US, German intel: Al Qaeda plots multiple attacks on US-, Israel-bound airliners

DEBKAfile Special Report

July 7, 2009, 9:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

Target of new al Qaeda hijack plot

Western anti-terror agencies have warned that a large group of 15-20 al Qaeda terrorists, trained in Pakistan and Algeria to hijack and blow up airliners, deployed secretly in at least six European and Middle East countries in early July. They are standing ready to carry out multiple terrorist attacks.

The terrorists are believed to have landed in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey and Egypt.

The dates to watch, local authorities were warned, were July 4, July 7, the fourth anniversary of the 7/7 attacks on the British transport system in which 52 people died, and July 8-9, when the G8 summit meets in the Italian town of L'Aqila. US president Barack Obama will fly in from talks with Russian leaders in Moscow.

Al Qaeda planners, say the Western sources, know it is extremely hard to break through the massive security cordons protecting summit leaders. They are therefore planning to hijack passenger planes of airlines belonging to the targeted states and blow them up in mid-air.

DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources report the first specific red alert on Saturday, July 4, referred to the possible hijack of Turkish Airways planes taking of from Turkish airports for US destinations or Tel Aviv. Special precautionary measures were put in place at both ends of their routes.

The alert is still in force.

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Bill Clinton. Photograph: AP

The UN is expected to name Bill Clinton as its special envoy to Haiti in a move that could capitalise on the ex-president's years of involvement with the impoverished nation to burnish the international body's image there.

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Biden: If Israel wants to bomb Iran, we can't stop them

July 5, 2009, 5:14 PM (GMT+02:00)

In an interview with ABC's George Stephanoupolos taped Saturday, vice president Joseph Biden said in answer to a question: "Look, Israel can determine for itself — it's a sovereign nation — what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else." Whether we agree or not? The interviewer asked. "Whether we agree or not," said the vice president.

This was the first time a senior Obama administration official left Israeli the military option against Iran's nuclear sites.

"They're entitled to do that," Biden went on to say. "Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that's going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. What we believe is in the national interest of the United States, which we, coincidentally, believe is also in the interest of Israel and the whole world.

"And so there are separate issues. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice. "

Stephanopoulos persisted: But just to be clear here, if the Israelis decide Iran is an existential threat, they have to take out the nuclear program, militarily the United States will not stand in the way?

Biden: "Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.

Interviewer: You say we can't dictate, but we can, if we choose to, deny over-flight rights here in Iraq. We can stand in the way of a military strike.

Biden: "I'm not going to speculate, George, on those issues, other than to say Israel has a right to determine what's in its interests, and we have a right and we will determine what's in our interests."

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Islam investigator ejected from D.C. Muslim conference
Illegally detained: 'CAIR and ISNA essentially tried to get me killed'

WASHINGTON – With a high-profile Christian keynote speaker, Rick Warren, the Islamic Society of North America billed its July 4 national convention here as a major outreach to non-Muslims, but it chose to eject by force an American investigating Islamist radicalism in the U.S.

Dave Gaubatz, a former Air Force special agent who has traveled the country investigating radical Islamist mosques and attempts at imposing Shariah law in the U.S., was forcibly removed from the conference after paying the $100 attendance fee.

Gaubatz made news last November by slapping officials of the Council of American Islamic Relations with subpoenas at the group's national conference.

"It was apparent I was 'flagged,'" he told WND. "Eight or nine ISNA and other men surrounded me. They refused to tell me who they were or why they wanted me to leave. One then said CAIR wants you out. They began crowding me. I was professional and told them to step away from me, tell me who they are, and why was I being illegally detained. I told them this could have been avoided if ISNA would have emailed me a cancellation. I told them I want my $100 back. Meanwhile I was asking them some tough questions they could not answer."

Get the hot new video "The Third Jihad" to understand the threat Islamists pose to all Americans. See the trailer!

After ISNA officials let Gaubatz out of the Washington Convention Center, he was quickly surrounded by Washington police.

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Saudis give nod to Israeli raid on Iran

Israeli sub said armed with nuclear-capable torpedoes navigates Suez Canal

DEBKAfile Special Report

July 3, 2009, 8:01 PM (GMT+02:00)

Dophin-class submarine

The Dolphin-class attack submarine is reported to be the first Israeli naval vessel to transit the Suez Canal in four years on its way from Haifa to Eilat last month. According to DEBKAfile's military sources, the move indicates a strengthening of the informal Israel-Egyptian-Saudi pact forged in recent months against Iran and first revealed by our sources. The three Middle East nations have opted for an Iran policy which is separate from the track pursued by US president Barack Obama.

According to foreign military sources, the Israeli Dolphins are stationed in the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean opposite Iran's shores. They are said to be armed with torpedo tubes capable of launching nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

To transit the Suez Canal, the armed submarine would have required Egyptian permission at the highest level, possibly even President Hosni Mubarak. An official in Cairo told Reuters that its passage would not be problematic as Egypt and Israel are not at war.

This noncommittal response indicates that Egypt has no objection to Israeli military craft passing through the canal on their way to the Red Sea and on to the Persian Gulf in case of a decision to strike Iran. The alternative would be a voyage of weeks around the Horn of Africa.

Our military sources report that since the Israel Navy lost the Dakar submarine near Greece in 1968, all Israeli subs are armed when they move out of harbor. Disclosure of the Israeli sub's passage through the Suez Canal last month is rated by our sources as of high regional significance, over and above the Middle East diplomatic moves afoot.

First US soldier captured in E. Afghanistan as US Marines launch big anti-Taliban in the south

DEBKAfile Special Report

July 2, 2009, 3:36 PM (GMT+02:00)

US Marines in new Afghan offensive

The US military spokesperson provided no details about the missing US soldier, the first abduction in America's eight-year Afghan war, except to say that he went missing Tuesday, June 30, and every effort was being made to recover him. DEBKAfile's military sources report that big US air bases are located between Herat in the east and the Iranian border.

The news of the capture broke after 4,000 US marines and 650 Afghan troops launched Operation Strike of the Sword against the Taliban heartland in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan in the small hours of Thursday, July 2, Forty-eight hours earlier, 130,000 US troops pulled out of Iraq's cities, a concatenation of events which underscored the Obama administration's military emphasis on Afghanistan and away from Iraq.

The US-Afghan force, backed by armor and helicopters, faced little resistance in the first stage of its advance on the important Taliban stronghold, which is located in the world's largest opium poppy growing area. DEBKAfile's military sources report that the Taliban, forewarned of the coming offensive, used the tactics it employs against the Pakistani army, which is to avoid pitched battles with large US or Pakistan forces. They prefer to hit and run where least expected and incur minimal casualties. This tactic has denied the Pakistani army, albeit aided by US spy drones, victory in the second month of its campaign to root the Taliban out of the northern Swat Valley. It will make the coming Pakistani offensives with US military support against two more fronts, the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud's stronghold in South Waziristan and Pakistani Kashmir, even more complicated.

Pakistan sent more troops to the Afghani border to prevent Taliban fighters fleeing ahead of American-Afghan drive.

A statement on the Helmand operation by Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson stressed the difference between the Pakistan and Afghan warfronts:

"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces."

The American force, in other words, has not embarked on an in-and-out operation before moving on to other fronts, but intends to stay put until the province is purged of insurgents and rehabilitated before handing it over to the central Afghan government in Kabul.

DEBKAfile's sources point to only one of difficulties facing the plan handover: Afghanistan is short of troops for taking and holding the province, and Afghan security forces have a propensity for squabbling amongst themselves over territory and influence. Three days ago, a clash between rival Afghan security forces in the town of Kandahar left eight men dead including the local police chief.

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US commander warns: Iran continues to back violence in Iraq

DEBKAfile Special Report

June 30, 2009, 10:03 PM (GMT+02:00)

US troops leave Iraqi cities

Parties, processions, a parade in the fortified Green Zone seat of government and embassies, and prime minister Nuri al-Malikii's proclamation of June 30 National Sovereignty Day celebrated the US military's handover of towns and cities to Iraqi security personnel on the way to a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.

But the day was also darkened by the deaths of four US soldiers from "combat-related injuries" in Baghdad and a bomb-vehicle explosion which killed at least 27 Iraqis in a Kirkuk market in the north.

The Iraq regime signaled its hopes for a new era by holding an auction Tuesday for eight oil and gas fields, Iraq's first major opening to foreign investment since the energy industry was nationalized 40 years ago.

Yet DEBKAfile's military sources stress that unresolved tensions among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds still simmer and may erupt now that 130,000 US troops have withdrawn to 39 rural bases - nowhere near on hand for emergencies in the towns.

A small number remains in the cities to train and advise Iraqi forces, but Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk and Mosul will be more vulnerable than ever and security in the small towns of Falluja, Ramadi and Baquba may also veer out of control under massive, multi-casualty bombing attacks.

Few really believe that the 650,000-strong Iraqi military is up to maintaining stability or dealing with a serious insurgency or wave of terror.

We are not leaving," the US commander in Iraq Gen. Ray Odierno assured Iraqis. "We'll continue to be in support of Iraqi security forces to maintain stability throughout the country."

However, differences have begun to surface. The prime minister has attributed the pre-withdrawal spike in violence, which claimed more than 250 lives this month, to al Qaeda and remnants of the Iraqi Baath insurgents, whereas Gen. Odierno blamed Iran, which he said "is still supporting, funding and training surrogates who operate inside of Iraq. They have not stopped and I don't think they will stop," he said.

On Monday, US ambassador Christopher Hill said he was concerned that illegal arms continue to flow into Iraq from Iran.

DEBKAfile's sources point out that US president Barack Obama's pledge on attaining office to withdraw US soldiers from Iraqi cities by June 30 - on the road to ending an unpopular war which has claimed the lives of 4,321 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis - has no military justification.

Iraqi cities, especially Baghdad, have been left wide open to an upsurge of violence expected in the coming weeks. And the situation in the Maliki government is so fluid that a local Iraqi officer, in Mosul, say, might hypothetically seek US military assistance in a crisis and meet a refusal from central government in Baghdad. The decision would then devolve on the American command.

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Sotomayor Achilles' heel? Wrongly imprisoned man
Jailed for 16 years, he blames Supreme Court nominee for 6

Jeffrey Deskovic, speaking about his 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit

The nomination by President Obama of 2nd Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court is more than alarming to an innocent man who was convicted of murder and spent 16 years in prison before being cleared and released.

Jeff Deskovic, whose pursuit of freedom has been chronicled by the New York Times and others, told WND that the last six of those years are directly attributable to decisions endorsed by Sotomayor.

"I'm very alarmed," he said. "The rest of my life, as a result of my ordeal, is dedicated to preventing this from happening to other people."

Sotomayor in her 2nd Circuit position repeatedly put "procedure over innocence" and rejected appeals that could have provided Deskovic with his freedom much earlier than it actually happened, he told WND.

He blames the prosecutors and others in his original case for getting his conviction and sentence, but he blames Sotomayor – and the other judge on the 2nd Circuit panel – for the last six years he remained in prison.

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He's back! Guess who's coming to tea parties
Find out which popular patriot is helping take America back this Independence Day

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, or "Joe the Plumber"

Joe the Plumber is hitting the streets to speak at tea parties and help citizens take America back this Independence Day weekend.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became known as Joe the Plumber following his Oct. 12 encounter with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in Ohio. He questioned Obama's plan to raise taxes on Americans who earn more than $250,000 each year.

He told WND his suspicions about the next president came true, but Obama isn't the only person he blames.

"I don't go around talking about President Obama too often because it tends to draw a line for people. I blame Congress ultimately for everything that is going badly," he said. "Obama just got in there. But that being said, I don't care for how he is conducting our foreign affairs. It worries me. He's also pushing a lot of things through too quickly and not giving American people a chance to catch their breath. I really don't care for how his leadership has been going so far."

Wurzelbacher is scheduled to speak in Austin, Texas, at 9 a.m. on July 3 at the Zilker Park Polo Field picnic area.

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JANET JACOBSON
http://my.tupperware.com/JanetJacobson