Hamas $540 million budget for 2010, mostly Iranian aid.

$30 million of Hamas funds would be relayed to bolster the Islamic presence in Jerusalem.

The Hamas parliament approved the 2010 budget on Dec. 31, but legislators provided no details. One parliamentarian, Jamal Nasser, said that no more than $60 million of the budget would come from taxes and fees.

“The rest would come from gifts and foreign aid,” Nasser said.

Nasser announced the passage of the Hamas budget on Jan. 2. He did not identify the foreign aid, but Palestinian sources said Iran would be the main donor

via worldtribune.com

Who was it that said that Shi’i and Sunni terrorists didn’t work together?

“Two common assumptions handicap an understanding of terrorist networks. The first is that Shi’i and Sunni groups or governments do not cooperate. Hence, some scholars argue that it is impossible that the Iranian regime could supply arms to the Taliban. In 2007, Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, wrote, “Among the more fantastic charges that Bush made against Iran was that its government was actively arming and helping the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. In fact, the Taliban are extremist Sunnis who hate and have killed large numbers of Shiites. Shiite Iran is unlikely to support them.” The evidence that they have done so, however, is overwhelming as U.S. forces have seized truckloads of Iranian weaponry en route to the Taliban” via meforum.org

oh that’s right… Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan

Jordanian Bomber at CIA base was a double agent

Today’s special: Crispy fried jihadis… via weaselzippers.net

A Jordanian double agent killed seven CIA officers as well as a Jordanian intelligence officer at the U.S. outpost in Khost province, Afghanistan, last week, NBC reports.

The asset, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, was a doctor from the hometown of slain Jordanian Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who had been arrested by Jordanian authorities last year, and they thought, reformed. Al-Balawi reportedly told his Jordanian intelligence handler that he had information he had to give to the CIA related to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born Al Qaeda deputy to Osama bin Laden. via politico.com

In this undated photo provided by Amy Messner, Scott Michael Roberson is seen. Roberson, 39, was working as a security officer for the CIA when the blast on Dec. 30, 2009 rocked the remote outpost in Khost province in Afghanistan, said his sister, Amy Messner of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. (AP Photo/Amy Messner) viakansascity.com

The Jordanian Embassy confirmed this morning that the Jordanian officer reported killed in the Khost attack, Sharif Ali bin Zeid, was a distant relative of King Abdullah II and the Jordanian ambassador to Washington, Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein. The embassy would not confirm that the Jordanian official was an intelligence official. via politico.com

The AP identifies a second of the seven CIA officials killed in the suicide attack as Scott Michael Roberson, 39, said to be working as a security officer for the CIA, and identified to the AP by his sister. Previously the family of Harold E. Brown has identified him as another of the American officials killed in the Khost attack. So far not publicly identified is the Khost CIA base chief, said to be a female veteran clandestine service officer with three children. via politico.com