The weird thing was how ordinary they all looked. Each new glimpse of the eight suspected foot soldiers of Al Qaeda last week only underscored the British tabloids' description of them as "the suicide bombers next door." A video recording surfaced showing two of the four July 7 terrorists on a Welsh white-water-rafting holiday, laughing and paddling, hardly a month before they killed themselves and 52 mass-transit riders in Lon-don. The same commonplace quality came through in TV coverage of a police raid in London last week as two of the four suspects in the failed July 21 bombings emerged meekly onto the balcony of their North Kensington apartment, unclothed, eyes and noses running from tear gas. A pair of small children toddled out onto another balcony below, visibly thrilled to find a K-9 officer on their doorstep. Nothing about any of the eight men's faces would have drawn a second look on most city streets.
No one doubted there could be more like them. Four of the men blew themselves up, and the other four were run to ground from England to Italy, only eight days after they had fled their dud bombs. The quick arrests, thanks to closed-circuit-TV images and fast police work, were reassuring. But Scotland Yard said it would be foolhardy to suppose that the conspirators behind the attacks intend to stop there. Someone must have recruited, organized and equipped the two terror cells. The bombing suspects mirrored Britain's large immigrant population: East Africans, Pakistanis, a Jamaican, they included a school aide, a business student, a transit worker, a counterman from a family fish-and-chips shop. How many other malcontents might Al Qaeda have already groomed into other sleeper cells? "This is not the B team," said London's top police officer, Sir Ian Blair, of the July 21 bombers before their capture. "These âwere not amateurs... They only made one mistake," he added. "We were very, very lucky." London cops were on high alert last Thursday after getting word that more bombings were imminent. When the day passed with many arrests but no attacks, they speculated that their increased visibility might have deterred an attack, said a source close to Scotland Yard.
Investigators have found no hard evidence so far that the members of the July 7 and July 21 cells even knew one another. Presumably the plotters didn't want an investigation of one leading to the other. Three of the July 7 bombers were British natives of Pakistani descent, and all four had spent much of their lives in and around the northern city of Leeds. The July 21 suspects appear to have been children of refugees from the Horn of AfricaâSomali, Eritrean, Ethiopianâwho had lived in England for several years; one had only recently become a British citizen. There were hints last week that London police were chasing a third cell, this one of French-speaking Muslims.
Police have yet to figure out who directed the attacks, though they've publicly blamed Al Qaeda. The inquiry keeps coming back to the gritty London neighborhood of Finsbury Park, home of the North London Central Mosque, where a fiery Egyptian preacher known as Abu Hamza al-Masri was a principal prayer leader from 1996. He had two prosthetic hands and one sightless eyeâwar wounds from Afghanistan, he told people. Until his removal two years ago, he preached venomously anti-Western sermons to jihad recruits like shoebomber Richard Reid and the convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Abu Hamza was finally arrested in May 2004 and charged with incitement to murder, along with other offenses.
British and American counterterrorism officials, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, tell NEWSWEEK they're actively pursuing possible ties between Abu Hamza's followers and the bombings. One name that has resurfaced is that of Richard Reid: he's said to have been acquainted with at least one of the July 21 suspects, an Eritrean named Muktar Said Ibrahim. Another is that of Abu Hamza's top lieutenant, Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British-born ethnic Indian who is wanted in the United States for allegedly trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon for his boss. In the days before the July 7 attacks, calls were logged between a phone used by one of the bombers and one that was registered to Aswat. Counterterrorism officials say Aswat's phone was found in Britain, but two weeks ago Aswat was arrested in Zambia, where he is awaiting extraditionâwhether to Britain or the United States has yet to be decided.
Despite the apparent Finsbury Park links, some of the bombers had nothing in common with thugs like Ibrahim, a convicted mugger, and losers like Reid. Teaching assistant Mohammed Sidique Khan, a decade older than the other July 7 bombers, was a natural leader, according to those who knew him in the ethnically mixed neighborhoods in Leeds, an old mill town in northern England. Muslims and non-Muslims admired his community spirit. He set up two gyms to help get local youngsters off the streets, mentored problem students at primary school and was rewarded with a tour of Parliament by his M.P. "If Khan could be turned, it means anybody could be turned," says Khurshid Drabu, an adviser provided to the Khan family by the Muslim Council of Britain. "That's what's terrifying."
One old friend thinks the dramatic change may have begun back in 1999, when a Jamaican-born jihadist cleric known as Abdullah el-Faisal, an Abu Hamza associate, went to Leeds. (In 2003 a British court convicted him of incitement to murder and sentenced him to nine years in prison.) Around the time of the Iraq invasion, Khan began distancing himself from old friends and hanging out more and more with two of the teenagers he had been mentoring at his gym, Hasib Hussain and Shahzad Tanweer. In November 2004, Tanweer and Khan flew to Pakistan for three months. When they came back, Khan quit his teaching job, moved his family to another townâAswat's old hometown of Dewsbury, as it happensâand left his wife, an ethnic Indian Muslim, and their infant daughter. Five months later, Khan and friends blew themselves up.
Such drastic withdrawal is actually a common feature of Al Qaeda's re-cruitment process. Former Saudi intelligence chief (and current ambassador-designate to the United States) Prince Turki al-Faisal, a veteran of the secret war against Al Qaeda, described the routine to NEWSWEEK. By the time the group's enlistment specialists approach a candidate, they have studied him carefully. "Then they approach him," Prince Turki says. "They express admiration for him, and they invite him for tea or coffee." They talk about jihad and praise the ideas of some sheik. "After a few more meetings they will offer to intro-duce him to the sheik. That's when they start putting into his head the idea of being careful and not telling anybody, especially his family." Then comes the turning point: they ask the recruit to prove himself by doing something to incriminate himself.
British police may find their jailed suspects surprisingly eager to talk. People say Qaeda operatives are trained to withstand interrogation. That may be true of the commanders, but Prince Turki says captured foot soldiers tend to open up with little or no coaxing. They want to escape their cultish isolation. "If you show them a little sympathy, they want to come back to the way they were before," he says. "It's as if they were given the chance to come back again as human beings, and many of them jump at that chance." If only they could have made the jump before people were killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:27 ||
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Same symptom as heavy drug users, cult members etc...
#2
From what I understand, there is an innate (genetic?) difference in the brain chemistry of those who become addicts, whether to drugs, alcohol, sex... perhaps it is the same with those who join cults, including the cult of Muslim terror. I wonder if a DNA or blood test could be developed to reveal those succeptible to such addictions, and if such information could be put in a form useful to our National Security and law enforcement people?
I find it very interesting that NYT is quoting UK investigators to this effect when even al-Guardian is saying it's al-Qaeda.
As police officers investigating the two London bombing attacks questioned suspects rounded up in London and Rome, they have begun to explore the possibility that both assaults were largely homegrown efforts with minimal outside support, senior British investigators said Saturday.
They also said they had not established any solid evidence linking the attack on July 7, which killed 52 along with the four bombers, and the failed bombings on July 21.
The British officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal investigation, stressed that their investigation was still in its early stages and that their analyses might change.
"The point is simply that so far, there is not a foreign connection that is the major focus of our inquiry," a senior police official said.
Three arrests on Friday, two in London and one in Rome, meant that all four suspects in the attempted attacks on July 21 are now in custody, along with a fifth man who also may have been involved.
Scotland Yard is trying to determine whether either team was helped by a support network. In particular, the investigation is focusing on whether a Britain-based mastermind or bombmaker helped with the July 7 and July 21 plots.
The capture of the five suspects brought only the most cautious sense of relief to Britons, and the police warned that the country still faced what Peter Clarke, London's top counterterrorism official, called a "very real" threat.
Scotland Yard said Saturday that two more men had been arrested under counterterrorism laws in two raids in the city of Leicester about 4 a.m. But a police statement said, "There is no reason to currently suspect that these arrests are in any way connected to recent terrorist activity in London."
The suspect arrested in Rome told investigators that he carried a bomb through London's subway, but claimed it was meant as a "demonstration" rather than as a means of killing, a person with firsthand knowledge of the interrogation said on Saturday.
The person who talked about the interrogation, who declined to speak for attribution because the law bars such disclosures, said the suspect maintained that his group was not connected to the bombers in the July 7 attacks or to al Qaeda.
The 27-year-old Ethiopian, who fled Britain four days ago, was identified in Rome as Osman Hussain and in Britain as Hussain Osman. He told interrogators that he had come to Italy not to carry out attacks but to visit his brother.
Meanwhile, the investigators are looking closely at the July 21 bombs, which failed to detonate. Forensic evidence shows that the bombs used in both attacks were crude homemade devices. So far, the police have little evidence pointing to a foreigner entering the country and helping either group build the bombs.
"Everything that we have suggests that these could have been made with knowledge in this country," a police official said. "These are the type of devices you can make yourself with information you could acquire from the Internet, or other extremist training manuals."
"It is very unsophisticated, and that is one of the scary bits," said Paul Beaver, a defense analyst in London.
British officials also minimized the importance of two men they initially believed might have played roles in the July 7 attacks. One is a suspected terrorist arrested in Zambia last week, Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British national of Indian descent; the other is an Egyptian-born chemist, Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar.
Aswat fell under suspicion early in the investigation because he had trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and had been a senior aide to Abu Hamza al-Masri, the blind cleric who preached vitriolic anti-Western sermons at the Finsbury Mosque in northern London. Investigators also found that calls had been made from his cell phone to West Yorkshire, where three of the July 7 bombers lived. But investigators said they now had determined that no calls were to the bombers.
"For now, this man or any role he may have does not figure, to any degree of importance, in our inquiry," said a British security official. "Of course, this could change."
Several weeks before the July 7 bombings, the South African government alerted the United States that Aswat was in their country. Aswat is wanted in the United States on allegations that he had tried to set up an al Qaeda camp in Oregon in late 1999.
The Americans asked South Africa to arrest Aswat and turn him over to the United States without going through formal extradition proceedings. The South Africans contacted the British government, because Aswat is a British citizen. The British balked at the U.S. request for his arrest and deportation to the United States.
"The U.K. would not stand in the way of any legitimate request to arrest anyone suspected of involvement in terrorism or any crime, but we would expect that arrest to be conducted through a proper legal process," said the security official. "That is by way of a proper extradition warrant."
The chemist, el-Nashar, was originally suspected as a possible bombmaker. But a Scotland Yard official said he was "no longer an active part" of the police investigation. The police might still want to talk to him as a witness, the official added.
El-Nashar, a graduate student in chemistry at Leeds University, had come under suspicion because he had lent the keys to his apartment to one of the July 7 bombers, and he left for Egypt 10 days before the blast. He was arrested in Cairo, but he insisted that he had gone to Egypt on vacation. He is still believed to be in custody in Cairo.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:20 ||
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"The U.K. would not stand in the way of any legitimate request to arrest anyone suspected of involvement in terrorism or any crime, but we would expect that arrest to be conducted through a proper legal process," said the security official. "That is by way of a proper extradition warrant."
It's this kind of BS that will lose us this struggle. The UK should have told SA we don't want him, go ahead. Now is 6 or 7 years after it's been fully debated in the House of Commons and been through the EU Human Rights Court he might be extradited. This law enforcement mentality is going to lose us this struggle. This is a war not a criminal enterprise we are fighting.
#3
"The British officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal investigation..."
So what we have here is an article alledgedly based on comments from people who know that their commenting is unethical and thus are untrustworthy people. That's the NYT for you.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/31/2005 20:55 Comments ||
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They looked pathetic without backpacks filled with explosives. Naked except for their underwear, vomiting and spitting to clear out the tear gas police fired into their west London hideout, two forlorn men wanted for attempting to bomb London's transport system on July 21 surrendered to police after a three-hour siege. "Mohammed, Mohammed, come out, we won't hurt you!" the police kept shouting. But when no one came out, officers fixed a strip of plastic explosive and blew off the front door of the fourth-floor apartment where the men had taken refuge. The tear gas was next. Unlike the Madrid train bombers â who blew themselves up in April of last year rather than be captured â Ibrahim Muktar Said, suspected of trying to bomb a No. 26 bus, and Ramzi Mohammed, thought to have tried to bomb a train at Oval station, showed no inclination for suicide. "I've got rights!" one of them shouted to police, before finally giving himself up.
Just a few hours later in Rome, Italian police caught Hussain Osman, alleged to have tried to blow up a train at Shepherd's Bush, among the umbrella pines and oleander of the Tor Pignattara neighborhood on the city's southeastern rim. According to an Italian Interior Ministry official, British authorities provided their Italian counterparts with the number of a cell phone registered to Osman's brother-in-law, which they believed Osman was using as he tried to evade the massive British manhunt.
"In the course of two days, he went from London to Paris to Milan and finally Rome," the official says. Once there, he holed up in his brother's apartment, which police surrounded with 60 special agents. After they burst in, he quickly surrendered.
The fourth suspected bomber was already in custody. He had been grabbed at 4:30 a.m. last Wednesday on a quiet, leafy street 4 km outside Birmingham city center. Police swarmed down the slim garden path of a nondescript brick house and surrounded the back door, leading into a tiny bedsit apartment. "Hassan! Hassan!" they shouted. Neighbors saw blue and yellow flashes and heard explosions. Inside, antiterror officers found their bleary-eyed quarry, Yasin Hassan Omar, suspected of trying to bomb an underground train at Warren Street station, who scuffled with them and was immobilized with a 50,000-volt blast from a Taser gun.
And so, in just eight days, the biggest manhunt in the history of British policing nabbed the four known members of the gang suspected of trying to bomb the transport network on July 21. More than 6,000 police, half of them armed, put on an unprecedented show of force in London last week, watching every underground station and patrolling trains, buses and streets. "We're here to offer reassurance, madam," one polite bobby in a flak jacket told an inquisitive pedestrian. But even the best police work can't lift the cloud of fear and unease hanging over the city. No one had anticipated the attacks of July 7 or July 21, and the bombers and suspects were not on any terrorist-watch list. Are there other gangs ready to commit mass murder as they offer up their own lives to their dark vision of Islam? Though the most wanted men in Britain have been caught, the investigation still has a lot of unsettling loose ends.
British and U.S. officials have told Time that police have not yet found any forensic link between the July 7 and July 21 suspects: no phone calls, documents or other evidence tying the two groups together. Moreover, contrary to earlier speculation, the bombs used in the attacks came from different mixtures of home-made explosive, according to a British official. That means either that the same "chemist" made two different batches, or that more than one chemist was at work, and may still be on the loose.
There are also signs of a wider network of accomplices: a fifth bomb, found abandoned after the July 21 attacks in a park in west London (the man police suspect was supposed to use it â Wahbi Mohammed, the brother of Ramzi Mohammed â was also arrested last week), and the 16 bomb components found in the trunk of the car left at Luton train station by the July 7 suicide bombers. "Was there supposed to be a fifth bomber on July 7, too?" asks a British official. According to Italian authorities, Osman, who was born in Ethiopia, was able to use a dense network of contacts from East Africa for shelter as he made his way to Rome. They worry that Italy could be the next jihadist battleground.
Investigators are skeptical that the second London attack could have been put together by a copycat cell in only two weeks. On the other hand, they note that the July 21 operation did appear to be less prepared, especially because the explosives fizzled. "Al-Qaeda doesn't let amateurs out," says Dominic Armstrong, head of research and intelligence at the London-based private security firm Aegis Defence Services. A U.S. counterterror official told Time that the British and U.S. governments are open to the idea that the two attacks "may have been planned independently of each other."
Not only is there no clear link between the two sets of suspects, there is no established link between either group and al-Qaeda or any other known terror network, say British officials. There are lots of tantalizing links back to Pakistan from the July 7 gang, three of whom had parents born there. When Shehzad Tanweer â who killed seven on a train near Aldgate station â and Mohammed Sidique Khan â who killed six at Edgware Road station â left Leeds to visit Pakistan in 2004, they were frequently seen with members and recruiters of the banned militant organizations Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, according to several people in Samundri, a town near the village where Tanweer stayed with his uncle.
A Lashkar-e-Toiba member in a nearby village told Time, "I was introduced to Tanweer last year, too. He had come to visit a madrasah." The militants who took Tanweer around treated him as someone worthy of respect, according to the villagers, even though he was only 21. Locals also remember him discussing atrocities against Muslims and distributing material favoring jihad. These links strongly suggest that Tanweer and Khan could have hooked up with al-Qaeda. The nature of the July 7 bombings also has many hallmarks of the worldwide terrorist group: meticulous planning, spectacular co-ordinated attacks and a goal of causing maximum civilian casualties and social disruption. Nevertheless, no hard evidence linking the attacks with al-Qaeda has been unearthed.
Significant foreign ties for the July 21 suspects are much less evident. The man arrested in Birmingham, Omar, 24, came to Britain from Somalia when he was 11, and Said, arrested in west London, came from Eritrea when he was 14. Radical Islam does have strong roots in east Africa, where al-Qaeda has bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and a Kenyan hotel, and almost shot down an Israeli airliner full of tourists. Matt Bryden, Horn of Africa project director with the International Crisis Group in Nairobi, has co-authored a report that concludes a "new, ruthless, independent jihadi network with links to al-Qaeda" has arisen in Somalia, and fears that "jihadis will gradually find growing purchase among Somalia's despairing and disaffected citizenry." Nevertheless, British officials say there is no discernible operational link to the region for the July 21 plot, and believe the men may have "got jihad" in London.
According to Italian news reports, Osman has insisted to Italian authorities that any July 21 team had nothing to do with the one on July 7. He reportedly met Said at a gym and began discussing politics in a small group without any contact with al-Qaeda, except what they read on the Internet. He is reported to have said he watched videos supposedly showing U.S. atrocities in Iraq, and wanted to protest. British officials don't know if this is true, but are taking seriously the possibility of a self-starting cell. Shane Brighton, of the Royal United Services Institute in London, says "self-radicalization" is a growing concern. "If you already accept that there's a historic struggle between Muslims and the West and that the only resort is violence," he says, "you don't need to sit at the feet of an imam for months. You just need to watch the news to have your mind-set reconfirmed."
Those who have self-radicalized can then turn to "Google terror": using the Internet for bomb recipes, how-to videos and moral support â and thus slip beneath the radar of the security services. The July 21 suspects apparently found disaffection aplenty in Britain. Omar, who came to Britain as a dependent of his elder sister in 1992, had led a feral life in Mogadishu and was not prepared to cope well in the big city. Jamal Mohammed, who played football with Omar in London, told the Independent newspaper that Omar had said he used to hang out with militiamen in Mogadishu and was fascinated by their guns. "He said he had lived on the streets during the day, getting what food he could," said Mohammed. In London, Omar moved through a series of foster homes and attended Aylward secondary school in north London, which has a truancy rate three times the national average. A schoolmate said "he was quiet and picked upon and didn't have friends." By 18 he was declared a "vulnerable young adult" and put into a one-bedroom apartment on the ninth floor of a grim housing project called Curtis House in Enfield, north London.
The building has become home to a transient population of Afro-Caribbeans, Chinese, Poles, Somalis, Turks and homegrown Brits. The elevators stink of urine and used needles litter the stairways. Omar lived off state benefits worth at least $150 a week. "I never once saw him working," says Mohammed Hassan, owner of the nearby Billy's Food Shop. "He and his friend used to sit on the wall in the car park just down the road smoking cannabis." Omar once got angry at Hassan for selling liquor in his store. "He said I was a bad Muslim. I told him, 'Better than stealing.' When I worked at the shop across the road, he was caught stealing a can of tuna. I didn't like him."
At a Turkish grocery a few blocks from Curtis House, the owner's wife, Nursal, remembers once talking to Omar about a terrorist attack by al-Qaeda, saying it was terrible. "He said, 'Why? Those people [the victims] are killing Muslims.'" His classmate recalls that "he got religion three or four years ago and grew a beard. He changed. I think he was lonely."
But he did get a roommate: Said, who arrived from Eritrea in 1992 and moved in with Omar a couple of years ago. Known as a bully at school, he served time in five juvenile jails after being convicted in 1996 for gang robberies at knifepoint. One of the jails, Feltham Young Offender Institution, was where shoe bomber Richard Reid had earlier turned to Islam. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, several Muslim prison clerics were suspended after being accused of inflammatory preaching; one had worked at Feltham, where prison officers found pamphlets describing the U.S. as "the great evil which must be wiped out."
At Curtis House, Omar and Said played football on Sundays with some East Africans, but mostly kept to themselves. Some neighbors say they held prayer meetings. Last month, Samantha Jones, whose son Conor, 11, used to play football with them, saw them take "40 or 50 cartons up in the lift. They said it was wallpaper stripper." Police now believe their apartment was the bomb factory for the July 21 attacks. Nicola Hannay-Young, 15, who lives on the second floor, said Omar and Said and sometimes their friends "were in and out six or seven times a day. One had a dark blue plastic carrier bag that he carried very tightly." Traces of explosives were reportedly found in the building's garbage chute, and explosives were removed from Omar's apartment and a nearby garage.
The police were delighted with the rapid progress in locating the July 21 suspects, but the next steps may be harder. Investigators this week will presumably try to play each suspect against the other, hoping to elicit information that will fill in the many gaps about how the attacks were planned and co-ordinated. Antiterror investigators will also turn their attention to "the support networks," says a British police source. Until they are wrapped up, says antiterror police chief Peter Clarke, "the threat remains, and is very real."
And that is what is really worrying other British officials. Of the July 7 and July 21 suspects, only one had previously even tweaked the interest of the security services, implying that many more homegrown terrorists networks could be out there: Eritrean, Jamaican, North African (responsible for the Madrid bombings), Pakistani, Somali and perhaps many others in a country with 1.6 million Muslims, 4% of whom, according to an ICM poll published last week, believe "it is acceptable for religious or political groups to use violence for political ends." One official estimates there are now at least 800 Muslims with jihadist leanings in Britain who ought to be under surveillance or deported, half of whom are British citizens and cannot be made to leave.
The security services are likely to need more resources to combat that threat, even though their budget has increased 20% in the past year. At a press conference last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair backed tougher measures to fight terrorism, including using intercept evidence in court and longer periods of detention without charge â the police want up to 90 days instead of the current 14. Even with some Britons questioning the police's unprecedented tactics, Blair seems likely to get most of what he wants.
In Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf attacked the same problem in a different way. He announced that he would ban all foreigners from studying in the country's more than 10,000 madrasahs, some of which preach jihad or have al-Qaeda links. Such measures might have made it harder for the July 7 bombers to link up with the radicals they found in Pakistan. Musharraf said 1,400 foreigners would be immediately affected. "We will not allow madrasahs to be misused for extremism," he declared. But he announced similar measures in 2002 and did almost nothing. Musharraf is unrepentant. "We have to proceed in a manner that will succeed, and success is not so black and white," he said.
In that sense, Pakistan's problem and Britain's are different not in kind, only in degree. In Birmingham, just a few meters from where Omar, the suspected Warren St. bomber, was arrested, Tom Wheeldon is apprehensive and uncertain. "The neighborhood feels different now. I don't know who's who," says Wheeldon, an 86-year-old World War II vet. "I knew who the enemy was [during the war]. But now the enemy is within; you can't see them." To prevent future attacks, the police and the public will need a much clearer idea of who the enemy is.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:07 ||
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Doesn't sound like a lifestyle that would provide extra cash for buying bombmaking materials ... especially if weed purchase is a priority.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/31/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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Tummy upset over 7/7? Here. Have some warm milk...
THE UK governmentâs former chief adviser on integrating immigrants into British society has attacked attempts to denounce multiculturalism in favour of promoting âBritishnessâ in the wake of the London bombings.
"There's no reason for them to be British, just because they're living in Britain. They can continue to be natives and wogs and such..."
Professor Sir Bernard Crick, who until his resignation three months ago was chair of the government Advisory Board on Naturalisation and Integration, said he was âpretty pissed offâ over comments condemning multiculturalism made by Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, and the former Home Secretary David Blunkett. He added that any attempt to promote Britishness in its place could make Muslims feel threatened in the current climate.
"Far, far better for the native Brits to feel threatened by the Muslims!"
Phillips entered a debate on integration of Britainâs ethnic and religious minorities which has been raging since the bombings by saying that multiculturalism had increased âseparatenessâ between communities and aggravated community tensions. Last year he sparked controversy by saying that the term multiculturalism was of another era and should be scrapped. He instead called for all citizens to âassert a core of Britishnessâ.
Start by telling them what happened to Guy Fawkes. Tell 'em how much success you had with that Oliver Cromwell thing. Explain the ins and outs of the elder Liz's affair with the Duke of Essex and why he came out of it a foot shorter. Then take them to see Coventry.
Work and pensions secretary David Blunkett, when Home Secretary, urged people from ethnic minorities to develop a âsense of belongingâ in Britain, and told them to speak English at home. However, Crick countered: âI think things can be done to impress the [Muslim] community that theyâre not threatened in their own culture, so Iâm pretty pissed off with the Blunkett and Phillips line now that multiculturalism is an outmoded concept, as Phillips said.
Spends a lot of time being "pissed off," doesn't he? I can remember a day when public figures didn't use such language, and certainly not in Britain. Though that was in the days when it was Great Britain...
âTo start talking now about Britishness as replacing multiculturalism must seem pretty threatening to a lot of Muslims who follow their own religion but perhaps work in English-speaking environments. In other words, if oneâs talking about integration, oneâs talking about the ability to live in two worlds. Itâs more difficult with a different religion than a visible mark of colour but itâs not impossible.â
Actually, I'd think it'd be harder for the colored guys. Most of us in the civilized world tuck our religion, if any, away and don't push it in our dealings with other people. On the other hand, our religions, if any, don't require us to kill anyone.
The argument over multiculturalism brought into the open by Phillips last year has resurfaced since the London bombings as commentators struggle to explain the emergence of home-grown bombers. But Crick said that placing a greater stress on citizenship and âeducating for a multicultural societyâ was already working.
Oh, yeah. We can see that.
However, he accused the government of underfunding the curriculum of citizenship studies for people seeking naturalisation recommended by his committee. As a result, âitâs going to appear as an imposition rather than an entitlementâ.
"So y'see, the solution is to give us more money..."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 10:27 ||
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Can I get some cream puffs with my milk and cookies? Will you brush my hair? Can you read me a story? Oh wait, you did...I forget how it ends - did they all live happily ever after? Or did their flesh evaporate and their wedding rings melt down in a fireball? Did they find any skull fragments embedded in the pretty tiles I remember in the Tube? Please don't hit me. I'll be better. I promise.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/31/2005 13:13 Comments ||
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#3
"Of course you have rights. I lie awake every night counting all the rights you have."
- Batman, holding an evildoer out a window about 50 stories up, in The Dark Knight Returns .
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/31/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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#4
I can remember a day when public figures didn't use such language, and certainly not in Britain.
I thought "pissed off" was not native British vernacular. I asked the British boyfriend -- without telling him why I wanted to know -- and as usual he was useless on that score, for he has not lived in Britain for nigh onto twenty years.
"Besides," he said in his toff accent, "we did not associate with the sort of riff-raff who would use such language." Point to Fred.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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And this is different from when?
The article is chock full of the typical symp quotes - a circle jerk. After whining and blubbering throughout, my favorite is the closer: "The problem is that we Muslims and young people feel we haven't been heard," Khan said. "We don't have proof that the democratic path works."
#6
I read as far as 'bias crimes' before deciding its just more of the tranzi left inventing newspeak to try and hide the complete cockup they have created.
#8
Muslims don't want social elevation beyond cleaning jobs; they want the world.
I would give all 30,000,000 West polluting Muslimutts a one-way ticket to their ancestral pig-pens. And they can take converts with them.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/31/2005 2:58 Comments ||
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#9
"The British and the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and are killing our innocent brothers and sisters. Why?"
Actually, Ali, if your news services were doing an adequate job of news, you'd know the British and Americans stopped killing the innocents two years ago. Now it's people thinking like you do that are killing many more innocents.
Of course, it's still all the fault of Bush, the puppet of Karl Rove.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2005 9:28 Comments ||
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#10
Sounds like they are fitting right into the liberal lifestyle there in Europe.
#14
"If Muslim people feel more part of society, then extreme views would not have as much of an impact."
Translation: "Accept Sharia and Allah and we won't seem so foreign to you."
My advice: assimilate or be unassimilated, but if you choose to be unassimilated, STFU about your plight and accept it or go elsewhere.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/31/2005 14:01 Comments ||
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Leaders of a Colombian right-wing paramilitary faction believed to be one of the most heavily involved in drug trafficking demobilized their troops on Saturday and said they wanted to form a political party. Nearly 700 fighters in the "Southern Liberators" unit of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces turned in their weapons at a ceremony in Tamiango, some 310 miles southwest of the Colombian capital, Bogota.
Colombian officials say a three-way alliance between the militia, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the Norte del Valle cartel was responsible for 15.1 tons of cocaine worth $400 million that was seized by police in southwest Colombia in May — the largest haul ever in this South American country. "Now we want to form a political party and continue our struggle through political means instead of arms," the unit's commander, Julian Castano, told Caracol radio Saturday. He denied involvement in drug trafficking. Under a contentious peace deal, the government has granted reduced punishments and other concessions to warlords who demobilize their troops, confess their crimes and pay reparations to victims. Most militia leaders will likely never see the inside of a jail cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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If they are serious, this is a wonderful thing!
THE brother of freed hostage Douglas Wood today visited the senior Islamic cleric who travelled to Iraq to try to secure his brother's freedom. Malcolm Wood presented the mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, with a gift at his Sydney home and said his help was greatly appreciated. Australian engineer Douglas Wood, 64, was freed by Iraqi and American soldiers on June 15, after being held hostage for six weeks.
Before Mr Wood's release, Sheik al-Hilaly travelled to Iraq to try to negotiate his freedom. "At danger to his life and in ill health he went to Iraq ... (to) help save our brother Douglas," Malcolm Wood said today. "I think it's likely the Sheik's efforts helped immeasurably."
Before joining the mufti and his family for brunch, Malcolm Wood said his brother was still suffering from ill health after his ordeal. "He's okay but he has some health problems," Mr Wood said. "His vision is still very poor and he has severe rheumatoid arthritis." Mr Wood said Douglas was visiting the US, but hoped to meet with the mufti personally to thank him in the future.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2005 10:44 Comments ||
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#2
I wonder if the dear brother bothered to check with Douglas Wood before calling on the mufti? I suspect Douglas would not have agreed beforehand to the gesture.
#3
Last I heard, Douglas Wood had hired some 'gentlemen' to hunt down his captors. I found this interesting, given the belief that, in general, private enterprise does a better job of providing goods and services than the government. Hopefully, the end result will be someone waking up to find a bullet thru his head and a half-eaten ham sandwich lying on his chest as a calling card. Haven't heard any more about it, though.
#4
Before Mr Wood's release, Sheik al-Hilaly travelled to Iraq to try to negotiate his freedom. I guess someone had to deliver the ransom money. I think it's the Viking guy, Sven, or whatever his name was that's hunting him down.
#6
Could be that the brothers taking "Friends" with him to see what the Shiek has too say about the meetings he had with the kidnappers.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/31/2005 15:25 Comments ||
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#7
Thanks, Charles. It startles me sometimes, the things it doesn't occur to me to think about. It is a good thing for our world that there are others who do. ;-)
The most fanciful park in Paris, and one of the least known, set among the city's poorest immigrant neighborhoods, is the Buttes Chaumont. A craggy mountain rises out of a taciturn lake, and a narrow path leads across what's called the "Bridge of Suicides." Muslim boys trained there last year for holy war in Iraq. Several were in their teens, born and raised in France, and many knew nothing more about guns and bombs than what they'd seen in movies. Some spoke no Arabic. But they heard the call to jihad that was raised by radical Islamist preachers, and they answered it. One died in Fallujah. Three are known to be imprisoned in Iraq, at least one of them in Abu Ghraib. Three others are jailed in France. One blew himself up in an attack on the road to Baghdad airport.
The boys had little impact on the Iraq war. But they represent a growing threat to Europeâand, some studies suggest, to the United States. Over the last three years, starting even before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Jordanian terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and groups close to him developed a sort of underground railroad to smuggle zealous fighters from Europe through Turkey and Syria into Iraqâand home again, if they survived. Now those recruits have been joined by a stream of young Islamists from Western Europe who are making their own way to the battlefield. Some are looking for Paradise as "martyrs," some just for street cred back home and some for serious combat experience in urban warfare. "Those who don't die and come back will be the future chiefs of Al Qaeda or Zarqawi [groups] in Europe," says French terrorism authority Roland Jacquard.
"We're watching very closely," says Gijs de Vries, the European Union's counterterrorism coordinator. "It only takes one or two dedicated individuals to create serious damage." All over Europe, in fact, investigators now face the threat of terrorists who are virtually self-taught, organized in groups with little or no central command and united by their obsession with the jihad against Americans in Iraq. "It has become a battle cry for Islamists around the world," says Michael Taarnby, author of a report on terrorist recruiting for the Danish Justice Ministry. Their most devastating blow to date was not inside Iraq but in Madrid last year, when a gruesome bombing spree killed 191 people in retaliation for Spain's presence in Iraq.
At a conference marking the anniversary of the Madrid atrocity last week, Robert Leiken of Washington's Nixon Center presented a provocative study of 373 radical Muslim terrorists arrested or killed in Europe and the United States from 1993 through 2004. His conclusion: some 87 percent are from immigrant backgrounds, but 41 percent are Western nationals, either naturalized, second generation or converts to Islam. "More French nationals were arrested than nationals of Pakistan and Yemen combined," says Leiken. While homegrown Muslim terrorists have so far been rare in the United States, in Europe they virtually recruit themselves, and Leiken points out that those who have European passports have almost open access to American territory through an ongoing visa-waiver program.
All this becomes especially disturbing in light of a recent notice circulated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security suggesting Al Qaeda's leadership has asked Zarqawi, officially Osama bin Laden's ally and "prince" in Iraq since last year, to expand his grisly terror campaign into Europe and the United States. As early as 2002, Zarqawi understood the potential for recruiting "Euro-jihadists," and the attraction the impending Iraq war would have for them. In February of that year, according to recently unsealed Spanish court documents, Zarqawi set up a meeting in Istanbul with prospective North African allies.
He proceeded to build a new network of existing cells spanning Western Europe, effectively creating a second Qaeda. The overall direction came from members of his Tawhid group in Germany, according to papers presented by Italian prosecutors. Other participating cells have been traced to Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, France, Switzerland, even Norway. Apart from their shared religious extremism, they answered to no racial or national profile. There were women as well as men. Some had no papers; some had legal refugee status. Some were European citizens.
Recent arrests suggest how Europe's jihadi movement has grown. In Germany, for example, officials rounded up 22 people in the city of Ulm and charged them with forging passports and other travel documents that could be used for travel to Iraq. A few weeks ago, near Mainz, the Germans arrested an Iraqi identified only as Ibrahim Mohamed K., who was charged with trying to enlist a Palestinian immigrant in Germany for a suicide mission in Iraq. More ominously, Ibrahim Mohamed K. was also accused of trying to obtain 48 grams of enriched uranium through a middleman in Luxembourg so he could make a radiological "dirty bomb."
Since the Madrid bombings, police across Europe have intensified their crackdowns. But as old cells are dismantled, new ones emerge to take their place. Often they are close-knit groups of friends and relatives, making them even harder for investigators to crack. "That frustrates the security services," says Taarnby. But the news isn't all bad. "It's also a frustrating situation for the wanna-be jihadists," Taarnby says. "How do they join? You need to know someone. You don't just buy a ticket to Baghdad." The arrests and surveillance in Western Europe have in many cases focused on the "gatekeepers," often associated with radical mosques, who facilitated travel to Iraq and earlier jihads. Tape transcripts submitted to Italian courts, for instance, show that the police have not only bugged phones, cars and apartments, but the mosques themselves.
And yet the jihad keeps growing. Outside the wrought-iron fences of the Buttes Chaumont, you can get a glimpse of why. Dozens of grim housing projects loom out of barren pavements. Some of the immigrant-filled towers have police outposts designed into their ground floors. Unemployment is as high as 60 percent, according to a municipal official. Kids spend the day in second-rate schools and then loiter in the streets with nothing better to do. "They have French nationality but they don't have a job," says Sabah Khadim, a senior official at the Interior Ministry in Baghdad. "They don't have a good life. And Iraq becomes an attractive place." Until that pattern is broken, the lure for Euro-jihadists will persistâas will the risks for the rest of us.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 15:04 ||
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Ah, come on, the Euros are simply following the Mexican government policy of shipping their problem off on someone else. Its cheap, its easy, and they know they'll never pay a price for doing it.
THE second London bomb attack wasn't botched: It was merely 'a demonstration'.
That's what the man named as the fourth bomber in the 21 Jul attacks, Osman Hussain, told the Italian police after he was arrested in Rome on Friday night.
That has led the authorities there to believe that the real target for a second round of devastation was a European capital aside from London.
Newspapers across Italy yesterday published an apparent confession that the 27-year-old gave to the Italian police.
Click to see larger image
'We wanted to stage an attack, but only as a demonstration,' several newspapers quoted Osman as telling interrogators.
The Il Messaggero newspaper quoted the police as saying that Osman could have been in Rome to set up a terrorist attack there.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that two maps of the Paris Metro system were found in the apartment where he was arrested.
However, Osman claimed he was in Rome only 'because I didn't know where else to go'.
'I have friends here and could find a place to stay. I would have stayed here for a while and then gone elsewhere. I don't know of any plan to attack Italy,' he was quoted as telling the police in the La Repubblica newspaper.
The La Stampa newspaper quoted him as saying that he knew nothing about the overall plan for the London attacks. He was simply handed a backpack and told to board a train with it, he said.
No paper indicated how it had received the transcript.
The interrogation was conducted in Italian, which Osman speaks fluently. (See report at right).
According to British media reports, Osman took a train from England through the Channel Tunnel to Paris, then boarded another train to northern Italy, where he tried to seek refuge with relatives.
The crucial breakthrough in tracking him down was his use of a British handphone registered to his brother-in-law, which was easily traced, reported the Daily Mail newspaper. The phone was used in the Waterloo Station area of London on Monday, then went silent.
It was used again in Paris on Wednesday, and then again in Milan and Bologna on Thursday.
By then, the police in Rome had begun a round-the-clock surveillance of Osman's brother, who owns a handphone shop there, and his father, who lives in the northern Italian city of Brescia.
On Friday, they trailed Osman's brother home to his comfortable apartment in a middle-class eastern suburb.
Minutes later, they saw Osman leave the building to pray at a small mosque nearby. He was arrested upon his return.
The police carried out more than 15 other searches across Italy in a bid to flush out people it suspects of helping Osman evade arrest.
Among those detailed was an official from Tunisia.
'It has been possible to identify a dense network of individuals belonging to the Eritrean and Ethiopian communities in Italy who are believed to have helped him cover his tracks,' Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told the Lower House of Parliament yesterday.
Osman is expected to be returned to Britain within days under a new fast-track extradition law, reported the Press Association.
It said the British police have asked for him to be handed over under a European Arrest Warrant, a legal procedure that came into effect in Italy last Thursday.
INTERROGATORS were surprised to find that Osman Hussain was fluent in Italian, reported the newspapers in the country.
They had assumed he was a British citizen born in Somalia, an east African country that was once a British protectorate.
But Italian newspapers reported that he was actually born in Ethiopia, a neighbouring country that was invaded and ruled by Italy in 1930s.
They also reported that he had spent five years living in Rome after entering the country on a false passport as a teenager and claiming asylum.
According to the reports, Osman's real name is Hamdi Isaac.
His brother in Rome goes by the name of Remzi Isaac, reported the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
While Remzi settled in Rome and opened a handphone store, his brother moved to England and took up British citizenship.
Osman was the last of the four alleged bombers in the 21 Jul attacks to be arrested.
He is accused of being the man who tried to blow up Shepherd's Bush station.
The other three were detained during raids on homes in Birmingham on Wednesday and London earlier on Friday.
The four suspects in the earlier 7 July attacks, which killed 52 commuters and maimed more than 700, are all believed to have died in the blasts.
The police have not confirmed media reports that a 'fifth bomber' in the 21 Jul attacks, who dumped an unexploded device in a west London park, had also been arrested.
They have also not commented on how Osman managed to slip out of Britain five days after the failed attacks, despite a huge manhunt and his photograph being issued to officials at all ports and airports.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:10 ||
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#1
I thought Somalia was invaded by the Italians as well.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/31/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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#2
Part of it was. Somalia is actally the amalgamation of Italian and British Somalilands.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/31/2005 23:04 Comments ||
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#3
It was an international sorta proving grounds for awhile
One of the men accused of taking part in the failed terror attacks in London on 21 July has claimed the bomb plot was directly inspired by Britain's involvement in the Iraq war.
In a remarkable insight into the motives behind the alleged would-be bombers, Hussain Osman, arrested in Rome on Friday, has revealed how the suspects watched hours of TV footage showing grief-stricken Iraqi widows and children alongside images of civilians killed in the conflict. He is alleged to have told prosecutors that after watching the footage: 'There was a feeling of hatred and a conviction that it was necessary to give a signal - to do something.'
But some of the Italian media reports told a conflicting story. Some reports quoted Osman as saying: 'I hardly know anything. They only gave me a rucksack to carry on the tube in London. We wanted to stage an attack, but only as a show. Who gave me the explosive? I don't know. I didn't know him. I don't remember. We didn't want to kill, we just wanted to scare people.'
Milan's Corriere della Sera newspaper said Osman first told authorities he did not know what was in the backpack he took on the London underground, then changed his version, saying he was told the attackers were only supposed to carry out 'demonstrative' attacks. But the Rome daily Il Messaggero said the suspect told investigators: 'We were supposed to blow ourselves up.'
Osman allegedly said: 'More than praying we discussed work, politics, the war in Iraq ... we always had new films of the war in Iraq ... more than anything else those in which you could see Iraqi women and children who had been killed by US and UK soldiers.'
If these reports turn out to be true, they will provide valuable insights into the workings of the alleged terrorist cells. The revelations come as police in the UK begin hunting an al-Qaeda mastermind believed to be behind the recruitment and training of both sets of London bombers.
The prospect of a UK mastermind controlling the cells raises fears that other units may be active in Britain. Despite the arrest of all five men wanted in connection with the failed attacks, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, warned last night of the risk of further bomb attacks.
According to the reports, Hussain claimed the men did not talk about al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. 'We had no contacts with the organisation of bin Laden. We knew it existed - we accessed its programmes through the internet - but nothing directly,' he is reported to have claimed, adding that the bombings of 7 July took them by surprise: 'We never had any contact with the Pakistanis.'
However, the bombs that devastated London that day were a signal that they could go into action. 'Our boss taught us how to make explosives out of fertilisers,' he is reported to have said, claiming the men put them into rucksacks and used timers.
Security sources fear that at least one senior figure in the global terror organisation is based in the UK. He may have taken part in a whitewater rafting trip used as a bonding session for several of the suicide bombers in north Wales in early June.
Sweeping new security measures are to be introduced on Britain's road and rail networks this week, including highway patrol officers on the M25 who will check bridges for bombs.
Senior officers are particularly concerned there could be a third attack on Thursday, two weeks after the last attempt. One officer said: 'When you look at the history of terrorist attacks and of al-Qaeda in particular, there is a pattern of repeated attacks on the same targets. They hit the World Trade Centre twice. They attacked the embassies in Egypt twice. If anything the level of security around public transport on Thursday will be even higher than last.'
Rather than the two cells being linked directly, investigators are now focusing on the idea that the men responsible for the 7 July bombs and those behind the failed attacks on 21 July may have been recruited and directed by the same person.
'If you look at the structure of al-Qaeda, what you basically have is a pyramid,' a security source told The Observer. 'If you see the two groups of bombers as two separate teams of footsoldiers on the very bottom, then there is a possibility they are linked by the command structure in the level above. This is the level we are trying to identify and track down.'
The hunt has been given fresh impetus by this new intelligence which suggests that, rather than being manufactured between them, the explosives given to the bombers were handed over by people so far unidentified.
Italian officials are preparing extradition proceedings against Osman. They say he was born in Ethiopia, not Somalia, and may have used fake documents to obtain British citizenship.
The Interior Minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, told his parliament yesterday that Osman had tried to evade capture with the help of contacts among Italy's Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrant communities, after fleeing London on the Eurostar train.
The suspect appeared before magistrates yesterday. His lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, objected to his extradition and said it could take up to two months for him to be returned to London.
It has also emerged that Britain's Somali community 'shopped' the first alleged bomber, Hassan Omar, who was found in Birmingham last Wednesday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:03 ||
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#1
I'm sure that there were Iraqi women and children killed by American soldiers, but I am unaware of any American soldiers that use the London mass transit system on a regular basis. If they were trying to hit the women and children of American soldiers, I would think that Virginia Beach might a more fruitful hunting ground. If they are looking to avenge the killing of Moslem women and children, I'm pretty sure that the American soldier wouldn't even appear on that Pareto Chart. They would have been better served to shoot the guy who presented them with the sachel of explosives. Odds are that his hands are stained with the blood of Moslem innocents.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/31/2005 13:48 Comments ||
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#2
So, if a failed bomber claimed he did it because "Bush lied" the MSM would faithfully repeat it? and what's with the Italian police leaking all details of what that guy is saying? is there any other way they could undermine the British inquiry?
#3
Hussain Osman, arrested in Rome on Friday, has revealed how the suspects watched hours of TV footage showing grief-stricken Iraqi widows and children alongside images of civilians killed in the conflict. He is alleged to have told prosecutors that after watching the footage: 'There was a feeling of hatred and a conviction that it was necessary to give a signal - to do something.'
Transfers by grant (under foreign assistance act):
Greece - the OSPREY class minehunter coastal ship Pelican (MHC-53)
Egypt - the OSPREY class minehunter coastal ships Cardinal (MHC-60) and Raven (MHC-61)
Pakistan - the SPUANCE class destroyer ship Fletcher (DD-992)
Turkey - the SPRUANCE class destroyer ship Cushing (DD-985)
Transfers by sale (under arms control act):
India - the AUSTIN class amphibious transport dock ship Trenton (LPD-14)
Greece - the OSPREY class minehunter coastal ship HERON (MHC-52)
Turkey - the SPRUANCE class destroyer ship O'Bannon (DD-987)
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2005 18:10 ||
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#1
Looks like Greece and Turkey got a 2 for one deal.
#2
It's almost always offset that way SPoD.
Glad to set India got an LPD. Helpful when raiding the littoral of certain unnamed jiahdi loving hellholes.
A collection of Islamic-American businesses and non-profit entities have been under federal investigation for allegedly bankrolling terrorist organizations.
But more than three years later, no charges have been filed.
The group of organizations â which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials call the "Safa Group" â has been under investigation since at least March 2002, when federal agents raided their Herndon offices at 555 Grove St. and eight homes in Herndon and Loudoun County.
"All I can say is that the investigation is ongoing," said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security. The groups are being scrutinized for allegedly funding Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to court documents.
Through their attorney, members of the Safa Group denied any connection to terrorist groups. None of them have been charged with any illegal activity.
Over the last four years, the Safa Group entities have contributed nearly $63,000 to candidates for the General Assembly.
But the Safa Group's campaign contributions have nothing to do with the federal investigation. Instead, the contributions are intended to back candidates who reflect a traditionally conservative political ideology â specifically those who oppose same-sex marriage, vote to further restrict abortion, according to their attorney and three General Assembly candidates who have enjoyed their support.
Mukit Hossain, chairman of the Herndon-based Muslim American PAC, which supports candidates from both parties, said the 2002 raids prompted fear and confusion in the Northern Virginia Muslim community.
Three years later, he said, many Muslim-Americans are outraged the investigation appears to have been fruitless and the Safa Group's reputation was destroyed.
"The investigation has essentially been dropped, but the government won't come out and say it," he said. "Most people are trying to get on with their lives. It seems the government just won't admit they didn't find anything."
The biggest recipient of the Safa Group's political contributions was Del. Dick Black (R-32), who has received a total of $33,270. Of that amount, at least $13,500 was received over the last year for Black's campaign to be re-elected on Nov. 8.
"Many of the folks in the Muslim community have very strong conservative values on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and pornography," said Black, a Loudoun County attorney who is known as one of the General Assembly's most vociferous opponents of abortion and same sex marriage. "Not one of these American citizens have been charged. And, frankly, I'm not going to discriminate based on race, religion or skin color."
State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37) was the Safa Group's second-highest recipient, having received $15,900 during his 2003 re-election campaign.
Cuccinelli, who said agrees with his Muslim-American supporters on social issues like abortion and gay marriage, said he would never refuse a campaign contribution simply because the government suspects them of impropriety.
"I'm not going to implicitly accuse somebody of being guilty when the federal government clearly doesn't even have enough evidence to charge them," he said.
More recently, the Safa Group contributed $7,000 to Republican candidates who ran in the June 14 primary election for the House of Delegates.
Chris Craddock, a 26-year-old youth minister who unseated Del. Gary Reese (R-67) in last monthâs primary, received $2,000 from Mar-Jac Investments, which is part of the Safa Group, according to unsealed court documents detailing the investigation.
"In America, you're innocent until proven guilty," said Craddock, who will face Democrat Chuck Caputo and Libertarian Chuck Eby in November. "If they're convicted of something, it becomes a different story."
Steve Chapman, who attempted to unseat Manassas Republican Del. Harry Parrish in the primary election, received a total of $3,500 from Sterling Management Group and Mar-Jac Poultry â both listed in the investigation's unsealed affidavit. Chris Oprison, who failed in his bid to unseat Del. Joe May (R-33) on June 14, also received $2,000 from Mar-Jac Poultry.
NO CHARGES HAVE BEEN FILED in direct connection to the 2002 searches of eight homes or Herndon offices. However, two convictions â of Falls Church resident Abdurahman Alamoudi and of Egyptian Soliman Biheiri â were aided by information gleaned from the Herndon raids, according to court documents provided by Boyd.
Alamoudi, a Muslim activist, is currently serving a 23-year sentence for violating international sanctions against travel and financial dealings with Libya. Biheiri, currently serving a 13-month prison sentence, was found guilty of making false statement to federal agents about a $1 million business deal with a top Hamas leader, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
An unsealed 2002 affidavit filed to seek a search warrant claims that the Safa Group sent more than $26 million in untraceable funds overseas and its leaders conspired to provide material support to terrorist organizations. But no charges have materialized from the claims, authored by Homeland Security agent David Kane. Affidavits filed by law enforcement official in support of search warrants are official court documents, but are considered investigative tools, not proven fact.
Nancy Luque, attorney for the eight families whose homes were searched, said it is clear the government was overreaching in its accusations and is not going to file charges or accuse any of the individuals directly linked to the March 2002 raids.
"Federal prosecutors will never say their investigation is over. They'll never apologize for ruining these families' reputation. It's unfair. It's absolutely unfair," she said. "It's as if they did this as a publicity stunt. It's really damaged some reputations."
The Alamoudi and Biheiri cases are not truly connected to the 2002 raids, Luque said. Rather, federal agents point to those investigations because the Herndon investigation has come up empty, she said.
"The government just doesn't want to admit it made a mistake busting into these people's homes," Luque said. "These are American citizens. They came here to participate in democracy â not be treated this way."
Black, who wrote a letter to then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft complaining about the 2002 raids, said it is wrong that the federal government tarnished the Safa Group's reputation.
"I was a career prosecutor and I had never seen anything like this," Black said. "And it appears that their investigation has not resulted in one bit of information."
THE SAFA GROUP is primarily comprised of first-generation Muslim-Americans â many of whom are Iraqi born, Luque said.
Despite being investigated by the government, they still believe in democracy and participating in the political process, she said.
As a demographic group, first-generation Muslim-Americans tend be socially conservative on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, said Peter Mandaville, director of George Mason University's Center for Global Studies.
"They have a definite empathy with the social conservatives in their local communities," he said. "You can see it in their voting patterns and campaign contributions."
On the federal level, Muslim-Americans tend to support candidates of both parties, but base their support less on social issues and more on the candidate's foreign policy views, Mandaville said.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Safa Group has contributed to federal campaigns of both parties. U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8) was given around $15,000, but he returned the money after the 2002 raids and learning about the investigation.
The issue of the Safa Group's support of GOP candidates in Northern Virginia was raised during the 2003 General Assembly campaign.
Democrats running against Black and Cuccinelli in 2003 pointed to the campaign contributions as evidence of wrong doing, but the effort backfired and many liberal members of the Muslim-Americans supported the Republicans instead, Hossain said.
"The conservative politicians have come to the assistance of these organizations being investigated," said Hossain, who lives in Cascades. "Their help has been very much appreciated."
It would be wrong to assume that all Muslim-Americans support conservative politicians, Hossain said. Younger Muslim-Americans, particularly those who grew up in the West, tend to be more progressive and lean Democratic, he said.
"There's a real generational cultural battle going on in our community," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 12:55 ||
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I have long written off Islam and the fanatic koranimals who follow that brain rot. I have always opposed recognizing the Gitmo terrorists as Muslims. If those pigs are given copies of the unholy Koran (put one in every toilet), then we legitimize their interpretations of Koran terror dictate (9:6, 8:6, etc)
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/31/2005 3:15 Comments ||
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Ignorance is Strength; Freedom is Slavery; Islam is Peace.
Hallelujah. Preach it Sister. X marks the spot. Bull's Eye. Name the enemy, then we can fight the enemy.
EFL.
Ship captains navigating the Malacca Strait no longer have to depend on the slow response of government â or sheer luck â to safely pass through the pirate- and terrorist-infested waters since private navies have begun providing escort services for ships through the strategic seaway. Five security companies from Britain and the U.S. have entered the private navy business in the region in the last year, hoping to tap a market that prices security at a minimum of $50,000 per ship.
Companies like Background Asia Risk Solutions, the first naval security firm to open for business in Singapore, hire U.S. and British Commonwealth ex-military and police personnel, many with experience in Iraq or Afghanistan. While forbidden by law from using heavy machine guns and no one would ever break the law, nudge-nudge,
the armed escorts provide onboard security and chartered patrol boats to escort client ships. Some firms even claim to be able to recapture ships or oil rigs from hijackers by rappelling security forces from helicopters. Sounds like an old Alistair MacLean novel.
"We are not in the business of eradicating piracy," Alex Duperouzel, managing director of Background Asia, told the Glasgow Sunday Herald. "But we are in the business of suppressing it and protecting our clients." Background Asia typically runs six escort missions monthly at around $100,000 each. The going rate for ransoming kidnapped ship's masters in the region is $120,000. Duperouzel said his forces have not yet had to open fire â his men merely stepping up to the side of the ship with weapons displayed has been sufficient to convince pirates to leave, often to find easier prey. Look. I hope I wasn't outa line with that crack about "ye scurvy dogs."
While statistics indicate 4 murders of crew members last year, the number of attacks in Indonesian waters and the Strait dropped from 77 to 56, a sign, perhaps, the private navies are suppressing piracy.
Or a lull in the action after the tsunami, when the seas were roiling with US, UK, and Oz carrier groups, and the pyrtaes had to find newly carved out coves to stassh their booty...
The 12-15 gangs in the area, each about 50-strong, operate out of southern Thailand and Indonesia. Some have links to the Triads in Hong Kong, organized crime syndicates with resources and networks to fence stolen cargoes. Others are associated with Islamic terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiyah. "We are concerned that terrorists may seize control of a tanker with a cargo of lethal materials, LNG (liquefied natural gas) perhaps, chemicals, and use it as a floating bomb against our port," Tan said. "This would cause catastrophic damage, not only to the port but also for people, because our port is located very near to a highly dense residential area. Thousands of people would be killed." "If terrorists were to seize a tanker, a large ship, and sink it into a narrow part of the Straits it will cripple world trade," Tan said. "It would have the iconic large impact which terrorists seek." Malaysia has rejected the use of foreign forces to patrol the area. Kind of like our liberals wanting to disarm citizens.
For now, that leaves the private navies that have proven their mettle against pirates seeking booty but who have yet to be tested against terrorists intent on destruction, whatever the cost.
#2
Actually, they have been doing this for several months, as the RB archives will show.
I'd attribute a major portion of the decrease in pirate attacks to the tsunami. Ships are also a bit better prepared. The bad news is that the larger, better-organized groups are the ones who likely came out relatively intact.
The security forces also being careful and staying in international waters. Both Malaysia and Indonesia are quite protective of their sovereignty. In fact,there was a diplomatic dust-up between Singapore and Malaysia about the anchoring location of one of the private vessels.
#3
Here is a solution to this Mafia style protection money. Every country has to guarantee the safe passage of ships in its water. In the event of the piracy, the country responsible for its water must pay immediately all the loss immediately to the owner of the ship.
#5
Snalet - another good point. This is the equivalent of Mafia stype protection money and it would be better if the govn'ts would do it for free. The danger is that as the protection companies get entrenched, it becomes in their interests to keep the piracy threat alive.
#6
Ok, ok...maybe "equivalent" was a bit strong. More like virus protection software. There is always the temptation to make a virus that only your product can cure.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the pirates get into the "pirate protection" business too.
#7
The 12-15 gangs in the area, each about 50-strong, operate out of southern Thailand and Indonesia.
I wonder how many are Muslim? I wonder if the idiots push the Thai government too much, the resultant ethnic cleansing will solve two problems at once.
#8
Of course, a Q-ship operation would cost about $500k per boatload of pirates sent to the bottom, but the solution would be much more cost-effective in the long run. Emphasis would be on quick, clean, and little flotsam.
#9
I dunno how cut-and-dried this business is, though. Seems like having your own private security escort might be handy for getting rid of competitors. And just as pirates might get into the security business, I can see escort firms getting into piracy on the side . . .
I think Snalet's idea probably is on the right track. Of course the details are hairy: which sets of books do you use--the ones that say the lost ship was carrying scrap iron or the ones that say it was carrying titanium? And is the ship really lost, or did it just get repainted and diverted?
Posted by: James ||
07/31/2005 14:54 Comments ||
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#10
There aren't any international waters in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, except perhaps at the far northern end.
Perhaps the better term would be 'shipping lanes'.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Allegations that Iran purchased items that can be used in nuclear weapons continue to reverberate. Der Spiegel reported earlier in the week that in deals between Iran's Partoris company, South Korea's Kung-Do Enterprises, and France's EADS Sodern firm, Iran acquired nickel-63 (Ni-63) and tritium targets. An unnamed official from the Korean company said ... "We sold Ni-63 to an Iranian firm after it said it would use it in detecting gas. We obtained a memorandum from the firm to this effect." He denied the sale of tritium and doing any deals with the French firm. Ministry of Science and Technology official Yi Sun-chong said there could be a problem if the Korean company has sold Ni-63 without a permit. Another Ministry of Science and Technology official, An Sung-chun, said a January investigation of the Korean firm found that tritium exports did not occur. An Iranian nuclear official said in Tehran on 26 June that the original Der Spiegel report is the result of a "fantasy fabricated by Zionist circles," Mehr News Agency reported.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/31/2005 08:40 ||
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#1
"We sold Ni-63 to an Iranian firm after it said it would use it in detecting gas"
Right
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2005 10:49 Comments ||
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#2
An Iranian nuclear official said in Tehran on 26 June that the original Der Spiegel report is the result of a "fantasy fabricated by Zionist circles,"
If you aren't interested in continuing developments on this subject, Shipman, then I suggest that you continue on to other articles and refrain from posting senseless comments on this article.
But, do what you want.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/31/2005 17:25 Comments ||
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#8
MS, please do not refer to Shipman's comments as "senseless" -- it reveals that you are just trying to irritate. Shipman correctly identified that you are re-posting pretty much the same story, just like your regular doses of Jihad Unspun. Why do you enjoy irritating us? It's very Aris-like.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/31/2005 17:37 Comments ||
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#9
It isn't a duplicate article. I myself posted both of them, so I should know. This article provides additional information.
I welcome Shipman's explanation why he has decided to make an issue of this.
If you aren't interested in continuing developments about Iran acquiring parts for nuclear weapons, then continue on to other articles that do interest you.
I didn't post it to irritate you or anyone else.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/31/2005 18:16 Comments ||
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#10
It isn't a duplicate article. I myself posted both of them, so I should know. This article provides additional information.
Yet you did nothing to point out that it provides additional information. A comment like, "More information on earlier story" would have done that.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/31/2005 18:18 Comments ||
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#11
Yet you did nothing to point out that it provides additional information. A comment like, "More information on earlier story" would have done that.
Oh, OK. Good point, Robert!
Everyone else, take note.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/31/2005 19:33 Comments ||
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#12
I welcome Shipman's explanation why he has decided to make an issue of this.
Because I'm have a troll moments like you Lord Mike-Mike, I like to watch the little rabbit eating your spine.
Brigade lost 68 soldiers in one of OIF's most deadly assignments
On Memorial Day 2005, soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division stood among a few scattered palm trees on their forward operating base and consecrated a wood-and-water memorial to their fallen comrades.
The names of the dead were inscribed on brass plates, affixed to a plank at one end of a boardwalk with a small pool and running fountain. Their portraits lined the rails of the structure, a gallery of "sons, fathers, friends...athletes, musicians, world travelers, computer gamers, financial investors, barracks pranksters, future generals and first sergeants," as they were remembered by the brigade commander, Col. Gary Patton.
Up to that point, 60 soldiers from 2nd Brigade had died in Iraq. The memorial included 22 more names, of the Marines and Army engineers who served alongside 2nd Brigade in Ramadi. By the end of their tour, eight more 2nd Brigade soldiers would be lost.
The memorial was designed largely by Malcolm Marson, a KBR contractor who worked on the Ramadi base. It was built by Staff Sgt. James Hicks, Spc. Eric Phillips, Spc. Daniel Lahner, Pfc. Michael Lopez, Pfc. Phillip Pilcher, and Pfc. Michael Winn, all of the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery.
By late July, as the brigade prepared for its move to Fort Carson, Colo., the memorial had become a regular place for soldiers to pause and reflect on the year. Theyâd sit in groups of three or four, smoking cigarettes and casting occasional glances at the fountain and the board of names.
Some are bitter. Some almost numb to the losses. Almost unanimously, they asked to speak without their names being used, for fear something they said would be construed as disrespectful or cruel.
"You sit here and wonder," one soldier said. "Part of you believes they died for something, to bring freedom to these people. But part of you says, 'Damn, they died for some Iraqis that ain't doing nothin' to fight for themselves.'"
Dealing with casualties and moving on with the mission were things the brigade learned quickly.
"You don't know until you're taking casualties how the units are going to react," said Lt. Col. Tom Bialek, the brigade deputy commander. "The soldiers have impressed me more and more. I've learned the resiliency of our soldiers."
And though the memorial will stay in Ramadi, soldiers' memories will go home with them.
"Today, we are the new generation of veterans," Patton said at the ceremony. "Like our forefathers, we have our own victories to celebrate, our own nightmares to endure, and our own tragedies to remember."
This article is from an AP writer! A Sunday Surprise
QAYYARAH, Iraq â Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders. But he's the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache â and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith's recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers.
Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he's known as the American sheik.
Sheiks, or village elders, are known as the real power in rural Iraq. And the 5-foot-6-inch Floridian's ascension to the esteemed position came through dry humor and the military's need to clamp down on rocket attacks.
Late last year a full-blown battle between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces had erupted, and U.S. commanders assigned a unit to stop rocket and mortar attacks that regularly hit their base. Horn, who had been trained to operate radars for a field artillery unit, was now thrust into a job that largely hinged on coaxing locals into divulging information about insurgents.
Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Dr. Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Horn's first Humvee patrols.
Horn says he was intrigued, and started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk to people about their life and security problems.
Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area: he now boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.
"They saw that we were interested in them, instead of just taking care of the bases," Horn said.
Mohammed, Horn's mentor and known for his dry sense of humor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Horn be named a sheik. The sheiks approved by voice vote, Horn said.
Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.
But what may have originally started as a joke among crusty village elders has sprouted into something serious enough for 100 to 200 village leaders to meet with Horn each month to discuss security issues.
And Horn doesn't take his responsibilities lightly. He lately has been prodding the Iraqi Education Ministry to pay local teachers, and he closely follows a water pipeline project that he hopes will ensure the steady flow of clean water to his villages.
"Ninety percent of the people in my area are shepherds or simple townspeople," said Horn. "They simply want to find a decent job to make enough money to provide food and a stable place for their people to live."
To Horn's commanders, his success justifies his unorthodox approach: no rockets have hit their base in the last half year.
"He has developed a great relationship with local leaders," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, who commands the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. "They love him. They're not going to let anyone shoot at Sheik Horn."
He has even won occasional exemption from the military dress code â villagers provide a changing room where he can change from desert camouflage to robes upon arrival.
There are downsides. In his small trailer on base, Horn keeps antibiotics to take after unhygienic village meals.
"I still refuse to kiss him," joked Becker, referring to the cheek-kissing greetings exchanged among sheiks. "He doesn't have any sheep â he can't be a sheik," said Becker, apparently unaware of the recent donation of the small flock.
Some may say he's doing a tongue-in-cheek Lawrence of Arabia, but Horn says he doesn't know much about the legendary British officer who led the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
He acknowledges some villagers are offended at seeing a foreign soldier in clothing usually reserved for elders, but he says this has diminished over time.
The sheiks told Horn they will give him an official document deeming him a sheik before he goes home in about two months. He plans to frame it.
And the robe? "Maybe I'll put it in the closet and wear it on occasion," Horn said.
When suicide bombers killed 88 people in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23, many assumed it was the work of al-Qaeda. That connection is not being ruled out, but Egyptian officials are also focusing their investigation on Bedouins who may have had a very local motive: payback.
The theory, says Egyptian political analyst Amr el Choubaki, is that the bombers may have been lashing out at the government for its aggressive pursuit of suspects in the October 2004 terrorist attacks that killed 34 in Taba and another Sinai resort. Egyptian officials blamed the 2004 attacks on a gang of local Bedouin led by a Palestinian extremist. Bedouins were enraged when security forces rounded up some 3,000 locals and allegedly tortured some of them in the hunt for the Taba terrorists.
Though el Choubaki thinks the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks were probably orchestrated by a group related to al-Qaeda, he says, "It may be that some Bedouin participated as revenge" for their treatment after Taba. Last week, President Hosni Mubarak floated plans for tougher counterterrorism measures. Announcing his candidacy for a fifth term, Mubarak proposed replacing Egypt's draconian emergency laws, which have been criticized for encouraging human-rights abuses, with measures more streamlined to fight terrorism. Activists worry that the move could thwart political change. "I don't think Mubarak has any intention to reform," says Hisham Kassem, chief of the independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm. "He just needed something to embellish his presidential campaign." It will take more than words to prevent another atrocity.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:18 ||
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Scotland Yard is investigating evidence that the two waves of terrorist attacks on London last month may have been masterminded from Saudi Arabia.
The Metropolitan police anti-terrorist squad has learned that Hussain Osman, 27, one of the suspects for the second failed attacks, called a number in Saudi Arabia hours before his arrest in Rome Friday.
He was believed to be making only the most vital calls because he feared his mobile phone was being tracked by investigators. In an unconfirmed development, the Saudi Arabian authorities are understood to be investigating the possibility that the attacks were planned by extremists there.
Officials at Scotland Yard believe there are no links in Britain between the two cells responsible for the July 7 bombings that killed 56 people and the failed suicide attacks two weeks later.
But one senior source said the anti-terrorist squad is investigating links between the two cells and ``foreign camps'' of terrorists. They are also inquiring into claims that, like the July 7 bombers, some of the July 21 attackers traveled extensively abroad shortly before the attacks.
Police believe that although the July 21 terrorists expected to die, they made plans in case the bombs failed or their mission was aborted. One security official said: ``Most of the suspects did not use mobile phones registered to them and neither did they use land lines. Therefore they must have had some sort of contingency plan and probably had help from sympathizers. This tells us that they must have had some training, so the question now is by whom and where did they receive that training.''
Scotland Yard began proceedings in Rome Saturday to extradite Osman, who is suspected of being the failed Shepherd's Bush suicide bomber of July 21. Italian newspapers, quoting police and security sources, claimed that he at first said that he only carried a backpack on to the Tube but admitted Friday night that he had been involved in the attacks.
But Osman allegedly insisted he had no links to al-Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Scotland Yard is skeptical of many of the alleged claims - sometimes confused and contradictory - made by Osman, a British citizen born in Ethiopia. He allegedly said he had intended to spread fear not to kill members of the public. ``We wanted to make an attack but only as a demonstration.'' One Italian newspaper said that he told investigators: ``We were supposed to blow ourselves up.''
The father of two from south London, is the first person held under regulations that took effect Thursday after Italy signed the UK's Extradition Act of 2003. He is believed to be fighting enforced return to Britain.
The number of arrests in connection with the botched July 21 attacks rose Sunday to 18 with the arrest of seven people in southern England. Those questioned include the three suspected of failing to explode bombs at Shepherd's Bush, the Oval and Warren Street Tube stations and a bus in Hackney. Another man is being questioned over an abandoned bomb found in west London. Osman, whose real name is believed to be Hamdi Isaac, and three London suspects were arrested Friday and a fifth suspect was held Wednesday in Birmingham. Osman apparently traveled to Rome five days after the July 21 attacks. He was arrested, without resistance, at his brother's home.
Scotland Yard traced him to Italy because he occasionally used a mobile phone. He is believed to have taken the Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris, then a train through Italy visiting Bologna, Milan and Rome. Security sources in Italy said he made four calls Friday: three local calls apparently to relatives and one to a mobile phone in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:15 ||
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His resume includes a short stint as manager of a video store. Then there was the job in the paper factory that required him to keep track of chemicals, followed by the position (gotten through family connections) in his town's government. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was fired from these last two jobs for negligence -- one of the many revealing facts that are sprinkled throughout "Zarqawi: The New Face of Al-Qaeda."
The first biography of the man who leads Iraq's bloody insurgency, "Zarqawi" is a dense, detailed chronicle of the insurgent's evolution from his teenage years as a street thug. According to this book, Zarqawi has always been rebellious, which is why he put greenish tattoos all over his body, drank heavily and beat up anyone who crossed him. Growing up, Zarqawi wasn't drawn to religion or to studying but to proving himself one of the toughest people in Zarqa, Jordan. Confronting police. Stealing. Drug dealing. Sexual assault. Zarqawi was essentially a common criminal "looking for a way to break free of the dead-end situation in which he felt he was stuck," writes Jean-Charles Brisard, a terrorism expert whose previous books have been about Osama bin Laden.
Zarqawi found his "destiny" (a word that Brisard uses early and often) in the religious war that Muslims were fighting in Afghanistan. The year was 1989, and Zarqawi was 22. Even though Zarqawi arrived in Afghanistan when the mujahedeen had just forced out the Soviet military, he still found an environment that encouraged new recruits to take up arms and prolong the armed struggle against all perceived infidels. In Afghanistan and western parts of Pakistan (where Afghan rebels had set up command centers), Zarqawi met people who would inspire him to join the ranks of al Qaeda. He also became a journalist of sorts, writing reports about Afghan fighters for an extremist publication named Al-Bunyan Al-Marsus. Eventually, Zarqawi took up arms himself, joining the army of an Afghan warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and establishing his Islamist credentials with others who were impressed with Zarqawi's ability to organize and get things done. A terrorist was born.
One of the patterns that emerges in "Zarqawi" is how often authorities had Zarqawi in their possession but let him go. From his initial foray into Afghanistan to the start of the Iraq war in 2003, Zarqawi was imprisoned at various times in Jordan, Iran and Pakistan. He spent several years in Jordanian jails, only to be released in 1999 under an amnesty decreed by King Abdallah. At the height of U.S.-led bombing in Afghanistan in 2001, Zarqawi's house in Kandahar was hit, and he suffered bad wounds in his stomach and leg, but his clandestine network hurried him to Tehran, where he received medical help until he was healthy again.
Brisard's book details (painstakingly) Zarqawi's years of establishing what is now the most efficient terrorist network in Iraq. Brisard is a French investigator who, in 2002, was hired by lawyers representing families of Sept. 11 victims. They asked Brisard to find all the information he could on people and organizations that supported al Qaeda. In "Zarqawi," Brisard includes page after page of timelines and connections involving Zarqawi, bin Laden and lesser-known principals in the terrorist networks that al Qaeda has spawned. Entire chapters of "Zarqawi" read like an inquest produced for White House lawyers, but Brisard certainly succeeds in showing that Zarqawi is the central cog -- even more than bin Laden -- in fomenting continuous violence against U.S. targets (and those who support U.S. aims).
Readers looking for a literary portrait of Zarqawi will be disappointed by "Zarqawi," which Brisard wrote with terrorism expert Damien Martinez. The details of Zarqawi's personality and habits -- the things that make him, for lack of a better word, "human" -- take a backseat to the minutiae of Zarqawi's ability to sustain his bloody movement. "Zarqawi" could have used the help of an established author to give it more punch and analysis. One small example: Unlike bin Laden, Zarqawi grew up relatively poor, yet both men went through wild teenage years that involved drinking and getting out of hand before both rebelled against their rebellion and found their "destiny" in religious-based violence. Do social and economic conditions in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries contribute to the disillusionment of young men and their embrace of terrorism? What patterns exist that make it likely that other bin Ladens and other Zarqawis will emerge in the years ahead? None of these questions are addressed in "Zarqawi."
What's in the book that helps put Zarqawi's life in context is a long appendix, which includes a 19-page letter written by Zarqawi to his fellow insurgents in Iraq and elsewhere. Along with some poetically written phrases ("even if we are separate in body the distance is small between our hearts"), the letter suggests that Zarqawi has an almost pathological need to hate -- that if it's not the Americans, the Jews and the Israelis who've ruined the planet, it's everyone else who's not a real Muslim, including Shiites, a minority branch of Islam that believes that Ali ibn Abi Talib was the legitimate successor to the religion's prophet. "The most vile people in the human race," Zarqawi calls them before rationalizing his hatred: Shiites practice customs (like organizing public funeral processions) that are heretical, they disparage Sunnis (who make up the dominant variety of Islam), and they cooperate with Iraq's American occupiers.
"In our view, they are the key element of change," Zarqawi writes. "... In making them our targets and striking at the heart of (their) religious, political and military structures we will trigger their rage against the Sunnis. ... Our fight against the Shiites is the way to draw the nation (of Islam) into battle."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/31/2005 13:01 ||
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#1
I am disappointed at his lack of distain for the Irish. I feel slighted.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/31/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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#2
I'll disdain you if you really want, Super Hose. But I won't enjoy it. ;-)
SEATTLE - Say thanks to Pat O'Hare.
He's the owner of the Brookside Gardens apartments.
That's where Deanna Wallace lives.
She's the woman who was brusquely ordered to take down the American flag that was displayed on her third floor patio.
Deanna had hoisted the Stars and Stripes as a way to honor her son, who is serving over in Iraq, and to support her army sweetheart, who's busy building roads in Afghanistan.
The property managing company in charge at Brookside had decided they didn't care why Deanna had a flag flying, they just wanted it taken down.
Anyway, O'Hare emailed me in response to the commentary I did (read it here) slamming the property managers, and offering to provide flags for every renter at the apartment complex.
I called Mr. O'Hare and learned he wanted to take my up on my flag offer.
He says he genuinely regrets the way Deanna Wallace was treated.
He also says that if I send him the flags, he'll see to it that they're distributed to all 52 tenants for them to display on their patios.
Consider that done.
In addition, O'Hare says he's looking into erecting a large, illuminated flag on the property.
Pat O'Hare comes across as a decent guy who just wants to do the right thing.
Deanna Wallace excitedly said to tell him "Thanks!"
So: Thanks Mr. O'Hare. And yet another democrat (the property manager) goes into therapy.
#1
darn, I was hoping to read that the property manager had been fired. But I suppose this is even better. Now she'll be so freaked and offended by all those flags, she'll just have to quit and thus won't get unemployment. Great story.
From Reuters, an article by Luke Baker, posted on Khilafah
If anyone had any lingering doubts about the full extent of violence in Iraq, they need only visit Baghdad's morgue. The fridges and autopsy rooms of the beige stone block are crammed full of corpses, some of them so badly mutilated or decomposed that identification is nearly impossible. Every day, around 30 new bodies arrive, the latest victims of a two-year wave of war, crime and insurgency that has left coroners struggling to keep up with the chaos. ....
The situation in Baghdad has grown so bad that corpses not claimed from the morgue after a few weeks are now being buried in makeshift graves to make room for new arrivals. Since the beginning of the year, more than 400 unclaimed or unidentified bodies have had to be dealt with in this way. They are buried by municipal authorities in Baghdad or by a Shi'ite Muslim volunteer group that takes the corpses to a cemetery in Najaf, a religious city south of the capital. Pictures are taken of the bodies beforehand, and as many other details as possible are collected, so that if relatives do eventually turn up, the deceased can be tracked down. ....
Each day, dozens of families arrive at the morgue looking for missing relatives. They view pictures of the dead on a computer, trying to identify loved ones. If the pictures are unclear, they are allowed to trawl through the morgue's vaults. .... every month up to 20 percent of the bodies are unclaimed ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/31/2005 08:59 ||
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#1
Perhaps no one claims the bodies of the 'insurgents'. Remember, some of the parents of 'foreign fighters' think their kids are somewhere else. Who would come to claim criminals? Some people might be afraid they'd be rolled up if they showed up. Maybe "up to 20%" of those killed are the bad guyz.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2005 9:33 Comments ||
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#2
Interview on NPR a couple of weeks ago (sorry, can't ferret out a link or remember the name) with an Iraqi man who has a little organization who do just that--- clain the unclaimed bodies and give a proper burial. Seems to be actually a rather saintly sort, and had been doing it for years--- even wrangled a concession from Saddam's gangster-government to do so.
#5
Odd. Another Mikey post that blows past the theory I had. Since the jihadis are the ones doing most of the killing, what's his point here?
We're not the ones who keep quoting from jihad cheerleaders. I'm perfectly willing to admit the jihadis are killing innocent people, and that their murderous campaign has been horrific.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/31/2005 11:54 Comments ||
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#6
I'm perfectly willing to admit the jihadis are killing innocent people, and that their murderous campaign has been horrific.
#9
Article: The situation in Baghdad has grown so bad that corpses not claimed from the morgue after a few weeks are now being buried in makeshift graves to make room for new arrivals. Since the beginning of the year, more than 400 unclaimed or unidentified bodies have had to be dealt with in this way.
Some of these cadavers are those of dead foreigners (terrorists or civilians). Others are the remains of domestic terrorists whose relatives and associates don't really want to claim them because of the danger of being identified for the terrorist supporters that they are.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
In a statement issued on 28 July, the Ulema Council of Afghanistan has called on all opponents of the Afghan government to stop violence in the country, Pajhwak Afghan News reported. The religious scholars specifically called for a stoppage to the killing of their colleagues. Recently, several high-level pro-government ulema have been killed or attacked mostly in southern and eastern Afghanistan. In their statement, the ulema, without naming any country, called on religious scholars of neighboring countries to help prevent the terrorists from carrying out their plans in Afghanistan. Mawlawi Fazl Ahmad Ma'nawi, a member of the council, said that the statement has been endorsed by representatives of ulema from all of Afghanistan's provinces.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/31/2005 08:37 ||
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BRITAIN is regarded as a safe haven by Islamic extremists because it has failed to crack down on them despite urging other countries to do so, the president of Pakistan has warned. In an interview with The Sunday Times, General Pervez Musharraf suggested that Britain had paid a price for putting the right of free speech before the need to curb militant Islamic organisations that openly advocate violence. âThey should have been doing what they have been demanding of us to do â to ban extremist groups like they asked us to do here in Pakistan and which I have done,â he said.
In particular, he said, Britain should have banned Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir, groups that he accuses of preaching anger and hatred and of calling for his own assassination. âThey could have banned these two groups. Good action is when you foresee the future and pre-empt and act beforehand, instead of reacting as in the case of Britain â which waited for the damage to be done and is now reacting to it.â
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Howler of the Day.
The Jihadi Factory Mgr pissing on the Mgr of his most prestigious outlet.
#3
Oh well, what could I say. Perv is correct. The west is busy sheltering the criminals without considering that political asylum is only for people who never promoted or used violence, no ifs, and no buts. We have to live with the consequences if we misuse a noble concept for our immediate show. After all who cares about the long term consequences of our foreign policies in the west?
Lol - well why don't you? Where do you think you are? This is Rantburg. Speak your mind and toss the cryptic asides, lol.
"After all who cares about the long term consequences of our foreign policies in the west?"
I do - and I'm not alone here by a long shot. The traditional State Dept style accommodations and deals with slimeballs, dictators, et al should end. I want to see the US conduct itself with standards worthy of the best of us - accurately portraying faux-allies for what they are, wherever they are, and dealing with them accordingly. We can do it right, especially if we flush out the worms from our agencies that have conflicting personal agendas.
#5
Dear dot com
I am a proud citizen of US and have lived more than 30 years in US without leaving for a single day except for visiting Canada. I can not explain why I felt devastated after the 9/11 attack; after all, I am just a naturalized citizen. It is a myth that every one in this country could speak their mind freely. Here is am example. An entire Cryptic Christen family from Egypt was murdered brutally for the man of this family believed he could speak whatever he wanted. Except Rantburg and local news, all the main stream media were shamefully silent about it. Well, what could I say about speaking my mind?
#6
SE - You're anonymous here - so you're safe in speaking your mind. You may catch some hell for the content, lol, but you are anonymous, heh, so feel free. I catch hell pretty regularly, myself, lol. What I was (badly) trying to say is if you feel comfortable with the comments posted on RB, then you know you're home!
I know why 9/11 was devastating to me - because those were innocent people - 3,000 nearly random people - completely blameless of whatever grievance the murderers could possibly claim. bin Laden's ilk, the murderers, have fairly damned and doomed both themselves and their cause.
Any topic on which you have insight or see a point not yet brought up, etc - please jump in. RB is an excellent home. Pick yourself a permanent posting name and join the fun. :-)
#7
I have to go with snalet here. Perv may be the pot calling the kettle black, but that implies that Tony is a pot. It's time for all Western countries to do more to stop the hate spewed in Madrassas and especially the British. They have been particularly bad about allowing it to continue. I hope Perv continues to press the issue because it does two things - one it shines a light on the hyprocrisy of complaining that Pakistan isn't cleaning out the snake pits when we are doing a poor job of it ourselves and secondly, it highligts the fallacy of The traditional State Dept style accommodations and deals with slimeballs, dictators.
#8
Snalet, you are NOT "just a naturalized citizen" you are a real citizen. You earned it, you didn't get it on a silver platter. Be proud of it. Speak your mind, you've earned the right.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/31/2005 8:18 Comments ||
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#9
OK, coming from Perv, this is major Pot/Kettle action, but he does have a valid point. It is the same one Mark Steyn makes over in a Page 4 article. The jihadis are good at gaming the system and it is easy to do in western countries. It needs to stop.
As for the naturalized citizens somehow being second class, what Mrs. D said times two. Unlike those of us who were lucky enough to fall into it and sometimes take it for granted, these folks took a deliberate oath to uphold the Constitution. How many 'citizens' would be willing to do that?
#10
Let me echo Mrs. D. and Steve. I am the child of two naturalized citizens. I am grateful that they made that choice, so that I got to be American just by being born. Snalet Ebbesh6073, we're glad you chose to be an American, and welcome to Rantburg!
As for the tragedy of the Coptic Christian family, which was covered and discussed extensively at the time here at Rantburg, I do believe it was brought to the attention of the perpetrators that such behaviour is unacceptable here in America. This is a recurring problem with each wave of immigration, unfortunately, but nowadays most Italians are not subject to the Mafia, nor most Chinese to the Triads, etc. So there is hope even in the midst of grief, truly!
#11
Perv is absolutly RIGHT! He is doing a LOT more, given the fact that his country is overwellmingly Muslim, than the west is. He was born to all these "militants". Britian (and the west in general) invited them in.
#12
For Crimney's sake, will someone please buy the Perv a better set of duds. And please shave that cheezy mustachio. And wipe that scared rabbit look off yer mug, dontcha know yer an evil-doer for Pete's sake.
Iraqi Shiite figures in London are holding the government of Dr. Ibrahim Jaafari, the leader of the Islamic Al-Da'wah Party, responsible for the deterioration of fundamental issues, the most important of which are those of security, services, and financial corruption. The Shiite figures told 'Asharq al-Awsat' that Jaafari's Government "does not have experience and has no connection to the streets of Iraq." One of them called on Jaafari to resign and to pave way for somebody more competent. Dr. Ibrahim al-Ani, the dean of Higher Islamic Studies in London said, "Services and security have significantly deteriorated under Jaafari's Government. The voters had higher expectations from the government after it won the majority of votes." He pointed out that the government's failure is not confined to these two issues but also includes that of foreign relations.
Al-Ani said, "Iraq's relationship with the Republic of Egypt significantly improved under the former government of Iyad Allawi. But we now see that it has notably deteriorated under this government following the kidnapping and murder of Egyptian Ambassador to Iraq, Ihab al-Sharif, by the terrorist groups and the resulting arguments that have caused much damage to the relationship between the two countries." He called on the Iraqi Government to take stricter measures on the issue of financial corruption and this leads us to demand stricter measures in security.
Abd-al-Husayn al-Mu'mini said, "I visited Iraq several times, especially Baghdad and the Babil, Kerbala, and Najaf Governorates. I come from the city of Najaf and have just returned from there and personally, I felt the lack of services, the lawlessness, and the deepening crises, especially concerning fuel, water, and electricity as well as the non-distribution of the complete food rations and this is putting economic and mental strains on the Iraqi people."
With regards to Jaafari's Government with its Shiite majority, Al-Mu'mini said, "The government and the people are worlds apart." Like the Iraqis are asserting, Al-Mu'mini pointed out that Jaafari's Government has no control over the overwhelming majority of state and country's affairs. He added, "The majority of cities in southern and central Iraq, apart from Baghdad, are under the control of the political parties and ruled by the militia of these parties. Whilst northern Iraq, Kurdistan, is under the control of the Kurds who are enjoying an almost independent rule and their Peshmerga militias are in control of the security situation there. Whatever is left of Jaafari's control is mostly under the control of the US forces. He added, "The services issue has deteriorated noticeably and there are no treatments because the government is remote from the concerns of the Iraqi citizen. Jaafari rules a small part of the Green Zone."
Engineer Muhammad al-Darraji from the Development Studies Center said, "This government lacks experience despite being an elected one. The partisan, religious, or ethnic quotas are the main reason for allowing the situation in Iraq to reach this state. As an Iraqi, I do not believe in sectarianism or partisanship and like many others, I am opposed to quotas." He pointed out that the ideal solution for Iraq is the adoption of the state of institutions as the foundation for building a state and society.
He went on to say, "The present government does not adopt the principle of the state of institutions or rely on technocrats. By the term technocrat, I do not mean the specialist only, but rather the unbiased specialist who is not a party member, as this would make him loyal to his party. His loyalty should be to the country. What the parties in this government are doing at present are appointing technocrats from their parties and saying, "Here are the requested technocrats who are also members of our party." This is why the government is failing in the security and services fields." He added, "We are not demanding superhuman achievements from this government because it is transitional and has only a few months left. But we are looking forward to the upcoming elections and hoping that the results will be better." He said, "I reject partisanship and sectarianism. As an enlightened Shiite, I do not care who is the prime minister or the president. What I care about is to have a fair person who genuinely cares about the country that he governs. I want to see an efficient government by way of a paved street, services such as electricity, water, and sanitation, and the right security situation. I want concrete results from a government and as for its affiliations, I do not care."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
It's very easy to bitch from afar, I do it all the time, lol, but I believe al Ani's dead right. Jaafari isn't fit to shine Allawi's shoes. The idiotic sectarian bullshit that resulted in one from Column A for Prez, one from Column B for PM, blah³ has crippled Iraq's emergence from war - and kept it hamstrung, waffling, and limping. It's their call, however, sink or swim. I despise weakness - and the Iraqi Govt personifies it. Allawi was more of a man that the current lot added together.
#2
What you said, .com. The good news is, Allawi is actually the most well-respected politician across Iraq, to include Sunni regions. Depending on the electoral structure they adopt, that gives hope that competence will play a role in the next election.
#3
Hey, Bubba! Been worried about you. FoxNews TV reported an explosion (mortar?) at one of the Palaces, but I didn't hear any followup and saw no story reporting it. Glad to hear you're still smokin' n' strokin', heh.
I, too, hope Allawi makes a "comeback", but I don't hold out much hope. Sigh. Is it too pessimistic of me to be thinking this is going to turn out about 75% wrong? I'm trying to sit still until they finish the final Constitution draft, but it's hard - and much of what I've seen of early drafts is actually not very encouraging.
5 years or so from now, ± 2 yrs, I fully expect to see Kurdistan beginning to separate. They'll make a good go of this - and prosper, fighting the asshat Sunnis (and others?) all the way - the others won't. I believe it will be obvious, by then, that they shouldn't be shackled to the losers. Just my gut instinct.
#4
Note that this came from London; specifically, from someone called the "dean of Higher Islamic Studies in London."
I'm uncomfortable reading the double-standard stuff like "Things would be better between our government and Egypt if the guys who keep trying to blow up our government didn't also kidnap and blow up the Egyptian ambassador."
Verlaine's there and I'm not, so I'll have to take his word for it that Jaafari might be incompetent.
It's just that the criteria being given here, where the Iraqi Provisional government is held responsible for the actions of the terrorists revolting against it, doesn't seem very sound.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/31/2005 1:59 Comments ||
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#5
Actually, Phil, you've reduced a common thread in the news to just a few words. The more general version is, "Things would be better if they were not bad." Come to think of it, that's sort of the liberal world view.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2005 9:38 Comments ||
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#6
Please remember that while it is good in the short term that Iraq should have a government that can do the many things a government needs to do, it is far more important in the long run that they have a government that *can't* do things easily. The US government, for example, is organized and set up to *prevent* new laws and regulations, not encourage them. So that the process is slowed, and the majority cannot push their undivided agenda without the cooperation of the minority. Certainly it sounds disordered and confusing, but it results in a far greater consensus and centrism. A good president is fine, but Iraq must be able to survive both a mediocre president and a dishonest or power-grabbing one.
Cheese Louise. That's a first. I find myself agreeing with an Islamist...
Egyptian fundamentalist leader Osama Rushdi has called the murder of the two Algerian diplomats in Iraq, and before them the Egyptian Charge d'Affaires Ihab al-Sharif, a disgraceful and reckless act, which demonstrates the extensive confusion of 'Al Qaeda in Iraq'. The group headed by Abu-Musaab al-Zarqawi, who is wanted by the United States in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the murders.
Islamist Rushdi, the former spokesman of the outlawed Egyptian organization, 'Gamaa Islamiya' (Islamic Group), said "Al-Qaeda's Sharia courts that are trying people, deciding that they are infidels, and sentencing them to death are absurd and remind me of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria that also held such trials. I saw some of them on videotape in 1995 and their proceedings were disgraceful for humanity and Islam, and were closer to the Catholic inquisitions of the middle Ages than too anything else."
In a telephone conversation with Asharq al-Awsat, Rushdi said, "I watched the videotape of one of these trials of a young Algerian doctor. Those who knew him told me that he was polite, full of knowledge, and a representative of Islamic activity. He was tried before this "sharia" court because he was from another group called Al-Jazaarah, which is a group of Algerian intellectuals who are followers of Malik Bin-Nabi and carry out Islamic activities in Algerian universities and the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). One of the charges that his ignorant judges made against him was that he was a non-believer even though we have never understood that the sentence for an atheist is death apart from in these sick people's understanding. The odd thing is that whenever this young man sneezed and thanked God, the so-called sharia judge would say, "God bless you!" He then sentenced him to be butchered like a lamb."
He added that the GIA's sharia courts have previously sanctioned the killings of Shaykh Mohamed Said, 'FIS' spokesman Shaykh Abderrazak Radjem, as well as a large group of Muslim youths and propagators who opposed their extremism. He described Al Qaeda's sharia courts as "absurd", that judge people to be dissidents and then sentence them to death in such a reckless way. He said, "What do the Algerian and Egyptian regimes have to do with this group in Iraq and what connection do they have with its resistance to their occupiers? Does one who possesses two rifles truly believe he can fight the whole world?" He explained that these daily violent acts demonstrate how far removed the perpetrators are from sharia law and are harming the honest Iraqi resistance that require the determination and not increasing enmity and hostility from international arena, especially with neighboring countries with whom they are supposed to improve relations.
Rushdi went on to say that all those inciting violence, and drowning Iraq in seas of forbidden blood are not only opening the doors for a civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites, but also amongst the Sunnis themselves. This is because several other resistance factions that do not accept these reckless operations may find themselves in an imposed confrontation to rectify this defect. The countries whose diplomats and interests were attacked have been dragged into the conflict and hostility from such acts may seek to exploit this.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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"I saw some of them on videotape in 1995 and their proceedings were disgraceful for humanity and Islam, and were closer to the Catholic inquisitions of the middle Ages than too anything else."
Don't forget, the Religion of Peace is just 600 years behind Christianity, so their dark (middle) ages are here and now. Except 'witches' are now 'infidels'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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#2
their proceedings were disgraceful for humanity and Islam, and were closer to the Catholic inquisitions of the middle Ages than too anything else
Dissed. Totally dissed, Zark. Homey, he has your number ...
Posted by: too true ||
07/31/2005 9:53 Comments ||
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A powerful former leader of Algeriaâs banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party was ordered to remain in custody yesterday in connection with his public praise of Iraqâs insurgency and the abduction of Algerians. Ali Belhadj was detained by police in the capital Algiers on Wednesday shortly after he told Al-Jazeera television in a telephone interview that he ârelatedâ to the mujahideen fighting US-led forces and their allies. Two Algerian diplomats were killed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq shortly after Belhadjâs comments.
âThe prosecutor general has ordered a (five-day) detention for Ali,â brother Abdelhamid told reporters at a court. Belhadj will be questioned again in five days when the prosecutor could file charges against him. Security experts said Belhadjâs comments could be punishable under the anti-terrorism law and for breaking terms linked to his release from prison in 2003. It is the first significant crackdown by the authorities on former leaders of the hard-line Islamic movement since Belhadj was released from a military prison in 2003 after serving a 12-year-term along with FIS leader Abassi Madani. Both were jailed for threatening national security. They were banned from political activity and from making public statements.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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A leading Sunni official in Iraq said he has been sacked by the government over his outspoken complaints against the killings and arrests of members of his community by the police. Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Waqf, or religious endowment authority in Iraq, said he had received a letter from Iraqâs Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on Tuesday announcing his replacement in the post. âI have been chased out of my job because I defend the Sunnis,â Dulaimi told AFP.
The move could aggravate tensions between the Shiite-led government and the minority Sunni community, which has lost its once dominant role in Iraq following the ousting of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. âI am asking for unconditional release of all imprisoned Sunnis and I demand that tortures, murders and kidnappings targeting members of this community be halted. I quite simply want an end to the violence,â Dulaimi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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âI am asking for unconditional release of all imprisoned Sunnis and I demand that tortures, murders and kidnappings targeting members of this community be halted. I quite simply want an end to the violence,â Dulaimi said.
BS. This is about dishing it out vs. taking it. Baggage from the Old Days.
#2
Article: The move could aggravate tensions between the Shiite-led government and the minority Sunni community, which has lost its once dominant role in Iraq following the ousting of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
That's right - enraged Sunnis might start beheading people and blowing up civilians. Wait - don't they do that already? In fact, isn't that why these guys are been detained?
Police and government supporters beat pro-reform activists with batons, sometimes kicking them as they on lay the ground, during a protest Saturday against President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he would run for re-election for a fifth time. The vote is the first in which Mubarak — in power for 24 years — will face an opponent, and his government has said it will serve as a launching pad for greater democracy. The United States also praised the elections, though Mubarak opponents are more skeptical.
On Saturday, several hundred men and women were gathering to begin their march toward Cairo's main square when men in plainclothes descended on them, swinging billy clubs and assaulting the demonstrators. Burly government supporters surrounded activists sprawled on the pavement, kicking them in the head and ribs and tearing at their clothes. Others lifted protesters in the air by the arms and legs, hauling them off to police trucks. One elderly man wandered in a daze, his head bleeding. "Down with the rule of the dog Mubarak," one young man yelled as he was being clubbed. The Interior Ministry said the demonstrators had gathered illegally and, after refusing warnings to leave, threw stones at police. Security forces dispersed the gathering, arresting 20 people, who were still being held, the ministry said in a statement. Others were detained and released. Protesters denied any stones were thrown.
Most major opposition groups are boycotting the Sept. 7 election, calling Mubarak's move to open the vote to multiple candidates a sham. The 77-year-old Mubarak is expected to win easily.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2005 00:00 ||
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How wonderful that common Egyptian citizens have learned to value participatory democracy enough to fight for it! Several hundred people are not a large number compared even to Cairo's millions, but it is a start.
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 UK governmentâs former chief adviser on integrating immigrants into British society has attacked attempts to denounce multiculturalism in favour of promoting âBritishnessâ in the wake of the London bombings.
THE brother of freed hostage 
BRITAIN is regarded as a safe haven by Islamic extremists because it has failed to crack down on them despite urging other countries to do so, the president of Pakistan has warned. In an interview with The Sunday Times, General Pervez Musharraf suggested that Britain had paid a price for putting the right of free speech before the need to curb militant Islamic organisations that openly advocate violence. âThey should have been doing what they have been demanding of us to do â to ban extremist groups like they asked us to do here in Pakistan and which I have done,â he said. 
Egyptian fundamentalist leader Osama Rushdi has called the murder of the two Algerian diplomats in Iraq, and before them the Egyptian Charge d'Affaires Ihab al-Sharif, a disgraceful and reckless act, which demonstrates the extensive confusion of 'Al Qaeda in Iraq'. The group headed by Abu-Musaab al-Zarqawi, who is wanted by the United States in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the murders.
A leading Sunni official in Iraq said he has been sacked by the government over his outspoken complaints against the killings and arrests of members of his community by the police. Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Waqf, or religious endowment authority in Iraq, said he had received a letter from Iraqâs Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on Tuesday announcing his replacement in the post. âI have been chased out of my job because I defend the Sunnis,â Dulaimi told AFP.
Police and government supporters beat pro-reform activists with batons, sometimes kicking them as they on lay the ground, during a protest Saturday against President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he would run for re-election for a fifth time. The vote is the first in which Mubarak — in power for 24 years — will face an opponent, and his government has said it will serve as a launching pad for greater democracy. The United States also praised the elections, though Mubarak opponents are more skeptical.
