Hizbullah mastermind's true legacy! - By Caroline B. Glick

Mughniyeh personally bridged all the divisions within the world of Arab and Islamic terrorism. He showed that when it comes to attacking the West, there is no distinction between secular, nationalist, religious, Islamist, Sunni or Shiite terrorists.

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It is quite possible that terror master Imad Mughniyah was not killed Tuesday night in Damascus for his past crimes, but to prevent him from carrying out additional attacks in the future. On January 30, French security services raided a Paris apartment and arrested six Arab men. Three of the men — two Lebanese and one Syrian — were travelling on diplomatic passports. According to the Italian Libero newspaper, the six were members of a Hizbullah cell. Seized documents included tourist maps of Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin and Rome marked up with red highlighter to indicate routes, addresses, parking lots and "truck stopping points." The maps pointed to several routes to Vatican back entrances. Libero's report explained that the "truck stopping points" aligned with information the French had received the week before from Beirut. There, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah convened a conference of his senior terror leaders where he ordered them to activate Hizbullah cells throughout Europe to kidnap senior European leaders. The day of the arrests, French Defense Minister Herve Morin was meeting with his American counterpart Defense Secretary Robert Gates and with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington on a previously unannounced visit. During his public appearances, Morin criticized the US Intelligence Directorate's National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program from November. Morin stated, "Coordinated information from a number of intelligence services leads us to believe that Iran has not given up its wish to pursue its [nuclear] program," and is "continuing to develop" it. Other recent reports relayed French concern that their embassy in Beirut is being targeted for attack by Hizbullah. On January 15 terrorists targeted a US embassy car in Beirut killing four and wounding sixteen. This week, French President Nicholas Sarkozy's chief of staff told L'Express newsweekly that the threat of terror against France "remains quite high." All of the feared terror attacks against French and European targets have the classic earmarkings of Hizbullah operations chief and Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer Imad Mughniyeh. Mughniyeh was the pioneer of embassy bombings and high-profile kidnappings. Most of the reports of his death treated Mughniyeh as a has-been. Coverage was devoted to his attacks against American, Israeli and Jewish targets in the 1980s and early 1990s. Yet at the time of his death, Mughniyeh remained one of the most dangerous and prolific terror operatives in the world.
Mughniyeh's broad-based leadership role in the global terror nexus was made clear by the reaction of seemingly unrelated terror groups to his death. Representatives of the reputedly nationalist, secularist Fatah terror group expressed their pride in his life's work. "We're very proud to have had a Palestinian holding such a high position in Hizbullah," one Fatah official who worked with Mughniyeh in the 1970s and 1980s told The Jerusalem Post. Every Palestinian terror group — from Fatah to Hamas to Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, the PFLP, and DFLP mourned the loss of Mughniyeh as a hero and martyr and called for revenge against Israel and the US. In Iraq, Shiite and Sunni terrorists alike bemoaned his death and called for revenge. Shiite militia leader Muqtada el Sadr whose forces were trained and organized by Mughniyeh and Iran condemned Mughniyeh's killing. Sadr's supposedly arch-foe, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads Al Qaida in Iraq and whose operational commanders are in Iran, responded to his death by calling for attacks against Israel. And of course, Hizbullah, and its state sponsors Iran and Syria all condemned Mughniyeh's death in the strongest terms and vowed to avenge his killing. These condemnations were not nostalgic pinings for a has-been. These uniform reactions from across the terror spectrum were the cries of Mughniyeh's soldiers for their commander. Through Iran, Mughniyeh was in effect the commander or godfather or both of all of these forces. His life's work embodied the growth, development and modus operandi of the forces of global terror and jihad. And understanding his life's work is a key to understanding the nature of the jihadist forces arrayed against the Western world and Israel. Mughniyeh began his terror career in the 1970s in Fatah leader Yassir Arafat's Force 17 in Lebanon. There, in addition to terrorizing Lebanese Christians, he and Arafat trained Iranian Shiite jihadists. These men arrived at PLO camps in Lebanon in the early 1970s to train to overthrow of the Shah of Iran and install their leader Ayatollah Khomeini as the head of a new Islamic state. In 1979 they became the backbone of the newly formed Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. When Israel forced Arafat and his Fatah terror army to flee Lebanon in 1982, Arafat gave Fatah's arsenal to Mughniyeh, who at that time, as an officer in the new IRGC was forming Hizbullah. As Fatah's terror heir, Mughniyeh and his colleagues set out to throw the US, the French and the Israelis out of Lebanon and to disenfranchise Lebanese Christians and Sunnis. They accomplished their goals through a mix of terror tactics including car bombings, suicide bombings, airline hijackings, kidnappings, assassinations, and embassy bombings; and guerilla warfare tactics like ambushes, RPG attacks on convoys, sniper fire, popular indoctrination and psychological warfare operations. Most of these operations were carried out in Lebanon. In the 1990s, Mughniyeh and Iran took their show on the road. Not only did they reenact their car bombings in South America. They also expanded their terror nexus to the then nascent Sunni Wahabist al Qaida organization. As Thomas Joscelyn documents in his short book Iran's Proxy War Against America, Iran through Mughniyeh was instrumental in the training, arming and sheltering al Qaida since the early 1990s. As an Iranian agent, in the early 1990s, Mughniyeh built operational alliances with Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri and al Qaida's military chief Saif al Adel when al Qaida was based in Sudan. Adel, along with several hundred other al Qaida operatives travelled to Lebanon to undergo training at Hizbullah camps. Hizbullah trainers also worked at al Qaida camps in Sudan and al Qaida operatives also trained at IRGC camps in Iran. >From 1996 through 1998, ten percent of bin laden's satellite phone calls were to Iran. Operational cooperation between Hizbullah and al Qaida quickly followed. In 1996, Iran ordered Hizbullah to blow up the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia which housed US military personnel. 19 US servicemen were killed. Although al Qaida was never officially tied to the bombing, Zahawiri phoned bin Laden to congratulate him on the attack. The al Qaida terror cell in Kenya that carried out the Kenyan arm of the twin US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dars el Salaam in 1998 underwent training in Hizbullah camps in Lebanon. That attack had all the markings of Mughniyeh operations. Like the 1983 attacks on the US Marine barracks and French paratrooper base in Beirut, the 1998 attacks were double car bombings carried out in two disparate locations nearly simultaneously. As Joscelyn recalls, the 9/11 Commission called for further investigation of Iran's role in the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. Adel, a veteran of Hizbullah camps, was intimately aware of the bombing plans before it took place. Ramzi Binalshibh, the plot's mastermind travelled in and out of Iran several times in the months before the bombings. Then too, eight to ten of the September 11 bombers transited Iran assisted by Hizbullah and IRGC officials in late 2000. The Iranians did not stamp their passports. Several of the bombers transited Iran en route to Lebanon. Mughniyeh himself flew to Beirut from Teheran aboard the same flight as Sept. 11 hijacker Ahmad al-Ghamdi. Although Iran and the Taliban nearly went to war against one another in 2000, in the wake of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, according to jailed Taliban leaders, Iran pledged to assist the Taliban in their war against the US. Teheran opened its doors to fleeing Taliban leaders and senior al Qaida commanders — including Adel and bin Laden's son and heir apparent Saad and Abu Musab Zarkawi. From Iran, Adel and bin Laden Jr. planned and ordered attacks in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, from Iran, Adel and bin Laden worked with Zarkawi in planning the groups' insurgency in Iraq. Citing an extensive report from the German * Cicero* magazine, Joscelyn describes how Zarkawi set up his terror network under the protection of the IRGC. Zarkawi had no problem operating in Iran in spite of his avowed hatred of Shiite Muslims who, after entering Iraq, he massacred at every opportunity. Then too, as Al Sharq al Aswat reported Wednesday, Mughniyeh played a central role in organizing and training Shiite militia in Iraq. He worked as the head of Iran's intelligence directorate in southern Iraq, trained al Sadr's Mahdi army fighters in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and set up shop in Basra to facilitate their entry into Iraq from Iran. After the 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and the PLO, Iran abandoned Arafat as a traitor. Mughniyeh was responsible for mending fences. In 1999 he brought Fatah back under Iranian orbit when he acted as a middle-man in negotiating the Iranian sale of the Karine-A weapons ship to the Palestinian Authority which was intercepted by Israeli naval commandos in January 2002. After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Mughniyeh worked as a middle-man bringing Hamas under Iranian control. That control was consolidated in a meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Mughniyeh in Damascus in January 2001, after Hamas's electoral victory in the PA's legislative ballot. Later in 2006, Mughniyeh returned to Lebanon to plan the kidnapping of IDF soldiers which was carried out on July 12, 2006 and precipitated that summer's war. Mughniyeh reportedly commanded Hizbullah forces during that war. Since the war, he oversaw Hizbullah's rearmament as well as the training of Hizbullah and Hamas forces in Iran. Saad bin Laden reportedly travelled to Syria to oversee weapons shipments to Hizbullah during the war. It is possible that Mughniyeh was irreplaceable. The pivotal role that he played in the nexus of global terror was unique. No one else has such wide-ranging accomplishments. But placing too much stress on Mugniyeh's uniqueness would serve to obfuscate the basic reality that his life's work embodied. Mughniyah embodied the fact that terrorists of all shapes and colors willingly collaborate with one another against their common enemies in the West. Mughniyeh personally bridged all the divisions within the world of Arab and Islamic terrorism. He showed that when it comes to attacking the West, there is no distinction between secular, nationalist, religious, Islamist, Sunni or Shiite terrorists. His work revealed the inconvenient truth so fervently denied by policymakers and politicians throughout the Western world. He showed that for the jihadists there is no distinction between terrorists who attack in Israel or Jewish targets abroad and those who attack non-Israeli and non-Jewish targets. Moreover, his work as an Iranian agent demonstrates Iran's central role in sponsoring jihad throughout the world. Mughniyeh's legacy is not simply a laundry list of massacre and torture. It is the nexus of global terror. While it is a great thing that he is dead, it must be understood that his death is insufficient. Hundreds of thousands converged in Beirut to celebrate his life's work. The West must understand the significance of that work and unite to destroy it — layer after layer.

You want Them, You Can Have Them, Please Take all the mullahs , WE DON'T WANT THEM.....

In Overture to Iran, Qaddafi Declares North Africa Shi'ite and Calls for Establishment of New Fatimid State
On March 31, 2007, Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qaddafi called, in a speech in Niger to Tuareg tribal leaders , for the establishment of a second Shi'ite Fatimid state in North Africa, after the model of the 10th-13th century empire that ruled North Africa, Egypt, and parts of the Fertile Crescent. In his speech, Qaddafi denounced the division of Muslims into Sunni and Shi'ite as a colonialist plot, and rebuked the Arab League members for "hating Iran." At the beginning of the month, on March 1, 2007 – the eve of the anniversary of the coup that brought the Libyan Free Officers to power – Qaddafi gave a speech in which he denied the existence of a non-Arab Berber people (this also being a colonialist plot), provoking protest among Berbers and supporters of minority rights in the Middle East and North Africa. The following are excerpts from Qaddafi's speeches: "Colonialism… Has Begun to Group the Arabs Against Iran and Iran Against the Arabs" "… Today there is a divide [in the Islamic world] that we must acknowledge, and we must know who is deepening it. Perhaps it is colonialism, the enemy of Islam, the enemy of the Arabs, the enemy of the Persians, that is deepening it… "They have divided Islam into two Islams, and there came to be Shi'ite Islam and Sunni Islam. This is a forbidden innovation [bid'a]… When did Muhammad say: 'I have brought you Shi'ite Islam and Sunni Islam?... "As a consequence of this, they have now begun to group the Arabs against Iran and Iran against the Arabs, and then Shi'ites against Sunnis and Sunnis against Shi'ites. "Are we Muslims, or are we Shi'ites and Sunnis?! For whose benefit is this? It is for the benefit of the 'other' that we are speaking about, for the benefit of the enemy, for the benefit of colonialism. "The period of fragmentation that I talked about, and the disintegration of the Abbasid Empire and its old age, is similar to the old age of the Arab and Islamic regimes we have today. At the beginning of the 10th century, the situation was like this… "The Fatimid state arose in the beginning of the 10th century, and it formed an umbrella over North Africa, and under its banner all of the tribal, denominational, political, and ethnic differences fused, and they all became one single Fatimid identity, which lasted 260 years and extended as far as the Arab East. "After Mahdiya, Cairo was the capital of the Fatimid state, and it inherited the disintegrated Abbasid state, which had become weak at that point in time… "The Fatimid state came as a new, youthful power. Its name and origin are from Fatima Al-Zahra [Fatima 'the Radiant'], and it produced Al-Azhar.(1) One of the historic citadels of the Fatimid state was Al-Azhar, and the name of Al-Azhar, in Egypt, is in reference to Fatima Al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet. The Fatimid state's name and origin were [also] from Fatima Al-Zahra…
"This grand Fatimid state generously allowed the existence of the mini-states in its interior… They all became Fatimids, and there was stability. "Now people say to us that the Shi'ites are in Iran and that Shi'ite means Persians, and Sunni means Arabs. This is a lie. This is deceit. Those who say this are ignoramuses who do not know history. "To the contrary, the first Shi'ite state arose in North Africa. The Fatimid state was the first Shi'ite state…" "North Africa is Arab and Shi'ite" "In North Africa… go anywhere and ask them about their customs and traditions. They are all Shi'ite customs and traditions. "[They include] the celebration of the 'Ashura, the sorrow on the 'Ashura and the remembrance of the 'Ashura and our lord [sayyidna] 'Ali; the very extensive stories about our lord 'Ali, and being the party of [tashayyu' l-] our lord 'Ali.
"[The North Africans] do not know Mu'awiya ['Ali's rival and the founder of the Umayyad dynasty]. From Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean, there is not a single person named Mu'awiya. They are all named 'Ali, Fatima, Khadija, Hassan, Hussein, etc. "Since the [trend] today is religion, and [discussion of] who has the right to the Imamate, and what is the Imamate, and so forth – who has more right to the Imamate than the Prophet's family [ahl al-bayt]? The Prophet's family has more right than all of the rulers around today who are not from the Prophet's family.
"When we come to religious authority… have [people] not gotten themselves into a mess and said that the Sunnis are against the Shi'ites and the Arabs against the Persians? Who holds to this view? It is the foreign occupation and the Zionist settlement that brought this.
"Where did this come from? [But] as long as you are getting yourselves into a mess [by saying you are] Shi'ites and Sunnis, then go ahead, [but] the Shi'ites [then] are not Iran."
"The Shi'ite Fatimid State Arose in North Africa, and We Want to Revive It" "The Shi'ites are North Africa… We will [build] the modern, second Fatimid state, and its identity will be a Fatimid identity. The Arabs and the Berber Arabs will be fused in it, and the parties, the Left and the Right, the extremists, and the proponents of violence will be fused in it. All of them will become a single identity. "The conflict… in North Africa will end. The conflict in Algeria will end, and in Sudan, and the conflict in Egypt will end, and the conflict in the Sahara will end. Tribal, sectarian, and ethnic conflict will end, because we will have become Fatimids… "We in North Africa are Arabs, and North Africa is 100% Arab. Those whom we say are Berbers are the original, unadulterated Arabs. The fact that France and Western colonialism say to them 'you are not Arabs' – whoever accepts this will bear his responsibility. "North Africa is Arab and Shi'ite… The Shi'ite Fatimid state arose in North Africa, and not in Iran. We want to revive it once again. We direct a renewed call to all of the forces in the first Fatimid state to revive [it in] a modern, second Fatimid state – on the condition that it be free of all of the sectarian conflicts and [the debate about] the Imamate and [religious] rule [hakimiyya] and the sophistry of old…
"We are not interested anymore [whether] Ja'far Al-Sadiq delegated the Imamate to Musa Al-Kazim or to Isma'il…(2) This matters [only] to Ja'far Al-Sadiq and Isma'il and Musa Al-Kazim, and they are gone, may Allah have mercy on them. "[And we are not interested anymore] in who had more right to the Caliphate, 'Ali or Mu'awiya. The Caliphate has nothing to do with religion, and this is a worldly struggle for rule. If they decided after the Prophet who would be ruler, it was because the Prophet was not a ruler. He was a prophet, that's it, and then he passed on. He was a prophet, and he died, without a son, a successor, a regent [wasiy],(3) or a representative… "But emotionally, we the Arabs, and all of the Muslims, are attached to 'Ali. This means that all of the Arabs are Shi'ites. If a Shi'ite is one who is attached to 'Ali, then all of the Arabs are Shi'ites. Where is the Arab who is against 'Ali? There aren't any. "Take a poll in the entire Islamic and Arab world. Ask them: 'Are you for Mu'awiya or for 'Ali?' They will tell you ''Ali'. Ask them: 'Are you for Fatima Al-Zahra or someone else – the wife of Mu'awiya, Yazid, or someone else?' They will say: 'No, I am for Fatima Al-Zahra.' "This means that they are the party [tashayyu' l-] of the Prophet's family, of Fatima and 'Ali. All of the Arabs, all of the Muslims, are the party of 'Ali. If being the party of 'Ali means being Shi'ite, then we are all Shi'ites. This is true. This is our culture." "If Being Sunni Means That You Believe in Muhammad and His Sunna… Then the Iranians are Sunnis" "If being Sunni means that you believe in Muhammad and his sunna… then the Iranians are Sunnis. Did the Iranians say to you: 'We are against Muhammad'? No, they say: 'Muhammad, peace be upon him, is our Prophet.' [And if you ask them:] 'Do you follow his sunna?' they will say: 'Of course, we follow his sunna.' Then you are Sunnis? Yes, indeed. "And they will come to us here, us the Muslim Arabs in North Africa, and ask: 'Do you love 'Ali?' We will say: 'Yes, we love 'Ali.' [They will ask:] 'Do you love 'Ali or Mu'awiya?' We will say: 'We love 'Ali.' Then you are Shi'ites. "The Iranians are Sunnis, and we in North Africa are Shi'ites…" "The Shi'a Has Moved Now From Iran to North Africa, the Second Fatimid State Must Arise" "The Arab rulers are now campaigning to satisfy the Americans and the occupation with a call to hate Iran, because Iran is producing an atomic bomb, and because Iran is such-and-such and the Persians are such-and-such – [all] this is in order to divide Islam in two. When you ask them: 'Why do you hate Iran?' they say: 'Because it is Shi'ite.' "No, no. We in North Africa are the modern, new Fatimid state. We are Shi'ites. That's it, the Shi'a has moved now from Iran to North Africa. The second Fatimid state must arise…
"Enough, then, the dispute has ended… "There won't be an Arab Maghreb Union, or a non-Arab Maghreb Union. No longer will one be against the other, or will there be war one against the other, and borders. What borders? They don't interest us. "[In the] Fatimid state you can remain Egyptian, Libyan, Algerian, Tunisian, Mauritanian, Nigerien, Malian, and so on, and [you can] stay in Sudan, in the Fertile Crescent, in Jordan – but the identity will be a Fatimid identity… "If rule is [in the hands of] the Prophet's family, then no one has more right than the Fatimid state, which descends from Fatima Al-Zahra. And if rule is a matter of worthiness, understanding, and democracy, then hand rule over to the people… and put an end to governments, kings, and presidents… "If you bring Islam into politics, then the Prophet's family has more right than all of you, oh you who take advantage of Islam. Who are you to rule in the name of Islam? If you want to rule in the name of Islam, then the Prophet's family is most worthy and has more right… "The Fatimid state grants freedom to… everyone to worship in complete freedom. One is a Shafi'i, another a Maliki, another an Ismai'ili [Shi'ite], and another [follows the] Khawarij… "In truth, all of the schools [of Islam] are forbidden innovations… it is clear what is permitted and what is forbidden, and Allah said: 'Do not form groups and parties'… So why should we dispute? Over what?... "How can we find one mosque that people say is Shi'ite, and another mosque that is Sunni?! Who holds this view? In the days of the Prophet, was there a mosque for the Shi'ites and a mosque for the Sunnis?... They are all Allah's mosques.
"Does one have a qibla to the right, and another to the left? Do they not all face the sacred house [i.e. the Ka'ba in Mecca]? "The Two Holy Sites Are Mecca and Jerusalem" "While we're on the subject, the two holy sites are not the two that we say they are today. The two holy sites are Mecca and Jerusalem [and not Mecca and Medina]… "We thank our Persian brothers, who joined the party of the Prophet's family and of 'Ali. We thank them for joining [the supporters] of the Prophet's family. This is a tremendous thing. "I am amazed that people from the Prophet's family, like [King 'Abdullah] in Jordan for example, are against the Shi'a. What does the Shi'a mean? It means being the party of [tashayyu' l-] the Prophet's family. It means that we are the party of you, you there in Jordan. I am your party, when I am a Shi'ite in Iran. "Look how they set us one against the other and enlisted some of us against others of us…"(4) We Are Arabs, It Was Colonialism that Called Us Berbers In an earlier speech on March 1, Qaddafi denied the existence of a non-Arab Berber people in North Africa, drawing protest from Berbers, minority rights activists, and liberals: "We set out from Yemen until we came here [to Libya]. We went by land, by land (barr barr), so they called us 'Berbers'. "We the Berbers are the Arabs who came by land, by land (barr barr). The Phoenicians, who are Arabs like us and came from the East, came on boats. They came to Phoenicia, and from Phoenicia started out from the coast (al-sahil al-sahil), whereas we came by land, by land (barr barr). So we are the 'by-land-by-land' society, and colonialism came and said, 'You are Berbers, a different people. You are not Arabs.' They wanted to make us err concerning our history, our origin, and our civilization...
"The Amazigh(5) tribes died out a long time ago, since the days of the Kingdom of Numidia. These are tribes we don't know at all. Perhaps they were Semitic or Eastern [tribes] who came [to the region], but they died out and are no more. "Where are the tribes of Mishwash, Ribu, Libu, Samu, and Tihnu? We can't even pronounce their names. "The archaeologists and the astronomers say that these tribes died out during a 100-year drought. There was no rain in North Africa, and everyone died out, including the Amazigh tribes and the other tribes I mentioned who were all in North Africa – they all died out. The Berber (barr barr) Arabs and the Phoenician (bahr bahr, i.e. "sea-sea") Arabs arrived, and [then] the [other] Arabs came after Islam. "Libya is for the Libyans. We will not tolerate in Libya any ethnic zealotry (shu'ubiyya). No one can say 'my origin is this, that, or the other'. Whoever says this is an agent of colonialism. This is 'divide and rule'. "The Israelis are seeking to Balkanize the Arab, Islamic, and African countries. European colonialism wants to divide North Africa and tear it to pieces…"(6)

GREATEST IRAQI DEAD COUNT: MUSLIMS KILLING MUSLIMS

By J. Grant Swank, Jr.MichNews.comFeb 9, 2007

Consider that the most Iraqis slain have been slain by Iraqis, though Al-Baghdadi incites his own to slaughter non-Muslims for causing Iraq`s carnage.

Look at the facts: The real 2006 'Iraq Body Count' of Iraqi civilians killed last year by Islamic terrorists numbers 16,791. Iraqi civilians killed collaterally in incidents involving Americans (and Islamic Terrorists) equals 225.

Iraqis aren't dying from war. They are being murdered by Islamic terrorists. Source: IraqBodyCount.net (includes civilians caught in crossfire who may have been killed by the terrorists, and terrorists who may have been counted as civilians). This detail is provided on TheReligionOfPeace.com at http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/



Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda appointed as "head of the Islamic State of Iraq," provides the following recording dated February 2, 2007. It is titled, "Victory from Allah, Victory is Near."
Note that he finds "no blood sweeter than that of the Christians. . ."
"Oh Muslim youths, remember the cut up bodies of the children, the voices of their bereaved [parents] and the anguished cries of the elderly. Let the volcano of your wrath burst forth. Burn the ground beneath the feet of the Jews and their helpers, eradicate their army, destroy their equipment, down their planes, ambush them in their homes, in the wadis and on the roads.
"Hide in the darkness of night and turn their morning into hell... We are not afraid of your coalitions...We have drunk blood [in the past], and we find no [blood] sweeter than that of the Christians... Roast their flesh with car bombs, cut off their supply lines with [explosive] charges and tear out their hearts with sniper fire. Know that offense is the best [form of] defense, and be careful not to lay down your weapons before the war is over... We are not fighting out of nationalism, but with the aim of making Allah's word supreme."

Yet it is Iraqi slaying Iraqi that makes the dead count so abominably high.

‘Man Down’: When One Bullet Alters Everything

By DAMIEN CAVE

BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 — Staff Sgt. Hector Leija scanned the kitchen, searching for illegal weapons. One wall away, in an apartment next door, a scared Shiite family huddled around a space heater, cradling an infant. It was after 9 a.m. on Wednesday, on Haifa Street in central Baghdad, and the crack-crack of machine-gun fire had been rattling since dawn. More than a thousand American and Iraqi troops had come to this warren of high rises and hovels to disrupt the growing nest of Sunni and Shiite fighters battling for control of the area. The joint military effort has been billed as the first step toward an Iraqi takeover of security. But this morning, in the two dark, third-floor apartments on Haifa Street, that promise seemed distant. What was close, and painfully real, was the cost of an escalating street fight that had trapped American soldiers and Iraqi bystanders between warring sects. And as with so many days here, a bullet changed everything.
Follow the link for the rest of this story.

Iran: U.S. Did Not Siege Embassy in Baghdad

Tuesday , January 23, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iranian diplomat on Tuesday denied Arab media reports that the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad had been besieged by U.S. forces, saying witnesses had mistaken the heavy security provided for a visiting U.N. envoy for a raid.The denial came quickly after Arab media, citing witnesses, reported that U.S. and Iraqi troops had entered the embassy building twice and helicopters were flying low over the area.
The U.S. military also denied that its forces were involved."We have confirmation that there are no U.S. troops involved in anything going on at the Iranian Embassy," the military said in an e-mailed statement.For the latest news on Iraq, click here.Iranian diplomat Abbas Otri told The Associated Press that the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, had visited the embassy earlier Tuesday and witnesses appeared to have thought his guards were a force carrying out a raid in the embassy."The guards did not enter the embassy's compound," said Otri, an aide to the Iranian ambassador.The Iranian embassy is in the central Salhiyah neighborhood on the west bank of the Tigris River. The embassy is few hundred meters (yards) from the Green Zone.The report came amid increased tensions between Iran and the U.S., which accuses Tehran of facilitating the violence in Iraq and of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The Iranians deny both allegations, but the Iraqis have complained that their country is being caught up in the political battle.

US Attacks Iran in April, Bulgaria Involved .

23 January 2007, Tuesday.

The United States plans a hard-power attack on Iran's nuclear and oil industries, the Arab Times reported, citing un-named sources. The timing has been fixed to suit George Bush's major ally, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is to step down from his office at Number Ten Downing Street this May.The White House hopes that a military attack against Iranian targets will weaken the regime and lead to the toppling of the government of Syria, as well, The Arab Times comments."As one of the last steps before a strike, we'll see USAF tankers moved to unusual places, like Bulgaria," respected US security expert, Col. Sam Gardiner, predicts.

According to him these will be used to refuel the US-based B-2 bombers on their strike missions into Iran. "When that happens, we'll only be days away from a strike," he said.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed at the end of April last year the agreement for the location of US military bases on the territory of the Black Sea country.Bulgaria and the US reached an agreement on the defence cooperation accord, including the conditions of the shared use of several military facilities on Bulgarian territory, at the end of March.
As many as 3,000 soldiers can be deployed on short rotation in Bulgaria, which at some point may overlap and reach 5,000. The first US troops will arrive in 2007 and 2008.

Tehran fears social conflict if sanctions imposed

La Monde report says Tehran fears social conflict if sanctions imposed /dpa German Press Agency / Published: Saturday January 20, 2007




Paris- Iran fears internal destabilization through social conflict if the United Nations imposes sanctions on Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme, according to an article to be published in Sunday's edition of the French newspaper Le Monde. The foreign and defence committees of the Iranian parliament presented the consequences of an embargo in a 100-page report in September 2006, the article says.
Tehran has officially reacted to the decision to impose sanctions by the UN Security Council in December by threatening to speed up its uranium-enrichment programme.Eighy-five per cent of Iran's export income comes from oil, and the country depends on refined products like petrol for 40 per cent of its imports.

The newspaper describes the country was a "giant on feet of clay."

Tehran is most afraid of a combination of a halt to the delivery of refined products, a boycott of Iranian oil and the freezing of Iranian assets abroad. One litre of petrol currently costs 800 rials (9 cents) in Tehran. The report was presented to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a small circle of officials, Le Monde writes. If sanctions take hold, Tehran could be forced to reassess its national priorities and spend large amounts of resources to prevent a social revolution.
Members of the government have expressed the fear that social unrest could weaken internal stability.

Sunni-Shiite talks begin with spat over Iran, Iraq

A conference on inter-Islamic dialogue has got off to a heated start in Doha with a top Sunni cleric attacking Shiites and Iran over the continuing sectarian violence in war-torn Iraq.
Sheikh Yussef Qardawi accused Shiites in Iraq and neighbouring Iran Saturday of harbouring militias that kill and displace Sunni Arabs in Iraq, which is wracked by sectarian killings that claim scores of lives daily.
"The Sunnis are being driven out of their regions. And now they (militias) are trying to rid Baghdad of Sunnis. We should not remain silent," he told the opening session of a conference on dialogue between Islamic schools of thought.
"Death squads and militas are killing people in their own homes... They should be disowned by the Shiites," he said.
Qardawi, who heads the international federation of Muslim scholars, said he had called upon Shiite religious leaders in Iraq and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to intervene to stop the killings.
"Iran has influence in Iraq. It can stop this sedition and put out a fire that could destroy everything," he said in a clear criticism of Tehran over its role in Iraq.

The Egyptian cleric, who also holds Qatari nationality, condemned what he described as "attempts to covert (Sunnis) into Shiism" in countries that are predominantly Sunni.
"It is not permissible for a sect to try to spread in a country that is dominated by the other sect," he said.
"What benefit do you get if you enter a Sunni country like Egypt, Sudan, Morocco or Algeria... and try to convert people into the Shiite sect?" he asked.
"You may attract a hundred or two, but you will be sowing sedition in the country and the people there will hate and curse you," he added, citing talks he held with leading Iranian scholar Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri.
But Taskhiri, who was also present at the opening session, blamed the escalating tension between Sunnis and Shiites on the "real enemy" of both, an allusion to Israel and the United States.
"There is a cunning plot to turn Muslims away from their real enemy to an illusive one... the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Taskhiri, who heads Iran's World Forum for Enhancing Relations Among Islamic Schools of Thought.
"Muslims forget Israel and the dangers of colonialism, while Sunnis perceive the Shiites -- and vice versa -- as the biggest challenge... tearing the body of this (Islamic) nation into pieces," he added.
Tashkiri accused Israel of stoking the escalating Sunni-Shiite tension in Iraq and Lebanon, claiming that the "enemy is exploiting normal scholarly differences."
Predominantly Shiite Iran has been accused of backing Shiite militias in Iraq that are believed to be behind daily killings and kidnappings of Sunni Arabs.
Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement, currently leading an opposition campaign against the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, is also accused of being remote-controlled by Tehran.
Other delegates at the Doha forum warned against political differences fueling communal conflict.
"We should avoid differences between schools of thought which are being exploited for political purposes," Qatar's deputy premier Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said.
"The facts show that the wedge being driven (between Muslim sects) is political and has nothing to do with religion.