Quote: Lebanese security officials seize suspicious cargo from US, Brazil

Voltaire Network 8 February 2012 http://www.voltairenet.org/Lebanese-security-officials-seize



Lebanon's security officials say a suspicious cargo containing huge amounts of US dollars, guns, special passports and credit cards have been seized upon arrival in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, from the US and Brazil.

The items, packed in a number of chests and delivered via airmail, were discovered at Beirut's airport, the Lebanese security officials said.

The chests also contained a list of both well-known and ordinary Lebanese citizens including a figure related to Salafi extremist groups. The security officials have summoned a number of the individuals, whose names were on the list, arresting some of them.

Beirut has redoubled security surveillance across the country following remarks by some Lebanese factions as well as widespread rumors about the presence of al-Qaeda in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese defense minister earlier confirmed that members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have entered Syria through Lebanon.

Over the past few months, reports have circulated that caches of weapons have been smuggled to armed gangs in Syria through the Lebanese border.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Israel to the United States: 'We'll Give You the War, You Give Us the Cannon Fodder'

Quote:During the assault on the rebel stronghold in the Homs district of Bab Amr, the Syrian army took more than 1,500 prisoners, mostly foreigners. Of these, a dozen French nationals requested the status of prisoner of war, refusing to give their identity, rank and unit of assignment. One of them is a Colonel working for the DGSE transmission service.In arming the Wahhabi Legion and feeding it with satellite intelligence, France conducted a secret war against the Syrian army, which caused more than 3,000 deaths among the military, and more than 1,500 among civilians in ten months of fighting.

Quote:In late 2003, in a front-page exclusive story, Coughlin revealed a leaked intelligence memorandum, purportedly uncovered by Iraq's interim government, which detailed a meeting between Mohamed Atta, one of the September 11 hijackers, and Iraqi intelligence at the time of Saddam Hussein.[10][11] The memo was supposedly written by Iraqi security chief General Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti to the president of Iraq. The report was subsequently challenged with American officials also reiterating that there was no such link.[12]

The Daily Telegraph's exclusive report was picked up and repeated by several conservative columnists in the United States, including syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock[13] and William Safire.[14]

Quote:Ron Suskind allegation

According to Ron Suskind in his 2008 book The Way of the World:

The White House had concoted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam backdated to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq . . . The letter also mentioned suspicious shipments to Iraq from Niger set up with al Qaeda's assistance. The idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraq government stationery, to make it look legitimate. CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media. [11]

Suskind goes on to describe what happened next. Richer talks to Maguire, a CIA Iraq expert, who says that this plan will not work - Habbush will not sign anything himself because the insurgency would harm his family. This, by Suskind's account, leads to the White House telling the CIA directly to hand write the letter itself. Suskind's book says that this new order then passed down eventually to the Iraq Operations Group for it to be carried out. Maguire left for Baghdad to help run the CIA station there and was not involved directly in the mission, other than discussing the mission with Richer.

Suskind's evidence includes, according to an interview he gave on August 7, 2008, on-the-record statements from two CIA agents, Robert Richer and John Maguire, and others. He also claims to have tape recorded statements to back up his claims.[12]

According to the tape recorded interview with Richer, former CIA deputy chief of clandestine operations, Richer saw a letter on White House stationery, passed down the ranks of the CIA through George Tenet, then-CIA director, "probably" to James Pavitt, the Deputy Director of Operations, who passed it to his chief of staff, who passed it to Richer. Richer said that the letter might or might not have come from the vice president's office, but he wasn't sure. The letter described what the White House wanted Habbush to say in a forged letter. Suskind published a partial transcript on his web site on August 8.[13]

In a taped interview on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes,[14] which aired on August 15, 2008, Suskind said, "We are putting up all the transcripts. They're on my Web site, and I think they're all over the Internet at this point."

On August 5, 2008, the White House issued the statement on behalf of George Tenet, Robert Richer and John Maguire, addressing Suskind's allegation. Tenet said:

It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qa'ida connections that went beyond the evidence. The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.[15]

The CIA issued its own statement on August 22, 2008 saying that Suskind's allegations regarding Habbush "did not happen",[16] and Tenet followed the same day with a second statement saying that Suskind's charges were "demonstrably false in every regard."[17]

Suskind also contends that Habbush, who still carries a $1 million reward for his capture and appears as the Jack of Diamonds on the US military's deck of most-wanted Iraqi playing cards, was secretly resettled in Jordan by the CIA with $5 million in US taxpayers money.

[edit] Philip Giraldi allegationFormer CIA officer Philip Giraldi, writing in The American Conservative, has claimed to have a reliable source who tells him that Suskind's basic story about the White House ordering the forgery is correct, but some of the detail is wrong.[18] His source claims that Dick Cheney ordered the forgery, but not from the CIA, instead using the Office of Special Plans, an office created by Donald Rumsfeld and run by Douglas Feith.[19]

Giraldi writes that "Tenet is for once telling the truth when he states that he would not have undermined himself by preparing such a document while at the same time insisting publicly that there was no connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda."[18]

[edit] Subsequent reactionsProfessor Juan Cole posits that Habbush crafted the letter himself, and that the CIA "authenticated" it in bad faith through onetime asset Ayad Allawi whom journalist Con Coughlin contacted to vouchsafe the document's authenticity after it was leaked to him.[20]

Author Joe Conason noted that Ayad Allawi had visited CIA headquarters in Langley just days before speaking with Con Coughlin of the Telegraph.[21]

Con Coughlin, in a blog post highly critical of Suskind, confirmed that he had indeed received the letter from Ayad Allawi. He also calls the letter a 'leak' and says he got it in November 2003, in Baghdad.[22]

[edit] Congressional investigationThe House Judiciary Committee is now[when?] investigating the allegations. Chairman John Conyers stated, "I am particularly troubled that the decision to disseminate this fabricated intelligence is alleged to have come from the highest reaches of the administration. The administration's attempt to challenge Mr. Suskind's reporting appears to have been effectively dismissed by the publication of the author's interview recordings and transcripts. I have instructed my staff to conduct a careful review of Mr. Suskind's allegations and the role played by senior administration officials in this matter."[23]

Stratfor Emails: Covert Special Ops Inside Syria Since December

A private conversation with Pentagon officials suggested US and allied troops were on the ground in Syria

by John Glaser, March 07, 2012

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Special operations forces from the U.S. and its allies have been on the ground in Syria since at least December, according to confidential emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that were released by WikiLeaks.An analyst from Stratfor claimed in December 2011 that officials at the Pentagon clued him in on covert military operations taking place in Syria. "After a couple hours of talking, they said without saying that SOF [Special Operations Forces] teams (presumably from US, UK, France, Jordan, Turkey) are already on the ground focused on recce [reconnaissance] missions and training opposition forces," the email said."One Air Force intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn't much of a Free Syrian Army to train right now anyway, but all the operations being done now are being done out of prudence,'" it continued. "They have been told to prepare contingencies and be ready to act within 2-3 months, but they still stress that this is all being done as contingency planning, not as a move toward escalation."Publicly, the Obama administration has retreated from its initial refusal to stay out of the conflict in Syria by agreeing this week to provide direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition. While the official line remains to keep military options off the table for now, the change in policy could open the flood gates for expanded military intervention.Complicating the official story, a report coming out of Lebanon this week claimed 13 French soldiers were captured in the Syrian city of Homs. The French Foreign Ministry denied the claims, saying there are no ground troops in Syria.According to the Stratfor analyst, after rejecting the prospect of "an eventual air campaign," the officials at the Pentagon told him "the idea hypothetically' is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within."The extent to which the information exchanged in the conversation was "hypothetical" is not clear and no U.S. official has made any comment on the information in the leaked email. The discussion appeared focused on contingency planning and the phrase "they said without saying" is never elaborated on. The date of the email coincides roughly with the first public reports of secret contingency planing in December.Information in a report on Stratfor's website published March 7, 2012, appears to have been taken at least partially from this very email. It reads: "The U.S. military indeed has updated its order of battle for Syria in preparation for any contingency operations, and this work allegedly produced the best order of battle the United States has had on Syria since 2001. However, contingency plans exist for numerous countries with which war is unlikely."In congressional sessions with top military officials on Wednesday, some in Congressexpressed frustration with current policy, as articulated by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others. "I get irritated, I get angry," McCain insisted, accusing the U.S. military of "standing on the sidelines" instead of waging an all out war on Syria, as he proposed on Monday.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/07/stratfor-emails-covert-special-ops-inside-syria-since-december/

Confessions of 40 Turkish intelligence officers captured in Syria