Grand Shia Cleric: Libya Liable for Moussa Sadr Abduction

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Top Shia Cleric “Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi” says Tripoli should take responsibility for the abduction of a Lebanese Shia leader, who went missing on Libyan soil more than three decades ago.

Ahlul Bayt News Agency, “If an Israeli soldier hides somewhere, the issue is immediately investigated, but on the abduction of a great character like Imam Moussa al-Sadr there is no action,” Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi said on Thursday.

Speaking to a high-ranking Lebanese delegation on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the abduction of Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the prominent Iranian cleric described the Lebanese leader as an icon who belonged not only to Lebanon but to the whole Muslim community.

Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi hailed Imam Moussa al-Sadr’s contributions to Lebanon, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and all Muslims, and called for more active investigation into his disappearance.

Khalil Hamdan, the head of the Lebanese delegation, thanked Tehran for its continued efforts to discover the fate of the senior Lebanese cleric.

Hamdan further referred to inquiries by the Lebanese judiciary authorities and the Iranian parliament, insisting that the cleric was “alive and held in Libya.”

It is widely believed in Lebanon that Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the founder of the Lebanon’s Amal movement, was kidnapped on the orders of senior Libyan officials while on an official trip to Libya in August 1978.

Accompanied by two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, Sadr was scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2008, the government in Beirut issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr’s disappearance.

Bahrain Shia Party Threatens Election Boycott

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Quraeah, Bahrain – A Shiite Muslim opposition party Wednesday threatened to boycott Bahrain’s parliamentary elections, due in October, unless democratic reforms are introduced.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Ahlul Bayt News Agency, Quraeah, Bahrain – A Shiite Muslim opposition party Wednesday threatened to boycott Bahrain’s parliamentary elections, due in October, unless democratic reforms are introduced.

The Islamic Action Society (Amal) said it wanted to see constitutional reforms aimed at making parliament more independent.

“We not only believe that the current parliament does not create the grounds for participation in shaping the country’s future, but in fact see it as a hindrance to building a democratic state and one that empowers corruption,” Sheikh Mohammed Ali al Mahfood, the secretary general of Amal, told reporters.

The other three opposition groupings, which comprise Shiite Islamists, pan-Arabs, and communists, have confirmed that they will be contesting the elections, which are set for October 23.

PESHAWAR: Suspected militants attacked army buildings near the US consulate in Pakistan's northwestern capital Peshawar on Saturday, police said.

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Police said a number of armed fighters tried to get into a secure area close to the consulate and army buildings early in the morning and that exchanges of fire between the attackers and security forces were continuing.

“There target is not clear but they were trying to reach a very sensitive area. There is the US consulate and army offices and buildings in that area,” Karim Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, told AFP.

“The US consulate is completely safe,” he added.

Richard Snelsire, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, told AFP he had “no information right now” on whether the consulate was the intended target.

Police said the army had sealed off the site of the attack, preventing anyone from entering, while intermittent gunfire continued.

An AFP reporter at the scene said army and police had blocked all the roads into the area while helicopters patrolled the skies.

Bashir Bilour, a provincial cabinet minister whose home is in front of the consulate, said: “The first round of firing continued for 30 minutes. I don’t know what’s going on but the army has sealed off the whole area and firing is still continuing.” “Soldiers have also entered my Hujra (Visitors compound). I cannot go outside,” he added. – AFP

Officials: US drone strike kills 6 Muslims in NW Pakistan

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A US drone fired four missiles on two vehicles in the Shaidano Dand area in Lower Kurram tehsil of the Kurram Agency on Friday night.

The death toll is expected to rise further as more people are trapped under the rubble of a building. “A rescue operation is underway,” a local official told Press TV.

According to local residents, the drones were still carrying out aerial flights over the area, creating panic among local people.

The identities of those killed in the attack were not immediately known. There is darkness in the area and it is very difficult to get information, a local official based in Parachinar, the main town of Kurram Agency, said.

Since August 2008, about one thousand people have died in about 100 raids by US drones.

US drones frequently targeted South and North Waziristan of the Pakistani tribal areas. Pakistan officials, however, believe that militants have shifted from Waziristan and the Orakzai Agency to the Kurram Agency after starting military operations last year.

Castro: Bin Laden is a CIA agent

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Fidel Castro says al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is a CIA agent who always popped up when former president George W Bush needed to scare the world.

‘Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do,’ Castro told state media during a meeting with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. ‘Bush never lacked for bin Laden’s support. He was a subordinate.’

Castro said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org – a website that recently released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war – ‘effectively proved he was a CIA agent’. He did not elaborate.

Castro officially stepped down in February 2008, and Cuba’s National Assembly elected his brother Raul Castro as the new president.

Castro, who turned 84 on August 13, returned to public life on July 7 after four years of convalescence from a serious illness.