Most analysts agree Saudi security forces have the upper hand in the kingdom's ongoing war on Islamist terrorism whose aim is to overthrow and replace the royal House of Saud with a strict Islamic theocracy.
While it is clear the Saudi government made giant strides -- and had major successes in its fight against terrorism -- the war against pro-al Qaeda insurgents is not entirely over.
After a fourth day of shootouts between Saudi security forces and Islamist militants, the last day in the capital, Riyadh, one of the kingdom's most-wanted terrorists was killed Wednesday.
Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst and intelligence specialist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the Saudis overall have been very successful in fighting the threat of Islamist terror.
"They have systematically been able to roll up the terror threat," Mr. Cordesman told United Press International, adding: "By and large, al Qaeda in Arabia," the Saudi branch of the pro-Osama bin Laden terror network "has not been convincing."
The kingdom has done a good job, notes Mr. Cordesman, but adds it is easy to infiltrate the desert kingdom from Yemen or other borders, across thousands of miles of unguarded frontiers, and an incursion is very difficult to prevent.
The raid in Riyadh came hours after the end of a similar assault that lasted three days in the remote desert town of al-Ras, some 200 miles northwest of the capital. The result, the Saudi Interior Ministry said, left 14 terrorists dead and six captured; Saudi security suffered 14 casualties.
The town of al-Ras, where the militants sought refuge, is known for Islamist sympathies. Its remoteness and its choice as an insurgent base indicate Islamists are trying to keep a low profile and avoid major centers, intelligence analysts say.
Indeed, the Saudis have gone on the offensive against homegrown Islamist terrorism, launching a nationwide campaign last December to reach out to its citizens. Saudi TV ran short docudramas depicting Islamist terrorists trying to recruit young Saudis, interlaced with nationalist messages, such as military parades and footage of horrors caused by terrorist acts.
Giant posters depicting bomb-damaged buildings and bloodied corpses were prominently displayed in various parts of Riyadh. During a three-day antiterrorist conference in the Saudi capital last February, entire front pages of local newspapers displayed pictures of victims of terrorism.
A senior Saudi official told UPI the government had recruited thousands of undercover agents, deploying them in the field, with positive results. "We are fighting terrorism, those who support it and those who condone it," said Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz at the opening session of a first Counter-Terrorism International Conference, last February.
Once one of the safest countries in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia has been shaken by a series of bloody attacks perpetrated by pro-al Qaeda Islamist militants. The attacks left a trail of terror and blood across the country. The violence reached a crescendo last summer with multiple car bombs and gunmen assaulting government buildings and compounds for foreign workers.
Analysts believe the Saudis are making headway in their war, though the figures and results remain hazy at best. One source, speaking anonymously, told UPI some estimate there are several thousand Islamist insurgents in the kingdom. However, that could be confused with an earlier report by the London International Institute of Strategic Studies' Strategic 2003-4 Survey citing 18,000 potential al Qaeda militants worldwide.
A Saudi official, also speaking on background, told UPI he estimated there were no more than 5,000 al Qaeda activists and supporters. But includes three tiers of terrorist supporters.
The first tier who probably number in the low hundreds, are the real "crazies," who blow themselves up. The second tier, possibly several hundreds, are the "spotters," who assist operations. They provide logistics and services and support for the bombers. And finally the third tier are the sympathizers, who do not directly engage in acts of terrorism but who might shelter a terrorist for a night or hold weapons and explosives. They are believed the most numerous, possibly a few thousand. The first tier is by and large what the Soddies have been targeting to date, though they've largely left the other two alone (when have we ever heard of a recruiting ring for Iraqi jihadis getting busted?). While the global al-Qaeda (for example, the Chechen Killer Korps) can opt out of wanting to overthrow the princes at this time, a lot of the more hard-core types don't have that kind of luxury. Al-Oufi seems to be trying to weather the storm and work out a deal with the princes, whereas people like Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, al-Hawali, et al. are still free to operate as long as they understand that whole "overthrow the House of Saud" stuff is just for show.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/10/2005 12:14:03 AM ||
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The Kuwait Bar Association announced it has formed a 17-member team to defend a liberal university professor convicted of mocking Islam in his newspaper column. The group, which includes several liberals and human rights activists, was the strongest sign of support for Ahmad al-Baghdadi since his conviction and sentencing last month to a one-year suspended prison sentence. "The aim of the team was not just to defend al-Baghdadi as a person, but also to defend Kuwait and its image, as well as freedom of opinion and expression," said Ali al-Baghli, one of the lawyers on the team. Last month, an appeals court convicted al-Baghdadi of ridiculing Islam and handed down the suspended prison sentence, overturning an acquittal by a lower court. It also ordered him to pay a 2,000-dinar (US$6,825) deposit, which would be forfeited if he commits the same offense in the next three years. Al-Baghdadi is appealing the verdict to the higher Cassation Court. Late last month he announced he would no longer write his column for Al-Siyasa daily newspaper and had given up his fight for freedom of speech in his country, which he said has become infested with the "germs and viruses of hatred and tyranny."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is working on a draft law to strip the citizenship of those found guilty of sedition or deemed harmful to the state, Home Ministry sources said yesterday. A six-member inter-ministerial committee has been assigned to scrutinize the draft bill, prepared by the Law Commission, the sources said. The commission is headed by Justice Mostafa Kamal, a former chief justice, and has Justice Mohammed Sirajul Haque and M. Enamul Haque as members. After scrutiny, the bill will be placed before the Cabinet for its approval and if approved it will then be placed before Parliament, the sources said. After its passage, the government, unlike other countries, will enjoy authority to cancel the citizenship of those found guilty of sedition or deemed harmful to the security and sovereignty of the state, the sources said.
Citizenship issues are now dealt with under a law titled the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary) Order 1972 (President's Order), amended twice in 1973 and 1978. The President's Order was enacted on the basis of the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951. None of the laws gives the government authority, which the bill proposes, to revoke the citizenship of anyone on the grounds of sedition or for being harmful to the state.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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What the hell are they going to do make them Pakistani?
#2
SPOD - probably. Remember that Bangladesh was called "East Pakistan" until 1975. India played a key roll in Bangladesh's Independence. Before that, East Pakistan was run from Islamabad, with little say-so from the locals. There are still several million Muslims in what is mainly a Hindu state, and they want to reunite with the "homeland". Just another of the fascinating little plots and sub-plots on the South Asian subcontinent.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/10/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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Bangladesh is 80+% muslim. There were terrible massacres (up to 3 million Hindu, Bengali muslim, and Christian untermenshen)under Pakistani rule.
Posted by: ed ||
04/10/2005 13:20 Comments ||
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Written by a columnist of Chechen descent if I read my al-Shishani correctly and mostly pooh-poohs the idea of al-Qaeda in the Caucasus and argues for negotiation with the Chechen opposition (Zakayev?) but still has some useful info.
The imposition of stringent controls on money transfers dealt a hard blow to these Arab fighters, whose financial power was an essential factor in recruitment and politics in Chechnya, especially after the first war of 1997-1999. The vulnerability resulting from these shortages was highlighted in numerous letters posted on Islamic websites in which salafist leaders called for funds. Simultaneously, there was a wave of assassinations of salafi-jihadist leaders, such as Khattab and his successor Abu al-Walid Al-Ghamidi, both of whom were Saudi nationals. These assassinations led directly to the rise of the Jordanian, Abu Hafs al-Urduni dubbed by many in the Russian media "Osama Bin Laden's representative in Chechnya".
There is no accurate information on Abu Hafs. The sole source of information is the material published by Russian newspapers, which mostly originates from the Russian Security Service (FSB). According to Russian sources, Abu Hafs was born in Jordan, is 40 years old and holds Saudi nationality. The same sources claim that he participated in the fighting in Tajikistan alongside Khattab and Abu al-Walid in the early 1990s, and accompanied them to Chechnya between 1995-1996, where he served as military trainer in Khattab's camp near Sergen-Urt and married a Chechen woman. These reports claim that Abu Hafs is Osama Bin Laden's official envoy to Chechnya and was appointed Abu al-Walid's successor. Moreover they allege that aside from controlling external funds, Abu Hafs assumed the role of al-Qaeda's representative in Georgia in 2002, where he went by the name "Amjad." Russian sources also maintain that, under Bin Laden's orders, Abu Hafs had moved to Georgia as early as 1996 to become al-Qaeda's representative there. He allegedly lived in the Pankisi Valley on the Chechen side of the border.
Following Khattab's assassination in 2002, Abu al-Walid took on the reins and ordered Abu Hafs to return to Chechnya. Back in Chechnya, Abu Hafs took a second Chechen wife, the widow of the Arab fighter Abu Jaffar, who was killed in 2001. Russian intelligence claims that while there, Abu Hafs surrounded himself with guards from Arab origin headed by a man called "Jaber".
Russian information may appear plausible to researchers, but the verification of this information remains a major concern, not least because the Russians have an obvious interest in inflating and distorting the role of Arab fighters in the Chechen conflict. It is also worth noting that the Russians can get important factual information wrong. For instance from 1998 onwards, Russian sources were claiming that Khattab's real name was Habib Abdul-Rahman and that he was a Jordanian. However, it was later proven that his name was Samer Swailem, and that he was a Saudi national. Furthermore, the story of Abu Hafs moving to Georgia in 1996 remains doubtful. A certain writer mentions Abu Hafs's name during his documentation of "Arab Martyrs'" biographies in conflict zones, such as Bosnia- Herzegovina and Chechnya. The writer talks of a Jordanian fighter named Abu Usayd AL-Shammari and that "Abu Hafs accompanied him" on the day he died in 1996. [2] Indeed it is not logical that Abu Hafs would move to Georgia during the war and then assume command after a six-year absence from the front.
After he assumed command, some Islamic websites published photos of Abu Hafs that matched the ones displayed by Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in the Security Council in February 2003, when he described an international network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, represented in Russia by Abu Hafs. Despite the mystery behind Abu Hafs, it is clear from the material written and published on the internet that the pattern of his life and struggle closely mirrors that of his predecessors, namely Khattab and Abu al-Walid.
The first material published under the signature of the "Jordanian Abu Hafs Commander of Arab Ansar in Chechnya" was a letter in which he explained the circumstances surrounding Abu Al-Walid Al-Ghamidi's death, just as the latter had done when Khattab was assassinated.
Abu Hafs relayed the circumstances surrounding Abu al-Walid's death in an extensive open letter which began by explaining the reasons behind the letter. He said it came out of "concern for spreading facts and documenting the history of our Islamic Nation's heroes and martyrs." He also claimed that the Military Shoura Council of Chechnya authorized the publication of the letter. Abu Hafs noted that, "Commander Abu al-Walid was responsible for the Eastern Front, regiments on the Western Front, in the South and mobile regiments in the capital and surrounding cities and villages. Commander Abu Al-Walid was on tour to all regiments to task them with operations and logistical plans for winter. Having visited most regiments, he decided to spend the last ten days of Ramadan 1424 Hegra in 'Elistangi'âŠto be able along with his private groupâŠto benefit from those blessed days and the Al-Kadr night. He and his companions spent these days fasting by day and reading from the Holy Koran by night."
Abu Hafs then claims that Abu al-Walid "made in those days a set of video recordings on the conditions of Muslims in Chechnya, the injustices they suffer at the hands of the Russian army, and the latter's infractions on the rights of Chechen civilians. He sent those recordings to the Muslim public in general and the Muslim clergy in particular." According to Abu Hafs, on the first day of the Al-Fitr Holiday, Abu al-Walid "made a video recording to his mother, brothers, sisters and relatives, in which he showed the mujahideens' high morale and pride in performing this great act of worship, Jihad in Allah's name; made his testament; and said that he may not be able to contact them again, and that he felt that his martyrdom was near."
Abu al-Walid pressed on with his companions and reached Tsa Vidno on their way to the Eastern front. His companions fell into captivity, and the Russian army was able to determine his position in a nearby forest. They "besieged the area from a distance, stationed snipers and lay in waiting for Abu al-Walid." When Abu al-Walid appeared, he was fired at "until that hero was slain as a martyr in the name of AllahâŠ" Following Abu al-Walid's martyrdom, his surviving companions retreated to the Eastern front, where they reported to Commander Abu Hafs that they were unable to bury Abu al-Walid due to heavy bombardment. But Commander Abu Hafs insisted they go back. He sent two of his Ansar with them to help move the martyr and bury him in a safe place. The group arrived at the place where they had left the martyrâŠand moved him to a safe place, and buried him, and all the while he was bleeding.
While there are no articles or writings on Abu Hafs's ideology, he clearly belongs to the salafi-jihadist trend, especially in light of the nature and connections of the group he leads in Chechnya. In this regard, Abu Hafs wrote an epitaph marking the death of the emir of the salafi movement for Dawa and Jihad in Algeria, Abu Ibrahim Mustafa. In his letter, Abu Hafs said that Abu Ibrahim Mustafa left "great marks in the work of Dawa and Jihad. Muslims have lost a beacon of jihad in an age where mujahideen are but a few and hypocrites are many."
As mentioned earlier, the salafi-jihadist trend in Chechnya is facing a real crisis. The legitimacy of their continuing presence in Chechnya has been fatally undermined. This legitimacy was facilitated by external funding that in turn helped attract young people frustrated with brutal Russian tactics and the isolation of the moderate Chechen national movement, represented by the slain Aslan Maskhadov. Notwithstanding this major crisis, Abu Hafs is anxious to show that the salafi-jihadist movement is as strong as it was at the beginnings of the Chechen conflict. At the same time, he posted a letter on the internet in which he condemned the Beslan incident and denied any connection between "the Ansar [Arabs] in ChechnyaâŠwith the killing of children, women and unarmed people in the Beslan school in North OsetiaâŠAll allegations of a role for President Maskhadov, Commander Shamil Basayev, of the Ansar in this operation are lies and fabrications of the Russian government." In this respect, Abu Hafs is trying to appear as a decision maker in the Chechen independence movement.
During attempted negotiations between the Russian Soldiers' Mothers Committee and Chechen forces, Abu Hafs issued a statement in the name of the Military Council Command and Shura Command of Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya, declaring that he would negotiate neither with non-governmental Russian organizations nor the government itself. He justified this decision on the basis that, "âŠour determination, the manner in which Khattab, Abu al-Walid and other martyrs of Islam gave their lives does not tolerate weakness or humiliation in the face of Russians or others. We made a vow, with Allah as witness, that we will go on fighting, that we will not be defeated, that we will not negotiate, and that Russians and collaborators will be chased out of Chechnya so that Muslims can gain their freedom. Otherwise we will turn Moscow into a hell that burns all cowards and infidels."
This article starring:
ABU AL WALID AL GHAMIDI
Chechnya
ABU HAFS AL URDUNI
Chechnya
ABU IBRAHIM MUSTAFA
salafi movement for Dawa and Jihad in Algeria
ABU JAFAR
Chechnya
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
ABU USAID AL SHAMARI
Chechnya
AMJAD
Chechnya
ASLAN MASKHADOV
Chechnya
HABIB ABDUL RAHMAN
Chechnya
JABER
Chechnya
KHATTAB
Chechnya
SAMER SWAILEM
Chechnya
SHAMIL BASAIEV
Chechnya
salafi movement for Dawa and Jihad in Algeria
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/10/2005 12:25:15 AM ||
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#1
"We made a vow, with Allah as witness, that we will go on fighting, that we will not be defeated, that we will not negotiate, and that Russians and collaborators will be chased out of Chechnya so that Muslims can gain their freedom. Otherwise we will turn Moscow into a hell that burns all cowards and infidels."
Jeez, he could have just ended "yours faithfully/sincerely" *chuckle*
China rally prompts Japan protest
Japan has protested to China after stone-throwing protesters attacked Japan's embassy in Beijing on Saturday.
About 10,000 demonstrators marched in the Chinese capital in protest at a new Japanese history textbook they believe plays down Japanese wartime atrocities.
Japanese businesses were also attacked, even though China says it mobilised a huge police force to maintain order.
On Sunday, some 3,000 people gathered outside Japan's consulate in the southern city of Ghangzhou.
Japan's foreign minister has announced he will visit China next week.
Nobutaka Machimura will meet his Chinese counterpart to discuss "a number of bilateral and international issues", a spokesman for Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
The current anti-Japanese feeling in China is also fuelled by the prospect of Japan possibly obtaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. ...more...
Posted by: .com ||
04/10/2005 6:25:07 AM ||
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#1
LOL on the the headline, .com
In other news: "Man shows his love for his blind date by repeately raping her"
THE Federal Government wants to make it easier to jail people who threaten terrorist acts.
The push comes after a man accused of terrorist threats was acquitted this week.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has asked the Commonwealth's Director of Public Prosecutions to re-examine the case of Zaky Mallah, who was acquitted by a Sydney court.
Supermarket worker Mallah, 21, pleaded guilty to threatening to kill officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and diplomats.
The first person to be charged under Australia's tough terrorist laws, Mallah was found not guilty by a Supreme Court jury of other terrorist-related charges.
The jury judged Mallah, an orphan, to be a youthful attention-seeker with psychological problems, rather than someone serious about terrorism.
Mallah had made a video of himself declaring a jihad against ASIO, and a police raid found a rifle and bullets in his flat.
His defence was that he was angry his passport application was rejected by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on ASIO's recommendation.
Mr Ruddock told The Sunday Mail that the anti-terrorist laws were an unfinished canvas.
"Mallah was not convicted because the jury didn't believe he had an intention to commit a terrorist act," he said.
"If Mallah couldn't be convicted for planning a terrorist act, a further range of terrorist offences might be necessary."
A Government majority in the Senate in July will make it easier to pass tougher laws.
Mr Ruddock said police have asked for extra powers and his department was considering more fine-tuning of anti-terror laws, "however ASIO, at this time, has not asked me for more powers".
Mr Ruddock is awaiting a report from Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty detailing changes to how evidence is presented in terrorist trials. Controversial laws allowing ASIO to detain and question terror suspects, which have a sunset clause of July 2006, are up for review.
Civil libertarians want the laws scrapped, and Federal Opposition spokesman on security matters Robert McClelland said there was no need for new terror laws.
"Our legislation is as strong as any comparable country. It's far too premature to talk about enlarging ASIO's powers when they are yet to be fully utilised," he said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/10/2005 5:47:57 PM ||
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MAMDOUH Habib has told friends and supporters he sacked his lawyer of three years, Stephen Hopper, after he discovered he would lose almost half the $140,000 he received for a 60 Minutes interview in income tax.
Mr Habib, who was freed in January from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, expected the payment to have been deemed a windfall gain, meaning it would either not be taxed, or taxed at a lower rate.
Adding to his income woes is the fact that Mr Habib was recently denied a claim for a renewed disability support pension.
The father of four is understood to be in the process of buying the new townhouse in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Granville that he has lived in since being flown home by the Australian Government.
He has been receiving limited financial support from altruists in the Muslim community, and has been welcomed back into influential Islamic circles, which provide him and his family with other forms of assistance.
Mr Habib announced last Tuesday that he had left Mr Hopper and was now instructing Sydney criminal lawyer Adam Houda.
He has not publicly cited a reason for the sudden split, putting it down to "ongoing disputes".
Mr Hopper refused to comment last night about his former client's move, other than to say: "I stand by the advice I have given him. I wish Mamdouh and his wife Maha all the best in the future."
He said he would only consider speaking publicly if Mr Habib waived his right to client-lawyer privilege.
Mr Hopper had been instructed by Maha Habib since October 2001 and had campaigned vigorously for her husband's return to Australia.
He had worked, unpaid, for Mr Habib since the freed terror suspect's return.
Mr Hopper had also helped prepare four separate defamation actions against Nationwide News, publishers of The Australian.
He said he will this week send to the New South Wales Supreme Court a notification of "ceasing to act" for his former client.
Sources within the Nine Network, which aired the Habib interview on 60 Minutes confirmed that Mr Habib had been in contact with program staff to speak of his frustration with his taxable payout.
The network would not divulge details of its payment to Mr Habib because of contractual obligations.
Mr Habib has kept a low profile since his return.
He is yet to answer claims he spent time in Afghanistan with Al Qa'ida operatives in the months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/10/2005 5:45:36 PM ||
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#1
different 60 minutes - same ethics and anti-americanism, enriching our enemies to hear their lies
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2005 20:57 Comments ||
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I'm still refusing to watch channel 9 becuase of that paid interview.
ELF
Europe, the church's own back yard, is a significant problem.
"Some people look at Europe and see it spiritually tired, if not dead," said the Rev. John Wauck, who teaches at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and is a member of Opus Dei, a controversial personal prelature.
Christians failed to get a mention of God in the proposed European Union constitution. Rocco Buttiglione of Italy, appointed last year as the European Union's Justice Commissioner, had to withdraw because of his views that homosexuality is a sin and women should stay home to care for their families.
And the union seems to be infected with a "radically secular culture," Wauck said, one on the verge of legitimizing gay marriage, abortion and euthanasia.
Beyond that, attendance at Mass has declined significantly throughout Europe. Some of the world's great cathedrals stand almost empty Sunday after Sunday.
Some cardinals say the church needs more democracy and transparency in the way it is run in order to fit into the modern era and gain acceptance.
Others say no: The church must be bolder and less equivocal in stating what Catholicism is all about. What is needed, they say, is not compromise but evangelism.
A similar divide exists over how to handle the relationship between the Catholic Church and Islam, each of which has about 1 billion members.
John Paul II was the first pope to enter a mosque, the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus in 2001.
Some cardinals think the church should continue to reach out to moderate Muslims and take care to do nothing inflammatory.
"The next pope will need to be someone capable of dialoguing with the different religions of the world, and particularly Islam," said the Rev. Keith F. Pecklers, a Jesuit professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. "Islam is on the rise, and Christianity, at least in the developed world, is in decline."
But another group, said John Allen, the Vatican correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter, is skeptical that there is such a thing as moderate Islam. They think what is needed is "tough love;" their buzzword is "reciprocity."
If Muslims are allowed to build the largest mosque in Europe in Rome using Saudi money, this group asks as an example, should not Catholics be allowed to import Bibles into Saudi Arabia?
The New York Times Wednesday pub lished an apology of sorts for its re cent news article on a questionable report that absolved Columbia University's Middle East Studies department of anti-Israel bias.
In an Editor's Note, the paper acknowledged that its reporter had been given an advance copy of the whitewash "on the condition that the writer not seek reaction from other interested parties."
In other words, the Times agreed not speak to anyone who might challenge the report's contents until after the article had been published.
And so it was: The article was first published on the paper's Web site — and then on the Times' front page — without reaction except from a professor who was criticized in the report.
The paper now admits the article "should not have appeared" in such a one-sided and biased form because the Times has a "policy" in which "writers are not permitted to forgo follow-up reporting in exchange for information."
According to the paper, "editors and the writer did not recall the policy."
Did not recall?
It's axiomatic that every news story has at least two sides — and that reporters must do their best to report them. This isn't peculiar to The New York Times: It's the first rule of journalism — drilled into every reporter from Day One.
If the Times has reporters — and, more importantly, editors — who don't get this, then its credibility problems apparently did not end with the firing two years ago of serial fabulist Jayson Blair. Dead Solid Perfect Slam Dunk Bitch Slap. Heh.
Posted by: .com ||
04/10/2005 6:41:42 AM ||
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On one of my first trips to New York I decided to take the subway, and I made a point of buyng a copy of the NYT so I would "blend." And then I realized that everyone on the subway was reading the Post.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/10/2005 10:59 Comments ||
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For a couple of decades now the NYT has made "facts" fit its extreme left ideology.
As sensational revelations continue to pour out of a Canadian government corruption scandal enquiry, public anger is mounting across the country against the governing Liberals.
The larger question will be whether that anger will translate into calls for a new election less than a year after Canadians last went to the polls.
On Thursday explosive testimony from the previous week, by an advertising executive, was released for the first time, when the judge presiding over the public enquiry lifted a publication ban.
The enquiry is investigating how millions of dollars were paid by the Liberal government in the late 1990s to advertising firms in the province of Quebec, after Canada's auditor-general concluded that little or no work was performed and the money was largely unaccounted for.
'All the way to the top'
Under the leadership of the former Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, the so-called sponsorship programme was supposed to promote national unity in the primarily French-speaking province.
According to the allegations released on Thursday, Jean Brault, the owner of the Groupaction advertising agency at the centre of the scandal, claimed that illegal campaign contributions worth millions of dollars were also channelled back to the Liberal party through an intricate system of false invoices and cash payments.
And at the end of the week, a Groupaction employee alleged that some orders to the advertising agencies came directly from the Canadian prime minister's office.
Mr Chretien, who has already appeared before the enquiry, denies any wrongdoing.
His successor, Paul Martin, told the enquiry that although he was the country's finance minister at the time, he knew almost nothing about the programme and the missing millions.
Tantalising ban
Mr Martin, came to office vowing to get to the bottom of the scandal. But with each new revelation, public anger with the government seems to grow.
The opposition parties will be trying to gauge just how disaffected Canadians are with the Liberal's teetering minority government in the days ahead
The story was made all the more tantalising by the surreal sight of a media chomping at the bit, but being unable to report any details for several days, because of Justice Gomery's publication ban, imposed because he felt it could prejudice a future criminal trial.
Instead Canadians heard such phrases as "explosive revelations considered so damaging they could topple the government" blaring out from their nightly TV news, without any details.
No smoking gun
Kady O'Malley, a journalist for the Ottawa parliamentary newspaper The Hill Times, says the media may have got carried away and become a victim of its own hype. "You've got to wonder whether journalists' imagination were going a little crazy as they imagined colour photos of Paul Martin handing over big bags with dollar signs on them to Groupaction," she said. "While there's definitely a lot of meat there and new things we didn't know before, the testimony generally supports what we've heard already."
Ms O'Malley also believes the opposition parties did not get the one piece of evidence they were looking for. "If they thought there was a smoking gun linking the current prime minister, they were probably disappointed." she said.
'Soap opera'
The part of Canada where the scandal has been the number one issue for political debate is French-speaking Quebec, because that is where all the alleged corruption took place. As most of the testimony has been in French it has been virtually treated as a ghoulish nightly TV soap opera by many in the province.
After all, the sponsorship programme was introduced to quell the separatist sentiment that led to a 1995 Quebec referendum that came within a hair's breadth of choosing secession from the rest of the country.
Benoit Dutrizac is a TV presenter for the French-language station Tele-Quebec. He said people in the province are disgusted by what they are hearing from the public inquiry. "To see all this quarrelling and money being wasted, I think they're really fed up with all this cheating and lying."
Separatism 'waning'
Mr Dutrizac said people in the province are also upset about how they might now be perceived by the rest of Canada. "Canadians from other provinces probably see Quebeckers as opportunists, liars and thieves. That hurts me. I'm sure that Quebeckers see these French-speaking witnesses at the enquiry every day and feel embarrassed."
The Canadian media has even been debating whether the scandal will lead to renewed anti-federalist sentiment in the province. But Mr Dutrizac says that separatist sentiment is declining, despite the scandal. "The last time I checked about 40% of Quebeckers wanted a new deal with Canada," he said "But frankly, nobody cares about that any more really. I think people want to hear real solutions to real problems."
Meanwhile the slightly more unreal world of Justice Gomery's public enquiry continues. He is expected to make his final report in November.
It may however look like a crumpled footnote, if Canadians end up going to the polls between now and then. A glimmer of hope?
Posted by: .com ||
04/10/2005 6:20:32 AM ||
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The Pentagon is considering a dramatic escalation in its "war on terror'', a leading human rights group told Gulf News. Proposals under review would allow people to be detained as enemy combatants, outside the protection of the Geneva Conventions, for links to any organisation classified as terrorist by President George W. Bush. The list of organisations has not yet been finalised but Gulf News has learnt it "closely resembles'' those named in a presidential order in September 2001. This included a number of Middle East organisations. The list was expanded since then and names the Tamil Tigers, Shining Path of Peru Spain's ETA and the Real IRA. "This [enemy combatant classification] was originally aimed at Al Qaida and Taliban," John Sifton, a senior official of Human Rights Watch who has a copy of the document detailing the proposals, told Gulf News from New York last night. "But this is a radical departure. This expands the war on terror." It also allows for individuals not associated with terror groups to be held.
The proposals, if adopted by the Pentagon, would allow US forces to detain a suspect anywhere in the world in the utmost secrecy and deny having them. It raises the spectre of US forces acting like international bounty hunters. "It's not just if someone lands in America. Judging by past behaviour geography has never been a limiting factor for the US."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Bout Time!! The US is finally realizing that Iran and North Korea (less we forget, the last two axis of evil states)will probable stage a simultaneous aggressive posture to "throw off" our resolve: allowing these groups to fester unimpeded through the 'back door'!
#7
So many of these groups have ties to one another that names are simply a shell game. The 'big tent' strategy makes complete sense.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/10/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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#8
That, if true, is just a change of tactics. The word "escalation" is extremely serious and should not be 'defined down'. "Escalations" are established ahead of time as the modern version of the "Rules of War", to let the enemy know that if he "escalates" by doing 'x', then the other side with *continue* to "escalate" by doing 'y'. "If you attack our airfields with chemical weapons, then we will escalate with the use of tactical nuclear weapons", as an example.
#9
americans for nuke iszrael are to be expected when MSM does nowt but recycle palestinian propaganda.
It's been a generation now and most new journos believe the paleo line.
They also are happy to ignore blatant factual abuses as long as it supports the " right" side.(anti US, leftwing, anti-Israel, baby-boomer-'rebel', Racism-sux-but-sexism-is-OK, anti-capitalist, pro-globalism, pro-welfare-state). I've seen it firsthand at a major newspaper.
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said in an interview that al Qaeda and other extremist groups had sought to obtain a nuclear weapon, Norwegian television reported on Saturday.
"They were actively looking into acquiring a nuclear weapon and other weapons of mass destruction," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in an interview in Vienna with Norway's commercial TV 2 channel.
TV 2 said that ElBaradei's remarks referred to the al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and other extremist groups.
Its Web Site quoted ElBaradei as saying that proof had been found in Afghanistan, where U.S.-led-troops toppled the Taliban government in 2001 after it refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
"I would be surprised if they did not try to acquire nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. That would be the most horrible scenario because these extremist groups -- if they have the weapon, they will use it," ElBaradei said.
He said there was a "race against time" to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and plug gaps in the security of atomic weapons and materials.
"The more nuclear weapons that exist, the more threat we are facing. And the more countries that have nuclear weapons, the more danger we are facing," ElBaradei said.
"We can't afford one single lapse in the system of security of nuclear material or nuclear weapons," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/10/2005 12:03:48 AM ||
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#1
He's made an excellent case for his immediate elimination, er, termination, um, resignation.
Placing an Arab at the head of the IAEA is 1000x more insane than the insanity of throwing the US off the UNCHR and putting Cuba, China, Sudan, et al, on it.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has criticised a barrage of Palestinian mortar fire at Jewish settlements in Gaza as a "flagrant violation" of a truce deal.
Mr Sharon flew to US President George W Bush's Texas ranch amid the worst outbreak of violence in Gaza since he and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called a cease-fire in February.
The Israeli Army said more than 70 mortars and rockets had been fired at Jewish settlements in Gaza since Saturday, after Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian youths in the coastal strip.
None of the Palestinian fire caused any casualties.
A senior aide quoted Mr Sharon as saying: "The firing was a flagrant violation of the understanding achieved at Sharm el-Sheikh and it will be a central issue to be raised in my talks with President Bush".
The trip was the Prime Minister's tenth to the United States since taking office in 2001 but his first taste of homestead hospitality that Mr Bush reserves for his most favoured foreign guests.
Israeli officials said they expected Mr Bush to reaffirm at the meeting on Monday his strong backing for the Gaza withdrawal slated for July, the first removal of Jewish settlements from occupied land Palestinians want for a state.
Clearing political hurdles to the pullout at home, Mr Sharon frequently cited Mr Bush's assurances during his previous US trip last April that Israel would not be expected to give up some large West Bank settlement blocs in future peace deals.
Mr Sharon went a step too far for Washington by pledging last week to press ahead with construction of 3,500 homes for Israelis in a narrow corridor between the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim and Jerusalem.
Palestinians fear the Maale Adumim project would largely cut off the West Bank, which would form the bulk of a future state, from the eastern Arab part of Jerusalem, which they want as its capital - a demand Israel rejects.
The meeting will give the two leaders an opportunity to talk face-to-face for the first time about prospects for peace since the death in November of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his replacement by the moderate Mr Abbas.
Mr Sharon has demanded stronger action by the Palestinian President to disarm militants.
He also cited Iran's suspected nuclear arms program and events in Lebanon as subjects for discussion with Mr Bush.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/10/2005 5:37:25 PM ||
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#1
hey Chirac - call Sharon and he'll tell ya what the guest room at the Crawford ranch looks like - Blair knows, geez, Koizumi's probably got his initial in the headboard. How's that EU constitution thing going? 55% against in France, huh? Tough shit
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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A militant group led by Jordanian rebel Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has rejected a call from the new Iraqi president to lay down its arms.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was an agent of the U.S., the group said, and he would never be forgiven for his "infidelity" and "spilling of the blood of Muslims".
The statement, which could not be independently verified, was posted on a website used by Islamist militants.
Talabani had said that some insurgents could be offered an amnesty.
Al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted rebel, has claimed responsibility for many bombings and beheadings in Iraq.
Speaking on Thursday after being sworn in as the Iraqi leader, President Talabani said: "We must find a political and peaceful solution with Iraqis who have been led astray by terrorism." Insurgents, he said, "should be invited to participate in the democratic process", the Agencie France Presse news agency reported.
If their crimes were not too serious, they could be offered an amnesty, he added.
The Internet statement from al-Zarqawi's group, issued in the name of the al-Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq, said the president had called on militants to "enter into atheism, polytheism and the political game", BBC News reports.
"We only reserve the sword for you, agents of Jews and Crusaders. We will never give up jihad until Islamic law is established," the statement said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/10/2005 4:03:34 PM ||
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#1
Ho-kay. Talabani has done the Obligatory Offer of Truce - now go waste his ass.
Posted by: too true ||
04/10/2005 17:10 Comments ||
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"We only reserve the sword for you, agents of Jews and Crusaders."
#3
yo zarqi--about the establishment of islamic law--didn't ibn tammayyah say the samething in the thirteenth crntury--never lasted over time cf turkey,egypt,spain,morocco etc
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
04/10/2005 17:59 Comments ||
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Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was an agent of the U.S., the group said, and he would never be forgiven for his "infidelity" and "spilling of the blood of Muslims".
[In a wide ranging interview with Islamic scholar Bat Ye'or comes a frank discussion of Eurabia: what it is, and what it means for Americans. Interview by Alyssa A. Lappen]
There are growing signs of hostility between secular Iraqi insurgents and Muslim extremists - some of them foreigners - fighting under the banner of al-Qaida.
The factions have exchanged threats and are increasingly divided over the strategy of violence, much of it targeting civilians, that aims undermine the fragile new government.
The increased tension, critically, arises as the mainstream component of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency - which remains active, deadly and vibrant nearly two years since it began - has opened a campaign designed to reap political gain out of its violent roots.
Post-election realities appear to have forced the tactical change as majority Shiites and Kurds consolidate power and the population grows increasingly angry over the largely Sunni-driven insurgency that is killing vast numbers of ordinary people and the country's fledgling army and police force.
"You see a withering of the insurgents that had a short-term agenda, like preventing the January election. But the insurgency is not unraveling yet," said Peter Khalil, former director of national security policy for the now-defunct U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq.
The divide among militants, however, is becoming more noticeable.
In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province and a stronghold of the insurgency, homegrown Iraqi fighters have begun recently to air their differences in menacing fliers plastered on walls and distributed in mosques - making threats and denouncing the tactics of the extremists, according to witnesses who have seen the fliers.
Some of the fliers threaten reprisals against the militants or threaten to inform police of their identity and whereabouts. The extremists have not publicly responded, but residents say the fighters have kept a low profile since the appearance of the fliers in the Euphrates-side city and that some of them may have moved to the outskirts to avoid clashes.
Ramadi's insurgents argue that al-Qaida fighters are giving the resistance a bad name and demand they stop targeting civilians and kidnappings. Al-Qaida militants counter that Iraqis who join the army and police are "apostates" - Muslims who renounce their faith - and deserve to be killed.
"They have tarnished our image and used the jihad to make personal gains," said Ahmed Hussein, a 30-year-old mosque imam from Ramadi, speaking of al-Qaida fighters. "They have no legitimacy," said Hussein, who claims insurgency links but says he's not a fighter himself.
In Baghdad's mainly Sunni Azamiyah district, another insurgency hotbed, residents have repeatedly brought down from walls and street light poles the black banners of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The rift also involves Sunni Arab tribal leaders frustrated by the continuing violence. And it is being encouraged by Iraqi authorities in the hope that it would isolate the militants. Iraq's local TV channel, Al-Iraqiya has recently been showing nightly interviews with captured Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters, many who speak of alleged links to Syrian intelligence.
Iraq's newly elected president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, urged insurgents to sit down and talk with the new government, but he's made it clear his offer is exclusively available to homegrown Iraqi insurgents and not to extremists or foreign fighters.
"We must find political and peaceful solutions with those duped Iraqis who have been involved in terrorism and pardon them, and invite them to join the democratic process," Talabani said Thursday as he was sworn in at parliament. "But we must firmly counter and isolate the criminal terrorism that's imported from abroad and is allied with criminal Baathists."
Ideological or tactical shifts within the insurgency are difficult to gauge because of the secrecy surrounding it and the different, sometime conflicting, agendas of its disparate groups - with the majority of homegrown insurgents hardcore members of Saddam's Baath party, former members of his army and security forces as well as religious nationalists.
Associated Press reporters in the insurgency strongholds of Ramadi, Baqouba and Samarra say there have been fewer attacks in those towns in recent weeks. They also report rising hostility toward militants associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian al-Qaida leader in Iraq.
U.S. defense officials say nationwide attacks were down to 40-45 a day in recent weeks, lower than the pre-election daily average of 50-60.
Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed news reports in Arab media that factions of the insurgency may be indirectly negotiating with authorities to lay down their arms in return for amnesty, jobs and reconstruction money. The Iraqi government has not commented.
There is a growing feeling among Sunni Arabs that boycotting the landmark Jan. 30 election may have been a mistake. Shunning the vote left Sunni Arabs, who make up 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million people, with less than 20 of parliament's 275 seats.
Some experts believe the insurgency has begun to rely on Sunni Arab leaders, particularly the influential clerics of the Association of Muslim Scholars, to act as its political wing.
Many in Iraq see this as a division of labor in the pursuit of political gains, with one Iraq expert - Ahmed S. Hashim, of the U.S. Naval War College - saying it mirrors the arrangement between the Irish Republican Army in British-ruled Northern Ireland and Sinn Fein.
"The insurgency's political wing needs the leverage provided by the military wing," said Hashim who had spent time in postwar Iraq. "Military operations ensure that Sunni Arabs can be taken seriously," he said.
In the most striking example so far of the shifting Sunni ground, the Association of Muslim Scholars - which has tacitly supported the insurgency - made a surprise about-face last week and appealed to supporters to join Iraq's nascent army and police.
If heeded, that move could improve the perception of Iraq's U.S.-trained army and police as the exclusive domain of Shiites and Kurds. it also could - significantly - lure away from the insurgency any fighters looking for a regular income and a less perilous life.
In addition, in towns across the mostly Sunni Arab Anbar province, worshippers have recently been asked to fill questionnaires about whether Sunni Arabs should take part in drafting the country's new constitution or participate in the next general election.
It's not known who is behind this polling exercise, but those who received the forms were asked to return them to mosque imams.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/10/2005 12:17:06 AM ||
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#1
Which faction does CBS News support?
Posted by: Matt ||
04/10/2005 11:48 Comments ||
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In an effort for impartiality, they support all anti-US insurgencies
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2005 11:57 Comments ||
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If you had read the LA Times today you would have thought Iraq qas coming apart at the seams.
Egypt's Supreme Military Court released on Wednesday a top member of the 94 Islamists charged with plotting to assassinate top officials and attempting to smuggle weapons to the Palestinian group, Hamas.
Sheikh Fawzi Al-Said, a prominent mosque preacher at the eastern Cairo suburb of Nasr City, was a member of a controversial group called Al-Waad, or the Promise, which was charged with illegally collecting money to send to Palestinians in support of their 4 1/2 year-long uprising, and also to Chechens fighting Russian forces in 2001.
The Al-Waad case defendants, who include three foreign nationals from the former Soviet republic of Dagestan and three Egyptians who hold dual nationalities, were also accused of providing military trainings to people in Chechnya and Azerbaijan.
After the Sept.11 attacks, however, the charges against Al-Said and other members expanded dramatically to include more serious charges of seeking to topple the government and assassinate top government officials, and the group was referred to a military trial.
President Hosni Mubarak started referring suspected militants to military courts in 1992 in an attempt to deter violence. Defendants cannot appeal verdicts without the president's consent.
Al-Said's lawyer, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said his client was expected to be released a couple of years ago as he had no connection with any militant group. "The court proved his innocence as he had no ties with extremist groups and did not plan to topple any regime," said the lawyers. "Even the funds he was raising were for humanitarian reasons to help people in Palestinian not the militants," he added, pointing out that Al-Said should have been freed in September 2002 when the court acquitted him.
Meanwhile, a local human rights NGO said it filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian government for subjecting Al-Waad members to torture in order to extract confessions regarding their activities and those of other defendants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/10/2005 12:27:22 AM ||
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Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated that none of its citizens would be handed over to the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes trial.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it."
Speaking to an army garrison in the southern province of the country, the official news agency SUNA quoted Al-Bashir as saying that the state would not hand over any suspects for trial outside of the country. Bashir also said whilst visiting the Bahr al-Ghazal province on Saturday that Sudan's own judicial system would take charge of any prosecutions.
"That's assuming there are any, of course..."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Seriously, does any country have a legitimate government when it hands over its citizens to a foreign power just because they say so? This goes way beyond extradition, and becomes fealty. A government is only in power because it is the dominant power in a nation. If it loses that dominance, it loses its credibility, and should no longer rule. It has made its state a vassel.
#2
The waiting list for dictator-cleansing is getting a bit long. We have Syria, Iran, Soddy Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, and now Sudan in the Middle East, and NorK and China in Asia, plus Castro and Chavez in Latin America. It looks like we're going to need about 12 more divisions if we're going to take care of these problems in a timely manner. Half of them should be Marines...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/10/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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#3
Feality, yes I like the sound of that.
Posted by: Jacques Chiraq. ||
04/10/2005 12:44 Comments ||
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Armed with food and blankets to see them through the night, some 150 men and women gathered in the town of El-Arish on Friday to begin an open-ended strike in protest against the mass detention of their relatives, held in connection with last year's terror attacks in the Sinai. The protesters have demonstrated every Friday for weeks now, calling on the government to release the detainees who are believed to number 2,400. The government has refused to say how many people are in custody, or whether they've been charged.
The demonstrators gathered at the headquarters of a leftist opposition party in the northern Sinai town of El-Arish, and said they won't leave until authorities release the prisoners arrested in the wake of Oct. 7 hotel bombings in Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34 people. They also said that they will start a hunger strike by today. The demonstrators complain that their relatives continue to be detained despite an announcement last week from the country's prosecutor general that two men will be tried in connection with the attacks; they argue the rest should be set free.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Sudan said yesterday it had not banned the country's largest opposition party, which has been pushing for the government to cooperate more with a UN resolution to send alleged war criminals to trial. The Umma Party, led by the last democratically elected leader in Sudan, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, said on Wednesday it was stopped from holding a rally and armed police and security officials stormed its headquarters, arresting officials. The party's vice president said security officials read out an order to him banning the party from political activities.
But Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the party had not been banned. "That's not true," he told reporters in Khartoum yesterday. "It's up to them to continue their political activities," he said, adding the party had been banned only from holding the rally because it did not have the proper security permission. Party spokeswoman Mariam Al-Mahdi, also Sadiq's daughter, said the security services had released the party officials. "But they are still daily monitoring our movements, detaining our people and they have banned our students from holding rallies," she told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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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.
The Kuwait Bar Association announced it has formed a 17-member team to defend a liberal university professor convicted of mocking Islam in his newspaper column. The group, which includes several liberals and human rights activists, was the strongest sign of support for 
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated that none of its citizens would be handed over to the 
