English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 18/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 08/41-45: “You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.’Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 17-18/2020

Lebanon Mulling Cut of PCR Cost Test
Fahmi Urges Compliance to Virus Lockdown
Report: No Govt Breakthrough in Aoun-Hariri Covert Meeting
Fahmi from Bkirki: Coronavirus cases to decrease after Friday
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
Report: France ‘Pursues’ Efforts to Help Lebanon
Israel Foils 'Smuggling Attempt' on Lebanon Border, Arrests Two
Strong Lebanon Bloc Warns against 'Elimination, Marginalization'
Akar Visits Baghdad, Says Lebanon, Iraq to Ink Military Treaties
Shells Used in Families Clash over Smuggling in al-Qasr
Jumblat Wonders if Smuggling to Syria behind Pipeline Blast
Bassil Vows to Quit Political Life if Corruption Charges against Him are Proven
Lebanese Army Receives Citizen Who Crossed Border into Israel
Army helicopters warn Lebanese to stay home

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 17-18/2020

UAE's Mohammed bin Zayed, Israel's President exchange visit invitations
President Trump asked for options for attacking Iran nuclear site, held off: Official
Netanyahu Had 'Warm' Talk with Biden, Israel Leader's Office Says
Armenians return to Nagorno-Karabakh after Russia-brokered cease-fire with Azerbaijan
Turkey widens footprint, sends ‘peacekeepers’ to Azerbaijan
Turkish Parliament Approves Troop Observer Deployment to Karabakh
Egypt Hosts Meeting between Fatah, Hamas, Slams New Israeli Settlement Plans
When The Corrupts’ Activities Were Thwarted
PA Resuming Coordination with Israel, Palestinian Official Says
Disputes Thwart Libyan Agreement on Unified Authority
Canada/Statement on situation in Ethiopia
Pompeo in Turkey for Fraught Visit with No Official Talks
Pentagon to Cut Troop Levels to 2,500 in Iraq, Afghanistan
Rockets Target U.S. Embassy in Iraq, One Month into Truce
UN Warns of 'Full-scale Humanitarian Crisis' in Ethiopia Conflict

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 17-18/2020

Why the Mossad Assassinated Al-Qaeda Leader Abu Muhammad al-Masri/Yochanan Visser/Israel Today/November 17/2020
Was the US Election Stolen?/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/November 17, 2020
How did Iran, al-Qaeda end up in bed together?/Yonah Jerrmy Bob/Jerusalem Post/November 17/2020
Trumpism is here to stay regardless of election result/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/November 17/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 17-18/2020

Lebanon Mulling Cut of PCR Cost Test
Agence France Presse/November 17/2020
The government in Lebanon is reportedly planning to slash the cost of PCR tests to encourage more people to get themselves tested, amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Initially the test costs 150,000 Lebanese pounds, a burden for many Lebanese in a country grappled by a strangling economic and financial crisis. LBCI TV station said that contacts in that regard were made between caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, caretaker Labor Minister Lamya Yammin and head of the National Social Security fund Mohammed Karaki. They agreed to meet and discuss the issue on Thursday.
Lebanon has recorded 106,446 infections and 827 deaths since the first case was detected in February. The country started a new two-week lockdown Saturday after coronavirus infections crossed the 100,000 mark. Hospital capacity has become saturated in Lebanon.

Fahmi Urges Compliance to Virus Lockdown
Naharnet/November 17/2020
Caretaker Minister of Interior Mohammed Fahmi stated on Tuesday that some businesses might be allowed to reopen if a progress shows Friday on COVID indicators, urging institutions to comply with lockdown measures.
In talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara el Rahi, Fahmi said he briefed the Patriarch on the health situation in the country amid the two-week lockdown over a surge in coronavirus infections. Fahmi hailed the Lebanese's extent of abidance, noting that “some businesses might be allowed to reopen if a progress shows on Friday on COVID indicators.”On the security situation, the Minister said: "It is going very well,” noting that “there are sleeping terror cells all over the world. In Lebanon, the security forces know well their whereabouts. They have no hope for survival under the grip of security forces."

Report: No Govt Breakthrough in Aoun-Hariri Covert Meeting
Naharnet/November 17/2020
President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri held a “secret” meeting on the government formation on Monday “without making any progress,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday. One week after an announced meeting between the two leaders, Aoun and Hariri reportedly held their meeting at Baabda Palace Monday afternoon away from the media, said the daily. But Baabda sources denied the matter, while sources of Hariri’s Center House maintained silence on the issue, it added. According to information obtained by the daily, no progress was made amid political horse-trading blocking the formation process. “Despite foreign pressures mainly from France, Lebanon’s related parties have not softened their rigid stances and demands for ministerial portfolios,” said the sources.

Fahmi from Bkirki: Coronavirus cases to decrease after Friday
NNA/November 17/2020
Caretaker Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Mohammad Fahmi, has indicated that the number of coronavirus cases will drop in Lebanon after Friday, in remarks made following his meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rahi in Bkerki on Tuesday.
On a different note, Fahmi underlined that the security situation in "very good."

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA//November 17/2020
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions, Tuesday’s USD exchange rate against the Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900

Report: France ‘Pursues’ Efforts to Help Lebanon
Naharnet/November 17/2020
Despite the obstacles that still hinder the French rescue initiative for Lebanon, France is "continuing its efforts to help Lebanon," according to information obtained by the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat newspaper Tuesday. The daily said that French President Emmanuel Macron intends to make a visit to Lebanon, his third since the August 4 explosion, before the end of this year. But Macron’s visit and his calls for an aid conference in November are “linked to the Lebanese developments, and the ability of the political class in Lebanon to produce a new government that inspires confidence and indicates ability to carry out mandatory reforms,” added the newspaper. French circles in Paris told the newspaper that Macron's adherence to his initiative is primarily due to the commitments he made to the Lebanese people and the civil society, “despite the obstacles and wrangling among Lebanon’s political class over ministerial portfolios and benefits, and relying on regional or American changes.”According to well-informed sources in Paris, “the French initiative is the only plan on the table to save Lebanon.”

Israel Foils 'Smuggling Attempt' on Lebanon Border, Arrests Two
Naharnet/November 17/2020
Israeli forces on Tuesday foiled a “smuggling attempt” near the Ghajar village on the Lebanese-Israeli border, an Israeli army spokesman said. “The forces detected a number of suspects approaching both sides of the security fence,” the spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter. The Israeli army “fired several flares and managed to arrest two suspects inside Israeli territory, referring them to Israeli police for interrogation,” Adraee added. The spokesman did not reveal the nationalities of those arrested nor the type of the material that was to be smuggled. Lebanon’s National News Agency had earlier reported that Israel fired more than ten flares over the towns of Ghajar and al-Abbasiyeh during a search operation. Israeli ambulances were also seen moving opposite al-Abbasiyeh after gunshots were heard inside Israel, NNA added.

Strong Lebanon Bloc Warns against 'Elimination, Marginalization'
Naharnet/November 17/2020
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc on Tuesday decried that some parties are seeking a return to “the era of elimination and marginalization.”A government of speciality, expertise and competency cannot work and make achievements without the principle of preserving national balance, which cannot be disregarded or relinquished,” the bloc warned in a statement issue after an e-meeting chaired by FPM chief MP Jebran Bassil. “There are confirmed and alarming indications about the desire of some parties to go back 15 years in time to the era of elimination and marginalization, which is something that contradicts with the path of national stability,” the bloc cautioned. It also called for “speeding up the formation of a salvation government that would implement the reformist clauses of the French initiative and immunize stability and national solidarity in a period that is among the most dangerous periods that the Middle East region has witnessed.”The bloc also said that its “facilitating stance” stems from “its awareness of the gravity of the situation,” while urging “unified standards in the cabinet formation process” to secure “the broadest possible parliamentary, political and popular support” for the new government.

Akar Visits Baghdad, Says Lebanon, Iraq to Ink Military Treaties
Naharnet/November 17/2020
Caretaker Deputy PM and Defense Minister Zeina Akar met Tuesday in Baghdad with Iraqi Defense Minister Juma Inad Saadoun and said military and intelligence cooperation treaties will soon be signed between the two nations.
Talks also tackled the aid offered by Iraq to Lebanon in the wake of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion and the outcome of a visit by an Iraqi economic delegation to Lebanon. Akar meanwhile hailed Iraq’s support for Lebanon, stressing keenness on “bolstering the common ties and preserving them during the formation of a new government” in Lebanon. The Iraqi minister for his part vowed that his country will continue to support Lebanon in all fields, especially in the military and oil sectors.

Shells Used in Families Clash over Smuggling in al-Qasr
Naharnet/November 17/2020
An armed clash broke out Tuesday in the Lebanese town of al-Qasr which borders Syria over smuggling operations, the National News Agency said.
NNA said the clash between the Nassereddine and Jaafar families involved the use of light- and medium-caliber weapons and shells and that no casualties were reported. The agency said the clash erupted after a crash between two cars and shooting at a tanker that was passing in the area. The army has since scrambled vehicles to the area and is staging patrols to pursue the shooters. “A patrol from the Intelligence Directorate is raiding the places of gunmen from the two families while four checkpoints were erected at the town’s entrance and in its vicinity,” NNA added.

Jumblat Wonders if Smuggling to Syria behind Pipeline Blast
Naharnet/November 17/2020
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday suggested that the recent oil pipeline blast in the northern region of al-Abdeh could have been caused by “smuggling” to neighboring Syria.“Is it correct that the pipeline blast in al-Abdeh happened as some were pumping oil from the North’s refinery to Syria?” Jumblat asked in a tweet. “Have we moved to this magnitude of smuggling? And are oil traders bringing illegal ships to smuggle the subsidized oil?” he wondered. The oil pipeline, which has been inoperational since 1983, runs from Iraq to Lebanon via Syria. Although the export of oil through the pipeline stopped decades ago, it still contains large quantities of crude oil, according to media reports. This pipeline is one of the oldest oil transport lines from Iraq and has a diameter of 12 inches.
 

Bassil Vows to Quit Political Life if Corruption Charges against Him are Proven
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
Head of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), MP Gebran Bassil, announced that he would leave political life if he was found guilty of any corruption charges. His comments came in response to US Treasury sanctions imposed on him earlier this month. In an interview with Al-Hadath television, the former foreign minister, who is also President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, touched on Hezbollah’s disarmament, saying: “If the Americans give us any commitment that preserves Lebanon’s security and stability, so that we have a country with a military balance, then I will be ready to discuss with [Hezbollah] and persuade it abandon its arms.”He also stressed that the party joined the 2014 battle against terrorists in Arsal “when the Lebanese army did not undertake the mission.” Bassil reiterated that he was not against peace with Israel. The head of the FPM went to reject accusations that he was obstructing the formation of a new government, saying: “We have not raised any demand or set any condition.”Meanwhile, caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe asked on Monday US Ambassador to Beirut Dorothy Shea to provide the documents that Washington relied on in imposing sanctions on some Lebanese politicians, including Bassil. During a meeting with the ambassador, the minister said he hoped that the Lebanese and judicial authorities would be able “to access any information or documents that the US administration relied on in taking these measures. He said the request is part of the reforms Lebanese authorities pledged to implement to enhance transparency in public work. A statement by Wehbe’s office said the meeting also discussed bilateral relations and US support for Lebanon in several areas, including the maritime border demarcation negotiations with Israel and the return of the Syrian displaced to their homeland.

Lebanese Army Receives Citizen Who Crossed Border into Israel
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
Lebanon received through the International Red Cross (IRC) on Monday a Lebanese citizen who crossed the border into Israel few days ago. The Lebanese Army Intelligence received the individual at the Ras Naqoura crossing. Earlier, press in Tel Aviv reported that Israeli army arrested a Lebanese citizen after crossing the border on Sunday.

Army helicopters warn Lebanese to stay home
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 17/2020
BEIRUT: Lebanese army helicopters this week began dropping leaflets over city neighborhoods warning residents to observe the lockdown, which includes a 5 p.m. evening curfew. “Remain quarantined at home, COVID-19 is no joke,” the flyers read. Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the lockdown will last until the end of the month. “We have reached a critical period regarding the spread of the virus and are left with no alternative,” he said. Lebanon has recorded up to 1,000 daily infections since Saturday. More than 106,440 cases have been reported since the outbreak began in February, while the death toll now stands at 827. “More time is needed to study the results of the lockdown. We will reevaluate the lockdown decision on Friday in order to allow more sectors to resume their activities,” Mohammed Fahmy, interior minister in the caretaker government, said. The rate of compliance with the ministry’s health directives stood at 85 percent, he added. Fahmy urged private companies and businesses to develop work schedules that will allow employees to return to their homes without risking fines. Security patrols have issued more than 10,000 penalties for violation of lockdown rules since the outbreak began. Breaches included opening shops not included in the exemptions, failure to wear a face mask, and ignoring the night curfew and odd/even number plate rules. Concerning the rate of COVID-19 in jails, Fahmy said that “three weeks ago, more than 500 prisoners were infected, but today there are only 69 cases, one of whom has had to be hospitalized.” Security forces also issued a warning following the discovery of large numbers of fake press passes produced by drivers during the curfew. Many of the forgeries claimed to be linked to bogus electronic news sites.
A security source told Arab News that “the holders of these passes were not media, which are excluded from the lockdown.”Security forces have detained a person believed to have issued dozens of fake press passes in exchange for money. “The arrested person has previously obtained passes for dozens of electronic news sites over the years,” Joseph Al-Qusaifi, the Lebanese Press Syndicate chief, said. Lebanon’s Ministry of information also warned people against “trying to outsmart the government,” saying the bogus passes put the health of the community at risk.“Anyone who tries to use the media message to impersonate or falsify documents relating to journalists so as to facilitate their movement during the lockdown will be subject to fines and jail sentences,” the ministry said.Security forces also raided a shop on Beirut’s southern outskirts believed to be selling adulterated cleaning and sterilization products.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 17-18/2020

UAE's Mohammed bin Zayed, Israel's President exchange visit invitations
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, exchanged with Israel's President Reuven Rivlin invitations to visit their respective countries, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday. Rivlin's letter to Sheikh Mohammed discussed "bilateral relations and ways to enhance them to serve mutual interests." "In his message, the Israeli President expressed appreciation for the efforts made to sign the historic peace accord, paving the way for a new era in the ties between the two countries. President Rivlin extended an invitation to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to visit Israel," WAM said. "In his reply, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed thanked President Rivlin for his positive and constructive stance. He also expressed the UAE's appreciation for the cooperation that led to the historic peace accord, which is poised to contribute to regional stability. He also extended an invitation to the Israeli President to visit the UAE." The UAE normalized ties with Israel after a US-brokered deal which was announced at the White House on August 13 and signed in Washington on September 15. The UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel, while Israel agreed to continue with plans to suspend its annexation of the West Bank. The UAE also abolished on August 29 a previous law that mandated an economic boycott of Israel.

President Trump asked for options for attacking Iran nuclear site, held off: Official
Reuters, Washington/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
President Donald Trump, with two months left in office, last week asked for options on attacking Iran's main nuclear site, but ultimately decided against taking the dramatic step, a US official said on Monday. Trump made the request during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday with his top national security aides, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, new acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the official said. Trump, who has refused to concede and is challenging the results of the November 3 presidential election, is to hand over power to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on January 20. The official confirmed the account of the meeting in The New York Times, which reported the advisers persuaded Trump not to go ahead with a strike because of the risk of a broader conflict.
“He asked for options. They gave him the scenarios and he ultimately decided not to go forward,” the official said. The White House declined comment. Trump has spent all four years of his presidency engaging in an aggressive policy against Iran, withdrawing in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, and imposing economic sanctions against a wide variety of Iranian targets. Trump's request for options came a day after a UN watchdog report showed Iran had finished moving a first cascade of advanced centrifuges from an above-ground plant at its main
uranium enrichment site to an underground one, in a fresh breach of its 2015 nuclear deal with major powers. Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York, said Iran's nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes and civilian use and Trump's policies have not changed that. “However, Iran has proven to be capable of using its legitimate military might to prevent or respond to any melancholy adventure from any aggressor,” he added. Iran's 2.4 tonne stock of low-enriched uranium is now far above the deal's 202.8 kg limit. It produced 337.5 kg in the quarter, less than the more than 500 kg recorded in the previous two quarters by the International Atomic Energy Agency. In January, Trump ordered a US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad's airport. But he has shied away from broader military conflicts and sought to withdraw US troops from global hotspots in keeping with a promise to stop what he calls “endless wars.”A strike on Iran's main nuclear site at Natanz could flare into a regional conflict and pose a serious foreign policy challenge for Biden. Biden's transition team, which has not had access to national security intelligence due to the Trump administration's refusal to begin the transition, declined comment.

Netanyahu Had 'Warm' Talk with Biden, Israel Leader's Office Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a "warm conversation" with US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday, Netanyahu's office said, in a delayed and clear acknowledgement of Biden's election defeat of the Israeli leader's ally Donald Trump. "The two agreed to meet soon to discuss the many issues that are pending and reaffirmed the need to continue to strengthen the strong alliance between the United States and Israel," the Israeli statement said. Netanyahu had congratulated Biden and running mate Kamala Harris on Twitter on Nov. 8, a day after the Democrat declared victory in the US ballot.
However, in that message and subsequent public remarks, Netanyahu had refrained from referring to Biden as "president-elect", in what was widely seen as Israel as an attempt to avoid angering Trump, who has challenged his rival's victory. But the statement issued after Netanyahu and Biden spoke used that term and said they had "a warm conversation" in which the president-elect "reiterated his deep commitment to the State of Israel and its security".

Armenians return to Nagorno-Karabakh after Russia-brokered cease-fire with Azerbaijan
The Associated Press/17 November ,2020
Joyous scenes of smiles and hugs could be seen Tuesday on the main square of Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, as ethnic Armenians returned to their homeland a week after a cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan halted the fighting that had raged over the separatist region for more than six weeks. The Moscow-brokered truce called for territorial concessions in favor of Azerbaijan and left many Armenians bitter, but allowed those who fled from the violence to return to their homes. “I feel great because I’m coming back to my sons,” said None Agasyan, whose two sons were injured during the fighting. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region in accordance with the cease-fire agreement have accompanied more than 1,200 people returning to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia since Saturday. Turkey’s parliament, meanwhile, granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor the cease-fire. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
That war left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands. Heavy fighting that flared up Sept. 27 marked the biggest escalation of a decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, killing hundreds and possibly thousands of people.
The truce last week stipulated that Armenia turn over control of some areas its holds outside Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders to Azerbaijan. It halted the fighting after several failed attempts to establish a lasting cease-fire, but prompted mass protests in the Armenian capital Yerevan and calls for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's ouster. In a sign of the political crisis deepening, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan resigned Monday after the ministry publicly contested Pashinian's claims about the course of the peace talks. Another Cabinet member, Emergency Minister Feliks Tsolakyan, submitted his resignation on Tuesday. On Monday evening, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian added to the pressure, saying in an address to the nation that holding an early election, which implies Pashinian stepping down, is “inevitable.”
But politics appeared far away from residential buildings of Stepanakert, where residents were unpacking their belongings after returning from Armenia. Bela Khachateryan, a doctor at a maternity clinic, found her apartment in the region's capital untouched by shelling, but without electricity or gas. Still, for Khachateryan, who came back to Stepanakert on Tuesday with her mother and daughters after nearly two months away, there is no place like home. “Wherever we are staying, even with Armenians (in Yerevan), we’re drawn to here, to our home, to our city," Khachateryan said after unpacking heavy bags with groceries she brought from Yerevan. "We are used to this place. We love our city.”US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said the United States welcome the cease-fire and is providing $5 million in humanitarian assistance “to support the operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organization and non-governmental organization partners to assist people affected by the recent fighting.” The assistance will go towards local efforts to provide food, health, shelter, and other emergency assistance to conflict-affected persons, Pompeo said.:

Turkey widens footprint, sends ‘peacekeepers’ to Azerbaijan
Arab News/November 17/2020
ANKARA --Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked parliament Monday to authorise sending soldiers to Azerbaijan to establish a “peacekeeping centre” with Russia to monitor a truce over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Erdogan’s request followed two days of talks in Ankara with Russian officials about how the two regional powers intend to jointly implement a Russian-brokered ceasefire signed last week. Turkey is one of Azerbaijan’s closest allies and has strongly defended its right to reclaim lands it lost to ethnic Armenian separatists in a 1988-1994 war.
The Russia-brokered deal brought an end to more than six weeks of fighting that claimed more than 1,400 lives and saw ethnic Armenians agree to withdraw from large parts of the contested region of Azerbaijan. Russian and Turkish defence ministers signed a memorandum Wednesday to create a joint monitoring centre in Azerbaijan. Erdogan asked parliament Monday to deploy a mission to “establish a joint centre with Russia and to carry out the centre’s activities.” The bill submitted to parliament requests a one-year mandate to send Turkish peacekeepers, adding that Erdogan would determine the number of troops to be sent. The motion is expected to be debated in the coming days. The motion states that civilian personnel could also be deployed as part of the peacekeeping mission. “It has been assessed that for the Turkish Armed Forces personnel … to take part in the Joint Centre which Turkey and Russia will form together, will be beneficial for the peace and welfare of the region’s people and is necessary from the point of our national interests,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency stated from the motion. Russian officials have said that Ankara’s involvement will be limited to the work of the monitoring centre on Azerbaijani soil, and Turkish peacekeepers would not go to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the centre will operate remotely, using drones and other technical means to monitor possible violations. Russia, which negotiated the ceasefire, is sending 1,960 peacekeepers as well as armoured personnel carriers and other military equipment to monitor the truce deal. The Russian-brokered agreement states that a “peacekeeping centre is being deployed to control the ceasefire” but does not specify its formal role.

Turkish Parliament Approves Troop Observer Deployment to Karabakh
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
Turkey's parliament on Tuesday approved the deployment of troops to join Russian forces at an observation post in Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal to end fighting over the enclave. The mandate will allow Turkish troops to be stationed at the center for one year as part of an accord between Ankara and Moscow to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, which locked in territorial gains by Azerbaijan. Some 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops are now also deploying to the region. In a letter to parliament asking for the mandate's approval, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the presence of Turkish troops and, "if needed, civilian personnel from our country, (will) be to the benefit of the peace and prosperity of the regional people, and necessary for our national interests".
The ceasefire signed on Nov. 10 halted military action in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians, after the worst fighting in the region since the 1990s. Turkey has accused Armenia of occupying Azeri lands and pledged solidarity with its ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan. Ankara has blamed the Minsk group - formed to mediate the conflict and led by Russia, France and the United States – of freezing the issue for nearly 30 years. A Russian military delegation held talks in Turkey last week to discuss the parameters of the Turkish-Russian center. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday Ankara and Moscow's cooperation would continue.

Egypt Hosts Meeting between Fatah, Hamas, Slams New Israeli Settlement Plans
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
Egypt is hosting a new round of talks between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements in Cairo to discuss elections, which have not been held in nearly 14 years. Very few details were disclosed about the discussions that were launched Monday between delegations of the two movements, however, an Egyptian source familiar with the meetings told Asharq Al-Awsat that they were aimed at making progress over the elections. The polls need the approval of the leaders of the remaining Palestinian factions that will meet at a later time. The Hamas delegation was led by the movement’s politburo member Saleh al-Arouri and leader Khalil al-Hayya, while Fatah’s included Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, and committee members Ahmed Helles and Rawhi Fattouh. Hamas announced on Sunday that the talks aim to address the Palestinian reconciliation, and the meeting is an effort to reach a “comprehensive national agreement.”The movement is keen to reach successful outcomes regarding the partnership with all the factions to form a joint national front that is able to tackle the challenges facing the Palestinian cause. Meanwhile, the Egyptian foreign ministry denounced Israel’s decision to receive contractor bids to build 1,257 new settlement units in Jerusalem, saying it constitutes a new violation of international agreements and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. The ministry’s spokesman, Ahmed Hafez, expressed concern that these decisions can undermine chances of the two-state solution and isolate East Jerusalem from other Palestinian cities. He also warned against the impact of the steps on efforts to end the current stalemate in the Palestinian cause and on the security and stability of the region.

When The Corrupts’ Activities Were Thwarted
Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq Al-Awsat/November17/2020
At the end of February 2011, the late King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, may God have mercy upon his soul, returned from a medical trip abroad. Out of his delight at arriving, he gave a generous gift to the Saudi people of grants, loans and facilitation amounting to 134 billion Saudi Riyals. That month, a barrel of oil had a cost of $124. Oil revenues were booming, having peaked at over $166 a barrel on the year of the financial crisis, known as the “mortgage crisis” in 2008. Nonetheless, the funds for the gift were taken from the Monetary Agency’s reserves. At the time, I wrote an article on the matter and the following is an excerpt: “The billions offered by King Abdullah’s praise apprehensions among the people for fear of bureaucracy and the corrupt. In Saudi Arabia, there is no dictatorial ruler monopolizing power or an opposition suppressed by an electoral political system, nor is the security apparatus a tyrannical tool... People’s fears are mostly focused on one thing: A significant chunk of the country’s revenues going to the hands of those who do not deserve them. Accordingly, Saudi Arabia needs to establish an independent anti-corruption agency overseen by an individual capable of facing the anticipated resistance and is not susceptible to being made to feel weak, deficient, or hesitant. For he is the regime’s conscience. The National Anti-Corruption Agency was established, but it was not as effective as the late King Abdullah had hoped. The corruption tsunami was much too powerful.
The scale of corruption that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman discussed last week is not a facile issue. It is difficult to stand before more than 20 million citizens and forthrightly explicate a bitter truth. Up to 247 billion riyal, in addition to tens of billions in assets, all revenue that belongs to the state, were being embezzled for decades, up to 15 percent of the wealthy state’s budget.
The sum lost is equivalent to the combined budgets of all the North African states. This matter is akin to an earthquake striking the fundamentals of the Saudi economy and had negative repercussions on employment and projects for which money had been allocated, especially in infrastructure. The irony is that in 2016, as plans for economic, political and social reform were being put on the government’s table, oil prices collapsed, dropping to $36 a barrel at the beginning of the year! This was a severe challenge to the Saudi government. Under such circumstances, the question was, how could it possibly implement a deep and comprehensive vision for success amid ambiguous economic conditions beset by suspicions of corruption, all while oil prices were plummeting because the OPEC + countries disagreed on production? The situation was perilous in every sense of the word, and it seemed as though ambitions arrived on a midnight train alone... The problem with corruption is not limited to its diminishment of our wealth and reduction of our resources. Rather, it also generalizes an unwavering institutional culture, and, worst of all, it could affect the judicial system, the heart of the state’s integrity. The prince’s latest speech went over several undertakings through which Saudi Arabia had made huge strides over the past four years. Home-ownership rates have risen, technical progress has been made, and women’s conditions have improved. In my opinion, however, the fight against corruption, whether financial or administrative, is what protected the state and allowed it to endure despite the successive shocks it underwent. With the Saudi Crown Prince having said the amount recovered through anti-corruption was 20 percent of non-oil revenues and that he was thereby able to protect employees’ salaries, we can assess the situation less diplomatically. We were on the brink of a severe economic crisis that would have hit the public sector if it weren’t for the serious effort made to curb corruption and prevent state revenues from going to the hands of the corrupt. Indeed, these efforts made Saudi Arabia an exemplar for countries that suffer from the ravaging effects of corruption and seek to imbue their wars on elites’ crimes with such steadfastness. Can a gas and oil-rich country face crises and collapse economically? The answer is yes, and the examples are many. Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela are poorer than countries that do not have resources but managed to turn a new black page and redesign themselves, with planning and determination fueling their launch. Fighting corruption resolutely and vigorously saved the Kingdom’s economy from a blow that would have left it in a situation that is not merely painful, but excruciating, as it would have stemmed from deep within the country’s social fabric. Not only thieves, con-men and traitors are corrupt; every citizen who lost their way, whose heart was led astray from love of the homeland, putting himself before it, is corrupt!
 

PA Resuming Coordination with Israel, Palestinian Official Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
The Palestinian Authority will resume coordination with Israel suspended in May over an Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday. Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on Twitter that "the relationship with Israel will return to how it was" after President Mahmoud Abbas received confirmation that Israel remained committed to past agreements with the Palestinians. Interim peace accords signed in the 1990s envisaged the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Severing security and civil coordination with Israel in May, the Palestinians said its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank would make a two-state solution impossible. A deal establishing formal relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in August led to an Israeli suspension of any annexation moves.
 

Disputes Thwart Libyan Agreement on Unified Authority
Tunis, Cairo - Mongi Saidani and Khaled Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 17 November, 2020
The United Nations mission to Libya suspended on Sunday talks in Tunisia between the various Libyan parties after disputes erupted between them over a proposed unified executive authority. The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which brought together 75 participants chosen by the UN, is set to resume virtually next week. The disputes centered on the authority of the Presidential Council, unified government and prime minister. The gatherers also differed on holding a constitutional referendum before presidential and parliamentary elections, which were set for December 2021.
They were also disputed on the mechanism through which to choose candidates for the country’s top posts and the authority of the Presidential Council, especially over the armed forces and the appointment of senior military figures. Libyan media sources said the second round of talks will tackle the role of the executive authority and the constitutional basis for holding the elections. Acting UN envoy Stephanie Williams said there was a lot of work still to do. “Ten years of conflict cannot be resolved in one week,” she said at a news conference after the talks finished. On Monday, Williams attended a meeting hosted by Sirte Oil Company in Marsa Brega, bringing together the Chairman of the National Oil Company Mustafa Sanallah and the Commanders of the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) of the Eastern and Western regions. The meeting, which is the first of its kind, comes as part of efforts to unify and restructure the PFG and to form a new oil facilities protection force, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement signed on October 23 in Geneva, read a statement by the UN mission. “What happened here today is a direct fruit of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission talks that were enshrined in the October 23rd ceasefire agreement and confirmed in the follow-up meetings in Ghadames and Sirte,” Williams said. Both the NOC and the PFG commanders agreed to meet at a technical level soon in Zawiya to detail the restructuring of the unit. They also agreed to work on a pilot project to set up a model security force at Erawin, a new oil field in southwestern Libya that is due to open in 2021.

Canada/Statement on situation in Ethiopia
November 17, 2020 - Ottawa, Canada - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“Canada is deeply concerned by recent developments in Ethiopia, including ongoing reports of violence and allegations of atrocities.
“We urge all parties to protect civilians and ensure that human rights, humanitarian access, and international law are respected, and for a peaceful resolution to be sought by all parties.
“Canada calls for a thorough investigation into reported massacres and to bring those responsible to justice.
“Canada also condemns the recent attacks on civilian targets in Eritrea by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
“These attacks threaten to escalate an already severe conflict, causing further loss of life and the displacement of individuals and families.
“Canadian citizens in Eritrea requiring emergency consular assistance should contact the Embassy of Canada to Sudan in Khartoum at 249 156 550 500. Canadian citizens in Ethiopia requiring emergency consular assistance should contact the Embassy of Canada in Addis Ababa at 251 (0) 11 317 0000. Canadians in Eritrea and Ethiopia requiring emergency consular assistance may also contact Global Affairs Canada’s Emergency Watch and Response Centre by calling 1 613 996 8885 (call collect where available) or by sending an email to sos@international.gc.ca.”
 

Pompeo in Turkey for Fraught Visit with No Official Talks
Agence France Presse/November 17/2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid a fraught visit to Istanbul on Tuesday that included no official meetings and an agenda focused on religious freedoms that Ankara dismissed as "irrelevant". Ties between Washington and its strategic NATO ally have remained tense despite a personal friendship between US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A group of 20 to 30 Turks shouted "Yankee go home!" as the evangelical Christian Pompeo headed in for a meeting with the Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople -- the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox world -- to express his "strong position" on religious freedoms. Pompeo had publicly criticised Erdogan's controversial conversion of Istanbul's emblematic Hagia Sophia monument into a mosque in July. "An incredible privilege to be here," Pompeo told the patriarch. The foreign ministry declared ahead of Pompeo's arrival that the US should "first look in the mirror" before making an issue of the "completely irrelevant" subject of the freedom of faith in Turkey.
Preparing for Biden
Pompeo's seven-nation tour has been complicated by his unabashed support of Trump's unsubstantiated claim of election fraud -- and attempts by US allies to position themselves for Joe Biden's incoming presidency. The US diplomat's two-night stay in Paris included a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron but no press conference that usually follows such talks. Yet the Turkish leg seemed destined for problems from the start. Officials said Pompeo wanted to visit Istanbul to see the patriarch and was only ready to meet Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the condition they come to him from the capital Ankara. A meeting seemed possible after intense negotiations before the talks fell apart. "This was a scheduling issue," a senior US official said. "President Erdogan's schedule shifted and made it impossible to fit the parameters that from the very beginning we had set out". It is difficult to gauge whether the election of Joe Biden -- whom Erdogan congratulated three days after his victory was called by US media -- played a role in the imbroglio. But it will mean Pompeo will fail to discuss with Turkish officials the very problems he pointed to Monday after a meeting in Paris with Macron.
'Very real' sanction threat
"President Macron and I spent a lot of time discussing Turkey's recent actions and we agreed they are very aggressive," Pompeo told the French daily Le Figaro. Macron has sparred with Erdogan on a range of regional issues and shares Pompeo's mistrust of Turkey's robust foreign policy stance.
Pompeo cited Turkey's "support" to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia and repeated claims denied by Ankara that it had "deployed Syrian forces" in support of the Azerbaijani troops. "We also mentioned its action in Libya where it also sent forces from third party countries, and its action in the eastern Mediterranean. I could continue this list," Pompeo said. "Europe and the United States must work together to convince Erdogan such actions are not in the interest of his people." The issues add to the dispute over Ankara's controversial acquisition of Russian advanced S-400 anti-missile systems. The purchase, according to US law, should trigger immediate sanctions but Trump gave Turkey a reprieve. The Turkish military tested the S-400s just weeks before the US vote. "Sanctions is very much something that is on the table" and are a "very real" possibility, the US State Department warned last month. The visit coincides with the publication of a New York Times report saying Trump last week asked his aides -- including Pompeo -- about the possibility of striking Iran's nuclear facilities. The officials "dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike," the report said. Pompeo had no scheduled press conferences at which he could address the story.

Pentagon to Cut Troop Levels to 2,500 in Iraq, Afghanistan
Associated Press/November 17/2020
U.S. acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller on Tuesday announced plans to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the decision fulfills President Donald Trump's pledge to bring forces home when conditions were met that kept the U.S. and its allies safe.
The new plan will accelerate troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan in Trump's final days in office, despite arguments from senior military officials in favor of a slower, more methodical pullout. Trump has refused to concede his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who takes office Jan. 20, just five days after the troop withdrawals are slated to finish. Miller said commanders and advisers agreed with the withdrawal plan, which will cut the number of troops in Afghanistan from more than 4,500 to 2,500, and in Iraq from about 3,000 to 2,500. He refused to take questions from reporters.

Rockets Target U.S. Embassy in Iraq, One Month into Truce
Agence France Presse/November 17/2020
Several rockets targeted the U.S. embassy in Iraq's capital late Tuesday, security sources told AFP, the first such attack since pro-Iran factions agreed to stop targeting the compound last month. AFP reporters heard several large blasts, followed by rapid-fire sounds and red flares lighting up the sky, indicating that the embassy's C-RAM rocket defense system was deployed.

UN Warns of 'Full-scale Humanitarian Crisis' in Ethiopia Conflict
Agence France Presse/November 17/2020
The UN said Tuesday a full-blown humanitarian crisis was unfolding in northern Ethiopia, where thousands of people each day are fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region. As international pressure mounted over his campaign against the dissident region, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared operations were entering a "final" phase, and his government confirmed fresh air strikes near the Tigray capital, Mekele. Abiy, last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced a military campaign on November 4, saying it came in response to attacks by the local ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), on federal military camps. The United Nations refugee agency said around 27,000 Ethiopians have fled across the border into Sudan -- a figure now rising by around 4,000 people each day. "A full-scale humanitarian crisis is unfolding," spokesman Babar Baloch told a virtual press briefing from Geneva.
"Refugees fleeing the fighting continue to arrive exhausted from the long trek to safety, with few belongings." Those arriving in Sudan recounted terrifying scenes of artillery barrages and massacres. "I saw bodies dismembered by the explosions," said Ganet Gazerdier, 75, whose home was destroyed in the town of Humera, and finds herself at a refugee camp in eastern Sudan. "Other bodies were rotting, lying on the road, murdered with a knife", she added.
'Final throes of death'
On Friday Abiy declared the TPLF was "in the final throes of death" and gave troops in the region three days to "rise up" and side with the national army. In a Facebook post Tuesday morning, he said their time was up. "The three-day deadline for the Tigray regional special forces and militia to hand themselves over to national defence forces instead of being a tool for the greedy junta has expired. Those Tigray special forces and militia who used the three-day deadline are appreciated," he said. "Since the deadline has been completed, in the coming days the final law enforcement activities will be done."
A communications blackout in Tigray has made it difficult to assess how the fighting is going or verify a death toll that could be in the hundreds. Federal forces claim to control Tigray's western zone, where fighting has been heavy, and over the weekend said they had seized the town of Alamata, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of the regional capital, Mekele. But Tigrayan leader Debretsion Gebremichael told AFP Tuesday that "the government and people of Tigray" would hold their ground. "This campaign cannot be finished. As long as the army of the invaders is in our land, the fight will continue. They cannot keep us silent by military force," he said. Abiy has resisted calls by world leaders to cease hostilities and accept mediation. On Monday, his deputy prime minister Demeke Mekonnen flew to Uganda and then to Kenya to meet with the presidents of the regional heavyweights. "A war in Ethiopia would give the entire continent a bad image," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wrote on Twitter after meeting Demeke. "There should be negotiations and the conflict stopped, lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy." But Museveni later deleted the tweet, and an Ethiopian official said Demeke made clear negotiations were not an immediate possibility. Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta later called for a "peaceful" resolution of the crisis. Abiy's government has said there can be no mediation until Tigray's leaders have been disarmed and brought to court.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for three decades before Abiy came to power in 2018, and a bitter feud has grown as they have been sidelined from politics, becoming ever more defiant towards the central government.
Spreading conflict
A government statement on Tuesday said the army on Monday had carried out "precision led and surgical air operations outside of Mekele city based on information received of specific critical TPLF targets." Debretsion said there were civilian casualties, which the government denied.
A resident of Mekele told AFP there was a low-flying warplane over the city Monday that was "very scary, very loud" and that at least one civilian died in a strike not far from a university campus. Details on the strike and any casualties could not be verified. In recent days the TPLF has fired rockets on airports in Ethiopia's Amhara region, south of Tigray, and in the capital of neighbouring Eritrea. The strikes on Asmara in particular have reinforced fears Ethiopia's conflict could draw in the wider Horn of Africa region.
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 17-18/2020

Why the Mossad Assassinated Al-Qaeda Leader Abu Muhammad al-Masri
Yochanan Visser/Israel Today/November 17/2020
يوشانان فيسر/إسرائيل اليوم: لهذه الأسباب قام الموساد الإسرائيلي بإغتيال رجل القاعدة الثاني أبو محمد المصري في داخل إيران
Daring hit in the streets of Tehran sent a firm message to both Biden and Iran.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/92473/yochanan-visser-israel-today-why-the-mossad-assassinated-al-qaeda-leader-abu-muhammad-al-masri-%d9%8a%d9%88%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%b1-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a/
The Mossad did it again. After carrying out a daring night raid in a neighborhood of Tehran and stealing a large part of Iran’s secret nuclear archive in January 2018, the Israeli spy agency in August of this year was again active on Iranian soil.
On August 7, Mossad agents belonging to the Kidon unit of the Israeli spy agency assassinated Abu Muhammad al-Masri, Al-Qaeda’s second in command, and his daughter Maryam, the widow of Hamzah bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden, in Tehran.
The Mossad reportedly decided to take out al-Masri because he was plotting new terrorist attacks against Israeli or Jewish Diaspora targets.
The New York Times reported that the Mossad killed al-Masri at the behest of the US government, which had offered a reward of $10 million for information regarding his whereabouts.
This seems unlikely, however.
First of all, al-Masri was also wanted by Israel because his men tried to shoot down an Israeli Arkia Airlines plane that departed from Mombasa International Airport with 271 people on board in 2002.
The missiles narrowly missed the plane, which was then escorted by Israeli fighter jets to Ben Gurion Airport, where it landed safely.
Al-Masri was also behind the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa killing three Israelis and 13 Kenyans, while wounding 80 other people who had just checked in.
In addition, Al-Qaeda was behind an attack on the El Ghriba synagogue in Tunisia in 2002, and tried to do the same with synagogues in Turkey and the United States later.
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, furthermore, has called for terrorist attacks against Israeli targets after the Trump Administration recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019.
It is true that al-Masri was also responsible for two bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, while wounding 4,000 others. But US President Donald J. Trump would undoubtedly have announced the assassination of the Al-Qaeda leader, while the Mossad almost always keeps mum on its hits and operations.
The Mossad has a long track record of assassinations inside Iran and must have a strong presence in the Islamic Republic.
The Israeli spy agency reportedly killed at least five Iranian nuclear scientists between 2009 and 2012 in the same way al-Masri and his daughter were assassinated, namely by a hit team of two men on a motorcycle.
Secondly, Israel had an interest in leaking the information about al-Masri’s assassination to The New York Times at this particularly moment because the incoming Biden Administration is planning to resume talks with Iran and wants to rejoin the JCPOA, the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers, among them the United States, which at that time was under the administration of Barak Obama, of which Joe Biden was a prominent member.
The entire Israeli political establishment is opposed to new US engagement with Iran not only because of the fact that the Islamic Republic is trying to advance its nuclear program, as the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, reported last week. Israel is also keen to maintain US pressure on Iran to curb the Islamic Republic’s support of regional terrorist organizations.
Although Iran is denying that it had been sheltering the Al-Qaeda leader for the past 20 years, the fact is that it has given refuge to Al-Qaeda terrorists in the past following the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001.
Some pundits now point to the fact that Iran is a Shiite Muslim country and therefore they say it seems unlikely that the Islamic Republic was giving shelter to an Al-Qaeda leader because that organization is Sunni.
Iran, however, is also the main sponsor of Hamas, which is also a Sunni terrorist group. Clearly, Tehran is ready to work with any terrorist organization that can help it achieve its goal to expand the Islamic Revolution across the globe.
The timing of the revelation of the assassination of the Al-Qaeda leader by the Mossad after The New York Times,a paper affiliated with the Democratic Party, was tipped off could have a lot to do with an Israeli effort to cement relations with the incoming US Administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu apparently wanted to send a message to the incoming administration about the need to continue close cooperation between the US and Israel in the struggle against Iran and its many proxies, and not to start where the Obama Administration left off, namely trying to make the Islamic Republic a “normal nation“.
The news about the Israeli assassination of the number two leader of Al Qaeda, furthermore, sends a new message to Iran that, like Netanyahu said, Israel knows what you are doing and when you are doing it and where you’re doing it.

Was the US Election Stolen?
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/November 17, 2020
"We're fixing to overturn the results of the elections in multiple states. President Trump won by not hundreds of thousands of votes but by millions of votes that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose. We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed — it was designed to rig elections." — Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor and a member of President Trump's legal team.
"It's the software that was the problem. Even their own manual explains how votes can be wiped away, it's like drag and drop Trump votes into a separate folder and then delete that folder." — Sidney Powell.
"They can stick a thumb drive in the machine or upload software to it, even from the internet, they can do it from Germany or Venezuela even. They can remote access anything, they can watch votes in real time, they can shift votes in real time. We've identified mathematically the exact algorithm they used and planned to use from the beginning to modify the votes — in this case to make sure Biden won. That's why he said he didn't need your votes now, he would need you later." — Sidney Powell.
"The software that they use is done by a company called Smartmatic. It's a company that was founded by Hugo Chávez, and by his two allies who still own it. It's been used to cheat in elections in South America. It was banned by the United States about a decade ago. It's come back now as a subcontractor to other companies to sort of hide in the weeds." — Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney.
"Finally, if you want to get down to the votes, let's pick Pennsylvania. We have identified 632,000 illegal votes. It's enough to have the president win the state by 300,000, which is actually what he won it by, if you get that Smartmatic machine out." — Rudy Giuliani.
"What we're seeing is that possibly up to 2.7 million votes were simply deleted, that were for President Trump. How their voting system was able to have users that would log in and see the votes as they were coming in. If it was a Trump vote they could manually change it to a Biden vote. They could duplicate the vote if it was a Biden vote, and have a person cast not one but six votes for Biden. All of this technology, we really need a forensic audit." — Jenna Ellis, Trump Campaign lawyer.
"Ten years ago, I was part of the first academic team to conduct a comprehensive security analysis of a DRE [direct-recording electronic] voting machine. We examined what was at that time the most widely used touch-screen DRE in the country, and spent several months probing it for vulnerabilities. What we found was disturbing: we could reprogram the machine to invisibly cause any candidate to win. We also created malicious software — vote-stealing code — that could spread from machine-to-machine like a computer virus, and silently change the election outcome." — Alex Halderman, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan
"The concerns about possible ties between the owners of Smartmatic and the Chávez government have been well known to United States foreign-policy officials since before the 2004 recall election in which Mr. Chávez, a strong ally of President Fidel Castro of Cuba, won by an official margin of nearly 20 percent." — The New York Times, October 29, 2006
Reports are pouring in of massive corruption and fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. The allegations run the gamut from ballot harvesting to rigged software, from duplicate voting to voting by deceased people, from outdated voter rolls to failing to match signatures, and from voter intimidation to altering the vote count. Whistleblowers in several states have signed affidavits that allege criminal activity during the voting process.
Lawyers for U.S. President Donald J. Trump have filed more than 20 legal challenges in several states and have called for recounts in others. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors to probe alleged irregularities.
Arguably the most explosive fraud claims involve ballot tabulators manufactured by a Colorado-based company called Dominion Voting Systems that allegedly changed hundreds of thousands of votes from President Trump to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Most of the allegations regarding Dominion, which controls more than a third of the voting-machine market, involve a half-dozen battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that mysteriously stopped counting votes after midnight on Election Day. President Trump was ahead in those states, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of votes, before the counting stopped. The next morning, after a series of pre-dawn "vote dumps" — that in some instances went 100% for Joe Biden — the former Vice President emerged seemingly victorious.
Forensic accountants, applying the so-called Benford's Law of statistical probability, have said that the election results, particularly in Pennsylvania, show clear signs of fraud.
On November 12, President Trump tweeted that as many as 2.7 million Trump votes had been deleted and switched to Biden in Pennsylvania and other battleground states using the software.
Dominion, whose voting systems are used in more than 2,000 jurisdictions in 30 states, has categorically denied the allegations, but former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, a member of President Trump's legal team, said that she will soon present overwhelming evidence that the machines fundamentally altered the outcome of the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. In a November 12 interview with Lou Dobbs, she said:
"I can hardly wait to put forth all of the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact that it was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chávez, and then shift internationally to manipulate votes for purchase in other countries, including this one. It was funded by money from Venezuela and Cuba and China has a role in it also. So, if you want to talk about foreign election interference, we certainly have it now.
"We have staggering statistical evidence, we have staggering testimony from witnesses, including one who was personally in briefings when all of this was discussed and planned, beginning with Hugo Chávez and how it was designed there and then saw it happening in this country.
"As soon as the states shut down on election night and stopped counting, those are the states where the most egregious problems occurred. We also need to look at, and we're beginning to collect evidence on, the financial interests of some of the governors and secretaries of state who actually bought into the Dominion systems — surprisingly enough, Hunter Biden-type graft — to line their own pockets by getting a voting machine in that would either make sure their election was successful, or they got money for their family from it.
"For fraud this serious, I think, even if the states are stupid enough to go ahead and certify the votes where we know the machines were operating and producing altered election results, if they are stupid enough to do that, then they will be set aside by the fraud also. I mean, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of votes. President Trump won this election in a landslide. It's going to be irrefutable. Patriots are coming forward every day all day faster than we can collect their information with testimony they are willing to give under oath about how their votes were stolen and how the machines operated. They were updated the night of the election, sometimes after the election. We've got statistical evidence that shows hundreds of thousands of votes being just put in and replicated. There needs to be a massive criminal investigation, and it's going to affect millions of voters.
"Democratic senators and congress people for years have reported problems with this system to the FBI and to the government and no one has done a blooming thing about it. The people in the election security part of the Department of Homeland Security need to be fired yesterday. They are absolutely ridiculous. Of course, Chris Wray needs to be fired too because the only FBI interview with any witness was to intimidate him and try to get him to change his truthful testimony for hours by an anti-Trump FBI agent. They still have politics infecting the FBI instead of just following the law.
"We're on the precipice. This is essentially a new American revolution and anyone who wants this country to remain free needs to step up right now. These are federal felonies. Altering a vote or changing a ballot is a federal felony. People need to come forward now and get on the right side of this issue and report the fraud they know existed in Dominion voting systems because that's what it was created to do. It was its sole original purpose. It has been used all over the world to defy the will of people who wanted freedom.
"It's been organized and conducted with the help from Silicon Valley people, the big tech companies, the social media companies, even the media companies. I'm going to release the Kraken [vengeance is coming].
"It is indeed a very foul mess. It is farther and wider and deeper than we ever thought but we are going to go after it and I am going to expose every one of them."
In a November 15 interview with Maria Bartiromo, Powell added:
"We're fixing to overturn the results of the elections in multiple states. President Trump won by not hundreds of thousands of votes but by millions of votes that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose. We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed — it was designed to rig elections. He was fully briefed on it, he saw it happen in other countries, it was exported internationally for profit by the people who are behind Smartmatic and Dominion. They did this on purpose, it was calculated, they've done it before, we have evidence from 2016 in California, we have so much evidence that I feel like it's coming in through a fire hose.
"First, I never say anything I can't prove. Second, the evidence is coming in so fast I can't even process it all. Millions of Americans have written, definitely hundreds of thousands have stepped up with their different experiences of voter fraud. But this is a massive election fraud, and I'm very concerned it involved not only Dominion and its Smartmatic software, but that the software essentially was used by other election machines also. It's the software that was the problem. Even their own manual explains how votes can be wiped away, it's like drag and drop Trump votes into a separate folder and then delete that folder. It's absolutely brazen how people bought this system and why they bought this system. In fact, every state that bought Dominion should, for sure, have a criminal investigation or at least a serious investigation of the officers in the states who bought the software. We've even got evidence of kickbacks.
"We're collecting evidence now from various whistleblowers that are aware of substantial sums of money being given to family members of state officials who bought the software. We're talking about hundred-million-dollar packages for new voting machines suddenly in multiple states and benefits ranging from financial benefits for family members to what I would call election insurance, because they know that they can win the election if they are using that software.
"It's really an insidious, corrupt system and I can't tell you how livid I am with our government for not paying attention to complaints even brought by Democrats — Carolyn Maloney, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar — over the last several years in written letters with expert reports and some documentation of how corrupt this software is, and nobody in our government has paid any attention to it, which makes me wonder how much the CIA has used it for its own benefit in different places and why [CIA Director] Gina Haspel is still there in the CIA is beyond my comprehension. She should be fired immediately.
"The CIA, the FBI and other government organizations have received multiple reports of wrongdoing and failures and vulnerabilities in this company's product. Their [Dominion's] own manual, if you sat down and read it, would explain how and why no honest person would use this system. It's not just Dominion, other companies in the voting machine business in this country may very well be, and are likely using the same software.
"We've detected voting irregularities that are inexplicable and aligned with these problems in other states that think they have valid systems. But the people who bought the Dominion system, for sure, knew exactly what they were getting. It should never have been installed anywhere. We are going to show the public exactly how rotten the entire state is.
"They can stick a thumb drive in the machine or upload software to it, even from the internet, they can do it from Germany or Venezuela even. They can remote access anything, they can watch votes in real time, they can shift votes in real time. We've identified mathematically the exact algorithm they used and planned to use from the beginning to modify the votes — in this case to make sure Biden won. That's why he said he didn't need your votes now, he would need you later. He was right. In his demented state, he had no filter and he was speaking the truth more than once, including when he said he had the largest voter fraud organization ever. Well, it's massive election fraud, it's going to undo the entire election, and they can do anything they want with the votes. They can have the machines not read the signature. They can have the machines not read the down ballot. They can make the machines read and catalogue only the Biden votes. It's like drag and drop whatever you want wherever you want, upload votes. In fact, we've got math in Michigan and Pennsylvania that all of a sudden hundreds of thousands of votes at a 67% ratio for Biden and a 23% ratio for Trump were uploaded multiple times into the system.
"We have a sworn statement from a witness who knew exactly how it worked from the beginning, why it was designed to work that way, and saw when things started shutting down, and they stopped counting the votes here, it was the same play that had worked in other countries."
President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in an interview with Bartiromo, said:
"It's way beyond what people think, including a very dangerous foreign company that did the votes in 27 states, a company that is not American, a company that is foreign, a company that has close, close ties with Venezuela and therefore China, and uses a Venezuelan company's software that's been used to steal elections in other countries. I don't think people have any idea of the dimension of the national security problem that Dominion creates.
"This Dominion company is a radical left company, one of the people there is a big supporter of Antifa and has written horrible things about the president for the last three or four years. The software that they use is done by a company called Smartmatic. It's a company that was founded by Hugo Chávez, and by his two allies who still own it. It's been used to cheat in elections in South America. It was banned by the United States about a decade ago. It's come back now as a subcontractor to other companies to sort of hide in the weeds, but Dominion sends everything to Smartmatic. Can you believe it, our votes are sent overseas? They are sent someplace else, to some other country. Why do they leave our country?
"This company has tried and true methods for fixing elections by calling a halt to the voting when you're running too far behind. They've done that in prior elections. Now, what happened on election night? He [Trump] was ahead by 800,000 votes in Pennsylvania, impossible [for Biden] to catch up, unless you are cheating. The same thing in Michigan, Wisconsin, he [Trump] was ahead in all those states, by numbers that in prior times networks would have called for him. But they did not call it for him. We were ahead in those states, for example, 800,000 votes ahead in Pennsylvania, 64% of the vote cast, he was outpolling every projection possible, so, right down to the rigged polls before, this is another attempt to try to defeat him by illegal means. It's no different than the impeachment, done by largely the same people who were involved in it.
"The chairman of Smartmatic is a close business associate of George Soros. I have to tell you more? Finally, if you want to get down to the votes, let's pick Pennsylvania. We have identified 632,000 illegal votes. It's enough to have the president win the state by 300,000, which is actually what he won it by, if you get that Smartmatic machine out. I mean this is unprecedented...."
Whistleblower Melissa Carone, an IT contractor for Dominion Software, described the massive fraud she witnessed on Election Day in Detroit, Michigan. In a sworn affidavit dated November 8, she stated:
"At approximately midnight I was called over to assist one of the counters with a paper jam and noticed his PC had a number of over 400 ballots scanned, which means one batch was counted over 8 times. This happened countless times while I was at the TCF Center. I confronted my manager, Nick Ikonomakis [former VP of Development at Dominion] saying how big of a problem this was, Nick told me he didn't want to hear that we have a big problem. He told me we are here to do assist with IT work, not to run their election.
"The adjudication process, from my understanding there's supposed to be a Republican and a Democrat judging these ballots. I overheard numerous workers talking during shift change in which over 20 machines had two Democrats judging the ballots-resulting in an unfair process....
"When a worker had a ballot that they either could not read, or it had something spilled on it, they would go to a table that had blank ballots on it and fill it out. They were supposed to be filling them out exactly like the one they had received but this was not the case at all. The workers would also sign the name of the person that the ballot belonged to-which is clearly illegal....
"I was the only Republican working for Dominion Voting, and on the stage there was many terrible comments being made by the city workers and Dominion workers about Republicans. I did not give out any indication that I was a Republican, I have a family at home and knew I was going to have to walk to my car at the end of my shift. If anyone had an American flag on their shirt or mask, they were automatically deemed to be Trump supporters.
"I called the FBI and made a report with them, I was told that I will be getting a call back."
In a November 12 interview with Eric Metaxas, Trump Campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis said:
"What we're uncovering is massive, massive fraud. There will be lawsuits that will be filed within the coming days. For all the American people who are saying, when are we going to see the evidence, when are we going to get to the bottom of this, investigations do take time. We're working as rapidly as possible. What we're discovering, the people who are coming forward as whistleblowers, to explain what they saw, not only at the polling locations, how they were denied access to the polling locations, but even more than that, what we're seeing with this Dominion voting system, this is huge.
"The president has tweeted about this today. Reports are coming out, and what we're seeing is that possibly up to 2.7 million votes were simply deleted, that were for President Trump. How their voting system was able to have users that would log in and see the votes as they were coming in. If it was a Trump vote they could manually change it to a Biden vote. They could duplicate the vote if it was a Biden vote, and have a person cast not one but six votes for Biden. All of this technology, we really need a forensic audit, we need to know exactly what happened.... There is no doubt in my mind that the president is absolutely right, this election was rigged. Now it's just a matter of gathering the evidence, filing the lawsuits and getting to the proof in court.
"This isn't just about the 2.7 million votes, which is an astounding number. The mainstream media is trying to use this term 'widespread fraud' to move the goalpost and to basically say 'this doesn't matter, this doesn't matter, Biden is the president-elect. We've coronated him. That's the end of the story.' But even more than that, when you have this amount of intentional malfeasance, when you have this much criminal activity, this is really a disenfranchisement of the entire nation at this point, because when you look at what's going on, this isn't just a mailman who takes a stack of votes...this is such sinister evil conduct that it's an intentionally designed system to have user manipulation so that they can disenfranchise the entire nation....
"If Joe Biden and the Democrats were really concerned about truth and fact-finding, and they actually want to know the truth and get to the bottom of this, they would be okay with that, they would say wait, this is not the American system, we agree that every legal vote should count, we want to make sure that if we win, we want to do so legitimately. But they're not saying that. They want to ignore what is rapidly becoming one of the greatest scandals in American history....
"You have such a systematic, widespread, intentional abuse of our election system because they want to control the system and then, ultimately, dismantle it."
Concerns about Dominion and Smartmatic are Not New
Lawmakers and regulators have long sounded warnings about Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. In Texas, election authorities rejected the use of Dominion hardware and software at least three times due to security concerns. A document dated January 24, 2020 from the Texas Secretary of State noted:
"The examiner reports identified multiple hardware and software issues that preclude the Office of the Texas Secretary of State from determining that the Democracy Suite 5.5-A system satisfies each of the voting-system requirements set forth in the Texas Election Code. Specifically, the examiner reports raise concerns about whether the Democracy Suite 5.5-A system is suitable for its intended purpose; operates efficiently and accurately; and is safe from fraudulent or unauthorized manipulation. Therefore, the Democracy Suite 5.5-A system and corresponding hardware devices do not meet the standards for certification prescribed by Section 122.001 of the Texas Election Code."
In January 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration held a hearing on "2020 Election Security-Perspectives from Voting System Vendors and Experts." The heads of all three of the largest U.S. voting system manufacturers hearing three companies — Election Systems and Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic — admitted that they relied on Chinese-made components for their voting machines:
"Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos and Hart InterCivic President Julie Mathis said their companies use Chinese-made LCD screen components, chip capacitors and resistors, and argued that in some cases there's no option for manufacturing them in the United States."
In December 2019, three Democrat senators warned about the vulnerabilities of voting machines produced by Dominion and two other manufacturers. In a December 2019 letter, they wrote:
"In 2018 alone 'voters in South Carolina [were] reporting machines that switched their votes after they'd inputted them, scanners [were] rejecting paper ballots in Missouri, and busted machines [were] causing long lines in Indiana.' In addition, researchers recently uncovered previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in 'nearly three dozen backend election systems in 10 states.' And, just this year, after the Democratic candidate's electronic tally showed he received an improbable 164 votes out of 55,000 cast in a Pennsylvania state judicial election in 2019, the county's Republican Chairwoman said, '[n]othing went right on Election Day. Everything went wrong. That's a problem.' These problems threaten the integrity of our elections and demonstrate the importance of election systems that are strong, durable, and not vulnerable to attack."
In September 2019, Susan Greenhalgh of the Election Defense Coalition called on Congress to regulate the voting machine industry:
"We have an industry that is unregulated, with little to no accountability for the voting system vendors. It's imperative that Congress include minimum security requirements that states must meet, attached to the federal funds."
In April 2019, amid election hacker concerns, Dominion hired its first-ever lobbying firm, Brownstein Farber Hyatt & Schreck. Nadeam Elshami, a longtime aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was one of the lobbyists on the account. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Dominion Voting Systems donated up to $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Dominion has ties to the Clinton Global Initiative by means of the Delian Project.
In April 2018, the New York Times and computer scientist Alex Halderman staged a mock election to demonstrate the vulnerability of voting machines produced by Dominion. In a video titled, "I hacked an election. So can the Russians," Halderman said:
"After the chaos of the 2000 election, we were promised a modern and dependable way to vote. I'm here to tell you that the electronic voting machines Americans got to solve the problem of voting integrity, they turned out to be an awful idea. That's because people like me can hack them all too easily.
"Our highly computerized election infrastructure is vulnerable to sabotage and even to cyberattacks that could change votes."
In June 2017, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Halderman testified:
"Ten years ago, I was part of the first academic team to conduct a comprehensive security analysis of a DRE [direct-recording electronic] voting machine. We examined what was at that time the most widely used touch-screen DRE in the country, and spent several months probing it for vulnerabilities. What we found was disturbing: we could reprogram the machine to invisibly cause any candidate to win. We also created malicious software — vote-stealing code — that could spread from machine-to-machine like a computer virus, and silently change the election outcome.
"Vulnerabilities like these are endemic throughout our election system. Cybersecurity experts have studied a wide range of U.S. voting machines — including both DREs and optical scanners — and in every single case, they've found severe vulnerabilities that would allow attackers to sabotage machines and to alter votes. That's why there is overwhelming consensus in the cybersecurity and election integrity research communities that our elections are at risk....
"An attacker can probe different areas of the most important 'swing states' for vulnerabilities, find the areas that have the weakest protection, and strike there. In a close election, changing a few votes may be enough to tip the result, and an attacker can choose where — and on which equipment — to steal those votes. State and local elections are also at risk.
In August 2016, during a meeting at the Illinois State Board of Elections, the Vice President of Engineering for Dominion Voting, Dr. Eric Coomer, was asked if it was possible to bypass election systems software and go directly to the data tables that manage systems running elections in Illinois. He responded: "Yes, if they have access." When asked who has access to these data tables, Coomer replied: "Vendors, election officials, and others who need to be granted access." Sharon Meroni of the Illinois-based "Defend the Vote" wrote:
"This is explosive information. Dr. Coomer's statement is an admission that various vendors, election officials, and others have access to the back-end data tables that permit bypassing the operating system's configuration. It is notable that when someone accesses these systems from a data table, their actions are not logged by the system; thereby making detection much more problematic. This contradicts Dr. Coomer's assurances that the system is secure."
In October 2006, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) launched an investigation into Smartmatic's ties to the Venezuelan government. At the time, the New York Times reported:
"But the role of the young Venezuelan engineers who founded Smartmatic has become less visible in public documents as the company has been restructured into an elaborate web of offshore companies and foreign trusts.
"'The government should know who owns our voting machines; that is a national security concern,' said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who asked the Bush administration in May to review the Sequoia takeover.
"'There seems to have been an obvious effort to obscure the ownership of the company,' Ms. Maloney said of Smartmatic in a telephone interview yesterday. 'The CFIUS process, if it is moving forward, can determine that.' ....
"The concerns about possible ties between the owners of Smartmatic and the Chávez government have been well known to United States foreign-policy officials since before the 2004 recall election in which Mr. Chávez, a strong ally of President Fidel Castro of Cuba, won by an official margin of nearly 20 percent....
"But after a municipal primary election in Chicago in March, Sequoia voting machines [owned by Smartmatic] were blamed for a series of delays and irregularities. Smartmatic's new president, Jack A. Blaine, acknowledged in a public hearing that Smartmatic workers had been flown up from Venezuela to help with the vote.
"Some problems with the election were later blamed on a software component, which transmits the voting results to a central computer, that was developed in Venezuela."
In December 2006, Smartmatic announced that it would sell its U.S. subsidiary, Sequoia Voting Systems, to end the CFIUS probe into its ties with the Venezuelan government. Maloney said:
"There clearly remained doubts surrounding this company, and as long as those doubts lingered, many people would have legitimate questions about the integrity of these voting machines. When I first raised this case with Treasury, I thought that it was ripe for a CFIUS investigation, because the integrity of our voting machines is vital to national security. At that time, Smartmatic flatly refused to undergo a CFIUS review. But now it seems the company could not overcome the cloud of doubt surrounding this deal..."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
 

How did Iran, al-Qaeda end up in bed together?
Yonah Jerrmy Bob/Jerusalem Post/November 17/2020
يونا جيرمي بوب/جيروزالم بوست: كيف انته ى أمر القاعدة وإيران ليكونا في سرير واحد

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The wild world of intelligence: Were Jerusalem, Tehran both side shows in the latest attack that took out Abu Muhammad al-Masri?
Sunnis hate Shi’ites, and Shi’ites hate Sunnis – for around 1,400 years.
Never the twain shall meet.
This would seem to be all the truer about the most radical and fanatical Sunnis, al-Qaeda, and their counterpart fanatical Shi’ites, the Iranian regime.
So how on earth can it be that, according to recent reports by The New York Times and Israel’s Channel 12, US and Israeli intelligence cooperated to assassinate al-Qaeda’s No. 2, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a.k.a. Abu Muhammad al-Masri, on August 7 in the streets of Tehran?
The short answer is that all is fair in love and war – and intelligence. Paradox goes with the territory if any national goal can be covertly achieved.
The longer answer starts with counterterrorism circles, which had placed Masri as living in Iran since 2003. There are some different reports about how freely he could move until 2015, at which time he seemed to gain greater ability.
Publicly, Iran has consistently called al-Qaeda a terrorist organization. It has denied any cooperation in a way that conveys disgust at the idea of associating with such radical Sunnis.
One of the great debates that came out of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was whether Iran and al-Qaeda had cooperated in them.
But some things have changed in the debate since 9/11.
After the international community made al-Qaeda enemy No. 1, Iran downplayed any links to the group and emphasized its ideological disagreements with the Sunni organization.
However, in 2010, Gen. David Petraeus, as commander of US Central Command, reported that al-Qaeda “continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al-Qaeda’s senior leadership to regional affiliates.”
In July 2011, the Obama administration officially said Iran was helping al-Qaeda funnel cash and recruits into Pakistan for its international operations.
A 2018 interview on Iranian state television by Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the secretary of the High Council for Human Rights, has been interpreted in multiple ways. But according to United Against Nuclear Iran, Larijani said: “Our government agreed not to stamp the passports of some of them [members of al-Qaeda] because they were on transit flights for two hours, and they were resuming their flights without having their passports stamped. However, their movements were under the complete supervision of the Iranian intelligence.”
Iran has said Larijani was referencing the views of the US 9/11 Commission.
In July 2018, a group of UN experts determined that “al-Qaeda leaders in the Islamic Republic of Iran have grown more prominent, working with A[y]man al-Zawahiri and projecting his authority more effectively than he could previously.”
All of this means that today, no one seriously doubts that, at least on the margins, al-Qaeda and Iran have worked together.
The question is how far beyond the margins.
In terms of 9/11, there is no indication that Iran was behind the attacks. It might even have had no idea about the full horror of what al-Qaeda was planning.
This was a crucial nuance in the 2001-2003 period when the US was deciding who else to go after besides Osama bin Laden.
Facing the possibility of the US declaring war on Iran at the time, some intelligence officials who wanted to avoid war tried to overly clean up Iran’s role so as to avoid any possibility of linking Tehran to bin Laden.
To this day, the question about how involved Iran and al-Qaeda are continues.
Some US intelligence officials in 2019 undercut the Trump administration's attempts to frame the two groups as more strongly aligned. Yet, more proof had surfaced of cooperation between Iran and al-Qaeda.
The officials resisting the linkage argued that the amount of joint operations and al-Qaeda members being harbored in 2019 was much lower than it had been.
Either way, the question still remains: Why would Iran and al-Qaeda do any business together when the Sunnis and Shi’ites are in conflict in almost every part of the Middle East, including in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
Welcome to the world of intelligence. All that matters in intelligence is that at one specific moment, one particular goal can be achieved by covertly working with whoever can help make that goal happen. This is why infamously, at different points in history in the distant past of the 1980s, the US helped the initial sparks of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan fight against the USSR and facilitated arms sales to Iran to help covertly pay for a conflict with the contras in Nicaragua.
What goal did Iran achieve by hosting Masri and other al-Qaeda members?
There is a lot of room for speculation, keeping in mind that in intelligence, paradox is just part of the game.
US counterterrorism officials over the weekend told the Times Iran had kept Masri there to help conduct operations against US targets, with the implication of plausible deniability since his attackers would be Sunnis.
In March 2010, al-Qaeda assisted Iran in negotiating the return of an Iranian diplomat who had been held captive by the Taliban in Pakistan for 15 months. That is another esoteric example of how having a few al-Qaeda officials close by could come in handy.
Another reason could be as a “friendly hostage” – sort of a way to guarantee al-Qaeda would not attack Iran. Why would the US have taken out Masri in August? Some reports are now suggesting that it was because al-Qaeda was planning attacks on Jews. But both al-Qaeda and ISIS have executed attacks on Jews many times since 2003 and have also made nefarious bigger promises of attacking Israel, which have not panned out. In the wild world of intelligence, this latest suggestion could be disinformation to cover the real reason.
Almost no one has talked about Afghanistan in the middle of all of this.
Al-Qaeda’s links to the Taliban are considered the primary point that is holding up the success of the Trump administration’s February framework for a permanent ceasefire in Afghanistan. What if Masri was considered, along with a few other top al-Qaeda officials who were just killed in Afghanistan in October, to be part of a camp that was destabilizing the deal with the Taliban?
What if the US wanted Israel to take out Masri and blame it on new plans to attack Jews, so that the Taliban would not get too angry with them for gunning down their allies and remain in talks?
Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the UN monitoring team for al-Qaeda, last Friday said al-Qaeda continues to pose a serious threat to the ongoing Afghan peace process over its close ties with the Taliban, and the threat will remain until it is controlled. Maybe taking out Masri was a shot at “controlling” things. In that case, Iran and Israel would actually be a sideshow in all of this – appropriate in the world of mirrors that is intelligence.
But Iran has still been forewarned that continuing to harbor al-Qaeda officials is not for free.
 

Trumpism is here to stay regardless of election result
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/November 17/2020
Donald Trump throws hats to supporters after speaking at a campaign rally at Duluth International Airport in Duluth, Minnesota, September 30. (AP Photo)
At some point, US President Donald Trump will have to concede and allow for a peaceful transition into President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. He is currently disputing the Nov. 3 election results and a majority of his die-hard followers are insisting that victory was stolen from him by the Democrats. It will be sometime between now and inauguration day on Jan. 20 that Republican leaders will finally admit defeat.
Trump has lost, but Trumpism — a radical form of populism — has not. It will continue to survive among Trump’s followers. He may consider running again in 2024 or he may hand-pick a surrogate, possibly one of his children, thus affirming his firm grip over the Republican Party.
More than 73 million Americans voted for Trump this month and, even though he lost the popular vote by a wide margin, that figure alone tells a story. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has killed more than 250,000 Americans thus far, with cases surpassing the 11 million mark, did little to dent his popularity among his followers. The virus-related shrinking economy, historic unemployment rate, and mass evictions and bankruptcies failed to keep his supporters at home on polling day.
The Trump phenomenon remains the most compelling political uprising in American history. In 2015-16, he stormed on to the political stage and shredded his conventional Republican rivals to pieces. His unconventional rhetoric and unabashed attacks on those who stood in his way endeared him to many voters, who were fed up with a stagnant political scene in Washington. Both dominant parties had played it safe for too long, preserving the political establishment that had been entrenched for decades. Trump offered a stark alternative, putting “America First” on almost every issue: Globalization, trade deals, tariffs, NATO, climate change and the environment, Israel, race relations, and immigration, among others.
And so millions of Americans embraced Trumpism. It became a mainstream doctrine championed by the likes of Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
This was not the first time that people, on both the left and the right, wanted to reform American politics. The Tea Party, a fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party, tried it in 2009, attempting to restore true conservative ideals with a tint of libertarian values. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street leftist movement was born in New York, with mainly young Americans protesting economic inequality, corruption, and corporate influence on politics. It echoed across the country, and beyond, for some time.
But Trumpism is different. It had existed for a while even before Trump’s political rise, but it was a fringe movement that was shunned by the Republicans. Under Trump, it became a bona fide political movement. For decades, the two dominant parties had ignored the dire effects of globalization on Middle America. Millions of blue-collar jobs had been lost to China. Cities and towns saw factories close and businesses go bankrupt. Trade deals with Canada and Mexico resulted in American auto companies moving across the US’ northern and southern borders.
Trumpism became a mainstream doctrine championed by the likes of Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
The trade deficit with China was in the hundreds of billions of dollars. America was still the biggest contributor to the budgets of the UN and NATO and had spent billions on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump had simple answers to all of these complex issues: Isolationism and an end to multilateralism, signaling a slow withdrawal from the world stage.
Biden may be able to reverse some of Trump’s more controversial decisions, such as by rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal. But, if the Republicans retain control of the Senate, his agenda will be stymied. Trump’s policies will remain in the corridors of Congress for many years.
America is deeply and dangerously polarized. Biden’s promise to heal the nation may not be achieved. His administration will be absorbed by the fight against COVID-19 — a task that seems almost impossible at this stage. Biden’s approach is likely to be business as usual, meaning going back to the pre-Trump era. But that is not what is needed. Millions of Americans no longer believe in the political process and they will bide their time until the next election. Regardless of whether Trump runs in 2024 or not, his legacy will influence that election’s outcome. It is way too early to write off Trumpism.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Twitter: @plato010