British investigators hunted on Saturday for the suspected al Qaeda bombers who killed more than 50 people on London underground trains and a bus as an Islamist group made a new claim of responsibility for the attacks. Flowers, notes and appeals for information about missing relatives were piled outside King's Cross station, where bodies were still trapped deep underground. More than 25 people, of many nationalities and religions, were still unaccounted for. "Barbarism will never kill freedom," read one note in French. "Madrid is with London," said another.
Police said 49 people were confirmed dead, but emergency staff were still trying to retrieve bodies in one of the subway system's deepest tunnels two days after the blasts. British leaders have vowed defiance, and the stoicism of Londoners has been widely praised since the attacks, awakening memories of the capital's resilience during World War II as the country prepared to mark the 60th anniversary of the war's end. "This type of terrorism has very deep roots ... it is only when you start to pull it up by the roots that you will deal with it," Prime Minister Tony Blair told BBC radio. "Our revulsion at terrorism is not just a revulsion at the loss of life and innocent bloodshed. It is also a revulsion at trying to create change by these barbaric methods of violence and we will resist that and we are resisting that."
The government says the attacks bear the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's Islamic militant al Qaeda network, which was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. A group claiming links to al Qaeda called the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades said on Saturday it was behind the blasts and suggested it could strike again. It was the third such claim by an Islamist group since the blasts. "We will not rest until security becomes a reality in the land of Islam and Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine," it said in an Internet statement.
The group, whose links to al Qaeda are unclear, has claimed authorship of previous attacks in Turkey and Spain. But intelligence sources have treated its statements skeptically, seeing it as an opportunistic group trying to associate itself to the al Qaeda 'brand'. Two other groups had already claimed responsibility for the London attacks, saying the blasts were punishment for Britain's involvement in Iraq and other U.S. allies could be next.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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The ideological soil in which alQaeda, and the many groups using its brand name, grow was described by one of its original masterminds, the Pakistani Abul-Ala al-Maudoodi more than 40 years ago.
But what if non-Muslims refuse to take the right path? Here answers diverge. Some believe that the answer is dialogue and argument until followers of the âabrogated faithsâ recognise their error and agree to be saved by converting to Islam. This is the view of most of the imams preaching in the mosques in the West. But others, including Osama bin Laden, a disciple of al-Maudoodi, believe that the Western-dominated world is too mired in corruption to hear any argument, and must be shocked into conversion through spectacular ghazavat (raids) of the kind we saw in New York and Washington in 2001, in Madrid last year, and now in London.
Posted by: john ||
07/08/2005 17:00 ||
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a fine article by Amir Taheri
Posted by: john ||
07/08/2005 18:10 Comments ||
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George Galloway, the British Member of Parliament who's been accused of taking money from Saddam Hussein's regime, says British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to blame for Thursday's attacks in London, insisting Londoners have now "paid the price" for his decisions to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. Galloway says, "The loss of innocent lives ... is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years. ... We argued ... that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically ... the government ignor[ed] such warnings."
#1
Like I asked yesterday. Is there an evil alien parasite controlling Galloway's brain, and when Galloway passes on to the firey regions, the alien parasite will crawl out of hios ear, climb on a UFO, and fly back to the "home planet" or the main Mullah Palace in Iran, which ever is closer...
A PREVIOUSLY unknown al-Qaeda group yesterday claimed it had carried out the London bombings, as a huge police and intelligence operation got under way to catch those responsible.
Forensic teams were looking for any trace of the explosives used in the attacks, which could provide clues. Hours of CCTV footage was also being studied.
Thousands of police officers and intelligence experts will be involved in the hunt for the perpetrators - 252 specialist officers from the Metropolitan and City of London police forces on duty at the Gleneagles Hotel summit were flown home yesterday to aid the investigation.
As the hunt for the bombers began, an Islamic website called al-Qal'ah - Fortress - published a claim of responsibility signed by "the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe".
Experts in terrorism, while cautioning that the website had carried both reliable and unreliable information in the past, said it appeared to be credible.
The statement claimed that Britain was "burning with fear and terror" and said the attacks were vengeance for the deployment of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An Arab dissident, who has been accused by the security services of having links to al-Qaeda, told The Scotsman that the bombings were a continuation of Osama bin Laden's strategy to split Europe from the United States, and yesterday's statement on the al-Qal'ah website continued this theme.
It said: "Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The heroic mujahideen carried out a blessed attack in London, and now Britain is burning with fear and terror, from north to south, east to west."
The Arab dissident said: "Remember bin Laden's truce offer? My theory was that he was aware that the Europeans wouldn't accept the truce immediately, but when there's a second attack, they'll say 'al-Qaeda can never be eradicated'.
"They'll say: 'Why are we staying with America when it is doing all these atrocities? We should abandon support of America and stay safe and prosperous'."
Bin Laden, in a "reconciliation initiative" delivered in an April 2004 audiotape, offered to cease targeting European countries if they withdrew their troops from Muslim lands and broke from the "US conspiracy on the greater Muslim world". The offer met with unanimous rejection.
Professor Paul Wilkinson, of St Andrews University, one of the world's leading terrorism experts, said the language of the internet message was "perfectly in tune with current ideology and terminology".
"It's quite frequent that they adopt some new, very grandiose title. The message itself seems to indicate an authentic group, whatever it calls itself," he said.
He added: "This appears to be a network undoubtedly inspired by al-Qaeda and using the same sort of tactics: co- ordinated attacks on the transport system at the height of the rush hour, with hundreds of civilians to attack; a soft target.
"They have no remorse about that kind of attack. This is the typical kind of attack they would launch. The choice of the first day of G8 is significant. From previous attacks we have become aware they are following current events."
Despite the name of their organisation, the terrorists behind the attack may not actually be part of a large group, according to Professor Chris Bellamy, the director of the Security Studies Institute at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire.
He said: "The fact it avoided detection suggests it would be a small, secretive group. To plant a number of explosive devices in Tube trains and buses would not require a huge amount of people, and nor would it cost a huge amount of money. To keep a few people in London, rent a house and maybe a garage somewhere to make the bombs - you may not be talking more than £30,000."
Prof Bellamy continued: "But I don't think these people were amateurs. The people who set these bombs off had a fair idea what they were doing, although anybody who has got the same level of training as a soldier in an engineers' regiment could do it - it's not that difficult."
However, it is also possible that yesterday's attack was carried out by European-based organisations, such as the Dutch Hofstad group, which was blamed for the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh and of plots to kill other politicians, or the remnants of the Bosnian Mujahideen Brigade, which has been linked to bombings in France. Al-Qaeda groups in Spain and Morocco could also be to blame.
One of the police's first priorities will be to pore over hours of footage from CCTV cameras at the Tube stations and on the trains involved, as well as street cameras, to look for anyone acting suspiciously, as well as known and suspected terrorists.
The other main strand of the investigation is a forensic operation which began almost immediately, with specialist police officers carrying out searches of the bomb sites for clues as to the explosives used.
Each explosive has a unique chemical fingerprint which reveals where it was manufactured.
Within hours of the attacks, police began to search every bus and Tube train for other devices which had failed to go off - to safeguard the public but also for such highly valuable evidence.
A security insider said: "Forensic management is absolutely crucial, and this is where the UK is a step ahead of the rest of the world because of the IRA experience.
"Forensic scientists will be taking every little item of debris and analysing it in laboratories to see what they can find out about the source."
He added: "Each explosive has a 'fingerprint' and they will be studying that and cross-referring it against other explosives used in previous bombings, such as Madrid.
"If it is Semtex, you can tell where it was made, which batch it came from. Manufacturers have put these fingerprints into the explosives, under pressure from governments.
"Police will be working with Europol to see if they get a profile of the specific device, where it came from and who has used similar ones in the past."
Clive Fairweather, a former SAS colonel, said: "MI5 will be poring over every piece of intelligence about terrorist suspects and activities in the country.
"MI6 will be analysing the overseas net to find out what is going on, and GCHQ, the eavesdropping centre at Cheltenham, will be going through recent 'noise' on the intelligence wires for any signals."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/08/2005 02:19 ||
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Forensic teams were looking for any trace of the explosives used in the attacks, which could provide clues. Hours of CCTV footage was also being studied.
As a side note, It'll be interesting to find out if those ubiquitous cameras all over the UK will prove to have been of some value in determining the identities of the guilty parties.
If Al Qaeda or its allies carried out the bombings in London, as many investigators suspect, Islamic extremists would have succeeded in striking their top European target as terrorist networks are gaining combat experience and inspiration from the conflict in Iraq, officials said Thursday.
Experts said the attacks bore many signatures of the fragmented but virulent networks that have operational or ideological ties to Osama bin Laden's organization: multiple targets, near-simultaneity, significant civilian casualties and political timing.
But the lack of details about the blasts prompted debate among experts about whether the plot was the work of a longtime cell based in Britain, recently arrived operatives from Iraq, or a combination of the two.
The bombs went off as President Bush sat down with Prime Minister Tony Blair and other world leaders at the Group of 8 summit in Scotland, a day after London was chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The timing recalled the car bombings against British targets in Istanbul in 2003 as Bush met with Blair in London, as well as last year's bombings of commuter trains in Madrid that killed 191 people three days before Spanish national elections.
Like Spain at the time of the Madrid bombings, Britain is a staunch ally in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Britain had repeatedly been threatened by Al Qaeda, leading security chiefs to say an attack was inevitable.
Experts said Britain's role in Iraq probably served as a strong motivation for the bombers, citing a message posted on a website declaring that Britain had paid the price for its presence there and that other members of the coalition faced the same fate.
Some investigators suspect the plot involved Islamic extremists from Europe who went to Iraq, gained combat experience and ideological fervor , then returned to wage their holy war.
Before Thursday's attacks, investigators say, they had been concerned by the increasing presence in Europe of veterans of the Iraq conflict. During the last six months, Western intelligence reports described a "redeployment" onto the continent of operatives of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the suspected leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The operatives were thought to be planning attacks, a senior European police official said.
A senior U.S. intelligence official cited indications that Zarqawi had moved to reestablish his network in Europe, where it had already been linked to past plots in Britain, France and Germany. In February, U.S. intelligence officials said they had intercepted a message from Bin Laden to Zarqawi, urging him to expand his focus beyond the Iraq insurgency. Bin Laden instructed Zarqawi to consider mounting attacks on targets in the United States.
"We know Zarqawi has in fact renewed efforts to try to expand his reach outside the Iraqi theater, to include the European homeland," the senior intelligence official said.
He also described intelligence about Al Qaeda's aspirations to carry out new attacks in Europe. Although the official said nothing was known about the ethnicity or citizenship of the plotters, he noted that the name of the group claiming responsibility for the London attacks, the Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe, was similar to the name of the group in Iraq.
A British law enforcement official said Britain's counter-terrorism agencies, which have been effective at infiltrating Islamic extremist groups at home, would find it more difficult to detect foreign fighters back from Iraq.
"I think it's more likely to be returnees, perhaps people connected to the Zarqawi group," said the British official, who requested anonymity. "It doesn't feel like home-grown. Because we have got a pretty good feel for what's going on among the groups in Britain. We have got good contacts in the Muslim community, and you would have thought at some point someone would have detected something. Unless it was a group that completely slipped in under the wire."
But some investigators and experts favored another scenario involving local plotters. A British anti-terrorism official said returning fighters appear less well-organized and cohesive than networks that have developed in Britain.
"If we are talking about returning jihadis from Iraq, our knowledge of them and how they are structured does not necessarily fit with this operation," the official said.
Experts said the bombings of a major transportation system required an extensive support network in Britain, which, unlike neighboring countries, still screens travelers from Western Europe at its borders, making it more difficult for would-be terrorists to slip into the country.
"My point of view is that it was not returnees from Iraq," said Stefano Dambruoso, Italy's judicial attache in Vienna and a veteran anti-terrorism prosecutor. "There was this desire to attack in London for a long time. It was just a question of time. When Al Qaeda says they are going to do something, eventually they do it."
Experts say Bin Laden's battered organization has evolved into a constellation of networks connected to the core command structure sometimes more by ideology than clandestine messengers or Internet communications. Partly because Al Qaeda's senior leadership has been degraded â with Bin Laden and his senior deputies believed to be hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border â U.S. officials said the London bombings were probably not planned or controlled by the group's leadership.
U.S. intelligence officials and counter-terrorism experts said Thursday's violence demonstrated that terrorists remain capable of unleashing devastation nearly four years after Sept. 11, even in a country where security forces are vigilant and skilled.
Global surveillance did not detect any spike in communications, or "chatter," among suspected extremists before Thursday's attacks, U.S. officials said. Similarly, last year there was no increase in chatter hinting at the Madrid attacks, Spanish officials said.
On a day when Al Qaeda also claimed to have killed an Egyptian diplomat in Iraq, some counter-terrorism experts in the United States called for a reassessment of the progress against the network.
"I think we vastly overestimate the damage we have done to Al Qaeda," said Michael Scheuer, a former senior counter-terrorism official at the CIA and a critic of Bush administration policy.
Dozens of Al Qaeda operatives have been killed or captured in the last four years, Scheuer said, but the network has survived by becoming increasingly decentralized and adopting new modes of communication.
Moreover, militants linked to Al Qaeda pulled off their first strikes ever in Western Europe last year with the Madrid bombings and November's assassination of a Dutch filmmaker.
Many of the suspects in those cases were known to police as Islamic radicals and were under surveillance at the time of the attacks.
Officials say those cases revealed the rise in Europe of a new generation of young, inexperienced terrorists of predominantly Moroccan origin. Anger and propaganda about the Iraq conflict tended to drive their fanaticism, and few attended the clandestine training camps like those that produced thousands of religious warriors in Afghanistan until late 2001.
The Madrid bombings resemble the London subway attacks in that the Spanish suspects used explosives detonated by remote control on commuter trains. The evidence suggests the Madrid attacks were an essentially local plot inspired by Al Qaeda that may also have received technical expertise and limited direction from veteran militants, particularly operatives tied to the Zarqawi network operating in and around Iraq.
Some of the alleged ringleaders played a role in recruiting and dispatching aspiring holy warriors from Europe to Iraq, which may also have been at play in Thursday's attacks.
Police in Britain have disrupted several plots that illustrate the multiethnic membership of extremist organizations which have made London their base since the 1990s. London mosques have served as the headquarters of leaders of Egyptian, North African, Persian Gulf and Pakistani movements.
London was the longtime home of cleric Abu Qatada, accused by Western security officials of acting as a top Al Qaeda ideologue who inspired Zarqawi and others.
A group of Britons of Pakistani descent were arrested last year for possessing explosives for alleged plots against civilians in shopping malls and other public places. In 2002, British police investigated intelligence reports that extremists planned to bomb above-ground subway stations with vehicles packed with gasoline containers, but they were unable to substantiate the tips, according to the British law enforcement official. British authorities have disrupted 20 plots in the last three years, experts said.
The London attacks required long-term planning, said Charles Heyman, a senior defense analyst at Jane's Defense Consultancy, who talked with security officials in London after the attacks.
"We suspect there's quite a bit of a home-grown element to this," Heyman said. "The logistics, the planning, the reconnaissance â the reconnaissance is absolutely vital in any operation like this. They may spend months until they actually get it right.... Somebody worked very hard at this one. It's very, very well-planned."
The plot also suggests the involvement of a large number of people, experts said.
"If we assume there were four bombs involved, you're not talking about someone who just planted it, you're talking about people who constructed the device, selected the target, briefed the bombers and coordinated the operation, and you've got to take into account that they were given some kind of safe housing while they were in London â they may still be in London," said Paul Wilkinson, an international relations professor at St. Andrews University, who chairs the advisory board for the school's Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence.
Wilkinson and other experts speculated that the attacks might have combined a local infrastructure with leaders or skilled operatives from outside Britain.
If networks involved in the Iraq violence played a role, that would be the worst-case scenario feared by Europe's anti-terrorism services since the conflict in Iraq began attracting holy warriors from Europe. Extremists from Britain, France and other countries have died in suicide attacks in Iraq.
Over the last year, authorities have detected an increasing presence of insurgents back from the fighting in Iraq. The Dutch alone have identified "dozens" of such former combatants, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
Iraq could replace Russia's Chechnya republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan as the breeding ground for terrorists who could unleash their new experience, skills and fervor on the West, European officials say. The CIA issued a classified report in May warning that Iraq had become a more effective training ground than Afghanistan for terrorists, and that the threat would spread as foreign fighters left Iraq and returned to their home countries or migrated elsewhere.
Muslims flocking to Iraq from other countries are getting firsthand exposure to "a broad range of terrorist activity, everything from assassinations, kidnappings, bombings to attacks with conventional weapons," said a U.S. intelligence official who described the contents of the classified report on condition of anonymity.
In contrast to the rustic training camps of Afghanistan, Iraq insurgents learn to operate and evade detection in an urban environment, the official said.
Iraq is breeding "a generation of people who have the potential to be the leadership of Islamic extremism for some time to come," the intelligence official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/08/2005 02:13 ||
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Security experts have contended for many years that the UK is a safe haven for radical Islamic terror networks, which exploit British freedoms to further their goals. Among the factors contributing to the ease with which these groups operate is the UKâs liberal immigration policy, the many flaws in the border control system, and freedom from the obligation to carry identity cards. Britain has in the past meticulously upheld the rights of the individual, including the right of radical individuals to orchestrate the eradication of the rights of their opponents. Such individuals are protected from prosecution in their countries of origin by British legislation that inhibits the extradition of suspects. At the same time, prosecution in the UK, with its large and influential Muslim community, is fraught with risks of internal strife, or accusation of racism.
As a rule, Western security services have been inadequately equipped to expose and thwart Islamist terrorist activity. This often stems from a lack of familiarity with the ideology and thought processes of the Islamist groups, and their means for translating their beliefs into actions. Intelligence gathering is difficult where such groups are concerned, as they tend to operate in small cells whose members are well known to one another.
It has never been much of a secret that an extensive radical Islamic infrastructure was operating on a large scale in the UK; Islamic charity funds, bank accounts, Islamic web sites, and newspapers in Arabic all serve as legitimate and legal platforms for illegal activities and incitement.
Of the 21 organizations outlawed in Britain since February 2002, 16 are Muslim. In the past, these groups have used London as a headquarters for recruitment and fund-raising only, and for all their fiery rhetoric against the West, they have been scrupulous in not actually targeting British interests on British soil. However, as Britain has come to be seen as the primary ally of the United States in its war on terrorism, radicals have been increasingly open in their intention to attack local targets.
While London has been a center for Islamic extremism for years, it was only after the September 11 attacks in the United States that the activities of militant Islamists began to be taken seriously by British security services. In the past, it was common practices for MI5 and Special Branch to keep a close watch on their activities, but not to interfere in any way. The firebrand clerics who preached jihad and hatred of the West were dismissed as âarmchair warriorsâ by British intelligence and security services.
Nor was the British legal system equipped to deal with British citizens whose only offense was the support of violence in other countries. Under human rights laws, British courts would not allow dissidents who had sought sanctuary to be repatriated to countries that might kill them.
The United Kingdomâs generous asylum laws were often exploited by radicals who fled their homelands to settle in London. These radicals and their supporters raise funds and preach their causes from Islamic centers, mosques, and nondescript offices across the country. The literature of all brands of Islamic political thought is printed, distributed, and read throughout London. Much of it is given out on Fridays at the 100 or more mosques in the city. In some areas of London, videotaped sermons are on sale calling for the killing of all infidels and Jews; leaflets are distributed on street corners urging Muslims to travel to various hotspots around the world to wage Jihad; while radical preachers incite the faithful to take up arms against the âCrusaders and the Jews.â
Militant groups from Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria and Turkey all raise funds, forge links and disseminate propaganda in the UK. British laxity in pursuing those known to be inciting violence elsewhere enraged the French and Algerian authorities, who coined the term âLondonistanâ to refer to a city which harbored known terrorists, allowed the dissemination of their propaganda and the recruitment of zealous new âholy warriors.â Britain is routinely asked by countries such as Sri Lanka and India to help cut off the millions of pounds raised annually from sympathetic migrant communities in the UK and laundered through London financial institutions.
After the attacks of 11th September 2001, Great Britain began to come to terms with the fact that its legal network was outdated and unable to meet the emerging threat. In February 2001, 21 international terror organizations were declared illegal in England, most of them Islamist. New legislation was put into effect enabling the authorities to place suspects under unlimited administrative detention, and banks were empowered to freeze assets and bank accounts of individuals and organizations suspected of involvement in terrorism.
* Al-Muhajiroun, a virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic radical group headed by Egyptian dissident Omar Bakri Muhamad. Al-Muhajiroun openly calls for the murder of Jews and the institution of a worldwide Islamic religious regime by violent Jihad. After the atrocities in the US he was among the first to praise the attack publicly.
* The Supporters of Shariaâa, based in North London, and headed by Egyptian Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri. Abu Hamza was until recently the Imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque, which under his leadership became a center for the recruitment to Jihad of young British Muslims.
Britain has often served as a base for recruitment of would-be Jihadis, who are then sent to other counties to operate terror cells as part of a network of hard-core radical Islamic activists.
In May 2003, two British citizens carried out a suicide attack on behalf of the Palestinian Hamas organization, targeting a popular jazz-pub in Tel-Aviv. Assif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Han Sharif were indicative of the use made of the Jihad recruitment centers in London, which have supplied fighters for Islamist struggles worldwide, from Chechnya to Afghanistan. Shiekh Omar Bakri-Mohammend said that the Islamic Front recruited volunteers in Britain and sent them to Jordan, where they awaited opportunities to infiltrate into the West Bank and join the uprising against Israel.
Abu Hamza Al-Masri is wanted in Yemen for his involvement in dispatching eight British Moslems to perpetrate terror attacks against Western targets in Yemen. So far, the UK has refused all requests from the Yemeni government for al-Masriâs extradition.
After Abu Hamza, welcomed the massacre of 58 European tourists at Luxor in October 1997, Egypt denounced Britain as a hotbed for radicals. The Egyptian State Information Service posted a âCall to Combat Terrorismâ on its official web site. Of its 14 most wanted terrorists, seven were based in Britain. Foremost amongst them was Yasser al-Sirri, sentenced to death in absentia for plotting the failed assassination of an Egyptian prime minister, who headed the Islamic Observation Centre in London, a mouthpiece for Egyptian rebels, and for al-Qaida.
The Algerian and French intelligence services were particularly concerned that Abu Hamzaâs Finsbury Park mosque was becoming a focal point for Algerian exiles, many of whom remained politically active. Agents who infiltrated the mosque claimed they had evidence of criminal and terrorist activity in addition to the volatile preaching of the imam. One source close to the French investigation said that before the events of September 11 noted that âBritain actedâand, to some extent, may still actâas a kind of filter for parts of al-Qaida,â adding that âthe main European centers for spiritual indoctrination were London and Leicester.â
Plots believed linked to British Islamic groups include:
* A plan to bomb the US embassy in Tirana, Albania. Documents prepared for the trial of Misbah Ali Hassanayn, an Egyptian, quote a message from Rome police saying he was suspected of being in touch with âa group of terrorists living in London that was about to carry out an attack on the US embassy in Tiranaâ.
* A planned attack on the 2000 Christmas market in Strasbourg. Initially, this has been ascribed entirely to a Frankfurt-based group but a Milan police report indicates that hit men sent from Britain were to have played the key role.
* Italian court papers point to the involvement of Abu Doha, a London-based radical in a prospective attack on the US embassy in Rome. In January 2001, the embassy was closed. Court papers say the US had been tipped off to a possible attack. Doha was described as âthe person in chargeâ.
* A suicide attack by helicopter or lorry on the US embassy in Paris was planned by a group linked to al-Qaida, which including Djamel Beghal and Kamel Daoudi, who had lived in Britain.
After 9/11 the British security services woke up to the possibility that the same militants who were exporting terrorism to other countries could just as easily turn their weapons upon their host country. Parliament passed a new anti-terrorism act, reversing centuries of tradition and making it illegal for anyone in Britain to promote armed struggle abroad.
In January of 2002, British military intelligence searching Osama bin Ladenâs cave complex in the mountains of Tora Bora eastern Afghanistan found the names of 1,200 British citizens, all Muslims, who trained with the Al-Qaida network in Afghanistan.
The discovery was made public in January of 2003. Many of those who survived the defeat of the Taliban are now believed to be back in Britain and some may have formed terrorist cells. Many have gone underground to avoid detection.
The two British suicide bombers sent to Israel are part and parcel of the same phenomenon currently sweeping the Muslim world, in which young Muslims are induced to sacrifice their lives in the name of Jihad. Al-Muhajiroun activist Hassan Butt, who returned to Britain during 2002 from Pakistan, said that he estimated the number of suicide bombers waiting to carry out operations as more than fifty. He added that most of them are currently in Britain, although not necessarily active members of Al-Muhajiroun. He did state, however, that most of them had received religious lessons in Britain and that they had been taught that jihad was a priority. According to Butt, British Muslim volunteers in Afghanistan would return to the U.K. to âstrike at the heart of the enemy.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/08/2005 02:08 ||
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Hey! Good idea! We shoulda thought of that before!
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev called the London acts of terrorism that killed at least two and injured over 90 people âbarbarity and wildnessâ, linking them with the worldâs insecurity. âWhat happened in London is barbarity and wildness and can produce nothing but condemnation,â he said in an interview with Interfax news agency. âUndoubtedly, the war with terrorism has to be continued, and it must not become anything more than a reply to someoneâs force. Although all the acts of terrorism â in New York, Madrid and London â have their own particular qualities, finally everything adds up to the fact that the world is in trouble,â Gorbachev said.
Finally noticed, huh? But I'm sure his proposed solution doesn't involve hunting the bastards down and killing them...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
With HILLARY now also criticizing and blaming Dubya for the London attacks, Gorby and Putin might as well say the world must militarily attack America - like lawyers or jurists, the alleged pro-intellectual Lefties and Commies just love being surreally "legal"!
#2
What exactly did Hillary say and where can her statements be found? It does not fit with her recent political posture to have made that kind of statement - she's aiming for the Presidential election and it is not clear yet whether a position opposed to US anti-terror efforts would be beneficial to her.
"behind closed doors, there are no moderate Muslims."
"As far as I'm concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the better," says Abdul Haq, the social worker. "I know it's going to happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey, like Madrid - I pray for it, I look forward to the day."
"I agree with you, brother," says Abu Yusuf, the earnest-looking financial adviser sitting opposite. "I would like to see the Mujahideen coming into London and killing thousands, whether with nuclear weapons or germ warfare. And if they need a safehouse, they can stay in mine - and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb], I'll tell them where to get it."
Posted by: john ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb], I'll tell them where to get it."
#2
I say dump these fat f*cks on an ice-flo and let the cold and polar bears feed, Mullah's first then quick to follow, all eight hundred of the rest.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/08/2005 0:37 Comments ||
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There is certainly no shortage of would-be jihadis among UK Muslims, but organizing ten or more of them into a terrorist attack cell without detection might be a tall order.
The bombings were undoubtedly the work of an Al Qaeda sleeper cell, however, and I have a hunch that they may have used "westerners" to carry the bombs. A 3 or 4 man sleeper cell could easily operate undetected for an extended period of time, in contrast to 10 or 20, with the larger and less concealable group of bomb-donkeys being brought in from the outside at the last moment. Human nature being what it is, "Westerners" would be expected to arouse less suspicion in spite of the ernormous campaign of demonization against "racial (sic) profiling."
The huge influx of Moonbats to protest the G-8 summit would be ideal cover for this.
Such a group could be organized in Latin America, the US, or Continental Europe. In all of these, the remoteness of the target would serve as additional cover. The simultaneous arrival of 10-12 known extremists might be suspicious at any other time, but with thousands of crazies descending on Edinburgh from every part of the world, it would scarcely have been noticed during the past couple of weeks.
#4
They can't be all too bright given their frank expressions of treachery. Murders by terrorists always provide a little muslim machismo on parade. They'd be the first to cry loudest and longest should anyone hold them to their words and sentiments. General malcontent nutter idiots all. Wonder how they'd react when they learn that the same thugs they idolize turn out to care little for the life and limb of their own, including innocents.
#6
Oh, more brave Jihadis! Think the British cops might want to be knocking on these guys doors? If only because it'd be fun to watch them piss their pants.
Piety on cue. Condemn all you want. What are you going to do?
NEW YORK: The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the deadly bombings in London, saying it regarded any act of terrorism as "a threat to peace and security." Resolution 1611, adopted unanimously by the council's 15 members, "condemns without reservation the attacks in London on 7 July 2005, and regards any act of terrorism as a threat to peace and security." It also called on all states "to cooperate in efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these barbaric acts."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Piety on cue. Condemn all you want. What are you going to do?
#5
I actually got something out of this article...you mean the U.N. now has a "definition" of terrorism? I'm surprised they didn't condemn those dreaded British "insurgents."
Posted by: BA ||
07/08/2005 11:07 Comments ||
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What are they going to do?
I believe you're looking at it...
MEXICO CITY, July 8 (UPI) -- Nuevo Laredo Police Chief Omar Pimentel survived his first day on the job in the violent Mexican border town despite efforts to kill him. Drive-by shooters in Nuevo Laredo killed one of Pimentel's bodyguards and wounded two others, El Universal newspaper reported Friday. Seemingly undaunted, the chief later met with city officials to discuss curtailing violence.
Pimentel's predecessor Alejandro Dominguez killed last month just hours after being sworn in as police chief. Nuevo Laredo is one of a number of cities that have been the focus of Mexico's efforts to crackdown on organized crime. Dubbed "Operation Safe Mexico," the program is bent on combating a recent wave of drug-related killings as rival gangs vie for control of the towns to ship drugs into the United States.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 15:54 ||
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#1
Seemingly undaunted, the chief later met with city officials to discuss curtailing violence.
That guy has a pair the size of basketballs.
Good luck dude, you are gonna need it.
#2
A key corruption problem in Mexico and points south is how the authorities are suborned. it goes like this: "Either you help us and we will pay you handsomely, or we will kill you and your entire family. Which would you prefer?"
Uzbekistan signalled yesterday that it was reconsidering the future of the US airbase on its territory. The foreign ministry said in a statement that the airbase at Karshi-Khanabad, which American forces use to support operations in and supply humanitarian aid to neighbouring Afghanistan, was only intended for combat operations in northern Afghanistan during the overthrow of the Taliban regime after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. "Any other prospects for a US military presence in Uzbekistan were not considered by the Uzbek side," the ministry said.
Coincidentially, we've been reconsidering the future of the Uzbek thugs running their government.
Uzbekistan also claimed that the United States had not paid takeoff and landing fees for all flights to and from the base, and had offered virtually no compensation for additional costs incurred by the Uzbek authorities for guarding the base, new infrastructure, ecological damage and inconvenience to the local population. "In the view of the foreign ministry of Uzbekistan, these considerations should be central to examining the prospects of the future presence of the US military force at the Khanabad air base," the statement concluded.
Cash, check or MasterCard?
On Tuesday a regional alliance led by China and Russia, and including Uzbekistan, called for the US and its allies in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from several states in central Asia, reflecting growing unease at America's military presence in the region.
After the 9/11 attacks the US struck a deal to use bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. But relations between Tashkent and Washington deteriorated after the US called for an independent inquiry into the Andijan massacre in May.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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new infrastructure
Yeah, we had the goats graze in a straight line rather than the old crooked paths. ecological damage
So jihadis are an Endangered species now? Actually, we couldn't do much more ecological damage than you (and moreso Turkmenstan) have done yourselves.
Salt to taste:Belgrade is where al Qaeda goes shopping for the explosives and arms for its terror attacks, according DEBKAfileâs exclusive intelligence and counter-terror sources. Thursday, July 7, eight hours after four coordinated blasts hit London transport and killed at least 50 people, British terror experts were on a special flight from London to the Serbian capital.
They were carrying samples of the explosives collected from the four crime scenes to probe their origin and find out how the substance was smuggled into the UK. According to our sources, several large illicit weapons traffickers set up business in Belgrade a year ago. Al Qaeda is one of their biggest customers. The Americans discovered this from examinations of explosives and weapons seized from terrorists in Iraq and Israeli probes of the origin of weapons seized from smugglers crossing through the southern Negev on their way from Egyptian Sinai to Jordan and thence to Iraq.
The arms traffickers in Belgrade help themselves to the contents of Serbian army arms stores by bribing the right officers. The Serbian government has not responded to appeals from Washington to shut down this arms racket operations.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 08:38 ||
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When you realize street crime is heavily dominated by muslims, as is increasingly "grand banditisme" and organized crime, you understand that getting weaponry and assorted goods is probably fairly easy for would-be terrorists...
#2
Didn't a groups of Brit muslims get arrested a year or two ago with a ton of explosive ammonium nitrate? Until the explosive type is released, I won't even try to guess the origin.
Yes, much of the military weaponry in the French Banlieues come from Yugoslavia. It would be very educational for the French to surround and take apart a sample of their suburban apartment blocks to find out just what their muslim guests are armed with.
Posted by: ed ||
07/08/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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Wouldn't even have to be by bribing the right officers.
As a result of its unique, Tito-enabled situation,
Yugoslavia had long been a gray-market for arms.
Factories can't just stop producing. Show up with the properly-filled in paperwork and cash, and they'd even load it on the transport for you. No questions asked, no looking beyond the documents and the money.
Makes sense that the descendent nations would be in the same business.
There are no bars in the 70-square-foot cell that Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter, is expected to call home for the next four months or so, as she serves her contempt-of-court sentence in the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia.
But though the jail has a reputation among lawyers and corrections officials as a relatively progressive institution, Ms. Miller indicated to her lawyers yesterday that the detention center seemed overcrowded and that she was told she would be sleeping on the floor last night because of a shortage of beds.
Ms. Miller was sentenced to jail in the Washington area on Wednesday for refusing to cooperate with a special prosecutor's investigation into the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. operative, and entered the detention center later that afternoon. The staff was "extremely professional and very courteous," she said from jail Wednesday night.
After spending about a day in the initial receiving area, she was moved into the general population yesterday.
The Alexandria Detention Center, opened in 1987 at a cost of $15 million, adheres to a corrections philosophy that tries to use architectural and management styles different from the norm to reduce the tension between inmates and staff members. In contrast, the District of Columbia jail has been plagued by safety problems and overcrowding.
"When they tell you it's a 'new-generation jail,' that's not just a bunch of hype," Melinda Douglas, the public defender for the City of Alexandria, said of the Alexandria jail.
"They just don't throw you in a cell and expect you to manage," Ms. Douglas said.
Though the jail is considered maximum security, the layout of the eight-story building is reminiscent of a dormitory, with cells lining the outside walls and a lounge in the middle.
The 450 inmates live in cells with doors and windows rather than bars, and are spread through housing units holding up to 90 people each where they are supervised by one or more deputies, said David Rocco, a captain in the Alexandria sheriff's office.
In the lounges, inmates can watch television, play cards or otherwise be outside their cells except for shift changes and head counts during the day and for eight hours at night.
Inmates may make unlimited collect calls and have radios and CD players in their cells, and have access to programs taught by volunteers. "You respect them, and in return they respect you," Captain Rocco said.
But, as Ms. Douglas noted, it's still a jail and "it's still no fun." Ms. Miller has to wear a green or brown jumpsuit with the word "prisoner" on the back. She can receive visitors only on weeknights except Friday and during the days on weekends.
Among her fellow inmates is Zacarias Moussaoui, who recently pleaded guilty in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. The local jail takes federal inmates through a contract with the United States Marshals Service.
Ms. Miller and Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, were held in contempt of court in October by Judge Thomas F. Hogan of Federal District Court in Washington after refusing to divulge their sources. The Supreme Court refused last week to hear appeals from the reporters.
Mr. Cooper, just before the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, agreed to testify before a grand jury after he received what he called "an express, personal release from my source." Time Inc., which faced the prospect of daily fines, turned over Mr. Cooper's notes and documents to the special prosecutor last week.
Ms. Miller's lawyers declined yesterday to outline the next legal moves for their client. "Ms. Miller was just incarcerated Wednesday afternoon," said Saul Pilchen, one of her lawyers, "and as you can imagine, is struggling to adjust to her new surroundings. Any decisions at this time would be premature."
In remarks outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Floyd Abrams, another of her lawyers, hinted at a possible strategy in the coming weeks.
"At some point before the expiration of that four-month period," Mr. Abrams said, "a lawyer can go back to Judge Hogan and say: 'Blank period of time has passed. She has not revealed her source. There's no reason to think that she will. And so we ask you to free her now.' That is something that does come up routinely in civil contempt situations."
But Charles L. Babcock, a lawyer specializing in First Amendment issues with the Jackson Walker law firm in Dallas, said he was dubious about that strategy's chances of success, given Judge Hogan's rulings.
#9
"Kittens In A Can". Starring Pam Anderson as Judith Miller, Sharon Stone as The Warden, and Angelina Jolie as Lesbian Supermodel Bounty Hunter.
I'm gonna make millions!!!
Make that billions!!!
This is CBC, so terrorist is "activist".
An American environmental activist, who was on the FBI most-wanted list, has lost his court fight against extradition to the U.S., where he's wanted for firebombing attacks in Oregon four years ago.
Tre Arrow, also known as Michael Scarpitti, faces 17 arson-related charges which could see him sentenced to 80 years in a U.S. jail. You mean Michael Scarpitti, a.k.a. Tre Arrow, right? Lol! Idjits.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has order his extradition, an order that Arrow's s lawyer says he will appeal. And that process could take months.
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler must also approve the extradition before the decision is final.
The FBI claims Arrow is linked to the Earth Liberation Front. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous acts of vandalism and destruction in the name of ecology.
U.S. authorities accuse Arrow of participating in the firebombing of logging and cement trucks at Mount Hood, Ore. in 2001. Here's the meat:
Canadian law required prosecutors to prove there was enough evidence to convict Arrow of the same charges in Canada. Judge Kristi Gill ruled there was. Gosh, Tre, sounds like you're toast...
Three co-conspirators, who pleaded guilty to the bombings, told U.S. investigators that Arrow was part of their group that caused $250,000 in damage to vehicles belonging to Ross Island Gravel Company and a Mount Hood logging company. Oops, you ran away, they got caught, they squealed. Too bad, dood.
Canadian government prosecutors also presented claims the group intended to firebomb an office of the U.S. Forestry Service but couldn't penetrate its security. As is usual in such cases, Canadian government lawyers represent the country requesting extradition, in this case the U.S.
Arrow, 30, was arrested in Victoria last year for shoplifting and was found to be in the country illegally. He then applied for refugee status, a process that was put on hold by the extradition proceedings. And you were fitting in so well!
He claimed last week in court that he was innocent of the firebombing charges and that he was the target of a government conspiracy. Um, Halliburton!, BushHitler!, Remember the Alamo!, Abu Singsing!
"Just as many other activists have experienced, I am being targeted by the U.S. government and the FBI, not because I am guilty, but because I have chosen to challenge the status quo," he said. Right. You're really a hero, not a firebombing moron... and shoplifter, lol! Geez, that's so romantic!
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 8:25 Comments ||
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Shoplifter, arsonist, vandal, terrorist and now martyr for the earth all found in one scum filled lining of skin. Oh I bet alot of his ilk consider him a little role model of sorts.
#5
Shoplifter, arsonist, vandal, terrorist and now martyr for the earth all found in one scum filled lining of skin. Oh I bet alot of his ilk consider him a little role model of sorts.
If only we'd found him in the mountains of Tora Bora totin' an AK-47!
Posted by: BA ||
07/08/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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Read all about "Tre". I think he's Ghandi reincarnated...
#9
Thanks tu3031! Always entertaining to peruse "Free Somebody" sites of hypocrit petty criminals turned persecuted "activists." Reading his words and taking a look at the madness in his face I imagine this guy could have just as easily ended up a jihadi. It's just that damaged, angry, passive/aggressive, crying, waiting for the blinders sort of personality lil boy Tre has. Couldn't find anything about the shoplifting arrest that started all the wheels in motion for him. Inconvenient small detail that speaks volumes about po' Tre as do his "special messages" and obligatory activist action pics complete with uncompromising activist poses. He does music too! These freaks always find a ready audience over the border when the persecution by the government story is properly embellished with a little biographical magic.
#10
"because I have chosen to challenge the status quo"
Nothing wrong with challenging the status quo. It's when you do it with firebombs that you get put into prison.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/08/2005 14:05 Comments ||
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RC,
Details, details. It's only like because you're a paternalistic, imperialistic, capitalistic, ummm, you know, non-environmentalistic stooge that you can't, errr, like rage against the machine, dude.
Inspired by the hundreds of civilians who converged on the Mexican border this spring to help patrol for illegal immigrants, a new Framingham[MA]-based group is seeking volunteers to head north instead -- to guard the Canadian border.
Jeffrey Buck, the 32-year-old cofounder of the controversial Framingham- based Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement, has formed the New England Minuteman Association. Buck traveled to Arizona on three separate occasions to work with the Minuteman Project. Now he wants to replicate the Arizona group's work, with a few tweaks, in New England.
The original Minuteman Project gained national attention in April when volunteers assembled near Tombstone, Ariz., to police the border. Organizers have said that the effort, which lasted about a month, alerted federal authorities to more than 300 cases of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States over a 23-mile stretch of the border. But President Bush denounced the volunteers as vigilantes...
The Canadian border is approximately 5,000 miles long. Roughly 1,000 agents patrol it. Those agents last year arrested 2,800 illegal immigrants crossing the border in the Swanton, Vt., region, the most heavily trafficked border area in New England; another 400 were arrested in the area near a crossing in Houlton, Maine, according to the agency.
Similar volunteer groups have popped up in several other parts of the country, including San Diego and Chicago. Federal officials are not enthusiastic.
Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, which advocates for immigrant and refugee rights, called the appearance of Buck's new group and those like it is a ''sad state of affairs" that would only cause more harm than good. Noorani said most people would agree that the immigration system is broken, but he does not believe that recruiting untrained citizens to man the border is wise.
Buck... said he wants to recruit Americans who live along the border to help be the eyes and ears of his group. In addition to border patrols, Buck hopes the New England Minuteman Association can serve as a hub for the various groups calling for stronger enforcement of immigration laws that already exist in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut.
#1
New England Minuteman Association, Good for them and God's speed..we cannot abandon our national defense to bureaucrats anylonger!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/08/2005 0:47 Comments ||
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Anytime a newspaper says "advocates for immigrant and refugee rights" look for Ford Foundation money, the National Lawyer's Guild, the National Immigration Forum, the AILA, ACLU, MALDEF or similar far-left, pro-illegal immigration groups to be involved. The name "ali noorani" rings a bell and I thought he was involved with Frank Sherry of the NIF, but I can't find anything.
As for the U.S. official, I don't know why he'd be opposed to this as very little cheap labor comes over the northern border. Perhaps his opposition is just on principle.
#3
IIRC there are a number of small roads in the New England regions which lack human observation and rely upon 'sensors' which may or may not be up today. Let alone Jake having his coffee at 3am as the car without headlights moves across the border.
No, it's not what you think...
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has disavowed an independent Human Rights Commission expert's comparison of Gaza conditions with Nazi concentration camps.
Switzerland's Le Courrier said Thursday Jan Zeigler (Note: This is not Jan "Give it up. I said 7% bitch." Egeland.) , who reports to the U.N. commission on the right to food, called the Gaza Strip "an immense concentration camp" and compared Israelis to concentration camp guards, while speaking to a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Geneva Tuesday. See, it's not an apology for their BS over Gitmo, no no no, of course not, it's about Gaza, lol!
When asked about the report at U.N. World Headquarters in New York Thursday, a spokesman for Annan, Stephane Dujarric, said, "Ziegler's views were his own and not those of the United Nations.
"The United Nations believes that any comparison between conditions in Gaza and those of Nazi concentration camps is irresponsible," Dujarric said. "Such a comparison does not reflect the views of the secretary-general."
Annan was attending the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. Just as if he was, y'know, like a world leader or something.
#3
"What's it take to get fired at the UN?"
Molesting a troop of Girl Scouts in Times Square...at high noon, might do it... especially if there was video, and it was during sweeps week.
Reporting your superiors probably works. Though it's also likely to get you involved in a serious car accident and/or shoved down an empty elevator shaft.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/08/2005 14:10 Comments ||
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"Such a comparison does not reflect the views of the secretary-general."
From East-Asia-Intel, subscription req'd
The U.S. military is building a naval base on the Bangladeshi island of Onn Kyunt, according to a Burmese report. There's a name you don't play with.
The Burmanet News reported July 1 that Burmese military personnel are closely watching the island. Burmese border security forces based at Inn Dinn are monitoring the island and ship movements around it, the report said.
Burma believes the U.S. is using Onn Kyunt Island and will soon have a naval port there.
Currently there are 10 buildings on the island including a command center, radar station, watchtower, residences and a training center.
The report said the Bangladesh government ordered residents of the island to relocate. The island is located close to the border between Burma and Bangladesh on the Naff River. Burma has established close military ties to China and is believed to be a key element in Beijing's strategy to secure sea-lanes from the Middle East for its oil shipments.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I think NIS (or DIS or whatever) should establish a liason with the RAB.
(AGI) - Milan, Italy, Jul 7 - Local police found and arrested Mohamed Majid, aka Mullah Fouad, the Iraqi for which Preliminary Hearing Judge Guido Salvini, on November 25, 2003, issued an arrest warrant for international terrorism, and is now on trial as absconded at the First Court of Assizes of Milan together with other presumed Islamic terrorists.
Translation: Mullah Fouad was out on bail during his trial for terrorism in Milan and, surprise, surprise, skipped town. Syrian cops appear to have arrested him, another surprise.
Milan police revealed that they sent the arrest and extradition request to Italy of Mullah Fouad.
Milan cops want him back, wonder if he'll get bail this time?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 10:19 ||
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If you can't trust an international terrorist who can you trust?
Posted by: Matt ||
07/08/2005 12:04 Comments ||
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If they can find him in Syria, feel free to kill him in Syria. Just send us the head for verification...
#3
Syria's trying to split the international community by cooperating with Italy while still running the Jihadi Express into Iraq.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/08/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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Of course if Mullah Mohamed Majid is in "paradise" cavorting with his 72 virgins, and God played a trick on him by making him appear as Barney the dinosaur. Those virgins will be frustrated.
An Iranian nuclear negotiator vehemently denied a report by the official agency IRNA that the official in charge of Iran's nuclear programme, Hassan Rowhani, had resigned. Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, which is headed by Rowhani, told AFP the announcement by state news agency IRNA was "totally false."
Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope."
Mohammadi said "a resignation right now would not make any sense," adding that Rowhani had actually met with ultra-conservative president-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad on Wednesday.
"It was probably bad hummus, or maybe solar flares. You may go now."
The grievance industry went into overdrive last month when burned Korans were reportedly discovered at a local mosque in southwest Virginia.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations issued an immediate press release on June 16 calling for "Americans of all faiths to obtain and read the Quran after burned copies of Islam's revealed text were found" in a shopping bag at the front door of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg.
Repent, all ye infidels!
Incensed CAIR officials contacted the FBI and pressured authorities to treat the incident as possibly "bias-related." CAIR-MD/VA Director of Civil Rights Shama Farooq lectured that "A redoubled commitment to freedom of thought and religious diversity is the best response to the burning of any sacred text" in order to "send the message that bigots do not represent our nation's values."
Not content to let CAIR get all the free publicity, other victim-card hustlers jumped aboard the burned Koran bandwagon.
Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, lambasted police: "If pages from the Bible were burned and put in a bag outside a church," she huffed to the Associated Press, "I think the reaction of the police would be that it would be a hate crime."
Actually, in this country, when you dunk a crucifix in urine that's "art" and when you hang a framed copy of the Ten Commandments inside a courthouse, that's a crime.
Al-Qatami invoked the Guantanamo Bay bogeyman and blamed the burnt Koran incident on insensitive, ignorant Americans. The case, she asserted, was caused by "a lack of zero tolerance for hate crimes and 'a lack of information about Arabs and Islam as a whole.'" Al-Qatami also told the Roanoake Time: "Let's face it, books don't burn themselves and end up outside of a mosque. It's a willful act."
Muslims in Virginia also expressed their knee-jerk outrage: "It is a shame that people are so ignorant," said Blacksburg mosque member Idris Adjerid. Ahmed Sidky, a Muslim graduate student at nearby Virginia Tech, told the Roanoake Times that the case "was certainly very symbolic."
It certainly was a symbola symbol of the knee-jerk penchant among some civil rights groups and their enablers to cry racism, claim discrimination, and criticize U.S. law enforcement authorities for not doing enough to stop "hate crimes."
It turns out, you see, that the burnt Koran was left at the mosque byâŠa Muslim student.
read the rest at the link
Posted by: too true ||
07/08/2005 19:19 ||
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Nonfarm employment increased by 146,000 in June, and the unemployment rate continued to trend down, reaching 5.0 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Over the month, payroll employment continued to grow in several industries, notably professional and business services and health care.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
The jobless rate in June was 5.0 percent, seasonally adjusted. It has trended downward since February 2005 and is now 1.3 percentage points lower than its most recent high in June 2003. The number of unemployed persons was little changed over the month at 7.5 million, but is down by 1.7 million since June 2003.
#2
This economy keeps grwoing despite the rise in prices in oil and products associated with oil. If we can do something to get the oil prices down, it's "Katie barr the door" on our economy. If not, then I am worried because it can't substain this indefinetley.
#4
You knew the economy was getting better when the MSM stop referring to it as Bush's economy.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/08/2005 11:09 Comments ||
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5.0% unemployment? Wasn't Clinton's average (over the hot, hot 90's) something like 5.5 or 5.6% Geebus, if oil goes down, plainslow's right, Katie bar the door!
Posted by: BA ||
07/08/2005 11:49 Comments ||
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BA, I think they started building statues to Clinton when unemployment was at 6.5%. When that same figure was reached during the Bush administration it was equated to the Great Depression. During the Depression unemployment PEAKED at 25% from which we can extrapolate a "Dhimi Deviation" of roughly 18%. That means that anything connected with the economy (Unemployment, Homelessness, Crime, etc.). So even if the unemployment sank to (an unrealistic 0%) the Democrats would still look at that as being around 18% unemployment. Of course this is based on my business calculus courses that I finished over a decade ago and have not used up to this point. Talk about âFuzzy Mathâ! Brain hurts must rest!
#10
the situqtion now and has always called for pure organic ethanol with no additatives at all it's everclear to me that we need subsidies for clear natural corn
#11
As much as I like the IDEA of energy self-sufficiency from corn/soybeans... it's a no-go. You have to burn more energy growing the corn and processing it into ethanol than you get at the back end from burning the ethanol.
#15
No, they aren't counting the "free" energy. They are counting the fuel for the tractors, combines, and produce trucks; the energy it takes to make the fertilizer and insecticides; the energy it takes to run the distillery.
Now, with sufficient nuclear plants, that could take care of the distillery and fertilizer plants. However, I don't forsee any electric tractors or combines. (Yes, you can run them on alcohol, but that STILL comes out of the fuel energy balance.)
Electrifying our rail lines (and laying more track) with nuclear plants would be the biggest single help. Too much long-distance cargo goes by truck because the rail lines are at capacity in the West.
from someone who's tangled personally with the mullahsby Amir Taheri
New York Post
July 8, 2005 -- 'WE have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid." This was how an Islamist group, using the al Qaeda brandname, announced its responsibility for the terror attacks that claimed nearly 40 lives in London yesterday.
Although the exact circumstances of the raid on London remain murky, one thing is certain: This was a suicide operation aimed at killing as many civilians as possible. That the raid came as the G-8 summit opened in Scotland is certainly significant, as is the fact that it was the first day of the Arabic lunar month of Jamadul al-Akhir, Prophet Muhammad's favorite season for organizing raids against the "infidel."
What do we do about people who are prepared to court certain death in exchange for killing others? The question has been asked by the Israelis for years and by the Americans since 9/11. It is now the turn of the British to ponder it.
The first thing to do is not to get impressed by the fact that an individual who has been brainwashed out of his or her humanity is ready to die in order to kill others. The only reasonable way to treat such individuals is as a new form of weaponry. And, like all other weapons that impress when first introduced, these suicide-killers will continue to terrorize and fascinate until we find an antidote.
Cyrus the Great used camels as a weapon when he conquered Babylon. Hannibal used elephants for his raid on Rome. The Islamist terror leaders who wish to conquer the world and convert entire mankind to their brand of "true Islam" have gone one better by using the human body as a weapon.
But like all others, this weapon is designed by some people, financed by investors, manufactured somewhere and deployed by leaders who can be identified and destroyed. These human weapons are designed and shaped by a constant flow of anti-Western propaganda from Arab satellite TV, the so-called Islamic associations and countless madarassahs (Islamic schools) -RD>and mosques throughout the world, including in London itself.
Go to any mosque in the West (let alone in the Islamic countries) on any Friday and you are sure to hear a litany of woes about how the "cross-worshippers" have allied themselves with the "plotting Jews" in order to destroy Islam, which, as God's final message, is the only true faith.
You will hear how the West is mired in corruption, its womenfolk exposing their midriff in public and its governments sanctioning gay and lesbian marriages. You will also hear how "the Crusaders" have invaded Muslim lands and are trying to impose their democratic system on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Such a discourse might leave most Muslims indifferent or even annoyed. But it is enough for it to seduce even 1 percent of the world's Muslims â that is to say a cool 13 million people â for everyone to be in trouble.
The deadly propaganda is reinforced by other means. The future terrorist is comforted by the fact that his or her fellow Muslims in the West use their bodies as an advertising space for their beliefs. In many Western cities, this comes in the form of al Qaeda-style beards and long shirts (qamis) for men and jet-black hijab (headgear) for women. (Not long ago, I saw a baby girl in a carriage wearing that prop of visual terrorism.)
The would-be suicide terrorist is also likely to be impressed by the self-styled Islamic theologians coolly debating the issue of whom to kill and how. Any viewer of Al-Jazeera, the satellite channel owned by the emir of Qatar, has seen its chief Islamist guru Yussuf al-Qaradawi insist that Islam allows the murder of unborn Israeli babies because they may grow up and join the army. In a recent visit to Mecca, I witnessed another self-styled guru, Sheik Safar al-Hawali, informing visitors to his home that it was "licit" to kill innocent Muslim women and children in Iraq if that led to "the defeat of the Crusaders and their apostate Muslim allies."
The would-be suicide-killer is also comforted by the sense of guilt manifested by many in the West. He has seen do-gooders from the United States in the streets of Arab Jerusalem apologizing to astounded Muslim passersby for "the Crusades" â which happened long before the United States came into being.
He may also note that he is treated with something bordering on deference by much of the Western media, which has banned the use of the word "terrorist" altogether, using, instead, such terms as "militants" or " resistance fighters."
And then there was the successful ghazva (raid) on Madrid last year, when the Islamists succeeded in changing the government of a major Western democracy with a single attack.
If the suicide-terrorists were weapons made of metal, the victims would certainly try to bomb places where they were made. But because these weapons are of human flesh, the assumption is that they can't be traced back to any specific locality. It is as if we were dealing with ethereal beings existing beyond the limits of reality.
The London attack was not the work only of the few individuals who carried it out. It was the bitter fruit of a faith that has been hijacked by a minority of extremists while the majority of its adepts watch with a mixture of awe and ill-concealed pride. The real fight against this enemy of humanity will start only when the so-called "silent majority" in Islam speaks out against these murderers and those who brainwash, train, finance and deploy them.
Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, is a member of Benador Associates
Posted by: too true ||
07/08/2005 10:18 ||
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#1
TIME TO HIT THE SUICIDE FACTORIES
Good idea. I've long felt that the only way to win this thing is to kill all their women.
#3
It's what Israel's been doing. Seems like things have gotten better since they started directly targeting the Rantisis and Yassins instead of just going after the cannon fodder.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/08/2005 11:01 Comments ||
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#4
I am not a fan of the UN, but i think Amir Taheri has the right mind-set to be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
#5
Israel's been in this war for a long time (it still seems to be the principal offender). Maybe we could learn something from the way they've been fighting it?
Will the left ever tumble to the fact that the enemy of my enemy might not be as bad as I thought they were?
Naaaahhhhh!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/08/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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#6
Getting Taheri to be in the NY Post is great.
It would be even better if he were given space in the Wapo.
Better yet would be to give Ibn Warraq or Hirsi Ali space to for their thoughts in the Wapo.
#9
...while the majority of its adepts watch with a mixture of awe and ill-concealed pride
Basically admitting that the "terrorists are a very small minority" line is a myth. It's like saying, "Only a very small number of Japanese carried out the Pearl Harbor raid." True, but irrelevant when the folks back at home are aiding and abetting the attacks.
#10
Lol, Dreadnought! That's soooo uncool to say out loud. True, yes, dead solid perfect, yes, but uncouth and un-nuanced. We'll have to send you back through Cotillion again, lol!
"Okay, students! Once again. And which knife do we use to kill the terrorist? Yes! The second from the left! Very good! And which..."
#12
Lol! Not a chance, DN! Sorry about the Cotillion thingy, lol. I had to sit through those interminable sessions - but it wasn't .01% as bad as my poor daughter having to make that old hag happy each week, lol! Go ahead, ask me why I'm divorced, lol!
#14
Go to any mosque in the West (let alone in the Islamic countries) on any Friday and you are sure to hear a litany of woes about how the "cross-worshippers" have allied themselves with the "plotting Jews" in order to destroy Islam, which, as God's final message, is the only true faith.
Moderate Muslims? Where? If they existed, they'd be exposing this stuff, demanding their prayers be led by fellow moderates. Instead, they swallow the hatred while smiling politely to the neighbors they've been told to murder.
The only time an immoderate imam is removed is when the non-Muslim world is made aware of his stance. It's time we start demanding answers and action.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/08/2005 14:15 Comments ||
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#15
Getting Taheri to be in the NY Post is great.
It would be even better if he were given space in the Wapo.
He should be writing the President's speeches.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/08/2005 14:18 Comments ||
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#16
These moderate muslims are the first to support fatwas against the like of Salman Rushdie.
They will tell you that he has defiled islam.
They will also tell you that 9/11 and the london bombings were not the work of muslims since true muslims cannot kill the innocent.
Yet they will never condemn Osama Bin Laden.
They will never issue a fatwa against him or call for his death.
The jihadis commit "unislamic" like murder but there is no fatwa. An author writes a (rather boring) book and he must be killed.
Posted by: john ||
07/08/2005 16:25 Comments ||
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#17
They will also tell you that 9/11 and the london bombings were not the work of muslims since true muslims cannot kill the innocent.
And BOY will they stammer and stutter when you try to get them to define "innocent".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/08/2005 16:53 Comments ||
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#18
I've figured out that the key to the muzzie mindset is understanding their ability to hold 2 equally stupid concepts at the same time.
#20
Before 9-11 I was bothered.
Maybe it's cus we noticed the Pals change their phone behaivor long before Sharon went to the temple.
Couldn't get anybody to listen to us...
Couldn't even get the Israelis to listen until a year latter and then they really listened. For some reason could never get any of our guys to listen...
But was discussing it with an Iranian engineer and he asked me where I though the whole thing would end. (again before 9-11)
I told him that if behaivors were not changed somebody would nuke Mecca and Medina within the next 15 years (that was about 2000). I suggested that it would be impossible to figure out who did it as the muslims were making too many foe at once.
July 8, 2005: Al Qaeda, and Islamic radicals, would not be a world terrorism problem were it not for global Islamic media, and media coverage that treated the goals of the Islamic radicals with seriousness and respect. For decades, Islamic radicalism played in its own backyard, trying to replace Islamic tyrants with Islamic religious dictatorships. These Islamic terrorists didnât get much publicity, and what they did get was mostly negative. Most Islamic nations were dictatorships, with the local media tightly controlled. That changed, for a while, in the 1980s, when the fight between Moslem Afghans, and atheist Russians, was given ample, and positive, publicity by the media in most Moslem nations, and throughout the Western world. The battle in Afghanistan was considered a jihad (Holy War) by Moslems, and what good Moslem could refuse to heap praise on that. The thousands of Moslems who went to Afghanistan (Pakistan, actually, which was where the Afghan rebels rested between missions), were considered heroes when they returned home. Many of these âAfghanisâ soon ended up in jail, for spouting off about how great it would be to have a little Islamic revolution at home. Moslem countries went to war with their Islamic radicals in the 1990s, an event largely unnoticed in the West. There was always some unpleasant violence going on in Moslem countries. Either religion or politics would set things off, and this wasnât news in the West.
That changed in 1996, when al Jazeera, an international satellite news network began. Now the millions of Moslems in the West could get news delivered using modern, compelling methods, but with a Moslem slant. That slant was quite different from the view of the Moslem, especially Arab, world provided by Western news. The biggest difference was how Israel, and Islamic terrorism, was explained. To Moslems, Israel was a great crime inflicted by the West on the Arab world. To the Arab media, Israel did not deserve to exist, and any Western nations that supported Israel, especially the United States, were enemies of Islam. Extreme stuff, but the sort of line you had to run with if you wanted to succeed as a journalist in the Arab, and Moslem world. This line was supported by most Arab governments, because if took attention away from the fact that most Arab governments were corrupt dictatorships that had never done much for the Palestinian people the Israelis were accused of oppressing.
The only large scale opposition to Moslem corruption and dictators was Islamic radicals, especially in the form of al Qaeda. But this opposition failed in the 1990s, and al Qaeda decided to turn its attention to targets in the West. According to al Qaeda, the ultimate cause of all the problems in the Moslem world (the corruption, the poverty, the dictatorships) was Western influence. Decadent Western media, and political influence in the form of Western support for Israel and current Moslem governments, must be destroyed before al Qaeda could clean things up in the Moslem world. Once the Moslem world was âpurifiedâ and united under one religious dictator, the rest of the world could be converted to Islam, and a planet wide Islamic religious government establishment. This is what al Qaeda wants. Does anyone believe they have any chance of achieving it? No one does, except millions of Moslems mesmerized by the al Qaeda message, and the thousands of al Qaeda warriors ready to die for the cause. Many of these al Qaeda supporters were in Moslem communities in the West. Thanks to al Jazeera, the Internet, and other satellite based media, the twisted logic of al Qaeda, was presented as news. The rabid anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic reporting so common in Arab media, but absent in the West, was now available anywhere in the world.
This created an enormous âexpatriate patriotâ effect. This is what happens when expatriates become more enthusiastic about violent solutions than the folks back home. This was seen rather vividly among Irish immigrants to the United States in the 19th century, where these Irish patriots formed armed groups, and engaged in terrorist acts in North America, in support of liberating Ireland from British rule. After this happened in the 1920s, the expatriate Irish still maintained the most anti-British attitudes. In the 1970s, when Irish terrorism began again, in Northern Ireland, which was still under British rule, much of the monetary support came from Irish overseas. The Irish in Ireland were much less enthusiastic about Irish terrorism than were the Irish overseas. The same thing is now happening with Moslem support for Islamic terrorism. In Moslem nations that have suffered from Islamic terrorists, places like Algeria, Egypt and Iraq, al Qaeda is hated. But among Moslem communities in Europe, there is a rather more idealized and romantic view of these Moslem âmartyrs.â Recruiting is easier in Europe, as is raising money. While only a small minority of the expatriate Moslems support the terrorists, that amounts to over a million supporters, and thousands of volunteers for suicide attacks and terrorism.
There is another problem, particularly with Europe. When confronted with a growing Moslem minority, and its enthusiastic adoption of al Jazeeraâs breathless coverage of Islamic terrorists, and the usual anti-Semitic coverage of Israel, Europe blinked. Rather than resisting this, Europe again went for appeasement. This didnât work with the fascists in the 1930s, or the Soviets during the Cold War. But appeasement is a very popular policy in Europe. It isnât working with Islamic radicals who, like the nazis and communists, want to conquer the world, and are willing to kill millions to get the job done. Appeasement is deeply embedded in the European psyche. Even after the nazis made it clear what they were all about, and had conquered much of Europe, many Europeans preferred to collaborate with the new tyranny. Even after the Cold War was over, many Europeans are nostalgic for the âfailed experimentâ of Soviet communism. If only someone else could come back and try it again, and do it right this time. This same twisted logic is being applied to al Qaedas mad march towards world conquest.
Al Qaeda lives on Moslem frustration at not being able to deal with cultural, economic and political problems at home. Moslem media, especially the international networks that reach the expatriate community, prosper on reporting al Qaedas propaganda as news, rather than nonsense. Al Qaeda killers are often described as âmartyrsâ and defenders of Islam. The Arab networks, like al Jazeera, also play international politics. For example, al Jazeera persists in describing Islamic terrorists in Iraq as âfreedom fighters,â trying to liberate Iraq from foreign (U.S.) occupation. What al Jazeera wonât admit is that Iraq is mainly a battle between Shia Arabs who, by and large, are seen as allies of Shia Iran and enemies of the Sunni Arab world of the Persian Gulf and Middle East. Officially, Shia and Sunni Moslems get along. Unofficially, Sunni Arab governments (all Arab governments, except Iraq, are run by Sunnis) are terrified of Iran, the most powerful Shia Moslem government in the world, and a traditional enemy of Arabs. Iraqis know that al Qaeda is allied with the Sunni Arab minority trying to regain power, but to al Jazeera, this battle between Sunni and Shia in Iraq does not exist.
While no government on the planet officially supports al Qaeda, the terrorist organization still has the support of several percent of the Moslem population. Al Qaeda maintains the loyalty of those Moslems, especially the wealthier and better educated expatriate Moslems, via the relatively favorable reporting in the international Moslem media like al Jazeera. You canât shut down this media, which includes the Internet, but you canât ignore it either if you expect to deal with the terrorism. There are many historical examples of this kind of terrorism, and the only way to deal with it is to infiltrate the terrorist networks, hurt them as much as possible, and wait a decade or more until popular support for the killing fades away. It will be back, under a different banner. But thatâs something for future generations to worry about.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 09:14 ||
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the terrorist organization still has the support of several percent of the Moslem population.
Several? I have seen several reports that put the number between 40%-70%. Proof never to trust them, especially when they are living in your country!
Al Qaeda maintains the loyalty of those Moslems, especially the wealthier and better educated expatriate Moslems...
Again, proof that the LLL's claim that poverty and hunger are the leading causes of terrorism is an outright lie and deadly falsehood.
#2
You win by taking their lands and banning islam. You win by converting their sorry asses amongst you or kicking them out. Anything less is just a holding action until the muslims feel strong enough to restart their conquest, as commanded by mohammed and allah.
Posted by: ed ||
07/08/2005 10:30 Comments ||
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Got it through one of my ML, a few months old, but a good reminder on the caliphate ideology.
The Coming Islamic Revolution
Discussions of jihad terrorism and the best defense against it rarely avoid entanglement in the contentious question of the relationship of terrorist actions to Islam as a religion. Is the terrorism an aberration of Islam, or is it, judged in light of history, the prevailing orthodoxy? Indeed, the question is an important one, and, in a society that avoids uncomfortable realities, answering it honestly is less a matter of analysis than of moral courage.
Perhaps less important in theory, but more central in terms of policy, is a question less commonly asked: What is it, exactly, that the terrorists mean to achieve? Nonstate violence as a political/military methodology is not new, nor does it exist in a vacuum. It proceeds from a worldview and, in almost all cases, has stated, ideologically defined, conscious goals. The question then becomes one of whether the terroristsâ motivations are essentially reactive (i.e., they are offended by the presence of infidels on the sacred soil of Arabia, they are opposed to U.S. policy in the Middle East, they are trying to preserve a traditional way of life from the depredations of modern moral corruption, etc.), in which case we would need to stop doing something (pull U.S. forces out of Saudi Arabia, stop supporting Israel, stop exporting trashy movies, etc.). Or is what they want something affirmative, something that has an independent, positive imperative?
In suggesting an answer to the question, I ask the reader to do a quick Google search for the word khilafah. When I first tried this about a year ago, the result was in the range of 26,000 to 29,000 links (some of them redundant). Now, the results are above 50,000, and, by the time you read this, maybe more. Almost all of these sites link to material available in English; I can only guess what is out there in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Malay, and other languages. The location of the site operators is not always clear, but many of them seem to be based in the United Kingdom. (Since many of the quotations in this article were downloaded a few months ago, some of the sites have been removed, to some extent because of action of the British government. Since the sentiments expressed on the sites are unlikely to have disappeared as conveniently as the sites themselves, this appears to be, at best, treating the symptom.)
Khilafahâperhaps more familiar in the common form in English, caliphateâhistorically refers to the state ruled by a successor (called khalifah or, in English, caliph) of Muhammad, beginning in the seventh century. The khilafah, in one form or another, lasted until it was abolished in 1924 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk at the founding of the Turkish Republic.
Even a cursory review of these websites shows that in only a very few of them does the khilafah reference pertain to this purely historical entity. On the contrary, as far as I can see, most of them are found on advocacy sites. These are people who date the current decrepitude of the Islamic world in comparison with the West to abolition of the khilafah and insist that all Muslims are obligated to work for its revival. For example, the following is from the website (hizb-ut-tahrir.org) of the Turkish branch of an international political party whose stated goal is reviving the khilafah:
It was a day like this 79 years ago, and more specifically on the 3rd of March 1924 that . . . the criminal English agent, Mustafa Kemal (so-called Ataturk, the âFather of the Turksâ!) announced that the Grand National Assembly had agreed to destroy the Khilafah; and . . . he establish . . . a secular, irreligious, Turkish republic. . . .
Since that day the Islamic ummah [nation, community] has lived a life full of calamities; she was broken up into small mini states controlled by the enemies of Islam in every aspect. The Muslims were oppressed and became the object of the kuffarâs [unbelieversâ] derision in Kashmir, Philippines, Thailand, Chechnya, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Palestine and other lands belonging to the Muslims . . .
So the crime took place and the kuffar tightened their grip over the Islamic lands and tore it up into pieces. . . . In place of a single Khilafah state they established cartoon states and installed rulers as agents to carry out the orders of their kuffar masters. They abolished the Islamic Shareeâah [sic; religious law] from the sphere of ruling, economy, international relations, domestic transactions and judiciary.
Without the Khilafah, the Islamic lands will remain torn up and the Islamic peoples will remain divided. Without the Khilafah the kafir, crusader and colonial states will continue to control us, plunder our resources and create divisions amongst us. Without the Khilafah, the Jews will continue to occupy our sacred places and kill and humiliate our brothers in Palestine. Without the Khilafah, the Islamic peoples in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Uzbekistan and so on will continue to be killed. . . . Without the Khilafah, those Muslims who do not work seriously for its implementation will be sinful and incur the anger of Allâh, even if they fast, pray, make Hajj [pilgrimage] and pay Zakah [alms]. This is because the work to establish the Khilafah Rashidah is a fard [duty] on every Muslim, and it should be conducted with the most extreme effort and utmost speed. . . .
The Khilafah Rashidah on the way of the Prophethood is coming soon by the help of Allâh. Its prerequisites in terms of system and statesmen are present. The voices of the Muslims in all parts of the world from Turkey to Nigeria, and from Uzbekistan to Indonesia are resoundingly demanding its return. It will come back despite the efforts and money spent by the kuffar and the agents to prevent its return. So strengthen your resolve and work seriously with the sincere daâwah [âinvitationâ to Islam; i.e., proselytizing] carriers who are working to re-establish the Khilafah, so that you may attain the victory that Allâh has promised.
Two things in particular should be noted in this exposition: First, all existing governmentsâincluding those in power in the Islamic world, here called âcartoon statesââare illegitimate (or based on kufr, âunbeliefâ) and must be overthrown; and, second, Islamic law, sharia, must be established as the ruling legal system.
Some of these sites detail what the khilafah will look like when it is reestablished, and what powers would be exercised by the man, the khalifah, who will rule it. In summary (from al-islami.com/islam/establish_khilafah.php?p=4):
⢠The Khilafah [state] must include all Muslim nations in the world.
⢠There must be only one Khaleefah or Ameer [ruler], with all Muslims giving him their bayâah or allegiance. . . .
⢠Shariah law must be implemented in the Islamic state regarding all issues.
⢠There must be only one military, with a single leadership appointed by the Khaleefah.
If the end sought by people of this persuasion is reestablishment of the khilafah, to what extent do they recognize the legitimacy of using violent struggleâjihad and, by extension, what we call terrorismâas a means to achieve it? There is actually sharp debate in this community about that issue. Some take the view that what leads to the reestablishment of legitimate authority is itself legitimate. This side generally takes a very expansive view as to what constitutes self-defense in such places as Chechnya, Kashmir, Bosnia, Palestine, Kosovo, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Sudan, Aceh, Afghanistan, and other places. Some drop hints, rather than state outright, about how they would answer this question. One British-Islamic website, muslimstudent.org.uk (now removed), stated:
Shariaâah verdict obliges the Muslims to abolish the present puppet regimes in the Muslim World, and to establish the Islamic system and unite all the Muslim countries, bringing them back under the banner of one single state, and one single Khalif who would rule by the Holy Qurâan and the Sunnah of the Messenger (SAW). The duty of all Muslims is not only limited to working towards overthrowing the regimes ruling the Muslim countries nowadays, and in liberating occupied Muslim land from the unbelievers [sic] dominance, even if an Islamic rule is put in force, but it includes the work for unification of Muslim countries. This is a duty and it must not be stalled for any reason even the absence of an Islamic state, for the texts of the Shariaâah concerning the unity of Muslim land are general and not limited to the presence of a Khalif. . . . Fighting and exterminating Israel is an obligation even if the Muslims fighting are Arab armies loyal to regimes of unbelief, like the Egyptian soldiers when they fought Israel during the Sinai war. . . . The uniting of Muslim [lands] includes the land that Muslims lost control of, including, Turkistan, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and the land that Muslims had lost like Andalous (Spain) . . . Our duty as Muslims . . . [is] to kick the American, British, and Israeli forces from Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and Palestine, and to overthrow all these non-Islamic regimes in order to establish the Islamic state on their ruins.
Others take the view that, strictly speaking, jihad can only be unconditionally legal once the khilafah is reestablished. If that were to occur, there is little disagreement that the foreign policy of the caliphate would be one of jihad. For example, khilafah.com says:
Thus Islam has come for the whole of mankind and Allah has obliged the Muslims to convey it in a manner which draws attention. . . . [W]hoever stands as an obstacle and prevents Islam from reaching the people, it is an obligation to fight him in order to remove this obstacle, and thus to open the way for the people to Islam: so either they embrace Islam or they submit to the laws of Islam. . . . The true and effective jihad which uproots kufr [unbelief] and liberates the land of the Muslims from the Yahud [the Jew] and Kuffar cannot take place without the existence of the Khilafah State which will unite the Muslims in a single state and under the leadership of one Khalifah who will rule them with the Book of Allah and the Sunna [traditions] of His Messenger, and lead them into the battlefields of jihad to spread Islam and protect the Muslims.
And, according to another site, almuhajiroun.com (currently offline, but this site has a remarkable tendency to reappear following periodic interruptions):
Once the Islamic State is established anyone in Dar Al Harb [realm of war] will have no sanctity for his life or wealth hence a Muslim in such circumstances can then go into Dar Al Harb and take the wealth from the people unless there is a treaty [of temporary truce] with that state. If there is no treaty individual Muslims can even go to Dar Al Harb and take women to keep as slaves.
Where will khilafah be instituted? The short answer is, wherever it can be. Commonly, two general areas have been discussed. One is in the zone stretching from the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia (overlapping the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) to Pakistan, which includes Afghanistan. Taliban-ruled Afghanistan would have been the embryo for the Khilafahâs reestablishment in that region, with the eventual subversion of an already semi-Talibanized, nuclear-armed Pakistan, fostering the creation of a sharia superstate with over 200 million people and armed with nuclear weapons. The other candidate is in Southeast Asia, with the creation of a sharia state in the Aceh region of the northwestern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra as the initial beachhead, to include eventually all of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and parts of the Philippines, Thailand, and Burma, and possibly Bangladesh.
What does all this have to do with anything? Just this: What we have here is an ideology, one with clearly defined goals, in search of a hostâa land and a people in which to bring it to life. Some might dismiss this kind of talk as the ravings of just a few lunatics, albeit violent lunatics. Perhaps some might have taken the same view of an Austrian former corporal sitting in the Landsberg am Lech fortress prison in 1924, writing a book about his âstruggle,â or of a couple of obscure German scribblers issuing some kind of âmanifestoâ in 1848.
These disparate elements promoting khilafah share a common, clearly defined visionâone with a lot more moral, historical, and demographic depth than a Hitler or a Marx could have claimedâthat should not be discounted. To call the violence associated with this movement merely âterrorism,â without an awareness of what the violence is meant to achieve, is to miss the whole point. The khilafists have their collective manifesto, and perhaps, with September 11 and its aftermath, they have had their Paris Commune. Maybe the next big attack will be their guns of the cruiser Aurora, leading, they hope, to their own October Revolution and the long-awaited rebirth of khilafah.
If this specter is haunting not just Europe but the whole world, why has hardly anyone noticed? To my knowledge, the only political leader of a major power who has publicly acknowledged the existence of this movement is President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, who has observed that Chechen terrorism is an initial step in the reconstitution of a âglobal caliphate,â which amounts, he said, to âworld supremacy.â Mr. Putin also took note of the radicalsâ willingness to kill Christians, atheists, and nonradical Muslims who oppose the effort. There seems to have been absolutely no resonance among other world leaders to this identification. In fact, in the media, there has been some criticism, as if Putin had made it up.
American policymakers seem unable or unwilling to take khilafah seriously, though they can hardly be unaware of it. U.S. policy is focused on âstate-supported terrorismâ and a list of ârogue statesâ instead of targeting the global khilafah movement and its subsets: jihad ideology and the demand to install sharia. Indeed, the major bases for that movement are not in the rogue states (with the partial exception of Iran) but in countries regarded by Washington as allies in the âcoalition against terrorismâ: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistanâall close, longtime friends of the United States. This does not even take into account khilafist strongholds in Europe, especially in Great Britain.
Dealing with this seeming incomprehension of the problem is a far more urgent task than the endless tinkering with the structure of law enforcement and intelligence agencies that disproportionately occupies the attention of official Washington. Perhaps Americaâhaving seen her survival of the Cold War primarily as a vindication of an end-of-history global order based on her materialistic ideology of democratic capitalismâis incapable of recognizing an opposing force based on completely different assumptions about God and man and the purpose of human life. Even more troubling, we appear to be guided by a worldview that proceeds from philosophical assumptions derived from the Enlightenment that are almost designed to lead to incomprehension. Our military prowess, though impressive, is only tangentially related to the real threat.
James George Jatras, an attorney in Washington, D.C., was formerly a policy analyst with the Republican leadership of the U.S. Senate.
You are dealing with fanatical vermin whose religion (in terms of its book and precepts) supports the action of these vermin.
The religion has the horrible double whammy in that:
Anybody who stand in the way of a jihadist is denied a decent place in any afterlife.
Therefore, if a believer turns in on of these vermin he is denying his faith.
It is a viscous ugly circle that with current trend can only end three ways.
1) Everybody on the planet becomes moslem with a one world ulma under Sharia' ah
2) The majority of the muslims change their religion, koran and belief structure to co-exist on an equal basis with others and accept others.
3) Somebody gets really ticked off and exterminates all the believers and destroys them and their works utterly and completely.
The question is which door will be taken?
Those not mulsim would prefer door number two... but see no evidence that it is being considered.
So, if door number 2 is not taken... do you prefer 1 or 3?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 13:00 Comments ||
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#3
What happens if the Hidden Imamn comes from behind the curtain and offers 12 dollar oil and a really real get tough policy on the radicals within?
/yeah it's the olde Hidden Imman trick, last used umm.... in the Sudan?
#7
Most of these Khalifa loonies wouldnt have liked living in the actual Ottoman empire, which was far to accomodating of westernization, and even had Jews and Christians in positions of influence at various times.
Most muslims arent interested in the khalifate. They may not have seen their way clear to full Kemalism (after Kemal Attaturk, who abolished the khalifate), but they'll get there.
#8
Interesting closing assertions, Lh. I won't pull a Mikey on you and say "Prove it!", but it's just very very fluffy stuff without it. And I, of course, think you're wrong. I'll bet it felt good, thoug.
#10
I'm betting most of the Israeli thingys are neutron ones.
Based on two little slices of data...
1) That flash thingy in the south alantic under Carter could have be a N-thingy
2) You don't piss in your drinking water.
(they are awful near their targets)
#11
I'm betting most of the Israeli thingys are neutron ones.
Some of them maybe, but I'd make sure I had enough big dirty ones for each Arab capital within range. I've been to Masada, next time they're taking all their enemies down with them.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/08/2005 16:42 Comments ||
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A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents said on Friday the British people were paying the price for the evil of their rulers but the Taliban had nothing to do with Thursday's bomb attacks in London. "The people of Britain are facing trouble only because of the evil deeds and oppression of their rulers," spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Hakimi said the Taliban were neither sad nor happy about the four bombs on London's transport network that killed at least 37 people and wounded about 700. "Had these blasts been directed at Britain's military targets or inflicted losses on the British government then we would have been very happy," he said.
Taliban fighters would attack British troops in Afghanistan but they were not involved in the London bombs, he said. "We will take revenge on Britain in Afghanistan but, nevertheless, the Taliban have nothing to do with these blasts," he said.
Hakimi said Britain's rulers had been oppressing Muslims all over the world. "The people of Britain should find out the reasons behind these blasts because Britain has carried out oppression of Muslims all over the world and it has supported the United States in its illegitimate occupation of Afghanistan."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/08/2005 02:27 ||
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Headline (1): Taliban Not Happy About Bombing!
Hakimi said the Taliban were neither sad nor happy about the four bombs on London's transport network that killed at least 37 people and wounded about 700.
Headline (2): Taliban says Bombers Goofed!
"Had these blasts been directed at Britain's military targets or inflicted losses on the British government then we would have been very happy," he said.
And I'm not even a journalist!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/08/2005 7:56 Comments ||
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A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents ...
The recent arrest of an al Qaeda terrorist in Pakistan provided some clues that terrorists were planning attacks on trains and buses, but there were no specific warnings of the bombings in London yesterday, U.S. officials said.
The lack of a specific warning highlights continuing U.S. intelligence shortcomings in spying on al Qaeda and related Islamist groups, which are suspected in the attacks.
"I'm not aware of any specific intelligence that suggested this was going to take place," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters after the bombings.
Officials said the bombings likely were carried out by a "pop-up" cell of Islamic militants loyal to, and perhaps supported by, al Qaeda, delivering a stark reminder of how difficult it is to penetrate terror plots by groups that Western intelligence services have not identified.
A U.S. intelligence official said Washington was not aware of the "Secret Organization Group of al Qaeda Jihad Organization in Europe," which took responsibility for the four explosions in subways and a double-decker bus.
A government terrorism expert also said the attack is part of a revival of militant activity in Europe as radical clerics recruit jihadists to fight in Iraq against the U.S.-led coalition, of which Britain is a key member.
"This is a manifestation of a trend we've seen over the past 18 months of greatly heightened al Qaeda and pro-al Qaeda activity in Europe designed mainly to recruit for the battlefields in Iraq and, more lately, in Afghanistan," said Kenneth Katzman, a terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service.
Other intelligence officials said there have been few reports in recent months indicating possible attacks by Islamic terrorists in the United States or abroad. One U.S. security agency official said there had been some "extremely vague" intelligence reporting in the past several weeks indicating that al Qaeda was planning a "Madrid-style attack."
The intelligence reports on possible train and bus bombings followed the May arrest in Pakistan of al Qaeda's No. 3 leader, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who is now in U.S. custody, the official said.
"It was very generic stuff that mentioned that 'we would like to do what we did in Madrid' and target transportation systems," the official said.
A second U.S. official said that although there were no specific intelligence reports of an attack, "it was no secret that al Qaeda and like-minded associates were impressed with what happened in Madrid."
"That was an operation that didn't take much planning and resources but had an impact," the official said.
It is not known whether those responsible for yesterday's bombings were Islamists from Britain or from outside the country, the U.S. official said.
A senior U.S. intelligence official, in a briefing last night, said that although "we don't know who was responsible for the attacks," the method of attack suggested Osama bin Laden-inspired terrorism.
"The attack methodology is consistent with what we know that al Qaeda has planned for in the past. We also see it as consistent with what happened in Madrid, which was carried out by an al Qaeda-inspired ... group," he said.
Britain's Muslim community in the past has provided a base for extremists, the official said.
Recent terrorist activity has included the attempt by Richard C. Reid, a British citizen and Muslim convert, to blow up a U.S. airliner with a shoe bomb and the arrest of Abu Issa al-Hindi, who was taken into custody in August in London, the official said.
Al-Hindi was dispatched by al Qaeda in 2000 and 2001 to survey bombing targets in New York.
Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey said yesterday's bombings show the difficulties of getting intelligence about a pending attack.
"I think it's always going to be unlikely that we're going to get specific tip-offs to specific times of specific attacks," Mr. Woolsey said. "They are just very difficult to penetrate, compared to, say, the Soviet government."
The attack underscores the advantages al Qaeda-affiliated groups have anywhere in the world. They can quickly form cells; plan attacks in basements, cafes or apartments; build rudimentary improvised explosive devices; and then execute mass killings without signaling their activities to intelligence services.
"There are fundamentalist groups out there who are bent on doing terrorist attacks, and they don't have to be highly sophisticated, like the 9/11 plot, which was very sophisticated, years in planning, with security, hijackings, flying airplanes," said the intelligence official, who asked not to be identified. "This may come down to a group of individuals who had backpacks on trains and buses and detonated themselves or were timed to go off."
"You have groups that pop up and then go away," the official added. "Some pop up and merge. It's impossible to know how many al Qaeda-affiliated groups there are in the world. It's an unknown factor."
Mr. Katzman said al Qaeda "is trying to regroup. I'm not buying into some of the theses I see out there that it is immutably atomized into local groups, local commanders. I think bin Laden is a warrior trying to bring back some sort of central direction to it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/08/2005 02:24 ||
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UPPER DIR: Police said on Thursday that one of the men involved in the murder of a female rights activist and her daughter last Friday had been arrested. District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Ayub told a press conference that Ali Zer, one of the five men involved in the murder Zubaida Begum (40) and her 17-year-old daughter Shumaila, was arrested. âWe are also close to arresting the other men behind the double murder,â he added.
Zubaida Begum and her daughter were killed because of her (Zubaidaâs) association with a non-government organisation (NGO). Zubeida Begum was a member of the Aurat Foundation and was actively campaigning for womenâs rights in Upper Dir, which is the stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Ali Zer had told police that he had been âincitedâ at a local mosque to kill the woman as she was âinvolved in immoral thingsâ, the DPO added. âA man at the mosque taunted him and told him that if he was brave enough, he should stop his relative from doing âimmoralâ deeds,â he said.
Zubaida was shot more than a dozen times at her house on July 1 while her daughter died in a hospital in Peshawar last Monday. âInvestigators have concluded that five people were involved in the murder,â the DPO said, adding that the car used in the double murder had been found, which led to Ali Zerâs arrest.
Here's a suggestion that no one in Pakland will ever take: the guy was incited to bump off two women at his friendly neighborhood mosque. Send a government hard boy to the mosque and after he takes his shoes off, performs his ablutions, and whatever the hell else they do, have him shoot the holy man right through the turban. See how long it'll be before the next incitement. Rinse, repeat as necessary.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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âA man at the mosque taunted him and told him that if he was brave enough, he should stop his relative from doing âimmoralâ deeds,â he said.
After he walked out, I wonder if they all started doing big "L" things with their arms?
Palestinian and Syrian leaders met Thursday with the Damascus-based heads of Palestinian factions, including leading groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in a bid to boost Palestinian efforts to form a national unity government, officials said. The meeting came days after Hamas rebuffed invitations to join the Palestinian government, which would oversee the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip due to be launched in mid-August. Before the tripartite gathering, Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is on his first visit to Damascus since being elected in January as successor to the late Yasser Arafat, the official news agency SANA reported. He said Syria "is ready today to help the pursuit of a constructive dialogue which seeks to unify the ranks because Palestinian national unity is the guarantee for accomplishing legitimate goals" of the Palestinian people.
Abbas discussed with Assad "measures taken by the Palestinian Authority... to build an independent state" and described "difficulties the Palestinian Authority has faced, particularly Israel's intransigence," SANA said. Afterwards, the two men held a luncheon meeting with the heads of Palestinian movements based in Damascus. Ten opposition groups have been based in the Syrian capital since the 1980s, but they closed their Damascus offices two years ago and their leaders adopted a low profile amid US charges of Syrian support for Palestinian factions. "All the heads of the movements in Damascus were present at the lunch," said Maher Taher, the Damascus representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hamas was at loggerheads with the Palestinian Authority earlier this week after shunning an offer to join a unity government, and vowed to resist any bid to disarm its members. "We will not participate in this government for it is not the right mechanism," Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said Tuesday. Taher said the meeting "shows the depth of relations between Syria and Palestine, and the unity of the Palestinian people. We have a real opportunity to seal our Palestinian national unity." Abbas' visit, which began on Wednesday, is expected to reinforce an improvement in ties between Damascus and the Palestinian Authority. Relations between Damascus and Arafat varied over the decades from strained to hostile, especially after the 1993 autonomy accords between Israel and the Palestinians, which were vehemently opposed by Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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Islamist leader Hassan Turabi has launched his fiercest attack to date against Sudan's new interim constitution, due to be signed on Saturday under a north-south peace deal. Turabi, who was President Omar Bashir's one-time mentor and only freed last week after 15 months in detention over an alleged coup plot, said it was drafted undemocratically. The interim constitution was written by a committee "that was not representative of the Sudanese people," Turabi told a crowd of some 5,000 people late Wednesday in his first public rally since being freed.
"For instance, I wasn't there..."
"Constitutions around the world are drafted by legislative organs rather than committees," he said.
I think he's got that bass-ackwards, but I could be wrong...
Turabi had celebrated his first day of freedom on June 30 by criticising the new charter that sets quotas for political representation, when "this should be left to the people to determine," and by attacking the government's record on civil liberties. But Sudanese officials and MPs hailed the charter, unanimously passed by parliament on Wednesday, as an important and historic document. Even if the text had been drafted by the current legislature, said Turabi, it would still be undemocratic because its members "were either appointed or came through uncontested elections."
"And nobody invited me. They didn't even send a card..."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
British investigators hunted on Saturday for the suspected al Qaeda bombers who killed more than 50 people on London underground trains and a bus as an Islamist group made a new claim of responsibility for the attacks. Flowers, notes and appeals for information about missing relatives were piled outside King's Cross station, where bodies were still trapped deep underground. More than 25 people, of many nationalities and religions, were still unaccounted for. "Barbarism will never kill freedom," read one note in French. "Madrid is with London," said another.
NEW YORK: The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the deadly bombings in London, saying it regarded any act of terrorism as "a threat to peace and security." Resolution 1611, adopted unanimously by the council's 15 members, "condemns without reservation the attacks in London on 7 July 2005, and regards any act of terrorism as a threat to peace and security." It also called on all states "to cooperate in efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these barbaric acts."
UPPER DIR: Police said on Thursday that one of the men involved in the murder of a female rights activist and her daughter last Friday had been arrested. District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Ayub told a press conference that 
Palestinian and Syrian leaders met Thursday with the Damascus-based heads of Palestinian factions, including leading groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in a bid to boost Palestinian efforts to form a national unity government, officials said. The meeting came days after Hamas rebuffed invitations to join the Palestinian government, which would oversee the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip due to be launched in mid-August. Before the tripartite gathering, Syrian President 
Islamist leader 
