Shin Bet - Tag Search

I'm personally indifferent to Noam Chomsky. I've read a couple of his books -- Manufacturing Consent was pretty good -- but I don't have any strong feelings about him or his work.

But it's hard to have anything other than an angry reaction to the news that Chomsky was denied entry to Israel yesterday. He's one of a number of Westerners barred from Israel in recent months because of their pro-Palestinian views.

Chomsky's expulsion certainly gives lie to the idea of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank: He was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University, located in "Area A," the territory theoretically under Palestinian administrative and security control. And yet it was the Israeli government that denied him entry.

No arrests yet, nor claims of responsibility, in the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh -- but officals in Dubai say they've got a lead.

Police said yesterday that the killers hold European passports. And today they told Ha'aretz the killers "left behind evidence" that could lead to their arrest; officials in Dubai have reportedly contacted Interpol for help with the investigation.

We've long wondered why Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations Human Rights Council to delay the Goldstone Report. Al-Jazeera reported at the time that Abbas bowed to U.S. pressure. But this morning Akiva Eldar presents a different theory in Ha'aretz -- one that reflects badly on the Israeli government, but probably won't help to boost Abbas' public image.

At least that's what an anonymous Israeli military officer called a network of caves recently discovered In the Judean desert, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The story doesn't say when the caves were discovered, just that a unit of the Israeli Defense Forces raided the underground tunnel network "recently" after receiving intelligence from Shin Bet.

Unfortunately, it seems that by the time the IDF got there, the caves had been abandoned, except for "empty bullet casings and cartridges." The IDF says that the caves were being used by Hamas for military training.

Maybe not exactly like Tora Bora.

At least two British soldiers were killed yesterday in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. The troops are believed to be part of a broader U.S.-led push to secure the province. One was killed by a roadside bomb; the other, by a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

Fourteen workers from the U.N.'s mine-clearing center were abducted in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province; provincial police aren't sure who kidnapped them.

Israeli police arrested a Gaza man who they claim planned to set up a "terror network" in Israel. The man, Abd al-Rahman Talaalqa, was arrested by the Shin Bet security service after entering Israel from the Sinai. Talaalqa received military training from Hamas in 2006, according to Shin Bet.