Excerpts: Israel-Hizbollah swap deal boost Hamas. Iran threatens oil
passage.Saudi terrorism continues.Drug threat in Saudi 1 July 2008

+++JORDAN TIMES 1 July '08:"Israel-Hizbollah swap deal boost Hamas"
QUOTE:" Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zohar ...'We have to take advantage of this
to release our prisoners' "

EXCERPTS: GAZA CITY (AP) - Palestinian fighters in Gaza holding an Israeli
soldier said June 30 they have no reason to soften their demands in
negotiations over his release, citing the high price that Israel is paying
in a planned prisoner swap with Hizbollah.
. . .Israel has balked at Hamas demands for a large-scale release of
Palestinian prisoners, including many convicted in deadly attacks. But Hamas
strongman Mahmoud Zahar said his group would take advantage of Israel's
decision in separate negotiations over the captive soldier held by his
group.
In a radio interview, he said Hamas would work "to release people Israel
accused of having blood on their hands like Samir Kantar. We have to take
advantage of this to release our prisoners." Israeli government spokesman
Mark Regev would not comment on Zahar's remarks.
. . .
Defending the deal, Olmert told a meeting of his Kadima Party on 30 June: "I
knew there would be criticism, but I did this because I wanted the boys to
return home."

+++JORDAN TIMES 1 July '08:"US 'won't allow' Iran to shut key Gulf oil
route",Agence France Presse

QUOTE:" 'They will not close it ... They will not be allowed to close it' "

EXCERPTS:MANAMA (AFP) - The commander of the US navy's Fifth Fleet warned on
June 30 that the United States will not allow Iran to shut the Strait of
Hormuz, the Gulf sea lane through which much of the world's oil is supplied.
"They will not close it... They will not be allowed to close it," Vice
Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff told a press conference in Bahrain, where the
Fifth Fleet is based.
His remarks followed comments by the chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary
Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, who issued a new warning last week
against any attack against his country over its controversial nuclear drive.
"It is natural that when a country is attacked it uses all of its
capabilities against the enemy, and definitely our control of the Persian
Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz would be one of our actions," Jafari said.
The strait between Iran and Oman is a vital conduit for energy supplies,
with as much as 40 per cent of the world's crude passing through the
waterway from Gulf suppliers.
"Certainly if there is fighting... the scope will be extended to oil,
meaning its price will increase drastically. This will deter our enemies
from taking action against Iran," Jafari said.
Cosgriff said: "The latest Iranian statements are not helpful." He insisted
that the international community will work to protect navigation in the
Strait of Hormuz, adding that any action by Iran "will not be an action
against the United States but against the international community".
. . .A former head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence agency, Shabtai
Shavit, said in comments published on 29 Lune that the Jewish state had one
year to destroy Iran's nuclear programme or face the risk of coming under
nuclear attack.. . .

+++JORDAN TIMES 1 July '08:"Saudi Al Qaeda seen under control despite
arrests",By Andrew Hammond. Reuters

QUOTE:" 'Saudi Arabia will be rife with "jihadist" thinking for years to
come' "
FULL TEXT:RIYADH - A recent crackdown on suspected militants in Saudi Arabia
is a reminder by the authorities that Al Qaeda remains a potential threat to
its oil-based economy, analysts said.
The interior ministry said last week it was holding 520 suspects, arrested
since January, who planned to stage car bomb attacks against oil and
security installations in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.
They had set up cells in the east and west of the large desert country where
they were collecting funds, and they were also in contact with Al Qaeda
second-in-command Ayman Zawahri and militants in North Africa, Iraq and
Afghanistan, it said.
"The threat of terrorism is no doubt real, but it is difficult to say how
serious it is," said Thomas Hegghammer, a research associate at Princeton
University.
"Many of the people detained were not plotting attacks inside the kingdom,
but rather recruiting for Iraq or contributing to jihadist Internet forums.
In the past Al Qaeda activity was underreported but now it is probably
overreported." Saudi Arabia will be rife with "jihadist" thinking for years
to come, Hegghammer said, because its official austere Wahhabi religious
establishment has contributed to legitimising the general concept for
decades.
"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" began a campaign to destabilise the
US-allied Saudi government in 2003 with two suicide bomb attacks on foreign
housing compounds in Riyadh.
Led by Saudis who took part in the fighing in Afghanistan and other
hotspots, the violence was brought to halt by Saudi security forces in
cooperation with foreign experts in a counter-insurgency campaign that won
plaudits in the West.
The last major attack was a failed attempt to storm the world's largest oil
processing plant at Abqaiq in February 2006.
Since then the government says it has arrested hundreds of suspects, but
analysts are so sure of the success of the security crackdown that they are
suspicious of recent announcements made with great fanfare in state media.
The language used in the recent arrests was notably vague and repetitive,
talking at some points of attacks on "oil installations" and at others of a
car bomb attack on one oil installation and another security installation.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef was quoted on Sunday as saying that 90 per
cent of the suspects were Saudis, but no information has been given on their
identities or hundreds of others detained over the past year.
Saudi opposition figures say there are now over 3,000 suspects held in Saudi
jails without charge. The government has talked repeatedly about trials but
none have come to pass.
Hundreds of Saudis have headed to Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003
brought in a US-allied government of mainly Shiite Muslims backed by US
troops.
"The Islamist threat is real but is also within government control," said
Ali Al Ahmed, a dissident based in Washington.
"Washington's fight against Islamist militancy has encouraged undemocratic
Arab governments to silence reformers in the name of the "war on terror".

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 1 July '08:"Steep rise in Captagon abuse in Kingdom:
UNODC
report ",M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan
QUOTE:"Saudi Arabia is the No.1 abuser ...
in the region"

FULL TEXT:RIYADH: Saudi Customs forms have a strongly worded disclaimer
warning that drug traffickers are given the death penalty, but Saudi Arabia
is the No. 1 abuser of stimulants in the region despite this ominous message
to smugglers, according to a new report released by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"More illegal amphetamines are being seized in the Gulf than in the US,
China and Britain combined," said the 303-page report released last week.
"Captagon pills - a mixture of the stimulants fenethylline and caffeine -
change hands for only a few riyals on the streets of Jeddah, Manama and
Doha."
Captagon was originally prescribed for treating severe conditions such as
depression and narcolepsy.
The report uses words like "unprecedented" and "dramatic increase" to
describe the abuse of stimulants in Saudi Arabia, information based on a
spike in drug seizures.
Stimulants from Bulgaria and Turkey are being trucked through Syria and
Jordan and distributed throughout the Gulf region, it said.
The UNODC report reveals how young Saudis and Arabs fall prey to drugs and
addiction. The report documents how Captagon seizures mushroomed from 291
kgs in 2000 to 12.3 tons in 2006.
Omani officials have also confiscated two tons of illegal stimulants
recently, while smaller shipments were seized in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and
Kuwait.
The report also speaks about the lack of enforcement and forensics
infrastructure, which have been eluding all attempts to tackle Captagon
traffickers.
The 30mg tablets have become a craze among the Gulf's sizeable population of
teenagers and adults aged 20-25, offering users a sensation of
self-confidence that eventually leads to addiction and paranoia. Boys tend
to take the drug for its stimulating effect while girls are using it as a
combination stimulant/weight loss supplement.
Both sexes use the drug to stay awake as they study for final exams or for
recreation at social gatherings.
===========
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA