Sept 2, 2009 Three Stories

Yesterday, the Israeli media was filled with coverage of a story explaining the mysterious hijacking of a Russian ship last month, a vessel that disappeared and then was “rescued” by the Russian navy. No explanations have ever been given and the Russian news media has been totally silent regarding the events. One of Israel’s most well-known military correspondents published the following story yesterday: The ship departed from Kalingrad which is small Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea. The area used to be a closed military zone and today is controlled by military officials. As further background it should be noted that two years ago, Israel and Russia reached an agreement, where by Russia would not sell certain advance anti-aircraft missiles to Iran and Syria– in return for which, Israel would cancel a large arms deal it had with Georgia (Subsequently, Russia and Georgia fought a small war over an breakaway section of Georgia). Despite that agreement it seems a group of Russian military officials, together with members of the Russian mob, arranged to sell some “surplus” Sams to Iran. Thus, the ship that left Konisburg had the arms aboard. The Russian government was made aware of what was happening and responded in total disbelief. When they were given unimpeachable proof they agreed some actions needed to be taken, and in the end, they intervened. Part of the report indicates that Israelis detained the ship until the Russians could be fully brought along. Tonight there are reports that the journalist who broke this story has fled after receiving threatening phone calls.

The second story in the news today is of a Lebanese investment advisor by the name of Isadon. Isadon, a Lebanese Shite who was close to Hezbollah, convinced Nasrallah to let him invest the Billion dollars Hezbollah received from Iran after the Second Lebanon War. Isadon lost at least $700 million of the money. Between this loss and the fact that during the war Israel deliberately and successfully targeted Hezbollah economic targets, Hezbolah is now hurting financially.

The final major story of the day has to do with the improbable report by Israel’s inspector general which has investigated the Pollard case. His report was supposed to be dealing with the Israeli handling of the case, but his report ended up critical of the American judicial process. His claim that Pollard's due process rights were violated by an unprecedented meeting between the then Secretary of Defense Weinberger and the judge in the case before the sentencing. At the meeting, Weinberger called Pollard "one of the most dangerous spies in American history" and urged the judge to "mete out the harshest punishment possible". As a result, the judge threw out the negotiated plea agreement and sentenced Pollard to a life sentence.