News from Eurabia

E Timor police 'torture suspects'

2006-04-20T01:40:00.000-07:00

The US-based group Human Rights Watch says it has heard dozens of credible accounts of torture and beatings by police in East Timor. In a report issued on Wednesday, the group calls on the East Timorese government to take urgent action to prevent such abuse becoming routine. The former Portuguese colony was ruled by Indonesia for nearly 24 years before a UN-sponsored referendum in 1999.
East Timorese police chief Paulo Martins denied the torture charges. "We treat our prisoners finely and in line with procedures," the Associated Press news agency quotes him as saying. He urged Human Rights Watch to send him proof of abuse.

The case of the Mohhamed cartoons

2006-02-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

We are living nowadays great transformations: social, cultural and even, philosophical and religious, one. Yes, philosophical and religious. In the XXth century there was a fierce fight bteween the totalitarians whether they were from right or left, being the wildest fight in all Human History. 156 million people died, in a fight to exterminate the opposition. Regrettably, the persecution continues in some countries even nowadays.
Precisely one of the most important sides of the persecution of the disidents is rightly linked to the religious persecution, because for the totalitarians there is nothing beyond themselves or the ideology they think they represent. Once and again all the totalitarians have based their existence in that rocambolesque idea without taking into account that reality is so complex and varied that cannot be contained in a filosofical theory or religious belief for all people, because then we would be killing one of the very best makings of the whole Universe, whether it was made by God or Nature: the varied species it contains. That's the reason why all the totalitarians insist in forcing people to wear uniforms, not only for those citizens whose jobs require them to wear it, but for all. They think that killing the physical variety are going to destroy also the intelectual one.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for all the others, the ideological variety does not die with that physical uniformity, but it just blooms with vigor, even if it's condemned to oblivion by the traditional media or other information methods. But, that fact, what can be at first, considered paradoxical, it's no longer when we just think a little bit about it: the human being, when it's confronted with its own reality, to its own speciality and conscience of being -as a permanent state- a unique human being, that is never going to exist again, understands that, he confronts the Hydra of totalitarism, just efectively taking into account his/her own individuality, even though he can be destroyed; or, he is destroyed, condemning him to be only a mere robot, in service of the thinking conscience of other one. Because it would be this last one who will think for him, having self-denied that possibility for ever or till he choses the other way.
All the XVIIIth and XIXth Revolutions intended to show the unique nature of each human being. That is why, the votum censitarium was rejected from all countries, just defending equality and so, that the ideas of each human being could be different and original, wherever they are held by the majority or not.
But nowadays it looks like that those discoveries of the Revolutions that closed a terrible age are misunderstood and so rejected. Even there are people that wanted blasphemy to be a crime and freedom of expresion to be reduced -and so abolished. The reason is that there is supposed discrimination just because their religion is critisized.
One of the first laws that the Spanish Parliament passed in 1978 during the Transition to Democracy was the one who abolished two crimes: blasphemy and adultery. The reason is simple: any Law student in the fisrt year is explained the difference between three types of laws that are governing our lives: social -whose sanction is only social-, religious -whose sanctions are only in the internal side of the human being- and lastly the ones who conform each Country's Laws.
Taking into account this note, and the other about the variety and diversity of the human beings, each one of them will develop their conscience in the manner that they are due, after their circumstances, character, etc. Even if that human being is gathering others for the rites of their religion, the beliefs of that human being are only known by himself and God.
But if there is no freedom there would be no real religion: not only in Christian religion (if God is Love and Love is Free, then you cannot believe in God if you cannot believe in Him freely), but in all religions, because that implies a personal relation with God, as I have said before.
That is why the cartoons are so important (you can read about them here: : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). The objet of the "discussion" consists in whether somebody -that does not believe in a concrete God- can or not just joke about -for me the cartoons are not very irreverent, except perhaps the one in which Mohammad has a bomb as turbant-, or he must respect that God with the same adoration that their own believers. Even not to critisize it. That is only a U-turn to inferno: the inferno of the Old Regime and to an Inquisition even worse than the original.
Because religion is at the beginnig of a lot of ideologies -if we understand them as the result of the interconexion of ideas in a logic system based in which we organise our life- and so, if the religion is not critisized then, the ideology and the religion in which it's based is not going to evolve in time. Looks like that, taking aside the political backgroung (see The Astute Blogger), some Muslims are frightened to a rational critic to their religion, just because that would lead some to change God or to lose completely the faith in any God. That is the reason why the more extremist positions are held in the West: in a part of the world where not all the things are regulated, there are a lot of things that they can decide by themselves. And even, if some Western people that frightened by the responsability that the fredom brings, convert to Islam, some of the Islamic inmigrants may be just temptated to try what's life like when not everything is ruled, even how the married people have to be dressed when maintaining sexual relations.
So Imams must once and again recur to the Paradise and the 72 huris to retain young people -when even the period of being boy-friend and girl-friend is forbidden. And so the task of convincing them of committing suicide for Allah, to have the booty of huries is less heavy. This hiperregulation cannot be but a sign of complete lack of trust and confidence in the intelligence, maturity and subsequent responsability as an adult person. Stefania from the blog Unpolitically correct, names Galileo when, after the Inquisition process, he said: "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo its use“.
If we deny the capacity to think and to act in consequence, if we are depriving them of critisizing what he thing it is, even to be caustic or irreverent -even believers will not be d'accord as I am myself sometimes- we are depriving him of his own esenciality, of his own individuality. We are just entering the totalitarism, even if there are some people who think that evolution as reasonable and praise the reasonableness of the Muslims.

(post in Spanish: here)

Announcement

2006-01-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

We are now in Eurabian News. Excuse for the inconvinience.

Cartoons are sometimes very interesting

2006-01-18T15:14:00.000-08:00

Firstly,about Ahmadenijad. Original from the Jyllands Posten. Secondly, about the Muhammad cartoons. Very curious what the Muslims have done to convince other Muslims of the bad treatment of the Danish population.

Last days' news

2006-01-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

First of all, we have the violence occured in the Lyon-Nice train. You can also read this reflexion of CUANAS and this post about the train trips in France. Also some news that I 'd gathered from the Catholic blog Relapsed Catholic. Very interesting blog. And lastly but not least, the questions that arise from the bad health of Sharon and the conflict with Iran.

Some news

2006-01-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

Just some news and articles that I consider very interesting: The presecution of Holy Land Christians: this is an interview with Justus Reid Weiner, a Scholar-in-Residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an independent policy studies center. He currently teaches courses on human rights and international law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His main research field is the human rights challenges facing Arab Christians. He is the author of the new book, "Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society".

My specific interest in the plight of Christians living in Palestinian society is more recent. Eight years ago I met a Christian pastor who, knowing that I was a human rights lawyer, urged me to investigate the human rights abuses directed at Muslims who converted to Christianity. I knew nothing about this, and frankly doubted that anyone would victimize the adherents of the world's largest religion. But as I began to interview people most were reluctant to even meet me. If they agreed to reveal what they had suffered, they insisted that I refer to them by a pseudonym. FP: Why do you think there has been an increase in Islamic fundamentalism in Palestinian society? Weiner: The increase is a regional phenomenon. Indeed it would be hard to find any predominantly Muslim country in the Middle East, North Africa or even into Asia, where Islamic fundamentalism is not on the rise. FP: Tell us about the persecution of Palestinian Christians and why their persecution became so much worse since the Oslo peace process began. Weiner: These are acutely trying times for the Christian remnant residing in areas ‘governed’ by the Palestinian Authority. Tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to live abroad, while those that remain do so as a beleaguered and dwindling minority. They have faced virtually uninterrupted persecution during the decade since the Oslo peace process began, living amidst a Muslim population that is increasingly xenophobic and restless. Chaos, nepotism, and corruption are endemic. Their plight is, in part, attributable to the influence of Muslim religious law (Sharia) on the inner workings of the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, the Christians have been abandoned by their religious leaders who, instead of protecting them, have chosen to curry favor with the Palestinian leadership.

Some Governments are dhimmies right now:

The Norwegian parliament in the Sor-Trondelag region ruled Saturday to boycott products made in Israel and to forbid the sale and purchase of Israeli goods. It is estimated that the decision, determined by a parliamentary vote, was made due to Norway's stance that Israel oppresses the Palestinians. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly condemned the ruling Wednesday, saying that "this decision does nothing to promote Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, but only serves to exacerbate tensions and ill-will." "It is shocking and ironic that this one-sided boycott effort comes at a time when Israel is making a series of dramatic steps toward peace, including the recent withdrawal from Gaza," ADL Director Abraham Foxman said in a press release following the incident. In a letter to Norwegian Ambassador to the U.S. Knut Vollebaek, the ADL expressed concern over the bias stance taken by the regional parliament in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And others aren't:

Muslims intent on becoming German citizens will have to undergo a rigorous cultural test to gauge their views on subjects ranging from bigamy to homosexuality. Believed to be the first test of its kind in Europe, the southern state of Baden-W�rttemberg has created the two-hour oral exam to test the loyalty of Muslims towards Germany. It is to be taken on top of the standard test for foreigners wishing to become German citizens, which includes language proficiency skills and general knowledge. It also requires applicants to prove that they can provide for themselves and their families. Those applying must also have resided in Germany for the previous eight years and have no criminal record. Germany's 15 other states will monitor the progress of the policy when the tests begin this week before deciding whether they wish to adopt similar legislation. The 30 questions, which have been set by a special commission, range from sexual equality to school sports and are meant to trigger a more detailed discussion between the applicants and officials.

Some others are a little bit "confused":

A Sydney council voted against flying the Australian flag at Bondi Beach because of fears it would incite more race-fuelled violence on the city's beaches. Waverley Council voted 6-5 against the move on December 13, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reports. The Australian flag, along with an Aboriginal flag, were to be provided by federal Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull and flown over the Bondi Beach pavilion. But Greens councillor George Copeland said the flag had been used in the recent race riots as "a symbol around which to perpetrate racial violence".

And also there are leftists who insult another Christian symbol: the Christmas tree.

"A punk-rock style, trendy tight fit and affordable price have made Cheap Monday jeans a hot commodity among young Swedes, but what has people talking is the brand's ungodly logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead. The jeans' makers say it's more of a joke, but the logo's designer said there's a deeper message. "It is an active statement against Christianity," Bjorn Atldax told The Associated Press. "I'm not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion." "One cannot just keep quiet about this," said the Rev. Karl-Erik Nylund, vicar of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Stockholm. "This is a deliberate provocation (against Christians) and I object to that." Nylund complained that Swedish companies don't treat Christianity with the same respect that they afford other religions. "No one wants to provoke Jews or Muslims, but it's totally OK to provoke Christians," he said."

Well, if you have so much dislike for organized religion, go and attack Muslims. You do not have guts, ehhh, designer??? They could kill you, ehhh???

And about Israel and the "peaceful" Palestinians:

Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip along with tons of other military hardware since Israel withdrew in September, an Israeli intelligence report said on Monday.

The missiles were smuggled into Gaza across the border from Egypt, the Shin Bet security agency's report said.

It said that Palestinian militants were acquiring anti-aircraft missiles primarily to thwart Israeli air strikes on militants in Gaza, but it said these weapons could in theory threaten civilian aircraft in Israel.

"The presence of anti-aircraft missiles in Gaza considerably heightens the threat against Israeli aircraft, both military and civilian," the report said. "It also increases the risk that such weaponry will enter the West Bank where it will present a significant threat to Israeli aviation."

Anti-aircraft missiles could limit Israel's ability to use helicopters and planes to kill suspected militants in Gaza and the West Bank.

And more:

Hundreds of marchers in southern Gaza called Monday for an end to corruption within the Palestinian Authority, while gunbattles pitted Palestinian police against rival political factions.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cancel parliamentary elections scheduled for January 25 unless Israel allows Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem.

And last but not least, more (bad) news from Pakistan:

As the incendiary training at some seminaries in Pakistan drew renewed focus in the weeks after the July 7 bombings in London, the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, promised to bring the schools into the mainstream and expel their foreign students by the end of the year.

But his tough pledge has fizzled. Last week, the government backed away from that promise and said it would not use force to deport students. The schools, called madrasas, then said they would resist any effort to round up students, and on Sunday a coalition representing the seminaries called the government plan "inhuman, immoral and totally illegal," The Associated Press reported.

The madrasas were once the Islamic equivalent of Sunday school. They have evolved. Supported by private donations, they now provide free housing, meals and education - a lure for poor families in particular. The rigid training at some schools makes them ripe for recruiting by Islamist militant groups.

Of the four suicide bombers responsible for the London attacks, three were Britons of Pakistani descent and at least one had spent time at a madrasa here with connections to militant groups.

The limited gains in carrying out the madrasa changes reflect the delicate political choices facing Musharraf. His supporters point out that pursuing the schools too aggressively would only empower religious radicals here to depict the president as a stooge of the West. His critics say the lack of results reflects his half-hearted resolve to flush out religious militancy.

His promise last July was, in fact, a reiteration of earlier promises. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the madrasas were put under a spotlight. Among the many changes Musharraf pledged in exchange for generous aid and debt relief from the United States and other Western allies was to bring the schools under greater government scrutiny.

On Friday, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters that the government did not intend to use force to root out foreign students. "What action can be taken against those students?" he asked. "The management of the madrasas are responsible to arrange departures of their students and we are pushing them to help us in implementing this decision."

The Associated Press, citing figures from the main association that represents the schools, the Federation of Madrasas, reported last week that about 1,000 foreign students had left since July, while 700 remained.

In addition to expelling foreign students, Musharraf said in July that the madrasas would be required to register with the government and to account for their financing. In September, the government announced that it had struck a deal with influential clerics to register all seminaries. So far, 5,000 of the 12,000 established schools have not registered, said the minister for religious affairs, Ijaz ul-Haq.

Madrasas operate autonomously. They follow their own curriculums and spurn efforts to modernize their syllabuses. Musharraf has called them the largest nongovernmental organization in the world.

Msulim gang rapes in general and in Australia

2006-01-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

The first thing is that, as I have posted in my Spanish blog (i. e. here), the rapes of non-Muslims women by gangs of Muslim men have boomed in the last years although also in Muslims countries)

In Australia, Norway, Sweden and other Western nations, there is a distinct race-based crime in motion being ignored by the diversity police: Islamic men are raping Western women for ethnic reasons. We know this because the rapists have openly declared their sectarian motivations.
When a number of teenage Australian girls were subjected to hours of sexual degradation during a spate of gang rapes in Sydney that occurred between 1998 and 2002, the perpetrators of these assaults framed their rationale in ethnic terms. The young victims were informed that they were “sluts” and “Aussie pigs” while they were being hunted down and abused.
In Australia's New South Wales Supreme Court in December 2005, a visiting Pakistani rapist testified that his victims had no right to say no, because they were not wearing a headscarf.
And earlier this year Australians were outraged when Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed gave a lecture in Sydney where he informed his audience that rape victims had no one to blame but themselves. Women, he said, who wore skimpy clothing, invited men to rape them.
A few months earlier, in Copenhagen, Islamic mufti and scholar, Shahid Mehdi created uproar when – like his peer in Australia – he stated that women who did not wear a headscarf were asking to be raped.
And with haunting synchronicity in 2004, the London Telegraph reported that visiting Egyptian scholar Sheik Yusaf al-Qaradawi claimed female rape victims should be punished if they were dressed immodestly when they were raped. He added, “For her to be absolved from guilt, a raped woman must have shown good conduct.”
In Norway and Sweden, journalist Fjordman warns of a rape epidemic. Police Inspector Gunnar Larsen stated that the steady increase of rape-cases and the link to ethnicity are clear, unmistakable trends. Two out of three persecutions for rape in Oslo are immigrants with a non-Western background and 80 percent of the victims are Norwegian women.
In Sweden, according to translator for Jihad Watch, Ali Dashti, “Gang rapes, usually involving Muslim immigrant males and native Swedish girls, have become commonplace.” A few weeks ago she said, “Five Kurds brutally raped a 13-year-old Swedish girl.”
In France, Samira Bellil broke her silence – after enduring years of repeated gang rapes in one of the Muslim populated public housing projects – and wrote a book, In the hell of the tournantes, that shocked France. Describing how gang rape is rampant in the banlieues, she explained to Time that, “any neighborhood girl who smokes, uses makeup or wears attractive clothes is a whore.”
Unfortunately, Western women are not the only victims in this epidemic. In Indonesia, in 1998, human rights groups documented the testimony of over 100 Chinese women who were gang raped during the riots that preceded the fall of President Suharto. Many of them were told: “You must be raped, because you are Chinese and non-Muslim.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that in April 2005, a 9-year-old Pakistani girl was raped, beaten with a cricket bat, hanged upside down from the ceiling, had spoonfuls of chillies poured into her mouth, and repeatedly bashed while handcuffed. Her Muslim neighbours told her they were taking revenge for the American bombing of Iraqi children and informed her they were doing it because she was an “infidel and a Christian.”

In Australia the gang rapes are very much related to the riots that last December took place:

In Australia this week amidst anger over an Islamic man’s rape conviction and the bashing of two Aussie life savers, working-class locals erupted in a rampage of anger and brawling in some of the worst racial riots in decades. But there is more to the story than is being repeated in the American mainstream media....
Four days after he set foot in Australia, the rape spree began. And during his sexual assault trial in a New South Wales courtroom, the Pakistani man began to berate one of his tearful 14-year-old victims because she had the temerity to shake her head at his testimony.
But she had every reason to express her disgust. After taking an oath on the Qur’an, the man – known only as MSK – told the court he had committed four attacks on girls as young as 13 because they had no right to say “no.” They were not covering their face or wearing a headscarf, and therefore, the rapist proclaimed: “I’m not doing anything wrong.”
MSK is already serving a 22-year jail term for leading his three younger brothers in a gang rape of two other young Sydney girls in 2002. In his own defence, he argued that his cultural background, was responsible for his crimes.

But of course Muslims blame the Christmas tree for the riots.

Some news from Sudan

2006-01-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

I am going today to recommend you a very good blog to know what's happening in Sudan: it's called Sudan watch and I have found some news abput the humanitarian catastrophe that their inhabitants are suffering just now.

Firstly, this is how the Egyptian police reacted to a pacific demonstration of some Darfurians that now live at a refugee camp in Egypt. They were critizising UN policy and demanding UN should take them out of Egypt.

And they are right:

The demonstration was pacific: even the crowd was informed that they have to respect the Egyptian authorities.
But there came the police:

And the result: 23 darfurians dead and images like this one:
I wonder what these sympathetic policemen would have done with the French rioters.

Also the

veteran Sudanese Islamist leader Turabi attacks foreign presence. Note Mr Turabi shows no compassion for the millions of Sudanese driven from their homes and forced to flee for their lives from the government's militia:

"Look at Sudan now - it has tens of militias independent of the army. And we have so many African armies here... and other armies of the United Nations," Mr Turabi said.

"We don't have an army here. We have a record of how many armies you have in one country. Would you call that independence?

Lastly, from Darfur:

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Thursday that the security situation in Darfur continued to deteriorate.

In his latest monthly report on Darfur, he called it a "deeply disturbing trend" with "devastating effects on the civilian population".

"Civilians continue to pay an intolerably high price as a result of recurrent fighting by warring parties, the renewal of the scorched earth tactics by militia and massive military action by the government," he said in the report released on 29 December.

Photo: The destroyed village of Kamungo just east of Kabkabiya town, North Darfur State. (IRIN)

Some 3.4 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, according to the UN, of whom 1.8 million are internally displaced and 200,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad.

Note the Financial Times Jan 2, 2006 provides an excellent summary of Darfur news over past few months:
A new wave of violence in Sudan's Darfur region is a "shocking indication" of the international community's collective failure to stem "horrendous crimes" there, the United Nations has warned, amid daily reports that the killings continue unabated.

Despite regular Security Council discussions and an African Union (AU) mission, a new UN report says: "Large-scale attacks against civilians continue, women and girls are being raped by armed groups, yet more villages are being burned, and thousands more are being driven from their homes."

Its findings leave few doubts that the world's efforts to stem Sudan's catastrophe are not working, despite its leaders' assertion at last year's UN summit that all nations bore a "responsibility to protect" civilians from crimes against humanity. Full report.

I wonder ehat they would say if this people were all Muslims...

Pakistani "way" of aiding the victims of the earthquake

2006-01-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

It consists mainly in expelling ALL Christians from their homes:

Reports from Catholic leaders spearheading the relief work following the earthquake say that hundreds or even thousands of people near Joharabad, close to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, are being made homeless, with no prospect of alternative accommodation being found.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad-Rawalpindi said he feared that the incident of forced ejections he had uncovered was just one of many taking place across the region.

The bishop continued: "In one district near Joharabad, all the people are being thrown out -- all of them are Christians. We are the most vulnerable people, we are very poor and we are easy targets."

He said the ejections were all the more insulting to the Christian community because the government had plenty of land of its own on which to house the displaced Kashmiri people.

But, according to the bishop, the authorities preferred housing the refugees in Christian homes because it would save them the costly and time-consuming task of erecting shelters on alternative sites.

More here.

Ahmadenijad: Israel is a jew camp

2006-01-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

What a manner of wishing Happy New Year has this man!!!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hard-line president who has said the Holocaust was a myth, now has charged that European countries sought to complete the genocide by establishing a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries.

"Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their aims in creating a regime of occupiers of Al-Quds (Jerusalem)?" the official Islamic Republic News agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Sunday. "Isn't that an important question?"
Ahmadinejad said Europeans had decided to create a "Jewish camp" as the best means for ridding the continent of Jews. He said the camp, Israel, now enjoyed support from the United States and Europe in the slaughter of Muslims.

I think no comments are needed.

HAMAS Targets Spain

2006-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

As Rachel Ehrenfeld says (via jihadwatch.org):

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Desatinos’ efforts earlier this year to remove HAMAS from the European Union’s terrorist list, have done little to change HAMAS’ agenda. It is not only Palestine that children in the West Bank and Gaza are asked to liberate; now they are asked to liberate Seville. The HAMAS children’s magazine, Al-Fateh, in a recent issue, (No. 66), tells the children about the city called Asbilia (Seville) and calls on them to free it, together with the whole country, from the infidels and to reinstate Muslim rule.

UPDATE: I recommend this magnificent article of Daniel Pipes. UPDATE II: I also recommend this post from the Elder of Ziyon.

Muslims in the United States: Truths and Calumnies

2006-01-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

I have founded this article in an Italian Blog called "Unpolitically Correct Blog". Although most posts are in Italian some of them are in English. Ocassionally I would post them here. Like this one, called as the title of this post. It appeared in THE FREE COPTS and was written by Magdi Khalil.

The recent disturbing articles and news in the Arabic media may very well lead people to believe that the Muslims living in the United States are being subjected to collective persecution or even eradication--a false accusation easily refuted by the fact that millions of Muslims continue to apply for emigration to, and temporary residence in, the United States for study and business purposes. Polls conducted by credible organizations show that even now, and in spite of the unprecedented hostility towards the United States and the West, millions of Muslims around the world still aspire to live in the United States or Europe. I would like to shed light on the situation of Muslims living in the United States, and to call the readers’ attention to a number of significant facts: 1. Muslims are able to practice their religious rituals and celebrations freely, as well as openly maintaining and asserting their cultural traditions. 2. They are granted total religious freedom including the freedom to proselytize anywhere, even within the American prison system; a CNN report indicated that the ratio of prisoners who convert to Islam each year is 1:6. 3. Muslims have the right to establish Islamic schools, institutes and universities anywhere in the United States with no constrictions; the American government has even provided support to some of these institutions. 4. Muslims have the right to establish their own media, with no restrictions or particular conditions, whether they will operate in their own languages or in the English language. They also have total access to Arab and Islamic media in the form of newspapers, magazines, and satellite channels, and though most of those are openly hostile to the United States, none of them have been banned by the United States. 5. There are numerous registered Islamic institutions and associations that are concerned with the defense of Muslims’ rights, freely operating under the American law. No restrictions are imposed on these associations as long as they are not associated with international terrorist organizations. 6. Muslims in America have the full right to wear the Islamic outfit, and to worship during working hours in most governmental agencies, schools, and institutes. 7. At the inauguration of the American Congress cycle, verses from the Holy “Quran” and Islamic prayers are recited among other prayers, underlining the fact that Islam is part of the mainstream religious landscape of the United States. 8. Muslims have the right to build mosques anywhere in the United States with no restrictions other than the ones that apply to buildings in general and to other houses of worship. 9. Muslim feasts are considered official holidays in schools where there is a significant Muslim presence, as well as for Muslim employees. 10. Following the events of September 11, 2001, a strong warning was issued against targeting the Muslims or subjecting them to abusive or vengeful measures, clearly stating that offenders would be subjected to serious penalties. 11. Complaints of abuse or discrimination are examined and handled with honesty and earnestness. 12. The Bush administration has offered its apology to Muslims, and openly rejected the insulting approach used by a few individuals in the media. 13. Members of the American administration speak respectfully about the Islamic religion in all occasions, making a clear distinction between Islam and terrorism. 14. President Bush organized an “Iftar celebration” at the White House that was attended by several members from the American administration, prominent members of the Arab and Islamic community, and guests from the Islamic World. Colin Powell, the then secretary of state, held a similar celebration in the State Department. 15. President George Bush visited several Islamic institutes in the wake of the events of September 11, in support of the American Muslims. During these visits he explicitly warned against any violation of Muslims’ rights. 16. The United States issued an Islamic postage stamp to celebrate the Islamic feasts. The stamp bearing the words “Blessed Feast” was reissued this year on the occasion of the Holy month of “Ramadan.” 17. The American president acknowledges the Islamic feasts and makes sure to pass on his good wishes to American Muslims and Muslims around the world. 18. The recent statistics of the Diversity Immigrant Visa program indicate that the number of visas allotted to Islamic countries has not decreased. Muslims who are currently residing in the United States and who have completed the legal requirements were granted American citizenship; there was no recorded violation of the Muslims’ rights in that respect. 19. Income statistics indicate that the per capita personal income of the Muslims in the United States exceeds that of the Americans themselves. 20. Muslims who suffer from discriminatory practices have the right to legally sue the organization or party that violated their legal rights; there are several American institutions which are dedicated to helping Muslims obtain their legal rights. While a few unfortunate incidents took place following the events of September 11, they can only be described as isolated incidents that were effectively handled by the American authorities. Mostly, these incidents consisted of minor harassments, except in one case when a Muslim was killed. Hopefully, these facts can help to clarify the truth about the Muslims’ situation in the United States

And now we have here how the "pacifist" Zapatero acts

2005-12-31T07:07:00.000-08:00

One of my first posts in this blog was about the lie of the pacifism of Mr. Zapatero. He based all hie elctoral campaign in accusing the Aznar Administration of being in Iraq fighting an "illegitimate, unjust and illegal" war. The Socialist party had even issued a law that only authorises to enter in a foreing war with either of one permissions: that of the Parliament or that of an international organization like UN. Well it looks like he had sent a ship to Iraq war: the best -and more modern one- of Spanish war frigates, Alvaro de Bazan (F 101).

TRCSG Sailor Reenlists Aboard Spanish Ship Alvaro de Bazan
Story Number: NNS051013-06
Release Date: 10/13/2005
4:52:00 PM
By Journalist 2nd Class Kimberly R. Stephens, USS Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs

ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (NNS)
-- USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Operations Specialist 2nd Class Keison Hunt reenlisted aboard the Spanish ship Alvaro de Bazan (F 101) in the Persian Gulf Oct. 2.
Hunt is currently part of the U.S. Communications Assistance Team (CAT) that has been assigned in the integration of Bazan into the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG).

Bazan is the first European ship with the Aegis weapons system and is assisting the TRCSG with Maritime Security Operations in the Gulf.

"I decided to reenlist on the Spanish ship because I knew that I would be the first U.S. Navy Sailor to do it, and it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Hunt. It was also a first-time experience for many of the Spanish Sailors and officers on board Bazan to witness this type of ceremony.

"It has been an honor for me to preside over this ceremony on board my ship," said Bazan Commanding Officer Cristobal Gonzalez-Aller La Calle. "We don't have this kind of act for re-enlisting in the Spanish Navy, so it has been an interesting experience from which we can learn and maybe apply in a similar way."Hunts dedication in working with Bazan's CAT team has been an essential part of TR's Operations Departments endeavor to meet the challenge of joint operations.

"In spite of the language 'barrier,' the interaction has been good, especially with our communications team," said La Calle."I thought that it was a good experience because not many U.S. Sailors get the chance to be a part of another military. The Spanish crew was very friendly, and I enjoyed every moment of being on this ship," said Hunt.

Alvaro de Bazan is currently working with TRCSG in support of Maritime Security Operations (MSO) in the Persian Gulf. MSO sets the conditions for security and stability in the maritime environment as well as complement the counter-terrorism and security efforts of regional nations. [continues here...]
When the launching of this ship (May 6/2005) Bono played hommage to the US flag: (I have underlined the Zapatero's words when he did not play any tribute to the US flag).

Bono pays homage to US flag
Defense minister José Bono yesterday paid homage to the US flag at a military ceremony in Virginia. Bono said, "We pay our deepest honor to your flag, which respects the Spanish people and stands for the value of freedom." Bono thanked the US for rendering tribute to the Spanish flag and therefore, in the name of the Spanish people, he wished to return the same tribute. He added, "In Europe we cannot forget that it was the United States who helped in the triumph over totalitarianism." Bono's attitude is in notable contrast to that of former opposition leader and current prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who at the Spanish armed forces day parade on October 12, 2003, whas the only invited guest who did not rise in salute to the US flag when it passed by the reviewing stand. Bono's words were equally surprising because he had previously stated, in order to justify Zapatero's scorn for the American flag, "Here we do not kneel down, we are just as sovereign as the US, though we may be smaller and not as powerful," and added that "Spanish soldiers are not at the disposition of the US government; shaking hands with the US president for us cannot mean turning our backs on the Spanish people." Yesterday, in the hangars of the US aircraft carrier Roosevelt, Bono attended the launching ceremony of the Álvaro de Bazán, the first new Spanish F-100 class frigate, and its addition to the Roosevelt's carrier group. Aboard the Roosevelt, anchored at Norfolk, Virginia, Bono addressed the ship's crew and declared that it would show the Spanish flag around the world. Concluded Bono, "The flag evokes feelings of equality and solidarity, and together we can do more and we will, because we want what the Constitution says."
The Alvaro de Bazan is the first European ship with the capability of forming part of a US carrier group thanks to its combat potential and radar system.

Of course, as a Spanish citizen (and a very proud one of being so), I think that we have to remain sovereign but not to be idiots. I mean, you can just state your reasons for not entering in a mission in a trustful and honest way. What you cannot do is to scorn on the others, commit every possible wrong in exterior policy and afterwards think you are the smartest in town.

The best thing of course is that the Socialists now are saying that they have not send that ship to "make war"... but it has continued to make impact in the Gulf:

“I am extremely proud of the 7,000 Sailors in our strike group, each one of whom makes a vital contribution every day to our success, whether at sea fighting terrorism or helping to set the conditions for security and stability in this region,” said Rear Adm. James A. Winnefeld, commander, Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. “Together, we’re all determined to carry this important mission through, until our last day underway.”

CVW-8's Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 141 led the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group’s first combat flights in support of OIF, when it began flying combat sorties Sept. 24. Since then, aircraft from CVW-8, which consists of Fighter Squadron (VF) 213 and VF-31; Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 87 and VFA-15; Sea Control Squadron (VS) 24; Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 124; and Helicopter Squadron (HS) 3; have conducted strikes in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom while protecting coalition ground troops.

The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group includes the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, with its embarked air wing, CVW-8; the Norfolk-based guided-missile cruiser San Jacinto; the Norfolk-based guided-missile destroyers Oscar Austin and Donald Cook; the Spanish frigate SPS Alvaro de Bazan (F101); and the combat logistics ships USNS Mount Baker (T-AE 34) from Naval Weapons Station Earle, N.J., and USNS Kanawha (T-AO 196) from Norfolk.

Also it has helped the Operation Steel Curtain:

Operation Steel Curtain is an offensive aimed at preventing cells of Al Qaeda from entering Iraq through the Syrian border. Coalition ground forces consisting of 1,000 Iraqi Army Soldiers and 2,500 U.S. Marines began the offensive Nov. 4 near the town of Husaybah near the Iraq/Syria border.

And now THE photo:

051203-N-4154B-008 Persian Gulf (Dec. 3, 2005) – The Spanish Navy frigate Alvaro de Bazan (F101) sails alongside the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during Alvaro de Bazan’s departure from Carrier Strike Group Two (CSG-2). CSG-2 is currently underway on a regularly scheduled deployment conducting maritime security operations. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Matthew Bash (RELEASED)

So EL MUNDO, one of Spanish newspapers, as ked the Governement what was the role of this ship. (To me it's very clear, ejem). And it published the news (that were nothing new, ejem). And informed that the TRCSG threw 2.500 kilos of bombs in Iraq with the protection of the Spanisg frigate. USA has confirmed that the frigate was in all these operations.

The Governement said that the "integration in the group of the USS Theodore Roosevelt has been the result of a very large progress of preparation, whose negotitiations began on November 24th, 2005, when Aznar was the President of Spain. It also has said that the Almiral of Spanish Navy has express orders of not joining war actions.

The problem is that the "Naval Review", one of the Official Spanish Navy publications, informed, on April 14th, 2005, that it was in that moment that the "integration" was signed between Sebastián Zaragoza Soto, Chief Admiral of Spanish Navy, and Michael G. Mullen, Admiral and Chief Commader of the US Naval Forces in Europe.

So Mr. Rajoy, the oppostion leader, has asked Mr. Zapatero to explain the role of the frigate in Parliament. And Llamazares, the communist leader, that intended to accuse Aznar of genocide in Iraq, has also asked Zapatero about the mission of the frigate.

But the success of the integration is a reality and the role of Spanish sailors and officers, have been praised by USS Theodore Roosevelt. I am very proud of it, and with me any Spanish proud of being so.

Lastly, but not least a cartoon appeared in EL MUNDO:

The true mission of the Spanish frigate in the Gulf:
ZAPATERO: My fellow irqais, remember that smoking can kill you.
Boommmmm

(Spanish Parliament has just now passed a law forbidding to smoke in public places)

Chechen jihad

2005-12-30T17:20:00.000-08:00

Article appeared on GEES:

The connection between interna-tional terrorism and the “movement for independence” in Chechnya is substantial and explicit, but all too often ignored in the West. The popular assumption is that Chech-nya is a distant problem that need not be addressed by anyone outside Russia. Unfortunately, the evidence sug-gests otherwise. Islamic extremists and their terror-tactics have been a central factor in the Caucasus more than a decade ago. From Iraq to Af-ghanistan, London to Moscow, Is-lamic terrorists have firmly imbed-ded Chechnya into the global web of terror networks. A sparsely reported but highly sig-nificant development in the war against Islamic extremism in the Caucasus occurred on October 13 in the Russian republic of Astemirov-Balkaria. There, approximately 100 terrorists led by Wahhabi adherent Anzor Astemirov killed at least twenty-four police officers and civil-ians, though the Russian daily Kommersant reported the actual casualty count was higher than the official count. Chechens and a sig-nificant group of Arabs took part in the assault, and news reports sug-gested that radical Chechen leader Shamil Basayev may have been di-rectly involved in the operation. Leon Aron, the director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, believes that foreign Is-lamic militants have fueled much of the violence in the Caucasus and “hijacked Chechnya’s struggle for independence.” There is much to support this claim as many Islamic fundamentalists who have a history of international terrorism have be-come involved in the Chechen con-flict. Osama bin Laden’s chief lieu-tenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, at-tempted to establish a base for Is-lamic terrorists in Chechnya in 1996. By 1999, it was estimated that at least 100 Al Qaeda members joined up with Chechens in the Caucasus. In addition, Shamil Basayev is be-lieved to have trained in Afghani-stan in 1994. Basayev has claimed responsibility for – among other horrendous acts of terror – the Beslan school hostage situation that claimed the lives of 330, including women and young children. This process of Chechen “Islamiza-tion” began in the mid 1990s as sig-nificant numbers of Arab fighters joined the fight of Muslims in Chechnya seeking to gain inde-pendence from the Russian Federa-tion. At that time, moderate Sufi Islam, long dominant in Chechnya, began to give way to Wahhabism. Money coming from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Af-ghanistan was paid to those who converted to Wahhabism and those who recruited others to join the mili-tant sect. As one Chechen convert explained: “I liked it that Arabs want to go on making war until they liberate the whole world of the [in-fidels]” and holy war should con-tinue “until all the Christians are converted to Islam.” The influx of Arabs and Islamic fundamentalists soon changed the face of the conflict in Chechnya. The Middle East Quarterly accurately noted last summer that “A close ex-amination of the evolution of the Chechen movement indicates that Islamists and followers of Al-Qaeda have increasingly sought to co-opt the Chechen movement as their own.” American and Russian intelligence services have found evidence sug-gesting that many of the same groups and individuals that fi-nanced al-Qaeda also provided support for Chechen leaders, such as the Saudi-born Ibn al-Khattab. Iran and Saudi Arabia are also be-lieved to have provided funding for Basayev and his followers. The ex-planation for this generosity is un-ambiguous: this diverse group of fanatics is united under the common goal of establishing an Islamic state in the Caucasus. The events on the ground continue to suggest that the forces attempting to establish an Islamic state from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea are relatively weak. However, as the United States and our Iraqi allies crush the hopes of the Islamists in Iraq who seek to create a new ca-liphate, their efforts will soon focus elsewhere - as is already evident with recent terror attacks in Jordan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. An ex-tremely likely target will be Chech-nya and its neighboring republics. Alexei Malashenko, an expert on Chechnya at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, stated recently that “The Chechen conflict is spilling into neighboring republics, escalating the process of destabilization” in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This poses an enormous threat to both the territorial integrity of Russia and the long-term interests of the United States in the region. The process has already started and is likely to pick up increasing steam as Islamists be-gin to lose hope in Iraq and Af-ghanistan. The second Chechen war began in 1999 with the invasion of Chechnya’s neighboring republic of Dagestan. This was an attempt to spread the conflict in hope of gener-ating a larger Islamic rising. Al-though Russian forces quickly drove the aggressors back to Chechnya, the Islamists have far from given up hope. The Russian republic of Ingushetia has similarly experienced terror at the hands of the Chechens and their Islamist supporters. Repeated at-tempts to assassinate the pro-Moscow president of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, have so far been unsuccessful. However, the em-ployed tactic of suicide car bomb-ings illustrates not only the same desired ends of the Chechens and their Islamist allies, but also the matching callous means. While the Islamists have failed to topple the Ingush leadership thus far, they did succeed in briefly taking the repub-lic’s capitol of Nazran in 2004. This operation was carried out by mili-tant followers of Shamil Basayev and concluded only after nearly 100 government officials and police offi-cers had been killed. The influx of radical Islam and the expansionist nature of the aspira-tions of its followers have made it evident that Chechnya has trans-formed from a republic seeking in-dependence to one of the global cen-ters of Islamic jihad. Vladimir Putin described the danger of a widening conflict in a December 2003 televi-sion appearance: “they have com-pletely different goals – not the in-dependence of Chechnya, but the territorial separation of all territories of compact Muslim residence. It fol-lows that we should resist that, if we don't want the collapse of our state. And if that happens, it will be worse here than in Yugoslavia.” Unfortunately, Putin was not exag-gerating. London’s Sunday Express reported that British intelligence sources revealed that Chechen fighters were some of the last hold-outs in the battle at Tora Bora in Af-ghanistan. Chechens have also gone to Iraq to fight Americans and our allies. The same British intelligence source told the Sunday Express: “These are not just people dreaming of a homeland, they are key global terrorist figures.” The source added: “British forces in the Gulf during the initial phase of the fighting were finding Chechen bodies among the fanatics fighting along Saddam Hussein’s troops. A number of the foreign fighters confronting our troops in Basra have turned out to be Chechens.” Thus, Chechens are clearly gaining experience in guer-rilla warfare and terrorist operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and those that survive will bring their skills back to Chechnya. However, to understand the scope of the events in Chechnya and its neighboring republics, one must also be acquainted with the global attempts to wreak havoc by the Chechens and their Islamist associ-ates not only in the Middle East and Central Asia, but in Western Europe as well. In 2002, Shamil Basayev engineered a plot to assassinate British Prime Minter Tony Blair at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Had it been successful, the attack would have killed several members of the killed several members of the Royal Family and certainly would have had just as great of a psychological impact on the people of Britain as the July 7 attacks. Terrorists from Chechnya and its neighbors have targeted Russian and Western inter-ests in Britain, France, Spain, and elsewhere. Many of these plots originated in Georgia’s Shevardnadze Trail, a passage which runs through the eastern Georgia stretch known as the Pankisi Gorge and is described by former U.S. counterterrorism of-ficial Paul J. Murphy as a “lawless area that Georgia is unable to totally control and that has served as a conduit for financial and logistical support and fighter reinforcements into Chechnya since the early 1990’s.” The Pankisi Gorge has been the staging ground of alleged at-tempts to use ricin in London and bomb the Russian embassy in Paris. Chechens and members of al-Qaeda alike seek refuge and plot future attacks in Pankisi camps. Thus, it is clear that any attempt to combat terror in Chechnya and throughout the region will also have to attribute significant attention to the Pankisi Gorge. The April 2004 expiration of the Georgia Train and Equip Program, a United States effort to assist the Georgian government in combating terrorism and to bring order to the Pankisi Gorge, signals a lack of re-solve on the part of the United States to alleviate the terrorist prob-lem in Chechnya and its surround-ing territories. This will have to change and the United States must re-dedicate itself – to a greater de-gree than previously displayed – to eliminating this problem. The up-coming November 27 Chechen presidential elections are certainly a positive step; however, without lim-iting the influence of foreign Islamists and subduing the radical-ized portions of the Chechen popu-lation, the new government is cer-tain to exert little control and may be just another artificial façade un-able to stem the tide of Islamic ex-tremism currently engulfing Chech-nya and its surrounding regions. Robert T. McLean is a research intern at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C.

You can continue reading this interview to a chechen jihadist leader who committed suicide this December 2005 (this page has also another very interesting links):

"Q. Some Muslims are hoping for a peaceful solution to this conflict, and to give heed to Western proposals and conditions for a cease-fire. How do you see the solution to this conflict?" "A. Islamic issues can only be solved by Islamic means, namely through abiding by Sharia (Divine Law) and not Western proposals or United Nations conditions. Any resolution through non-Islamic means places the future of Muslims in the hands of tyrants who will never accept the rise of an Islamic state."
"Q. Several Islamic populations are fighting defensive wars against aggressors. Yet some of them raise the banners of nationalism that may incorporate elements of secularism, ethnic nationalism or religion. How would you describe the war in Chechnya?" "A. The fighting in Chechnya is a Jihad for the sake of Allah, a Jihad that aims to ensure that the word of Allah is supreme in this land. We consider most of the commanders and fighters as Mujahideen whose intentions are sincere and devoted to Allah Most high." "Q. The Russian military machine is massive and incorporates large numbers of troops and sizeable quantities of modern arms, yet the Russians are being decisively beaten on a daily basis by a small group of Mujahideen What are your comments in this regard?" "A. All of the Mujahideen's victories are attributed solely to Allah Most High... The jihad in Chechnya should serve as an example to all Muslims throughout the world that any Muslim rights that are forcibly usurped, including land, cannot be restored except through force. Negotiations only serve to lose one's rights and honour. Let us consider Palestine as an example. There are a small number of Jews occupying Palestine. The Arabs outnumber them and have larger military forces, however, instead of fighting for the sake of Allah like their brothers in Chechnya, the Arabs (nationalists and secularists) chose to negotiate with their enemy. This has resulted in the humiliation of the Arabs, and has failed to restore Arab rights and territories." "Q. The complete victory of the Mujahideen is now in sight. What will happen once the war is over. Will we witness a recurrence of the tragedies that took place in Afghanistan, Bosnia and other Muslim countries that freed themselves from the yoke of crusader invasions?" "A. Allah Most High has promised that those who glorify and fight for Allah in times of war, and who establish His Sharia in times of peace, will always have victory bestowed upon them... The Mujahideen will strive to ensure that the Muslims of Chechnya will continue to be united, and that the light of Sharia dispels the evil of disunity. It is only through Allah that success is granted." "Q. Many Muslims around the world have expressed their support and sympathy for their brothers in Chechnya. Most Muslims continue to support the Mujahideen through supplication to Allah, and by spreading awareness about the jihad in Chechnya. Has this support had any impact in Chechnya, if so, please give us some examples?" "A. The supplications of Muslims and their financial support has played an important role in the victories of the Mujahideen. This support has helped mitigate the difficulties faced by the Mujahideen who are lacking adequate supplies of food and medicine. We ask Allah to accept the support given to us by our brothers, and remind the Ummah that coming to the aid of Muslims who are oppressed is a sacred duty that Allah Most High has confirmed..."

Europe news on jihadism

2005-12-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

From Global Jihad Watch:

Plans to 'Top' 9/11 Strikes' (AFP) - - Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday (12/23). The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11 2001 strikes by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed about 2,700 people, Pisanu said. The Algerians are suspected of belonging to a cell established by the al-Qaeda linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.

Spain Jails Six Accused of Aiding al-Qaeda (Reuters) - A Spanish judge has jailed six people on suspicion of recruiting Islamic radicals to send as suicide bombers or insurgents to Iraq, Chechnya or Kashmir, a court official said on Saturday (12/24). The six were among 16 people arrested in raids around Spain. Another two people surrendered after learning police were looking for them.

French Parliament OKs Anti-Terror Measures (AP) - France's parliament approved an anti-terrorism bill Thursday (12/22) that will boost the use of video surveillance and allow police more time to question terror suspects. The law will allow mosques, department stores and other potential targets to install surveillance cameras, and it will stiffen prison terms for terrorists and those providing support. It also will enable police to monitor people who travel to countries known to harbor terror training camps, and to extend the detention period for terror suspects from four days to up to six days.

Tueni's murder

2005-12-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

[This] attack follows a string of nearly a dozen bombings carried out in Lebanon in the past year, beginning with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri last February. Hariri had resigned from his post after turning against Damascus, and his death sparked massive rolling street protests that ultimately led to the final withdrawal of 14,000 Syrian troops from Lebanon. Tueni, like a handful of previous victims, was a staunch critic of Syria.
At least two others also died in the Tueni attack. Dazed and bloodied workers from nearby factories crunched across broken glass at the scene hours later; the smell of burned plastic and burned pine needles hung in the air as security forces wearing plastic gloves scoured the hillside looking for clues. For some Lebanese, the clues point to one culprit. “I accuse the military regime in Syria. I accuse the remnants of the military regime in Lebanon tied to Syria,” Nayla Moawad, a prominent MP from northern Lebanon, said at the offices of An Nahar. “This is a catastrophe.”

Hussein Malla / AP

Tueni, in a file photo from June, 2005

The Syrian government quickly denied any involvement in Tueni’s assassination. But it’s clear that whoever carried out today’s bombing intended to send a message to the West. United Nations’ investigator Detlev Mehlis’s report on the murder of Hariri was released today and, as expected, the report points a finger at Syrian intelligence. The report goes even further, accusing the Syrian government of obstructing the investigation and harassing witnesses. Syria—already the target of a range of economic sanctions--could face further embargoes based on the findings. But after today’s bombing, some Lebanese no longer think the U.N. can curb Syrian influence in their country. “We have the Mehlis report but so what?” says Jean Luc Bersuder, a 48-year old photo editor at An Nahar. “It’s not over. Syria still has the capacity to make problems in this country.”

Tueni is not the first person working at An Nahar to be attacked. Last June, columnist Samir Kassir was killed by a car bomb. And in September, television anchor May Chidiac survived a bomb planted underneath her car but lost an arm and a leg as a result of the attack. Tueni knew the danger he was in: colleagues say he had received several death threats over the phone in recent months. He traveled with heavy security and even spent the past month in Paris to keep a low profile. In an interview with a NEWSWEEK reporter last April, Tueni made it clear exactly who he saw as the biggest threat. “I believe [the Syrians] will try to keep a lot of spies here,” he said. “They’re trying to say to the people: We’ll be back in Beirut. They know the psychological effects are very important. I’m sure they’re preparing something else.”

And this is the result:

Lebanon mourns slain editor of top newspaper

Tens of thousands turn funeral into demonstration against Syria

	Lebanese mourners carry the coffins of slain anti-Syrian lawmaker and press magnate Gibran Tueini, his driver and bodyguard in Beirut, on Wednesday.
Joseph Barrak / AFP - Getty Images

“We want your head, Bashar,” the crowds chanted in reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We are here to revolt against the oppression and barbarity that is taking away our best men,” mourner Nabhan Abu Samra said.

Many thousands, most of them waving Lebanese flags, answered a call by anti-Syrian politicians for a large turnout at Tueni’s funeral, carrying his flag-draped coffin on their shoulders through the streets of central Beirut to the Greek Orthodox church where a service will be held.

“All of Lebanon bids goodbye today to the martyr of free speech Gebran Tueni,” said the frontpage headline of al-Mustaqbal newspaper, owned by the late Hariri.

Uniting force
The 48-year-old Tueni was among the most fiery critics of Damascus, publishing his biting editorials on the front-page of his an-Nahar newspaper, Lebanon’s leading daily.

Many Lebanese politicians have blamed Syria for Tueni’s murder, though Damascus has been quick to deny any involvement.

“Can no one say ’no’ in this country without being killed?” asked Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who campaigned for Syria’s withdrawal, in a call to LBC television on Tuesday night.

“I am threatened now ... If what they want is to silence every opposition voice, then until when?”

Hussein Malla / AP

Nayla Tueni, daughter of slain anti-Syrian journalist and legislator Gibran Tueni, mourns as she lays her hand on her father's coffin, in the Beirut district of Ashrafieh, Lebanon, on Wednesday.

A Lebanese flag was draped over Tueni’s seat in parliament, which held a special session in his honor on Wednesday. A large banner bearing Tueni’s picture was draped over the headquarters of an-Nahar in downtown Beirut.

In Martyr’s Square, the crowds also repeated the vow Tueni led them in making on the same spot at a symbolic March 14 rally: “We swear by God Almighty, Muslims and Christians, to remain united and defend great Lebanon forever and ever.”

Sanaa Mansour, dressed from head to toe in a black Islamic cloak, said: “We are here to show solidarity with all Lebanese, Muslims and Christians, and to call for an end to this series of deaths and for the complete liberation of our country.”

There is a Syrian arrested over Beirut Car Bomb.

A Syrian was arrested Tuesday (12/27) on suspicion of involvement in the assassination earlier this month of Gebran Tueini, the anti-Syrian general manager and columnist of Lebanon's leading newspaper. Abed al Kader Abed al Kader was among three Syrian nationals detained earlier for questioning in the Dec. 12 killing of Tueini.

About the renditions

2005-12-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

In Europe we have a lot of information about a lot of new commissions that are going to be opened to investigate about the renditions

According to current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials, some European governments were informed of at least some of the details of the CIA flight operations before or as they happened. Other European governments operated what one U.S. counterterror official acknowledged amounted to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding the CIA airplanes. In other words, the governments may have been aware that something was going on in their airspace with CIA aircraft, but they did not really want to know what was happening, did not ask too many (or perhaps any) questions about the agency’s activities, and the United States did not volunteer any answers. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

Because the European governments themselves either had some knowledge of the CIA activities, or, in other cases, may have ignored activities they had reason to suspect were going on, some European investigators believe that the nations that allowed CIA flights to use their airfields won’t be eager to answer any questions.

You can also read more information from a blog called "Colorado Coalition for Human Rights".

Linked to this there is the very "strange" case of Khaled El-Masri.

Interesting articles about the role of women in Al-Qaeda

2005-12-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

This two articles were very interesting.

Women of Al Qaeda

Jihad used to have a gender: male. The men who dominated the movement exploited traditional attitudes about sex and the sexes to build their ranks. They still do that, but with a difference: even Al Qaeda is using female killers now, and goading the men.
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. Muriel—now calling herself Myriam—"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.

The second one is called

Reform: Not Ignorant, Not Helpless

The West is focused on the extreme cases of oppression against Muslim women. But there's another world out there.

The West's exposure to Muslim women is largely based on Islam's most extreme cases of oppression: Taliban-dominated Afghanistan, Wahhabi-ruled Saudi Arabia and postrevolutionary Iran. Under those regimes, women were and are ordered to cover. Many Afghan women are forbidden to attend school, and no Saudi woman is allowed to drive. Yet despite the spread of ultraconservative versions of Islam over the past few decades, these societies are not the norm in the Muslim world. In Egypt, female cops patrol the streets. In Jordan, women account for the majority of students in medical school. And in Syria, courtrooms are filled with female lawyers. "Women are out working, in every profession, and even expect equal pay," says Leila Ahmed, Harvard Divinity School professor and author of "Women and Gender in Islam." "Though the atmosphere in Muslim countries is becoming more restrictive, no matter how conservative things get they can't put the genie back in the bottle."

Still, Muslim women are feeling like pawns in a political game: jihadists portray them as ignorant lambs who need to be protected from outside forces, while the United States considers them helpless victims of a backward society to be saved through military intervention. "Our empowerment is being exploited by men," says Palestinian Muslim Rima Barakat. "It's a policy of hiding behind the skirts of women. It's dishonorable no matter who's doing it." Scholars such as Khaled Abou El Fadl, an expert on Islamic law and author of "The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam From the Extremists," says this is an age-old problem. "Historically the West has used the women's issue as a spear against Islam," he says. "It was raised in the time of the Crusades, used consistently in colonialism and is being used now. Muslim women have grown very, very sensitive about how they're depicted on either side."

Surely the late feminist Doria Shafik felt the scorn of men—Arab and British—while fighting for the right to vote in 1940s Egypt. Yet Shafik persevered and cast her first ballot in Cairo in 1956. "I render thanks unto God to have been born in the land of mysteries," she later wrote. "To have grown up in the shadow of the palms, to have lived within the arms of the desert, guardian of secrets ... to have seen the brilliance of the solar disk and to have drunk as a child from the Nile sacred river." Millions of Muslim Arab women still love the societies they're born into, regardless of jihadist manipulation or American intervention. If reform is to come, they will surely be the ones who push it forward.

About Mrs Anthrax release

2005-12-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

This is a very interesting article about Mrs Anthrax. I just copy here some paraghraphs.

During the interview, she declared: “To end one’s career in defense of Iraq is an honor.” Ammash laughed while recounting the anonymous phone calls that were bombarding her and other Saddam aides, urging them to defect and abandon the regime for the sake of their families. She said she’d received e-mails filled with computer viruses, as many as 18 in a single day. “It doesn’t fit the image of the U.S.,” she complained, evoking the notion that gentlemen don’t mess with a lady’s e-mail.

Articulate and well-mannered, Ammash had been educated in the United States; she received a masters from Texas Woman’s University in Denton and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Missouri. She was said to have been a key figure in Saddam’s biotech and genetic research programs and to have been trained by Nassir al-Hindawi, the alleged father of Iraq’s biological weapons efforts. However Ammash told me her scientific work focused on the what she called the carcinogenic effects of depleted uranium, which had been present in some U.S. bombs and missiles during the 1991 war to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

Of course, I didn’t believe everything she said (and she probably didn’t believe I was a journalist acting in good faith, either). Although we talked for nearly two and a half hours over tea, this was hardly a normal interview. It was a chat on the eve of war. Ammash and I both knew that bombs would soon be falling on Baghdad and that Saddam’s regime was, most likely, in its last days.

One thing Ammash said did stick in my memory. She stressed that Iraqis remained fiercely proud of their civilization despite decades of violence and deprivation. “This country is Mesopotamia. Ninety-nine percent of the American people don’t know the country they’ll soon be bombing is Mesopotamia,” she said. “This nation has been serving civilization for 6,000 years. We invented the first alphabet … every American who enjoys education owes that to us.”

To be sure, the “Mesopotamia card” was part of a spiel that Saddam’s aides had propagated before the war in an effort to stir up international sympathies. But pride in their history is also one reason why even Iraqis who opposed Saddam remain so resentful of what they see as foreign occupation. When I was in Iraq on assignment for a couple of months this past summer, some Baghdad friends who’d welcomed the sight of American Marines in 2003 now nurtured a festering and deep-seated ambivalence about the U.S.-led occupation. Some said they actually preferred the yoke of an Iraqi autocrat such as Saddam to the rule of an American conqueror, even a benign one.

Today it’s obvious that many aspects of the U.S. presence in Iraq have been far from benign. When Ammash’s husband, Ahmed Makki Mohammed Saeed, told me in 2004 that he’d been “tortured” while being detained by U.S. authorities, I wasn’t sure whether to believe him. Revelations about U.S. abuses at Abu Ghraib prison had not yet surfaced. And his accounts sounded bizarre: being subjected to hours and hours of earsplitting American rap music laced with profanity and being doused with cold water, then forced to stand for hours in front of a freezing air-conditioner turned up full blast.

Still, the sheer weight of detail suggested to me that he wasn’t making it up. And subsequent tales of torture from other former detainees indicated that he might actually have been one of the luckier ones among them.

To read the rest you can go here.

And we are again talking about racism in France

2005-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

If you read this article appeared in Newsweek you are gooing to hink that all French are racists. But why only the inmigrants that are muslims are the ones who have rioted and burned through out more than a fortnight. Nearly 10,000 cars have been burned and more than 200 buildings.

For now, at least, the fires have died out—but an acrid bitterness still hangs in the air. Ask those on the football pitch behind the high wire fences of Montfermeil. Year after year, coach Kaddor Slimane, a son of Algerian immigrants who grew up in neighboring projects, has seen his teams win their league's sportsmanship award. Yet what does their good behavior mean in the "outside" world, where they are seen through the lens of limitations and stereotypes? "The French are racist," he says. "They just don't want to admit it." Life in the projects isn't so bad when you are a child, says Amad, a 24-year-old community activist who declined to give his last name for fear of racist attacks. "But once you reach a certain age, you're fed up. There's nothing to do except play soccer or hang out," in voiceless exile from the "other" France.

The politicians whose inaction and confusion (and seeming indifference) contributed to the violence, on the other hand, have rediscovered their voices. Almost as if the riots never happened, many are once again speaking in familiar platitudes and posturing about law and order. "All those who participated in the riots will have to pay, today or tomorrow," France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy declared on Dec. 15 at an homage to injured police and firefighters. Then he waded into the crowd, alongside his political rival, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, for handshakes and photos.

For a brief moment, in the immediate aftermath of the riots, genuine change seemed possible. As if to make up for lost decades, French officials rushed to propose new initiatives designed to address "root causes" of the unrest. The government is stepping up plans to knock down the soulless housing blocks that make life in France's banlieues so oppressive and alienating, and to replace them with smaller-scale housing surrounded by greenery. It injected an additional 100 million euros into the 2006 budget for social-support organizations in troubled communities. And it promised, yet again, to focus laserlike on unemployment, which ranges from 20 to 40 percent in many ghetto communities—two to four times the national average.

It's curious then that they have asked the police to leave them alone, that the rios began not because there were youngsters who were stealing things from cars but when the police entered Clichy-sur-Bois, and that the rioters were screaming and shouting "Allah Akbar".

I recommend reading also this post.

News about 7/7 bombongs in London

2005-12-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

THERE will not be a public inquiry into the July 7 London bombings, the Home Secretary Charles Clarke has decided.

Instead, a senior civil servant will compile a narrative on the attacks from evidence already collected by the police, the security services and two House of Commons select committees.

Mr Clarke believes an independent inquiry would also duplicate much work that has been carried out by MPs. Ministers also felt that it would divert attention and resources away from more pressing security and community issues.

A Home Office spokesman said last night: “The Government is not proposing to hold a public inquiry into the events of July 7. The Home Secretary is currently considering what materials he might be able to make available to support the parliamentary inquiries which are under way into the various aspects of the July 7 atrocities.

“We hope to announce details of this in due course.” MI5 is understood to have compiled a detailed picture of the influences thought to have been exerted on the bombers, and their motivations.

The security services have also tracked the group’s overseas travel in minute detail, particularly their trips to Pakistan between 2003 and the bombings in July this year. Mr Clarke is understood to have consulted Scotland Yard on the implications of issuing the file to the public, possibly edited.

But the public inquiry decision was not welcomed by Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain, who repeated demands for a full investigation. “It has to be a fully comprehensive public inquiry that will provide us the information we need as to what actually happened, how it happened and why it happened so that we will be better prepared to prevent such tragedy happening again,” he said last night.

Saba Mozakka, whose mother Behnaz died in the Piccadilly Line blast, said that it was “unacceptable” not to hold a public inquiry.

“This is not acceptable to us and the families will be campaigning for there to be a full public inquiry,” she said. “A narrative of events will not satisfy anybody. This is not something we will go away on.”

Graham Russell, whose son, Philip, died in the wreckage of the Tavistock Square bus, said he would wait before judging the decision. “If the facts come out anyway then it’s all well and good. If they don’t then they have failed the people who died.”

Patrick Mercer, the Shadow Homeland Security Minister, said that a narrative was not enough: “We need to know what the links were with the various individuals, whether they had links abroad. And also why the Government reduced the level of warning a mere five weeks before the attack.”

Fifty-two people died and nearly 700 people were injured when four suicide bombers attacked the London transport system on the morning of July 7. Intelligence has been compiled on bombers Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Hasib Hussain. The Home Secretary today quietly dropped his controversial plans to give police the power to shut down mosques being used by extremists. The proposal was originally part of Tony Blair’s 12-point plan to combat terror after the July 7 London bombings, but a consultation produced a negative reaction from top police officers and the Muslim community. Charles Clarke said in a written statement to MPs today: "I will not seek to legislate on this issue at the present time, although we will keep the matter under review." Mr Clarke published detailed plans in October, proposing that police should have powers to temporarily close down places of worship - such as mosques - which were being used by extremists. The trustee or registered owner of a place of worship would be issued with an order - obtained from a court by the police - requiring them to take steps to stop such behaviour, the document said. Failing to do so would be a criminal offence. If the activity persisted, police could apply to the court for a "restriction of use order" which could temporarily close all or part of the premises. The consultation paper said the new powers would be a "last resort" and police would attempt to solve problems at any place of worship with members of the community. But earlier this month the Association of Chief Police Officers said the proposed measures risked alienating ordinary Muslims and driving extremism underground. And in November, a group of Islamic experts appointed by Mr Clarke in the wake of July 7 said the measures could be arbitrary and open to "possible misuse". In a report they said: "The proposal on closing certain mosques rather than simply prosecuting the criminality in those mosques could deprive a whole congregation from benefiting from a provision they may have heavily invested in because of a few fanatics misusing their facilities." A Home Office spokesman said 66 people and organisations responded to the consultation and the majority were negative. Assistant Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Rob Beckley, an Acpo spokesman on counter-terrorism, said in his response: "Acpo does not support the enactment of legislation of the type proposed. "In the opinion of Acpo, there would need to be significant changes to the intentions and wording of the legislation for it to be either desirable or enforceable." The Rev Graham Sparkes of the Baptist Union of Great Britain commented: "Over the centuries, many Baptists experienced persecution, discrimination and imprisonment at the hands of the state, in order to secure control over what was preached, where it could be preached, and who could preach. "We would be very sensitive towards any proposals that put these hard won freedoms under threat." General secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, said in his submission: "We ... feel that mosques are being misidentified and stereotyped as incubators of violent extremism, while the social reality is that they serve as centres of moderation. "The bombers were indoctrinated by a subculture outside the mosque. The notion of influential 'back-door' mosques is a figment of the imagination." He added: "Our belief is that a major factor in the rise and spread of the current tide of terrorism is rooted in our foreign policy and in the double standards of our Government in its dealings in the Middle East in partnership with the government of the US. We urge you to accept this fact." "We ask you to take urgent remedial action so that our citizens, here as well as in the rest of the world, do not become targets of criminals and murderers who parade as political activists but who surely are nothing other than terrorists."Morag Mylne, convenor of the Church and Society Council of the Church in Scotland, said: "The power suggested seems to us to amount to a desire to ‘get someone, anyone’. "We think there is no point trying to adjust or amend the proposal. We believe it should be abandoned forthwith."

Church fire follows beach riot

2005-12-18T07:46:00.000-08:00

A CHURCH HALL was set ablaze and shots were fired near a primary school in Sydney yesterday, fuelling fears of an escalation in violence between ethnic Arabs and whites. Hundreds of officers were sent to potential trouble spots after Sunday’s race riots on a beach popular with white Australians and men of Arab descent. Gangs of Lebanese men retaliated by rampaging through suburban streets and attacking cars and buildings. Morris Iemma, the premier of New South Wales, said that police would pay special attention to places of worship and schools. “We have to be on guard for this. These hooligans will not destroy the fabric of our society,” he said. Mr Iemma said that a 500-strong riot squad would be deployed to deal with racially inspired violence. He introduced new laws giving police special powers to lock down parts of Sydney and search and confiscate vehicles, a move aimed at ending “smash and bash” raids involving carloads of youths of Middle Eastern origin. Yesterday’s fire in a church hall next to an Islamic centre in the suburb of Macquarie Fields, and an incident at a primary school in Auburn where parents were abused at a carol concert and shots fired into cars, represents a dangerous escalation of this week’s unrest. Police could not confirm if the fire was linked to the violence. Peace talks were held between representatives of Middle Eastern communities and surf groups in the beachside suburb of Cronulla, where last weekend’s running battles began. They issued a joint declaration calling for an end to the clashes. Sources insisted that there were no ringleaders organising the violence and said that text messages were being sent urging an end to it. Brad Whittaker, a local surfer, apologised for the behaviour of some white Australians last Sunday. “The day began as a show of solidarity against behaviour of ethnic gangs that have been harassing the public on our beaches over a period of seven years,” he explained. “It escalated out of control under the influence of right-wing racists from outside this community and alcohol.” Representatives of the wider Arab community called for a weekend curfew to stop further racial violence. Parents were urged to keep their children at home after 9pm on Friday and Saturday and all day Sunday. Elie Nassif, of the Lebanese Community Council, said that the measures would help to ease tensions. “We have to protect Australia no matter whether you’re born here or you come from overseas.” My comment: It's curious, note that nothing is said about the state in which the Church is anow, who burned it, or was suspected of having burned it. I wonder what would have happened if the white racists would have stormed into a mosque and burned it. Ooh, and very curious what this "representant" of the Lebanes Comunity says: one should ask what Asutralia they want to protect. I do not think I would like Australia to become a place where someone could ask you, if you're a woman/girl, "are you a virgin?", just because being in bathing costume.... And that surfer has summed up very well the situation: they have been harrasing the population for ¡¡¡SEVEN YEARS!!! My goodness. And then the police said they were not detaining this people, to prevent them to begin riots.

Withdrawal Pains

2005-12-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

The current discussion about drawing down American troops in Iraq--whether "immediately," "rapidly" or "as soon as possible"--would be amusing were it not so dangerously divorced from reality. There could be no greater mistake than drawing down the U.S. force now, at a moment when there is real hope for success if the United States perseveres.

But Democrats calling for these reductions are not the only ones to blame for giving the impression, however mistaken, that the United States is growing short of breath in Iraq just as the situation appears to be improving. The Bush administration has been talking about reducing forces in Iraq ever since the invasion ended in 2003. Indeed, the history of the administration's endless promises to reduce the size of the force in Iraq puts the current discussion in perspective.

On May 3, 2003, the New York Times reported administration plans to "withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months," reducing the number of troops from 130,000 to 30,000 by the fall of 2003. According to officials, the administration did "not want substantial numbers of American forces to be tied down in Iraq" and was "eager to avoid the specter of American occupation."

That didn't quite pan out. After the invasion, the U.S. force in Iraq turned out to be too small to bring order to the country. The calculation of Pentagon officials such as Paul Wolfowitz, who claimed that the force necessary to bring peace and stability to Iraq need not be larger than the force necessary to invade it, proved mistaken. And so, a year after the invasion, 135,000 troops still were in Iraq, too many to avoid "the specter of American occupation" but too few to make that occupation effective in bringing order and preventing the rise of an armed opposition.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration continued looking for reductions. Pentagon officials told Congress that the numbers would begin to decline significantly by the summer of 2004. But as summer approached, they began asking for more money to maintain troop levels, and some 20,000 troops scheduled for return home had to be kept in the field. In early 2004 administration officials again talked about drawing down forces significantly, perhaps in time for the November elections. That turned out to be wrong, too. By December 2004 troop strength was at 150,000.

Last April, when 142,000 American troops were in Iraq, senior military officials were talking about possibly reducing the force to a little over 100,000 by early 2006. But by August, according to The Post, Pentagon plans called for an increase of 10,000 troops in the fall, with a possible decrease to around 120,000 by the spring of 2006 and further reductions by the end of 2006 to around 100,000. Last month about 150,000 troops were deployed, and, according to the Pentagon, the "current thinking" was that the number could fall to 138,000 after the coming Iraqi elections and then to below 100,000 by late 2006.

President Bush himself repeatedly insisted that he had no intention of withdrawing from Iraq or even reducing the force short of victory. But apparently the president has little control over what his own officials say and do. So there has been a steady drumbeat of anticipated reductions ever since the spring of 2003, with each promise and plan inevitably broken or undone by persistent military realities in Iraq.

Is it any wonder that Democrats uncomfortable defending the war they once supported now feel comfortable talking about withdrawal? Their arguments come directly from administration talking points. Some top military and Pentagon officials have, from the beginning, asserted that the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops is a big reason for the rise of the insurgency and that a "small footprint" was the key ingredient to success. This has proved erroneous. But how much should we blame Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and John Kerry for making the very same argument and suggesting that Iraq can be made stable and secure only by a steady reduction of forces? Has any senior military officer or top Pentagon official really explained why this is not the case?

They had better begin doing so, even though it might mean owning up to their miscalculation at the end of the war in 2003. The U.S. force was too small at the beginning and remained too small for most of the past two years. As a result, it did not play the role that an occupying force must play in bringing stability to the country, the prerequisites to producing a secure Iraq capable of standing on its own feet. Instead of worrying about an overly large American "footprint," administration and military officials should have been worrying about stopping armed opposition from spreading and about the moral and practical responsibility of providing security to the people whose country we had invaded.

Now that indigenous Iraqi forces are starting to fight more effectively and in greater numbers, we may be getting to the point where the current U.S. force of more than 150,000 troops is adequate to start providing Iraqis the necessary security and stability. We may be today where we should have been two years ago. If American force levels hold steady while Iraqi force levels increase, that gradually shifts the balance in the conflict in our favor. But we will almost certainly have to maintain something like these levels for another two years, and possibly longer.

Talk of reductions and withdrawal is as unhelpful as it almost certainly is ephemeral. For 2 1/2 years, despite the endless promise of reductions, despite election battles, scandals and shifting political fortunes, the United States has maintained a steady force of 130,000 to 150,000 troops in Iraq. You can bet that the numbers will not be dramatically smaller a year from now or even two years from now. Wouldn't we be better off, wouldn't our prospects for success be greater, if we just admitted it? Better still, the administration could explain why it is so important to keep these troops in place so that the public understands the long road ahead. It could start taking steps to increase the overall size of the U.S. military so that the sustained deployment doesn't "break" the Army. And it could stop making false promises of reductions that cannot and should not occur until Iraq is indeed secure and stable.

Robert Kagan is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund. This column originally appeared in the Washington Post.

Iraq troop pull-out to begin in months

2005-12-18T04:50:00.000-08:00

BRITAIN and America are planning a phased withdrawal of their forces from Iraq as soon as a permanent government is installed in Baghdad after this week’s elections.

In a move that has caused alarm in the outgoing Iraqi administration, American and British officials have made clear that they regard the end of Iraq’s two-and-a-half-year transitional period as the green light to begin withdrawing some of their combined force of around 170,000 troops as early as March.

A senior Western diplomat in Baghdad said yesterday: “One of the first things we will talk about (with the new Iraqi government) is the phased transfer of security, particularly in cities and provinces. It will happen progressively over the next year.”

America has more than 160,000 troops in central and northern Iraq, and Britain about 8,000 based in four southern provinces. Contingency plans are already in place for the small British contingents in the two provinces of Dhiqar and Muthana to go as early as the spring.

The third to go will be Misan province, a far more restive region. A senior British officer said that Iraqi security forces might be able to “keep a lid on the violence” by the end of this year.

The Americans have increased their troop levels to help to bolster security for the elections on Thursday. But they are planning to pull out 30,000 by the new year and may reduce their presence below 100,000 in the coming months. US forces have already handed over security in Najaf and Karbala provinces and in city centres such as Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town.

The moves appear to run contrary to statements by President Bush and John Reid, the Defence Secretary, who insist that coalition forces will not “cut and run” and will stay until the mission in Iraq is complete.

Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, told The Times yesterday that a hasty exit risked plunging the country into a new bout of violence.

“Those who advocate an early withdrawal do not know what is at stake. The huge investment in blood and money sacrificed by the US could be squandered.

“There would be regional interventions by neighbouring countries and others. The fate of this country and the whole region could be endangered,” he said.

The move to hand over security to the 225,000 Iraqi soldiers and police who have now been trained for active duty comes in the face of mounting public pressure in both Britain and the US to disengage from Iraq, amid the rising death toll and spiralling costs.

An opinion poll conducted for the BBC in Iraq found that only 10 per cent regarded the removal of US troops from the country as the priority for the new government. The public has doubts about the ability of the Iraqi security forces, in particular the police, which is riddled with militia, and the army, which lacks equipment, training and leadership.

To marry an islamist?

2005-12-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

The Card. Ruini for a long time is found to being mattatore cultural unwillingly in Italy: it recalls the most general principles of behavior, it exposes universal moral norms, currency bills, marks it dangers in the application of civic norms etc. The scappa to even make the parish priest, that perhaps it is the trade that prefers. Days ago, without to join all the Muslims nearly were all lestofanti, dictators and intolleranti, have exhorted - you notice yourself: it has not commant - the Italian girls to be in guard from possible weddings with Muslims.

Not a garnishment of the Church, but nearly a council of a papÃ . Null that can make to think next to crashs of civilization or generic sentences of fondamentalismo. Only an warning in order to put in guard. The reasons? If they feel some of all the colors from part of who has said matrimoniale its yes to a maomettano. If then the girl moves in a country Muslim, must dress one risen of uniform, put the chador, tacere, obey and work without too much to expect the collaboration.

An example? The most recent E': a girl Bengali of twelve years - second average - discovers itself married with a also Bengali boy of fourteen years. And this without that it moves from Vicenza where lives from eight years with the family of immigrates to you muslim, and without that the boy makes a step towards Italy. They have thought next to all the parents of he and she. Now, but, the dodicenne it cannot participate to the festivities of the friends, to attend school companions, to approach boys and girls of other religions and other countries, it must sobbarcarsi the house jobs, must digiunare when glielo they impose even if not of it can more from the hunger, is forced to make the tasks to late evening in the month of ramadam the etc. In the point that, reached the esasperazione, with a forbicina in a toilette of the school tries the suicide cutting itself the veins to the wrists since more do not succeed sopportare the separation and the solitudine. One does not forget that to school - where it is between best - it cannot design, because the Islam not chip ax the figures. Ahead in the years it will be able also to discover far away of being one between the mogli of its husband quattordicenne. Thanks, Mr. Ruini parish priest. And the Italian girls lascino not to infatuare itself from the faces and the exotic customs of the Muslims. Perhaps the saying is excessive "moglie and buoi of the countries yours". But a truth spirit contains it.

This is an automatic traslation from italian done by Bablefish (sorry, I understand Italian but really cannot translate it, although I think everyone can understand it)

He scared us for decades, now all I see is a skinny old man in a cage

2005-12-18T04:21:00.000-08:00

I WAS told I would be only 30ft from Saddam Hussein, the closest I have ever been to the dictator who owned my life for three decades. But in the event, all I can see across the courtroom is a skinny old man sitting in a cage. Next to me two other Iraqi translators are sweating and looking very nervous. It’s five minutes before the trial begins, and the three of us are about to start a simultaneous translation on day three of Saddam Hussein’s trial, but not one of us has yet stepped up to the microphone.

Looking into their eyes I realise my colleagues aren’t going to do it, so I go and sit at the microphone, thinking that they may have been among Saddam’s victims, and that’s why they are so nervous. But who wasn’t one of his victims? Isn’t this the man who caused all that suffering to me and my people? Isn’t it the man who banned me three years ago from travelling to see my father in his last days, when he was dying abroad? Wasn’t he the man behind the Iraq-Iran War, during which my uncle was killed? Wasn’t he the source of all the fear we lived in for decades, forcing many of my relatives, including my brother, to leave the country?

So why am I not feeling like my colleagues? After five minutes I realised that this old man sitting in the defendants’ cage in front of me was not the person I used to hate. He is another person. The man I see looks completely different from that man who used to appear on TV in his army uniform, holding a pistol and shooting in the air as if he were aiming at creatures on another planet because he had got bored of killing Iraqis. This man in the courtroom has to wait for his turn to talk, otherwise his mike will be turned off. Saddam never had to wait for his turn because it was his turn for decades, and there was no time for anyone else to say anything. It may look to outsiders as if he has taken control, shouting at the judge. But up close you can see desperation in his eyes.

At one stage the judge called for witnesses. I couldn’t understand which witnesses they were talking about. Any of us could be a key witness against Saddam.

Listening to the first witness become very emotional describing his suffering under Saddam made my colleagues in the booth start to cry. But I didn’t. I know I looked heartless; I wished I could turn off the microphone and explain why I wasn’t crying: to say that people usually cry when the sad end comes but, in this case, the end hasn’t yet come. It is too early for catharsis.

The witness was talking about people getting tortured and killed collectively, talking about losing brothers and loved ones, but that is still going on. Iraqis are still getting killed and tortured, still losing their loved ones. Nothing has changed yet. Iraq’s main problem wasn’t simple enough to be about one man called Saddam. It wasn’t just about this old man sitting in his cage. It was about an entire regime, an international community turning a blind eye to things that fit with its strategies. It was about children dying of hunger during the years of sanctions, whether because of Saddam or not. It is about innocent people losing their lives through weapons, national and multinational. It is about a very dangerous gamble on the fate of a country by the West that isn’t yet "mission accomplished", as President Bush once claimed. You can continue reading here. A little comment: with all my respect, without the intervention this man would still be torturing, killing, maiming, raping, etc, etc, your parents. The fact that now he has to wait for "for his turn to talk, otherwise his mike will be turned off", is simply a consequence of that intervention. It's true that people are dying just now, BUT the difference is that people who die now are killed by people who are not in power, who are just criminals and can be driven to court the momment they are detained by the police. Saddam IS also a criminal, but he was in power, so he could make what he wanted into law. Lastly, would the situation have changed if all public opinions in Europe, for example, would have supporting the intervention against a dictator and not the poor Saddam? I think this is quite the most important question we have to ask ourselves now.

Torture ruling could let terror suspects go free

2005-12-18T04:12:00.000-08:00

THIRTY terrorist suspects fighting deportation could be freed after Britain’s highest court yesterday outlawed the use of torture evidence. The landmark decision by seven law lords unanimously dealt a fresh blow to the Government’s fight against terrorism. After the July 7 bombings, the Prime Minister had pledged that the “rules of the game” on dealing with terrorists had changed. Last night investigators and prosecuting authorities were preparing to re-examine at least 30 pending cases before a secret immigration court to see whether evidence has been extracted by torture. Defence lawyers have seized on the ruling to question the sources of allegation against defendants facing criminal charges in a series of prosecutions. One man accused of involvement in a plan to carry out a lorry bomb attack alleges that he was tortured during ten months in custody in Pakistan. He is one of several defendants in a terrorist trial scheduled to begin in the new year. Security services must now establish that evidence used before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) is not obtained by torture, the law lords ruled. If courts think “on a balance of probabilities” that it was, they must rule it out. The law lords’ decision was hailed by human rights organisations as a landmark for justice throughout the democratic world. But Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said that it would not affect the fight against terrorism or the 25 people in jail facing deportation on grounds of national security and a further five terrorism suspects held under a form of house arrest. “The Government has always made clear that we do not condone torture in any way, nor would we carry out this completely unacceptable behaviour or encourage others to do so,” he said. “We have always made clear that we do not intend to rely on or present evidence in SIAC which we know or believe to have been obtained by torture.” Gareth Peirce, the lawyer for eight detainees affected by the ruling, said: “We lost our way morally and legally with the claim by the Home Secretary that he would use torture evidence in this country and with the Court of Appeal judgment that endorsed that.” Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, which intervened in the appeal with 12 other organisations, said: “If we continue to peel away the layers of protection against torture, we will find a gaping void where our democratic values used to be.” Lords Bingham of Cornhill, Nicholls of Birkenhead, Hoffmann, Hope of Craighead, Rodger of Earlsferry, Carswell and Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood allowed the appeals of the eight detainees held without charge against a majority Court of Appeal ruling. The law lords made abundantly clear that English principles should not be sacrificed in the fight against terrorism.

The historic ruling comes almost exactly a year after the law lords delivered a similar blow to the Government’s anti-terrorist strategy, ruling that detention of suspects without charge or trial was unlawful. In unusually strong criticism of his junior judicial colleagues, Lord Bingham said: “The English common law has regarded torture and its fruits with abhorrence for over 500 years and that abhorrence is now shared by over 140 countries which have acceded to the torture convention". You can continue reading here.

Terror suspect pleads from jail for British hostage's life

2005-12-18T03:46:00.000-08:00

A HIGH-PROFILE terror suspect has made a television appeal from prison in England for the release of a British hostage being held in Iraq. Abu Qatada was allowed to film his plea as part of an unprecedented effort to secure the lives of Norman Kember, 74, and three other Western peace activists.

Officials admitted that it was a unique broadcast but, with the kidnappers threatening to kill their captives within the next few days, they were prepared to take the desperate measures. Their hope is that the intervention of such a prominent Islamic militant may succeed in persuading the kidnappers from the Swords of Truth group after efforts by more than 20 Muslim groups have so far failed.

Last night the kidnappers extended the deadline for killing their hostages by 48 hours to Saturday night and released new footage of Mr Kember pleading for Britain to pull out troops from Iraq and for help to free him.

British diplomats are reported to have used more intermediaries than they did during the failed attempt to save Kenneth Bigley and Margaret Hassan. But few could have expected that ministers would turn to a man described by judges as “a truly dangerous individual”. Officials insist that they have offered no leniency to Abu Qatada in return for his role. They claim that it was he who approached prison staff with an offer to intervene. Both the Home and Foreign secretaries gave permission after first checking with diplomats in Baghdad that Abu Qatada’s plea would not jeopardise undercover efforts to save Mr Kember from Pinner, northwest London, two Canadians and an American. The Prime Minister was also informed.

Abu Qatada was permitted to write his own address, but it was carefully vetted to ensure that there were no coded messages or any “inflammatory sentiments”. He was filmed at the top-security prison at Full Sutton, near York.

Dressed in a flowing white robe and looking notably thinner than at his arrest in August, Abu Qatada, speaking in Arabic, told the kidnappers: “I am your brother Abu Qatada, Omar bin Mahmud Abu Omar, who is imprisoned in Britain.

“I urge my brothers, the Brigades of the Swords of Right in Iraq, to release the hostages in line with the principle of mercy of our religion. “Our prophet said mercy should be shown unless there is a reason in Sharia [Islamic law] that prevents it.”

He did not condemn kidnapping and was careful to emphasise that the appeal was on behalf of the four Christian peace activists only and did not include other Western hostages. (wow, how peaceful, ein???, We have to think why...) The appeal was filmed on Tuesday and his lawyers handed the tape yesterday to the Arabic satellite channels al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya. Last night, new television footage on al-Jazeera showed two of the prisoners, Mr Kember and Tom Fox, 54, an American peace activist, dressed in orange outfits similar to those worn by prisoners at the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Previous Iraqi hostages have been pictured wearing orange jumpsuits, including Briton Ken Bigley who was beheaded by his captors last year. In the tape the activists made statements condemning the US and British presence in Iraq. (Looks like they are extremely happy about this piece of news. I am not. He is not pleading for the lives of all the innocent hostages they have taken. He is only pleading for the lives of the ones who are coallborating directly or indirectly with theis own campaign...)

Iraq's a lost cause? Ask the real experts

2005-12-18T03:34:00.000-08:00

Max Boot November 23, 2005

WHEN IT COMES to the future of Iraq, there is a deep disconnect between those who have firsthand knowledge of the situation — Iraqis and U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq — and those whose impressions are shaped by doomsday press coverage and the imperatives of domestic politics. A large majority of the American public is convinced that the liberation of Iraq was a mistake, while a smaller but growing number thinks that we are losing and that we need to pull out soon. Those sentiments are echoed by finger-in-the-wind politicians, including many — such as John Kerry, Harry Reid, John Edwards, John Murtha and Bill Clinton — who supported the invasion. Yet in a survey last month from the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, 47% of Iraqis polled said their country was headed in the right direction, as opposed to 37% who said they thought that it was going in the wrong direction. And 56% thought things would be better in six months. Only 16% thought they would be worse. American soldiers are also much more optimistic than American civilians. The Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations just released a survey of American elites that found that 64% of military officers are confident that we will succeed in establishing a stable democracy in Iraq. The comparable figures for journalists and academics are 33% and 27%, respectively. Even more impressive than the Pew poll is the evidence of how our service members are voting with their feet. Although both the Army and the Marine Corps are having trouble attracting fresh recruits — no surprise, given the state of public opinion regarding Iraq — reenlistment rates continue to exceed expectations. Veterans are expressing their confidence in the war effort by signing up to continue fighting. Now, it could be that the Iraqi public and the U.S. armed forces are delusional. Maybe things really are on an irreversible downward slope. But before reaching such an apocalyptic conclusion, stop to consider why so many with firsthand experience have more hope than those without any. FOR STARTERS, one can point to two successful elections this year, on Jan. 30 and Oct. 15, in which the majority of Iraqis braved insurgent threats to vote. The constitutional referendum in October was particularly significant because it marked the first wholesale engagement of Sunnis in the political process. Since then, Sunni political parties have made clear their determination to also participate in the Dec. 15 parliamentary election. This is big news. The most disaffected group in Iraq is starting to realize that it must achieve its objectives through ballots, not bullets. There are also positive economic indicators that receive little or no coverage in the Western media. For all the insurgents' attempts to sabotage the Iraqi economy, the Brookings Institution reports that per capita income has doubled since 2003 and is now 30% higher than it was before the war. Thanks primarily to the increase in oil prices, the Iraqi economy is projected to grow at a whopping 16.8% next year. According to Brookings' Iraq index, there are five times more cars on the streets than in Saddam Hussein's day, five times more telephone subscribers and 32 times more Internet users. The growth of the independent media — a prerequisite of liberal democracy — is even more inspiring. Before 2003 there was not a single independent media outlet in Iraq. Today, Brookings reports, there are 44 commercial TV stations, 72 radio stations and more than 100 newspapers. But aren't bombs still going off at an alarming rate? Of course. It's almost impossible to stop a few thousand fanatics who are willing to commit suicide to slaughter others. Yet there is hope on the security front. Since the Jan. 30 election, not a single Iraqi unit has crumbled in battle, according to Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who until September was in charge of their training. Iraqi soldiers are showing impressive determination in fighting the terrorists, notwithstanding the terrible casualties they have taken. Their increasing success is evident on "Route Irish," from Baghdad International Airport. Once the most dangerous road in Iraq, it is now one of the safest. The last coalition fatality there that was a result of enemy action occurred in March. This is not meant to suggest that everything is wonderful in Iraq. The situation remains grim in many respects. But the most disheartening indicator of all is simply the American public's loss of confidence in the war effort. Abu Musab Zarqawi may be losing on the Arab street (his own family has disowned him), but he's winning on Main Street. And, as the Vietnam War showed, defeatism on the home front can become self-fulfilling. Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times

Maimed soldiers retraining to serve in another foreign field

2005-12-18T03:19:00.000-08:00

JOEY BOZIK had no right to survive the blast that blew off both his legs and his right arm.

The landmine that maimed the young US Army sergeant made him one of the hidden statistics of the Iraq war — one of 400 amputees among nearly 16,000 US troops wounded since the invasion. Yet, despite his horrific injuries, Sergeant Bozik has joined the growing ranks of disabled veterans who are determined to fight for their country again.

Only this time the medals they dream of are gold.

The unprecedented number of troops who are returning from Iraq with missing limbs has given the US Paralympic Team an unexpected recruitment boost and the chance to become “unbeatable” at the next Games in Beijing in 2008. More than 60 potential recruits have already been identified in sports as varied as powerlifting, archery and table tennis.

John Register, a veteran of the Gulf War in 1990, who manages the US Paralympic Academy, said: “This has been a shot in the arm of the Paralympic movement and an immediate boost. The Paralympics is a huge motivating factor for injured service members. It exponentially increases the individual’s idea of what is possible.”

One name to watch is Kortney Clemons. The 25-year-old combat medic played football, basketball and baseball back in Mississippi. His right leg was blown off above the knee in a Baghdad backstreet in February while he was carrying a wounded comrade. Mr Clemons is aiming for the podium in powerlifting. “Sport allows us to know we might have bad days, just like anybody else, but we can continue to move on in life and still compete,” he said. “

You can’t get stuck in that rut, start feeling pity for yourself and let life pass you by.”

Ramon Guitard, 22, was trying to protect civilians on a Baghdad bus when his vehicle was hit by several explosives. He lost his right leg above the knee, had his left leg fused with a titanium rod, and a stroke later left him partially paralysed on his left side. He is a medal hopeful after recording 2 hrs 21 min in this year’s New York marathon. “It is all about continuing to find freedom outside of my injury,” he said.

Mr Register, 40, knows what it takes to make it as a Paralympian. As a track and field athlete he had Olympic trials for 1988 and 1992, but thought his career had ended two years later. “I suffered a crippling injury when I overextended my leg hurdling and severed my artery. Gangrene set in and I ended up having an amputation. But I was able to get back through sport.”

He won silver at the Sydney Paralympics in the long jump.

“I have been through all these questions: Who am I? What are my parents going to think of me? All this gives me insight into what’s happening with these young servicemen and women from Iraq.”

Mr Register has contacted almost 200 of the Iraq amputees and identified 61 with the potential for the Paralympic squad. He has run two training events in California so that veterans can try out sports, and another is planned next month in Georgia. None of his funding comes from the Pentagon but he refuses to be critical of the Government. He says that he prefers his Paralympic military training programme to be independent and paid for by the US Olympic Committee.

His next battle is to ensure that military Paralympians can join able-bodied Olympic hopefuls in the US Army World Class Athlete Programme. This will enable them to stay on as fully paid members of the military rather than have to retire on benefits. The necessary legislative change has been attached to a Bill going through Congress.

For the US Paralympic movement, the influx of Iraq veterans brings it full circle from its foundations after the Second World War when many young troops returned home disabled. Subsequent wars have brought new recruits but not in anything like the numbers of Iraq, where more amputees are surviving thanks to better body armour and improved medical care. Advances in prosthetics technology make taking part in sport easier.

Perhaps the most remarkable story is that of Sergeant Bozik, 27, who took the full force of a landmine while a passenger in a Humvee in October last year. Every limb was broken and he ended up a triple amputee. His fiancée, Jayme, stuck by him and they married on December 31, the day after he stood for the first time on prosthetic legs. Within months the ex-soldier from North Carolina was waterskiing again and he has tried out several Paralympic sports, including swimming, archery and volleyball.

Mr Register said: “I think he could well be a Paralympian. I was not sure how much he could do as a triple amputee (in volleyball) but he was batting the ball with two hands, his artificial limb and regular arm. He is beginning to realise, ‘I could be on that trip to Beijing’.

The girl who went from baker's assistant to Baghdad bomber

2005-12-18T02:57:00.002-08:00

SHE came from an ordinary family in an industrial Belgian town. She used to sell baguettes in a bakery, and worked as a waitress in a café. She showed the rebelliousness of a typical teenager, but even in their worst dreams her parents never imagined that Muriel Degauque would end her life by blowing herself up in a suicide bomb attack against American troops in Iraq. The story of the 38-year-old Belgian’s journey from baker’s assistant to Baghdad bomber, making her the first Western woman suicide bomber, emerged in shocking detail yesterday as her parents tried to make sense of her life. Jean and Liliane Degauque, a former crane operator and a medical secretary, said that they had watched their daughter’s gradual transition from Christian to Islamic zealot, and feared the worst when they saw the TV news on Tuesday.

“For about a month we had been trying to call her and just kept getting her voice mail. When we heard on Tuesday evening on the television that a Belgian woman had blown herself up in Iraq, we thought it was Muriel,” her mother said. A visit from the Belgian police the next morning confirmed those fears, and by yesterday morning Muriel’s friendly, pretty, face was smiling from the front of a Belgian national paper. “Here is the Belgian kamikaze, killed in Iraq,” proclaimed the headline. Muriel was born in Charleroi, grew up in her brick home at 33 Rue de l’Europe — a quiet street in the shadow of a coal tip — and was educated at the local high school. “She was absolutely normal as a kid,” Jeannine Samain, a neighbour, said. She was never easy. “When she broke a vase in the sitting room, she said that Jean-Paul (her older brother) had done it even though he had been upstairs doing his homework ,” her mother told La Dernière Heure. As an adolescent, she dabbled in drugs, smoked, drank heavily and sometimes ran away from home. “One time I had to go 170km to get her back from the Ardennes,” M Degauque said. She was more interested in boyfriends than studies. “I don’t know how many of them she had.” She found jobs as a waitress and a baker’s assistant, but was accused of stealing from the till. Tragedy then struck the family when Jean-Paul was killed in a road accident. Muriel moved from Charleroi to Brussels, which has a large Islamic community. She married and divorced a Turkish man, and had a long relationship with an Algerian, who converted her to Islam in 2001. Three years ago she married Issam Goris, who was born in Belgium to Moroccan parents, and followed him to Morocco.

“They told us that they had a house in Morocco and some horses, and a Mercedes and three motorbikes. We never found out whether it was true,” said her mother, who blames Goris for brainwashing her daughter. When Muriel returned to Belgium, her mother no longer recognised her. She had become “more Muslim than Muslim”, she said. “The religion was totally ingrained in her. She only lived for that.” Initially, she wore a hijab, or Islamic veil, but soon started wearing the head-to-toe chador that leaves the face visible. Finally she wore a burka. She became ever more estranged from her parents. “When we saw them, they imposed their rules. We were at home, but my husband had to eat in the kitchen with Issam while the women ate together in the sitting room. There was no question of putting on the TV or opening a beer,” M Degauque said. “My husband got so fed up that he said the next time they came round we should leave them by themselves.”

Muriel and her husband lived in a small two-room flat in Saint Gilles, one of the poorest and most racially mixed areas of Brussels, paying €375 (£255) a month rent. In mid-September they left, telling their landlord they were going to Kenya to try to find Goris’s father. “They had stayed in the flat for two years. I never had any problem with them. They did not leave any forwarding address, saying they might come back in six months to a year,” her landlord told The Times. “She wore a burka all the time. I never saw her face, only her eyes,” he added. But Kenya was not their real destination. The two radical Muslims instead drove by car across Turkey and Syria into Iraq, determined to kill themselves and as many Americans as possible. According to conflicting reports, Muriel killed either only herself, or six people. On the same day, in a separate incident, Goris was shot dead by American troops before he could detonate his belt-bomb. A LIFE LESS ORDINARY MURIEL DEGAGUES Born July 19, 1967 in Charleroi, Belgium Attended Athene Royal de Fontaine-l’Eveque school Jobs Worked in a cafe and baker Moved to Brussels. Married and divorced Belgian-Turkish man 2001 converted to Islam 2002 Married Belgian-Moroccan Issam Goris and lived briefly in Morocco September 2005 Left Brussels and drove to Iraq with Issam Goris November 9, 2005 blew herself up in suicide attack near Baghdad

Excuse Les Rioters

2005-12-18T02:27:00.000-08:00

(Article appeared in GEES 12/1/2005)

Wasn’t it only yesterday the media were telling us that the French are so wise in choosing diplomacy over the use of force, and so clever at handling relations with Third World people – in other words, so unlike the trigger-happy unilateralists on this side of the Atlantic? Well, guess what? After three weeks of rioting in Parisian suburbs, those sophisticated, worldly French have been transformed into a nation of re-pressive, racist pigs, in the eyes of the U.S. press. All it took was a few thou-sand burning Citroens to illuminate the situation. For the mainstream media (inveterate root-causers), riots invariably are the result of injustice, discrimination, hopelessness, poverty, lack of eco-nomic opportunity and unemploy-ment. I don’t know about you, but when-ever I’m out of work, I firebomb a few cars. "Rage of French Youth Is a Fight for Recognition," read the headline in a Washington Post story. The New York Times’ Craig Smith informed readers that in France "a significant portion of the population has yet to accept the increasingly multiethnic makeup of the nation. Put simply, being French, for many people, remains a baguette-and-beret affair." No, don’t tell me the French actually expect these immi-grant families to assimilate? Incroy-able!

Smith argues that le rampage is roo-ted in "growing inequalities," "dis-crimination" and an "overly aggres-sive police presence in the country’s immigrant-heavy housing projects" -- which, of course, is why immigrant rioters have torched those symbols of inequality and discrimination, syna-gogues and churches, to shouts of "Allahu akbar!" (God is great!) .

We are told the rioting was sparked by the deaths of two immigrant teens, who were electrocuted in a power station while eluding the gendarmes.

In a hilarious malapropism, CNN’s Carol Lin referred to the deceased as "African-American teenagers." While the lads were of African origin (name-ly, Tunisian), I don’t believe Parisian suburbs have been annexed by the United States. Or – perhaps Lin was making the youth honorary African-Americans, in tribute to their victim-hood. But it was a USA Today story ("La be-lle France: A Country of equality and exclusion") that scaled the heights of political correctness.

Writers Steven Komarow and Rick Hampson began by wondering if the mayhem would "mark the beginning of social change, as the U.S. urban riots did four decades ago?" Read: Things began getting better for black Americans when they started burning down their neighborhoods.

The article approvingly quotes the assistant mayor of a town north of Paris, who insists the vandals "are asking for dignity. They don’t want make-work jobs. They want real op-portunities – jobs, education and re-spect." The riots are a proverbial cry for help. By firebombing 40 schools, the disenfranchised were pleading for better educational opportunities. And how can one not respect thugs who emulate storm troopers in going after synagogues?

A lady who runs a community play-house (probably not a National Front-voter) says the current turmoil "is just the beginning. I work with people who don’t even have socks and live 10 people in a room." But they do have petrol for Molotov cocktails, not to mention the cell phones and com-puters used to coordinate attacks.

In case you missed the point, after being bludgeoned with it for several hundred words, USA Today summarized its case: "The same com-plaints that fueled the fires in inner-city Detroit and Los Angeles – unem-ployment, discrimination, despair – are behind the arson and rioting in suburban France."

The media’s it’s-South Central-on-the-Seine analysis helps them avoid cer-tain unpleasant realities. On those rare occasions when they managed to use the I-word, it was to assure us that Islam played no role (absolutely, positively none) in the violence.

Just as it played no part in the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, the 2004 Madrid train-bombing, the July bus and train-bombings in Lon-don (52 dead), or the wave of anti-Semitism that’s swept the Continent in recent years.

Columnist Mark Steyn ("Wake Up, Europe, You’ve A War On Your Hands") calls it the "Eurabian civil war." Steyn notes, "For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against syna-gogues, kosher butchers, Jewish day schools, etc."

The rioters in Clichy-Sur-Bois are immigrants alright, immigrants (or the children of immigrants) from North Africa – Moslem immigrants driven by the same burning hatred of the West (democracy, tolerance, sani-tation, in-door plumbing) seen in the streets of Tehran, Ramallah, Jakarta and Islamabad. In the past 50 years, the Muslim po-pulation of Western Europe has gone from less than 250,000 to upwards of 20 million (10 percent of France is Muslim). This is the result of a deadly troika – demographic winter (Euro-pean secularists have chosen extinc-tion by childlessness), lax immigra-tion policies and brain-dead multicul-turalism. The Center for Security Pol-icy warns that by 2050, Europe will lose one-third of its native population. Enter the Muslims, whose high birth-rates are subsidized by European wel-farism. Some doubtless want to as-similate into their host societies. More want to live in Europe while identify-ing with a culture that’s warred with the West for more than a millennium. The Madrid train bombers (body count, 191), mentioned the loss of Grenada in 1492 among their griev-ances. Perhaps the immigrant youth of Stains are protesting the defeat of the Moorish army at Tours in 732 A.D. One of the few journalists who gets it is Olso-based Bruce Bawer. Writing in the Christian Science Monitor on No-vember 17 ("Not all Muslims want to integrate"), Bawer observes: "Europe’s Muslim communities are powder kegs, brimming with an alienation born both of assiduously inculcated antagonism toward infidel society and an infidel society whose integra-tion policies – which should actually be called segregation policies – have perversely encouraged this ire." "Naively, they imagined they could preserve their nations’ cultural ho-mogeneity while letting in millions of foreigners and smiling on their pres-ervation and perpetuation of values drastically different from their own." Bawer cautions: "What they’ve rea-ped, alas, is a generation of Muslims, many of whom view their neighbor-hoods as colonies amid enemy terri-tory – and who demand this auton-omy be recognized. In Britain, imams have pressed the government to des-ignate part of Bradford as being un-der Muslim law. In Belgium, Muslims in the Brussels neighborhood of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek consider it under Islamic jurisdiction. In Denmark, Muslim leaders have sought similar control over parts of Copenhagen." The French problem began, Bawer maintains, not when the youth were accidentally electrocuted, but when police "invaded" Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam) – heavily Muslim su-burban towns. Muslims have always operated on the premise: "What’s mi-ne is mine. And what’s yours will eventually be mine." Thus, wherever they settle, the delightful civilization they’ve created in the Middle East follows them. In her insightful book The Rage And The Pride, journalist Oriana Fallaci wonders if Muslim immigration to Europe might be part of a grand de-sign: "Something else, then, I don’t understand: if they (Muslim immi-grants) are as poor as their abettors and protectors claim, who gives them the money to come? Where do they find the five or ten thousand dollars per head that pay for the trip? Might it be that this money is supplied by some Osama bin Laden for the mere purpose of establishing the ReverseCrusade’s settlements and better or-ganizing Islamic terrorism?" But – not to worry, New York Times -- among the European elite, such views are shunned. It appears that France will answer the latest outbreak of immigrant violence with hope and handouts. Last week, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced a $35 billion program to provide employment, scholarships and other unspecified "opportunities" for the rioters and their kin, along with the creation of an agency for "social cohesion" to ad-dress all of the oppression and dis-crimination in the land of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite. Even Nicholas Sarkozy, the French interior minister who calls the rioters "scum," favors a Gallic form of Af-firmative Action. In the face of this appeasement, the immigrants will keep coming and keep procreating. The have-nots (who have not a work ethic or a desire to live peaceably with others) will con-tinue to resent the haves. Their imams will continue to preach hatred of the infidels. Al-Qaeda and its clones will continue to recruit. And French fami-lies will continue to have fewer chil-dren, or no children, aiding the proc-ess of Islama-cide. In place of La Marseillaise, perhaps the French will adopt as their new national anthem the theme song from "M.A.S.H." – "That suicide is painless (well, almost). It brings on many changes, and I can take or leave it if I please…." Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant.

About Liebermann and Sheehan

2005-12-13T01:54:00.000-08:00

As I treated here, Liebermann has made something that is making him a traitor to his own party: telling his own views about Iraqi situation. LGF says:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joe Lieberman’s staunch stay-the-course defense of President Bush’s Iraq policies isn’t winning him any friends among fellow Democrats. Lieberman’s pro-war views may be winning him praise from a grateful White House, but some Democratic colleagues see him as undercutting their party’s efforts to wrest control of Congress from the GOP next fall. “He’s doing damage to the ability of Democrats to wage a national campaign,” said Ken Dautrich, a University of Connecticut public policy professor. “It’s Lieberman being Lieberman. And it’s frustrating for people trying to put a Democratic strategy together.” Sensing political vulnerability in Bush’s handling of Iraq, Democrats are anxious to craft a compelling anti-war theme uniting the party for the pivotal midterm congressional elections. Democrats hope a surging anti-war tide in 2006 can help them shatter the GOP’s 12-year lock on the House and win back the Senate for the first time since 2001. “It’s not a tidal wave now, but the ingredients are starting to fall into place,” said veteran Democratic strategist Tad Devine. Lieberman, who seems to relish his role as a maverick, is veering far from the Democratic script. His vocal support for the war, a stark and frequent reminder of the deep divisions among Democrats on how to end the war, makes him something of a marked man.

And the second one:

Up to 1,500 anti-war protesters and activists gathered for the 10-hour conference, which was organized by the Stop the War Coalition. The scheduled speakers included Sheehan, who has become a focus of anti-war sentiment in the United States by camping outside the Texas ranch of President George W. Bush; Hasan Zergani Hashim, a spokesperson for Iraq’s radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr; and leftist British legislator George Galloway.

News from the Counterterrorist Blog

2005-12-13T01:43:00.000-08:00

Congress Continues to Voice Concern Over Saudi Oversight of Charities Rep. Sue Kelly, who chairs the oversight subcommittee on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee and a special congressional task force on terrorist financing, wrote last week to President Bush with her continuing concerns over the oversight exercised by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over charities operating within and beyond Saudi Arabia. She raised instances of possible terrorist financing through accounts at Saudi banks (see my post on a pitch on Saudi TV for aid to suicide bombers' families) and through charities, despite governmental assurances of new controls. This letter follows and complements the November 8 hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the role of Saudi Arabia in the dissemination of anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda. I've been told that at least one senior Member of Congress will use the specifics in Rep. Kelly's letter during upcoming discussions with the Saudi government. You can see Rep. Kelly's letter to the President below (large Acrobat file) - the first time that this letter has been published in full.Download saudi_letter_to_gwb.pdf P.S. The Treasury Department still hasn't released final regulations mandated four years ago under Section 312 of the USA PATRIOT Act to govern correspondent banking. I was privately told by senior Treasury officials two months ago that they would be released "very, very soon." It's safe to assume that political pressure on the Bush Administration by financial institutions and/or a select group of countries is responsible for the continued delays.

Al-Qaida Celebrates Oct. 2005 Hotel Bombings in Iraq as the "Battle of Badr al-Baghdad" Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq (led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) has released new documents and a video recording commemorating the October 24, 2005 suicide car bombings in Baghdad targeting the Sheraton Ishtar and Meridian Palestine Hotels--an attack known by Al-Qaida as "the Battle of Badr al-Baghdad." According to Al-Qaida, "Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s guidance... played a pivotal role in the successful execution of this attack. The Shaykh laid out explicit orders saying that we must execute an attack aimed at shaking the ground beneath the feet of our enemies—an attack that would leave him exhausted and confused... He was insistent about continuing the wave of spectacular operations." Al-Qaida also claimed that one of the suicide bombers responsible for the Oct. 2005 Baghdad hotel attack--Abu Naim al-Najdi (apparently from Saudi Arabia)--was encouraged on his mission by certain religious "visions" that he was experiencing: "Abu Naim [al-Najdi]—the first martyr—envisioned himself leaving his house, with his sister asking, ‘Where are you going.’ [In his vision, Abu Naim] replied, ‘I’m going to teach America a lesson that it will never forget.’ He then boarded an airplane and when he observed the World Trade Center, he said to himself [in his vision], ‘I will crash this plane straight into the White House.’" Needless to say, the consequences of pairing up a ruthless Al-Qaida commander like Zarqawi--who "insists" upon "spectacular operations" aimed at "shaking the ground beneath the feet of the infidels"--with equally fanatical footsoldiers who longingly dream of the day when they will have a chance to plow a commercial airliner into the White House are terrifying indeed.Click to view documents c/o Globalterroralert.com:- Al-Qaida's "Battle Series": The "Badr al-Baghdad" Battle- Al-Qaida video of the "Badr al-Baghdad" Battle

From Brussels Journal

2005-12-13T01:25:00.000-08:00

I have found these important pieces of information in this online newspaper:

1.- The 36 year old Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the most famous member of the Dutch Parliament. She is not only a Naomi Campbell lookalike, but is an outspoken and courageous critic of Muslim extremists, who have consequently threatened to kill her. One can only admire her resolve. Two weeks ago, however, Hirsi Ali became controversial within her own party, the Dutch center-right Liberal Party VVD, with her proposal to abolish Article 23 of the Dutch constitution. This article guarantees freedom of education. Ayaan Hirsi Ali wants all religious schools banned. Is Islam dangerous because it is a religion? Do Muslim values differ from European values because the latter are rooted in Christianity or because they are secular? These questions are at the heart of the debate in Europe today. Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch moviemaker who was murdered by a Muslim fanatic last year believed that religion was what made people intolerant. Van Gogh was anti-religious rather than anti-Islamic, as he had previously shown by insulting Christians and Jews and attacking traditional morality before shifting his attention to the growing segment of Muslims in Dutch society. Van Gogh was a friend of Hirsi Ali’s. He was murdered shortly after completing Submission, a ten minute documentary, written by Hirsi Ali, which dealt with the abuse of Muslim women. Hirsi Ali recently finished the script for a sequel to Submission, in which she criticises the oppression of homosexuals in Muslim societies. In the secular Netherlands, the rejection of homosexuality by Islam is considered proof of its backwardness and intolerance. This argument was also used by the assassinated anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn, himself a theatrical homosexual, who argued that he was no racist because he had sex with Moroccan boys. Hirsi Ali’s demand that religious schools be abolished in the Netherlands has caused a row within her own Liberal Party (VVD), especially after she attacked Hans Wiegel, a former leader of the party and one of the VVD’s most prominent members. In an interview last month Hirsi Ali called Wiegel “a reactionary,” who “denies reality” by defending freedom of education. She said Wiegel has no idea about the problems relating to the integration of immigrants into Dutch society and compared him to a “Turkish or Moroccan father” who is “living in a country of yesterday.” Hirsi Ali believes that Article 23 hinders the integration of Muslim children because they end up in Islamic schools. According to her, the state should educate all children in state schools in order to ensure that they learn tolerance. The 64 year old Wiegel, who is considering running for the position of Prime Minister in 2007, said he did not mind being called a reactionary, “on the contrary.” He said Hirsi Ali’s proposal to abolish Article 23 of the Constitution was “intolerant” and suggested she should “not be so fanatic”. The quarrel within the VVD, which is in government with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian-Democrats, deepened when a third prominent party member, Frits Bolkestein, the former European Union commissioner, lended his support to Hirsi Ali. Bolkestein said that freedom of education was not essential for the Liberal Party: “My ideal is: all children in state schools. So, as far as I am concerned, Article 23 can be abolished.” According to Bolkestein the VVD only supports freedom of education for the sake of its Christian-Democrat coalition partner. (...)

2.- Fjordman, the Norwegian blogger (how sorely his invaluable reports from Scandinavia will be missed when he quits blogging next week) reports that Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has expressed her concern over the 12 cartoons [see them here] depicting the prophet Muhammad which were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. Ms Arbour says that the UN experts on racism will deal with the matter. The 56 member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) are currently meeting in Mecca to discuss joint action against Denmark because the Danish government has refused to call Jyllands-Posten to account and restrict the freedom of the Danish press. According to Muslims it is blasphemy to depict the prophet and the paper should apologize for having done so. Eleven Muslim ambassadors to Copenhagen had asked the Danish Prime Minister to ensure that such an apology would be forthcoming. In a message to the OIC, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights states: “I understand your concerns and would like to emphasize that I regret any statement or act that could express a lack of respect for the religion of others.” In a complaint to the High Commissioner, the 56 Islamic governments asked Louise Arbour to raise the matter with the Danish government “to help contain this encroachment on Islam, so the situation will not get out of control.” Muslim radicals have threathened to murder the Danish cartoonists and take revenge with bloodshed in Denmark. According to the director of the Danish Center for Human Rights, Morten Kjærum, “the concern of the High Commissioner reflects that the ban on discrimination is one of the most important and general within human rights law, because we know how disastrous it is when different groups are pitted against one another.” Over the past three months this case has become a major international incident. Curiously enough, to our knowledge it has hardly been reported in the non-Danish mainstream media. (...)

3.- When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of twelve Muhammad cartoons [see them here] on September 30 the editors probably never imagined that ten weeks later Kashmir would come to a standstill because of them. Yet that is what happened yesterday. On Thursday Kashmir, a Muslim province of India, went on strike to protest the Danish newspaper publishing the cartoons. According to Islam it is blasphemy to depict the prophet. The strike was called by a separatist group, but was supported by the Kashmir bar association and other organisations. The authorities made elaborate security arrangements to maintain law and order. Shops were closed to express anger over the caricatures of the prophet. In some places there were clashes, and people threw rocks. “Most Muslims feel deeply affronted,” said Abdur Rasheed, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kashmir Observer.(...)

4.- Every day the front pages of the European mainstream media (MSM) report ad nauseam about the alleged threat that the CIA poses to Europe. Not a single European, however, – unless they are terrorists, radical Muslims or the extremist Left – is worried about the CIA. The MSM are creating their own hype, endlessly parroting each other, and creating “consensus outrage” about a non-issue. What really worries Europeans is illustrated in this article with contributions from Paul Belien on the situation in Flanders, Edwin Jacobs on the Netherlands and Hjörtur Gudmundsson on Denmark. It is the explicit refusal of some who have settled in Europe to assimilate into European society. Yesterday, Gazet van Antwerpen, a local Antwerp newspaper, published the results of a poll among a representative group of 495 Muslim youths between 15 and 25 years of age, who live in the Flemish harbour town. 89% of these youths respond that religion occupies a “very important” place in their lives. 41% attend the mosque at least once a week (while 12% never does). 85% say they will raise their children in the Muslim faith. This in itself would not be a bad thing (on the contrary), except for the fact that 48% of Antwerp’s Muslim youths are convinced that the Quran should be taken literally and 21% readily admit that they have already heard their imam preach a hate sermon. In addition, 21% of the young Antwerp Muslims say that they find it “problematic” that the majority of Antwerp’s citizens are non-Muslims, while less than half (47%) do not regard this as a problem. 22% of the Muslim girls prefer to marry a man who has lived in a Muslim country all his life. Many of the young Muslims are unwilling to become Flemish. 40% say that Islamic values are incompatible with Flemish values. A teacher of Antwerp’s Muslim high school explains that children from families that arrived during the past decade integrate less easily because their knowledge of Dutch is worse than that of the children of immigrant families who arrived two or three decades ago. The cause of this, he explains, are the satellite dishes, which allow immigrant families today to watch the television programs of their home countries, “whereas in the 1980s we could only watch Flemish television.” While there are no young Muslims converting to Christianity, some 400 young Belgians (in both Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia) convert to Islam each year. One of the latter was Muriel Degauque, the Walloon woman who last month became the first ever Western suicide bomber. Professor Johan Leman, an anthropologist at Leuven University and the former head of Belgium’s taxpayer-funded pro-immigration Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism, said in a recent (Dutch language) interview that “the most fanatic Muslims are the female converts.” This is also the opinion of the authorities in the Netherlands. Last week, the bureau of the National Coordinator to Fight Terrorism (NCT) issued a report stating that Muslim converts very often become extremists. Young female converts especially end up in circles of Muslim extremists. This happens mostly through marriage. The marriages never seem to last long and are disbanded once the women have been recruited for the Islamist cause. This has prompted Piet Hein Donner and Johan Remkes, the Dutch ministers of Justice and Home Affairs, to compare these marriages to the recruiting methods of so-called “loverboys” who marry young girls with the sole purpose of tricking them into prostitution. Last week, the Amsterdam police lost a court case against a female convert of Dutch origin, whom the police suspect of being a contact of the Hofstadgroep, the network surrounding Mohammed Bouyeri, who assassinated Theo van Gogh. Police officers had been shadowing the woman since October 19. They phoned her once a day, her house was under constant police surveillance, and she was followed when she went out. The woman, a single mother of three, went to court, complaining that the police was violating her privacy because she took her religion very seriously. The court ruled in favour of the woman and ordered the police to stop harassing her. The Amsterdam police is considering whether to appeal against the court decision or not. In Denmark, meanwhile, young Muslim women are still forced into marriages in spite of the recent actions taken by the country’s Liberal-Conservative government to prevent this. The government decided that Danish residents are no longer allowed to bring foreign spouses into the country unless both partners are at least 24 years old. Despite the measure, however, a growing number of immigrant parents in Denmark force their daughters to move to their homelands or to Sweden where they are pressed into arranged marriages with people from their countries of origin. “Families are increasingly using physical and psychological violence to force a spouse upon their daughters. We experience more and more that parents threaten to kill their children if they do not agree,” says Leif Randeris, the head of the Immigrants’ Counselling Services in Copenhagen and Århus. Every week Randeris’s services are called upon to help girls who feel their lives are in danger after rejecting an arranged marriage. The services give them secret hiding places. Randeris says the 24-year age limit has resulted in parents forcing their daughters to move to their countries of origin. Rikke Hvilshøj, the Danish Minister of Refugee, Immigration, and Integration Affairs, says the government has never claimed that the measure would put an end to forced marriages. She adds, however, that there is plenty of evidence that the rule is making it harder to impose forced marriages on girls. The Danish government also intends to clamp down on another, similar practice. It has ordered local authorities to report the slightest suspicion of immigrant families forcing their children on reconditioning trips to their countries of origin in order to prevent them from becoming too Westernized. The government intends to deport families that engage in such practices. “Obviously, it's a very drastic measure we are introducing, but it is simply an expression that we will not tolerate reconditioning trips,” says Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister. “When you come to Denmark to live here, you are expected to do everything in your power to be integrated.” According to the Danish Social Appeals Board, an independent administrative authority with judicial powers, at least one thousand children have been forced to undertake such reconditioning trips since 2002.

Amazing how it's Eurabia.

More news from Australia

2005-12-11T02:31:00.000-08:00

Arrests amid racial tensions at Sydney beach:

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Ethnic tensions erupted Sunday into running battles between police and a mob of thousands of youths, many chanting racial slurs, at a beachside suburb in southern Sydney.

At least three people were arrested and several injured in alcohol-fueled fights. Television images showed police protecting an ambulance being pelted with beer bottles and a group of young women attacking another woman.

Other youths stamped on police vehicles and police officers fought back with batons and pepper spray.

The behavior, "is nothing short of disgusting and disgraceful," said Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin. It's certainly not the Australian way."

"What has been occurring on some fronts is that people of Middle Eastern backgrounds that have been seen in the Cronulla area, a swarm of the crowd has approached these people with vile abuse, in the most un-Australian way," Goodwin said. "We have a number of reports of persons that have been assaulted."

A police spokesman commenting on usual condition of anonymity said three men, aged 16, 29 and 34 were arrested and were being questioned after fights erupted among some 5,000 people who converged on Cronulla beach in southern Sydney.

Many youths were carrying beer bottles, waving Australian flags and chanting racist slogans following reports that youths of Lebanese descent were responsible for last week's attack on two of the beach's life guards.

Earlier this week police boosted the number of officers patrolling the beach after mobile phone text messages began circulating calling for retaliation for the attacks.

New South Wales political leader, Premier Morris Iemma, on Saturday warned police would deal with any trouble makers.

"Let there be no mistake -- if anyone comes to this beach on the weekend with the intention of causing trouble, the police will respond with the full force of the law to maintain order," Iemma said. "It's time for everyone involved in this to just calm down."

Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad said the violence was "bound to happen" after callers to some talk radio shows whipped up ethnic tensions following the attacks last weekend.

"Sections of the media took this issue far too far and one can only surmise that the way (these) issues was dealt with on talk back radio amounts to incitement," Trad said.

He said the media turned a dispute between youths into an issue of ethnicity.

Wow, these are very interesting news. So these guys attack 3 life-guards (right Pastoorius, no one is dead, far as I know of) and and the culprit is the press. Marvellous. I should say the matter was more about the religious ideology of these guys. The thing is: are the governements fuelling the tensions by not pointing out what the real limits are for foreign people? I mean: if governements were stating the real limits to be nationalized or to live in Western countries (the most important being to assimilate to Western way of life), these things would not ocurr. I DO NOT CONDONE WHITE PEOPLE RACISM. BUT I DO NOT CONDONE MUSLIM RACISM EITHER. And if normal people sees they are bound by laws that do not apply to Muslim people, I think there will be more tensions of this type in the future. UPDATING: Riots have broken out around Cronulla (a suburb of Sydney), the area descended upon by thousands of people today in answer to the Lebanese Muslim gangs that sought to ‘take over’ the beaches by assaulting local families and beating lone surf life savers. Update: violence has broken out again this evening around Maroubra: large scale vandalism, spurred by Muslim gangs once again, as they now roam the streets in cars, taking to passing people and parked cars with baseball bats, seeking vengeance for today’s events; events they wilfully started last week. Casualties have begun. One young man has now been stabbed, protecting a group of three girls he was with, all of whom were set upon by yet another carload of men of ‘Middle Eastern’ appearance. They threatened to rape the three women, apparently; the lone 26 year old man moved to defend them (odds these creatures seem to rather like). He was knifed in the back (of course). No news yet of his status, other than the fact that he arrived at hospital with the knife still lodged in his back. Update II: reports are circulating that some of tonight's roaming (Lebanese) gangs are carrying firearms. The streets are not the place to be. This is just absolutely terrific, isn't it. . . Bring on the quarantine. Bring it on now. Update III: ". . .up to 50 carloads of youths have smashed over 100 cars with baseball bats and other weapons in the eastern beach suburb of Maroubra, in apparent retaliation of the Cronulla beatings. " The young stab victim was 23, not 26. He's been admitted to St George Hospital, and is listed as serious. No news yet as to who he is. Update IV: apparently a group of 50 local people chased after the car smashers on foot. Further reports of trouble at Kyeemagh and Brighton Le Sands (beachside suburbs - south Sydney). Update V: one Leftist paper's take this morning (1:07 a.m.) - 'The violence followed a week of simmering tension following an attack the previous Sunday on two lifesavers.' Oh really? That's all this is about, is it guys? The bashing of two lifesavers? No - sorry - as bad as that was, that's NOT all this was about. Families out for a day at the beach have been systematically singled out for assault (and their men for beatings) by these nasty little bastards, and you know it. How absolutely typical.

Michael Moore owns a part of Halliburton

2005-12-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

I have known it from Alex Corvus's blog: He refers to some news that are told by newsmac.com:

Filmmaker Michael Moore has made a career out of trashing corporations and said he doesn't own any stocks due to moral principle.

How then did author Peter Schweizer uncover IRS documents showing that Moore's very own foundation has bought stocks in some of America's largest corporations – including Halliburton, other defense contractors and some of the same companies he has attacked?

In his blockbuster new book "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy," Hoover Fellow Schweizer reveals the glaring contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals including Al Franken, Ralph Nader, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. [Editor's Note: NewsMax has a free offer for "Do As I Say" – Go Here Now.]

But he reserves some of his sharpest barbs for Moore.

In his first documentary "Roger & Me," Moore skewered General Motors, Schweizer points out.
In "The Big One," he went after Nike and PayDay candy bars.
"Bowling for Columbine" was an attack on the American gun industry.
Oil companies played a major role in "Fahrenheit 911."
His upcoming film "Sicko" pillories drug companies and HMOs.
On his television shows "TV Nation" and "The Awful Truth," he criticized HMOs and defense contractors.
He once said that major defense contractor Halliburton was run by a bunch of "thugs," and suggested that for every American killed in the Iraq war, "I would like Halliburton to slay one mid-level executive."

Publicly, Moore has claimed he wants no part of these companies and won't own stock.

In his book "Stupid White Men," he wrote: "I don't own a single share of stock."

He repeated the claim in a 1997 letter to the online magazine Salon, saying: "I don't own any stock."

MORE NEWS ON THIS SUBJECT: It seems he is not the only Hallibuton's "owner". Soros manages a fund that owns $252,500.

The Peace in Israel

2005-12-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A tunnel leading from Gaza toward Israel has been discovered, the first since the Israeli military withdrew from Gaza over the summer, the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday.

The tunnel, described as several meters deep and about 20 meters long, was found Friday afternoon during engineering work north of Gaza.

"Terror organizations had intended to use the tunnel in order to infiltrate Israel and carry out terror attacks within the country," the IDF statement said.

The tunnel shaft near the Erez security crossing connected to a path leading to a garbage dump. From there, the IDF said, "terrorists" intended to "enter the tunnel and infiltrate Israel."

The military says it would use controlled explosives to "render the tunnel useless."

Meanwhile, Israeli officials clarified their position about the flow of legitimate goods across the boundary between Gaza and Israel.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel may consider changing the status of Gaza crossing points if the Palestinian Authority did not take action against militant groups.

But, spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said, Israel does not intend to place Gaza under economic siege by closing the crossings.

Israeli media had reported a threat to limit the flow of goods across the boundary.

If Gaza's Karni and Erez crossings were given international-border status, Gissin said, Palestinian exports into Israel would be significantly slowed as a consequence.

The Israeli Cabinet will discuss the issue during its weekly meeting on Sunday, Gissin said.

On Friday, Israel's Channel 2 reported that Israel's defense chief, Shaul Mofaz, was considering closing the crossings.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said Friday at a rally in Damascus that the radical Palestinian group had had enough of the agreement it made with the Palestinian Authority to maintain "quiet" with Israel. (Full story)

Hamas was among several militant groups that agreed to cooperate by not attacking Israel. That agreement, brokered by Egypt, has been honored for the past nine months, and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the pact should continue.

But violence persists. A suicide bomber blew himself up last Monday at a mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis, a day after Israel said it was resuming targeted air strikes in retaliation for Palestinian missile attacks launched from Gaza.

Islamic Jihad, another militant group, claimed responsibility for the Netanya bombing. Israel arrested members of the family of the bomber, and in the days since the bombing Israeli attacks have killed four Palestinian militants in two targeted strikes in Gaza.

As it says Hamas was not going to continue that agreement:

The president of the political office of the palestinien radical gruop Hamas, Khaled Mechaal, have said this Friday from Damas that his movement is not going to continue the agreement of not attacking the Jews, that ends on 31/Dec/2005.

We are not going to continue with the agreement because our people is surrounded and is preparing for a confrontation" with Israel, have assured Mr. Mechaal, that was talking from a palestinien refugees camp of Yarmouk, 10 km away from Damas.

This Nov. 3rd, one of the chief leadres of Hamas, Mahmoud Zahar, had indicated that the mouvement will never countinue the agreement if Israel does not finish the attacks and free the thousands of palestieniens that are in Israel's prisions.

The agreement have been imposed to Hamas and other groups by the Palestinien President Mahmoud Abbas the day after he had concluded it with Sharon this February in Charm el Cheikh.

Very peaceful, ein?? So peaceful that they were going to investigate the Palestinian football players that have played along with Israelis in Barcelona a "Peace Play", although now they deny it.

Prosecutors call Padilla's 'combatant' complaint not relevant now

2005-12-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Justice Department told a federal appeals court Friday that terror suspect Jose Padilla's complaints about being held indefinitely as a "enemy combatant" are irrelevant now that criminal charges have been filed in Florida.

And, prosecutors said, it doesn't matter if the charges against Padilla don't include a previously alleged "dirty bomb" plot.

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has announced that he is launching a formal probe of the Justice Department's handling of the Padilla case and may hold a public hearing.

Specter said Thursday: "I think there's a real question raised when you hold a citizen for three and a half years on a charge that he's going to explode a dirty bomb and then, when the Supreme Court is considering taking jurisdiction of the case, to withdraw. That troubles me."

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held up Padilla's transfer from a military brig in South Carolina.

The court asked the government to explain why a Miami grand jury's indictment made no mention of a "dirty bomb" plot and other allegations cited by the Bush administration to detain Padilla in a military brig for the past three and a half years.

Prosecutors explained: "The executive has determined that the demands of national security can now be adequately satisfied by charging petitioner criminally. The fact that those charges involve different facts from those relied upon by the president in ordering petitioner's military detention is not consequential."

Although the indictment's allegations are different, they are "gravely serious offenses" that carry a potential penalty of life imprisonment, prosecutors said.

Padilla's attorneys had pleaded with the government to either charge Padilla or release him, and a federal judge in South Carolina agreed. The appeals court reversed that decision.

In September, a three-judge appeals court panel ruled that the detention was lawful, citing the president's constitutional powers as commander in chief and the congressional resolution authorizing the president to use military force against the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks.

Padilla was indicted as the issue appeared headed to the Supreme Court.

The indictment added Padilla as a defendant in a case accusing him and others of forming a "North American support cell" of a global "violent jihad" movement.

It charges Padilla with conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists.

According to the indictment, Padilla went to Afghanistan in 1999 and 2000 and underwent weapons and explosives training by al Qaeda, the Islamic terror group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and responsible for the September 11 attacks.

But the indictment makes no mention of a plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" or blow up apartment buildings with natural gas -- allegations made previously in public statements and court arguments by Justice Department officials.

Padilla, 35, is a U.S. citizen who converted to Islam after serving two terms in U.S. prison. FBI agents arrested him at Chicago's airport in May 2002. A month later, President Bush declared Padilla an "enemy combatant" and he was moved to military custody.

Prosecutors argued in their brief that Padilla's petition challenging his detention is irrelevant because it was "exclusively addressed to his detention by the military 'without criminal charges.'

The courts, prosecutors said, "lack jurisdiction to consider cases that no longer present live controversies."

Padilla's attorneys believe the underlying questions of "enemy combatant" policy ought to be heard by the Supreme Court. Should Padilla be acquitted in Florida, for example, defense attorneys worry the government could again hold him an "enemy combatant."

Prosecutors called that idea "entirely speculative."

The defense brief is due December 16.

The War for Civilization

2005-12-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

Are we winning the war against ter-ror or more precisely, against the death-cult ideology of extreme hate that employs terror as one of its wea-pons? America, Britain and Israel have all committed significant sums of money to fight back militarily and to ensure civilian safety. However, we must fight another very hot war, one which will ultimately decide whether Western Civilization lives or dies. This is a war we are not winning and some argue that it is a war we have not yet even begun to fight. I am talking about The Culture War, the war that must be fought to oppose the campaign of lies and propaganda that Islamists and western Stalinists launched against the West, beginning with Israel, arguably anywhere from forty to seventy years ago. The Culture War is a very hot war: no prisoners are taken, no mercy is shown. And there are now penalties for trying to tell the truth about the danger of jihad or about the barbaric and pathological nature of militant Islam today. Indeed, if you try to discuss the Is-lamic religious and gender apartheid and its dangerous proliferation into Europe and North America (i.e. there have been honor killings in Cincin-nati, St. Louis, Chicago, Jersey City, Toronto, as well as all over Europe and in the Muslim world), this is what will happen to you: If you tell these truths in the Arab and Muslim world, you’ll be beheaded, probably tortured, certainly jailed, exiled if you are lucky. Many Muslim and Chris-tian dissidents have suffered precisely this fate. There are no more Jews there, as the Islamist Caliphate ren-dered the entire Arab Middle East Judenrein long ago. Try to say this in Europe and you might be butchered, as Theo Von Gogh was, or simply imprisoned in purdah, veiled, or threatened, forced to go into hiding, or honor-murdered as so many Mus-lim girls and women are.

Try to tell the moral tragedy that the United Nations represents, or the even greater tragedy that the word "Palestine" has come to represent objectively — and therefore in a non-politically correct way — on Euro-pean and on North American cam-puses, or on the increasingly left-dominated liberal media airwaves, and you may not be shot on the spot, but you will be slandered and called a "racist" and a "fascist." I have been called both. If you are a North American intellec-tual, you may not be imprisoned or beheaded but you will be heckled, mocked, and shunned. You might need security in order to speak. If you’re a feminist, you will no longer be taken seriously as an intellectual, nor will you be "heard." Expose the permanent Intifada against Western Civilization and against the Jews and you will be sued and driven into exile, as Oriana Fal-laci has been, or sued and prevented from traveling to certain countries, as Rachel Ehrenfeld has been. You will be sued and silenced in all those pla-ces where you were once published, even lionized. Dare to say that the torturer and genocidal tyrant, Sad-dam Hussein, is on trial today only because of America’s and Iraq’s sacri-fice and their bold vision of democ-racy and you will be called a reac-tionary, a liar, a fool, and the worse epithet of all: a conservative. Both Western leftists and Islamists brandish many tools against America and Israel in this war. Their first wea-pon is the systematic misuse of lan-guage. Mainstream and liberal news-papers write about "insurgents," not "terrorists," whom they describe as "martyrs," not "killers, and as "free-dom fighters," not as "well educated evil men." Anti-American and anti-Israel dem-onstrators, who are clearly and visibly filled with hate and rage, are de-scribed as "peace activists." Anti-Semitism is legitimized, while the slightest criticism of Islam is banned because of the disallowance of "Isla-mophobia." Telling the truth has be-come an offense which is unprotected by free speech doctrines, which in-stead protect the telling of lies. I was once held captive in Kabul, Af-ghanistan. I experienced, first-hand, what life is like in a Muslim country, one that has never been colonized by the West. I learned that it was both foolish and dangerous to romanticize Third World countries. And I learned first-hand that evil and barbarism exist a priori, and are not caused by western imperialism or colonialism or by the "Zionist entity." It’s where I also learned to reject the doctrine of multiculturalism, which teaches that all cultures are equal, formerly colo-nized cultures even more so. This leads to isolationism and non-interventionism and condemns mil-lions of civilians to Islamist torture, terror and genocide. Although, to their credit, a handful of feminist activists and journalists have sounded the alarm, once America invaded Afghanistan these very activ-ists, all Democratic party operatives, swiftly opposed the military routing of the Taliban. And why? Because the expedition had not been undertaken, apparently, with women in mind. It’s as if they did not think that bin La-den’s terrorism kills women too.

I hold the Western academy, including the feminist academy, which has been utterly Palestinianized, respon-sible for failing to expose and con-demn the realities of Islamic gender apartheid. I know feminist graduate students who are busy "deconstruct-ing" the veil, polygamy and arranged marriage as possible expressions of feminist or female power — no differ-ent from the bikini. None have con-gratulated President Bush on his ex-cellent choice of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state and none have given her the slightest credit for her pro-woman, pro-human rights and pro-Israel speeches. The number of lies being told in the Western academy and among West-ern activists are literally beyond be-lief. Here’s one: Mohammed was rea-lly great to women, especially to one Safiya bint Huyay, whom he married even though she was Jewish. Yes. But first he beheaded her father and her husband and exterminated her entire village. And then he forced poor Safi-ya to convert to Islam before he mar-ried her. This disinformation cam-paign leaves me speechless. Our own intelligentsia — our profes-sors — are so politically correct and so multiculturally relativist that they refuse to call "barbaric" the act of sto-ning a woman to death because she was raped or because she refused to marry her first cousin. Nor will they denounce subjecting women to geni-tal mutilation and public gang rape as "barbaric." Nor did American media commentators who showed the Pales-tinian lynching of two Israeli reserv-ists in Ramallah in 2000 describe the event, which they played over and over again, as "barbaric." The intelligentsia did not describe what was done to us on 9/11 as "bar-baric" either. Indeed, I know Ameri-can and European intellectuals who are convinced that America and Israel are the greatest barbarians of all, and that we deserved 9/11. According to Islamists and Western academics and journalists, bin Laden is not an "Isla-mo-fascist." To them, President Geor-ge W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are the "Nazi fascists." And then there is that vast industry of Palestinian, Arab League and United Nations-funded-and-distributed doc-tored footage and fake film massacres including fake gun battles and the faked death of Palestinian children at Jewish and Israeli hands. Our Islamist opponents have turned out this pro-paganda nonstop around the world. As propagandists, they are far more sophisticated than Goebbels, and far more patient. We cannot afford to underestimate their skill at telling Big Lies. Islamists understood that if they funded madrassas in the East and Middle Eastern Institutes in the West — and if they funded the total Pales-tinianization of the United Nations and of every international human rights group — that in thirty to fifty years they would have brainwashed generations to see things their way. Islam is sacred — it cannot be in-sulted. Imagined slights are as impor-tant as real slights. Lies have as much weight as the truth. Whether Ameri-can military forces did or did not flush a Koran down the toilet does not matter. What matters is that Mus-lims thought they did. No penance is good enough to atone for this crime. Millions of people have been system atically brainwashed against America, against Israel, against Jews, against women and against the Western con-cept of truth, objectivity, truth-telling, and independent thinking. All are under siege. We have a serious fifth column in our midst, one that has made common cause with Islamists against us, one that has been well funded by Arab oil billionaires for more than forty years. And George Soros too — a fifth col-umn general who, for a variety of rea-sons, has actually been leading the cultural war against the West. They are fools, but they are dangerous fools. Do they think they will be spa-red because they are so politically correct? Do they think they would enjoy the same freedom of speech in Mecca or Tehran that they enjoy in the West? What must we do in the face of this tyrannical threat? We must rescue language. It must bear some relation-ship to the truth and morality. Every-thing is not relative. It is not all "Rashomon." We must not allow our media or aca-demics to continue to insist that Islam is not the problem, but that even if it is, that we cannot say so, lest we be deemed racist. We must teach the history of jihad against infidels, and the history of how infidels (Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoro-astrians) were treated under Islam. We must insist that criticism of Amer-ica and Israel be balanced, not patho-logical, obsessive and cult-like as it is now. We must insist on civility in public discourse. We must model it for the coming generations. We must fund seriously a collective effort to combat vulgar lies and vilifi-cation, the propaganda against us which has brainwashed countless generations. We need a War Room effort to coun-ter the Big Lies. We need international radio and television channels to edu-cate people. We need to teach people about intellectual diversity and toler-ance. This country has birthed two signifi-cant waves of feminism. We must now take that feminist vision global. We need our foreign policy to contain serious provisions about women’s rights abroad. Otherwise, democracy cannot and will not evolve or flourish in Muslim countries. The way I see it, everything is at sta-ke. This is a time when we must all be heroes. We must all stand up to evil in our lifetime. We must acknowledge that Islamist terrorism is evil and has no justification. We must teach this to our children. We must support Mus-lim and Arab dissidents in their fight against Islamic tyranny and gender apartheid. We can do this. We must do this. Ot-herwise, we will die, and our history and our values and our entire way of life will die with us. If we fail, we will betray all that we believe in as a free people. La Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., is the author of thirteen books including the just-released Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom" (Palgrave Macmillan) and "The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Do About It." She can be reached through her website (www.Phyllis-Chesler.com).

Ahmadenijad: "I saw a vision while I was at the UN"

2005-12-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

Very important video. And very dangerous: the speaker (a woman), hmm, looks like she understand people have voted this dangerous extermist: We know: for pacific use only... Cox&Forkum.

Mounties bring Khadr scion home

2005-12-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

Abdullah Khadr has been called everything from a fugitive to a suicide bomber to a terrorist-training camp instructor. But in reality, he says, he is far less interesting. “I was never in al-Qaeda,” the 24-year-old said this afternoon, in his first published interview since returning to Canada last week. “I don't have a problem with anybody,” he said. “Why should anybody have a problem with me?"

“I don't have a problem with anybody,” he said. “Why should anybody have a problem with me?” The Canadian citizen, who was raised in Afghanistan, described himself simply as an aspiring businessman, currently walking in borrowed running shoes, as he tries to get his life back together. He was escorted back to Canada last Friday by an RCMP agent, he says, after being detained for the past 14 months in a Pakistani jail.

Mr. Khadr argues he was wrongfully imprisoned, alleging Canadian and U.S. agents were complicit in his ordeal, which he said included beatings and sexual humiliation at the hands of his Pakistani jailers. His captors, he said, asked about top al-Qaeda figures as well as many Canadian Muslims, including such notable former al-Qaeda suspects as Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, the El-Maati brothers and, of course, his infamous father, Ahmed Said Khadr. Apart from his father, who was killed as a top terrorism suspect in Pakistan in 2003, the other Canadian suspects have all been released to live freely in Canada after suffering their own harrowing ordeals in overseas jails. Abdullah Khadr's own post-9/11 story is similar, and adds some more layers of grey to his the ongoing saga of his so-called “al-Qaeda family” and those who knew them. There have been many misunderstandings, said Mr. Khadr, not the least of which being his one-time reputation as a terrorist training camp instructor. “Instructor? Instructors have to be very, very inside,” he said, insisting that he only spent about a two-weeks at a training camp when he was about 13 years old. “I wasn't interested in that stuff, I was more interested in cars.” The Khadr family story is a sprawling one, but one with a simple beginning. A fundamentalist father moved his family to Afghanistan during the 1980s mujahedeen battle against the Soviet invaders. While the family got to know Osama bin Laden, top al-Qaeda lieutenants, and various violent zealots, the Khadrs insist they limited themselves to helping orphans. “I don't know if my father did any military work,” Abdullah Khadr said Thursday. But intelligence agencies allege the family was in the thick of things during al-Qaeda's formative years, and the family was hunted during the U.S. invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The family headed to Pakistan, but one by one, the four Khadr brothers were arrested. Only Omar Khadr, 19, remains in jail. He is Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and has recently been charged with murder of a U.S. soldier killed in a 2002 gun battle with Afghan militants. Abdurahman Khadr, 22, was allowed to return to Canada from Cuba, after co-operating with his captors. A third brother, 15-year-old Abdul Karim, came back to Canada crippled as a result of the battle that killed his father. During this period, family members made comments supporting al-Qaeda in a 2003 CBC TV documentary. As for Abdullah, he laid low in Pakistan, before his arrest in the fall of 2004. “Wrong time, wrong spot,” he said, adding he was picked up by Pakistani agents who moved to arrest a man he was with. “I was never in al-Qaeda and I do not support all — some — of all they are doing.” While he said he likes the idea of Muslims living together in a single nation, civilians should never be killed for that purpose. After his capture, he said, he was hooded, beaten and not allowed to sleep. He said his captors threatened to rape him with a stick. He said his captors laughed when he told them he wanted to go to the Canadian embassy. Canadian and U.S. agents asked him questions he said, but never took part in the abuse. He said he was transferred to another jail in Pakistan, where he was visited by both consular officials and CSIS agents named “Mike and Bob.” He said he wasn't free to speak of any mistreatment because Pakistani officials were always present. During the whole time, he said he was never charged with any crime. This month, he said he was let go, accompanied back to Canada by a RCMP officer on the flight to Toronto. He said the Mountie he was travelling with lent him his cellphone to call his family once he arrived in Toronto. They were overjoyed to see him come home.

Now, aren't this guys really dhimmies???? What a peaceful guy: he wants to live with all the Muslims in a Nation (then why he don't go to Pakistan and stay there for ever? He would be living in a Muslim Nation them, ehhh??? And oh, yes, he is the most peaceful guy you can meet in your entire life: his father was a majhideen fighting in Afghanistan, All his three brothers have been in prison for their connections with Al-Qaeda (one of them is in Guatanamo accused of killing a soldier) and the other three have made statements in television supporting Al-Qaeda. AND HE CONTINUES SAYING, WITHOUT CRITIZING HIS FAMILY, THAT THEY ARE PEACEFUL GUYS!!!!

Do you think I am idiot, boy???

Liebermann, a democrat with long-term vision

2005-12-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

This is a great article written by Liebermann, that I really recommend to everyone. It appeared on WSJ.

Our Troops Must Stay

America can't abandon 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists.

BY JOE LIEBERMAN Tuesday, November 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.

There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority. Before going to Iraq last week, I visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has been the only genuine democracy in the region, but it is now getting some welcome company from the Iraqis and Palestinians who are in the midst of robust national legislative election campaigns, the Lebanese who have risen up in proud self-determination after the Hariri assassination to eject their Syrian occupiers (the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militias should be next), and the Kuwaitis, Egyptians and Saudis who have taken steps to open up their governments more broadly to their people. In my meeting with the thoughtful prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, he declared with justifiable pride that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the Arab world. He is right.

In the face of terrorist threats and escalating violence, eight million Iraqis voted for their interim national government in January, almost 10 million participated in the referendum on their new constitution in October, and even more than that are expected to vote in the elections for a full-term government on Dec. 15. Every time the 27 million Iraqis have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them. Most encouraging has been the behavior of the Sunni community, which, when disappointed by the proposed constitution, registered to vote and went to the polls instead of taking up arms and going to the streets. Last week, I was thrilled to see a vigorous political campaign, and a large number of independent television stations and newspapers covering it.

None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S. And, I am convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.

The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government understand this, and they asked me for reassurance about America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them. Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion, from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration's recent use of the banner "clear, hold and build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.

We are now embedding a core of coalition forces in every Iraqi fighting unit, which makes each unit more effective and acts as a multiplier of our forces. Progress in "clearing" and "holding" is being made. The Sixth Infantry Division of the Iraqi Security Forces now controls and polices more than one-third of Baghdad on its own. Coalition and Iraqi forces have together cleared the previously terrorist-controlled cities of Fallujah, Mosul and Tal Afar, and most of the border with Syria. Those areas are now being "held" secure by the Iraqi military themselves. Iraqi and coalition forces are jointly carrying out a mission to clear Ramadi, now the most dangerous city in Al-Anbar province at the west end of the Sunni Triangle.

Nationwide, American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the Iraqi military are able to "lead the fight" themselves with logistical support from the U.S., and that that number should double by next year. If that happens, American military forces could begin a drawdown in numbers proportional to the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006. If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come.

The economic reconstruction of Iraq has gone slower than it should have, and too much money has been wasted or stolen. Ambassador Khalilzad is now implementing reform that has worked in Afghanistan--Provincial Reconstruction Teams, composed of American economic and political experts, working in partnership in each of Iraq's 18 provinces with its elected leadership, civil service and the private sector. That is the "build" part of the "clear, hold and build" strategy, and so is the work American and international teams are doing to professionalize national and provincial governmental agencies in Iraq.

These are new ideas that are working and changing the reality on the ground, which is undoubtedly why the Iraqi people are optimistic about their future--and why the American people should be, too. I cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause, not by political debates."

Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.

Mr. Lieberman is a Democratic senator from Connecticut. I understand why he is firm candidat to be the next Secretary of Defense.

Dedicated to Ahmadenijad

2005-12-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

(Thanks to Aleon)

Ahmadenijad's new suggestion

2005-12-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

As I treated here, Ahmadenijad's reflections are really a danger, not only for his people, but for all the world. And Germany, France and Great Britain thought that he was going to be appeassed. Well, ejem, NO. And here is his new suggestion:

Move Israel to Europe, suggests Iran's president

Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments, made at a news conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

"Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail," said Ahmadinejad, according to IRNA.

"Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: Is the killing of innocent Jewish people

by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?"

"If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe – like in Germany, Austria or other countries – to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it," he said.

I do not think this piece of news needs any more comments except that they are only months away from building the nuclear bomb (except that this next photo appears on the web page from TF1 the French public channel)

I do not know what has happened to them to publish this photo that shows the real nature of this bastard (sorry, I do not have any respect for someone that doubts that the Shoah really existed).

Putin's heroes

2005-12-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

Dec 1st 2005 | GROZNY From The Economist print edition A gruesome war that never really ended may soon flare up again AFP

THE guns are the most conspicuous things, more even than the bullet holes that scar the buildings like so much architectural acne. On November 27th, when Chechnya held parliamentary elections, the weapons often outnumbered the voters: guns brandished by the Russian troops who slouch at checkpoints; guns wielded by the uniformed Chechen police; and, at the polling stations, guns carried by the mainly young, jumpy men from the local militias—the most numerous, and the most feared, of which are the kadyrovtsy, or henchmen of Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord son of a Chechen president who was blown up last year. Vladimir Putin has officially designated Mr Kadyrov junior a “hero of Russia”. This much-delayed vote was the latest Kremlin bid to show that, after a decade of war with Chechen separatists that has left perhaps 100,000 dead and many more displaced from their homes, Chechnya is on its way to normality. By Russian standards, in some ways the election was indeed normal. Discounting the gang of voters that seemed to track a group of foreign journalists as they travelled between polling stations (at each of which traditional Chechen dancing magically broke out on cue), turnout appeared thin. Not everyone was enthusiastic: “death, hunger and destruction” was all that Chechnya's post-Soviet leaders had given it, said one man on the outskirts of Grozny, Chechnya's capital, who had crossed out all the names on his ballot paper. Nevertheless the official turnout was over 60%, and—surprise!—United Russia, the Kremlin's pet party, took around 60% of the votes. Nothing abnormal there, at least in Russian terms. But what distinguishes Chechnya's election is the plethora of guns—and the war that the Kremlin misleadingly claims is over, and the rest of the world has largely forgotten. Friends like these The separatists who hide out in Chechnya's southern mountains continue to clash with Russian forces, and to pay local youths who bomb Russian installations and can supply video evidence to prove it. Russians are still dying in large, if sketchy, numbers. But Mr Putin's policy of “Chechenisation” has meant outsourcing most of the violence to local militias—especially the kadyrovtsy, who on most estimates number around 7,000. Many, like the Kadyrov family itself, are former rebels. “I was sitting at home,” comments one, with a smile, when asked what he did before joining the militia. Officially, Mr Kadyrov junior is Chechnya's first-deputy prime minister, and his militia's job is to fight terrorism. In reality, and although the perpetrators are often hard to identify (and drunken Russian soldiers still murder people too), human-rights workers reckon that the kadyrovtsy are now responsible for many of the region's outrages: mass kidnappings, the extraction of meaningless confessions and incriminations under torture, and killings. They answer only to Ramzan, and, usually, there is no redress. “To whom?” asks one torture victim in Grozny, when asked whether he has ever complained. It is not surprising that most people at the polling stations said that ending the war, which is officially over already, was one of the country's two top priorities. The other is jobs. Salaries for the kadyrovtsy begin at 14,000 roubles ($485) a month—five times what Tamara, a teacher with four children who was bombed out of her home in the village of Gorogorsk, says she earns. Besides a few roadside shacks and some shepherds, there is little economy to speak of outside Grozny, and unemployment is almost total. There are a few signs of life in the capital; but the city is still a wasteland of abandoned rubbish, stray dogs and half-bombed, half-inhabited apartment blocks, with washing strung across the shell holes and decorated by giant posters of Ramzan receiving his hero's medal from Mr Putin. “This is how I introduce myself,” says Movsar Temirbaev, the city's mayor. “As mayor of the most destroyed city in the world.” There are more cars on the streets, it is said, only because after bombed-out Chechens have paid the 30-50% kickback needed to extract the federal compensation to which they are entitled, the cash does not stretch to a new apartment. Along with embezzlement, local money-spinners include pilfering of oil, trade in stolen military kit and ransoms, sometimes for live kidnap victims, sometimes for corpses. “It's none of our business,” says a man in the village of Gvardeiskoe, when asked where the money came from for the incongruously grand houses nearby. Will the newly elected parliamentarians make any difference? “Only to themselves,” says one Grozny resident. The reason, as Andreas Gross, of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, puts it, is that “the real power [in Chechnya] is not with the elected authorities.” In a pre-election poll, 2% of Chechens said the election results would be determined by the voters; 9% said by Mr Putin; 72% said by Ramzan Kadyrov. Next year, when he turns 30—the age that Chechnya's constitution prescribes as the minimum for its president—Mr Kadyrov's de facto power may become official. The new parliament's main job, say some Chechens, will be to approve his nomination by Mr Putin as president. It is hard to find many reasons for hope that Chechnya will get any better. Alu Alkhanov, who took over as Chechnya's president from Mr Kadyrov senior, said this week in Grozny that he was willing to meet followers of Aslan Maskhadov, an ex-president turned rebel leader who was killed in March (given his predecessors' nasty fates and Ramzan's impending birthday, Mr Alkhanov would do well to plan a retirement strategy). But there are few credible, moderate leaders left. A few recently demobbed separatists ran in the election; one, Magomed Khambiyev, is said to have turned himself in after several relatives were kidnapped. Mr Khambiyev stood for the Union of Right Forces, a liberal party whose strongish showing was the election's only semi-surprise. But no active separatists took part. Conversely, it is quite easy to see how things might get a lot worse. Mr Putin's Chechnya policy amounts to a gamble on Ramzan Kadyrov's loyalty. It is a risky bet—not just for the benighted Chechens, nor only because the paramilitaries' abominations drive some young people to join the separatists as their best chance of vengeance. Russian soldiers in Chechnya say that the kadyrovtsy already clash often, and violently, with federal troops, as well as with official Chechen police. In the end, concludes one gloomy Russian lieutenant, “there will be another war”—this time, quite possibly, against a foe whom the Kremlin itself has succoured.

The problem with Russia is that we do not know what to think about its international position. Firstly, because of his relations with Saddam's Iraq Of course Russia opposed the Iraqi War, and a lot of important Russians have been indicted in the Oil For Food Scandal. Not only has he sold weapons to Syria (and very special ones), but also to Iran, even when Teheran has said that they were training Chechenyan terrorists. It has also asked USA to leave Kirjizstan and Uzbekistan with China to "protect oil resources". That is very funny, as China is today the world's leading consumer on oil resources. It's also striken me that, Yevgeni Adamov, the former Russian Energy Minister, is fighting extradition to the United States, accused of fraud and money laundering of more than $9million that USA gave Russia to protect Russian nuclear facilities. So, can we trust Russia?

News from Iraq

2005-12-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

After the woman who committed suicide in Iraq, the more recent news are apart from today's newterrorist attack (killling 30) the letter of Al Zarqaui in which he calls on Iaqi insurgents to unite. "MSNBC News Services

CAIRO, Egypt - In a full-length version of a tape previously broadcast, al-Qaida’s deputy leader called for attacks against Persian Gulf oil facilities and urged insurgent groups in Iraq to unite to drive out American forces, according to a videotape posted on the Internet Wednesday. The posting was a full version of a video by al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri that was issued on Sept. 19, excerpts of which were broadcast by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera at the time. The network aired more excerpts Wednesday, originally presenting them as newly issued footage. A newscaster later told viewers the video was old. “I call on the holy warriors to concentrate their campaigns on the stolen oil of the Muslims, most of the revenues of which go to the enemies of Islam,” said al-Zawahri, the Egyptian deputy of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. “The enemies of Islam are exploiting such vital resources with incomparable greed, and we have to stop that theft with all we can and save this fortune for the nation of Islam,” said al-Zawahri, who was wearing a white robe and black turban and was seated before a pale blue sheet, speaking to an off-camera interviewer. “I bring a message of joy to all Muslims and mujahedeen that al-Qaida is spreading, expanding and strengthening. Its prince Sheikh Osama bin Laden is still leading its jihad (holy war),” he said. Call for Iraqi groups to unite In the full version of the tape, which was posted on an Islamic Web site known for carrying statements from extremist groups, al-Zawahri called on Iraqi insurgent groups to unite. Iraqi Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, “whose hands were not tainted by Americans,” should come together to fill “the gap that will be left by the Americans departure” from Iraq, he said. When it aired excerpts Wednesday, Al-Jazeera’s newscaster said they came from the “latest al-Zawahri video.” The full video includes quotes from al-Zawahri on September elections in Afghanistan and on the July 7 London bombings that appeared in the excerpts aired by Al-Jazeera on Sept. 19.

The Legacy of Jihad in Historical Palestine (Part I)

2005-12-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

(article by Andrew G. Boston on The American Thinker)

[Part II of this article appears tomorrow]

Violent jihad warfare on infidels is the norm, not the exception, in Islamic history. Once successful, jihad leads to the imposition of humiliating, degrading, violent, and expensive oppression under dhimmitude, the institutionalized imposition of lowly status upon those who refuse to abandon their faith and adopt Islam. Among the worst victims of jihad and dhimmitude have been the Jews and Christians who lived in historic Palestine.

Edward Said’s ridiculous polemic, The Question of Palestine, quotes the following observation by a Dr. A. Carlebach published in Ma’ariv (October 7, 1955).

The danger stems from the [Islamic] totalitarian conception of the world… Occupation by force of arms, in their own eyes, in the eyes of Islam, is not at all associated with injustice. To the contrary, it constitutes a certificate and demonstration of authentic ownership. [1]

Said cites Carlebach with ostensibly self-evident derision. Unwittingly, Said thus reveals his own belligerent obliviousness to Carlebach’s acute perceptions about the ugly realities of jihad war, the resultant imposition of dhimmitude, and their brutal legacy in historical Palestine and the greater Middle East.

As elucidated by Jacques Ellul, the jihad is an institution intrinsic to Islam, and not an isolated event, or series of events:

.. .it is a part of the normal functioning of the Muslim world… The conquered populations change status (they become dhimmis), and the shari’a tends to be put into effect integrally, overthrowing the former law of the country. The conquered territories do not simply change ‘owners’. [2]

The essential pattern of the jihad war is captured in the great Muslim historian al-Tabari’ s recording of the recommendation given by Umar b. al-Khattab to the commander of the troops he sent to al-Basrah (636 C.E.), during the conquest of Iraq. Umar reportedly said:

Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept it from them, (This is to say, accept their conversion as genuine and refrain from fighting them) but those who refuse must pay the poll tax out of humiliation and lowliness. (Qur’an 9:29) If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency. Fear God with regard to what you have been entrusted. [3]

Jihad was pursued century after century, because jihad, which means “to strive in the path of Allah,” embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were formally conceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the 8th to 9th centuries onward, based on their interpretation of Qur’anic verses and long chapters in the Traditions (i.e., “hadith”, acts and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, especially those recorded by al-Bukhari [d. 869] and Muslim [d. 874] ). [4]

Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist (Maliki), renowned philosopher, historian, and sociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:

In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force… The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense… Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations. [5]

Indeed, even al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the famous theologian, philosopher, and paragon of mystical Sufism, (who, as noted by W.Montgomery Watt, has been ”.. .acclaimed in both the East and West as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad.. .” [6]), wrote the following about jihad:

...one must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year…one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them…If a person of the Ahl al- Kitab [People of The Book -Jews and Christians, typically] is enslaved, his marriage is [automatically] revoked…One may cut down their trees… One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may take as booty whatever they decide…they may steal as much food as they need… [7]

By the time of the classical Muslim historian al-Tabari’s death in 923, jihad wars had expanded the Muslim empire from Portugal to the Indian subcontinent. Subsequent Muslim conquests continued in Asia, as well as Eastern Europe. The Christian kingdoms of Armenia, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania, in addition to parts of Poland and Hungary, were also conquered and Islamized.

Arab Muslim invaders engaged, additionally, in continuous jihad raids that ravaged and enslaved Sub-Saharan African animist populations, extending to the southern Sudan. When the Muslim armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683, over a millennium of jihad had transpired. These tremendous military successes spawned a triumphalist jihad literature. Muslim historians recorded in detail the number of infidels slaughtered, or enslaved and deported, the cities and villages which were pillaged, and the lands, treasure, and movable goods seized. Christian (Coptic, Armenian, Jacobite, Greek, Slav, etc.), as well as Hebrew sources, and even the scant Hindu and Buddhist writings which survived the ravages of the Muslim conquests, independently validate this narrative, and ,complement the Muslim perspective by providing testimonies of the suffering of the non-Muslim victims of jihad wars. [8]

To continue reading, click here.

Madeleine Albright interesting theory

2005-12-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Madeleine Albright on Newsweek

NEWSWEEK: Is there a conflict between key democratic rights—particularly in the area of women’s rights—and the cultural dictates of Islam? Madeleine Albright: Islam itself and the Qur'an are not actually antiwoman. [The Prophet] Mohammed was married to a businesswoman. It is more the culture of particular Arab countries and not Islam. And I think that what we all have to do is make clear that women’s rights do not undermine anybody’s system. It’s a matter of empowering women, so that societies are actually more stable, not less stable. Hmm, yes of course. That is why, even in democratic societies, there are imams that have condemned women who use parfum, that says that women who do not use hijab are asking to be raped, or have written books telling husbands thow to hit a women without leaving sings., (that was condemned to prison but afterwards conmutted to ¡¡¡taking lessons on Spanish Constitution!!!). People who says this thing, for example. This article is also useful. And of course this is to see what are the women's due rights in Koram verses (note: it does not says "the equal rights)..

How does the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, as well as recent allegations that top military leadership sanctioned the use of torture in interrogations, affect the United States’ credibility on human rights issues in Arab countries? It’s hurt U.S. credibility beyond measure. It has lost us the moral high ground, and I am very troubled by it. The only way to restore our credibility is for there to be accountability of those who had something to do with it—not just lower-level military. I was at an event recently where somebody said, “Isn’t it great that the Senate voted 99-0 against torture?” and I said, “Isn’t it amazing that we actually have to have a vote like that?”

Mmm, the difference is that in Saddam's regime the torture was so normal and not illegal. And in USA is not normal and illegal really.

The report states that “democracy cannot be imposed from the outside,” and that “sudden, traumatic change is neither necessary nor desirable.” How does this apply to Iraq? Imposing democracy is an oxymoron. You have to be there in order to assist the process, but not at the point of a gun. I think it has misrepresented to a lot of people about how democracy comes about. I’m chairman of the board of the National Democratic Institute, and we work very hard on what I call the nuts and bolts of helping people with democracy. That’s very different from invading a country. And I think it has hurt the process immeasurably, because it’s now equating democracy with occupation.

What will it take for Iraq to make the next step from holding basic elections to a full-fledged independent democratic state? It’s very hard for people to exercise their democratic rights anywhere when they are terrified and there are suicide bombings and a general sense of chaos. Also, when the economic situation is so dire. So everything goes together. There has to be an improvement in the security situation, the reconstruction efforts have to be such that they provide people with jobs and [a] sense of the future and then democracy can flourish. While people did turn out to vote, which I think is quite remarkable, it’s very difficult when the situation in the security arena is so tenuous.

Hmm, amazing. My fellow readers: if you read this study, one of the things that Spaniards do not forget about USA (and in which they base their antiamericanism) is the support that USA gave Franco. Afterwards the so-called peaceful guys, just critizise America for doing in Iraq what they think USA should have make in Spain. The question is: Will some people be at least, coherent for once?

One of the key components of a democracy is a free press, but some Arabic-language media outlets have spread corrosive propaganda against the United States. What can be done here without limiting the free press?

It’s hard for us to censor them if we’re talking about the need for free press. There has to be the development of other avenues that would allow the people in those countries to get alternative views. Also, Al-Jazeera is opening up in the United States, and I think it doesn’t hurt if Americans go on Al-Jazeera so that we can tell our story. We have to make clear that a great deal of it is distortion. Of course, they are going to hear it and are going to say "What do the Koram says? puaggg, this is just "World of Arrogance's propaganda". I hope they will, but really I can not believe it. If a country like Turkey that has being for over one century a laic country, nowadays does not respect even the press (i.e.: this and this and this), it is going to be something difficult for people in countries like Yemen to be pro-American.

Democracy seems impossible if the majority of a given population does not possess at least basic literacy. What did the task force recommend to improve education in Arab countries? We have said that the Arab educational systems have generally done an inadequate job of preparing students for life in a global economy. Washington can’t all of a sudden start teaching Arabs. On the other hand, the U.S. government could have partnerships with Arab, American, European and Asian educational institutions and foundations and help in terms of expanding English-language instruction and promoting scholarships.

Yes, of course. But what about the benefits from the oil industry? How are they used? Why Muslim millionaires, instead of focusing in giving their citizens culture, education and a good life quality are more interested in jihad (this i.e or this) or in a luxurious way of life (this or this) ? And what to say about the fundings and the way they are invested? Now, we can let them alone with their own fundings to invest in jihad, also. The report indicated that democracy can “diminish the appeal of extremism and terrorism.” But isn’t it possible that many Arab voters would choose a theocracy with strict limits on what we would classify as “personal freedoms.” We don’t know, that’s part of the issue. If you believe that people want to choose the government that will represent them the best, you have to give them that opportunity. But that’s the red herring that’s put out there. We do not think the status quo in the Arab world is working. So do we think that democracy is worth supporting? Clearly there are issues, and potentially short-term dislocations, but the way that the situation has evolved now, it’s not stable at all. Therefore, we came out with the idea that being in support of democracy was something that was in our interest, and obviously in theirs.

MMM, what about Turkey?

The report says that “the U.S. has done a poor job of explaining its policies in the region and spreading its message about democracy and reform.” In September, President Bush sent Karen Hughes, the recently appointed under secretary of State for public diplomacy, on a listening tour of several Muslim countries. What was she able to accomplish, and what do you think should be the next step? It was clearly a very first voyage of hers into this arena, but it didn’t strike me as a particularly great success. I think it’s very important that this post has been filled with somebody of such high rank and visibility, but it’s a hard job, and you have to go into societies and have some sensitivity for the various issues.

No, Clinton and your Administration did it better, did you? (i.e. this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this, to name some of your really good manners treating the "islamic-peaceful-guys".

What steps can Washington take toward establishing a peace in the region that both the Israelis and Palestinians can live with? First of all, the Israeli-Palestinian issue cannot be blamed for everything. What can be done is exactly what Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice has finally done, which is to be in the region and spend time with both sides in order to hammer out agreements. The U.S. has to be actively involved in this. But I think it is wrong for anybody to blame everything on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. It’s not at the base of every problem throughout the whole region.

Well, that is true. I admit that.

What is the task force recommendation for U.S. policy regarding Arab states—such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates or Morocco—that are not democracies but are nonetheless, politically stable and relatively free. Even in those countries, we spoke about the importance of a rule of law, the importance of having political, economic and social change and to keep moving the process forward. Education in those countries is very important, as well as the ability to recognize different views and to have a freer press.

Relatively free? I do not know about Duabi or UAE but Morocco "Relatively free"? Who is this interviewer? Mohamed VIth? Just see here or here for freedom of expression, here for freedomof reunion, here or here or here for tortures.

Certain Islamist groups such as Hamas in Palestine and Hizbullah in Lebanon are in fact political parties and do provide important services to the people such as food assistance and education. Can these groups be integrated into the legitimate political arena even though they have been involved in terrorist acts in the past and are currently classified by the United States as terrorist organizations?

We can’t have terrorist organizations participating, but if there are some Islamist organizations that can give up the use of force and follow the rules, then I think that it’s useful to include them in the political process. We should not allow Middle Eastern leaders to use national security as an excuse to suppress nonviolent organizations. And we should support the political participation of any group or party that is committed to abide by the rules and norms of the democratic process.

How sweet. Hizbollah: mm, yeah very peaceful. Hamas, just the same. Like Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, eih? Their project can be read here.

What can the international community do to stimulate economic development in Arab nations given that corruption and isolation have been deterrents to foreign investment in the past? This is where the whole issue of rule of law is so important. If countries can meet certain criteria then they can be a part of the World Trade Organization, which then provides a set of rules around which everybody has to operate. Nobody is saying any of this is easy, but I think it is important that many of these Arab nations become part of this global economy. We depend on some of them for oil, and these are potential markets, as well, if there is proper investment that then creates jobs, which takes care of the problem of people being disaffected or unemployed. Hmm, now I make a question: depending on oil is not the real cause of it? Arab multibillionaires think they can rule the world with it. And some fool and dangerous "believers-in-the-religion-of-peace" too.

Is democracy in conflict with the United States’ best interests in Arab countries? What stance should the U.S. take toward supporting opposition leaders such as Ayman Nour in Egypt?

If we think that stability is in America’s best interest and so we are afraid to think about changes in government, then in the long run, there is no stability. There is nothing less stable then a long[-serving] authoritarian government. That doesn’t mean that the U.S. should go out and support particular political figures. Some of the political figures might not even want it given our reputation at the moment, but I think that it is important to support a political process. I don’t think Americans—either as NGOs or even in the government—should be afraid to meet with opposition figures. It doesn’t mean that they are supporting them—they are supporting a process. I’ve been in discussions about what is it that really is the essence of democracy, and frankly it isn’t elections. It is the existence of an opposition party, which means that there is accountability by the ruling party, and always the possibility of the opposition party getting in. Oh yeah, you have been even with fellows of Al-Qaeda, as the photos of one link above this post shows. I mean, it's true that understanding comes from listening to other people's views. But I do not think that people that killed themselves by killing others, just intending to cause the most harmful consequences and their hooligangs-supporters, are good people to deal with.

An study about Jordan bombings

2005-12-06T06:03:00.000-08:00

Summary:The hotel bombings in Jordan on 9 November underlined the pro-Western kingdom’s vulnerability to terrorist attack. But the bombers miscalculated if they hoped that the atrocity would undermine King Abdullah’s regime. United in revulsion at the carnage, Jordanians rallied around their king. The terrorist threat to Jordan is not new, and such attacks will not divert King Abdullah from his underlying policies. He has given priority to an IMF-directed economic reform programme, placing in abeyance progress towards democratisation. As yet, few tangible results have been achieved, other than a widening gulf between the rich and the poor. A failure to bridge this wealth gap could prove a much greater threat to Jordan’s stability than terrorism. Analysis: The terrorist bombings of three hotels in Amman in November 2005, in which some 60 people died, came as no great surprise to the Jordanian authorities. The question had always been when, not if. ‘I’ll be quite honest with you. We’re in a state of war’, King Abdullah warned in mid-2004. ‘I hate to say it, but we’re picking up terrorist groups [at a rate of] one every two weeks’. The threat, he predicted, would ‘probably be with us at least for the next couple of years’.[1] As a US- and UK-allied state that has made peace with Israel and has supported, albeit discretely, the Western interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jordan is a tempting target for the militants. The problem dates back to the early 1990s when an estimated one thousand Jordanians who had fought against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan returned home. They included Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the al-Qaeda organisation in Iraq, which claimed responsibility for the Amman bombings. The years since have been punctuated by actual or attempted terrorist attacks. Prior to the Amman bombings, the latest incident had been in August this year, when Islamist militants thought to be linked to al-Zarqawi fired three Katyusha rockets from the outskirts of the southern port town of Aqaba. One narrowly missed a US warship but killed a Jordanian soldier on the quayside. The second landed near a military hospital while the third was fired into the nearly Israeli town of Eilat, causing minimal damage.

Devastating though the Amman bombings were, however, they posed no threat to the regime’s stability. In the following days Jordanians took to the streets in their thousands to express their revulsion at the atrocity and to declare their support for the monarchy. If the terrorists’ intention was to destabilise Jordan, they manifestly failed: politically, the attack backfired spectacularly, prompting a closing of ranks between Jordanians and their king.

To read the rest click here.

Is this Islamic feminism?

2005-12-06T04:54:00.000-08:00

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up at Baghdad's police academy on Tuesday, killing 27 people and wounding 32, the U.S. military said.

The women blew themselves up in a classroom filled with students, the statement from Task Force Baghdad said. No U.S. forces were killed or wounded in the attack, it added.

U.S. forces rushed to the scene to provide assistance, the statement said.

Iraqi police said one bomb exploded in a cafeteria, while the other detonated during roll call. Police Lt. Ali Mi'tab said the women were probably students at the academy, which is why they were not searched.

Five other female police officers were among the dead, he added.

Iraqi insurgents have concentrated their attacks against Iraqi security forces. Tuesday's attack was the deadliest against Iraqi forces since Feb. 28, when a suicide car bomber attacked mostly Shiite police and National Guard recruits in Hillah, killing 125.

On Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the insurgency has been stronger than anticipated, but he also said the news media have focused on the war's growing body count rather than progress that has been achieved.

"To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks," Rumsfeld said in remarks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Also Monday, masked gunmen grabbed a French engineer off the streets of Baghdad, the latest in a spate of kidnappings of Westerners that coincides with Saddam Hussein's trial and the run-up to parliamentary elections.

IS INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM WHAT WE THOUGHT IT WAS? AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE GLOBAL NEOSALAFIST JIHAD IN 2004 (WP)

2005-12-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

Current international terrorism is often characterised as a particularly new phenomenon. This is mainly because of the highly lethal and indiscriminate nature of its bombings, the routine involvement of suicide terrorists indoctrinated by Islamic fundamentalism and its tendency to focus on Western targets, especially US citizens and interests. It is true that a certain combination of the features considered typical of international terrorism, and even proclaimed by its instigators and militants, is usual in the most notorious attacks to have taken place in recent years. However, the fact is that this global and religiously-inspired violence, more specifically neosalafist in its ideological orientation, has resulted in a lower-than-expected mortality rate, far more conventional procedures than commonly believed and victimisation patterns that are also different from those hitherto taken for granted. An empirical study of its main actors, scenarios, consequences and targets during the year 2004 indicates that international terrorism is to a greater extent a paradigm of conflicts inside the Islamic world than an expression of a clash between civilisations.

Table 1. Acts of international terrorism in 2004, according to groups and organisations

Groups and organizations	Frequency	Percentage
Taliban	73	35.1
Tawhid wal Jihad	30	14.4
Islamic Army in Iraq	12	5.8
Ansar al Sunna	11	5.3
Al Qaeda	10	4.8
Lashkar e Tayiba	10	4.8
Tanzim Qa’idat al Jihad fi Bilad al Rafidayn	10	4.8
Riyadus Salikhin Battalion of Chechen Martyrs	9	4.3
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat	6	2.9
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula	5	2.4
Abu Sayyaf	4	1.9
Jaish e Mohammed	4	1.9
Harakat ul Mudjaheedin	3	1.4
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan	3	1.4
Lashkar e Jangvi	3	1.4
Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades	2	1.0
Yemaa Islamiya	2	1.0
Al Haramain Brigades	1	0.5
Other groups and organizations	10	4.9

Total	208	(100)

Table 2. Acts of international terrorism in 2004, according to countries and geopolitical regions

Countries	Frequency	Percentage
Afghanistan	75	36.1
Iraq	64	30.7
India	15	7.2
Saudi Arabia	13	6.3
Pakistan	10	4.8
Russia	9	4.3
Algeria	6	2.9
The Philippines	5	2.4
Spain	3	1.4
Uzbekistan	3	1.4
Turkey	2	1.0
Egypt	1	0.5
Indonesia	1	0.5
Syria	1	0.5

Total	208	(100)
Geopolitical regions
Central and Southern Asia	103	49.5
Middle East and Gulf	81	38.9
Eastern Europe	9	4.3
Maghreb	6	2.9
South-East Asia	6	2.9
Western Europe	3	1.5

Total	208	(100)

Current international terrorism is often presented as a particularly novel phenomenon: first of all, due to its high degree of deadliness and the indiscrimination with which attacks are conducted. Secondly, because of the routine involvement of suicide bombers in terrorist attacks. Finally, because of its focus on Western targets, especially US citizens and interests. Actually, the rhetoric of the leaders and followers of this international terrorism based on the global jihadist movement underlines the deadly potential of their threats, appeals for activists to carry out what they consider to be martyrdom operations and insists on an anti-Western discourse that is particularly hostile towards Jews and Christians. However, although a certain combination of these features considered to be typical of international terrorism, and also proclaimed by its instigators, is usual in the most spectacular attacks that have taken place over the last few years, such globalised violence has been evolving, as revealed by the data collected for 2004, with lower mortality rates and far more conventional procedures than expected, also with victimisation patterns that are different from those often taken for granted.

Table 3. Acts of international terrorism in 2004, according to dead and injured

Dead	Frequency	Percentage
None	56	28.6
Between 1 and 10	107	54.6
Between 11 and 40	19	9.7
Between 41 and 99	9	4.6
Between 100 and 199	4	2.0
200 and over	1	0.5

Total Missing data: 12	196	(100)

Injured
None	76	42.9
Between 1 and 10	64	36.2
Between 11 and 40	20	11.3
Between 41 and 99	5	2.8
Between 100 and 199	7	4.0
200 and over	5	2.8

Total Missing data: 31	177	(100)

Table 4. Acts of international terrorism in 2004, according to procedures and modalities

Procedure	Frequency	Percentage
Bombs and explosive devices	92	45.5
Terrorist attacks with firearms	48	23.8
Kidnapping and hostage taking	41	20.3
Other procedures	21	10.4

Total Missing data: 6	202	(100)
Modality
Without suicide terrorists	158	83.6
With suicide terrorists	31	16.4

Total Missing data: 19	189	(100)

Table 5. Acts of international terrorism in 2004, according to target type and adscription

Type	Frequency	Percentage
Law enforcement and military	43	21.6
Government institutions and personnel	38	19.1
Economic and tourist interests	31	15.6
Private citizens and property	24	12.1
Public transports and services	16	8.0
Diplomatic targets	11	5.5
Religious bodies and figures	6	3.0
Other types of targets	30	15.1

Total Missing data: 9	199	(100)
Adscription
Non-Western	107	60.8
Western (American)	18	10.2
Western (other nationalities)	26	14.8
Western (mixed)	4	2.3
Western and non-Western	15	8.5
Others (United Nations)	6	3.4

Total Missing data: 32	176	(100)

Both the high frequency and the variable intensity of the attacks perpetrated during 2004 are a good example of the violent potential retained by the groups and organisations which form part of the current network of international terrorism. It is plausible to assert that al-Qaeda, the foundational nucleus and acting vanguard for the multinational and multiethnic entities involved in such globalised violence, might have been progressively weakened over the last three years, after losing its sanctuary and suffering from the consequences of a world-wide persecution. But it can also be argued that this terrorist structure appears to have adapted more easily than expected to an adverse environment. Moreover, the global neosalafist jihad it promoted has become widely extended. Acts of international terrorism are mainly perpetrated by groups and organisations having a local or regional focus but affiliated with al-Qaeda. As the data for 2004 reflect, the danger is now one of a diffuse and diversified violence executed by al-Qaeda itself, its numerous associated entities and even small self-established cells which operate in line with the former’s goals and methods. Within Western societies, this diffuse jihadist violence manifested itself last year through deadly attacks against soft targets and there is no reason to believe the trend will change, combined perhaps with individual assassinations, as in the case of a well-known Dutch film-maker in November 2004. International terrorist activities in 2004 were congruent with the strategy designed years ago by the leaders of al-Qaeda and which consists in deploying its violence both in the Islamic world, allegedly against rulers considered by neosalafists to be apostates and tyrants, and beyond. However, despite the anti-Western rhetoric so characteristic of groups and organisations related to the global jihadist movement, the data offered in this study make it clear that international terrorism poses risks and threats to societies pertaining to different civilisations. This article appeared in Real Instituto Elcano. I have only reproduced some of its content. The rest is here.

News from Denmark

2005-12-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

The cartoon jihad in Denmark is escalating. Now the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Pakistan (which was founded by Maulana Maududi, whose jihadist theory Robert Spencer discusses in Onward Muslim Soldiers) is offering a reward to anyone who kills any of the artists.

So far the Danish authorities have reacted well, emphasizing that freedom of speech prevails in Denmark. And certainly it is true that Christians and other religious groups endure lampoon and attack all over the Western world without resorting to threats and violence.

Now this story has become really interesting, since it has become internationalized a la the Rushdie affair. It bears following even though the Pakistani ambassador in Denmark has distanced itself from the threats.

Looks like the Koran is really the "Muhhammad's Believe it or Else". Well, I do think these girls fulfill Muhammad's view of fashion.

Even More Dangerous News

2005-12-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

Today I have read some very dangerous news, that can be summed up this way: 1.- The Tel Aviv District Court convicted Sunday 24-year-old israeli-Arab Lenin Altouri from the village of Kfar Kasem on charges of holding contact with a foreign agent and intent to betray the country. Altouri pleaded guilty to all charges as part of a plea bargain. According to the amended indictment, during phone conversations held in March and April 2004 between Altouri and his uncle As'ad Mahmad Khalil Taha, a resident of the Gaza refugee camp Nuzirat and a Hamas member, Taha has told his nephew about recent incidents in the Gaza Strip, and asked him to assist the organization. Altouri agreed, and said he was willing to do whatever it takes in order to help Hamas. Taha had asked Altouri to abduct soldiers and deliver them to Hamas in Hebron or Ramallah. The nephew replied that he needed money in order to carry out the kidnappings, and Taha asked him for a bank account number to which he could transfer the funds.... Once more, it's proved than muslims are firstly, muslims, and then (very much numbers after) israeli, spanish, english or chinese. 2.- The partners of several suspected terrorists being detained in Belgium are ready to carry out suicide attacks in Morocco, it was reported on Thursday. The claim was made in a police statement by Mohamed Reha, a Belgian of Moroccan ancestry who was arrested in Morocco earlier this month. News agency AFP has obtained a copy of the statement. Reha studied at a Koran school in Syria but was deported at the age of 18 in June 2005 and returned to Belgium, Flemish newspaper 'De Standaard' reported. In Belgium, he allegedly received a telephone call from the wife of a man identified as Rachid Iba. "She asked me to come to Brussels. We agreed to meet in a [train] station," Reha told Moroccan police. "She told me that many Muslim women whose husbands were arrested in Belgium would like to become involved in Jihad, the holy war. She asked me to help them by finding someone to train them and supply them with explosives." Yes, that is a new proof of the "peace" Islam wants. 3.- He's a mystery in a red beard, with a strange alias and a degree in chemical engineering. In the hands of this alleged al-Qaida operative, it's a specialty that summons visions of poison gas and mass terror. Al-Qaida is "wedded to the spectacular," notes U.S. counterterrorism analyst Donald Van Duyn, and elusive Egyptian chemist Midhat Mursi was said to be exploring such possibilities when last seen, brewing up deadly compounds and gassing dogs in Afghanistan. Very peaceful, also. 4.- Iran's hard-line constitutional watchdog approved a bill Saturday blocking international inspections of atomic facilities if the nation is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, state-run television reported. The ratification by the Guardian Council means the bill - overwhelmingly approved by parliament last month - now needs just a presidential signature to become law. It was not clear when that would take place. That continues the story that is treated here. Ooh, and Khatami insist on the Dialog between Civilizations, and Russia is going to sell missiles to Iran (that is, to begin the dialog with the hated Western civilization). Just pray they are not the same model that Russia sold to Syria. 5.- In Australia, RELIGIOUS groups have launched an attack on Christmas – calling for it to be renamed and toned down. 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 – suggesting the word "festive" as a possible replacement. And a Queensland Jewish leader 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. Hmm, well, if they are "attacked" by the Christmas, just work on that part of the year and ask for other days to have holidays. The answer is NOOOO: they want ALL the Christian holidays, plus all the Muslim holidays. Festive, hmm. Do these guys know what the Christians celebrate those days of the year? Do they know that the Birth of Jesus Christ is the most important event of the year, equal to Easter? Hmm, they know, but they do not want to respect it, because they are the best of all religions. (Oooh, and the Jews: they are like the Jews that supported Hitler. I understand them). 6.- And so, four years and 3.442 jihad-related deaths after 9/11 (there are even more before that day), the Iraqi Islamic Party has published a statement that says: "There are some who are trying to tarnish the clear white image of our religion."

That present danger

2005-12-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

When I think of Persia in the Ancient Times, I can only think about its magnificent culture: architecture, sculptures, great kings (Dario, for example). To sum up, a great civilization.

When I think of today I can only think about the ayatollahs and the great suffering they have carried to Iran and could carry in a not very distant future to the rest of the world. A lot of people, think that the palestinian-jewish conflict is due only to Jews. Mmm, I am sure they have not read ayatollah Khomeini's words., about the infidel governments (that is every non-Muslim government).

And those words are NOT something of the past, something we can forget. No, they have been shouted to the world by Ahmadenijad. Well, not to all the World. To a very precise and concrete part of it. Just see this photo: This photo was taken when Ahmadenijad fave that speech in which he told everyone about his intentions: "to wipe Israel off the map". But if you look clearly to this photo, that was not the real message. That speech took place in Teheran, but the words that appear in the photo are in English. The menace to the Anglo-Saxon world is clearly seen in this other photo: If you see, the little ball with the USA flag is totally broken and its fall only takes place before the fall of Israel. Now we know why this part of the speech and the photo was not taken. The speech, after the part against the Jews, follows this way: "We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [i.e. the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years. ... The issue of this [World without Zionism] conference is very valuable. In this very grave war, many people are trying to scatter grains of desperation and hopelessness regarding the struggle between the Islamic world and the front of the infidels ... Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved..." IN MAY, 2004, Hassan Abbassi, a leading adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, announced: "We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization and for the uprooting of the Americans and the English. The global infidel front is a front against Allah and the Muslims, and we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them." According to respected Iranian analyst, Amir Taheri, Abbassi has said:

The Americans are not ready to send a million men (to defeat the Islamic Republic)," Abbasi said. "Even economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic will fail thanks to opposition from the Western public opinion and the refusal of most countries to implement (them). ... But it is not only the US that Abbasi wants to take on and humiliate. He has described Britain as "the mother of all evils". In his lecture he claimed that the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and the Gulf states were all "children of the same mother: the British Empire." As for France and Germany, they are "countries in terminal decline", according to Abbasi. "Once we have defeated the Anglo-Saxons the rest will run for cover," he told his audience.

Hmm, he's peaceful, eh? And he respect other religions. So much, that he has said: "I will stop Christianity in this country". At the same time, "An Iranian convert to Christianity was kidnapped last week from his home in northeastern Iran and stabbed to death, his bleeding body thrown in front of his home a few hours later. Ghorban Tori, 50, was pastoring an independent house church of convert Christians in Gonbad-e-Kavus, a town just east of the Caspian Sea along the Turkmenistan border. Within hours of the November 22 murder, local secret police arrived at the martyred pastor’s home, searching for Bibles and other banned Christian books in the Farsi language. By the end of the following day, the secret police had also raided the houses of all other known Christian believers in the city. According to one informed Iranian source, during the past eight days representatives of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) have arrested and severely tortured 10 other Christians in several cities, including Tehran. All the detainees have since been released. In addition, MOIS officials have visited known Christian leaders since Tori’s murder and have instructed them to warn acquaintances in the unofficial, Protestant house fellowships that “the government knows what you are doing, and we will come for you soon." But not only Christians are being tortured and threatened. But all of the believers in other faiths, as Non-Muslims "cannot be called human beings but are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati last week at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the 'martyrs' of the Revolutionary Guards and the war against Iraq (1980-88). Nikam described the remarks as "an unprecedented slur against religious minorities." READ MORE "Non-Muslims not only are not beasts, but if Iran has a glorious past and civilisation to be proud of it owes this to those who lived in the country before the advent of Islam," he said, adding sarcastically that he wished to ask forgiveness to the "beasts" because "they do not commit sins, while those who sully the earth are those humans who don't show respect for the other creatures of God." And after saying only the truth, Iranian parlamentarian Kurosh Niknam, a member of Iran's Zoroastrian religious minority has been summoned to appear before the country's Revolutionary Tribunal after being accused of spreading false news and showing lack of respect for the authorities. Well, thanks for being so brave Mr. Nikham. And just hope that you are not abused by these beasts). But the problems are not only inside Iran, but also for the rest of the world. Tehran is making overtures to Pyongyang in an attempt to share a bit of nuclear knowledge, as well as the burden of the West's animosity. According to information SPIEGEL has obtained from western intelligence sources, the Iranian government is said to have offered North Korea an economic aid package in exchange for continuing to cooperate on the development of nuclear-tipped missiles. And everything is mixed up with some Apocaliptic and end-of-the-world visions. So, two days ago, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said someone present at the UN, possibly from his entourage, subsequently told him: “When you began with the words ‘In the name of God’… I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end [of the speech].” Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said he sensed a similar presence.

“I felt it myself, too, that suddenly the atmosphere changed and for 27-28 minutes the leaders could not blink,” the transcript continues. “I am not exaggerating…because I was looking. All the leaders were puzzled, as if a hand held them and made them sit. They had their eyes and ears open for the message from the Islamic Republic.”

That last expression "They had their eyes and ears open for the message from the Islamic Republic", it makes me chill. And today, I learn that he has said that "Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi(*). Therefore, Iran should become a powerful, developed and model Islamic society. Today, we should define our economic, cultural and political policies based on the policy of Imam Mahdi's return. We should avoid copying the West's policies and systems". No, that's clear he wants to destroy the Western Systems... __________________________________________ (*) According to Shi'ite Muslim teaching, Abul-Qassem Mohammad, the 12th leader whom Shi'ites consider descended from the Prophet Mohammed, disappeared in 941 but will return at the end of time to lead an era of Islamic justice. An example of that justice is here.

Spain and pacifism

2005-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

I get totally mad about what is called "pacifism", that has nothing to do with wanting real peace based on justice. Spanish President, Mr Zapatero, that opposed so fiercely to the Iraq war, calling it a "illegitimate, unjust and illegal", has now sold some warplanes and warships to Venezuela, even when some of the parts of it are patented to USA and the US Senate did not allow him to do it. Chavez is just a wanna-be dictator, who each day is near his objectiv. Not only it has brought the poverty to Venezuela, as this blog shows, or is in a pre-war state with Colombia, but has very good relations with Jatami and Iran.

Not only that: we know now that Spain has ships in Iraq war, under the command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier (sorry is in Spanish), is intending to finish off the Army and his governement has mistreated Spanish soldiers. Mr Bono, his Defense Minister has told, that he preferred to be killed, instead of killing and that "he had told Spanish soldiers not to fire the escaped prisoners. Gorgeous, aren't they?

Iran, that peaceful country. Yesterday, I learned that they are training the Chechens rebels to carry on more effective attacks against Russian forces, circumstance that has not restrained Russia from continuing the building of the nuclear plan in Isfahan.

As a result and knowing that the Summit of the Civilizations Alliance Summit fail even to define terrorism, Khatami has said this words:

Mohammed Khatami, former president of Iran and promoter of the "Alliance of Civilizations," yesterday expressed his concern "for the Islamophobia that the West suffers from," and added, "The Muslim world is more than ever at the mercy of Western attacks." Khatami made his statements at a closed session of more than 20 representatives of the United Nations' High Level Group on the Alliance of Civilizations, a brainstorm of Spanish prime minister Zapatero. During the meeting, Khatami stressed "the need for all intellectuals to work in order to dissipate this erroneous conception. Terrorism does not distinguish between Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and they all should unite in order to eliminate the roots of this evil." Said Khatami, "Terrorism not only has nothing to do with Islam, but is opposed to the fundamental principles of that religion, which is divine, peaceful, and humanitarian." He acknowledged that Western civilization has made achievements, "many of which it owes to Islam," and added that "the deprivations caused by the West to the rest of the world has reinforced in these societies the impression that Westerners accept no one but themselves." The 20 "experts" designated by Kofi Annan met in Mallorca at the first Alliance of Civilizations meeting, which is merely the first of several which should culminate in the second half of 2006 with a report proposing concrete measures for the Alliance. As I said, they are trying to modify the past so they can build a future Universal Dictatorshiop, The Caliphate, that has nothing to do with extremism and nobody should be frightened about. Lastly, a Spanish judge has accused 4 of the persons detained belonging to a cell that aided both financially and logistically to the Salafist Group for the Preaching and the Combat, linked to Al-Qaeda, of trying to buy without success in Granada Goma-" explosive paying with hashisch. In a recorded conversations they said they also wanted to buy "red mercury", a highly radioactive substance. The islamists detained in 2004 in Barcelona also spoke about the red mercury in their statements. (And then Mr Zapatero says he's bored).

And lastly, Turkey

2005-11-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

Today there's a country: ....whose Governement is occupied by an Islamist party that only renounced to pass a law in which the women that committed adultery were going to be punished, because then it wouldn't enter the European Union. ...in which a 37% of its inhabitants support the honour murders, 25%, the divorce from the unfaithful women, and 27%, that their nose or ears should be cut off. ... a country in which the only book which has more sales than the Mein Kampf of Hitler, is a novel in which, after a hipothetic American conquer of Turkey, a Turk hero produces a nuclear holocaust in Washington DC. ...a country who has intended, with some of other Muslim countries, to press Denmark to condemn a journal for having published some Mohammed's drawings. ...a country that is financing Islamic Universities in which all women are obliged to use the hijab, even if they are not Islamic. ...a country in which the religious freedom is not protected if you are not a Muslim. In this very moment. But this is the same country that wants Spain to ask for forgiveness because of the murders of Andalusian Muslims

Some intelectuals, whose positions are near the Turkish Government, as the British author Andrew Mango, regret in the Turk media that the european Union made Turkey explicitly condemn the Armenian genocide while nobody "asked Spain when it entered the European Union why you killed the Andalusian Muslims?" (It's curious: he doesn't mention anything about the Alpujarras and the Muslim Plans to take over Spain over to Muslim control). Important Spanish bureaucrats, like the Economy and Commerce Subsecretary, praise a potential competitor of Spain, as Turkey is, of which they mention the oprtunities that Ankara can offer to foreign firms because of its strategic location, its preferential treaties with European Union and the dimension of its interior market. These expressions are sufficiently amplified by the media and the Turk officials in the permanent and aggresive activity of public relations of Turkey in its intention to access the European Union and the great international money fluxes. (how many dhimmies in the Government, it's disgusting...)

Moreover, in the ASIATIC country large historic summaries are being broadcasted where they describe Muslim Spain as a cultivated and peaceful resort which was followed by a disastrous "Reconquista" (in Spanish in the original in English version), while the later fight between Spain and the Ottoman Empire is told in revisionist terms from the official History. For example, the large file of Yasemin Dobra-Manço to justify and praise the Civilization's Alliance underlines how after the political Muslim decline (that followed the "Reconquista" a less tolerant Cristian Spain was created, while the Jews began to live in the Ottoman Empire, where they found hope and secutiry", and the Spanish Nation fought Lepanto, frightened because of Islam and the Ottomans because Islam is a superior source of intelectual culture, while asking for new studies to find the real historic dimension, against the official version of the Turk expansionism to the gates of Vienna or the Mediterrenean Spanish Beaches. (The Jews, hmm, in a country in which the "Mein Kampf" is a best-seller, they cannot think themselves as defendants of the Jews. And before someone asks me, I am against the expulsion of the Jews made by Spain, but that was 500 years ago, while the antisemitism is existing just now in Turkey).

The file that will show up the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Civilization's Alliance's Meeting, has been prepared by his Party -of Muslim inspiration- following the orders of the Directory of Religious Affairs of the State Ministry, that has a confusing and disorganized mixture of religious, political and state competences. Their conclusions are very virulent in accusating the media, that do not condemn the "crimes" comitted against Muslims resident in Europe while qualifying themselves as "potential terrorists". The conclusion is very clear: "Muslims that live in Europe face daily more aggresive reactions in their normal lives, having to fight desaggreable behaviours based in their religion". Yes, you have read it correctly. We are treating them badly. And just as other liars in History, they want people NOT to know real history, just in case, someone contradicts them with data. And then, you are commiting "crimes" against them. Like all fascists and lovers of dictatorships, the truth is not welcome when talking to them.