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Columbia space shuttle with 7 astronauts aboard exploded over Texas Saturday as it entered atmosphere ready to land after 16 days in space. Debris of breaking shuttle sighted after voice and radar contact lost with vehicle
Search and rescue teams mobilized. Satellite entered atmosphere at speed of 12,500 mph.
Bush calls emergency meeting of top staff
Opposition Kurdish leaders Talabani and Barzani raise army of 90,000 trained and armed troops in N. Iraqi Kurdistan for US war against Saddam Hussein.
This result, reported in latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly, is much better than expected. Kurdish mobile and artillery units equipped by US.
Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan chief Jalal Talabani is increasingly favorite for head of government in post-Saddam Baghdad.
After talks with Blair and Saudi FM Bin Faisal, Bush states firmly Friday war with Iraq can only be prevented by Saddam Hussein disarming in presence of UN inspectors.
"No more delays will be tolerated.”
Vice President Cheney to Republican group: Iraqi leader has absolutely no intention of disarming. He has large stores of anthrax, sarin gas, mustard gas and other deadly agents
US embassy non-essential staff authorized to leave Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, private American citizens strongly urged to consider leaving, or registering with nearest US consulates
Italian police arrest 28 Pakistani men in Naples suspected of plotting to attack NATO S. European command. Found with them explosives, documents and lists of Islamic terrorists worldwide
London claimed Friday that al Qaeda may have dirty bomb – as DEBKAfile reported more than a year ago.
BBC cites British secret agents posing as al Qaeda recruits in Afghanistan reporting group has expertise and possibly materials for making crude radioactive bomb. Development work takes place at al Qaeda’s secret nuclear lab in Afghan town of Herat
Al Qaeda is blamed for mine that hit bus near S. Afghan town of Kandahar killing at least 18 people
New electronic mail messages promise “Sheikh Osama bin Laden” will appear “in sound and photo” when US launches offensive against Iraq and al Qaeda network “will support Iraqi nation” against aggressor.
An earlier e-mail communication attributed to al Qaeda threatens strikes against military, industrial and crowd targets in Israel
Sharon declares defense portfolio stays with Mofaz, is not up for negotiation in next government coalition, as Likud begins talks with Shinui
US spy satellites detect heightened movement of fuel rods at North Korea’s key Yongbyon nuclear complex
US Pacific commander asks for reinforcements to deter North Korean “adventure” in Iraq war.
Last Updated on February 1, 2003, 4:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
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Final Results from Israel's General Election Jan. 28, 2003
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Updated Jan. 30 05:30 IT (Current Knesset in brackets) Likud (19) - 38 Labor (25) - 19 Shinui (6) - 15 Shas (17) - 11 Meretz (10) - 6 National Union (8) - 7 NRP (5) - 6 UTJ (5) - 5 Yisrael B’Aliyah (6) - 2 Ra’am (1) - 2 Hadash (4) - 3 Balad (2) - 3 One Nation (2) - 3 Turnout: 68.5 percent
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Bush Sets His Military Three Conditions for Late February Offensive
DEBKAfile Special Report
January 27, 2003, 10:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
America’s UN ambassador John Negroponte responded angrily and immediately to the reports delivered to the UN Security Council Monday, January 27, by chief UN Inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head, Mohamed ElBaradei. Those reports said in effect: We can’t prove Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, but neither can we prove he does not. In some ways the Iraqis are cooperative; in some ways not. We have quadrupled our team and its resources and we need some months more to complete our mission. Negroponte retorted: Nothing we have heard today gives us hope that Iraq has accepted the need to disarm in compliance with Security Council Resolution 1441, any more than it complied with 12 previous resolutions. Iraq must voluntarily disarm. The inspections are not an end in themselves. More time for the inspections is now the prime issue before the Security Council members when they go into consultation on the inspectors’ reports this week. However,...
In full
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Turkey, Jordan Are (partway) Back on Track
Saddam’s Sacked Bodyguard: I know where the weapons are…
Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
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Two New Israeli Leaders Need to Wake up
DEBKAfile Political Analysis
January 29, 2003, 3:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
The Israeli electorate greeted the January 28 general election apathetically, only 68.5 percent bothering to vote for the 120 men and women who will sit in the 16th Knesset. Ariel Sharon’s Likud was generally tipped as the big winner. Partial results of 36-38 seats went beyond this expectation. Nonetheless there were a couple of surprises. With half the results counted, the left-wing, dovish Meretz was severely battered, falling from 10 to 7 seats. Its leader, Yossi Sarid, took immediate responsibility for the defeat and resigned. The Labor leader, Amram Mitzna, received the party’s worst electoral defeat in its history - from 25 in the outgoing Knesset to 19 - in the ringing tones of a victor: “For me this is a marathon and we’ve only covered a few kilometers. Our intention is not to join Sharon but to replace him as an alternative government party.” The second new face thrown to the top by the election was that of the former journalist Tommy Lapid who gathered up a strong protest...
In full
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Surprises in Store for Israeli Voter
Muckraking won’t decide Israel’s election
Israeli election campaign dominated by mud-slinging
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Turkey, Jordan Are (partway) Back on Track
From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 94 Updated by DEBKAfile
January 25, 2003, 8:31 PM (GMT+02:00)
While still holding out on permission for a full-scale, 80,000-strong US invasion force to be stationed in Turkey, the Gul government has ceded part of America’s requirements. DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and Turkish sources say Ankara will make bases available for the landing of 25-30,000 US troops for the first stage of the war, turning a blind eye to up to 40,000, while also permitting US invasion troops the limited use of Turkish air and naval bases and civilian airports, including Istanbul’s international airport. (To subscribe to DNW, Jordan’s king Abdullah II this week lifted the restrictions he abruptly clamped down on the movements of American troops in the kingdom, their use of Jordanian bases as launching pads to invade Iraq and strike at the western bases from which Scud missiles were fired against Israel in 1991. He also renewed permission for US warplanes to reach Iraq via Jordanian airspace and gave the nod for Israeli air force flights through Jordanian skies,...
In full
Related articles:
Bush Sets His Military Three Conditions for Late February Offensive
Saddam’s Sacked Bodyguard: I know where the weapons are…
Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
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Surprises in Store for Israeli Voter
DEBKAfile Political Analysis
January 27, 2003, 2:48 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israeli politicians complain that the Israeli voter is an enigma; it is hard to know what makes him or her tick. Person-in-the-street responses to media interviews and pollsters are often irrational or downright lies. That may be how 4.8 million eligible voters get back at their politicians, knowing there is nothing more predictable than the gap between a candidate’s campaign pledges and his actions the day after the poll. The opinion poll published the day before the Jan. 28 general election shows the prime minister Ariel Sharon’s right-of-center Likud continuing to gain – up now from its present 19 seats to 33 (in the 120-member Knesset). About dozen places down, veteran Labor under its new left-of-center Amram Mitzna, is sinking momentarily from 25 to the teens, challenged hard by the upstart anti-religious Shinui (Change) led by former journalist Tommy Lapid. Both are swinging between 16 and 18, providing the only real drama in a lackluster, parochial contest. Lapid and Green...
In full
Related articles:
Two New Israeli Leaders Need to Wake up
Muckraking won’t decide Israel’s election
Israeli election campaign dominated by mud-slinging
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Saddam’s Shark Pool, Described by Former Bodyguard
DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive Interview
January 20, 2003, 7:25 PM (GMT+02:00)
Hans Blix, chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the internationial nuclear agency, have not turned up any Iraqi scientists or civilians to interview outside the country’s borders. After two days of negotiations with Iraq officials in Baghdad, they came out with a 10-point accord that guarantees very little help for their search. DEBKA-Net-Weekly , however, did locate a highly knowledgeable defector from Saddam Hussein’s immediate circle – one, moreover, willing to talk. His name – or more precisely one of his many aliases – is Jassem Abdullah. He managed to escape from Baghdad four months ago. Jassem, it turns out, served on Saddam’s bodyguard detail, one of an elite trusted group of no more than five to six security men sworn to defend the Iraqi leader with their lives. We met him in Amman this week, looking pale and with black rings under his eyes. Jassem runs in fear of his life. Yet, through intermediaries, the escaped bodyguard agreed to talk...
In full
Related articles:
Bush Sets His Military Three Conditions for Late February Offensive
Turkey, Jordan Are (partway) Back on Track
Saddam’s Sacked Bodyguard: I know where the weapons are…
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Saddam’s Sacked Bodyguard: I know where the weapons are…
DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive Interview – Contd.
January 21, 2003, 9:14 PM (GMT+02:00)
First part of interview appeared on January 20 Fired four months ago from Saddam Hussein’s inner bodyguard detail, Jassem Abdullah – not his real name, but one of several aliases - lives in Amman in fear of his life. He moves from place to place taking his secrets with him. As a member of the elite trusted group of five to six men sworn to defend the Iraqi ruler with their lives, he claims to know where Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction are hidden – and points to three sites. DEBKA-Net-Weekly located and interviewed Jassem through intermediaries in a suite we rented at one of Amman’s most luxurious hotels. He was pale and tense DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence experts who went over the transcript of the interview portrayed Jassem as a typical Middle East VIP bodyguard, essentially a simple man who, for the most part, told the truth. Content that our experts found to be inaccurate has been expunged. In brief, he claimed that Saddam had concealed his prohibited weapons in...
In full
Related articles:
Bush Sets His Military Three Conditions for Late February Offensive
Turkey, Jordan Are (partway) Back on Track
Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
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Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
January 20, 2003, 11:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
Two senior UN officials, chief arms inspector Hans Blix and nuclear controller Mohamed ElBaradei, handed Saddam Hussein an epic diplomatic victory Monday, January 20 – no doubt acting on a nod from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. They gained the Iraqi ruler yet a further stay of military action until March 27 before he risks facing war for failing to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
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Israeli Election Is over – Even the Shouting
January 20, 2003, 12:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel’s Labor Party, whose walkout from Ariel Sharon’s national unity government on October 31 forced the early election taking place in eight days time, has fallen victim to its own stratagem. The historic party, at the head of which David Ben Gurion founded the state of Israel in 1948, is dying on its feet, a process speeded by its wet firecracker election campaign for the 16th Knesset election. Likud is fast recovering lost ground, reaching 33 at the last sampling, while Labor has sunk to 19. The crosscut of Israelis canvassed are bent on punishing Labor for the sin of breaking up the national unity government in a period of emergency and for its choice of leader.
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Are Two of Three US anti-Iraq Warfronts Buckling?
January 18, 2003, 10:13 PM (GMT+02:00)
Sunday, January 19, Israel’s defense minister Shaul Mofaz will present to the full cabinet session in Jerusalem his completed plan for meeting the hazards of a US-Iraqi war in the civilian, security and home front sectors. He will tell the ministers that the country is ready for the war. That is true – as far as the minister’s responsibility goes. However, by the time Israel with American help, wound up its war preparations, two vital bricks showed signs of dropping out of the American war set-up. The damage may turn out to be reparable but, meanwhile, Israel’s war defenses have sprung an unexpected hole. Jordanian’s monarch Abdullah II has developed cold feet on his armed forces’ role in the US campaign against Iraq, a mere two weeks after Turkey held back permission for US forces to use its bases as staging posts for its invasion of Iraq from the north (as first revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly on Jan. 10).
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Saddam’s Pre-War Feints and Maneuvers
January 18, 2003, 2:30 PM (GMT+02:00)
Last week’s “discovery” by UN arms inspectors of a dozen empty chemical 122 mm missile warheads at an Iraqi ammunition dump in Ukhaider, 70 miles south of Baghdad, was not the outcome of intelligence but subtle Iraqi manipulation. The UN inspectors were led by the nose to their discovery. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report this after tracking it down to source.
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