Israel
Spreading Tentacles: The Islamic State in Bangladesh
Samiun Rahman, a British man of Bangladeshi origin, was arrested due to his alledged involvement with recruting for terrorist organizations in Bangladesh (Source: Alamy).
Growing evidence suggests that the influence of the Islamic State organization has reached the South Asian, Muslim-majority country of Bangladesh. The country has long been home to small, but significant, numbers of radicals from both local militant groups, such as the Jama’at ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the country’s most significant local jihadist group, and those linked to transnational jihadist formations, such as al-Qaeda. However, the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate and the promise of it’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to return to all Muslims their “dignity, might, rights and leadership” seem to have infused a renewed Islamist fervor within a section of Bangladeshi youths and among existing radical elements. [1]
Arrests Expose Militant Links
One of the clearest indications of this development came in late September 2014 when the government’s arrest of a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, Samiun Rahman (a.k.a. Ibn Hamdan), who lived in the capital Dhaka’s Kamalapur area, unearthed an apparent Islamic State recruitment drive in the country (Daily Star [Dhaka], September 30, 2014). Read the rest of this entry »
Disinformation and misinformation
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction never came up once at VP Cheney’s dinner. An invasion, the participants agreed, would be designed to trigger a democratic process in Iraq, thus completing a peaceful Arab circle around Israel. Read the rest of this entry »
Israel Launches OFEQ 10 Spy Satellite
The Israeli spy satellite Ofeq 10 was launched this evening, (April 9th 2014, 20:15 GMT) from the Palmachim Air Force Base on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Once the satellite enters orbit around the Earth, it will undergo several tests to confirm its serviceability and accurate performance. Few hours later the satellite reached its intended orbit and communicated with IAI’s ground control sending telemetry and images. Further tests are underway before the satellite begins its operationalservice. The deployment was completed with minimal manoeuvring, leaving more fuel for extended life cycle, IAI sources told Defense-Update.
The new satellite is the third Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite built by IAI MBT Space Division and Elta Systems. The first two examples of this satellite were launched on the Indian PSLV rockets. OFEQ 10 carries a more advanced version of the EL/M-2070 SAR payload, introducing evolutionary enhancements over the first two models.
For the OFEQ satellites Israel have utilized an indigenously developed three stages launcher called ‘Shavit’ which, according to foreign sources, is based on a ballistic missile system developed in Israel since the late 1960s, the missile itself was based on a French missile design. The current configuration of Shavit is sufficient to lift the weight of the TECSAR’s 295 kg, using the three solid fuel rocket stages and a liquid-propelled upper stage motor. According to IAI, since 1988 Shavit successfully launched several satellites, with maximum Weight of 290 kg (Westward). The advanced variant of the SHAVIT Launcher is configured to increase lift capability to 350 kg (Westward) which will be required to lift the OPSAT 3000, expected to weigh about 400 kg. Israel is determined
“Ofek 10″ is an earth-observing remote-sensing satellite that employs SAR technology to deliver advanced, high-resolution imagery, capable of operating day or night and in all weather conditions.
As its predecessor OFEQ 8, the Ofeq 10 uses the new bus system developed by IAI MBT Space division for mini-satellites. The same platform is also being used for the new OPSAT 3000 imaging satellite being built for the Italian government. It is also likely that the forthcoming OFEQ 11 will also follow this configuration, as well as the future EROS-C (yet to be ordered).
Israel currently has three operational remote sensing satellites in heliosynchronous low-earth orbit (LEO) – OFEQ 7, OFEQ 9 and TECSAR I radar imaging satellite. In addition, two additional commercial satellites are deployed in polar orbits – EROS A and EROS B. These two satellites are believed to be similar to the OFEQ 7 class. Read the rest of this entry »
Germany outlaws ‘Hezbollah fundraising group’
Berlin (AFP) – German authorities banned a group Tuesday accused of raising millions for the Lebanese militant organisation Hezbollah and staged raids across the country against its members.
The interior ministry said it had outlawed the “Waisenkinderprojekt Libanon” (Orphan Children Project Lebanon) with immediate effect.
“The name of the group masks its actual purpose,” ministry state secretary Emily Haber said in a statement.
She said the organisation, based in the western city of Essen, had raised 3.3 million euros ($4.6 million) in donations between 2007 and 2013 for the Lebanese Shahid Foundation, an “integral” part of Hezbollah. Read the rest of this entry »
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers message to ‘Revolutionary foster-children,’ aka university students, Mehr reports.
By Haaretz | Feb. 13, 2014 | 1:20 PM
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photo by AP
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged the country’s students to prepare for cyber war, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday. Khamenei delivered a message to a university students’ association, or his “Revolutionary foster-children,” as he called them, reminding them that they are “cyber-war agents” who must prepare for battle, Mehr reported.
Counter-Terrorism: Things That Are Forbidden
Map of Israel, the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip), the Golan Heights, and portions of neighbouring countries. Also United Nations deployment areas in countries adjoining Israel or Israeli-held territory, as of January 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
January 28, 2014: Palestinians in the West Bank are complaining that Israeli settlers living among them (in separate communities) are fighting back when attacked and this sort of terrorism has to stop. Arabs have been attacking Jews in what is now Israel and the West Bank for over a century and believe it’s not right when the Jews fight back. Because of those decades of hostility many Israelis now believe that Israel should take possession of much of the West Bank.
Thus after Israel took the West Bank from Jordan (which had attacked Israel as part of another Arab coalition seeking to destroy Israel) in 1967 enough Israelis got behind the idea of a “Greater Israel” (one that included all of the ancient Israeli territories, especially the West Bank) to at least be allowed to settle in the West Bank. Israelis have been doing that ever since but the “Greater Israel” parties never mustered enough votes to annex all or part of the West Bank. In the meantime Palestinians refused to make a peace deal that did not involve the destruction of Israel. Palestinian media have been pushing that for decades and has shown no support for any compromise that allows Israel to exist.
Israel-Khazakhstan Ink Cooperation Accord
Jan. 20, 2014 - 02:46PM | By BARBARA OPALL-ROME TEL AVIV — Defense ministers from Israel and Khazakhstan inked a security cooperation accord Jan. 20 formalizing military and defense industrial ties between the two nations. The bilateral agreement, signed in Tel Aviv by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and his Kazakh counterpart, Adilbek Dzhaksbekov, provides a general “umbrella” for cultivating defense trade and future cooperation between the two governments, an Israeli defense official here said.
Terrorism in Yehuda & Shomron Becoming More Sophisticated
(Wednesday, September 11th, 2013)
Commander of the Binyamin Region Brigade Colonel Yossi Pinto said at an annual review of incidents in the sector that Israeli forces are not facing a rise in terror overall in Yehuda and Shomron but rather a rise in the sophistication of terrorist infrastructure and planning. These changes demand a high-level of intelligence gathering from security forces.
Commander of the Binyamin Brigade Colonel Yossi Pinto participated in an event to mark Rosh Hashanah and to review incidents from last year in his sector in the IDF’s Central Command. “During the year we dedicated long months to thwarting and preventing terror incidents, which ultimately led to relative quiet in the sector,” he noted.
Was The Alleged Attack on Sudan Prelude to Iran?
November 1, 2012 at 17:00 Posted by David Eshel
EROS Satellite images of the Yarmouk ammunition plant in Khartum, Sudan, before and after the pre-dawn attack October 24, 2012. Photos: Imagesat
A powerful explosion at the Yarmuk military factory rocked Sudan’s capital before dawn, sending detonating ammunition flying through the air and causing panic, the Sudan official news agency and local media reports said. Thick black smoke covered the sky over the Military Industrial Complex in southern Khartoum. Sudan’s media reported that nearby buildings were damaged by the blast, their roofs blown off and their windows shattered. The effects of the blast suggested a “highly volatile cargo” was at the epicenter of the explosion.
The Sudanese minister who immediately accused Israel of carrying out an aerial strike on a weapons factory near Khartoum apparently knew what he was talking about. Although located inside a strong security perimeter around it, the so-called Yarmuk compound run by the Military Industry Corporation, is well known to Sudanese as Iranian territory, serving as a stopover in weapons smuggling to Hamas Gaza. The minister showed journalists a video of a huge crater next to two destroyed buildings and what appeared to be an unidentified rocket motor lying on the ground. Analysing the explosions and the massive fire which blazed for hours, setting off more fires even days after the attack, it seems that the “factory” must have contained a large amount of explosives and inflammatory substances, indicating military nature. It also seems viable that the target could have been a series of containers stored inside the compound, which were loaded and ready for dispatch.
Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal
25 July 2012 6:11 PM
There is a degree of panic, and rightly so, over whether the Syrian tyrant Basher al Assad will use chemical weapons against either his own people or foreign attackers. His regime has this week threatened to do the latter, thus finally confirming what was long suspected but never openly admitted, that Syria possesses chemical weapons. It is believed to have mustard gas as well as nerve agents such as tabun, sarin and VX. The fear is either that the Assad regime uses them or that they fall into the hands of Hezbollah, al Qaeda or other Islamic terrorist groups. Either prospect is utterly nightmarish. Even Russia says it has told Syria it is unacceptable to threaten to use them.
In the last few days, this has been much discussed. What has not been raised, however, is the question of how Syria managed to develop such a chemical weapons stockpile in the first place. No-one in the western media seems remotely curious about how Syria has managed to arm itself to the teeth with them beneath the radar of international scrutiny.
Dr Danny Shoham, at the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is an expert in chemical and biological warfare. In a Middle East Quarterly article in 2002, Guile, Gas and Germs: Syria’s Ultimate Weapons, he set out the extraordinary history of Syria’s chemical weapons programme.
The Roman Gate 