MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Thomas Grove and Mariam Karouny, Reuters via AINA – “Flanked by almost 20 men with rifles, Omar Abu al-Chechen kneels on a carpet and delivers a rousing speech urging fellow Muslims to support the ‘jihad’ against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Dressed almost entirely in black, the militant from Russia’s Chechnya region declares an Islamist state is within reach. Fellow fighters from the brigade of foreign militants he leads translate his Russian words into Arabic.

His recently distributed video highlights the role militants from the volatile North Caucasus region now play in Syria’s civil war, fighting a government that has been backed by Russia and staunchly protected by President Vladimir Putin.

It also puts in focus the security risks they may pose for Russia if they return to the Russian region, which borders the area where Moscow plans to host the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

‘Jihad needs very many things. Firstly it needs money. Much is dependent on money today for jihad,’ said al-Chechen, his nomme de guerre, the leader of what rebels and websites call the Brigade of Migrants, an opposition group of foreign fighters.

‘(We) have missed many chances, but truly today there is a chance to establish (an Islamic state) on Earth,’ he said.

Syrian rebels confirmed separately that he is in Syria and the leader of the brigade. His real name was not clear.

While Moscow has been one of Assad’s main protectors, members of an Islamist insurgency involved in daily clashes in Russia’s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus and their compatriots have trickled into Syria to fight for the rebels.

‘This is the first time that a mass number of Chechens have taken part in military actions abroad,’ said analyst Mairbek Vatchagayev, based in Paris, adding that claims were made that Chechens had fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan or in Iraq, but no definitive proof had been given.” Read more.

Flashback: Chechnya: Women In Mortal Fear As Chechen President Promotes Islamic Honor Killings – “Chechnya’s government is openly approving of families that kill female relatives who violate their sense of honor, as this Russian republic embraces a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam after decades of religious suppression under Soviet rule. In the past five years, the bodies of dozens of young Chechen women have been found dumped in woods, abandoned in alleys and left along roads in the capital, Grozny, and neighboring villages.” Read more.

NOW – “The Free Syrian Amy said that the conflict they have with Hezbollah, which is allegedly fighting against them in Syria, has now grown into hostility against all of Lebanon.

‘[Our problem] today has become with Lebanon as a state, it is no longer solely with Hezbollah. It has… turned into an Arab, regional and international issue,’ the Anadolu Turkish news agency quoted the FSA as saying in a statement released on Tuesday evening.

The statement also warned that the ‘future’ of the Lebanese-Syrian border ‘is at risk… in case the attacks on Syrian territory and civilians do not stop.’

The FSA fired further accusations against Hezbollah, claiming that the Lebanese Shiite party is to send ‘between four and five thousand fighters’ to Syrian territory near Homs during the upcoming days.

The rebels also claimed that on Sunday, Hezbollah trained several of its members near the Lebanese town of Mashghara in West Beqaa ‘in order to send new [militants] to fight on Syrian soil.’

The statement added that the Shiite party established monitoring sites near Syrian border towns in an attempt to ‘control the international Damascus-Homs Highway.’

Moreover, the statement accused Hezbollah of carrying out ‘displacements and sectarian cleansing in a number of border towns… and burning many houses.'” Read more.

• Flashback: Hezbollah Considering Military Coup If Assad Falls
• Flashback: Lebanon: Hezbollah Goes On Full Alert After Three Members Killed By Syrian Rebels
• Flashback: Syrian Opposition Adds Hezbollah Terrorists To Target List, Threatens Attacks Inside Lebanon

By AARON KALMAN, The Times of Israel – “Al-Qaeda operatives fighting the Syrian regime have been watching and studying IDF patrols along the border with Israel, from only meters away on the other side of the fence.

Members of the al-Furqan group — affiliated with the global al-Qaeda organization which has acted in Yemen and Iraq — were filmed close to Israel’s border, out in the open, in footage screened by Israel’s Channel 10 on Tuesday night.

In a number of videos uploaded to the internet, the fighters can also be seen holding various munitions, including old anti-tank rockets and heavy machine guns.

Sources in the IDF believe the gunmen affiliated with these and other terror groups are currently preoccupied with fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, and that if they plan on turning their focus on Israel they won’t do so before they have more control in Syria, the TV report said. Plainly, though, it added, the decades of relative quiet for Israel on its border with Syria are coming to an end, and a year from now, Israel might have to brace itself to thwart cross-border attacks.

The latest reports confirm a Times of Israel story last week which said Assad’s forces have largely left the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The footage screened on Tuesday included film taken in the Quneitra area of the Golan, the TV report said.

Though the ongoing fighting in Syria is not directed at Israel, the IDF and Israeli security officials are keeping a close watch on the situation in the neighboring country, preparing for any development …” Read more.

Flashback: Syrian Rebels: After Assad ‘We Have A Big Fight Against The Jews Ahead Of Us’ – “What will happen in Syria? The answer to that question holds immense significance for Israel. Yet, preoccupied with Iran’s nuclear program, Israel is neglecting the more immediate threat to its security that’s crystalizing on the other side of the Golan Heights… Bashar Assad, like his father Hafez, was never a friend of Israel’s – but nor was his worldview shaped exclusively by antagonism toward the Jewish State. The foreign fighters seeking his ouster, on the other hand, receive sustenance from a medieval theocracy that, in the words of John R. Bradley a preeminent Middle East expert who predicted the Egyptian revolution as early as 2009 ‘spews out a kind of anti-Semitic hatred not known since the Nazis.’” Read more.

Flashback: US: Obama Officially Recognizes Syrian Rebels, They’re ‘Reflective And Representative Enough Of The Syrian Population’ – “The West once again willingly lies in bed with Islamic fundamentalism, and once again Obama has done nothing but embolden, encourage and empower one of the greatest destroyers of peace that the world has ever known. If he was perfectly satisfied with the ‘destroy-Western-civilization-from-within‘ Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, then why not also be perfectly satisfied with anti-American jihadists in Syria who would love nothing more than to see the complete downfall of freedom as we know it?” Read more.