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-Libyan-flagged vessel used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syrian freedom fighter- A Libyan-flagged vessel which last year was used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation in supplying a lifeline to rebels in Misurata, has been implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syrian freedom fighters, which may also be linked to murdered US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi last month. The ship 'Al Entisar' which was chartered last year by I-Go Aid Libya, then run by businessman Mario Debono, has been reported to be linked to last September's attack on...

Fox News reported that China had moved surface-to-air missiles to the Paracels, identifying them as two batteries of the HQ-9 system, along with radar targeting arrays. The missiles have a range of about 125 miles, making them a threat to all forms of civilian and military aircraft. The move would follow China's building of new islands in the disputed sea by piling sand atop reefs and then adding airstrips and military installations. They are seen as part of Beijing's efforts to claim virtually the entire South China Sea and its resources, which has prompted some of its wary neighbors to...

Israel allegedly struck a military base in Syria, reveal the presence of newly upgraded Russian anti-aircraft missiles and indicate that the US defense establishment, which hastily ordered the satellite photos from a civilian contractor, was given advance warning about the air strike. Taken at 10 a.m., roughly nine hours before the strike, the photos show two possible targets: an upgraded and deployed battery of S-125 missiles and six very large trailers that could carry missiles. The photos were first published by intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon along with a co-authored accompanying article in Israel Defense magazine. The S-125 battery, the photos...

Washington continues to talk, but only talk, about the danger of Bashar al-Assad's increasingly desperate regime in Syria distributing its arsenal of high-tech or even nuclear weapons to terrorists throughout the Mideast. Meanwhile, the Israelis continue to act. Five years ago, they took out a nuclear reactor the Syrians were building without seeing any need to noise it about, realizing that action speaks louder than words -- and that much of the world, especially the Bush administration back then, would discreetly approve. This time the Israelis aren't saying anything official about what seems to have happened to a convoy of...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

SNIPPET: "Palestinian news agencies reported that Egyptian officials sand that local security forces were dispatched to the area to neutralize an old mortar dud when they discovered that a half ton of explosives packed in bags hiding beneath it. (Ynet)"

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Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, November 23, 2009 Arrests Made in Case Involving Conspiracy to Procure Weapons, Including Anti-Aircraft Missiles Arrests were made today in a case involving a conspiracy to procure weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. A criminal complaint, unsealed today, charged Dani Nemr Tarraf with conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) and conspiring to possess machine guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines). In addition, Tarraf and other defendants — including Douri Nemr Tarraf, Hassan Mohamad Komeiha, and Hussein Ali Asfour — were charged with conspiring to...

LONDON — Western intelligence sources said Al Qaida-aligned cells have procured the SA-18 anti-aircraft missile from the former Soviet Union. The sources said the missiles were smuggled into Turkey and acquired by Al Qaida-aligned cells in the Middle East."These are serious missiles and represents a step up in Al Qaida capability," an intelligence source said. On Oct. 28, the French daily Le Figaro reported that Al Qaida-aligned cells have obtained SA-18s for attacks against French airliners. The daily said the cells acquired the missiles in 2002 from the so-called Chechen mafia.

TWO GROUND-to-air MISSILES of Soviet manufacture, of type SAM 18, imported into Europe remain untraceable. Acquired in 2002 by a group of French and Algerian islamists near the Maffia tchetchene, these weapons are in the center of a terrorist project aiming at cutting down a civil aircraft near an airport of the Hexagon. Until now, Bruguière judge, who inquires into this cell of radical islamists, suspected them of having prepared attacks chemical or bacteriological in Paris. But the testimony of a high person in charge for Al-Qaida held in Jordan revealed that this group involved in Tchétchénie had other...