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MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — The U.S. Navy is putting underwater drones through wartime-style drills as part of international mine-clearing exercises in the Persian Gulf following similar maneuvers by Iran. The U.S.-led exercises, which began last week, include operations by the unmanned SeaFox devices, which are equipped with sonar and an explosive charge designed to shoot and destroy mines. It is part of the Navy's plans to increasingly deploy automated surveillance and protection systems, including aerial drones. Navy commanders insist the exercises, comprising more than 41 nations, are not intended solely against possible Iranian threats. But Iran has previously warned it...

On April 7, 2013, the Bahraini government approved a proposal by parliament to compile a list of terrorist organizations and to enter Hizbullah onto it, and ordered the interior and foreign ministries to take steps to implement this resolution. This is an unprecedented move in the Arab world, which comes after the exposure of terrorist cells and attacks in Bahrain that are attributed to this Lebanese Shi'ite organization, and following Shi'ite protests in the kingdom that began in February 2011, which the Bahraini government claimed had been guided and funded by Iran and Hizbullah. The Bahraini authorities' fear of involvement...

Kuwait has reported the theft of a massive amount of U.S. weapons. The Interior Ministry said thieves broke into a warehouse and stole a huge amount of firearms and ammunition. The ministry said 20,000 U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles and 15,000 rounds for 9mm pistols were stolen. “There were no guards during the break-in,” the ministry said on April

ABU DHABI — Kuwait has reported the theft of a massive amount of U.S. weapons. The Interior Ministry said thieves broke into a warehouse and stole a huge amount of firearms and ammunition. The ministry said 20,000 U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles and 15,000 rounds for 9mm pistols were stolen. “There were no guards during the break-in,” the ministry said on April 7.

Venezuela Receives 13 Russian Armored Vehicles MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti) – Armed forces in Venezuela have received a new batch of Russian amphibious combat vehicles, the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Global Arms Trade said on Thursday. Thirteen BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles were delivered by sea to the port of Puerto Cabello, the center said. This marks the first report of an arms delivery by sea to Venezuela since the death of President Hugo Chavez in March. Venezuela ordered a total of 123 BMP-3 vehicles in 2009, with the first delivery made in 2011, the center said. It is...

FORT HUACHUCA — Army Capt. Christopher Seifert was in his mid-20s and the father of a son, who was born about four months before a fellow soldier killed Seifart and Air Force Maj. Gregory L. Stone on March 23, 2003, at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Friday, a day before the 10-year anniversary of Seifert’s death, he was remembered on this southern Arizona Army post — the home of the Intelligence Center — in front of a building named after him on the fort where he received his intelligence training. Although he never had the opportunity to cross the berm into...

Osama bin Laden´s son-in-law has been captured and is in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, two administration officials said on Thursday. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, was captured within the last week in Jordan, according to a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York. The lawmaker had been told of the capture by law enforcement officials. Congress was notified when Ghaith was taken into U.S. custody, the officials said.

Baghdad (CNN) -- Iraq's state-owned oil exploration company has made the country's first oil find in 30 years, an Oil Ministry spokesman said Monday. The company found at least a billion barrels of crude under the ground in a southeastern province near the border with Iran, spokesman Assim Jihad said Monday. The discovery in Maysan, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Baghdad, is a "significant achievement" for the country, Jihad said. Despite vast reserves and reliance on oil for government income, exploration in Iraq has been hindered by decades of conflict.

"IRAN SPY NETWORK 30,000 STRONG Pentagon report: Iranian intelligence linked to spying, terror attacks" SNIPPET: "Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report." SNIPPET: "“MOIS provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224,” the report said. The spy service operates in all areas where Iran has interests, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Central Asia, Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, France,...

Leadership: The hero of Desert Storm gave America a taste of victory after the wasted sacrifice of Vietnam and demonstrated that only the sometimes-unwise decisions of politicians can keep us from victory over our enemies. Schwarzkopf, called "Stormin' Norman" because of his reportedly explosive temper, led America to two sorely needed military victories: a small one in Grenada in 1983 and a big one as de facto commander of allied forces in the Gulf War in 1991. Grenada was the first step in a recovery from the legacy of Vietnam, where defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory in...

More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait and 17,000 more are on their way in response to the civil war in Syria that has spilled over into northern Iraq, according to a report published Monday by Iran's Press TV. The news follows by four days a report from the Russian news service RT that the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower has joined the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Syria. Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week issued stern warnings to Syria about unspecified but serious "consequences" that would follow if...

Snake on a plane forces emergency landing (CNN) -- Ninety passengers aboard an Egypt Air flight from Cairo to Kuwait could have used actor Samuel L. Jackson this week after a snake reportedly bit a Jordanian man who smuggled the reptile onboard. Jackson's character in the movie "Snakes on a Plane" tries to figure out how to save the aircraft after crates of hyped-up serpents started killing the cast. There wasn't quite that kind of drama on Monday, but the incident forced the pilot to make an emergency landing in the Egyptian resort town of Al Ghardaqa on the Red...

The Second GCC Camel Race Championship kicked off here yesterday evening under the sponsorship of His Highness Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Saba. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Jahra Governor Sheikh Mubarak Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, the representative of the championship sponsor, said a large number of camel owners from the six GCC member states are taking part in the race. He hoped that Gulf fans would be able to enjoy the camel-racing sports, which used to be practiced by Gulf forefathers. For his part, the head of the organizing committee and chairman of the Public Authority for Youth...

The Bashar al-Assad rule in Syria has come under heavy fire from people who believe that the regime must quit over its atrocities. But any attempt by the US-led West to impose a replacement will backfire soon India’s oil-rich western neighbourhood, extending from the Arabian Sea to the Bosporus, is engulfed in conflicts arising from sectarian and civilisational rivalries, aggravated by the meddling of external powers. With an arsenal of over 100 nuclear weapons, Pakistan is today witnessing a period of internal strife, largely arising from the pernicious role of its military establishment and tensions across its disputed borders with...

A member of the Parliamentary Committee for National Security Affairs and Iranian foreign policy Mohammad Karim Abedi that the Parliamentary Committee on National Security Affairs Iranian studied and listened to reports on the actions taken to protect the people of the house in Kuwait in case of any security imbalance there...

PROTESTS TODAY BROKE OUT IN SUDAN, KUWAIT AND MOROCCO! (STATE DEPT TWEETS AT LINK) Hundreds of Muslims protested on Wednesday outside the U.S. consulate in Morocco’s largest city Casablanca to decry a film deemed insulting to Islam. (Naharnet) And Morocco– Now Lebanon reported: Hundreds of Muslims protested on Wednesday outside the US consulate in Morocco’s largest city Casablanca to decry a film deemed insulting to Islam that already sparked deadly violence in Libya, an AFP photographer reported. The protesters, numbering between 300 and 400 mostly young activists, gathered around 200 meters from the consulate amid a heavy police presence. Some...

Travel - State Dept �@TravelGov #Sudan #EmergencyMessage #AmCits are advised to avoid visiting US Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, due to anti-U.S. protests outside the embassy.

AFP - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was expected in Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian leaders on his first major foreign visit since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Zardari for talks on Thursday at the Kremlin where officials from the two countries were also expected to sign agreements on cooperation in agriculture, aviation and energy, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow told AFP. "Economics will be the focus of the visit," said the spokesman, Raja Abdul Qayyum. The three-day visit to Russia will be Zardari's first...

If Israel jets show up in Iranian airspace, it will most likely happen while Obama is too busy accusing Mitt Romney of secretly storing all his money in a giant cave in the Rocky Mountains to do more than dispatch a flunky to chew out Netanyahu over the phone. The election is the perfect window for a strike on Iran's nuclear program, because Team Obama will be too tied down on the Romney Front to do much damage to Israel. Despite the signs being brandished at your local Anarchists for Peace rally, accusing the United States of being a puppet...

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE urged their citizens Wednesday to leave Lebanon immediately amid threats by members of a Lebanese clan who kidnapped earlier in the day over 30 Syrians, as well as one Saudi and one Turkish national. Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad al-Asiri, who is in Mecca, told the National News Agency he requested all Saudi nationals in Lebanon to leave the country after “the threats have become open.” … The Meqdad clan said Wednesday it abducted over 30 individuals it described as belonging to the Free Syrian Army, which it claims was behind the kidnapping Monday...

Syria will be suspended from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday for its violent suppression of a 17-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, a diplomat said on Monday ahead of an emergency OIC summit in Mecca. "The resolution regarding the suspension of the Syrian membership in the OIC is not facing obstacles ... It will be approved," said the diplomat, speaking on the sidelines of a preliminary foreign ministers meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He said the decision was likely to be formally announced at the end of the second day of the summit, which was called by Saudi...

The total revenue of the 11 members of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) soared to $624.8 billion in 2011, according to the latest data. OAPEC data for the oil income generated in the year 2010 was announced as $450bn. In real terms, the combined Arab income stood at $479bn in 2011 taking into account the real dollar value and global inflation. While the nominal price of OPEC's basket of crudes stood at around $107 per barrel in 2011 its real value averaged about $88 in 1995 prices. The oil price in 2010 also averaged nearly $60 far...

In the 1980s, it was Afghanistan to which international Islamic fighters came, helping the mujahedeen successfully take on the Soviet army and its puppet regime in Kabul. Then came Bosnia in the 1990s and Iraq in the 2000s, in both of which veteran jihadists fought a sectarian war on behalf of outgunned Sunni minorities.In 2012, they’re flocking to Syria With funding from private organizations in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, they are making their way across the frontiers from Iraq and Jordan, hooking up with opposition elements in Syria and taking the battle to Damascus and the heart of the...

Kuwait police called a man and asked him to come to the station to receive his teen age gay son who was arrested within a security drive in the capital. But they were shocked when the father told them to keep him with him. “Keep my son with you…I don’t want him and I will not come to get him,” the man told the police, according to Alanba newspaper. It said the 19-year-old boy wore women’s dress and had make up on his face, adding that police would keep him until relatives come and claim him.

The tectonic plates of Middle East politics are shifting fast. Egypt’s Arab spring may have run into the sand of anti-democratic Islamism, but the days when oil-rich Arab sheikhs colluded to hold Western economies to ransom will soon end. Massive shale oil and gas discoveries across the West, Israel’s rising status as a Middle East energy powerhouse and a deepening internal rift over strategic policy are all colluding to hasten OPEC’s demise. In June, Kuwaiti oil minister Hani Hussein’s commented, “Oil from the Middle East will always find a home. And we have to see more research to get a...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is planning a significant military presence of 13,500 troops in Kuwait to give it the flexibility to respond to sudden conflicts in the region as Iraq adjusts to the withdrawal of American combat forces and the world nervously eyes Iran, according to a congressional report. The study by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee examined the U.S. relationship with the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman - against a fast-moving backdrop. In just the last two days, Saudi Arabia's ruler named Defense...

THE DEAD BABY MEDIA If the text on that one is too small for you, it's a CNN piece headlined, "Why the Syrian regime is killing babies." There's not much to add to that. The Syrian regime may be killing babies, but CNN killed journalism. With some help from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the BBC. Anyone who has spent time in the Middle East knows quite well that parading around dead bodies is part of the Muslim ceremony of rallying for the next attack. These aren't funerals, these are corpse parades and the corpses are often...

Bedoon Rights – Kuwait wants to sell 20,000 Bedoon to neighbors [Documenting the human rights situation of Kuwait's statelesss community] Apr 9, 2012 – After his tour in the Gulf, Al-Mustqabal newspaper reported that Saleh Al-Fidhala, head of Central Agency, plans to deport 20,000 Bedoon to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates while the rest will get the citizenship or have identification cards until their cases get examined again 10 years after issuing those cards. This plan comes as a humiliation for the Bedoon community and activists who expressed their refusal for such a derogatory policy practiced against...

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT (BNO NEWS) -- Kuwait's National Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of amendments to the country's penal code to apply the death penalty for those who insult Islam's Prophet Muhammad or his wives, a local newspaper reported on Thursday. Forty-six members of parliament, including all cabinet ministers, voted in favor of the controversial amendments during the first round of voting on Wednesday. Four Shiite members of parliament opposed the amendments, two MPs refused to vote, and one Sunni MP abstained from voting. According to the Kuwait Times, the amendments call for the death penalty for those...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti cleric Tareq Sweidan, manager of Al-Resala TV, which aired on Al-Quds TV on March 26, 2012. Tareq Sweidan : I studied at the Petroleum Department at the University of Oklahoma, and our dean, who was a Christian American, retired. The man they brought to replace him was completely incompetent. I went to the former dean, Dr. Guerrero, and asked him: "What made them choose Dr. Sylvester as the new dean, even though he is unworthy of this?" I was still a student back then. He laughed and said: "You noticed?" I said:...

Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State, who met with the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) here yesterday, proposed a strong missile shield to protect Gulf Arab states from Tehran and sought to work with them to help end the violence in Iran's ally Syria. Clinton said: "It is a US priority to help the GCC build a regional missile defense architecture" against what that country sees as a looming ballistic missile threat from Iran. Clinton said that she looked forward to discussing the wide range of common strategic concerns, including preventing Iran from acquiring a...

Kazakhstan's shooting team has been left stunned after a comedy national anthem from the film Borat was played at a medal ceremony at championships in Kuwait instead of the real one. The song was produced by UK comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for the film, which shows Kazakhs as backward and bigoted. Footage of Thursday's original ceremony posted on YouTube shows gold medallist Maria Dmitrienko listening to the anthem without emotion and finally smiling as it ends. The spoof song praises Kazakhstan for its superior potassium exports and for having the cleanest prostitutes in the region.

Kuwait wants to enhance the air defence capabilities of its Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters via a $105 million acquisition of Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. Detailed by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on 27 February, the proposed deal includes the delivery of 80 AIM-9X-2 weapons, plus captive training rounds and associated equipment and training. "The Kuwait air force is modernising its fighter aircraft to better support its own air defence needs," the DSCA said. "The proposed sale of AIM-9X-2 missiles will enhance Kuwait's interoperability with the US and among other Central Command nations, making it a more valuable...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

Top Persian Gulf clergyman weighs in on Israeli, Saudi hackers' electronic sparring; endorses 'cyber Jihad against Zionist enemy' "Cyber jihad is effective," senior Kuwaiti Iama Tareq Mohammed Al-Suwaidan announced on his twitter account Wednesday. The prominent clergyman announced that "there is a need to unite hacker efforts, within the framework of cyber Jihad against the Zionist enemy." He went on to explain that the recent slew of Arab cyber attacks on Israel's financial institutions as well as the El Al website were "efficient Jihad which will reap great rewards, Allah willing." Al-Suwaidan's Twitter account is immensely popular and has over...

The Parliament of Kuwait In an audio file posted on a Christian satellite TV channel, prince Abdullah al-Sabah declared his faith in Jesus Christ. Muslims have attacked him saying “he isn’t a member of the royal family” Marco TosattiRome According to reports, a Kuwaiti royal prince has become a follower of Jesus Christ. In an audio file posted with his name, he affirms that if he is killed because of a recording he made where he talks about his conversion, he firmly believes that he will meet Jesus Christ face-to-face. The news comes from Middle Eastern sources which state that al-Haqiqa –...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia formally called for the formation of a Gulf Union on a backdrop of regional unrest and growing tensions with rival Iran. "I ask today that we move from a phase of cooperation to a phase of union within a single entity," Abdullah said during his address at the opening session of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council conference in Riyadh. "You must realise that our security and stability are threatened and we need to live up to our responsibilities," said King Abdullah. "Our summit opens in the shadow of challenges that require vigilance and a united...

According to Iraqi Council of Representatives Oil and Energy Committee member Furat al-Sharei, the 10 oil fields that spread across the Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier are still waiting to have a line drawn through them to delineate the border, more than eight years after a coalition led by U.S. forces toppled the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. According to al-Sharei, the two countries must first collaborate in developing legislation for equitably sharing the fields before oil extraction can begin, noting, "The problem of the common fields can be resolved by developing legal mechanisms." While Iraq and Kuwait are now at peace,...

Situations may be precarious at times but truly this is merely a lack of prayer as preparation for you are my houses of preparation of my will. So know my will by the preparation of your hearts before me for I AM The LIGHT of your path and way in Me ! John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. John 8:12 New International Version (NIV) Dispute Over Jesus’ Testimony 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk...

Dozens of anti-government protesters briefly pushed their way into Kuwait’s parliament Wednesday while opposition lawmakers were debating how to question the country’s prime minister over corruption allegations – a sign of rising political tensions. Opposition lawmakers warned Wednesday of a growing political crisis after dozens of anti-government protesters muscled their way into Kuwait’s parliament during debate over efforts to question the prime minister about corruption allegations. Local media reported the demonstrators briefly chanted before being forced out as hundreds of others protested outside. Opposition parliament members have sought to question Prime Minister Sheik Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah over claims...

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

The U.S. administration plans to build up the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq by the end of this year, The New York Times reported on Sunday, referring to diplomatic sources.

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

The rise in electricity consumption has been greatly affected by the rapid growth of Kuwait's private and public sectors and also the great infrastructure that they have which not surprising that electrical consumption has risen along with it "Because it's free" was the answer the majority of renters in Kuwait gave for why electricity consumption was on the rise. Electricity is usually included in rent prices, which some renters have been abusing and, inevitably, been contributing to the ever-increasing rate of energy consumption per capita in Kuwait... What exactly is draining Kuwait's electricity at such an astounding rate? Interviewees cited...

The Secret Deals of the Gulf War Posted By Jamie Glazov On August 31, 2011 Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pavel Stroilov, the exiled Russian historian and the author of Behind the Desert Storm. A secret archive stolen from the Kremlin that sheds new light on the Arab revolutions in the Middle East. FP: Pavel Stroilov, welcome to Frontpage Interview. The subtitle of your new book states that it “sheds a new light on the Arab revolutions in the Middle East.” Yet, most of it is based on the Soviet secret archives about the 1990-1991 Gulf War, or even older...

Three rockets fired in Iraq's southern oil port city of Basra landed inside Iraq and were not aimed at Kuwait or the disputed Mubarak port, an Iraqi official said on Friday.Ali al-Maliki, head of the Basra provincial council's security committee, said the rockets were aimed at the former U.S. prison camp Bucca and had a range of only one kilometre."The rockets targeted the (former) Bucca prison building, which is used by foreign companies," Maliki told Reuters."Security forces managed to seize the vehicle which was used to launch the rockets."

More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers backed up by 700 tanks invaded the Gulf state of Kuwait in the early hours of this morning.Iraqi forces have established a provisional government and their leader Saddam Hussein has threatened to turn Kuwait city into a "graveyard" if any other country dares to challenge the "take-over by force".

A proposal to boost the Peninsula Shield, the Gulf Cooperation Council's combined military force, has been approved by its six member states, and could increase to include 100,000 troops before the end of the year... The Peninsula Shield currently consists of about 40,000 troops and has its permanent base in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The proposed expansion would be a huge boost from the previous force's incarnation, whose numbers fluctuated between 5-10,000 troops during its existence. Its permanent military base could also be moved to Bahrain... Back in March, when the protest movement in Bahrain was gaining the same kind...

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – More than 900 service members and Department of Defense employees started their Fourth of July festivities by participating in the annual Peachtree Road Race 10K here. The winner of this year’s race was 1st Lt. Nicholas Sterghos, a Cornelia, Ga., native, assigned to 1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, with a time of 33 minutes, 22 seconds. “This race was a training run,” said Sterghos. “I’m trying to qualify for the World Class Athlete Program.” Sterghos’ goal is to make the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He competes in the...

<p>Germany has allowed the sale of 200 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia after decades of blocking heavy weapons sales to the kingdom, the Der Spiegel said Saturday.</p> <p>The federal security council approved the sale last week, the weekly news magazine said without citing sources.</p>