Excerpts: Taliban and al-Qaeda Pakistan threat.Taliban threat to major
supply route to US war effort.King responds to need.Lebanon gives in to
Hizbollah.Damascus bomb targets Iranian pilgrims.Threat from al-Qaeda in
US..Arms to Iran from many sources continues.Russia/Iran re sanctions.Saudi
Houthis battle continues.Dubia's ruler:"Economy strong and healthy".Saudi
ups "Strangling Belt Operation".Hamas jihad tunnel networks December 03,
2009

+++SOURCE: EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 3 Dec.'09:"Bomber targets Pakistan's naval
headquarters",Agence France Presse
QUOTE: "insurgents frequently target military installations"

FULL TEXT:ISLAMABAD (AFP)-A suicide bomber attacked Pakistan's navy
head-quarters in the capital Islamabad yesterday,killing a naval official
and injuring 11 others in the latest blast in the Taliban-troubled nation.
A young man walked up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the complex and
detonated his explosives when challenged by security forces,scattering bits
of flesh across a busy road in central Islamabad,police and witnesses
said.Insurgents frequently target military installations,with attacks
intensifying as Islamabad pursues a fierce military offensive,under Western
pressure to do more to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaeda

+++SOURCE: SAUDI GAZETTE 3 Dec.'09:"Karachi the Taliban revenue engine -
Mayor"
,Reuters

QUOTE: Karachi,Pakistan Mayor:" 'For sure, the biggest chunk of Taliban war
...resources are going from Karachi' "

FULL TEXT:KARACHI - Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub of Karachi is
the revenue engine of the Taliban, Karachi's mayor said Wednesday(3 Dec).

The city of 18 million people generates 68 percent of the government revenue
and 25 percent of Pakistan's gross domestic product but it is vulnerable to
both militant attacks and political violence, said mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal.

"As Karachi is the revenue engine for Pakistan, it's the same revenue engine
for the Taliban," Kamal told Reuters in an interview in his office.

While investors in Pakistan's stock market are getting used to almost daily
violence in northwestern parts of the country, violence in Karachi would
have an immediate impact on financial markets, dealers say.

Karachi has been largely free of militant attacks over the past two years
which Kamal put down to his party's strong and popular stand against
militancy combined with effective security operations.

Eight militant gangs had been rounded up in the city over recent months,
including one planning to attack an oil storage depot next to the country's
main port in the city, he said.

"Half of Karachi would have burned," said Kamal, referring to the foiled
depot attack.

A dynamic 37-year-old, Kamal has won support with his efforts to ease
traffic gridlock and improve woeful services.

Kamal said a large proportion of supplies bound for US-led forces in
landlocked Afghanistan arrive at Karachi's port, which he said was still
vulnerable to an attack that could cripple the US war effort.

"If they don't get their water supply through this route the next day they'll
be drinking Afghan water and the next day half the army will have stomach
problems," he said.

The city, which has long suffered a reputation for political violence and
crime, still had no-go areas where the authorities including the police
dared not venture, he said.

"These no-go areas give room for any terrorist, no matter how small or big,
to come and stay," said Kamal, though he said he did not believe press
reports that Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was hiding in the
city.

But he said militants were financing their war in the northwest of the
country and in Afghanistan through kidnapping and drug trafficking through
Karachi. "People are being kidnapped here in Karachi and the ransom is taken
in Waziristan," he said.

Rs400 million ($4.8 million) had recently been sent from one Karachi bank
branch to various parts of the northwest in one month, he said. "That's
abnormal," he said. "For sure, the biggest chunk of Taliban war ...
resources are going from Karachi." Kamal is a member of the (MQM), which
represents mohajirs, the descendents of Urdu-speaking people who migrated
from India in 1947.

Kamal said Karachi remained volatile and vulnerable to factional violence:
"It would just take a single statement to burn the whole city."

But he said the MQM had a new mentality and maturity. "We understand very
well that Karachi is the backbone of Pakistan's economy," he said. "If
something, God forbid, happens the MQM would be the biggest loser. "I don't
have a house in Peshawar or Lahore, nor can I go to New Delhi again ... My
graveyard is here." -

+++SOURCE: SAUDI GAZETTE 3 Dec.'09:"10,000 housing units for displaced
families
ordered"By Abdullah Al-Harthi

SUBJECT: King responds to need.

EXCERPTS:JIZAN - King Abdullah...has ordered the construction of a housing
complex of
10,000 units with public services of schools, health clinics, and mosques
for evacuated families in the Jizan region in the wake of the clashes with
armed infiltrators along the border with Yemen since Nov. 4.. The King
ordered the completion of the housing complex within a year. . . .
In his address to the troops, the King said, "I am so happy to be with you
as you are defending the country from terrorist infiltrators who with evil
in mind have crossed its border, terrorized innocent people and made their
lives legitimate targets without any consciousness of religion or ethics..
.
+++SOURCE: SAUDI GAZETTE 3 Dec.'09:"Lebanon govt backs Hezbollah arms
right",Reuters
FULL TEXT:BEIRUT - Lebanon's new government said Wednesday(2 Dec) it backed
Hezbollah's right to keep its weapons to deter Israeli attacks, an issue
that has been at the heart of Lebanon's political crisis over the past five
years.
The government, led by Saad Al-Hariri, said in its policy statement that it
sought to tackle economic woes, financial stability and public debt.
Lebanon largely shrugged off the effects of the global financial crisis but
has public debt of around $50 billion. "We have just adopted the policy
statement of the cabinet," said Information Minister Tareq Mitri after an
endorsement session chaired by President Michel Suleiman.
"There is paragraph 6 of the draft that was approved. This paragraph
reiterates... with respect to the right of Lebanon, its people, its army and
its resistance to liberate the occupied Lebanese territory in Shebaa and
Kfar Shouba hills," he said.
Mitri said one minister of the 30-member cabinet objected to Article 6 while
four others expressed their reservations. "This objection is natural and
legitimate. But it does not mean there is an opposition bloc inside the
cabinet. We are one united government," he said. The policy statement, to be
presented to parliament next week for a vote of confidence which is expected
to pass, is seen as key to tackling the deep divisions between Hariri and
his allies. - Reuters

+++SOURCE: NAHARNET (Lebanon) 3 Dec.'09:"Bomb Targets Iranian Pilgrims in
Damascus: 5 Killed, Dozens Wounded"

FULL TEXT:A bus carrying Iranian pilgrims exploded Thursday in Sayyida
Zainab neighborhood in Damascus, killing at least five people and wounding
scores more, al-Jazeera TV reported.
It said the bomb coincided with a visit to Damascus by the head of Iranian
National Security Council Saeed Jalili.
Iranian state-run Press TV said as many as 12 people may have been killed.
No other details were immediately available. Syria's interior minister said
the cause of the explosion cannot be determined before an investigation.

+++SOURCE:WASHINGTON POST 3 Dec.'09:"Homeland Security chief warns of threat
from al-Qaeda sympathizers in U.S."By Spencer S. Hsu

QUOTE:" 'Home-based terrorism is here' "

EXCERPTS:Al-Qaeda followers are inside the United States and would like to
attack targets here and in other countries, Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano said Wednesday (2Dec) night.
The secretary's comments were striking not only for their content -- they
represented her bluntest assessment of terror threats within the country --
but also their political context. They came one day after President Obama,
in announcing his decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to
Afghanistan, warned that extremists have been "sent here from the border
region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit more acts of terror."
. . .Napolitano said a string of recent domestic arrests should "remove any
remaining comfort from the notion that if we fight the terrorists abroad, we
won't have to fight them here," rebutting an argument advanced on several
occasions by former president George W. Bush.
"Home-based terrorism is here. And like violent extremism abroad, it will be
part of the threat picture that we must now confront," Napolitano said.
"Individuals sympathetic to al-Qaeda and its affiliates, as well as those
inspired by the group's ideology, are present in the U.S., and would like to
attack the homeland or plot overseas attacks."
Napolitano cited the case of Najibullah Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle
driver arrested in September after allegedly training with al-Qaeda in
Pakistan.
Zazi allegedly prepared homemade bombs before driving cross-country to New
York from Denver. He faces charges of conspiring to use weapons of mass
destruction and is accused of plotting an attack styled after the 2004
Madrid transit bombings.
Separately, U.S. prosecutors in October accused David C. Headley, a Chicago
businessman, of conspiring with members of Lashkar-i-Taiba, an extremist
Islamic group in Pakistan allied with al-Qaeda, to plot attacks in Denmark
and India. . . .

+++SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST 3 Dec.'09:"Arms smuggling heightens Iran fears"
by
Joby Warrick

'"U.N. BAN IS DEFIED"
"Tehran may be building arsenal, helping militias"

QUOTE: "Iran is ramping up efforts to arm itself and anti-Israel malitias
in the Middle East'

FULL TEXT:SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- The warning came almost too late.
The freighter ANL Australia had already fired its engines for a 70-mile dash
to Iran when customs agents here were alerted to a possible hidden cache of
weapons on board.
Inspectors from the United Arab Emirates quickly swarmed the ship and
uncovered a truck-size container packed with small arms made in North Korea.
Concealed deeper in the ship was the real find: hundreds of crates
containing military hardware and a grayish, foul-smelling powder, explosive
components for thousands of short-range rockets.
The nature of the cargo, seized in July and described for the first time in
interviews with officials and analysts in the UAE and Washington, has raised
fears that Iran is ramping up efforts to arm itself and anti-Israel militias
in the Middle East. Israeli officials have warned that they may use force to
prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The freighter seized in this port enclave was one of five vessels caught
this year carrying large, secret caches of weapons apparently intended for
the Lebanese group Hezbollah, the Palestinian organization Hamas or the Quds
Force, a wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that supports
insurgents in Iraq, according to U.S. and U.N. officials and intelligence
analysts. In three cases, the contraband included North Korean- or
Chinese-made components for rockets such as the 122mm Grad, which has a
range of up to 25 miles and which Hamas and Hezbollah have fired into
Israel.
Among the weapons components discovered aboard the ANL Australia were 2,030
detonators for 122mm rockets, as well as electric circuitry and a large
quantity of solid-fuel propellant, according to an account given by UAE and
U.N. Security Council officials. The materials were bought from North Korea
and shipped halfway around the globe in sealed containers, labeled as
oil-drilling supplies, that passed through a succession of freighters and
ports.
An Israeli raid last month on a ship in the eastern Mediterranean reportedly
netted hundreds more 122mm rockets. Israeli officials said the freighter was
bound for Syria and was carrying 500 tons of armaments intended for
Hezbollah. Similar caches were discovered this year at a port in Cyprus and
aboard Russian and German cargo ships searched by U.S. Navy teams.
A U.S. intelligence official familiar with the UAE episode acknowledged that
U.S. spies "played a key role" in tracking the shipment, but he declined to
elaborate.
The surge in smuggling is a direct challenge to the Security Council, which
is convening a special panel this month to review Iranian violations of U.N.
resolutions banning such weapons shipments. U.N. and U.S. officials say
sanctions adopted by the world body against Iran appear to be having little
effect, and Iranian leaders continue to defend their right to aid groups
they call "fighters in the path of God."
"We are proud to defend Hamas and Hezbollah," Ali Larijani, Iran's
parliament speaker, said at a news conference in May. "We are not trying to
hide it."
High-seas shell game

The route chosen by North Korea to deliver the rocket components eventually
seized by the UAE was hard to track. According to shipping records, the 10
large cargo containers left the North Korean port of Nampo on May 30 on a
North Korean vessel, and two days later they were transferred to a Chinese
ship in the port city of Dalian, in northern China.
From there, the containers were ferried to Shanghai, where on June 13 they
were moved to a third ship, the ANL Australia, a Bahamian-flagged freighter
owned by a French consortium. Spokesmen for the freighter's owner and
operator say they received sealed cargo containers along with manifests that
listed the contents as oil-well equipment.
By mid-June, the cargo had left Shanghai on the ANL Australia, which
followed a meandering course through East and Southeast Asia, pausing in
mid-July in Dubai, one of the world's largest seaports. Then it left on the
final leg of its journey, to Shahid Rajai, on the shores of Iran's Strait of
Hormuz.
Because of international sanctions, Iran and North Korea have been forced to
buy and sell military-related technology through clandestine means. Iran, in
particular, has favored a strategy of redundant purchases from multiple
vendors, assuming that some shipments will be discovered and stopped, said
David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector who is president of the
Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit research group
in Washington. Using such schemes, and employing a network of front
companies, Iran has managed to obtain key technology and equipment for
advanced missiles as well as a sophisticated nuclear program.
"These networks have spread like the Internet, and as they get bigger, they
get even harder to destroy," Albright said. "They use fronts to obtain all
kinds of technology from major suppliers, including Europe, Russia, China
and the United States."
Gulf states crack down

For years, Dubai served as a convenient hub for Iran's illicit procurement
network. But two years ago, the UAE began what U.S. officials acknowledge is
a serious crackdown on Iranian trafficking in military technology. Its
government has enacted tough export controls, restricted the number of
business visas to Iranians and closed numerous suspected front companies,
according to UAE officials as well as Western intelligence officers and
independent analysts.
But government officials and analysts acknowledged that the UAE's capacity
to shut down trafficking is still being developed, and much of the illegal
trade in the region consists of cash-and-carry transactions that are harder
to detect and control.
The crackdown also is not without costs. The UAE, which conducts nearly $15
billion in annual trade with Iran, has received numerous complaints over
what Tehran calls unwarranted interference by UAE regulators.
Yet, UAE officials insist that they are acting in their own interest, and
not in response to pressure from the United States or anyone else.
"No one can tell us that we can't have legitimate trade," one UAE official
said. "But we were coming into a crunch, where we had to make a choice for
the sake of national security: We either have to do a better job of stopping
this trafficking or prepare to live with a nuclear Iran."
UAE officials faced that dilemma July 22 when alerted to possible contraband
in the ship bound for Iran, the official said.
After the containers holding the arms and rocket materials were removed, the
ANL Australia was released to continue its journey. The propellant was left
on UAE soil, where it remained as recently as this week. The U.N. sanctions
committee has filed a formal query with North Korea, but there has been no
response.
UAE officials say they are awaiting the arrival of U.N. witnesses to begin
the process of destroying the fuel.
Staff writer Colum Lynch at the United Nations and staff researcher Julie
Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 2Dec.'09:"Russia not to stand aloof on sanctions -
source",Reuters
SUBJECT: Russia/Iran re sanctions/

EXCERPTS:MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia signalled impatience with Iran and
growing acceptance of the West's threat of sanctions on Tuesday(1 Dec.),
pointing to Tehran's plans for new nuclear enrichment projects as a reason
for pessimism about a diplomatic solution.
Russia would not be isolated if other powers reached a consensus on Iran
sanctions, said a senior Russian diplomatic source, in Moscow's most
critical comments yet in the ongoing dispute over Tehran's nuclear
programme.
"If there is a consensus on Iran sanctions, we will not stand aside," said
the diplomatic source who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the
situation.
"We will be thinking about sanctions but this is not an issue of the next
few hours or weeks," the source said.
He added that Moscow did not want to complicate the situation with threats
against Tehran.. . .
Iran's announcement that it planned to build new enrichment centres did "not
add optimism to talks with Iran", the source said, adding that Russia wanted
Iran to cooperate openly and consistently with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA).
"We would rather have Iran cooperating more openly and consistently with the
IAEA and showing clear steps to lift concerns - which are gaining greater
foundation - than introducing sanctions against Iran," the source said.
Analysts said the comments showed that Moscow is tiring of Iran's failure to
allay Western fears about its nuclear programme and also irritated by
growing criticism at Russia's failure to deliver S-300 air defence missiles.
"In terms of general dynamics of course Russia is moving closer to
sanctions," said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs,
who said Moscow was irritated with Tehran for not accepting its offer to
enrich uranium.

+++SOURCE:Egyptian Gazette 2 Dec.'09:"Houthis: Saudi jets attack civilian
areas"

SUBJECT: Saudi/Houthis battle continues.

FULL TEXTSANA'A (News agencies) - Houthi fighters said yesterday(1 Dec.)
Saudi forces had intensi- fied their attacks on northern Yemen, using
unconventional weapons against civiliansi n residential areas.According to
the fighters, Saudis use toxic materials including white phosphorous bombs
against civilians in north Yemen, Arabic-language Sa'ada Online reported
yesterday.They said Saudi warplanes carried out at least16 airstrikes,
killingseveral civiliansin the northern province of Saada.In a first-step to
protect the civilian population from the raging war in Yemen, Amnesty
International (AI) sent a letter to SaudiArabia's defence minister this
month, asking whether phosphorus bombs were used in the attacks.The
organisation demanded Riyadh's explanation about the manner in which the
bombs were used and what precautions were taken to ensure that civilians
were not put at risk.The London-based rights group, however, has received no
response from Saudi officials who denied targeting civilians in beleaguered
north Yemen.

+++SOURCE: SAUDI GAZETTE 2 Dec.'09:"Dubai's ruler tries to calm
investors",Associated Press
FULL TEXT: DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates' top officials looked Tuesday(1
Dec.) to allay concern over Dubai World's $60 billion debt-load, stressing
the strength of Dubai and the UAE's economies even as regional markets
tumbled for a second day.
Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum told the Al-Arabiya
satellite channel that his emirate's economy was "strong" and "solid." The
comments were his first public statement about Dubai World since his
government announced Wednesday(25 Non) that the conglomerate was
restructuring and wanted a six-month minimum delay in its debt payments.
Al-Maktoum attributed the reaction in the market to the news of Dubai World's
restructuring as an indication of "a lack of understanding about what is
happening in Dubai."
Earlier, the UAE's president, was quoted by WAM, as saying that the country's
economy was healthy. AP

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 2 Dec.'09:"Two warships join fight against
infiltrators",By Abdullah Al-Harthi
SUBJECT: Saudi increases effort against Yemeni Shiite rebel infiltrators.
FULL TEXT:JIZAN - Two warships have joined the battle against infiltrators
combing an area of 200 nautical miles from Al-Musim up to the territorial
waters of the Kingdom on the Red Sea, a Saudi naval force official said.
The two warships, Hitain and Badr, named after two battles the Prophet
(peace be upon him) fought, have started cruising the territorial waters as
part of the Strangling Belt Operation launched by Saudi forces last week to
cut the supply of food and arms to infiltrators.
The warships are equipped with missiles, 75mm guns, anti-submarine weapons,
and sophisticated radar for precise targeting, said Col. Muaed Al-Shumrani,
chief of Saudi Naval Forces in Jizan.
The two warships feature jet boats cruising at a speed of up to 27 knots for
water surface combat, equipped with 75 mm guns, enhancing the naval force
engaged in blocking the sea route to infiltrators, he said.
The Saudi Navy has foiled a number of arms smuggling operations at sea and
destroyed four boats which failed to heed warnings when military clashes
with the infiltrators began, he added.
More warships from the Western Fleet are expected to support warships
already cruising in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea.
The Saudi Navy is in full control of its territorial waters, Al-Shumrani
said. Saudi forces Tuesday(1 Dec.) planted the nation's flag on Mount Dowd,
while Apache helicopters bombed arms caches on the same mountain.
Fleeing infilitrators were seeing taking shelter in SaBakhya village and
villages one kilometer away in Yemen..

+++SOURCE: NAHARNET 2 Dec.'09:"Hamas Field Commander Killed in Gaza Tunnel
Collapse"

QUOTE: "Hamas ,,,field commander martyred ...while undertaking a
jihad-related task"

FULL TEXT:A senior fighter from the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas
movement died on Wednesday in a tunnel collapse in the central Gaza Strip,
according to Palestinian medics and the armed group.
"Yasser Sabri Radi, 37, a field commander in the Qassam Brigades from
Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, was martyred on Wednesday morning while
undertaking a jihad-related task," the group said in a statement.

The statement did not specify the cause of death, but Palestinian medics
said Radi died in a tunnel collapse.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas which has ruled the
Gaza Strip since June 2007, is believed to use networks of tunnels
throughout the territory to hide out, store weapons and launch attacks.

In June 2006, fighters from Hamas and two other armed Palestinian groups
tunneled under the Gaza-Israel border and attacked a military post, killing
two Israeli soldiers and capturing a third, who is still being held in Gaza.

Hamas has demanded some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the
soldier, Gilad Shalit.(AFP)
=======
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA