Excerpts:Egypt arrests 3 top Muslim Brotherhood figures. Pro-Morsi

Excerpts:Egypt arrests 3 top Muslim Brotherhood figures. Pro-Morsi
protestors renew effort. Al-Qaida Baghdad bombing attacks.Syria paying debt
to Russia for arms 30 August 2013

+++SOURCE” Ahram Online via Egypt Daily News 30 Aug.’13:Books

· Multimedia

“Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader El-Beltagy arrested”

SUBJECT: Egypt arrests 3 top Muslim Brotherhood figures

QUOTE:”El-Beltagy: if Morsi returns to office . . .militant attacks in Sinai
Peninsula will stop”

FULL TEXT:Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy was arrested
Thursday in Giza governorate, Ahram Arabic website reported.

El-Beltagy was observed by the police for two days before his arrest in the
rural area of Abo El-Namras in Giza.

He has been in hiding since the police’s bloody crackdown on the pro-Morsi
sit-in in Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawiya on 14 August.

El-Beltagy’s daughter, Asmaa, 17, died during the crackdown on 14 August.

On Wednesday, El-Beltagy appeared on Al-Jazeera channel in a pre-recorded
video reiterating his condemnation of what he described as a military coup.
In the video, he said that the Egyptian authorities have no evidence that
the Brotherhood have engaged in any terrorist acts, and he urged detained
members of the Brotherhood not to answer questions by investigators as
authorities “lack legitimacy.”

El-Beltagy is known for stating that if ousted President Mohamed Morsi
returns to office, militant attacks in Sinai Peninsula, ongoing since
Morsi’s ouster on 3 July, will stop, a statement that government officials
point to as proof that the group is supporting terrorism.

The prosecution had previously charged El-Beltagy with a number of offences,
including attempted murder and forming a “terrorist gang” at the pro-Morsi
Rabaa Al-Adawiya protest camp.

El-Beltagy is scheduled to be investigated in connection both with violence
in early August at the Republican Guards headquarters in which 51 pro-Morsi
protesters were killed, and a separate incident in which police clashed with
Rabaa Al-Adawiya protestors.

State news agency MENA also reported that ex-minister of manpower Khaled
El-Azhary and Brotherhood senior figure Gamal El-Ashry were arrested with
El-Beltagy

+++SOURCE: Aswat Masryah via Egypt Daily News 30 Aug.’13:”Mursi supporters
to stage mass protests on Friday[30 Aug.], start civil disobedience”

SUBJECT: Pro-Morsi protesters renew effort

FULL TEXT:The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy called for nationwide
protests to take place on Friday and for a civil obedience to start then to
“restore the revolution and have deposed President Mohamed Mursi to return
to the presidency,”said a statement they issued on Wednesday[28 Aug.].

In their statement, the Islamist umbrella group for supporters of the ousted
president said they will hold a press conference on Thursday to announce the
details of Friday[30 Aug.] protests.

Describing the demonstrations staged by Mursi supporters throughout the past
two weeks, the statement said, “The Egyptian people are being enslaved yet
again. The crowds protesting across the country reveal the people’s
rejection of the state of emergency and curfew imposed.”

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 30 Aug.’13:”Al-Qaida Group Claims Wave of
Baghdad Attacks”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT Al-Qaida Baghdad bombing attacks

QUOTE:”worries of a return to all-out bloodshed”

FULL TEXT:An al-Qaida front group claimed a wave of bombings across Baghdad
in a statement on Friday[30 Aug.], part of a surge in violence sparking
worries of a return to all-out bloodshed.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said the attacks carried out on
Wednesday[28 Aug.], when nationwide violence killed 75 people and wounded
more than 200, were retribution for the executions this month of people
convicted of terror-related offences.

The group, formerly based solely in Iraq, has since expanded its reach to
neighboring Syria, where President Bashar Assad has been embroiled in a
29-month conflict with rebels, of whom the al-Qaida group are a critical
part.

“The new wave organised by the lions of the Sunni people… was a response
to the crimes of the Safavid government with the executions of a group of
Islamists from the Sunni people in Iraq,” said the statement posted on
jihadist Internet forums.

It referred to Iraq’s central government using a pejorative for Shiite
Muslims, referencing the former Safavid empire that ruled what is now
modern-day Iran.

On August 19, Iraq put 17 people to death, all but one of them on
terrorism-related charges.

“The operations were carried out despite the heavy presence of security
forces, who placed tens of thousands of their donkeys and their animals just
in Baghdad and around Baghdad, which as become a big, closed prison for its
residents,” the statement said.

Further details of the attacks would be published in future, the group said,
without elaborating.

It only described the targets as “official and security and military places,
and the places of the Rafidhiyah and the head of the Safavids,” another
negative term for Iraq’s Shiite majority.

In fact, most of the targets hit on Wednesday[28 Aug,] were busy streets and
markets as civilians were packed in rush hour traffic, with 71 people killed
in Baghdad and nearby towns. Four others were killed in the country’s north.

Iraq has seen a marked rise in the level of violence this year, coinciding
with demonstrations by the Sunni Arab minority against alleged ill treatment
at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces.

More than 600 people have already been killed so far this month, according
to an Agence France Presse tally.

Diplomats and analysts have urged broad-reaching moves to tackle Sunni
frustrations, which they say give militant groups room to recruit and carry
out attacks.

However, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with an
anti-militant campaign.

SourceAgence France Presse

Middle

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 30 Aug.’13:”Damascus pays for Russian arms to boost
ties with Moscow” Reuters

SUBJECT: Syria paying debt to Russia for arms

QUOTE:”Assad is settling his bills for Russian arms orders”

FULL TEXT:MOSCOW — More than two years into Syria’s civil war, President
Bashar Assad is settling his bills for Russian arms orders through the
Russian banking system to try to shore up ties with his most powerful ally,
according to a Russian arms industry source.

The payments, which have increased in recent months, show how Assad has
sustained his ties with his main diplomatic defender, a relationship that
has come under the spotlight this week as Western countries plan military
action to punish him for suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians.

A Reuters investigation shows that the relationship has deepened in recent
months.

Although it was not possible to say for certain if they are bringing
weapons, the number of ships travelling to Syria from a Ukrainian port used
by Russia’s arms export monopoly has increased sharply since April.

The Russian defence industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Assad had started in recent months paying off a nearly $1 billion
contract for four S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems and another $550
million order for 36 Yak-130 trainer fighter planes.

“They’ve already made the first payment for the Yak-130, likely 10 per cent
of it. Regarding the S-300, they’ve definitely made a first down payment of
20 per cent, but we are probably at half of the payment at this point,” said
the source.

Another Russian source who has links with businesses dealing with Syria, and
two Moscow-based members of the Syrian opposition, said the Assad family’s
financial affairs in Russia have been personally looked after by Assad’s
maternal uncle Mohammad Makhlouf, from a room in a Soviet-era skyscraper
hotel, overlooking the Moskva River.

“That’s where all the operations have taken place. That’s where Makhlouf
meets with those bringing money in. He is looking after all the operations,
making sure everything goes according to plan,” said one of the Syrian
opposition members living in Moscow, who is in touch with the central bank
in Damascus.

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs, said the
payments for arms were an important way for Syria to prove to Moscow that it
deserves its continued support.

“Syria needs Russia to lend it some international credence and any payments
would be a way of ensuring Moscow that it can be taken seriously as a
partner,” he said.

Repeated attempts to reach Makhlouf and other Syrian officials for comment
on this story were unsuccessful.

Russian weapons accounted for 50 per cent of Syria’s arms imports before the
uprising against Assad began in 2011, according to a Syrian defence ministry
defector. Payments for those arms were usually deposited in the state bank
accounts of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms dealer.

In 2011, when protests against Assad began, Russia sent almost $1 billion in
arms to Syria’s troops. Russia has often repeated that the weapons it sends
cannot be used in the conflict and that it will continue selling arms while
no international arms embargo exists on Syria.

Nevertheless, through much of last year and the start of this year as Russia
was working with the West to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis, no
new arms deals were signed with Assad. Rosoboronexport said Damascus had
fallen to be Moscow’s 13th or 14th biggest client last year.

That appears to have changed in the past few months as diplomacy between
Washington and Moscow reached a dead end over a proposed peace conference in
Switzerland. President Vladimir Putin approved more weapons sales, the
Russian arms industry source said.

“About a year ago they put [some small arms deliveries] on hold. But after
Putin got angry in the lead-up to talks about Geneva II, the green light was
given for limited small arms deliveries,” the source said.

The source said shipments of weapons, large and small, may be on the rise
again. Reuters analysis of international shipping satellite data appears to
support that conclusion.

The data from Reuters parent company Thomson Reuters, which tracks ship
movements based on satellite imaging of their radar signals, shows that at
least 14 ships travelled from the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Oktyabrsk to
Syria’s port of Tartous over the past 18 months.

Nine of those trips were made since April, showing a dramatic increase in
traffic on the route.

While it is not possible to say definitively what was in those ships,
Russian defence experts say they suspect they could have been carrying arms.
Oktyabrsk is one of the main ports used by Rosoboronexport to ship Russian
weapons.

Moscow-based think tank CAST said the route is a common one for arms
deliveries.

Apparently underscoring the secrecy of the shipments, most vessels making
the trip switched off their radar while at Oktyabrsk only to turn it on
again after setting sail for Syria.

The defence industry source said he was not aware of what small arms were
being delivered to Syria, but said shipments most likely included continued
deliveries of anti-tank Kornet missiles, which Syria has bought since around
1998. Moscow and Damascus have concluded around six or seven contracts for
the system.

Israeli defence think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies
said in 2010 that Syria had concluded contracts for 1,500 Kornet missiles
and 50 launchers, and that further contracts were under discussion.

Small arms such as machineguns are nearly impossible to trace because of the
amount of counterfeit weapons and the number of arms traders who sell
weapons without the blessing of the Kremlin.

In January, Russian news agencies reported that two ships were carrying
munitions to Syria, but did not clarify whether they were delivering the
munitions to Assad or to the small repair and maintenance base Russia’s navy
keeps at Tartous.

Ruslan Pukhov, director of CAST, said large numbers of Russian military
ships were also travelling to Tartous over the past year, and speculated
that they could be carrying arms.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, given their frequency, if these ships were
carrying some kind of weapons we haven’t been told about,” said Pukhov.

Second tier banks

The United States and European Union have both imposed sanctions on Syria’s
financial system which, though not applying in Russia, could apply to large
Russian banks that do business in the West.

Earlier this year a US Treasury official, speaking to Reuters on condition
of anonymity, said Washington could take action against any Russian banks
found dealing with Syria’s central bank and the state-owned Commercial Bank
of Syria.

A Syrian newspaper reported that Syria’s central bank said two years ago it
had rouble and foreign currency bank accounts in Russian banks VTB VEB and
Gazprombank.

VTB denied doing business with the Syrian central bank. VEB Chairman
Vladimir Dmitriyev said he had no knowledge of links to any Syrian
companies. Gazprombank did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

The defence industry source said Assad’s government has routed its payments
through at least one smaller Russian bank, making the money harder to trace.

“The big Russian banks are not eager to work with Assad. There were some
problems with payments because big Russian banks were scared of dealing with
Assad.”

“But there were bank transfers. There may be VTB, VEB and Gazprombank, but
there are also small banks and banks that are not based in Moscow.”

A second defence industry source confirmed the transactions were being made
through smaller banks.

============
Sue Lerner – Associate, IMRA