Lebanon misuses French surveillance gear to crack alleged Israel spy rings
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
June 3, 2009, 8:43 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile's intelligence sources reveal that Lebanon is enabled to crack alleged Israeli spy rings with the help of ultra-sophisticated surveillance equipment recently consigned to Lebanon by French intelligence services. French president Nicolas Sarkozy handed it over against a personal pledge from Lebanese president Michel Suleiman that it would be used exclusively against subversive Syrian and Hizballah targets.
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Obama reaffirms special relations with Israel but demands settlement freeze
DEBKAfile Special Report
June 2, 2009, 4:20 PM (GMT+02:00)
In a National Public Radio interview Monday, June 1, US president Barack Obama stood by the need for Middle East negotiations "that will lead to peace" – part of which is a freeze on settlements.
DEBKAfile, in a special report below, underlines the need for the Netanyahu government to be equally honest and less defensive about the real causes of Middle East instability.
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Obama raps Israel, Palestinians, Arabs for Middle East stalemate
DEBKAfile Report
June 4, 2009, 2:52 PM (GMT+02:00)
Barack Obama addresses Muslims from Cairo University
US president Barack Obama stressed the need for mutual respect and tolerance among the world's faiths, denigrated al Qaeda and extremism, said the US "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," will respect all elected peaceful governments provided they respect their peoples, and called for universal human and women's rights to be upheld. His much awaited speech to more than a billion Muslims which quoted extensively from the Koran, but also the Bible and the Talmud, won cheers from the selected 3,000 strong audience in Cairo University's Great Hall Thursday, June 4.
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Obama reshuffles America's Middle East allies
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
June 4, 2009, 4:36 PM (GMT+02:00)
During his fast-moving two days stay in the Middle East, crowned by a speech from Cairo to the world's Muslims on June 4, US president Barack Obama pursued some practical politicking behind the scenes, DEBKAfile's regional sources report. His private talks with Saudi King Abdullah and overnight stay in Riyadh June 3 and his conversation with Hosni Mubarak at the presidential Quba palace the next day cemented a new coalition between the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, cutting out the special US-Israel relationship.
This dramatic policy change and its ramifications are explored further in the coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday.
Bin Laden calls for long war against infidels
DEBKAfile Report
June 4, 2009, 4:32 PM (GMT+02:00)
Calling for a long war against "infidels and their agents," Osama bin Laden warned Muslims that alliances with Christians and Jews would turn them into apostates in part two of the recording first released Wednesday.
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Bin Laden: Obama plants seeds of Muslim hatred for United States
DEBKAfile Report
June 3, 2009, 10:15 AM (GMT+02:00)
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned Americans "to be prepared to receive the consequences of the Obama and Bush administrations." In a new recorded audiotape aired by Arabic Al Jazeera TV Wednesday, June 3 - as Saudi king Abdullah greeted US president Barack Obama on his arrival in Riyadh - bin Laden said Obama had planted the seeds for "revenge and hatred" toward the United States in the Muslim world.
The warning was issued the day before the US president was to deliver a speech to Muslims from Cairo.
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Obama arrives in Middle East to red carpet and al Qaeda threats
DEBKAfile Special Report
June 3, 2009, 12:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
King Abdullah confers Order of Merit on President Obama
The US president Barack Obama's Saudi visit June 3 was planned as extra weight for his widely-anticipated speech the next day in Cairo for easing US-Muslim tensions.
Al Qaeda's two top leaders poured vitriol on the Obama presidency Tuesday and Wednesday as reported HERE.
DEBKAfile's Middle East sources report that over and above the genuine warmth of the royal welcome, Saudi leaders strongly object to the US president's insistence on dialogue with Tehran as the way to terminate its nuclear ambitions
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