Headlines:

• US Bankrolled Anti-Morsi Activists
• Syria Chemical Weapons 'Most Worrying Terror Threat to UK'
• Pakistan Quietly Preparing for Civil War in Afghanistan
• China has World's Most Active Missile Programs, US says

Details:

US Bankrolled Anti-Morsi Activists:

President Barack Obama recently stated the United States was not taking sides as Egypt's crisis came to a head with the military overthrow of the democratically elected president. But a review of dozens of US federal government documents shows Washington has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for toppling of the country's now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi. Documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley show the US channeled funding through a State Department programme to promote democracy in the Middle East region. This programme vigorously supported activists and politicians who have fomented unrest in Egypt, after autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February 2011. The State Department's programme, dubbed by US officials as a "democracy assistance" initiative, is part of a wider Obama administration effort to try to stop the retreat of pro-Washington secularists, and to win back influence in Arab Spring countries that saw the rise of Islamists, who largely oppose US interests in the Middle East. A main conduit for channeling the State Department's democracy funds to Egypt has been the National Endowment for Democracy. Federal documents show NED, which in 2011 was authorised an annual budget of $118m by Congress, funneled at least $120,000 over several years to an exiled Egyptian police officer who has for years incited violence in his native country.  This appears to be in direct contradiction to its Congressional mandate, which clearly states NED is to engage only in "peaceful" political change overseas. Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman - who served in Egypt's elite investigative police unit, notorious for human rights abuses - began receiving NED funds in 2008 for at least four years. In an interview with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, Soliman reluctantly admitted he received US government funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, but complained it wasn't enough. "It is like $2000 or $2,500 a month," he said. "Do you think this is too much? Obama wants to give us peanuts. We will not accept that." On a YouTube video, Soliman took credit for a failed attempt in December to storm the Egyptian presidential palace with handguns and Molotov cocktails to oust Morsi. "We know he gets support from some groups in the US, but we do not know he is getting support from the US government. This would be news to us," said an Egyptian embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. [Source:  Aljazeera]

Syria Chemical Weapons 'Most Worrying Terror Threat to UK':

Al-Qaeda could gain access to Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons with "catastrophic" consequences, a UK parliamentary committee has warned. The Intelligence and Security Committee's annual report said spy chiefs considered this UK's "the most worrying emerging terrorist threat". They also had no doubt that "vast stockpiles" of chemical weapons had been amassed in Syria, the ISC said. Al-Qaeda and "individual jihadists" were both seen as threats, it added. "There is a risk of extremist elements in Syria taking advantage of the permissive environment to develop external attack plans, including against Western targets," the ISC, which oversees the work of the intelligence agencies, said in its annual report. Protests in Syria, inspired by the Arab Spring which saw changes of government in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, were brutally suppressed by security forces in 2011. The stand-off has since escalated into a civil war which has claimed tens of thousands of lives so far, according to UN estimates. [Source: BBC]

Pakistan Quietly Preparing for Civil War in Afghanistan:

Recognising the realities on the ground leading to fast changing events inside Afghanistan, with no one having a clue to what might happen subsequently after NATO withdraws next year, Pakistan is focusing on how to ‘secure' its own territory, as it does not rule out a ‘civil war' once again. It appears to be ready to face a blowback this time around. It is for this reason that it realises that it is imperative to focus on a ‘contingency plan' and avoid a situation where its own fragile internal security receives a further jolt from its western borders. "It is difficult to understand and uncertainties surround us -- but if nothing moves we are heading towards a civil war (inside Afghanistan) which we want to avoid. Specially, if all reconciliation efforts do not succeed then there is likelihood of civil war. Then there will be a spill over into Pakistan and this will create its own problems, especially from the Pakistan Taliban", said diplomatic sources in a meeting with the media here. It is for this reason, said one of them, that this contingency plan has to ensure a scenario, which ensures that Pakistan's own territory is well protected. As prices of property keep rising in areas outside Peshawar in anticipation of what comes next from across the Durrand Line, at this point the diplomat said the government could not contemplate the number of Afghan refugees that could flow in if there is a civil war. However, there appeared some room for optimism, the diplomat said even though the Afghan Taliban have closed their Qatar office temporarily to protest demands that they remove a sign which said that the Qatar office was that of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. "This could just be a ‘tactical' move by the Afghan Taliban to get noticed. The situation was mishandled in Qatar. However, talks can still be held in places other than the Qatar office, and also talks with the Northern Alliance can be held separately", added the diplomat. Another ‘tactical' move that Pakistan points out is when out of sheer frustration with Hamid Karzai, Obama has threatened considering speeding up the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, ensuring that there would be none left after 2014. Pakistan is also getting a sense that some Taliban groups are getting tired of the war and efforts should be made to get other such like-minded groups to support them. "Otherwise the hardliners will take over," he said. His comments came at a time when the Pakistani Taliban announced the dismissal of its spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, signaling a further split amongst the militants.[Source: News International]

China Has World's Most Active Missile Programs, US Says:

China's military has the world's "most active and diverse ballistic missile program," with an expanding inventory of nuclear warheads that can reach the US, according to a Pentagon intelligence report. The arsenal includes a new submarine-launched JL-2 ballistic missile that will for the first time let Chinese submarines target parts of the U.S. from near China's coast, the National Air and Space Intelligence Center said in a new assessment obtained by Bloomberg News. China is boosting its missile program under a broader military modernization plan that's seen the country's defense spending more than double since 2006. China's neighbors including Japan and the Philippines have expressed concern that its government is becoming more aggressive in the region, as the U.S. also puts new emphasis on forces in the Asia-Pacific. Some of China's weapons are "specifically designed to prevent adversary military forces' access to regional conflicts," the report said. It's an update to one released in 2009. China is developing and testing new missiles, upgrading older systems, forming new missile units and working on ways to counter missile defenses, the report said. The number of Chinese nuclear warheads capable of hitting the U.S. "could expand to well over 100 within the next 15 years," it said. [Source: Bloomberg]

Abu Hashim