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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Syrian tanks were closing in on the rebel-held town of Qusair last month when a Kuwaiti sheik named Hajjaj al-Ajmi and his money machine roared into action. In a series of urgent messages on his Twitter account, Ajmi appealed for cash to help save the town’s defenders. “I hope that we can be a means for helping them and relieving them,” the young cleric wrote to his 250,000 Twitter followers on May 25. He gave a phone number for making donations and asked readers to “kindly spread it.” The appeal came too late for the...

Sunday, June 02, 2013 Islam is the Problem Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog On a mild London afternoon, two Muslims rammed a car into a British soldier returning to the barracks after working at the Tower of London. They shouted Allah Akbar and hacked and slashed at his body in an attempt to behead him. By the time they were done, his body could only be identified through dental records. Shortly afterward, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act”. London Mayor Boris Johnson added, “It...

Washington D.C., May 30, 2013 / 04:05 am (CNA).- As he oversees the missionary territory of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, apostolic vicar Camillo Ballin outlined Catholics' need for religious toleration as well as a physical home for ministry. A native of Italy, Bishop Ballin set out to study Arabic and Islam in order “to discover another world” after his ordination as a priest of the Comboni Missionaries. In a May 29 interview with CNA, he noted that his travels have taken him to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, and eventually to his 2005 appointment as apostolic vicar of Kuwait....

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.