India acquires upgraded $1.1 bln Israeli air defences

NEW DELHI: Israel has signed a $1.1 billion contract to supply an upgraded tactical air defence system to India, with delivery expected by 2017, an Israeli official said on Monday.

The sale of the Barak-8 systems came as India's army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, held high-level talks in Israel, India's biggest defence supplier.

Made by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., the Barak-8 is designed for use aboard ships and can shoot down incoming missiles, planes and drones. The most advanced version can be also deployed on land, the Israeli official said.

India has already acquired an earlier generation of the Barak system, the official said.

The Barak-8 contract was signed in April, and delivery of the systems will take place "over the next six to eight years".

The Indian embassy in Tel Aviv had no immediate comment.

Pak security apparatus geared to meet all challenges: CJCSC

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), General Tariq Majid, NI(M) has rejected the article by Seymour M. Hersh, published in The New Yorker' terming it as absurd and plain mischievous.

He stated, "we have operationalised a very effective nuclear security regime, which incorporates very stringent custodial and access controls.

As overall custodian of the development of our strategic programme, I reiterate in very unambiguous terms that there is absolutely no question of sharing or allowing any foreign individual, entity or a state, any access to sensitive information about our nuclear assets,” said an ISPR press release issued here Monday.

Our engagement with other countries through IAEA or bilaterally to learn more about the international best practices for security of such assets are based on two clearly spelt out RedLines - non intrusiveness' and our right to pick and choose'.

Also, our security apparatus has the capacity and is fully geared to meet all conceivable challenges, therefore, we do not need to negotiate with any other country to physically augment our security forces, which in any case, we believe, are more capable than their forces."

Commenting on the question raised through an article captioned Pakistan Nuclear Security Plan: How much does US really know?', which appeared in The News', Islamabad on November 9, General Tariq responded, "only that much as they can guess and nothing more".

Pakistan lose final ODI in sensational finish

ABU DHABI: After a dramatic 103 runs last wicket partnership between Mohammad Aamer amnd Saeed Ajmal, Pakistan lost the third and final One-day International to New Zealand by seven runs here at the Abu Dhabi Stadium on Monday.

Chasing 212 runs, Pakistan were all out for 204 in 48.1 overs.

Aamer remained not out on 73 runs, scored off 81 balls with three sixes and seven fours. This is the highest individual score by a number ten batsman in ODI cricket.

He was well supported by Saeed Ajmal who contributed 33 with two boundaries.

Israel uses Facebook to spy on Arabs & Muslims

DUBAI :  For Facebook users updating their statuses or posting family pictures is for their select friends list but according to new report the information most people believe is private is actually being used by Israel to profile people and spy on them to obtain valuable information.

According to "reliable" sources quoted in France-based, Israël Magazine, Israeli intelligence focuses mainly on Arab and Muslim users and uses the information obtained through their Facebook pages to analyze their activities and understand how they think.

The extensive report allegedly ruffled some feathers in the Israeli government and diplomatic circles and Israel's ambassador to Paris accused the magazine of “making classified information available to the enemy.”

Israel's covert activity was uncovered in May 2001, Gerard Niroux, Professor of Psychology at France's Provence University said.

“It is an intelligence network made up of Israeli psychologists who lure youths from the Arab world, especially from countries located within the range of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in addition to countries in Latin America," Niroux, who is the author of a book called The Dangers of the Internet, said.

Niroux said a huge number of men use the networking website to meet women and warned this was unsafe as it is the best way to lure men and find their weak points.

“It is very easy to spy on men using women,” he told the magazine.

This is not the first time Israel has been accused of using Facebook to spy on people and in April 2008 Jordanian paper al-Haqiqa al-Dawliya published an article entitled "The Hidden Enemy" making the same claims.

The paper said it was dangerous because people, especially the youth, often reveal intimate and personal details about themselves on Facebook and similar online communities, making them easy targets for people looking in.

Political Facebook

Facebook is no stranger to politics and is often used to organize protests or launch opposition campaigns, such as during the recent unrest in Iran, which Israël Magazine said gives Jewish intelligence valuable insight in to political activities taking place in enemy countries.

The paper added it is no longer necessary for occupation forces, like Israel and the United States, to use the traditional tools to control people or inciting sedition as it is now enough to use Facebook to promote certain ideas that infiltrate a certain social and political structure of any given country.

The fact that Israel uses Facebook to spy on Arabs is not just confined to media reports, but it is a general sentiment shared by people in the region.

People have been working as spies without realizing it, the report said, adding by just logging in to a chat room and talking about anything with someone he does not know is enough to do the job.

Any information revealed will be analyzed and used at a later stage.

Israel has a long history of espionage in the Middle East. During the 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars, Israel used to thoroughly examine the obituary pages in Arab newspapers, leading the Egyptian army to ban publishing obituaries of military personnel.

Analyzing the content of Egyptian papers also played a major role in planning for the 1967 war, according to Israeli media reports, adding the war actually started as Egyptian newspapers ran a story that several army officers of different ranks would be having breakfast together at 9:00 a.m. on June 5, 1967, the day Israel attacked Egypt.

Iran charges three Americans with espionage

TEHRAN:  Iran charged on Monday three detained American citizens with espionage, the official IRNA news agency quoted a judiciary official as saying, while U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said there was "no evidence" for Tehran to charge its citizens.

The three were held after they strayed into Iran from northern Iraq at the end of July.

"We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever," Clinton said on a visit to Berlin on Monday.

The three, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, crossed into Iran from Iraq and their families say they strayed across the border accidentally.

"The three are charged with espionage. Investigations continue into the three detained Americans in Iran," Tehran general prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told IRNA.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested in an interview with the American television network NBC in September that the Americans' release might be linked to the release of Iranian diplomats he said were being held by U.S. troops in Iraq.

According to Iranian law espionage is punishable by death.
Strong messages

The United States has sent strong messages to Iran urging the release of the three hikers, calling Iranian authorities to exercises "compassion" towards the three Americans.

Some Iranian authorities have linked the illegal entry of the Americans, to unrest that erupted after Iran's June presidential election.

Ahmadinejad's re-election on June 12, sparked Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Authorities deny vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.

Dolatabadi said the case of a Danish student, detained during a rally on Nov. 4 to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy, was under investigation.

"This accused Danish citizen has introduced himself as a reporter but he holds no official press accreditation. Investigations about him continue," he said."Today the Danish embassy lawyer was allowed to meet the prisoner."

Police clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when they used the anti-U.S. rallies to revive protests against the clerical establishment after June's vote.

Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Awake, Talking

FORT HOOD.Texas: A U.S. Army hospital spokesman said the man suspected in a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood is conscious and able to talk.

Dewey Mitchell, a spokesman at Brooke Army Medical Center, said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan remains in stable condition. Mr. Mitchell said Maj. Hasan has been awake and able to talk since he was taken off a ventilator Saturday.

Maj. Hasan is at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood.

Authorities say the 39-year-old Maj. Hasan opened fire at a processing center Thursday at Fort Hood, the country's largest military installation. Thirteen people were killed and 30 were wounded.

The rampage ended when civilian police shot Maj. Hasan.

Army officials said their investigators increasingly believe that Maj. Hasan was the lone gunman in the carnage. "Right now we're operating on the belief that he acted alone and had no help," said a military official familiar with the Army Criminal Investigation Division probe.

To help settle the question more definitively, the official said, military investigators were trying to determine where Maj. Hasan had purchased his handguns and the large quantity of ammunition used in the attack.

At least one weapon, an expensive semiautomatic handgun, came from gun store Guns Galore in Killeen, where the Army base is located, law-enforcement officials said. A person who answered the phone at the store Friday said it was cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and had been asked by law-enforcement officials not to comment.

Military and civilian law-enforcement authorities are examining Maj. Hasan's phone and computer records to see if he had communicated with any extremist elements in the days before the attack, according to a military official familiar with the matter.

The official said the investigators who seized Maj. Hasan's home computer during a recent search of his Texas apartment have been conducting a forensic reconstruction of every Web site he visited and every email he sent in the run-up to the rampage. The official cautioned that there was no hard evidence, at present, of any suspicious communications.

Maj. Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim of Jordanian and Palestinian ancestry, was slated to deploy to Afghanistan in November. Some witnesses told investigators that he shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," before he opened fire on the unarmed soldiers waiting for medical treatment Thursday.

The personal Web site for a radical American imam living in Yemen praised Maj. Hasan as a hero. The posting Monday on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the Fort Hood attack are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Mr. Awlaki said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."

Two U.S. intelligence officials told the Associated Press the Web site was Mr. Awlaki's. Mr. Awlaki didn't immediately respond to an attempt to contact him through the Web site.

Investigators haven't announced a motive for the shootings but believe Maj. Hasan was almost certainly the author of an Internet posting that expressed general support for suicide bombings.

Investigators have interviewed hundreds of witnesses, including victims, but officials caution that the probe remains in a preliminary stage. Much of the Army's attention has been focused on helping the families of the deceased and injured.

In Washington, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs plans to investigate the shootings, the motive and whether the Army overlooked any warning signs, said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the committee's chairman.

"It's premature to reach conclusions about what motivated Hasan," Mr. Lieberman, an independent, said on "Fox News Sunday." "But it's clear that he was, one, under personal stress and, two, if the reports that we're receiving of various statements he made, acts he took, are valid, he had turned to Islamist extremism."

Army officials have warned troops not to jump to any conclusions about Maj. Hasan's motives and what role, if any, his faith might have played in the shootings.

Rep. John Carter, whose congressional district includes Fort Hood in central Texas, said he personally considers the shooting rampage on the Army base a "terrorist act" because witnesses said they heard Maj. Hasan say "Allahu Akbar."

"When he shouted 'Allahu Akbar,' he gave a clear indication that his faith or Muslim view of the world had something to do with it," said the congressman, a Republican. Mr. Carter added that he would wait until the official criminal investigation is concluded before rendering an official opinion.

In Killeen, grieving has only begun for the victims of the mass shooting. At church services around the city Sunday, pastors talked about strength and service and how to pray in the face of evil.

More than 200 people have already attended counseling sessions at the base, officials said.

"There were a lot of tears," said Jill Cone, the wife of the general

The Army base prepared for a memorial service on Tuesday, which President Barack Obama is expected to attend. The victims' bodies will be released to their families the following day, and the 12 who were soldiers will be buried with full military honors.

Sixteen victims were still hospitalized Sunday, seven of them in intensive care, officials said.

Maj. Hasan remained in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio but is no longer on a ventilator. Army officials say his condition, while critical, is improving, which means they may soon be able to question him in person.

Legal experts said Maj. Hasan could be prosecuted in a military or federal court. A state prosecution is less likely because the crime involves a military defendant and crimes committed on federal property, said Cynthia Orr, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

But in any event, she said, Maj. Hasan could face the death penalty. "Anytime you have multiple victims it raises the specter of the death penalty," she said. "That is certainly one of the qualifying factors."

( sanders@wsj.com )

Leaders to mark fall of Berlin Wall

GERMANY:  Leaders from around the world are gathering in Berlin to join German crowds to mark 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Pivotal figures from the era that ushered in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe are to take part in commemorative events around the once-divided German capital on Monday.

Among them will be Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, and Lech Walesa, who led anti-communist protests in Poland as the head of the Solidarity trade union.

Joining them will be the leaders of the nations which occupied post-war Germany.

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, Dmitry Medvedev, his Russian counterpart, and Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, are due to attend the celebrations hosted by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

Thousands of tourists have poured into Berlin to mark the event on November 9, 1989, which led to the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the so-called "Iron Curtain" and the end of the Soviet Union.

Merkel, who was working as a scientific researcher in East Berlin at the time, said on the weekend that the fall of the wall was "the happiest day in recent Germany history".

Al Jazeera's David Chater, reporting from Berlin, said there was a real sense of celebration in the air.

"But it is nothing like that feeling on the streets on that day in particular, because it marked the end of communism itself."

Celebrations are planned all over the city, including the toppling of 1,000 giant, brightly coloured dominoes along a 1.5km stretch of the wall's original path.

Sore point

But for some German residents, the 1990 reunification of the country remains a sore point.

On Saturday, several hundred leftist demonstrators protested against the planned celebrations in Berlin.

A poll of more than 1,000 Germans carried out for the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper showed one in eight wanted the wall rebuilt - with the numbers nearly equal in the eastern and western parts of the now-unified country.

Shaken by the mass flight of its citizens into capitalist West Berlin, East Germany began erecting its "anti-fascist protection barrier" in the early hours of August 13, 1961.

According to a study published this year, at least 136 people were killed at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989 while trying to escape.

However, thousands managed to evade the minefields, dogs and guards in watchtowers, using schemes including tunnels, aerial wires and hidden compartments in cars in order to make it to the West.

OIC Summit being held today in Turkey

ISTANBUL: Turkish officials say Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will not attend a summit of Islamic leaders in Istanbul Monday.

Turkey said last week that Bashir would be present for the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit, despite the international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.

However, Turkish government officials now say they have learned President Bashir will not be coming.

The European Union had raised objections to the Sudanese president attending the summit.

The International Criminal Court has indicted President Bashir on charges of masterminding a campaign of rape, murder, and other crimes in Sudan's Darfur region.

Bashir has repeatedly defied the ICC by travelling abroad but only to countries that are not parties to the ICC and can guarantee his safety.