Excerpts: Syria nuclear site, Iraq re al-Qaeda insurgents, Gaza homegrown
zealots:Jihadi Salafis December 03, 2010

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 3 Dec.'10:"UN nuclear chief steps up pressure over
Syria site",Reuters

SUBJECT: Syria nuclear site

QUOTE:"For more than two years Syria has blocked IAEA access to remains of
... nuclear reactor intended to produce bomb fuel:

FULL TEXT:VIENNA (Reuters) - The UN nuclear agency chief said on Thursday(2
Dec) he had formally urged Syria to provide his inspectors with speedy
access to the remains of a suspected nuclear site, signalling growing
frustration over the issue.
For more than two years Syria has blocked International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) access to the remains of a desert site that US intelligence reports
say was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor intended to produce
bomb fuel.
The site, known as either Al Kibar or Dair Alzour, was bombed to rubble by
Israel in 2007. Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever having an atom bomb
programme.
In a report last month Yukiya Amano, the IAEA director general, said Syria
was not allowing UN nuclear inspectors to visit numerous suspect sites, and
had provided scant or inconsistent information about its atomic activities.
On Thursday [2 Dec], he told the IAEA's 35-nation governing board he had
written a letter to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al Mouallem on November
18, the first time the IAEA chief has appealed to Syrian authorities
directly, rather than just through his reports.
He asked the government to provide prompt IAEA access to relevant
information and locations related to Dair Alzour and to cooperate with the
agency in general, Amano told the closed-door meeting, according to a copy
of his speech.
A diplomat close to the probe said the letter reflected the "growing
urgency" of the matter.
Earlier this year the IAEA gave some weight to suspicions of illicit nuclear
work at the site by saying that uranium traces found during a 2008 visit by
inspectors pointed to nuclear-related activity.
No progress
The agency wants to re-examine Dair Alzour so it can take samples from
rubble removed immediately after the air strike.
Washington has said the IAEA may need to consider invoking its "special
inspection" mechanism to give it the authority to look anywhere necessary in
Syria at short notice.
But diplomats and analysts believe the IAEA will refrain from escalating the
dispute at a time of rising tension with Iran, which the West suspects of
seeking nuclear weapons.
Amano said he would not speculate on what would happen if Syria did not
respond to his request for cooperation.
The agency last resorted to special inspection powers in 1993 in North
Korea, which still withheld access and later developed a nuclear explosive
capacity in secret.
Syria says the IAEA does not need to go back to Dair Alzour because it
already has proof it was a non-nuclear military site. It has also suggested
uranium particles found at the site came from Israeli weapons or were
dropped from the air, an assertion dismissed by the West.
The IAEA also wants access to three other Syrian sites under military
control whose appearance was altered by landscaping after inspectors asked
to visit.
Amano said Syria had not cooperated with the IAEA since June 2008 over Dair
Alzour and other sites.
"As a consequence, the agency has not been able to make progress towards
resolving the outstanding issues related to those sites," he said in
Thursday's speech.

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 3 Dec.'10:"39 Qaeda men arrested in Iraq", Agencis
SUBJECT: Iraq re al-Qaeda insurgents
QUOTE:" [Iraqi] Minister calls for swift execution of terror suspects."

EXCERPTS: BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces arrested 39 suspected Al-Qaeda
members in the mostly Sunni western province of Anbar and soldiers nabbed a
Moroccan fighter in the north of the country, officials said Thursday[2
Dec].
The more than three dozen alleged insurgents, who apparently also invited
foreign fighters into Iraq, were paraded in a televised news conference here
attended by Interior Minister Jawad Bolani and several generals.
“Security forces arrested 39 Al-Qaeda members who run terrorist operations
in Anbar and also support other criminal operations in Baghdad, and who also
tried to invite foreign Al-Qaeda fighters to Iraq,” Bolani said.
Hailing the arrests as a “major achievement”, Al-Bolani called for their
death penalty, even before they have been put on trial.
Showing off the handcuffed suspects at the press conference, Al-Bolani told
reporters he is confident the men will be found guilty, citing their alleged
confessions, documents and video found at their homes that he said showed
their earlier attacks and plans to carry out new ones.
He did not say when the men were arrested, but described them as operatives
of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an Al-Qaeda wing, who were based in
Anbar province.
“Today, we will send those criminals and the investigation results to the
courts that will sentence them to death,” Al-Bolani, a Shiite, told
reporters.
“Our demand is not to delay the carrying out of the executions against these
criminals so that to deter terrorist and criminal elements.” . . .

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 3 Dec.'10:"No Al-Qaeda in Gaza but zealots on rise’
"Associated Press

SUBJECT: Gaza's 'homegrown zealots':Jihadi Salafis

QUOTE: "While Al-Qaeda’s battle is mainly against the West, Hamas says its
sole target is Israel."

FULL TEXT:GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Gaza’s Hamas prime minister was adamant:
There is no Al-Qaeda presence in the Palestinian territory, rebuffing what
he said were Israeli allegations possibly meant to justify military action
against the strip.
At the same time, a new homegrown crop of zealots -even if only inspired by
the global terror network - is increasingly turning into a problem for Gaza’s
ruling Islamic militants.
Dismissing Hamas as too tame, Muslim firebrands have challenged the group’s
informal truce with Israel - in place since a bruising offensive against
Gaza two years ago - by sporadically firing rockets at Israeli border
communities. Israel says they also planned to try to cross into neighboring
Egypt to use it as a springboard for attacks against Israelis and
foreigners.
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, speaking at a rare news conference for
foreign reporters on Wednesday, suggested that claims of an Al-Qaeda
foothold are part of an Israeli attempt to further discredit the group
already shunned by much of the world and to perhaps justify action against
the territory in the framework of the global war against terror.
“There is no such thing as Al-Qaeda in Gaza,” Haniyeh insisted. “The
Palestinian resistance does not work outside the borders of Palestine.”
Hamas remains firmly in control of Gaza after seizing it in a violent
takeover in 2007. Its radical challengers, known as Jihadi Salafis, are
estimated to number a few hundred armed men in several small groups.
These groups preach global jihad, or holy war, and adhere to a form of Islam
even more conservative than that of Hamas. While Al-Qaeda’s battle is mainly
against the West, Hamas says its sole target is Israel.
Jihadi Salafis, as they are known, have organized into small, shadowy armed
groups that have clashed with Hamas forces.
Perhaps even more worrisome for Hamas, they claim a growing appeal among
Gazans who live in a pressure cooker of isolation and poverty. That has
raised fears they could serve as a bridgehead for their ideological twin,
Al-Qaeda, from which they take their call for global holy war.
Hamas insists it dismantled the groups after a mosque shootout last summer
that left 26 dead.
But after months of lying low, Jihadi Salafis became active again. Besides
resuming rocket fire on Israel in recent weeks, they blew up the car of a
Hamas chief outside his southern Gaza home. The chief was not in the car and
was not hurt, and the group that claimed responsibility said the blast was a
warning.
“We will not stop targeting the figures of this perverted, crooked (Hamas)
government, breaking their bones and cleansing the pure land of the Gaza
Strip of these abominations,” said the group, the Soldiers of the Monotheism
Brigades. “What will come next will be harder and more horrible.”
Going by names like “Rolling Thunder” and “Army of God,” they oppose Hamas
for refraining from imposing Islamic law in Gaza and for largely sticking to
a tactical truce with Israel in the past two years.
The Salafis started attracting attention shortly after Israel’s withdrawal
from Gaza in 2005. They planted pipe bombs outside Internet cafes, targeted
as dens of vice, attacked Christian institutions and abducted several
foreign journalists.
– Associated Press
==============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA