Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood was stunned by criticism from al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawaheri over its participation in parliamentary elections, according to a report Saturday by Asharq al- Awsat newspaper. Brotherhood spokesman Essam al-Erian told the Pan Arab daily that al-Zawaheri, whose latest video tape was aired by al-Jazeera satellite channel Friday, was the only person not to view the Moslem Brotherhood's participation in December's elections positively.
Egyptian-born al-Zawaheri, regarded as al-Qaeda number two after Osama bin Laden, implied in the tape that the Brotherhood was being toyed with by the Egyptian regime and the United States by being allowed to achieve its biggest win ever in the elections in which it took 20 per cent of the seats. He pointed to the Brotherhood's past electoral losses the experience of Algerian Islamists in the early 1990s, suggesting that Islamists would always be blocked by domestic and foreign powers from taking power via the ballot box. Al-Zawaheri's comments come at a time when plans by the extremist Hamas organisation to run in Palestinian legislative elections later this month have renewed the controversy over whether Islamist groups should be allowed to participate in elections.
Al-Erian charged that al-Zawaheri's criticism put the al-Qaeda man in the ranks of the ultra-secularists, and voices in the regime and the West that attacked the Brotherhood's participation in the elections. Opponents of Islamists' participation in elections say that a win by any such group would mean an end to democracy and the suppression of minority and women's rights. Proponents of allowing Islamists to stand in elections say that such groups' popularity would inevitably be reduced by a large win because participating in government requires making compromises and take specific stances - in effect doing away with the vague positions that win such groups their broad followings.
'What's strange is that al-Zawaheri did not know about the warning from the European Union, the United States and (Israeli Premier Ariel) Sharon against Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections,' al-Erian continued. The EU said in December that it might halt its aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas wins the elections. 'We are waiting to see where al-Zawerhi stands,' al-Erian added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:05 ||
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#1
Fascinating. I wasn't aware how open the Moslem Brotherhood was about sympathy with al-Qaeda. "'We are waiting to see where al-Zawerhi stands,' al-Erian added."
I'd not bother refuting criticism from Charles Taylor, but I guess Zawaheri commands a lot of respect in the Brotherhood.
Posted by: James ||
01/08/2006 13:35 Comments ||
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"How sharper than a serpent's tooth...," but I suppose it isn't fair to expect Muslim Brotherhooders to know that particular verse of the Old Testament.
...Saudi Arabia has, for the last two years, accepted Iraq's estimation of its population, although the figure is exaggerated," Saudi media on Saturday quoted an official from the ministry of pilgrimage affairs as saying....Saudi Arabia uses a system granting countries 1000 permits for every one million Muslims... Aljazeera sought a reaction to the Saudi statements from officials in the Iraqi government, but they declined to comment citing their boycott of Aljazeera.
Soddies don't want the newly democratized Iraqis proseletizing to the Starting-To-Ask-Uncomfortable-Questions ummah. Heh. You could see that Zawahiri is already starting to feel the heat of the fires of freedom; if the Iraqis are considered unclean and cast out by the Islamists I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. The Iraqis may just find themselves too busy building their country and its economy to have time to go throw their money away in baksheesh to the Saudi bureaucracy.
At least 30 people were injured in a clash between two factions of local BNP over toll collection at Kalinagar village under Singra upazila of Natore yesterday. Three of the injured--Nazma, Zakaria and Nuhu-- received bullet injuries. They are undergoing treatment at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH). Source said Shamsu, a supporter of Ibrahim Khalil alias Fatik, general secretary of Singra upazila Swechchhasebak Dal, and Dulal, a supporter of Fazlur Rahman alias Fonu, vice president of Kalam Union unit of the BNP, had an altercation over collection of toll from a cattle trader at Beeldahar Bazar in the morning. At one stage, the followers of Shamsu and Dulal were locked in a fierce clash, leaving 30 people injured. Besides, two shops were also damaged during the clash. The other injured were admitted to Natore and Singra hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Royal Bank of Scotland, which is moving to dismiss litigation against it for allegedly providing financial services to terrorist organizations, has something of a history of doing business with groups designated as terrorists. In the wake of the 9/11/01 attacks, it emerged that RBSâ Citizens Bank unit had transferred money for Al-Barakaat, which even RBS later acknowledged to the Federal Reserve âappears to have provided funds to Al-Qaeda.â RBSâ defense was that its wire transfers had been to the United Arab Emirates which âwas not at the time of the wire (or today) in the high-risk for anti-money laundering category.â
It also emerged that up to and after 9/11/01, Royal Bank of Scotlandâs NatWest unit was a correspondent bank for Banke Millie Afghan Kabul, a nationalized company of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. Banke Millie was among seven corporations blacklisted by the United Nations in April 2000 as part of a sanctions regime against the Taliban. RBSâ NatWest, however, continued to be listed as a correspondent for Banke Millie long after the UN designation. While RBSâ chairman Sir Fred Goodwin characterized the issue, then raised by Inner City Press, as ânonsense,â even the Federal Reserve grilled RBS about it. A Federal Reserve memo obtained by Inner City Press reflects that
âReserve Bank and Board staff called Greg Lyons, counsel for Citizens, to ask him to provide the following information in writing to the Reserve Bank: (1) an explanation of RBS's relationship with Afghan organizations, (2) a description of RBS's due diligence process regarding banks for which RBS offers correspondent services, and (3) a list of RBS's correspondent banks. Mr. Lyons agreed to provide a written response to our request. Staff also requested that a copy of the written response be provided to Inner City Press.â
RBS withheld its list of correspondent banks. RBS was subsequently hit with the highest fine issued by the UK Financial Services Authority, for lack of anti-money laundering controls. The FSA's December 17, 2002, press release stated that its
âinvestigation revealed weaknesses in RBS's anti-money laundering controls across its retail network. The investigation found that RBS failed either to obtain sufficient 'know your customer' ("KYC") documentation adequately to establish customer identity, or to retain such documentation, in an unacceptable number of new accounts opened across its retail network.â
Despite this history, RBS spokesman Mike Keohane has stated that that the issues raised against RBS have âno merit,â and RBS is arguing that it cannot be sued in the United States, despite its ownership of Citizens Bank in the Northeast, Charter One Bank in the Midwest, and RBS Greenwich Capital Markets, which does business nation- (and world-) wide, including with high-cost mortgage lenders. The current case is 05-CV- 4622, before Judge Charles Sifton of in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, brought by plaintiffs including Tzvi Weiss, regarding RBS NatWest Account Number 140-00-08537933, for Interpal. RBS has told Judge Sifton it will file a motion on January 26 seeking dismissal of the case, in which the plaintiffs are seeking treble damages.
A separate case is pending in New Jersey against Credit Agricoleâs Credit Lyonnais unit, which claims that it closed the account at issue in September 2003. RBS, on the other hand, will not confirm or deny with whom it currently banks â just as it would not disclose after 9/11/01 its correspondent banking relationship, even in Afghanistan. Similarly, after the fall of Saddam Husseinâs regime in Iraq, U.S. currency transferred to Iraq in violation of the sanctions and rules of the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control was traced to a Royal Bank of Scotland vault in London. When the issue was raised to the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Fed deferred to vaguely-defined (and not yet disclosed) âconfidential compliance examinations.â Seeing the now-ubiquitous RBS âless talk, more actionâ advertisements around New York City, including in the corridors of LaGuardia Airport, one wag suggested a modification: âRBS means less standards, more profits.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:08 ||
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Hat tip: LGF
A Turkish court has approved the release of the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, saying he has completed his prison term, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.
Turkish citizen Mehmet Ali Agca, 46, was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in prison in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter's Square in Rome. His motives for the attack remain unclear between normal Islamic hatred of infidels and the likelihood of being a proxy of the KGB. Agca was expected to be released as early as Monday, Anatolia added.
Agca, a draft-dodger, was expected to be immediately enlisted by the military for obligatory military service, Anatolia said. And they're looking forward to having him, too.
Upon his return to Turkey, Agca was sent to prison to serve a 10-year sentence for murdering Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci in 1979. He was separately sentenced to seven years and four months for two robberies in Turkey the same year. So, 2000 + 10 years + 7 years = 2006. Must have gone to public schools.
#1
Pope John Paul II forgave Agca, but even he called him a "professional assassin" in his book "Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium." Either the death penalty or life without parole (really!) are the only suitable penalties for such. Turkey has struck another blow for terrorism rather than against it.
When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including one in which he is shown wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, it expected a strong reaction in this country of 5.4 million people.
But the paper was unprepared for the global furor that ensued, including demonstrations in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, death threats against the artists, condemnation from 11 Muslim countries and a rebuke from the United Nations.
"The cartoons did nothing that transcends the cultural norms of secular Denmark, and this was not a provocation to insult Muslims," said Flemming Rose, cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest newspaper, which has declined to apologize for the drawings.
"But if we talk of freedom of speech, even if it was a provocation, that does not make our right to do it any less legitimate before the law," he added in an interview from Miami. He spent months living under police protection in Denmark.
As countries across Europe grapple with how to assimilate their growing Muslim populations in the post-9/11 world, Denmark has become an unlikely flashpoint in the escalating culture wars between Islam and the West. The publication of the cartoons in late September has provoked a fierce national debate over whether Denmark's famously liberal laws on free speech have gone too far.
It also has tested the patience of Denmark's 200,000 Muslims. Many of them say the cartoons reflect an intensifying anti-immigrant climate that is stigmatizing minorities and radicalizing young Muslims.
In Norrebro, an ethnically mixed neighborhood of Copenhagen where the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard is buried and where kebab stands dot the tree-lined streets, Imam Ahmed Abu-Laban, a leader among Denmark's Muslims, bristles at what he calls the "Islam phobia" gripping the country. He asserted that the cartoons had been calculated to incite Muslims because it was well known that in Islam depictions of the prophet were considered blasphemy.
"We are being mentally tortured," Imam Ahmed said at his mosque, an anonymous building that looks more like an apartment complex than a house of worship. "The cartoons are an insult against Islam, an attempt by right-wing forces in this country to get a rise out of the Muslim community and so portray us as against Danish values."
Mr. Rose, once a journalist in Iran, said he decided to commission the cartoons for Jyllands-Posten when he heard that Danish cartoonists were too scared of Muslim fundamentalists to illustrate a new children's biography of Muhammad.
Annoyed at the self-censorship he said had overtaken Europe since the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered last year by a Muslim radical for criticizing Islam's treatment of women, Mr. Rose said he decided to test Denmark's free speech norms.
The cartoons were published amid the growth of an anti-immigrant sentiment in Denmark, reflected in the rise of the far-right Danish People's Party. The party, which holds 13 percent of the seats in the Danish Parliament, has helped to push through the toughest anti-immigration rules on the Continent, including a rule preventing Danish citizens age 24 or younger from bringing in spouses from outside Denmark.
Soren Krarup, a retired priest and leading voice in the party, said the Muslim response to the cartoons showed that Islam was not compatible with Danish customs. He said Jesus had been satirized in Danish literature and popular culture for centuries - including a recent much-publicized Danish painting of Jesus with an erection - so why not Muhammad? He also argues that Muslims must learn to integrate.
"Muslims who come here reject our culture," he said. "Muslim immigration is a way for Muslims to conquer us, just as they have done for the past 1,400 years."
Muslim leaders say that such talk helped create the atmosphere that allowed the cartoons to be published. And they contend that it is alienating the people the Danish People's Party says it wants to assimilate.
In a sign that some Muslims are becoming radicalized, Danish counterterrorism officials say more young Danish Muslims are being drawn to Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, which seeks the unification of all Muslim countries under one leader and Shariah, the Islamic legal code. The group, which distributes literature at mosques and on the Internet, is banned in most of the Muslim world, as well as in Russia and Germany.
But because its main weapon is ideology rather than explosives, Danish officials say, it is allowed to operate in Denmark under the same permissive rules that allowed the publication of the cartoons. Under Danish law, inciting someone to commit an act of terror is illegal, but spouting vitriol against the West or satirizing Muhammad is not. The State Prosecutor's Office investigated the group in spring 2004 and decided not to ban it because it had not broken the law.
The free speech debate and the concerns over Hizb ut-Tahrir swept through Denmark's public schools last month when the imam's 17-year-old son, Taim, was expelled from Vester Borgerdyd School, after teachers overheard him giving sermons calling for the destruction of Israel and assailing Danish democracy during Friday Prayer at the school. The imam said his son became radicalized after being recruited by Hizb ut-Tahrir.
He said he opposed his son's sermons and had told his son to leave the house for defying him. But he also criticized the ruling that followed: a committee of mostly Christian rectors banned Friday Prayer at public schools across Denmark.
"They are trying to turn Denmark into a banana republic," said Imam Ahmed. "How is it O.K. to publish the cartoons, yet my son is portrayed as an ayatollah?"
At Vester Borgerdyd School, where the walls are lined with photographs of smiling students in Muslim dress, the headmistress, Anne Birgitte Rasmussen, said that Taim Abu-Laban had attracted a following and that she had feared his sermons would raise tensions among the school's more moderate Muslims.
"The tone of the political debate in this country, the talk about Muslims and immigrants, is making it very difficult for us," she said.
Mr. Rose, the editor, said free speech, no matter how radical, should be allowed to flourish, from all varieties of perspectives.
"Muslims should be allowed to burn the Danish flag in a public square if that's within the boundaries of the law," he said. "Though I think this would be a strange signal to the Danish people who have hosted them."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:28 ||
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#1
"Muslim immigration is a way for Muslims to conquer us, just as they have done for the past 1,400 years."
#3
Muslims don't let Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc migrate (except on business visas) to their cesspools. Why should we take unassimilating savages whose loyalty is elsewhere, and who become more and more dangerous as their numbers grow? Kick 'em out!
#4
Annoyed at the self-censorship he said had overtaken Europe since the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered last year by a Muslim radical for criticizing Islam's treatment of women, Mr. Rose said he decided to test Denmark's free speech norms.
Show them why Andalusians prayed to Allah to avert Viking raids!
#5
OF course Imans need free speech to preach hatred and incite violence, rape, and murder in their mosques but others can't have the free speech to draw silly looking cartoons.
Sounds like the LLL to me. Free speech for me (so I can kill you) but not for thee (so you can't defend youtself)
#6
Denmark simply needs to show Europe the way to handle this: deport all Muslims immediately on the justified grounds that they are dangerous to the state. Then modify the immigration rules to prohibit the admittance of Muslims to Denmark. As the Israelis say, no Muslims=no terror.
Posted by: mac ||
01/08/2006 12:36 Comments ||
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#7
Bottom line is that Muhammad was a terrorist, pIlam is a terrorist and the porKoran is nothing more that a terrorist manual.
Posted by: Muhammad Screwed My Pig Allah ||
01/08/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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(CBS) NEW YORK A controversial Muslim cleric banned from the state prison system for allegedly calling the Sept. 11 hijackers martyrs now has been arrested for gun possession. Search warrants were executed at his homes in the Bronx and a suburb of Albany.
On Dec. 30, Imam Wariff Deen Umar, a former Black Panther and member of the Nation of Islam, said a tenant hit him while arguing about another apartment. The tenant says he did not.
"I pushed him away from my face," the tenant said.
Imam Umar admits he then aimed a shotgun at the larger man, who left. The Imam says he called police, who arrested him. At the police station the FBI interrogated him, according to the Imam, about Sept. 11 and terrorist
connections. The police executed a search warrant on his Bronx apartment and took computer hard drives and legal papers. RD
BEIJI, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers in the field were not all supportive of a Pentagon study that found improved body armor saves lives, with some troops arguing Saturday that more armor would hinder combat effectiveness.
The unreleased study examined 93 fatal wounds to Marines from the start of the Iraq war in March 2003 through June 2005. It concluded 74 of them were bullet or shrapnel wounds to shoulders or torso areas unprotected by traditional ceramic armor plating.
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade ``Rakkasans'' are required to wear an array of protective clothing they refer to as their ``happy gear,'' ranging from Kevlar drapes over their shoulders and sides, to knee pads and fire-resistant uniforms.
But many soldiers say they feel encumbered by the weight and restricted by fabric that does not move as they do. They frequently joke as they strap on their equipment before a patrol, and express relief when they return and peel it off.
Second Lt. Josh Suthoff, 23, of Jefferson City, Mo., said he already sacrifices enough movement when he wears the equipment. More armor would only increase his chances of getting killed, he said. ``You can slap body armor on all you want, but it's not going to help anything. When it's your time, it's your time,'' said Suthoff, a platoon leader in the brigade's 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment. ``I'd go out with less body armor if I could.''
The study and their remarks highlight the difficulty faced by the Army and Marine Corps in providing the best level of body armor protection in a war against an insurgency whose tactics are constantly changing. Both the Army and the Marines have weighed the expected payoff in additional safety from extra armor against the measurable loss of combat effectiveness from too much armor.
According to a summary of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's study obtained Friday evening by The Associated Press, the 93 Marines who died from a primary lethal injury of the torso were among 401 Marines who died from combat injuries in Iraq between the start of the war and June 2005.
A military advocacy group, Soldiers for Truth, posted an article about the study on its Web site this week. On Friday evening, The New York Times reported in its online edition that the study for the first time shows the cost in lives lost from inadequate armor.
Autopsy reports and photographic records were analyzed to help the military determine possible body armor redesign. Of 39 fatal torso wounds in which the bullet or shrapnel entered the Marine's body outside of the ceramic armor plate protecting the chest and back, 31 were close to the plate's edge, according to the study, which was conducted last summer.
Some soldiers felt unhappy that ceramic plates to protect their sides and shoulders were available, but not offered, when they deployed for Iraq in September. ``If it's going to protect a soldier or save his life, they definitely should have been afforded the opportunity to wear it,'' said Staff Sgt. Shaun Benoit, 26, of Conneaut, Ohio. ``I want to know where there was a break in communication.''
Others questioned the effectiveness of additional body armor. ``It's the Army's responsibility to get soldiers the armor they need. But that doesn't mean those deaths could have been prevented,'' said Spc. Robert Reid, 21, of Atlanta.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who was in Iraq on Saturday, said military leaders told him that body armor has improved since the initial invasion in 2003 and that the military hoped to gradually transition to the improved armor.
The debate between protection versus mobility has dominated military doctrine since the Middle Ages, when knights wrapped themselves in metal suits for battle, said Capt. Jamey Turner, 35, of Baton Rouge, La., a commander in the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment.
The issue comes up daily on the battlefield in Iraq, and soldiers need to realize there is no such thing as 100 percent protection, he said. ``You've got to sacrifice some protection for mobility,'' he added. ``If you cover your entire body in ceramic plates, you're just not going to be able to move.''
Others in the regiment said the issue of protecting soldiers with more body armor is of greater concern at home than among soldiers in Iraq, who have seen firsthand how life and death hang on a sliver of luck when an improvised explosive device hits a Humvee. ``These guys over here are husbands, sons and daughters. It's understandable people at home would want all the protection in the world for us. But realistically, it just don't work,'' said Sgt. Paul Hare, 40, of Tucumcari, N.M.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2006 00:22 ||
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#1
Like a rich armor worn in heat of day.
That scalds with safety.
#3
Ever play Croquette?
Hitting a hard surface with another hard surface causes the inertia to transmit freely, as in the soft/hard armor will give you a knockdown punch and transmit all the inertia into your body.
I can see some advantage, you don't have a hole in you, but pulverized soft tissues will kill all the same.
Needs more thought.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2006 9:37 Comments ||
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#4
Seems like a lot of emotion in the discussion and not much analysis. One of a commanders objectives should be to bring as many troops home as possible regardless of the inevitable and enjoyable bitching.
What are the facts? No reporting on how the Rakkasans have done with the full suit versus soldiers otherwise similarly deployed. That would be interesting as opposed to he said, she said. Typical MSM
#5
Well, RJ, the intertia has to go somewhere. Spreading it over more of the body is the best that can be done, unless we want to comtemplate Reactive body armor.
#7
The examples of these soldiers comments are more a product of soldiers hardened in combat and feeling "When its your time" attitude, as well as just plain old bitching. Later in life when they get home or after they are saved by a shot to the chest they will reevaluate this attitude. Commander's must continue to balance combat effectiveness with force protection and force them to wear it. The stuff is hot, weighs a lot and uncomfortable, but it's a lot better than the stuff we wore in the 80's. Hearing soldiers bitch about it means the commanders are doing their job, keep it up. Soon the discomfort of war will be nothing but a war story when they get home.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2006 10:52 Comments ||
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#8
There was also an item in the discussion about this over at Defensetech concerning quality control in the existing armor. _Some_ of the ceramic inserts that were made for the Stryker vehicle failed their quality-control tests and had to be redone. Also, there was a big rush to put this stuff into service.
Notice the wording in the second paragraph, "...unprotected by traditional ceramic armor plating."
This stuff has only been in production since '99 or so. It's not "traditional."
I _am_ interested in designing better armor, I'm going to try to put together an entry in the next Grand Challenge, which is for light vehicle armor. But this report, and the second-rate political reportage behind it, doesn't tell me anything useful.
Posted by: Phil ||
01/08/2006 11:02 Comments ||
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#9
Philâs right and they also donât talk about what failed in the quality testing. Iâm sure even the failed ceramic armor outperformed the previous armor. We used to slip steel plates into our flight gear, that was heavy, not very effective and uncomfortable. Then it went to Kevlar, bulky and heavy. Now the new ceramic stuff is lighter and better. We test the body armor as part of life cycle management and it has held up better than expected, even with the rush to fielding. Good luck Phil, we need lighter and tougher armor.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2006 11:20 Comments ||
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#10
I too hope that we're able to discover a lighter more movable armor to protect all of our soldiers in the best way.
I do question outlining the details for all to see. The more information that the enemy gets the better they can devise ways to penetrate it.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/08/2006 11:36 Comments ||
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#11
I have never served in combat but I did get to wear just the Helmet and Flak vest in training and that shit was heavy. I am sure we are capable of building a suit al-la-Halo but it would have to weigh a ton and I doubt that anyone could move effectively in combat (aside from the game). What is NOT pointed out is that given the attacks, the armor the troops are wearing seems to lessen the casualties in Iraq.
#12
49 Pan: While the contest is for armor for light vehicles, and I'm just working on flat rigid panels for same (it's all I'll have the equipment to deal with for the current concept, which I don't really want to discuss openly), I would like to solicit suggestions from anyone who's actually been there...
Posted by: Phil ||
01/08/2006 12:04 Comments ||
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#13
good luck & success, Phil
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 12:15 Comments ||
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#14
Phil, I have not been shot while wearing armor, or in a newly armored vehicle. However, tag my email and I will connect you with some close friends that have and are believers.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2006 13:22 Comments ||
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#15
Jason Van Steenwyck at iraqnow.blogspot.com had some thoughts about the armor in the field. He actually declined to wear the neck piece 'cos it interfered with his ability to sight and shoot his weapon. And he chose not to wear the crotch armor 'cos...it looked stupid.
#16
Not to second guess a troop in the field but the parts that armor protects are pretty valuable. Nothing looks cool in combat except getting out of the fight with all parts attached! I would dare say his wife has a different perspective on what looks cool!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2006 14:20 Comments ||
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#17
Would love to read about 1,000 pieces of written testimony from vets who were wearing this modern armor when they were shot. An occasional anecdote isn't that useful.
In 1996, Salim Hamdan, a 26-year-old Yemeni with a thick mustache and kinky black hair, was working part time as a taxi driver, dividing his modest income between the mattress he rented in a crowded boardinghouse in the dirty, bustling city of Sana and his daily supply of khat leaves, the stimulant that most Yemeni men chew by the fistful. Then one day the low-hanging horizon of his life lifted: he was recruited for jihad. He joined about 35 other Muslims, mostly Yemenis, who were preparing to leave for Tajikistan to fight alongside that country's small Islamic insurgency against its Russian-backed government.
One of the group's leaders was a self-assured young man named Nasser al-Bahri. Hamdan, an orphaned only child from a rural tribal village in southern Yemen, was naturally drawn to strong personalities. Although two years his junior, al-Bahri, who grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, was far more worldly and sophisticated than Hamdan and was without question the most educated person he had ever met. Al-Bahri had studied business in college, but he was also deeply steeped in the Koran, having become a devout Muslim as a teenager in rebellion against his bourgeois upbringing. He spoke comfortably and forcefully about the plight of Muslims all over the world, and he had traveled extensively, to places as far as Bosnia and Somalia, to defend his oppressed Islamic brethren.
President Pervez Musharraf has offered to join Indiaâs âfight against terrorismâ in Jammu and Kashmir if New Delhi agrees to pull out troops from Srinagar, Kupwara and Baramulla, the Press Trust of India reported. Pulling COIN troops from the terrorist infested areas and entry points along the LOC?
In his chat to Karan Thapar for CNN/IBN TV news channel, President Musharraf said he was disappointed at the lack of progress in the peace process and complained that there was ânot muchâ response from India to the ideas proposed by him for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. He declined that some of his top commanders do not back his peace initiatives with India, saying he would âthrow outâ any corps commander if he declined to obey his orders or opposed them. âLet me tell you, this is not a banana republic army. It is an army that fought wars. It is an extremely disciplined army. It is totally loyal and committed to me. I know that,â he said in the interview to be telecast tomorrow.
The president said he would invite Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to watch one of the India-Pakistan cricket matches in order to take the peace process between the two countries forward. âLet me say I would like to invite him to Pakistan to watch any part of the series,â Musharraf said. He said the Indian prime minister was due to visit Pakistan. âHe is supposed to visit us. He said so in New York (last year when they met in September at the UN) and he has not come yet,â he told Thapar.
Musharraf added any such visit by Singh should be productive and take the peace process forward. âI do not mind inviting him at all. I want the peace process to move forward. If he comes here and we do nothing about the peace process, I am afraid we are wasting our time.â Musharrafâs comments follow remarks by Pakistan Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam that Pakistan would invite Singh if he wished to watch one of the matches. âOn its part Islamabad would welcome a visit by Singh. If the prime minister wishes to come, an invitation will be extended,â she said two days ago. online
Posted by: john ||
01/08/2006 10:36 ||
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#1
The Pak newspaper The Nation has an editorial on this
Incomprehensible!
While one can understand the Presidentâs proposal that India withdraw its armed forces from Srinagar, Kupwara and Baramulla, one wonders how he would ensure the end of militancy that is entirely indigenous in nature.
'cause it isn't and Perv has now implicitly admitted it
The departure of troops from these main towns, which constitute the hub of resistance, would not mean the end of Indian rule. There will remain other security forces like the police and the puppet government and its agencies to do New Delhiâs bidding, and they would be considered legitimate targets by the freedom fighters, who would be content with nothing short of separation from India. Besides, how would the assurance of an end to resistance square with our contention that it is purely indigenous? Similarly incomprehensible is his idea of joining India to fight âterrorismâ in Kashmir. Would that involve sending Pakistani troops in the Valley to help India stamp out the freedom struggle and would an arrogant, sovereign state like India accept foreign presence on a territory it claims its integral part? Or are we talking about intelligence sharing, or handing over Kashmiris for internment in some Indian Abu Ghraib? The idea of ending the Kashmirisâ struggle with an outside help is a non-starter unless implemented in the overall context of completely winding up the Indian occupation.
New Delhi has not taken long to turn down the proposal, maintaining that demilitarisation or redeployment of security forces was based on the assessment of the security situation and was a sovereign decision. Not only that. External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna accused Pakistan of âcrossborder terrorism and violence perpetrated by Pakistan-based terrorist groupsâ when he remarked that as long as that continued, India would fulfil its responsibility to safeguard the lives and security of its citizens. He also rejected the self-government proposal, saying that the âstate already enjoyed autonomy.â With these ground realities and the Presidentâs own disappointment at the lack of Indian response on the core issue, the whole peace process that appeared flawed right from the start is fast dissolving into futility. The only beneficiary from the CBMs has been India, which has skilfully broken our resistance to developing commercial relations and initiating people-to-people contacts to the neglect of settling not only Kashmir but also other issues like Sir Creek, Siachen and water disputes. It has persisted in brutally suppressing the Kashmiris, while extracting one concession after another from Islamabad, even making it dilute its principled stand on the right of self-determination.
Instead of meeting Pakistan half way, it has continued in its old game of fomenting trouble within Pakistan as the President has told the CNN/IBN channel about Indiaâs involvement in Balochistan. It is time Pakistan held a thorough review of the peace process and disabused itself of the notion that the course it adopted can ever lead to an equitable solution of the Kashmir dispute. There should be frank discussion on these issues, including the evidence of Indiaâs involvement in Balochistan, with Dr Manmohan Singh, when he visits Pakistan next month.
Posted by: john ||
01/08/2006 16:16 Comments ||
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Every year, as we enter a New Year, my mind goes back to Daniel Pearl, the Mumbai-based American correspondent of Wall Street Journal, who met with a brutal end to his young life during a visit to Karachi in January 2002 to enquire, inter alia, into the suspected Pakistani links of international jihadi terrorists.
In his keenness to find out the truth, Pearl fell into a treacherous trap laid by a mixed group of Pakistani terrorists belonging to different organisations and orchestrated by Omar Sheikh, a British resident of Pakistani origin, who had participated in the so-called jihad against the Serbs in Bosnia before shifting to India. He was arrested in India on a charge of involvement in kidnappings for ransom to help the terrorists in J&K.
He was one of those released by the Government of India in December 1999 to meet the demands of a group of terrorists belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) of Pakistan, who had hijacked an Indian aircraft to Kandahar, then under the control of the Taliban. The HUM is one of the founder members of Osama bin Ladenâs International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People floated in February, 1998.
After his release by the Indian authorities, who in a shocking submission to the terrorists handed him over to the Taliban, he crossed over into Pakistan and started helping the IIF. He opened an office at Lahore to help Al-Qaeda in its fund collection and other activities.
He revisited Kandahar shortly before 9/11 and met Osama bin Laden. Shortly after the kidnapping of Pearl and before his murder, Omar Sheikh surrendered to a former official of Pakistanâs ISI, who was then posted as the Home Secretary of the Government of Punjab at Lahore.
The ISI kept him in its custody for some days without making an announcement of his surrender. It then transferred him to the custody of the Lahore Police, who, in turn, handed him over to the Karachi Police. During his interrogation by the Karachi Police, he was reported to have admitted not only his role in the kidnapping of Pearl, but also in the planning of the explosion outside the J&K Legislative Assembly in October, 2001, and in the attack on the Indian Parliament at New Delhi on December 13,2001.
He also reportedly stated that during his visit to Kandahar to meet bin Laden before 9/11, he had come to know of Al Qaedaâs plans for the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US. He reportedly claimed that on his return to Pakistan from Kandahar, he had met Lt.Gen. Ehsanul Haq, then Corps Commander at Peshawar, and conveyed this information to him.
Shortly after the kidnapping of Pearl and before his decapitated dead body was found, Pakistanâs military dictator President General Pervez Musharraf had gone on his first bilateral visit to the US since he seized power in October, 1999. During his stay in Washington DC, he was kept informed by the ISI of all developments relating to Pearl. He concealed the true facts of the case from the US public. He sought to give the false impression that Pearl was still alive so that the positive atmosphere surrounding his visit was not damaged.
Shortly after his return to Pakistan, the ISI announced the discovery of the dead body of Pearl. A video recording made by the perpetrators of his murder showing how his throat was slit was also found. This was the third instance in South Asia in which this modus operandi, which has become the trademark of the Pakistani jihadi terrorist organisations, had been used. The first was in the case of a Western tourist to J&K, who had been kidnapped by the HUM, then known as the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA), in 1995 under the name Al Faran.
The second was on board the hijacked Indian aircraft as it was being taken to Kandahar in December, 1999. The HUM hijackers asked all the business class passengers to shift to the economy class, separated a newly-wed Hindu boy from his young wife, took him to the business class, slit his throat, and sat around him as he bled to death and kept reading from the Holy Koran.
Pearlâs brutal death was the third instance. Since then, there have been many more such instances and this trademark killing of the Pakistani jihadi terrorists has been adopted by the Abu Sayyaf of southern Philippines and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Amir of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The Salafis of Algeria had been using it for many years.
The accomplices of Omar Sheikh in the kidnapping and murder of Pearl were arrested by the police and all of them prosecuted before a court of law. Some of them were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and some others, including Omar Sheikh, were awarded the death penalty.
The State as well as the accused went in appeal against the sentences. The State has demanded the death penalty also for those sentenced to only imprisonment. Omar Sheikh and his accomplices awarded the death penalty have challenged it. It has been nearly three years now since the appeals were filed. There has been no progress in the hearing of the appeals due to repeated adjournments of the hearing under some pretext or the other. It is said that there have been 40 such adjournments so far.
Both Nawaz Sharif, when he was the Prime Minster, and Musharraf had repeatedly amended the Anti-Terrorism Act in order to prevent the terrorists from resorting to such delaying tactics. Musharraf himself had repeatedly used these provisions to pre-empt the efforts of terrorists to delay trials. He had never hesitated to send to the gallows terrorists sentenced to death. The latest example was in respect of some military personnel sentenced to death for their involvement in the attempts to kill him in December, 2003. He got them quickly executed without a momentâs hesitation.
He seems to feel that an Omar Sheikh dead will be more dangerous to him than an Omar Sheikh alive. Or, to put it differently, he seems to feel that an Omar Sheikh alive might be more useful to him in his attempts to keep himself sustained in power than an Omar Sheikh dead. Why?
In the meanwhile, Omar Sheikh is as active as ever from the jail keeping in touch with jihadi terrorists not only in South Asia, but also in the UK and other countries of Europe. Last year, through his lawyers and with the connivance of his jailers, he had statements disseminated all over Pakistan and Afghanistan condemning the US for the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by the US guards at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Well-informed sources in Pakistan claim that two of the perpetrators of the London explosions of July 7,2005, had met him in jail during their visit to Pakistan and that it was he, who had motivated them to launch the terrorist strike in London.
To find out the truth about 9/11, the brutal murder of Pearl , the London explosions, the violent anti-US demonstrations in Afghanistan and many other incidents, it is important to have Omar Sheikh brought out of Pakistan and interrogated by independent non-Pakistani investigators.
Since 9/11, Musharraf has, without a momentâs hesitation, co-operated in the rendition to the US of many brutal terrorists from Pakistan. According to one estimate, about 300 Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists and terrorist suspects had been flown out of Pakistan by the CIA, with the help of Musharraf. The more prominent among them were Abu Zubaidah, Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Abu Faraj al-Libbi. According to Musharrafâs own statements, Abu Faraj was the Al Qaeda mastermind of the two attempts to have him (Musharraf) assassinated in December, 2003. One would have, therefore, expected Musharraf to have retained him in Pakistani custody and questioned in order to identify other military personnel involved in the plot. He did not do so. Instead, he handed him over to the US.
There are only two instances in which Musharraf has fiercely rebuffed suggestions for similarly handing over suspects to the US or the international community âthe cases of Dr AQ Khan, the so-called father of Pakistanâs atomic bomb, and Omar Sheikh.
In the case of AQ Khan, the reasons for Musharrafâs fears are clear. Under interrogation by foreign experts, he might have exposed the role of the late Zia ul-Haq in the transfer of military nuclear technology to Iran and of Musharraf in the transfers to Libya and North Korea.
What is Musharraf afraid of â if it is fear â in the case of Omar Sheikh? If Omar Sheikh knows some deadly secrets about the involvement of Musharraf himself, all the latter has to do is to have the appeal dismissed by the court and have Omar Sheikh executed quickly. That would have been the end of the fear. Why is he not doing it?
Anyone finding the answers would be making a remarkable contribution to solving one of the biggest mysteries of the so-called war against international jihadi terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 01:15 ||
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#1
There is a lot of speculation there, but when Musharaf prevents real interrogations of suspects, speculation is all we have.
#3
Anyone finding the answers would be making a remarkable contribution to solving one of the biggest mysteries of the so-called war against international jihadi terrorism.
What mystery? Like every other ROPer leader "cooperating" in "WOT", Perv endeavors to give the maximum appearance of cooperation while providing minimal substance.
The Sindh home departmentâs indecision has been delaying for more than four months the proceedings of the trial of an accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case. Hashim Qadir alias Arif was declared an absconder along with other co-accused at the arraignment of Omer Saeed Sheikh, who masterminded the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter and three others in 2002. Qadir, according to the investigators of the case, was the man who had set up a meeting between Omer Sheikh and Daniel Pearl at the Akbar International Hotel in Rawalpindi. Intelligence officials said Qadir was one of seven militants still being sought in connection with Pearlâs murder.
Allegedly an activist of the Harkatul Mujahideen, Qadir was arrested in Gujranwala on July 24, 2005. He was brought to Karachi and after the completion of the remand proceedings his case was marked for trial to Anti Terrorism Court-IV (ATC-IV) Karachi headed by Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti. However, Qadirâs trial was stalled after the provincial home department informed the court that a notification was in the pipeline to declare him a dangerous and hardened criminal whose trial should be held inside jail. For four months, the state attorney has been informing the court that the provincial home department is planning to issue a notification to hold Qadirâs trial inside Central Prison Karachi. The case was again fixed for hearing on Saturday before ATC-IV. The state counsel once again sought an adjournment on the grounds that the notification for the jail trial of the accused has not yet been issued.
Qadir, first considered the main suspect in the case, was presumed dead after his family told the police that he was killed while fighting against US troops in Afghanistan. Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in January 2002 while researching a report on Islamist militants. He was later found beheaded. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born militant, was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding the crime while three associates were given life in prison. Their appeals against the convictions are still pending. Intelligence officials said Qadir was found on a bus about to depart for Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, after being traced via the satellite telephone he was carrying.
A police investigator in Karachi said Qadir had acted as a co-ordinator between Omar and Amjad Hussain Farooqi, one of the main suspects in Pearlâs murder described by the authorities as a key link between local militants and al Qaeda. Farooqi was shot and killed by security forces in Nawabshah in September 2004. In November, police shot dead Asim Ghafoor, another militant wanted for Pearlâs abduction and murder, in a clash in Karachi, where Pearl was murdered. Pearlâs widow, Mariane, in her book about her husbandâs murder, A Mighty Heart, said that Qadir worked as a spokesman for the Harkatul Mujahideen (Movement for Holy Warriors), a militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Intelligence officials have said that Qadir also has links to the Jaish-e-Mohammad, another militant group linked to al Qaeda and blamed for a string of attacks in Pakistan, including attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf. Qadirâs arrest came during a crackdown on militants after the 7/7 London bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: A protest rally by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), a human rights body of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, and many civil society organisations on Saturday demanded the government repeal the Hudood and blasphemy laws. The speakers at the rally outside the Lahore Press Club said the government's mishandling of the Sangla Hill incident exposed its claims of enlightened moderation. They said that discriminatory laws had curbed minorities' freedom in Pakistan, adding that repeal of Hudood laws was overdue after the recommendations by the Commission on Status of Women (1997) and the National Commission on Status of Women (2003).
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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NEW YORK: US authorities arrested a South Korean lobbyist accused of secretly scheming with top UN and Iraqi officials to create the oil-for-food programme that turned into a multibillion-dollar scandal. Tongsun Park was arrested in Houston on Friday on accusations of acting as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's former government among others charges, amending original charges filed against him last April.
Do you get the impression you could root out at least half the dirty money in the entire world just by following Tongsun Park around?
... and most of the other half by flipping through George Soros' check register ...
Park received at least $2 million in cash from Iraq to influence the United Nations' shaping of the now-defunct oil-for-food programme, the US attorney's office in New York said in a statement. Much of that money was delivered in diplomatic pouches and it was understood he would use some to "take care" of an unnamed, high-ranking UN official, the statement said. Park was also at the centre of the 1970s "Koreagate" bribery scandal in Washington. His Defence lawyer was not immediately available for comment. "Saddam Hussein's government paid off Tongsun Park to corrupt the oil-for-food programme from its inception," US Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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"Saddam Hussein's government paid off Tongsun Park to corrupt the oil-for-food programme from its inception
There's a line for his obituary he can be proud of. Getting paid by Saddam to orchestrate possibly the greatest humanitarian scandal in history. Starving women and Children? Bah! Bring me some fine wine and some of those starving women and children to go with it.
Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said the United States will not be successful in Iraq unless the political landscape better represents the country's minorities. Obama, the nation's only black senator, met with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Saturday. He said before his two-day trip to Iraq that he wanted to ask U.S. commanders for a realistic time frame on bringing troops home.
"What I'm fully convinced of is if we don't see signs of political progress ⊠over a relatively short time frame let's say six months or so we can pour money and troops in here till the cows come home, but we won't be successful," said Obama, D-Ill., who said he opposed the war before it began.
Talabani predicted Saturday that a new government could be formed within weeks and said the country's main political groups had agreed in principle on a national unity coalition that would include the country's majority Shiites and minority Kurds and Sunni Arabs. Obama said he was confident a new government could be formed but was skeptical of Talabani's time frame.
"My suspicion is it's going to take a little longer than that," he said. "Creating not just a majority government but a government that actually incorporates in a meaningful way Sunni interests may take a little longer."
Obama, who last year called for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq, said he is "constantly impressed and proud of the outstanding work" of American troops, but that he still questions the overall U.S. policy in Iraq. "In my mind, at least, there's a difference between the discrete successes on the ground and whether the overarching policy will ultimately be successful," he said. "The fundamental policies that led to us being here were flawed and not well thought through, and the odds of our long-term success is hard to assess at this point." He said, however, that he understood Iraq was too fragile for an immediate withdrawal. Obama, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to travel to Jordan on Sunday. He is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday and will spend the rest of the week there and in the Palestinian territories.
Can't wait to hear read his Gaza dispatches.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:41 ||
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perhaps he'd like to propose a minority party of Jooooos? Whoops! That's not like what he was thinking, him being Democrat and all....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 0:46 Comments ||
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#2
These clowns just can't STFU until they completely destroy any hope for Iraq, can they?
Obama, the nation's only black senator
So, based on what he's telling the Iraqis they have to do, he's saying the only reason he got his political position through affirmative action, not merit?
I'm surprised he's willing to call attention to that.
#5
Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said the United States will not be successful in Iraq unless the political landscape better represents the country's minorities.
You tell em Obama, all they need is a few more doses of snakeoil quotas and multicultural elixers to finish nation building.
#6
I'll have to agree with him here. What the Iraqi government needs is more African American and Hispanic representatives. An Iraqi government should look like America.
#9
rather than respond to Aris' self-righteous finger wagging, I have hit Fred's tip jar. That way, I'll think twice before I waste his bandwidth as I did yesterday.
#11
Aris, I have a question to which you might know the answer.
During WWII, may occupied countries pro-actively worked with the Nazis to identify and deport Jews. One nation which did was France, while Denmark did not. What did Grecians do?
#13
WTF! Why, pray tell, is the VERY busy President of Iraq having to waste his time meeting with one frigging U.S. senator, no matter what committee, color, or stripe. Would George Bush have to carve out some time if George Galloway decided to drop by?
#14
Brett, you would have done better to ask me this in a thread related to the Holocaust, rather than here. Or use my email, ofcourse.
Short answer is that I don't know the difference between France's and Denmark's treatment of their native Jewish populations, so I have no way of knowing which situation Greece best approximates. I've very recently (three or four days ago) heard a fellow soldier comment that the Greeks betrayed the Jews. From other people I've heard claims that the Greeks tried to save the Jews. Myself, I haven't studied the period of the Nazi occupation at length.
History books at school tended to gloss over/omit most embarrassing or inconvenient to the establishment details of Greek history, beginning from the issue of Ancient Greek homosexuality, continuing to Byzantium's opposition to Hellenism, and proceeding all the way to the oppression/persecution of Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus a few decades ago.
"The Germans begin the deportations in March of 1943, sending the Jewish inhabitants of Thessaloniki to the Auschwitz death camp on a long journey packed in box-cars like sardines. By the summer of 1943 the Jews of the German and Bulgarian zones are gone and only those in the Italian zone remain. Jewish property in Thessaloniki is distributed to 'caretakers' who are chosen by special committee. Instead of giving apartments and businesses to the many refugees, they are given to friends and relatives of committee members, and collaborators who for the most part tear the premises apart looking for hidden gold and jewels. The Italians are less willing to round-up and deport the Jews but once Italy surrenders in September of 1943, the Nazis begin to administer those areas too, hunting down Jews... and Italians too.
Archbishop DomaskinosIn September of 1943 when the Germans turn their attention to the Jews of Athens, their propaganda is not as effective with the Athenians. The Jewish community has been integrated into Athenian life and finds support in a variety of places. Politicians appeal to the German authorities to stop the persecution. Archbishop Damaskinos orders his priests to ask their congregations to help the Jews. Many risk their lives hiding them in their apartments and homes, despite threat of imprisonment. Even the Greek police ignore instructions to turn over Jews to the Germans. When Jewish community leaders appeal to Prime Minister Constantine Rallis he tries to alleviate their fears by saying that the Jews of Thessaloniki had been guilty of subversive activities and that this is the reason they were deported. At the same time, Elias Barzilai, the Grand Rabbi of the city, is summoned to the Dept of Jewish Affairs and told to submit a list of names and addresses of members of the Jewish community. Instead he destroys the community records thus saving the lives of thousands of Athenian Jews. He advises the Jews of Athens to flee or go into hiding. A few days later, the Rabbi himself is spirited out of the city by EAM-ELAS fighters and joins the resistance. EAM/ELAS helps hundreds of Jews escape and survive. Many of them stay with the resistance as fighters and/or interpreters. Of the Jewish population of Greece, over 67,000, are deported to Auschwitz, 43,000 from Thessaloniki alone. Only a handful survive. The few who do return to Thessaloniki find more disappointment. The city has changed beyond recognition. The Jewish cemetery to the east has been bulldozed as have the Jewish neighborhoods. The synagogues had been dynamited by the Germans. Jewish businesses had been given to Greeks as had their homes and few would be returned."
http://www.ahistoryofgreece.com/worldwarII.htm
#16
Amazing these comments here. Sheer amazing. I honestly gape in disbelief.
It's sarcasm, Aris.
Despite his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Obama's foreign policy experience is meagre at best; this trip is more an effort to boost his standing within the Democrat Party than to burnish his credentials.
We get the '"constantly impressed and proud of the outstanding work" of American troops'. Rote phrasing. His voting record doesn't exactly reflect that.
I find it interesting that he gives a six-month timeframe. Would that he apply the same criteria to domestic policies.
Lastly, for him and any Democrat politician, classing the Sunni as a 'minority' isn't a matter of demographics. It's establishing them as victims. There are other groups in Iraq more deserving of the status, but they seem to have been ignored.
Just so you know, the French authorities and people generally assisted the Nazis in locating, deporting and murdering French Jews.
On the other hand, the Danish authorities and people actively resisted the Nazis and did all they could to protect Danish Jews. Most European people were somewhere in between.
So, I asked a simple question.
As opposed to responding by doing a little research (i.e. yahoo.com or google.com) on it and responding, you chastise me as being 'off the subject'.
It seems that being occupied for 4 years by the Nazis, just mighta, shoulda, coulda gotten into the Greek curriculum, no? If not, should a well-educated Greek man might know about it?
#18
Since the Sunnis are under the delusion they are the majority, just what percentage would Barack deem acceptable for them?
2,000 of the 80,000 Greek Jews survived WWII.
Posted by: ed ||
01/08/2006 17:34 Comments ||
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#19
It's sarcasm, Aris.
Fully perceived.
So, I asked a simple question.
Didn't you get as full a response as I had available at the time?
As opposed to responding by doing a little research (i.e. yahoo.com or google.com) on it and responding, you chastise me as being 'off the subject'.
I responded with as full a response as I had available at the time. Are you seriously telling me that I should have googled up *your* question, something that you could have done so equally easy yourself?
And yes, though I obliged you with responding, I also chastised you for being so wildly off subject. That's because it smacked of trollery for me -- a thing which your latest comment now confirms.
It seems that being occupied for 4 years by the Nazis, just mighta, shoulda, coulda gotten into the Greek curriculum, no?
Do you now wish to discuss the Greek education system with me? Do you have any idea what was or wasn't in the "Greek curricula" (plural), in each of the three different highschool systems that existed when I was going in Highschool, and each of the twenty-something different directions that a student could opt to take in my school? Do you know how much the curriculum has changed since that time? Even I don't know the answer to that one.
But yes, I'm sure there's a lot of things that should be in the Greek school curriculum and aren't, as I indicated in my previous post.
And there are even more things that are in the Greek curriculum and shouldn't be.
If not, should a well-educated Greek man might know about it?
Yes, perhaps a well-educated Greek man should know about the exact details of the fate of the Jewish community during the Nazi occupation in Greece. Which is why I fully extend my thanks to Darell.
That is wrong. An article I referenced said, "Some 50,000 Jews, 95 percent of Salonika's Jews, eventually perished in Nazi death camps.
But the Greek state's claim may leave Greece's 1,950 living Holocaust survivors with less than a 25 percent share, with the remaining 25 percent going to the man who says he knows where the treasure can be found."
The current Greek Jewish population is about 5,000.
Posted by: ed ||
01/08/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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#21
"Yes, perhaps a well-educated Greek man should know... Which is why I fully extend my thanks to Darell."
You're welcome, Aris. I'm a Tau Beta Pi man, to be specific.
#24
LOL - Sleep And Eats - 110 members and I was one of only two engineering majors
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 20:28 Comments ||
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#25
Yeah, yeah.... I helped paint the Beta pillars red and green (Not at Christmas!)and shot tennis balls out of beer cans at the SAE house across the street.
But the best part was slingshot water balloons at 60 mph over 250 yards over by the Phi Sig Sig house. Knocked a kid down. He was REAL slow getting up!
But that was a long time ago Frank!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/08/2006 21:14 Comments ||
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#26
pledged Spring 79 here
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 21:56 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD -The first trial of Saddam Hussein could be over by June provided interruptions and delays are kept to a minimum, according to a US legal advisor to the Iraqi tribunal trying the former dictator.
Saddam and other former regime members may then face a raft of other charges of crimes against humanity, likely starting with a bloody campaign against the Kurds between 1987 and 1988, said Regime Crimes Liaison Kevin Dooley. A form of indictment related to the alleged Kurdish massacre will probably be issued in the next two months, but any trial against those accused will only start once the current case is over, he told AFP in an interview.
Dooley, a US prosecutor by trade, heads the so-called Regime Crimes Liaison Office, a Baghdad-based body of legal experts set up by the US government in May 2004 to provide support and advice to the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Notice, no Carla del Ponte.
At present, Saddam and seven co-defendants are being tried for the killing of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt in 1982. Despite only convening for seven days since October 19, the court is to start hearing weeks of testimonies from alleged victims and witnesses as well as documentary evidence into the Shiite deaths from January 24.
Once all the material has been presented, the judges presiding over the case will adjourn to draft specific, formal charges against each of the accused, said Dooley, noting that this recess should take a few weeks.
The court will then meet again, with an opportunity for the prosecution and defence to put forward their respective arguments. There will also be a chance for the defendants to speak out. The judges will then take another break before reconvening to render their verdict and -- if the finding is guilty -- pass sentence.
Dooley emphasised he could only speculate on the total time this would take, noting that the process and the court itself were new so anything could happen. In addition, there were added complications such as security concerns. âIf we can minimise the amount of time during those recesses and we can keep the court moving forward when we start those sessions, we are certainly hopeful that the trial will conclude in the May or June time-frame,â he said. âIf there are other delays, it may go until July, who knows,â Dooley said.
If found guilty, Saddam and his co-accused risk the death penalty, but under Iraqi law they will have the opportunity to appeal. There are no clear guidelines about how long the appeal process takes, but if a conviction -- such as capital punishment -- is ultimately upheld it must be carried out within 30 days.
Legal experts note that the appeal stage may be prolonged to let Saddam stand trial for other crimes.
Don't see the point of that -- let the historians and the forensic pathologists document all the other crimes.
Evidence is also being gathered about the so-called Anfal campaign of suppression of the Kurds as well as the crushing of a Shiite uprising in March 1991, the apparent removal of an entire population of Iraqâs Marsh Arabs living in southeastern marshlands and the invasion of Kuwait, said Dooley.
Iraqi investigators have spoken to thousands of witnesses and are sifting through millions of documents from the former regime that were taken from government buildings nationwide after the US-led invasion in March 2003. The papers are stored in Doha, Qatar, where they are being translated and a data base of relevant information formed, which helps to establish a chain of command with regard to certain events, Dooley said.
Under Iraqâs inquisitorial rather than adversarial legal system, an investigating judge must gather information about an alleged crime from all parties involved. If he thinks there is enough evidence to charge someone, the judge will make a referral -- a sort of indictment -- to the trial chamber.
Dooley said the Anfal campaign was expected to be next in line among the alleged regime crimes. âGenerally the hope is that it -- the referral -- would be within the next couple of months,â he said, noting that there would, however, be a break after the end of the Dujail trial before any new hearing begins.
Critics, such as Saddamâs defence team, believe the Iraqi High Tribunal lacks legitimacy because it was created with US funds. They also oppose the case being heard in Iraq, saying it would be fairer before an international court such as in The Hague.
So that Carla could be involved, and Saddam could die of old age in a plush villa.
Dooley, however, dismissed such concerns, arguing that it was just as legitimate, if not more so, to hold such a trial in the country where the alleged crimes took place as it was to go the UN war crimes tribunal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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International Court in the Hague, my a$$. After they try and fry Saddam, maybe the Iraqi Judicial should start requesting extradition of certain UN and other burearcrats for aiding and abbeting Saddam's murderous regime in the Oil for Food Scandal. The UN needs to be on the dock, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/08/2006 0:21 Comments ||
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#2
maybe they'll execute him again in August? That's always a slow newsmonth.....
"sharks in FLA....no shit?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 0:31 Comments ||
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#4
riiiigghhtt. How can he, with his legs in the wood chipper? Do you wish him to? What kind of sick f*&k are you, {E}? Sleep well?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 1:04 Comments ||
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#5
Perhaps {E} was just being snarky. Or perhaps {E} was anticipating a concerted effort by the Y'urp-peons to rescue Saddam or get him transferred to the International Court for room servicea trial.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2006 1:11 Comments ||
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#6
Saddam won't walk, but he'll never be executed.
#10
A long, serious trial, obviously a real trial and not some sham, really intimidates a lot of the dictators and Imams around there.
It goes against the grain: people sitting in judgement of you, not Allan. If Allan finds you guilty, you are deposed and/or die, no explanation, no argument. But if people do it, in their slow and methodical manner, and Allan doesn't intercede one way or the other, it means that you aren't *special*, that you're just another thug. Allan doesn't care.
It hurts their egos, their pride. It makes them question whether they are who they are because Allan favors them, or just because they are a nasty bastard. And every nasty bastard knows that there are plenty of other nasty bastards just waiting in the wings.
Talks to form a new Iraqi government have been postponed until after the Adha holiday âbecause a number of politicians taking part in the talks are currently performing Hajj [pilgrimage]â, according to Fuad Masum, a leading member of Iraqi President Jalal Talbaniâs Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who participated in the ongoing discussions between the Kurdish Alliance List and other Iraqi political parties. Talbani had received Iyad Allawi, former Iraqi premier, on Friday, at his office in Baghdad . A source close to the president told Asharq al Awsat the âmeeting was part of the exerted effort by the president as the sponsor of the political process to reach a national unity government, in which all Iraqi groups from across the political spectrum will participate, and to resolve problems by national consensus.â
National unity governments don't have a real good record of being effective. I think they're trying to please everybody, and they're going to end up pleasing nobody. The Shiites are going to feel cheated, and the Sunnis are going to feel like they shot their way into power, which means they'll do the same thing every time they can't have their way in the future.
For his part, the head of the National Iraqi List underlined the presidentâs proposals as âthe right solution for political stability in the countryâ and pointed out the talks focused on general principles and not details concerning the formation of a new government. Masum hinted, in a statement to Asharq al Awsat, from his offices in Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, that the âKurdish leadership is exerting its efforts to include Allawiâs list in the next governmentâ and expressed his opinion that the former premier âmight refuse to participate in person but members of his listâ could take part.
Allawi's not going to satisfy the Muslim Scholars, though. Way too secular for them...
The meetings held in Iraqi Kurdistan, whether in al Sulaymaniyah or in Irbil, âwere not official but bilateral talks to share the views of two of the largest blocs in the next Iraqi parliament, the Kurdish bloc and the Iraqi Coalition,â Masum told Asharq al Awsat, adding that, âOur brothers in the Iraqi political blocs did not come to Kurdistan on official visits but were welcomed by the Kurdish leadership.â
Did they ride the horses they came to trade?
âIt is well known that relations between the Kurdish leadership, represented by President Talbani and Masud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan region and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are strong, deep-rooted and historic. We have no sensitivity towards anyone. The Kurdish bloc will be influential in the next parliament, since it won 60 seats. Its will therefore have a say in the discussion to form the next government,â he said. The Kurdish leader went on to say the âCoalition will nominate the next prime minister because it is the biggest bloc in parliament. We do have no objections to their nominations which will be discussed during official talks with all parties. The strongest candidates for this post are the outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari followed by Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi.â Masum also indicated that the Kurdish bloc intended to seek control of one of the two chief posts- the president and prime minister- should the Coalition not agree one a single candidate for the post of premier. It would also seek to control the foreign minister portfolio and other ministries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has urged Iraqi politicians to accept the final results of last month's polls, saying true democrats must acknowledge it is just as easy to lose elections as win them. Some Sunni Arab and secular politicians say the December 15 parliamentary election was fraudulent. They have demanded a rerun, although Iraq's Electoral Commission insists it was largely fair. The United Nations agrees. Mr Straw is in Baghdad to hold talks with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He says the 70 per cent voter turnout shows Iraqis want to embrace democracy. "The Iraqi people showed us that they are going to defy the people of violence and that democracy burns in the souls and hearts of Iraqi people in the same way it does in people across the world," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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On the night of December 27, 2005, nine katyusha rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. Four rockets hit the town of Kiryat Shmona, while another hit the Western Galilee town of Shlomi and four landed in open areas. Two houses in Kiryat Shmona sustained heavy damage, and four residents were treated for shock.
IDF intelligence estimated that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril, was responsible for the katyusha fire - probably in coordination with Hizballah. As a consequence, on December 28 Israel Air Force fighter jets fired two missiles at a PFLP-GC training base at Na'ameh, about seven kilometers south of Beirut, slightly wounding two fighters.[1]
On December 29, al-Qaida's Committee in Mesopotamia (Iraq), led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. According to its statement, after "careful planning and intelligence gathering, a group of al-Tawheed lions and Al-Qaida operatives put their faith in Allah and launched a new attack on the Jewish state⊠[with] ten Grad rockets from Muslim territory of Lebanon toward selected targets in the northern part of the Jewish stateâŠThis blessed attack was carried out by the mujahideen in the name of Mujahid Shaykh Usama Bin Laden, the commander of Al-Qaida... With the help of Allah, what is yet to come will be far worse."[2] Sources in the IDF said it was difficult to determine the announcement's reliability.
It should be noted that there is an al-Qaida affiliate in Lebanon, Usbat al-Ansar, comprised of radical Sunni Palestinians from the Ayn al-Hilwah refugee camp in southern Lebanon. On August 19, 2005 an al-Qaida grouplet calling itself the Abdallah Azzam Battalions fired three katyusha rockets from Aqaba, Jordan. One of the rockets landed near Eilat's airport, while another narrowly missed an American ship in the Aqaba harbor and another hit a group of Jordanian soldiers.[3]
Al-Qaida Playing the Palestinian Card
Until his ouster from Afghanistan in the winter of 2001/2, bin Laden gave Palestine low priority. For him, the heart of the matter was the US presence on the holy soil of Saudi Arabia, which he saw as the bridgehead of a corruptive non-Muslim culture. Throughout bin Laden's public statements and declarations is one fundamental and predominant strategic goal: the expulsion of the American presence-both military and civilian-from Saudi Arabia and the entire Gulf region. Bin Laden and the WIF (World Islamic Front for the Fight against Jews and Crusaders) he created did not forget what they saw as crimes and wrongs done to the Muslim nation: "the blood spilled in Palestine and IraqâŠ. the massacre of Qana, in Lebanon⊠and the massacres in Tajikistan, Burma, Kashmir, Assam, the Philippines, Fatani, Ogadin, Somalia, Eritrea, Chechnia, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina." Yet it is worth noting that the Palestinian issue was given no special prominence. According to Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, bin Laden "has been criticized in the Arab world for focusing on such places as Afghanistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and [he] is therefore starting to concentrate more on the Palestinian issue."[4]
Following the destruction of al-Qaida's bases in Afghanistan, the al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayaman al-Zawahiri mentioned Palestine more and more in their released videos and audios as a top priority and in parallel there was a sharp increase in attacks by jihadist groups against Jewish and Israeli targets.
The first major attack after the war was the suicide bombing on April 11, 2002 outside a historic synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. The 16 dead included 11 Germans, one French citizen, and three Tunisians. Twenty-six German tourists were injured. The Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Sites claimed responsibility.
On May 16, 2003, 15 suicide bombers attacked five targets in Casablanca, Morocco, killing 43 persons and wounding 100. The targets were a Spanish restaurant, a Jewish community center, a Jewish cemetery, a hotel, and the Belgian Consulate. The Moroccan Government blamed the Islamist al-Assirat al-Moustaquim (The Righteous Path), but foreign commentators suspected an al-Qaida connection.
On November 15, 2003, two suicide truck bombs exploded outside the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues in Istanbul, killing 25 persons and wounding at least another 300. The initial claim of responsibility came from a Turkish militant group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, but Turkish authorities suspected an al-Qaida connection.[5]
On November 28, 2002, at least 15 people died in the first suicide attack by al-Qaida against an Israeli target: an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa, Kenya. A large part of the Paradise Hotel was reduced to rubble and nine Kenyans and three Israelis were killed. A parallel attempt to fire two missiles at an Israeli holiday jet (an Arkia airline plane-a Boeing 757 carrying 261 passengers) that had taken off from the cityâs airport-failed.
The reason for this sudden interest in Jewish and Israeli targets was most likely the result of al-Qaidaâs and associates groupsâ attempts to bandwagon what was considered at that stage a very successful violent al-Aqsa intifada by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other Palestinian groups. On the one hand, it permitted them to claim their support to the Palestinian people, but at the same time it created an anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli terrorist campaign which would attract more solidarity and support from the Arab and Muslim masses and possibly attract more young recruits to their ranks. More recently, in August 2005, four Israeli cruise ships carrying a total of 3,500 tourists scheduled to dock in the Mediterranean Turkish resort of Antalya were rerouted to the island of Cyprus by the Israeli authorities due to fear of a terrorist attack. A Syrian citizen named Louai Sakra was arrested for plotting to slam speedboats packed with explosives into the cruise ships filled with Israeli tourists.
Al-Qaida in Palestine?
A new radical Muslim terrorist group with close ties to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, has started operating in the Gaza Strip, according to PA security officials. Jundallah, or "Allah's Brigades," consists mostly of former Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. It launched its first attack on IDF soldiers near Rafah in mid-May 2005. The group is especially active in the southern Gaza Strip. Jundallah's emergence in the Gaza Strip confirms suspicions that al-Qa'ida has been trying to was trying to establish itself in the area before Israel's planned withdrawal.[6]
On August 2, 2005, a posting on the forum al-Mustaqbal al-Islami (Islamic Future) included what it termed the "First Declaration of al-Qa'ida from the Land of the Outpost, Occupied Palestine," specifically the "military wing" of a group calling itself "Alwiyat al-Jihad fi Ard al-Ribat" (The Jihad Brigades in the Land of the Outpost). The declaration described a rocket operation undertaken on July 31, 2005 against the settlements of Neve Dekalim and Ganne Tal:
⊠[I]n the context of the Islamic Jihad by our mujahideen brothers of al-Qa'ida's World Organization against the Jews and Crusaders. We declare that the Brigades are not a new or passing organization on the land of Palestine, but a [true] believer spirit that urges on the mujahideen to make themselves into a single rank.
Some observers, however, believe that the new group is merely a split from Fatah or an operational pseudonym that will disappear after a few uses, as was the case with the Tanzim Jundallah group.[7]
In September 2005, Mahmoud Waridat, a West Bank Palestinian arrested in July the same year, was charged by IDF prosecutors with undergoing training at an Qaida camp in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, though it was said the defendant later declined an offer to join bin Ladenâs global network.[8] A leaflet distributed in Khan Yunis in October 2005 by al-Qaida Jihad in Palestine announced that the terrorist group had begun working towards uniting the Muslims under one Islamic state, the only way for Muslims to achieve victory over their enemies. The leaflet is the latest indication of al-Qaida's effort to establish itself in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal from the area. On the eve of the disengagement, a number of rockets were fired at the former settlements of Neveh Dekalim and Ganei Tal. An announcement claiming responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida members in the Gaza Strip was made by three masked gunmen who appeared in a videotape. Al-Qaida's new on-line television channel branded PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas a "collaborator with the Jews," accusing him of assisting Israel in its war on Hamas.[9]
Al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's Committee in Mesopotamia and Palestine
Although from the beginning of the war in Iraq and its immediate aftermath many Islamist groups were involved in the fighting against the US and coalition forces, the Jordanian-Palestinian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was considered to be the most dangerous leader of the most dangerous group connected with al-Qaida.[10] At some point, most likely after the occupation of Iraq in April 2003, he split from Ansar al-Islam and created his own organization, which he called al-Tawheed wal Jihad (Monotheism and Jihad). The successes of the Zarqawi group during the two and a half years of terrorist and guerrilla activity and the continuation of their painful strikes against the coalition forces and primarily against the officials and security forces of the new Iraqi government has attracted more and more groups and volunteers to his ranks. Although for a long time he was considered the representative of al-Qaida in Iraq, it was only in December 2004 that his allegiance to bin Laden and al-Qaida materialized.
According to Zawahiri, the jihadists in Iraq under Zarqawi's leadership should act in several stages: first, expel the Americans from Iraq; then establish an Islamic authority or emirate; the third stage would extend the jihad to the secular countries neighboring Iraq. Only in the fourth stage, which could be parallel to the third one, the jihadists will "clash with Israel, because Israel was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity."[11]
According to a book published in July 2005 by Fuad Husayn, the future strategy of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi is based on expanding the conflict with the United States and Israel and involving new parties in it. Simultaneously, a broad-based Islamic jihadist movement "will assume responsibility for changing the circumstances that have long prevailed in the region and for establishing an Islamic caliphate state in seven stages with Iraq as its base." Zarqawi's enmity toward the United States and Israel was very obvious since both countries represented the forces of atheism and oppression against justice. He said that he did not fear their number, weapons, or alliance with other forces of evil against Muslims.[12]
Other analysts also consider that
the Salafi-jihadists in Iraq, led by al-Zarqawi, see the Iraq conflict "as a springboard for a wider regional conflict that has as its central aim uprooting the current political order in the region."[13]
In a message from Zarqawi to members of his Bani-Hasan tribe, he called on his cousins to strive to raise the banner of Islam and initiate jihad against everyone who stands in the way of fighting the Israeli occupiers of Palestine. Declaring that his clan had roots in Jerusalem, Zarqawi said: "It is your glory and pride and the glory of your fathers and forefathers who had the honor to fight alongside other tribes under the banner of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi in Hittin to liberate JerusalemâŠProtect Jerusalem. It is the place from where your great grandfather ascended to heaven."[14]
In his address to the Islamic nation in April 2004, Zarqawi said that the US invasion had the objectives of keeping the Islamic nation in an endless state of weakness and defending Israel's security and eliminate every possible threat against it. Al-Qaida decided that its ultimate priority was to embark on a direct confrontation with Jews in Palestine in the near future, which will win it the support of all Arabs and Muslims. Al-Qaida believes there is a substantial link between the ruling Arab regimes and the state of Israel and therefore an attack on Israel would weaken these regimes.
Turkey, located north of Iraq, is viewed as the most important Islamic state because of its great economic and human resources and significant strategic location. Zarqawi believes that Turkey lacks self-determination and freedom because "the Jews of Dunma" control the army and the economy and are the real powerbrokers in the country.[15] Therefore, Turkey's return to the ranks of the nation "will not happen unless a powerful strike is dealt to the Jewish presence in that country." Al-Qaida's current strategy is to infiltrate Turkey slowly and postpone major operations there until major gains are made in Iraq.[16]
Iran is the second country that al-Qaida seeks to involve in this conflict. Zarqawi evaluates that the US-Israeli confrontation with Iran is inevitable and could succeed in an attack on its nuclear infrastructure. Accordingly, the Iranian regime is preparing to retaliate and expand the area of the war, but it could lose its ability to control the situation.
Consequently, Zarqawi is drawing up a plan which would include the passage of Taliban supporters from Afghanistan through Iran to Iraq, the free movement of thousands of Zarqawi's people through the territory of a weakened Syrian regime and the opportunity to infiltrate into Lebanon [author's emphasis]. The situation in Lebanon will not remain stable, as the Sunnis in Lebanon and Syria are supportive of al-Qaida's doctrine. Al-Qaida, therefore, has the potential and resources to infiltrate into Syria and Lebanon in the event of an attack on Iran.[17]
According to al-Qaida's "intellectuals," the occupation of Baghdad on 9 April 2003 initiated an "eye-opening stage" which will last until the end of 2006. During this stage, al-Qaida aims "to prolong the confrontation with the enemy," since "it views such a confrontation as a victory, regardless of the consequences," during which it will transform itself from "a network into a mushrooming invincible and popular trend." During this stage, the second generation of leaders within al-Qaida plans to engage in direct confrontation with the State of Israel in Palestine [author's emphasis]; burn Arab oil and deprive the West and proxy regimes of benefiting from oil revenues; prepare for the stage of electronic jihad via the Internet; proceed with the establishment of power in vital areas of the Arab and Islamic world; take Iraq as a base to build a new army of jihad to be redeployed in neighboring countries.[18]
Al-Qaida ideologues give themselves a time frame of approximately three years to carry out the next stage, from the beginning of 2007 to the beginning of 2010, during which "the focus will be on Al-Sham." By the end of this stage, Al-Qa'ida will have completed its preparations to engage in direct clashes with the State of Israel, both in Palestine and on Israel's border.
Conclusion
In Husayn's detailed analysis, there are seven stages in al-Qaida's strategy, from the first "awakening" stage of 9/11 to the final one beginning in 2016, immediately after the establishment of an Islamic state, which "will be the outset of the all-out confrontation between the forces of faith and the forces of global atheism." However there are some contradictions concerning the goals and foreseeable events in each stage, which are not meaningful to be discussed here.
The significant thing in this analysis is the importance Zarqawi and other al-Qaida strategists attach to their direct involvement in the fight against Israel, the necessity to infiltrate a weakened Syria and Lebanon and attack Israel through the Lebanese border. This strategy is also based on a predicted change in Iran's strategy in the region following a foreseeable US and/or Israeli attack against its nuclear installations.
Interestingly, in his last letter to Zarqawi, Zawahiri stresses that "more than one hundred prisoners - many of whom are from the [al-Qaida] leadership who are wanted in their countries - [are] in the custody of the Iranians." Zarqawiâs attacks against the Shia in Iraq could compel "the Iranians to take counter measures." Therefore, al-Qaida "and the Iranians need to refrain from harming each other at this time in which the Americans are targeting" them.[19]
In the months since Husayn's book was published, significant changes have taken place in the region that could have hastened the implementation of the aforementioned al-Qaida strategy: the Syrian regime is each day weaker and cracks appear in its ranks after the publication of the UN inquiries in the assassination of Rafik Hariri; the Lebanese arena is boiling and there are greater pressures to disarm Hizballah; and more significantly the hour of the confrontation between the Iranian regime and the international community on the nuclear issue is approaching.
On this background, although it is still possible that Hizballah or one of its Palestinian allies were behind the December 27 bombing of northern Israel, the claiming of responsibility by Zarqawi's al-Qaida Committee in Mesopotamia should be taken seriously. It is possible that the stage of al-Qaida and Iran refraining "from harming each other" has already passed and the moment has arrived when the Iranian regime, in coordination with Assad's regime or Hizballah, have decided to give a free hand to al-Qaida to do their "dirty work" for them.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:51 ||
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#1
lotta finger-pointing, but ultimately, those weapons come from Iran and Syria, even the materials for home-made qassams transit from other lands for the most part....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 12:03 Comments ||
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#2
Until his ouster from Afghanistan in the winter of 2001/2, bin Laden gave Palestine low priority.
Isn't this BS? IIRC Bin Laden felt that the US was propping up Israel back in the late 80's. He didn't get a real hard-on for the US until Desert Storm, and Azzam was out of the way.
MK Shimon Peres will stay in Kadima, according to sources close to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and will be given one of the first five places on Kadima's Knesset list. Peres will also be appointed to a ministerial post, according to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan. Olmert is to meet with Peres again over the next few days, and an open channel of communication is being maintained with Peres' allies, MKs Haim Ramon and Dalia Itzik. Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, meanwhile, is said to have assured Olmert he intends to remain in Kadima, and Olmert appointed Hanegbi in his stead as chairman of the Kadima election campaign.
Olmert, who is said to have the backing of all senior Kadima members as Sharon's replacement, has been advised to make sure Peres stays with Kadima so as to avoid an atmosphere of erosion of the party in a post-Sharon era. However following a meeting with Olmert on Friday, Peres did not say specifically he would be remaining with the party, which angered senior Kadima figures. It seems likely that Olmert will be elected Kadima chairman, although it is unclear whether all faction members will agree that Olmert has the authority to determine the Knesset slate. Sharon let his wishes on the matter be known to his son Omri and cabinet secretary Yisrael Maimon.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Hadassah University Hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef said Saturday evening that the latest scan of the brain of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, performed Saturday, shows a slight improvement, but his overall condition remains critical. Hadassah doctors will meet Sunday morning to decide when to rouse Sharon from his induced coma. Until Sharon regains consciousness, it will be impossible to determine the extent to which his brain has been damaged.
Sharon, who is fighting for his life after suffering a severe stroke and cerebral hemorrhage Wednesday night, was taken for a procedural CT scan Saturday morning to check for internal bleeding and examine intra-cranial pressure following surgical intervention the day before.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
He'll live, but will be less viable than Dick Clark. :< Still, I would have bet the house against living 3 days. Must have brought in some expert medics of the Hebrew persuasion from somewhere.
The proliferation of unmanned vehicle technologies used by the U.S. military has prompted an Army command to fund development of a toolkit that could be used for its entire fleet of unmanned ground vehicles.
The U.S. Army's Transportation Command (Warren, Mich.) will fund a six-month research project to develop a low-cost "robot infrastructure toolkit" that can be used for a wide range of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs).
RE2 Inc., a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off (Pittsburgh), said Tuesday (Jan. 3) it will develop a toolkit focusing on specialized communication components and robotic manipulators with a common control interface.
The project will also focus on:
# Developing a system design that includes vehicle interfaces, operator controls, manipulators and communications components.
# Establishing performance goals and cost-benefit analyses for communication components.
# Determining the feasibility of using the toolkit with the U.S. military's current Joint Architecture of Unmanned Systems (JAUS), which includes robot controllers and communication links.
The military currently uses small robots for surveillance, under-car inspection and bomb disposal. Since robots have been developed for a range of tasks, the number of platforms has expanded. As a result, the Army wants to reduce the cost of fielding small UGV technologies.
RE2 said in a statement that it has focused on open-systems modular designs, JAUS-based vehicle management and control, sensor and systems integration, Ethernet and serial communications development. TM 13013: Repair and Maintenance of T-800, Android, Combat, Cyberdyne Systems, Model 101
SINGAPORE - Singapore on Sunday staged a large emergency exercise to test its readiness for terror attacks on its bus and subway systems, mindful that its role as a close U.S. ally makes it a potential target for Islamic extremists.
More than 2,000 workers from 22 government agencies took part in the emergency exercise, which involved mock attacks at train stations and a bus interchange. Organizers used thunder flashes to simulate bomb explosions, as well as smoke generators, fire simulators and special makeup to simulate wounds. Hundreds of âcasualtiesâ wore tags detailing their simulated wounds - including burns and injuries caused by chemical agents - so paramedics knew how to âtreatâ them.
Authorities had said they would hold the exercise on a weekend in the first half of January, but had not said exactly when. Service at a dozen train stations was disrupted for several hours, and shuttle bus service was provided for commuters. Public announcements were made just before the drill to avoid panic. One simulated explosion occurred at a train station on Orchard Road, Singaporeâs main shopping avenue. The exercise took place early in the morning, before most stores opened.
The drill, named Exercise NorthStar V, follows deadly bombings on the London transport system in July, as well as on the train network in Madrid, Spain, in 2004. On its Web site, Singaporeâs civil defense force said those attacks spurred Singapore to prepare itself for a similar assault, though it said the exercise did not mean there was a âreal threat of an imminent attackâ on the transport network.
âThe scenario for the exercise is similar to that of the London bombings on 7 July 05, that is near-simultaneous bomb blasts in the trains at the station platform and in the trains traveling into the tunnel,â the defense force said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Prof Landis reporting from Syria. He has been basically pro Assad for many months previous to this report because he fears post Assad instability. However, the anti Assad forces, e.g., democrats, moslem brotherhood, kurds, Sunni businessmen who've had kin murdered are beginning to talk to each other
The blog Hunna Syria remarks on how the Baath Party flag has been taken down in front of some ministries, leaving only the Syria flag flying. Flying the Syrian flag without other embellishments has become the norm during the past several months. Even posters and images of the President are surprisingly absent. In Hafiz's day, it would have been the "struggling leader" whose image would have been brandished and displayed throughout Syria in times of crisis. No longer. The Syrian flag is accompanied by the words: "God protect Syria." Bashar has decided to go with "God and Country," rather than the cult of personal or party leadership. Asadism is out. Patriotism is in....
Iran has decided to rewrite and revise the history of the Holocaust. Following the repeated declarations by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other senior government officials on the need to re-examine the history of the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War, the association of Islamic Journalists of Iran has been tasked with quickly putting together an international conference on the Holocaust.
"President Ahmadinejad has placed at the centre of international attention, a very important question on the truthfulness of the version that Europe and the Zionists have imposed on the world on the murder of Jews during the years of the great war, and therefore we are of the opinion that it is useful and necessary to organise an international conference on that theme, where all the historians and researchers, even those that do not believe in the official version, will be able to express themselves freely," Mehdi Afzali, spokesperson of the Association of Islamic Journalists told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"We want to offer a free and democratic platform to the historians to examine in-depth this myth, seeing that in different European countries there exist laws against democracy and freedom that to do not allow intellectuals who believe in a version distinct from that which is officially pronounced on the Holocaust," added Afzali.
"We will invite those who believe in the imposed version as well as all those who have spent years of their lives in the study of documents related to the Holocaust and have come to the conclusion that the history books in schools and universities do not correspond to the truth," said Afzali, who however refused to supply the names of the revisionist historians who have been contacted to appear in the conference in Tehran. Revisionists are those who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
In Iran, books by the English historian, David Irving, currently in custody in an Austrian jail after having been accused of denying the Holocaust, are very popular.
Among the names of possible guests at the conference are the Israeli journalist lsrael Shamir, a convert to Christianity, and Horst Mahler from Germany, a former member of the the terrorist group, the Red Army Faction. Other revisionist scholars, such as the French Robert Faurisson and the American Arthur Butz, are also some of the other possible participants of the conference in Tehran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:43 ||
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#1
So? Arabs, including the state press of the sooo pro-western Mubarak, has been doing it for decades. For that matter, any mention of the Holocaust in Euro school-history books?
#5
#3: Is this the same Holocaust...the one he's denying, that is....that he says Europe is trying to finish through the creation of the state of Israel?
Oh come on now, surely you've heard the statement
"Don't bother me with the truth, my mind's made up"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2006 9:45 Comments ||
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#6
This sounds like a good idea. Let David Irving (and David Duke) attend.
#7
there ought to be a counter conference on the genocide against Armenians in Turkey (actually two periods of massacres) and the 6oo year genocide of Hindus by Moslems and the continuing ethnic cleansing of Bangla and Pakland and...
#8
Actually, mhw, that's a great idea. But no one from outside the US will attend, probably, because that would mean they might actually have to be critical of Muslims, and the international community would NEVER stand for that.
Another idea for this Holocaust Denial conference: find a printer in Iran who can print yards-long cloth with genocidal images from Dachau, etc. Sew the cloths together so that they extend for blocks. Protestors could line the area, holding up the images, so that whatever Ahmedinejad wants to show, behind it will be the other story. Of course, he and his Iranian thugs would crack down on such 'blasphemy', but timed right, that could be captured on film.
OK, so that idea's a fantasy, but it was an appealing image there for a while...
#9
Man to dignify this with a conference is so wrong.
Dachau, unless you know about it to go see it, you would never know that it was there. The locals walk past it without any thought given at all to it. In several small towns in Germany, Gemunden Au Main to name one, has a plaque that tells of how the synogague was blown up by the Nazi's. They fail to mention how the town's people desecrated it prior to it being blown up.
Not to mention how most the cemetery's for the jewish people are on steep hillsides, and in bad repair.
I was fortunate enough to see this and hear from elders to remember what happened along with crystal night and other historical events. Sad to see that these animals are changing history to suit their ambitions. Very worrisome indeed.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/08/2006 11:06 Comments ||
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#10
Let's not jump to conclusions. Perhaps history is more flexible that we think. After the election I'm going to going for a $500 appropriation for an institute(I'm thinking Parkersburg) to revisit the so-called "slavery" issue. Times change, maybe history does too.
Posted by: Bob Byrd ||
01/08/2006 11:29 Comments ||
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#11
How many delegates from Georgetown and Harvard will be attending?
On January 3, Iranâs Revolutionary Guards Corps began a two day seminar in Tehran devoted to nuclear-biological-chemical warfare and new defense technologies, that included lectures by Iranian experts on electromagnetic pulse weapons, graphite bombs, and laser-guided bombs. These are the same weapons many Western intelligence analysts believe Iran will attempt to use against us.
On January 4, three battalions of the IRGC ground forces began three days of NBC military exercises in Semnan province, not far from Iranâs main ballistic missile proving ground.
In addition to a recent $1 billion arms agreement, announced last month, Russia is now negotiating with Iranâs Revolutionary Guards to modernize Iranâs fleet of MiG-29 fighters with state-of-the-art radar, electronic counter-measures, and reconnaissance systems, specifically designed to counter the threat of Israeli aircraft. A Rev. Guards buying mission will visit Lukhovitsy and Kalayazin in Russia to view these new systems in February 2006. The Russians have also agreed to sell Iran S-300 anti-missile systems, believed by most experts to be superior to any comparable system currently available on world markets.
...
The resumption of enrichment activities, which could give Iran the special nuclear material needed to make nuclear weapons, has long been sited by Israel as the âred lineâ they would not allow Iran to cross.
Iran now appears ready and willing to cross that red line. And with Mr. Sharon sidelined from Israeli politics, Israeli military leaders are unlikely to bet on a prayer and a chance that Iran just might be bluffing.
After all, as Iranâs Larijani himself said, Israel is âwithin our range.â
Syrian President Bashar Assad denied threatening Lebanon's former prime minister but suggested in an interview published Saturday that he would not allow U.N. investigators to interview him about Rafik Hariri's killing.
Syria's former vice president Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who defected to France, told The Associated Press on Friday that Assad had threatened Hariri during their last meeting.
"I don't know what others meant by threatening," Assad was quoted as saying in the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Osboa. "This never happened and the aim was to connect the threat with the assassination. The game is clear. Nobody attended the last meeting between me and Hariri, therefore, how can they make these allegations?"
Assad also indirectly rejected the latest request from U.N. investigators to interview him about the Hariri assassination, saying he has "international immunity."
The two leaders met in August 2004 to discuss extending the term of pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, which Hariri opposed. Hariri died in a truck bombing in February 2005.
A report by a U.N. team investigating Hariri's assassination and several anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have suggested a Syrian role in the killing.
Syria confirmed Tuesday it had received a request by the U.N. investigative panel to interview Assad about Hariri's assassination. Asked in the interview what his reply was, Assad did not give a clear answer.
"This time they asked to meet President Bashar, and the president has international immunity as you know," he said. He added that Syria had replied to the U.N. team but there was no indication that the response directly addressed the interview request.
Assad reiterated past pledges by his country to cooperate in the investigation.
The Syrian leader acknowledged that Hariri opposed Lahoud's extension but said he told Hariri he was not pressing him. He asked Hariri to "go and think it over for one day or more ... and he agreed to the Syrian demand. He was not obstinate or tiresome, therefore, there was basically no problem and, eventually, there was no threat."
Assad denied any connection between his country and a series of assassinations of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and journalists over the past year. Some pro-Syrians were among those killed, he said.
"I think Lebanon is not stable security-wise ... and that any security issue is the product of a political situation and a chaotic situation leads always to chaotic security as in
Iraq now," he said.
Speaking of Iraq, Assad said he warned Americans before the war not to get involved in that country.
"I used to tell visiting American delegations 'nobody doubts your victory in the battle, but after that you will sink in the swamp,'" he said. "We were surprised that the swamp was so large and appeared so quickly."
Assad advised against sending Arab troops to Iraq to solve its problems as long as "the Iraqis themselves are split on the presence of these troops."
Asked about Syria's conditions for peace talks with
Israel, Assad said: "When Israel becomes really interested in peace and when the U.S. administration retains its interest in the peace process. Peace is an expression of conviction and not merely an agreement signed between two parties."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:34 ||
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Iran intends to tighten security on its borders, especially in the southeast, to help its citizens lead a tranquil life, said a top official here on Saturday.
Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi told reporters that anti-security factors on the borders, particularly along the borders of southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, have been growing, prompting officials to adopt extensive measures to guarantee security in the area.
Referring to the kidnapping of Iranian border guards in the southeastern parts of the country, Pourmohammadi said based on information at hand, the kidnapped individuals are kept in an area 50 kilometers from the border and negotiations are underway for their safe return home.
#1
They are scared of another Iranian Balochistan uprising, such as have happened before. The Pakistani Balochistan fighting is well under way, which means that many Balochs will be heading towards Iran. They were only on the Paki side after having been driven out of Iran in the first place.
Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said that groups linked to the Taliban were behind the kidnapping of nine Iranian border guards in the eastern parts of the country. The foreign media carried a news story which quoted an unknown group as claiming it had abducted nine Iranian soldiers to pressure Tehran to free imprisoned members of the group.
"The United States, which cannot directly encounter Iran, uses such groups to carry out such acts against the country," he told reporters in response to a question on whether the kidnappers belong to a group affiliated to the Al-Qaeda. Iran has launched a serious investigation into the kidnapping. The kidnappers are quite known. They have asked for ransom and release of jailed members of their group in exchange for the release of the border guards. We hope our sons can soon return to the country with the least harm," Pour-Mohammadi said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi last week said the kidnapping was a most inhuman act and that the foreign ministry has held talks with Pakistani officials to have the soldiers released soonest and without harm.
Iran acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that nine soldiers kidnapped near the Pakistani border last month were being held by Sunni militants and accused archfoe the United States of sponsoring them. "The kidnappers of the nine Iranian border guards ... belong to the groups influenced by the ideology of the Taliban," Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said, referring to the hardline Sunni militia which ruled Afghanistan before the US-led invasion of 2001. "America cannot directly confront Iran and instead uses such groups against it," the minister told the official IRNA news agency.
Yes, it was me. I confess: I have them in my basement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#4
Guns into butter. I have a feeling I know what the butter's for.
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
01/08/2006 7:49 Comments ||
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#5
yeah thats a great idea it will help the profit margin incredibly when sanctions are imposed. The French and Russian even some German companies get at least double for thier stuff on the black market.
The EU and UN are pitifull the Iranians are just openly punkin them out and the EU UN just take it like a good b*tch. What the hell happened to western culture.
The five major nuclear powers are working on a joint warning statement that aims to show unusual unified resolve and put fresh pressure on Iran not to resume nuclear fuel research, US officials and diplomats said on Friday. Iran, making a confrontation increasingly likely, has defied the international community with its threat to resume on January 9 atomic fuel research and development that was shelved over a year ago at the Westâs insistence.
In an effort to bring new pressure in the hours before Tehran takes what could be a fateful step, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China were working on a statement opposing the Iranian move and urging that Tehran return to negotiations on a compromise proposal, officials and diplomats said. Although the statement, known as a demarche, is not expected to contain specific threats, such as bringing Iran to the UN Security Council where sanctions could be imposed, officials said that it could have significant political impact. âItâs another ratchet upward in terms of diplomatic pressureâ because it is the first coordinated initiative on Iran by the five nuclear weapon states and would âshow unity and cohesion among the P5, which has not always been there,â said one US official.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm beginning to think that a good "joint warning" to Iraq would be a high-altitude thermonuclear burst many miles over Tehran, to burn out their electrical systems and computerized gear. No one at all need die from this, and they would have some time to think while they stumble around in the quiet, cool darkness.
Walid Jumblatt, head of the Democratic Gathering bloc in the Lebanese parliament, has continued his campaign against the Syrian regime, which he described as a "family regime."
Wally? Who's yo' daddy? Or who was he, anyway? And your grandaddy?
He rejected any settlement with this regime "after the assassinations and assassination attempts it carried out in Lebanon."
I'm guessing the best defense is a good offense. Good luck with that. Though it will make it easy to come up with a list of suspects when his car finally does boom.
Junblatt explained to Asharq al-Awsat some aspects of the telephone interview conducted with him by the newspaper Washington Post two days ago, considering that the talk that he called on the United States to invade Syria was a "hasty interpretation" of what he said, but at the same time he called for change in Syria "because the Syrian people deserve this."
I'll make life a lot more tranquil in Lebanon, too...
Junblatt said "the Syrian regime's filibustering with regard to an international trial and its exertion of pressure on some parties in Lebanon regarding this subject is aimed at escaping an international solution similar to the trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosivic.
Ah, what punishment. To stand trial until you die of old age...
He emphasized that "the only solution is this method (international trial), which will put both Syria and Lebanon at ease."
I'm sure Carla can hardly wait. But you know the first step in a recipe for rabbit stew...
Junblatt explained that his talk that the Americans came to Iraq in the name of the majority does not mean that invasion is the solution, considering this "a hasty interpretation" of his talk, but he stressed that "one day there must be democratic change in Syria that will give the people the chance (to govern themselves). Until now the regime in Syria is a family regime and not the regime of the Ba'th Party or the regional command of that party. The Syrian people deserve a chance to govern themselves."
Regime change doesn't have to come with tanks and JDAMs. Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan have managed it with a minimum of bloodshed, and nary a single UN resolution...
Asked whether he supported change, regardless of the method, Junblattt said: "Syria has capacities and efficiencies that can carry out a democratic and peaceful change." He strongly rejected the "blackmail" practiced by the Syria regime, which is telling the international community "either us or chaos." He cited several examples of the downfall of regimes similar to the Syrian regime, such as the collapse of the former USSR and its satellite regimes.
See? Wally and I think alike. We must be soulmates. But I'm a lot better looking than he is. Of course, most people are...
Junblatt opined that there was no possibility of "a settlement with the Syrian regime unless Syria accedes to the UN resolutions regarding the international investigation (into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.)" He said: "Without courtesies, I do not believe a settlement is possible with this regime, which is responsible for all the assassinations and assassinations attempts that were carried out."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
why yes it is [ ]
it's called worrywortitis [ ], but don't worry 'cause it usually only strikes those that worry about wrinkles.
IRAQ has replaced Afghanistan as the nerve centre of global terrorism by militant groups whose ability to regenerate, despite setbacks, means that suicide bombings and other mass-casualty attacks remain a serious danger in 2006, analysts said.
Three major developments are likely to define the security landscape this year, Singapore-based terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna told a forum organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) last week.
"The first is that al-Qaeda has morphed or transformed from a small group into a terrorist movement," he told diplomats, academics, officials and business executives.
"So today the threat is not so much from one single organisation called al-Qaeda but from the global jihad movement."
Mr Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Singapore-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said governments must "prepare for a challenge posed by a number of disparate groups" waging campaigns on the global, regional and local levels.
"The second most significant development we have seen is that the centre of gravity of international terrorism has shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq," he said. "Iraq is the new land of jihad.
"Like we saw the last generation of jihadists coming from Afghanistan, we will see the next generation of jihadists will come from Iraq."
The US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that ousted the fundamentalist Taliban regime resulted in the dismantling of al-Qaeda training bases there.
Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was moving to establish a global terrorist network from Iraq similar to the way Osama bin Laden had done from Afghanistan, Mr Gunaratna said.
The third significant development was the deepening co-operation among various militant groups worldwide, Mr Gunaratna said.
In Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) remained a long-term threat, said Jakarta-based terrorism analyst Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia project director of the think-tank the International Crisis Group.
JI had split into two -- the mainstream JI with an estimated membership of about 1000, and a radical faction called the JI Thoifah Muqotilah with 30 to 50 members bent on carrying out suicide attacks -- Mr Jones told the ISEAS forum.
Mainstream JI leaders were opposed to indiscriminate bombing and their main goal was the establishment of an Islamic state in the region, Mr Jones said.
The JI suicide brigade seemed to operate independently from the mainstream, and its main aim was to attack US and allied targets, Indonesian non-Muslims and Indonesians associated with the West, according to Mr Jones.
Among the radical faction's members were Noordin Mohamed Top, Dulmatin and Umar Patek -- all linked to deadly bomb attacks, including blasts which killed more than 200 people on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002 and 2005.
While bombing remained its weapon of choice, the radical JI faction had also contemplated kidnappings, both to raise funds and instill terror, Mr Jones said.
Among the planned targets were Americans working at an electrical plant near Banyuwangi in Indonesia and an Australian hotel manager in Surabaya. None of the planned kidnappings were carried out.
Zachary Abuza, a terrorism expert at Simmons College in Boston, told the same forum that clandestine JI training bases in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao continued to churn out militants.
"Mindanao in many ways remains the soft underbelly in terms of security in Southeast Asia," Mr Abuza said.
A conflict between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had left "vast swathes of ungoverned territory" in Mindanao, which groups like JI had moved into, he said.
The JI had established training camps in Mindanao in the mid-1990s and "training continues there to this day, although on a much, much smaller scale," Mr Abuza said.
According to Jones, two of the JI radical faction's senior operatives, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, are in Mindanao.
Mr Abuza noted that the MILF had publicly denied ties with the JI, but that signal intercepts by the Philippine military and statements from arrested JI members showed otherwise.
While the JI suicide squad packed lethality, it was the JI mainstream which posed the longer-term security threat, Mr Jones said.
A mainstream JI leader, Abu Rusdan, was likely to rebuild the organisation following his recent release from prison, but Mr Jones expected him to focus on religious outreach programmes, not violence, to revive the group.
"The problem in the long term for Indonesia is that as JI revives and reconstructs and rebuilds its mass base, what then is it going to do with that mass base?" Mr Jones said.
"It is still continuing to give its members military training and once you do that, there's always a question of how that military training will be used."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:45 ||
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A 25:20 minute video tape featuring a speech prepared by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and read by a voice that seems to be of Azzam the American AKA Adam Gadahn, titled: "The Letter to the Americans - Why Do We Fight and Resist You?," was issued today, January 7, 2006. The video, prepared by al-Sahab productions, an al-Qaeda production company, features a still-shot of Zawahiri imposed on on a corner of the screen, atop English-text, which follows the English audio. Opening with photographs of intubated and medically-treated children, the message seeks to address a document allegedly published by a group of American writers and called "Why We Fight," (perhaps this document here) answering not only this question, but also: "To what do we call you and what do we ask of you?"
The message responds that fighting is a reciprocal action against repeated Western aggression in Muslim lands. Zawahiri, through Gadahn's voice, specifically cites Israel and alleged falsehoods related to the Jewish claim to the land within this answer, in addition to mentioning encroachment in Chechnya, Kashmir, and Lebanon. He also condemns the American people and justifies attacks upon civilian populations due to their electing the rulers that authorize this aggression, and for their complacency with such foreign policy. According to the speech, for its hypocritical position vis-a-vis human rights and law, and deification of democracy, America is the "worst civilization in the history of the human race." Further, Zawahiri's messages warns that its policies are not changed, then disaster will befall America. He states: "Either leave us alone, or expect us in New York or Washington."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:07 ||
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#1
No f*ck you Zawahiri, because President Bush decided we would beat you to the point and see YOU first in Afghanistan and Iraq before you get another chance to get to NY or D.C. This war will never be over until Bin Laden and this asshole are dead.
#2
Gadahn should never be caught/broughht back to the US. Kill him on sight. Make the little puke wet himself and then put a bullet in his traitorous peabrain
*spit*
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 17:18 Comments ||
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Al Qaeda's No. 2 in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, said in a videotape aired yesterday that the United States' decision to withdraw some troops from Iraq represented ''the victory of Islam" and called on Muslims to attack oil sites.
Zawahri, wearing a white turban and gray robe and seated next to an automatic rifle, waved his finger for emphasis as he spoke in the 2-minute excerpt aired by Al-Jazeera. ''I congratulate [the Islamic nation] for the victory of Islam in Iraq," he said.
Zawahri apparently was referring to comments last month by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who said President Bush had authorized new troop cuts below the 138,000 level that prevailed for most of last year.
Rumsfeld did not reveal the exact size of the cut, but the Pentagon said the reductions would be about 7,000 troops. The Pentagon has not announced a timetable for the reductions, but indications are that the force could be cut significantly by the end of this year.
''You remember I told you more than a year ago that the American withdrawal from Iraq is only a matter of time, and here they are now . . . negotiating with the mujahideen," Zawahri said.
''Bush was forced at the end of last year to announce that he will pull out his forces from Iraq, but he was giving excuses for his withdrawal that the Iraqi forces have reached a good level."
Bush has not offered concrete details about bringing troops home but said Wednesday that ''possible adjustments" would be discussed with Iraqi leaders if progress continued on security and political efforts.
A US counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy, said that while the video appears to be authentic, it has not been determined with certainty that it is Zawahri.
However, officials often note that no message has ever been fraudulently attributed to Al Qaeda's leadership.
Zawahri said the American forces ''with their planes, missiles, tanks, and fleets are mourning and bleeding, seeking for a getaway from Iraq."
''Regarding your withdrawal timetable . . . you have to admit, Bush, that you have been defeated in Iraq and are being defeated in Afghanistan and will be defeated in Palestine," he said.
In comments quoted on Al-Jazeera's website but not yet broadcast, Zawahri urged supporters to attack oil sites in Muslim countries. ''I call on mujahideen to focus their attacks on Muslims' embezzled oil. Most of its revenues go to the enemies of Islam; meanwhile most of what is left is taken by the thieves who are ruling our countries," he said.
Al-Jazeera said the videotape was dated from December.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:04 ||
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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.
Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood was stunned by criticism from al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawaheri over its participation in parliamentary elections, according to a report Saturday by Asharq al- Awsat newspaper. Brotherhood spokesman Essam al-Erian told the Pan Arab daily that al-Zawaheri, whose latest video tape was aired by al-Jazeera satellite channel Friday, was the only person not to view the Moslem Brotherhood's participation in December's elections positively.
At least 30 people were injured in a clash between two factions of local BNP over toll collection at Kalinagar village under Singra upazila of Natore yesterday. Three of the injured--Nazma, Zakaria and Nuhu-- received bullet injuries. They are undergoing treatment at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH). Source said Shamsu, a supporter of Ibrahim Khalil alias Fatik, general secretary of Singra upazila Swechchhasebak Dal, and Dulal, a supporter of Fazlur Rahman alias Fonu, vice president of Kalam Union unit of the BNP, had an altercation over collection of toll from a cattle trader at Beeldahar Bazar in the morning. At one stage, the followers of Shamsu and Dulal were locked in a fierce clash, leaving 30 people injured. Besides, two shops were also damaged during the clash. The other injured were admitted to Natore and Singra hospital.
Royal Bank of Scotland, which is moving to dismiss litigation against it for allegedly providing financial services to terrorist organizations, has something of a history of doing business with groups designated as terrorists. In the wake of the 9/11/01 attacks, it emerged that RBSâ Citizens Bank unit had transferred money for Al-Barakaat, which even RBS later acknowledged to the Federal Reserve âappears to have provided funds to Al-Qaeda.â RBSâ defense was that its wire transfers had been to the United Arab Emirates which âwas not at the time of the wire (or today) in the high-risk for anti-money laundering category.â
BEIJI, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers in the field were not all supportive of a Pentagon study that found improved body armor saves lives, with some troops arguing Saturday that more armor would hinder combat effectiveness.
The Sindh home departmentâs indecision has been delaying for more than four months the proceedings of the trial of an accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case. Hashim Qadir alias Arif was declared an absconder along with other co-accused at the arraignment of Omer Saeed Sheikh, who masterminded the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter and three others in 2002. Qadir, according to the investigators of the case, was the man who had set up a meeting between Omer Sheikh and Daniel Pearl at the Akbar International Hotel in Rawalpindi. Intelligence officials said Qadir was one of seven militants still being sought in connection with Pearlâs murder.
NEW YORK: US authorities arrested a South Korean lobbyist accused of secretly scheming with top UN and Iraqi officials to create the oil-for-food programme that turned into a multibillion-dollar scandal. 
Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said the United States will not be successful in Iraq unless the political landscape better represents the country's minorities. Obama, the nation's only black senator, met with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Saturday. He said before his two-day trip to Iraq that he wanted to ask U.S. commanders for a realistic time frame on bringing troops home.
Talks to form a new Iraqi government have been postponed until after the Adha holiday âbecause a number of politicians taking part in the talks are currently performing Hajj [pilgrimage]â, according to Fuad Masum, a leading member of Iraqi President 
âIt is well known that relations between the Kurdish leadership, represented by President Talbani and 
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has urged Iraqi politicians to accept the final results of last month's polls, saying true democrats must acknowledge it is just as easy to lose elections as win them. Some Sunni Arab and secular politicians say the December 15 parliamentary election was fraudulent. They have demanded a rerun, although Iraq's Electoral Commission insists it was largely fair. The United Nations agrees. Mr Straw is in Baghdad to hold talks with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He says the 70 per cent voter turnout shows Iraqis want to embrace democracy. "The Iraqi people showed us that they are going to defy the people of violence and that democracy burns in the souls and hearts of Iraqi people in the same way it does in people across the world," he said.
MK 
Hadassah University Hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef said Saturday evening that the latest scan of the brain of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, performed Saturday, shows a slight improvement, but his overall condition remains critical. Hadassah doctors will meet Sunday morning to decide when to rouse Sharon from his induced coma. Until Sharon regains consciousness, it will be impossible to determine the extent to which his brain has been damaged. 
The five major nuclear powers are working on a joint warning statement that aims to show unusual unified resolve and put fresh pressure on Iran not to resume nuclear fuel research, US officials and diplomats said on Friday. Iran, making a confrontation increasingly likely, has defied the international community with its threat to resume on January 9 atomic fuel research and development that was shelved over a year ago at the Westâs insistence.
