The New Nation - Internet Edition

US rejected Israel’s plea for strike against Iran, says report

Reuters, New York

President George W. Bush deflected Israel's secret request last year for bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex, saying he had authorized covert action to sabotage Tehran's suspected atomic weapons development, The New York Times said.

Citing U.S. and foreign officials, the Times reported on Saturday the White House was unable to determine whether Israel had decided to carry out the strike before Washington objected or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was trying to get Bush to act more decisively before he leaves office this month.

Israel, widely believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, bombed the site of a suspected atomic reactor in Syria in 2007.

Details of the expanded U.S. covert program and the Bush administration's efforts to talk Israel out of attacking Iran emerged from 15 months of interviews with current and former U.S. officials, international nuclear inspectors, outside experts and European and Israeli officials, the Times said.

None of those interviewed would speak on the record, the paper said, adding it omitted many details of the covert efforts from its report at the request of senior U.S. intelligence and administration officials.

It said the interviews also suggested "that while Mr. Bush was extensively briefed on options for an overt American attack on Iran's facilities, he never instructed the Pentagon to move beyond contingency planning, even during the final year of his presidency, contrary to what some critics have suggested."

But aware that financial sanctions against Iran were inadequate, Bush turned to the CIA, according to people involved in the covert program, authorizing a broader effort aimed at Iran's industrial infrastructure supporting its nuclear programs, the Times said.

While the paper said details were closely held by U.S. officials, it quoted one as saying, "It was not until the last year that they got really imaginative about what one could do to screw up the system."

But the official said "none of these are game-changers" in that the efforts would not necessarily cripple Iran's program.

REQUEST TO FLY OVER IRAQ

Under Bush, whose term ends on January 20 when Barack Obama becomes president, the United States has sought tougher U.N. sanctions against Iran to halt its nuclear program, which Western nations believe is designed for making weapons.

Red Cross warns of deteriorating situation in Gaza

AFP, Geneva

The plight of Palestinians trapped in Gaza is becoming increasingly precarious as the Israeli attack on the territory enters its third week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday.

"People trapped in zones where military operations are taking place are particularly affected," it said in a statement from its Geneva headquarters.

The organisation, which has had to scale down its operations for security reasons, said it had received dozens of calls from people who were in zones which could not be reached and were experiencing increasing difficulty in maintaining contact with the outside world.

"Yesterday, we received a call from a family of 40 people, including 20 children, staying in a house in the Netzarim area. They told us they had not had drinking water for almost six days because the well supplying water to their house had been damaged," the statement quoted an ICRC employee in Gaza as saying. The employee herself was staying at her aunt's house, together with 17 other family members who had fled insecure areas near Gaza City.

Some 800 Palestinians have died since Israel began its onslaught on December 27. Humanitarian organisations have seen their work complicated by the fighting after neither Israel nor Hamas accepted United Nations Security Council calls for a ceasefire, the ICRC said.

"We are doing our best, sparing no effort to come and rescue people when we can," said a Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedic quoted by the ICRC.

Six soldiers, 40 militants killed in NW Pakistan

AFP, Peshawar

Hundreds of foreign militants attacked Pakistani forces near the border with Afghanistan, sparking clashes that left six soldiers and 40 militants dead, according to the military.

The fierce fighting took place late Saturday in the lawless Mohmand tribal area in northwest Pakistan, a known Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold, the military said in a statement.

The attack was the biggest in recent months against Pakistan's security forces, who are battling to flush out militants in several areas of the country's restive northwest.

The rugged border area is a key battleground in the US-led "war on terror," with extremists operating on both sides and using "safe havens" in Pakistan from which they are said to launch attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Most of the insurgents came from the Afghan side of the border, and were joined by local Taliban fighters. The combined force of about 600 militants then attacked a paramilitary Frontier Corps base near the border.

World-wide protests call for halt to Gaza conflict

AP, Berlin

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities across Europe and in Lebanon Saturday, shouting protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Protesters burned Israeli flags in Sweden and threw shoes at the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland. In central London, three officers were hurt when demonstrators hurled shoes and placards at police outside the Israeli Embassy. One officer was knocked unconscious. Some 180 people were arrested in Paris.

Israel must stop Gaza aggression: Abbas

AP, Cairo

The Palestinian Authority president urged both Israel and Hamas to agree to an Egypt-brokered truce Saturday, but he singled out the Jewish state, saying it would be responsible for a "waterfall of blood" if it didn't accept the deal.

Mahmoud Abbas was in Cairo Saturday for talks with Egyptian officials on a truce to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip, now in its 15th day. In a news conference Saturday after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Abbas stressed there was no time to waste in ending the bloodshed in Gaza, home to 1.4 million people.

Meshaal brands failed Gaza offensive a 'Holocaust’

AFP, Damascus

Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal on Saturday slammed Israel's assault on Gaza as a "Holocaust" in which the blood of Palestinian children was being shed to bolster prospects in next month's Israeli elections.

"The enemy has failed by creating a real Holocaust on the soil of Gaza," Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, said in a pre-recorded statement aired on Arab satellite televisions Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. "Palestinian blood has become a means to win elections," he said, addressing the Israeli people whose leaders are to face off in general elections on February 10.

Meshaal said the military campaign had been a failure. "What did you achieve through this wart other than the killing of children, of innocents?" he asked the Israeli leadership.

Sri Lankan soldiers seize rebel training camp

AP, Colombo

Sri Lanka soldiers captured a Tamil Tiger training camp as government troops pressed ahead with their offensive against the guerrillas in the country's embattled north, the military said Sunday.

Government troops have achieved a string of major victories against the rebels in recent months - including the capture of the Tamil Tiger administrative capital of Kilinochchi a week ago. The government has vowed to crush the separatist guerrillas and end the Indian Ocean island nation's 25-year-old civil war in the coming months. Army soldiers, advancing into the rapidly shrinking rebel territory, captured a rebel training camp near the village of Mulliyaweli in the last rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu on Friday, the military said in a statement.

There were underground bunkers and an auditorium in the camp, the statement said.

The statement did not provide details of casualties from the fight to capture the camp.

US VP-elect Biden promises help in Afghan visit

AP, Kabul

Vice President-elect Joe Biden pledged long-term American support for Afghanistan during a visit Saturday, and the commander of NATO-led forces told him that thousands of new American troops expected this year will need more support against surging Taliban violence.

President-elect Barack Obama has promised to end the war in Iraq and refocus American military efforts on Afghanistan. Biden's visit is a sign that Obama plans to make the region an immediate priority.

In a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, Biden "talked about t the fight against terrorism, American troop increases as well as equipping and supplying of the Afghan forces," a statement from Karzai's office said, without providing any details.

Snowstorm ices roads, grounds flights in Chicago

AP, Cleveland

A powerful winter storm blasted large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast with snow and freezing rain on Saturday, grounding flights and stranding vehicles along icy roads.

Nearly a foot of snow fell in some Midwest states, and more than half of the morning flights at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport were canceled or delayed. Ten inches at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport forced the cancellation of about 100 flights, Chicago's Streets and Sanitation Department reported.

"This is the biggest one of the season," said Brian Mitchell, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Cleveland. "We didn't have this kind of snow in the last couple of months." Motorists in Youngstown and Warren, in northeast Ohio, slowed to a crawl to avoid spinouts or wrecks. Road crews were put on 12-hour shifts, and were doing all they could to keep pace with the new snow, said Theresa Pollick, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.