Excerpts: Ron Arad:Lebanon to Iran to Lebanon to die.Syria terrorist conduit
to Iraq September 06, 2009

+++SOURCE:NAHARNET (Lebanon) 6 Sept.'09:"Intelligence Report: Arad Died of
Illness in Captivity in Mid 1990s"

QUOTE:"Arad was taken to Iran because the Revolutionary Guards wanted . . .
to claim the 'prestigious' abduction for themselves"

FULL TEXT:A secret military intelligence committee report has determined
that Israeli airman Ron Arad died of unknown illness in captivity in Lebanon
in mid-1990s, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday(6 Sept).

The committee was formed four years ago to determine the fate of Arad, a F-4
Phantom navigator captured on October 16, 1986 after his plane was shot down
over Lebanon.
He was captured by AMAL movement and later turned over to Iran, Ahonoth
said.
According to a book by Dr. Ronen Bergman detailing the committee's work and
various domestic and foreign intelligence reports gathered in the case, the
committee determined that Arad was still alive nine years after he was
captured, the report said.
It said Arad is believed to have died from an unknown illness after the
Iranians returned him to Lebanon, where he was held at a Revolutionary
Guards facility. Both Iran and Hizbullah have been unable to locate his
gravesite, the report added.
The Israeli Intelligence community, according to the report, has gone to
great lengths to try and recover any information regarding Arad. Israel and
AMAL held fruitless Germen-brokered negotiation on the matter for a long
period of time.
In 1988, Arad disappeared from the home of the AMAL officer guarding him. By
the mid 1990s, after it was ascertained that Arad's fate was in Iran's
hands, German mediation efforts focused on Tehran.
In 1995, the Iranian ambassador to Germany informed the German mediator that
Tehran "was no longer involved. We don't know who Ron Arad is or where he
is. If you think he is in Lebanon or held by Hizbullah, see if Hassan
Nasrallah can help you."
Meanwhile, Military Intelligence continued analyzing the case material. They
eventually concluded that Arad was held in Lebanon for several years before
being transferred to Iran in 1990.
The committee, the report went on to say, concluded that Arad was taken to
Iran because the Revolutionary Guards wanted, as part of an internal power
struggle, to claim the "prestigious" abduction for themselves.
Tehran repeatedly denied having any information on Arad, but it is believed
he was held by the unit in the strictest confidence and in complete
isolation.
The committee also said that Arad died in early 1995, just about the time
the Iranians informed Germany that they were no longer a part of the
equation, the report added.

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 6 Sept.'09:"Iraq boosts security on Syrian border
amid
bombs row".Mohammad Ameen, Agence France Presse

QUOTE: Iraqi P.M.:"90 percent of foreign terrorists who infiltrate Iraq did
so via Syria"

EXCERPTS:BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has sent extra troops
to secure
the border with Syria and on Saturday(5 Sept) hit out at countries he says
are giving terrorists the shelter needed to mount attacks inside Iraq.
Maliki signalled no let-up in a worsening row with its neighbour for
allegedly harbouring bombers who wrought devastation on Baghdad last month,
and broadened his attack to include other nations.
"We will always look for a process of closing all the doors that the
assassins can breathe from again. We blame our brothers and our friends and
neighbouring countries," he told an audience in the southern city of
Karbala.
"They told us they are with us, they have stood with us in certain
situations, but what can we say about their support for the killers again?
"The world is either collaborating or forgetting, even Iraqis are forgetting
who have committed crimes. The world is embracing them, some of the Iraqis
applaud them," Maliki said in a televised speech.
He did not specify the countries to which he was referring.
The border between Iraq and Syria stretches for 725 kilometres and the
United States has also blamed Syria for having lax controls that allow
insurgents, including Al Qaeda-linked rebels, to cross over.
. . . .Maliki said on Monday that 90 per cent of foreign terrorists who
infiltrate
Iraq did so via Syria.
Syrian President Bashar Assad dismissed his allegations as "immoral" and
politically motivated.

===============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA