[Notes below by Tom Gross]

HAMAS ACQUIRES SECURE RADIO TECHNOLOGY

Jane’s Defense Weekly reports that the Hamas leadership has acquired new wireless technology to improve stealth communications in the Gaza Strip.

The cost per unit of these 51 kilometer range Taiwanese-made scrambled cellular phones is $2,000 and hundreds have been brought into Gaza, paid for by Iran and out of diverted western NGO money.

 

TERM OF MOSSAD DIRECTOR EXTENDED

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced yesterday that the term of Meir Dagan as Director of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (the organization popularly known as the “Mossad”) has been extended until the end of 2009.

Dagan has overseen several successful operations, almost all of which remain secret. Among actions which Israel has carried out that have been made public by others, including the American government, but not by the government of Israel, was Israel’s destruction of a nuclear installation in Syria last September.

I referred to that strike in several previous dispatches on this list, among them:
Syria update: “This was one of the five most important acts in Israel’s history” (Oct. 22, 2007).

And as I mentioned previously on this list, in order to counter some of the extraordinary lies told about it (“the Mossad was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, the London transport bombs, the Asian tsunami, Global warming, and so on”) and to show a more public face, the Mossad recently launched a website: www.mossad.gov.il.

 

Here is one item related to wild conspiracy theories about the Mossad that I wrote on June 12, 2008 for The National Review.

LIBYA’S GADDAFI SAYS ISRAEL WILL KILL OBAMA – “AS IT DID JFK”

The State Department keep telling us that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has moderated and is becoming a reasonable leader, possibly even a western ally.

Really?

Yesterday, speaking before thousands of cheering supporters at a rally marking 38 years since American troops left Libya, Gaddafi declared his support for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama but warned him of “grave threats.”

He said Israel would try to assassinate the presumptive Democratic standard bearer, as it did John F. Kennedy. Gaddafi said the late president was “killed by Israeli agents… when he promised to look into Israel’s nuclear program.”

Gaddafi then said that “because [Obama] is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites.” The answer, according to the Libyan madman, is for Obama “to be proud of himself as a black and feel that all Africa is behind him.”

 

DER SPIEGEL: NORTH KOREA TRAINED IRANIANS AT SYRIAN NUCLEAR SITE

The leading German newsweekly Der Spiegel reports in the edition released today that North Korea had been providing assistance to the Iranian nuclear program at the Syrian nuclear site destroyed by Israel last September.

The magazine, whose “exclusive reports” have in the past proven correct, said that under the guidance of North Korean scientists, both Iranians and Syrians were being schooled in the production of weapons-grade plutonium. Until now, nuclear development charges against Iran focused on its attempts to produce enriched uranium. Der Spiegel reports that the Iranians had no experience with plutonium until the North Koreans trained them in Syria.

Citing German intelligence sources, the magazine said Syria, North Korea and Iran also cooperated in the production of chemical weapons. There was an explosion at a chemical site in July 2007: 15 Syrian soldiers, 12 Iranian engineers and three North Koreans were among the victims.

Tom Gross adds: The Germans have an extensive and reliable intelligence network in the Middle East, dating back to the days of the East German Stasi and continuing today.

 

IRAN AND SOUTH KOREA SIGN GAS DEAL

Those people in the west who think sanctions might prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons are deluding themselves. Investment in Iran continues to rise all the time by countries like India and China and by private German, Italian and other European firms.

The latest deal, concluded during the weekend, is with South Korea’s GS Group, reports Iran’s FARS news agency.

 

U.S. INTEL: AL-QAEDA TRAINING “WHITE EUROPEANS” FOR N. AMERICAN TERROR

ABC News reports that American intelligence officials say that al-Qaeda has trained “dozens of white Europeans in terrorist camps in Pakistan’s tribal regions in recent months” in order to carry out terror attacks in North America and Europe.

ABC News cites a U.S. intelligence report as saying that al-Qaeda’s western recruits were “more difficult to detect and able to easily enter Europe and the U.S. and blend in with western culture.”

The alleged terrorists come from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Romania and Estonia.

Many tens of thousands of white Europeans have converted to Islam since the 9/11 attacks. These include some high profile persons such as the son of the former head of the BBC, Lord Birt (although neither I nor anyone else is suggesting that Lord Birt’s son is susceptible to the influence of the extremists).

 

“U.S., CANADA WARN HIZBULLAH SET TO STRIKE JEWISH TARGETS”

Intelligence agencies in Canada and the United States are warning of mounting signs that the Lebanese-based terror group Hizbullah is planning to attack Jewish targets, ABC News reported last Thursday.

The intelligence sources told the American news network that Hizbullah was operating sleeper cells in Canada, and that senior Hizbullah operatives have left Lebanon for Canada as well as Europe and Africa.

According to the sources, Hizbullah operatives have recently carried out surveillance at several synagogues in Toronto, and elsewhere.

Four suspected sleeper cells have been identified in Canada, ABC reported, and some 20 suspected Hizbullah operatives are currently under surveillance.

In 1994, Hizbullah killed 85 people, including Holocaust survivors in a bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish center in Argentina.

“They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash,” former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who claimed he met Hizbullah leaders in Beirut last month, was quoted by ABC News as saying. “They cannot have an operation fail and I don’t think they will. They’re the A-team of terrorism.”

 

U.S. ENVOY’S CONVOY ATTACKED IN LEBANON

Last Wednesday, in an attack that wasn’t very widely reported in the west, Hizbullah supporters attacked a top U.S. diplomat’s motorcade with rocks in southern Lebanon. No one was hurt, but at least one of the U.S. convoy’s 10 bulletproof vehicles was hit and broke down.

The attack occurred after U.S. Charge d’Affaires Michele Sison inspected social and educational projects financed by the U.S. government in the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, a Hizbullah stronghold.

Last month bloody sectarian street clashes between Hizbullah’s Shi’ite supporters and pro-government Sunni loyalists left 81 people dead.

In the last two days, eight people have died in sectarian fighting in the north of Lebanon.

For more on Hizbullah, which means “Party of God,” click here.

 

UNICEF CUTS TIES WITH LEV LEVIEV; PARTNERS WITH ISLAMIC CHARITY LINKED TO TERROR GROUPS

The UN children’s fund UNICEF has cut its connection with Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev over allegations that he helped fund construction of homes in east Jerusalem, Reuters reports.

Leviev is the chairman of Africa Israel, one of Israel’s biggest conglomerates with investments all over the world.

UNICEF has received direct and indirect funding from Leviev over the years. The UN made its move following pressure from anti-Israeli NGOs which claim that east Jerusalem is occupied territory.

At the same time, Fox News reports that UNICEF has become partners with an Islamic charity linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. UNICEF has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity with branches in more than 20 countries.

The U.S. Treasury Department has designated the IIRO’s branches in the Philippines and Indonesia as “entities for funding and supporting terrorist groups” that have killed hundreds in East Asia. The Philippine branch was founded by Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Muhammad Jamal Khalifah, and has long had ties to al-Qaeda.

The U.N. itself says that both the Indonesian and Philippine branches of IIRO are tied to al-Qaeda, and has singled them out for an asset freeze, arms embargo and travel ban on members of the groups.

But that hasn’t stopped UNICEF in now deciding to partner with the IIRO.

 

FOR ONCE, ISRAEL, FATAH AND HAMAS ARE ALL IN AGREEMENT

Last Tuesday, shortly before the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza came into effect, the Israeli Airforce killed Mu’taz Dughmush, one of the commanders of the al-Qaeda affiliated Army of Islam terrorist group.

The BBC merely reported that Israel had killed a Palestinian, implying in the context of their report that he was an innocent civilian.

In fact, Dughmush was the kidnapper of former BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, who was released on July 4, 2007, as well as being the killer of many Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

The Army of Islam has, and continues to be, involved in numerous attacks against Israel.

But what makes this strike different is that both Hamas and Fatah said they were pleased by it, and rumor has it that Hamas even tipped Israel off as to Dughmush’s whereabouts.

Dughmush was regarded as one of the biggest murderers and thugs in Gaza and both Fatah and Hamas had tried to kill him several times.

The Army of Islam has been behind a series of attacks, including:

* Attacks on Christian institutions in Gaza
* The abduction, torture and killing of several Hamas and Fatah officials
* The abduction of more than 20 foreigners in Gaza over the past two years.
* The assassination of Gen. Jad Tayeh of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Force and four of his aides in September 2006
* The targeting and killing of three young children, sons of a top Fatah official, Baha Ba’lousheh, who were on their way to school in Gaza City in December 2006
* The recent execution-style killing of Hussein Abu Sharekh, a Fatah activist from Jabalya
* The 2005 assassination of Gen. Musa Arafat, the former head of PA Military Intelligence and a cousin of former PA President Yasser Arafat

-- Tom Gross