Tonight, al-Jazeera brings us the latest developments from Lybia, where Gaddafi's battalions have bombed central Misurata, killing a number of civilians including four children. Local residents are hoping to set up a floating hospital near the city's port in order to treat the increasing number of wounded. According to an al-Jazeera correspondent, international coalition fighter jets intercepted a Gaddafi warplane carrying soldiers and munitions 60 kilometers east of Benghazi. In Ajdabiya, clashes continue between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi’s battalions. Revolutionaries in the outskirts of Ajdabiya were determined to liberate the city from the Colonel's battalions.

The BBC reports that four people were killed and 12 injured in the shelling of al-Houlu’s family home in eastern Gaza. Three of the four killed were children, and of the injured, four are in critical condition and seven are children. The Israeli air raids came after Hamas fighters launched a number of mortar shells into southern Israel. A BBC correspondent in Gaza said the Israeli air strikes are considered the most violent since the 2009 Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

Dubai TV’s breaking news from Yemen confirms that two Yemeni soldiers were killed last night in clashes that erupted between the army and the Republican Guards near the presidential palace in Mukallah. Meanwhile, protestors continued to stage sit-ins at Sana'a University’s square, the epicenter of protests demanding the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Yemeni army has been heavily deployed around the entrances of the protest square since yesterday. The protest movement has spread to 12 provinces in Yemen and has gained the support of several military commanders and Yemen’s two largest tribes, Hashed and Bakil.

In a report from Bahrain, al-Alam confirms that 20 people have been martyred since the beginning of the country’s protest movement. Opposition sources reported the death of one man from injuries caused by the Saudi Peninsula Shield in the Bahraini capital. Medical sources also confirmed that a woman was shot in the neck by Saudi forces as she was driving her car in the western part of Manama. The opposition called on international organizations to take action to end the violence and demand an immediate withdrawal of Saudi fighters from Bahrain. But with each martyr's funeral, Bahrainis assert they will continue their peaceful movement until their demands are met.

In an interview with Saudi TV, Profesor Hajawida discussed discusses why France and Britain have been at the forefront of military operations in Libya while the U.S. has taken a backseat. He states that while the U.S. wants to take the “humanitarian stance and support the Libyan people’s rights,” the Obama administration has to deal with pressing American issues such as the economy and unemployment. He also added that after the events that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. public opinion might be more opposed to the U.S. assuming a primary role in the military operations in Libya.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, tasked with running Egypt since former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, met today with the new constitutional amendment committee. The Supreme Council has given the committee, headed by Tareq al-Bishry, ten days to complete its task. Meanwhile, protests continue in the streets as the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution call for a civilian interim government to be created by next month.

Iran's ruling government, rocked by protests in the summer of 2009, again faces fierce opposition. Demonstrators in the capital of Tehran clashed with police, leaving one protester dead and nine officers injured. The Iranian parliament has just reconvened, and conservative MP's have come down hard on opposition leaders.

On to Lebanon, where thousands commemorated the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. His son, current Premier Saad al-Hariri, joined the crowd in a Muslim-Christian prayer aimed at attaining peaceful religious coexistence within Lebanon. Al-Hariri is promoting dialogue to strengthen national unity.

Activists in Yemen organized demonstrations in the capital of Sana'a today to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has promised to step down in 2013 when his term expires, and has declared his office is open to Yemeni citizens. Various international human rights organizations have condemned the Saleh government's treatment of protesters.

Bahrain too has been rocked by violence in recent days. One person was killed and 20 hurt yesterday, while security forces killed another protester today. Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, extended his condolences to the families of those killed. Demonstrations were centered on Manama, the capital, but extended into rural areas as well, resulting in the shutdown of most of the country.

Violence continued today between supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and pro-democracy demonstrators. According to BBC Arabic, the army intervened to separate the two sides and the Egyptian government has started a campaign to reassure the demonstrators.

Al Alam, an Arabic language channel out of Iran, reported that attacks on journalists are increasing in Egypt and that several of their reporters have been assaulted. Cameras broadcasting live from Tahrir Square have been targeted as well.

Nile TV, the state-run Arabic channel from Egypt, spoke with new Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman. Suleiman conceded that the protesters' demands are "legitimate" and that they are being reviewed. He also said this was at heart a good youth movement that had been infiltrated by outside special interests.

Al Jazeera's Arabic channel reported clashes outside the Egyptian embassy in Beirut between Lebanese security forces and supporters of the Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrations. Security forces stopped the protesters from storming the embassy.

According to New TV, an Arabic language channel from Lebanon, the Mubarak family's wealth exceeds $50 billion. Reports indicate that he is likely to hold on to that vast personal wealth when he leaves office, regardless of whether it is next week or next fall.

Dubai TV reported rival protests in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, attracted thousands. The opposition protest called for all political parties to participate in a national dialogue. Yemen's president met with the main opposition party two days ago and an agreement may be a possibility.

"The buck stops with me," declared President Obama on Thursday as he spoke about the results of an internal investigation into the failed Christmas Day airline bombing attempt. The president avoided blaming any particular agency or official for the security failures that allowed Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board an American airliner heading from Amsterdam to Detroit wearing explosives in his underpants.

Now, after the fact, this incident has sparked a renewed interest in Yemen, a country I warned about as a "powder keg" back in August, and a slew of new security measures at airports to make our travel experience more miserable than it currently is. Travelers will soon get used to going through full-body scanners, like they have gotten used to taking off their shoes at security checkpoints at airports, ever since Richard Reid, aka the shoe-bomber, tried unsuccessfully to take down another airliner in late 2001. Unfortunately, al-Qaeda and other groups will try to find other methods to bypass the new security measures until they succeed.

Last summer, Abdullah Asieri, one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men, avoided detection by two sets of airport security including metal detectors and palace security, by borrowing a trick from the Columbian cartel. Asieri had a pound of high explosives, plus a detonator inserted in his rectum. His target was Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counter terrorism operations. The bomb was remotely detonated via a cellular phone call, but the Prince miraculously was left lightly wounded. The assassination attempt failed, but al-Qaeda managed to defeat security.

The US security failure is not at airports, but rather with overseas intelligence agencies. The President did not name the agency, but I will: the CIA, which has done a shoddy job of gathering information in Arab and Muslim countries and has relied heavily on information provided by security agencies of corrupt and despotic regimes.

What Americans should be worried about is not the few failed attempts by the likes of Reid or Abdulmutallab, but rather by what happened recently with the suicide bomber, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a medical doctor who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence and then agreed to work for the CIA. He was assigned a Jordanian handler who had a close working relationship with the CIA and was subsequently sent to Afghanistan to help locate top al-Qaeda leaders. In reality, he was also a jihadist sent to infiltrate US intelligence: a "triple agent!"

The reason this succeeded is due to the fact that Afghanistan is an intelligence nightmare, and the CIA does not have enough Arabic or Pashto speakers on the ground. This is also the case in Yemen, Somalia, and Northern Africa, a fact that was confirmed to me by a former CIA employee. Many of he CIA's so-called Middle East specialists lack the language skills needed to analyze the material provided to them and rely on translations, which, as part of my experience producing a news show from the Middle East, I have discovered can be misleading and inaccurate. Many CIA agents are no different than those so-called experts on al-Qaeda that one sees on CNN or FOX news.

This latest infiltration of the CIA is worse than a thousand Abdulmutallabs, and will certainly cause a setback to the agency for years to come, something that the President did not talk about.

Article first published on the Huffington Post

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It's been four months since I described Yemen as a powder keg ready to explode. At the time the entire world was riveted to the television, watching the unfolding events of the "Velvet Revolution" in Iran. The Yemeni keg has since exploded. It is currently on the verge of causing a regional conflict.

For more than a week now, Saudi Arabia has been carrying out military operations on its remote southern border to punish Houthi rebels from neighboring Yemen who crossed over and attacked one of its patrols. Both Yemen and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of arming the rebels.

Accusations and counter accusations have been flying between the two rival regional powers. On Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned that, "those who pour oil on the fire must know that they will not be spared from the smoke that billows".

This is not the first time Saudis and Iranians have faced off in the region. The rivalry between the two countries has been playing its course for years, extending from the Persian Gulf (where the name alone is a point of contention, Saudis refer to it as the Arabian Gulf) into Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. Like the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been supporting their factions in all these countries, either militarily, financially or both.

Both Tehran and Riyadh used Lebanon as their own battlefront to settle scores to the point of almost tipping the country into another civil war less than two years ago. Iran has been accused of pumping millions of dollars into Gaza and supplying Hamas with arms, while Saudi Arabia has been supporting the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Many Iraqi Shiites have accused Saudi Arabia with aiding the Sunni insurgency in the country.

Nowadays, even Hajj (Islamic pilgrimage) is not spared from being a subject of contention between the two rivals. The Saudi government has recently issued a warning against pilgrims staging demonstrations during this year's Hajj, which runs from November 25-29. Although Iran was not specifically mentioned in the Saudi statement, Tehran replied it would take "appropriate measures" if Iranian pilgrims were interfered with in any way. The Islamic Republic of Iran has long complained about mistreatment and harassment of its pilgrims to Mecca by Saudi authorities during the Hajj season.

Like the original Cold War, both countries have launched sophisticated disinformation campaigns against one another. A propaganda war has raged between Iranian and Saudi government controlled media. During the Iranian election, Saudi media and its proxies viciously attacked the Iranian regime, highlighting poll irregularities, and the brutality of the Iranian Basij security forces. The Iranian media has constantly questioned, and on many instances mocked, the House of Saud's role as the custodian of the Holy Islamic sites in the Kingdom.

Last week, without warning, two satellite companies, the Egyptian-owned Nilesat and the Saudi-managed Arabsat pulled the plug on Iran's Arabic-speaking news channel, al-Alam, or the World. Nilesat's executive director, Ahmed Anis, announced that the broadcasting was cut due to contract violations; however, media sources throughout the Middle East suggest that al-Alam's support for the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen have angered Saudi officials, who in turn used their influence to take it of the air.

So far, both countries have shied away from direct military contact. Iran and Saudi Arabia, like the US and the USSR of old, have been competing in a series of peripheral surrogate conflicts. Could their relations be strained enough to lead to direct confrontations? Everything seems to be possible these days in the Middle East.

Original article published on the Huffington Post.

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