Iran & the Middle East

• Israeli leader Ariel Sharon met with Jordan's King Abdullah II for the first time since February.

• 1,500 Palestinian security forces have moved in to control the 14-mile long border with Egypt, facing off against stone throwing crowds. In Gaza, Hamas put out a show of force in defiance of Abbas.

• Before the withdrawal from Gaza, a number of Jewish philanthropists paid millions to buy greenhouses, which provided jobs for 3,500 Palestinians and an economy for the area. Within days of the Israeli withdrawal, however, the greenhouses were ransacked and destroyed while Palestinian police stood by, or joined the looters.

• President Bush remains confident that Iran will be sent before the U.N. Security Council, and pressed Russian President Vladamir Putin on the issue. Aside from Russia, China could also veto any sanctions against Iran. Why China is not backing Bush on Iran.

• A powerful bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood in eastern Beirut, killing one and injuring twenty-three others.

• Breakfast with Talibani.

• Saudi Arabia is calling for the creation of an international counterterrorism center, saying it would be "another step toward improving international cooperation in fighting terrorism."

• Qatari Foreign Minister Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Jabor Al Thani urged Arab nations to take a step towards Israel in response to the withdrawal from Gaza.

America Domestic Security & the America's

• In an ABC Nightline interview, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made the claim that he had documentary evidence the U.S. was planning an invasion of his nation, and offered maps and documents as proof. There's been no confirmation of the rumor he got them from Dan Rather.

• Congressmen Curt Weldon (R-PA) has accused a former Pentagon employee of destroying documents that identified Mohammed Atta as a terrorist, two years before the 9/11 attacks.

• An Egyptian student was detained in Memphis, Tennessee, after authorities found a pilot's uniform, a chart of the Memphis international airport, and a DVD titled "How an airline captain should look and act."

• British MP George Galloway has declared Canada's involvement in Afghanistan "a crime" and urged Canadians to demand an end to "the occupation."

Africa

• U.S. officials are posed to slap tough travel sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a chronic human rights abuser.

• Mamadou Koulibaly, President of the National Assembly of the Ivory Coast, recently wrote that what Africa really needed was democracy, not money.

• Ties between Libya and the United States are improving, with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice saying that it had "been a good thing for the world and for the international community to see the leadership of Libya."

• Israel is putting pressure on South Africa, a member of the IAEA's governing council, to refer Iran to the U.N. security council for potential sanctions over their nuclear activity.

Russia & Central Asia

• Daniel Kimmage has an informative article titled Central Asia: The mechanics of Russian Influence, that is worth the read.

• The Russian Navy plans to expand their Baltic submarine fleet from three to as many as nine by 2007.

• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been breaking new ground in meeting with Jewish leaders lately.

• In the wake of notification from the Uzbek government that U.S. forces had six months to pack up and leave, it now looks like a possibility that some forces will deploy to Tajikistan instead.

• Twenty militants in Afghanistan were captured as they were planting explosives to blow up the Kajik Dam in southern Afghanistan. Electricity from the dam's generators provide energy for more than 75,000 families in Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, and surrounding territory.

• In a recent meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Singh gave him a list of 33 terrorist training camps in Pakistan, charges Musharraf denied.

Far East & Southeast Asia

• Japan is protesting attempts by France to push for a lifting of the EU arms embargo on China, with Japanese Foreign Minister, Nobutaka Machimura, saying "East Asia’s security sits on a delicate balance and it must not be pulled down."

• Acting on a tip, police officers in Bangladesh raided a residence in Pakchandpur village and discovered enough explosives and detonators to make 64 bombs. The two men who lived there were members of Jamayetul Mujahideen.

• Were al Qaeda linked militants in Pakistan using a small Chinese-made UAV to scout infiltration routes into Afghanistan?

Europe

• Dutch authorities introduced a new threat level indicator, featuring four different levels, including the current reading of "substantial."

• A group of seven Algerians rounded up for deportation from Great Britain, is believed to include several suspects acquitted earlier this year in a ricin plot.

• Turkey and some European nations are still at odds over Turkey's quest to join to the European Union. Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative Panel discussion, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "if EU says that it is not a Christian club, then it has to accept Turkey."

• Al-Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni has been re-arrested in Spain for alleged ties to al Qaeda.

• On a lighter note, Aussie blogger Harry Hutton agrees with radical jihadist cleric Abu Hamza, up to a point: "... in his wider argument that the UK is a moral cesspit and that the British are filthy drunken animals. I thought he made some valid points."

• Marko Attila Hoare, author of "How Bosnia Armed" reviewed Evan Kohlman's book, "Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network" and expanded on the subject with his own thoughts.

The Global War

• Military historian and author Victor Davis Hanson offers analysis on where we are four years after 9/11, saying "the news is both encouraging and depressing all at once."

• U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is urging all nations to unite in fighting terrorism. Too bad they can't decide what exactly constitutes terrorism and what doesn't, and they lack the moral courage to confront state-terror sponsors like Iran and Syria.

• A study by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), conducted by Middle East analyst Anthony Cordesman and Saudi security adviser Nawaf Obaid, has concluded that the Iraq war has radicalized Saudi fighters and that the foreign element has been overstated. The study estimated the largest foreign contingent was made up of 600 Algerian fighters. It said about 550 Syrians, 500 Yemenis, 450 Sudanese, 400 Egyptians, 350 Saudis, and 150 fighters from other countries had crossed into Iraq to fight.

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