THE LATEST EXCLUSIVE HEADLINES FROM THE IMPRESSIVE DEBKA FILES.

Summary of DEBKA Exclusives, April 26, 2013

April 19, 2013 Briefs: Boston terrorist  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev captured After a day of lockdown, Bostonians came out cheering when their mayor shouted “We got him!”  A massive police operation in Boston ended Friday night with the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, suspected with his brother of the twin bombing Monday, April 15, at the Boston Marathon. Two Dagestani brothers members of Chechen Wahhabi cell identified in Boston DEBKAfile Special Report 19 April. Two Chechen brothers from Dagestan, members of a Wahhabi cell funded by Saudi al Qaeda, were identified as the terrorists who detonated two bombs at the Boston Marathon last Monday and carried out a bombing-shooting spree at the MIT campus in Watertown outside Boston, Friday, April 19, in which a police officer was killed. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhav Tsarnaev, 19, escaped in a hijacked a SUV. The police gave chase and as the terrorist the older terrorist was hit by police bullets and died in custody. His brother, “the white-capped suspect” is hunted by the police. The attack occurred shortly after the FBI released images of the two bombing suspects with an appeal to the public for information to identify them. April 20, 2013 Briefs: Three shells from Syria hit Golan The three mortar shells exploded Saturday morning on the Israeli side of the Golan near a favorite tourist spot at Birket Ram. This is the most distant spot reached thus far in the intermittent firing from the Syrian sector in recent months. No reports of casualties. The Tsarnaev brothers, were double agents who decoyed the US into terrorist trap DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis 20 April. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev won the dubious distinction of being the first terrorist operatives to import al Qaeda terror to the United States through a route outside the Middle East – the Caucasus. DEBKAfile: The pair were double agents, hired by US and Saudi intelligence to penetrate the Wahhabi jihadist networks which have spread across the Russian Caucasian, with the help of certain Saudi financial institutions. Instead, the two former Chechens betrayed their mission and went secretly over to the radical Islamist networks. This provides the answer to the big questions buzzing about the Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev since they carried out the twin Boston Marathon bombings Monday, April 15, leaving three dead, 180 injured and a police officer killed at MIT. The two brothers by their movements were obviously trained and whoever trained them trained others. So the pair clearly did not act alone. April 21, 2013 Briefs: Hagel: Arms deal with US allies signal to Iran On arrival in Israel for his first visit as Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel said Sunday that the $10 bn arms deals for Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UA are “a very clear signal” to Iran that military options remain on the table over its nuclear program. "The bottom line is that Iran is a threat, a real threat," he said “and must be prevented from developing that capacity to build a nuclear weapon and deliver it.” Boston terror refocuses Hagel’s ME mission on Syria & al Qaeda DEBKAfile Special Report 21 April: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s Middle East trip was supposed to present the $10 billion US arms sales to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a signal for deterring a nuclear Iran. The Boston bombings shifted the onus of his trip to Syria and al Qaeda. For more than two years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained that sympathy is not his motive for propping up Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus, but the certainty that his fall will release a swarm of al Qaeda jihadists on Damascus and other Syrian towns. From there, they will spread out through southern Russian Caucasus and then leap on Moscow and other key Russian cities. April 22, 2013 Briefs: Canada foils a major terrorist plot on Toronto-New York railway The two suspects, arrested in Toronto and Montreal, are Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser who are accused of a plot backed by al Qaeda operatives in Iran to murder people by blowing up a bridge on the railway from Toronto to New York. Surviving Boston bomber formally charged Dhzokhar Tsarnaev was charged by federal prosecutors Monday in his hospital room with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill - a crime that carries a possible death sentence. Ya’alon: Israel reserves right of self-defense on nuclear Iran Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon: Israel prefers a diplomatic solution of the Iranian nuclear controversy, although as Barack Obama said “Israel has the right to self-defense.” Ya’alon addressed a joint press conference with visiting US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Tel Aviv Monday. The Secretary said: “We agreed that the US would supply Israel with the missiles that guarantee its superiority and even improve its capabilities for generations to come to stand up to threats Two armed Hizballah brigades fighting for Assad near Homs DEBKAfile Special Report 22 April. While US and Israeli defense chiefs discussed a long-range $10bn American weapons package Monday, April 22, two heavily armed Hizballah combat brigades, numbering 1,000 men each, were fighting Bashar Assad’s battles around Qusayr 35 kilometers south of Homs. As Israel’s defense minister Moshe Yaalon vowed action against the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hizballah, those brigades were collecting their arms directly from Syrian military arsenals and Iranian and Russian airlifts. Meanwhile, air corridors opened up over Jordan presage potential US, Jordanian and Israeli activity against Syria.

April 23, 2013 Briefs: Two al Qaeda terrorist suspects detained in Spain One man, an Algerian, was arrested in the eastern province of Zaragoza and the other, a Moroccan, in the southern province of Murcia, after a joint operation between Spain, France and Morocco. They are suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in Spain. Older Boston terrorist suspected of two-year old murder of three Jews Boston police are investigating new suspicions that the dead Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was involved in the unsolved murders of three Jews found in an apartment in Walthan, Mass. on Sept 12, 2011, with their throats slashed. French embassy in Tripoli, Libya targeted in a car bomb attack Two guards were wounded, the wall surrounding the property was destroyed and the embassy building badly damaged by a car bomb. Gantz: Another Afghanistan in store for Syria. Hizballah brigades fight for Assad DEBKAfile Special Report 23 April Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz warned Monday, April 22, that the Bashar Assad’s fall would not end the Syrian bloodbath but drag the country even further into tribal and ethnic warfare on the scale of Afghanistan two decades ago. Iran and Hizballah are deeply implicated in this calamity. Strangely enough, Russia backs them. Also Monday, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, pledged action against the use of chemical weapons in Syria and promised not to allow sophisticated weapons to reach other nations or Hizballah-type organizations. The Golan border would be well guarded, he said, speaking at a joint new conference with visiting US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Monday, April 22. Tehran and Assad mock US and Israeli red lines DEBKAfile Special Report 23 April. Red lines have been flattened by Iran’s rapid progress toward a nuclear weapon and by Bashar Assad’s mockery, backed by Tehran, of US President Barack Obama’s warning that “proof of chemical weapons use would be a game changer.” By these revelations, two Israeli ex-intelligence chiefs Tuesday, April 23 underlined Israel-US differences on when to strike a nuclear Iran. Iran has crossed the last red line Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down before the UN Assembly last September, said the former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin. By now Iran has certainly have gone past the limit for enriched uranium stocks set by Netanyahu. Likud lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi said Israel has no more than a month or two for stopping a nuclear Iran.. Piling on the gloom, Brig. Gen Itay Brun reported that the Syrian army had started using chemical weapons against rebel forces, including Sarin and other paralyzing substances, without the world lifting a finger to stop it. DEBKAfile: They aimed to stir the US into starting military action against Syria and moving next on Iran. April 24, 2013 Briefs: EU: 500 European jihadists fighting in Syria  The European Union’s anti-terror chief Giles de Kerchove told the BBC that an estimated 500 Eruopeans are fighting with rebel forces in Syria. Intelligence agencies are concerned some could join groups linked to al Qaeda and return to Europe primed for terrorist attacks. Boston Bombers Had Links to al Qaeda Terrorist Cells DEBKAfile Video 24 April. Tamerlan Tsarnaev established links with al Qaeda’s Caucasian networks for terrorist attacks in America, starting with the Boston bombings. In 2011, Russian intelligence notified the FBI that he was on their watch list and offered the most promising treasure trove of intelligence about the Tsarnaev brothers’ terrorist associations. April 25, 2013 Briefs: The Tsarnaev Brothers Plotted Attack on Time Square, New York The Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev planned a row of attacks in New York after Boston, centering on Time Square Manhattan. This new information was disclosed by US security officials Thursday to the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security. Sen John McCain: Syrian chemical use has crossed our red lines “ We return to our demand from the start for safe zones, no-fly zones and assistance to rebels who are trusted, said Republican Senator John McCain, now that President Obama’s red lines have been crossed by the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons. MCain reminded the president that he has called this a game changer. White House to Congress: Damascus has used chemical weapons against Syrian people  In a remarkable reversal, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Abdu Dhabi Thursday afternoon that the US intelligence community believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its people, determining with "varying degrees of confidence" that Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have used the nerve agent sarin against civilians and forces fighting to remove Assad from power. Secretary of State John Kerry then said: The Syrian government has launched two chemical weapons attacks. Prisoner X killed himself, but warders charged with negligence Prima facie evidence attests to lapses in surveillance by Israeli prison warders as responsible for Ben Zygier, the Mossad agent who became known as Prisoner X, being able to take his own life, according to a special report cleared by the Rishon Lezion Court President Dafna Blatman-Kardai for publication Thursday. The judge ruled against prosecuting the warders named in the report. Syrian army breaks Damascus airport rebel siege The Syrian army Thursday completed its capture of the town of Otaybah which commands the main road to Damascus international airport and continues to push rebels out of the positions they held around the capital. Otaybah also housed an important depot for supplying rebel forces fighting in the South, including the Golan. Its capture has therefore cut off the vital rebel supply line to the south. Israeli Air Force jets down a Hizballah drone at sea 8 kilometers from Haifa DEBKAfile Special Report 25 April. Israeli Navy ships are out searching for the debris in the Mediterranean after Israel Air Force F-16 warplanes downed a Hizballah drone Thursday 8 kilometers at sea opposite Haifa. The Israeli army spokesman said the UAV was tracked continuously as it flew past the southern Lebanese coast from Sidon and continued south. DEBKAfile: This was just a step in Hizballah’s plan to force the Syrian war’s spillover into Israel after Lebanon and Jordan. It follows shooting incidents against Israeli locations on the Golan.