Some Israel-Gaza notes (note 1 updated: Kerry’s cease-fire plan “might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal”), Washington Post, David Bernstein, July 26, 2014

The media has engaged in journalistic malpractice by reporting casualty figures for civilians coming from Gaza as gospel. The figures come from the Gazan Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas. The Ministry of Health counts everyone not in uniform as a civilian. Most Hamas fighters don’t wear uniforms. The UN is sometimes sourced for the figures, but the UN gets its figures from … the Gazan Ministry of Health.

I’ve posted less about this than about previous conflicts, because there are so many great blogs focused on Israel-related issues that I don’t have as much to add to the conversation. But I thought I’d pick out a few items that VC readers might not have noticed.

(1) Secretary of State Kerry recently presented a cease-fire proposal. The Israeli cabinet rejected it unanimously. The cabinet includes individuals from several parties ranging from moderate left to far right, who rarely agree on anything. How incompetent a diplomat can you be to publicly offer a cease-fire proposal to a friendly (and dependent) country when you have no support whatsoever for it, and apparently no leverage to overcome that lack of support? As I understand it, the terms were “Stop fighting now (including stop blowing up Hamas’s tunnels), start talking 48 hours from now.” It’s pretty obvious why this is a non-starter for a country that relies on its reserves. Having Israeli reservists who have been called sitting around for 48 hours, then waiting who-knows-how-long for talks to reach a positive or negative conclusion, would itself be a victory for Hamas, inflicting additional pain on the Israel economy and morale. Israel currently prefers Egyptian mediation to American mediation (and so does Egypt), which suggests the esteem they have for Kerry. (Hamas also rejected Kerry’s cease-fire proposal.) UPDATE: The Israeli government has leaked Kerry’s proposal to the media. It’s truly awful; it meets most of Hamas’s demands, and none of Israel’s. Even the left-wing Ha’aretz carriesthis commentary from its diplomatic correspondent: “The draft Kerry passed to Israel on Friday shocked the cabinet ministers not only because it was the opposite of what Kerry told them less than 24 hours earlier, but mostly because it might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal (leader of Hamas). It was everything Hamas could have hoped for.”

(2) The media has engaged in journalistic malpractice by reporting casualty figures for civilians coming from Gaza as gospel. The figures come from the Gazan Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas. The Ministry of Health counts everyone not in uniform as a civilian. Most Hamas fighters don’t wear uniforms. The UN is sometimes sourced for the figures, but the UN gets its figures from … the Gazan Ministry of Health. Contrary to early reports that 80% or so of the early casualties were civilians, Al-Jazeera published names and ages, and about 3/4 were men of fighting age (16-50), compared to a rough estimate of 20% of the Gazan population (40% to 50% of which is fourteen and under). Some of those men were undoubtedly civilians, but it strains credulity to believe that 80% of the casualties were civilian but just-so-happened to be overwhelmingly fighting-age men. (Here’s the most recent analysis from the IsraellyCool blog). For that matter, how do we know that the Minsitry of Health isn’t counting deaths from natural causes as deaths from Israeli actions? A simple “the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health claims” before reciting casualty figures that the media has not itself verified would resolve the problem. Obviously, there have been civilian casualties, and I doubt that a more accurate count would change many minds about the conflict. Still, as co-blogger Ilya suggested to me, relying on Hamas for casualty figures is like relying on old East German economic reports showing it to be wealthier than West Germany. (I’ll leave for another time the perplexing question of why the only time the media indulges in day-by-day casualty counts is when Israel is involved. Quick… within a large margin of error, how many civilians did NATO kill in Serbia? Afghanistan? Libya?)

(3) The Israeli media reports that based on interrogations of captured Hamas fighters, Hamas was planning a major massacre for the Jewish New Year in September, with dozens of fighters simultaneously attacking border towns via Hamas’s tunnels. Most support for an early cease-fire dried up after this reporting, as it turned the tide of Israeli opinion from “we need a period of quiet from the missiles” to “we need to get rid of Hamas’s offensive military capacity.”

(4) I’ve heard several friends say, “what’s the big deal about the missiles, only three Israelis have been killed?” First, several dozen have been wounded, and several dozen more have been treated for shock. Kids are sleeping in “safe rooms” (in newer buildings) or bomb shelters (in older neighborhoods) and are afraid to go out during the day. Adults go to work, but have to disrupt their day to go to shelters all the time. With nine thousand missiles, Hamas could have kept this up for many months. Those of you who live in the DC area and remember how “the sniper” disrupted life for weeks” can imagine how much more disruptive constant rocket attacks could be.

(5) All that concrete that worldwide “human rights activists” insisted go to Gaza for construction? Largely diverted to Hamas’s military tunnel network. How many of the tunnels serve as civilian bomb shelters? As best as can be determined, zero. But the Hamas leadership has a tunnel infrastructure for itself to hide in. Those who have sought to undo the Israeli-Egypt blockade of Gaza to allow in items with military use like concrete are either rogues or fools; and Israel still sends in far more humanitarian aid (even now, during the war) than the people of Gaza would ever likely see from Hamas, while Hamas leaders have turned out to be as corrupt as their Fatah predecessors.

(6) I’ve much-admired the commentary of David Horovitz of The Times of Israel on the conflict. His latest is here.

(7) Does this post seem “one-sided?” As I’ve said before, Israel is far from perfect, but it’s blessed with almost cartoonishly evil enemies, including Hamas.

Rogers: Iran Aiding, Arming Hezbollah and Hamas, Washington Free Beacon, July 27, 2014

(If the House were to pass the proposed legislation, it would not come up for debate, much less for a vote, in the Senate. If it did and passed, President Obama would veto it. The votes necessary to override his veto would almost certainly not be there. — DM)

Senate Republicans are considering legislation to block the White House from infusing Iran with this money. The bill—authored by Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) with Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) and John Cornyn (R., Texas)—would effectively suspend President Barack Obama’s authority to use his executive power to waive sanctions on Iran and unfreeze the cash assets, which top more than $100 billion.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.) on Sunday slammed the Obama administration for unfreezing $2.8 billion in Iranian assets, saying that money is being used to fund Hamas.

“Iran is publicly, in their own newspapers, touting the fact that they are helping to militarize Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” Rogers said on Face the Nation. “They’re supporting Hezbollah in the fight in Syria and supplying Hamas in the Gaza Strip with weapons.”

The White House announced last week that it would give Iran access to the money in order to continue nuclear talks through November.

“You can’t just pick and choose one particular region. It has to work in concert,” Rogers said. “So when you free up $2.8 billion for Iran when they’re already cash strapped because of sanctions, that means they can continue to do bad activities in the Gaza Strip.”

Senate Republicans are considering legislation to block the White House from infusing Iran with this money. The bill—authored by Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) with Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) and John Cornyn (R., Texas)—would effectively suspend President Barack Obama’s authority to use his executive power to waive sanctions on Iran and unfreeze the cash assets, which top more than $100 billion.

PA slams Kerry for attending ‘friends of Hamas’ ceasefire talks | The Times of Israel.

Another grave American mistake, Israel Hayom, Boaz Bismuth, July 27, 2014

In his sixth year in office, Obama continues to suffer from his lack of experience. How many times already can one support the wrong side and still think the Americans have it right?

Let us imagine for a moment a military confrontation between the United States and Mexico, God forbid, wherein (the late) Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Cuba were asked to mediate. Does anybody really think Washington would be prepared to accept such hostile mediators, with whom it does not even speak? We can assume Washington would toss the idea out, and not very politely, either.

It appears, however, that Washington currently expects Israel to accept such a nonsensical condition. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a proposal on Friday, which while written in English appeared to be translated from a certain Qatari dialect. Kerry’s proposal was archeological: It promised the renovation of Gaza, and also the preservation of the underground tunnels. It should perhaps be explained to the Americans that while Masada is part of our tradition, no one here is actually interested in committing suicide anymore.

In fact, the cabinet’s unanimous rejection of the Kerry proposal did not lead him to conclude something was wrong, and at a special summit of foreign ministers in Paris on Saturday he surrounded himself by six of his colleagues, among them two Hamas advocates: Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Attiyah and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. One day someone needs to closely examine why the Obama administration continues to fantasize about all things pertaining to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The summit of foreign ministers in Paris was not interesting because of who was there, rather because of who was not, or to put it more accurately, who was not invited. Only the Obama administration can organize a summit devoid of the relevant players, which are Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

It is perplexing why Washington is failing to exploit this rare consensus between Egypt and Israel, along with the PA and Saudi Arabia, to formulate a cease-fire agreement, and is instead turning to the Qataris. Could it be that President Barack Obama thinks Egypt is not as democratic as it was during the Morsi era? Could it be that Washington believes Qatar is actually democratic? It is truly sad that Washington is so enthralled with Qatar, which is nothing more than a gas bubble with a voice in the United Nations. They get the sense that the tiny Gulf emirate is a rising power, not to mention it is sitting on mountains of cash. And most importantly, since the Arab Spring, throughout which Obama perpetually erred, Qatar is perceived as a channel through which to access authentic Islam.

We are witnessing a grave strategic error by the Americans, who are succeeding in infuriating serious and strong allies like Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in favor of a deception in the form of Qatar and Turkey, which has managed to quarrel with all of its neighbors. Apropos Turkey: Is it possible it has resolved all of its problems in Cyprus and only Kerry knows about it?

Kerry required a few hours on Saturday to realize that Washington will not reach the quiet it desires without adjusting its position. Even without distancing itself from Qatar, it must move closer to Egypt. From Israel’s perspective, it is clear that any cease-fire agreement must allow it to continue dealing with the tunnel threat.

In the meantime, the images disseminated throughout Europe are hard to digest, and the governments which gave us the freedom to maneuver know that the people in the streets are offering us zero leeway. The world has had a difficult weekend: In Libya, the Americans evacuated their embassy because the country is disintegrating; in Ukraine, it is unclear how the conflict with Russia will unfold; in Iraq, the Islamic State group (formerly, ISIS) is continuing its onslaught; in Syria, not a day goes by without adding more beheaded corpses to the death toll. However, it remains so easy to gang up on Israel, of all countries, which is waging a just campaign of self-defense, while allowing the other conflagrations to spread out of control.

In his sixth year in office, Obama continues to suffer from his lack of experience. How many times already can one support the wrong side and still think the Americans have it right?

▶ Netanyahu: We won’t let terrorist dictate to us when it’s convenient for them to fire rockets at us – YouTube.

–

John Kerry: The betrayal, Times of Israel, Dagod Horovitz, July 27, 2014

(“Astoundingly?” Wouldn’t “consistently” be more accurate? — DM)

Op-ed: Astoundingly, the secretary’s intervention in the Hamas war empowers the Gaza terrorist government bent on destroying Israel.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) talks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (on the phone) on July 25, 2014, from his hotel room in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. (photo credit: AFP/Pool)

Whether through ineptitude, malice, or both, Kerry’s intervention was not a case of America’s top diplomat coming to our region to help ensure, through astute negotiation, the protection of a key ally. This was a betrayal.

When The Times of Israel’s Avi Issacharoff first reported the content of John Kerry’s ceasefire proposal on Friday afternoon, I wondered if something had gotten lost in translation. It seemed inconceivable that the American secretary of state would have drafted an initiative that, as a priority, did not require the dismantling of Hamas’s rocket arsenal and network of tunnels dug under the Israeli border. Yet the reported text did not address these issues at all, nor call for the demilitarization of Gaza.

It seemed inconceivable that the secretary’s initiative would specify the need to address Hamas’s demands for a lifting of the siege of Gaza, as though Hamas were a legitimate injured party acting in the interests of the people of Gaza — rather than the terror group that violently seized control of the Strip in 2007, diverted Gaza’s resources to its war effort against Israel, and could be relied upon to exploit any lifting of the “siege” in order to import yet more devastating weaponry with which to kill Israelis.

Israel and the US are meant to be allies; the US is meant to be committed to the protection of Israel in this most ruthless of neighborhoods; together, the US and Israel are meant to be trying to marginalize the murderous Islamic extremism that threatens the free world. Yet here was the top US diplomat appearing to accommodate a vicious terrorist organization bent on Israel’s destruction, with a formula that would leave Hamas better equipped to achieve that goal.

The appalled response to the Kerry proposal by the members of the security cabinet on Friday night, however, made plain nothing had gotten lost in translation at all. The secretary’s proposal managed to unite Israel’s disparate group of key political leaders — from Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman on the right, through Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni on the center-left — in a unanimous response of horrified rejection and leaked castigation.

The Netanyahu government has had no shortage of run-ins with Kerry in the mere 18 months he has held office. The prime minister publicly pleaded with him in November not to sign the interim deal with Iran on its rogue nuclear program, and there has been constant friction between the two governments over thwarting Iran’s bid for the bomb. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in January ridiculed Kerry’s security proposals for a West Bank withdrawal, calling the secretary “messianic” and obsessive” in his quest for an accord with the Palestinians that simply wasn’t there. The collapse of the talks in March-April was accompanied by allegations from Jerusalem that Kerry had botched the process, telling Israel one thing and the Palestinian Authority another, including misrepresenting Israel’s position on Palestinian prisoner releases.

But none of those episodes, though deeply troubling and relating to issues central to Israel’s well-being, provoked the kind of outraged disbelief at Kerry’s performance that has been emanating from the Israeli leadership in the past 48 hours. Leaked comments from unnamed senior government sources to Army Radio, Channel 2 and other Hebrew outlets have described the secretary as amateurish, incompetent, incapable of understanding the material he is dealing with — in short, a blithering fool.

But actually, it’s worse than that. What emerges from Kerry’s self-initiated ceasefire mission — Israel had already accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal; and nobody asked him to come out on a trip he prefaced with sneering remarks about Israel’s attempted “pinpoint” strikes on Hamas terror targets — is that Jerusalem now regards him as duplicitous and dangerous.

Contrary to his public claim at his press conference in Cairo that his ceasefire proposal was “built on” the Egyptian initiative, it manifestly is nothing of the kind. As indicated by the unconfirmed text reported by Issacharoff, by other subsequent reports of its content, and by the cabinet’s outraged rejection, it is a proposal that, to quote an unnamed official cited by Channel 2, “tunneled under the Egyptian initiative,” a document, to quote from another of those leaked comments, that reads like it was drawn up for or even by Hamas’s Khaled Mashaal.

And Kerry didn’t let up after unleashing his dreadful proposal. Following Friday’s fiasco, he jetted off to Paris and, quite extraordinarily, convened further consultations dominated by countries that overtly wish to do Israel harm. He met with his counterparts from Turkey, whose Hamas-backing leadership has lately accused Israel of attempting genocide in Gaza and compared Netanyahu to Hitler, and with Qatar, Hamas’s funder in chief, directly accused by president Shimon Peres last week of financing Hamas’s rockets and tunnels. Staggeringly, he did not bring Israel, Egypt, or the PA to his Paris sessions.

There were further leaks from the cabinet at the weekend to the effect that Netanyahu and his colleagues did not formally announce their unanimous rejection of Kerry’s ceasefire proposal in order to avoid provoking a public diplomatic confrontation with Israel’s most important ally. Instead, word of the rejection was allowed to find its way out. That seems rather quaint given what is clearly a major crisis in Israel-US ties at a time when Israel finds itself in the midst of a complex and costly war.

When Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Clinton, got involved in the effort to broker terms for ending Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012, it was self-evident, first, that a ceasefire was at hand, and, second, that the diplomatic work was being coordinated effectively with Jerusalem to ensure that Israel’s vital interests were being served. It is a testament to Kerry’s incompetence (or worse), and to the collapse of faith between him and Israel, that, when he headed ignominiously home on Saturday, neither of those assumptions held sway.

Whether through ineptitude, malice, or both, Kerry’s intervention was not a case of America’s top diplomat coming to our region to help ensure, through astute negotiation, the protection of a key ally. This was a betrayal.

Israeli soldiers sing and dance during 3 hr break from the battle – YouTube.

Moving video, which occurred yesterday on the outskirts of Gaza, while the soldiers left from battle zones for a rest of three hours.

The song they are singing is titled, “THE ONE WHO BELIEVES.”

We all pray for the return of all our troops in peace and uninjured.

! עלה קרב

(Translated lyrics)

Every place, all the time
The old and young has
Beautiful and less beautiful days
Among them answers to all the questions

There is one mighty God
He gives us everything in this world
Between darkness to a sun beam
We only need to choose the path

It is known life is a gift
All is expected and is allowed

The one who believes is not afraid
To lose faith
We all have the King of the universe
Who guards us from it all

This nation is a family
One and one more is the secret of success
The nation of Israel will never give up
We will always stay on the map

It is known life is a gift
All is expected and is allowed

The one who believes is not afraid
To lose faith
We all have the King of the universe
Who guards us from it all

בכל מקום, כל הזמן
יש לכולנו מגדול ועד קטן
ימים יפים, וגם פחות
ובניהם תשובה לכל השאלות

יש אלוהים אחד גדול
הוא בעולם הזה נותן לנו הכל
בין אפלה לקרן אור
את הנתיב אנחנו רק צריכים לבחור

וזה ידוע החיים הם מתנה
הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה

מי שמאמין לא מפחד
את האמונה לאבד
ולנו יש את מלך העולם
והוא שומר אותנו מכולם

העם הזה הוא משפחה
אחד ועוד אחד זה סוד ההצלחה
עם ישראל לא יוותר
תמיד על המפה אנחנו נשאר

וזה ידוע חיים הם מתנה
הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה

מי שמאמין לא מפחד…

מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה
להיות בשמחה תמיד

מי שמאמין לא מפחד…

Abbas fumes at Kerry over alternative ceasefire bid, Times of Israel, Elhanan Miller, July 27, 2014

(Why didn’t Secretary Kerry bring Iran into the negotiations on how best to screw Israel? Surely, Iran could have made many helpful suggestions. — DM)

PA president believes the US secretary of state has ‘subjected Palestinian blood to regional power struggles,’ Palestinian official tells Arab daily.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) speaks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right), on Wednesday, July 23, 2014. (photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

The Palestinian Authority is fuming at US Secretary of State John Kerry, accusing him of trying to undermine the Egyptian ceasefire initiative endorsed by Israel and the PA last week and rejected by Hamas, an Arab daily reported on Sunday.

Palestinian sources told the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat that Kerry had initially agreed to an Egyptian proposal for an immediate ceasefire followed by five days of negotiations between Israel and the PA, with American assurances to address some of Hamas’s demands. But on Friday evening Kerry produced a new plan based on consultations with Qatar and Turkey and conducted between “the State of Israel” and “the Palestinian factions,” excluding the PA. The Israeli cabinet unanimously rejected Kerry’s plan.

“Kerry tried, through his latest plan, to destroy the Egyptian bid and the Palestinian remarks on it (the Abbas plan). His initiative is an alternative to ours,” an unnamed Palestinian official told A-Sharq Al-Awsat. “Kerry was in fact trying to create an alternative framework to the Egyptian initiative and our understanding of it, in a way that placates the Qataris and the Turks.”

The Palestinian source said that PA negotiators were “very close” to finalizing a ceasefire deal that would insure the lifting of the blockade over Gaza and “realize all Palestinian demands.”

The Kerry document would see Israelis and members of the Palestinian factions convene in Cairo on Sunday following a 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire to discuss the opening of border crossings to Gaza, the entry of goods and people, the transfer of funds for salaries of Hamas civil servants and “all security issues.”

But the Palestinian source speaking to A-Sharq Al-Awsat said that agreement on most of those issues had already been reached as early as Wednesday in discussions with Egypt and the PA.

Egypt and the PA were absent from meetings held by US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris with Qatari, Turkish and European foreign ministers over a ceasefire in Gaza, Saturday, July 26, 2014 (photo credit: AP/Charles Dharapak

“If the issue were removing the blockade, canceling buffer zones [on the Israeli frontier] and opening crossings and fishing areas, we have achieved all that since Wednesday. This should have been declared, but instead [Hamas’s political bureau chief Khaled] Mashaal came out in a press conference and destroyed the initiative. Then Kerry emerged with a new initiative.”

Fatah, Abbas’s political party, has also lambasted Kerry’s apparent move to exclude it from the ceasefire negotiations.

“No one represents the Palestinian people in any international venue but the pain and blood of the Palestinians,” read a message posted on the movement’s official Facebook page, referring to Kerry’s meeting Saturday in Paris with representatives of Qatar and Turkey, but of neither Egypt nor the PA.

“Whoever wants Qatar and Turkey to represent them can emigrate and go live there. Our only legitimate representative is the PLO.”

An aide to Abbas related to A-Sharq Al-Awsat the contents of a phone conversation between French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Abbas following the Paris meeting.

“Abu-Mazen [Abbas] asked Fabius: ‘Did Israel agree to the ceasefire?’ He said: ‘No.’ ‘Did Hamas agree?’ He said: ‘No.’ So he embarrassed him with the question: So what is requested from me now?’

“Abbas’s conversation with Fabius demonstrates his level of anger and displeasure with Kerry and France’s role,” the article concluded, before quoting the Palestinian official: “Abbas considers the Kerry initiative as good as dead after being rejected by Israel. He is very angry that Palestinian blood has been manipulated and subjected to regional power struggles.”

Attrition: Iranian Air Losses Over Israel, Strategy Page, July 27, 2014

Iran has supplied both Hezbollah and Hamas with UAVs.

Twice in July (the 14th and 17th) Israeli Patriot anti-aircraft missiles were used to shoot down Iranian Ababil UAVs used by Hamas to seek out or attack Israeli military targets.  This was the first time Israeli Patriots had something to shoot down since the 1990s. Hamas said it used its Ababil UAVs both for reconnaissance and, with the cameras replaced with explosives, as cruise missiles. Hamas also released pictures of an Ababil carrying four unguided rockets. This may have just been a propaganda photo because firing small, unguided rockets from an Ababil would not be very effective.

Iran has supplied both Hezbollah and Hamas with UAVs. The Iranians have been developing UAVs since the 1980s. One of their most successful designs was the Ababil, which was introduced in 2006. Nearly 400 Ababils have been produced so far. This is an 82 kg (183 pound) UAV with a 2.9 meter (9.5 foot) wing span, a payload of about 35 kg (77 pounds), a cruising speed of 290 kilometers an hour, and an endurance of 90 minutes for the first model. Current models (Ababil 3) can stay up for about four hours. The Ababil is known to operate as far as 249 kilometers from its ground controller. But it also has a guidance system that allows it to fly a pre-programmed route and then return to its ground controllers for a landing (which is by parachute). The Ababil can carry a variety of day and night still and video cameras. There are many inexpensive and very capable cameras available on the open market, as well as the equipment needed to transmit video and pictures back to the ground.

The Ababil has been seen in Sudan and Lebanon, where Iranian backed Hezbollah has received about a dozen of them. The Israelis feared that the low flying Ababils could come south, carrying a load of nerve gas or even just explosives. Using GPS guidance such a UAV could hit targets very accurately. That has never happened and Israel tweaked its air defense radars to detect small targets like Ababil.

Ababil should not come as a surprise. There’s nothing exotic about UAV technology, at least for something like the Ababil. Iranian UAV development also got a boost from American UAVs received in the 1970s (Firebee target drones). In the last few years Hamas, in Gaza, obtained some Ababils, but these were not seen in the air until the July 2014 war between Hamas and Israel. Hamas claims to have used Ababil frequently to spy on Israel but there is no evidence for this (like recent photos taken of Israeli facilities).

American troops have also encountered Ababil. In early 2009 the U.S. Air Force shot down an Iranian Ababil UAV over Iraq. The downed Iranian UAV was believed to be scouting smuggling routes, to be used to get weapons and agents into Iraq.