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Somalia orders recapture of Baidoa
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Bangladesh
Rejoinder, our reply
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in a rejoinder termed The Daily Star report headlined 'Jamaat to take on war crime trial' published on January 30 'baseless and false'. It also claimed the report as a 'syndicated propaganda.'

In the rejoinder, Jamaat said the then Pakistani government formed Rajakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and different other organisations. Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chattra Sangha and its leaders had no role and were not involved in those organisations. The rejoinder also states that propaganda is going on against Jamaat Ameer Maolana Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to confuse people.

OUR REPLY
In the rejoinder Jamaat did not refute the contents of our report. They have only denied Jamaat's involvement in some historical events of 1971, most of which remain as evidence in many documents. We, therefore, stand by our report.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred_

I kept hitting the Translate button, but I still have no idea what this guy is on about.
Posted by: Bigfoot Grusose2966 || 02/03/2009 12:45 Comments || Top||

#2  During the war for Bangla independence from Pakistain, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its front organizations were on the Pak side. They formed the al-Badr organization and four or five others that operated as kill squads for the Paks. They were responsible for some pretty horrible massacres.

After the war, they kept their heads down and allied politically with the BNP. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina's father and the father of Bangladesh was assassinated and Jamaat's "nationalist" allies brought them a bit of protection. They were a part of the last BNP government, the one that was in place when Bangla was named the most corrupt nation on earth -- or maybe it was just the 172nd least honest, I don't remember.

Part of the resurgent Awami League's platform has been to try the war criminals from 1971, which would include a considerable chunk of the current leadership of the Jamaat. Bangla Daily Star's been pushing that editorially, and the Jamaat's response has been pretty weak: if they unleash the bully boyz on them, that increases the demand for trials. I'm enjoying the show, as John Frum is, no doubt, along with millions of others.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2009 18:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks, Fred__

why couldn't the author have explained it that well
Posted by: BigFoot, etc || 02/03/2009 21:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Dang Fred,
just Dang!
Posted by: .5MT || 02/03/2009 23:56 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Terrorist Camps in America
By Jamie Glazov

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Ryan Mauro, the founder of WorldThreats.com. He is currently a national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a researcher for the Reform Party of Syria. A frequent guest on radio and TV programs, he is the author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.


FP: Ryan Mauro, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Mauro: Thank you Jamie.

FP: We’re here today to discuss “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around U.S.,” the new documentary being released by the Christian Action Network. Tell us about it.

Mauro: This documentary is premiering at Washington D.C.’s Landmark Theater on February 11, at 7:30 PM. It is free to attend and I strongly encourage everyone in the area to come, and those out of the area to go to ChristianAction.org and order a copy. The Christian Action Network (CAN) is a non-profit organization and I personally will not see a penny from the sales. This documentary is simply too important; the threat too severe; and the public too unaware for me to not promote this is any way possible and call myself a patriotic American.

“Homegrown Jihad” documents the networks of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a terrorist group run by a radical Muslim leader in Lahore, Pakistan named Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, an individual who, as I said in my last interview, does us the favor of not hiding his true colors. While he casts himself as a peace-loving Muslim, his actions and the actions of his network are anything but. In the documentary, we show a secret videotape, one which Gilani strictly instructs his followers to keep hidden, where he personally engages in terrorist training, from killing guards to hijacking vehicles to setting off explosives. On this tape, he says that those seeking to “join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” can contact any of his “Muslims of America” compounds in the United States, almost all of which still operate today.

“Muslims of America” is a group set up by Gilani to act as a thinly-veiled front for Jamaat ul-Fuqra. There are at least 35 “Muslims of America” compounds in the U.S. alone, along with at least 3,000 members, many of which have criminal backgrounds. The websites of these compounds do not hide the fact that they are devoted to, and are led by, Sheikh Gilani. The compound at Red House, Virginia, even has a street named after him. With Gilani saying things like “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are in America”, “Jews are an example of human Satans,” and “Act like you are a friend, then kill him”, we need to question the motives and beliefs of those who live in and are educated in his communities and take action to stop them from acting upon these beliefs.

Members of this group continue to be arrested and convicted for involvement in terrorism and all sorts of criminal activity. Members are also required to make a pledge: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.” They continue to recruit members, build and expand compounds, and operate in isolation, away from the eyes of the public.

Perhaps the most riveting part of the documentary is when CAN travels to several of these compounds in an attempt to get members of the group to view the terrorist training videotape and get a reaction. Before joining CAN, I personally visited the 70-acre large headquarters in Hancock, New York. Although the residents were friendly, almost immediately after greeting the man who I spoke to, he said with a disarming smile, “Are you Jewish? It’s clear that the anti-Semitism and overall beliefs of Sheikh Gilani are present at these compounds.

FP: What sort of terrorism has Jamaat ul-Fuqra been involved in?

Mauro: Members of the group have carried out at least 17 firebombings and 10 assassinations, including stabbing a moderate Muslim cleric to death, bombing a power station, killing police officers, and attacks on Hindus. In 1991, five members were involved in a plot to bomb a Hindu temple and an Indian-owned cinema near Toronto; in 1993, one member was involved in the World Trade Center bombing; and five were involved in the massive “Day of Terror” plot aimed at bombing various buildings in New York in 1993.

There have also been various suspected links between Jamaat ul-Fuqra members and terrorist plots since then. It was reported that the Beltway Snipers of 2002 took shelter in one of Gilani’s compounds in Georgia, and it was also reported that the Pakistani government thought that Shiekh Gilani may have funded a plot in 2006 to hijack airliners leaving Great Britain on the way to the U.S. so they could be blown up in mid-air using funds supposedly raised to help earthquake victims in Kashmir.

Let us not also forget that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped on the way to meeting with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan. Although the government has not charged Gilani with involvement in the murder, Gilani’s website says that Pearl was part of an assassination team sent to kill him, and Gilani maintains that Pearl is still alive, despite the fact that his beheading was videotaped. That’s just one of the various conspiracy theories Gilani espouses, from 9/11 and Pearl Harbor conspiracy theories, to New World Order and Illuminati forces aimed at destroying him and controlling the world, to secret Zionist control of the government media.
Rest at link
Posted by: ed || 02/03/2009 15:24 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Obama's promise of ethics reform faces early test
WASHINGTON: During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a "new era of responsibility." What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.

The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes. Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2 official in the Pentagon. And there are the others brought into government from the influence industry even if not formally registered as lobbyists.

President Barack Obama said Monday that he was "absolutely" standing behind former Senator Tom Daschle, his nominee for health and human services secretary, and Daschle, who met late in the day with leading senators in an effort to keep his confirmation on track, said he had "no excuse" and wanted to "deeply apologize" for his failure to pay $128,000 in U.S. taxes.

But the episode has already shown how, when faced with the perennial clash between campaign rhetoric and Washington reality, Obama has proved willing to compromise.

Every four or eight years a new president arrives in town, declares his determination to cleanse a dirty process and invariably winds up trying to reconcile the clear ideals of electioneering with the muddy business of governing. Obama on his first day in office imposed perhaps the toughest ethics rules of any president in modern times, and since then he and his advisers have been trying to explain why they do not cover this case or that case.

"This is a big problem for Obama, especially because it was such a major, major promise," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "He harped on it, time after time, and he created a sense of expectation around the country. This is exactly why people are skeptical of politicians, because change we can believe in is not the same thing as business as usual."

And so in these opening days of the administration, the Obama team finds itself being criticized by bloggers on the left and the right, mocked by television comics and questioned by reporters about whether Obama is really changing the way Washington works or just changing which political party works it.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/03/2009 11:17 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's not rush to judgement just because His cabinet seems to be filled with tax cheats and lobbyists. I'm sure there are much bigger promises He is going to renege on.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/03/2009 12:04 Comments || Top||

#2  True, but how can ya trust the opinion and actions of unscrupulous people; a foundation composed of sand.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/03/2009 17:21 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A Minority Report from the West Bank and Gaza
by Michael Totten

Khaled Abu Toameh is not your typical Palestinian journalist. He began his career at one of Yasser Arafat's newspapers and today he writes for the Jerusalem Post. He has produced video for European TV stations, and even blogged for a while at Commentary Magazine in New York. It's impossible to cram Toameh into a convenient ideological box, though that doesn't stop some people from trying.

I met him briefly a few weeks ago on my trip to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee when he gave a talk to me and my colleagues and answered some questions at the end. I'm reproducing the entire transcript here because I think he deserves a full hearing.

Hamas, Fatah, Americans, Israelis, Europeans, Arab governments, American foreign correspondents -- just about everybody involved in any way with the conflict comes under some well-deserved fire. There's something here for just about everybody to like and dislike, and I'm publishing what he said without quote-shopping or cherry-picking his words for convenience.
What follows is a very long panel interview of Mr. Toameh. Amazing. Mr. Toameh has quite a few interesting opinions that will cause you to re-think what you're thinking about the Paleos. RTWT.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2009 16:21 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Totten will go anywhere in search of a Moderate Muslim. But the rest of us---we have to go by averages.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2009 20:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I think you ought to read what Mr. Toameh said again. He's making very clear that a lot of the thing we in the West believe about the Middle East just isn't so. Sure would like it if Totten could talk some sense into Bambi.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2009 23:16 Comments || Top||


Behind the blow-out at Davos
Middle East Strategy at Harvard
Olin Institute :: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/03/2009 06:55 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Lileks: Snuff your children for Gaia's sake.
Screedblog

Among the many things we get from England, cautionary examples may be their most useful export:

COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Of course he has. What’s the line from Scrooge - better they should die, and decrease the surplus population? I’m surprised that’s not an applause line these days. If Scrooge had forbid Crachet from putting on more coal because it would contribute to global warming, he’d be the hero, and Crachet would have got the three spirits.

Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming.

It hasn't taken long, but it’s taken hold: children, to some, are not bundles of joys, but bundles of sticks whose inevitable combustion harms the planet. It doesn’t matter whether reducing the population might deprive the world of another Mozart or a scientist who can cure cancer; the latter would just mean people living longer and going more harm, and it’s an act of pure cultural arrogance and classism to suggest we need another Mozart anyway. (Plus, non-political culture we cannot afford in these desperate times. It’s not that it makes people think the wrong things; it just takes up time that could be spent thinking about the right things.)

“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table.”

I think there might be other ghosts jostling to be heard. Smaller ones. . . .

Go read it all.
Posted by: Mike || 02/03/2009 08:14 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion.

Kill 'em when they're old by not treating them, kill 'em before they're born actively. Why don't we just gun down people at random then?
Posted by: Parabellum || 02/03/2009 8:50 Comments || Top||

#2  COUPLES who have more than two children are being "irresponsible" by creating an unbearable burden on the environment

Even if they're Muslim?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2009 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Parabellum, two problems.

1) There are no Gaia-approved, "green" cleaners to take care of the mess.

2) Thanks to the blasted Second Amendment, some of the selectees might shoot back in this quaint notion of "self-defense".
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 02/03/2009 9:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's start with Lileks.
Render the fucker carbon neutral.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/03/2009 10:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Let's start with Lileks.

Uh, Darth, you might want to read the article again. I do believe the good gentleman is mocking the idea.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/03/2009 10:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Sorry, sorry.

Meant Jonathon Porritt.

Need coffee....
I like Lileks.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/03/2009 10:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Darth Vader said referring to Mr Porrit

Render the fucker carbon neutral.

Actually I think the problem is that he isn't one. That is why he is so bitter, hates children and wants to make other people unhappy.
Posted by: JFM || 02/03/2009 11:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Ooooh, JFM, that last was elegantly efficient communication. Yum!
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/03/2009 12:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Truly, the left and greens are proving themselves to be The Culture of Death. Abortion. Euthanasia. Now shifting funding away from treating illness to instead preventing or destroying life.
Posted by: Lagom || 02/03/2009 13:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Seems to me a self-curing problem, let the assholes kill themselves (And descendants) and be done with their whining.
Posted by: Rednek Jim || 02/03/2009 14:34 Comments || Top||

#11  The Pope was right.

Culture of Death.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/03/2009 23:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
The Optimum Government
Posted by: tipper || 02/03/2009 05:09 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What do we get for the government spending that is 36% of our GNP? What would we get for 25%?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/03/2009 19:52 Comments || Top||


Macroeconomics 'Experts' Apply Astrology, Not Science
Posted by: tipper || 02/03/2009 00:49 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  I had this joke from one of Azimov's Azazel stories.

POTUS asks his science advisor "How much is 2 + 2?": "Four, Mr President."
Asks the head of the US Census Bureau: "4 +/- 0.0756 Mr President".
Asks his chief economic advisor: "How much would you like it to be, Mr President?".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2009 8:36 Comments || Top||

#2  An economy like our own has never existed in human history. There have been largely agrarian economies and, since the 19th century, industrial economies. Both of which are simplistic by any comparison to what’s happening now. Therefore modeling is not and can not be a science. There is no history. It’s happening right now. It’s a SWAG at best. It’s a product of literally millions of players, input, and outputs, each with its own agenda and objectives. It’s a beast in and of itself. All you can do is ride beast. Sometimes you can prod or encourage the beast in a desired direction. However, when the beast gets its own mind, it can eat you alive. Beast riding is an art not a science. There are those who think they can tame the beast, but have shown that they only kill its spirit and thus the beast as well, leaving no one the ability to ride it. However, since the beast is largely composed of humans, the successful principles laid out for human behavior have the closest application to the economy. Ignore those principles because you believe you’re smarter than those before you, or because you wish they weren’t so, only brings distress and failure in the end.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/03/2009 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  procopius, you Greek, your writing has strange letters in it?

what’s
It’s Etc.
Posted by: Rednek Jim || 02/03/2009 14:29 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
65[untagged]
4Hamas
4Iraqi Insurgency
3TTP
2Jamaat-e-Islami
2Govt of Pakistan
2Islamic Courts
1Fatah al-Islam
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
1Global Jihad
1Abu Sayyaf
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Sudan

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On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2009-02-03
  Somalia orders recapture of Baidoa
Mon 2009-02-02
  Bomber in police uniform kills 21 Afghan policemen
Sun 2009-02-01
  Sheikh Sharif elected as Somalia's president
Sat 2009-01-31
  Polls Close in Iraq Elections, No Major Violence
Fri 2009-01-30
  'Incompetent' Hamid Karzai's political future in doubt
Thu 2009-01-29
  Pakistan busts suicide bomb gang
Wed 2009-01-28
  Yar! French navy nabs 9 Somali pirates
Tue 2009-01-27
  Al-Shabaab fighters seize Somali parliament headquarters
Mon 2009-01-26
  GSPC founder calls for al-Qaeda surrender in Algeria
Sun 2009-01-25
  Lanka troops enter final Tiger town
Sat 2009-01-24
  Twenty killed in separate strikes in North, South Wazoo
Fri 2009-01-23
  Hamas arms smuggling never stopped during IDF op in Gaza
Thu 2009-01-22
  Meshaal hails Hamas victory in Gaza, attacks PA
Wed 2009-01-21
  Pakistani troops kill 60 Talibs in Mohmand
Tue 2009-01-20
  Barack Obama inaugurated


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