IRAN REPORTS

• ActivistChat has a translation of a purported internal VEVAK memo from the office of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei authorizing increased payments to al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. This comes as even the 9/11 commission appears to be able to recognize the connection between al-Qaeda and the Iranian regime.

• Senior IRGC sources are telling al-Sharq al-Awsat that the recent detention of British sailors was in retaliation over the detention of 40 Iranian "volunteers" (the Farsi for which, interestingly enough, is Baseeji) in Iraq.

• Iran is scraping suspected nuclear sites clean in an apparent bid to conceal its nuclear weapons program from IAEA inspectors.

• The US, EU, and the UN have formally rebuked Iran for its decision to resume production of centrifuges. The US believes UN sanctions may be in order.

• On a similar note, here's a nifty satellite photo of the Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz.

• The IRGC covered up a nuclear spill that led to the closure of Khomeini International Airport.

USA HOMELAND SECURITY BRIEFING

• Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi has been arrested in Minnesota. According to the indictment, Elzahabi fought in the Afghan War and was an associate of al-Qaeda leaders Abu Musab Zarqawi, Abu Zubaydah, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as well as Raed Hijazi, a known US-based al-Qaeda operative.

• The Federation of American Scientists has a useful primer up on the threat posed by radiological weapons, better known to the general public as "dirty bombs."

THE WIDER WAR

• Infiltration is on the way back up in the disputed Kashmir region. The violence certainly is.

• Russian forces have engaged a large force of Chechen fighters in the wake of the recent incursions into Ingushetia.

• Arabs were involved in the Ingush violence at the behest of Chechen al-Qaeda leader Shamil Basayev. The corpse count from which now stands at 98 dead, most of them Ingush Muslims.

• The field commanders who masterminded the Ingushetia attacks have been identified as Dooku Umarov and Magomed Yevloyev.

• There has been a second bombing in Istanbul, while the earlier blast in Ankara appears to have been a "work accident" involving members of the Marxist group MLKP-FESK.

• Turkish police have arrested 10 al-Qaeda prior to the beginning of the NATO summit.

• A Spaniard has been arrested for selling al-Qaeda the explosives used in the 3/11 bombings.

• Switzerland has arrested a tenth al-Qaeda suspect in the probe into the network's activities in the country. This comes as we learn that Switzerland served as a logistical base for 9/11.

• Zarqawi's first wife, meanwhile believes he's a good man.

• Jemaah Islamiyyah leader Dr. Azahari is still in Bandung according to Indonesian law enforcement.

• 40 JI members have entered the Philippines and sought refuge with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

• A local Abu Sayyaf leader has been killed in Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines.

• The Algerian GSPC has massacred 5 in its latest attack in Algeria.

• The body count is now at 55 in Yemen's bid to rein in Zaidi Shi'ite radical Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi.

• Bosnia has become a way station for Islamist extremists according to US and European intelligence.

• Taliban gunmen have killed 10 election workers in Uruzgan province.

• We try to end on a lighter note if possible. Kim Jong Il has decided to help the Korean people by teaching them how to make "folk food." He didn't even bother calling it Soylent Green ...