Posts from — July 2012

Police violence in Anaheim: The class issues
by World Socialist… 26 July, 2012 – Socialist Equality Party

Statement by Jerry White, SEP candidate for US president

As the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for US president, I condemn the brutal shooting of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz in Anaheim and the subsequent violent crackdown on protesters. These acts of police brutality are an attack on the entire working class and must be met with a unified political response.

The killing of Diaz, who was unarmed, was followed by the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful demonstrators, including children. Barely 24 hours later, 21-year-old Joel Acevedo was shot dead, allegedly in the course of a chase in which he drew a weapon. Acevedo was the sixth person killed by Anaheim police this year.

In response to the second killing, there were even larger protests Tuesday outside City Hall, with as many as a thousand people taking part, and 24 arrested. There was sporadic window-breaking and water bottles thrown, which was seized on by police as a pretext for unleashing nightsticks and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

These protests show the widespread anger among working people, not only over police brutality, but over the deepening economic and social crisis that has driven unemployment in California well into double-digit figures. The plight of Anaheim’s Hispanic working class population, the target of increasingly draconian anti-immigrant policies, is particularly dire.

The police violence, and the social crisis behind it, are not, however, primarily racial issues. They are class questions, manifestations of an economic system in which a relative handful monopolize the wealth, while the vast majority of all races struggle to survive.

According to one recent report, median family income has fallen 6 percent since 2000, the worst drop since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the top one percent of households has doubled its share of national income, from 10 percent to 20 percent, since 1972. Under Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president, the top one percent has swallowed up 93 percent of all income gains since the beginning of the so-called “recovery.”

Under such conditions, it is impossible for the ruling elite to maintain its wealth and power through democratic and peaceful means. Instead, there has been a systematic buildup of the powers of the police, initially in name of fighting “crime,” more recently using the pretext of the “war on terror.” The real social function of the police, however, is to defend the interests of the corporate and financial elite. …more

Elusive FinFisher Spyware Identified and Analyzed
25 July, 2012 – By Parker Higgins – Electronic Frontier Foundation

The FinFisher spyware, produced by the UK-based Gamma Group, has been for years as elusive as it was notorious. Since protesters found FinFisher company records in an abandoned Egyptian state security building last year, security researchers and activists around the world have been eager to get their hands on a copy of the tools in the FinFisher suite, especially the component called FinSpy. FinSpy has been the subject of particular interest because of its ability to wiretap calls made over the Skype network, which is widely used among activists all over the world, often in the belief that it is more secure than other forms of communication.

Now for the first time, a copy of the spyware has been publicly analyzed. Morgan Marquis-Boire, a security researcher at Citizen Lab, and Bill Marczak, a founding member of Bahrain Watch, have published an in-depth analysis of FinSpy after obtaining a copies of the program used to target pro-democracy activists.1 The targeted activists were each involved with the government transparency organization Bahrain Watch, but were located in different cities around the world. The spyware was included in targeted attachments that purported to come from an Al-Jazeera journalist and contain pictures and information about current events in Bahrain.

It’s not clear that Bahrain Watch was being targeted specifically. “The malware seemed to have targeted people who are involved in activist organizations, particularly activists who have significant contacts outside of Bahrain,” said Marczak.

The activists were suspicious of the email attachments they had received and passed the files along to Bloomberg News, which turned them over to Marquis-Boire. In addition to posting materials on the Citizen Lab site, he will be presenting the results of his analysis at the BlackHat security conference today in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most notable difference Marquis-Boire has revealed between FinSpy and less sophisticated malware tools like those used by the Syrian government is the way in which this software was designed to defy analysis: not only was FinSpy actively avoiding detection by anti-virus programs, but it was also heavily “booby-trapped,” causing many of the most popular debugging programs to crash during attempts to analyze and identify the code.

Gamma and FinFisher have come under heavy international scrutiny for their apparent willingness to export sophisticated surveillance technologies to oppressive government regimes. Hosni Mubarak’s government in Egypt is just one example. According to Privacy International, “there is also evidence that this technology has been deployed in Turkmenistan, a one-party state that Human Rights Watch labelled ‘one of the world’s most repressive countries’ in March 2012.” Privacy International is currently engaged in legal action against the British government. The action arose after Privacy International issued repeated requests for information about why the government has chosen not to exercise its powers under the Export Control Act of 2002 to restrict sales of technical goods or services to governments that could be used to commit human rights abuses. FinFisher’s products appear to fall into that category.

Similarly, EFF has been calling for companies that produce surveillance technology to adopt “Know Your Customer” standards, like those required by Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other export regulations, and avoid becoming “repression’s little helper.” An EFF white paper from April of this year, “Human Rights and Technology Sales,” addresses the problem in greater depth.

For its part, FinFisher has chosen to hide behind claims of client confidentiality. In an article in the Wall Street Journal last year, a lawyer for Gamma said it “cannot otherwise comment upon its confidential business transactions or the nature of the products it offers.” But promotional materials, obtained through the files discovered in Egypt and through Wikileaks releases, are more forthcoming. As reported by OWNI, one 2007 presentation boasted of “Black Hat Hacking tactics to enable Intelligence Agencies to gather information from target systems that would be otherwise extremely difficult to obtain legally.”

Citizen Lab has provided a set of straightforward recommendations that advise against opening unsolicited attachments, even from links that appear to be from friends. And now that security researchers have obtained a copy of FinSpy, work can begin on preparing tools that can detect and remove the program from infected computers. …source

Foreign jihadists swell rebel ranks in Syria
26 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

In restive northwest Syria, the insurgency has found an unlikely new partner in the struggle against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad: foreign Islamists who are arriving in large numbers.

But rather than adopt the revolt’s calls for democracy and the fall of a dictatorial regime, such jihadists have taken a sectarian stance, promoting hatred against the minority Alawi sect, which they consider as “apostates.”

At the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, seized by Islamist militants last week, dozens of men claimed to have traveled from several Arab and Muslim countries.

Some said they were from Algeria, others claimed to be from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. A few say they are from even farther away, including insurgent hotbeds such as Chechnya and Somalia.

From the start of the 16-month uprising – which has grown into an armed insurgency backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey – the Syrian regime has claimed rebels were hosting al-Qaeda fighters, and that the revolt was a foreign conspiracy.

It is unclear just how many foreign jihadist fighters have entered the country.

What is clear is that Syria’s rebels do not want to admit that the jihadist phenomenon exists.

In the central province of Hama, a rebel who identifies himself as Abu Ammar says he commands a 1,200-strong battalion.

“We will never let al-Qaeda take root here – we’ll kill them if they try,” he says. “The revolution belongs to the Syrians.”

But eyewitness accounts suggest those fighters are coming whether he likes it or not, some of them likely to have been spurred by militant websites urging Islamists to join the uprising. …more

Israel’s Barak calls for swifter action against Iran
26 July, 2012 – By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Reuters

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Wednesday for major powers to speed up efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program, cautioning it would be tougher to confront it once Tehran managed to cross an atomic threshold.

Israeli media interpreted Barak’s comments as pushing for a possible Israeli strike against Iran to stop a project the West sees as a drive to achieve nuclear weapons though Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes.

“I am very well aware and know in depth the difficulties and complexity involved in preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons,” Barak told a graduation ceremony for security officers, in remarks later released by his office.

“But it is clear to me beyond any doubt that confronting that (nuclear) challenge in itself once it ripens if it ripens, will be infinitely more complex infinitely more dangerous and infinitely more costly in human life and resources,” he said.

“This is the time for the entire world to ready for united action, united goal in political desire in order to put a swift and definite stop to the Iranian nuclear project,” Barak said.

In his lengthy remarks, Barak said Israel now faced “its most complex challenges ever”, adding “we may need to make fateful and difficult decisions with regard to Israel’s security,” pointing also to what he called growing instability posed by popular revolts in neighboring Arab countries.

“The events of the Arab spring, which have gradually evolved into an Islamic summer, show that at the ultimate hour of decision we can rely at the moment of truth on ourselves alone,” Barak said.
…more

Bahrain’s Leeds Utd takeover likely in 2 weeks – report
By Shane McGinley – 26 July, 2012 – Arabiain Business

A group of investors, led by a member of the Bahraini royal family, is likely to conclude its takeover of English football club Leeds United within the next two weeks, according to a report in the UK.

Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, the man who led a failed takeover of the side in 2003, is reportedly part of a consortium close to completing a deal for the Championship side.

“The club has been talks with a group of investors led by the Bahrani royal Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa… [and] are now, as we understand it, on the brink of a takeover which should be completed in the next fortnight,” talkSPORT, the UK’s biggest national commercial sports radio station, said in a report this week.

Sheikh Abdulrahman’s representatives are believed to be carrying out due diligence on the club’s finances and the asking price has been estimated at around GBP£50m (US$77.6m), the report added.

Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s ruling dynasty, was part of a consortium including representatives from Saudi Arabia and Asia which failed to push through a takeover deal just under a decade ago, local newspaper the Yorkshire Post reported earlier this month.

A successful takeover would follow hot on the heels of Nottingham Forest’s sale to Kuwait’s Al Hasawi family. The Kuwaitis were reported to have also considered buying Leeds United.

The Yorkshire club said in a statement: “Leeds United can confirm they have granted an exclusivity period to enable a potential investor to carry out the appropriate due diligence.

“It is anticipated this will be a fairly straightforward process. A confidentiality clause prevents the club from making any further comment.”

The statement did not mention the value of the potential deal or names of anyone involved.

The latest acquisition would give Al-Khalifa automatic membership to an elite club of Gulf investors that own European football teams. Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited, led by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, acquired Manchester City for a reported US$321m in summer 2008.

Qatar Sports Investments bought a 70 percent stake in French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in June last year. The investment firm became the sole shareholder of the club after purchasing the remaining 30 percent stake in March.

Dubai’s Royal Emirates Group owns the Spanish La Liga side Getafe. …source

Syrian FM: Dabagh Excluded from Office, Hariri and Tahsin not Ambassadors
Local Editor – 26 July 2012

On the backdrop of news circulated on employees at the Syrian Foreign Ministry who chose to quit their diplomatic work and travel to certain Arab countries, Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday, pointing out that not only Dabagh is excluded from office, but also Hariri and Tahsin are not ambassadors and actions will be taken against them.

The News of Syrian Diplomatic Defections is Greatly Exaggerated

“Over the past two days, the media outlets tackled news related to workers at the Syrian Foreign Ministry who chose to quit their diplomatic missions and travel to a specific Arab capital which committed itself to fund and encourage this kind of employees to dissent,” the statement read.

The Foreign Ministry made clear that the Syrian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdullatif Dabbagh, has quit work since last June 4, adding that Lamia Hariri “did not hold in previous and currently doesn’t hold the title of Syrian Ambassador, but she is just a diplomat working in the Syrian embassy to Cyprus and committed to manage the embassy on behalf of the pending appointment of an acting chargé d’affaires or ambassador.”

“Mohammed Tahsin al-Faqir does not hold any diplomatic status but he is an administrative officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working at the embassy to the Sultanate of Oman. His mission at the embassy has been completed under the resolution No. 129 issued since 21/05/2012 and is awaiting for retirement within months. He does not have any security status at all,” the statement added.

“The Foreign Ministry has taken the necessary measures against dissident diplomats, noting that the Syrian embassies to the concerned countries are still on regular service for Syrian nationals,” the statement concluded. …more

While this seems to be a great service, it only provides a filter to obscure the faces of those who protest and speak-out against their governments. Keep in mind this is a filter, the unfiltered video still exists, leaving an unprotected copy available and vulnerable to both warranted and unwarranted requests from government agencies and “security contractors”. Phlipn

YouTube Offers a Way to Blur Faces, Protecting Identities in Videos
By JENNIFER PRESTON – 26 July, 2012 – NYT

To help protect dissidents using video to tell their stories in countries with repressive government regimes, YouTube made available a new tool on Wednesday allowing people to obscure faces within videos uploaded onto its platform.

Protecting the identity of activists using social media has become a growing concern among human rights groups as authoritarian governments in some countries, including Syria, have been turning to citizen-generated videos of protests and other user-generated content on social media sites to identify and jail dissidents.

“Visual anonymity in video allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not,” Amanda Conway, a YouTube policy associate, wrote in a statement about the new tool. She pointed out that “human rights footage, in particular, opens up new risks to the people posting videos and to those filmed.”

Sam Gregory, program director for Witness.org, the leading human rights video advocacy and training organization, praised the move. Witness.org recently began collaborating with YouTube on a new human rights channel.

Mr. Gregory has been trying to raise awareness among dissidents and operators of social media sites about the importance of anonymity for activists when speaking out can put them at risk of retaliation.

In recent years, Mr. Gregory said, government officials in places like Myanmar, Iran and Syria have used videos of protests to identify dissidents. “There have been clear attempts to use citizen-shot footage to target people and punish them for speaking out against the regime,” Mr. Gregory said.

But Mr. Gregory said the tool would help more people than the activists involved in protests. He said that it would also protect the identity of people who want to use video to speak out about subjects like sexual assault and abuse. …more

Iran urges Syrian sides to fully implement Annan’s peace plan
25 July, 2012 – Shia Post

Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Mohammad Reza Sajjadi has called on sparring sides in the Syrian conflict to support the full implementation of the plan by the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

In a meeting between Sajjadi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Wednesday, the two sides called for the settlement of the Syrian issue through peaceful ways and negotiations.

They stressed that the Syrian issue should be resolved without foreign meddling in the country’s internal affairs, urging “foreign players” to refrain from pursuing the approach of interference as it would bear no results.

The Iranian and Russian officials stressed the importance of putting an end to violence in Syria and called on countries which are supporting the opposition to the Syrian government to push them to stop terrorist attacks against civilians in the country.

Bogdanov, for his part, said Russia’s principled stance is based on the joint efforts by the international community with the purpose of implementing Annan’s peace plan.

Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its full support for Annan’s six-point plan on ending the unrest in Syria.

On March 11, Annan said he had presented a set of concrete proposals to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during two rounds of talks in Damascus. His six-point plan was to begin with a cease-fire in mid-April between government forces and rebels seeking to topple the Syrian government. …more

Iran ready to share “capabilities” with Assad
26 July, 2012c- Al Akhbar

A high-ranking Iranian official says his country is ready to share “experience and capabilities” with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

In a report published late on Wednesday by official news agency IRNA, Iran’s vice president in charge of international affairs, Ali Saeedlou, described the two countries as powerful nations able to influence regional and global stability.

“Tehran is ready to give its experience and capabilities to its friend and brother nation of Syria,” he said, after meeting with Syria’s deputy prime minister, Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji.

IRNA said Ghalawanji described Syria as facing serious challenges as a result of “cruel sanctions” imposed by the US, European Union, and Arab countries on Damascus over its handling of a 17-month uprising. …source

Turkey warns it would strike PKK fighters inside Syria
26 July, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

PARIS: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of letting Turkey’s Kurdish rebels operate inside the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike against them.

“In the north, it (President Bashar Assad’s regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organization,” Erdogan told Turkish television late Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). Asked if Ankara would strike fleeing rebels after an attack on Turkish soil, Erdogan said “That’s not even a matter of discussion, it is a given. That is the objective, that is what must be done.”
…source

Bahraini forces detain 15 years Ebrahim Al Moqdad
24 July, 2012 – Shia Post

US-Saudi backed Bahraini regime forces have detained 15 years teenager Ebrahim Moqdad on Tuesday 24th July 2012 and shifted him to unknown place. The Shia Post reported.

According to eyewitness Ebrahim Al Moqdad was seen being dragged to a farm brutally beaten in Belad Al-Qadeem village.

After the missing of Ebrahim Al Moqdad, his family is worried about his life and has termed him on risk.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights have also contained the detention Ebrahim Al Moqdad by saying that 38 hours has been passed since riot police kidnapped child Ebrahim Al Moqdad, he was beaten, his screams could be heard.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, scores of people have been killed since the protests first erupted in February 2011.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have also been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters. …more

Cyber Attacks on Activists Traced to FinFisher Spyware of Gamma
By Vernon Silver – 25 July, 2012 – Bloomberg

It’s one of the world’s best-known and elusive cyber weapons: FinFisher, a spyware sold by U.K.- based Gamma Group, which can secretly take remote control of a computer, copying files, intercepting Skype calls and logging every keystroke.

For the past year, human rights advocates and virus hunters have scrutinized FinFisher, seeking to uncover potential abuses. They got a glimpse of its reach when a FinFisher sales pitch to Egyptian state security was uncovered after that country’s February 2011 revolution. In December, anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks published Gamma promotional videos showing how police could plant FinFisher on a target’s computer.
Enlarge image Cyber Attacks on Activists Traced to FinFisher

Husain Abdulla, a U.S. citizen who is director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, is considering lawsuits and a complaint to the U.S. State Department about the border-crossing hack. Source: Husain Abdulla via Bloomberg
Enlarge image Citizen Lab Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire

Morgan Marquis-Boire, a security researcher at Citizen Lab, analyzed the infected e-mails for this story. Photographer: Jacob Kepler/Bloomberg
Enlarge image Bill Marzcak

Marczak found evidence that traces malicious software e-mailed to Bahraini activists back to FinFisher, a spyware sold by U.K.-based Gamma Group. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

“We know it exists, but we’ve never seen it — you can imagine a rare diamond,” says Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at Helsinki-based data security company F-Secure Oyj. (FSC1V) He posted the Egypt documents online last year and said if a copy of the software itself were found, he’d write anti-virus protection against it.

Now he may get his wish.

Researchers believe they’ve identified copies of FinFisher, based on an examination of malicious software e-mailed to Bahraini activists, they say. Their research, which is being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab, is based on five different e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News from people targeted by the malware.
Global Reach

Pro-democracy activists received the malware in Washington, London and Manama, the capital of Bahrain, the Persian Gulf kingdom that has been gripped by tension since a crackdown on protests last year.

The findings illustrate how the largely unregulated trade in offensive hacking tools is transforming surveillance, making it more intrusive as it reaches across borders and peers into peoples’ digital devices. From anywhere on the globe, the software can penetrate the most private spaces, turning on computer web cameras and reading documents as they are being typed.

“Selling software that allows for the taking over of computers without rule of law can lead to abuse,” says Courtney Radsch, senior program manager for freedom of expression at Washington-based Freedom House, which promotes human rights. …more

From Bahrain With Love: FinFisher’s Spy Kit Exposed?
25 July, 2012 – The Citizen Lab

The FinFisher Suite is described by its distributors, Gamma International UK Ltd., as “Governmental IT Intrusion and Remote Monitoring Solutions.” 1 The toolset first gained notoriety after it was revealed that the Egyptian Government’s state security apparatus had been involved in negotiations with Gamma International UK Ltd. over the purchase of the software. Promotional materials have been leaked that describe the tools as providing a wide range of intrusion and monitoring capabilities.2 Despite this, however, the toolset itself has not been publicly analyzed.

This post contains analysis of several pieces of malware obtained by Vernon Silver of Bloomberg News that were sent to Bahraini pro-democracy activists in April and May of this year. The purpose of this work is identification and classification of the malware to better understand the actors behind the attacks and the risk to victims. In order to accomplish this, we undertook several different approaches during the investigation.

As well as directly examining the samples through static and dynamic analysis, we infected a virtual machine (VM) with the malware. We monitored the filesystem, network, and running operating system of the infected VM.

This analysis suggests the use of “Finspy”, part of the commercial intrusion kit, Finfisher, distributed by Gamma International.
Delivery

This section describes how the malware was delivered to potential victims using e-mails with malicious attachments.

In early May, we were alerted that Bahraini activists were targeted with apparently malicious e-mails. The emails ostensibly pertained to the ongoing turmoil in Bahrain, and encouraged recipients to open a series of suspicious attachments. The screenshot below is indicative of typical message content: …more

Bahrain hacking into activists’ computers: opposition
25 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Bahrain has been using a virus to hack into and control the computers of key anti-government activists as they seek to crackdown on an uprising across the country, opposition figures claimed on Wednesday.

The activists’ claimed that forces loyal to the government have been using a British-made system to seek to spy on them, which was downloaded onto computers through a fake attachment.

A number of prominent anti-government figures received an email which purported to be from a journalist at the Qatari-owned television channel al-Jazeera.

It claimed to have an attachment which included photographs of the government torture of Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights who is currently in jail.

But activists who clicked on it were downloading a virus that allowed the controllers to monitor the computer, intercept Skype calls and log every keystroke.

It was impossible to be certain that the government forces were responsible for the hacking but Ala’a Shehabi, founder of the Bahrain Watch website and one of those targeted by the email, said she thought it was part of a wider cyber war.

“We only received this (email) in April and it seems like a new tactic,” she said. “This is a different technique but its part of a wider cyber war.”

She added that the program, which allegedly cost $500,000, was a waste of funds for the Bahraini government.

“They don’t think they are getting value for money. The software reportedly costs around $500,000, we know that only about 10 people got infected by it.”

The Bahraini government denied it was behind the hacking equipment.

“Such allegations are taken very seriously and if there is any evidence that there is any misconduct in use of such technology, each case will be investigated immediately according to the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Bahrain,” Luma Bashmi, a spokesperson the government’s Information Affairs Authority, told Bloomberg.

Bahrain has been fighting to suppress an uprising since February 2011, with Saudi forces being deployed to help crush the pro-democracy movement. …source

Netanyahu turns to Turkey amid regional turmoil
25 July, 2012 – AL Akhbar

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Jewish state and its former ally Turkey must repair their relationship because of the instability in their region.

Turkey cut its once extensive ties with Israel after Israeli marines killed nine Turkish activists in May 2010 on a humanitarian vessel trying to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, considered a violation of international law by rights groups.

“Turkey and Israel are two important, strong and stable states in this region…We must find ways to restore the relations we once had…it is important, particularly now, for stability in the region in these times,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.

It said he gave the message to Turkish journalists in a meeting late on Monday.

While the statement gave no reason for the timing of his comments, both Israel and Turkey border Syria.

Turkey has called for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to quit after he failed to heed calls for reform and the country has harbored Syrian rebels and tens of thousands of refugees along its border with Syria.

Israel has upped its rhetoric of possibly intervening militarily in the Syrian crisis, raising concern over Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.

Israeli officials said on Tuesday that Assad’s forces retained full control of such weapons, but far-right foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman again warned on Wednesday that any transfer of chemical weapons to Hezbollah would be a “casus belli”.

“For us, that’s a casus belli, a red line,” Lieberman told Israel Radio.

Numerous attempts by Israel and Turkey to rekindle their once-close strategic relationship have failed. Israel has rejected Ankara’s demands for a formal apology, compensation for the families of those killed in the raid and end to the Gaza blockade.

There was no indication in Netanyahu’s statement that Israel would change its stance and meet any of Turkey’s demands.

Netanyahu’s move comes a week after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Israel, and reportedly urged Israeli leaders to amend relations with Turkey as the region descends further into turmoil.

Hamas leader in Turkey

One major obstacle to Israeli-Turkish ties is Ankara’s warm relations with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal is in Turkey for talks with Turkish leaders on developments.

State-run television said Turkey’s prime minister met exiled Hamas leader Meshal to break the daily fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

TRT television said Wednesday that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Meshal at his residence in Ankara on Tuesday evening.

Ties between Turkey, NATO’s biggest Muslim member, and Hamas, which rules Gaza, have been developing since Turkey’s alliance with Israel collapsed.

In January, Hamas premier of the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, visited Erdogan at his Istanbul home. …more

Turkey blocks trucking with Syria, rebels fight on
25 July, 2012 – By Paul Schemm – Associated Press

BEIRUT: Turkey sealed its border with Syria to trucks Wednesday, cutting off a vital supply line to the embattled nation as fighting stretched into its fifth day in the commercial capital of Aleppo.

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said deteriorating security was behind the closure.

“We have serious concerns over the safety of Turkish trucks regarding their entry and return from Syria,” Caglayan said, noting that there had already been a 87 percent drop in trucks traveling to Syria this year.

Turkey was an ally of neighboring Syria before the uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad began 16 months ago. But it has turned into a harsh critic and its territory along the of the 911 kilometer border is used as a staging ground for the rebel army as well as a haven for thousands of refugees fleeing violence that activists say has killed 19,000 people so far.

Northern Syria, especially the province of Idlib, has been a steady scene of heavy fighting between Syrian forces and the rebels and large swathes of the countryside are under rebel control. Rebels, for their part, generally move their weapons and material over the border through clandestine smuggler routes.

Caglayan told reporters Turkish trucks would not be allowed to into Syria, though no restrictions were being imposed on trucks going the other way. The sealing will deprive Syria of a common route for imports. Dozens of Turkish trucks were either looted or torched when the rebels captured the border crossing of Bab al-Hawa last week. Turkish truck drivers have also been caught in the cross fire or been the target of attacks during the civil war.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed confidence at rebel advances, saying that they were taking more and more territory.
…source

Russia says U.S. tries to justify terrorism in Syria
25 July, 2012 – By Steve Gutterman – Reuters

MOSCOW: Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to justify terrorism against the Syrian government and berated Western nations it said had failed to condemn a bomb attack that killed senior security officials.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, referring to what he said were comments by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland indicating such attacks were not surprising, said: “This is a direct justification of terrorism.”

“To put it mildly, we don’t understand the refusal of our partners to condemn the terrorist attack in Damascus,” he said.

He suggested Washington was using the threat of further attacks to push the U.N. Security Council to place international mediator Kofi Annan’s peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention, although U.S. officials have said they would prefer the former course of action.

Lavrov said the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, had cited the July 18 bomb attack in Damascus as evidence that the Security Council should not delay further in adopting a Chapter 7 resolution.

“In other words this means ‘We will continue to support such terrorist attacks until the Security Council does what we want,'” Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis.

“This is a terrible position.”

Lavrov criticised Western sanctions on Syria and defended Russia’s veto last week of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have threatened the Syrian authorities with sanctions if they did not halt violence.

He also reiterated Moscow’s stance that Assad’s departure from power could not be a precondition to a political dialogue aimed at ending the 16-month-old conflict and that Syrians themselves must decide the country’s future.

Two rebel Syrian groups claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, a senior commander and one of the pillars of the Assad clan’s rule, as well as Defence Minister Daoud Rajha, intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar and veteran army general Hassan Turkmani.

…source

Hezbollah slams Israeli move to destroy Palestinian villages

25 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Lebanon’s Hezbollah late Tuesday condemned an Israeli decision to destroy eight Palestinian villages in the West Bank to make way for an Israeli army training ground.

Hezbollah slammed the decision as the “new Zionist crime which violates all boundaries”, adding that such acts are displayed for “those who are still in favor of negotiations with the enemy.”

The powerful Lebanese group called on “both the Muslim and Arab nations, as well as the international community, to assume their duty of protecting the Palestinians, and annihilating all evacuation decisions.”

It also called on the Palestinian people to “hold on to their lands and to their resistance.”

Hezbollah said the Israeli move came “in the light of complete Arab silence and international abstinence from preventing Israeli decisions and their implementation.”

Israel’s decision to destroy the villages, which are located south of Al-Khalil, and displace the native Palestinian population of 1,500, falls under “the extensive Zionist plan to cleanse Palestinians from their remaining lands while occupying it under violence and force,” the statement read.

“This new crime is nothing but a clear indication of the degree of the Zionist hatred towards the Palestinians, and their continuous blatant arrogance when dealing with them, while their cleansing practices affecting the entire land of Palestine, and especially Jerusalem, go unquestioned.”

Israel maintains a military occupation of the West Bank, and continues to expand illegal Jewish settlements in defiance of international law.

Hezbollah fought a two decade Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, forcing the Jewish state to withdraw in 2000. Hezbollah again fought off an attempted Israeli invasion of Lebanon in July 2006.

Fears of a renewed conflict have escalated in recent weeks, with increasing rhetoric from Israel of a potential strike on Lebanon and Syria as the Syrian crisis intensifies. …source