Iraq Official: Militants Training in Syria

AMMAN, Jordan - Iraq's defense minister slammed Damascus on Sunday for letting militants train on Syrian soil and warned that an escalation of violence in Iraq will spill over into neighboring countries.

Saadoun al-Dulaimi's visit to Jordan follows Wednesday's triple hotel suicide bombings in the Jordanian capital Amman by the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, which killed 57 people.

"We have more than 450 detainees who came from different Arab and Muslim countries to train in Syria and enter with their booby-trapped vehicles into Iraq to bring destruction and killings," al-Dulaimi said after meeting Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan Badran.

"Let me tell the Syrians that if the Iraqi volcano explodes, no neighboring capital will be saved," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_syria

So let me get this straight, the Jordan bombers were Iraqi...but it's Syria's fault. :shrug:

Syria says investigator rebuffs proposals

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The head of a UN murder inquiry is insisting on interviewing six Syrian officials in Lebanon, rebuffing a Syrian proposal for them to be questioned elsewhere, a Syrian foreign ministry official said on Sunday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the ministry's legal adviser Riad al-Daoudi had met in the Lebanese capital last week with Detlev Mehlis, who is trying to find the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

But the official said the German prosecutor had refused to discuss Syria's concerns about where its officials should be questioned and had ignored its counter-proposals.

"Mr Mehlis was rigid and did not pay any attention to the issues raised by Mr Riad al-Daoudi," the official said. "Mr Daoudi visited Beirut on an unofficial mission to touch base with Mr Mehlis on the details of his request."

More:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-11-13T140230Z_01_MOL350508_RTRUKOC_0_US-SYRIA-UN-HARIRI.xml&archived=False

Syria proposes venues for Hariri murder investigation
13 November 2005

DAMASCUS — Syria has proposed Cairo, Vienna and Geneva as venues for UN investigators to question six Syrian officials in a probe into the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister, a Syrian official said yesterday.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/November/middleeast_November370.xml§ion=middleeast&col=

If Mehlis insists on Beirut instead of such "suspicious" places as Vienna and Geneva, can there be any doubt that this investigation is being politicized?

congratulatory phone calls shortly after the assassination of Hariri:

The U.N. commission was reported Sunday to have made a second foray into the Baabda Palace in as many days to question this time President Lahoud's son, Emile Jr., about telephone calls made to his mobile from Rafik Hariri's assassination scene just before and just after the deadly bombing attack.
http://www.lebaneselobby.org/News__index/news%202005/11%2013%2005%20UN%20Interrogators%20Make%20Another%20Foray%20into%20Baabda%20to%20Question%20President's%20Son%20as%20Lahoud%20Held%20Secret%20Meeting%20with%20Aoun.htm

Just how stupid is that?

This is the Israeli listening post on the Golan Heights:


It would be foolish to assume that nobody monitors phone calls in Beirut, particularly the phone calls of the Lebanese president and his family members.

The main problem I have with the plot described in the Mehlis report is that it appears so utterly stupid. Some have compared it to a spy novel; yes, but a rather bad one...

13 Nov 2005 14:30:25 GMT
Source: Reuters

CAIRO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Nearly all of the suicide bombers who have carried out attacks in Iraq have been Arabs who crossed into the country from Syria, Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said on Sunday.

Most of the suicide bombers were Saudi citizens, Rubaie added. U.S, British and Iraqi officials have demanded Syria do more to stem the flow of foreign fighters crossing its border into Iraq and close training camps on its soil. (...)

Rubaie said the fighters, who he said included Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, Algerians and Saudis came to Iraq through Syria, and received logistical assistance and training inside the country.

"We want a political decision by the Syrian security agencies to stop the penetration of suicide bombers from Syria to Iraq ... It is very important that this decision is taken on the highest political level in Syria," he added.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13369157.htm

Together with the remarks of Iraq's defense minister today this looks like the beginning of a campaign:

Iraq Official: Militants Training in Syria
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1921907

And let's not forget what Bush said in his latest speech:

The influence of Islamic radicalism is also magnified by helpers and enablers. They've been sheltered by authoritarian regimes -- allies of convenience like Iran and Syria -- that share the goal of hurting America and modern Muslim governments, and use terrorist propaganda to blame their own failures on the West, on America, and on the Jews. (...)

State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists, and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror. The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them, because they're equally guilty of murder.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051111-1.html

Does anybody doubt that Syria is next on the list?

Since "we" now claim ownership of Iraq I guess the headline is accurate huh?

The puppet gov't of Iraq says what we want. there is no Iraq any longer.

It sounds like an Iraqi problem. they have a trained army, let Iraq take care of it.