WORLD MISCHIEF ROUNDUP

Syria plans to maintain and develop its strategic alliance with Iran. The regime of President Bashar Assad had sent messages via intermediaries to the United States that Damascus regards its ties with Teheran as vital. The Assad message also stressed that Syria would not revise its support for the Iranian-sponsored terrorists group Hizbullah. ● Al Qaida continues to undergo divisions in Iraq. The network is in such trouble that U.S. intelligence believes that Iraqi members could be persuaded to defect. Iraqi and non-Iraqi members were hardly on speaking terms. ● Over the last few weeks, American businessmen in Libya have received threats including bombing their residences. Despite the threats, the U.S. embassy has continued operations. The State Department has ambitious plans to expand the embassy in the former pariah nation. the U.S. embassy has warned Americans of an Al Qaida threat in Libya. In April, the Khaddafy regime released scores of Al Qaida detainees. ● Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by cooperative Yemeni officials. ● Western intelligence sources said Iran has been coordinating with Syria in the development of nuclear weapons. The sources said Iran has been meeting North Korean nuclear experts in as well as receiving material via Syria. “The Iranians use Syria to avoid being monitored,” an intelligence source said. ● An Iranian pavilion was dismantled and its delegation expelled from the exhibition, titled Defense Services Asia, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They said Iran exhibited missiles and other equipment in violation of a United Nations Security Council embargo. Malaysia came under pressure to expel Iran hours after the exhibition began. ● Officials here said scores of suspected Al Qaida operatives have been arrested in Turkey in 2008. They said Al Qaida has established cells in several major cities, including Ankara and Istanbul. “We believe the presence is bigger than ever,” a Turkish security source said. ● The Saudi government has disclosed an Al Qaida plot to kill Americans who work in the kingdom’s oil sector. Officials said Al Qaida agents sought to befriend Americans abroad and lure them to Saudi Arabia, where they would be abducted and killed. ● Egyptian security sources said the Hamas regime has been developing UAVs in the Gaza Strip in cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood. The sources said Hamas has acquired expertise and equipment required for the assembly of UAVs for attacks against Israel. ●The U.S. military’s Central Command has submitted plans for an air and naval strike on Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. The sources said the plan envisioned escalating tensions that would peak with an Iranian-inspired insurgency strike against U.S. military assets in the Gulf. The U. S. moved a second carrier strike group into the Persian Gulf. ● In a move clearly aimed at the U. S. Iran has halted crude oil sales in U.S. dollars. Iran is the second largest producer in OPEC. Teheran has been pressuring Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to end their sales solely on the U.S. dollar, and instead rely on a basket of currencies. ● Iran continues to ship explosives into Iraq, and so far the U. S. has not entered Iranian territory to interdict those shipments although there is increasing pressures to do so. ● Iran cut off talks with the U. S. about Iraq until it agrees to stop combating Shiite militia that Iran is financing and supplying and who are killing Americans.