New Revelation about 9/11 - The Iranian and Hezbullah Connection

In July of 2004, members of the National Commission established to look into the September 11 attacks were facing immense pressure. The target date for submitting the report the whole of America was waiting for had passed, and commission members were given a 60-day extension that was also about to expire. However, eight days before the final submission date, some commission members received word of new information; a real intelligence time bomb.

Commission members didn’t know what to do. On one hand, a whole new lead emerged; yet on the other hand, nobody could process this huge amount of information within days. At the end of the day, the commission chose a solution that turned out to be the worst of all: It crammed some of the information into three pages (pp. 240-242 in the report) written hectically, ignored most of the information, and in fact left the big question open.

As it turned out, the prominent building housing the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade includes a particularly interesting room. In this room, the NSA accumulated tens of thousands of conversation records pertaining to one subject: The ties between Iran’s intelligence service and al-Qaeda from the 1990s to the eve of the 9/11 attacks. The piles of information included 75 intelligence documents characterized as critical to understanding the relationship between Tehran and al-Qaeda.

At the end of the day, the commission noted in its report that the issue deserves further scrutiny by the US Administration. However, such examination was not undertaken and may have never materialized. Indeed, this entire affair may have remained buried in the three abovementioned pages, had it not been for one brave woman: Ellen Saracini.

Saracini is not an intelligence analyst or counter-terrorism expert. She is the widow of pilot victor Saracini, the captain of the Boeing jet that took off from Boston aboard United flight 175, which was crashed into the southern tower. However, Ellen was unwilling to see the death of her husband and father of her two daughters end with yet another line in the commission’s report; she decided to seek justice on her own.

Saracini approached attorney Thomas Mellon, who specializes in lawsuits against large corporations. Mellon’s team members launched an investigation. They met potential witnesses, interviewed intelligence officials, CIA agents, Iranian defectors, a French judge and others. They even reached Israel in their search (in the interest of full disclosure, the writer of this article was also summoned to testify in the trial, as one of nine expert witnesses.)

The investigation kept progressing, diving deep into the dark corners of the global world of intelligence and terrorism. Ten years later, Mellon and his team are convinced that they possess the “smoking gun” that will tie Iran to the September 11 attacks.

The legal team drafted a huge lawsuit, recently submitted to the Manhattan District Court. What hides inside it is far from being routine. The lawsuit is premised on a dramatic charge: The responsibility for the 9/11 attacks lies not only with al-Qaeda, but also with Iran and Hezbollah, based on what attorneys say is clear, unequivocal evidence.

The case has far-reaching implications, which explain why the US government is not eager to look into the conversation records in the abovementioned NSA room. A ruling that Iran is linked to the attacks would pose a tough test to Administration officials: On the one hand, they would not be able to ignore such verdict. Yet on the other hand, what exactly will they do with it? Will they attack Iran, just as they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?

The Sudan connection

The huge amount of evidence included in the lawsuit comes together to form a fascinating charge: Starting in the 1990s, Iran and Hezbollah helped Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri create a new terror organization from scratch, to be headed by Afghanistan veterans and members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Iran trained group members, equipped them with advanced technological means, enabled them to move freely and provided them with plenty of terror-related expertise and experience accumulated by Hezbollah in its operations against Israel and the United States.

Later, according to the lawsuit, Iran assisted in the preparations ahead of September 11. Should Mellon and his team prove all of the above, everything we thought we knew about the terror offensive will change forever.

According to the lawsuit, the relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda was initiated in the early 1990s in Sudan. At the time, Sudan turned into the world’s second state, after Iran, to be ruled by radical Islam.

According to the testimonies of senior CIA officials, Iran’s President Rafsanjani, Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian and Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohsen Rezai visited Sudan. They were accompanied by a figure well-known to Israel’s intelligence services: Imad Mugniyah, the head of Hezbollah’s military wing (Mugniyah was assassinated in February of 2008 in an operation attributed to Israel.) All participants in the meeting pledged to assist the Sudanese regime and join forces with it in supporting other jihadist movements in the Middle East.

When it turned out that Sudan was emerging as a new terrorism theater, Israel’s intelligence agencies started to deploy human and electronic resources there. The file on developments in Sudan until 1996 is known in Israel as “Blue Smurfs” and contains a treasure trove of information about the seed that later became Global Jihad.

When Saracini’s attorneys sought the Israeli government’s assistance in receiving the Blue Smurfs file, they were told the information was acquired in cooperation with a foreign party, and that this information can only be shared with this party’s approval. Such authorization has not been given to this day.

What we are allowed to reveal here is that Israel’s intelligence officials identified at the time tight relations between radical Islamic terrorists in Egypt and Department 15 in Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Notably, Department 15 is tasked with exporting the Islamic revolution to other Arab states.

Israel was also able to identify a prominent terror leader in Sudan. His name was Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian jihadist who served a prison term for his role in President Anwar Sadat’s assassination. Year later, Zawahiri’s name became known worldwide; he turned into al-Qaeda’s chief strategist, Bin Laden’s deputy and successor, and a man with a $25 million price tag on his head, courtesy of the FBI.

In April of 1991, Zawahiri secretly visited Iran and sought Iranian assistance for a Cairo revolution. The parties agreed on Iranian support for Zawahiri’s organization in the form of money and training. The terror leader sent many of his men to train in Iranian camps, mostly under the guidance of Lebanese Hezbollah members led by Imad Mugniyah.

During his visit to Iran, al-Zawahiri was convinced of the immense power of a suicide attack as an effective modus operandi. Years later he realized that if a suicide bomber is effective, a terrorist who crashes a Boeing aircraft into a tower would be much more effective.

Discovering Osama

Following further efforts, it turned out that an even bigger group of Muslim radicals was operating in Sudan alongside Zawahiri and his men. Some of them were veterans of the guerilla war initiated by America in Afghanistan against the Russian invasion in the 1980s.

Yet who was the leader of these Afghanistan veterans? How did he operate? Where was he getting his funding? Israel’s intelligence effort continued, and the name of a Saudi contractor who was expelled from his country started to surface, with his real estate work being used as cover for secret terror activity. The contractor’s name started to appear in intelligence reports: Osama Bin Laden. One of his construction companies was known as al-Qaeda (“The Base” in Arabic.)

Israel’s intelligence services discovered that Bin Laden joined forces with Zawahiri. During this period, the two grew much closer, with Zawahiri (a surgeon by training) also becoming Bin Laden’s personal physician. The new friendship prompted Bin Laden to send some of his senior aides for training in Tehran and in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon. The infrastructure for al-Qaeda’s establishment was now ready.

In 1998, an Egyptian-born US Marine called Ali Mohammed was detained on suspicion of involvement in blowing up America’s embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In his testimony he confessed that in 1989 he traveled to Afghanistan and joined Islamic Jihad and Bin Laden. Mohammed said he trained al-Qaeda terrorists on using explosives as well as on intelligence-gathering techniques to be used in attacks on US targets.

Mohammed also testified that he personally handled security arrangements for a Sudan meeting between Hezbollah’s Mugniyah and Bin Laden. Following these meetings, Hezbollah provided al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad with explosives training. Iran also used Hezbollah in order to provide explosive materials designed to resemble rocks. Israeli veterans of the Lebanon wars are well familiar with these bombs.

Mohammed testified that many of the training sessions were held in an Iranian camp run by the Intelligence Ministry. Based on information from the Blue Smurfs file, which was discovered in the NSA basement, the National Commission ruled that senior al-Qaeda members received training and advice from Hezbollah while in Sudan. These are important testimonies for Ellen Saracini. If Hezbollah equals Iran, and Bin Laden’s men were trained by Hezbollah, there is a basis to the charge about an Iran-al-Qaeda link.

The jihadist group identified in Sudan maintained close ties with Afghanistan veterans worldwide and tirelessly worked to form global networks and connections. “We felt that something very big was brewing there; something very different than anything we’ve seen before,” an Israeli intelligence official said. “This was not about a state dispatching terrorists, but rather, about an organization that seemingly created itself.” A short while later, a special intelligence desk was formed in Israel to deal with the subject. Indeed, the IDF Intelligence Branch and Mossad were the first to recognize the danger.

First burning tower

June 25, 1996. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. A huge explosion shakes the Khobar Towers in this important oil city. Nineteen US troops are killed and some 500 are wounded. Perhaps this is where the 9/11 terrorists learned about the major effect of blowing up a tower. Officially, the perpetrators of this attack have not been identified to this day.

Yet the current trial includes testimony by then-FBI Director Louis Freeh, who asserts that the attack was an Iranian initiative carried out by Hezbollah in conjunction with al-Qaeda. Senior CIA officials said that the NSA possesses intercepted Bin Laden conversations that prove a direct link to the attack. Attorneys will be using this evidence in the trial to show that Iran was in the picture at the early stages of establishing al-Qaeda.

Mellon’s team elicited thousands of documents showing how Iran assisted al-Qaeda in becoming an effective, lethal terror group throughout the 1990s. According to US law, this would be enough to find Iranian authorities culpable and there would be no need to prove direct involvement in 9/11. However, Mellon’s team decided not to take any risks and to present the court with evidence which they say proves Tehran’s direct involvement in the terror attacks.

Early in the 9/11 commission’s work, it turned out that the issue of traveling and visas was a major component in the affair. According to the documents submitted to the court, an immense operation was managed prior to September 11 in order to facilitate the many trips required by the operation.

The reason is clear: Only a well-oiled arrangement of flights and secret border crossings could have enabled the terrorists to enter and exit the US and go to Afghanistan. Anyone who ever tried to get a US visa knows this is no simple matter. A passport stamp of a state on America’s list of terror-sponsors immediately turns one into a suspect.

So how did the 19 terrorists manage to enter the US after all? How could it be that US immigration officials in Germany and Saudi Arabia suspected nothing? The answer to these questions remained unknown, until the treasure trove was discovered at the NSA basement. As it turned out, many of the terrorists headed from Afghanistan to Iran, with Iranian officials ordering border control officers not to stamp these passports. The other terrorists passed through Beirut in their many trips, where Hezbollah officials similarly cared for them.

Mellon’s team hopes that this is where the “smoking gun” can be found, proving a direct link between Iran and 9/11. If Iran did not know about the attacks and was not involved in them, why did it keep its stamps off the terrorists’ passports?

Yet that’s not all. The intelligence information submitted to the court includes yet another “smoking gun”: In some of the flights, the terrorists were accompanied by figures whose names were identical to the aliases used by former Hezbollah “army chief” Imad Mugniyah and some of his close aides. This would be hard to dismiss as an “odd coincidence.”

The Iranian defectors

The materials gathered for the trial include three rare testimonies by three Iranian intelligence establishment defectors. They have been marked as witnesses X, Y and Z. Their videotaped testimonies offer a profound peek into the depths of the kingdom of evil. For long hours they recount their childhood and adolescence in Tehran and how they were hired for the prestigious posts in Iran’s spy agencies. Then, they start talking about the ties between Iran, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.

Witness X testifies about Iran’s advance knowledge of the plan to crash passenger airliners into strategic targets in Washington and New York. He testifies that he was present at training facilities for Sunni terrorists in Iran and adds many details about the way Iran’s intelligence service utilizes legitimate Iranian organizations such as its airline and shipping company for terror aims.

Witness Y testifies about Imad Mugniyah’s personal involvement in training the September 11 hijackers and the shelter granted by Iran to al-Qaeda’s men after the attacks. Meanwhile, witness Z says that he was present in a series of meetings in Tehran involving senior al-Qaeda men, local intelligence officials and Mugniyah’s men in the months before the 9/11 attacks.

Following the attacks, many senior al-Qaeda men found shelter in Iran. Tehran denied their presence for some time and later admitted that hundreds of al-Qaeda members are in the country and are under “house arrest.” For the time being, Iranian authorities have not responded to the lawsuit, and as happened in many cases, the judges may hand down their decision in the presence of one side only. The court could order compensation funds to be taken from frozen Iranian accounts.

This month, Ellen Saracini marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11attacks. Saracini, who is closely accompanied by two lawyers who invested a special effort in the investigation, Tom Mellon and Timothy Fleming, is working days and nights in promoting the lawsuit against Iran and in commemorating the 9/11 victims. She says that the families who filed the lawsuit have one objective in mind: “Preventing these barbarians from committing further attacks against the United States and further attacks against humanity.”

Source:

Ynet

The Game Blame

Egypt accuses Israel of not doing enough to keep the border safe; it hints at its intention to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv to protest the casualties suffered in the course of Thursday’s terrorist attack on the road to Eilat.

Indeed a sorry attempt by the Supreme Military Council, which has been ruling Egypt since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, to cover its failure to keep the peace in Sinai by throwing the blame on someone else – Israel of course – in a time honored Egyptian practice. It would have been too much to expect from the country whence the terrorists who carried out the attack came to say: “We are sorry; let us jointly investigate what happened so that it never happens again.”

A bare week ago, retired Egyptian generals were accusing that same Supreme Military Council of dangerously neglecting the situation in the Sinai Peninsula. They told the press that Egypt no longer controlled the area and that a state of emergency had to be declared immediately in Sinai in order to impose a curfew and facilitate the necessary steps by the army. What is happening in Sinai, said one of them, has crossed a red line and is threatening the security of Egypt. They added that a number of extremist Islamic organizations were acting with complete impunity and that the peninsula was in a state of anarchy.

These harsh accusations came in the wake of an increasing number of attacks carried out by unidentified forces on state institutions such as police stations, as well as no less than five attacks on the pipeline carrying Egyptian natural gas to Jordan and to Israel. The fifth attempt stopped the flow indefinitely, causing heavy financial losses to Egypt. It had became obvious to all that with the fall of Mubarak the central government had lost its grip on Sinai, and that the void had immediately been filled by elements hostile to Egypt and to Israel.

It took two startling developments to force the Supreme Military Council to finally act: a disciplined attack mounted on the El-Arish police station by a group of Islamist extremists (it failed) and the proclamation by the Salafist organizations of northern Sinai of their intention to set up Islamic courts to supplant state courts, and to use their armed militias numbering some 6,000 young members to enforce their decisions.

Taking the measure of the danger, the Supreme Military Council first tightened security around the Suez Canal and then, in coordination with Israel, sent troops to the area to restore order.

What happened Thursday on the road to Eilat is yet another demonstration of the state of anarchy in the peninsula. A group of some 20 terrorists from Gaza, equipped with large quantities of weapons and explosives, made its way to Sinai, probably through the smuggling tunnels, and was able to circulate on sovereign Egyptian soil for a week or more. What is clear is that the terrorists must have had logistic support from one or more extremist organizations active in Sinai. They had to obtain vehicles, food and water as well as to set up observation points on the road to Eilat which they intended to attack.

One can well ask how it was possible for them to do so without being seen by the Egyptians. There are thousands of members of the Mukhabarat and of the other security services in Sinai; how come the movements of such an large terrorist group, having to cover some 240 kilometers over several days, escaped their notice? What about the soldiers manning positions all along the border? How come they saw nothing? Could it be that there were some who decided to close their eyes – and maybe others who decided to help? That there was a massive failure on the Egyptian side is glaringly obvious – but the Supreme Military Council is busy trying to shift the blame.

Unfortunately, as was to be expected, there were demonstrations against Israel in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. Calls were heard to expel the ambassador of Israel and even to sever relations between the two countries. It does seem as these demonstrations were primarily organized by the Muslim Brothers, who are now a legitimate political force in Egypt. Their spokesmen called for the severing of relations.

But two leading contenders for the presidency, former Arab League head Amr Moussa and former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, jumped on the bandwagon. Moussa demanded a “fitting reaction” and Baradei called for a suspension of relations. The Supreme Council appeared to have been swayed by the protests.

On a more promising note, the same Egyptian military commentators cautioned against listening to the mob and suggested strongly a more responsible attitude to avoid an open crisis with Israel. Gen. (ret.) Abdelmoneim Kato called for an immediate inquiry into the events, and for a measured reaction limited to diplomatic protests. He added that the Egyptian Army had to pursue its fight against troublemakers and to restore order in Sinai.

Another military commentator, Mohamed Gamal Edin Mazloum, said that in the present situation Egypt had no interest whatsoever in a crisis with Israel, a country which had done nothing more than to defend itself against an attack on the road to Eilat.

Egypt today is facing a major hurdle in Sinai, where there are many more Islamist extremists than in the past. Some come from Gaza, but there is a strong Iranian influence. There are elaborate smuggling networks bringing weapons, explosives and missiles from Iran and from Hezbollah to Gaza via Sudan and Sinai. Now that the central government is so weak, there is talk of setting up a “free Islamic zone” – similar to what happened in Afghanistan with al- Qaida – which would be a base for attacks against Israel as well as against Egypt itself and other neighboring nations.

Neither Israel nor Egypt has an interest in escalating the present incident. What must be done now is to refrain from inflammatory statements and to thoroughly investigate what happened and how it happened through coordinated, efforts. More than ever in these troubled times, peace is of paramount importance both to Egypt and to Israel.

Zvi Mazel is a former ambassador to Egypt, and a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Saudi Arabia funding terror

Even US allies in the Arab world continue to fund terror organizations, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed in a cable posted Monday by WikiLeaks. The document, written last December, said that citizens in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are the main funders of various organizations including al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Lashkar e-Taiba and others.

Saudi Arabia, a principal US ally on both military and diplomatic levels, is presented in the cables as a particularly troubling problem. A cable from February this year said Saudi funding of terrorists remains a serious problem, and that Saudi Arabia does little to prevent such activity, relying mainly on tips from the CIA.

In a memo, Clinton notes that terror groups raise millions of dollars each year from Saudi sources, often during the hajj pilgrimage and the month of Ramadan. It is an ongoing challenge to persuade the authorities to make prevention of such activity a top priority, Clinton wrote. She added that Saudi contributors were the main source of funding for terror groups around the world.

In the leaked cables, Clinton and other senior sources note the "strategic gap" between the US and the UAE, which is exploited by terror groups. Qatar, which defeated the US in its bid to host the 2022 World Cup, is described as the "worst" in the region in its struggle against terror, while Kuwait is noted as a key point in the transfer of funds.

Clinton emphasized in a State Department internal memo that political will must be formed in those states in order to block terror funding networks, which threaten the stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan and threaten the lives of coalition soldiers.

Kuwait: US taking draconian measures

However, while the US may be frustrated by the failure of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to prevent the flow of funds, Arab states claim the US is "jumping to conclusions." According to cables from various US diplomats published in the New York Times and other papers, these states hold that the US has insufficient evidence that Islamic charitable groups and individuals fund terror.

A cable sent to Washington reports that senior figures in Kuwait oppose what they call America's "draconian measures" against important charitable organizations. US sources repeatedly expressed their concern regarding such organizations which are not under the supervision of state authorities, and are used to fund groups abroad.

However, another document details a meeting between a Kuwaiti minister and the US ambassador, during which the minister was "honest and pessimistic" about abilities to stop those funding terror in the framework of the law and political climate in Kuwait.

In another cable, the US embassy in Riyadh reports that the finance minister told the Saudi intelligence services about a visit of three senior Taliban members who were coming to the country to raise funds. The Saudis said they knew nothing of the visit. Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, who managed affairs during the absence of King Abdullah who went to the US for an operation, said it was a case of poor judgment and not support for terror.

Kidnapping Plot Thwarted

Two weeks ago, the world woke up with the eminent threat of courier bombs through DHL and Fedex located in Dubai, Greece and UK from provenance of Yemen to United States, France and Germany. New tentacles of terror cells are on the rise using modern technology like Facebook, Skype, msn and others, to kidnap people who bear surnames of famous families and professional in the free-world. Their target is mainly high profile Israelis, Jews in the Diaspora and business related people.

Several months ago, a certain Xhemajedlin Mustafi also known as Xhemo, age 22 years, contacted me and presented himself as the Former Advisor and Friend of the Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia. At first, I was hesitant to continue conversation but his attitude was very Pro-Western and Zionist which was intriguing for a young Macedonian of Albanian origin.

Over few weeks, he held discussion over how to improve collaboration between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Macedonia and how they can integrate the society as a united force for making the country as a vehicle of development for social upliftment.

The alleged “Advisor” had something else in his mind; he wanted to be in contact with Israeli Diplomats and wanted to meet them for holding bilateral talks to enhance cooperation between The State of Israel and the Republic of Macedonia. I told him that for such things, I can only advise which diplomatic channels to use as I do not get involved in state matters of countries. He was advised that the Macedonian Foreign Ministry to contact its embassy if any in Israel for holding an official preparation for the travel with the Israeli counterpart using all established protocols. Nevertheless, his plan was, inviting the Former Foreign Minister MK Tzipi Livni, the Head of the Opposition Party Kadima to Macedonia. I was clear to him that I cannot help him in such matters.

There were some doubts regarding the state of the continuous change in his plans and hence for coming few weeks he remained quiet. He surprisingly gave me his MSN live and Skype address and wanted to introduce his Advisor friends and also business circles which he did and I was perplexed that he was well conversant in English but his other colleagues could not speak English . At the same time he would use to call from France, Turkey and other European countries to inform that he is travelling on state matters.

He was quietly laying his traps for other professional and he contacted Ms Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks who is ardent support of Israel and Friend. She is a professional in the Health Sector. The “Advisor” was not aware that Batzi is also a correspondent for Weekly Blitz. He held direct talks with Batzi and apparently, there was disagreement between them and Xhemo again contacted me to intervene as Batzi wrongly understood him and wanted to reaffirm that he is a very pro-Israel Muslim. I just conveyed the message to Batzi and they both resumed their talks to sign a proposal for health care reform in Macedonia and in last phone call, he announced the great news that the contract was signed.

The articles below are extracts of the investigation carried out by Ms. Bat-Zion and Shoaib Choudhury of Weekly Blitz.

Israel correspondent of Weekly Blitz, Bat Zion Susskind has successfully busted a huge crime racket inside the ministry of a member state of European Union. She spent several months in investigating the matter and finally was able to get the specific evidence of crime inside the Ministry of Health in Macedonia.

According to information, Xhemajledin Mustafi, introducing himself to be the advisor to the Ministry, offered job to many people in the ministry. Dr. Bujar Osmani is the minister in charge of the ministry. In an email to Blitz correspondent [Blitz correspondent did not disclose her real identity], Xhemajledin Mustafi wrote:

"We are looking for a foreign advisor with experience in the field of public health administration because now we are going to apply for EU funds on some certain important projects and we need your expertise. If you agree to work with us I will send you the contract of work and organize you a meeting with the Minister in Skopje, Macedonia."

According to Ms. Susskind, Mustafi, who also introduced himself as Jemo stressed that his government insisted on hiring an Israeli consultant with a "Western education" as they were interested in privatizing their health care system in the fashion of Israel and other developed countries. Mustafi also stressed that though he was a Muslim, he was a supporter of the State of Israel and the US.

Xhemajledin Mustafi would generally conduct the negotiations on Skype as he claimed to be travelling over Europe, as part of his Macedonian government business.

Subsequently, our correspondent continued to communicate with Xhemajledin Mustafi. Without knowing the identity of Weekly Blitz correspondent, Mustafi was continuing his fraudulent communications and were giving false statements related to the activities inside the Ministry of Health.

On October 24, 2010, Xhemajledin Mustafi wrote in an email:

"Today 24th of October 2010 the Government of the Republic of Macedonia in the session opened for the public has decided or saying more professionally has taken responsibility to implement the health care reform and engaging international consultants.

And according to this Governmental decision there will be a budget of 70.000.000 EUR for the implementation of the first stage of this national and top priority project!"

On November 1, 2010, Xhemajledin Mustafi sent a contract to Ms. Susskind by fax. On receiving the contract copy, which is made on the official stationary of the Ministry of Health of Macedonia, with signatures of the minister Dr. Osmani and so-called advisor to the ministry, Xhemajledin Mustafi, our Israel correspondent contacted the ministry and got it confirmed from the ministry that the document was forged one. The so-called contract came from fax number 02-322-8220, which is owned by MANERA COMMERCE, Macedonia.

It is learn from various sources that Xhemajledin Mustafi was continuing such fraudulent activities using the name of the ministry of health as well as other high officials and ministers of Macedonia. It is apprehended that, Xhemajledin Mustafi is a member of fraud racket in Macedonia, who was using ministry's stationary and minister's forged signature in befooling people.

Latest bust into the huge scam inside the ministry of health in Macedonia surely leaves alarming signal for the government of that country.

Ms. Bat Zion Susskind is continuing her investigation on unearthing the mystery behind suspicious involvement of Xhemajledin Mustafi, who claimed to be the advisor to the Ministry of Health in Macedonia. Meanwhile, Weekly Blitz is also investigating the issue through numerous channels.

The background of the story in brief is Xhemajledin Mustafi, introducing himself to be the advisor to the Ministry, offered job to many people in the ministry. Dr. Bujar Osmani is the minister in charge of the ministry of Health. Xhemajledin Mustafi would generally conduct the negotiations on Skype as he claimed to be travelling over Europe, as part of his Macedonian government business. He was frequently changing his cell phone numbers and skype addresses while contacting various Israeli nationals.

Xhemajledin Mustafi also introduced himself as the family friend of Musa Xhaferi, Albanian born Deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia, who earlier was the overseas representative of the National Liberation Army. The National Liberation Army [NLA] also known as the Macedonian UÇK, was a militant organization that operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA].

The NLA was founded in the fall of 1999, and was led by former KLA Commander Ali Ahmeti, nephew of one of the founders of the KLA. Ahmeti is known to Slav-Macedonian nationalists as the Macedonian version of Osama Bin laden. The Macedonian government claimed the NLA were an extremist terrorist organization seeking to separate Albanian majority areas and unites those territories with Albania. Beginning on January 22, 2001 the NLA began to carry out attacks on Macedonian security forces, using light weapons. The conflict soon escalated and by the start of March 2001, the NLA had taken effective control of a large swathe of northern and western Macedonia and came within 12 miles of the capital Skopje. In March 2001, NLA members failed to take the city of Tetovo in an open attack, but controlled the hills and mountains between Tetovo and Kosovo. On May 3, 2001 a Macedonian government counter offensive failed in the Kumanovo area. By June 8, the rebels took Aracinovo, a village outside of Skopje. On August 16, the two sides signed a peace deal ending the open conflict.

Although the conflict in Macedonia was brief, it was not scant of war crimes. According to Human Rights Watch, "Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia tortured, sexually abused road workers after abducting them from the Skopje-Tetovo highway. Dozens of ethnic Macedonians were kidnapped. While many were released after a short time, 12 people apparently remained missing after the NLA released 14 others in late September. In October, reports suggested that the 12 may have been killed and buried in mass graves near Neproshteno. The case was referred by the Macedonian government to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for investigation.

The KLA was regarded by the US as a terrorist group until 1998 when it was de-listed, and then the UK and the US lobbied France to do the same. The US then cultivated diplomatic relationships with the KLA leaders. In 1999 the KLA was officially disbanded and their members entered other armed groups such as various Albanian Macedonian rebels, the UCPMB in the Preševo Valley region and UNMIK instituted NGOs within Kosovo such as the Kosovo Protection Corps [in accordance with UNSC resolution 1244 which required the establishment of a civilian emergency protection body to replace the former KLA] and Kosovo Police Force. Some of the Kosovo Liberation Army leadership opted to enter politics, and by taking advantage of the 1999 confusion they still lead the Albanian faction of the partially recognized Kosovar government.

Xhemajledin Mustafi [22] and his 'family friend' Musa Xhaferi are 'former Mujahedins'. And most importantly, though National Liberation Army of Macedonia are disbanded, in reality, the terror outfits remains at the deep cover level enjoying silent support from various important and influential people in the Macedonian government. It may be mentioned here that, National Liberation Army is no exception than Revolutionary Guards in Iran or mega-terrorist outfits like Hamas and Hezbollah. Importantly, leaders in NLA, KLA and others are fanatic Muslims with Wahhabi indoctrinations of waging Jihad [Holy War] against non-Muslims.

According to our own findings, current and former leaders of NLA were planning to allure a number of Israeli nationals with job offers and ultimately make them captive in Macedonia with the target of using them as 'pawn' in getting released reveral Al Qaeda, Hamas and other Islamist militants in Israel and United States.

With this goal in mind, deep cover Jihadist of NLA, Xhemajledin Mustafi was communicating with Israeli nationals and offered them jobs with Health Ministry in Macedonia.

But, Weekly Blitz's Israel correspondent very effectively foiled the entire plot when she started getting several documents and information in hand from Mustafi. One of the documents was the official agreement letter issued by the Macedonian Health Ministry, where the emblem used in official stationary was not current one. It is understood that the plotters intentionally used the old emblem with the ulterior motive of denying any involvement of Macedonian government, once several Israelis were made captive by Islamist terror groups in that country.

Since publication of the first report in Weekly Blitz, Xhemajledin Mustafi went into hiding. It is believed that, Mustafi is sheltered by several influential people in the Macedonian government.

The investigation is still being carried and bits and pieces of the puzzle is being unearthed and it is apparently clear that the plan of the so called Advisor Xhemo was to invite High Profile Israelis (VIPs) and People belonging to famous families to Macedonia and hence kidnap them. It can also be assumed that he is being used and brainwashed by them for carrying out their operations or he might be a jihadist himself. In a conversation with a friend from Italy, whose parents lived in Macedonia during the Gulf war, confirmed that the Terror cells are hiding in Macedonia and said not to forget what happened in Kurdistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia was made aware of all these and apparently, this could an embarrassment for them as they have not still released any official statement regarding this issue. Had, Batzi not carried out this investigation in time, I could have been kidnapped during my travel there as I had accepted to visit Macedonia in March 2011 and had asked to be sent a detail list of programme where I would intervene.

Thankful to Ms Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks and Shoaib Choudhurry for their investigation for exposing this plot.

Israelis face global threat

The Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Monday issued a warning to Israelis staying abroad, and especially businesspeople, instructing them to remain on high alert and reject unexpected offers. The Bureau also advised Israelis to avoid traveling to countries that face travel warnings at this time. According to information obtained by the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, shooting attack and kidnapping threats still persist against Israelis abroad, especially businesspeople and former state officials. The Bureau said the threats emerged after Hezbollah continued to blame Israel for the death of Imad Mughnia and Iran accused the Jewish State of murdering a nuclear scientist in Tehran.

Accordingly, previous travel warnings were reiterated, and the Bureau advised Israelis abroad to remain on high alert and reject any tempting offers related to either business or pleasure, and unexpected meeting invitations – especially in remote places and at late hours. The Bureau also said Israelis should avoid hosting unexpected or suspicious guests in their hotel rooms. In addition, Israelis on a prolonged stay abroad were asked to break their normal routine by changing daily driving routes and regularly visited restaurants and recreation spots.

The warning said Israelis should completely avoid traveling to countries that are facing previous travel warnings. The latest to join the list was Turkey, following the flotilla raid incident. Warnings were also issued in recent months against traveling to Thailand and the Sinai Desert.

Europe atom lab: physicist arrested on terror link

French police have arrested a nuclear physicist on suspicion that he had links to terrorist organizations in Algeria, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Friday.
The man was one of more than 7,000 scientists working at the organization and has been assigned to analysis projects under contract with an outside institute, said the organization, known as CERN.

The man had no contact with anything that could be used for terrorism, said the organization. The LHCb experiment where he worked is the smallest of a series of installations along the 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border.The nuclear research organization said the unidentified man was arrested Thursday in the eastern French city of Vienne, 23 kilometers (20 miles) south of Lyon.

That coincides with the arrest by French police in Vienne of two brothers suspected of being in contact with al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb, but the organization was unable to say if that was the same case.

A French police official said officers arrested two brothers suspected of being in contact with al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb. The men were French and aged 25 and 32. The arrest was part of a French judge's probe into suspected terrorist links.Police searched the suspects' apartments and seized their computers.

Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb regularly targets Algerian government forces and occasionally attacks foreigners.The collider started spectacularly a year ago with beams of particles flying in both directions on the first day of trying. But later that month an electric failure because of a construction fault caused the entire machine to shut down. It has been undergoing repairs almost ever since.

Spokeswoman Renilde van den Broek said there was no indication of sabotage in the shutdown and that the arrested man would have had access only to the small experiment he was working on, and not to the tunnel itself.The projects are aimed at making discoveries about the makeup of matter when the Large Hadron Collider — the world largest atom smasher — starts collecting data later this year or early next year.

"LHCb is an experiment set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang that allowed matter to survive and build the universe we inhabit today," said a description on the organization's Web site.

The Big Bang was a vast explosion that scientists theorize was the beginning of the universe 14 billion years ago.The European laboratory has been working for years to build the $10 billion collider.

Not all physicists working on the LHCb project were informed of the arrest."This is news to me," said Ken Wyllie, one of dozens of scientists in the department. The prosecutor's office in the Isere region said the arrest of the physicist had been transferred to the anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor's office.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Paris prosecutor's office or the French Interior Minister.

Many of the scientists at the laboratory, whether or not they are employees of the organization or of other institutes around the world, live in France, and about half the operation is on French territory.

The man has been working on analysis projects with the LHCb experiment at CERN since 2003. "None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain," the organization said in a statement. The laboratory said it is providing the support requested by the French police in the inquiry

Wanted man named Defense in Iran

The man Iran's president has named to be defense minister is wanted in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires, and his nomination drew an outcry from Argentina and Jewish groups on Friday. Ahmad Vahidi, who commanded a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force at the time of the attack, was nominated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday along with others named to fill Cabinet positions. The Quds Force is involved in operations abroad, including working with Lebanon's Hizbullah militant group, which is accused to carrying out the Buenos Aires attack. Argentine officials claim that Iran orchestrated the attack and that the Iranian-backed Hizbullah carried it out. The United States and Israel also say Iran is behind the bombing, but Iran has denied it.

Shooting in Tel Aviv Club

Hundreds of police officers were scouring the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday in a door-to-door manhunt for a gunman who opened fire on a gay youth club. A masked man entered a club for gay teens late Saturday, pulled out a pistol and shot in all directions, killing 3 and injuring 34 according to latest reports, four seriously, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man then holstered his pistol and fled the scene by foot to the busy streets of Tel Aviv.

Nitzan Horowitz, Israel's only openly gay lawmaker, said the attack had all the symptoms of a "hate crime." "This is the worst attack ever against the gay community in Israel," he said. "This act was a blind attack against innocent youths, and I expect the authorities to exercise all means in apprehending the shooter."

Gays and lesbians enjoy great freedom and liberties in Israel. Soldiers serve openly in the military, and openly gay musicians and actors are among the most popular in the country.
Tel Aviv in particular is one of the more liberal cities in the world — it holds a festive annual gay parade, rainbow flags are often seen waved from apartment windows and the there is even a city-sponsored open house for the community.

However, ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders often incite against the community. In conservative Jerusalem, clashes have been frequent between religious and gay activists. In 2005, for instance, an ultra-Orthodox protester stabbed three marchers at a Jerusalem gay parade.The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a frequent critic of gays in Israel, issued a statement condemning Saturday's attack.The attack sparked other swift political reactions. The mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, pledged that Tel Aviv would continue to maintain its pluralistic nature.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni expressed shock and sorrow from the attack. "The difficult event should awaken society to rid itself from prejudice," Livni said. "We must accept and recognize the right of every person to live safely and with respect."

Thousands took to the street in an impromptu march after Saturday night's attack to mourn for the victims and call for tolerance.The covers of Sunday's newspapers all featured photos of the bloodstained floors of the youth club and headlines such as "Massacre of the Proud Youth" and "Terror Against the Proud Community." Gay celebrities also penned guest columns. The names of the victims have yet to be released.

Terror Network Revealed

The Lebanese army on Tuesday said that it had revealed a terror network that had been planning to carry out a series of attacks against its troops, as well as a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.The army said in a statement that it was holding the ten members of the cell, from the Fatah al-Islam organization associated with al-Qaida, and was engaged in a series of skirmishes with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in and around the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in 2007.

According to the LAF, the group was comprised of members hailing from different parts of the Arab world, most of them from outside Lebanon. The group reportedly also planned to carry out attacks outside Lebanon. They were also going to bail out men associated with the group that have been barricaded in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilwe.

Reuters quoted a Lebanese security source as saying that six forged passports were found on the person of the leader of the group, a Syrian national."He traveled to six Arab countries in 15 days. His group was planning several attacks against a wide range of targets," Reuters quoted the source as saying.

On Monday, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev charged that the UNIFIL troops who have been stationed in southern Lebanon and given a mandate to maintain peace in the region, have in fact done the exact opposite by assisting the small group of Hizbullah supporters in their illegal border crossing into Israel over the weekend.

On Friday, 15 Lebanese civilians crossed illegally into Israel, shouting and waving Hizbullah flags. IDF troops spotted the group, but did not confront them as they were reportedly unarmed and returned to Lebanon minutes later, without incident. In a letter submitted by the ambassador to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the president of the United Nations Security Council, Shalev accused a contingent of Indian UNIFIL peacekeepers of having done nothing to prevent the demonstrators from crossing the border and even cooperating with the group.

"[The demonstrators] stood opposite the UNIFIL force, [which did nothing,] and worse than that, according to statements made by the organizers of the demonstration, they even cooperated with them," the letter read. In her complaint, the Israeli ambassador lashed out at Hizbullah for its "grievous violations of Resolution 1701," which included both the border breach, as well as an attack by Lebanese villagers against UNIFIL troops on Saturday who were investigating an explosion last week in a suspected Hizbullah arms depot in southern Lebanon.
Both incidents "demonstrate an escalation and a pattern of behavior in Lebanon, that must be confronted," Shalev wrote in her letter.

Source: JP

8 killed, more than 50 hurt in Jakarta blasts

Eight people were killed and more than 50 were wounded on Friday morning when suicide bombers who checked in as guests smuggled explosives into American luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital and set off a pair of heavy blasts, investigators said.

The near-simultaneous bombings ended a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. At least 18 foreigners were among the dead and wounded. The blasts at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, located side-by-side in an upscale business district in Jakarta, blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street, kicking up a thick plume of smoke. Facades of both hotels were reduced to twisted metal. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw bodies being shuttled away in police trucks.

Two Australians and a New Zealander were believed to have been killed, but there was confusion about the exact number of victims.

An Australian think tank, the Strategic Policy Institute, predicted the Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah might launch new attacks just a day before Friday's deadly strike.A paper released Thursday said tensions in the group's leadership and the release of former members from prison "raise the possibility that splinter factions might now seek to re-energize the movement through violent attacks."

Hizbullah's men arrested in Azerbaijan

Two Hizbullah operatives arrested recently in Azerbaijan for allegedly plotting to attack the Israeli Embassy were caught with Iranian passports and were working on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as well as al-Qaida, Azeri news reports have reported. According to new details revealed this week, the two men - identified as Karaki Ali Muhammad and Najmaddin Ali Huseyn - were caught with Iranian passports that they used to enter Azerbaijan.

In addition to the embassy, the cell planned to attack a Jewish community center in Baku as well as the Gabala Radar Station that Russia leases from Azerbaijan and is located in the north of the country. Four Azeri citizens have also been arrested, for allegedly providing the two Lebanese terrorists with logistical support. Azeri police reportedly caught the terrorists with explosives, cameras, pistols equipped with silencers, and reconnaissance photos. The two leaders of the cell were sent to Azerbaijan by Hizbullah and al-Qaida leaders in Lebanon, according to one report.

Shooting at US Holocaust Musuem

An American white supremacist opened fire at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Wednesday, killing a security guard before being shot himself, according to initial reports. The shooter was named as James Von Brunn by a law enforcement official, pending confirmation and speaking on condition of anonymity, who noted that his car had been found near the museum. Both Von Brunn and the security officer, named as Stephen T. Johns, were rushed to hospital following the shootout, which took place at midday. Von Brunn was described by officials as in "grave condition." A Washington Fire Department spokesman said that a third person had been lightly wounded in the exchange, in which two officers fired back at the assailant.

Following the attack, President Barack Obama reacted with shock, saying that the act demonstrated the need to fight anti-Semitism. Bystanders described a scene of fear and chaos as they heard security officers yell at hundreds of students, tourists and museum staff to flee the premises.

Public safety officers then secured the perimeter and cut off vehicles from the site. FBI agents are helping with the investigation, as authorities said they were checking for possible terror connections.

Von Brunn is a well-known white supremacist, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told CNN, referring to a Web site and publications he produced over several years in which he has "raged" against Jews and blacks. He noted that Von Brunn had been arrested in the past in connection to hate crimes.

Several Jewish and Israel groups expressed alarm at the news. "We are shocked and saddened by today's shooting incident at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The Embassy of Israel condemns this attack and is closely following the situation," the embassy said in a statement.

In Jerusalem, Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said, "This evening's incident is, regrettably, yet another proof that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are still alive and well. Israel must fight these phenomena in the domestic arena, in the international arena, in the legal arena, in academia and in the media, and must demand that the rest of the world say 'No!' to incidents such as this."