The first reconstruction of the massive explosion which killed former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut five years ago was conducted at the Captieux military base in France Tuesday, Oct. 19 in the presence of international explosives experts. It was set up by the Office of Danielle Bellemare, Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in line with its mandate to "identify and prosecute those responsible for the attack." This re-enactment takes the inquiry a large step forward.

Despite Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's efforts to ham up his groundbreaking visit to Lebanon last week, debkafile's military sources quote Western and Arab observers as summing it up as a dud.  The Lebanese president and chief of staff spoiled his plan for a grand display of hostile power on the border opposite Israel on Thursday, Oct. 10. The visitor had to submit to being escorted by Lebanese troops instead of Hizballah gunmen. Hizballah's Hassan Nasrallah kept to his bunker.  

While raising Cain about Israeli settlement construction, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is seriously weighing a secret plan for bringing a fresh influx of Hamas fighting and intelligence forces into the West Bank at points opposite Israel in a bid to patch up their feud, debkafile's sources report. Israel warns that this plan would bring IDF troops back into the West Bank towns turned over to the Palestinians and restore the dozens of dismantled roadblocks.

Russia appears ready to sell Venezuela the same five S-300PMU-1 air defense missile battalions it withheld from Iran because of international sanctions. debkafile's sources report Venezuela's ruler Hugo Chavez offered to buy them when he met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow Thursday, Oct. 14.  Israel turned to Washington to try and block the transaction for its original client, Iran, to get hold of the sophisticated interceptors through its good friend Chavez.

Saturday, Oct. 16, apparently out of the blue, the powers-that-be in Washington leaked the five-year old suggestion by David Coleman Headley's wife that her Chicago-based husband, a key figure in the planning and preparation of the terrorist plot that killed 174 people in Mumbai, was also a paid US informant while training in Pakistani terrorist camps. debkafile's counter-terror sources offer two possible explanations for the timing of this leak now.

A top-secret Iranian military installation was struck by a triple blast Tues. Oct. 12 the day before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad landed in Lebanon. debkafile's sources report the site held most of the Shehab-3 medium-range missile launchers stocked for striking US forces in Iraq and Israel - some set to deliver triple warheads (tri-conic nosecones). The underground bunkers housing the launchers at the Revolutionary Guards Imam Ali mountain base in Lorestan were built to defy sabotage.

China has decided to throw its military support behind Iran and the radical Middle East camp it leads including Syria and Turkey. Beiijng likes the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's plan for reviving the Non-Aligned Movement established in the 1950s.

The Israeli and Greek Air Forces embarked Monday, Oct. 11, on a joint four-day exercise code-named Minoas 2010 over Crete and the Peloponnese Peninsula, debkafile's military sources report. Both areas are characterized by long coastal strips and high mountain peaks extending into the sea, similar to some Iranian shores. Taking part are 16 Apache and Black Hawk UH-60 assault helicopters - eight Israeli and eight Greek. The Israeli choppers were refueled in mid-flight to Greece.

Senior US diplomat Frederic Hof landed in Damascus Friday Oct. 8, with a strong ultimatum from US President Barack Obama warning Syrian President Bashar Assad that he would be held personally responsible for any military action Hizballah may pursue in Beirut or any other part of Lebanon. Such action would have consequences for the Syrian ruler's standing in Washington and that of his country. This is revealed by debkafile's sources in Washington and Beirut.

France's high level of preparedness for terror since Sept. 16 was quietly expanded this week to big international air and railway hubs in Europe following intelligence that North African al Qaeda had sent Algerian women on suicide missions.
French police and security commander Frederic Pechenard told the nation in a broadcast Wednesday: "We have serious evidence coming in from reliable intelligence sources telling us of a risk of a major attack."