US Military Launches Mysterious Mini-Shuttle into Space

 

 

WASHINGTON, December 12 (RIA Novosti) - The United States Air Force successfully launched an unmanned Atlas V rocket Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying a small robotic military space shuttle, kicking off a month long classified operation.

"The focus of the program remains on testing vehicle capabilities and proving the utility and cost-effectiveness of a reusable spacecraft," Air Force spokeswoman Tracy Bunko wrote in an email to Reuters in an apparent attempt to debunk the speculation.

Closely resembling a miniature space shuttle, the top-secret X-37B space vehicle soared into the atmosphere just after 1 p.m. EST (6 p.m. GMT).

About 15 minutes into the launch, mission control reported the rocket was flying at 13,000 mph (20,921 kph) and performing perfectly according to media reports.

Two minutes later, launch commentary ended according to the Associated Press, and a news blackout followed, adding yet another layer of mystery to the secret mission.

Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, speculates the mini-shuttle is carrying sensors for spying and likely serving as a testbed for future satellites, according to the Associated Press.

This is the second flight for the original X-37B space vehicle. It circled the Earth for seven months in 2010. Another X-37B spent more than a year in orbit.

The Air Force would not comment on how long this mission will last.

http://www.rianovosti.com/world/20121212/178086073.html

U.S., U.K. companies host Hezbollah-funded propaganda site

Hosting Hate

 

 

A United States-based Internet company is currently hosting a propaganda website operated by the terror group Hezbollah, potentially in violation of a law meant to prevent Americans from providing material support to U.S.-designated terror groups.

The Missouri-based GSI Hosting is granting server space to Al Manar TV, which is owned and funded by Hezbollah, according to research provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The U.S. has cited Hezbollah and Al Manar as terrorist organizations, a designation that makes it illegal for anyone in America to “knowingly provide ‘material support or resources’” to the groups, according to the State Department.

The U.S., Canada, France, and several other countries have also banned Al Manar, rendering its current dealings with both U.S. and British companies even more problematic to observers.

Al Manar has been known to employ members of Hezbollah, which is committed to Israel’s destruction, and routinely broadcasts anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda.

GSI Hosting, which is owned by the Texas-based Layered Tech, was notified last month by MEMRI that it was hosting Al Manar’s website.

The site was subsequently removed on Nov. 26, but reappeared on the company’s servers on Dec. 6, according to MEMRI executive director Steven Stalinsky. Stalinsky has authored several reports detailing Al Manar’s emergence on both U.S. and United Kingdom-based Internet servers.

Two U.K.-based companies play host to Hezbollah’s website:
Coreix and ServerSpace Ltd in addition to GSI hosting.

MEMRI has notified all of these companies that it could be violating the law by hosting the terror group’s website.

“It is one thing for a company not to know who’s on their servers, but after having a major terrorism organization on their servers and being notified it’s unacceptable it has happened again,” Stalinsky told the Free Beacon.

Layered Tech, GSI Hosting’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment about its business dealings with Al Manar.

It was still hosting Al Manar’s website as of Monday.

Hezbollah prides itself on its sophisticated use of the Internet.

The web has become a near-unrestricted breeding ground for terrorist activities and Hezbollah has capitalized on this by disseminating terrorist propaganda and recruiting new operatives.

Hezbollah maintains Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook pages. It also has created applications that have been marketed by Apple and Google.

But the Al Manar site remains its chief propaganda front.

“It’s pretty easy for Hezbollah to have their website and send it to another company to put it on their servers” once one firm has removed it, Stalinsky explained. “But it’s definitely also easy to remove it.”

For this reason the website is known to hop from server to server in multiple countries, MEMRI reported.

“Hezbollah has managed to circumvent the ban with its multiple-language website www3.almanar.com.lb, which live-streams its programming,” MEMRI stated in a recent report on the matter.

The Los Angeles-based web hosting company HopOne also briefly hosted Al Manar though it quickly removed the offending site once MEMRI notified them of its presence on their servers.

Companies located in the Netherlands also have hosted the website in recent weeks.

The precise law governing this activity is murky, experts said.
The U.S. clearly prohibits any American from offering “material support” to those it deems as terrorist organizations. Yet legal experts define this term differently, leaving confusing gray areas.
“There’s always the excuse, ‘We don’t know,’” explained Stalinsky. “It’s a very tricky question.”

“In the case of Al Manar, they have an English page,” he added. “It’s one thing not to know. But when you’re notified, to keep it up” is immoral.

These U.K. and U.S. Internet companies are “in a contract with Hezbollah and helping them disseminate their propaganda,” Stalinsky said.

http://freebeacon.com/hosting-hate/

Iran's death squad is here

 

 

Iran has infiltrated a team of Quds Force terrorist leaders into the United States to attack from within in 2013, according to a source.

The source within the office of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic regime, said the team is to create instability in America through terrorism should the U.S. fail to accept the regime’s illicit nuclear program, increase sanctions, confront Iran militarily or intervene in the Syrian civil war.

 

Members of the team, no more than 10 Quds Force officers, each lead cells totaling about 50 terrorists already in the U.S.
The source is risking his life not only to reveal the terror operation but to warn that Iran is pursuing its nuclear bomb program around the clock from several secret sites.

Details of the terror plot, meant to disrupt the West, have been passed on to U.S. officials, who are taking countermeasures.

The source said the team members, unlike the alleged Iranian operative Manssor Arbabsiar, who was arrested in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C. in 2011, are highly trained and sophisticated.

The team leaders are all senior Revolutionary Guard officers who were recruited for this specific mission nine years ago on the recommendation of the Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani, and with the approval of security advisers to Khamenei.

Some of these individuals held high-level posts before joining the mission. One served as the security officer in the supreme leader’s office, another was a member of the special forces for intelligence and security in charge of protecting regime officials, two were in charge of security of ground and air transportation, another was a commander of recruiting assets, and others had experience in security and intelligence.

Most of the team members have been in America for a year; a few were successfully placed here about five years ago.

The families of the team members are financially supported by the regime, but team members are financially supported through various means as they do not maintain any contact with Iran.

Two wealthy Iranian businessmen in Iran with ties in Europe are used to finance the team; one routinely travels to the U.S.

One well-established Iranian businessman in America who often travels to Iran was approached by the Quds Force for his collaboration in return for incentives in Iran. He acts as the sponsor of the team, transfers cash to team members, hosts meetings at his residence and passes on information from the regime to the team.

He also takes care of any legal issues, leases, contracts and such.

Information and pictures of potential targets have been submitted for Khamenei’s approval, the source added. They include high-voltage towers to create blackouts, cell towers, water supplies, public transportation and various other buildings belonging to the Defense Department and military.

The source said the planned attacks could be greater than what happened on 9/11 and that in the last phase of the attack, al-Qaida operatives will also be involved.

After Osama bin Laden’s death, Khamenei has taken a greater role in leadership on the collaboration with al-Qaida, and according to the source, four top al-Qaida commanders visit Khamenei every two months.

The plan is that if by next six months America does not accept Iran’s nuclear program and either increases sanctions or a military confrontation occurs, the assets have been ordered to carry out their mission. The regime feels it must act by then because current sanctions, which have already had a serious effect on Iran’s economy, could spark civilian rioting.

As reported in the Washington Times on Oct. 5, a secret memo by the regime’s Intelligence Ministry warned that deteriorating economic conditions from international sanctions had greatly increased the possibility of an uprising and urged them to take appropriate action.

The United States has set a March deadline for Iran to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency demands on its nuclear program or face much harsher measures.

The regime believes, the source said, that if the U.S. fails to accept Iran’s nuclear program, Israel will be much more likely to attack its nuclear facilities and military installations.

Previously an exclusive report in WND revealed that terror cells of the Islamic regime were on high alert to attack targets in America.

Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, deputy head of Iran’s armed forces, stated that, “In the face of any attack, we will have a crushing response. In that case, we will not only act in the boundaries of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, no place in America will be safe from our attacks.”

Iranian officials also see the possible overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad as a red line, and with the looming confrontation over their nuclear program, they have taken several measures, one of which is to retaliate against Israel through several fronts and in coordination with their proxies, such as Hezbollah. As reported in WND, 170 ballistic missiles have been pre-targeted on Tel Aviv alone, some with biological warheads. And an attack on America from within would create economic havoc on the fragile U.S. economy.

The source warned that the IAEA has no idea that the Islamic regime is actively working on its nuclear bomb program at secret sites, that it has even enriched uranium to over 90 percent – weaponization grade – and that with the help of North Korea, it is working on a plutonium bomb.

The assumption that Iran is far from accomplishing its goals is a hoax, the source warned. The regime next year will make operational intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. Armed with nuclear weapons, it would be too late for the world, he said.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award-winning book “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/next-911-irans-death-squad-is-here/#wgi0UUvJl74z8kqZ.99 

Report: Iran has nuclear-capable missiles, is developing a space launch program

 

 

Iran possesses the “largest number of ballistic missiles in the Middle East” and is secretly producing long-range missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload, according to a nonpartisan report authored by Congress’ research arm.

Additionally, Tehran has developed “a genuine and ambitious space launch program, which seeks to enhance Iran’s … international reputation as a growing advanced industrial power,” according to a Dec. 6 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report investigating Iran’s increasingly sophisticated military capabilities.

It is suspected that Tehran’s space program “could mask” the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to targets across the region.

Iran is “developing and producing medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) capabilities with ranges estimated up to about 2,000 kilometers (with some non-U.S. government sources citing slightly higher ranges), sufficient to strike targets throughout the Middle East,” the report states. “U.S. intelligence assessments state such missiles are inherently capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.”

Missiles of this sort are also capable of striking United States assets in the region, as well as any city in Israel.

“Congress is considering the deployment of a ballistic missile defense site on the East coast to defend against possible Iranian ICBMs,” according to the report.

A provision allocating $103 million to the development of this system by 2015 is included in the House’s fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill.

The report further suggests that Western economic sanctions have failed to fully stymie the regime while frustrating Tehran’s nuclear bid.

“Export controls and sanctions have made it increasingly difficult, but certainly not impossible, for Iran to acquire the best of such items,” the report notes.

Iran has successfully skirted sanctions by exploiting weaknesses in the law and by finding “foreign sellers willing to circumvent those laws,” according to the CRS report, which was authored by missile defense specialist Steven Hildreth.

Evidence from U.S. intelligence sources indicates that Iran has “constructed an underground network of bunkers and underground silo-like missile launch facilities,” the report states.

Tehran also has boosted its air defense capabilities—which include new anti-aircraft missile systems—in an effort to protect its weapons caches against an attack by the U.S. or Israel.

“Although it is not certain that Iran has made the decision to develop a nuclear weapon, it is taking steps to drastically reduce the time needed to obtain nuclear weapons should a decision be made to do so,” the report states.

Iran operates multiple development facilities across the country as another line of defense against a preemptive strike by the West.

“Iran is pursuing its missile and space programs with development and testing facilities that are scattered throughout the country,” according to the CRS report.

Economic sanctions have forced the regime to innovate its own military technology.

“Over the past few decades, Iran has progressed from relying entirely on the outright purchase of ballistic missile systems to becoming nearly self-sufficient in important ways,” according to CRS. “Many now see Iran as a potential supplier to other nations or actors.”

Reports indicate that its military has had substantial success in building advanced weaponry.

“Iran has grown increasingly self-sufficient in the production of [short range ballistic missiles] but it still probably relies on others for some key components,” according to CRS. “The vast majority of Iran’s heavy artillery rockets and ballistic missiles are short-range of less than about 500 kilometers.”

Kermanshah SRBM Base, CRS report / fas.org

 

Iran’s space program remains the most secretive and puzzling aspect of its military program.

The U.S. suspects that Tehran aims to launch “intelligence gathering satellites into orbit.”

Observers remain most concerned about the potential development of an ICBM that could carry a nuclear warhead to either Europe or America.

“Many believe Iran’s space launch program could mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)—with ranges in excess of 5,500 km that could threaten targets throughout Europe and even the United States if Iran achieved an ICBM capability of at least 10,000 km,” the report states.

“Since 1999, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has assessed that Iran could test an ICBM by 2015 with sufficient foreign assistance, especially from a country such as China or Russia,” the report states.

Current estimates put the date of a potential test later than 2015 due to setbacks resulting from economic sanctions and waning support from China and Russia.

http://freebeacon.com/iranian-ambition/

Naples arms seizure busts Iran’s Balkan-Italian arms smuggling routes

 

The seizure of five containers by the Maritime Police in the Port of Naples last Friday, Dec. 7 - before they were loaded on an Egyptian freighter – shut down two of Iran’s mainline clandestine arms routes to the Hamas-ruled Gaza from Kosovo and Macedonia via Croatia and Italy, debkafile reports exclusively from its military and intelligence sources.

The Naples police acted on a tip-off from Israel. Iranian arms smuggling rings were then partly rolled up in other parts of Italy together with “another cache of weapons.”

Western intelligence sources say this Israeli undercover operation was equal in significance and scope to the bombing on Oct. 24 of the Iranian-Sudanese missile industrial center at Yarmouk and the destruction of a stock of Fajr-5 rockets that was bound for the Gaza Strip through Sinai.

The Naples operation shut down two more Iranian clandestine arms-smuggling routes and sources of arms for Palestinian terrorists – this one from southern Europe.

Contrary to the reports that the five contraband containers were seized aboard an Egyptian vessel anchored in Naples, debkafile reveals that they were in fact removed from trucks entering the port with documents for loading the containers aboard that vessel. The documents described the containers’ contents as building materials coming from Verona, 570 kilometers to the north of Naples, which has large factories making tiles and other wares for bathrooms and kitchens.

Forewarned from Israel, Italian security inspectors ordered the truck drivers to pull over to an isolated section of the port and put up an entry forbidden notice. The first containers opened were packed with arms and other military equipment, including electronic devices for improving rocket accuracy, hundred of anti-tank missiles and a large quantity of snipers’ rifles for sharpshooting. The ship’s destination was listed as Alexandria, Egypt on the papers.

An Egyptian man waiting to place the cargo aboard the ship was detained for interrogation and charged with illegal possession of arms. Further arrests in other parts of Italy followed.
The Italian authorities have been uncharacteristically secretive about the identity of the Egyptian detainee, their additional arrests, the name of the Egyptian freighter and even the nationality of its flag - in consideration of the sensitivity of Israel’s undercover work against Iran’s contraband arms networks and routes.

According to debkafile’s intelligence sources, Iran has developed highly sophisticated networks for smuggling arms to its allies which run by land and by sea. Two begin in Kosovo and Macedonia where local Muslim collaborators purchase the weapons and pack them on container trucks ready for their first lap to Croatia, then on to Verona, where they wait for weeks - or sometimes months - before continuing to the next lap. This break in their journey is used to make sure they are not followed and throw of the scent if they are.

For another route, our sources report that Italian sea smugglers offload containers from Iranian merchant vessels in the Adriatic Sea and bring them ashore at small inlets in the northern Italian province of Veneto. They too are trucked to the clandestine terminal Iran has set up in Verona. When they are certain they have not been spotted, the trucks are sent down the long road to Naples.

There, the containers are loaded onto Egyptian freighters bound for Alexandria and Port Said. But first, they stop off quietly at the northern Sinai port of El Arish, where Hamas operatives are waiting to offload the arms and push the new consignment through smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip.

http://www.debka.com/article/22606/Naples-arms-seizure-busts-Iran%E2%80%99s-Balkan-Italian-arms-smuggling-routes-

Obama planning direct talks with Iran; US will strike in 4-5 months if they don’t bear fruit, Israeli TV report says

Channel 10 News says US president keeping Israel out of the loop, holds Netanyahu personally responsible for leaks from UN reports

 

 

 

Washington has decided to negotiate directly with Iran, and will resort to military force in four or five months if diplomacy can’t persuade Tehran to relinquish its alleged atomic weapons program, Israel’s Channel 10 News reported on Tuesday night, quoting a senior American official.

 

The channel’s veteran diplomatic correspondent Emmanuel Rosen reported that President Barack Obama had decided to bypass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and leave Israel out of the loop.

 

Rosen said that Obama believed Netanyahu was personally behind a recent series of purported leaks from reports produced by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) about the Iranian program.

 

According to a report Monday in the Guardian, Western officials speculate that Israel could have leaked the information in order to increase international pressure on the Iranian regime.

 

Obama, the report said, had set down some preconditions to negotiations, demanding that Iran cease production of high-enriched uranium and grant IAEA inspectors full access to, and supervision over, its nuclear facilities.

 

Channel 10 suggested that America’s decision to hold off on military involvement in Syria for the time being was due to the fact that it didn’t want to open a new front with the prospect of a war against Iran looming on the horizon.

 

In recent weeks, there have been increasing indications from the US that it is willing to hold direct bilateral talks with Iran.

 

The basic contours of any negotiated solution are clear: US, European and other international sanctions would be eased if Iran halts its enrichment of uranium that is getting closer to weapons-grade, sends abroad its existing stockpile of such uranium and suspends operations at its underground Fordo facility.

 

But Iran’s leadership has refused to bite on that approach, even as the value of its currency has dropped precipitously against the dollar, sparking an economic depression and massive public discontent.

 

That has prompted US brainstorming on ways to reshape the offer to make it more attractive for the Iranians, without granting any new concessions that would reward the regime for its intransigence, administration officials said in November. They spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

 

Last week, Iran’s foreign ministry said direct talks with the United States were possible, but that such a step would have to first be approved by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-planning-direct-talks-with-iran-will-strike-in-4-5-months-if-they-dont-bear-fruit-israeli-tv-report-says/

The Khatib Controversy – How Liberal is He? More Countries Recognize National Coalition

Friday, November 16th, 2012

Washington (AP) — Obama says US not ready to recognize new Syrian opposition group as ‘government in exile’. France, Turkey, and Gulf States recognize the National Coalition.

Foreign Affairs

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is urging the Syrian opposition to unite as France pushes for arming the opposition. Lavrov met with Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia stressing the unification of Syrian opposition groups and calling for the establishment of a team to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Syrian opposition groups formed an umbrella coalition on Sunday in what Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad criticized as a “declaration of war.” France said it will discuss arms supplies to the Syrian opposition with its European partners. While French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he was wary of injecting more weapons into the war torn country, the government is looking for a relaxation of a European Union arms embargo which has made it difficult for “defensive arms” to reach opposition fighters.

• Turkey recognized the Syrian opposition’s new coalition as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”

• Protests against King Abdullah II and rising gas prices continued in Jordan for a third night.

• The Pentagon estimated that it would need 75,000 troops to seize Syria’s chemical weapons.

This Friday is named “Support the National Coalition Friday”

The group posts numerous videos of demonstrations “in support of the National Coalition” (the new anti-regime coalition) it says have taken place today in various parts of the country. The name of today’s protests is “Support of the National Coalition Friday”, according to the LCCS.
 

Islamist-In-Chief
The new leader of Syria’s opposition has a history of statements that are anti-Semitic, outrageous, and sometimes downright bizarre.
BY MOHANAD HAGE ALI | NOVEMBER 14, 2012 – Foreign Policy

Summary by Joshua Landis: Mohanad Hage Ali goes through Khatib’s speeches and website to show that he calls Shiites “rawafid” or rejectors because they reject the first three caliphs of the “Rashidun,” or rightly guided Caliiphs, which Sunnis hold up as marking the “Golden Age”of Islam. This is a common accusation against Shiites, which is used by Wahhabis in Arabia to call Shiites unbelievers and conspirators who have entered Islam to destroy it from within. We have no evidence to believe that Syria’s new leader in exile would go so far as to call Shiites unbelievers because they are rawafid, but he does criticizing Shiites’ for their ability to “establish lies and follow them.” By using the word “rawafid” to describe Shiites, he will not make friends among Shiites. He will also encourage Syria’s Alawites to believe Assad’s propaganda that the opposition is intolerant and sectarian, wishing harm on Alawites because of their religious beliefs and not merely because of their political misdeeds and willingness of many to support the Assad regime even as it carries out brutal crimes against fellow Syrians. It will give liberal Westerners cause to worry about religious tolerance in the Syria they are helping to build. Khatib also has made anti-Jewish statements. He writes that one of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s positive legacies was “terrifying the Jews.” Washington’s liberal establishment will find no comfort in this as they make the case for providing Khatib and his group with legitimacy and weapons. All the same, Sheikh Khatib has made many expressions of religious tolerance.
One of these is this statement to a crowd near Damascus soon after the Syrian uprising began last year: “My brothers, we lived all our lives, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, and Druze, as a one-hearted community. And with us lived our dear brothers [Christians] who follow Jesus, peace be upon him. We should adhere to this bond between us and protect it at all times.”
To Alawites he said: “I say to you that Alawites are closer to me than many other people I know,” he said Sunday after being elected president of the National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the Syrian Opposition. “When we talk about freedom, we mean freedom for every single person in this country.”]
The battle over ecumenical statements of tolerance comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with religious dialogue in Damascus. Many of Syria’s religious leaders who are most associated with ecumenical dialogue are those who were also closest to the regime. They are accused of being creatures of the Assad regime, for Assad did a lot of arm twisting to get “friendly shiekhs” to make ecumenical pronouncements that would make Alawites and other religious minorities feel accepted and equal. They were also meant to help legitimize the regime, which claimed to be a defender of secularism and religious tolerance. Two of these shaikhs recruited by the state were the Grand Mufti Ahmed Kuftaro and his successor Shaykh Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun.
Sheikh Kuftaro announced during the sixties that Abu Nur was commemorating the birth of Christ and he invited leaders from the Syrian and Lebanese Christian communities. An uproar naturally ensued, but left no doubt who ecumenical dialogue’s strongest supporter was. A later comment on the nature of Jesus perhaps summarized Sheikh Ahmed’s views most succinctly: “If a Muslim does not acknowledge Sayyidna Isa (Jesus), then his Islam is for naught”
Sheikh Hassoun sparked controversy on 19 January 2010 when he commented, “If the Prophet Muhammad had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Muhammad himself a heretic,” and, “[i]f Muhammad had ordered me to kill people, I would have told him, ‘You are not a Prophet.’” In a later clarification, Hassoun stated that his initial statement had actually been, “If our Prophet Muhammad had ordered me to disbelieve in Moses and Jesus…”
Provoking an outcry amongst many orthodox Muslims, news of the incident reached the English-speaking world primarily after the prominent Muslim scholar Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi‘s public condemnation of the mufti. During his Friday sermon of 22 January at Masjid al-Hasan in Damascus, Ya’qoubi decried Hassoun’s indiscretion, imputing disbelief to his words, and demanded that the mufti resign. Ya’qoubi’s comments led to his own immediate dismissal from the pulpit.
Hassoun is vocal in his opinion that states should be ruled on a civil rather than religious basis, believing that secularism is not synonymous with atheism, a sentiment that holds great sway in Syria’s religiously diverse society.

“I don’t believe in religious wars nor in holy wars. The killing of another human is not a holy deed. I never saw religion bid me to kill anyone. My religion has commanded me to try to reach out to people to bring them to a state of peace,” he declares, adding that it is important to teach people, especially the young, to have respect for all sacred teachings. “The Crusades as well the Islamic conquests were to serve political interests and had nothing to do with religion.”

But when the US debated whether to invade Syria after the beginning of the uprising, Hassoun extolled martyrdom operations. In a public address which aired on Syria News TV and was posted on the Internet on October 9, 2011 (as translated by MEMRI), Hassoun threatened to activate suicide bombers in Europe and the United States if Syria is attacked, stating that “The moment the first missile hits Syria, all the sons and daughters of Lebanon and Syria will set out to become martyrdom-seekers in Europe and on Palestinian soil. I say to all of Europe and to the US: We will prepare martyrdom-seekers who are already among you, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon.” He further added that “Do not think that the people who will commit martyrdom in France, Britain, or the US, will be Arabs and Muslims. They will be a new Jules Jammal or a new Muhammad Al-Durrah. They will all be like the righteous [of the past].”

Having studied the different faiths in the world, Dr Ahmad Badr says, religions do not conflict as they all invite to one essential value, which is the sacredness of the divine and the inherent dignity of the individual.

But the problem, he says, is that followers do not really comprehend the religion they adhere to and that some political leaders exploit religious sentiment and “light the fire to promote discord and enmity” between the followers of different faiths to advance their own special interest. “Don’t ask me about the Arab lands. I am so saddened by what they are doing in those places. I don’t complain about the enemies,” he says.

He often repeated that he belonged to all strands of Islam, including Shiite: “I am Sunni in practice, Shiite in allegiance. My roots are Salafi, and my purity is Sufi.” This, he said, is the type of international Muslim he is trying to mold: “There is no contradiction in being both Sunni and Shiite. That’s how one’s Islam becomes complete.” “Praying in a church or a synagogue is like praying in a mosque. They’re all houses of God.”
The tolerance controversy is very important to the future of Syria because it goes to the heart of the unresolved question of religion and its rightful role in politics. So long as the major opposition parties and militias are not clear about the role of religion in Syria’s future state, many Syrians will remain concerned.

Syria’s new opposition wins Western backing, but what about Western weapons?

Tony Karon writes: Syria’s new opposition leadership structure announced in Qatar on Sunday could mark a turning point in the stalemated 20-month old rebellion against the Assad regime. But it could just as easily prove to be another chimerical Western attempt to stand up a friendly regime for an Arab country in transition. That’s because [...]

 

http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=16718