World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #6 Disinformation, Inc.

VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.

From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.

One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.

MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.

Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.

Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.

Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.

He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.

Joustra’s report sees the rise of “living room marriages” as one of many indications of the growth of radical Islamism, especially Salafism, in the Netherlands. According to Joustra Salafists are very active among youth groups in the main Dutch cities, but also increasingly in other parts of the country. “We are aware now that young people can radicalize very fast,” Joustra’s spokesman said. “This can happen within a couple of months.” <<<

That is only another way to get free sex.

How sad.

I have been attempting to clean out the unread mail in my inbox and see there a lot on Holland and Sweden, about the problems they have with muslims, about mid-year 2006.

"" INS..AND OUTS

TRAVELLING on a false document carries a maximum jail term of 10 years. If someone tries to leave Britain on a fake passport, they face prosecution. But an immigrant who gets in with a false document and claims asylum can't be prosecuted. ""

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=jailed--for-trying-to-leave-britain%26method=full%26objectid=18466380%26siteid=62484-name_page.html

!!! I mean ... it's there, right in front of my eyes, but I just can't cognitively grasp it.
1:53 AM, January 16, 2007<<<

From comments on the article, reminds me of U.S. and other countries that are in deep trouble.

My friend that has an Indonesian wife, says and has to me for ten years, that Indonesia was not muslim, but the refugees came, by the boat loads, they were muslims, who soon made it clear that it was not refuge they sought, but the entire country, which they now have.

Gambia: After Five Months, Journalist Ebrima Manneh Seen

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701150402.html

Gambia: After Five Months, Journalist Ebrima Manneh Seen
The Gambia Echo (Raleigh)
January 13, 2007
Posted to the web January 15, 2007

Journalist Ebrima Manneh of the Gambian Daily Observer Company (a.k.a.
Chief Ebrima Manneh) who was arrested by agents of the much feared,
and most notorious Gambia National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been
found at Fatoto Police Station at Gambia's Upper River Division after
five months detention incommunicado. Chief Manneh was arrested on July
7th. 2006 at his place of work. He has since then been detained at
various Police Stations.

Shortly after his arrest, Manneh was detained at the NIA Headquarters.
He was later detained at Mile Two Central Prisons, Kartong Police
Station, Sibanor Police Station, Kuntaur Police Station and finally at
Fatoto Police Station. He has spent three months and three weeks at
Fatoto Police Station. The authorities are yet to disclose Chief
Manneh's place of detention despite the fact that his family members
have moved heaven and earth to establish his whereabouts.

Human rights organizations and media watch dogs such as the Paris
based Reporters Without Borders have petitioned the despotic regime of
President Yahya Jammeh to no avail. Numerous citizens and concerned
groups have raised eyebrows as to Manneh's fate.

In a related saga, it has been established that Master Tamba Fofana of
Kudang Lower Basic School is detained at Sare-Ngai Police Station.
Like manneh, Master Tamba too has been detained at various Police
Stations across the country such as Bansang, Kartong, Sibanor and
Sare-Ngai. Both Chief Manneh and Master Tamba have not been charged.

Copyright © 2006 The Gambia Echo. All rights reserved

13.01.2007
Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review
AIA

Novaya Gazeta blames Russian secret services, army special-task troops
on involvement in death squads

In a front-page article of the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta under the
title Spare Agencies, the paper's observer Igor Korolkov comes to
conclusion that former and currently operating servicemen of the
Russian
security services, Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior have been
involved in fulfilment of blatant acts of terrorism and murders during
last fifteen years. The weekly publishes excerpts from a secret
document
where the death squads officially established and described possibility
of terror acts against enemy.
Korolkov results examples of some criminal cases which, in his opinion,
confirm an existence of a certain uniform "strategic plan" that unites
tens the acts of terrorism, accomplished in the territory of Russia and
abroad. He also writes that in the middle of the 1990s he happened to
collide with several "gangs under cover", supervised by operating
officers of the Main Intelligence Service (GRU) and Main Directorate
for
Struggle Against Organized Crime of the Interior Ministry divisions.
Also, according to the journalist, the 45-th regiment of the Airborne
Troops, belonging to the GRU, that appeared in the murder case of
former
Novaya Gazeta investigative journalist Dmitry Kholodov, had been
engaged
in custom-made murders. Korolkov also marks that former staff members
of
the KGB-FSB had been involved in a series of acts of terrorism in
Moscow, since the middle of the 1990s.
Korolkov publishes document that is a secret instruction letter,
x-copies of its `original', to be more exact. It is affirmed in it that
former and currently operating servicemen of Russia's security forces
are going to create "a wide secret-service network" and "special
troops"
"to eliminate leaders and active members of terrorist organizations,
spying agencies and subversive groups working inside who are openly in
confrontation with the Federal Government". "Organized crime and terror
is become dangerous for the government. It is necessary to have a
department that has real possibility to solve problems using agents and
spy connections."
In fact, writes Korolkov, security forces in Russia have legal base
bypassing Constitution and thought its semi-legal forces become one of
the enforcement tool in government hands. The journalist marks that he
had published the "instruction" in the Moscow News weekly even back in
2002. In the past high profile killings there is little progress in
investigating cases. However "the events connected with the murder of
our colleague Anna Politkovskaya, the former Lieutenant-Colonel of the
FSB Alexander Litvinenko, attempt of Yegor Gaydar's poisoning, have
forced to address again to this document and to comprehend it in a new
manner". Moreover, Korolkov marks that this "document" has been
ostensibly signed by the head of the Main Directorate for Struggle
Against Organized Crime of the Interior Ministry, Hero of Russia,
Colonel Seliverstov, who had denied this information.
Proceeding from all aforesaid, the observer of the Novaya Gazeta makes
an unequivocal conclusion that "a complete system formed by security
services for extrajudicial punishments is built in the country".
In past former Russian security service officer Mikhail Trepashkin said
in a letter from prison that he had warned former agent Alexander
Litvinenko years ago that the KGB's main successor agency had formed a
death squadron to kill him and other Kremlin foes.

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1194

Eight Lost In Bolivian Cessna Crash

Officials Say Plane Suffered Mechanical Failure
A Bolivian air force plane transporting civilians following mudslides
last
week crashed Saturday, killing the eight people onboard.

A spokesman told the Associated Press the aircraft, identified as a
Cessna
Centurion in media reports, suffered a "mechanical failure" as it
approached
the airport in Tarija, 405 miles south of La Paz.

Lt. Col. Tito Gandarillas said the plane's pilots attempted an
emergency
landing in a field. The plane was enroute from the city of Bermejo,
near the
Argentine border.

The Cessna 210 Centurion is a six-place, single-piston engine aircraft.

FMI: www.scramble.nl/bo.htm
aero-news.net

Kuwait jails three Arabs for plotting attacks on US troops

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\16\story_16-1-2007_pg4_11

Kuwait jails three Arabs for plotting attacks on US troops

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's criminal court jailed three stateless Arabs for
10
years Monday after convicting them of manufacturing explosives and
plotting attacks on US troops in the oil-rich emirate.

Security forces had detained the three last May after finding homemade
explosives and materials used to make them.

Prosecutors charged Hmoud al-Enezi, 26, Ahmad Jaber, 33 and Hmoud
Ashour, 28, with manufacturing explosives, training in the use of
munitions, and plotting attacks on the estimated 15,000 US troops in
the
emirate, the main rear-base for the US-led coalition in Iraq.

The court ordered that the three be deported on completion of their
sentences.

The judgement can still be challenged in the appeals and supreme
courts.

The appeals court in November upheld death sentences against four men
and jailed 22 others to various terms after convicting them of fighting
bloody gunbattles with police and being members of a group with links
to
Al-Qaeda. afp

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/jan/1170.html

Tehran: All international flights to be handled at Imam Khomeini
Airport

Tehran, Jan 15, IRNA-All international flights will be handled at the
newly-built Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) by the end of
the
current Iranian year (March 20, 2007), Minister of Roads and Transport
Mohammad Rahmati said.

He said in inaugural ceremony of new head of National Civil Aviation
Organization that the NCAO is expected to shift all international
flights from Mehrabad airport to Imam Khomeini International Airport by
March 20.

Rahmati called on international airlines companies to cooperate with
Iranian Civil Aviation Organization to complete the shift.

Referring to Imam Khomeini Airport as a promising project with updated
airport services in the region, he emphasized the need for taking
prompt
action for activating IKIA, saying that private sector participation in
the airport executive operation could effectively contribute to its
development.

He said that air transport has the strategic significance for national
development and that it is superior to other types of transport
facilities.

The minister added that due to the country's vast area, national
aviation industry should be given due importance and steps should be
taken forward for the industry's progress and development.

Meanwhile, new head of National Civil Aviation Organization Hossein
Khanlari outlined his plans regarding the organization.

On promotion of current standards and flight safety as 'the most
important goal of aviation industry', he said that with reliance upon
national expertise, practical steps have been taken with commissioning
high-tech safety devices at IKIA, Tehran.

He said that the national civil aviation organization calls for close
relationship with the academic centers to promote the employees status.

Yemen kills al-Qaeda fugitive

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6C66AA7C-719C-49A9-9A36-AFA60D571A5D.htm

Yemen kills al-Qaeda fugitive

An al-Qaeda member who escaped from a Yemeni prison in a mass jailbreak
last year has been killed in a shootout with government forces, Yemen's
government has said.

Yasser Nasser al-Homaiqani was killed after government forces tracked
him down in southern Yemen, a ministry official told Saba, the state
news agency, on Monday.

Two officers from the security services were also killed in the
shoot-out in Abyan, a poor and mountainous southern province of Yemen,
the government said.

Homeiqani was among a group of 23 militants who tunnelled out of a
Sanaa
jail in February 2006.

At least 16 of the escapees have been killed or arrested, or have
surrendered to authorities.

It is believed that seven fugitives are still on the run.

The escaped prisoners included the leaders of the 2000 bombing of the
US
warship Cole and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg.

The jailbreak embarrassed Yemen's government, which is battling
Islamist
militants, and raised questions about Yemen's security force, many of
whom are believed to sympathise with al-Qaeda's ideology.

Standby for Action - Terrorism as Carried out by RAF and Al Qaida

http://www.bmlv.gv.at/omz/ausgaben/artikel.php?id=445

Summary: Standby for Action - Terrorism as Carried out by RAF and Al
Qaida
Wolfgang Taus

Terrorism as a commonly specific form of political violence, or its
threat, against matter or men, has been a widespread and certainly not
recent phenomenon. Having developed from the antiauthoritarian
68-Movement, in the 1970ies the Baader-Meinhof-Gang became the Red Army
Fraction (RAF), which was to challenge the German constitutional state
vehemently. The RAF saw themselves as a part of the International
Communists; political assassinations and kidnappings were their doing.

The bloody "German Autumn" of 1977 was both height and turning point in
the conflict between the guerrillas and the state: the imprisoned
adherents' release could not be obtained, neither by assassinations nor
by hijacking with kidnapping. Attacks continued afterwards, but they
did
not match the intensity of the late 1970ies.

The "emergency powers" acts, passed in the course of the fighting
against the RAF, were not revised after the official end of the RAF in
1988, and they should prove successful, especially now in the fight
against Islamistic terrorism. Osama bin Laden's" Dschihad" applies not
only to the detested Western World but also to Moslem sectarians, as
the
Shiites are seen by him. He aims at disposing of those Moslem
governments cooperating with the West, and at establishing a caliphate
of all orthodox people.

Al Qaida represents a symbol of transnational Islamistic terrorism with
many different groups, who know how to apply their destructive
potential
within the scope of complex operations against the West, with raised
shock effects for the mass media. As far as fighting against terrorism
is concerned, the preservation of democratic constitutional order seems
necessary, resolutely facing all authoritarian challenges.

[Davey, this group has open messages, take a look, there is a lot in the files]

Axisglobe: US denied political asylum to Litvinenko family

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/51261

--- In chechnya-sl@yahoogroups.com,

http://www.axisglobe.com/news.asp?news=10236

09.01.200709:04 (GMT)

Family of the poisoned former Russian state security service officer
Alexander Litvinenko addressed the American authorities with the
request for political asylum in the Unied States, however received
official refusal. This was told by the widow of the ex-FSB
Lieutenant-Colonel, who died from radioactive poisoning in London, in
November, 2006.

Marina Litvinenko is in Israel now and at the end of the last week she
gave an interview to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
The interview on four full pages of the paper is describing private
life of the late Alexander Litvinenko, his conflict with the former
leadership of the FSB, the flight from Russia, and mostly – the
poisoning and the last weeks of his life.

Almost all the information, voiced by Marina Litvinenko has been known
already earlier, except for the story about the flight of the family
from Russia in 2000. According to Marina Litvinenko, her husband did
not coordinate his departure with her. He had left Russia secretly,
through the territory of North Caucasus. Further, under the insistance
of her husband, Marina and their son Anatoly had purc

hased a tourist
trip to Spain, and from there they had gone to Turkey where they were
met by the father of the family.

In Turkey Litvinenko had addressed the United States embassy with a
request for political asylum. According to Marina, the received
refusal was motivated as follows: «As we are in the pre-election
campaign process, we can not interfere in such delicate affairs».
According to advice of confidants of the disgraced Russian oligarch
Boris Berezovsky, Litvinenko and his family arrived to Britain in
November, 2000, and in May of the next year they received the status
of political refugees there. Marina also told that a few weeks prior
to the poisoning, her husband officially became a citizen of the
United Kingdom.

[sounds like we might win, yet]

US blocking Lebanon reconciliation: Hezbollah chief

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\16\story_16-1-2007_pg4_4

US blocking Lebanon reconciliation: Hezbollah chief

KUWAIT CITY: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah charged in an interview
published Monday that the United States was blocking efforts to form a
national unity government in Lebanon. "The United States is preventing
the formation of a national unity government in Lebanon. This is the
core of the crisis," said the chief of the Shiite militant movement in
an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa. "The aim (of the US)
is to strengthen the government of (Prime Minister) Fuad Siniora
because
in reality it is their government. It is the government of the US
ambassador in Beirut," Nasrallah said. "The current government ...
accepts all demands by the US administration without discussion. Any
demand by the United States is approved by the current government
within
10 minutes," Nasrallah said. "That's why I called it the government of
(US ambassador Jeffrey) Feltman. Whatever he asks for is given. All
Lebanese know that Feltman visits the government headquarters daily or
almost daily," he said. afp

German schools ban Muslim head scarves

http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=4403010&p=44x3xz5&n=4403102

German schools ban Muslim head scarves

15/01/2007 - 3:53:06 PM

A German court today upheld a ban on Muslim teachers wearing head
scarves in the schools of a German state under a law that says
teachers'
attire must be in line with 'Western Christian' values.

A Berlin-based Islamic group had complained about the law, which
authorities in the conservative-run state of Bavaria have used to ban
head scarves while allowing Roman Catholic nuns to continue to wear
their habits in schools.

However, the Bavarian Constitutional Court ruled today that the
application of the law in the southern state neither violated religious
freedoms nor was discriminatory.

Under Germany's federal system of government, education is almost
totally under the control of authorities in its 16 states. Authorities
in several of them, including Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse, have
introduced similar head scarf bans.

A lawyer for the Islamic Religious Community, the plaintiff in the
Munich case, said some of its members were considering an appeal to the
Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's highest.

Conservative politicians welcomed the verdict.

An Islamic head scarf represented a "deliberate separation from western
values, and that is not compatible with our constitution", Wolfgang
Bosbach, a federal lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian
Democratic Union, said on N24 television.

The Bavarian law, introduced in November 2004, forbids teachers from
wearing during lessons clothes or other items that seem to express
views
"incompatible with the basic values of the constitution and its
educational goals including western Christian educational and cultural
values".

Judge Karl Huber insisted the Bavarian law did not favour the Christian
faith. But because teachers must transmit the values of the
constitution, the religious feelings of students and parents must be
considered, the court said.

Albin Dannhaeuser, head of the Bavarian teachers association, said he
hoped the ruling would put an end to political debate about religion in
the state's schools. He said there are currently only two Muslim female
teachers in Bavaria, both of whom wear hats to sidestep the head scarf
ban.

SA might send troops to Somalia: Mbeki

http://www.sabcnews.com/politics/government/0,2172,141894,00.html

SA might send troops to Somalia: Mbeki

January 16, 2007, 06:00

President Thabo Mbeki says the government is considering sending
peacekeeping troops to Somalia.

Mbeki has met Raphael Tuju, the Kenyan foreign minister, in Pretoria to
discuss a request by the East African region for the urgent deployment
of troops in Somalia.

Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, has dispatched ministers to seven
African countries seeking support for a continental force for
war-ravaged Somalia.

Somalia's interim government wants African peacekeepers to be deployed
as soon as possible to prevent anarchy after its troops, backed by
Ethiopian forces, ousted Islamists in a two-week war.

MI6 disputes government claim in BAE corruption inquiry

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070116/ts_afp/britainsaudidefencecompanybaeintelligencediplomacy_070116051501
MI6 disputes government claim in BAE corruption inquiry
Tue Jan 16, 1:13 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 has disputed
government claims that continuing a corruption investigation into BAE
Systems' dealings with the Saudi royal family would have damaged
national security, The Guardian reported.

Citing unnamed officials and civil service sources, the newspaper said
that MI6 and the domestic intelligence agency MI5 had no evidence that
Saudi Arabia would sever its security links with Britain, as the
government had claimed when it stopped the Serious Fraud Office (SFO)
investigation last month.

The report comes as Britain is set to be questioned Tuesday by the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) over the
decision to quash the investigation into allegations the defence
company established a slush fund for some members of the Saudi royal
family to secure contracts.

In the statement to parliament last month announcing the end of the
inquiry, Attorney General Peter Goldsmith said that Prime Minister
Tony Blair, as well as senior ministers and the intelligence
agencies "...have expressed the clear view that continuation of the
investigation would cause serious damage to UK/Saudi security,
intelligence and diplomatic cooperation..."

Blair said at the time that "our relationship with Saudi Arabia is
vitally important for our country" and that he had "absolutely no
doubt at all that the right decision was taken in this regard."

While MI6 and MI5 had agreed with a government assessment that
Britain's national security would be damaged if Saudi Arabia were to
sever its intelligence links, the Guardian reported, they did not see
any indication cooperation would have been halted if the investigation
continued.

Goldsmith's statement "contained quite a degree of conjecture," a
source told the daily.

Another unnamed official was quoted as saying by The Guardian that
there was "nothing to suggest" that the Middle Eastern kingdom had in
fact warned "if you continue with this inquiry, we will cut off
intelligence."

When the government dossier was sent to MI6 last week, the head of the
agency, John Scarlett, declined to sign it, with unnamed officials
telling The Guardian that there were "differences" between the
intelligence services and the government over Goldsmith's
parliamentary statement.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office
declined to comment on the report when contacted by AFP, ahead of
Blair's monthly press conference on Tuesday.

Blair's government will have to defend the decision at the OECD
anti-bribery meeting in Paris on Tuesday. Britain is party to an OECD
convention which states that signatories "shall not be influenced by
considerations of national economic interest, the potential effect
upon relations with another State or the identity of the natural or
legal persons involved".

continued.....

Why Lebanon is such a mess - and how it can be cleaned up

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=78591

Why Lebanon is such a mess - and how it can be cleaned up

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Editorial

Recent comments by the three most important men in Lebanon these days
illustrate the breadth and depth of the mortal peril facing the country
- but also demonstrate what should be an obvious way out of the
impasse.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accuses the opposition of planning a coup
d'etat but also insists that nothing can force him from office.
Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, complains that the
opposition is not being consulted on major decisions but also continues
to keep his colleagues from rejoining the Cabinet they voluntarily
left.
Speaker Nabih Berri compares the country to a time-bomb that could go
off at any minute but remains on the sidelines after his initial
mediation efforts failed. These and other contradictory positions by
these and other prominent figures are an indication of how confused the
Lebanese political scene is - and of how much responsibility Lebanese
leaders bear for that confusion.

On the other hand, Berri, Siniora and Nasrallah all seem to agree that
Lebanon's economy is in critical condition and that the Paris III donor
conference (or something very much like it) has the potential to help
get a sustainable recovery under way. As the man in charge of the
closest thing Lebanon has to a truly national institution, it falls on
Berri to pull all the levers at his disposal in order to expand areas
of
common agreement before they are absorbed by those of persistent
discord.

The speaker has thus far failed to broker a compromise that satisfies
both the government and the opposition, possibly because he has yet to
take full advantage of his office. The speakership of the Lebanese
legislature confers not only a right on the incumbent to address any
and
all issues from a national perspective but also an obligation to
explain
them in a manner that permits all of the country's citizens to make
informed decisions and encourages them to do so. To this point Berri
has
failed to rise noticeably above the media mudslinging that has
alternately angered and frightened so many Lebanese, a fact that has
sown confusion on all of the country's many "streets" and sharply
curtailed his ability to credibly act as an unbiased go-between.

Berri's long career in politics has helped him develop a talent for
plain speaking. It is time for him to use it in order to set the record
straight about what the real sources of disagreement are, what a
failure
to resolve those disagreements will mean for Lebanon and the Lebanese,
and what steps need to be taken - by all parties - to end the crisis.

Iran says working with Iraq over US arrests

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=48926&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Iran says working with Iraq over US arrests

Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - ©2005 IranMania.com
Related Pictures

Archived Picture - Iran said it was working with Iraqi officials on
securing the release of five Iranians arrested by US forces in Iraq
last
week and accused of running arms and money to Iraqi militants, Reuters
reported. "We are trying to release the diplomats and sorting out the
issue with the Iraqi government. This was an attack on the Iraqi
government as well," Iran's government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham
told a weekly news conference.

LONDON, January 16 (IranMania) - Iran said it was working with Iraqi
officials on securing the release of five Iranians arrested by US
forces
in Iraq last week and accused of running arms and money to Iraqi
militants, Reuters reported.

Tehran has said the five Iranians, who were seized from an Iranian
government office in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil on Thursday, were
diplomats and has demanded their release.

"We are trying to release the diplomats and sorting out the issue with
the Iraqi government. This was an attack on the Iraqi government as
well," Iran's government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a weekly
news conference.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei held talks
with
Shirwan al-Waili, Iraq's state secretary for national security, on
Sunday evening. Waili said afterwards he hoped the issue would be
resolved soon.

"This is against all the international immunity laws and political
standards and was a terrorist act," Elham said of the raid on the
Iranian office on Thursday.

"America should give up on its illegal acts. We consider this our right
to follow up the case and we will follow it up in due time," he said
without giving details of what Iran would do.

The US military said the five men had ties to the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard-Qods Force, which it said was known for providing funds, weapons
and training to "extremist groups" seeking to destabilize the
government
of Iraq.

Tehran denies backing the insurgency and blames US troops for the
violence and for stoking tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni
Muslims.

When President Bush said last week he would send more US troops to
Iraq,
he also pledged to interrupt a "flow of support" to insurgents from
Iran. Other US officials have also said Washington would do more to
contain Iran.

Washington also accuses Iran of seeking to make nuclear bombs under
cover of a civilian atomic program, a charge Tehran denies.

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