Here are the latest rumors floating around the Middle East:
Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah was poisoned by a highly toxic chemical just a few days ago and his life saved by a special team of 15 Iranian doctors jetted into Lebanon. Which could maybe explain why he’s not going to Egypt.
For starters, what kind of medical team is made up of 15 doctors? That’s almost an entire emergency ward – how many second opinions can one poison victim need?
And in any case, Nasrallah gave an interview this weekend where he called the rumor of his demise ‘psychological warfare’. He should know…
Interesting story here about who would replace him as head of Hizbullah should he be knocked off.
In the case of an assassination of Sheikh Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, the general secretary, the group would be led by his cousin Sayyid Hashim Safei al Deen, who heads Hizbollah’s executive branch
Mossad chief Meir Dagan was assassinated in Jordan.
Time’s Middle East Blog:
Some describe a large bomb explosion alongside his convoy and add that Israeli and Jordanian guards with the convoy were injured.
All good, except that Dagan met with President Shimon Peres today to brief him ahead of the latter’s trip to Sharm-El-Sheikh tomorrow for talks with Hosni Mubarak. Or so I’m told…
Iran sent a radioactive ship to explode near Israel’s shores over Yom Kippur, but it was hijacked by pirates. Brian Harring reports:
“She was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore.”
Was this the preemptive strike some top Iranian officials were alluding to?
Anyway, Iran eventually got its boat back after paying the Somali pirates a hefty ransom. Who would have imagined: Somali pirates save Israelis from an Iranian nuclear Holocaust. What a headline!
While Iran was sending a nuclear death ship, Israel sent spy pigeons into Iran’s nuclear facilities, but this plot was also foiled, as the pigeons were arrested.
AFP:
One of the pigeons was caught near a rosewater production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, according to the report in the reformist Etemad Melli newspaper. It cited an unnamed source as saying some metal rings and invisible strings were attached to the bird.
Israeli pigeon grower and expert Daniel Mizrachi says that pigeons were used extensively in WW1, WW2 and during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 to carry messages. One pigeon was even given a medal of honor for getting it’s message home even after it was shot and wounded. But can a pigeon fly the 3,000 Km from Israel to Iran? Mizrachi says pigeons can fly between 1,000 – 1,500 Km in 24 hours, and that technically, they could make the trip in a couple of days. However, a pigeon’s natural inclination is to return home from whence it came, so it is more likely the pigeons were bred, raised and trained in Iran. It is very unlikely that a pigeon can be sent to fly to Iran, and that the bird would complete its journey – in a straight line that is. They are naturally very smart creatures and have a built-in GPS system, but which always directs them homeward. Mizrachi says a pigeon can find its way home even after being away for 10 years, no matter where on Earth it is.
Reliable sources tell me the Mossad pigeons are holding fast and haven’t yet broken under torture. But how long can they last? Surely they must crack at some point?
What a weird day.
