World Net Daily - 7-26-01

Iraq's war move in Jordan Troops secretly infiltrate in preparation for attack on Israel

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Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has secretly dispatched troops across the frontier in Jordan in preparation for an attack on Israel, according to the intelligence sources of DEBKA-Net-Weekly.

Iraq military units have been infiltrating neighboring Jordan for the past 10 days, according to the report. Their mission, say DEBKA sources, is to reach the Israeli border, cross the Jordan River and move into the main Palestinian cities of the West Bank – Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Bethlehem – and fight alongside the Palestinians.

The invading units are highly trained and well-equipped commandos able to operate and survive in the field for long periods when cut off from their headquarters and sources of supply, the report says. They are still reportedly in the Jordanian desert.

The incursion was detected by Israeli reconnaissance planes and the Ofek 3 and 5 spy satellites.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately dispatched high-ranking Israeli army intelligence officers to Amman to show King Abdullah of Jordan the evidence of the Iraqi penetration to his kingdom.

The king at once proclaimed a supreme state of alert in all Jordanian army units. Israel poured troops into the Jordan Valley region, deploying them along the Jordan River and Jordanian frontier to block off the West Bank to Iraqi penetration.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources, the Iraqi forces’ first entry point in Jordan was Wadi El Murbah in the central zone of its eastern border with Iraq. From there, they moved to Wadi Athner. A second penetration area was Wadi Hawran in southwest Iraq, not far from the points where the Iraqi, Saudi and Jordanian frontiers meet. The Iraqi forces advanced through the wadi, bypassing Jabal Unayzah in Iraq and coming out inside Jordanian territory near the town of Ruwayshid.

DEBKA's sources in Amman and Jerusalem report that both Israel and Jordan view the Iraqi military operation as an act of war against them. While maintaining official silence, certainly on the Iraqi invasion of Jordan, both countries consider themselves in a state of war with Iraq.

Jordan did attempt in the first days of the incursion to encircle the Iraqi intruders and capture them. But some days of intensive effort with airborne support showed the Jordanian Special Forces that they are no match for 1,000 to 1,500 crack Iraqi commandos. Jordanian fighter planes sent into action were met by dozens of Iraqi fighters, put up over the penetration regions, from Al-Baghdadi, the main Iraqi air base in the central region, south of the town of Arrutba. When SA-6 surface-to-air missile batteries at two recently reopened Iraqi air bases, H3 in the northwest and H3 in the northeast, lit up their radar and locked on to the elderly Jordanian aircraft, lacking electronic counter-measures, they turned tail without snapping a single reconnaissance photo.

The Jordanian monarch then reportedly made his first approach to the U.S. and Israel for help. Israeli reconnaissance aircraft, under the umbrella of Israeli fighter planes, flew into Jordanian airspace. Whenever they appeared, Iraqi planes bugged out and Iraqi missile battery operators turned off their radar. Jordan also sent desert reconnaissance patrols and intelligence units into Iraq to bring back information on supply lines and reinforcements.

What they found sounded even louder alarm bells in Amman: The elite Hummarabi division of the Republican Guard, equipped with T-72 tanks, was now in position between the Jordanian border and the two H bases. They also learned that the Iraqi army had sent at least four armored infantry brigades into the area.

Equally troubling, at the beginning of the week, the Iraqi force already in Jordan was sighted moving west, several groups having reached the sand dunes and wadis known as Abu Haffrah, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) inside Jordanian territory.

King Abdullah decided to take command of the Jordanian forces still chasing the Iraqis intruders.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources report that the longer the king, a career officer before he ascended the throne, spent out in the field in eastern Jordan, the more anxious he became. He realized that overcoming the Iraqi force already inside the kingdom would not end his worries. There was still the next stage of Saddam’s plan to face up to, as indicated in the latest intelligence reports on his desk. Iraq had a second wave of troops poised ready to cross into Jordan. Furthermore, Saddam Hussein had secretly appointed his eldest son, Qusay, supreme commander of what the Iraqi president was now describing as “the Iraqi-Jordanian-Israeli front”.

At a military ceremony attended by top Iraqi generals, Saddam, the reports said, had sworn to spare neither effort nor money to provide Qusay with any reinforcements he might request.

Qusay is said to have set up his headquarters at al-Bagdad air force base, to the rear of the Iraqi forces deployed between the H bases and the Jordanian border.

Jordanian intelligence also reported a large concentration of Iraqi forces on the main roads leading from Iraq to Damascus and from Iraq to the Golan Heights.

The Jordanian king was forced to realize that he was not dealing merely with a small-scale invasion of mobile Iraqi forces, but with preparations by his eastern neighbor for war on a regional scale, far beyond the scope of the Jordanian army on its own.

What the intelligence reports omitted to mention was whether Saddam Hussein’s move had been coordinated with either – or both – Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

DEBKA-Weekly-Net sources in Jerusalem and Washington report that at the beginning of the week, King Abdullah put his overseas connections to the test. He asked President Bush for American intervention against the Iraqi threat. He also turned to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to invoke the secret Israeli-Jordanian defense pact signed by the late King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin that obliges Israel to act against military or terrorist elements endangering the existence of the Kingdom of Jordan or the Hashemite throne.

Several of DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that Israel has taken initial steps in fulfillment of its pact with Jordan. Those steps have reportedly met with some resistance in Washington. When consulted, the Bush administration indicated that however small, Israel’s moves must be kept utterly secret so as not to upset U.S. plans for Iraq.

The coming weekend will be crucial in this regard, according to the report. The Jordanian-Iraqi clashes, if they continue, could be the first military step on the road to a Middle East war – without the world even noticing.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23803

-- Rich Marsh (marshr@airmail.net), July 27, 2001

Answers

Is this true??? Seems slightly important if it is true, IMHO.

-- number sixx (!@!.com), July 27, 2001.

As of 9:30 PM MDT there is NO indication that this story has been picked up by any other news service. Intensive searching shows that there is a silence that may be significant by how deep it is. There isn't even any critiques or "no way"s on chat boards. Hmmm... I hope nothing pops up over the weekend as it is a Jewish Holiday commemorating the destruction of the Temple! Ciao KJ

-- Kevin Jepson (kevijeps@telusplanet.net), July 27, 2001.

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Israel destroys Palestinian water wells, 30 journalists hit by Israeli bullets

Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/27/2001

The Israeli occupation forces on Thursday continued their attacks against the Palestinians. The Israeli bulldozers escorted by the tanks leveled tens of dunnums of the Palestinian territories after they incurred in these lands for 200 meters near the military barrier of Nakhal Ouz, to the east of Gaza.

The Israeli forces occupied one of the Palestinian houses in Rafah in Gaza at a time when these forces arrested more than 17 Palestinians in breaking in operation in several villages in the West Bank under the charges of resisting the Israeli forces. The Israeli forces also destroyed a water well that provides tens of Palestinian families by drinking water.

Meantime, a report issued by the " Sans frontier journalists organization" in Jerusalem on Thursday said that more than 30 journalists including 21 Palestinian journalists were hit by the bullets of the Israeli army since the eruption of the Intifada on September 28.

The statement said that many of those journalists were hit more than one time and therefore number of journalists wounded by the Israeli bullets reached 40.

The chairman of the international organization in defense of the press Robert Minar, ( the organization's headquarters is in Paris) said in a press conference that the justifications given by the Israeli authorities on the hits of these journalists are not convincing because the shooting by the Israeli soldiers were deliberate and an evidence on that it is very easy to know the identity of most of these journalists who were wounded, in remarks to the Palestinian journalists.

Minar added that it is difficult to open an investigation concerning these incidents,( by the Israelis) especially if the hit journalists are Palestinians. He added that with the absence of investigation and punishment and not considering these acts as a crime, those who commit such acts will eventually repeat them.

Meanwhile, the British daily " Daily telegraph" said that Israel cuts water from almost 2 million Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories and refuses to discuss the issue of sharing waters with the Palestinians.

The secretary for the environment affairs at the Palestinian authority Sufyan Sultan said that losses inflicted on the Palestinian side as a result of the polluted water springs of the West Bank and Gaza by the sewage waters of the Israeli settlements reached the cost of USD 206 million.

Comment: The water crisis could synergize with the conflict, to augment the potential for serious regional or even global cascading effects.

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), July 27, 2001.

Here is another little publicized story that lends great credibility, by its timing, of why Iraq is choosing now to take such drastic action. An orthodox Jewish religious group has been granted permission to take the first step towards rebuilding the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount -- this weekend! The communique had to be edited due to its length. ellipses ... indicate cut material.

From: Gershon Salomon Subject: The Israeli Supreme Court Decides on the Faithful Movement Petition Date: Thursday, July 26, 2001 9:09 AM

The Faithful are Allowed to Carry the Cornerstone to the Area of the Hulda Gates of the Temple Mount

The Israeli Supreme Court Decides on the Faithful Movement Petition

Yesterday the Israeli Supreme Court made an important decision as a result of the petition submitted by The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement. They decided that the Faithful Movement would be allowed to bring the cornerstone on a truck to the area of the southern Hulda Gates of the Temple Mount which, in the First and Second Temple times, were the main entrance for millions of Israelites to enter the Temple Mount for worship. The area is between the northern part of the historic City of David and the Hulda Gates and has a very important historical significance. On the one hand it was the main entrance to the Temple Mount in Biblical times while on the other hand it was the location of the palace of King David and the public buildings of his rule.

However the Supreme Court decided to delay its deliberation and decision with regard to the opening of the gates of the Temple Mount which are still closed to the Faithful Movement and anyone else who wants to go up onto the Temple Mount on Tisha b’Av or any other time. ... The cornerstone will be brought so close to the Temple Mount to the area where King David brought the Ark of the Covenant and then located it on the Temple Mount. We shall do the same with the cornerstone. We shall bring it to this holy place and, exactly as King David did, we shall anoint it to be located on the holy site of the temple on the Temple Mount and this is a great step towards the rebuilding of the temple. ... We have no doubt that the laying of tthis cornerstone will soon mark the commencement of the rebuilding of the temple. ... Now the first cornerstone for the last 2000 years will take the same route to the holy site of G–d. ... the authorities had forbidden us to even move the cornerstone from the place where it stood ... because of fear of the Arab and international reaction. ... the long campaign of the Temple Mount Faithful Movement which moved the hearts of the Israeli people and many others all over the world and prepared them, not only to appreciate and love the Temple Mount and the rebuilding of the temple so much, but also to understand the deep significance of the great godly time in which we are now living and made them ready for the imminent great day of the rebuilding of the house of G–d on Mt. Moriah.

Also the Supreme Court decided that we be allowed to hold a solemn assembly in front of the Western gate of the Temple Mount. We shall do this on Sunday morning at 09:30 AM after the anointing of the cornerstone. At this solemn assembly we shall call on the Israeli Government to immediately open the Temple Mount and to allow the cornerstone to be laid on the Temple Mount itself. ... This will be the first Tisha b’Av since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70CE. that a cornerstone has been brought to the Temple Mount to start the rebuilding of the temple. This will be a Tisha b’Av which will be remembered both as the day of destruction as well as the day when the rebuilding started. ... I want to bring a word from G–d to the enemies of Israel and to all the nations in the world. Do not even try to prevent this godly event and process. The purification of the Temple Mount from the foreigners and enemies of Israel and their desecration of the holy site of G–d and the rebuilding of the temple cannot be prevented. This is a major historical, prophetic, end-time event which the G–d of Israel and the Universe will soon bring to completion in our lifetime. G–d anointed Israel to rebuild this house and to serve Him in this great house not only for the people of Israel but for all the nations, as the prophet Isaiah stated ... ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement P.O. Box 18325 Yochanan Horkanos 4 Jerusalem 91182 Israel gershon@templemountfaithful.org http://www.templemountfaithful.org

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), July 28, 2001.

Iraq appears to be departing from its usual tactics in targeting reconnaissance and early warning aircraft that move more slowly than the fighter jets it has tried unsuccessfully to hit in the past.

Last week, another U.S. Navy E-2 radar plane reported being targeted inside Kuwaiti airspace by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile that exploded nearby, Pentagon officials said.

It was the first time since the 1991 Gulf War that Iraq had fired a surface-to-air missile at aircraft beyond its borders.

National Post

This along with the previous reported article on a near miss of a U2 sort of indicates that something is going on with Iraq. Stay tuned.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 28, 2001.

Those temple mount people sound like a bunch of freaks!

-- number six (!@!.com), July 28, 2001.