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Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia | The Bush administration is accusing the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of providing cash and refuge to the militant Islamist group Hezbollah of southern Lebanon. An investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) names Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nasr al Din and Venezuelan-Arab businessman Fawzi Kanan as key links between the two. "It is extremely troubling to see the government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor for Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers," said Adam Szubin, political affairs director of OFAC.

“When we drove into Qana last year,” Joseph told me, scanning the gray concrete houses on either side of the road, “we heard flames roaring, the sound of the jets, people screaming, and the ringing of cell phones.” He looked at me and shrugged. “The relatives of people were calling to see if they were okay.” Joseph worked for the Red Cross during the 2006 war with Israel and was one of the first to enter the village after an Israeli bombardment massacred twenty-eight Lebanese civilians. Soft-spoken, slight, he was solicitous on the surface but, like many Lebanese, reserved, even...

Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas. Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning. In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system,...

Strange as it may seem, some people on the left want Israel to reconquer Gaza while many on the right like myself are not in favour of it. For my part I see the existence of Hamas as ensuring that such a deal won't be concluded and that makes me happy.. That is not to say that I think there should be a "lull". Far from it. I strongly support increased pressure on Gaza and the assassination of its leaders until the rockets stop. As for the "lull" itself it now appears it was just an excuse not to invade....

On Sunday the Israeli cabinet voted 22-3 in favor of a “prisoner” swap with Hezbollah. Israel, on its side of the bargain, won’t be receiving any prisoners but instead the corpses of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2006, along with partial, inadequate information on Ron Arad, the airman shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Hezbollah, for its part, gets five live terrorists including child-killer Samir Kuntar, dozens of corpses of terrorists, information on four Iranian diplomats who were detained by Christian Phalange forces in Lebanon in 1982, and live Palestinian terrorists whose number...

Two Iraqi lawmakers and a military officer on Wednesday claim that Hezbollah fighters have trained Shiite militiamen in southern Iraq before slipping into Iran to continue the training there. According to the Iraqi officials, the training ended three months ago. But they said the Hezbollah were also involved in planning some daring attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces. The most prominent was the attack at a provincial compound in Karbala in January 2007 which killed five Americans.

IT WAS two years ago this month that Israel and Hezbollah went to war. On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored and Syrian-backed political and terrorist organization, staged an unprovoked raid across the Lebanon-Israel border, killing three Israelis and kidnapping two others, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The war that ensued - a war for which Hezbollah had openly prepared for six years, constructing fortified bunkers and amassing thousands of Katyusha artillery rockets along the border - was a disaster for Israel. The fighting lasted for 33 bloody days, during which Israel achieved none of its key objectives: It didn't...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

Iran: Nuclear Rumblings by: Rachel Paulk, June 30, 2008 The trouble looming with Iran’s nuclear aspirations is potentially one of the most significant problems the new President will inherit from the Bush administration. As Iranian nuclear facilities are developing, international efforts at prohibiting the rogue nation from expanding into nuclear weaponry are proving ineffective. Despite multiple sanctions from the UN Security Council, repeated requests for explanation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and lucrative negotiation offers from Western powers, Iran seemingly remains committed to the path towards an advanced—and dangerous—nuclear program. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) outlined...

Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two soldiers whose kidnapping on July 12, 2006, triggered the Second Lebanon War, are expected to be returned to Israel within 10 days as a result of Sunday's cabinet approval of a swap with Hizbullah. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a dramatic statement to his ministers at the outset of a six-hour discussion on the deal, said the two men are almost certainly dead. "As far as we know, the two soldiers - Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - are no longer alive," he said. "As far as we know, they were killed during...

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told his cabinet that two soldiers captured by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are dead, officials say. His comments came as ministers debated whether to go ahead with a prisoner swap with Hezbollah. Mr Olmert is reportedly backing the deal.Critics oppose swapping prisoners for the bodies of dead Israeli troops.

The Democrats now find themselves in a thoroughly uncomfortable dilemma over Iraq. Back in the early days of the American invasion, when things were going relatively badly, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the war was "lost" and America's only recourse was to pull out. (This, of course, would have been an absolute political disaster for the Bush administration, as Mr. Reid no doubt knew and hoped.) In the subsequent months and years, when things there have gone substantially better, Mr. Reid has never retracted his highly premature conclusion but it is safe to say it is now "inoperative."...

US and Canadian intelligence agencies warned Thursday that Hizbullah attacks on Jewish targets around the world could be imminent. ABC News quoted intelligence officials as saying that Hizbullah had activated sleeper cells in Canada, and that top terror operatives had left Lebanon for the US, Canada and Africa. According to the officials, Hizbullah wants to avenge February's assassination of its operations head Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, for which the Shi'ite group holds Israel accountable. Israel has repeatedly denied the allegation. There was no reliable intelligence regarding the possible targets of such an attack, the sources told ABC News, adding, however,...

American School Books Redefine 'Jihad' to Exclude Violence -- Where is Media? By Warner Todd Huston | June 8, 2008 - 21:49 ET In yet another example of why the west could be too weak to fight the sort of global terrorism that takes the form of Islamofascism, a textbook monitoring group is charging that American textbooks have been cleansed of mentioning the violence inherent in the Islamic "Jihad." Now, our children will not be taught what "Jihad" truly means, nor that it has been used as an excuse to kill their fellow citizens because our schools have sanitized Islam...

That Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez’ regime is enabling Islamic terrorist organizations to take root in South America is no longer in question. What will the US do? In December 2002 freelance journalist Martin Arostegui published an article in Insight Magazine (“Chavez plans for a terrorist regime”) in which he reported the arrival in Venezuela of Hakim Mamad Ali Diab Fattah, a member of Hizballah. Venezuelan officials received him at the airport. In connection with his presence in the country Arostegui interviewed the former Venezuelan Intelligence Director, General Marcos Ferreira, who said Fattah represented only the tip of the iceberg in...

Unfortunately, Lebanon is facing at the present time a crucial and fatal threat to the core and essence of its existence, its soul of coexistence and freedom. The free world is apparently turning a blind eye to the threat to Lebanon, the land of the historic cedars, the home of the great Phoenicians, and the unique mosaic and multi-cultural country of the Middle East. This tragedy has been unfolding without a decisive deterrent stance from the free world.

June 22, 2008: A new battlefield for the war on terror has developed in Venezuela. There, leftist president Hugo Chavez has not only established close diplomatic relations with Iran (and Cuba, North Korea and radical groups throughout the region), but has allowed Iran to set up operations in South America. Regular commercial flights from Iran to Venezuela (via Syria, to accommodate Hizbollah) carry people, cash and whatever else Iran wants to move. No questions asked, no visas required. Several U.S. counter-terrorism operations have gone to work, trying to find out what Iran is up to, and how to block any...

The Bush administration took action Wednesday against a Venezuelan official and others accused of providing financial support to the Hizbullah terror group. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. [file] Photo: AP , AP Slideshow: Pictures of the week The Treasury Department's action covers Ghazi Nasr al Din, whom the United States identified as a Venezuelan diplomat. The order also targets Fawzi Kan'an and two Venezuelan-based travel agencies - Biblos and Hilal - that he allegedly owns or controls. Kan'an denied the Treasury Department's accusations. "That's pure lies," he told The Associated Press. "What do I have...

Terrorism: A Venezuelan diplomat is found to be supporting Hezbollah, and his placement on a Treasury no-go list is laughed at in Caracas. Obviously, something's going on here. For the second time in three months, Venezuela has been implicated in foreign terrorism. The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control named two well-connected Venezuelans as facilitators of Hezbollah Wednesday. Ghazi Nasr al Din and Fawzi Kan'an, along with two Caracas travel agencies, were put on the list this past week, their assets frozen and businesses prohibited.

(IsraelNN.com) Jews in Canada and Latin America are on the hit list of Hizbullah terrorist cells, according to an ABC television news report, quoting American and Canadian intelligence officials. They said that the terrorist party, headed by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, is seeking revenge for the attack last February on Imad Muginiyeh. Israel has denied involvement n the attack on the Hizbullah mastermind, who was assassinated in a car bomb blast in Damascus. ABC said Hizbullah agents have been conducting surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa and on Toronto synagogues. "They want to kill as many people as they can,...

No surprise. Nasrallah’s been screaming about revenge on Israel since the day after Hezbollah super-jihadi Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated in February. They’ve hit Jewish targets in the west before too, of course, most famously in 1994 with the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and earned Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — the heir apparent to Khamenei as supreme leader of Iran — an arrest warrant from the Argentinian government in 2006. The U.S. isn’t expected to be on the target list. Supposedly, Iran’s afraid Bush might hit back. Intelligence officials tell ABC News the...

Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against "Jewish targets" somewhere outside the Middle East. Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa. Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria. The group's leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials. There...

Of all the cures commonly proposed for the many ailments afflicting the Middle East, there is one tonic nearly everyone seems to agree on: boosting moderate Islam. It sounds eminently reasonable. If Islamic extremism is the problem, moderate Islam must be the solution. It follows that Western governments should therefore find ways to make the moderates more powerful and encourage the extremists to become more moderate. Allow Islamists to compete and accumulate power, the argument goes, and they will have little incentive to radicalize. Furthermore, assuming the mundane tasks of day-to-day governance will compel even the most extreme groups to...

But Publicly Excludes Muslims @ Rally -- While the Obama campaign is allegedly publicly staying away from Muslims and reportedly barring them from pics at an Obama event (though Detroit Newsistan and Reuters photos show otherwise), privately he's hanging with them. Yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama wrapped up his trip to Michigan by meeting with a group of "community leaders." But one of those so-called leaders has been identified as an agent of Hezbollah--Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News. Siblani,, an open supporter of the terrorist group, was handpicked for the invite by the Obama campaign and spoke one-to-one...

srael’s Military Intelligence chief said Tuesday that the Lebanon-based terrorist army Hizballah has constructed a massive underground military infrastructure under the noses of U.N. observers, The Jerusalem Post reported. "The only thing that is different from the situation before the war is that Hizballah flags aren't being flown," said Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence's Research Division. In the nearly two years since Hizballah's war with Israel, which was ended by a U.N. Security Council Resolution calling for the terrorist army's disarmament, Hizballah has doubled the size and scope of its rocket arsenal with weapons smuggled from Iran and...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she welcomes a new power-sharing arrangement in Lebanon even though it increased the power of Hezbollah militants at the expense of U.S.-backed moderates. "Obviously in any compromise there are compromises," Rice said during a surprise visit to meet Lebanon's new consensus choice for president. The election of former Army chief Michel Suleiman last month is the clearest sign that Lebanon stepped back from the brink and that the deal with Iranian-backed Hezbollah is taking hold. Hezbollah's ascendancy is a bitter pill for the U.S., which is worried that Iran's influence is spreading in...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she welcomes a new power-sharing arrangement in Lebanon, even though it increases the power of Hezbollah militants at the expense of US-backed moderates. "Obviously, in any compromise there are compromises," Rice said during a surprise visit to meet Lebanon's new consensus choice for president. The election of former army chief, Michel Suleiman, last month is the clearest sign that Lebanon has stepped back from the brink and that the deal with Iranian-backed Hezbollah is taking hold. But Hezbollah's ascendancy is a bitter pill for the US, which is worried that Iran's influence is...

"IT'S going to be us and al-Qaeda against Hezbollah." Sitting in a disused warehouse in the Bab-al-Tebbaneh district of Tripoli, a Sunni fighter explains how the ad-hoc militia that he helped command in the recent fighting are preparing for the future. Softly-spoken and courteous, speaking to The Scotsman on condition of anonymity, he pauses to offer cigarettes. "When we hear al-Qaeda are threatening the Shia, we do celebratory gunfire," he says. Al-Qaeda has had major setbacks recently. In Iraq, at least according to the CIA, it has suffered "near-strategic defeat", while missile strikes have killed some top figures in Pakistan....

"Americans" for Hezbollah Via Memorandum, we get this USA Today story about discrimination against Muslims in America and a Gallup poll showing that many Americans mistrust Muslims. The USA Today article defines discrimination broadly, anything from a rude comment to assault.And from NPR, a profile of the Lebanese-American community in Dearborn Michigan includes this: Osama Siblani runs the Arab-American News, America's largest such newspaper. He says the fighting is fueling anger in his community -- not at Hezbollah, but at the Bush administration."The anger that you see in the Arab community, you do not see in the eyes of the...

Libs. for Islamic Terrorists inc. - The "huffingtonpost" calls Iranian-Syrian invaders Hezbollah Islamists murdering Americans in Iraq, "resistance" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/27/hezbollah-sides-with-iraq_n_103692.html Hezbollah Sides With Iraqi "Resistance" _______ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2030391/posts?page=1 IRAQ & US ACCUSE [SYRIA'S IRAN'S LEBANESE BASED] ISLAMIC HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS OF CRIMES IN IRAQ

IRAQ & US ACCUSE [SYRIA'S IRAN'S LEBANESE BASED] ISLAMIC HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS OF CRIMES IN IRAQ [Iraq] Talabani charges [Iran's Islamic Lebanese based terrorists] Hezbollah interference Published: May 30, 2008 at 8:23 BAGHDAD, May 30 (UPI) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in a Baghdad interview Friday, accused the leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah of meddling in Iraq's affairs.http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/05/30/Talabani_charges_Hezbollah_interference/UPI-44791212150201/ Commentary: Iraq ripe for Iranian [militant Shia Muslim] dominationMarch 4, 2008Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The TimesMahmoud Ahmadinejad was right to look smug at the end of his two-day state visit to Iraq. Not only did he become the first Iranian president to...

[Iraq] Talabani charges [Iran's Islamic Lebanese based terrorists] Hezbollah interference Published: May 30, 2008 at 8:23 BAGHDAD, May 30 (UPI) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in a Baghdad interview Friday, accused the leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah of meddling in Iraq's affairs.

Commentary: Iraq ripe for Iranian domination Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The Times Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was right to look smug at the end of his two-day state visit to Iraq. Not only did he become the first Iranian president to visit Baghdad, but he also took a big step towards achieving the victory that had eluded Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian revolution.

A Venezuelan journalist is reporting that Hugo Chavez’s government is recruiting young men to train with Hezbollah for the purpose of asymmetrical warfare against the US. Fausta has the translation. Hugo Chavez pretends to cut back on his support of the FARC, when his “dangerous” associations go well beyond the Colombian guerrilla. See the original article and read the whole translation.

WMD: Iran's supreme leader proclaims Tehran isn't interested in nuclear weapons itself but that someday terrorists will have such weapons. We'll need more than Barack Obama's doublespeak to stop them. The U.S. and the European Union this week announced tentative plans to ratchet up economic sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program. It's a pretty tough move, one spearheaded by President Bush, that will grab Iran's attention. It also appears to be a preparatory step to a possible military strike against Iran if it refuses to stop its nuclear weapons program. That's one way to deal...

Barack Obama’s flip-flops are getting closer together; now he’s “clarifying” points he made just a day ago: Obama clarifies united J’lem comment. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama did not rule out Palestinian sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem when he called for Israel’s capital to remain “undivided,” his campaign told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama addresses AIPAC Policy Conference 2008, Wednesday.“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” Obama declared Wednesday, to rousing applause from the 7,000-plus attendees at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference. But a campaign adviser clarified...

Hezbollah's strategic communication machine has undertaken a massive campaign to convince the international community, the Arab and Muslim world that an overwhelming majority of Lebanese are now firmly behind Sayed Hassan Nasrallah in his vision for the future of the Eastern Mediterranean and probably the Greater Middle East. The Hezbollah chief revealed the bulk of his agenda for Lebanon and the region, and even displayed his alignment with Tehran's ambitions. 1. Hezbollah "offers its strategy" to all Arabs Nasrallah called on the "Arab people and governments to adopt the strategies of the organization," i.e., the victory achieved in Lebanon against...

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the strategy of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist in his wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government. While he's managed to get some of his Muslim proteges jobs in the Bush administration, getting them elected to public office has been another story. Voters aren't buying their makeover. Last November, his crony Faisal M. Gill lost a bid for a seat in the Virginia state legislature. Now another protege, Kamal M. Nawash, has lost his third political race in seven years....

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the strategy of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist in his wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government. While he’s managed to get some of his Muslim proteges jobs in the Bush administration, getting them elected to public office has been another story. Voters aren’t buying their makeover.

riyadh • Hardline Sunni clerics accused Shias on Sunday of destabilising Muslim countries and humiliating Sunnis, just days before a Muslim interfaith conference called by Saudi Arabia's king. The attacks on Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah — though contrary to official policy — highlight the sharp, growing distrust between Islam's two arms, and its potential to cause more unrest. In a strongly worded statement, the 22 clerics savaged the Iranian-backed Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying it has tricked Muslims into believing it is against Jews and Americans. The statement appeared on several websites on Sunday, including Al Moslim, which is run...

JERUSALEM - Israel handed over a convicted Hezbollah spy to Lebanon on Sunday and in a surprise move the Islamic guerrilla group turned over what it said were the body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in a 2006 war. The Hezbollah gesture, along with recent comments by its leader, signaled that a larger prisoner exchange could be in the works between the two bitter enemies. Israel said publicly that Sunday's exchanges were unrelated to a deal that would include Israel releasing the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner and Hezbollah setting free two soldiers captured in a 2006 cross-border raid that sparked a...

Israel freed a convicted Hezbollah spy on Sunday and the militant group turned over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon. The swap could be the preliminary stage of a prisoner exchange between the bitter enemies. Israeli authorities released Nasim Nisr, an Israeli of Lebanese descent, after he completed a six-year sentence for espionage, driving him from a prison in central Israel to the northern Rosh Hanikra crossing. Cameramen surrounded the white van Nisr was sitting in as a blue gate swung open to allow him through the frontier. Hezbollah official Wafik Safa told the...

Nothing describes Barack Obama better than the cliche about a man facing good news/bad news. The good news for Obama is that he is getting a first-rate education on what it means to be commander in chief. The bad news - his teacher is John McCain. Even before he clinches the nomination, a flurry of McCain attacks over Iran, Iraq, Cuba and military leadership has exposed Obama's soft underbelly on national security. The effective barrage is a testament to how the primary battles never tested the rookie Democrat on whether he is ready to be commander in chief. In Prof....

Here is a summary of the main points made by Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah this week in Beirut, after the invasion of (mostly Sunni) West Beirut, the attack against (mostly Druze) southern Mount Lebanon and after the declaration of Doha and the election of a new President for Lebanon. Nasrallah delivered his "victory speech" last Monday, outlining the new agenda of the Iranian funded organization in Lebanon. My full analysis will be published Monday. Following are twelve major assertions Nasrallah made. As carried live by Hezbollah-owned al Manar TV, and posted on its web site later, the...

JERUSALEM — Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff warned Thursday that the radical Islamic group Hezbollah "makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team," and poses the greatest threat to national security."Someone described Hezbollah like the A-team of terrorists in terms of capabilities, in terms of range of weapons they have, in terms of internal discipline," Chertoff told FOX News. "To be honest, they make Al Qaeda look like a minor league team. "They have been more disciplined, and they've been in some senses more restrained in the kinds of attacks they carry out ... in recent years, but that's...

Whenever the media takes note of the antics of Norman Finkelstein, the former DePaul University professor and anti-Israel activist, a flood of disinformation seems bound to follow. Finkelstein’s arrest in Israel last week was no exception. The facts of the case are clear. Finkelstein had attempted to enter Israel last Thursday to travel into the West Bank. There he would likely have lent support to Palestinian extremists. Unquestionably, he would have caused trouble. And while Israel generally does not prevent foreign trouble makers from entering the country (a highly naive and short-sighted policy), it made an exception this time: Finkelstein...

According to the well-informed Israeli army radio, Israel has said it is willing to hand over five Lebanese prisoners for the return of Goldwasser and Regev. Israel would also be willing to release the bodies of 10 Hezbollah fighters, it added. The low numbers of prisoners being mentioned in the deal has raised eyebrows in Israel. Many take it to mean that the two soldiers are no longer alive. From the very moment of the abduction, the Israeli army was convinced that the two men were badly hurt because of the blood stains they found at the site of the...

BERLIN, May 28 (UPI) -- Israel and Hezbollah are nearing a prisoner-swap deal brokered by Germany, according to a report. The online version of German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2006, would be exchanged for five Lebanese terrorists held in Israeli prisons. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah himself indicated that the report was true. In a speech released Tuesday, he said one of the Lebanese prisoners, Samir Quntar, would "soon be among us." The deal was brokered by a German spy who enjoys great respect from both parties; the...

The head of the Military Intelligence research division Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz on Monday said that Syria was continuing to transfer significant amounts of weapons to the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah. Last week, in a surprise three-way announcement from Jerusalem, Damascus and Ankara, Israel and Syria announced that they were holding indirect peace negotiations under Turkish mediation, the first such talks in eight years. "The weapons are arriving in Lebanon, and then they make their way to the south of the country [to Hezbollah]" Baidatz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Baidatz said...