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DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report March 22, 2012, 1:57 PM (GMT+02:00)

Al Qaeda killer Mohammed Merah

The French-born al Qaeda killer, Mohammed Merah – who shocked the world by murdering three Jewish schoolchildren and their teacher in Toulouse by shots to the head, after killing three French paratroopers – was found dead after jumping out of a window still shooting Thursday, March 22. First, he injured three police officers searching his apartment, bursting out of the bathroom firing madly.

This 23-year old Muslim extremist made history by the callousness of his murders and by forcing French police and security forces to conduct the biggest and longest siege in their history against a lone armed terrorist

Many mysteries surround the episode -both concerning the gunman and the methods used by French security to apprehend him. One applies to the official reporting of the incident and the many conflicting accounts, some of them coming from the French minister of interior Claude Guiant.

Another relates to the unnamed man who entered the killer’s apartment on a quiet Toulouse street some time Wednesday.  Was he sent for some face-to-face bargaining with Merah on terms for ending the siege?
There were powerful explosions around the apartment over midnight Wednesday and sustained gunfire from various weapons just before the terrorist was officially reported to be dead. None were explained.
One reason for the dragging out the police assault on the apartment may have been that the occupant had not only barricaded himself with basic supplies of food, water, medicines and ammo, but also booby-trapped the entrance ready to strike down a large number of raiders while he remained unharmed.
The apartment may have been rigged as a fortified chamber for a long haul.
In that and other respects, he may fit the model of an Iron Man, a terrorist prototype and Salafi extremist who drives fast cars and motorbikes, enjoys the good life, is at ease with electronic gadgets and used a high tech video camera from a Formula One car to record his murderous rampage in high resolution for propaganda and posterity.

Youthful copycat admirers in jihadist circles will no doubt emulate the Merah style.
Another unanswered riddle is who bankrolled this high-end style and his operations?

One of the big questions facing the French president and security authorities is what took them so long – a day and a half – to raid the apartment? If their plan was to capture him alive to grill him for intelligence on al Qaeda networks, they failed.
Why did they not use stun grenades or a special gas to paralyze him in the initial stage or after the doors were breached? French counterterrorism units are adept in the use of a special gas designed over 40 years ago and were the first to use it.
debkafile’s counter-terror sources recall that in November. 1979, when the Saudi royal family was unable to put down a revolt against the throne, they asked urgently for a French counterterrorism unit to break the siege the rebels had laid on the Kaaba mosque in Mecca, Islam’s most sacred shrine. The unit poured gas into the ancient underground passages and forced the rebels to surrender.
debkafile reported Wednesday, March 21:

Questions are already being asked about how French intelligence and counter-terror agencies, which had held  him and family members under surveillance for some time, failed to discover the deadly plans they were hatching against Jewish and Moslem targets.
Mohammed Merah said he had trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which countries he visited in 2010 and 2011. A Kandahar prison official identified him as an al Qaeda bomber who was imprisoned for three years and escaped in a mass Taliban jailbreak in 2008, only to be rearrested and sent back to France
Toulouse police hunted him down to an address 2 kilometers from the Ozar Hatorah school where he committed his murders after identifying him as the motorcyclist in black who also killed two French paratroopers and wounded a third in neighboring Montauban last Thursday.
Merah fell under police suspicion after that attack but was not arrested. He was active in the extremist Islamic organization called Forsane Alizze which was only outlawed in February although it was long identified with al Qaeda.
The terrorist called French TV stations after the attacks and said he had avenged French participation in the Afghan war, the suffering of Gaza Palestinians and the Sarkozy government’s ban on the veil in public places for Muslim women. He had videotaped his murders to further propagate their impact.
The Jewish teacher, Yonathan Sandler, 30, his sons Arieh, 3 and Gavriel, 6 and the Ozar Hatorah principal’s daughter, Miriam Monstango, aged 8, whom he shot dead Monday at the Jewish school, were laid to rest at the Har Menuhot cemetery in Jerusalem Wednesday attended by masses of people and notables.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe flew to Israel with the victims and attended the funerals as a mark of French-Israeli solidarity in the face of he terrible murders. “Never doubt our determination to fight anti-Semitism in France which violates all our values and will not be tolerated,” he declared.

The dawn raid in Toulouse was accompanied by security police swoops on extremist Muslim hideouts across France.

Israel Hayom | Diversionary war games.

Iron Dome bill presented at US Congress – Israel News, Ynetnews.

(The one thing Congress seems to be able to agree about is standing by Israel.  In the world,  Israel has no greater friend than the American public.  Thank you, thank you, thank you… –  JW )

Ambassador Oren’s article on need to invest in 10 new batteries quickly translated into bipartisan bill. Congressman Berman: ‘US will continue to stand by our strong ally’

Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON – The US Congress’ response to Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren‘s article was instantaneous. After Oren published an opinion piece discussing the growing need to invest in 10 more Iron Domebatteries, two House Representatives introduced legislation Wednesday that would allow the Obama administration to give more missile defense systems to Israel.

The proposed bill does not include specific figures, but it recognizes the operational success of Iron Dome, and its strategic significance in anti-missile defense. It also secures the budgeting of 10 more Iron Dome batteries, regardless of expected cut in security funding. The cost of one Iron Dome battery is $50 millions, not including the costs of the missiles and infrastructure.

“Israel must have the ability to defend itself from rocket and missile attacks, and the United States will continue to stand by our strong ally if called upon in times of need,” Rep. Berman (D) said.

Berman, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has pushed a number of pro-Israeli measures, including previous legislation in 2010 that supported Obama’s plan to allocate $205 million in additional aid to develop the Iron Dome system.

In the article published in “Politico”, Ambassador Oren wrote: “an additional 10 batteries, at least, will be necessary to protect the entire country.”

Oren added, “For America, as well as for Israel, an investment in the Iron Dome system is an investment in diplomacy — helping to create the conditions conducive to peace.”

Toulouse gunman confirmed dead after firefight with police | The Times of Israel.

(ימח שמו וזכרו  May his name and memory be obliterated. –  JW )

Three officers injured after Mohammed Merah opens fire; raid ends 32-hour standoff

By AP and Joshua Davidovich

Merah was killed after resisting arrest when police entered his first-floor apartment. Three police officers were injured in the raid, one seriously, according to police reports.

Police used a camera to survey the apartment and when the camera entered the bathroom, the gunman came out, “guns blazing,” Interior Minister Claude Gueant told reporters. A firefight ensued and Merah jumped out the first-floor window and was “found dead,” he said.

Heavy gunfire was heard outside the apartment for several minutes after police entered the apartment. Some 300 bullets were shot in the firefight.

Merah, who confessed to killing three children and a rabbi outside a Jewish school in Toulouse Monday, reportedly said he wanted “to die weapons in hand,” according to Gueant earlier Thursday.

Merah is also believed to have killed three French paratroopers

According to Europe 1, Merah opened fire on one of the members of the special forces, known in France as RAID, from his balcony.

French media reported that police found a suitcase on Merah’s body, which was believed to hold explosive material.

Three loud explosions were heard outside the apartment earlier, and three stretchers were taken out of an ambulance.

Gueant earlier said police had not been in contact with Merah since Wednesday evening.

He added that Merah said he had no interest in negotiations.

Merah was under siege for some 32 hours beginning at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, when police originally tried to raid his home.

Elite police squads set off sporadic blasts throughout the night and into the morning — some that blew off the apartment’s shutters — in what officials described as a tactic aimed to pressure Merah to give up.

Holed up alone in an otherwise evacuated apartment building, Merah appeared to toy with police negotiators — first saying he would surrender in the afternoon, then under the cover of darkness, then reneging on those pledges altogether, officials said.

Authorities said the shooter, a French citizen of Algerian descent, had been to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he claimed to have received training from al-Qaida.

They said he told negotiators he carried out the terror attacks to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army’s involvement in Afghanistan, as well as a government ban last year on face-covering Islamic veils.

“He has no regrets, except not having more time to kill more people and he boasts that he has brought France to its knees,” Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference.

Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, and two of his children, Arieh and Gavriel, 5 and 3, were killed in the Monday attack. Also killed was Myriam Monsenego, 8. The four were buried in Israel on Wednesday.

The standoff began when a police attempt at around 3 a.m. to detain Merah erupted into a firefight. Two police were wounded, triggering on-and-off negotiations with the suspect that lasted into the night.

As darkness fell, police cut electricity and gas to the building, then quietly closed in to wait out the suspect.

French authorities — like others in Europe — have long been concerned about “lone-wolf” attacks by young, Internet-savvy militants who self-radicalize online since they are harder to find and track. Still, it was the first time a radical Islamic motive has been ascribed to killings in France in years.

Merah espoused a radical brand of Islam and had been to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region twice and to the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan for training, Molins said.

He said the suspect had plans to kill another soldier, prompting the police raid.

A late-night chat.

By Ari Shavit

Al Arabiya

Thursday, 22 March 2012

By the end of the year, the American guest will know. By the end of the year, we’ll all know.

A week ago, a senior Israeli official had an American guest over for a late-night chat. Because the guest is intelligent and influential, the official, after offering whiskey and serving coffee, cut straight to the chase.

There’s no time, the Israeli official said. By 2013, Iran will be deep inside the zone of immunity. Iran’s ongoing fortification and dispersal of its strategic facilities means that by then, even if Israel does strike, Tehran’s nuclear program will survive. Once that happens, all those in Israel who oppose a strike will go from arguing “not yet” to throwing up their hands and saying “it’s too late.” That’s why it’s totally clear that for Israel, 2012 is a critical year. It’s either now or never.

The senior Israeli official described relations between Israel and America as excellent. Unlike in the past, there are no intelligence disputes or rhetorical gaps. From both a diplomatic and a military perspective, the Obama administration has done much more to confront Iran that the Bush administration. And the president himself, the official said, is so impressive – level-headed, tough, and on the ball.

But a realistic view of the situation shows that there are understandable differences between Washington and Jerusalem on the Iranian issue. While for America, a Shi’ite bomb is a strategic problem, for Israel it’s an existential problem. While America could act against Iran next year, Israel can act only this year.

Anyone who doesn’t look at life through rose-colored glasses should understand that it’s unrealistic to expect the U.S. president to promise the Israeli prime minister that he will stop Iran via a military operation at some point in the future. Thus precisely because of the close relationship between the two allies, Israel must be prepared to accept the fact that on this fateful issue, it must act alone, without consulting anyone.

Israel, the official said, will respect the United States and take its interests into account, but it will not wait for the United States to give it a green light to act. Nor will Israel inform the Americans of such an operation in advance.

The Israeli official said he sees Iran as a paper tiger. Its ability to carry out a direct strike on Israel’s home front is limited. Its control over Hezbollah and Hamas is not total. If Lebanon allows the Shi’ite militia to attack Israel from its territory, it will end up with no power stations and no airports.

Gog and Magog? Those fears are quite exaggerated. The United States really has nothing to worry about. Since Iran’s supreme concern is to avoid drawing America into the war, it will have no interest in attacking American targets. The chances that Iran will do anything against America are small, and Iran’s ability to harm America is almost nil.

True, oil prices are likely to soar dramatically. But even that spike won’t last for very long, because Saudi Arabia will quickly increase its output. In a few weeks, the market will calm down and businesses will be back on track. Looking back, everyone will thank Israel and recognize that in its own way, it solved a problem that the world was unable to solve.

Quietly but firmly, the Israeli official repeated the mantra that there are three parameters for an Israeli operation: ability, legitimacy, and the feeling that the knife is almost at its throat. And right now, the knife is at its throat, the official said: As far as Israel is concerned, 2012 is the year of decision.

Israel isn’t bluffing, he added. Israel is telling the United States the truth.

We don’t have to talk in terms of Auschwitz, but everyone must understand that the Jewish state cannot leave its fate in the hands of others. That’s not why we came here. That’s not why we established this state. What’s at stake is a fundamental question of sovereignty. Only if we are independent and strong can we protect ourselves and be a worthy partner to our allies.

As the American guest went out into the stormy Tel Aviv night, he was agitated and upset. Had he really heard what he thought he heard? Had the senior Israeli official been telling him bald-faced lies, or had he been sharing the sensational truth?

By the end of the year, the American guest will know. By the end of the year, we’ll all know.

(Ari Shavit is a senior correspondent at Haaretz Newspaper, where this article first appeared March 22, 2012)

The day Europe died – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

(Very harsh, but needs underscoring. – JW)

Op-ed: Europe’s deeply flawed morality, dying soul, evident in Gaza-Toulouse comparison

Yigal Walt

Monday, March 19th will be remembered as a dark day for Europe. That day, it crossed the “point of no return,” as long years of political correctness and currying favor with the Arab world prompted the final burial of the continent’s liberal discourse, which has become a twisted, meaningless absurdity.

The events of the day did not come from nowhere. After all, this is the same Europe where a German opposition leader slams “Israeli apartheid,” where officials call for boosting Arab control in Jerusalem and blacklisting settlers, and where Europe’s foreign policy chief expresses concern for a hunger-striking Islamic Jihad man but ignores the same plight of a Saudi human rights activist.

At the heart of Europe, in Geneva, Hamasman Ismail al-Ashqar spoke before some members of the UN’s human rights commission. The mere mention of Hamas in the context of human rights is utterly ludicrous: After all, this is the group that took over Gaza violently while hurling foes from rooftops, and ever since has been most preoccupied with arms smuggling, imposing an “Islamic moral code,” and occasionally firing rockets at Israeli kindergartens.

The fact that a member of such group was invited to speak in Geneva, and moreover, that European capitals did not raise a hue and cry over such terrible distortion of the human rights discourse, blatantly attests to the moral abyss which Europeans have fallen into; a dark place where flattery for a murderous terrorist organization crushes any commitment to morality and truth.

Hamas praise for Ashton

Yet while still overcoming the initial shock, a more painful blow arrived when four innocents, including three children, were murdered in cold blood outside a Jewish school in France. One of the most dreadful moments on that sad day soon followed, when her majesty Catherine Ashton, The EU’s foreign policy chief, condemned the massacre while making note of children dying in Gaza.

Such disgraceful equation reflects an incredibly twisted value system coupled with total blindness in the face of global and Mideastern reality. A member of the French Jewish community expressed this well when he told Ynet: “Where did she draw this comparison? How can you compare the despicable murder of a man who confirmed the kill of an eight-year-old girl to children killed in Gaza? How low have we reached?”

It is no wonder that Hamas rushed to praise Ashton for her statements, thereby highlighting Europe’s moral confusion. At the same time, a citation from Hamas may serve as a badge of honor in contemporary Europe.

The European Union’s embarrassing “clarification,” which did not deny Ashton’s remarks but merely claimed she did not mean to compare Toulouseto Gaza, made no difference. If anything, it further demonstrated Europe’s spinelessness and the tendency to shift positions and appease different groups, without adhering to a credible, enduring moral compass.

All that remains now is to watch the deterioration of the “old continent” into a new, murky horizon. On the one hand, Islamization trends are expected to grow, while on the other hand, radical nationalistic parties will continue to gain strength. Europe of the late 20th Century, which vowed to uphold the banner of tolerance and liberalism, will slowly turn into a chaotic, angry region where various groups are fighting each other while shunning genuine moral values.

In any case, Ms. Ashton need not apologize for or clarify her remarks. After all, her words accurately reflected the mood of her decayed, dying continent.

Barak: Iran not completing nukes… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

By Ariel Harmony / Defense Ministry

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that Iran is not completing its proliferation of nuclear weapons due to the threat of military action against it.

“Iran fears actions against it” by the United States or “another actor,” Barak told Israel Radio in a telephone interview from Germany, presumably referring to Israel.

The Islamic Republic, he said, has been working in recent years to reinforce and scatter its nuclear sites throughout the country in order to mitigate the damage of a possible military strike against them.

Saying that there is full intelligence cooperation between Washington and Jerusalem on the Iranian nuclear issue, the defense minister asserted that Israel cannot stand on the sidelines or allow itself to lose its freedom of action in the Iranian theater.

Speaking in another interview Thursday morning, Barak told Army Radio that 2012 will be a decisive year regarding the Iranian nuclear threat.

On Wednesday, Barak said in a meeting with his German counterpart that Israel will decide its own fate with regards to Iran.

Israel views the Iranian issue in “a way unique to us, and we are attentive to all our friends, but in the end, the Israeli government will be the one who will have to take the decisions on Israel’s security and future,” Barak said.

The international community has been pursuing a diplomatic approach to the Iranian nuclear program. Sanctions, led by the US and EU, have considerably damaged the Iranian economy. Israeli officials, however, have maintained the right to act independently if it assesses that Iran poses an immediate existential threat.

During the meeting, Barak also said that there was a “growing recognition in the international community that the Iranian military nuclear program is consistently approaching the zone of immunity, and that sanctions need to be stiffened, while talks need to be speeded up.”

Earlier Wednesday, Barak signed a contract for the purchase of a sixth submarine for Israel’s navy in Berlin. Wolf Rudiger, state secretary of the ministry of defense, signed for Germany.

During the signing ceremony, Barak said that the new submarine would act as a “force multiplier” for the IDF, and assist it in dealing with growing security challenges.

‘I was in the shower and thought missiles were falling on Israel’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Civil defense drill sparks panic in downtown Tel Aviv, as sirens wail Wednesday morning.

By Ilan Lior

The wail of sirens in downtown Tel Aviv sparked a brief moment of panic on Wednesday morning, as most people were unaware of the civil defense drill the Home Front Command was conducting.

Residents, business owners and visitors said that for a few moments, they thought the 90-second siren − the rising-and-falling type used during real emergencies − was announcing that war had broken out.

	Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar overseeing a civil defense drill.
	Photo by: Alon Ron

The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command had announced in media outlets that the sirens would be tested, but the announcements were apparently not prominent enough.

Some people immediately responded on Facebook and Twitter. “Was that a siren just now, or did I imagine it?” one person posted on the IDF Tweeter feed. “A siren test by the Home Front Command is underway at the moment − not a real emergency,” the IDF responded.

“I didn’t hear a thing about it,” Erez Bernholtz, 30, of Tel Aviv, told Haaretz. “I was in the shower and I thought missiles were falling on Israel.

“I got out of the shower and went to my iPhone and started looking at the news sites to see if a war had started,” continued Erez, who was in his third-floor apartment when he heard the siren. “I had two terrified minutes when I suddenly realized how real it is. We hear about it all the time and supposedly know about the situation, but you don’t really stop to think about it, because you have to go on with your life. But it seemed logical enough that I thought it was real.”

Terrorism expert to Congress: Iran willing to approve attacks against U.S. – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Counterterrorism expert Dr. Matthew Levitt tells congressional committee that it is no longer clear that Iran sees an attack on U.S. as ‘crossing some sort of red line.’

By Natasha Mozgovaya

Iran and the United States are engaged in a shadow war, Dr. Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute, told the Congress Committee of Homeland Security on Wednesday.

According to Levitt, who had been deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at U.S. Department of the Treasury in the past, Iranian leaders appear to be more willing to approve attacks in the U.S.

	Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) talking with Iran’s naval chief, after a military exercise in the Persian Gulf in February 2010.
	Photo by: AP

“It is no longer clear that Iran sees carrying out an attack in the United States as crossing some sort of red line,” he said.

On the other hand, Hezbollah, which was long thought of as taking orders from the Iranian regime, makes decisions of its own and may not automatically jump to carry out an attack against the U.S. even if Iran asks it to do so.

Recently, several intelligence officials have said that there has been little cooperation between Iranian and Hezbollah cells in carrying out attacks abroad. Surprisingly, there has even been some element of competition between the two. However, there is reason to be concerned that Hezbollah may decide to carry out attacks against U.S. interests, as a result of its own decision making calculus.

Hezbollah has long leveraged its worldwide network of members, supporters, and sympathizers to provide the group financial, logistical, military, and other types of support. Though the worldwide network includes operational agents, it is mainly concerned with gathering resources and fundraising.

Hezbollah has long been seen by the United States as a cash cow, running charities and engaging in a vast array of criminal activities to raise money and procure material.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 19, 2012, 10:53 PM (GMT+02:00)

Talking about war

The Middle East has unknowingly been living for ten days under threat of a regional war, which debkafile’s military sources disclose was delivered by Syrian president Bashar Assad to UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan when they first met Saturday, March 10. Assad warned him in no uncertain terms that Syria was ready to unleash its missiles against any country preparing for military intervention in Syria before they moved.
While not mentioning them by name, the Syrian ruler was referring to Britain, France, Norway, Holland and Italy whose navies and air forces were last week drawn up ready for action in positions in the eastern Mediterranean and bases in the Middle East, including the Royal Air Force Akrotiri facility in Cyprus.
A Western military source reported to debkafile Monday night, March 19 that those European forces were standing ready to cordon off certain Syrian regions and cities as “security zones” off limits to Syrian units including its air force.

Cruising opposite the Syrian coast are the USS Enterprise and the French Charles de Gaulle, both aircraft carriers. They are part of the combat disposition the West has arrayed against Iran and from their Mediterranean posts would take part in a military confrontation erupting in the Persian Gulf.
In his conversation with Annan,Turkey was the only foe Assad named specifically as his first target for a pre-emptive missile assault. He stressed he would have no qualms about attacking Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyep Erdogan is due to set out next week on a visit to Seoul where he will rendezvous with US President Barack Obama, possibly on March 28,  for policy alignment on the Iranian nuclear threat and the year-old Syrian crisis. Our Washington sources report that Obama has set aside six hours for his conversation with Erdogan.

From the South Korean capital, the Turkish leader is scheduled to fly straight to Tehran. The primary Middle East issues, a nuclear Iran and the Syrian impasse. are therefore destined to reach a critical point in the coming days.
This may partly explain the announcement from, Russian Black Sea headquarters at Sevastopol Monday that two Russian naval vessels had put into the Syrian port of Tartus. The vessels’ mission and names were not disclosed, excepting that one carried a unit of “anti-terrorist marines” and the other was a military tanker which joined a Russian naval reconnaissance and surveillance ship already tied up in Tartus.