HEZBOLLAH’S SWELLING COFFERS
Millions in aid the international community delivered to Lebanon following the 2006 summer war between Hezbollah and Israel reportedly have ended up in the coffers of the very Shi’ite militia they were meant to undermine. Families in southern Lebanon and Beirut receiving “family compensation” funds have apparently promised to forward their aid - $53,000 a family – to the terrorist group. American and European donations appear to have been spared from this ponzi scheme, but the $570 million in aid donated by Saudi Arabia may not have been so lucky. (Associated Press, November 18, 2007)
SAUDIS AND LIBYANS FUEL IRAQ JIHAD
A raid near the Syrian border with Iraq has uncovered an “al Qaeda rolodex” revealing that up to 60 percent of the foreign fighters entering Iraq come from just two Arab nations: Saudi Arabia and Libya. Of the 700 foreign fighters listed in the captured documents, some 305 were from Saudi Arabia and another 137 came from Libya. U.S. officials have noted a drop in foreign infiltration into Iraq in recent weeks, however, and have expressed hope that Saudi and Syrian efforts to crack down on the flow of jihadists may finally be yielding results. (CNN, November 22, 2007)
A CHANGE OF HEART IN PRISON
Egypt’s prisons may be having a transformational effect on the thousands of former Islamic militants who now call a Cairo jail home. Sayyid Imam Abdulaziz al-Sharif (a.k.a. Dr. Fadl), the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group and the ideological godfather to al Qaeda lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri, is spearheading an effort to enact an “ideological revision” of the doctrine of jihad. A draft of one of these “revision documents” goes so far as to implicitly criticize al-Qaeda’s ideology, claiming “the killing of people on the basis of nationality, color of skin and hair, and sect” to be a “violation” of Islamic law worthy of “God’s resentment and indignation.” More importantly, the document serves up a broad rebuke to the very core of bin Laden and Zawahiri’s message – that a holy end can justify any means, including the slaughter of innocents. “It is impermissible in Islam to use any illicit means… even if the goal itself is legitimate,” the document states. (London Al-Sharq al-Awsat, November 26, 2007)
THE STRUGGLE OVER KIRKUK’S OIL
In northern Iraq, a new flashpoint has arisen between the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government in Baghdad. For months, the two sides have been locked in a constitutional struggle over the ownership rights to oilfields in and around KRG territory – with the KRG passing its own oil law which has been deemed “illegal” by Baghdad. Now, the Iraqi government and the KRG are at loggerheads over the Khurmala Dome oil field, home to 15 billion of Iraq’s 115 billion barrels of reserves and positioned near Kirkuk. Geographically, Khurmala lies outside the KRG’s jurisdiction, but work on the field by a team from Iraq’s Oil Ministry has reportedly been halted by Kurdish peshmerga, while the KRG has issued a separate contract to the local Kurdistan National Oil Company. (United Press International, November 28, 2007)
MOSCOW GETS A DOSE OF ITS OWN MEDICINE
Russia is facing a significant spike in the price of natural gas imported from neighboring Turkmenistan which, next to Russia, holds the largest reserves of any former Soviet Republic. The spike will see the price of Russian gas rise by 30 to 50 percent through next year, with Moscow paying $130 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first half of 2008, and even more thereafter. By 2009, the cost will be determined by “market principles,” officials in Ashgabat say. Russia, for its part, has expressed hopes that Turkmen officials will use the fiscal windfall to “speed up construction of a Caspian shoreline pipeline” that will enable the Central Asian state to ramp up its energy exports. (Moscow Regnum, November 28, 2007; London BBC, November 28, 2007)
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