MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Anshel Pfeffer – “The Israeli Shin Bet security service foiled a suicide terrorist attack last month in Jerusalem, it emerged Wednesday. An explosive belt was seized only 24 hours before the planned attack, after it was already smuggled into Jerusalem.

The interception of the planned attack was part of a large-scale operation by the Shin Bet, the IDF and the police against the Hamas military infrastructure in the West Bank and Jerusalem. During the operation, dozens of Hamas militants – operating in alleged 13 separate cells – were arrested.

The main cell charged with carrying out the attack was based in Hebron. The cell was in touch with the Hamas headquarters in Syria, and the date of the attack was set for August 21. The planned attack involved a fire extinguisher which contained six kilograms of explosives. The device was supposed to be carried by a suicide bomber in a bus or a mall in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood in Jerusalem.

The same cell was responsible for the March 23 attack in the central bus station in Jerusalem, where Mary Jean Gardner, a British tourist, was killed, and 47 other people were injured.

The Shin Bet has recently noted significant attempts to restore Hamas’ military infrastructure in the West Bank and execute terrorist attacks.” Read more.

Terror attacks in Israel skyrocket in August – “A significant rise in the number of terror attacks was recorded in August, the Shin Bet reported Monday. According to the report, 178 attacks were recorded in August, compared to 53 in July. The figures include rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip. Overall, 134 rocket attacks against Israel were recorded during the month. Shin Bet officials noted that the number of terror attacks originating in the Gaza Strip rose to 135, compared to 30 that originated in Judea and Samaria.” Read more.

By Aaron Klein – “The Obama administration is applying intense pressure on Israel to issue an apology for the 2010 raid of a Hamas-supporting flotilla attempting to enter the Gaza Strip, according to informed Israeli officials.

That flotilla, sponsored in part by a Turkish group, engaged in deadly clashes with Israeli special forces. Dozens of flotilla activists armed with knives, bats and metal pipes confronted the Israeli naval raid and immediately attacked the soldiers.

Nine activists were killed, while 15 Israeli solders were wounded.

Turkey has since been demanding that Israel issue an apology for the raid, a request scoffed at by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Informed Israeli officials told WND the U.S. has sided with Turkey in its demand for an apology.

The officials said that while the U.S. does not blame Israel for the raid, the Obama administration sees Turkey as key to the transformation of the Middle East and North Africa.

The U.S. wants to end the diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel. Israeli officials said the Obama administration does not believe it can persuade Turkey to drop its apology demand and so is instead pressuring Israel.

Turkey has been a central supporter of the opposition in Egypt and Syria.” Read more.

Turkey set to sign military pact with Egypt after cutting frayed ties with Israel – “A military and economic alliance with Egypt is set to be signed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The deal should be clinched when Erdogan visits Cairo next Monday – the first such visit paid by a Turkish prime minister in 15 years. The alliance is not intended as ‘revenge’ against Israel; Erdogan’s intention is to extend Turkey’s influence to areas it has not reached in past decades.” Read more.

Flashback: US: Defense Department Authorizes Sale of 125 M1A1 Tanks and Other Weapons and Equipment to Post-Mubarak Egypt – “While everyone in Washington was concentrating on the debt crisis this week, the Obama administration attempted to slip through a questionable arms deal that requires serious scrutiny. Though it got little attention, the Defense Department officially notified Congress on Friday that it was authorizing the sale of 125 M1A1 tanks to Egypt as well as other weapons, equipment, parts, training and logistical support. While most of the military sales to Egypt have sailed through without objection in the more than 30 years since it signed a peace deal with Israel, this is the first such sale since the fall of the Mubarak regime earlier this year.” Read more.

Flashback: U.S. to Resume Formal Muslim Brotherhood Contacts – “The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.‘The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,’ said the senior official …” Read more.

“Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey was ‘totally suspending’ defense ties with Israel, after downgrading diplomatic relations with the country.

While it was initially reported that Erdogan had also suspended all trade ties between the two nations, this was later clarified to refer to defense-related trade only.

‘Trade ties, military ties, defense industry ties – we are completely suspending them. This process will be followed by different measures,’ Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

But an official at Erdogan’s office later told Reuters the prime minister was referring to military and defense trade ties only, not overall trade, which last year reached a total bilateral volume of $3.5 billion.

Erdogan also said that Turkey would implement further sanctions against Israel and said that ‘our ships will be seen more frequently in [the Eastern Mediterranean].’

Some Turkish and Israeli commentators have suggested Turkey might use the feud with Israel to build up naval patrols in seas between the Israel and the divided island of Cyprus.

Turkey has bitterly complained about recent Cypriot-Israeli energy deals and the presence of Turkish ships would have a menacing effect.” Read more.

By YAAKOV KATZ – “It is easy to judge Israeli-Turkish relations by what we all can see – military exercises have come to an end and defense exports to what was once one of Israel’s best customers are almost completely frozen.

There is also, of course, the diplomatic fallout from the current crisis which makes Israel even more isolated in an already extremely volatile Middle East.

There are, however, greater ramifications that Israel does not yet know how and if they will play out.

For Israel, Turkey was more than just a country with airspace and waters in which to train. It was a partner in the war on terror and a confidant when it came to sensitive intelligence information regarding attacks against Israel or terrorist plans throughout the region.

One example was in 2009 when the media reported about the thwarting of terrorist plans to shoot down an Israeli airliner over Turkey with shoulder-to-air missiles.

The scheme was apparently an effort by Hezbollah to avenge the 2008 assassination of its military commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, which the Lebanese guerrilla group attributed to the Mossad.

Other examples include the recent grounding of Iranian transport aircraft in Turkey earlier this year that were allegedly carrying weaponry destined for Hezbollah, and the seizure of some 300 Iranian rockets aboard a freight train on its way to Syria via Turkey in 2007.

There was also the alleged Israeli strike four years ago this month against the nuclear reactor President Bashar Assad was building in northeast Syria…

In short, Israel could be losing not only a diplomatic and military ally but also a partner in the war on terror.

This could mean that Israel will not have someone to pass on information to in the event that it knows of plans to perpetrate attacks in Turkey or elsewhere in the region, and that the Turks might no longer have as strong an interest in intercepting weapons shipments that may pass through their country on their way to Iran’s various terror proxies.” Read more.

This is what I don’t like about neutered Western governments.  If ‘we know who these people are’, why haven’t any of them been arrested, jailed or deported?  Surely, if the authorities know the radicals from the non-radicals, then they’re indeed being watched, and if they’re being watched then some of the worst of them have already been recorded breaking this law at the very least …

“Germany’s top security official says authorities are tracking about 1,000 Islamic radicals in the country with possible links to terrorism.

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told Bild newspaper’s Monday edition that of those, 128 have been identified as having the potential to commit attacks, and 20 have trained in terrorist camps.

He sought to allay fears, however, saying ‘we know who these people are.’

Friedrich is quoted as saying also that in a positive development, Muslim leaders in Germany took part in a June conference aimed at preventing individuals from ‘misusing the religion.'” Source.

By Attila Somfalvi – “About 40 Israeli passengers on board a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul were held for several hours by local police on Monday after their passports had been taken away from them. The passengers said that the Turkish police officers were disrespectful, claiming that such an incident was unprecedented.

‘I think that the police officers didn’t even know what they were looking for,’ one of the passengers told Ynet. ‘They apparently got an order to detain us, one by one. Everyone was in shock; we didn’t know what they were going to do to us. Obviously this was done intentionally in order to create an unpleasant feeling.’

‘They asked us why we came here, opened our bags, checked how much money we have and what we have on our laptops,’ he added.

Authorities in Jerusalem estimate that the detention of the Israeli passengers came in response to a recent incident during which Turkish citizens were detained for questioning by border police at Ben Gurion Airport.

Foreign Ministry officials said that no directive was issued regarding a change in the policy that concerns the reception of Israelis, and that there was no intention to single out Israelis that arrive in Turkey. ‘It was a mid-rank initiative that apparently came in response to the incident at Ben Gurion Airport,’ they said.

R’ and D’, businessmen who were on the flight said the attitude of the police officers at the airport was estranged. ‘We have been doing business in Turkey for 13 years. They held all Israelis. Whoever doesn’t have to work here shouldn’t come. They spoke rudely and acted improperly. People missed their connections but they didn’t care,’ he said.

According to the two, ‘As soon as they saw an Israeli, they told him to move on to questioning. All the Israelis were together and they accumulated the passports in one pile. I have never seen such a thing. I have also never seen them behaving in such disrespect. I don’t know what will be the atmosphere on the street. I don’t know what to expect. The papers from yesterday are filled with incitement.'” Read more.

I’m curious, did any of these White House ’employees’ influence Obama’s decision to support the Libyan ‘rebels’, or the ouster of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak for that matter?  The answer to this question is becoming increasingly clear, especially when we’ve already known for some time now that al Qaeda and possibly even Hezbollah had elements already entrenched among the rebel fighters.  Obama’s ‘non-war‘ war is about to get even more convoluted than it already is …

By Bill Gertz – “Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gadhafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

U.S. officials said spy agencies are stepping up surveillance of Islamist-oriented elements among Libyan rebels. A government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed ‘strategizing’ on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated.

‘Several forum participants have suggested that, following a transitional stage, the battle should turn against secularist rebels and members of the [rebels’] Transitional National Council,’ the unclassified report stated.

Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans.

The report said the jihadists’ strength and influence on the ground ‘are uncertain at this time.’

However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. He is currently known as Abdel Hakim al-Khulidi Belhaj and led rebels in overrunning Col. Gadhafi’s Tripoli compound.” Read more.

Flashback: Post Gaddafi: A Free and Democratic Libya? Not So Fast – Libyan Draft Constitution Declares Sharia Law the ‘Principal Source of Legislation’ – “The dust has not yet settled over the Libyan capital of Tripoli since rebels took control over the weekend. But already, a draft constitutional charter for the transitional state has appeared online… Much of the document describes political institutions that will sound familiar to citizens of Western liberal democracies… But despite the Lockean tenor of much of the constitution, the inescapable clause lies right in Part 1, Article 1: ‘Islam is the Religion of the State, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia).’ Under this constitution, in other words, Islam is law.” Read more.

Flashback: Killers of Libyan rebels’ military chief were members of an Islamist-linked militia allied to the rebel campaign  – “The gunmen who shot dead the Libyan rebels’ military chief Abdul Fatah Younis were members of an Islamist-linked militia allied to the campaign to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, according to a National Transitional Council minister. After 24 hours of confusion surrounding the death, the NTC’s oil minister, Ali Tarhouni, said Younis had been killed by members of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade, a militia named after one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, suggesting that Islamist elements were involved.” Read more.

Flashback: The headless corpse, the mass grave and worrying questions about Libya’s rebel army– “The streaks of blood, smeared along the sides of this impromptu mass grave suggested a rushed operation, a hurried attempt to dispose of the victims. Who the men were and what happened to them, close to the Libyan rebels’ western front line town of Al-Qawalish in the Nafusa Mountains, remains unknown. But the evidence of a brutal end were clear. One of the corpses had been cleanly decapitated, while the trousers of another had been ripped down to his ankles, a way of humiliating a dead enemy. The green uniforms were the same as those worn by loyalists fighting for Col. Muammer Gaddafi in Libya’s civil war.” Read more.

Flashback: FBI Counter-Terror Official: Al Qaeda ‘Thrives’ After Dictators Fall – “On the same day reports emerged of a new al Qaeda video that praised the revolutions sweeping the Arab world, one the U.S.’s top counter-terror officials warned the terror organization ‘thrives’ in the political unrest that follows… Al Qaeda thrives in such conditions and countries of weak governance and political instability — countries in which governments may be sympathetic to their campaign of violence.’” Read more.