UK MP George Galloway could face a new inquiry into the finances of an appeal he set up to help a sick Iraqi girl. The Charity Commission has said it will contact US senators investigating claims Mr Galloway was given credits for Iraqi oil by Saddam Hussein.
The UK body is keen to see US evidence concerning Mr Galloway's Mariam Appeal.
And we just happen to have a transcript available.
The MP denies funds from the sale of oil were funnelled through the appeal. He told senators a previous Commission inquiry had found no impropriety.
Mr Galloway received a jubilant welcome on Wednesday evening as hundreds of loonsfoolsrubesmarks people turned up for a Respect meeting to celebrate his election victory in Bethnal and Bow, east London.
On Tuesday, Mr Galloway accused the US Senate investigations sub-committee of being "cavalier" with justice during his appearance in Washington. He said the Commission's inquiry into the appeal, set up in 1998 to help a four-year-old Iraqi girl with leukaemia, had recovered "all money in and all money out".
However, the head of legal services for the Charity Commission, Kenneth Dibble, said there had been "limitations" on its investigation. Some of the records for the appeal had been taken out of the country by its then chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, Mr Dibble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. This meant investigators had to "reconstruct" the income and expenditure of the appeal fund by looking at its bank accounts, he said.
"With the help of the trustees... we were able to establish at least that the majority of the monies were applied for purposes that were charitable," he said. The Charity Commission has now asked to see the US senators' evidence in order to establish if further action is needed.
Mr Dibble said: "We would have to consider whether or not they were aware of any improper nature of funds coming to the charity if indeed we find there is evidence to support that."
How about all of George's "expenses"?
One of the main allegations raised by the Senate sub-committee is that Mr Galloway received oil allocations with the assistance of Mr Zureikat. The MP said Mr Zureikat had donated money to the Mariam Appeal, but he "never gave me a penny from an oil deal, a cake deal, a bread deal or from any other deal".
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2005 01:16 ||
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"Some of the records for the appeal had been taken out of the country by its then chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat"
To where? Jordan? Won't Kingy Thingy help out? He's so Modern and Moderate and all. Y'know he rides a Harley? Yep. Obviously, he's just like us.
#3
Isn't this the 2nd time they have produced evidence on Galloway's collusion with Saddam? If memory serves me, the Daily Telegraph uncovered a bunch of documents in the Foreign Ministry right after we got into Baghdad. These were proven to be legimate and seemed to point to outright bribery vis a vis cash payments without ties to oil allocations. This guy is an opportunistic sleaze bag who lives the Walter Hagen rule: "I don't want to be a millionaire, I just want to live like one."
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/21/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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As I have pointed out before, if so much as one American has donated so little as a penny to this charity, this is a RICO case, pure and simple.
George "Hedley Lamarr" Galloway may not be convicted of a felony, but he could definately be sent rocketing to the poorhouse.
We note there were more people at this rally than attended the "Free Muslims Against Terrorism" in DC last week...
Muslim protesters today called for the bombing of New York in a demonstration outside the US embassy in London. There were threats of "another 9/11" from militants angry at reports of the desecration of the Koran by US troops in Iraq. Some among the crowd burned an effigy of Tony Blair on a crucifix and then set fire to a Union flag and a Stars and Stripes. Led by a man on a megaphone, they chanted, "USA watch your back, Osama is coming back" and "Kill, kill USA, kill, kill George Bush". A small detail of police watched as they shouted: "Bomb, bomb New York" and "George Bush, you will pay, with your blood, with your head..." Isn't this a crime not just by British Law, but by EU Law? Yet I see no effort to arrest the crowd, or even the instigators. Maybe British Law only applies to natural born Englishmen.
#1
This was Omar Bakri's mob, who is apparently above the law.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/21/2005 1:18 Comments ||
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In the past a gang of young toughs would have waded into this rally and cracked some skulls, just for fun. Now I guess they just beat up old ladies for their dole money.
#3
Maybe British Law only applies to natural born Englishmen.
Since when is being anti-America a crime in Euro-land. Besides, being Wogs, these folks are not expected to conform to civilized behavior norms, right?
Personally, I'd be careful about "another 9/11". Look what happened after the last one. The Americans and their pals descended like flying monkeys and tore the stuffing out of two supposedly unbeatable countries - Afghanistan and Iraq. Kadafy in Libya decided to make nice; big changes are afoot in Lebannon and Syria. Another 9/11 and the rest of the Middle East just might get drop-kicked into the late 19th century.
Except for the Palestinians, of course, who will continue to act against their own self-interest.
Uzbek authorities shrugged off the UN chief's call for an international probe into a government crackdown on protesters that witnesses say killed hundreds, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. President Islam Karimov has blamed Islamic militants for the unrest and denies that his troops fired on unarmed civilians, dismissing claims of rights activists who put the death toll at over 700. Annan said Karimov opposed an international investigation into the worst bloodshed since the country's independence in 1991. "He said he had the situation under control and was taking every measure to bring those responsible to account, and didn't need an international team to establish the facts," the UN chief said in New York on Thursday night.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2005 00:00 ||
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U.S. policymakers should highlight Japan's possible nuclear pursuit and other security repercussions for China in pressing Beijing to stop North Korea from testing its nuclear weapons, a Senate Republican policy panel said in a recent report.
"A test in North Korea would certainly raise the prospect of a major public debate in Japan over whether to turn its latent nuclear capabilities in its civilian and space sectors into an overt nuclear weapons program," the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee said. As a paramount policy option, the United States must "essentially" demand that China "make a choice: either help out or face the possibility of other nuclear neighbors," according to the report.
KCNA — The DPRK will react to Japan's move to apply economic sanctions against the DPRK with tough retaliatory measures. Rodong Sinmun Friday warns this in a signed commentary assailing Japan for contemplating applying economic sanctions against the DPRK single-handed, independent of the United States.
The Japanese reactionaries, much upset by the world public paying no heed to the so-called "abduction issue", are working hard to build up public opinion favorable for them and "single-handed application of economic sanctions" is part of their new anti-DPRK campaign, the commentary observes, and continues: Japan's loudmouthed "single-handed application of economic sanctions" is aimed at keeping the world opinion on the "abduction issue" from waning in a bid to pressurize the DPRK and wrest any concession from the latter. The DPRK clearly stated more than once that it would regard any sanctions against it as a declaration of war. Nevertheless, the Japanese reactionaries are contemplating the application of economic sanctions against the DPRK.
This is a deliberate and premeditated provocative move to scrap the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and drive the confrontation between the two countries to a dangerous phase of clash. The hostile relations between the two countries are now inching close to the dangerous phase of explosion. Under this situation the DPRK is left with no option but to take a decisive counter- measure. The army and the people of the DPRK value its sovereignty as their life and soul and will never allow anyone to infringe upon it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2005 00:09 ||
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#1
Going to quit smuggling drugs into Japan for a couple of weeks (the normal content of their diplomatic bags) in response?
No hash-balls for you. No opium today..
#3
According to Selig Harrison in his Japan Focus articlePyongyang intends to keep the nuclear weapons it already claims to possess, but is prepared to rule out the enlargement of its arsenal by negotiating a freeze.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2005 7:19 Comments ||
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#4
Crank up the rhetoric,
You have a point there, phil_b. Where's the 'Sea of Fire'TM, the 'capitalist running dog', the 'lackeys', the 'Army First'TM policy? Where's the love, where's the spittle? How I yearn for the thrilling days of yesteryear!
The US is holding an inquiry into how photos of Saddam Hussein were leaked to UK newspaper the Sun, which has now printed more pictures of him. The US military vowed to "aggressively" investigate how the photos of Iraq's ousted leader appeared in the paper.
After printing images on Friday of Saddam Hussein in his underpants and doing his washing, its Saturday edition pictured him behind barbed wire. The paper has defended its decision to publish the photos. It said they were obtained from a US military source.
The Sun's new photos show Saddam Hussein fully dressed, in a white robe-like garment, in a prison compound. The newspaper also ran photos of two top members of the former Iraqi regime, who were identified as Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali" and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash dubbed "Mrs Anthrax".
US President George W Bush said he did not think the photos would encourage insurgents in Iraq. "I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that's so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think."
A statement from the US military on Friday said it was "disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security, welfare, and detention of Saddam would take and provide these photos for public release". The US military and legal experts also said the photos - possibly taken more than a year ago - may breach Geneva Convention rules on the humane treatment of prisoners of war. The conventions say countries must protect prisoners of war in their custody from "public curiosity".
Friday's photos showed the 68-year-old former leader with a moustache, rather than the beard he sported when he was captured in December 2003, and again when he appeared in court last July. The Sun's front page showed him wearing a pair of white underpants in his prison cell. Other pictures showed him washing his trousers, shuffling around and sleeping.
The photos also appeared in the New York Post, which - like the Sun - is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Defending the decision to publish, the Sun's managing editor Graham Dudman said: "People seem to forget that this is a man who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and all that's happened to him is someone has taken his picture," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. "This is a sort of modern-day Adolf Hitler. These pictures are an extraordinary iconic news image that will still be being looked at the end of this century."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2005 01:01 ||
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Sh*t the photographs were taken because that magnum ASSHAT ramsey clark wanted some pics to show bill moyers.
The CIA Gulfstream V jet touched down at a small airport west of here just before 9 p.m. on a subfreezing night in December 2001. A half-dozen agents wearing hoods that covered their faces stepped down from the aircraft and hurried across the tarmac to take custody of two prisoners, suspected Islamic radicals from Egypt.
Inside an airport police station, Swedish officers watched as the CIA operatives pulled out scissors and rapidly sliced off the prisoners' clothes, including their underwear, according to newly released Swedish government documents and eyewitness statements. They probed inside the men's mouths and ears and examined their hair before dressing the pair in sweat suits and draping hoods over their heads. The suspects were then marched in chains to the plane, where they were strapped to mattresses on the floor in the back of the cabin.
Anna Wigenmark, a lawyer for the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
director of the security police, Klas Bergenstrand
MUHAMAD ZERY
al-Tawhid
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 00:17 ||
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#1
The Swedish must not know a damn thing about dealing with the transfer of felony prisoners. No strip searches or visual check of the body for secreted weapons? It's SOP upon recieving felony prisoners. Not doing so puts them and the persons taking them into custody at risk. Sweden must be full of idiots. This is basic practice for persons dangerous enough to need expedited transfer.
#2
After the death threat against me for mentioning some facts instead of fiction in a EU website that claims to be for discussion the EU press and web presence is looking more and more like full partners and members of the other side in the war on terror.
This Washington Times article leaves out some really troubling issues. How were they made aware of it. Why did it come to light at this particular time. Why do they care about the treatment of terror suspects more then terror victims. Why no outcry over Sudan, Nigeria.... et.al. Just little things that the US engaged in.
It truly looks like a full court press to smear and destroy the US.
#4
To summarize the article: Sweden decided to not to accept the appeal by these two men (and no doubt many others) and expelled them. Rather than attending to the repatriation themselves, they asked the American CIA to handle it for them. Someone leaked (probably one of the Swedish guards, who didn't like looking like an amateur in comparison), and now the Swedes are making the CIA scapegoats for their own decision.
An al Qaeda courier was sent to Afghanistan just before the September 11 attacks to convey the message "Eleven Nine", but did not know the significance of the numbers and was not part of the plot, a central figure in the conspiracy told U.S. interrogators. The assertion was made by captured al Qaeda figure Ramzi bin al-Shaibah and is contained in documents, obtained by Reuters, which were sent by the United States to Germany this month. The story's credibility will be tested next Tuesday when the documents are presented to a Hamburg court trying another September 11 suspect, Moroccan Mounir el Motassadeq.
In the papers, sent by the U.S. Department of Justice and obtained by Reuters, bin al-Shaibah is quoted as saying another Hamburg-based Moroccan, Zakariya Essabar, was sent to Afghanistan as an unwitting messenger to tell al Qaeda leaders when the attacks on the United States would take place. Essabar, a Moroccan who like the others was based in Hamburg, was to deliver the message to a contact called Mukhtar. Bin al-Shaibah "asked Essabar to convey the message Eleven Nine to Mukhtar, but insisted that he did not tell Essabar what the message meant", the documents say.
At another point in his questioning, bin al-Shaibah "described Zakariya Essabar as a close associate, quickly adding that Essabar did not have any foreknowledge of the events of 11 September", they say. But at yet another time, bin al-Shaibah -- in jail at an undisclosed location -- described how an aide to Osama bin Laden "instructed Essabar to return (from Afghanistan) to Germany and to obtain a U.S. visa so that Essabar could travel to the United States to take part in the planned attacks". Neither bin al-Shaibah nor Essabar was granted a U.S. visa. Washington declined on security grounds to grant the German court access to bin al-Shaibah. But the written summaries of his interrogation are crucial to the Hamburg case in which Motassadeq is on trial for the second time, accused of complicity in the attacks on New York and Washington which killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.
In material previously released by U.S. authorities to the court, bin al-Shaibah was quoted as saying that Motassadeq had nothing to do with the plot. He was merely one of a group of Arabs who "studied jihad" and "engaged in vitriolic anti-U.S. discussions" at the Hamburg home of Mohamed Atta, the man who crashed the first hijacked plane into the World Trade Centre. The prosecution is likely to seize on the contradictions in the new information to argue that bin al-Shaibah was lying about both Essabar and Motassadeq and simply trying to cover up for his friends.
The U.S. letter notes bin al-Shaibah's "inconsistent statements" on Essabar. It also says he "may have been intentionally withholding information and employing counter- interrogation techniques". On the other hand, the new U.S. material, consisting of summarised information from bin al-Shaibah and another captured al Qaeda suspect, mentions Motassadeq only once by name and does not contain any new incriminatory evidence against him. The U.S. letter also said the FBI had no further material on Motassadeq and Washington could not supply any more information to the court.
This article starring:
MOHAMED ATTA
al-Qaeda
MUNIR EL MOTASADEQ
al-Qaeda
RAMZI BIN AL SHAIBAH
al-Qaeda
ZAKARIYA ESABAR
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 00:08 ||
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#1
This is just numerology.
The code word "go" for 9/11 was the assassination of the Lion of Panjshir on 9/9.
I always felt the assassination of Mashood by AQ was a pre-cursor defensive action, i.e. they wanted him out of the way as a potential threat to them after 9/11, when I am sure they were worried about the US response.
Thankk GOD that gorean wasn't elected in 2000. I don't know what it would have looked like, but I know it would have been bad.
A bit eloquent for my tastes, but then eloquence often does a better job than the profanity I normally engage in.
A taste:
I also wondered what his and our life might have been like if he had deployed some of his little-man courage before Saddam; standing up for some of those other hundreds of thousands of other good Muslims — Iraqis, who could have done with a persuasive advocate there and then.
#6
Article: The average MP, schooled in the knockabout tactics of the House of Commons, is far better equipped to score points and persuade undecided minds. And Mr Gallowayâs performance duly earned him some rave reviews, not least from startled American journalists who wouldnât dare treat their betters this way.
I find it amazing that a British specialist on American affairs can be so ignorant about the nature of Senate hearings while waxing superior about British debating techniques as exemplified by Galloway*. Senate hearings are not debates. They are trials by another name. Most people who show up at the hearings are cautious not because they respect the Senators, but because they know that anything they say, every lie they utter, could result in jail terms. Like Galloway, the writer of this article gets carried away with his own rhetoric, without understanding the essential truth - that Americans are not deferential to authority like the British are, which is why we won't submit to the D-notice (the British regulation barring newspapers from publishing facts not permitted by the government) or to British-style libel laws (where the defendant has to prove the truth of his statements - instead the person suing for libel has to prove not only that the defendant's statements are false, but that he knew that they were false, and the defendant's liability is restricted to a retraction of his statement). And this is the Times of London. As crappy as the American media are, their incompetence is far exceeded by the media around the rest of the world. Which is pretty sad, considering how incompetent the American media are.
* It was Blair's insistence on saying too much that got us into trouble about WMD's. Focus makes (on WMD's, for example) makes for better debating technique. But a shotgun approach makes sure you cover all your bases. British politicians love the sound of their own voices more than even Americans. Instead of building impregnable positions in a boring but methodical manner, they go for absolutes, in the manner of flashy trial lawyers. And Blair's rhetoric has come back to haunt us.
#7
Britain has parlimentary immunity. An MP can say whatever they like in parliment without consequence. The only restrictions are on offensive language.
The House Armed Services Committee yesterday did what military shipbuilding supporters have lobbied for by authorizing an extra $86.7 million to make sure the U.S. Navy's next new aircraft carrier begins development in 2007. The boost also comes on the heels of the committee's decision to raise the president?s fiscal year 2006 defense budget request from four ships to seven.
The additional $86.7 million for the advanced procurement of the Navy's CNV-21, a new generation of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, comes with a caveat. The Pentagon must certify that the extra money would allow the Navy to begin production of the carrier in 2007 before Congress makes the funds available. The money would be transferred out of defensewide operations and maintenance accounts. The administration's plans were to start production in 2008. The Navy's goal is to deploy the carrier by 2014.
Once again ops and maintenance get screwed so that a politico can have a moment in the sun.
The amendment to add the money was introduced by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) as a substitute for one offered by Rep. Jo Ann Davis, (R-Va.), which did not include the Pentagon certification stipulation. The amendment passed by voice vote.
The House panel's move yesterday came after the Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its defense authorization bill, adding $86.7 million to advance by one year the delivery of the carrier, moving it from 2015 to 2014. The moves in both the Senate and House coincide with the Navy's decision to retire the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, thus reducing the carrier fleet to 11. The Navy's assessment of war plans has shown that 11 carriers would meet commanders' requirements, Secretary of the Navy Gordon England told the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee in March.
He also said that it may be possible that the number of carriers could be further reduced, as the Navy plans to use other, smaller ships that would allow aircraft to take off and land, such as the new amphibious assault ship LHA-R.
The Senate, meanwhile, has directed the Navy to retain 12 aircraft carriers until 180 days after completion of the Pentagon's sweeping review of capabilities, called the quadrennial defense review, and the achievement of necessary basing agreements for carriers in the Pacific Command's area of responsibility.
The fear of further shrinkage of the carrier force raised the stakes for carrier advocates in Congress and industry who were trying to prevent a production delay of CVN-21. Last year, Northrop Grumman Newport News received $1.3 billion for construction preparation on the CVN-21. Innovations on the new carrier, often referred to as the centerpiece of the future carrier strike groups, include an enhanced flight deck, a new nuclear power plant and reduced manpower.
It has been estimated that the cost of the carrier will rise to $13.7 billion, almost double the initial projections, sparking concern among lawmakers that the cost of advanced weapons systems is skyrocketing and that the CVN-21 is unaffordable.
Davis argued that the additional $86.7 million for advanced procurement is necessary to prevent the cost of the ship from further escalating and to ensure that the Navy's fleet would not drop below 12 aircraft carriers.
The Navy's budget projection for the years 2006 through 2011 calls for cutbacks in various ship programs, spurring a spirited debate about the future of the Navy's fleet, which has already been slashed in half since the end of the Cold War.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2005 00:45 ||
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There was a terribly bitter commentary in the May 2005 issue of 'Proceedings', published by the U.S. Naval Institute, which is the premier naval journal in the world. It begins, "The United States is headed for a naval war with China. We are going to lose. The combination of inadequate shipbuilding and procurement of the wrong types of ships sets us up to be run out of the Western Pacific in five to ten years..." This is scary stuff, published in a magazine whose contributors are almost exclusively senior U.S. naval officers and retired officers, many of flag rank.
#2
Looking forward to see what a CVN-21 can do. If we do get into a serious conflict with any major navy (China's for example), the schelduled delivery in 2014 might be postponed. I wouldn't worry too much over what "Proceedings" says, it's no different than any other opinion that America will lose against China.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 13:48 Comments ||
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#4
I used to read Proceedings quite often, it is a good source as long as you understand that its writers will consitently promote increased naval spending. During the Cold War the military establishment consistently exagerated the capabilities and quality of the Soviet threat.
I disagree with their theory of a naval war with China. It is my opinion that large scale naval spending by the Chinese would only result in improvements to the reef structure around the coast of the PRC in the event of a shooting war with the US.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/21/2005 17:30 Comments ||
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In other words, Super Hose, it doesn't matter how good China's ships are, so long as our missiles continue to be better and more numerous?
#6
China's projection of power is via the boots of the PLA and the threat of thermonuclear war via their missiles. Their navy couldn't currently take Japan. You don't build a (competent) blue-water navy like that *snap*
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 18:54 Comments ||
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#7
You don't build a (competent) blue-water navy like that
Germany did. In the end, it wasn't quite good enough to beat the RN, but it was close.
#8
but Germany had qualified naval servicemen, no? I'm under the impression that, like the USSR, China deepwater would be overburdened by political control vs competence. Would like to hear different if evidence shows....?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 22:48 Comments ||
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Student reports Quran in campus toilet
No suspects or leads in incident at Delta College Is the FBI on the case?
By Greg Kane
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, May 20, 2005
STOCKTON -- A San Joaquin Delta College student discovered a copy of the Quran in a library toilet Wednesday evening, an incident similar to one described in a now-retracted news report that sparked Muslim protests worldwide last week. "Protests" in which a couple of dozen people were killed, you asshat, and a lot more would have been if there had been any unarmed Americans around.
Gee. Golly corn. Shucks. Darn. Another Koran in the Toiders story already? And on a college campus, too? Who'da ever thunkit? Not that I expect the person who found it was a Moose limb, of course — or the immediate previous occupant of the stall, anyway. Dare I predict an impending rash of floating Korans in the immediate future?
Delta police wouldn't release the name of the student, whom they say found the Muslim holy book in the toilet of a second-floor men's bathroom in the library just after 7 p.m. Wednesday. Sgt. Geff Greenwood said the student removed the book from the toilet and placed it on a bathroom shelf before contacting the police. The scenario mirrors one described in a retracted Newsweek article that led to deadly riots in Afghanistan and protests in other Muslim nations last week. That Newsweek article, citing unidentified sources, claimed interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Quran down a toilet to intimidate detainees.
Reeeeaaaalllllly? Ain't that an amazing coincidence!
The Quran is the most revered book in Islam. Desecrating it is seen as an offense to Allah. If this had been a Bible, even one belonging to the library, Kane and the other campus dhimmis would be bending over forwards to justify it as "free speech."
Word of the discovery spread quickly across the Delta campus Thursday morning. Muslim students said they were more disappointed than angry to learn that someone at school had desecrated the book. "We are very disappointed to learn that someone has not taken the message of the Zarqawi videos to heart and is still willing to defy the ummah."
"We have respect for all other religions," said Ramsey Abboushi, a 19-year-old Muslim student. "We can only hope to get that same respect." Four words, Ramsey, "Church of the Nativity"
Sean Khan, 19, is Muslim but doesn't seriously practice the religion. He still found it upsetting that someone chose to mock another's beliefs in such a way. Sure that's not Sean Khannery, slated to take over the role of a now-converted Achmed Bond?
"If it was any religious materials, I'd be equally offended," Khan said. "It's just ignorant."
Dat's right. It's just ignernt!
Wade Heath, an 18-year-old Christian student, said Delta is a culturally diverse campus and was surprised to learn about the discovery early Thursday. Heath is a kufr slave Lutheran but understands why Muslims would be upset by the incident. "If it was the Bible flushed down the toilet, I'd be angry," Heath said. "It's a total disrespect to somebody's beliefs." Cringe!
Another Muslim student, Ahmed Falol, 19, said he thought it was probably a copycat of the Newsweek incident.
There isn't much that gets past ol' Ahmed, is there?
Greenwood said they would still likely pursue thought crimehate-crime charges if the person responsible is found. WTF? Read that again, people. The Kampus Kops are treating this as an actual crime, made the worse by the nature of the material.
Police have no suspects or leads. The book came from the library and is being held as evidence. Remaining copies of the Quran have been placed behind the library desk to prevent it from happening again, Greenwood said. I suspect a hoax, a false-flag operation, as we so often see in these "hate-crimes" incidents.
Holmes! How do you do it?
Abboushi said he doubts the person will ever be found. "There are 20,000 kids that go to this school," Abboushi said. "They're not going to stop everyone and ask if they desecrated the Quran." Er, Ramsey, asking is not the usual way police go about solving a crime, even a non-existent one.
Contact reporter Greg Kane at (209) 546-8276 or gkane@recordnet.com
#2
placed it on a bathroom shelf before contacting the police.
He contacted the police over a book in a toilet?
Posted by: Charles ||
05/21/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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Oh and just as a perverse little thought, aint it an amazing coinkinkydinke that it was a muslim student that found the book first before anyone else?
#5
This is an actual, if very minor, crime because the Quran in question belonged to the library and not to the toilet-terrorist who dunked it.
Good dhimmi that he is, though, Kane obscures this point in favor of a ludicrous emphasis on "hate-crimes", as though the desecration were a crime in and of itself (which it obviously is not).
Put another way, I would be really pissed if some protestor or performance-artist exercised his right of free expression (as defined by Moonbats) by pitching my copy of the Quran into the crapper.
I gave 5 bucks for it, after all, at the second-right-hand bookstore. If they want to destroy their own Quran, more power to them.
Would it be a "hate-crime" (as opposed to common-law vandalism) if I pitched the library's copy of Newsweek (Newsleak?) into the toilet?
After all, I really hate Newsweek, and will cheerfully admit it.
#6
Ya know... If I thoght that flushing a Koran down the toilet would result in 15 or 20 dead Mulims who are crazy enought to kill one another other this, I would turn it into a business and make sure it gets done AND reported every 10 minutes.
#7
Seems that there is an idiot contest going on at Delta State. Who is more pathetic, the twit who did this, or Kufr-Kane and the asshats who literally want to make a federal case out of it?
#9
I wish Americans would cease reading holy text on the can. Let's just stick to crossword puzzles or People magazine. It could take someone a very long to to read the Koran in the john, very inconsiderate to others that have to go... bad.
Funny, how a student would discover a desecrated Koran so soon after the riots. It goes without saying that I believe the unidentified student to be moslem and someone versed in the activist methodology of Al Sharpton.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/21/2005 17:12 Comments ||
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#10
I donno about all this.. but I have an inkling to start buying up Korans and pork rinds and ...
#11
Let it not be said that we are not fair-minded people here at Rantburg.
With the help of volunteers, Fred should immediately begin mass e-mailing the good folk of the ummah to solicit funds to replace the millions of Qurans recently desecrated by bacon-gobbling American infidels.
And seriously, is it going to be Page 1 News from now on every time there's a report that someone might have desecrated a Koran?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/21/2005 17:37 Comments ||
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#18
Isn't there some group that goes around leaving Bibles in motel rooms? Maybe it's time to start promoting Islam, by leaving Korans in gas station restrooms...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/21/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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#19
Sorry 'bout that Phil. I was thinking about our fund-raising project.
I intended to put it on page 2 and made a minor error. It is relevant news because of the extraordinarily excessive reaction from the usual suspects, and the direct connection to the recent riots in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
It is coming here, in its own way, and that is newsworthy.
#21
"And seriously, is it going to be Page 1 News from now on every time there's a report that someone might have desecrated a Koran?"
If CAIR and the multi-cult and their media allies give high-profile coverage to these incidents, in an attempt to portray them as a rash of major hate-crimes; then, yes, that will definitely be something that should be reported and discussed here.
#23
Please have mercy on the longsuffering janitors; find some other method of trash disposal.
Posted by: James ||
05/21/2005 17:54 Comments ||
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#24
what if its' highest best use is as fiber, Allan wills it so
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 17:56 Comments ||
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#25
The problem is, they can literally create new incidents of this type on their own, at will. Korans are readily available, there are restrooms in every public library, and I don't think all of them really care about the Koran as much as they say they do... it's just another way to manipulate their less powerhungry brethren.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/21/2005 17:56 Comments ||
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#26
And they can just tell themselves, "It's not a real Koran, because it's translated into English" if all else fails.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/21/2005 17:57 Comments ||
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#27
"it's just another way to manipulate their less powerhungry brethren."
That's a bullseye.
In terms of behavior analysis, taking monstrously disproportionate offense over objectively trivial events is merely a strategy for establishing dominance over others by dictating the minutist aspects of their behavior.
We see this every day from drunks and gang members here in the States.
Power-seeking authoritarianism is the common-thread that runs through the whole Moonbat continuum, from the institutional media and academic fascists to communism, the religious left, and the Religion of Peace itself.
#28
This is a great example of permormance art. It's created dialogue and provoked thought. I think the artist/flusher should quickly apply for a grant from the NEA.
#29
AC: And by giving this example (and others) such disproportionate attention ourselves, we're enabling the behavior.
Here's what the top of Page 1 looks like as I write this:
Breaking News! Another Quran in the Toilet!
28
18:31 macofromoc
Hezbollah involved in Hariri hit?
1
12:56 Frank G
Evidence pops up that Hizbollah was involved in Hariri's assasination, but it's more important for us to discuss another possible Koran-dunking incident?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/21/2005 18:59 Comments ||
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#30
Phil, The fact that Hizboys may have been involved in Hariri hit is important, but it is but one episode in the WOT.
But... this is not about flushing koran (sbui). It is about behavior, mooselimbs' and moonbats' by proxy. In assymetrical type of warfare, ideas are sometimes as important as bullets. So far, jihadi mooselimbs seem to have an upper hand in manipulative tactics. If we find what makes them tick, we can use it to our advantage, at some point. Not only that, but we maybe able to deflect their attempts to manipulate and turn them around.
Well, consider this: this news item (along with all the similar ones) has three different functions:
* Propaganda within the west (to leftists and the undecided)
* Propaganda outside the west, to Joe Insurgent, regardless of his ideology
* Jamming. Noise. Chaff. Something to force out real news.
They're going to repeat this item until it eventually loses potential as chaff.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/21/2005 19:24 Comments ||
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#32
Phil, all attention is not the same.
Kufr-Kane made this news by giving it prominence in a widely read (20,000+) college newspaper. That fact, and his take on it, is worthy of our attention. We don't contribute to this by mocking and rebutting it and especially not by pointing out the obvious agenda behind an ostensible news story. It will not go away if we ignore it.
The Moonbats, as you point out, seek power. Unopposed, and unexposed, they will have it before the rest of us realize that we have lost the option of ignoring them.
#34
Anyone up for a good Koran burning party? I'll buy the gas and beer. Idaho is as good a place as any, maybe better than some. We could start a trend ...
#37
Badanov, 15 per day... 1.2 billion m-limbs...
80 million days. We need to come up with a better idea. ;-)
That's if I did just one per day. If I did ten per hour 24 hours per day ( this is a business ) and sold just ten franchises, that would be about 7 million dead Muslims per year.
I can see it now:
"You Deserve a Break today, at Koran-a-crapathon."
#38
Damn it man, can't we end this crisis! How many toilets do you know of that will accept a book?
Let's end this lunacy before someone falls for it and cites it in a Newsweek column.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/21/2005 20:07 Comments ||
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#39
Badanov, in our age of technology... how about a website, that has a PDF of koran (for the sake of tangibility), represented by an icon, plus a flash image of a toilet (/dev/null = bit bucket). You drag and drop, and hear the flushing sound. It is scalable, does not impact environment and clog pipes. A counter to provide real-time stats...
#40
Priceless! Computer files are cheap, quickly disposed of, and environmentally friendly. Anybody got a Cray handy?
Posted by: Tom ||
05/21/2005 21:11 Comments ||
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#41
Seriously, shouldn't clogging a public toilet be some sort of federal crime? Democrats in the Senate should drop their futile anti-Bolton efforts and tackle this public plumbing outrage. Kennedy, Byrd, Kerry, Pelosi, and Clinton and all so full of crap that this should be a major issue for them.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/21/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed two proposals Friday aimed at confronting the state's immigration problems, rejecting bills that would have prohibited illegal immigrants from receiving child care assistance and given police the power to enforce federal immigration laws.
The Democratic governor said the police-powers proposal would not have provided any additional money to fund the new duties, saying it would cost city officials $19 million in Phoenix, the nation's hub for transporting illegal workers.
The other bill would have prohibited illegal immigrants from attending adult education classes, receiving child care assistance and paying cheaper in-state tuition status at public universities.
''While I agree that public programs should not be available to those who consciously decide to come here illegally, this bill goes too far by punishing even longtime residents of this state who were brought here as small children by their parents,'' the governor wrote.
Arizona has been dogged by a heavy flow of illegal immigrants since the government tightened enforcement in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego during the mid-1990s.
While immigrants provide the economy with cheap labor, Arizona and other states shoulder huge health care and education costs for illegal workers and their families.
Republican Rep. Tom Boone, sponsor of the immigrant-restriction bill, said it's wrong to let immigrant students take advantage of in-state tuition when out-of-state students who are legal citizens must pay more to attend college in Arizona.
''The illegal immigrant has in Governor Napolitano (his or her) best friend in the state,'' Boone said.
Supporters of the police-powers proposal said state and local law enforcement agencies need to get rid of ''sanctuary policies'' that, in some cases, discourage or prohibit officers from inquiring about a person's immigration status.
Many police agencies rejected the idea, saying a massive undertaking would detract from the traditional roles police have in protecting communities from crime.
Also Friday, the governor signed into law a bill that bars local governments from putting taxpayer money into day labor centers that help illegal immigrants find work.
Posted by: too true ||
05/21/2005 11:27 ||
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#1
--''The illegal immigrant has in Governor Napolitano (his or her) best friend in the state,'' Boone said.--
#2
This issue really only has one blanket solution: stopping the flow of illegals into the US. But beyond that, once they are here, it is a completely different paradigm. Hispanics behave as a group like every other immigrant wave that has come to the US, except that they are all not coming here at once. First generation and they are still foreigners, keeping their native tongue and culture. Second generation is a problem, because they are neither here nor there; this is when immigrants form criminal gangs, etc. Third generation are wholly American in language and outlook, becoming more and more distant from the "old country". I see this pattern in the used-to-be illegal Hispanics in a nearby neighborhood. The grandparents (1st gen.) are very hard working, took a run-down house and made it the nicest one on that block; they send a lot of money to relatives back home. The parents are half-and-half, are so-so with either language, dress like anglos yet still wholly affiliate with Hispanic culture; they do not work as hard and expect more from life. The grandkids are completely American, absolutely integrated, still like Mexican food and that's about it, speak some Spanish but can't read it; their future is middle class technical or professional jobs. They have republican sensibilities. Ironically, because of the continual wave of illegals up from Mexico for many years now, there are all three generations co-existing. The third generation don't really care for the old country and are somewhat embarassed by first generation immigrants, but they also feel guilty for "neglecting" their culture. The first generation also does a lot of back-and-forth across the border, which does not help them assimilate. The bottom line is that the US is getting a heck of a lot of good people with these illegals, and if it can just stem the flow, and reduce the back and forth traffic, in 20 years or so they will all become typical Americans, more or less.
#3
the third generation speak english, only because they've been yanked out of teh bilingual racket set up to keep them ethicized and alienated/victimized. The education establishment has a lot to answer for with fads and opposition to reforms that now have been proven to work
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 15:53 Comments ||
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#4
Frank, the problem is more than fads. It's an established political constituency (the ESL/bilingual programs, 'caring' Hispanic activists, etc.). Not in my district, fortunately.
#5
agreed - it's an urban thang - East LA, So LA County, barrio logan San Diego and SF. The stats don't lie tho' - english immersion works (still, after 200 yrs, go figure)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 20:00 Comments ||
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#6
Some from Mexico are traditional immigrants, others are commuters, others are irredentists, revanchists and reconquistadors. The later will be ther problem down the road if we do not ditch multiculturalism and force assimilation. If they want to be Americans and come legally, Welcome! If not, send them back.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/21/2005 22:12 Comments ||
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#7
If they wanted to come legally, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Th eproblem is they don't, and when your first action on American soil is to spit on our immigration laws, don't call me racist if I say they should get the F*&k out and start legally. Not referring to you, ma'am, but the general liberal first defense
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 22:33 Comments ||
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#8
It's less true than it was 'moose. The border is 60 miles from where I live. You can listen to Mexican radio stations (not sure about TV since I don't have one), read Mexican papers, and so on. You are basically a tourist (who can vote Democrat) for 30 years. Of course, the liberal multiculturalists are also to blame. They hate the US so much, that they can't stand the idea of "indoctrinating" immigrants (including legal ones) in American values and culture. Many decendents of Mexican immigrants are indeed as American as anyone here, but the corrosive counter-effect of La Raza and others is making the process harder for each generation. This was never a problem for the Italians and Poles. They did have their own radio stations and papers, but still there was no real-time link to the old country. Mexico is different.
Frank G:
I think there are two problems that are entangled here. Let's assume a miracle and we cut illegal immigration down to zero and expell all current illegals. Now, from a blank slate, how many legal immigrants from Mexico should we allow? I suspect the number will be much higher than the current value. This is not an excuse for illegally invading the country, but is a partial explanation. I don't know what the proper number should be, but I would guess a quota of maybe 1/10 the number of illegals would be a order-of-magnitude approximation. And of course, assimilation should be enforced. OTOP, what about true guest workers? Do we need a program for them, distinct from true immigrants?
#3
It's terrific. However, the impact is lessened if you read it in print: it MUST be read online. The last two paragraphs of part 2 knocked my socks off. I commented on it at my website.
(Prime Minister} Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stressed that security in the Straits of Melaka (Malacca) is the responsibility of the security authorities of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and not private or civilian parties.
"Our (Malaysia's) opinion is that it's better for the monitoring to be done by the security authorities of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia," he told a news conference at the end of the first day of his visit to the Netherlands... the issue of security in the Melaka Strait was raised by the Netherlands Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenande at their meeting Thursday night.
"...Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are serious about the matter and give priority to monitoring security of the shipping route in the Melaka Straits," [Abdullah] said. The prime minister said he told Balkenande that the three nations wanted to ensure that ships passing the straits were safe at all times.
He also told Balkenande that the security authorities of the three countries needed whatever technological assistance and contribution they could get to ensure effective monitoring. The technology could be in the form of surveillance technology for use by aircraft to monitor and detect the passage of ships.
Asked about the possibility of setting up a maritime enforcement force like the Coast Guard for the Melaka Straits, the prime minister said it would involve a high cost.
He said Malaysia would use its marine police and navy to monitor security control in the Melaka Straits and the South China Sea. Of greater importance was cooperation among the parties concerned to further enhance their capabilty and performance in security control...
#2
The only worthwhile of those 3 forces are the Singaporeans. I suspect all of the pirates are either Malays or Indos, prolly related to the members of the forces, or know who to threaten.
This is also whining from them, worried that a REAL force like the US Navy is required for the job.
#3
and may cut off the skimming from the sales of the booty?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2005 16:43 Comments ||
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#4
So he's saying that although a private force is out of the question, it's still too expensive for his country to do it?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/21/2005 17:18 Comments ||
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#5
The problem here is international law which allows states to do whatever they like in relation to civilian vessels in their territorial waters. International law locks in a 'solution' irrespective of whether it works or not. It will take at least one and probably multiple major highjacking incidents before anything changes, like allowing armed guards on ships.
Defence Minister Gen Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya has expressed concern over the adoption of al-Qaeda terrorist-style weapons training by some private Islamic boarding schools in the South.
Gen Thammarak said he has ordered security forces to raid suspected Islamic schools in the region. So far, no evidence has been found to link southern militants to al-Qaeda terrorists.
The use of al-Qaeda-style terrorist weapons training was aimed at creating fear among residents, he said.
``Some schools have used al-Qaeda's weapons training as a training model. It's worrying because it is a battle in urban areas with the adoption of brutal terrorist-style attacks.
``Intelligence reports found no links between southern militants and al-Qaeda terrorists. The southern violence is an internal problem. As one school has been found to have adopted al-Qaeda weapons training, further investigation is needed.''
Earlier, troops from the 22nd Task Force raided Jihad Witthaya school at Ban Taloh Kapo village in Pattani's Yaring district and found several CDs showing al-Qaeda terrorist-style weapons training and documents written in Arabic. They also found a weapons training site behind the school. Four students admitted that weapons training had been held there.
The task force yesterday inspected Jihad Witthaya school again and found a number of empty cans used as targets at the school's weapons training site. Bullet holes were found in coconut trees in the area.
Gen Thammarak said troops had closely monitored the school for a lengthy period before the raid was conducted.
Deputy Education Minister Rung Kaewdaeng has been assigned to tackle education problems at ponohs, or private Islamic religious boarding schools, by bringing them into the formal education system, said Gen Thammarak.
The defence minister is scheduled to attend the Thai-Malaysian Border Committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur on June 1-3 to discuss border cooperation and joint patrols along the border.
On key separatists who had fled to Malaysia, Gen Thammarak said Malaysian authorities have provided Thailand with full cooperation to trace their whereabouts.
``I have asked relevant officers to send a list and backgrounds of runaway separatist leaders to Malaysian authorities to hunt for them,'' he said.
He instructed the military to explain southern problems more clearly to local residents. The military would hold frequent press conferences to discuss the situation.
``I will make frequent trips to the South, but will do it quietly. Actually, I really want to work at the operational level like in the past when I was a junior soldier. At the time, we worked out a plan and acted on it. As the top commander, I just give my commands. I want the problem to be tackled soon,'' said the defence minister.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday held a meeting with relevant agencies to discuss the southern unrest and instructed Interior Minister Pol Gen Chidchai Wannasathit to adjust security work in the far South, particularly the chain of command.
Pol Gen Chidchai said the prime minister wanted concerned agencies to be more proactive and for procedures for issuing commands to officers at the operational level shortened.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 00:06 ||
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Lebanon's former Prime Minister and Tripoli MP Omar Karami announced late last night that he was stepping out of this month's election race. The abrupt announcement, was made during a television interview. He said: "The elections aren't elections, they are simply appointments and I want no part of them." Amid the confusion of the formation of lists in North Lebanon, Karami's move puts his political allies in a difficult position, particulary since Lebanon's opposition, most notably the Al-Mustaqbal bloc (Future Movement), is already active in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2005 13:25 ||
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WASHINGTON - In an angry indictment, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice broadened US accusations that Syria was contributing to violent insurgencies in Iraq.
After a meeting on Friday with Iraq's planning minister, Barham Salih, Rice again accused Syria of supporting terror. To that she added an allegation that Syria may also be providing financial support for insurgents as well as "allowing its territory to be used to organize terrorist attacks against innocent Iraqis."
"Last chance, knock it off or you're going to get it," she inserted between the lines.
Moreover, Rice said, Syria was supporting Palestinian rejectionists who were trying to undercut cooperation with Israel on a projected withdrawal from Gaza.
For months, the State Department has complained that Syria was not guarding its borders to prevent infiltration of fighters into Iraq. "We are concerned in particular about Syrian behavior on its own border," she said on Friday. "This is a historic but difficult time, and neighbors must do everything that they can to support the process in Iraq," she said at a joint news conference with Salih.
At the same time, Rice said the Bush administration would do "anything that we can" to support the Iraqi government. But she stressed that the United States was restricted to a supportive role since Iraq had a sovereign and democratically elected government.
Rice went to Iraq last weekend and her deputy, Robert Zoellick, has been there twice recently. But Rice dismissed any suggestion the United States was taking a more hands-on approach in the affairs of the frail Iraqi government and deepening US involvement in running the country. "These are decisions that Iraqis are taking," Rice said, "and I want to be very clear that this is an Iraqi process."
Salih, meanwhile, said "undeniably, we have a challenging transition" from a country that long lacked democracy and freedom. "Possibly, one has to accept that there are difficulties in this transition," he said. But he said "it pales in comparison to what we had to endure under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2005 00:41 ||
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#1
Double heh. Increase heat to Med-High. Add oil to the pan...
Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan began to assemble the equipment necessary to build a rudimentary biological weapons laboratory before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, letters released by the Defense Department show. The operatives were not immediately able to obtain a sample of the deadly anthrax strain that they wanted to reproduce in their laboratory, according to the letters.
The letters are among the documents recovered in late 2001 after the invasion of Afghanistan that United States intelligence officials have frequently cited as evidence that Al Qaeda was working to develop biological weapons.
The letters, recently made public as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request, detail a visit by an unnamed Qaeda scientist to a laboratory at an unspecified location where he was shown "a special confidential room" with thousands of samples of biological substances. The scientist tried to buy anthrax vaccines, which would be necessary to protect any Qaeda members working with the material. He also bought a sterilizer, a respirator and an air-contamination detector, one letter said.
"The conference was found to be highly beneficial for our future work," the letter said. "I finalized all the accessories required for the smooth running of our bioreactor."
A separate handwritten letter includes a detailed list of additional equipment that would be necessary, like an incubator and a centrifuge, as well as a crude layout of a four- or five-room laboratory. The letter specifies a training program for the staff, lasting six to eight months for senior workers and two to four months for technicians.
The letters appear to be the same documents referred to in the report of a special presidential commission on intelligence failures and unconventional weapons led by former Senator Charles S. Robb of Virginia and Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the federal appeals court. The report, released in March, describes a biological weapons program that "was extensive, well organized and operated two years before the Sept. 11."
Two biological weapons experts who have read the letters said in interviews Friday that the letters suggested that the laboratory construction was at an early stage and that it would have most likely been at least two to three years, if not more, before the Qaeda team would have been able to produce enough anthrax to use as a weapon. "They were moving to try to get the right stuff," said D. A. Henderson, an expert on biological weapons who is a former top scientific adviser to the Health and Human Services Department. "But not in a very sophisticated way."
The second of the two experts, Dr. Milton Leitenberg, a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, said many of people who were involved in the effort had been arrested or, in one case, killed. "It is not likely that anything is going on right now," said Dr. Leitenberg, author of "The Problem of Biological Weapons" (2004). "And in the three years they were working on this, as best as is known, they did not succeed in obtaining a pathogen or reach the stage of growing the pathogen in the laboratory."
The writer of the two letters is widely believed to be Abdur Rauf, a Pakistani microbiologist who is known to have attended a conference before 2001 sponsored by the Society for Applied Microbiology, said a biological weapons researcher who insisted on anonymity because of his work investigating Al Qaeda.
One letter was written on a notepad from the Society for Applied Microbiology, a prominent British organization of microbiologists.
All the names on the letters are blacked out on the copies that were released to Ross Getman, a lawyer from Syracuse who filed the Freedom of Information Act request.
At the same camp where the letters were found, officials recovered articles from medical journals that detailed an approach to isolating, culturing and producing bacteria, including anthrax.
The second letter says that so far no toxic sample of anthrax needed for the laboratory had been secured. "Unfortunately," it says, "I did not find the required culture of b. anthrax, i.e. pathogenic. However, I have started correspondence with [name blacked out] for the supply of the culture."
Posted by: too true ||
05/21/2005 11:08 ||
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Backround article a few weeks old, but still quite relevant. Long. Second part: "Antisemitism in the Turkish Media (Part II) - Turkish Intellectuals Against Antisemitism"
The rising antisemitism in the Turkish media is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in several forms:
1. Animosity towards Jews, Judaism and 'Jewish lobbies.' Jews are targeted as individuals, a community, people and "race," and as a sinister political entity seeking Jewish dominance on world affairs, businesses and media. Jews are demonized in many conspiracy theories including causing earthquakes, globalization, and the creation of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.
2. A hostile approach towards the Jewish citizens of Turkey, questioning their loyalty; blaming them of treason and for the fall of the Ottoman Empire; characterizing them with derogatory adjectives; inciting the public by citing Koran verses hostile to them; and creating an atmosphere conducive to violence. [1] This type of antisemitism also targets Masonic lodges and freemasons for their alleged connections with Judaism.
3. Antisemitism that in recent years has turned into a harsh campaign, which some Turkish intellectuals have called "a witch hunt" against the 'Dönme' [2] who are regarded as 'hidden Jews' posing as Muslims. They are blamed for helping to found the modern Republic of Turkey as a 'spare' Jewish state, for holding all key positions' in Turkey and for ruling the country.
4. Antisemitism directed at Israel and Zionism. The word 'Zionists' often replaces the word 'Jews' in the press.
#1
Cheese and Crackers! I'm dizzzy. Its like a vitual hyper spin cycle of classic Muddled Eastern Double Think.
First, there is the keeping of these two, distinct and incompatable thoughts simultaneously: a) they revere Hitlers Mein Chomph, (its a best seller) and ski on around and chant the Mantra saying Bush is Hitler and Death To America, only substituting Israel and the Joos for Bush and America, respectively, and then turn around and pay lip service, so santimoniuosly, to the horrors of National Socialism, for a pandering BM, "All people should read Mein Kampf, especially the Israelis, for it shows us how Hitler came to be.
Be it Hitler's National Socialist deutche Argiters Partei, Stalins Soviet international gulag, Islamicist extremists, Imperial Japan, or Ward Churchill, for that matter, they all share one thing in common: they're all totalitarins; they all want to conquer the world, and subjugate the peoples of the world.
-Exactly the thing they accuse the Jews and us big ol' "Crusaders" of doing in the oft repeated, incessantly chanted proverbial Big Lie of Joseph Goebbels.
I guess the old former Ottoman Empire, and Autoban ally, has gone soft on the idea of perpetrating another Armenian genocide and has now swivelled their focus and energies in the direction of the state of Israel. With lots of help from the BM. thanks BM.
Posted by: Comment Top ||
05/21/2005 14:44 Comments ||
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Algeria's leading insurgency group was believed to have transferred much of its activities to neighboring Morocco.
"Awright! That does it! We're leaving! Mahmoud, get your turban!"
Algerian security sources said the Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call has bolstered its presence in Morocco over the last year. The sources said Salafist operatives as well as support cells were believed to have emerged in several Moroccan cities amid the Algerian military campaign against the group. The Salafists were said to have joined with Islamic insurgency groups and their supporters in Morocco and have been involved in criminal activities to support the Al Qaida-aligned network. The sources said the Salafists were said to have been involved in manufacturing counterfeit currency in an effort to support the insurgency in Algeria. The sources said the Salafist presence in Morocco has increased tension between Algiers and Rabat. The two countries have been engaged in a war of words over the last few weeks in connection to the future of Western Sahara, controlled by Morocco.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 03:48 ||
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A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of his claim to religious authority, in a ceremony that provided a significant boost to the presidency of Hamid Karzai.
Sammy in his underwear, Mullah Omar without his turban... What's the world coming to?
The declaration, signed by 1,000 clerics from across the country, is an endorsement of the US-backed programme of reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban movement that Karzai has been pursuing ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections, due in September.
Moderate Taliban confine their wife-beating to their own families...
Symbolically, the ulema shura, or council of clerics, was held at the Blue Mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban movement. At the same venue in 1996 the Taliban leader held up a cloak said to belong to the Prophet Mohammed, which is kept in a shrine in the mosque. He was proclaimed Amir ul-Mumineen or Leader of Muslims by the same clerical body, one of the few occasions the title has been granted anywhere in the Islamic world in the modern era.
Yeah, buddy! That's the kind of resume entry I want!
As afternoon prayers approached yesterday, some 600 clerics, heavily bearded and wearing substantial turbans and flowing robes, from 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, entered the blue-domed mosque's main courtyard, flanked by heavily armed guards.
One can imagine the scene...
With the assembled clerics seated on the marble floor before him, the head of shura, Maulvi Abdullah Fayaz, said: "Karzai is elected through free and fair election and religiously we have to obey his orders. None of the orders of the previous Emirs, including Mullah Omar, is accepted." He said that following the Taliban, "accepting their orders and through their orders killing people and destabilising the country", was "against sharia law". A list of 13 proclamations was read out during the three-hour ceremony.
How could they take the excitement?
The support of the religious establishment came with strings attached, reflecting concerns over the liberal influences in Afghanistan since the Taliban fell in 2001. The clerics demanded the construction of hundreds of religious schools, a prohibition of drugs, alcohol and "sexual films" and a call for women's rights to remain within the limits of sharia law. The shura also called for the arrest of Newsweek staff responsible for an article claiming that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Koran down a lavatory, if it proved to be untrue. The story caused riots across Afghanistan that led to the deaths of 16 people.
They want ponies, too...
Groups of young men in black turbans and robes - supporters of the Taliban still commonly seen on the streets of Kandahar - watched proceedings from a distance.
... muttering sullenly and fingering their scimitars...
The meeting of the council followed several days of escalating violence across the south, believed to have been committed by loyalists to the cause of Mullah Omar.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 03:44 ||
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#2
Don't underestimate this. It may have the force of crowning him king, which makes all the difference in the world as far as the man on the street is concerned. They may not grasp much at all as far as politics is concerned, but a king is the personification of their country. But time will tell.
Unlike the usual MSM accounts, this article has facts and figures.
Even as a second soldier was convicted Monday of mistreating detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and Congress calls for more investigations, the general in charge of U.S. detention centers in Iraq where more than 11,000 suspected insurgents and terrorists are being held says prisoner abuse is a thing of the past.
Maj. Gen. William Brandenburg, who took over detainee operations last November after reports of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib caused a worldwide furor and enraged the Arab world, said he is confident that numerous corrective measures he has put in place will prevent such abuses.
"We have instituted a range of changes, from how we train [guards] to the addition of correctional specialists, continual checks by the chain of command, a better ratio of guards to detainees, command centers inside the facilities," as well as regular visits by Iraqi human-rights and International Red Cross representatives, and better training and facilities, he said.
He added, "We have an 85 percent reduction in allegations since April. Occasionally there is going to be abuse, but most of the abuse allegations have occurred at the point of capture. ⊠We have a very definitive procedure, which [follows] the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We don't fiddle around with it."
However, Brandenburg said there has been a sharp increase in the number of detainees in recent months that has strained the capacity of the detention centers and increased the risk of violent uprisings. There are now more than 11,350 detainees, 96 percent of them Iraqis, which represents nearly a 20 percent increase since Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.
At the same time, the new detainees "are clearly more dangerous and high risk," Brandenburg told The Hill in an e-mail this week. "We are currently rating about 80 percent of the detainees who have arrived since Jan. 2 as high risk." But he said every effort is being made "to segregate those detainees with extreme views that corrupt and influence others. We have undertaken an enormous effort of watching and documenting [in both Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca] those detainees. As we segregate, there is an immediate positive change."
Brandenburg oversees some 3,400 military police who guard 3,538 prisoners at Abu Ghraib, 6,370 at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq and 114 "high value" prisoners, including Saddam Hussein and his top aides, at Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport. An additional 1,331 suspected insurgents are being held for initial screening at other U.S. facilities.
As a result of the increased prison population and greater retention rate, U.S. coalition commanders have decided to expand the three main facilities and open a fourth by the end of this year, at a cost of $50 million, Brandenburg said.
Camp Bucca, where a large-scale escape attempt was foiled in March and where riots occurred in early April, will be expanded to accommodate 1,400 more prisoners, while Abu Ghraib will add space for 800 more detainees and Camp Cropper will grow to 2,000. Another 2,000 prisoners will be confined at a former Iraqi military camp in northern Iraq, which will be known as Camp Suse.
The influx of prisoners has also created new tensions with Iraq's influential Sunni Arab minority, which is demanding that the detainees be tried quickly or released. But Brandenburg said that a combined review board made up of six Iraqis and three coalition officers "is only recommending release in 40 percent of the cases," compared to 60 percent last fall.
Brandenburg emphasized, as he had during an interview while returning from Camp Bucca after the foiled prisoner escape in March, that U.S. authorities are paving the way for the new Iraqi government to assume control of the detainees through a training and oversight program.
Once the Iraqis "are comfortable and ready, we will begin to transition to them ⊠and finally, our oversight will be reduced until they are ready to assume control," he said, adding that it is difficult to say how long this process will take. "The Iraqis have agreed to do this and not rush to failure."
Asked about the negative impact of Abu Ghraib on world opinion, Brandenburg said, "I think it is truly behind us. There has been a course of correction and training that has put that deviant behavior behind us."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2005 00:57 ||
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And, the incoming Iraqi government gets modern prison facilities to replace the bloodstained (and other fluids, but let's not get into that) buildings that are soaked with the evil of Saddam Hussein. I would love to see the new government formally reduce Saddam's prisons to rubble, and build parks and playgrounds in their stead in memory of those tormented there, and as a statement of victory over their tormentors.
MULTAN: Jatoi (Muzaffargarh) police have arrested Qari Abdul Rehman Fani under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (Blasphemy law) on a report by Advocate Mujahid Abbas, a lawyer of Tehsil Bar Association Jatoi. "We have arrested Qari Abdul Rehman Fani, who was distributing a questionnaire containing objectionable material about Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) (PBUH). Two local clerics have also issued a blasphemy fatwa against him. However we are investigating the case," the Jatoi sub-divisional police officer, told Daily Times on Friday. Fani claimed to be an orthodox Muslim who believed in Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) (PBUH) and his disciples, and alleged that the complainant distorted his questionnaire, which highlighted the merits and capabilities of Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) (PBUH).
Prolly got in trouble 'cause he asked the locals to read and write.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2005 00:36 ||
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Hmmm. Was he a "Moderate" or an "Extermist"? Who knows what this is really about. Fact is, it doesn't matter. It never will, either. Getting caught up in the minutia, "We only want to kill you a little bit, not all at once like those extremists. Trust us.", is The Fool's Errand. Moderate Chance of Turd, winds light and variable.
Iraq's al Qaeda has denied U S accusations that an upsurge in car bomb attacks in Iraq was ordered at a meeting of insurgents in Syria, according to an Internet statement posted today. ''The enemies of God are floundering after the increase in attacks against them,'' the group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said.
That "foundering." A flounder is a fish with both eyes on one side of its head.
''Is there no longer any room on earth so that the mujahideen (holy fighters) have to meet in Syria?''
Apparently not. I'm surprised, too, actually. I didn't know there were any good hotels in Damascus...
''These attacks ... were planned in Iraq and your brothers are continuing their jihad (holy war) and fighting God's enemies,'' al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq said in the statement dated May 19 and posted on an Islamist Web site. A senior U S military official said on Wednesday that insurgent leaders loyal to Zarqawi met in Syria about a month ago to plot a car-bomb campaign. Syria has denied it was helping insurgents in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 00:26 ||
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A denial from a guy who sends his own men on sucide attacks without telling them that they are the sucidee isn't worth squat.
A message issued on an al-Qaeda affiliated jihadist message board, titled: "A Message from Your Brothers the Palestinians to Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Waislamah wa Mosabah), allegedly written by a member of the "Salah al-Deen al-Ayoubi Brigade," tells of the purported restriction of freedoms of the Palestinians in Iraq and unfair treatment levied upon them by the Iraqi police. The writer, Abu Mohammad al-Hashemi, entreats al-Zarqawi because of his "loyalty to your Muslim brothers makes you obliged to publish this news."
The crux of al-Hashemi's argument is from a story he provides of the arrest of four Palestinians in Iraq, who be believes were falsely accused and tortured by Iraqi police. The message states that "Iraqi forces (Wolf Battalion) attacked the municipal area which houses mostly Palestinians; they dishonored it and frightened children by un-aimed shooting, which pentrates people's houses and shattered windows while every body was sleeping." The people arrested by the police were accused of "performing an explosion in the New Baghdad without any evidence;" people al-Hashemi believes "are not capable of slaughtering a chicken, and they never used a pistol in their entire lives."
This incident, which al-Hashemi likens as being worse than "even with Jews, it never happened that they burst in one's home and accused him with such big wrongdoings," causes the author to question: "Where is the common law (the accused is innocent till proven guilty)!? Where is the Arab dignity!? Is this the said freedom and democracy!?" Believing that a Palestinian in Iraq has not even the "lowest human rights of any refugee or a citizen⊠in this injured country," this message entreats Zarqawi to publish this news that is "not mentioned in the media."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/21/2005 00:25 ||
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The people of northeastern Iraq feel more and more like they are being squeezed on two fronts. Though there is some empathy with their ethnic brethren in Iran, many Kurds on this side of the border just don't trust the government in Tehran.
Join the club.
Meanwhile, officials in Sulaymaniyah province suspect insurgents are heading their way from elsewhere in Iraq. "There is no doubt there will be an attempt in the future, like there has been before," said Maj. Gen. Mahmood Mohammed Maref, a security chief for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. At best, Iraqi Kurds, the region's dominant group, tolerate Iran because the area is so heavily dependent on the merchandise that moves across the border. And, again, there are the ethnicities that run far deeper than outsiders — and maybe even some insiders — realize.
Sometimes blood is thicker than borders...
[However], critics have a much different view. An Iraqi general who heads the border patrol in Sulaymaniyah province calls Iranians "abusive." A platoon leader at the Bashmakh port of entry near Penjwin hates his neighbors. He spent three months in an Iranian jail over a visa violation, and 14 years later he still is seething mad about it. "They are wild animals," said Abass Azam, the platoon leader. Such loathing can make any rumor sound plausible. Azam claims, for example, that an Iranian Kurd told him the government in Tehran might be hiding nuclear weapons in northwestern Iran. "Me and my family are willing to sacrifice ourselves for the coalition," he said. "Especially for the U.S. Army."
Thank you, sir. Let's do what we can to make that unnecessary.
But the pending redeployment of many U.S. soldiers currently based in Sulaymaniyah has some people in the provincial capital shaking their heads in disbelief. Talabani's ascension to the presidency, the deadly bombing in Irbil earlier this month and Kurdish intelligence reports that Islamic terrorists have Sulaymaniyah in their sights have led officials to take extraordinary security measures. The U.S. Army maintains it needs the soldiers elsewhere, and that Kurdistan is considerably more stable and able than the rest of Iraq. "I believe this is a very bad decision," Gen. Ahmed Gharib Muhammed Amin told U.S. Army Capt. Darcy Burt during a recent meeting. "The existence and availability of your soldiers is important and noticed by the Iranians," said Amin, who commands the border police for all of Sulaymaniyah province. "They see American teams on the border." So Iraqis in the region now find themselves looking over their shoulder, no matter which way they face. No one expects the Iranian army to come pouring across the border, but Iraqi security forces along the divide say there have been infiltrators.
Fred's surprise meter's waiting for parts. I hope it's still under warranty.
And U.S. soldiers who routinely visit the border said many locals have told them Iranian agents sometimes cross the border to gain intelligence and dissuade the populace from cooperating with the Americans. That's unlikely to happen. The Kurdish people in northeastern Iraq have tremendous respect and admiration for the United States and its military. In Kurdish Iraq, people wave to the troops; in too many locations elsewhere, they're liable to wave a gun, or a fist. Soldiers in the region say citizens often approach them asking if they could stand beside them for a photograph.
"The Kurdish people up here are so warm," said Burt, commander of Battery B, 148th Field Artillery. "They call us their liberators, not just us, but all of the soldiers." But as warm as the citizens are, they also can be equally cold and suspicious of strangers, especially if it's someone of Arab descent they don't know. "We will not allow anybody to sneak in," said Maref, the security chief, "but if they do, we will arrest them." In recent weeks, especially since the bombing two weeks ago in Arbil that killed scores of people, roadblocks and checkpoints have become more commonplace. Ultimately, though, the best line of defense against an insurgent attack is not necessarily a guy in a uniform with a gun. "The key is to maintain security in the cities and coordinate with the people," Maref said. "Without the people, we can't control the security."
A picture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was shown in his underpants and splashed across the front page of Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper, the Sun, and in the New York Post yesterday. Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch owns both papers. Other photographs showed Saddam with short, dyed-black hair and a mustache, seated on a chair doing some washing by hand, sleeping and walking in what is described as his prison yard. The sensational pictures of Saddam in his underwear reignited the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
The Sun said it obtained the photos from "US military sources," who allegedly told the Sun they had handed over the pictures "in the hope of dealing a body blow to the resistance in Iraq." The US military in Baghdad said the photos violated military guidelines "and possibly Geneva Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals." The military opened an investigation into how the photos were released. "The specific issue here is that these images are against (Department of Defense) policy. It's not the content of the photo that is the issue at hand, but it is the existence or release of the photos," US military spokesman Staff Sgt. Don Dees said, adding the pictures might be a year old.
Under the Geneva Conventions and special agreements with the United Nations, the United States and its allies are forbidden to release photographs of prisoners of war such as Saddam. The Sun would not say how it came by the pictures or give any details about how they were taken. But the humiliating image of such a high-profile prisoner is bound to add to the rage over the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison when photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners shocked the world and caused immense damage to America's credibility in the Arab world. President George W. Bush was briefed by senior aides about the photos' existence and he "strongly supports the aggressive and thorough investigation that is already under way" that seeks to find who took them, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2005 00:00 ||
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But the humiliating image of such a high-profile prisoner
cant in bee to emraresin. aint no bob. but leestr he hung a litle.
Jordan's King Abdallah said yesterday peace in the Middle East was essential for a sustainable development of the region. The king was opening a three-day conference of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at this Dead Sea resort. "This forum must face the realities of peace and conflict. Regional instability remains a major barrier to sustainable development and prosperity. Failing to solve this problem is simply not an option," he added. The king was referring to the half-a-century-old Arab-Israeli conflict. Abdallah urged about 1,200 participants to help Arab countries to "forge a consensus on specific reforms." "Your action can have a huge impact. In the region, you will help forge consensus on specific reforms. On the global scene, you will be encouraging support for the Arab world's initiative," the king said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2005 00:00 ||
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Pfeh. Here we go with the eternal Stability Meme bullshit, again. The rancid rat-plagued M.E. doesn't need "stability" - it needs an exterminator.
Every attendee, except Iraq, is from a KingyDumb, Dictatorship, Thugocracy, or Mullahcracy. Get screwed, Abbie. The "reforms" you kleptos offer are window-dressing in hopes of keeping Bush at bay, nothing more. Won't work. You're still a Kingy Thingy, right? Absolute power and all that rot? Yeah, thought so.
At least 80 foreign terrorists are still present in South Waziristan Agency and the Army will keep chasing them until they are flushed out, a top Army official said on Friday. Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, who is the Peshawar corps commander and leading troops against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants in tribal areas, told tribal elders during his visit to South Waziristan that there were 80 foreign militants in the area and they were moving in small groups of three or four. However, he did not say that there was any "high value target" among the terror suspects defying the government's writ in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
UK MP George Galloway could face a new inquiry into the finances of an appeal he set up to help a sick Iraqi girl. The Charity Commission has said it will contact US senators investigating claims Mr Galloway was given credits for Iraqi oil by Saddam Hussein.
Uzbek authorities shrugged off the UN chief's call for an international probe into a government crackdown on protesters that witnesses say killed hundreds, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. President 
U.S. policymakers should highlight Japan's possible nuclear pursuit and other security repercussions for China in pressing Beijing to stop North Korea from testing its nuclear weapons, a Senate Republican policy panel said in a recent report.
KCNA — The DPRK will react to Japan's move to apply economic sanctions against the DPRK with tough retaliatory measures. 
The US is holding an inquiry into how photos of Saddam Hussein were leaked to UK newspaper the Sun, which has now printed more pictures of him. The US military vowed to "aggressively" investigate how the photos of Iraq's ousted leader appeared in the paper.
An al Qaeda courier was sent to Afghanistan just before the September 11 attacks to convey the message "Eleven Nine", but did not know the significance of the numbers and was not part of the plot, a central figure in the conspiracy told U.S. interrogators. The assertion was made by captured al Qaeda figure 
Hat tip: 
Lebanon's former Prime Minister and Tripoli MP 
WASHINGTON - In an angry indictment, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice broadened US accusations that Syria was contributing to violent insurgencies in Iraq.
Algeria's leading insurgency group was believed to have transferred much of its activities to neighboring Morocco.
A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive 
MULTAN: Jatoi (Muzaffargarh) police have arrested Qari Abdul Rehman Fani under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (Blasphemy law) on a report by Advocate Mujahid Abbas, a lawyer of Tehsil Bar Association Jatoi. "We have arrested Qari Abdul Rehman Fani, who was distributing a questionnaire containing objectionable material about Prophet Muhammad 
Iraq's al Qaeda has denied U S accusations that an upsurge in car bomb attacks in Iraq was ordered at a meeting of insurgents in Syria, according to an Internet statement posted today. ''The enemies of God are floundering after the increase in attacks against them,'' the group led by Jordanian 
The people of northeastern Iraq feel more and more like they are being squeezed on two fronts. Though there is some empathy with their ethnic brethren in Iran, many Kurds on this side of the border just don't trust the government in Tehran.
Jordan's 
At least 80 foreign terrorists are still present in 
