Free Republic

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States on Monday used precision missiles to strike a "known terrorist target" in southern Somalia, a U.S. military official said. The strike near Dhoobley, which is close to the Kenyan border, was aimed at a "facility where there were known terrorists" affiliated with East African al Qaeda operations, according to the official. News agency reports from the region are saying civilians were killed in the attack, but the official said the United States still is collecting post-strike information and is not yet able to confirm any details about casualties. The U.S. military official described Monday's...

Up to 15 select Peshmerga are soon to be on the move, with half of each going by air and the balance accompanying a heavy, two wheeled, black powder cannon via strategic, unspecified back roads or allies. Turkey agreed to the dual pronged Iraqi Kurd deployment last week after refusing to allow Turkish Kurds to cross the border. Earlier, whilst wildly cheered on by all nine vetted fighters of the Free Syrian Army, Turki prime minister Ert, disclaimed claims that he was not doing enough...

A rare meeting took place on Sunday between a member of the Saudi royal family and Israeli officials, reports NRG/Maariv. The meeting took place at the World Policy Conference in Monaco, where Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former head of the Saudi secret services and formerly his country’s ambassador to the United States, met MK Meir Sheetrit (Hatnua) and Itamar Rabinovich, formerly Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. According to NRG/Maariv, the Saudi prince publicly shook hands with Rabinovich and held a discussion with MK Sheetrit. The report said that Sheetrit invited the Saudi prince to address the Knesset, to which the prince...

Saudi Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has warned the country's royal family to step down and flee before a military coup or a popular uprising overthrows the kingdom. In a letter published by Wagze news agency on Tuesday, the Cairo-based prince warned Saudi Arabia's ruling family of a fate similar to that of Iraq's executed dictator Saddam Hussein and the ousted Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, calling on them to escape before people "cut off our heads in streets." He warned that the Saudi royal family is no longer able to "impose" itself on people, arguing that deviations...

Israel's air force fired around 20 missiles at targets in Gaza City on Saturday, causing heavy damage, a Reuters witness said. The IDF has confirmed the report. (Hanan Greenberg and Reuters)

London, 23 Jan. (AKI) - A prominent member of Saudi Arabia's royal family has warned US President Barack Obama that the Middle East peace process was at risk unless Washington altered its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In an article published in the British Financial Times Prince Turki al-Faisal said that Israel had come close to "killing the prospect of peace" with its recent military offensive in Gaza. "Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk,"...

Col. David Sutherland, commander of 3rd brigade combat team 1st Calvary Division, discusses the details of Operation Turki Bowl via video tele-conference at the Combined Press Information Center. Photo by Army Spc. Alexander Burnett Combined Press Information Center. BAGHDAD -- American and Iraqi military leaders held a joint press conference at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone Monday via video teleconference to discuss Operation Turki Bowl. Commanders on the ground explained details of the operation.“Our division led many successful operations in the Diyalal and Balad Ruz, Baqubah,” said Maj. Gen. Shakur al - Kaabi, commander, 5th Iraqi...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2007 – U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 100 terrorists, detained 50, and dismantled a large terrorist group in January during Operation Turki Bowl, the senior U.S. Army officer in Iraq’s Diyala province said yesterday. The operation, conducted from Jan. 4 to 13, occurred south of Balad Ruz in the Turki Village, Tuwilla and 30 Tamuz areas of the province. During the operation, U.S. Army and Iraqi soldiers isolated and defeated a terrorist group known as “The Council,” Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, told reporters via satellite connection from...

Reacting to negative statements released by members of the US Senate at the hearing held Tuesday to discuss Saudi Arabia s cooperation in fighting terrorism and extremism, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi Ambassador to the US, said that these statements promote false impressions and partial facts. Citing tangible efforts made by the Saudi government in the past few years to fight terrorism, Prince Turki said that the statements of the committee members and of witnesses undermine the will of both the Saudi and the US people, according to Al-Riyadh, the Arabic language daily newspaper. He added that the international community...

'Yes, there were calls from the London bomb suspects to Saudi Arabia, but to describe my country as the crucible of terror is insulting' By Andrew Alderson (Filed: 07/08/2005) When Prince Turki al-Faisal was app-ointed as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to London, he must have thought that his 24-year watch on some of the world's most deadly terrorists had finally come to an end. The quietly spoken diplomat, who is the nephew of the late King Fahd and the new King Adbullah, was head of his kingdom's intelligence service from 1977 to 2001 and, as such, was responsible for trying to...

Commentary: Saudi Bond and George Smiley WASHINGTON, (UPI) July 25, 2005 By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE They are brothers-in-law who have known more secrets and embarked on more secret missions than anyone else in the world during the past quarter of a century. One is Saudi Arabia's outgoing ambassador to the United States, the other, his successor in Washington, who was head of Saudi intelligence for 24 years. Prince Bandar bin Sultan was a fighter pilot, then squadron commander in Dhahran when this reporter first met him in 1971. The son of Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and...

PARIS (Reuters) - The CIA rejected as fantasy claims in a new book that it tried to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Osama bin Laden just two months before the September 11, 2001 airliner attacks against the United States. Richard Labeviere, author of "The Corridors of Terror," released on Thursday, says the CIA's Dubai station chief approached bin Laden while the al Qaeda leader was being treated for a serious kidney complaint in the United Arab Emirates. He said the meeting took place in the American Hospital in Dubai on July 12, barely eight weeks before al Qaeda militants slammed...

After the price of oil quadrupled in 1973, Syria and other Arab states put pressure on Saudi Arabia to use its new wealth against Israel. Part of the Saudi government's response was to lead a campaign against support for Israel in the U.S. On their own, however, the Saudis lacked the connections and savvy to affect American-Israeli ties. To make up for this, the Saudi state recruited help. In "The American House of Saud" (Franklin Watts, 448 pages, $18.95), Steven Emerson, a journalist and former staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chronicles anti-Israeli activities undertaken in recent years...

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (AFP) - Preparations for the September 11 attacks were part-funded via a network of fictitious Saudi and Spanish companies controlled by an ex-accountant of the Saudi royal family, a lawyer for the attack victims said Thursday. A former accountant who worked for members of the Saudi royal family, Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, arrested in Spain last April, is considered to be the "big financier" behind terrorist a network al-Qaeda in Europe. "The money used to prepare the September 11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia, " Jean-Charles Brisard, a lawyer for families of the attack victims, told...

An Al-Qaïda banker, old countable of two princes saoudiens (lawyer) Friday September 20, 2002 - 3h08 GMT WASHINGTON, 19 seven (AFP) - the preparation of the attacks of September 11 was financed partly by a money bleaching through a network of fictitious companies in Saudi Arabia and in Spain controlled by an ex-accountant of a branch of the royal family saoudienne, affirmed Thursday a lawyer of the close relations of the victims of the attacks. Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, a Spaniard of Syrian origin, stopped last April in Spain, is regarded as the "Al-Qaïda Minister of Finance" in Europe,...