered, the Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora went on television to plead with the UN for help and to ask for foreign aid.

Saniora publicly criticized both Israel and Hezbollah and threatened to send the Lebanese army to the southern border to stabilize all of Lebanon. Hezbollah has effectively had control over the south border for many years.

Whether the Lebanese people knew it or not, Hezbollah had been training and planning an attack on Israel for a long time, and that time had arrived last Wednesday. The fact that they were about to subject their own people to another bloody war apparently was not a major concern.

Lebanon plunged back to bloody past

It was with the first sip of her morning coffee that Kokhi Hatan saw the Israeli tank explode before her eyes.

"The tank had moved only few metres into a firing position when it was blown to bits by a huge mine," she said.

The drama she watched from her back garden in the Galilee border village of Shtulah last Wednesday, as Hezbollah gunmen ambushed an Israeli patrol on the road running along the frontier with Lebanon, was the trigger for the worst crisis in the region for two decades.

Sources in Hezbollah, the radical Islamic organisation that runs a state within a state in Lebanon, say the attack was five months in the planning. The purpose was to seize hostages and hold them to ransom for prisoners in Israel.

The Hezbollah assault unit had clearly done their reconnaissance. After infiltrating overnight, they smashed Israeli security cameras that monitor the border and hid in a peach orchard to wait for two Israeli armoured Hummers to begin a daily 9am patrol.

The border area had been mostly quiet since May 2000, when Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon. Now the Hatans, an Israeli Kurdish family, watched in horror.

"They waited in the best location," said Assaf, Hatan's husband, pointing to a curve in the patrol road through his fields.

The two Hummers were hit by rocket-propelled grenades and went up in flames. Three soldiers were killed outright and two taken prisoner by the Hezbollah unit, which crossed back into Lebanon before a nearby Israeli base even knew what was happening.

The attack made clear how well-trained and equipped Hezbollah has become with the help of Iran, its main backer, since the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. It has built outposts along the border, in some places less than 100m from the Israelis.

Leader: Hezbollah Has 'Complete Strength'

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah urged Arabs and Muslims worldwide to support his guerrillas, saying Sunday that his group is fighting Israel on their behalf and that the battle has just begun.

A confident-looking Nasrallah said in a speech aired on his Al-Manar TV that Hezbollah guerrillas were at their "full strength" and that the group had "no choice" but to hit the northern Israeli city of Haifi with rockets Sundayh after Israel struck civilians in Lebanon.

Facing criticism by some in Lebanon that Hezbollah dragged the country into a fight with Israel by snatching two soldiers last week, Nasrallah sought to rally Lebanese and the Arab annd Islamic world behind his fighters., painted the battle as a chance for the Arab and Islamic world to deal a defeat to Israel.

"You Arab and Muslim people must take a position toward your future, the future of your children," he said. "The peoples of the Arab and Islamic world have a historic opportunity to score a defeat against the Zionist enemy ... We are providing the example."

"Hezbollah is not fighting a battle for Hezbollah or even for Lebanon but for the Islamic nation," he said.

"We will use all means," Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in an address on Lebanese television. "As long as the enemy has no limits, we will have no limits."

In the meantime the Lebanese Prime Minister sits on his hands waiting for others to do something, while his country gets destroyed little by little.

It may be time to SEND IN THE TROOPS Saniora.

Update: Hezbollah appears in control of Lebanon

Hezbollah and its backers, not the government, now appear in control of Lebanon's fate.

After moderating their stance in recent years, the guerrillas surged back to the war front with a surprise attack on Israel and a sophisticated arsenal, leaving Lebanon's politicians and army looking nearly powerless. The government seems paralyzed over how to deal with Hezbollah, whose Shiite Muslim fighters have had near autonomy in the south for more than a decade.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah acted Sunday like the man holding Lebanon's reins, though he looked tired and stressed as he vowed that his group had only begun to fight.

Update: Russia, France and Spain to mention only a few world leaders claim Israel is mounting a Disproportionate Response, I say, Bull Sh...

Captain Ed has more: Israel Prepares Ground Offensive Into Lebanon
MM has this: G8 LEADERS: RETURN ISRAELI SOLDIERS

The Israeli air force today continued bombing sites inside Lebanon, targeting infrastructure like bridges, power stations, and the Beirut airport, in a punitive action toward Hezbollah for the capture of two Israeli soldiers. Reports of at least 61 people in Lebanon have been killed so far while at least 10 Israeli's have been killed by rockets fired into Israel by Hezbollah militants.

In a phone call from Lebanon's prime minister, Fuad Saniora, President Bush rejected Lebanon's call for a cease fire with Israel, saying that Israelis have the right to protect themselves.

Israel Destroys Hezbollah HQ

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israeli warplanes Friday destroyed the building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Beirut, the group's TV station reported.

It did not report any casualties.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and the top leadership of the group have offices and residences in the high-security area, but they were likely to have been on the move during the Israeli offensive.

Earlier Friday, Israeli warplanes renewed attacks on the southern suburbs, targeting a Hezbollah radio station and starting a fire in a building, but its broadcasts continued.

Israeli aircraft pounded the neighborhood overnight, destroying overpasses and punching large holes in an intersection.

Hezbollah's chief pledged open war on Israel after it bombed and destroyed his home on Friday.

Hezbollah leader says ready for ‘open war’ with Israel

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that his group is ready for “open war” with Israel and warned that an Israeli warship that has been firing missiles into southern Beirut will be destroyed.

Speaking defiantly in an audiotape aired on Hezbollah’s Al Manar television, Nasrallah addressed himself to Israelis, saying: “You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war.”

“Look at the warship that has attacked Beirut, while it burns and sinks before your very eyes,” Nasrallah said. It was not clear whether he meant that the warship has already been attacked.

Israeli television reported that an Israeli naval ship off Lebanon’s coast suffered slight damage, but that there were no casualties.

Nasrallah spoke after Israeli missiles struck Hezbollah headquarters and his house in southern Beirut. His address, however, appeared to be pre-recorded, and Nasrallah did not refer to the missile attack on his offices and residence.

Nasrallah’s announcement was greeted with heavy celebratory fire that rang out across the Lebanese capital.

The Hezbollah leader repeated a threat to hit the Israeli coastal city of Haifa and other towns farther south. “We will reach Haifa, and believe me, even beyond Haifa.”

“Our homes will not be the only ones to be destroyed, our children will not be the only ones to die,” Nasrallah added.

Update: Al-Jazeera is reporting that the Israeli military was searching for four of its troops missing after their warship off Lebanon's coast was hit by a Hezbollah rocket.

Update: Israeli warship hit by Iranian built missile

While Hezbollah continues firing missiles into Israel from Lebanon, now numbering over one hundred, Israeli force have intensified their attacks against them on Thursday. Israel has imposed a naval blockade, bombed Beirut's airport twice and sent rockets into two Lebanese army air bases near the Syrian border.

Israel claims a missile was fired into the port city of Haifa, but the Shiite militant group, Hezbollah denied it had targeted the city, in a day in which two people were killed and another 120 were wounded while Katyusha rockets were falling all over northern Israel.

Some intelligents agencies think the Iranian Revolutionary guards fired this missile into Haifa.

As the tension escalate in the middle east the international community weighs in.

Arab leaders scramble to contain Mideast crisis

Arab leaders condemned Israel's deadly offensives against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as they scrambled to contain the worst crisis in the Middle East for years.

The massive Israeli onslaught against Lebanon that has killed around four dozen civilians since Wednesday followed the capture of two of its soldiers in attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas

As Arab foreign ministers prepared for an emergency meeting on the crisis on Saturday, Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa blamed Israel for the escalation and warned of "chaos" sweeping the region.

"Israel is behind all that is happening," Mussa told reporters. "Leaving matters as they are will lead to big chaos in the region."

Bush defends Israel's attacks in Lebanon

President Bush strongly defended Israel's attacks in Lebanon on Thursday but worried they could weaken or topple the fragile government in Beirut. The Mideast violence exposed divisions between the United States and allies and raised fears of a widening war.

"Israel has a right to defend herself," Bush said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent life."

Merkel appealed for restraint by all sides and said it was up to the militant group Hezbollah to defuse the situation, triggered by its cross-border raid from Lebanon into Israel and the capture of two Israeli soldiers. She called the violence a "very disturbing situation" that "fills us with concern."

U.S. vetoes U.N. condemnation of Israel

The United States cast the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years Thursday, blocking an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The draft, sponsored by Qatar, accused Israel of a "disproportionate use of force" that endangered Palestinian civilians, and it demanded Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, claims to have information that the Hezbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers are trying to move them to Iran.

If this surprises you, then you are just not getting it. Think about it! From Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria there is one common denominator, IRAN.

IT'S ALL THE SAME WAR...

The only way we are going to win this war is to bring down those regimes in Tehran and Damascus, and they are not going to fall as a result of fighting between their terrorist proxies in Gaza and Lebanon on the one hand, and Israel on the other. Only the United States can accomplish it.

Iran: Is Bush Prepared for the Military Option?

Three IDF soldiers were killed Wednesday during a Hezbollah raid on Israel's northern border while Hezbollah guerrillas captured and kidnapped two other Israeli soldiers and made their way back to Lebanon with them.

Four other Israeli soldiers were also killed when their tank drove over a roadside bomb as Israeli ground forces crossed into Lebanon to search for the captured soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Hezbollah raid an "act of war" by Lebanon and threatened with a "very, very, very painful" response.

Israel hits Lebanon after soldiers grabbed

Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded in southern Lebanon with warplanes, tanks and gunboats, and said eight of its soldiers had been killed in the violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the soldiers' capture "an act of war," and his Cabinet prepared to approve more military action in Lebanon — a second front in the fight against Islamic militants by Israel, which already is waging an operation to free a captured soldier in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said three soldiers were killed in the initial raid, and four others were killed when their tank hit a land mine in southern Lebanon. An eighth soldier was killed as an Israeli force tried to get to the tank, which was part of a ground invasion aimed at rescuing the captured soldiers.

Olmert said he held the Lebanese government responsible for the two soldiers' safety, vowing that the Israeli response "will be restrained, but very, very, very painful."

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said he will not release the captives except as part of a prisoner swap. He said the two soldiers were "in a safe and very far place."

"No military operation will return them," he told a news conference in Beirut. "The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade."

The US backed Israel today and made the claim that Syria and Iran were behind the attacks and kidnappings inside Israel.

US: Syria, Iran behind kidnapping in north

The United States stood by Israel and pointed an accusing finger at Syria and Iran Wednesday night following the difficult Hizbullah attack in the north. Meanwhile, following an emergency meeting in Beirut, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the government was unaware of the attack, and therefore rejected any responsibility.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council, Frederick Jones, said, “The United States condemns in the strongest terms this unprovoked act of terrorism, which was timed to exacerbate already-high tensions in the region and sow further violence."

"We also hold Syria and Iran, which directly support Hizbullah, responsible for this attack and the ensuing violence," Jones added. He noted that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in touch with both sides, and she was bearing the mess