September 27, 2004

Item 1: Syria closes offices of Palestinian groups

Syria has closed down all offices and cut off phone lines belonging to radical Palestinian groups in Damascus, a Palestinian official announced over the weekend.

Khaled Fahoum, the former Speaker of the Palestine National Council (the PLO's parliament-in-exile), said the leaders of the Palestinian groups had gone underground for fear of being targeted by Israel.
[...]
Palestinian sources said the groups were planning to move to Qatar, Tunis or Bahrain.
[The world has gotten to be a much smaller place for the IslamoNazis since the Coalition launched the WOT! Thank God.--Jen]
The three countries have agreed in principle to host the Palestinian groups after Egypt turned down a similar request.

Syria has been under heavy pressure from the US to close down the offices of 10 Palestinian groups based in Damascus, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front-General Command (headed by Ahmed Jibril) and Fatah-The Revolution (headed by Abu Musa Maragha).

Item 2: Syria seeking to oust Iraqi nuclear scientists

Syria is making desperate efforts to persuade Iran to accept a group of 12 Iraqi nuclear scientists and their families who had sought refuge in Damascus before the US-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein.
[These must be the "lucky" ones, as the enemy has killed quite of few of Saddam's WMD scientists who were captured in Iraq and they're holding the Western hostages as bargaining chips to get our the lovely "Dr. Germ" and "Dr. Anthrax" ladies!--Jen]

Quoting Western intelligence officials, the London-based Sunday Telegraph reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad fears that the US will use the presence of the Iraqi scientists as a pretext to target Syria and he is desperate to find a new home for them.

Looks like a bad case of Momar Qaddafi Syndrome may have set in, in Damascus!
I love it!
And where the scientists are, can the missing WMDs be far behind? (That is, the ones they didn't allow Sudan to use in Darfur?)

Item 3: Syrian FM: Syria is not controlling Lebanon

[...]
Al-Sharaa, who was in New York to participate in the annual UN General Assembly, said a recent UN Security Council resolution [Res. #1559] that demanded Syrian troops leave Lebanon was a service to Israel.
[...]
The United States and France
[They miss having Lebanon and Syria as "colonies!"]
drafted the resolution at the Security Council and it was co-sponsored by Britain and Germany. It called on Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, stop influencing politics in the country and allow Lebanon to hold presidential elections as scheduled.

This is kind of a Bagdad Bob in reverse ploy:
"There are no Syrian soldiers in Beirut! NO!"

Item 4: Analysis: Damascus assassination raises questions

Palestinians in Syria on Monday buried Izz Eldine Subhi Sheik Khalil, 42, who was killed in al-Zahraa neighborhood in Damascus on Sunday in a bomb that tore apart his car.

The killing was the first of a Hamas member in Syria. After Aug. 31 suicide bombings that killed 16 Israelis in Beersheba, Israeli leaders have warned that members of the terrorist group which sends suicide bombings into Israel would not be safe abroad.

As usual, the Islamists have blamed Israel and the Mossad...and they probably did do this as retaliation for the Beersheba bombings, but what if it was Israel's new best friend and partner in fighting terror, Russia?
The Russkis have vowed to strike terrorists anywhere in the world preemptively since the Beslan massacre.

Item 5: Lebanon's Top al-Qaida Operative Dies

The alleged top al-Qaida operative in Lebanon who was captured in a security operation that broke up a terrorist network died of a heart attack Monday, hospital and security officials said.
[...]
Al-Khatib was one of two top operatives of al-Qaida's organization "captured by Lebanese authorities"
[Sneer quotes mine: This is the Ass. Press, after all!--Jen] Sept. 17 along with 10 other suspects. The other one was Ahmed Salim Mikati.

At the time of the arrest, Lebanon's top prosecutor called al-Khatib "the head of al-Qaida organization in Lebanon" and said he and Mikati were planning simultaneous bombings of the Italian and Ukrainian embassies in Beirut. Both countries are part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. They also allegedly planned to assassinate employees in Western embassies in Lebanon and wanted to attack Lebanese security and judicial targets.

Al-Khatib was also suspected of trying to recruit fundamentalists to carry out attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Mikati had been in contact with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is the most wanted militant in Iraq, to arrange recruitment, officials said.

Another dead terrorist!
Hope the "virgin" supply is plentiful this week in Hell!
Whether this scum bag al-Khatib died from a "heart attack" or something more homicidal and purposeful remains to be discovered.
Up until this week, Syria's official position was that there were no active terrorists within their or Lebanon's borders and yet, all of a sudden, terrorists are turning up all over the place, either dead or running for the border!
Definitely save some of your attention for Damascus because there's definitely something going down there...and it's gotta be another victory for the Bush Doctrine!

Do read Olivier Guitta's fine and prescient piece on Syria's probable changing of sides in the Global War on Islamist Terror at the American Thinker:
A new day in Damascus?

The opening & closing graphs:

With virtually no attention from the major American media, France and a number of Arab regimes have joined with the Bush Administration, to bring pressure on Syria to step back from its occupation of Lebanon, and behave itself by halting its acquiensence to support for terror attacks in Iraq. While John F. Kerry blathers on about "isolation" the Bush Administration is getting the job done.
[...]
The US, by pressuring Syria on Lebanon and support of terrorist organizations, hopes to get a better grip on the situation in Iraq. Furthermore liberating Lebanon and coercing Syria into becoming a new Libya would leave us left only with Iran as a major threat in the region.
[Well, there is Saudi Arabia..., but this would give us a much more manageable chunk of the Arab world to defang, democratize and civilize.--Jen]

Not so bad for the Bush Administration record, especially if we get there with the French and the UN on board…

BTW, The American Thinker blog should be on your Daily Pajamahadeen Must Reads!