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Comcast backs away from Arab net
Mon., Nov. 13, 2006
Al-Jazeera Intl. has all but conceded defeat in its effort to gain U.S. distribution in time for its worldwide launch Wednesday.
Execs at the nascent English-language offshoot of the Arab broadcaster said Comcast Communications pulled the plug on talks Monday on a deal the net considered essential to gaining a beachhead in the U.S.
The Associated Press last week reported Comcast had pulled out of talks but, in fact, negotiations continued, with Comcast offering to roll out the channel regionally. Comcast is the dominant operator in the Detroit area, which has one of the nation's largest Arab-American populations.
But AJI execs were holding out for a full rollout across all of Comcast's 12.1 million digital subscribers (Comcast has 24 million digital and analog subs), and they believed a deal was imminent.
"We thought we were just awaiting signatures. We feel like we've been led down the garden path. It's a setback for us in the States, but I don't want this to overshadow the fact we've had phenomenal figures in the rest of the world," said one AJI employee who insisted on anonymity.
Excerpted
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117953878.html?categoryid=10&cs=1
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Iran and Hizballah are working together with Hamas to transform the Gaza Strip into a "university" for studying terrorism, a senior Israeli defense official said.
The head of Israel's Shin Bet security services, Yuval Diskin, told Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday that Palestinians had smuggled 30 tons of military-grade explosives as well as large quantities of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, into Gaza since Israel withdrew its troops and evacuated settlements there last summer.
The smuggling posed a "real challenge" because the weapons could be used against Israel and to destabilize the regime of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, director of the military/political and policy bureau at the Defense Ministry.
What was even more serious, however, was the transfer of terror know-how, Gilad told a meeting of diplomats at the Institute for Contemporary Affairs in Jerusalem.
He said the Iranians and Hizballah were collaborating with Hamas to transfer expertise. This would enable terrorists to perpetrate worse attacks, causing more casualties.
Excerpted
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200611/FOR20061114d.html
Witness Is Silent in Terror Probe Ex-Professor Says Grand Jury Testimony Would Endanger Him (Sami al-Arian)
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A potentially key witness has refused to testify in the long-running investigation into whether Islamic charities in Northern Virginia were financing terrorist organizations, according to recently unsealed court documents.
Former Florida professor Sami al-Arian declined to answer questions before a federal grand jury in Alexandria last month, according to documents unsealed in federal court in Tampa. Arian, who was acquitted in one of the nation's highest-profile terrorism cases but then pleaded guilty to a single charge, believes his life would be in danger if he testified, his attorneys told a judge.
Excerpted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301205.html