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Syria ups Israeli attack alert status - Israeli military radio

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JERUSALEM (AFX) - Syria has increased its alert status for an Israeli attack, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) military intelligence chief General Amos Yadlin said, cited by Israeli military radio.

Yadlin gave the information at a parliamentary meeting of the foreign affairs and defence committee.

Meanwhile, in a public radio broadcast today, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz affirmed that Israel has no intention of launching a preemptive attack against Syria.

According to parliamentary sources, at the committee meeting, Likud MP Yuval Shteiniz called on the army to immediately mobilise two reserve divisions to prepare for the possibility of Syria entering Israel's ongoing conflict over Lebanon, or any other development.

"The fact that most of Israel's regular army are currently engaged in fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip creates a dangerous situation, as, in the event of Syria entering the conflict, the Israeli army will be unable to immediately cope with the Syrian threat", the Likud MP added.

newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/joy

FYI
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Sweden Warned UN Of OFP Kickbacks, UN Shrugged

A new report from Sweden shows that the UN had full awareness of the Oil-For-Food program's corruption, but chose to do nothing about it http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_re_eu/oil_for_food . The Swedish Foreign Ministry released a statement that claims the Swedish delegation brought the kickbacks to the attention of the UN sanctions committee in 2000:

An unidentified Swedish company informed the country's embassy in Amman, Jordan, in 2000 that Iraq was demanding 10 percent "fees" on all deals as a way to circumvent U.N. sanctions on Saddam's regime, according to a Swedish Foreign Ministry document published on the Web site of Swedish Radio.
The document was sent from the embassy in Amman to the Foreign Ministry and Swedish delegation at the
United Nations in December 2000, Swedish Radio said.

The document stated clearly that the extra fees violated U.N. sanctions. But it was "clear that an open Swedish engagement in this issue would negatively affect other Swedish business opportunities" in Iraq, it said.

Anders Kruse, head of the Foreign Ministry's legal division, said Sweden had forwarded the information to the U.N. committee in charge of sanctions and was told the extra fees were widely known.

Turtle Bay has long claimed ignorance of the problem until the 2003 invasion of Iraq produced reams of evidence of kickbacks and payoffs. Kofi Annan claimed that the UN didn't audit the OFF program thoroughly enough and never had any awareness of the vast monies being kicked back to Saddam Hussein. This announcement by Sweden makes clear that the UN had both knowledge and evidence of the corruption and a pretty good idea of its scope, but declined to enforce its own sanctions against the dictator.

People who keep claiming that the UN had Saddam "in his box" should take note of this development. The UN had no interest in keeping Saddam in his box or anyone else's, either. The program had no auditing and little oversight, and it existed to enrich Saddam even while he defied the organization that put money in his pockets. The billions of dollars that he collected from the "humanitarian" program went for more illicit military materiel and more firepower with which to oppress and tyrannize the Iraqi people.

Now the same organization that claimed to keep Saddam in check wants to push Israel aside and keep Hezbollah in check in Lebanon. Does anyone wonder why the Israelis show such great reluctance to accept that proposition?

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