Iraq al Qaeda claims missile attack on Israel

[stop the bleeding]

I figured this was OK to post here fairly important to the WAR on "Terra"

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda in Iraq said it had launched missiles at Israel from Lebanon as part of a "new attack" on the Jewish state, a statement posted on the Web said on Thursday.

Read more here….

12/29/2005 Iraq al Qaeda claims missile attack on Israel: Web - Reuters - news.yahoo.com

[Roland99]

1. "Al Qaeda in Iraq" is spreading the franchise.

* gave them the ability to exist in the first place.

[stop the bleeding]

3. No doubt - Israel is helping the Kurds too much -- see this

Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providing training for Kurdish commando units and, most important in Israel’s view, running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. Israel feels particularly threatened by Iran, whose position in the region has been strengthened by the war. The Israeli operatives include members of the Mossad, Israel’s clandestine foreign-intelligence service, who work undercover in Kurdistan as businessmen and, in some cases, do not carry Israeli passports.

Asked to comment, Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said, “The story is simply untrue and the relevant governments know it’s untrue.” Kurdish officials declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the State Department.

However, a senior C.I.A. official acknowledged in an interview last week that the Israelis were indeed operating in Kurdistan. He told me that the Israelis felt that they had little choice: “They think they have to be there.” Asked whether the Israelis had sought approval from Washington, the official laughed and said, “Do you know anybody who can tell the Israelis what to do? They’re always going to do what is in their best interest.” The C.I.A. official added that the Israeli presence was widely known in the American intelligence community.

The Israeli decision to seek a bigger foothold in Kurdistan—characterized by the former Israeli intelligence officer as “Plan B”—has also raised tensions between Israel and Turkey. It has provoked bitter statements from Turkish politicians and, in a major regional shift, a new alliance among Iran, Syria, and Turkey, all of which have significant Kurdish minorities. In early June, Intel Brief, a privately circulated intelligence newsletter produced by Vincent Cannistraro, a retired C.I.A. counterterrorism chief, and Philip Giraldi, who served as the C.I.A.’s deputy chief of base in Istanbul in the late nineteen-eighties, said:

New Yorker article here: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact

[htuttle]

5. "Dread Terrorist Zarqawi, Franchise #7327"

[HuffleClaw]

2. *yawn*

bush needs to hire some new propagandists

[sabra]

4. wouldn't that make it Al Qaeda in Lebanon?

this doesn't smell right...

[sabra]

6. here's what an Israeli security source said:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29168347.htm

<snip>

The Israeli security source said: "For this to be true, it would mean that al Qaeda, a virulently anti-Shi'ite group, has penetrated the heartland of Hizbollah, a virulent Shi'ite group, on such a scale that it can mount a rocket salvo independently.

"This claim should be regarded with extreme scepticism."

[stop the bleeding]

7. Great work Sabra!

[cantstandbush]

8. But they didn't say it "didn't happen." n/t

[sabra]

9. there's no question the attack did happen

the controversy is who was behind it...

[bemildred]

10. Must be having a new fund-raising drive. nt

[madeline_con]

11. Too cold for a BBQ in Crawford? n/t

[bemildred]

12. Gotta clear all that "brush" first. nt