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Geological Tectonic Unrest in the Foothills of the Himalayas!

Supplement to Archive Prophecy Updates 205, 205A, & 205B

A 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Between Pakistan and Kashmir

October 8, 2005

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The Indian Ocean Tectonic Plate has been pushing northward for a very long period of time.

It was this push that formed the great Himalaya mountain chain along the south boundary of the vast plateau of Tibet. The southern boundary line of tectonic activity push curves northwestward along the borders separating India from the provinces of Bhutan, Nepal, Westernmost China, Pakistan, and Kashmir. This lineament is connected to the great subduction zone on the eastern side of the Indian Ocean Tectonic Plate, which produced the catastrophic tsunami some 10 months ago. This plate is becoming more active, and will continue to show increased tectonic activity above what is normal for this tectonic zone.

In geological considerations, the earthquake was fairly shallow, because it represents the shallow push of the India Plate against the massive plateau of Tibet, and occurred on the south side of it. Although we are not in the tribulation period predicted in the Bible, I do not believe it is something that can be said to be “in the far distant future.” The events of the worst part of the great tribulation period will begin with a great earthquake in Israel’s Jordan River Valley

, which is found in Revelation 6:12. This will release an energy surge north and south from its occurrence into the east-west fault extending across northern Turkey, and into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean faults. This will result in the loosing of locked faults in these areas which, in turn, will begin a massive chain reaction across the thousands of miles of interconnecting fault lines across the surface of the earth.

This process will continue for some three and one-half years. When will this great earthquake occur in the Jordan River Valley? I DON’T KNOW! But I am of the opinion it could occur as early as 2007, and is likely to occur before 2012.

I do know that when it occurs the world will know it, and some three and one-half years of horror beyond human imagination will continue until the final earthquake in the Book of Revelation in 16:18. For a fuller exposition of this tectonic faulting zone associated with the Indian Ocean, please check out Prophecy Update Numbers 205, 205A, and 205B in our Prophecy Update Archives.

Revelation 6:12 – And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened,

there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Revelation 16:18 – And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and

so great.

The following extracts about the earthquake were taken from an article in the Jerusalem Post by the Associated Press.

It says “hundreds feared dead,” but I suspect the final casuality count could exceed 4,0oo.

BEGIN JERUSALEM POST EXTRACTS

Hundreds Feared Dead in Indian Subcontinent Quake

By the Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

October 8, 2005

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake jolted South Asia on Saturday, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds of others in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Several villages in northern Pakistan were buried in landslides triggered by the quake, and casualties could be “massive,” a military spokesman said.

“The damage and casualties could be massive and it is a national tragedy,” said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistani army’s chief spokesman. “The is the worst earthquake in recent times.”

Pakistani army officials who flew over quake-hit areas reported seeing hundreds of flattened homes in northern villages, a government official in Islamabad said.

“Everybody seems to be affected in those villages,” the official said.

He declined to be named because he is not authorized

to speak to the media.
Part of a 19-story apartment building collapsed in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and dozens of people were feared trapped in the rubble.

“We have received news of widespread damage in Pakistan’s northern areas, Kashmir and other parts of the country,” said Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman for Pakistan’s army.

He said troops and helicopters were dispatched to earthquake-hit areas to conduct rescue operations.

The US Geological Survey said on its Web site that the quake, which struck at 8:50 a.m. local time, had a magnitude of 7.6 and that its epicenter was 80 kilometers north-northeast of Islamabad.

Qaiser Abbas, a receptionist in the damaged apartment building in Islamabad, said he was sitting in his office when the building suddenly began to shake.
“After five seconds, I heard big sound, and then about 40 apartments collapsed,” he said.

He said he believed about 100 people might be trapped in the rubble. Rescue workers pulled two injured people from a huge pile of debris.

In Islamabad, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute. Panicked people ran out of homes and offices in many cities. Slight tremors continued afterward.

The quake badly damaged one village near Balakot, a scenic town about 300 kilometers northeast of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, said regional police chief Ataullah Wazir.

He said rescue teams were sent to the area. Local media reports said many homes in Balakot had collapsed.

Arif Mahmood, a seismological official in the northwestern city of Peshawar said the quake was felt in many parts of Pakistan.

Mohammed Hanif, another seismological official, said it was apparently strongest in Islamabad.

The quake also caused panic in the cities of Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta near the Afghan border, as well as the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in entirety by both.

Residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, felt the quake, fleeing their homes for fear they would collapse.

The tremor also affected northern India.

‘`It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying.

It was terrifying,” said Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in the New Delhi suburb of Noida. Hundreds of residents there raced down from their apartments after their furniture started shaking.

Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, was jolted by the quake.

“It was one of the most intense earthquakes felt in the Srinagar region in at least two decades,” said G.K. Mohanty, an official in the meteorological office in Srinagar.

END JERUSALEM POST EXTRACT

THE GOALS OF WORLDWIDE ISLAMIC JIHAD

October 8, 2005

Supplement to ARCHIVE BLOG of September 13, 2005

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Please take look back at the September 13, 2006 BLOG, titled “A Plan for Islamic World Conquest” before reading the following article from the Daily Alert Jerusalem Center by Robin Wright, of the Washington Post.

BEGIN ARTICLE EXTRACTED FROM DAILY ALERT

Bin Laden Deputy Envisions Jihad on New Fronts, War against Israel

Robin Wright

The U.S. has obtained a letter dated in early July from Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, to the leader of Iraq’s insurgency, Abu Musab Zarqawi, that outlines a long-term strategic vision for a global jihad, with the next phase of the war to be taken into Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and, eventually, Israel. The letter also warns Zarqawi against alienating the Islamic world, and reprimands the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda for beheading hostages and then distributing videotapes.

The letter outlines a four-stage plan: First, expel American forces from Iraq.

Second, establish a caliphate over as much of Iraq as possible. Third, extend the jihad to neighboring countries, with specific reference to Egypt and the Levant – a term that describes Syria and Lebanon. And finally, war against Israel. (Washington Post)

END ARTICLE EXTRACTED FROM DAILY ALERT

In the four books I have written over the last 30 years there has been a constant warning that the antichrist would not come out of Europe, but out of Syria, or the area along its immediate borders. The modern day teachings on television came out of the great Evangelical Movement, which arose after 1730.

Most of the prophetic world is waiting for an Antichrist based largely on Daniel 9:27. I implore you to take a long look at Archive Prophecy Updates 230B, 231, 231A, 231B, 232, 232A, 232B, 232C, 233, and 233A on Daniel 9:27, under the Menu Heading “Prophecy Update” on our Web Site at:

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Click on “Prophecy Update” – then click on the arrow to the right of “Prophecy Archive Reviews” and a listing of several hundred Updates will drop down.

My reasons for bringing the Antichrist out of the Syria area are found throughout our Archives, using expositions out of Revelation, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation to make my case.

A small part of one follows from Ezekiel.

BEGIN ARCHIVE PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 28

Ezekiel 38:1-3 – “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, [3] And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:”
In Prophecy Update Number 27 we established, from the Scriptures and the Assyrian stone monuments, that the descendants of Meshech and Tubal, at the time Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, were primarily located in what we know as Syria and Lebanon. We also established that the prophecy is again a person, Gog (Antichrist), and against a l

and, the land of Magog.

I am convinced that the Antichrist will attack Israel from Syria.

Now, what about the “land of Magog?” Where were the Magogites located at the time of Ezekiel’s writings? Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian makes the following statements concerning the Magogites in Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter VI, under the title, HOW EVERY NATION WAS DENOMINATED FROM THEIR FIRST INHABITANTS: “Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons.” “They called the nations by their own names.” “Magog founded those that from him were called Magogites, but who by the Greeks were called Scythians.” The Greek writers of the Classic Age said the Scythians occupied the area which today we identify as stretching from Moldova eastward across the Ukraine, southern Russia, and into Kazakhstan, then southward into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan – Roughly the area north of the Black Sea, between the Black and Caspian Seas, and the area northwest, north, and northeast of the Caspian Sea. I do not believe the nations in this area will join in the initial attack against Israel, but I am certain they will come down for the final battle of Gog’s war, which is the Battle of Armageddon. The Battle of Armageddon, found in Revelation 16:16, is the final battle in Gog’s war, which began 3 and ½ years earlier.

Verse 3 fails to include the “land of Magog,” and is a message directly pointed, and personally addressed, against the Antichrist Gog, who once again is identified as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Popular writers in the last century brought a teaching into play that is simply not true.

They said the word “chief” was “rosh” in the Hebrew language, which is true.

But they said it meant “Russian,” which is not true. The Russian and Hebrew language have never overlapped in history to support such a claim. He is not a Russian prince. He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, most likely having a Syrian father. The word “rosh,” in the KJV, is translated as “chief” 90 times, as “head” 349 times, as “top” 75 times, as “beginning” 14 times, as “company” 12 times, as “captain” 10 times, as “sum” 9 times, as “first” 6 times, as “principle” 5 times, as “chief man” 4 times, and as “ruler” on two occasions. At no time, in all of history, could it legitimately be identified as someone who is a Russian.

I am convinced this chief prince of Meshech and Tubal will come from northwestern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, or southern Turkey, but I will be very much surprised if his father is not a Syrian. He will be the leader of a multilateral Arab force that will carry out a surprise attack against Israel from the north. I believe this is spoken of in Revelation 17:12,13 – “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

[13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”

Although he will have the support of ten Arab nations, I believe

the nations directly involved in the initial attack will be Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran from without, and the Palestinians from within. I believe the other nations, which will then immediately become involved in the Jihad, are most likely Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan.

Lord willing, I will continue a line by line exposition of Ezekiel 38 in Prophecy Update Number 29. If current events in the Mid-East merit a special update between these expositions in Ezekiel, we will put an A or B suffix on the update issued the preceding Friday.

END ARCHIVE PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 28

THE WORD DEFEAT IS NOT IN THE ARAB M

INDSET!

October 7, 2005

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I went to school with, worked with, and taught Arab military personnel for many years during my military experiences. One characteristic that sticks out like a sore thumb in their mentality is their inability to accept any war they have ever fought as a defeat.

If they had been the nation that attacked us on December 7, 1941, they would have claimed they won World War II because of the heavy losses we sustained at Pearl Harbor.

If the United States and international community had not held Israel back, they would have taken Damascus and Cairo – Yet Arabs say they were victorious over Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The following article by Haaretz Service and News Agencies is typical of the Arab ability to snatch victory out of absolute defeat.

BEGIN HA’ARETZ ARTICLE

Arab world commemorates 32nd anniversary of Yom Kippur War

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

October 6, 2005

The Arab world commemorated on Thursday the 32nd anniversary of the Yom

Kippur War, which Egypt and Syria consider a victory despite the Israeli recovery from a surprise Arab attack.

Israel commemorates the anniversary of the war on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which this year takes place on October 13.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak marked the war’s anniversary, known throughout the Arab world as the October War, by releasing 861 prisoners and telling the nation that success on the battlefield had led to freedom and a better life.

“This victory has moved us from liberating captured land to a similar liberation in our political life and national economy,” Mubarak said in a televised speech.

“The October victory was, and still is, a watershed in the history of the homeland,” he added.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad laid a wreath of flowers on the tomb of the unknown soldier in Damascus.

Assad was accompanied during the ceremony by the Syrian defense minister Major General Hasan Turkmany, and the Syrian chief of staff, Ali Habib.

The Yom Kippur War began when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on the Day of Atonement.

Caught off guard, the Israel Defense Forces sustained heavy casualties as Arab armies advanced deep into Israeli territory. However, the IDF soon recovered and pushed the Arab armies back, crossing the Suez Canal in the south and coming within range of artillery fire from Damascus in the north.

Despite the Israeli recovery, the war is seen as a victory throughout the Arab world because of the initial gains, which restored Egyptian and Syrian self-confidence.

END HA’ARETZ ARTICLE

CAN ASSAD SAVE HIS SYRIAN CROWN?

Supplement to Archive Prophecy Update Number 227A

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October 5, 2005

It appears things are headed down the path I indicated for Bashar Assad in Archive Prophecy Update Number 227A. I have found the DEBKAfile Intelligence Reports to be the best in the Middle East.

BEGIN DEBKAfile REPORTS

Will Assad Save Himself by Going the Way of Qaddafi?

From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 223 Updated by DEBKAfile

October 4, 2005

How to save Syrian president Bashar Assad and his regime from toppling – or rather how to save him from himself? This was the main topic exercising Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah when they put their heads together in Riyadh Monday Oct.

3. They needed to talk urgently because the UN investigator of the Hariri assassination Detlev Mehlis reported to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and the Security Council that he has finished his business in Damascus and would not be returning. He had gathered all the evidence he needs to indict two of Assad’s close kinsmen, his brother Maher, head of the presidential guard brigade, and brother-in-law, Assef Shawqat, who is married to his sister Bushra, for involvement in the assassination plot against the Lebanese leader.

The clincher was obtained, according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, in a Lebanese security forces swoop on the MTC Touch mobile ph

one company in Beirut Sept.

27. (This network is owned by Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co.) The officers copied data from eight telephone lines and took several employes away for questioning.

These lines were allegedly used by Maher Assad, Assef Shawqat and two Syrian strongmen, Syrian interior minister Gen.

Ghazi Kenaan and director of Syrian Special Intelligence Gen. Rusoum Ghazaleh, and other Syrian intelligence officers for contacts with their Lebanese accomplices who staged the bombing-shooting attack in Beirut last February. These accomplices set up a headquarters in the Hamara district in two apartments. Four senior Lebanese security officers are also in detention over the crime.

In September, as the noose tightened around the neck of Assad’s nearest and dearest, Saudi king Abdullah and Mubarak rushed into rescue mode.

On September 23, DEBKA-Net-Weekly revealed:

The Saudi monarch is bidding for President George W.

Bush to give the Syrian president another chance. He is offering a Saudi-Egyptian guarantee for Assad to live up to any obligations he may be persuaded to undertake.

The scheme as put before Bush is embryonic. Neither side has accepted it.

The Saudi ruler proposes to permit the Syrian president to tread the same path as Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi in 2003, when he scrapped his weapons of mass destruction in return for admittance to Washington’s good graces.

The Assad version, if accepted, would consist of severing the links between the Damascus politic al and military elite and Iraqi Baathist insurgents and

al Qaeda terrorists in Syria and Iraq. Top Saudi and Egyptian intelligence counter-terror experts would help the Damascus regime get rid of the terrorist elements which have struck root in Syria.

The banking systems of Syria and Lebanon will halt the flow of moneys from Saddam Hussein’s Baathists and al Qaeda accounts to bankroll the Iraqi insurgency. Like Libya, Syria would dismantle its chemical and biological weapons and its nuclear program, as well as its WMD-capable missiles.

Damascus would help America disband the Lebanese Hizballah terrorist organization, mainly by blocking Syrian arms supplies and providing Washington with intelligence on Hizballah’s arms caches.

Damascus would also shut down the command centers, offices and the training facilities serving Palestinian terror groups in Syria for decades. This would entail the jihadist Hamas and Jihad Islami and the radical Palestinian “Fronts” losing their sanctuaries.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources, the Saudi ruler has assured US officials he will insist on Assad going public on these steps for the sake of his rehabilitation – although easing into them gradually.

The quid pro quo proposed by Riyadh and Cairo is a halt on US and international pressure on the Syrian regime to mend its ways, the suspension of American economic sanctions and the resumption of economic assistance in the framework of a generous US-Saudi aid package to build a modern economy. Washington would have to lean hard on Ariel Sharon, or whoever succeeds him as Israeli prime minister, for peace talks culminating in the withdrawal from the Golan – on the same lines as the pull-back from Gaza and prospective evacuations of the West Bank.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Washington and Middle East sources report that the Bush administration has gone no further than cautiously considering the Saudi-Egyptian blueprint and discussing it. All the same, some parties, especially Saudi and Egyptian officials, are pushing hard to present Washington’s U-turn on Damascus as an accomplished fact.

(End of DEBKA-Net-Weekly passage)

DEBKAfile adds: One of the parties keen on getting the Saudi-Egyptian plan off the ground leaked to the media Monday, the day Mubarak flew to Riyadh, that US officials had been testing Jerusalem’s preference for Assad’s successor.

Israeli officials are reported to have said that Assad could stay – as long as he was “weakened.” This leak sounds like a ploy to convey the impression that the Egyptian-Saudi rescue blueprint is in the bag and has even found acceptance in Jerusalem.

This is most improbable – especially since, according to our sources in Damascus, Assad is far from seizing the Qaddafi formula for changing his spots. There are serious obstacles to be overcome first.

1. He is still haggling on terms, guarantees for his regime’s durability and which cronies can be saved from prosecution by the UN Hariri inquiry.

2. Assad has developed more than one lifeline.

In addition to the Saudi-Egyptian rescue plan, he is cozying up to Moscow and to Tehran for an escape or counter-gambit against the US-French drive to bring him down and the UN investigator’s findings. Some of the ideas floated between Damascus, Tehran and Moscow, might be of concern to Washington, US forces in Iraq and Israel. DEBKAfile will reveal these plans shortly.

3. The Syrian ruler’s fate hangs heavily on the final report Mehlis submits on the Hariri case. If he goes right to the top and assigns culpability to the president in person, not even the Saudi-Egyptian effort can save him. But if the finger of accusation stops at his close aides – such as his brother and brother-in-law, or lower echelons such as Generals Kenaan

and Ghazale, Assad will hold the option of throwing them to the wolves and jumping aboard the rescue wagon.

4. He would have to be pretty nimble for this desperate ploy. The men he proposes to sacrifice might well have other plans, such as mounting a military coup to topple him to save themselves.

END OF DEBKAfile REPORTS

Al QAEDA BUILDING STRONGHOLDS FOR FUTURE JIHAD!

October 5, 2005

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The current U.S. Operation in the western one third of Iraq is to break up the stronghold of al Qaeda bases that have been established in that zone. These terrorist strongholds are sprinkled across Anbar Province in western Iraq. Al Qaeda terrorist strongholds have also taken hold in the vast Sinai which Israel gave back to the Egyptians. The El Arish in northeastern Sinai borders on the Gaza Strip and Israel, and is the home of ingrained al Qaeda units. Nueiba is a hugh chunk of southern Sinai, where facets of terrorist groups and al Qaeda are firmly dug in, and the Egyptians have been unable to drive them out. The Sinai has a long northeastern border with Israel. I have driven along it many times looking at the fence separating Israel and Egypt, realizing I was passing over weapon smuggling tunnels dug beneath it. The last time I was in Israel they refused to let me drive the northernmost part of it because smugglers had fired on some Israeli soldiers when they exited it on the Israeli side.

Islamic Jihad terrorists, of one kind or another, control some one-fifth of the Sinai. The following Intelligence Report from the DEBKAfile gives a thorough assessment of the situation in the Egyptian Sinai.

BEGIN DEBKAfile INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Al Qaeda in Sinai Has Advanced to Striking Range of the Suez Canal, Israel and Jordan

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 3, 2005

The emphatic advisory to Israeli travelers to stay clear of their favorite Sinai resorts for this year’s High Holidays reflects incoming intelligence on the broadening threat posed by al Qaeda today. Since the Taba attacks exactly a year ago, the Islamist terrorist organization has planted a daunting infrastructure amid the inaccessible peaks of the strategic desert peninsula.

Egyptian attempts to access their strongholds have been thrown back.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report the following developments.

Al Qaeda has established terror networks in northern Sinai across the el Arish as well as strongholds in the inaccessible central mountains of the peninsula around Jebel Hillal.

In all, the jihadists control roughly one-fifth of Sinai total area (61,000sq. km or 23,500sq.

miles). Egyptian forces of law and order have learned not to venture into these bastions or into the areas commanded by age-old smuggler clans who currently collaborate with al Qaeda.

This leaves about half of the forbidding desert peninsula inaccessible to Egyptian security forces. Today, they can only claim to control the main roads routes fringing the vast desert expanse: from Ras Sudeir down to Sharm el Sheikh along the Suez Canal and Suez Gulf shores; from the Suez Canal east to El Arish along the Mediterranean shore and from the Sharm el-Sheikh resort center north along the Gulf of Aqaba to Taba and the Israeli port of Eilat.

The spectacular, biblical landscape conceals terrorist bomb traps and roadside devices.

Gunmen armed with RPG and anti-tank weapons lurk behind huge rocks in wait for any Egyptian police or security unit daring to step off a main road into one of the dry valleys dissecting the forbidding peaks.

The danger increases with the altitude.

Al Qaeda has joined up with rebellious Bedouin and Palestinians to recreate the Tora Bora of Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden’s fighters fought US and Afghan forces in November 2001.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources describe al Qaeda’s Sinai 2005 bastion as better fortified than the original Tora Bora.

It is peopled with more fighters and is even more impregnable. The paths leading up to peaks – some as tall as 7,500 ft – are barricaded by huge rocks under which explosive snares are concealed. Attempts to move the rocks would set off explosions and start an avalanche.

Interspersed among the natural barriers are bomb traps and anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. The caves perforating the slopes are firing positions – some armed with mortars and heavy machine guns.

The Egyptians have tried large-scale assaults on the al Qaeda mountain fastnesses and failed. They were forced to retreat with heavy casualties.

According to DEBKAfile’s military experts, the only way for Egypt to wrest mastery of the Sinai heartland from the terrorists is by a combined aerial bombardment coupled with helicopter landings of at least two special force’s brigades.

This in present circumstances is not feasible because –

1. The 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty demilitarizing Sinai precludes Egyptian air force operations. In theory, Cairo can approach Jerusalem for permission, but in practice this would expose the Mubarak government to widespread Muslim opprobrium for collaborating with the Jewish state in the war against Islamic terror.

2. Egyptian intelligence does not have an exact count of the anti-air missiles in al Qaeda’s hands. The passage of a quantity of these weapons from Sinai to the Gaza Strip leads Egyptian intelligence to deduce a fairly sizeable number – enough to cause havoc with a helicopter commando drop.

3. Al Qaeda’s smuggling routes crisscross Sinai day and night, freely plied by fighters, weapons, explosives and food. These routes exploit the peninsula’s exceptional geography to run between Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and of late the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians despite every effort have not been able to close down a single smuggling route.

This fact ties in with the kidnap alert for Israeli travelers.

Should al Qaeda succeed in abducting an Israeli, it has the organization to conceal its victim for a long period in its Sinai mountain bastion or transport him or her to another Arab country, including Iraq.

4. That al Qaeda has established a presence in the Gaza Strip is no longer a matter of speculation.

Today, Israeli military intelligence AMAN and the Shin Beit are taking

the new manifestation of Al Qaeda-Palestine as an offshoot of Al Qaeda-Sinai with the utmost seriousness. Foreign terrorists have been detected entering the Gaza Strip, welcomed and integrated in to

the logistical infrastructures of Hizballah, Hamas, Jihad Islami and the Popular Fronts.

This is not a one-way road.

Elements of Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami have been heading out of Gaza into Sinai and given the use of al Qaeda’s logistical facilities to strike unprotected Israeli holidaymakers at the Sinai resorts.

END DEBKAfile INTELLIGENCE REPORT