Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — An Israeli-linked airstrike in Syria on Sunday is drawing attention to an element of the messy Syrian civil war that the U.S. has tried to downplay: the Obama administration’s failure to check the growing influence of Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, within Syria, as the U.S. and its allies have focused instead on rooting out the Islamic State.

Analysts say the strike could force the U.S. focus away from the fight against the Islamic State, fuel retribution against Israel and bolster tensions with Iran — just as the West tries to achieve a deal on that country’s disputed nuclear program.

Hezbollah said Sunday that the strike in Syria’s Quneitra region, which is near the Israel-controlled Golan Heights, killed six members of the group, including the prominent son of one of Hezbollah’s top leaders. The strike took on even greater importance when Tehran later said it had also killed a top Iranian general.

Iran has long been the chief geopolitical concern of Israel, the major U.S. ally in the region. Tehran is the main backer of both Hezbollah and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Analysts say it has poured resources and fighters into the Syrian conflict to shore up Assad so that it can preserve its weapons supply routes to Hezbollah and retain its ability to threaten Israel. Hezbollah itself fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006, and it continues to threaten the country, most recently when its leader boasted in a Jan. 15 speech about the Iranian missiles his group had amassed.

But the U.S. has not directly confronted Iranian forces, Hezbollah militants or fighters for Assad in Syria. Instead, America and its allies have bombed the Islamic State — the group that both the U.S.-led and Iranian coalitions are opposing. U.S. officials told The Huffington Post in November that a key reason why Washington is loath to condemn the nexus of Iran-supported Shiite power in Syria is because of American interests in Iraq, where Iran and its Shiite militia proxies are influential and could threaten the growing U.S. military presence. The U.S. has also expressed its support for Iranian actions against the Islamic State, and it is keen to avoid antagonizing Iran as America and five other world powers negotiate for a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

But observers of the Syria conflict have warned that the U.S. is ignoring Iran’s power in the country to the detriment of long-term Middle East stability — and the strike suggests Israel is worried enough about Iranian influence that is willing to take its own actions, regardless of the fragile interplay between U.S. and Iranian interests.

Israel has neither officially confirmed nor denied the strike, just as it has not verified previous suspected strikes within Syria. Still, the United Nations said Monday that its observers saw drones crossing from Israel to Syria before the strike and returning, in a violation of the ceasefire between the two counties, and an Israeli security source confirmed the strike anonymously to Al Jazeera. Israeli Defense Minster Moshe Yaalon told Israeli media after the strike that “Hezbollah should explain what it’s doing on Syrian soil.”

Speaking to HuffPost after an Israeli strike in Syria in early December, Brookings Institution fellow Natan Sachs described the growth of Hezbollah’s arsenal within Syria as a major concern for Israel.

“The Israelis have no interest in getting involved in the horrific civil war in this country that’s eating itself alive, [but they have] two red lines: One is the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah and the other is the possibility of extremist jihadis” attacking Israel from within Syria, said Sachs, who works on Israeli foreign policy and U.S.-Israel relations.

Fouad Hamdan, the executive director of the organization Naame Shaam, which tracks Iranian influence within Syria, told HuffPost on Sunday that Israel’s strikes were unlikely to have completely eradicated the risk from weapons transfers to Hezbollah.

“They have such missiles already in Lebanon, and many in Syria,” Hamdan said, citing sources within Syria. By communicating with these sources and monitoring Iranian and Syrian media, Hamdan’s group last year produced a report on Iran’s role in Syria that drew attention in Washington as the U.S. reached a November 2014 deadline for negotiations with Iran on its controversial nuclear program.

“It’s too late, in my opinion,” to check Hezbollah’s arsenal, Hamdan said. He added that he believes Hezbollah-controlled areas in Syria are “full of arms,” including shoulder-held anti-aircraft weapons and Iranian bombs that could be used in suicide attacks against Israeli targets.

Even if the U.S. were to risk Iranian retribution in Iraq and potentially derailing its nuclear negotiations with Tehran to help Israel tackle Hezbollah in Syria, Hamdan added, Hezbollah would still have the capacity to make Israel “really hurt for a couple of days” before being weakened or eliminated.

The State Department did not immediately return a request for comment on the U.S. position on Hezbollah’s activities in Syria or support it may be providing to Israel to combat the threat.

Al Jazeera reported the day after the strike that analysts and citizens in Lebanon were expecting a prompt and likely brutal response from Hezbollah. A Hezbollah member told The New York Times that it appeared that Israel was “trying to modify the rules of engagement, and Hezbollah will never allow that.”

The organization may already have been preparing for an assault on Israel. Unnamed Western intelligence sources told the Israeli outlet Haaretz that the Hezbollah unit targeted Sunday was thought to have been planning such an attack. Retired Israeli Major General Eyal Ben-Reuven suggested in a conference call with reporters that the fact that an important Iranian general was also killed in the strike showed that the group could have been “planning an operation against Israel on a high level.”

Yet some reports say there could be a more cynical reason for the strike: domestic politics in Israel, where an election is set to be held in March.

Sources within Lebanon told international media that regardless of any previous plans for an attack, any Hezbollah retaliation is expected to fall short of a major operation because the group is already stretched thin as it fights the Islamic State, al Qaeda and moderate rebels in Syria.

Israel is suspected to be making that fight more difficult for Hezbollah, Iran and Assad by providing assistance to the Sunni Arab rebels that the Shiite alliance is fighting. A U.N. report released in June described apparent coordination last spring between the Israeli army and rebels in the Golan Heights. Wounded fighters went into Israeli territory and treated fighters returned, the U.N. said.

Syrian activists have claimed that Israel has gone as far as coordinating with the Syrian al Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, which has fought against Assad’s forces alongside more moderate rebel groups in the south.

Israel’s security cabinet will meet Tuesday to discuss how to manage security concerns following the Syria strike, an official told Haaretz.

The outlet also reported that some Israeli army soldiers posted in the country’s north, near Syria, had been forbidden to take leave as tensions rose. The Israeli news channel i24news said forces in the north were on high alert, and that part of the country’s Iron Dome missile defense system had been deployed.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s government said Monday there was no indication that anybody else was involved in the death of a prosecutor who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the nation’s deadliest terror attack, a declaration sure to be closely scrutinized.

Alberto Nisman, who had been investigating the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, was found in the bathroom of his apartment late Sunday, hours before he was to testify in a Congressional hearing about the case. Investigating prosecutor Viviana Fein said the preliminary autopsy found “no intervention” of others in Nisman’s death. However, Fein said she would not rule out the possibility that Nisman was “induced” to suicide because the gun was not his.

“The firearm belonged to a collaborator of Nisman,” Fein told Todo Noticias television channel. “He had had it a long time.”

According to the autopsy, Nisman had a bullet entry-wound on the right side of his head but there was no exit wound. His body was found inside the bathroom and blocking the door, and there were no signs of forced entry or robbery in the apartment, Fein said.

The findings left more questions than answers about the death, which came only five days after Nisman accused Fernandez and other officials of reaching a deal with Iran that shielded some officials from possible punishment for the attack.

Nisman was heavily guarded by police because he had received threats. Late Sunday, the agents protecting him alerted their superiors that he wasn’t answering phone calls, according to the Security Ministry statement. When Nisman’s mother wasn’t able to open the door because a key was in the lock on the other side, a locksmith was called to open it, the ministry said. A .22 caliber handgun and a shell casing were found next to Nisman’s body.

Monday afternoon, the presidency ordered the declassification of the names of the agents that Nisman had demanded as part of his probe, apparently an attempt by the administration to show transparency and avoid any accusations of wrongdoing.

In a letter on her official website, Fernandez lamented Nisman’s death, saying it generated “stupor and questions.” She initially used the word “suicide” in connection with his death but later put a question mark next to the word.

Congresswoman Cornelia Schmidt-Liermann, interviewed before the preliminary autopsy finding, said she had planned to pick Nisman up Monday at his residence and accompany him for his testimony.

“Everybody who had contact with him the last 24 hours says he was confident” about his testimony, she told The Associated Press. “There is no indication, under any circumstances, that he killed himself.”

Schmidt-Liermann said Congress met Monday afternoon despite Nisman’s absence, and many members signed a declaration urging a full investigation into Nisman’s death and insisting that the investigation continue.

Schmidt-Liermann and others who knew Nisman said he lived under constant threats on his life from Iranian agents and pressure from the Argentine government.

Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for Secure and Free Society, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said he was to testify with Nisman on a U.S. Congressional subcommittee in July 2013 but Nisman pulled out at the last minute.

“He pulled out because of threats from the Argentine government” that he would be fired if he testified, said Humire.

Nisman lived in Le Parc tower, a complex of luxury condos in the trendy Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Reporters and others gathered outside Monday were not allowed to enter, the norm in such exclusive complexes, where many residents come and go via underground parking garages.

Nisman was appointed 10 years ago by Fernandez’s late husband, then-President Nestor Kirchner, to revive a floundering investigation into the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires.

A small white van with several hundred pounds of explosives detonated in front of the seven-story building, causing it to collapse in the densely populated area of town.

Argentina has one of the largest concentrations of Jews outside of Israel, with estimates ranging around 200,000, mostly in Buenos Aires.

After years of inconclusive investigations and failed trials, an Argentine judge in 2006 accepted Nisman’s request to order the arrest of a former Iranian president, foreign minister and other officials. Interpol later put most of them on its most-wanted list.

But Argentina and Iran reached agreement in 2013 to jointly investigate the attack, a move viewed with skepticism by Jewish leaders who feared it would undermine Nisman’s probe.

Last week, Nisman accused Fernandez and other senior Argentine officials of agreeing not to punish at least two former Iranian officials in the case. He asked a judge to call Fernandez and others, including Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, for questioning.

“The president and her foreign minister took the criminal decision to fabricate Iran’s innocence to sate Argentina’s commercial, political and geopolitical interests,” Nisman said last week.

On Monday, Timerman said he was sorry to hear of Nisman’s death.

“What can I say?” he said from New York. “I’m simply saddened by the death of a person I knew and I hope that the cause of his death can be quickly determined.”

A federal judge had begun the process of deciding whether to hear the complaint and whether anyone should be summoned for questioning. Administration officials have called the prosecutor’s allegations ludicrous.

Fernandez’s administration’s popularity has waned amid rising inflation and other economic ills and Nisman’s death could further cloud her last year in office.

“It’s impossible that he killed himself,” said Estela Damonte, a 47-year-old museum guide, adding that she had seen Nisman on television last week and it was clear that he believed deeply in his case.

Federico Valdez, who works at an insurance agency, had a different take. “Everything indicates that he killed himself,” said the 62-year-old.

Israel’s foreign ministry expressed “deep sorrow” over Nisman’s death.

“Nisman, a courageous, venerable jurist who fought intrepidly for justice, acted with determination to expose the identities of the terrorists and their dispatchers,” a ministry statement said.

Within hours after news of Nisman’s death spread, a well-known group called “Indignant Argentines” called for demonstrations in several areas of Buenos Aires.

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Prengaman reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Vicente Panetta in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

LAS VEGAS — The emerging age of targeted TV advertising will mean an end to reaching viewers based on the shows they watch and instead usher in individual viewer profiling.

“Advertisers (today) are overwhelmingly buying audience … using content as a proxy for that audience,” according to Adobe Primetime’s principle product evangelist Noah Levine.

“That’s worked beautifully over the decades in the television industry. But, as television shifts to IP-based distribution, we have an opportunity to create revenue efficiencies and optimize the revenue.

“If you have an advertiser that’s targeting a specific demographic and the programmer has a show that has 70% of that demographic, it actually isn’t necessary anymore to show that same ad to all 100% of that audience.”

After acquiring ad decisioning platform Auditude in 2011, Levine says Adobe has turned the service in to “Adobe Primetime Ad Decisioning“, tightly integrating it with Adobe Audience Manager, its data management platform.

He was interviewed for Beet.TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

You can find this post on Beet.TV.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some countries have allowed Muslims to establish autonomous neighborhoods in cities where they govern by a harsh version of Islamic law, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday during a speech in London.

The Republican, who is considering a presidential campaign in 2016, later defended — and repeated — the statement after facing reporters’ questions about his claims. In a speech prepared for delivery at a British think tank, Jindal said some immigrants are seeking “to colonize Western countries, because setting up your own enclave and demanding recognition of a no-go zone are exactly that.” He also said Muslim leaders must condemn the people who commit terrorism in the name of faith as “murderers who are going to hell.”

Jindal aides said he did not make significant changes to the prepared text.

The claims on “no-go zones” are similar to those a Fox News guest made last week about places where non-Muslims were not welcome in parts of the United Kingdom such as Birmingham, and “Muslim religious police” enforce faith-based laws.

Steven Emerson, an American author who often is asked about terror networks, told Fox News that in Britain “there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.”

Prime Minister David Cameron responded by calling Emerson a “complete idiot.”

Emerson later apologized and said his comments “were totally in error.” Fox News also issued apologies for broadcasting the comments.

Jindal, however, used similar rhetoric during a speech, warning of “no-go zones” in London and other Western cities. Jindal’s remarks come in the wake of the massacre by Islamic extremists at a Paris magazine’s offices and subsequent attack on a kosher supermarket in the city. Three gunmen killed 17 people in the attacks.

“I knew that by speaking the truth we were going to make people upset,” Jindal told CNN during an interview from London.

“The huge issue, the big issue in non-assimilation is the fact that you have people that want to come to our country but not adopt our values, not adopt our language and in some cases want to set apart their own enclaves and hold onto their own values,” said Jindal. “I think that’s dangerous.”

Jindal’s parents immigrated to the United States from India. As a young man, Jindal converted from Hinduism to Catholicism.

Asked for evidence of “no-go zones,” Jindal pointed to a weekend article in The Daily Mail, a London tabloid, that said killings, sexual abuse of minors and female genital mutilation are believed to go unreported to local police in some areas. The article did not give specific religious groups or towns.

“The bigger point is that radical Islam is a threat to our way of life,” Jindal said. Asked if he regretted talking about “no-go zones,” Jindal replied: “Not at all.”

Jindal’s advisers see his comments on his trip abroad as much-needed truth-telling about the radical corners of Islam.

Such rhetoric may help his standing among evangelical pastors, who have sway over many voters in early nominating states in the presidential race such as Iowa and South Carolina.

Jindal is set to join pastors and their faithful from across the nation at Louisiana State University this weekend in a day of prayer.

Democrats said Jindal’s comments were a blunder.

“It’s no surprise that Bobby Jindal would go abroad and butcher the facts in an effort to divide people; this is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Jindal here at home,” said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Rebecca Chalif. “Jindal is just embarrassing himself.”

Jindal, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India more than 40 years ago, is in his second term as governor of Louisiana and is barred by law from seeking a third term later this year. The 43-year-old is already laying the groundwork for a presidential bid.

Jindal spoke to the Henry Jackson Society, a British think tank named for a former U.S. Democratic senator from Washington state who was a presidential candidate in the 1970s.

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Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

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