Syrian rebels in Aleppo are obtaining their first heavy weapons – 220-mm MLRS rocket launchers – through a large-scale supply operation run by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, debkafile reports exclusively. In Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, his agents snapped up Russian-made MLRS (Smerch) and Hurricane 9K57 launchers capable of firing scores of 220-mm rockets to a distance of 70 kilometers. Bandar hopes these weapons will expedite the rebels' capture of the big Syrian air base of Nairab near Aleppo.

A private report from Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Barack Obama contained evidence that the same al Qaeda under the same Egyptian commander committed the Benghazi US consulate and Algerian gas field attacks, and implicated Qatar in bankrolling subversive and terrorist operations to topple the Algerian and Libyan regimes.

A private report from Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Barack Obama contained evidence that the same al Qaeda under the same Egyptian commander committed the Benghazi US consulate and Algerian gas field attacks, and implicated Qatar in bankrolling subversive and terrorist operations to topple the Algerian and Libyan ...

The Saudis are backing the Salafists against Egypt’s ruling Brotherhood and their support from Barack Obama and against Qatar’s expanding influence. The army refuses to help President Morsi suppress violent protest.

The Saudis have a long reckoning with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and harbor a deep grudge against Barack Obama for helping to overthrow Hosni Mubarak.

Qatar is pouring petrodollars into Egypt to outdo Saudi Arabia’s bid for a land bridge to Egypt and to gain high-end assets such as control of the Suez Canal and the acquisition of Egyptian coastal resorts. Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassim said the emirate would double its grants and loans to Egypt from $2.5 to $5 billion bringing the grand total in a single year to $7 billion.  Hamad denied this generosity was tied to plans to invest in the Suez Canal, but no one believed him, especially in Riyadh.

The IDFs’ closure to civilian traffic of a 182-kilometer long security strip, 300 meters deep, along the Israeli-Egyptian border, resulted, debkafile reports, from the failure of US Undersecretary of Defense Michael Vickers to breathe life into the US-Egyptian-Israeli partnership for combating terror during his Cairo trip earlier this month. Refusing to reactivate the Cairo-Jerusalem “hot line” for terrorism, the Egyptians were instead engaged in détente with Iran after Al Qods chief Gen. Qassam Soleimani paid them a secret visit.

The Qatari rulers have again swung like a pendulum for and against President Obama’s Middle East goals, joined now by Egyptian President Morsi. Qatar is shifting is focus towards a radical solution of the perennial Palestinian problem, junking standing peace accords and processes.

Qatar and Egypt are playing a double game with Washington, easing Iran’s path to reconnect with Hamas in Gaza after the connection was snapped by the Israeli operation in November.

Since the US has taken the lead in the coalition backing the Syrian rebellion, the rebels are going for strategic targets, including anti-air missiles for knocking Assad’s bombers out of the sky.

President Obama admires President Morsi and wants him aboard his burgeoning anti-Iran Sunni alliance. The Egyptian street is baying for his blood.

Israel’s operation was an intel coup to shut Iran’s gateway to Cairo via Hamas.

The Gaza operation was an exercise in deception, designed by six intelligence chiefs to trigger two coups – one to restore Mohamed Morsi’s powers as Egyptian president and the other to purge Hamas of its pro-Iranian elements.

The Gulf emirs are competing for the favors of Gaza’s Hamas rulers while ready to drop Mahmoud Abbas of Ramallah.

Defense minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz decided Wednesday, Oct. 24, to shift to the Gaza sector most of the personnel and anti-missile batteries taking part in the joint Israeli-US war game and home front exercise. This came after Palestinians in Gaza hammered Israeli civilian locations with 60 rockets in just a few hours. debkafile: IDF chiefs suspect the Hamas assault is the opening shot of a major offensive which Hizballah may be preparing to join. The US troop increment's fate is yet to be determined.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar will not just be visiting the Gaza Strip as a benefactor but with a plan to extend the regional ambitions he launched by intervening in the Libyan revolt and the Syrian conflict. He hopes to shore Hamas up as a force for reining in Salafi and al Qaeda lawlessness in Sinai before it cuts into Qatari influence in Libya. Israel may be up against more than Islamist terrorists, but their Qatari sponsor  too. 

Eight nations are embroiled on both sides of the Syrian civil war, although the governments concerned pretend they are keeping to a policy led by the Obama administration of non-intervention. Amid cross-border clashes with Turkey, Bashar Assad has embarked on a scorched earth policy against his country.

As US intelligence gropes in the dark in Syria – unable to pin down the rebel leader or a suitable candidate to follow Sadat - Saudi secret service chief Prince Bandar uses Al Arabiya TV to release “classified Syrian security documents” for his propaganda campaign against Assad and other ...

Sunni and Shiite Soldiers of Allah are on the march against each other. They are preparing for a clash of arms in the embattled Syrian arena. A mobilization campaign is drawing foreign jihadists to fight Assad out of many corners of the Sunni world, including lands now ruled by ...

The Obama administration has invested major diplomatic and military efforts into persuading the Persian Gulf emirs to unite in a federation and mutual defense treaty according to two alternative Saudi blueprints – a NATO or a EU style pact. But those efforts were met with extreme reluctance.