The U.S. military base in Kuwait that has served as a staging ground for thousands of troops for two wars in Iraq is closing for good in the coming months, Army officials said. Camp Doha, situated on a peninsula near Kuwait City International Airport, has served its purpose since war planners hurriedly descended on the Kuwaiti port storage facility days after the 1991 Desert Storm conflict, said Col. Kurt Smith, the Coalition Forces Land Component Command Base Realignment and Closure officer.
Camp Doha is too close to the metropolis of Kuwait City, and military activities disturb Kuwaitisâ daily routines, which in turn hampers U.S. movement of forces and equipment. The roughly 3,000 to 5,000 stationed troops at Doha will move primarily to Camp Buehring in the north and Camp Arifjan in the south. The U.S. military has between 15,000 and 20,000 troops at 10 installations throughout Kuwait.
Camp Arifjan, about an hourâs drive from Camp Doha, now serves as the main staging ground for all coalition forces involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Troops will arrive in and depart from the region via Ali Al Salem Air Base nearby. When built two years ago, the U.S. military envisioned Camp Arifjan as a permanent base.
Even if the country were not at war, the United States wants to keep bases in U.S.-friendly Kuwait as training sites, giving troops an opportunity to drill in the harsh heat and dusty environment that mirror battlegrounds in the region, said Sgt. Maj. Michael Phoenix, Camp Dohaâs command sergeant major.
Over the next months at Camp Doha, Army officials will dismantle semipermanent buildings and tents, perform environmental assessments and necessary cleanups, and meet with Kuwaiti officials to determine what needs to stay or go. By August, most of the southern half of Camp Doha will be closed, and the largely logistical functions there will move to Camp Buehring, Camp Virginia and Camp Arifjan. The Army has set February as the target month to completely vacate the site.
This is a good idea: we're there but rarely seen or heard.
Parliamentary elections are taking place in Venezuela, with polls suggesting supporters of President Hugo Chavez will extend their majority. Five opposition parties are boycotting the vote, saying it will not be fair, and called for voters to stay away. Mr Chavez has condemned the boycott as a Washington-backed plot to destabilise his regime - a charge the US rejected.
His allies need a strong win in order to change the law limiting the number of times a president can serve.
El Jefe for life, that's what they're aiming at
The left-wing Mr Chavez's allies currently hold 89 of the single chamber National Assembly's 167 seats and are aiming to extend their majority.
About 14.5 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote, although correspondents are predicting a low turnout. The National Electoral Council said 556 out of 5,500 candidates have pulled out of the congressional vote. Opposition leaders accused the electoral body of favouring pro-government candidates. Mr Chavez denounced the boycott calling it an attempt to destabilise his government and urged Venezuelans to turnout in force.
Yep - if you don't vote for me it isn't democracy.
"Those non-participating minorities ... are trying to lay the groundwork for destabilisation, and aggression against Venezuela," said Mr Chavez. He insisted that "there is no political crisis here, as they want to make it seem".
The government has deployed thousands of soldiers nationwide to maintain order during the vote. Three small explosive devices were detonated at a government office and an army base in Caracas, on Friday. No-one has claimed responsibility for the incidents, but the government described it as an attempt to "disturb" the voting process.
The poll with be monitored by observers from the EU and the Organisation of American States.
Russia's domestic security chief has warned that terrorism threatens the very existence of the state.
Federal Security Service director Nikolai Patrushev said Russia's terrorist problems had grown. He said coordinated efforts between the government, security agencies, the media and society were essential to defeat them.
"We need to exterminate the cause of this disease and its breeding ground," Patrushev said.
"Campaigns to promote terrorist and radical ideas will continue to achieve their goals in areas where unemployment rates are high and where people cannot live and work normally. Bridging this gap and improving the socio-economic situation in the Caucasus will cut the ground from under terrorists' feet. It should become a nationwide goal."
Patrushev told the Interfax news agency in an interview that strenuous efforts should be made to counter attempts "to justify terrorism by religious doctrines." He said the state had to take measures to prevent the spread of "radical religious ideas in general, especially among the young population of the North Caucasus region.
"In a number of regions, particularly the North Caucasus, these problems have already started to pose a threat to Russia's national security," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/04/2005 00:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Since September 11, 2001, Australians have been warned that an attack on Australian soil by al-Qaeda or its allies is probable, if not inevitable. In October, ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organization) released its 2004/05 annual report, which warned of the risk of âhome grownâ terrorists.
Despite evidence of networks, training and preliminary planning for terrorist attacks in Australia before and after 9/11, several raids and waves of anti-terrorist legislation, only one personâJack Rocheâhas been convicted of terrorist offences in Australia to date. This has led some in the country to speculate that the domestic terrorist threat was exaggerated. But the thwarting of a terrorist plot in its late planning stages in early November shows that the threat is very real.
Early on November 9, State and Federal police raided dozens of properties in Melbourne and Sydney, arresting 17 men and seizing large quantities of alleged precursor chemicals, laboratory equipment, instruction manuals on the production of the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), and maps and photographs of potential targets.
One suspect, Omar Baladjam, was shot in the neck after firing at police outside a Sydney mosque. An eighteenth suspect, Melbournian Izzydeen Atik was arrested in Sydney on November 11, apparently on a liaison visit. Police and political leaders in both States declared that the operation had foiled an imminent attack of enormous magnitude.
The group was under close surveillance by ASIO and Federal and State police for at least 16 months, with hundreds of hours of conversations recorded. Several of the Melbourne suspects were targeted in raids in June 2005.
It is alleged that those arrested in both States constituted an unnamed terrorist organization led by a 45 year-old from Melbourne, Abdul Nacer Benbrika (aka Abu Bakr). Benbrika had previously called Osama bin Laden a âgreat manâ and claims to support the aims of Algeriaâs Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) [1].
Benbrika came to Australia from his native Algeria on a temporary visa in May 1989. He eventually obtained Australian citizenship, claiming that he faced persecution if he returned to Algeria. Respected Sheikh Fehmi Naji al-Imam provided him with a reference letter, but now says he regrets doing so.
In Australia, Benbrika followed a trajectory of increasing radicalism. He fell into the orbit of radical Melbourne Sheikh Mohamed Omran, and was apparently inspired by Abu Qatada, whom Omran brought to Australia on a speaking tour in 1994.
Benbrika determined to become an Islamic scholar, but instead of studying jurisprudence at a recognized Islamic University, he taught himself, largely cut off from the wider community. He began preaching at Omranâs Brunswick mosque, attracting a small following. A number of those arrested in Melbourne in the recent raids are known to have attended the Brunswick mosque.
Several years ago, Benbrika broke away from Omran, taking the most violent, radical elements of the congregation with him. Later, he was able to extend his influence into New South Wales, creating a second cell.
Benbrikaâs Sydney cell achieved an advanced stage of planning much more quickly than his Melbourne cell, and was much more diverse, even though Benbrika had been recruiting for longer in Melbourne. This suggests a broader, more experienced and well-connected network already existed in Sydney. It is therefore worthwhile to analyze the two cells separately.
At least seven of the Melbourne suspects are the children of Lebanese immigrants, and some began practicing Islam only 18 months ago (see addendum at end of this article). Most are tradesmen and laborers. Some have previous police records for minor crimes, and two of the suspectsâHany Taha and Izzydeen Atikâallegedly operated a âcar rebirthingâ operation to raise funds for the group.
The Melbourne suspects allegedly used a Kinglake property and various commercial hunting properties for paramilitary training. Only convert Shane Gregory Kent (aka Yasin) is thought to have trained abroad. In mid-2001, he allegedly trained at a Jaish-e-Mohamed camp in Pakistan before proceeding to al-Qaedaâs al-Faruq camp. He was accompanied by another Australian convert, âAbu Jihad,â who is believed to have been the main informant against the Benbrika group.
It has been alleged that Melbourne suspects were filming the Australian Stock Exchange and Flinders Street Station, Melbourneâs landmark central train exchange. During the November raids, officers reportedly found maps of Casselden Place, the Melbourne headquarters of the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Immigration. In addition, the prosecution claims that Abdulla Merhi was recorded asking Benbrika for permission to become a suicide bomber.
The men arrested in Melbourne have been charged with membership of a terrorist organization, except Benbrika who has been charged with leading a terrorist organization. In addition, a number of minor property crime charges have been laid.
Although the evidence suggests an intention to conduct terrorist attacks against major landmarks, the Melbourne group made little progress. However, they maintained close contact with the Sydney suspects by telephone and through regular visits.
In conversations recorded before the raids, the Melbourne cell members reportedly complained that the Sydney cell was ahead of them in planning an attack. An increase in the frequency of these inter-state communications was apparently the trigger for the raids in Melbourne and Sydney [2].
The Sydney raids turned up hundreds of liters of chemicals, laboratory equipment, 165 detonators, 132 digital timers, batteries, firearms and ammunition. The suspectsâ homes also contained al-Qaeda literature and bomb-making manuals [3]. Chemical suppliers have told the media that they tipped off the authorities about several attempts to purchase large quantities of hydrogen peroxide, acetone, hydrochloric and/or sulphuric acid and hexamine, which can be used in explosives [4]. It appears the suspects were turning the Sydney house into a bomb-making factory.
Almost all the Sydney suspects have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist attack [5], a charge that did not exist until four days before the raids. The Federal Government passed an emergency amendment to the Crimes Act after being briefed by ASIO and the Federal Police about the possibly imminent attacks. The amendment triggered accusations that the government was using the terrorist issue as a smokescreen for its contentious industrial relations laws, despite the fact that the opposition leader and relevant State Premiers were briefed and supported the change.
It was felt the amendment was necessary because the Act, as it stood, could be read as requiring the prosecution to prove the specific detailsâsuch as the intended date and targetâif the alleged attack.
This is not to say that authorities had no idea what targets the suspects might have been considering. In December 2004, three of the Sydney suspects (Mazen Touma, Mohamed Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan) were apprehended by police within the 1.6km exclusion zone around Sydneyâs Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. A padlock on a gate leading to the reactorâs reservoir had been cut. Laskar-e-Taiba agent Willie Brigitte, deported in October 2003, had also considered an attack on the reactor. Although Lucas Heights is a small, medical research reactor that poses negligible risk, the suspectsâ presence at the site raises disturbing questions about the groupâs intentions.
While the Melbourne suspects give the impression of being a group of hot-heads who in some cases joined the plot because their friends and relatives did, the Sydney suspects are generally older and more experienced. Several were trained by Laskar-e-Taiba or have been connected with suspected terrorist operatives in the past.
Khaled Sharroufâs family was close to Willie Brigitte and the Australian he married. Sharroufâs brother-in-law, Mohamed Ndaw, was extradited to his native Senegal in 2004 on security grounds.
Abdul Rakib Hasan allegedly set up three safe houses for Brigitte in Sydney. In July 2005 he was charged with two counts of lying to ASIO about his close contact with Brigitte. Hasan was also named as a key player in a series of alleged terrorist training camps in the Blue Mountains. These were run by Malaysian man Asman Hashim, who also set up training camps for Jemaah Islamiyah in the Southern Philippines [6].
Another alleged terrorist training camp was discovered in the NSW Southern Tablelands in 2000, after neighboring farmers reported explosions and automatic gunfire. Three of the four owners of the property are brothers of another of the men arrested in the Sydney raids, Mohamed Ali Elomar. The brothers told police that the property was used by Sydneyâs hardline Islamic Youth Movement, but only for hunting trips [7].
The arrests and resulting evidence from the November 8 raids support the view that a terrorist attack on Australian soil is a real possibility. They also demonstrate that Australian security agencies have learned important lessons since 2000, when ASIO failed to return calls from would-be terrorist Jack Roche. The enhanced effectiveness of Australian security agencies considerably reduces the likelihood of success for any future terrorist plot in Australia.
The presence of a largely home-grown terrorist organization in Australia may be seen as part of an international trend towards the self-recruitment of terrorists. However, the uneven development of plots in Sydney and Melbourne demonstrates that training, experience and international connections continue to be important factors in determining whether, and how quickly, a terrorist organization can make the transition from intention to capability.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/04/2005 01:13 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
and waves of anti-terrorist legislation,
The only waves I have seen are of Leftist rhetoric.
EFL
A leading Islamic body says the use of the term "Christmas" is politically incorrect because it excludes too many people in multicultural Australia. The Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations wants a community debate to find an alternative â suggesting the word festus "festive" as a possible replacement. And a Queensland Jewish leader Abe Foxman has called for an end to the "automatic imposition" of Christmas on the community, saying the season has been reduced to a "shopping festival".
The attacks have outraged Christian churches, family groups and civic leaders. Even other Muslim groups have slammed the call. Islamic Council of Queensland president Abdul Jalal said Muslims have "no right" to question what Christians called their religious festival. Family Council of Queensland president Alan Baker described the plans as "impertinent and intolerant". He said: "No one is suggesting that other religions change the name of their celebrations, such as Ramadan for Muslims or Hanukkah for Jews." But the Islamic-relations forum director, Kuranda Seyit, told The Sunday Mail it was time for Australia to fall in line with places such as the UK, where councils have renamed Christmas "Winterval" and replaced references to Christmas on signage with the words "Festive" and "Winter".
"Australia is now so diverse and there are so many cultures and festivities, we need to acknowledge the need to be inclusive of our identity."
"Yeah. You acknowlege my identity and respect for my culture, I acknowlege my identity and respect for my culture. It's just that easy."
He expected his plan would insult some people, but urged a "step-by-step" approach.
"First we come for the Jooos..."
"A word like Festive is a good word but the community should make an effort to come up with an alternative to Christmas." How about something made up from whole cloth by a convicted felon. Oh, wait, that's Kwanzaa, already done.
"Schools will take a leading role in terms of political correctness. Boy, do they. The younger generation will grow up and say 'it's not fair'."
#5
Exactly the very same thing they (Muslims) said in England and guess what, we have two London boroughs that have changed ChristMass into festive.
The Muslims must be so pleased that we're now on the road to conversion.
Posted by: dom ||
12/04/2005 4:46 Comments ||
Top||
#6
When the minority dictate to the majority it is not and can not be called a democracy or a republic, unless it is the traditional Peoples' Democratic Republic of [insert favorite Soviet administration region here].
#8
What the muzzies really don't get is that they are slowly showing their real cards on this war. It's not a east/west thing or even culture war, it is clear even to the most ignorant that they are out to bring and end to the Jews and Christians. I know I'm just stating the obvious for the RB'r but making their intent this clear might even get to the rust filled brains of the Seattle coasties.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/04/2005 12:26 Comments ||
Top||
#9
So the intolerant moslems want Christmas renamed to spare their precious widdle feelings?
As a NON-Christian, may I respond to Kuranda Seyit with a hale and hearty FUCK YOU.
And the camel you rode in on.
Worthless self-centered ASSHOLES.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/04/2005 19:40 Comments ||
Top||
#10
If you folks in Australia wanna change it to "Go Fuck Yourself Kuranda Seyit Day" that would be okay by me.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will inflame the transatlantic row over America's alleged torture of terror suspects in secret jails by telling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other European officials to 'back off'.
Rice, who arrives in Brussels tomorrow for a meeting with Nato foreign ministers, has been under pressure to respond to claims the US has been using covert prisons in Eastern Europe to interrogate Islamic militants. Human rights groups have alleged the CIA is flying terror suspects to secret jails in planes that have used airports throughout Europe, including Britain.
They haven't offered up any proof of course, but they still expect Condi to respond, hoping that she'll let something out. Condi is too smart for that.
Rice's refusal to answer detailed questions on what has become known as 'extraordinary rendition' will anger many in Europe.
Oh horrors! Perhaps they'll need some of Ethel's pills!
Last week Straw wrote to Rice asking for clarification about some 80 flights by CIA planes that have passed through the UK. European politicians and human rights groups claim the flights and use of a network of secret jails breach international law.
Which international law? Which protocol? Besides not offering any proof that we're doing this, they can't even tell us which law.
State Department officials have hinted that Rice's response to Straw and other European ministers will remind them of their 'co-operation' in the war on terror. She is expected to make a public statement today stressing that the US does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law. She will also remind people their governments are co-operating in a fight against militants who have bombed commuters in London and Madrid.
And murder citizens in the Netherlands, and splash acid in the faces of citizens in Belgium, and set up car-B-Qs in France ...
She will drive home her message in private meetings with officials in Germany and at the EU headquarters in Brussels.
Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses.
An unnamed European diplomat who had contact with US officials over the handling of the scandals told Reuters yesterday: 'It's very clear they want European governments to stop pushing on this... They were stuck on the defensive for weeks, but suddenly the line has toughened up incredibly.'
Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who will be chairing a Commons committee of MPs along with Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, has said Rice needs to make a clear statement. She 'does not seem to realise that for a large section of Washington and European opinion, the Bush administration is in a shrinking minority of people that has not grasped that lowering our standards [on human rights] makes us less, not more, secure'.
No, but lowering your expectations of behavior in your citizens certainly does.
In Britain, human rights group Liberty is to table an amendment to the Civil Aviation Bill that would oblige the Home Secretary to force any aircraft travelling through UK airspace suspected of extraordinary rendition to land and be searched by police and customs.
Straw is also facing calls to allow MPs and human rights groups access to Diego Garcia, the British island in the Indian Ocean being used as a US military base. It has long been suspected that the island has been used to hold or transfer terror suspects to secret US jails.
I dunno if we're doing any of this, but if so it might be time for a few Esquimaux-flagged cruise ships, really secure, that just sail 'round and 'round in the South Pacific ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No one has a clue what these flights do. Some may transfer prisoners. Others may carry to safety the families of captured terrorists who wish to cooperate. The Eurabians complain about the lack of delicacy of the Bush administration, but der Gufus and der Gallant seems to be versa vice here.
#2
I am growing increasingly pessimistic that the west will defend itself against Islamicists. Perhaps it's true that so many western countries are so decadent they can't - won't - let themselves see what the threat really is. My heart is really heavy right now ... I probably will live another 3 decades or so but increasingly I wonder if those 3 decades will consist of anything more than the pain of watching the slow, self-imposed collapse of the civilization within which I live.
Tyrie is very wrong on this point: it is not secret renditions that threaten our security, it is the refusal to use pinpoint targeted harsh measures which does. Yes, we could stop the renditions. At that point things would go one of two ways: into a totalitarian state that crushes us all in the name of crushing Islamicism, or into defeat.
I have never been a conspiracy nut, never a survivalist. But I find myself wondering what I need to do to ensure my family survives the coming destruction of the west ... or if there are enough people willing to fight back against this defeatism disguised as moral superiority.
Posted by: too true ||
12/04/2005 9:36 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Due to the high density of Muslim students on the Georgetown campus, members of the staff at Marriott Georgetown were afraid of the potential for violent protests, injured hotel employees and property damage. This is the official stance of the Marriott Corporation.â
Do not Islamic heads thump hollowly when met with a nightstick? WTF? How about not allowing brownshirts to dictate your organization's allowable users' list? Cowardice and prejudice. Time to blockade the hotel for CAIR's events.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/04/2005 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
#4
If you do boycott be sure to send your paid recepts from non-Marriott hotels (with private info blacked out) to Marriot with a nice note. ("Another customer lost to ...").
Let them know that they are loosing real dollars due to their Dhimmitude to Islam.
#5
This is naked intimidation by the activist left, and they didn't have to say a word.
Their previous actions, and their standard rhetoric, did the job for them. We have routine, systematic censorship in this country, backed by the threat of violence, while the media and the authorities look the other way.
The campus left's defacto alliance with the institutional media and corporate America makes this censorship possible.
Public officials, of course, have a Constitutional duty to prevent the forcible suppression of Constitutional rights, yet they get a free pass on shirking this duty when Muslims and "students" are involved. Any public official who suggests acquiesance in the face of leftist threats should be jailed, as should violent leftists and their Islamic tools themselves.
We must recognize that we are the revolutionaries, fighting to overthrow an existing power structure, and not the other way around.
What would I do if this were my hotel?
I would surround the place with sand bags and barbed wire, I would board up the windows. I would contact a military vehicle club, rent tanks from them and park them in the driveway. I would hire Blackwater Security and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club to provide security. I would equip employees with gas masks and body armor. I would buy TV time to taunt the authorities for not doing their duty. I would spend every dime of the discretionary budget to do this, then I would browbeat loyalist millionaires to chip in.
Newsweek: Dec. 12, 2005 issue - This summer, the reserve Officers Association presented Sen. Hillary Clinton with its President's Award for her work on behalf of soldiers. On the morning of the ceremony, the event's organizers were a little nervous. While they were in the White House, the Clintons were never regarded warmly within the ranks or among the brass, and the First Lady was seen as especially hostile to the military. (There are still soldiers who swear by the myth that she banned uniforms at the White House.) It was rumored that some officers were planning to walk out of the award ceremony. As it turned out, the audience did stand up, but not to leave. When Clinton's name was announced, she received a standing ovation. "If you'd asked me three years ago, I would have been surprised," says Lt. Col. Lou Leto, the group's spokesman. "[But] she's one of our strongest advocates." Ha ha ha! That's a good one!
It is no accident that hawks inside and outside the military are reconsidering Hillary Clinton. She may have entered the Senate in 2001 with three strikes against herâshe was a woman, a Democrat and a Clinton. But Senator Clinton immediately began a methodical campaign to undo her image as a dovish liberal with no interest in military affairs. Post 9/11, she was quick to recognize that Democratsâand especially one all but openly running for presidentâwere vulnerable on defense issues. It was a trap she has seemed determined to avoid. She supported the Iraq invasion and has resisted the call for a quick withdrawal championed by Democratic Rep. Jack Murtha. "In the wake of 9/11, America will not vote for anyone they do not trust to protect them," says national-security analyst Lawrence Korb. "She grasps that."
In New York, Clinton's pro-military posture helped broaden her appeal beyond liberal-leaning Manhattan. (She's up for re-election next year, and her Republican opponent is foundering.) Yet it has also touched off grumbling among Democratic Party activists, who have turned strongly against the war in Iraq. Her Senate office has received so many e-mails from frustrated Democrats that she responded last week with a 1,600-word letter, in which she took responsibility for her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, but still blamed President George W. Bush for prewar intelligence failures and the current mess on the ground. On the sticky question of pulling out, she has, in classic Clinton style, attempted to navigate between the hawks she is courting and the doves who make up her base. She wrote Iraq shouldn't be an "open-ended commitment," but at the same time she has avoided specifics about how and when to leave. Um, maybe because she has none?
GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham thinks she is straddling the issue like Bill would being shrewd. Though most Americans now oppose the war, polls show that 60 percent are still against an immediate withdrawal. "That's the Republicans' strongest point," says Graham, who sits with Clinton on the Senate Armed Services Committee. "And Hillary knows that."
Clinton has used her platform on Armed Services to educate herself on defense issues. She receives briefings from military officials and calls big thinkers from her husband's Rolodex, including Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, for advice.
Oh great. If she's really serious about educating herself, should could call Victor Davis Hansen.
Some of those who've met with her have come away surprised by her command of the material. Former secretary of Defense William Perry went into one briefing expecting lots of interruptions. Instead, the pair spent two solid hours during which Clinton grilled him with detailed questions. "I started to worry I'd run short of material," joked Perry.
For her efforts, she has begun to win respect within military circles. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former vice chief of the Army whom she's consulted about Iraq, says he's praised her to "the guys"âmeaning the Pentagon brass.
At the same time, Clinton has worked to win over soldiers and their families with old-school constituent service. New York is home to 11,000 soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Clinton's staffers have made sure paychecks arrive on time and care packages reach their destination. She lobbied hard to keep several bases from being closed, and is still pushing to get reservists better health care. In September, the Military Coalition, which represents more than 5 million service people and their families, awarded her its highest honor.
But impressing the brass and winning over the troops may turn out to be the easy part.
Heh, in that case she's finished.
If she runs in '08, she'll have to use her military education to stake out clear positions not only on Iraq, but Syria, Iran, North Korea and beyond. So far, she's not getting out ahead. When asked about a strategy for leaving Iraq, she waved off the question. "Nobody has all the answers," she told NEWSWEEK. For now, Clinton is content to let George W. Bush worry about disarming the enemy in Iraq. She's busy enough worrying about disarming her critics in Washington. I think the authors heavily downplay the negative effect of pro-military stances within the Dem party base, although they did give it a courtesy mention. I'll believe Hillary's pro-military stances when I see pigs fly.
#1
Yeah sure the military can be bought off with a wink and a nod. Not sure why this group honored Clinton and I would be interests who they honored in the past. Like her plan on Iraq there were NO specifics about what Clinton has done. I can't believe that her staff is claiming credit for paycheck and mail delivery? A puff piece and nothing more. She has been and ALWAYS will be anti-military. What's funny is that Clinton was awarded for her support, but the groups own archives show NO Clinton highlights or bills.
#3
strictly political charades - she knows she can't be honest on her views and get elected outside the limo liberal crowd
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/04/2005 11:36 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Typical Clinton Bullshit! She is doing nothing more than following the polls, again! She is not a friend to the military, unless the polls say she should be. What is unforgivable about this woman is she has no moral courage or willingness to gut out the harder right thing to do. When America is worried for the future and afraid what we need is a strong and steadfast leader, not some slimey coward that follows the latest polls! This soldier know a turncoat when he see's one.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/04/2005 12:18 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Never heard of the Reserver Officers Organization, but as always, Google is our friend. Hmm, first item in the news section on their website ( www.roa.org ) is a sale on Dell computers dated 23-Nov. Not a whole lot of content, other than appeals for cash and an event listing showing a conference every 6 months.
#6
Written by someone who has absolutely no understanding of the American military culture. The average snuffy can smell BS a mile away but can also play along to make people believe they're in the program when in fact they're mocking those in charge. Been there, seen it, done it.
Posted by: too true ||
12/04/2005 07:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It is long past time to have a good ASAT system in space. It brings to mind the first nearly launched space defense system ChuckWagon. Kind of sad it never went up.
#4
We need satellite weapons just as soon. My faves would include the "rods from God", and maybe a lower-tech satellite carrying a large number of grapefruit-or-however large sized advanced ceramic balls that could make it to the surface without burning up. Imagine what a meteorite shower with those things would do to a many square mile area?
#5
Exoatmospheric ABMs are ASATs, at least for LEO sats; we already have those. Geosynchronous sats are another story. But the old modified SRAM system from the 80's couldn't reach those either.
LAHORE: Catholic Archbishop Lawrence Saldhana in a faxed message to Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Saturday expressed concern on the prevailing religious tension in Sangla Hill. Saldhanaâs letter stated that some religious circles were fanning hatred among the area people after the November 11 and 12 incidents in which an unruly Muslim mob vandalised churches and Christian property. The archbishopâs letter expressed concern at recent press statements by the Majlis-e-Khatam-e-Nabuvat and Madrassa Naeemia, Lahore, which gave the impression that the destruction of churches and Christian property was a concocted story. The letter added that judicial inquiry into the incident had yet to complete but these Muslim organisations were endorsing the accusation of desecration of Holy Quran by Yousaf Masih.
Saldhana urged the government to properly investigate the incident and arrest the culprits immediately. âThe miscreants are using the gap to fan religious hatred. The judicial inquiry report should be made public soon,â the message stated. On the other hand, the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), a missionary organisation monitoring the situation in Sangla Hill, said that Islamic groups gathered about 3,000 Muslims for Friday prayers at Jamia Masjid Rizvia, Main Market, Sangla Hill, on December 2. The gathering was addressed by Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadiri, central ameer Alam-e-Tanzeem Alah-e-Sunnat, Shahibzada Muhammad Zia, central nazim-e-ala Alah-e-Sunnat, MNA Shahibzada Haji Fazal Kareem and Hafizabad District Administrator Muhammad Yousaf Qadiri.
The NCJP said that the religious leaders demanded the unconditional release of 88 Muslims detained for their alleged involvement in the November 12 incident and a public execution for alleged desecrator Yousaf Masih. In another development, Sessions Judge Sheikh Muhammad Yousaf has completed the judicial inquiry of the incident and will submit his report to the Punjab Home Department soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Greece has agreed to donate 500 armored personnel carriers to Iraq's military. Officials said Athens relayed its intention to donate the BMP-1 APC to the Iraq Army. They said deliveries would take place through 2007.
The BMP-1 is a Soviet-origin infantry fighting vehicle procured by a range of Arab states. The tracked vehicle can accommodate 11 people and contains such armaments as a 73 mm gun and Sagger anti-tank guided missile. In 1977, Iraq procured about 900 BMP-1s from the Soviet Union. In 1990, the Iraqi military purchased an undetermined number of BMP-2s.
#3
Tis will save the US Milions. The soldiers from Iraq know this equipment and training them on it will be easier. Who care where it came from, at least the US did not have to buy it.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/04/2005 12:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
One of Greece's leftist government bought a lot of Soviet hardware, back in the day. It was intended as a thumb in the eye of the US.
Iraq's most influential Shia figure, Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani, has told believers to vote in elections on 15 December, urging them to support religious candidates. The instructions from al-Sistani, a reclusive spiritual figure with a strong influence among the Shia, fall short of a religious edict, but still carry tremendous weight. It could dent the hopes of Iyad Allawi, a former prime minister whose secular Shia non-sectarian party is mounting a challenge to the ruling coalition.
A representative in al-Sistani's office on Saturday said he instructed followers to do three things: turn out to vote on the day; avoid voting for any list whose leader is not religious; and avoid voting for "weak" lists so as not to split the Shia vote. The instructions looked like a coded endorsement of the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shia list which won the last election in January and dominates the current government. The United Iraqi Alliance groups Iraq's two most powerful religious Shia parties - the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and the Dawa party, which is headed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the prime minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah, let's vote for these guys again, the counterinsurgency is going so well.
Amid the continuing bloodshed in Iraq, there is evidence of fresh thinking. The change is, ironically, brought about by Abu Musab Zarqawi himself, whose indiscriminate terrorism appears to have succeeded in uniting people there against his global jihad ideology. Since the hotel bombings in Zarqawi's native Jordan, more and more Sunni Iraqis and Arabs have condemned the terrorist leader's nightmarish vision for their societies -- one that promises further "catastrophic" suicide attacks. Their reaction represents an important turning point, both for the militants for whom this change of outlook represents a new predicament and for the U.S. government, which must recognize that securing Iraq's future stability is not up to foreign military forces but depends on local public opinion.
Now that the holy warriors are waging their struggle in the heart of the Muslim community, or ummah -- in shopping centers, residential compounds, hotels and restaurants -- Muslims are getting a closer look at the terrorists' lack of respect for life, and most don't like what they see. Some of the protesters in Amman carried placards asking simply "Why?" Why would Zarqawi target their country, where so many people had supported his jihad in Iraq? In a survey of more than 1,000 Jordanians conducted for the newspaper al-Ghad, more than 87 percent of the respondents said they now considered al Qaeda a terrorist organization. (In previous surveys in Jordan, al Qaeda had enjoyed approval ratings of upwards of 60 percent.) Other polls in Arab countries confirm this change of opinion.
Particularly promising in the public opinion war is a new willingness among Sunnis in Iraq to defy Zarqawi and participate in the political process. Reassured by a promise from the Shiite-led government that it will establish a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops, and with less than two weeks to go before parliamentary elections, Sunni leaders are urging their community to go to the polls on Dec. 15. That's because a consensus has emerged among the minority Sunnis -- the backbone of the resistance -- that the most effective means of influencing the nascent political order in Baghdad is not following Zarqawi but having adequate political representation. They can now see that their boycott of last January's elections, leaving them with just 17 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, was a disaster, depriving them of representation in the areas that govern the country's petroleum resources.
In addition, Sunni preachers who had previously advised citizens against voting are urging them to participate in the upcoming elections because it is a "sacred duty," as Imam Ehsan of Fallujah said last week. All over Anbar province in Western Iraq, the heart of Sunni resistance, clerics are warning the community against being further marginalized. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq says that registration is up in Sunni Arab areas, as was evident in October's constitutional referendum, when Sunnis, who represent one-fifth of the population, voted in large numbers.
What's more, Zarqawi's al Qaeda received a rebuke last week when the third annual gathering of Iraq's religious scholars (a predominantly Sunni umbrella) called on all resistance fighters to respect Islam's rules of war, which forbid targeting civilians, including foreigners.
Zarqawi is in real trouble because his reckless killing has alienated the very constituency that he claims to be defending against foreign occupiers and local collaborators. Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the grand imam of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, widely regarded as the most hallowed religious institution in the Islamic world, has called on the international community to put an end to terrorism in Iraq and to punish Zarqawi and his men for killing civilians. In two separate statements, the imprisoned leaders of the Egyptian Islamic Group and Islamic al-Jihad, the two largest jihadist organizations, have also denounced Zarqawi and accused his organization of trying to "annihilate" Iraq's majority Shiites rather than "liberate" Iraq.
Even the senior leadership of the jihadist movement has publicly voiced its anger. Abu Mohammed Maqdisi, Zarqawi's spiritual and ideological mentor who spent three years in prison with him from 1995 to 1999, has said on al-Jazeera TV, "The kidnapping and murder of relief workers and neutral journalists has distorted the image of jihad."
But the most telling rebuke lies in a communication intercepted by U.S. authorities. In July, al Qaeda's ideologue and second-in-command to Osama bin Laden himself, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched a 6,000-word letter to Zarqawi, chiding him that he risked alienating Arabs. "In the absence of this popular support," Zawahiri wrote, "the jihadist movement would be crushed in the shadows." Anyone who doubts the authenticity of Zawahiri's letter must read his memoir, "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner," smuggled out of Afghanistan and published after Sept. 11, 2001, in which he calls on militants to fully integrate into society and lead the ummah.
Apparently deaf to these warnings, Zarqawi expanded his jihad activities into neighboring states, particularly Jordan. After the suicide bombings in Amman on Nov. 9, which killed 60 people and wounded at least 100, thousands of Jordanians rallied in the streets, shouting that Zarqawi should "burn in hell."
The most telling reactions come from residents of Zarqawi's rundown industrial hometown, Zarqa, who openly expressed anger to journalists that one of their own could massacre civilians -- Arabs and Muslims whose only sin was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wife of Zarqawi's brother told a reporter for the Arabic daily Al Hayat that she was dismayed by the carnage she had seen on television. A neighbor named Raouf Ahmad Omar, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, "cursed" his old acquaintance: "From now on, the mosque preacher must speak out and condemn terrorism," he told a reporter. Other residents regarded the suicide bombings as un-Islamic. "Any person who would do such an act must be considered a heretic," said Abu Ibrahim, a 56-year-old merchant standing outside his shop, several hundred yards from Zarqawi's high-walled house, where his relatives still live.
Zarqawi has even been disowned by members of his family, part of the influential Bani Hassan tribe: "We sever links with him until doomsday," one wrote in a Jordanian newspaper. According to tribal traditions, some family members may now seek to kill him.
In Arab and Muslim eyes, the Amman bombings shattered the myth of the holy warriors battling on behalf of the ummah. Contributors to al Qaeda Web forums -- who have been lionizing Zarqawi for months -- expressed the militants' new predicament. One contributor who goes by the title Prime Negotiator lamented the public opinion fallout. "Go to Amman and hear, unfortunately, a lot of people cursing Zarqawi everywhere," wrote Prime Negotiator. "The confidence of the Jordanian people in al Qaeda is zero." In a commentary for al-Jazeera, a leading Islamic activist, Yasir al-Za'atira, said that the very existence of al Qaeda is at stake; the organization's survival depends on whether bin Laden and Zarqawi are prepared to reassess their deeds to be in line with the consensus of the ummah, he added.
Feeling the heat of public opinion throughout the Arab world, Zarqawi's group has taken the rare step of issuing several Internet statements to justify the hotel attacks in Amman: "Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and supporting Crusaders' presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine." In a subsequent statement, Zarqawi underlined that his organization is not targeting fellow Muslims: "We did not and will not think for one moment to target them," he said.
But the statement showed how tone-deaf to public opinion Zarqawi is, as it promised more "catastrophic" attacks. This inability to live outside his own bubble may well prove to be Zarqawi's undoing. The killing of civilians in Jordan, on top of those in Saudi Arabia, Britain, Indonesia and Egypt has triggered an unprecedented torrent of angry and emotional responses in the Arab world. In a moving article titled "I Am Also Zarqawi" published in the pan-Arab nationalist newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, Amjad Nasser, an artist who was born and raised in Zarqa, paints a nostalgic portrait of the town. "I am also Zarqawi like many other ordinary people in Jordan, but we are made of a different fiber than the one which hijacked the name of the city and turned it into a banner of blood and death," he wrote.
The dramatic shift in public opinion does not bode well for Zarqawi's al Qaeda branch in Iraq or bin Laden's parent organization. The social environment that supplied them with recruits and refuge is becoming inhospitable.
The implications for Iraq are clear: Integrating the Sunni Arab community into the political process will quicken Zarqawi's end. That requires a critical reassessment of U.S. strategy in Iraq. Social harmony, not the American military presence, is the most effective weapon against the Zarqawi network. As a radical Islamist told me, the longer the war continues, the longer Zarqawi will be around: "But when the conflict is over, Zarqawi cannot survive. He serves no other value to the movement," said this former jihadist leader.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/04/2005 05:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A gruff security chief known for his pragmatic dealings with Israel was the top vote getter in primaries of the ruling Fatah Party in Hebron, according to preliminary results released on Saturday, capping a rocky week of voting throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The victory by Jibril Rajoub, the national security adviser, cemented the emergence of a new but just as blood-thirsty younger generation of Fatah leaders as the party gears up for legislative elections in January.
With the primary voting over, Palestinian election officials on Saturday opened registration for party candidates. Even after the results were announced in Hebron a group of about 10 Palestinian gunmen stormed Fatahâs election headquarters, accusing Rajoub of rigging the voting. The gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, fired in the air and stormed the building, forcing local election officials to flee. There were no reports of injuries.
Because no one in Paleo-land can shoot straight.
âVoting within Fatah revealed a deep desire for change. People show no trust in their historical leadership,â said Palestinian political analyst Hani al-Masri.
"Besides, Yasser's dead. I mean he's really stable."
The extent of power given to Fatahâs younger generation could have strong implications for the party and for peacemaking. But Rajoub refused to speculate what position he would be given in the Fatah list for parliament. âI am a member of the Fatah movement and whatever the leadership decides I will do. If they want me to be No. 1, I will be No. 1. If they want me to be No. 66, I will be No. 66,â Rajoub said after the elections were announced.
Time to worry if they make you number 3.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Somehow the onus always seems to make its way to them. Paleostinians have no onuses.
The success of Palestinian elections in January could hinge on whether Israel allows people to vote freely in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said. Parliamentary elections will be held on 25 January, but officials visiting Rome said it was not clear if Israel would allow Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem, which is under Israeli control. Abbas, at the end of a two-day visit to Italy, said on Saturday: "If we can't hold democratic elections in Jerusalem it will be difficult to do it in the other zones. At that point Israel will be responsible for the block of the democratic process in Palestine.
"Yep.Yep. It'll all be their fault. You betcha."
"The Oslo accords establish the right of Palestinians to take part in elections. The Palestinians in Jerusalem have to have the freedom to vote inside Jerusalem." An official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in previous cases, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East war, were allowed to vote "by proxy" at Israeli post offices - a procedure agreed by both parties. Mark Regev, the spokesman, said: "Israel stands by the principles for the voting mechanism which were negotiated in the 1990s and hopes that the Palestinians will not try to unilaterally change them because this would not be a positive move."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The success of Palestinian elections in January could hinge on whether Israel allows people to vote freely in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/04/2005 18:36 Comments ||
Top||
#6
To die for:
RECIPES FROM THE ELDERS OF ZION COOKBOOK:
SABBATH BREAD WITH ARAB INFANT PLASMA
This is a recipe my grandmother taught me. I have beloved memories of holding a squirming, mouth-watering Arab infant while gramms sharpened the butcher knives & told us colorful tales about the shtetl. This is a wonderful bread to make because the dough turns a lovely rose-pink & perfumes the house with the infinite melancholy of vanquished glory.
NOTE: if you have pets, keep them locked up. It's heartbreaking to be setting out your ingredients, only to look outside & see the dog playing Frisbee with your leavening. Ingredients:
1 Arab infant, ripe, not too gamey
Oil, preferably Halutza
Dead Sea salt
Eggs
Good quality flour
Kosher honey
Poppy seeds for crust
Any large Jewish community will have an Arab infant provider. When in doubt, ask your local rabbi, although he'll probably take a cut. If you have a coupon, so much the better. However, this is the one & ONLY time you must not go for the cheapest deal.
My friend Cloris, the proctologist's wife, always bragged about her dirt-cheap Arab infant connection. Well, her Sabbath bread tasted like goat chow. Turns out, the guy was passing her Guatemalan babies! Like I really want epazote in my Sabbath bread!! OY VEY.
Your supplier will usually offer you an assortment. Handy pocket guide:
TURKEY: AAK! Not Arab! Do not use unless you have a thing for grease & gas!
LIBYA: Strong Old World stock, can be a handful. Keep mallet handy
MOROCCO: Bit briny, sharp as a Beaujolais when fresh
SAUDI ARABIA : Quality much degraded. Season liberally.
GAZA: Cheap, runty, poor quality. Tough & stringy. Pound first.
RAMALLAH: Adequate, affordable. One less suicide bomber to worry about.
BEDOUIN: Exquisite, expensive. For special occasions. NOTE: Make sure it's real Bedouin & not cheap Sicilian knock-off.
SYRIA: Excellent smoked over camel dung
EGYPT: Pickle in vinegar first to remove odor
IRAQ: Excellent & plentiful! Do your part to rebuild the economy of Iraq!
IRAN: NOT Arab. Does make healthful smoothie with tamarind, paraffin, & anchovies
Of course, I needn't tell you not to waste the discards. Use them for a nourishing soup stock, sausage fillers, or throw them on the compost pile, & your daffodils will be the envy of the neighborhood. Or cook down the remains, stir with honey, & use as face cream. SHABBAT SHALOM!
Up to 60,000 people have taken to the streets of Hong Kong demanding greater democratic rights, including the right to directly elect their political leader.
The march, led by pro-democracy lawmakers, began in Hong Kong's Victoria Park before snaking its way to the government's headquarters in the downtown Central district.
Tens of thousands wore "Hong Kong loves democracy" stickers in a protest which could embarrass Donald Tsang, Hong Kong Chief Executive, who took over from the unpopular Tung Chee-hwa this year.
The march was not comparable to a similar protest in July 2003, when an economic slump and disaffection with Hong Kong's leaders drew half a million people to a pro-democracy march.
But a package of electoral reforms pushed by the city's chief executive and Beijing have sparked a new wave of unrest in the former British colony.
Critics say the reform proposals do not go far enough and set no timetable for universal suffrage, which Hong Kong's post-colonial constitution, the Basic Law, allows for.
Hong Kong's chief executive is currently picked by a China-backed committee of 800 electors. Just half of the members of Hong Kong's 60-seat legislature are directly elected.
This is despite calls for a full democracy following the handover of Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997.
The administration's reform plan would double the size of the chief executive selection committee and add 10 seats to the Legislative Council, five of which would be directly elected.
But the pro-democracy camp have refused to endorse the proposals, and have said it will kill the proposal unless Mr Tsang offers a timetable or road map clearly stating when Hong Kong will become a full democracy.
"I just feel there are moments in one's life that when you have to stand up and be counted. And for me, this is one of those moments," Anson Chan, Hong Kong's former No 2 official, said.
"I believe democracy to be good for Hong Kong and in good time, when the time is ripe, it would also be good for my country."
A former security chief detained in the investigation into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination returned to prison Friday after two days in hospital for heart problems, a Lebanese security official said. Maj. Gen. Raymond Azar, the former chief of Lebanon's military intelligence who was rushed to hospital Wednesday, underwent a heart catheterization Thursday and was released Friday morning. He was taken back to the Roumieh prison in the suburbs of Beirut, where he has been confined since his arrest in August, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.
Azar is one of four Lebanese generals who were arrested on charges of being involved in the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri. All the generals were pro-Syrian and had occupied senior positions in Lebanon's security agencies until being forced to step down in the outcry that followed Hariri's murder. They were detained on the recommendation of the U.N. commission investigating the assassination, which issued an interim report in October that implicated the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services. The Lebanese government praised the report, but Syria rejected it.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will try to convince the head of an investigation into the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri to stay on after his mandate expires next month, Lebanon's prime minister said. "During a phone call between (Prime Minister Fuad) Siniora and Annan, (Annan) told the prime minister he would use every means possible to convince the magistrate to stay in his post," a statement from Siniora's office said, according to AFP.
German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis leads the UN investigation into the February assassination of al-Hariri but has said he will step down when his mandate runs out on 1 January. "My employer is my country, Germany. I have other tasks that are waiting for me," Mehlis said this past week.
US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton also urged that Mehlis stay on the job, Reuters reported. "We understand he (Mehlis) has extended his tenure once and he's in dangerous personal circumstances there," he said in reference to threats made against the prosecutor. In a letter to Annan on Thursday, Bolton said the United States wanted Mehlis to "continue in his current capacity."
"Otherwise you know they'll appoint some dipstick from Burkina Faso or Tonga or someplace like that, and the investigation will die on the vine. Which is what Pencilneck wants, of course."
"I am concerned that a wholesale change in the leadership of the commission would be exploited by the Syrian government to forestall their full and complete cooperation," he wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Very little is known about the first woman to become a suicide bomber for Al Qaeda in Iraq, except that she dressed as a man. Two weeks after a U.S.-backed operation to clean out the town of Tall Afar near the Syrian border in September, she put on the long white robe and checkered scarf that Arab men commonly wear in Iraqi desert towns. The clothes disguised her gender long enough for her to walk into a gathering of military recruits with no one taking much notice. The clothes also concealed the explosives strapped around her womb. "May God accept our sister among the martyrs," said a Web site linked to the organization of Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. She had defended "her faith and her honor." No name was given. But the bomb that blew apart that anonymous woman killed five men, maimed or wounded 30 more, and opened a new chapter not only in the war for Iraq but in the global struggle against terror.
Never before had any branch of Al Qaeda sent a woman on a suicide mission. Since female bombers first appeared in Lebanon two decades ago, their ranks have come mainly from secular Arab nationalist groups, from Kurdish rebels in Turkey and the non-Muslim Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighting the government of Sri Lanka. Only in the past few years did the Palestinian "army of roses" carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis, and the "black widows" strike at the enemies of Chechnya's rebels. Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Al Qaeda and its offshoots around the world held back. But as he has before, Zarqawi broke the taboos. His strategy is to create images of horror, "to look like he has more capability than he truly has," says Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the
Coalition forces spokesman in Baghdad. Zarqawi recruits where he can, he exploits whom he can and he attacks the softest of targets to get the peculiar kind of publicity he craves. Women are his new weapon of choice.
In October, Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed that a second female bomber, this time accompanied by her husband, killed herself attacking an American patrol in Mosul. And last week the world learned of the third: Muriel Degauque, 38, a fair-skinned Belgian from the grim rust-belt city of Charleroi near the French border. As a girl, she often ran away from home. As a woman, she had a succession of failed relationships with Muslim men: a Turk, an Algerian and finally a Belgian of Moroccan descent who followed the teachings of radical Salafists, similar to those of Al Qaeda. They went to live for at least three years in Morocco, and when she returned home she was fully veiled: alienated, lonely, in the thrall of a husband who consumed her entire world. Murielânow calling herself Myriamâ"couldn't have children," a spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor's office said last week. Even when she was near her parents, she rarely spoke to them. The last they heard from her was during the summer. On Nov. 9, she blew herself up attacking Iraqi police near the town of Baqubah. American troops gunned down her husband shortly after Myriam was killed.
That same night, Nov. 9, bombers hit three hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman. As scores of dead and wounded were still being counted, Al Qaeda in Iraq announced that a woman had been among the suicide attackers there, too. Zarqawi, once again, was publicizing his new approach. But what Zarqawi did not know was that the woman had failed to detonate her bomb.
Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi, 35, hid out for three nights in the Jordanian town of As-Salt, never removing the dud suicide belt concealed around her waist, until security agents tracked her down. It turned out that she had lost three brothers in the fight against the Americans, and had married her fellow bomber less than a week before she went on her suicide mission. The man was less a groom than a chaperone: according to Jordanian government sources, the marriage was never consummated. In a brief televised confession, al-Rishawi recounted how her bomb failedâbut her husband's did notâamid a Jordanian wedding party. "There were women, men and children," she said. "My husband is the one who organized everything. I know nothing else."
There will be more women launching more attacks, a fact that is provoking new and growing concern among U.S. officials. Until recently, many analysts in American government agencies saw the threat of women suicide bombers as a largely theoretical problem. Their best judgment was that "Al Qaeda Central"âthe close-knit organization around Osama bin Laden and ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiriâwould resist any effort to use women as homicidal martyrs. But after the incidents of the past few weeks, they are taking the threat of female Islamic terrorists, particularly suicide bombers, much more seriously, according to two U.S. counterterrorism officials who asked for anonymity because they were discussing intelligence matters.
Having seen the phenomenon spread suddenly to Iraq and Jordan, the U.S. officials worry that the plague will move still farther, with women suicide bombers carrying out attacks in Western Europe or the United States. The agencies are particularly concerned about the threat posed by "married couples," either real long-term partners or couples who have been joined together for no other purpose than a suicide mission.
If there's consolation, it's that the terrorist assets now known to exist were not used as effectively as they might have been. The Belgian woman Degauque, with her European Union passport and her northern European looks, could have gained easy access to soft targets in many Western countries. Instead, she blew herself up in Iraq.
But the real lesson of the Degauque bombing is to expect the unexpected. "The terrorists are quite aware of the profiles that exist, and they always change things just enough to throw them off," says Prof. Mia Bloom, author of "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror." They also aim to provoke. American soldiers in Iraq may become ever more suspicious about women, particularly pregnant women. But in traditional Muslim societies, the need to search women meticulouslyâ"invasively," as Bloom puts itâis sure to create popular anger. "It's a win-win proposition for the terrorists," says Bloom.
Yet the increasing use of women as weapons of holy war also challenges the view of the world that many jihadists thought they'd set out to defend.
"Chivalry" is not a word normally associated with terrorism, at least not in the West. But the world in which Osama bin Laden would like to live, and the vision that inspires so many of his followers, is literally about days of old when knights were boldâand fair maidens were kept behind veils, their virtue protected, their lives entirely controlled by men. Since the 1990s, bin Laden has cast his fight as one against "crusaders," and the most important ideological tract by his right-hand man, Zawahiri, bears the title "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner."
While gender roles are evolving in many of today's societies, Al Qaeda has hoped to freeze them in a time of feudal traditions. Many of the organization's leaders have been intellectuals, doctors, lawyers and engineers who are perfectly at home with other aspects of modernity. But they differ violently with the West about the way women should be allowed to participate in daily life, viewing females as chattel in some cases, as revered mothers in others and almost always as icons to be protected from outside influences.
In jihadist propaganda, the invasion and violation of Muslim lands is intimately tied to the violation of Muslim women, either directly or through the corrupting role of Western values and attitudes. In its 1988 covenant, the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas laid out its view of "the Muslim woman" as "the maker of men" and the educator of future generationsâthe person who prepares future fighters. "The enemies have realized the importance of her role," says the fundamentalist manifesto. "They consider that if they are able to direct and bring her up the way they wish, far from Islam, they would have won the battle."
In fact, many Arab and Muslim men, not just jihadists, see foreign occupation as a form of emasculation. (Just weeks after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, Qasim Alsabti, the cosmopolitan owner of a Baghdad art gallery, told NEWSWEEK the U.S. occupation was "part of a plan to steal our soulsâto castrate us.") Years under Israeli rule have broken down the structures of Palestinian families. "The image of the strong, providing father who can protect his women and children has been badly damaged and the male role has been eroded away," says Dr. Eyad Sarraj, director of Gaza Community Mental Health. That opens the way for radical groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to teach young boys that the way to be real men is to be religiousâand to be ready to die.
The recruitment of men and boys for radical Islamic groups exploits not only their anxieties and fears but their basic sexual needs and desires. For years, well before anyone had heard of Osama bin Laden, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood exploited the frustrations and confusion of people whose patriarchal societies were being challenged by urbanization and the inroads of Western ideas. In Cairo, where middle-class tradition demands that a man offer his wife a fully owned and furnished apartment before a marriage can be performed, or consummated, men often have to wait until they are in their 30s. The brotherhood preaches that piety is far more important than kitchen appliances, and couples can wed earlier if they follow the proper teachings. When the Iranian-backed Hizbullah militia started the systematic recruitment of holy warriors to fight the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the early 1980s, its mullahs approved so-called mut'aa marriages, involving contracts of matrimony that could be almost as short as one-night stands.
Muslim men who come from traditional conservative backgrounds, or yearn for them, find themselves surrounded by the temptations of Western media. Increasing numbers actually find themselves living in the West, but on the margins of society and out of sync with its mores. The young men in the outer-city ghettos of France who recently rampaged for three weeks of nihilistic violence were, for the most part, brought up amid a confusing mix of their immigrant parents' conservative traditions, the casual sex of the hip-hop culture they see on the streets and in school, and denigrating pornography on the Internet. A women's organization called Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Passive Victims) has fought for years against a plague of gang rapes and horrific "honor crimes" in these neighborhoods. Last month, when a girl from a Muslim background in a Paris suburb refused to go out with a Pakistani immigrant, he doused her with gasoline and set her aflame. She remains in an induced coma with burns over 60 percent of her body.
The pressures of sexual frustration in this life and the lure of sexual as well as spiritual rewards in the next are exploited as part of a cynical spiel by jihadist recruiters looking for boys and men to be suicide bombers. Hizbullah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad among the Palestinians, and the various incarnations of Al Qaeda have all played on Muslim teachings that promise 72 hourisâvirginal beings with black eyes and alabaster skinâto attend the martyr's desires in paradise.
The directions for physical and spiritual cleansing that Muhammad Atta gave out to his fellow hijackers before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States advise them to "feel complete tranquillity, because the time between you and your marriage [in heaven] is very short." Atta's own personal will, written in 1996, is a study in obsessive carnality. "Women must not be present at my funeral or go to my grave at any later date," he wrote. "He who washes my body around my genitals should wear gloves so that I am not touched there." In the mind of such a man, suicidal sacrifice is a path to ecstasy. There would have been no place in Atta's Qaeda for the women suicide bombers of today.
What changed? The simplest answer is that al Qaeda's core organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its avant-garde in Iraq need more recruits. Jordanian researcher Hassan Abu Hanieh, who knew Zarqawi personally, says the terrorist leader is goading Muslim men. Before the attacks by women began, a Web site often linked to Zarqawi posted a message signed by him. "Are there no men, so that we have to recruit women?" he asked at the conclusion. "Isn't it a shame for the sons of my own nation that our sisters ask to conduct martyrdom operations while men are preoccupied with life?"
Zarqawi's sense of urgency may be fueled by the fact that he's on the run. "Since the first of this year, we have taken out 117 members of the leadership of the Zarqawi network, tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3," General Lynch told the press last week. But the need for recruits could also reflect a movement that is expanding, or aiming to expand, in both size and scope.
Of course, Zarqawi is also meeting a demandâby women. "The recourse to women doesn't happen at the start," says Haizam Amirah Fernandez, a Madrid-based analyst. "It comes when the battle escalates to all sectors of society. It happens after men become activists in guerrilla groups, fight and die, perhaps in suicide attacks. Then the widows or family members âseek vengeance, or want to give their life in the same cause."
Al-Rishawi, the failed suicide bomber in Jordan, had lost three brothers and her sister's husband to the war with the Americans. Some women who first shocked and terrified Israel in 2002 were motivated by the deaths of family and friends. But the most striking cult of vengeance, setting an example for other jihadist organizations, is the "black widows" of Chechnya. Although they have attracted relatively scant attention in the Westâtheir targets are mostly Russianâtheir example among heroines of jihad is an important factor in the spread of suicidal terror.
The tales of these Chechen women are as much about tawdry victimization as battlefield heroics. They come from a rugged society where an old tradition, made worse after years of gunslinging war and anarchy, allows men to kidnap the bride of their choice. The kidnappers can settle disputes with the woman's family in cash, or with violence, according to Lida Yusupova of the Memorial Human Rights Center in Grozny. But once she's been taken, she's unlikely to find another husband. "No intelligent, nice young man in Chechnya would marry a nonvirgin girl," says Yusupova.
Some Chechen women who have lost husbands or sons in the war want to live only long enough to take revenge. The first attack by a "black widow," in the summer of 2000, killed 27 members of the Russian Special Forces. Then the spectral, silent presence of 18 "widows" during the deadly hostage siege of a Moscow theater in 2002 heightened their mystique. Over a four-month period in 2003, Chechen women carried out six out of seven suicide attacks on Russian targets, killing 165 people. Women bombers allegedly brought down two Russian airliners last year, killing all 90 passengers and crew.
Yet it's hard to say these Chechen women, whatever their grim accomplishments, have won respect in their own brutal world. The one detailed chronicle that exists of how a would-be martyr was trained is the confession of Zarema Muzhakhoyeva, who was 23 when she was caught two years ago. She had been kidnapped by a man 20 years older than she, a metal trader, and was pregnant with her first child when he was shot. ("Something went wrong between him and his competitors.") After some petty thievery, Muzhakhoyeva became a disgrace to her family. Her child was taken away. She volunteered for a suicide mission and was given training, a target and a bombâbut decided in the end that she didn't want to die, and gave herself up. In a long prison interview with the newspaper Izvestiya, Muzhakhoyeva talked about her male handlers almost like a streetwalker talking about her pimps: "Rustam treated me well, always told me jokes, never talked about death with me. On the one hand, he trained me to be a suicide bomber. On the other hand, we laughed like crazy when we saw each other. Because of that I was under the impression that maybe I wouldn't even have to blow myself up, that somehow I would survive. Rustam's wife hated me."
In the Middle East, Palestinian women have been among the ranks of fighters and terrorists attacking Israel since at least the 1970s, but the first to become a suicide bomber was Wafa Idris, a 27-year-old ambulance worker, who killed an Israeli civilian and wounded 140 in January 2002. In death she became a celebrity. More women and girls volunteered to die for a branch of Yasir Arafat's secular Fatah organization. He talked of an "army of roses," and the leadership of the radical religious organizations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were taken by surprise. Sheik Yassin, the crippled spiritual leader of Hamas, opposed the use of women as bombers. There were more than enough men, he said.
Still, Palestinian women clamored to fight and die to try to free their homeland. They argued that since the days of the Prophet Muhammad, women warriors have battled for the banner of Islam. Yassin and other religious scholars eventually gave ground, but only after debating how long a woman on a suicide mission could be away without a chaperoneâbefore she died.
Not until January of last year did a woman from Hamas carry out an operation. Reem Riashi, a mother of two, recorded a videotape before her mission, saying she hoped her "organs would be scattered in the air" and her soul "would reach paradise." Would there be 72 houris to greet her there? No. The religious scholars who endorse suicide attacks have described an alternative paradise for women. Thauria Hamur, a 26-year-old captured by the Israelis before she could set off a bomb in May 2002, told NEWSWEEK in a prison interview that women martyrs would "become the purest and most beautiful form of angel at the highest level possible in heaven."
In a letter written from hiding by Ayman Al-Zawahiri last summer, and meant for Zarqawi to read in Iraq, the Egyptian physician paused to talk about the women in his life. His "favorite wife," he wrote, was crushed by the concrete of a collapsed ceiling in an American bombing. "She went on calling for aid to lift the stone block off her chest until she breathed her last, may God have mercy on her and accept her among the martyrs," Zawahiri wrote in the letter, which was intercepted and disseminated by American intelligence. "As for my young daughter, she was afflicted by a cerebral hemorrhage, and she continued for a whole day suffering in pain until she expired. And to this day I do not know the location of the graves of my wife, my son, my daughter."
Such is the price of war, said Zawahiri. Yet the core leadership of Al Qaeda remains divided, it seems, about whether women should enter the struggle against the "satanic power" of the United States as combatants, much less as suicide bombers. Zarqawi has made his own decision. But a U.S. counterterrorism official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing intelligence matters, says that until authorities begin to see Saudi women sacrificing themselves in attacks, they will remain skeptical about the extent to which Al Qaeda Central has embraced the idea of female bombers. NEWSWEEK's investigation suggests, however, that those barriers are gradually falling.
A Taliban source, who for his own protection did not want to be further identified, says Zawahiri is an ardent supporter of both the education of women and their participation in military activities. Before the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Zawahiri tried to persuade Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to allow girls to have some basic schooling and combat training. The Taliban leader would not hear of it. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, Zawahiri raised the subject again. He even brought up the example of a famous Afghan woman named Malalai who fought against the British in the 19th century. But Mullah Omar âdismissed the idea once more, saying that the presence of women at the front or among soldiers would lead to a breakdown in discipline. After the meeting, the Taliban leader's private secretary warned Zawahiri not to raise the matter again, but Al Qaeda continued to hold military training for women at bases near the Jalalabad and Kandahar airports, according to this source, and kept it secret from the one-eyed leader of the Taliban.
Then, in late 2001, an aging mujahed named Sufi Abdul Aziz Baba was given the task of caring for the widows of 22 Qaeda fighters. As casualties mounted among the men, the number of women in the group continued to grow. On the run from the Americans, they hid out in a compound in the southeastern province of Paktika. The womenâUzbeks, Chechens and Arabs were given Kalashnikovs to defend themselves, and soon began training within the compound walls, out of sight of the men. Forced to flee again across the border into Pakistan, they fought a three-hour gun battle against the forces of an Afghan warlord who had gone over to the American side. A year later, to avoid an offensive by Pakistani troops, the women fled again to a new hideout near the Afghan border, Baba told NEWSWEEK. All the while, they continued military training. Last year a new Pakistani offensive forced these women, now well versed in the arts of killing, to disperse again along the Afghan frontier. There, says Baba, they are supported by a tightly woven network of jihadist organizations and family ties.
Indeed, in these remote lands Al Qaeda's fighters and their wives and widows often seem to be part of one extended family. Frequently the sisters and daughters of a holy warrior will marry one of his comrades in arms. The widows of slain guerrillas commonly wed one of their late husband's jihadist relatives. Although these networks appear isolated, they could form the enduring core of Al Qaeda in the future, or a new incarnation of it. And some of the women among them are now more than ready to take up arms, or to carry bombs, whenever the organization needs them. Or whenever the men are gone, or get out of the way.
As Mia Bloom writes in a forthcoming book, "The underlying message conveyed by female bombers is: Terrorism has moved beyond a fringe phenomenon and insurgents are all around you." But that is only the message for their enemies. In their own world, their willingness to carry out suicide attacks means something different. Among Palestinians, for instance, "the idea of violence empowering women has spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip," writes Bloom. Suicide bombing is changing the rules of deference and subservience that have dominated the traditional societyâa strange path to liberation for women hidden behind veils and burqas.
Can the west offer something better? Something to defuse the explosive anger of jihadist widows bent on vengeance, or young women craving freedom from foreign occupation for themselves and their people? In the comfort of Wash-ington, the answer would seem an obvious yes: education, jobs, equal rights. But in the dusty alleys of Tall Afar, the arid hills of Waziristan, the rubble of Grozny, the walled-off villages of the West Bank and maybe even the dilapidated rows of factory housing in Belgium, the answer may not always be so clear. In a television interview last week, after the people of Belgium learned to their horror that their Muriel had died as a suicide bomber in Iraq, Glenn Audenaert, director of the federal police, said he was not surprised to find such a woman in the ranks of people who "embraced the ideology of Al Qaeda." "It's a new generation, and, perversely, emancipation allows women to aspire to martyrdom," he said.
Finding another answer that is rightâa variety of answers, in fact, for many unique societiesâwill help make the difference between an endless war of terror with "insurgents all around" and a fight that is won, with a peace that endures.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/04/2005 00:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Answer: The Women of Al Qaeda
Question: What's a shorter photo spread than the Women of Burma?
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.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will inflame the transatlantic row over America's alleged torture of terror suspects in secret jails by telling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other European officials to 'back off'.
LAHORE: Catholic Archbishop Lawrence Saldhana in a faxed message to Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Saturday expressed concern on the prevailing religious tension in Sangla Hill. Saldhanaâs letter stated that some religious circles were fanning hatred among the area people after the November 11 and 12 incidents in which an unruly Muslim mob vandalised churches and Christian property. The archbishopâs letter expressed concern at recent press statements by the 
Iraq's most influential Shia figure, Grand Ayat Allah 
A gruff security chief known for his pragmatic dealings with Israel was the top vote getter in primaries of the ruling Fatah Party in Hebron, according to preliminary results released on Saturday, capping a rocky week of voting throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The victory by 
The success of Palestinian elections in January could hinge on whether Israel allows people to vote freely in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said. Parliamentary elections will be held on 25 January, but officials visiting Rome said it was not clear if Israel would allow Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem, which is under Israeli control. Abbas, at the end of a two-day visit to Italy, said on Saturday: "If we can't hold democratic elections in Jerusalem it will be difficult to do it in the other zones. At that point Israel will be responsible for the block of the democratic process in Palestine. 
A former security chief detained in the investigation into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination returned to prison Friday after two days in hospital for heart problems, a Lebanese security official said. Maj. Gen. 
German prosecutor 
US Ambassador to the United Nations 
