DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Iran: Syria Arrests Saudi Official Over Mughniyeh Assassination (RTTNews/NASDAQ)
    In a move that could have far reaching consequences, Syria arrested a Saudi official in connection with the assassination of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported Tuesday.
    A high-ranking defense official in Saudi Arabia's embassy in Damascus, who was connected to a Syrian woman in whose name the two explosives-laden cars used to kill Mughniyeh were registered, was arrested by Syrian security forces.
    An Iranian source said locals with Syrian, Jordanian and Palestinian citizenships executed the operation. The men rented apartments near Mughniyeh's residence in Damascus and surveyed his activities from there.

NY Times' Radio Station Turns Down Pro-Israel Ad - Richard Johnson (New York Post)
    The American Jewish Committee says that WQXR, a classical radio station owned by the New York Times, unfairly killed a paid 60-second commentary about bombings carried out against Israel by the militant Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.
    CBS Radio had no problem with the same spot, which it aired nationally.
    See also Censoring Sderot - Editorial (New York Sun)
    Why any radio station or newspaper in New York would not want to stand proudly with Israel and the people of Sderot is just beyond us.

Islamist Terrorists Convicted Over Casablanca Bombs Tunnel Out of Jail - David Sharrock (Times-UK)
    Nine Moroccan extremists convicted for their roles in the Casablanca suicide bombings which killed 45 people in 2003 have escaped by tunneling out of their prison.
    Around 900 Islamist extremists are being held in Moroccan prisons.

Report: Bulgaria Drug Trade Funds Hizbullah (Reuters/Washington Post)
    Profits from drugs trafficking through Bulgaria have been used to fund organizations like Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad, Bulgaria's parliamentary security commission said Tuesday.

Desalinated Water Grows a City in Israel's Desert - Margaret Coker (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
    Eilat is a thriving port city and resort destination on the Red Sea. Since 1982, the local desalination plant has met all the city's water needs.
    Eilat has no natural fresh water supply and the barest rainfall. Yet today Eilat is dotted with trees, decorated with flowerbeds and green grass, and awash in swimming pools.
    Yossi Shmaya, manager of Eilat's desalination facility, puts it bluntly: "Without the plant, there would be no town."
    Israel, with 31 plants, produces 5% of the worldwide output of desalinated water, and about 15% of Israel's usable water comes from the sea.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

Observations:

Iran's Covert Campaign to Reshape Iraq - David Ignatius (Washington Post)

• "The hand of Iran was very clear in recent weeks," Gen. David Petraeus told a Senate committee Tuesday. But it has a long history.
• Iran's covert campaign to reshape Iraq has been clear since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. Iranian intelligence officers prepared lists of Iraqis for assassination in the weeks and months after the war began; they sent Iranian-trained mullahs to take over the Shiite mosques of central and southern Iraq that had been smashed by Saddam Hussein; they pumped an estimated $12 million a week in covert financial support to their allies as the January 2005 election approached; they infiltrated all the major Shiite political parties, and many of the Sunni ones, too.
• The Iranians have fixed the political game. They are on all sides at once. They have links to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Dawa party; they funnel money to the Badr organization of Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, which is a key recruiting ground for the Iraqi army; they provide weapons, training and command and control for the most extreme factions of the Mahdi Army. Moqtada al-Sadr, the Mahdi Army's nominal leader, is living in the Iranian city of Qom.
• The Iranians were able to start the recent trouble in Basra and Baghdad through one set of operatives, then negotiate a cease-fire through another. In short, they play the Iraqi lyre on all its strings.