Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Thursday's Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.
Apologies for missing the last two weeks - work and exam pressures got in the way of blogging. I got evariste for you though, and he did a great job. Many thanks to him.
Anyways, on with the news.
Top Topics
- The U.S. is set to attack Syria, said Debka. Yes, I was skeptical, too. But then UPI reported something not too different at all. Add to that the warning I noted back in December. Now Syria has ruled out a confrontation with the U.S. I'm told that Deputy Secretary of State Armitage set a deadline of January 20th for Syria to shut down terrorist training camps.
- Syria again, this time buying various missiles from Russia. Naturally, the Israelis are concerned. The deal includes the SA-10, the SA-18 and the replacement for the Scud, the Iskander-E surface-to-surface missile. While the Iskander could tip the balance in the region, the prospect of advanced SAMs falling in to terrorist hands is what's keeping the Israeli generals awake at night. The U.S. is warning Russia against the deal. The Russians are denying that any such deal exists, which might be easier to believe if Russian arms experts weren't defending the sale.
- The search is over. The weapons inspectors are coming home from Iraq. The Debka ticker says the Washington Post will report that the search ended two months ago. The U.S. stands by its claims that Iraq was planning to build WMD.
Other topics today include: Iran to enrich uranium again; Israeli MI - Iranian nukes by 2008; Karni checkpoint attack; Hamas wants suicide bombers and two-state solution {snicker}; Navy diverts supply ships away from Suez; shootout in Kuwait; Saudis jail, lash opponents; EU makes progress wooing Syria; mole in AIVD helped Theo killers; Germans capture 22; Kosovo car bomb; Al-Muhajiroon calls for jihad in Britain; LeT romantic meets his end; Pakistan considers operation in Baluchistan.
Iran Reports
- Iran says the IAEA may not "spy" on a military thought to be involved in nuclear weapons production. The Iranians also said they were going to resume uranium enrichment. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator was quoted as saying:
"Suspension of enrichment is for a limited period to win the confidence of the international community and to reach an understanding with Europe for fullrelations in the political, economic, security and nuclear fields."
You've got to admire how up front about this they are.
- Israeli Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi believes Iran will have nuclear weapons in two years, if not prevented from doing so by the West.
- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has accused 'enemies of the Islamic Republic' of trying to 'diminish the value of martyrdom and the culture of jihad'. I don't think he's referring to the 'inner struggle'.
- A presidential hopeful says Iran should keep their nuclear capabilities at any price.
The Middle East
- A sophisticated attack on the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel has killed five Israelis. A bomb-laden truck blew a hole in a wall, before two suicide bombers detonated their explosives. Medical crews were targeted by mortars and rifle-fire. The Israeli air force is attacking targets in the Strip as I type.
- Hamas have called for more suicide bombings. The most senior Hamas terrorist in Judea and Samaria has said that the organisation is no longer dedicated to the destruction of Israel</a.
- A senior Israeli officer says that threats from anti-retreat activists are more dangerous than "any flying rocket".
- In the Mos Eisley of the Middle East, a terrorist group warring with Fatah are going down. Jund al-Sham, numbering over twenty, have issued threats against Fatah and Hezbollah, and been behind several attacks on Fatah offices.
- Reporters Without Borders are horrified that Hezbollah TV, al-Manar, may become a military target.
- The U.S. Navy diverted at least 12 huge supply ships from the Suez Canal, citing security concerns.
Iraq and The Gulf
- Two security officers and a terrorist have died in a gunbattle in Kuwait. Kuwait has remained relatively quiet, even as al-Qaeda have attacked targets in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
- After the shoot-out, some 30 Kuwaiti and Saudi Islamists were taken in for questioning. Some of the men are 'Arab-Afghans'. The linked article is well worth reading for the reaction from liberal Kuwaiti writers.
- 15 people have been sentenced to lashes and jail-time for taking part in anti-monarchy protests in Saudi Arabia.
- The Carnival of the Liberated is up. Thanks to Dave Schuler for compiling it.
The West
- Armed Liberal noted a dissertation on Islamic terrorism in Europe - well worth the read..
- France is making progress in allying the EU with terrorist sponsor Syria.
- The Islamist mole in Dutch intelligence had links to an accomplice of the murderer of Theo Van Gogh.
- A terrorist cell in the Netherlands planned to murder Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali on New Year's Eve.
- The case against a suspected terrorist has collapsed in Canada because the CSIS destroyed notes from interviews.
- Al-Qaeda might be linked to a cop-killing, gang-raping Central American terrorist group called MS-13.
- The prosecution of a suspected terrorist financier has been postponed in NYC.
- German police have detained 22 suspected terrorists. They are believed to have acted as recruiters, fund-raisers and false-document production.
- A Nigerian police officer was killed in a car-bomb attack in Kosovo.
- Al-Muhajiroon's former leader has said the covenant between British Muslims and Britain has been broken, and that Brits are now fair game.
- Chechen terrorists are claiming that Aslan Maskhadov's elderly relatives have been kidnapped by Russian or pro-Russian forces.
Asia and Australasia
- Indonesia is grateful, and everything - but get the hell out, ASAP, Yanks.
- A weird, disturbing story from Jammu and Kashmir, following a love-sick member of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Romeo and Juliet, it ain't.
- The Pakistani military is considering taking action in Baluchistan.
I haven't ended on a lighter note in a while. Here ya go - the Suha Arafat Email Scam.
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Colt, read that article carefully. Syria didn't rule out a confrontation with the USA - they said, openly, that they don't believe the Americans have the stomach for one.
Given the use of bluster and rhetoric in the region a better description would be "Syria dares U.S. to attack, then makes conciliatory noises."
You have a typo in an HTML closing tag that is making this story hard to read.
US is doling out $62 million per year to get Arab viewers hear the administrations views via the Virginia based Al-Hurra channel. If just one tenth of the resources spent on criticising if not lamenting Arab news channels was spent to built inroads with them, there would have been a sea change in perspectives on both sides of the spectrum.
For one twentieth of that amount it would have been possible to engage producers and directors from far popular Arab channels channels to work on improving technical and content quality of their productions.
Reporters without Borders in cooperation with trainers from the Adham Center for Television Journalism would have been helpful to enrich academic understanding and professional performance of such personnel. Initiatives like Link TV would have provided them far innovative ideas on how to engage the most watched Arab channels.
Let the viewers have both sides of the picture to decide what's right and wrong.
By allowing others to express their views you have an opportunity to engage and correct them where possible.