Hi there, !
Today Fri 10/10/2003 Thu 10/09/2003 Wed 10/08/2003 Tue 10/07/2003 Mon 10/06/2003 Sun 10/05/2003 Sat 10/04/2003 Archives
Rantburg
531719 articles and 1856013 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 52 articles and 329 comments as of 15:58.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Local News       
Yasser on his deathbed?
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
4 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
2 00:00 Not Mike Moore [] 
10 00:00 Atrus [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
6 00:00 Bomb-a-rama []
5 00:00 Super Hose []
13 00:00 Super Hose []
3 00:00 Super Hose [1]
8 00:00 Alaska Paul []
4 00:00 Charles [1]
8 00:00 Frank G []
3 00:00 CrazyFool []
1 00:00 .com []
3 00:00 Charles []
Page 2: WoT Background
6 00:00 Tresho [1]
0 []
1 00:00 Frank G []
0 []
4 00:00 Not Mike Moore []
0 []
16 00:00 Anonymous []
3 00:00 Bomb-a-rama []
23 00:00 Jarhead [1]
2 00:00 Super Hose []
17 00:00 Jarhead []
3 00:00 Kelvin Zero [1]
6 00:00 Not Mike Moore []
5 00:00 Super Hose []
17 00:00 Fred [1]
2 00:00 OldSpook []
5 00:00 TerrorHunter4Ever []
0 []
2 00:00 Charles []
6 00:00 liberalhawk []
7 00:00 Bomb-a-rama []
21 00:00 Igs []
2 00:00 Alaska Paul []
Page 3: Non-WoT
6 00:00 Jeff [1]
13 00:00 tu3031 [1]
6 00:00 Fred []
8 00:00 Flaming Sword []
0 []
3 00:00 True German Ally []
5 00:00 Rafael []
9 00:00 Ed []
14 00:00 Jarhead []
3 00:00 Superhose [1]
2 00:00 liberalhawk []
4 00:00 Steve []
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
7 00:00 Joe []
12 00:00 Jarhead []
16 00:00 Bulldog []
3 00:00 Frank G []
Arabia
Editorial: Against Suicide Bombings
Unsigned editorial in Arab News. I can see why it's unsigned...
Israel's attack on what it said was an Islamic Jihad military training camp in Syria sends two messages to the world. The first, on behalf of the United States, is the clear signal that the Bush administration will do everything it can to keep Syria and Iran in its sights as the so-called war on terror continues. It is a message that has been heard, loud and clear, in the Arab world.
I don't hear a lot of Arab governments howling to protect Syria yet...
However, the second message, though indirect, should be taken on board with equal concern: That suicide attacks on Israeli civilian targets are politically and militarily counterproductive.
Starting to sink in, is it? Not wrong or anything, just counterproductive...
How much reflection has there been in the Arab media on the fact that three Israeli Arabs were among the 19 killed in the restaurant in Haifa on Saturday? How much acknowledgement has there been that the city targeted is one of the few in Israel where Arabs and Jews coexist peacefully? And where are the editorials asking what the three children and the baby who were blown to pieces there did to deserve such a terrible fate?
Rantissi says he wants to kill them all...
Is there any reflection on the fact that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is now as a result of the bombing in a weaker position than ever, and that the sizeable minority of ordinary Americans who support Palestinian calls for a viable state are less likely than ever to raise their voices in support of the cause?
The sizeable minority who favor a Paleostinian state is much larger than the minority that actively supports the Paleostinians...
Arab News has said it before, but along with all decent-minded people we must continue to say it loudly and unambiguously: Suicide bombings are morally repugnant, are totally against Islam and all human decency.
Wow. Took my breath away. See why it's unsigned?
The suicide bombings are part and parcel of the impotence and desperation that in so many ways characterizes the Arab condition. Many say that it is precisely because of this impotence that suicide bombers are forced to carry out their attacks. But the opposite is true: Each suicide bombing deals another blow to the already immeasurably weakened Arab position.
Even managed to work in some cause->effect...
Let's face it: The Palestinians and the wider Arab world have no meaningful strategy for dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that is why extremism fills the vacuum. If as much planning and effort had been put into forging a strategy for mass civil disobedience, for example, and promoting genuine internal reform and development as has been put into the recruitment, training and encouragement of suicide bombers, the Palestinians would not only be in a much stronger position at the negotiating table but would also have much more vocal and tangible support from the international community.
Bingo. But they go for the corpses...
That Israel was able to attack a camp just a few miles outside Damascus, without having to worry about the risks involved or the possibility of reprisals, is a clear indication of Arab impotence.
Bashar's been shown to be more mouth than artillery...
Will the Arabs ever see the link between self-defeating act of suicide bombing and their self-destructive activities on the diplomatic level whenever they attempt to address the Middle East conflict?
Probably not. If they ever do, they problem will be solved within a few years.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/07/2003 01:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is step. However in Arab media it is common to have two versions: one in English calling to peace and one in Arabic with an entirely differnt content.
Posted by: JFM || 10/07/2003 1:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah. Someone has got to translate this into the language that terrorists and their supporters understand:

"Les attaques de Israel sur....

Anyone around here who can write French?

Of course it couldn't hurt to see this in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and a few others too.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 10/07/2003 4:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Holy Shit! Made me swallow my gum! Fred, are you writing anonymously for the Green Truth, now? Wow.

While JFM & TT are correct in their comments as well, it is a no-shit Thunderbolt of the Coming Apolcalypse for this to make it into print - in any language - in the AN. It doesn't matter that there is some minor quibbling and prevarication, this is a true moment in the sun for a major Arab publication:
More Reality than Phantasy.

Mestunned! Now, let's see if it means anything, as truth lies in acts, not words. Thx, Fred!
Posted by: .com || 10/07/2003 4:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Uh, sorry, but this means about as much as a bucket of spit poured into the ocean. Not only is it in the wrong language, but it's in a paper owned by the Soddy Roils -- and they have a desperate need to appear moderate.

I'll believe it when they go a year of Fridays without asking Allah to destroy the Jews.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/07/2003 7:02 Comments || Top||

#5  RC - Just FYI: I definitely agree that actions are all that matter - as I said in closing...

However, I read the Green Truth everday for almost 3 years in S.A. and never saw them openly admit that Arabs were "impotent" (or anything akin to such an admission) nor did they ever imply that they had no strategy, for that is a direct criticism of the leadership. Though the info in this piece is obvious to us, this is well beyond anything I've ever seen before. Any item that might imply a negative perception of the Royals, for example, had a corresponding plausible (by Saudi reckoning, anyway) Non-Royal scapegoat identified.

I find this language to be unique for the AN.

I'll join you in waiting for the actions necessary to address the points raised. I've got the chips & beer - can you cover the salsa and wine coolers? ;^)
Posted by: .com || 10/07/2003 9:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Suicide bombings are morally repugnant, are totally against Islam and all human decency.


Nice sentiment, but as long as an Arab must remain anonymous to write them, things won't change.
Posted by: Dar || 10/07/2003 10:26 Comments || Top||

#7  signed: Mohammed Abbas
Posted by: Frank G || 10/07/2003 11:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Things will not change overnight, and it is rather dispiriting that a sensible piece such as this has to be submitted unsigned, but the fact that these sentiments are being given expression in the Arab Press is hopeful. The acknowlegement that a culture that venerates the murderous nihilism of suicide bombers is just reveling in its impotence is long overdue. Here's to hoping that these ideas get some traction.
Posted by: af || 10/07/2003 12:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Half Full - no more suicide bombing
Half Empty - Non-suicide bombings and missile/machine gun attacks on school buses continue.
Posted by: Superhose || 10/07/2003 12:25 Comments || Top||

#10  Great Kerath's ghost! Even anonymous, that's still a lot of guts! Way 2 go, anonymous Arab!
Posted by: Atrus || 10/07/2003 14:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Examining Wahhabism crucial to fighting terrorists
Column by Jon Kyl, U.S. Senator from Arizona:
Recent hearings by my Subcommittee on Terrorism have exposed the growing dominance of a radical sect of Islam in the United States. This sect, commonly referred to as Wahhabism, preaches jihad against Christian, Jews, and Muslims who don't toe the Wahhabi line. All 19 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were followers of Wahhabism, as is Osama bin Laden. This violent perversion of Islamic faith has been responsible for terrorist attacks against innocent civilians - both Muslim and non-Muslim - all over the world. As a movement, Wahhabism has established publishing operations, schools, and charities in many countries. The self-labeled "educational outreach" of this movement - financed largely by the wealth of Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabism is the official, and only state, religion - foments jihad and a fundamentalist theology to young people internationally, including in the United States.
I hope Senator Kyl's not just discovering the dangers of wahhabism. I mean, it's been two years...
And there have been a increasing number of instances in which Wahhabists have successfully penetrated key U.S. institutions, such as the military and our prison system. As several recent media reports have noted, the two groups that accredit and recommend Muslim chaplains to the military - the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and an organization under the umbrella of the American Muslim Foundation -- have long been suspected of links to terrorist organizations by the federal government. The Graduate School and another group accused of ties to Islamic extremists -- the Islamic Society of North America -- also refer Muslim clerics to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Just this week, one of the key architects of the U.S. military's chaplain program, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was arrested and charged with an illegal relationship with Libya, long a state sponsor of terror. Federal investigators also have detained a Muslim clergymen who was once stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Captain James Yee -- being investigated for potential ties to al-Qaeda. The New York State prison system promoted a Muslim cleric to a position that allowed him to supervise the hiring and firing of all prison chaplains. He was later removed from his job when officials discovered he was an al-Qaeda sympathizer who incited prisoners against America. Jose Padilla, a terrorist accused of trying to build a "dirty bomb" to unleash in the United States, was exposed to radical Islam in the U.S. prison system. Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber," was converted to fundamentalist Islam while serving time in a British prison.
Al-Fuqra specifically recruits blacks in the prison system...
The Pentagon is now undertaking a review of its Muslim chaplain selection program, which has accredited clerics since the early days of the Clinton administration. This review is welcome, but long overdue. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons should follow suit. On Oct. 14, I will chair a hearing through the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security that will analyze the procedures used by the military and prison system to recruit Muslims, particularly focusing on the cleric program. We will also examine whether the instances of Wahhabi infiltration at key U.S. institutions may be part of a larger pattern. We hope to hear from government witnesses on steps they are taking to confront these challenges. In response to our Senate inquiry, groups such as the Saudi-backed Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) (whose terror-related activities are being scrutinized by my subcommittee as well as the federal government) have been quick to accuse investigators of Muslim bias. Yet three of CAIR's top leaders were arrested this year on terror-related charges. CAIR declined an invitation to appear before my subcommittee to answer questions.
You'd think they'd jump at a chance to defend themselves.
Falsely charging "bigotry" is simply not an acceptable response to serious allegations of criminal activity. Terrorists should not be allowed to disguise their hateful, violent activities under the banner of religious freedom. The fear of being falsely accused of prejudice, coupled with political correctness, may be part of the reason we got into the situation we're in right now.
Agreed
America is a welcoming nation, and Americans are respectful of all faiths. It's time we confront the evil that has distorted and victimized the peace-loving, mainstream Muslim community. In the Senate, we intend to do just that.
Think this hearing will get the media attention it deserves? Me neither.
Posted by: Steve || 10/07/2003 11:03:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Examine it on a slab, after we blow it's brains out.
Posted by: mojo || 10/07/2003 11:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Can't the Senate supoena these orginazations and force the to appear or face contempt charges?
Posted by: Raptor || 10/07/2003 11:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Kyl for President.
Posted by: af || 10/07/2003 12:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Only a two year phase lag. Like sending and receiving radio signals between earth and a nearby galaxy. It is about bloody time some senator gets it. We are going to take more hits if they don't. Sheesh!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/07/2003 21:04 Comments || Top||


Guantanamo spy cases
Op-Ed by Robert Spencer:
The Muslim organizations that certify chaplains for the U.S. military have come under renewed scrutiny since the arrest of Army Chaplain Yousef Yee and two Muslim translators who worked with al Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay — and that's all to the good. The Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS) and the American Muslim Foundation (AMF) were already being investigated, and it may well be that somehow Mr. Yee picked up his radical Islam from some contact with these groups. But so far another possibility has been overlooked, perhaps because its political incorrectness quotient is positively off the scale: The possibility that Yee was sincere when he denounced the September 11 attacks, and that his mind was changed by the Guantanamo prisoners themselves.
Likely a combination: he got the basics from the former, the reinforcement from the prisoners...
According to military intelligence veteran and former Guantanamo translator Bill Tierney, the prisoners at Guantanamo would frequently ask Muslim American translators and other servicemen how they could accept the infidel's money. Mr. Tierney said that the prisoners "would know who the Muslims were, who spoke Arabic" among the American military personnel, "and would do everything to push their buttons." Including using the Koran to convince them of the legitimacy of violent jihad? And using the Koranic command that Muslims must not fight against other Muslims (Sura 4:93) to assail the legitimacy of Muslims serving in the American armed forces?
To be expected...
We may never know. So far, these questions have been too hot for the military even to ask. The official position on terrorism seems to be that Islam is a religion of peace, terrorists have hijacked it and that's that.
Gawd, I'm sick of that phrase. They didn't "hijack" a religion. It's a totalitarian movement that takes religion as its starting point and has gained a lot of followers. Mussolini and Hitler didn't "hihack" socialism...
The possibility that American Muslims — even West Point grads like Mr. Yee — could fall prey to the same hijacking is off their radar screen.
Then they'd better get it on the screen. If you're in a battle ideas, it's best to come armed...
To the American officials in charge of Guantanamo, the words "Islamic" and "terrorism" are so far from residing in the same sentence that Mr. Tierney told me that he was forbidden during his time there from compiling a list of Koranic verses relating to jihad, despite the fact that those who were interrogating the prisoners specifically asked for such a list. And, despite the fact that such verses appear in abundance in the writings of Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslims around the world today. These are the writings which are being used as you read this to recruit terrorists on a global scale, and which were most likely used to recruit each of the Guantanamo prisoners into al Qaeda.
That paragraph had better be exaggeration...
Who forbade Tierney from making this list? The American Army captain in charge of all the translators. This captain, an Iranian Muslim who came to the United States in his teens, claimed to have converted from Islam to Mormonism. But Mr. Tierney told me that he behaved just like the other Muslims at Guantanamo, faithfully complained to officials about any anti-Muslim remark, and even prevented Mr. Tierney from using the Internet after he went online to gather open source data to aid in an investigation. He shut down Mr. Tierney's Koranic research by ordering the site manager (a Somali Muslim) to tell Tierney to desist. This problem is bigger than Guantanamo. In my book Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West, I provide evidence of widespread anti-Americanism among American Muslims. Muhammad Faheed, a 23-year-old who lived in America from the age of 3, expressed these sentiments well when he told a Muslim Student Association meeting in New York: "We are not Americans, we are Muslims. . . . The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!"
That's not a "hijacking" of a religion. It's a totalitarian revolutionary movement...
Are any Muslims with similar sentiments now serving with American forces in Iraq? There's no way to tell. No one dares to ask. Mr. Tierney also recounted to me an incident from his service in Saudi Arabia, when he drove an American Muslim civilian translator to a local mosque one Friday. Mr. Tierney stood outside listening to the sermon, which was carried to the overflow crowd by loudspeakers: "It is the duty of all Muslims," cried the preacher, "to fight against Israel and those who support Israel!" This translator, Mr. Tierney said, worked for senior Air Force personnel, translating sensitive material — but the American government could not and did not ask him where he went to mosque. We are simply to assume that that sermon made no impression on the translator whatsoever. The Guantanamo espionage cases demonstrate how important it is to root out politically correct wishful thinking about the causes of radical Islam. If there is any lesson to be drawn from the Guantanamo spy scandal, it is that the government's refusal to acknowledge the true dimensions of the threat from Islamic radicalism could come at a cost far greater than anyone has yet calculated.
This PC "religion of peace" stance is going to bite us in the ass unless somebody wakes up real soon.
Posted by: Steve || 10/07/2003 10:44:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is a good BBC article about the necessity of checking the translations that the suspects in Gitmo provided. Fudged translations would be another indicator of guilt and might demonstrate how closely the spies coordinated with themsleves and outside agents.
Posted by: Superhose || 10/07/2003 10:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmm must be Bill Clinton's fault somehow....Herr Rove?
Posted by: Not Mike Moore || 10/07/2003 23:22 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
52[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

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

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2003-10-07
  Yasser on his deathbed?
Mon 2003-10-06
  Azam Tariq late!
Sun 2003-10-05
  Israel bombs IJ target in Syria
Sat 2003-10-04
  20 dead in Haifa boom
Fri 2003-10-03
  Suspected Saddam executioner caught
Thu 2003-10-02
  Pakistan kills 12 al Qaeda
Wed 2003-10-01
  Senate Panel OKs Bush $87B Iraq Plan
Tue 2003-09-30
  Jug time for teenage exploding Islamic hookers
Mon 2003-09-29
  AMC's Alamoudi jugged
Sun 2003-09-28
  Afghan Constitution Proposes Muslim State
Sat 2003-09-27
  Guilty plea in Portland
Fri 2003-09-26
  25 bad guyz arrested in Ramallah
Thu 2003-09-25
  Qaeda negotiating with Yemen
Wed 2003-09-24
  Toe tag for al-Rimi!
Tue 2003-09-23
  Izzat Ibrahim negotiating surrender

Better than the average link...



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.
34.229.173.107
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (10)    WoT Background (23)    Non-WoT (12)    Local News (4)    (0)