An estimated 100,000 people have packed up and left since the summer war here between Israel and Hezbollah, the government says. And that was before Tuesday’s assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel heightened political tensions and led to even more anxiety about the future.
Link to this article.
1913 Intel
International Conflict, Western World Threats and Geopolitical Intelligence
Tense Environment Spawns Lebanon Exodus
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
Published in Middle East, general
DEBKAfile reports: Russia sells Iran sophisticated missile systems capable of repelling US or Israeli air or missile assaults
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
The first of 29 Tor-M1 systems in the $700m deal have been delivered to Iran by Moscow despite US opposition to their sale of a weapon widely regarded as the most advanced of its kind in the world. Some Iranian and Russian air defense experts say its full deployment at Iran’s nuclear installations will make [...]
If not the EU, then who?
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
MOSCOW: During the Soviet era, Russian human-rights defenders looked to the West as our only hope for leverage on a government that was utterly unaccountable to its people. It is surreal to find myself in that position again today.
Outside pressure is now the only hope of stopping President Vladimir Putin from leading Russia back to [...]
The 751 No-Go Zones of France
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
They go by the euphemistic term Zones Urbaines Sensibles, or Sensitive Urban Zones, with the even more antiseptic acronym ZUS, and there are 751 of them as of last count. They are convienently listed on one long webpage, complete with street demarcations and map delineations.
What are they? Those places in France that the French state [...]
PUTIN’S KILLED ME
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
Ex-spy’s dramatic deathbed blast at Russian president
POISONED ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko yesterday accused Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of murdering him - in a scathing denunciation written on his deathbed.
Litvinenko, who dictated the statement as he lay in a London hospital dying from a massive dose of powerful radioactive poison, said Putin had proved he was “ruthless [...]
Pakistan emerging arms market in world
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
After enduring two decades of international arms embargo, Pakistan is set to emerge as one of the most active new players in the $3 trillion world arms market.
Its arms export last year amounted to $200 million - a small sum in comparison to the US and Russia, nonetheless a huge earning for Pakistan considering that [...]
Cold War History Lessons
Posted by Matt in November 25th, 2006 | no comment
A rogue Russian spy is killed in mysterious circumstances in London. Some of the Russian president’s leading domestic opponents are exiled, imprisoned or murdered. The Kremlin, in the grip of a steely former KGB colonel, destabilises unfriendly neighbouring countries, temporarily severing gas supplies to Ukraine and bullying Georgia.
Is this the start of a new cold [...]