US President George W Bush says Hezbollah and alleged UK air plot suspects share a “totalitarian ideology” they are seeking to spread.
12 August 2006
Linking their actions with insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said they all wanted to “establish safe havens from which to attack free nations”.
Mr Bush said the UK terror plot was a “reminder that terrorists are still plotting attacks to kill our people”.
He made the comments in his weekly radio address to the American people.
‘Worst attacks yet’
“The terrorists attempt to bring down airplanes full of innocent men, women, and children,” Mr Bush said.
“They kill civilians and American servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they deliberately hide behind civilians in Lebanon. They are seeking to spread their totalitarian ideology.”
Mr Bush said that the alleged terror plot, which UK intelligence services claim involved a plan to destroy US-bound passenger planes using liquid explosives smuggled in drinks bottles, was “further evidence that the terrorists we face are sophisticated, and constantly changing their tactics”.
US officials say that if the plan had not been foiled, the subsequent attacks would have been the worst since those on Washington and New York on 11 September 2001.
Since the 2001 attacks, Mr Bush has said that the US is engaged in a global war on terror.
He says that as well as intelligence efforts to foil terror plots against US civilians, the ongoing military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq are part of that same battle, as is Israel’s conflict with Lebanon.
By Abraham Rabinovich
14 August, 2006
THE US Government was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s military operations against Islamic militant group Hezbollah even before the July 12 kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue.
The kidnapping triggered a month-long Israeli operation in southern Lebanon that is expected to come to an end today.
But Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Seymour Hersh writes that US President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced that a successful Israeli bombing campaign against Hezbollah could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential US pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations.
Citing an unnamed Middle East expert with knowledge of the thinking of the Israeli and US Governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah – and shared it with Bush administration officials – well before the July 12 kidnappings.
The expert added that the White House had several reasons for supporting a bombing campaign, the report said.
If there was to be a military option against Iran, it had to get rid of the weapons Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation against Israel, Hersh writes.
Citing a US government consultant with close ties to Israel, Hersh also reports that before the Hezbollah kidnappings, several Israeli officials visited Washington “to get a green light” for a bombing operation following a Hezbollah provocation, and “to find out how much the United States would bear”.
“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” the magazine quotes the consultant as saying. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.”
US government officials have denied the charges.
Nonetheless, Hersh writes, a former senior intelligence official says some officers serving with the Joint Chiefs of Staff remain deeply concerned that the administration will have a far more positive assessment of the air campaign than they should.
“There is no way that (Defence Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld and Cheney will draw the right conclusion about this,” the report quotes the former official as saying.
“When the smoke clears, they’ll say it was a success, and they’ll draw reinforcement for their plan to attack Iran.”
The report came as Israel – attempting to achieve a decisive victory over Hezbollah before the UN-brokered ceasefire kicks in today – sent 30,000 soldiers north into Lebanon in a bloody crescendo to the month-long war.
The attack included a night-time helicopter airlift of a large paratroop force deep inside Hezbollah territory, the largest airborne operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. One helicopter was downed by a missile on its way back to Israeli lines and all five crewmen were killed. Their deaths brought to 24 the number of Israelis killed on Saturday, the highest toll in the war. Israel said that twice as many Hezbollah fighters were killed.
An armoured force linked up with the paratroopers after a day’s battle in which half the tanks were knocked out by missiles.
The fighting was expected to grow more intense before the ceasefire took effect at 3pm (AEST) today.
Israeli military analysts acknowledged that the Israeli Defence Force could not, in the time remaining, deploy its forces along the length of the Litani River, 30km north of the border, as it intended.
The Government approved the broad attack last Wednesday but left it to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to decide when and if it should be launched, in light of the efforts being made at the UN to achieve a ceasefire resolution.
On Friday, after the draft text of the resolution had been revised in Lebanon’s favour, Israeli officials said, Mr Olmert decided to go ahead with the military option.
This decision was apparently what led to revisions in the UN text that satisfied Israel. But the attack order was not called off.
On Friday night, the IDF sent reserve forces massed on the Lebanese border into action, knowing that they were in a race against the clock.
One division on the western front drove towards the ancient coastal city of Tyre, while a division on the east moved north towards the Litani.
The plan called for the army to bypass villages that are Hezbollah strongholds, leaving them to be dealt with after the army had gotten as far north as it could. The army’s assumption appears to be that the ceasefire will not apply to “cleaning up” operations in areas already captured.
In Arabic-language broadcasts, Israel called on residents of southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah members, to surrender to Israeli forces and be spared death. The residents were asked to deposit their arms outside the first house at the eastern entrance to their villages where one representative with a white flag would await the soldiers.
All other men would sit on the ground outside the next house, with their hands behind their necks when the soldiers appeared. It is questionable if Hezbollah, which has fought fiercely until now, will surrender without a fight.
Criticism of the Government’s handling of the war, and of the top brass as well, has begun to be heard even before the shooting stops.
Both Left and Right are critical of the hesitancy of the Government to commit the armed forces to a full-scale war and of relying on the air force to subdue Hezbollah with minimal help from ground forces.
This criticism extends to Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, the first air force commander to be appointed overall commander of the IDF. “And the last,” one newspaper columnist asserted last week.
Leaders of the opposition Likud party called for Mr Olmert’s resignation as soon as the war ends.
In Ha’aretz, columnist Ari Shavit wrote: “You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power.”
Some columnists, however, argue that the war has brought significant advantages to Israel by removing Hezbollah as a permanent menace on the border.
By LAUREN FRAYER and KATHY GANNON
August 14, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Monday that his guerrillas achieved a “strategic, historic victory” against Israel – a declaration that prompted celebratory gunfire across the Lebanese capital.
Israel’s prime minister, however, maintained the offensive eliminated the “state within a state” run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese civilians jammed onto roads to stream back to war-ravaged areas Monday after a the cease-fire halted the fighting that claimed more than 900 lives.
For the first time in a month, no rockets were fired into northern Israel, but few Israelis who fled the war were seen returning and Israel’s government advised them to stay away for now.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah “came out victorious in a war in which big Arab armies were defeated (before).”
“We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without exaggeration,” Nasrallah said. He spoke on the day a cease-fire took effect — ending 34 days of deadly fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. Nasrallah called Monday “a great day.”
Now was not the time to debate the disarmament of his guerrilla fighters, Nasrallah asserted.
“Who will defend Lebanon in case of a new Israeli offensive?” he asked. “The Lebanese army and international troops are incapable of protecting Lebanon,” he said, flanked by Lebanese and Hezbollah flags.
But Nasrallah said he was open to dialogue about Hezbollah’s weapons at the appropriate time. And he credited his group’s weapons with proving to Israel that “war with Lebanon will not be a picnic. It will be very costly.”
“The main goal of Israel in this war has been to remove Hezbollah’s weapons. This will not happen through destroying homes… It will come through discussion,” Nasrallah said.
Israeli soldiers reported killing six Hezbollah fighters in four skirmishes in southern Lebanon after the guns fell silent, highlighting the tensions that could unravel the peace plan.
Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. officers met on the border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region, U.N. spokesman Milos Strugar said.
The meeting, the first involving a Lebanese army officer and a counterpart from Israel since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, marked the first step in the process of military disengagement as demanded by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
The fighting persisted until the last minutes before the cease-fire took effect Monday morning, with Israel destroying an antenna for Hezbollah’s TV station and Hezbollah guerrillas clashing with Israeli troops near the southern city of Tyre and the border village of Kfar Kila.
Israeli warplanes struck a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon and a Palestinian refugee camp in the south, killing two people, and Israeli artillery pounded targets across the border through the night.
After the cease-fire took effect, lines of cars — some loaded with mattresses and luggage — snaked slowly around bomb craters and ruined bridges as residents began heading south to find out what is left of their homes and businesses.
Humanitarian groups also sent convoys of food, water and medical supplies into the south, but the clogged roads slowed the effort. U.N. officials said 24 U.N. trucks took more than five hours to reach the port of Tyre from Sidon, a trip that normally takes 45 minutes.
Israel had not lifted its threat to destroy any vehicle on most southern roads, a ban designed to keep arms from getting to Hezbollah fighters, but there were no signs it was being enforced.
Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman, said the Israeli army was urging Lebanese civilians to stay out of the south until Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers moved in to oversee the cease-fire.
“There are lots of Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. For their own safety, we advise them (civilians) not to go,” Dallal said.
But Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said at midafternoon that aside from the isolated skirmishes with Hezbollah, the cease-fire was holding and could have implications for future relations with Israel’s neighbors.
In some places in the south, the rubble was still smoldering from a barrage of Israeli airstrikes just before the cease-fire took effect at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT).
“I just want to find my home,” said Ahmad Maana, who went back to Kafra, about five miles from the Israeli border, where whole sections of the town were flattened.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, people wrapped their faces with scarves as wind kicked up dust from the wreckage left by Israeli bombardments. Ahmed al-Zein poked through the ruins of his shop.
“This was the most beautiful street in the neighborhood,” he said. “Now it’s like an earthquake zone.”
There were no reports of Israeli strikes on cars — a sign Israel did not want to risk rekindling the conflict. But at least one child was killed and 15 people were wounded by ordnance that detonated as they returned to their homes in the south, security officials said.
The rush to return came despite a standoff that threatened to keep the cease-fire from taking root. Israeli forces remain in Lebanon, and Nasrallah said the militia would consider them legitimate targets until they leave.
In his speech, Nasrallah also promised to help the Lebanese rebuild.
Still, the truce ushered in a calm that the border region had not seen for more than a month.
Stores that had been closed for weeks began to reopen in Haifa, Israel’s third largest city and a frequent target of Hezbollah rockets, and a few people returned to the beaches.
In Kiryat Shemona, where more than half the population fled during the war, streets were mostly empty but traffic lights winked on again. The few grocery stores that braved more than 700 rockets on the town were still the only places for food, with restaurants and cafes shut.
Residents stirred from their bomb shelters, but there was no influx of returning refugees.
“People are still scared,” Haim Biton, 42, said, predicting things would not get back to normal soon. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“The city is still in a coma,” said Shoshi Bar-Sheshet, the deputy manager of a mortgage bank. Getting back to normal “doesn’t happen overnight,” she said.
The next step in the peace effort — sending in a peacekeeping mission — appeared days away.
A Lebanese Cabinet minister told Europe-1 radio in France that Lebanese soldiers could move into the southern part of the country as early as Wednesday. In Paris, the French foreign ministry said a U.N. peacekeeping force should be mobilized “as quickly as possible.”
The U.N. plan calls for a joint Lebanese-international force to move south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the Israeli border, and stand as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah militiamen.
“The Lebanese army is readying itself along the Litani to cross the river in 48 to 72 hours,” said Lebanese Communications Minister Marwan Hamade.
A United Nations force that now has 2,000 observers in south Lebanon is due to be boosted to 15,000 soldiers, and Lebanon’s army is to send in a 15,000-man contingent.
France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, have signaled willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, but consultations are needed on the force’s makeup and mandate. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said Italy’s troops could be ready within two weeks.
The French commander of the current U.N. force, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, said additional troops are needed quickly because the situation remains fragile. The region is “not safe from a provocation, or a stray act, that could undermine everything,” he told The Associated Press.
Officials said Israeli troops would begin pulling out as soon as the Lebanese and international troops start deploying to the area. But it appeared Israeli forces were staying put for now. Some exhausted soldiers left early Monday and were being replaced by fresh troops.
Israel also would maintain its air and sea blockade of Lebanon to prevent arms from reaching Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli army officials said.
The Israeli army reported scattered skirmishes with Hezbollah militiamen.
Officials said four militia fighters were killed in two clashes near the town of Hadatha when armed men approached Israeli troops three hours after the cease-fire began. Later clashes occurred near the towns of Farun and Shama, with one guerrilla killed in each, officials said.
“They were very close, they were armed, and they did pose a danger to the troops,” said Dallal, the military spokesman. “We’re going to shoot anybody who poses an imminent threat to the troops.”
Both Hezbollah and Israel claimed they came out ahead in the conflict.
Hezbollah distributed leaflets congratulating Lebanon on its “big victory” and thanking citizens for their patience during the fighting, which began July 12 when guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others in a cross-border raid.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israel’s parliament that the offensive eliminated the “state within a state” run by Hezbollah and restored Lebanon’s sovereignty in the south. Peretz, the defense minister, said the war opened a window for negotiations with Lebanon and renewed talks with Palestinians.
But many Israelis were upset by the high casualties during 34 days of fighting, and Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud Party, told lawmakers there were many failures in the war. Olmert acknowledged there were “deficiencies” in the way the war was conducted.
“We will have to review ourselves in all the battles,” Olmert said. “We won’t sweep things under the carpet.”
Lebanon said nearly 791 people were killed in the fighting. Israel said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians died in combat or from Hezbollah rockets.
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists working for the Fox News Channel in Gaza on Monday, a witness and the U.S. television network said.
A Fox spokeswoman in New York named the two journalists as correspondent Steve Centanni, an American, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, from New Zealand.
A Fox news report said the network did not know who had seized them but that “negotiations were under way to secure their release.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.
The witness said two vehicles blocked the journalists’ transmission truck in the center of Gaza City and a masked man put a gun to a bodyguard’s head, forcing him to the ground.
The kidnappers then sped away with the two journalists.
Palestinian police stopped and searched cars. A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamic militant group that leads the Palestinian government, condemned the kidnapping.
Similar incidents in the past in Gaza have ended with the release, usually within hours, of kidnapped foreign journalists or aid workers.
Many of the abductions were carried out by Palestinians pressing a grievance against the Palestinian government or its security forces.