The trial is proceeding behind closed doors because two of the 26 accused were juveniles at the time.
Halimi’s body was found in February 2006 at a Paris suburban railway station, naked, handcuffed and covered in burn marks from cigarettes. He died of stab wounds to his neck on the way to hospital.

The victim’s mother Ruth Halimi has published a book about her son’s ordeal, comparing it to the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, the American-Jewish journalist beheaded by Muslim terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.

US failure to block North Korea’s nuclear armament is a lesson for Iran
DEBKAfile Special Analysis 30 May: “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region or on us,” US defense secretary Robert Gates said in a speech Saturday, May 30. But he insisted the next step would be political, not military and called for stronger sanctions against internationally censured North Korea and Iran.

DEBKAfile notes: Clearly, no military response is contemplated for now against North Korea, although Pyongyang has threatened military action against any attempts to stop and search its ships.

Gates insisted that the “transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities” would be a grave threat to the United States and its allies.” But he avoided mentioning North Korea’s blatant nuclear and missile transfers to Iran going back years.

DEBKAfile’s Washington sources affirm that US President Barack Obama is preparing America and the world to accept the necessity of living with a nuclear-armed North Korea, with Tehran taking careful note.

Hamas cells to launch full-blown West Bank terror war
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 31 May: DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Sunday night, May 31, Hamas commanders in Damascus and Gaza ordered all West Bank cells to unleash a terrorist assault on the West Bank with bomb cars, roadside bombs, snipers and missiles. They were told to set their sights against all Palestinian Authority officials including Mahmoud Abbas as well as taking aim at Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s homeland defense authority was notified of Hamas’ declaration of war Sunday as it embarked on “Turning Point 3”, Israel’s largest civil defense exercise ever, designed to simulate simultaneous missile attacks from Iran, Syria, Hizballah from Lebanon and Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas leaders’ decision to unleash violence was triggered by three events:

1. In 48 hours, the fundamentalist Palestinian terrorists lost two top West Bank leaders in battle. Friday morning, May 29, an Israeli Border Guard counter-terror unit shot dead its Hebron commander when he resisted arrest.

Two days later, a special Palestinian Authority unit killed Hamas’ northern Samaria commander after a seven-hour shootout in Qalqilya.

2. They believe the Palestinian Authority US-trained security force directed by Gen. Keith Dayton is not up to much and easily blown away.

3. Hamas is determined to scuttle Obama-Abbas cooperation and disrupt the US president’s forthcoming speech to Muslims from Cairo.

May 31 Briefs:

• Ex-Mossad officer Haggai Hadas appointed negotiator for Gilead Shalit.
  Ministerial legislative panel votes down Israel Beteinu’s Loyalty Bill. Thousands march in annual Salute to Israel parade on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
  Israel transport minister Katz: Government will not freeze legal settlement activity.
  Bomb defused on Iranian domestic passenger plane in more campaign violence.
  Israeli FM Lieberman to hold talks in Moscow with Russian president, prime minister.
  Barak heads to Washington to meet Gates, Jones, congressmen.
  Three Palestinian security men, three senior Hamas terrorists killed in firefightin Qalqilya, West Bank Saturday night.
  One was Hamas commander of N. West Bank.
  Civil defense drill Turning Point 3 begins Sunday for emergency teams and government offices.
  Tuesday, sirens to summon general public to shelters.
  Abbas tells Mubarak he is ready to restart peace talks by July.
  In Washington, Abbas said no talks until Netanyahu government toppled under US pressure.
  State funeral Sunday for Prof. Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel.
  Ceremonies take place at the Weizmann Institution of Science, Rehovoth.
  Prof. Katzir who died aged 93, was internationally distinguished for achievements in biochemistry, biophysics.

Enough fissile material for Iranian nuke by year’s end —AMAN officer 01 June: Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, director of Israeli military intelligence (AMAN) research division estimates that Iran will have accumulated enough fissile material to build its first nuclear bomb by the end of this year.

Iran’s nuclear clock, he said, is ticking away faster than international diplomacy. As he spoke, the country’s biggest civil defense exercise configured for possible rocket attacks from four directions, including Iran, coupled with a mega-terrorist attack, was in progress.

Obama commits to close ties with Israel – but demands settlement freeze
DEBKAfile Special Report 02 June: Ahead of his speech of reconciliation to the Muslims world June 4, US president Barack Obama vowed to sustain close US ties with Israel but said the status quo in the region was “unsustainable” for Israel’s security.

In a NPR interview Monday, June 1, he said: “We do have to retain a constant belief in… negotiations that will lead to peace” and “I’ve said that a freeze on settlements, including expansion to accommodate successive generations of settlers, is part of that.”
Earlier Monday, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that halting construction in West Bank settlements would be equal to “freezing life,” and, therefore, “unreasonable.”

DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak has no hope of modifying administration’s tough stance on West Bank settlements and a Palestinians state during his current talks with US officials. Therefore the Netanyahu government’s strategy of skirting the real issues to avoid a clash will not work. He would do well to stop being defensive and stress that, even if every single settlement was removed from the West Bank, Iran would not stop developing nuclear weapons, the Taliban would not stop fighting, Hizballah would not be prevented from winning Lebanon’s general election, and Hamas would not give up its bid to capture the West Bank as its next terror base.

Fellow Democrats in Congress criticize Obama’s tough stance on Israel 3 June: Some of President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats in the US Congress have criticized him for “going beyond where it is appropriated for us to go in dealing with another democracy,” as Representative Anthony Weiner put it.

His comments were echoed by other congressmen despite the staunch backing of Obama’s policy by the senior Democratic Party leadership.

The Obama administration has repeatedly demanded that Israel commit to the creation of a Palestinian state and halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

Cont. Next Column

New York Congressman Joseph Crowley said he was “very careful in questioning another democracy and the decisions that they make that would impose on their sovereignty.”

Israel, he added, “has demonstrated over and over again her willingness to work towards a lasting peace within the Middle East.”

French surveillance gear enabled Lebanon to crack alleged Israel spy rings
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 3 June: DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources reveal that Lebanon is enabled to crack alleged Israeli spy rings by ultra-sophisticated surveillance equipment recently consigned to Lebanon by French intelligence services. French president Nicolas Sarkozy handed it over against a personal pledge from Lebanese president Michel Suleiman that it would be used exclusively against subversive Syrian and Hizballah targets to help him weather the June 7 general election.

But General Suleiman broke his word. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, head of Lebanon’s General Security Office, had the top-notch surveillance devices installed to snoop on suspected Western and Israeli assets; Syrian or Hizballah agents were left with a clear run.

Beirut has just passed its findings together with the captured electronic paraphernalia to Syrian and Iranian intelligence, handing them the data for overhauling their defenses against foreign espionage.

Sarkozy strongly condemns Ahmadinejad’s new denial of the Holocaust 3 June: French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued Wednesday a strong condemnation of new remarks from Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust. He told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during a meeting in Paris that such comments were “unacceptable and profoundly shocking.”

The extremist Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office, reiterated Wednesday that
“The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust.

Obama arrives in Middle East to red carpet and al Qaeda threats
DEBKAfile Special Report 03 June: Received in Riyadh by King Abdullah and an honor guard, Barack Obama said: “I thought it was important to visit the place where Islam began.”
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that over and above the genuine warmth of the royal welcome and assent on the need for a new Middle East peace conference, Saudi leaders strongly disapprove of the US president’s insistence on dialogue with Tehran. Over last weekend, giant transports unloaded at Cairo airport a fleet of armored vehicles, White House helicopters, counter-terror weapons and the vanguard of the 3,000 Secret Service officers backed by CIA and FBI personnel who are securing the US president during his stay in Egypt. Many Cairenes chose to stay home as the city’s traffic was brought to a halt by security measures.

Some 30,000 Egyptian security personnel including army units stationed in Cairo are on special duty until the American president leaves.

His convoy will be escorted by vehicles equipped with sensors for detecting firearms and explosives and covered by Marine helicopters overhead.

Bin Laden: Obama plants seeds of Muslim hatred for United States 3 June: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned Americans “to be prepared to receive the consequences of the Obama and Bush administrations.” In a new recorded audiotape released by Arabic Al Jazeera TV Wednesday, June 3. he accused Obama of planting the seeds for “revenge and hatred” toward the United States in the Muslim world. Tuesday, his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, called on Egyptians to confront the “criminal” Barack Obama whose “bloody messages” to Muslims have been received… and would not be covered by “public relations campaigns or theatrical visits or polished words.”

Obama reshuffles America’s Middle East allies
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis 4 June: In his two day stay in the Middle East, crowned by a speech from Cairo to the world’s Muslims on June 4, US president Barack Obama held private talks with Saudi King Abdullah and Hosni Mubarak in which he cemented a new coalition between the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report. The three nations forged their first strategic bond ever to combat Islamic radicalism, chiefly al Qaeda and Taliban, and applying the brakes to Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapon.

Thursday, Osama bin Laden warned Muslims that “alliances with Christians and Jews would turn them into apostates.”

This seismic transformation means that President Obama proposes to gradually minimize America’s strategic ties. Instead of conferring with Israel on America’s military and undercover moves the Middle East and Muslim world, Washington will focus its teamwork on Cairo and Riyadh. Obama seeks to enter into negotiations with Iran unencumbered by Israeli baggage. The same applies to Obama’s talks with Arab and Muslim governments such as Syria, which he wants to harness to his new Arab line-up.
When he said in his epic speech “America will align its policies with those who seek peace,” he was saying that his hands are free to henceforth pick and choose US allies without being bound by the past.

Obama raps Israel, Palestinians, Arabs for Middle East stalemate 4 June: The US president Barack Obama stressed the need for mutual respect and tolerance among the world’s faiths, denigrated al Qaeda and extremism, said the US “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” will respect all elected peaceful governments provided they respect their peoples, and called for universal human and women’s rights to be upheld. His much awaited speech to more than a billion Muslims which quoted extensively from the Koran, but also the Bible and the Talmud, won cheers from the selected 3,000 strong audience in Cairo University’s Great Hall Thursday, June 4.

Along with a declaration that the US bond with Israel is unbreakable, President Obama demanded that Israel and the Palestinians uphold their obligations to the roadmap. “America will align its policies with those who seek peace – Israelis, Palestinians or Arabs,” he declared. Israel must let Palestinians live a normal life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he said, but they must abandon violence.

Rockets on sleeping children or bombs killing old people on a bus are intolerable, but the US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements and Israel must recognize the Palestinian right to dignity and a state of their own, but so must the Arab world recognize Israel.

Obama began his speech by saying: “I have come to Cairo to seek a new beginning of mutual respect between America and Muslims: Salaam Aleikum.” America and Islam are not mutually exclusive; they share common principles.” Muslims have enriched America in many fields.

But no one should tolerate al Qaeda which killed members

Biden urged “those who think about standing with the spoilers of peace not to miss this opportunity to walk away.” This was an apparent reference to Hizballah and its pro-Syrian allies, who are fighting to displace the pro-Western coalition. DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that Lavrov’s trip is mean to convey that, unlike Washington, Moscow is well-connected on both sides of Lebanon’s political spectrum, the pro-Western majority March 14 bloc fighting for survival as well as its challenger, the pro-Syrian, pro-Iranian Hizballah-led March 8 alliance.

Since the race between them is close, Biden was sent to Beirut to try and tip the scales with a promise of tanks, helicopters, drones and artillery.

DEBKAfile lifts fog from the Obama-Netanyahu balance sheet
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis23 May: For the sake of warding off a surprise Israel attack on Iran, US president Barack Obama accepted a six-month deadline for testing Tehran by diplomacy – without pressing Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to endorse a Palestinian state. Both gave ground in their first ice-breaking encounter.

Three days later, the White House rebuffed claims that Obama would use his June 4 speech to launch a new Middle East initiative? That tale was planted by Jordan’s Abdullah II’s advisers and picked up by Israel’s often anti-Netanyahu media, although its source was dubious.

Once that misapprehension was removed, some of the real subjects of discussed emerged.

For instance, Obama did not demand the repartition of Jerusalem; neither was he keen to pursue the Palestinian issue at all at this time. Most of all, he was after space to engage in negotiation with Tehran without the threat of a surprise Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites hanging over the talks.
Obama and Netanyahu set up two working groups for continuous discussion between them:

One, headed by US national security adviser James Jones, will track of progress in the bilateral US-Iranian negotiations and report back to the White House and Jerusalem.

The second team, headed by Middle East envoy George Mitchell, will be in charge of the Palestinian issue.

Netanyahu may find it hard to explain at home why he promised no Israeli surprise attacks against Iran for six months – even though major disruptions loom: Lebanon’s pro-Western government may be overthrown by its June 7 election or thereafter, Iranian long-range missiles introduced to the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Abbas’ new Palestinian government in Ramallah collapse, and Tehran will continue its shock tactics.

To shift the focus, Netanyahu spoke passionately about Jerusalem, although its status was not under assault in his White House talks.

“The flag that flies over the Kotel is the Israeli flag… Our holy places, the Temple Mount — will remain under Israeli sovereignty forever,” he told yeshiva students.

And “Jerusalem was always ours, will always be ours, and will never again be divided,” he vowed at the annual Jerusalem Day state ceremony on Ammunition Hill, Jerusalem, honoring the soldiers who fell in the Six-Day War in 1967.

US army chief: Narrow space left for dialogue to stop Iran attaining nuke 24 May: Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued his most serious warning yet about the approach of a nuclear-armed Iran: “Most of us believe that “Iran is one to three years” from developing a nuclear weapon…depending on where they are right now. But they are moving closer, clearly, and they continue to do that.” He told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, May 24. He indicated that an Iran could develop a nuke at any time from one to three years hence.

At the same time, Mullen said a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities could have grave consequences – but so too would a nuclear-armed Iran.

In talks with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on May 18, US president Barack Obama said the talks with Iran he is seeking cannot “go on forever” and agreed that at the end of the year, progress would be evaluated.

May 24 Briefs

• Presidents of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan hold first summit in Tehran on ways to end Pak/Afghan wars.

• Lavrov says Hamas should be part of Middle East peace process.

He calls on Assad, Meshaal in Damascus.
• Iranian presidential hopeful Rezai: I would stop Israel with “one strike.”
• Lieberman: Israel’s withdrawal to pre-1967 borders would not end conflict but transfer it to Israeli heartland.
• Demolition of outposts must be part of comprehensive approach.

Israel to drill missile attack from many directions 25 May: Deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai outlined the nationwide civil defense exercise to be staged next week in a briefing to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Monday, May 25. Next Tuesday, he said, sirens would send the entire population heading for the nearest shelters or protected sites.

Vilnai explained the exercise was configured on the presumption of a missile assault from three or four directions synchronized with large-scale terrorist attacks up and down the country. He stressed that this was no fantastic scenario divorced from reality but highly credible in the event of a war.

Drills conducted in the last two years and the lessons of the 2006 Lebanon war and 209 Gaza conflict had been factored into the coming exercise, said the deputy minister. In both, Israel’s population had come under heavy missile bombardment.

Upgraded “gas masks” would be redistributed to the population later this year.

North Korea test-fires two more short-range missiles amid escalating NE Asian tensions 26 May: Seoul reports North Korea test fired two short-range missiles Tuesday, May 26, its fourth and fifth since carrying out an underground nuclear test Monday. The test was unanimously condemned by the UN Security Council Monday night.

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that North Korea and Iran are closely and secretly coordinated on their military nuclear and missile programs. Most of the guidance technology which gave the long-range Seijl 2 surface missile tested by Iran Wednesday, May 20, its bull’s-eye accuracy came from Pyongyang. Iran’s long-range missile test was carried out less than a month after North Korea’s own internationally condemned missile test launch on April 5. Tehran may also be expected to be not far behind its nuclear partner in conducting its own first nuclear test.

Cont. Next Column

Netanyahu’s backing for outpost removals unrelated to his Iran deal with Obama
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 26 May: A high-ranking Israeli delegation is to meet US officials in London with a defense ministry plan for evacuating some 24 unauthorized outposts on the West Bank. This plan was prepared ahead of defense minister Ehud Barak’s visit to Washington next week and backed solidly by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.

The first 10 warnings of impending demolitions were distributed Monday, May 25. They dropped Netanyahu in hot water in his own Likud faction.
To persuade the critics, Netanyahu implied without saying so outright that he had won US backing or cooperation for an Israeli offensive against Iran and that the price tag was the removal of West Bank outposts.

He stressed the importance of “our relations with the United States” for “the future of the state.”
This implied link was disingenuous since DEBKAfile’s Washington sources contradict Netanyahu’s interpretation of his understanding with US president Barack Obama about the need to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear capability. This understanding, they say, was confined purely to diplomatic efforts (for which the two leaders set a six-month limit). A unilateral military attack by Israel was no part of it. In fact, an Israeli strike would spark a serious crisis between Jerusalem and Washington.

The bottom line here, say DEBKAfile’s military sources, is that however many outposts are evacuated, whether authorized or not, it will not bring the Obama administration around to backing an Israeli strike against Iran.

First Russian warships enter Persian Gulf ports
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 26 May: Russian warships are due to call Wednesday, May 27, at the Bahrain port of Manama, seat of the US Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal. They will be following in the wake of the Russian vessels docked at the Omani port of Salalah, the first to avail themselves of facilities at Gulf ports.

Their arrival is fully coordinated between the Russian and Iranian naval commands.

According to our sources, this is the first time a Russian flotilla will have taken on provisions and fuel at the same Gulf ports which services the US Navy. Moscow has thus gained its first maritime foothold in the Persian Gulf.

Our military analysts find Russia and Iran seizing the moment to take advantage of two developments:
1. President Obama quietly reduced the number of US warships maintained in the Gulf to its lowest level in two years to generate a positive atmosphere for the coming US dialogue with Tehran. Not a single US aircraft carrier is anywhere in the Gulf region.

2. Monday, May 25, President Nicolas Sarkozy inaugurated France’s first naval facility in the Gulf in Abu Dhabi. Russian and Iranian policy-makers see no reason why if Paris can set up a military presence, Moscow can’t.

North Korea warns South of military strike, no longer bound by 1953 Truce27 May: Pyongyang announced early Wednesday, May 27, that its withdrawal from the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953 means that “the Korean peninsulas will go back to a state of war.” Thousands of US troops are deployed in the buffer zone since the war ended.

US spy planes reported that the plutonium separation plant at Yongbyon had been reactivated.
North Korea repeated that Seoul’s decision to joint the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative was tantamount to a declaration of war. “Any hostile acts against our republic, including the stopping and searching of our peaceful vessels… will face an immediate and strong military strike in response,” the North Korean statement said.

Firing another short-range missile in Japan’s direction, its sixth since conducting a nuclear test Monday, May 25, Pyongyang said it could not guarantee the safety of shipping off its west coast. The test was unanimously condemned by the UN Security Council.

The White House then announced that US president Barack Obama and South Korean president Lee Myung-bak and Japanese prime minister Taro Aso had agreed to work together to support the Security Council resolution with concrete measures to curtail North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities.

May 27 Briefs:

• West Bank rabbis call on Israeli soldiers and police to defy orders to evacuate settlements.
  Police question FM Lieberman again on suspicion of money laundering and obstructing their inquiry.
  French Egyptian Culture Minister appointed head of UNESCO apologizes for anti-Israel remarks.
  Israel’s unemployed figure rises to 228,000 – 7.6 pc.
  Moscow announces undefined “preventive measures” after North Korean nuclear test.
  High terror alert declared in Islamabad, Karachi, Rawalpindi after massive bomb blast kills at least 40 in Lahore, e. Pakistan.
  Pakistan claims capture of two assailants.
  Interior minister said attack reprisal for Pakistani military Swat operation.
  Suicide bomber flattened 15 buildings, damaging ISI and police station in city center.
  Attackers opened fire on police from wrecked station.

Abbas will find Obama puts Syrian peace track ahead of Palestinians
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report28 May: Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas will put before US president Barack Obama when they meet at the White House Thursday, May 28 a thick sheaf of pre-conditions for talks with Israel, primarily heavy US pressure to force the Netanyahu government to stop all construction activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem and remove 200 West Bank roadblocks.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has come forward to declare that the president objects to any form of Israeli settlement activity whether for “natural growth” or any other purpose.

But for now, the administration is more interested in advancing the Syrian than the Palestinian peace track.

In any case, Obama is advised by his Middle East envoy George Mitchell that focusing on the Palestinian issue in its present strife-ridden state would be a waste of time and better go for the Syrian track. He and his aides are planning an early visit to Damascus to test the ground for resumed peace talks.

International Hariri tribunal self-destructs by freeing 4 leading Lebanese suspects. Assad wins after all 29 April: By setting the key witnesses, four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals, free, the pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen Wednesday, April 29, effectively scrapped the international tribunal’s mission to pursue the murderers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals, now under “under strict security for their own safety,” were held in custody for four years on suspicion of complicity in the 2005 Hariri murder in close alignment with Syrian military intelligence, which then ruled Beirut, and with figures close to Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Their release “for lack of sufficient evidence”, according to Fransen, rewarded Assad for the extraordinary efforts he made to quash the international legal proceedings for fear of compromising his close circle in one of the most outrageous political crimes in recent Middle East history.

Our counter-terror sources note that the chance of ever bringing any of these assassins to justice has just been reduced to zero by the international judge’s action. He has cut the main sources of evidence leading to the culprits in Damascus.

A major barrier to Bashar Assad’s international rehabilitation has been removed.

April 29 briefs– Human rights NGO slams Palestinian court’s sentence to death by hanging of man who sold West Bank land to Israelis.

– Obama greets Israel on 61st Independence Day.
He promises to promote shared interests including peace.

– President Peres awards certificates of excellence to 120 outstanding officers and soldiers.

– George Brown visits Auschwitz, lights candle at Wall of Death.
He promises UK participation in project for preserving the site of the death camp as permanent memorial.

Arab Israeli gang plotted kidnaps of Israeli soldiers during Gaza operation 30 April: Seven Israeli Arabs and two juveniles were arraigned at Haifa district court Thursday, April 30, on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and kidnapping Israeli soldiers during Israel’s Gaza operation four months ago.

Nine bombs ready for detonation were found in their homes and manuals on bomb-making and abduction techniques. The suspects had been practicing those tactics and were apprehended shortly before they went into action. The defendants were charged with aiding the enemy in time of war, communicating with foreign agents, namely Palestinian West Bank terrorist organizations, possession of means of war and producing weapons.

May 1 Briefs French gang leader Youssouf Fofana on trial in Paris for torturing, killing 23-year old Jewish Ilan Halimi in 2006.
He shouted “God is Great” in Arabic in courtroom.
– Jerusalem court sentences two Israeli border guards to eight-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years in prison for unlawful killing of Palestinian in Hebron 7 years ago.
– Dual Saudi-Qatari national Ali al-Marri pleads guilty in US to supporting terrorism as al Qaeda sleeper.
– Iran is most active state sponsor of terrorism in the world – US State Department —
Its role in planning and funding terror-related activities in ME and Afghanistan threatens peace efforts.

Covert Palestinian Authority-Iranian get-together in Caracas
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 01 May: Sources in the Venezuelan capital have told DEBKAfile that Monday, April 27, Iran’s foreign minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar and intelligence chiefs secretly got together with visiting Palestinian Authority officials, led by Palestinian foreign minister Riyadh al-Maliki. The matchmakers were Hugo Chavez and the Qatar ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, following on the former’s visits to Tehran and Qatar in late March.

If true, this would signal a drastic policy turnabout by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas away from Cairo and over to the radical Tehran and Damascus. This could help bury the hatchet between the Fatah and Hamas and pave the way for a Palestinian unity government governed by rejectionist ideology, thereby shutting the door to peace negotiations with Israel.

Caracas sources say the Iranian-Palestinian meeting lasted about four hours and ended with a decision to continue the encounters in Moscow, Doha and Ankara, where Iran and the Palestinians both maintain large diplomatic legations.

Israeli leaders face Washington crunch on Palestinian, Iranian issues
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis 02 May: The Obama administration is preparing to welcome president Shimon Peres on May 4 and prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu May 18 in Washington with pressing demands to follow its new line with regard to Iran, the Palestinians and Syria.

Barack Obama is set to be the first US president in decades to risk colliding directly with the Israeli government and the bulk of US Jewry. Peres and Netanyahu will be informed that Washington is setting up two trilateral peace commissions to hammer out peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel with the Syrians. American chairmen will step in with ideas to prevent any deadlocks.

The US president and his team have convinced themselves that the Palestinian problem is the main obstacle to accommodations for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. They would place Israel in the first line of fire.

Israel would first be made to freeze settlement activity on the West Bank and construction in East Jerusalem, pushed into abandoning large tracts of the West Bank, removing authorized communities as well as unauthorized outposts and quitting the historic parts of Jerusalem.

Finally, Netanyahu would be made to accept an independent Palestinian state, even one dominated by the rejectionist terrorist group Hamas.

Peres and Netanyahu will find the US president no longer prioritizing the suspension of Iran’s nuclear aspirations, but bent on establishing a new Persian Gulf order that formalizes Iran’s rising power.
Israel will have no say in this process. By elevating Iran to premier regional power, America is sidelining its longstanding friends, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and setting aside their security interests.

Israel has not abandoned its option of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations.

Belarus fronts Russian Iskander-M surface missile sales to Iran, Damascus 03 May: DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources disclose that the Russian, Iranian and Damascus governments have cooked up a scheme to get around Vladimir Putin’s undertaking as president to refrain from selling Iran and Syria advanced Iskander-M cruise missiles: The transaction will go through Belarus.

Sources in Moscow and Minsk confirmed Sunday, May 3, that the Iskander-M sale to Tehran has gone through and negotiations are ongoing with Iran and Syria for another transaction: the sale of Russia’s advanced S-300 anti-air anti-missile multi-targeting shield systems as well.

Western military sources have reported in the past that Israel cannot afford to allow this high-performance hardware enter operational service in Iran and Syria, because it would dangerously destabilize the Middle East arms balance.

– An Israeli soldier in serious condition after a Palestinian stabbed him in the neck as he stepped off a bus.
Palestinian charged with stabbing the soldier remanded with two accomplices in court.
– Obama sends high-ranking Feltman and Shapiro on second trip to Damascus Thursday.
– Cabinet creates three new ministerial departments for strategy, intelligence and nuclear affairs and public diplomacy and Diaspora —

Peres tells AIPAC conference: Peace tops Netanyahu’s concerns 04 May: Israel’s president Shimon Peres addressing the AIPAC conference (Israeli lobby) said: “Iran is developing a nuclear option “even though it is threatened by no-one.” The Iranians are arming Hizballah and Hamas “to impose its alien and violent agenda on the Middle East.”

The first Israel official to call on President Obama, Peres will emphasize the urgency of dealing with the fast-progressing Iranian nuclear weapon program.

Obama’s advisers’ recommendation of a “more pragmatic approach” to the rejectionist rulers of Gaza, the Palestinian Hamas, is one of several points at issue between the Washington and Jerusalem.

Avigdor Lieberman’s first European tour as Israeli foreign minister launched Sunday will undoubtedly run into controversy. After meeting prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who sees eye to eye with Israel, he heads for tough talks with his opposite numbers in France, the Czech Republic (which currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency) and Germany.

Before Lieberman took off, Israeli officials warned EU ambassadors that calls to freeze the upgrade of its ties with Israel over the disputed two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict could lead to Europe’s exclusion from future peace diplomacy.

Gates sets out to convince Egyptian, Saudi rulers that Obama’s détente with Tehran is no sell-out 04 May: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is on a trip to the Middle East, where says he will tell Egyptian and Saudi leaders the Obama administration will not abandon long-time U.S. allies, if it manages to improve relations with Iran.
Gates also said he wants American friends in the Middle East, like mostly Sunni Muslim Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to work more closely with Iraq’s Shiite-led government.

Netanyahu ready for peace talks with Palestinians right now 05 May: Addressing the AIPAC Israeli lobby conference by satellite early Tuesday. May 5, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered peace talks “the sooner the better” on a triple track – political, economic and security. But peace will not come without security, he stressed: There will be “no compromise on Israel’s security and recognition of Israel as the Jewish people’s nation-state”.

Israeli elite unit officers in big Indian anti-terror exercise
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

06 May: India’s biggest ever counter-terror exercise took place this week on the plains of Punjab near the Pakistan border. DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that the three-day maneuver ending May 5 was staged by massed mechanized and parachute units of the elite Kharga Corps trained by Israel military instructors in India and Israel in the arts of operating in areas fought over by Taliban and al Qaeda, possibly even with biological or radiological weapons.

Dubbed “Hindi Shakti” (Indian Power), the drill testing this crack army corps’ proactive operational strategy, used tanks, combat vehicles – some developed in Israel for striking terrorist targets in open land, artillery guns and a large number of parachutists. These crack Indian units received specialist instruction from Israeli elite and commando forces in tactics for pursuing combat operations behind enemy lines.

DEBKAfile notes that the Indian counter-terror exercise ended 24 hours before US president Barack Obama headed summit of the Pakistani and Afghani presidents, Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai, at the White House on their combined strategies against the two terrorist organizations.

US-Israel rift on nuclear Iran stays unabridged by Obama-Peres talks 06 May: Neither US president Barack Obama and Israeli president Shimon Peres hinted publicly that their conversation at the White House Tuesday, May 5, DEBKAfile left the two governments as out of tune as before on the handling of Iran’s drive for a nuclear bomb.

After parroting his predecessors’ standard guarantee to uphold Israel’s security, Obama made no bones about his determination to engage in dialogue with Iran – “although this is not the only option.”

Obama and Peres also sidestepped a clash on the Palestinian question, although his advisers made it clear that the president wanted to see a Palestinian state by 2012.

Obama left it to vice president Joseph Biden to inform the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee conference where the administration stands: “Israel has to work toward a two-state solution,” Biden said Tuesday night. “You’re not going to like my saying this, but not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement.”

May 6 briefs: – Central Bank governor institutes unprecedented steps to oust chairman of Israel’s largest bank – Hapoalim.
– Somali pirates seize German cargo ship in Gulf of Aden.
– Up to 100 civilians killed in US led-air strikes in W. Afghan Farah province.
– Palestinians step up shelling from Gaza.
– Hamas claims 5 mortar rounds fired Wednesday.

Obama’s SOS to Gulf emirs: Invest in US and global economies
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 07 May: A secret American delegation was sent by US President Barack Obama this week to solicit Saudi Arabian and other Gulf rulers for hundreds of billions of petro-dollars for investment in US and global economic stimulus plans, DEBKAfile’s exclusive Gulf sources report. They came away empty-handed.

The chilly welcome received by the delegation to Riyadh and the five emirates was generated by wide disapproval of the US president’s policy of engagement with Iran. Two other US missions had just been and gone, having failed to allay Gulf anger and trepidation over this policy.

Our Gulf sources report that the third delegation, which unlike the first two was unannounced, argued that since US economic recovery was not expected to turn the corner before 2011, Gulf investors still had a unique opportunity to partner the US in helping the world economy out of its doldrums and so cash in on the rewards of recovery.

They were informed on the quiet that Federal Reserve Governor Ben Benanke had been “premature” in his optimistic forecast of “slightly positive” growth in the second half of this year, particularly in the fields of banking and construction, and a recovery that will “strengthen” next year.

According to US data, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) would by the year 2018 rank as the world’s fifth-largest economy after the US, China, Japan and the EU. “As major players in the world economy, you cannot stand on the sidelines,” they were told.

President Obama’s discreet approach figured in general terms at the GCC meeting of heads of state and finance ministers meeting in Riyadh Wednesday, May 6, which was convened to establish a regional central bank. But no decisions were taken because of the general rancor over the Obama administration’s policy of favoring Tehran

In the first week of April, Tehran announced it would stage its biggest air show ever to dramatize a ceremonial military parade in the capital on April 18. Iran would show the world that it is capable of fighting off an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities. Instead, only four aircraft flew over the saluting stand. Iranian media explained that the big show was cancelled due to “bad weather and poor visibility,” when in fact Tehran basked in warm and sunny weather.

Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the 140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense. A similar operation wiped out the entire Egyptian air fleet in the early hours of the 1967 war.

Al Qaeda’s roars back in Iraq against double target: US and Iranians 25 April: Hillary Clinton said in Baghdad Saturday, April 25, that the wave of suicide killings which accounted for more than 250 lives this month were “a tragic signal that Iraq was on the right path.” She said there would be no delay in the pullout of US troops from Iraq’s main cities.

Many of the victims were Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite shrines.

Friday, US Middle East commander Gen. David Petraeus told a House panel in Washington that attacks in Iraq will continue for some time and they may be the work of a network of foreign fighters from Tunisia.

According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, Al Qaeda is attempting a comeback in Iraq moving reinforcements in long-distance from its Maghreb (North African) branch.

By targeting Shiites and Iranian pilgrims, Osama bin Laden is warning Tehran and Washington that their unfolding bid to bracket their resources together for ending the Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts will precipitate fresh trouble not only in those arenas, but also in Iraq.

Al Qaeda’s recovery in Iraq has been boosted by the 100,000 commanders and fighters of the Awakening Councils, the strong arm of the US surge strategy for crushing al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents, having dropped out of the war. They are protesting mass detentions of their members on the orders of
Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as US forces prepare to leave Iraq’s main cities.

Unknown vessel destroys another Iranian arms ship bound for Gaza 26 April: An Iranian ship transporting arms to the Gaza Strip was destroyed off the Sudanese coast in the Red Sea last week, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Usbu (The Week) reported on Sunday. An unidentified warship launched missiles at the ship, sinking it with its crew and cargo. Quoting anonymous sources, the newspaper suspected Israeli or American forces were responsible for the attack.

The same sources said the ship was on course to dock in Sudan, where the weapons would be unloaded and eventually shipped to Gaza through Egypt.

Neither Iran, Israel, or the United States has commented.

NATO member Turkey and Syria hold first joint military exercise
DEBKAfile Special Report

26 April: The joint Turkish-Syrian land exercise backed begins on their border Monday, April 27, and lasts three days. DEBKAfile’s military sources stress that it is the first joint military maneuver any NATO member, including Turkey, has ever carried out with Syria. Washington’s approval underscores its new policy of boosting the strength of the Syrian army as partner in a strong a three-way military coalition with Turkey and Lebanon.

It comes only four days after the Obama administration approved a large Turkish arms sale to the Lebanese army assigning Turkish military instructors to train Lebanese army units (half of whose personnel are Shiites sympathetic to Hizballah.)

The Obama administration’s actions took place without informing Israel or taking into account its vital security interests. Israel’s top security echelons are concerned and criticize the new Netanyahu government for taking too long to respond to the dire security setbacks piling up around its borders. They cannot wait until the prime minister meets Obama in the coming month. By then, he will be confronted with some unpalatable accomplished facts.

April 26 Brief: – Palestinian captured for axe-murder of an Israeli boy, and wounding a second, at Bat-Ayin near Hebron on April 2. He confessed to a religious urge to become a shahid by murdering Israeli youths.

Turkish-Syria exercise prompts Israeli review of sophisticated arms sales to Ankara
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 27 April: Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak commented Monday, April 27, that Turkey’s decision to hold three days of military maneuvers with Syria was “disturbing.”

And that is not all. Monday or Tuesday the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers signed a protocol for cooperation in the defense industry. The two events were major landmarks in the continuing shrinkage of the old military and trading ties between Turkey and Israel. In 2009, Ankara cut those ties to $2.2 billion and expanded its trade with Syria to $2.6 billion.

Israel is hastening to slash its military exchanges with Turkey to prevent he leakage of military secrets to an avowed Arab enemy. Construction is discontinued on an Israeli Mark 3 Chariot plant in Turkey after Ankara began defaulting on payments for military purchases and other contracts. The sale of Israel’s world class unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) has been stopped and its military ties with Turkey dating from the 1960s cut down sharply.

According to figures published each year by the national statistics bureau, the Israeli population increased in its 61st year to 7,411,000.

The breakdown remained at a steady 75.5 percent Jews, 20.2 percent Arabs, 4.3 percent others –

US envoy arrives in Middle East to allay fears of Arab rulers
DEBKAfile Exclusive 28 April: Tuesday, April 28, US envoy Dennis Ross set out on an extensive tour for pouring oil on troubled waters in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. He is accompanied by the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, Lt. Gen. John R. Allen, and National Security Council official Puneet Talwar.

Like secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who promised in Beirut this week that the US was not selling Lebanon out by dealing with Syria, Ross will try and reassure America’s Arab friends that Washington’s new ties of friendship and strategic cooperation with Tehran will not be at their expense.

DEBKAfile’s sources ask how much leverage against Iran’s drive for a nuclear bomb will be left to Washington when the US becomes dependent on Tehran for its war supplies to Afghanistan.

April 28 Briefs: – Pakistan reports its jets bombing Taliban bases in Buner district near capital in apparently widening counter-offensive.
– British jury acquits three men charged with conspiracy in 7/7 London suicide attacks.
The three Muslims from Leeds were the only bombing accomplices ever brought to trial.
– The sole surviving Mumbai bomber is proved over 20 and eligible for trial.
If convicted he faces death for 170 murders.
– Two Christian women have throats slit in Kirkuk, N. Iraq.
– Mexico protests ultra-religious Israeli health minister’s proposal to rename swine flu Mexican flu.

International Hariri tribunal self-destructs, frees 4 key Lebanese suspects. Assad wins after all

29 April: DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that, by setting the key witnesses, four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals, free, the pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen Wednesday, April 29, effectively scrapped the international tribunal’s mission to prosecute the murderers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals, now under “under strict security for their own safety,” were held in custody for four years on suspicion of complicity in the 2005 Hariri murder in close alignment with Syrian military intelligence, which then ruled Beirut, and with figures close to Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Their release “for lack of sufficient evidence”, according to Fransen, rewarded Assad for the extraordinary efforts he made to quash the international legal proceedings for fear of compromising his close circle in one of the most outrageous political crimes in recent Middle East history.

The tribunal was also briefed to prosecute a series of high-profile political assassinations in Lebanon after the Hariri murder, for which Damascus was also blamed.

Our counter-terror sources note that the chance of ever bringing any of these assassins to justice has just been reduced to zero by the international judge’s action. He has cut the main sources of evidence leading to the culprits in Damascus.
A major barrier to Bashar Assad’s international rehabilitation has been removed.

Second Turkish affront to Israel in a week

29 April: Turkey’s army chief Gen. Ilker Basburg brushed off the Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak’s comment that the joint Turkish-Syrian military exercise was “disturbing.”

Barak referred to the first exercise Turkey, Israel’s longstanding military ally and NATO member, had ever staged with an Arab nation, Israel’s avowed foe Syria. Gen. Basbug said it was only a border exercise, small-scale and “none of anybody’s business.”

“Why would it concern Israel? We will not ask for permission from anybody else [to conduct such exercises], he said.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources, who first broke the story about the maneuver earlier this week, noted that the Turkish general made a point of mentioning his “extensive talks with the visiting US Chief of General Staff” and their four-hour long “exchange of views on a range of issues.”

This confirmed DEBKAfile’s earlier report that the Turkish-Syrian exercise had received Washington’s nod.

Arab Israeli gang plotted kidnaps, attacks during Gaza operation 30 April: Seven Israeli Arabs and two juveniles were arraigned at Haifa district court Thursday, April 30, on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and kidnapping Israeli soldiers during Israel’s Gaza operation four months ago. They all hailed from Bertaa in the Wadi Ara district of central Israel, except for one who lived in Maghar in Galilee. The juveniles’ names were not released.

Nine bombs ready for detonation were found in their homes and manuals on bomb-making and abduction techniques. The suspects had been practicing those tactics and were apprehended shortly before they went into action. The defendants were charged with aiding the enemy in time of war, communicating with foreign agents, namely Palestinian West Bank terrorist organizations, possession of means of war and producing weapons.

April 30 Briefs: – Dutch royals were targets of the car which zoomed into spectators at a royal event, killing 4 and injuring 12 people.
The car narrowly missed Queen Beatrix and family in an open-top bus.
– French gang leader Youssouf Fofana on trial in Paris for torturing, killing 23-year old Jewish Ilan Halimi in 2006.
He shouted “God is Great” in Arabic in courtroom.
Jerusalem court sentences two Israeli border guards to eight-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years in prison for unlawful killing of Palestinian in Hebron 7 years ago.
– Georgian gunmen kill 13, injure 10 in raid of Azerbaijan state oil academy in Baku.
– Last British troops quit Basra, S. Iraq.
– Two confirmed swine flu case in Israel where health authorities raise alert level to 5.