Intel found on slain Hamas official led to Sudan strike

(IMAGES OF SITE) U.K.'s Sunday Times cites military intelligence reports that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, assassinated in Dubai, was in possession of an agreement between Iran and Sudan from 2008 that permitted Iran to manufacture weapons in Sudanese territory.(doc)Yoav Limor and Israel Hayom - The Sunday Times reported that eight Israeli warplanes participated in the attack on the Yarmouk military complex near the Sudanese capital Khartoum. According to the report, planning for the operation began as a result of documents found on the body of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose assassination in Dubai in 2010 prompted worldwide speculation that it was a Mossad operation. The U.K. paper cited military intelligence reports stating that Mabhouh was in charge of procuring weapons for terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, and was in possession of a copy of an agreement between Iran and Sudan from 2008 that permitted Iran to manufacture weapons in Sudanese territory. The report claims that Israeli intelligence managed to successfully prove that Iranian engineers had begun working in Yarmouk under the watch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and were developing Iran's long-range Shihab missiles as well as other arms. The plant served as a starting point for weapons convoys to the Gaza Strip. Yarmouk is located in a densely populated residential area of the city some 11 kilometers (seven miles) southwest of the Khartoum International Airport. Wednesday's explosion sent exploding ammunition flying into homes in the neighborhood adjacent to the factory, causing panic among residents. Sudanese officials said some people suffered from smoke inhalation. A man who lives near the factory said that from inside their house, he and his brother heard a loud roar of what they believed was a plane just before the boom of the explosion sounded from the factory. Meanwhile, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations issued a complaint to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, claiming that the nature of strike, and the advanced radar-jamming technology used proves it was an Israeli operation.

Israel has faced numerous attempts to smuggle weapons to the Gaza Strip. In March 2011, the Israeli Navy intercepted the ship, Victoria, which carried a large cache of weapons including the advanced C-704 anti-ship missile, which — had it landed in the hands of terrorists — would have threatened navy operations as well as the nearby natural gas drilling rigs.

Africa Starves While it's leaders Worry About Gaza

The worst drought in the region since the 1950s, At least 11 million people are touched by the disaster. In the Turkana district of northern Kenya, 385,000 children (among a total population of about 850,000) are suffering from acute malnutrition

Last week, the Archbishop Tutu sponsored a call for an arms embargo against Israel. Next November, Tutu will open in Cape Town the third session of the anti-Israeli Russell Tribunal, a standing organization that held two tribunals against Israel last year in Barcelona and London. During this event, Tutu will seek to determine whether Israel’s policies fit the international legal definition of the crime of “Apartheid."

In Africa 30,000 young children have died since the start of the crisis. The world raised more than £600 million in aid. There is less than £350,000 in the African Union’s "special famine fund". This is despite the Union’s 54 countries having a combined GDP of more than £1.2 trillion.

Kalonzo Musyoka, Kenya’s vice-president, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president, and Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s ex-leader, were delegates attending workshops at the £650-a-ticket conference. A golf tournament was planned for the final day. Famine and drought was not on the agenda. Guess what was on the agenda?

A CONVOY TOGAZA?

UN Human Rights Council welcomes latest member to the Club...Syria.

(La,la land) Syria is not a democratic country, the only time in history where the people voted for their leaders (freely that is) was between 1946 and 1949. Since 1949 Syria has known only Military rule. The current incumbent Bashar al-Assad is the son of Hafez al-Assad who took power (via a coup) in 1970. During the Assad dynasty, Human rights hasn't been on the top of the list of things to do. Which kind of explains why opposition groups were simply wiped off the face of the map when it came to complaints against the system, Something the Syrian government accomplished in the city of Hama in 1982 when they killed up to 40,000 people because they could.
Currently the Syrian Government is trying to do likewise with the general populace of the country and to date they have despatched around 400 people to the great mosque in the sky. What I'm trying to point out here, is that when it comes to Human rights Syria is way back there at the end of the queue.
Which brings me to the United Nation Human Rights Council.(UNHRC) Which since it's inception has only had eyes for..Israel (That country in the Middle East contrary to the neighbours,doesn't have the Death Penalty, affords equality to: Women,Gays,different Faiths etc..) is deciding to inaugurate 'Syria' as its newest member.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

No doubt, the UNHRC will issue a declaration of 'no genocide' in Syria just like it did in 2005 when its then member 'Sudan' was accused of genocide in Darfur. That accolade is only reserved for 'Israel'.

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

UNHRC to hold special Syria session Friday via jpost.com

The United Nations Human Rights Council plans to hold a special session on Syria this Friday in Geneva to urge its government to stop attacking civilian protesters.

“The international community has been shocked by the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests [in Syria] in the past week,” said US Ambassador to the UNHRC, Eileen Donahoe, on Wednesday.

Her country filed a request for a special session on behalf of 15 other member states, including: Belgium, France, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Korea, Moldova, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Zambia.

“At the special session, we expect Human Rights Council members will call on the government of Syria to meet its responsibility to protect its population and stop these attacks,” Donahoe said in a statement she issued to the press.

It marks the first time that a special session has been held on the human rights situation in Syria, which has submitted a bid to become a UNHRC member. On May 20, the UN General Assembly in New York is expected to hold an election for 15 of the council’s 47-member seats.

On February 25, the UNHRC held a special session on Libya, in which it condemned the human-rights violations. It also urged the General Assembly so suspend Libya council membership.

The Assembly did so on March 1.

The text of the Syria resolution has not been finalized yet. The US would not comment on the substance of the text, or whether it would include a call for the UN General Assembly to reject Syria’s candidacy for the UNHRC.

On Wednesday, an international collation of 17 humanrights groups led by UN Watch, called on the UNHRC to include such a call in its Syria resolution.

Earlier this week the group launched its campaign to bar Syria from the UNHRC.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said, “if the council this week declares President Bashar al-Assad unwelcome as a member, it would sound the death knell for Syria’s cynical candidacy to be elected a global judge of human rights.”

The coalition of human rights groups, he said, has called for leadership on this issue from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton, Ban Ki-moon and UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

Neuer said that his organization condemns a recent statement by Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Zamir Akram, that Syria’s actions do not merit a special session. He threatened that members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference would use the meeting to focus on Israeli actions against the Palestinians.

Diplomats, however, explained that resolutions introduced at a country-specific special session must be focused on the country in question.

Syrians living in Jordan shout slogans as they protest in solidarity
with anti-government protesters in Syria,
outside the Syrian embassy in Amman April 2, 2011.
(REUTERS/Majed Jaber)

But they added, there is nothing in the procedures that would prevent countries which take the floor at the UNHRC from bringing up other issues in their statements.

Friday's Geneva meeting will be the 16th special session held by the Human Rights Council in the last five years.

The Syrian Revolution 2011: First Protest Shooting in Damascus

Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters?

Some sober analysis of the "Arab Spring"

Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified:...The Arab Spring can never bloom if the people can not be heard because of Saudi fears.

Sudan says found proof of Israeli strike

A picture taken on April 6, 2011 shows the debris of a burnt car that was targeted by an air strike by a plane which Sudanese officials said flew in from the Red Sea then headed back in the same direction, killing two people in the coastal city of Port Sudan. A Gaza-based MP told a local news website on April 7 that the air raid targeted top Hamas militant Abdel Latif al-Ashqar who escaped unharmed even though the latter did not respond to calls to confirm the report. (Getty Images)

Looks like a small car. Do you think Abdel Latif al-Ashqar was environmentally aware and drove a hybrid? via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

I don't know... but if I were Abdel Latif al-Ashqar I would know my days were numbered

via ynetnews.com

Sudan said on Sunday that remnants of a missile used in a mysterious attack that killed two people on April 5 proved that Israel carried out the strike.

Israel has declined to comment on the incident, which mirrored a similar attack on Sudan's east in 2009 for which it neither admitted nor denied responsibility. (Reuters)

What's a little mustard and nerve gas among friends?

US and Israeli intelligence agencies have tracked the WMD consignments from eastern Libya as far as Sudan in convoys secured by Iranian agents and Hizballah and Hamas guards. They are not believed to have reached their destinations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, apparently waiting for an opportunity to get their deadly freights through without the US or Israel attacking and destroying them.  Word of the capture touched off a scramble in Tehran and among the terrorist groups it sponsors to get hold of their first unconventional weapons.  According to our sources, the rebels offloaded at least 2,000 artillery shells carrying mustard gas and 1,200 nerve gas shells for cash payment amounting to several million dollars.  It is also not clear whether the shells and gases were assembled upon delivery or were travelling in separate containers. Our sources report that some of the poison gas may be intended not only for artillery use but also for drones which Hizballah recently acquired from Iran.

NO GAS MASK FOR JEW: Homefront Commander Yair Golan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that there are only enough of a budget for kits against unconventional warfare to cover 60 percent of the population. The general said that 12 percent of the gas masks have been distributed and the rest will be distributed by the end of 2011.

 

Senior Libyan rebel “officers” sold Hizballah and Hamas thousands of chemical shells from the stocks of mustard and nerve gas that fell into rebel hands when they overran Muammar Qaddafi’s military facilities in and around Benghazi, debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report.

Tehran threw its support behind the anti-Qaddafi rebels because of this unique opportunity to get hold of the Libyan ruler’s stock of poison gas after it fell into opposition hands and arm Hizballah and Hamas with unconventional weapons without Iran being implicated in the transaction.

Why, it was just about a month ago that

A senior administration official said ... that the White House had no reason to believe the current turmoil in Libya has made its chemical weapons stockpiles more vulnerable to

theft....
.... “We believe that whatever they have at this point is not in weaponized form,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

Two weeks later Crowley was forced to resign... for calling Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning "stupid and counterproductive."  You decide.

DEBKA reports: via bokertov.typepad.com

The Gas-Mask Community

image via ahrcanum.wordpress.com
via afana.org  via growabrain.typepad.com

Obama Uses UN to Push Homosexual Agenda

The UN is, as always, eager to oblige:
The US Constitution protects our freedom by affirming natural rights. This is why our liberal rulers reject its authority in favor of the United Nations, which attacks our freedom by inventing unnatural rights that are not rights at all but arbitrary dictates and special privileges handed down from on high. One example is the use of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to attack the Second Amendment. Here’s another example:

Obama Uses UN to Push Homosexual Agenda (Moonbattery)

Gay friendly, to put it mildly.

Muhsin Hendricks
Gay Imam Visits Netherlands
To Spread Message:
It’s Okay To Be Muslim And Gay!
via queermeup.com

10 Reasons Gay Americans Should Fear ‘Islamofascism’ (ROP)

An excellent article on Islam’s current state of war against homosexuals. (NewsReal)

(Turkey) Gay Soccer Referee Fights to Keep Job…
Radio Netherlands
He’s a threat to Islam. He must die. But also: Bravo, what courage! Radio Netherlands Worldwide has received many responses to the portrait of Mushin Hendricks, the gay imam from South Africa. Hendricks doesn’t feel under pressure from death threats, and insists “I’ll keep on asking questions.”
Homosexuality in Muslim countries

Arab countries: In many Arab countries there are severe punishments for homosexuals. In some countries the death penalty is imposed: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and parts of Somalia and Nigeria. In those countries, sharia law applies. Gay men risk lashings, long prison sentences or stoning. Egypt has no death penalty for gay men. But even there the authorities sometimes react harshly. Homosexual acts are seen as displaying ‘contempt for religion’. In the past, gay men were tortured.
Iran: The Islamic Republic of Iran is considered the most gay-unfriendly country in the world. In 2005, two young gay men aged 17 and 18 years were hanged. It caused a storm of international criticism. Lesbians get 100 lashes.
Indonesia: Homosexuality is permitted in principle. Moderate Muslim scholars believe that, under Islam, there is no reason to reject gay men. Some regions of Indonesia – such as Aceh – are less liberal. There, gay men face 100 lashes and eight years in prison.

Mostly from the Arab world, but also from Indonesia, came reactions to the article about Imam Hendricks.
Reinhard Luhulima from Indonesia writes: “Hendricks’ utterances reflect his own beliefs. If each person expresses his own beliefs about the teaching of God, this can lead to chaos in the world. Hendricks should be hung for his beliefs, which are misplaced.”
And this is on our Arabic site: “What I know is that there is no place for homosexuality in Islam. Whoever claims that is a jihadist. Could this be a jihadist imam? ”
Two invitees:
But even in the Netherlands there is still little sympathy for the story of this imam who maintains that there is indeed room in Islam for homosexuality. When Hendricks recently gave a lecture in the Netherlands, only two of the 50 invitees showed up.
“I feel that the Muslim community in the Netherlands is not yet ready to openly discuss sexuality, let alone homosexuality. I don’t think an imam is willing to take a position about it. They avoid the subject.”
The article on the gay imam was used by RNW partner stations and many other websites. 1,200 readers responded on one South African forum and 400 Senegalese gave their opinion on the news site seneweb.com. Everywhere the story led to confrontations between supporters and opponents.
Middle Ages
The proponents: a reader from Indonesia cannot imagine that Allah punishes gay people for something they have not asked for themselves: “They are born with it. It is not fair if God punishes them, when we consider God the Merciful. Another reader praised Hendricks for his battle against fundamentalism in Islam: “Good to finally see Islam  – albeit slowly – trying to move out of the Middle Ages!”
But the vast majority of the reactions are negative. For example, Hendricks is a danger to Islam “because he interprets his faith the wrong way. The Qur’an and the Hadith – the traditions of the Prophet – offer this reader simply no room for homosexuality.”
The right to ask questions
Hendricks sees himself as a practicing Muslim who wants to discuss the subject within the Muslim community. He has spent many years in Pakistan studying Islam. He is no longer afraid of death threats:
“The Qur’an calls on Muslims to ask questions. And I’m making use of that right. I don’t think that Allah, who has given me that right, will punish me at the same time because I’m making use of it. Some Muslims react too emotionally to the subject. Many innocent people are dying because of the misconception that Islam is against homosexuality.”

via sheikyermami.com

Israelis hiring mercenaries for Gaddafi? STUPID ARAB RUMORS

Arab_and_anti_Israel_sites have been abuzz over the past couple of days over this story (this version from Tehran Times:)

Israeli arms distribution company Global CST has reportedly, under the authorization of Tel Aviv, provided Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi with African mercenaries to clamp down on anti-government protesters.
Egyptian sources have revealed that the Israeli company has so far provided Gaddafi's regime with 50,000 African mercenaries to attack the civilian anti-government protesters in Libya.
The arms company was previously convicted in an African country over illegal deals, News-Israel website reported.
Sources say Global CST had obtained the permission for providing the mercenaries to Gaddafi from the Israeli officials in advance.

Like all good rumors, this one has a tiny shred of truth.
First, the first published source was the Israeli Inyan Mercazi (Central issues) website. The article there quotes unnamed Egyptian sources making these accusations, including the charge that the CEO of the company met with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials and received explicit approval to provide weapons and men for Gaddafi.
So already we see that the original source for this article is suspect. No documents are reproduced, no proof is made, and how could an Egyptian source know that the Global CST CEO met with Israeli leaders, let alone what transpired in the meetings?
All these unsourced accusations are being repeated without confirmation by Inyan Mercazi.
The Israeli site then adds on some background: that the company was once in trouble for selling arms to some African country in the past, and indeed it does provide security services worldwide.
Let's look at the previous incident, as it will shed light on how absurd this rumor is:
From Ha'aretz, May 6, 2010:

The Defense Ministry's recently fined Global CST and its owner, Maj. Gen. (ret. ) Israel Ziv for deviating from the restricted permit it was granted by the ministry and signing a contract with the government of Guinea to set up and train Special Forces there and supply them with weapons. According to sources in the Defense Ministry, it was agreed that the fine, around NIS 90,000, would not be transferred to the state's coffers, and instead the company would invest it in developing training courses for its employees, where they would learn the Defense Ministry's guidelines and export regulations. Global CST denies they were fined, but confirmed that it had been ordered to retrain its employees.

This means that the company will not do anything without the approval of the Israeli government. So in order to believe this story, you must believe that Israel is supporting sending mercenaries to Gaddafi.
Is it a coincidence that this was the same rumor that erupted in the early days of the Libyan uprising, when both sides accused the other of Zionist collusion?
Tracing back this rumor, there is not a shred of evidence and it belies logic. That of course doesn't stop people who hate Israel from seizing on this story, buttressed by it being quoted in an Israeli newspaper, as being unquestionably true.
Ma'an picked up on the story, from where it spread to Al Jazeera, where it then turned into 50,000 mercenaries being recruited from South Sudan, Chad, Nigeria - and Guinea, the same country we know that Global CST is banned from dealing with!
Interestingly, Global CST's head, General Yisrael Ziv, sent a letter to Al Jazeera completely denying the story, calling it absurd, ridiculous and disgusting, and saying that Al Jazeera's broadcasting of these lies threatens the legitimate security work done by the company. (They have done security work worldwide, including Georgia.)
Of course, it is now too late, and none of the news sites are bothering to publish the explicit denials of a story that had no basis to begin with. Israel haters don't need proof for their lies, after all - just a small peg to hang their lies on, one that was provided this time - stupidly - by an Israeli newspaper.
(h/t Suzanne and Naftali)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com h/t frumforum.com

images of A dead Zimbabwean, formerly in the hire of Muammar Qaddafi via civiliancontractors.wordpress.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Denial is a River

Ethiopia has accused Egypt of supporting rebel groups in an attempt to destabilize the country. This may be another reason for the growing tension between the two countries.

via thememriblog.org

Egypt 'Puzzled' By Ethiopian Premier's Threats Of War Over Nile Waters.
Egypt has been engaged in a prolonged negotiation for the last decade with seven other African countries regarding the status of a water-sharing agreement signed by Great Britain as the colonial power in 1929 that provides Egypt with 55.8 billion cubic meters of the 84 billion cubic meters of the Nile waters, despite the fact that 85% of these waters originate from Ethiopia.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Thinner

An expert on demography told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service that Netanyahu's proposal is not unlike France's way of dealing with the gypsy population. Prof. Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University said, “It is a little like what [French president Nicola] Sarkozy did with the gypsies: he sent planes to Romania with gypsy immigrants [on board] and paid each immigrant 300 Euro.”

The Ministry of Defense said Sunday that construction work on the security fence between Israel and Egypt will begin this month in an effort to stop the infiltration of illegal immigrants. At the same time, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed government ministries to try and find African countries that would be willing to take in the illegals that Israel expels, in return for financial compensation. The demographer said there was “a bit of a paradox” in the construction of the anti-infiltrator fence. “On the one hand, one needs to prevent the entry of refugees and terrorists through the border. But on the other hand, it is actually a good sign that the border between Israel and Egypt is an open one, because it shows that there are no hostile incidents between the two countries.”

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Obama easing restrictions on child soldiers?

looking the other way
might come in handy
with armies that
support terrorism
like Gaza

On Monday, the Obama administration waived sections of a law meant to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers in Africa, paving the way for new military cooperation with four countries with poor human rights records -- despite their use of underage troops.

"I hereby determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the [Child Service Prevention Act]," President
Obama wrote in a memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.


In 2008, President George W. Bush signed the law, which
prohibits U.S. military education and training, foreign military financing,
and other defense-related assistance to countries that actively recruit troops
under the age of 18. Countries are designated as violators if the State
Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report identifies them as recruiting child
soldiers.


The original bill was
actually sponsored by then Senator, now Vice President Joseph Biden. The only countries where the restrictions under this law are still in place are now Burma and Somalia.

The only reason provided in the memorandum was that Obama determined it was in the "national interest" to waive the law for those four countries.

via thecable.foreignpolicy.com

Noah

David

Simon

China Courts Sudan Secessionists

China is courting the secessionist government of oil-rich southern Sudan, an apparent departure from Beijing's decades-long opposition to independence movements abroad.
Sudan, after nearly constant civil war over the past five decades, is seeing tensions boil again ahead of a planned independence referendum early next year that stands to split Africa's largest country in two. Voters from the oil-rich, largely Christian south are expected to vote to break away from the country's largely Muslim north. As the Jan. 9, 2011, election date approaches, both sides accuse the other of amassing troops.

via online.wsj.com

Politics of Sudan was formed around an authoritarian republic in which all effective political power is in the hands of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. On June 30, 1989 a military coup took place and Bashir and his party took controlled the government.
In 1997, the country was separated into five regions in the north and three in the south, and all have a military governor. These has made the states economically dependent on the central government, and their limited budgets are determined by and dispensed from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in the east-central part of the country.(3)
The country is currently in an interim or transitional period following the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement that was established on January 9, 2005 that officially ended the civil war between the Sudanese Government and the southern-based Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. These members make up 450 appointed members who represent the government, former rebels and other opposition political parties.(1)
On September 9, 2004 the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that the Darfur conflict “genocide”, it was one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century. In 2004 there were reports of 2 million civilians displaced and the death toil is estimated at 200,000 to 400,000 killed.(2)
In 2006 a Darfur Peace Agreement was signed aimed at ending the three yearlong conflicts. But was soon broken by the African Union, and since the agreement was signed, there still have been reports of wide spread violence throughout the region. During this time a rebel group emerged and called themselves the “National Redemption Front” these are rebels who had refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement back in 2006. As a result it seems that not much has changed. UNICEF recently reported that around 80 infants die each day in Darfur as a result of the malnutrition in the country.(2)
In August 2006, United Nations Security Council resolution to establish a UN peacekeeping force for Darfur was rejected by Sudan. Late in 2006 progress on establishing a peacekeeping force for Darfur appeared to be making progress, but as of January 2007, both sides in Darfur had reached on final agreement.(1)
The United States has trade restrictions on Sudan. But a well-used export of gum Arabic is exempted. Coca-Cola and other major soft drink companies need gum arabic to make their product, so how can we feel good about this export?(3)

via refugee.wikispaces.com

I suppose that is good...

noahdavidsimon's posterous