[All notes below by Tom Gross]

“AHMADINEJAD SECRETLY MET WITH U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES IN QATAR”

Citing Russian, Arab and Swiss sources, the Iranian publication Entekhab reports on a secret meeting between Iran’s dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Qatar.

According to these sources Gates and Ahmadinejad agreed a non-aggression pact and the meeting occurred on the same day that the Pentagon and the CIA released the hitherto top secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report on Iran’s nuclear program to the media. (The meeting, according to the sources, preceded the release of the NIE report by a few hours.)

The Arabic source is al-Watan al-Arabi.

Entekhab appears to be an opposition publication and it is of course possible that these reports are incorrect. (Entekhab used to be a popular daily in Iran, and it is currently run as a news agency from the U.S. Entekhab means “choice” or “election” in Farsi.)

Nevertheless, as Iran expert and Giuliani advisor Michael Rubin points out to me, rumors can be important in their own right in a region where perception means more than reality. “Certainly, if the White House had been more consistent and transparent on Iran policy, such rumors wouldn’t fly,” he adds.

U.S. President George W. Bush is currently on the second day of an eight-day tour of the Middle East. In Israel yesterday, Israeli defense and security officials showed Bush classified information that demonstrates that the American National Intelligence Estimate suggesting that Iran abandoned plans for nuclear weapons in 2003, is wrong.

(For background on the NIE, see:
* British intelligence: Israelis are right, U.S. is wrong; Iran is rushing to acquire nukes (Dec. 11, 2007)
* Ahmadinejad doesn’t want a nuclear bomb? Just like there are no gays in Iran? (Dec. 6, 2007)

 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS AND DEANS “PLAN TO APOLOGIZE TO AHMADINEJAD”

Iran’s Mehr News Agency reports that a group of senior professors and deans of faculties from Columbia University plans to travel to Iran in order to present their “formal apologies” for “the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger made to President Ahmadinejad.”

The report is in Farsi here. And in English here and also here.

While condemning Bollinger, the delegation – which is said to include deans and/or professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy and Islamic studies – have failed to properly condemn Ahmadinejad for his Holocaust denial and his threats to further the genocide of the Jews by wiping out Israel.

UPDATE: The “Teheran apology” trip has now been confirmed by sources at Columbia.

(For background on Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia, see:
* Deny Holocaust? Get welcomed by Columbia University (Sept. 24, 2007)
* “Bravo, bravo, bravo, Columbia!” (& Hillary Clinton “confirms” Israel took out Syrian nukes) (Sept. 27, 2007)

 

PROTESTS AGAINST THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’S “ANTI-SEMITIC CARTOON”

There have been widespread protests against The Los Angeles Times after it carried what many said was a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon earlier this week to accompany yet another piece slurring Israel by the historical revisionists Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.

The cartoon showed America, dressed as Uncle Sam, in a concentration camp inmate-type uniform, with his hands manacled in handcuffs shaped as a Star of David.

As I have documented previously on this website, Professors Walt and Mearsheimer have done much to stir up anti-Semitic feeling in the United States and beyond in the last two years with a series of false and slanderous accusations against American Jews.

***

There has also been criticism of The Times of London which ran a lengthy feature yesterday full of untrue statements about Israel. Even the article’s byline was incorrect, referring to “a wall built on 2500 years of implacable enmity and hatred”. Islam was in fact only founded in the 7th century AD.

 

LIBYA VETOES UN CONDEMNATION OF ROCKET ATTACK ON ISRAEL FROM LEBANON

Last week, in a move that shocked people who genuinely care about human rights (as opposed to the many phony “human rights groups”), Libya assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

In one of its very first moves, Libya blocked a resolution yesterday condemning the unprovoked firing the day before of Katyusha rockets by Hizbullah or a related terror group from Lebanon into civilian homes in the Israeli town of Shlomi.

Israel says that the attack – which much of the international media failed to report – was a clear and serious violation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israel and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006.

Libya’s term in the rotating UN presidency lasts one month.

 

ISRAEL COMPLAINS THAT UNIFIL IS LEAKING INFORMATION TO HIZBULLAH

Israel has also once again complained to the Italian and French-led UNIFIL forces in south Lebanon that they are doing next to noting to prevent the smuggling of Syrian and Iranian arms across the Syrian-Lebanese border. Nor, says Israel, have they taken any action at all to disarm the militias in south Lebanon, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a conference of military officials that Hizbullah now had more – and longer-range – missiles than it had prior to the war it fought against Israel during the summer of 2006. UNIFIL was supposed to disarm the terror group.

Furthermore Israeli defense officials yesterday raised concerns that information they were regularly passing on to UNIFIL concerning Hizbullah’s military buildup in southern Lebanon was then being leaked to Hizbullah, either directly, or indirectly by Lebanese army officials with whom UNIFIL shared the Israeli information with.

For more on Hizbullah, see here.

 

PALESTINIAN DOCTOR HELD BY LIBYA FILES TORTURE CHARGES

A Palestinian doctor who was imprisoned with five Bulgarian nurses by Libya for eight years on trumped up charges of deliberately infecting Libyan children with AIDS, has filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee charging that he was tortured during his captivity. Ashraf Al-Hazouz and the nurses were pardoned last summer after a deal with the Libyan government was brokered by France. (In return, France arranged for Libya to received hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefits.)

At the time of their release, all six were forced by the Libyan regime to sign a statement saying they were treated well while in captivity. But immediately after they arrived in Bulgaria they gave interviews outlining what they said was “horrific torture,” including the use of electric shocks, beatings and violation of their bodies with blunt instruments.

The Associated Press reports that Dr. Al-Hazouz has been warned by European Union officials not to sue because it could undermine diplomatic relations between European states and Libya. Al-Hazouz says he will ignore the European Union warnings.

 

OLMERT PREVENTS ISRAELI TERROR VICTIMS FROM CONDEMNING FATAH

There was anger among many in Israel yesterday after the Jerusalem police, acting on orders from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, arrested a group of Israeli mothers who had lost their children in Palestinian suicide bombings, for distributing a booklet to foreign journalists detailing Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement’s involvement in terrorist attacks.

They had been handing out the booklet to coincide with George W. Bush’s visit to Jerusalem yesterday. Police released the group without charge once most of the foreign journalists had moved on to Ramallah in the West Bank.

The booklet, “Fatah as ‘Moderate’: A Hard Look Post-Annapolis,” can be found in English here.

***

In a not very nice welcome yesterday, Reuters reports that 20,000 Islamists in Gaza protested against “Vampire” Bush. Using international aid money still pouring into Gaza, they brandished thousands of placards showing George W. Bush as a vampire swigging Muslim blood.

***

And today Palestinians in Gaza launched a rocket attack on the local American International School in protest against President Bush’s visit. Witnesses said large parts of the school were damaged by rockets, mortars and explosive devices. The attack came hours after several Palestinian groups called on Palestinians to kill Bush.

***

The Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv today asks why Israel has not devoted greater resources to explaining the plight of Jews who were forced to leave Arab and Islamic countries in the years after 1948. The editors assert that “Someone must remind Bush: There were more Jewish refugees from Arab countries than Palestinian refugees, and more Jewish property was confiscated than Palestinian property.”

And The Jerusalem Post today opines that “the most important thing Bush can do in Ramallah is to say to the Palestinians that if they want a state they must stop spewing hatred and glorifying terrorism. Rather than constantly using the ‘right of return’ as code for Israel’s destruction, Abbas must tell his people the truth: a Palestinian state requires giving up the dream of Greater Palestine, making peace with the Jewish democracy of Israel, and building a state alongside it in most of the West Bank and Gaza.”

 

PALESTINIAN POLL AS BUSH VISITS: ONLY 9% SAY ISRAELI OCCUPATION IS THEIR MAIN CONCERN

President Bush, who today visited the West Bank, might want to consider the results of this poll, taken by a leading Palestinian polling company. It shows that contrary to what Condoleezza Rice and various journalists would have us believe, most Palestinians are much less concerned about ending the Israeli “occupation” than they are about finding reliable and honest leaders to govern any future Palestinian state.

The poll was taken in the run-up to Bush’s visit by the Near East Consulting company in Ramallah on the West Bank. 959 Palestinians over the age of 18 from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were interviewed by phone.

Among the results:

What is the main issue that makes you feel concerned?
The economic hardship of my household: 29%
The absence of security for my family and me: 19%
The internal power struggle: 27%
The Israeli occupation: 9%
Family problems: 3%
I have no concerns: 13%

Do you support the security plan by the caretaker (Palestinian) government, and the collection of weapons (from Palestinian militia)?
Support: 83%
Oppose: 17%

What is your level of optimism about the future?
Very optimistic: 10%
Optimistic: 56%
Pessimistic: 25%
Very Pessimistic: 9%

Do you think the new aid to the Palestinians will be managed properly by the Palestinian Authority?
Yes: 59%
No: 41%

Which party do you support?
West Bank residents:
Fatah: 34%
Hamas: 12%
PFLP: 3%
Islamic Jihad: 2%
Others: 3%
I trust none of these factions: 47%

Gaza residents:
Fatah: 44%
Hamas: 19%
PFLP: 2%
Islamic Jihad: 5%
I trust none of these factions: 27%

Perceptions about Hamas’ position towards the elimination of Israel, according to region:
West Bank residents:
Hamas should maintain its position: 35%
Hamas should change its position: 65%

Gaza Strip residents:
Hamas should maintain its position: 39%
Hamas should change its position: 61%

 

“I DIVORCE YOU BY TEXT MESSAGE BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T ANSWER YOUR HUSBAND”

The Egyptian government-run daily al-Akhbar reports from Cairo that a woman is seeking clarification from a court on whether her husband’s declaration of divorce by text message is legally valid.

After missing a call from her husband on her mobile phone, Iqbal Abul Nasr received a text message from him which read: “I divorce you because you didn’t answer your husband.”

In line with Sharia law, Egyptian men do not need to go to court to file for divorce. A unilateral declaration of divorce by a man, repeated three times, formally ends a marriage. Mrs. Abul Nasr, an engineer from Cairo, received three such text messages from her husband, says the newspaper.

If a family court declares the couple divorced, it would be the first reported case of divorce by SMS text message in Egypt.

 

SPREADING JIHAD BY CELL PHONE

First (as I reported on my January 2 dispatch) al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al Zawahri announced he was becoming a blogger. Now al-Qaeda says it is preparing propaganda videos you can download to your cell phone, reports The Associated Press from Cairo:

In an effort to extend its influence and its message, al-Qaeda is reissuing batches of its video recordings in formats suitable for viewing on cell phones.

Al-Qaeda’s media wing, al-Sahab, has announced the move on websites commonly used by Islamic militants. Yesterday eight previously recorded videos were made available including a tribute to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, killed by U.S. forces in June 2006.

... Watching videos on cell phones is increasingly popular in the Middle East. Clips showing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s execution in December 2006 showed up on cell phones soon after his death. In Egypt, images showing police brutality have been passed around via handsets...

 

U.S. ARMY BLOGGER DIES IN IRAQ, WRITES ABOUT HIS OWN DEATH

An American army officer who blogged from Iraq for The Rocky Mountain News in Colorado has been killed in an attack in the north of the country.

The U.S. army said Major Andrew Olmsted died with another American soldier when insurgents attacked with small arms near Sadiyah, 100 miles north-east of Baghdad.

But before he left for Iraq in July, he penned a final entry about his death in the event that he did not make it back, and this has now been published posthumously.

“I’m dead,” he wrote in July 2007 as he arrived in Iraq for an 18-month tour of duty. “But if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.”

“[Being dead] sucks, at least for me and my family and friends,” he wrote. “But all the tears in the world aren’t going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss.”

In his final post, Olmsted, 37, warned against making his death an argument for or against the war.

“My life isn’t a chit to be used to bludgeon people to silence on either side,” Olmstead wrote. “I have my own opinions about what we should do about Iraq, but since I’m not around to expound on them I’d prefer others not try and use me as some kind of moral capital to support a position I probably didn’t support.”

He added that one of the things he would miss the most would be “not being able to blog any longer… The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous, even if most people who have read my writings haven’t agreed with them.

“If there is any hope for the long term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them.”

The editor of The Rocky Mountain News, John Temple, said news of Olmstead’s death was “devastating”:

“The major was a brave man who obviously thrived on sharing his experiences and thoughts on his blog. He provided a perspective on Iraq that would have been impossible for a journalist.”

 

U.K. BISHOP WARNS OF “NO-GO ZONES FOR NON-MUSLIMS ACROSS BRITAIN”

Writing in the (London) Sunday Telegraph, one of Britain’s most senior clerics, the Rt. Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, has warned that people of different faiths risk physical attack if they live or work in communities in Britain dominated by radical Muslims.

Islamic extremists have created “no-go” areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter, writes Bishop Nazir-Ali, who is the Church of England’s only Pakistani-born bishop.

Bishop Nazir-Ali added that attempts are being made to give Britain an increasingly Islamic character by introducing the call to prayer and wider use of sharia law, a legal system based on the Koran.

 

OXFORD MOTHERS CONDEMN SCHOOL’S HALAL MEAT DECISION

Scarcely a day goes by without further reports of Islamic customs encroaching on the British way of life.

The Oxford Mail reports from Britain’s famous university town:

Mums have criticised an Oxford [primary] school for serving halal meat in children’s lunches without their knowledge.

Parents of pupils at Rose Hill Primary School, in The Oval, were angered by a letter they received from headmistress Sue Mortimer.

It informed them the halal meat, which involves slaughtering animals in a special way for consumption by Muslims, had been used in all school meals as part of the school’s inclusion policy.

The letter said the reason for the decision was that since halal meat was not forbidden by any religion or culture, its use would allow everyone to choose a meat dish for lunch.

But parents had not been consulted… Mum-of-three Sharon Haynes, 35, from Radford Close, said: “Why should we let our kids eat halal meat?”

 

I attach two articles below. The first relates to the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace as Bush visits. The second argues that the lack of reaction last Sunday by the U.S. Navy (as five armed Iranian speedboats belonging to the Revolutionary Guard harassed American naval ships in international waters in the Gulf of Hormuz) “guarantees that American sailors will die at Iranian hands in the future.” (The writers of both articles are subscribers to this email list, as is Michael Rubin, mentioned above.)

-- Tom Gross