August 14, 2003

Israel is planning a $750 million purchase of 500 American-made wheeled Stryker LAV-3 armored personnel carriers (APCs) to replace old tracked M-113 APCs. The new wheeled vehicles will have greater mobility and allow infantry forces to keep up with faster tanks and also enter narrow alleyways of Gaza and the West Bank. 12:09:45 PM

It doesn’t help much to be a Canadian if you visit an Arab country and run a foul of their "justice systems". The Jerusalem Report states that a Beirut military tribunal has postponed to August 20 the trial of Canadian missionary Bruce Balfour charged with spying for Israel. Balfour’s colleague Grant Livingstone, an evangelist pastor who is also charged denies the charges saying they were in Lebanon to plant trees and never entered southern Lebanon where the Hizbullah terror group against whom they are charged with spying are based. Some Canadian Lebanese non-governmental organizations suggest that ""Balfour's [arrest] is a payback to Canada for having banned the terrorist organization Hizbullah last year." In responding to the arrest Livingstone noted Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi's death in Teheran police custody on July 10. Livingstone asked why "Canada should not make as much a fuss for a living person as for a dead?" Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi's death in Teheran police custody on July 10, Livingstone asked why "Canada should not make as much a fuss for a living person as for a dead?" Meanwhile a debate between various government officials rages over whether or not Canadian William Sampson was tortured while he was imprisoned under a death sentence for 31 months in a Saudi jail for taking part in a bombing – which in fact was most likely the work of al-Qaeda. 12:02:15 PM