Sheikh Abdul Muhsin al Obeikan, legal advisor to the Saudi ministry of justice and member of the Shura (consultative) Council, revealed on Thursday he was willing to debate with Abu Basir al Tartousi, the spiritual leader of the Salafi trend, in a location and time of his choice, after announcing on his program âHiwar ma al Ghaebâ (conversations with the absent) his readiness for a discussion with those with reservations. His position on the legality of the insurgency in Iraq and other topics would mirror the fatwas (religious edicts) of Sheikh Saleh bin Uthaymeen and Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz which forbids suicide operations entirely.
Originally from Syria but now living in London, al Tartousi, one of the most prominent spiritual guides of the extremist jihadist movement, had called for a debate on the legality of the insurgency in Iraq in Sharia (Islamic law) and other religious matters. Known as Abdul Munim Mustafa Abu Halimah, the extremist leader wrote on his internet site, under the headline, âAn open invitation to al Obeikanâ, âFollowing repeated requests by supporters to debate with the other side and despite their allegations that we are uneducated and do not believe in dialogue, we called for a open discussion to take place over a year ago.â Earleir, al Tartousi had issued fatwas condemning suicide operations in Iraq and Afghanistan under the title, âwarnings against suicide operationsâ.
For his part, al Obeikan affirmed that the daily killing and destruction in Iraq were in no way related to jihad (armed struggle) and the term resistance would not apply according to Islamic law. In fact, the Sheikh indicated that jihad was subjected to a number of constraints. He pointed out that the conflicting opinions of the Syrian extremist leader who had backtracked on some of his earlier pronouncements reveal an underlying problem, since âa scholar can sometimes retract a fatwa or statements but to go back on everything he had decreed in the past has never happened.â
Asked by Asharq al Awsat if he had met al Tartousi, Sheikh Obeikan said, âI have heard of him but I have never met him.â Islamic extremists were divided online as they debated the differences between Sheikh al Obeikan and al Tartousi on several websites sympathetic to al Qaeda, with one contributor, using the acronym, Ali bin Mohammad, saying âthe two men are poles apartâ. Fundamentalists had viciously attacked al Tartousi online and accused him of letting down al Qaedaâs supporters with one militant asking, âWhat did you expect from a man who lives in London?â and another saying, âIt is no use counting on the opinions of men who have never fought. Opinions on jihad should be taken from the mujahideen (fighters). I have never considered to consult those who make statements from London.â
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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One of six Bahraini detainees being held at Cubaâs Guantanamo Bay detention center was the subject of sexual abuse and witnessed at least one act of Qurâan desecration by US soldiers while being held in Afghanistan, according to a new report. Bahraini detainee Jumah Al-Dossary who is being held there claimed that he was subjected to sexual abuse and that he witnessed US soldiers at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan desecrate the Qurâan by cleaning their boots with pages they had ripped from it.
Al-Dossary, according to the recently declassified report issued by his lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, claimed that he was reportedly beaten and stamped on by eight guards as he was recovering from an earlier stomach operation. Al-Dossary, aged 30 now and father to an 11-year-old girl, said that in early September 2002 he was taken to an interrogation room where four MPs, with one carrying a video camera, handcuffed and shackled him to the floor before stripping him naked on orders from a female interrogator present in the room. He claimed that the female interrogator stripped and squatted over his genitals, chest, and face smearing him with her menstrual blood in an attempt to have him admit links to Al-Qaeda and 9/11 attacks.
Note well the 'menstrual blood' bit, and see the story below in 'Home Front: WoT' in which the WSJ explains what it means. I'm convinced that 99% of these reports are fake. But if fake menstrual blood does un-nerve a jihadi, fine and dandy.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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The government's chief scientific adviser has sent his clearest signal that Britain will need to revive its nuclear power industry in the face of a looming energy crisis and the threat of global warming. In an interview with the Guardian, Sir David King said there were economic as well as environmental reasons for a new generation of reactors.
He said nuclear power had "the safest record of all the power industries in the world". Professor King, who has previously said more nuclear power stations "may be necessary" to meet carbon dioxide emission targets, said the decline of North Sea oil and gas could tip the balance. "We need indigenous energy sources so we don't rely on imported gas from Russia. We're the last in the pipeline across Europe, so a second requirement is that we have a secure energy supply. Indigenous supplies include all renewables and nuclear."
Relying on renewable sources including wind, solar and wave power to replace lost capacity when existing nuclear power stations close would be a "remarkably tough challenge," he said. "At the moment 24% of energy on the grid comes from nuclear power; by 2020 that will be down to 4%. That gap of 20% is going to be very difficult to cover over the period 2010 to 2020 without new nuclear build."
More power stations burning coal and gas would give Britain little chance of meeting ambitious targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. Generating electricity using the heat of nuclear reactors to turn water into steam to drive turbines does not produce carbon dioxide directly, though building and dismantling the plants and mining uranium fuel all do.
Prof King, one of Tony Blair's most trusted advisers, said the public debate on nuclear power needed to focus on the environmental benefits. "It's important we do take the public with us on the environmental debate. That is why I'm trying to sell it - it's precisely because of the emissions."
He added that the possible introduction of carbon taxes would make nuclear power a cheaper option than coal. "People are concerned about nuclear energy in terms of its expense, but if we had just â¬23 [£15.50p] per tonne on carbon dioxide then you already switch the economic argument in favour of nuclear."
His remarks come in the build-up to international talks in Montreal on how to address the threat of climate change when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012. He denied suggestions - sparked by comments from Mr Blair that he was changing his mind on whether international treaties were the best way to tackle global warming - that Britain was moving closer to the stance of the US, which has refused to back Kyoto-style emission reductions.
"The British government's position is that we believe emissions trading is absolutely vital. We believe that capping processes are vital and we believe that declared objectives for 2010, 2020 etc are necessary," said Prof King. He criticised a partnership between the US, Australia and several Asian countries that relies on developing new technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In other words, we're screwed WRT oil but we don't want to offend the Middle East and - non-specific-deieties-or-Jungian-archetypes forbid - we don't want to be seen aligning with the Yanks, even if they're (sigh) right.
Up to 80 Australians could immediately be placed under effective house arrest under the federal government's proposed anti-terror laws. The laws mean they could be forced to wear tracking devices, or be prevented from working, or using the telephone or internet, or communicating with certain people.
Almost all are Muslims who have received or provided training with a listed terrorist organisation before 2002, The Weekend Australian reports.
To date, the government has had no effective powers over these people, the newspaper says. Laws prohibiting training with terrorist groups came into force only in July 2002 and were not retrospective. However, under the proposed new laws, such people can be subjected to tough so-called control orders if authorities still believe they pose a security risk.
The proposed laws will apply to anyone who has trained with any of 17 banned terror groups, including al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiah, LET, Abu Sayyaf and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The new laws could also mean a parent who is told that their child is being held under anti-terrorism laws faces five years' jail if they shared that knowledge with their partner.
The laws, being considered by premiers and chief ministers, provide special conditions for detaining those aged between 16 and 18, Fairfax newspapers report. The laws ban detention for children under 16.
But for those aged 16 and 17, a role is created for one parent or guardian in the detention process, Fairfax says. That parent would be allowed up to two hours' daily contact, with detention lasting up to two weeks. Any conversation between the parent and the child would be monitored by the federal police.
However, the newspapers says, if the parent told their wife or husband that the child had been detained as a terrorist suspect they would face up to five years' jail. A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock confirmed parents would have no (no) special exemption in the ban on disclosing information. "There would only be one parent allowed to see the minor," the spokesman told the newspapers. "It would be visited by one parent or guardian.
"While the subject of a preventative detention could tell the other parent they were safe, they couldn't tell them they were in preventative detention."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:14 ||
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#1
The new laws could also mean a parent who is told that their child is being held under anti-terrorism laws faces five years' jail if they shared that knowledge with their partner.
LONDON It turns out the doomsayers were partly right: Nearly a year and a half after the expansion of the European Union, floods of East Europeans have washed into Britain.
Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and other Easterners are arriving at an average rate of 16,000 a month, a result of Britain's decision to allow unlimited access to the citizens of the eight East European countries that joined the EU last year. They work as bus drivers, farmhands and dentists, as waitresses, builders, and saleswomen; they are transforming parts of London into Slavic and Baltic enclaves where pickles and Polish beer are stacked in delicatessens and Polish can be heard on the streets almost as often as English.
But the doomsayers were also wrong: Multicultural Britain has absorbed these workers like a sponge. Unemployment is still rock-bottom at 4.7 percent, and economic growth continues apace. Since May 2004, more than 230,000 East Europeans have registered to work in Britain, many more than the government expected, in what is shaping up to be one of the great migrations of recent decades.
Yet the government says it still has shortages of 600,000 workers in fields like nursing and construction. "They are coming in and making a very good reputation as highly skilled, highly motivated workers," said Christopher Thompson, a diplomat at the British Embassy in Warsaw. "The U.K. is pleased with the way it's progressed over the first 16 months, and we're confident it will be a beneficial relationship for both sides in the future."
In fact, Britain is so eager to recruit more Poles, by far the largest group of entrants since May last year, that British embassy officials in Warsaw have distributed brochures at Polish unemployment offices "so that if people wanted to go to the United Kingdom they had good information," Thompson said.
One surprising source of tolerance has been the British tabloids, which last year ran headlines warning of a Slavic invasion. Now, at least one newspaper, The Daily Mail, is castigating lazy Britons instead. This year, the paper lamented the "dependency culture" of some Britons who rely on unemployment and disability programs, going so far as to ask why the Scots couldn't be more like the Poles. "The Poles are terrific people and foreign workers tend to work a lot harder than the Scots," the newspaper quoted a Scottish employer saying.
In cultural terms, the migration has reinvigorated Britain's aging Polish community. British statistics show that the workers are disproportionately young - 82 percent are aged 18 to 34 - and willing to travel to both urban and rural workplaces. "Accession workers are continuing to go where the work is, helping to fill gaps in our labor market," said a report by the Home Office released in August.
Podhorodecka, who emigrated to Britain several decades ago, guesses that 80 percent of the newcomers will settle permanently in Britain, and worries about the consequences for her homeland. "It's an appalling situation for Poland," she said. "The country is educating these people and they are leaving to work on building sites. Poland does not need to be left with the unemployable."
Sometimes well-qualified arriving workers take "any sort of job" to improve their English and adjust to life in Britain, then go on to work in their profession, said Jan Mokrzycki, chairman of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain. At the Polish cultural center in Hammersmith, a tall, blond Pole with a master's degree in engineering said he worked at building sites doing manual labor for about £900 a month. That is still five times more than what he would earn in Warsaw, said the man, who gave his name as Rafal.
This is immigration done right: everyone wins. Britain, with the most liberal immigration policy in Europe, has the best economy (by far of any of the large states). And except for the Muslim immigrants who are in Britain for, shall we say, different purposes, the rest are fitting right in. That's no surprise; the average Pole or Balt has a lot in common with the average Brit. They have a Christian tradition, Western values, a virtue of hard work, a notion of personal liberty, and a desire to live better.
Sort of like most of the immigrants to the U.S. It's no surprise that the U.S. continues to do well even as we have a porous border (a border that I'd like closed up because I don't like lawlessness, not because I dislike immigrants). We and the Brits pull ahead of the rest of Europe because, to a fair degree, we've figured out how to do immigration right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/22/2005 00:25 ||
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#1
Did you know 50% of the UKs AIDS cases are "imports"?
#2
Here's hoping that the example being set by Polish immigrants impresses upon the Britons just how vital cultural assimilation is. Little heed seems to have been paid to this as yet and recently the very dear cost of such inattentiveness was made quite clear.
Italian investigators say Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization is moving deep into the Mediterranean peninsula's underworld of organized crime. Italian media recently revealed that hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives coming from North Africa are being sent to Northern Europe though a maze of safe houses belonging to the Neapolitan Camorra, a Naples-based criminal network akin to the Mafia.
The internationally connected Camorra organization specializes in drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling and human and arms trafficking. Historically, the Camorra has worked with terrorist groups from all latitudes and political persuasions. According to Italian investigative sources, the Camorra could help Al Qaeda obtain forged documents and weapons for its operatives, who disembark almost daily from ships connecting Italy to the Arab countries of North Africa. In addition, in exchange for substantial cargoes of narcotics, these operatives are moved through Camorra's connections from Naples to Rome, Bologna, Milan and eventually to other major European cities such as Paris, London, Berlin and Madrid. "The connections are there and real," says Michele del Prete, a district attorney investigating the Algerian Islamic Brotherhood in Italy, "and the exchange currency cementing those trades is drugs."
The new Al Qaeda arrivals are swallowed by Naples' intricate network of alleys called vicoli, where traditional craft shops and street-level houses mix with computer stores, Chinese bazaars, pizzerias, merchant stalls, illegal casinos, antique boutiques, churches and museums. Structurally and socially similar to a Middle Eastern souk, this urban architecture and its social milieu provide familiar territory and an impenetrable refuge for Al-Qaeda. Boroughs like il Vasto, la Maddalena, il Pendino and i Quartieri Spagnoli, which border the railroad and port, also offer easy escape routes. "Should any trouble arise at any time, the Camorra's soldiers will see them off on one of the many trains leaving hourly from the city's main station, or via speed-boat -- the same vessels the Camorra uses to traffic cigarettes, drugs and illegal aliens," says Dario Del Porto, a reporter for Il Mattino, Naples's major daily.
According to a report by DIGOS, Italy's political crime unit, the number of Al Qaeda operatives who have chosen to seek refuge in Naples or have passed through the city on their way to Northern Europe may exceed 1,000. Many of them come from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Il Roma, Naples's second-largest daily, estimates their numbers could be as high as 5,000. "Nothing new here," affirms Giacomo Serafini, a Neapolitan political consultant. "The usefulness of these escape routes was tested during the years when the Camorra collaborated with domestic terrorists, red and black (Communist and Fascist) alike. Al-Qaeda doesn't even have to sweat. Not even the apparent absentmindedness of the police when it comes to apprehending Al Qaeda operatives should surprise. In the end it was a covert agreement between the state and the terrorists that spared Italy most of the carnage that was taking place in Europe during the 1970s." Serafini refers to a secret pact during the 1970s forged by Giulio Andreotti, one of modern Italy's founding fathers. In exchange for the safe passage of operatives and weapons, Arab terrorist groups -- mainly the Palestinian group Al Fatah -- agreed to refrain from attacking Italy.
The evolution of Al Qaeda into a criminal-terrorist group is not unusual, and does not necessarily signal an abandonment of its goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate across the Middle East and North Africa. Instead, it may mark a skillful adaptation to the new environment created by the attacks against the organization since the start of the war on terror. "Something similar happened to Italian terrorist organizations once the Italian state stepped up its war on terror," Serafini says. Though they are not so powerful and deeply rooted as they were in the 1970s, domestic terrorist organizations like the Red Brigades still hit Italian political targets.
According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, the magnitude of this convergence has been recognized also by the United States, which recently moved the western headquarters of the Foreign Counter Intelligence -- the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's office for counter-espionage and counter-terrorism -- to Aversa, Italy. A town outside Naples with a large blue collar and underemployed population, Aversa in the past has been prime recruiting ground for Italian "terroristi" and political hotheads. From Aversa, FCI now scrutinizes terrorist activities from Scandinavia to South Africa.
Italians, in the meantime, are drawing lessons from their fight against the Mafia to devise new ways to combat Al Qaeda in Italy. "We should improve the way district attorneys, judges, investigators and intelligence operatives interact with one another, and exchange information," Franco Roberti, head of antiterrorism for Naples' Federal Court, told La Repubblica recently. "We need to create a National Antiterrorism Directorate with local ramifications, because terrorist cells are interwoven with local criminal networks." Roberti, who leads the Neapolitan Court, has taken the helm in pushing for the institution of such a directorate. The creation of a central commission to fight crimes of a political nature is an admission that investigators take the Al Qaeda threat very seriously. Italy did not take such steps even during the "Years of Lead" in the 1970s and '80s, when domestic terrorism raged.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:05 ||
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#1
Hey folks,
You will hate me to say that the both, mafia and the AL-QUADA are the creations of our stupid foreign policies and the both have come to roost here to kill us here and all over the world. In world affairs, if you create horrible satanists with no contol, this is exactly what happens. Ancient myths have told us about the same but no one in our administratin ever learned the chinese saying that the only difference between the smart and the stupid is that smarts learn from the mistakes of others and the stupids want to mexperience it again.
#7
His point is that every single thing in the world that does not go the way the BBC or NPR or AL-Jizz tells him it should, can eventually be blamed on the Joos or their American puppets.
#11
I'm a bit surprised annon didn't include New Orleans in his theories.
It would have fit, actually, since there is good reason to believe that the Italian mafia first set up shop here in the 19th century in - you guessed it - the Big Easy.
This site gives a chronology that's pretty sound. It pushes the start of the Sicilian mafia back to the 13th century - earlier than I'd attribute it but not an unreasonable chain of influence. What is clear is that by the 15th century, private armies for hire roamed Italy and were, shall we say, not above shaking down people and cities for protection money. And these armies had private passcodes, rites of acceptance and a code of omerta not all that different from today's mafia.
US foreign policy? I can't quite find its impact in the 15th century on the Continent .... LOL
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/22/2005 15:58 Comments ||
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#13
Al-Qaeda turns to Italian mafia for protection
Yet one more fine reason to crush both into dust. I would have thought the mafia was more intelligent than this. If they're this incredibly stupid, they forfeit all due process and become one with the terrorists. Kill them all.
#14
I donât know about the Bilderbergerâs but the dissing of conspiracy theories means you are overlooking some very interesting ties. Men like to compartmentalize everything but put all the preponderance of evidence together and start finding the common denominators, and youâll get a whole new perspective.
The Nov/Dec Biblical Archaeology Review has an article about Marine Colonel Bogdanos' recovery of looted Iraqi artifacts funding the insurgency. He is a prosecutor in private life in NY, and even had some loot delivered to him there. The museum is still missing priceless antiquities from thousands of years ago but some were recovered, stored in the Central Bank of Iraq's vaults. Obviously stolen by Baathists who knew what they were doing, some antiquities have been tracked to New York, Italy, the UK, and Jordan. "The wealthy Madison Avenue and Bond Street dealers who believe they are engaged in benign criminal activity are actually often financing weapons smuggling. In the last year, some of that money has also funded the insurgency in Iraq. Second, many in the mainstream art community are complicit in antiquities smuggling, often making the sale before the theft." The article also says the smugglers make no distinction between the goods, whether weapons, antiquities, or currency and explain why many countries are not interested in stopping this, as open borders are profitable borders. Others generate fees from customs and do not want to impose inspection fees or hinder the sheer volume of trade through international ports and free-trade zones. Sniffer dogs and security devices do not detect ancient alabaster and other gemstones, either. All this connects Iraqi thugs and wealthy collectors further. The Vatican contains one of the worldâs largest collection of art and artifacts.
Now search âLyonsâ in the RB archives; Baghdad imams and Orthodox priests from Bethlehem meeting at Catholic conferences, Interpol, Saudi funding of mosques, terrorist plots thwarted, and the recovery of Iraqi antiquities.
The Mafia and the Medieval Church both extorted âhell insuranceâ. Remember the guy swinging from the London bridge because he skimmed from the Mafia? Calvi and Archbishop Marcinkus were tied through the Vatican Bank. Archbishops are appointed for life personally by the pope to ensure continuity of church tradition, which does date back to the 13th century:
And so one of the most notorious figures in the history of the Catholic Church remains shrouded in secrecy. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was president of the Vatican Bank from 1971 to 1989. As such, he held the purse strings for the international church. He was constantly seen accompanying Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II, and he was considered by many to be the second most powerful man in the church. He arguably held the most power in the Catholic Church of any American in the history of the church.
But by the early 1980s, Marcinkus was increasingly being implicated in massive financial scandals, scandals that spent months on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout Europe. His dealings were also the subject of several books published in the 1980s. In the mid-'80s, Italian authorities tried to arrest Marcinkus in connection with a stunning array of crimes, including assassination, financing, arms smuggling, and trafficking in stolen gold, counterfeit currencies and radioactive materials. Italian authorities also wanted to talk to Marcinkus regarding what he knew about numerous murders. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, most every key player involved in schemes with Marcinkus ended up dead. A journalist investigating Marcinkus, the Vatican Bank, and their ties to the mob also was murdered at the time. But Marcinkus was never interviewed or arrested. Pope John Paul II sheltered Marcinkus in the Vatican, protecting him for seven years with Vatican City's sovereign immunity, an immunity granted to the Vatican in 1929 by Benito Mussolini. Then Marcinkus was shipped off to Chicago, his home. Then, soon after, he moved, or was moved by the church, to Sun City, Arizona.
These are excerpts either about it or from Robert Dallopâs book Godâs Banker:
The Shady Deals of God's Banker
Unsolved Mysteries, Italian Style
On February 20 of this year [1987], in a move that had no precedent, arrest warrants for three senior Vatican officials were issued by investigating magistrates in Milan. They were accused in a 1982 fraudulent-bankruptcy case, involving a loss far in excess of a billion dollars. One of them was American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, then president of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), the official name of the Vatican bank. Along with the other two men, his subordinates, he was facing the possibility of twenty years in prison.
The Vatican voiced "profound astonishment" on hearing the news, but the truth was that some of Pope John Paul II's closest advisers inside Vatican City believed Marcinkus guilty of one or another impropriety, and had long been urging his removal. Nevertheless the pope, without hesitation, threw the full weight of his earthly powers behind the archbishop, playing his sovereignty card. The Vatican, a state in its own right, would not hand over the wanted men.
Another person who wants Marcinkus to talk is Carlo Calvi. Calvi, a 49-year-old Montreal banker, wants to know what Marcinkus knows about the murder of his father, Roberto Calvi, who was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest bank group until its collapse in the early 1980s that had close ties to Marcinkus and the Vatican Bank. Calvi's father was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London on the morning of June 19, 1982. At the time, the death was ruled a suicide. Calvi had been forced to flee Italy after his Banco Ambrosiano went bankrupt with debts of up to $1 billion. Much of that money, it was later learned, had been siphoned off via the Vatican Bank under Paul Marcinkus. The Vatican later paid $200 million to creditors after the bank's downfall. The Vatican admitted no legal responsibility, but did acknowledge it had a "moral involvement" in the case.
In the late 1990s, Italian criminal investigators exhumed Roberto Calvi's body. Using forensic technologies not available 20 years ago, pathologists determined that Calvi had indeed been murdered. They determined he had been strangled before he was hung from the bridge. Three known Mafiosi were arrested for the murder. And Carlo Calvi and Italian prosecutors would love to hear what Paul Marcinkus knows about what was, for him, a fortuitous death. At the time of his murder, Calvi allegedly was promising to provide proof of more money-laundering activities between the Vatican Bank and Banco Ambrosiano. "I want to try to ensure that we get to the bottom of things [in the case] and show that my father was not simply the victim of Mafia hoods," Carlo Calvi says.
Besides the most recent testimony by Vincenzo Calcara last week, testimony by known Mafiosi in the last decade has continually linked Marcinkus to money laundering of Mafia cash and other illicit moneys through the Vatican Bank. "Marcinkus is the key to so many things," Carlo Calvi told me in a phone interview last week. "But nobody can get to him."
The central event that brought on and continues to bring on so much of John Paul's tribulations was the mysterious death five years earlier in London of an Italian named Roberto Calvi. A strange, forbidding soul with a passion for cabal and secret societies, Calvi was a man of the world of finance, where he was understood to be intimately associated with Marcinkus and the IOR [Vatican Bank] and for that reason was known as "God's banker." How deeply and personally enmeshed he was began to emerge shortly after the discovery of his body early on the Friday morning of June 18, 1982.
Calvi had been missing from Italy for one week when a mail-room clerk of the Daily Express, walking to his job on Fleet Street, saw a man suspended from a scaffold under the Blackfriars Bridge. He was hanging by the neck, his feet dragging by the flow of the Thames. He had been dead for five or six hours. After the River Police got him down, a detective noted that the dead man's cuffs and pockets were bulging with chunks of bricks and stones. A body search turned up, among other things, the equivalent of $15,000 in cash and a clumsily altered Italian passport in the name of Gian Roberto Calvini, age sixty-two. These and many other details, but particularly the name of the bridge and the bricks and stones, would take on a sinister pall.
An inquest was held five weeks later. By that time enough of the story had come out to suspect that God's banker had been murdered by experienced criminals in the hire of one or more of his numerous enemies. Shortly before his death, he had publicly declared in a rare interview that he felt threatened and that "any barbarity" was possible. "A lot of people have a lot to answer for in this affair," he said, launching a counterthreat, "I'm not sure who, but sooner or later it will come out."
Disclosure was what it was all about, and the affair he was speaking of was a financial black hole in the Banco Ambrosiano, of which he was chief executive officer. The Ambrosiano was the largest private bank in Italy, and the amount in question was staggering: $1.4 billion in unsecured loans. Although it was then only a rumor, ninety percent of the debt had been incurred by all but worthless dummy corporations owned or controlled by the Vatican bank. What in the world the Holy See was doing with such a dizzying sum of money, was something Calvi knew better than anyone outside the city-state, and he had told his lawyers, "If the whole thing comes out, it'll be enough to start the Third World War."
Disclosure was what it was all about, and the affair he was speaking of was a financial black hole in the Banco Ambrosiano, of which he was chief executive officer. The Ambrosiano was the largest private bank in Italy, and the amount in question was staggering: $1.4 billion in unsecured loans. Although it was then only a rumor, ninety percent of the debt had been incurred by all but worthless dummy corporations owned or controlled by the Vatican bank. What in the world the Holy See was doing with such a dizzying sum of money, was something Calvi knew better than anyone outside the city-state, and he had told his lawyers, "If the whole thing comes out, it'll be enough to start the Third World War."
Perhaps exposure of these conspiratorial ties is what we need to prevent World War III.
#15
Yes, I comprendo the corruption part Danielle, but how is WWIII born from the facts?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/22/2005 17:16 Comments ||
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#16
Today, we are at war against terrorism. That's blindly obvious..ok. Are you refering to nuclear armageddon as WWIII?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/22/2005 17:23 Comments ||
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#17
My quotes were in italics before pasting them in and I wasn't the one referring to WWIII. The dear Archbishop Marcinkus is accused of trafficking in nuclear materials, among other things, as well as tied to the Mafia. The banking scandal was also tied to Panamanian and Nicaraguan banks, and Calvi resided in the Bahamas during this time. That is also about the time of the BCCI scandal that funded Pakistan's nuclear program and Iran-Contra. Besides the Dallop book, the BBC was doing a documentary on dark dealings in the Catholic hierarchy. We hear very little in the States, but Ireland was all abuzz on all the radio talk shows in 1996. The Irish Catholics were then threatening a split from the corruption in the Vatican. The RB posting commented on was tying Al Qaeda to the Mafia. You don't think accusing the Vatican of funding nuclear terrorism wouldn't be enough to start a world war?
#18
For more information you can Google any of these guys. Here's one link for more info as I copied and pasted from some online articles in my previous commentary. I was only hoping to avert nuclear war. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article317471.ece
#20
the BBC was doing a documentary on dark dealings in the Catholic hierarchy.
Oh, so that's where you got your conspiracy theory. Ah, yes...yawn..... Deep dark dealings by the church reported by the BBC.....ooooooh. Must be true if the BBC said so.
If what US Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) says is true about the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), America has been wearing a blindfold so as not to see the truth about 9 / 11 prevention.
Weldon, Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committee, addressed the House of Representatives. He exposed the DIA as a perpetrator of deceit and intentionally destroying the reputation of a reputable American so that the latter would not be able to tell the truth. He is LTC Anthony Shaffer, a 23-year defense intelligence officer, whom the DIA has sought to smear.
"Shaffer is being abused and used as a scapegoat. If they (the DIA) can ruin Shaffer, they can silence the story," Weldon stated.
His speech also focused on a 20-person team, Able Danger, that came up with invaluable information via new technology that revealed crucial data that could have prevented 9 / 11. Weldon said further that Able Dangerâs significant data has been destroyed purposefully so as not to embarrass the DIA.
Just months ago, Weldon said he learned that in 1999 and 2000 a secret program known as Able Danger was put in place by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and seen through by the general in charge of the Special Forces Command. It was a force able to uncover key cells of al Qaeda globally, giving the military the capability to destroy those cells so they could not repeat carnage as set loose at the Trade Center, Khobar Towers, USS Cole and the African embassy.
Just months ago, Weldon stated he discovered that Able Danger "actually identified the Brooklyn cell of al Qaeda in January and February 2000, over 1 year before 9 / 11 ever happened. In addition, I learned that not only did we identify the Brooklyn cell of al Qaeda, but we identified Mohamed Atta as one of the members of that Brooklyn cell along with three other terrorists who were the leadership of the 9 / 11 attack."
In September 2000, Able Danger tried to inform the FBI about their findings. Lawyers denied three times their admittance to the FBI.
Weldon stated that the FBI Director has now "publicly said if he would have had that information, the FBI could have used it to perhaps prevent the hijackings that struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the plane that landed in Pennsylvania and perhaps saved 3000 lives and changed the course of world history."
Now, Weldon contends, the DIA, including its deputy director, does not want this truth to get out. Why? Weldon states: "Because they perhaps are fearful of being embarrassed and humiliated."
So what has the DIA done to keep the truth under cement bars?
Weldon stated to Congress that the DIA has "gagged the military officers." They cannot speak truth to Congresspersons. They cannot tell the facts to the press. Further, the DIA has set their aim on destroying the reputation and life of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer.
They have engineered a precise smear campaign against Shaffer so as to leave him ruined. They have taken from Shaffer his security clearance, his salary, health care benefits for himself and children. They took away his security clearance one day before he was to "testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, in uniform."
Almost a year before 9 / 11, the DIA Deputy Director met with Shaffer. Shaffer showed him "a disk in his office with information about al Qaeda and Mohammed Atta." The Deputy Director halted the conversation, informing Shaffer that he did not want to see the data. "âYou cannot show me that. I do not want to see it. It might contain information I cannot look at.â" That is what Weldon reports that the deputy told Shaffer. Others were in the room so as to witness this dialogue.
To this date, the DIA deputy informs media that he never met with Shaffer about such a disk. He never said what Shaffer says he said.
Yet, Weldon states, "Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer, like Commander Scott Philpot of the Navy, like J. D. Smith, and like a host of other Able Danger employees, have told the truth."
So we have Able Danger with the data: identification of Mohammed Atta and al Qaeda before 9 / 11. Such information was not able to get to the FBI because of legal obstructions. A large part of that data was destroyed in the summer of 2000.
Weldon then pointed to a man with "impeccable credentials" whom he left nameless in his address. However, Weldon did state that he would reveal the name to any Member of Congress, "any of our colleagues that want to come to me. I will tell you privately who this official is."
The significance of the man is that he was a leading official with Able Danger. However, though he is of utmost importance due to the knowledge he has of Able Dangerâs activities and finding prior to 9 / 11, he has never once been asked to speak to anyone at the Pentagon, the DIA, nor the 9 / 11 Commission staff in their investigations.
This particular man informed Weldon that there is a separate "cache of information collected from over 20 Federal agencies in 1999 and 2000 on Able Danger that still may exist. Now the Pentagon has told us all this material was destroyed." Yet the leading official with Able Danger tells Weldon that there is a body of information that just may still exist.
Weldon is incensed that the DIA has covered up "their own shortcomings." They fear Able Dangerâs data going public.
Able Danger knew about Mohammed Atta and al Qaeda cell a year before 9 / 11. Further, they knew about the threat to the USS Cole 2 weeks before the attack. Two days "before the attack (Able Danger) was screaming not to let the USS Cole come into the harbor at Yemen because they knew something was about to happen."
The DIA is jealous of Able Dangerâs capability with the latterâs new, state of the art technology. Twenty persons had data that the DIA did not come by. This, the DIA concludes, must never come to light.
For that, and the ruination of Shafferâs reputation, Weldon holds the DIA on the same par as dictatorships down through history and around the world. He exposes the DIA as anti-freedom, anti-democracy, anti-American. He spoke to Congress of the troops serving in New Iraq particularly who are valiantly seeking to plant liberties for others. Yet at the same time the DIA is working as a despotic regime unto itself, destroying freedoms and reputable personâs careers.
There are "bureaucrats in the Defense Intelligence Agency and possibly some political operatives that do not want the facts to come out about Able Danger and the information that the Able Danger team put together. And in the process, they are going to destroy a man, a man who has been recognized by his country, who has a family, and who simply wants to do the right thing," Weldon stated.
The DIA had millions of dollars, hundreds of millions, Weldon stated, but could not perform what the 20-person team accomplished. "DIA does not want that to come out. . .Heaven forbid that the Defense Intelligence Agency, with hundreds of millions of dollars, would have a 20-member team do what they could not do because they were using new technology and new software."
Weldon called on Congress to appoint a "full independent investigation by the Inspector General of the Pentagon. I have asked Secretary Rumsfeld today to do that."
Further, "if DIA is going to continue to press this ridiculous set of facts, then as I said earlier, I want DIA prosecuted for the five felonies they committed in sending classified documents to a person that 2 weeks earlier they said was incapable of receiving classified information.
"And if this continues, I want DIA held responsible for illegally transferring $500 of public assets to a person, that in the process of sending that stuff to him, DIA committed fraud against the taxpayers.
"I want them held accountable: DIA's stupidity; DIA's incompetence.
"Let the Able Danger story finally come out to the American people. Let them understand what really happened. Let Scott Philpott talk. Let Tony Shaffer talk. Let the others who have been silenced have a chance to tell their story to Congress and openly to the American people.
"In the end, the country will be stronger."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:18 ||
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#2
Weldon's courageously taking on the pompous Establishment's bureaucracy that is the cause of most of our problems in America. They deserve to be em-bare-assed.
One of the oddest, and saddest, stories on the World Wide Web over the past few years has been the transformation of Andrew Sullivan. In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, he emerged as an eloquent supporter of America's war against Islamist terrorists; although we had disagreed with him about various domestic matters pre-9/11, we offered him "three cheers" in a Sept. 17, 2001, item. Perhaps he was a bit overenthusiastically militant at times, but that is a sin of which this column has probably not been totally innocent either.
Sometime in the past two years, though, Sullivan turned into a fervent supporter of the "rights" of terrorists. His blog now consists largely of post after post bewailing the "torture" and "abuse" of the enemy. There are some important issues here, but Sullivan ignores crucial distinctions, treating Guantanamo as if it were the same as Abu Ghraib, illegal combatants as if they were legitimate prisoners of war. He even went so far as to endorse Sen. Dick Durbin's outrageous comparison of American servicemen to Nazis.
It's all too self-righteous, over the top and voluminous to engage seriously, but one particular Sullivan fixation strikes us as telling. See if you can spot the recurring theme in these passages:
"It is perfectly conceivable, given the torture policies promoted and permitted by this president, that desecration of the Koran has taken place in Guantanamo. Many other insane and inhumane interrogation tactics have turned out to be true. Remember smearing fake menstrual blood?"--May 14
"A simple question: after U.S. interrogators have tortured over two dozen detainees to death, after they have wrapped one in an Israeli flag, after they have smeared naked detainees with fake menstrual blood, after they have told one detainee to '[obscenity] Allah,' after they have ordered detainees to pray to Allah in order to kick them from behind in the head, is it completely beyond credibility that they would also have desecrated the Koran?"--May 16
"Does [White House press secretary Scott] McClellan really want the press to report more widely on what has been going on at Guantanamo Bay? Does he really want more stories about forced nakedness, female interrogators using panties and fake menstrual blood, and many reports from former inmates about deliberate misuse of the Koran? Well, let it rip, I say."--May 17
"Does Glenn [Reynolds] really believe for a second that idiotic tactics like brandishing fake menstrual blood or Stars of David at Muslim inmates are good interrogation practices? Does he think these excrescences have helped gain any useful intelligence in any way? The problem with these abuses is that they are evil and stupid; immoral and counter-productive, as so many experts in interrogation will testify."--May 18
"I'm not playing dumb. Shining shoes is not the same thing as treating prisoners as animals. It's not the same thing as smearing them with fake menstrual blood."--June 21
"Israeli interrogators do not kick the Koran or pee on it or throw it to the ground. They learn it word for word. They quote it back to their prisoners. They win their confidence and infiltrate their networks. They gain good intelligence by eschewing the goon-like antics of the Gitmo clowns. Fake menstrual blood? If it weren't so disgusting, it would be risible. But it's true. Remember that, whatever the Tarantos of this world want to deflect the conversation to. It's true. It happened. In the end, reality will count."--June 22
"From smearing inmates with fake menstrual blood, to desecrating the Koran, to forcing one Abu Ghraib prisoner to drink alcohol and eat pork, to burning Muslim corpses facing West . . . we now have a litany of abuses that are objectively evil and almost designed to lose us support among the broad Muslim population."--Oct. 20 (ellipsis in original)
This list is by no means comprehensive, but you get the idea. The "fake menstrual blood" is apparently a reference to a reported incident, recounted in this Associated Press story from January, in which a female interrogator was questioning a Saudi detainee who had taken flight lessons in Arizona before 9/11:
The interrogator left the room to ask a Muslim linguist how she could break the prisoner's reliance on God. The linguist told her to tell the detainee that she was menstruating, touch him, then make sure to turn off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash.
Islam forbids physical contact with women other than a man's wife or family, and with any menstruating women, who are considered unclean.
"The concept was to make the detainee feel that after talking to her he was unclean and was unable to go before his God in prayer and gain strength," says the draft, stamped "Secret."
The interrogator used ink from a red pen to fool the detainee.
So the "fake menstrual blood" that Sullivan describes as "insane," "inhumane," "evil," "immoral" and "disgusting" turns out to be . . . red ink! And not even metaphorical red ink (i.e., debt, also forbidden in Islam), but actual red ink! Sullivan's frenzied reaction seems completely out of place--and it also leads us to think that the use of "fake menstrual blood" may be an effective interrogation technique, just as the Muslim linguist told the female interrogator it would be.
Note how when Sullivan (or most anyone else) writes about this, it's always "fake menstrual blood," never just "fake blood." Lots of people are squeamish about blood, but the suggestion here is that there is something sordid about menstruation.
This is nonsense. A woman's reproductive cycle is natural and normal. Girls realize this within hours of hitting puberty, but it takes longer for boys to figure out. To a preteen male, the news that women have periods is unsettling. But boys eventually become men, and most of them have intimate relationships with women, which helps to demystify the female reproductive system. To a mature man, menstruation is not a horror.
There are, however, exceptions--adult men who remain strangers to the female body. Among them are homosexual men who identify as gay at a young age and thus do not have heterosexual experiences. Also among them are single men from sexually repressed cultures, such as fundamentalist Islamic ones, in which contact between the sexes is rigidly policed. Many of America's enemy prisoners fall into the latter category. If the mere idea of "fake menstrual blood" discombobulates Andrew Sullivan so, it stands to reason that its actual employment might be an excellent way to break the enemy's resistance.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/22/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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Sullivan's not a mature man
Can you say Catcher? Caught too many balls to the chin, apparently
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2005 14:24 Comments ||
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As far as unnerving goes, remember that only the US military is obsessive about using only psychological means to interrogate. All of the complaints heard, every one, involves only psychological means.
You will not now, nor most likely ever, hear of the means used by other US agencies. Not torture, as you would think of it, because torture doesn't work, but "other means". My nickname for it is "The Rat Program".
The Rat Program is purely imaginitive. It is based on the idea that the technology of interrogation, like other technologies, have improved markedly since WWII. Sap gloves, sodium pentathol, and electric shocks are antiques. What *might* be used today? There are great possibilities...
We know that electrodes in the brain can stimulate involuntary actions and thoughts. We have microphones the size of a pinhead, and batteries that could power them for months. Explosives the volume of a quarter, but as powerful as a pound of C4.
We have advanced, drug-induced hypnosis. GPS and RFID technologies. Neuro-drugs that can do astounding things: endorphine blockers, hallucinogens, mood enhancers.
Few jihadis have much real information. They are an ignorant lot. And yet, left to their own devices, they might gravitate towards those that matter. They might become involuntary spies, assassins and traitors. We might re-write their mind to make them a dedicated anti-terrorist.
We might even put an "off" switch in them, for when they are no longer needed.
#9
Sully is a bath house whore who would out anyone if they didn't take an oath to promote homodumb.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/22/2005 15:47 Comments ||
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#10
Waste of effort and pixels. I don't read Sullivan anymore but why waste time lamenting his change and trying to psycho analyze him. I've read Jonah Goldberg, James Taranto and dozens of bloggers trying to dissect Sulli's transformation.
Taranto implies a lack of maturity and insecurity. Well I say that obsessing about someone else's obsessions is also a sign of insecurity. Forget about Sulli. Making Abu Ghraib the central theme of the War on Terror is ridiculous. But if Sulli insists this is THE central issue, than leave him be. There are still many pundits and public figures who are far worse and far more deserving of attack.
I refuse to read one more sentence about this silly little intra-pundit class scorning END OF DISCUSSION
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
10/22/2005 21:58 Comments ||
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#11
Apparently odd menstrual fetish for a gay male, no?
#12
Anonymoose, that's more than a tad bit too scary for me.
(This does not in any way mean that I disagree with the WSJ take, because I don't.)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/22/2005 23:24 Comments ||
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#13
I used to enjoy Sullivan, back in the late 90's early 2000 - before AIDS dulled his intellect.
Andy became bitter and angry because his goal was for acceptance, approval and to be seen as "normal". When it became clear that most Americans don't support gays in the military, homosexual marriage or gays in the Boy Scouts and think that advertising for bare-back sex in local papers a wee bit sleazy (he was outed by a democratic homosexual) his bitterness grew. Andrew is a conservative, but ultimately, everything is about acceptance of homosexuality to Andrew. He dislike Clinton because he backed down on the gays in the military and did not do enough - so he enjoyed his fall from grace and threw peanuts from the peanut gallery. When Bush II came around, I think Andy had high hopes that the "big tent", Log Cabin Republicans, etc. meant the time was right - the acceptance he so craved would finally be his. When it did not, and it became clear that the support just wasn't there, he turned his rage to the Bush administration with even more venom than he had for Clinton.
A man from Ohio jailed for three years on suspicion that he has links to al-Qaida associates could be deported to his native Yemen within weeks unless a federal court agrees his safety would be at risk in his homeland.
The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va., on Monday overruled an immigration judge's decision last December that had stopped Ashraf al-Jailani's deportation on the grounds that he would be persecuted or tortured if he is forced to return to Yemen.
Al-Jailani, 41, of Kent in northeast Ohio, had successfully argued that the United Nations Convention Against Torture prevents his return to Yemen. Al-Jailani has not been charged, and he says he is being held without cause.
If he does not appeal the decision, he could be ordered removed from the United States as soon as Nov. 16. His lawyer, Farhad Sethna, said Friday he is discussing with al-Jailani, who is in a detention center in York, Pa., whether to appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
Federal investigators first became interested in al-Jailani in 1999, when his business card was discovered with a suspected terrorist in New York.
Sethna this week released a statement from al-Jailani that says he does not want to leave the county and misses his wife and three children in Ohio, whom he is not allowed to see.
The Cleveland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and others are planning a protest rally Saturday at a mosque in Cuyahoga Falls to mark the three years al-Jailani has been detained.
The U.N. torture convention, or detailed policy, was formed in 1985 to ban torture under all circumstances and forbids the return of a refugee to his or her country if there is reason to believe the person will be tortured.
Immigration Judge Walt Durling said in his ruling in December that al-Jailani's fear of torture in Yemen "appears well-founded, whether or not such actual torture would occur."
A statement released Friday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn't address al-Jailani's torture concerns. Barring any further litigation, the statement said, immigration officials will "will continue to pursue the removal of Mr. Al-Jailani from the United States."
The government's attorney, Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer Jeffrey Bubier, had no comment.
The government has alleged al-Jailani may be a danger to his American-born wife based on his no-contest plea to a domestic violence charge from an incident in 1998. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft granted him a pardon in 2001.
His business card as a geochemist, a scientist who studies the composition of the earth's crust, was discovered with a suspected terrorist in New York, the FBI has said. FBI agents have also raised concerns about calls made from al-Jailani's home in Ohio to numbers in New York that also had been called by another Yemen native who has pleaded guilty in a money-laundering case. The FBI also believes that al-Jailani knew the brother of one hijacker aboard one of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center.
Michele Swensen, al-Jailani's wife, had been hoping for a court ruling that would set him free. She said Friday the latest ruling was difficult for her.
"When I heard, it was just like being hit by a brick," Swensen said. "I was extremely sad. This is a man who has done nothing wrong and has never been charged with a crime. He's spent three years away from his children, sitting in a jail cell. His children desperately need him."
Their children are girls, ages 9 and 7, and a 5-year-old boy.
"I grew up thinking that this was a democracy and that we have justice and liberty here, but what I've seen is completely the opposite," said Swensen, who said she met al-Jailani when he was a graduate student in Japan.
She said he often sent out his business card and resume seeking jobs. She denied that he ever had terrorist ties.
"There was nothing to that," Swensen said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:20 ||
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The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department now appears to be bottomless. It also shows signs of growing more sinister, especially where it involves a mysterious private company called IHC Services, which did big business with the procurement department until it was removed from U.N. rosters in June.
New details of how dark the scandal could prove to be have emerged from the private sale of IHC on June 3, 2005, just as the procurement scandal was about to break. It now appears that while doing business with the U.N., IHC had links both to Saddam Husseinâs old sanctions-busting networks, and to a Liechtenstein-based businessman, Engelbert Schreiber, Jr., known among other things for his ties to a figure designated by the U.N. itself as a financier of Al Qaeda .
Registered in New York State, with offices in New York City and Milan, IHC has been involved in possibly hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of business with the U.N. since the mid-1990s, serving both as a direct supplier and as a go-between for a wide variety of other contractors. This work has included IHCâs signing or helping to broker contracts for supplies ranging from portable generators to rations for U.N. peacekeeping troops in such trouble spots as West Africa and the Middle East.
IHC came under public scrutiny this summer, after FOX News broke the story on June 20 that IHC had maintained especially close ties with Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian official in the U.N. procurement department, who while handling an IHC contract with the U.N. had obtained a job for his son with the company, and had also been channeling funds to a secret offshore bank account.
#1
The Nov/Dec Biblical Archaeology Review has an article about Marine Colonel Bogdanos' recovery of looted Iraqi artifacts funding the insurgency. He is a prosecutor in private life in NY, and even had some loot delivered to him there. The museum is still missing priceless antiquities from thousands of years ago but some were recovered, stored in the Central Bank of Iraq's vaults. Obviously stolen by Baathists who knew what they were doing, some antiquities have been tracked to New York, Italy, the UK, and Jordan. "The wealthy Madison Avenue and Bond Street dealers who believe they are engaged in benign criminal activity are actually often financing weapons smuggling. In the last year, some of that money has also funded the insurgency in Iraq. Second, many in the mainstream art community are complicit in antiqities smuggling, often making the sale before the theft." The article also says the smugglers make no distinction between the goods, whether weapons, antiquities, or currency and explain why many countries are not interested in stopping this, as open borders are profitable borders. Others generate fees from customs and do not want to impose inspection fees or hinder the sheer volume of trade through international ports and free-trade zones. Sniffer dogs and security devices do not detect ancient alabaster and other gemstones, either. All this connects Iraqi thugs and wealthy collectors further. Hats off to FOX for their own exclusive investigation, and hope they keep at it, as they are doing the world a humonguous favor in tracking down these crooks that have hidden behind diplomatic immunity and passed through customs unchecked.
#5
Assuming the Pulitzer hasn't gone the way of the Tranzi Moonbat of the Month Award that the Nobel has become, and there's serious debate suggesting it already has, she sure as hell deserves it. Simply outstanding work - she and a very few others, such as Michael Yon - another deserving of such recognition, bear the entire weight of the investigative tradition of the fourth estate. She an her peers are so far apart and above the rest that we really should come up with a definitive moniker for the massive ranks of failed, agenda-driving, liars currently representing the MSM.
The murder of a defence lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein and other former Ba'athist leaders casts doubt on the fairness of the US-backed court, human rights groups and international lawyers said yesterday. Saadoun Janabi, a friend of the former dictator, was found shot dead shortly after being kidnapped on Thursday by armed men who identified themselves as interior ministry employees.
He had represented Awad al-Bander, a former senior Iraqi judge who appeared in court with Saddam and six other defendants on Wednesday at the start of their trial. Janabi was one of the few lawyers to address the court.
Richard Dicker, head of Human Rights Watch's international justice programme, told Reuters: "This could have a chilling effect on the willingness of competent lawyers to vigorously defend the accused." Miranda Sissons, a senior associate with the International Centre for Transitional Justice, added: "We have long had concerns about an effective witness protection programme for this trial. This murder highlights the lack of attention the court is paying to the defence, which has implications for the equality of the trial."
Security fears led officials to conceal the identity of four of the five judges. Only the presiding judge was named and shown on television. Witnesses are less well protected and Janabi's murder shows the defence team is under serious threat.
The judge in the case postponed the trial until November 28 after its first session, on the grounds that several people who were due to testify on behalf of the prosecution were afraid to appear. But one prosecution witness will testify tomorrow at a US detention centre where he is being held near Baghdad's international airport. Wadah Ismael al-Sheik, a senior Iraqi intelligence officer at the time of the massacre of about 150 Shias at Dujail in 1982, is suffering from cancer.
The Iraqi government denied having a hand in Janabi's murder yesterday. "If the defence team asks the government for extra protection we are more than happy to provide it," said the national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:04 ||
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Rights Groups ignoring the crimes against humanity on just the very basic level by Saddam and the daily harangue on America's failure to achieve a perfection unattained by any other major nation in history raises concerns that I don't give a damn about what they think anymore. And I don't.
We finished the interviews, deep in the Baghdad slum known as Sadr City, and the Guardian's two vehicles started heading back to the hotel. The street was deserted until three cars, including a police Land Cruiser, sliced around a corner and into our path. Gunmen piled out and surrounded us.
One pistol-whipped Safa'a, the driver, spraying his blood on to my lap. Another wrestled the translator, Qais, out of the door on to the ground. Another pumped three bullets into the windscreen of the follow-up vehicle, narrowly missing the driver, Omar.
Article continues
It was 2.15pm on Wednesday, and a moment I had dreaded since moving to Iraq nine months earlier had arrived: kidnap. A potential death sentence for Iraqi staff as well as the foreign correspondents who are the targets. Since hostages started having their heads sawn off we have all been obsessed by it.
In agreement with my Iraqi colleagues, the plan, if cornered, was for me to leg it. With a gun at my head that was not an option. I was bundled out and thrown into a Honda. I glimpsed Omar sprawled on the ground, an AK-47 trained on him.
We sped away, the Land Cruiser leading. A man in police uniform in the front passenger seat pointed a pistol while my neighbour in the rear seat handcuffed my wrists behind my back and shoved my head into his lap. "OK, OK," he said. It was not OK.
Angling my head it was possible to see sagging powerlines, crumbling houses, sheep grazing on rubbish, traffic. I waved a foot to try to catch the attention of a trucker. It was rammed back on to the floor. The driver, stocky and stubbly, turned with a toothy grin and said "Tawhid al-Jihad". Otherwise known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, the beheaders of Ken Bigley. I stopped breathing.
We pulled off the road and, within sight of traffic, had a 10-minute pitstop to change. A different car and different clothes. I stripped naked and was handed a brown T-shirt and a pair of stonewashed fake Versace jeans with no button. "More Iraqi, good, good," said one man. I was left barefoot. We rejoined the traffic. Documents and a copy of Iraq's draft constitution poked from the pocket of the front seat, suggesting this was a newly stolen car. The kidnappers relaxed. One lit a cigarette and flicked through my documents.
"Irish. Journalist. Not British?" He shrugged. American helicopters buzzed overhead but however hard I visualised it, no Rangers came shimmying down on ropes.
The front passenger turned and indicated his colleagues. "Ansar al-Sunna." The bad news was that that was the group that killed an Italian journalist. The good news was that this contradicted the driver. I suspected - hoped - they were winding me up.
The headcutters are Sunni extremists but Sadr City is Shia, a rival Islamic sect, and the fiefdom of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
We had gone there to follow Saddam Hussein's trial on television at the home of a family persecuted by his regime. The kidnappers had learned of our presence and lain in wait.
We pulled into the walled driveway of a smart two-storey house. The vehicles left and the house owner, a medium-built man in his late 30s, took over. A portrait of a Shia imam gazed down from the wall of the living room, which was bare save for rugs and cushions.
As the man I would come to call Haji, a term of respect for Mecca pilgrims, sifted through possessions taken from my car, I asked about my colleagues. He examined a notebook spattered in blood. "They OK, no problem."
He said I was to be exchanged for a Shia militiaman jailed by the British in Basra, the spark for last month's violent protests. I wanted to believe that but feared being sold to the highest bidder.
There was a rumour that Sunni groups were back in the market after a lull in hostage-taking.
A separate set of metal cuffs clicked on to my wrists and I was led into a hallway. Beneath a stairwell there was a black cavity, an entrance to an unlit concrete passageway five metres long, one metre wide. A rug and a pillow were laid out.
The door clanged shut and a lock turned. Pitch blackness and silence. Going by previous hostage cases, this could be home for months. Still, no bag over the head, not chained to a radiator - could have been worse.
I sat down and tried to remember why I volunteered for Iraq. Curiosity, ambition and hoping to clear my head after a broken relationship, among other things. It wasn't feeling clear now. No story was worth this. In any case I'd missed the story - Saddam could have broken down and pleaded guilty for all I knew.
Hours passed. I pictured news of my abduction reaching family and colleagues. Not a happy image so I thought about my cat, Edward. Insects crawled up my leg. Dusty Springfield crooned in my head. Who invited her in?
Sounds of domesticity reverberated through the concrete. A woman's voice. Children running and laughing. Pot walloping in the kitchen. The television blared. Egyptian comedies, it sounded like; Haji's family laughed long and loud.
After fitful sleep the door banged open. "Morning, Rory," smiled Haji. After being allowed to use the toilet and shower, with cuffs removed, a younger man provided pitta bread, jam, cheese and sweet tea in the living room. "You on al-Jazeera, BBC, everywhere," announced Haji, chuffed. I was a celebrity. Great, get me out of here.
Cuffed again and back in the gloom, it occurred to me that the British government's official position was not to negotiate with terrorists. Fingers crossed for the Irish government.
Children banged on the door and took turns at holes in the chipboard to peer at this exotic, valuable pet who could not be allowed to stray.
Unleashed for supper, feeling stiff and sore, desperate to lengthen my time out of the tomb and provoke dialogue, I obtained permission to stretch and do press-ups. Haji grinned and took a photograph. The children loved it. The pet does tricks!
Momentarily more host than captor, Haji fetched an English-language version of What is Islam, a summary of the faith by the late ayatollah Muhammad Shirazi. He appeared not to have read up on 60 things forbidden by Islam, pages 38-41, which include a ban on imprisoning someone unjustly.
Back into the passage for a second night. Then, Haji's mobile rang. A murmur, then laughter. Minutes later the door swung open. I was going home, he said. In the boot of his car. A moon hung high over Baghdad as I clambered in.
After 20 minutes of bouncing over potholes I feared I was en route to another gang of kidnappers, my buyers. I found an oil spraycan. The plan: zap their eyes and sprint.
We stopped. The boot opened to reveal a police pick-up truck with a mounted machine gun. Real police. Haji shook an officer's hand, nodded at me and drove into the night, apparently a free man.
Ahmad Chalabi, the deputy prime minister, waited with a smile at his palm-fringed compound. Elements of Moqtada al-Sadr's movement had snatched me, ostensibly to gain leverage for friends detained by the British in Basra, he said, though some wanted to sell me to jihadists.
He said his lobbying had clinched the release. "We got you out just in time." It was over. I slumped into a seat. An aide fished a can of beer from his jacket pocket. "I think you'll be wanting this."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:27 ||
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A presentation of âThe Fighting Policy of Qaedat al-Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers,â recently issued by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaeda mouthpiece, and authored by Abu Abdullah Ahmad al-Omar, seeks to explain the phases and ultimate goal of the insurgency of al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by its emir, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, against Americans and the current, interim Iraqi government. According to the text, Zarqawi had formulated a strategy against the American Army following the fall of Afghanistan, nearly a year before the start of the War in Iraq, and his actions and that of his group follow a pragmatic, yet Shariâa applicable course to defeat America.
According to the author, Zarqawi fled with some companions to Kurdistan after Afghanistan fell and prepared to fight Americans before they âinvaded Iraq for more than a year,â establishing camps and warehouses, and recruiting followers from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Zarqawi is stated to have not launched the insurgency until the Iraqi Baâath regime toppled, so it will be the âclean start for Abu Musab away from the accusations of supporting the Baâath party, which was represented by Saddamâ.
The jihad in Iraq, then, entails three distinct phases, each possessing specific targets and desired ends. The first phase, to âisolate the American Army,â entails the murder of Arab translators who represent the link between the Americans and the Iraqis, and the murder of Iraqi security forces, who âbecame shields to the American Army.â As the American casualties increase over a protracted period, the author believes that they âwill find it imperative to withdraw,â regardless of alleged lies by the media. The second phase includes the targeting of Arab or foreign ambassadors, to isolate the Iraqi government and make it only recognizable on paper. According to the text, the murder of the Egyptian and Algerian diplomats was not only justified, but al-Qaeda in Iraq is absolved of blame because they âwarned all nations several timesâ to not send their ambassadors.
The third phase involves the targeting of the âinfidelâs militiaâ of the Shiâites in al-Ghadr Brigade, which the author alleges to be supported by Iran and Syria, and have also been attacking the Sunnis. The author finds that the area must be cleared from any âcompetitorâ before the American Army withdraws from Iraq, so the mujahideen may control the land and set up Sharâa courts to fight the âheretic doctrine and forbidden things.â THe mujahideen in Iraq represent the ânew generation,â training in explosives and car bombs, and âthat is what the whole world is afraid of!â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:12 ||
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SO besides once again afirming that the Iraqi "insurgency" was pre-planned all along, and was not a local reaction to America's invasion, and other things, the letter does not specify what kind of better world Al-Qaeda and Radic Islam want or are working for, besides helping Muslims get to Allah faster by killing/gulagging them, andor working them to death ala Cold War Communism. The Radics = Commies = society stratified between the lucky-to-survive old and the know-nothin' young; whole generations wid out their fathers and grandfathers, wid all now demographically dying.
Sheesh, this guy issues more press releases than the DNC. He and his punks can redefine it every 10 minutes and it won't matter. They are accomplishing nothing except a bloody slow-motion suicide. VDH had it right, yesterday. These losers will end with a whimper, nothing achieved except taking a bunch of innocents with them. But that's the hallmark of the Caliphatists - abject failure marked by collateral damage.
by Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal EFL'd -- go read it all
. . . In the first nine months of 2005 more Palestinians were killed by other Palestinians than by Israelis--219 to 218, according to the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Interior, although the former figure is probably in truth much higher. In the Gaza Strip, the departure of Israeli troops and settlers has brought anarchy, not freedom. Members of Hamas routinely fight gun battles with members of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas's ruling political party. Just as often, the killing takes place between clans, or hamullas. So-called collaborators are put to the gun by street mobs, their "guilt" sometimes nothing more than being the object of a neighbor's spite. Palestinian social outsiders are also at mortal risk: Honor killings of "loose" women are common, as is the torture and murder of homosexuals.
Atop this culture of violence are the Hamas and Fatah leaders, the hamulla chieftains, the Palestinian Authority's "generals" and "ministers." And standing atop them--theoretically, at least--is the Palestinian president. All were raised in this culture; most have had their uses for violence. For Arafat, those uses were to achieve mastery of his movement, and to harness its energies to his political purpose. Among Palestinians, his popularity owed chiefly to the fact that under his leadership all this violence achieved an astonishing measure of international respectability.
. . . The Palestinian president leads a society in which dignity and violence have long been entwined, in which the absence of the latter risks the loss of the former. This is not to say that Mr. Abbas himself is a violent man. But his fate as a politician rests in the hands of violent men, and so far he has shown no appetite for confronting them. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
10/22/2005 09:11 ||
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An excellent article.
This tack, however, should be reexamined. It is in no one's best interest to approach the problem in this way:
"Talk to Palestinians, and you will often hear it said, like a mantra, that Palestinian dignity requires Palestinian statehood. This is either a conceit or a lie. Should a Palestinian state ever come into existence in Gaza and the West Bank, it will be a small place, mostly poor, culturally marginal, most of it desert, rock, slums and dust. "
It is neither a conceit or a lie. It is the bitter pill Israel must swallow: to put this miserable and ridiculously long strife between Palestinians and Israelis down for the sake of their families, friends and children, land will be yielded. Not all the land from the river to the sea, which is what the savages demand, but a contiguous land that includes some natural resources for the Palestinians.
Let us demand progress on the part of Palestinians, publicly, for the first time in years. Let us continue on this tack to debilitate terrorists. Let us continue to pressure Abbas and the Palestinians on Hamas and their ilk. Let us put out a changed vision for Palestinians, that even a faint hope of self-rule and national authonomy is the way of dignity-not violence. It is the most honorable thing they could do to restore the honor of their culture.
#2
Ok. Let's have the Arab states give some of that land and of those natural resources. For instance some of the oil wells of the Sinai, who BTW was discovered by the Israelis.
#4
because it's easier to seethe and play the victim while getting vicarious thrills from the occasional killing of the Joooooo enemy than to step up and do the harder work of restraining themselves, and building a successful society. They get what they deserve, a hell hole of factionalism, corruption, hate, fighting, and despair. Fuck 'em
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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What's with this "Descend" word?
When Lawerance was fighting the Ottomans there they were already Barbarians... There is no descend.
#6
#1... It is neither a conceit or a lie. It is the bitter pill Israel must swallow: to put this miserable and ridiculously long strife between Palestinians and Israelis down for the sake of their families, friends and children, land will be yielded. Not all the land from the river to the sea, which is what the savages demand, but a contiguous land that includes some natural resources for the Palestinians.
I must take issue with this notion, jules 2. The Palestinians have done absolutely nothing to merit such fair treatment. Only when they, as an entire people, renounce terrorism, their endless hatred for the Jews and any intention of violently commandeering all of Israel's land, can there even begin any discussion of allocating further resources to them. Anything short of this is rewarding terrorism and a blot upon all rationality.
I'll include some choice nuggets from the article:
Mr. Abbas himself made no mention of the words "terrorism" or "terrorists." But he did demand the release of those he called "prisoners of freedom," now being held in Israeli jails.
So long as Abu Mudhen Mazen continues to drink the kool-aid of terrorism, he deserves no respect. His efforts to integrate Hamas and their savage ilk into the Palestinian political process are nothing but a blatant attempt to legitimize their barbarism and terrorist machinery. Only an outright renouncement of all they stand for is adequate to the task. "Impossible", you say? I say, "tough noogies!" The Palestinians have dug themselves into this cesspool of deceit and perfidy and it is their responsibility alone to pull themselves out of it. Their only alternative is a further descent into mayhem and bloodshed which the Israelis have wisely begun to sidestep and fence off from their own peaceful lands.
Let the Palestinians cull themselves from their bloodsoaked patch of filth. It is their just reward.
Mr. Tirawi had bullied a 14-year-old boy into becoming a suicide bomber by threatening to denounce him as a "collaborator," which in Palestinian society frequently amounts to a death sentence.
Blackmailing the flower of their youth into self-destruction is but one of many symptoms expressed by this moral cancer.
And then there is 21-year-old Wafa Samir al-Bis, who was detained in June after the explosives she was carrying failed to detonate at an Israeli checkpoint on the border with Gaza. As Ms. Bis later testified, her target was an Israeli hospital where she had previously been treated--as a humanitarian gesture--for burns suffered in a kitchen accident. "I wanted to kill 20, 50 Jews," she explained at a press conference after her arraignment.
The depths of ingratitude routinely exhibited by these cretins quite simply voids any responsibility for outside parties to make even the least concessions towards the Palestinians. Such blinked rapacity must be made into its own reward. If not for the Palestinians, then for all others who embrace terrorism as a political or religious tool. The practicioners of such barbarity must be shown nothing but an iron fist and the doorway to hell as their just desserts.
For Mr. Abbas, the problem is that statehood and dignity are not a package. They are a choice. And if history is any guide, the choice he must make is not one he is likely to survive.
Should Abbas succumb to the divisions within his electorate's own ranks, it will serve as a bellwether for the outside world's continued participation in rebuilding even another stick of the Palestinians' sh!thole of a state.
The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas did not get much chance to lay down his usual list of demands and gripes in his talks at the White House with US president George W. Bush Thursday, Oct. 20. Instead, in contrast to the jovial mood of their joint news conference, Bush crushed his visitorâs hopes of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future. âNot during my term,â the president declared firmly, according to DEBKAfileâs Exclusive sources Washington.
[..]
#8
The ARABS in the West Bank and Gaza deserve no sympathy. The act of getting on a bus with women and children and blowing them up defines itself. There is NO justification for such an act. Perhaps when they choose to join the human race. Until then, put a high wall around them and watch them victimize each other.
Hamas yesterday blasted US President George W. Bush for failing to mention a timetable for an independent Palestinian state when he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington on Thursday. The movement also accused Bush of trying to divide Palestinians by asking Abbas to disarm the Palestinian resistance. âBush said he wanted to see a Palestinian state, but without a timetable,â Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. âHe went back on his last promise,â Abu Zuhri said, referring to comments made by the US leader when he was re-elected last November.
Could be because Hamas has never shown the least bit of interest in adhering to any kind of plan except their own.
Standing next to Abbas on the lawns of the White House, Bush said: âI canât tell you when itâs going to happen. Itâs happening. If it happens before I get out of office, Iâll be there to witness the ceremony. And if doesnât, we will work hard to lay that foundation so that the process becomes irreversible.â His comments were at odds with remarks made in November 2004, when he said: âI would like to see it done in four years. I think it is possible.â
At the time maybe it did look possible. That was about the time the roadmap was introduced, a best effort of the Quartet that tried to look out for the interests of all parties. Hamas used it for toilet paper.
However, Palestinian officials in Ramallah played down Bushâs reluctance to adhere to a timetable. âIt is the first time that President Bush has said he would use his influence for the formation of a Palestinian state,â chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
All y'gotta do is play by the rules and it's not impossible. On the other hand, Paleos playing by rules seems to be impossible. See where we are?
The Hamas spokesman also denounced Bushâs call for Abbas to crack down on âarmed gangs,â and urged the Palestinian Authority to resist international interference in Palestinian affairs. âBush focused on putting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to confront the factions. This is dangerous,â Abu Zuhri warned.
Sounds like a threat to me.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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âBush focused on putting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to confront the factions. This is dangerous,â Abu Zuhri warned.
Iran's supreme leader accused the U.S. on Friday of seeking global domination and vowed his country would not give into demands to abandon its disputed nuclear program. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also alleged that Washington was stirring Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq, and criticized Muslim countries who commit the "bad deed" of recognizing Israel. "Our main opponent in the nuclear issue is the U.S. government," Khamenei said in a Friday sermon to thousands of worshippers at Tehran University. "The Americans claim Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. We know they are lying and the audience know they are lying too. This hard-line war-seeking government in the U.S. is seeking an empire and world domination." Khamenei said the U.S. "will not stop in the Middle East."
"Its European partners know that when the U.S. dominates the Middle East and Asia, it won't leave Europe alone." Last month the UN International Atomic Energy Agency warned Iran it could be hauled before the UN Security Council if it persisted with its uranium enrichment activities in violation of an agreement with Britain, France and Germany. Iran denies charges it is seeking weapons, and argues that making nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes is a "right" it should enjoy as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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It really something else when a radical Muslim cleric representing the center of Islamic terrorism has the nerve to accuse US of global domination, while Iran's stated goal is a forced, world-wide, Mohammedan caliphate.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/22/2005 1:47 Comments ||
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It's called a self fulfilling prophesy a-hat. Americans didn't want to get involved in two world wars, but was dragged into it by the other players. Its was the injection of Soviet power into other countries that forced the US into a confrontation it did not want for 50 years. Now its the pathetic behavior of your 9th Century thugs and their need for attention by acts like 9/11 that keep us in your neighborhood. America is still in its republic phase, but damn you all that you are the ones who are going to force an imperial future on us whether we want one or not. Then you'll really see what Americans are capable of, and it ain't nice. Americans just want to do business and be left alone. It appears the Chinese may have finally figured that out. Take a lesson from the play book.
#6
Much like the near insurmountable difficulty that Islam routinely displays regarding proper discernment of Cause & Effect, they exhibit a similarly deep confusion about distinguishing between Problem & Cure.
Iran is rapidly becoming the pluperfect poster child for using mass extinction as a tool in fighting terrorism.
Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said UN Security Council Resolution 1559 will soon "bring pressure to bear on the weapons of the resistance and the weapons of the Palestinians, to serve the interests of Israel." Fadlallah's comments came during his Friday sermon at al-Imam al-Hassanayn mosque in Haret Hreik, in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The cleric said the resolution devised by the U.S., Israel and France, which calls for "the disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias," aims "to divide Lebanon into two camps; one that favors the resolution and one that opposes it." Commenting on the situation in Lebanon, Fadlallah said international forces are using Lebanon to pressure Syria to "succumb to the conditions of the U.S." Fadlallah said there was no reason to fear "sectarian tension or civil war," but warned of "a disruption in national unity created by political chaos."
He called upon the Lebanese people to "stand united" in the face of regional and international interference." Commenting on the situation in Palestine, Fadlallah said "the current problem is due to Arab, Israeli, U.S. and possibly European plots to create instability and political tension in the country, and so deny the Palestinians any opportunity for freedom and independence." Fadlallah said these foreign schemes were aimed at forcing Palestine to accept a U.S.-Israeli offer without objection, explaining that in American eyes, "Israeli security is more important than any other security."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Everything Muslems do/cause others to do to them serves the interests of Israel, Sayyed.
US President George W. Bush has demanded immediate UN action to deal with what he called a "deeply disturbing" U.N. investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Speaking from California, Bush said: "The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also demanded "accountability" for Syria's alleged involvement in the killing. "Accountability is going to be very important for the international community," Rice said, as she flew with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on a tour of Alabama.
However, Syria dismissed as "politicized" and "unprofessional" the findings of the head of the UN inquiry into the assassination, Detlev Mehlis, who pointed a finger of blame directly toward Syrian security officials. "The report is full of political rumors, gossip and hearsay, and it has not a single shred of evidence that will be accepted by any court of law. We are so disappointed with it," said Syrian Ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustafa.
But according to Rice, "We cannot have the specter of one state's apparatus having participated or having been involved in the assassination of the former prime minister ... in another state."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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I tell you they are just crying for an "industrial" accident at a certain site on the caspian coast north of the capital. Such a nice site..... for an accident...
A UN report implicating high Syrian and Lebanese officials in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri sent shockwaves in Middle East political circles. Syria denounced the report as âpolitically biasedâ while the United States sought a UN follow-up. The document put Syria on a collision course with the UN Security Council, where the United States, Britain and France have been laying the groundwork for crippling economic sanctions against the regime of President Bashar Assad.
While the UN findings did not directly implicate Bashar, the report quoted a witness as saying that Assef Shawkat, Basharâs brother-in-law and the Syrian military intelligence chief, forced a man to tape a claim of responsibility for Haririâs killing 15 days before it occurred. Syria said the report was shocking and its findings were contrary to the expectations that the investigation would be balanced and based on clear and tangible evidence. âSyria is going to set up a high-ranking committee comprising political and legal experts to study the report and finalize an official reply to be sent to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the matter,â Elias Murad, editor-in-chief of Al-Baath, said.
Syrian satellite TV quoted Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah as saying that âthe report is 100 percent politicized as it is based on fabrications and accounts of some witnesses known for being enemies of our country.â
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Syria, which had suffered from terrorism, stands by the international efforts exerted to uproot terrorism for reaching a world free of the armed conflicts and governed by the international law and principles of legitimacy resolutions, Syrian delegation interposition at the International Parliamentary Federationâs General Assembly underlined Thursday. â It is the time for extirpation of terrorism source and giving up arbitrary and oppression policy as well for distinction between terrorism and peoplesâ right to resist the occupation and liberate their homes.â The interposition said.
They continue repeating themselves, that one man's terrorist is another man's freedumb fighter. That worked for years, and they're trying to figure why it doesn't work anymore. But there's a difference between intentional, non-collateral attacks on civilians and conducting warfare against legitimate military targets. Recent years have emphasized the fact and now it won't go away.
In another interposition at meeting of the Federationâs second permanent committee on immigration and development, the delegation pointed out at damages of involuntary immigration resulted from civil wars, armed occupation and immigration under the political pressure. The delegation gave an example on coercive displacement that our citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan and in Palestine are exposed to at the hands of the Israeli occupation, calling on the international community to condemn coercive displacement and refuse all kinds of racial and ethnic immigration.
And again we're raising the Israeli specter. But Yasser's dead and Gaza's the kernel of a Paleostinian state, assuming the Paleos can manage to govern it. The world has changed out from under the Baathists in Damascus, and it's like they haven't even been paying attention...
In a third interposition during discussing a draft report of the third permanent committee, the delegation said that democracy is not a one form that suits all peoples but rather it is forms inspired by peoplesâ life and it must match with their free will in addition to their political, social and economic circumstances.
Democracy may or may not be for every society, but individual liberty is. It's one of the principles of Baathism that rights accrue to the state, rather than to the individual, who's relegated to being a cipher among the faceless Massesâ¢. Once you've embraced the principle of freedom at the individual level, you've negated the premise of Baathism. Assad can't do that, so all arguments have to be rephrased into Baathist terms. Humpty Dumpty would understand, though the rest of us will continue to find it gibberish.
Syria effectively took part at deliberations of International Parliamentary Federationâs General Assembly which concluded its 113th session in Geneva today.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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The Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six pro-Taliban religious parties, has given a countrywide call through mosque loudspeakers, banners and pamphlets, to adopt children orphaned in the October 8 earthquake.
'We have come to know that the [Pervez] Musharraf regime has decided to hand over the orphans and unaccompanied children to Christian missionaries and the Aga Khan Development Network,' said Naimatullah Khan, the former mayor of Karachi.
AKDN, which plays a key role in primary/secondary level education in Pakistan, has been given the task of revamping the curriculum, and the jihadis are venomous about it. They accuse it of promoting secularism and eliminating jihad through the new curriculum expected to be implemented soon.
'We will not tolerate this. It is an international conspiracy to bring Muslim children into the fold of Christianity and secularism. We urge you to leave your children with us if you are unable to raise them. We will provide them a good future,' said Khan.
Taking a leaf out of MMA's book and to curtail child trafficking, the Jamatud Dawa (the defunct Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the largest group of Pakistani militants fighting in Indian Kashmir) has announced that it will take responsibility for abandoned, orphan and unaccompanied children.
'The Jamatud Dawa has a huge complex at Misrial road in Rawalpindi, by the name of Maaz bin Jabal. We will set up colonies in the complex where these children would be put up according to their age. Various ayahs will raise them, ensuring motherly love,' says Professor Zafar Iqbal, head of teh Jamatud Dawa's education wing.
The Pakistani government has banned adoption and plans to raise such children itself.
'The government will utterly fail to raise the orphans since it does not have the capacity. It is corrupt. Moreover, its social service credentials are abysmal. We would convince the government to let us do this job,' adds Zafar.
'We will provide the children every facility â education, health, shelter, extra-curricular activities, etc. We will take care of their property as a trust and hand it over to them when they become adults,' adds Iqbal.
The Jamatud Dawa also plans to provide education to students whose schools have been flattened in the quake.
'We have a huge hostel in the Muridke Markaz that is spread on 170 acres. We will shift the affected students there to continue their studies. Moreover, we have 180 schools in Punjab. We hope to accommodate every affected student,' claims a confident Iqbal.
The civil and military bureaucracy's corruption, their arrogance and lukewarm attitude towards the people's sufferings have miserably disappointed the mainstream population of Pakistan. Those who were opposing the jihadis have, since the quake, become their fans.
'I would like to share my personal feelings. I am so impressed with their unbiased relief work that I would never donate a single penny to any state agency. I would not hesitate to give my donations to the jihadis, particularly the Jamatud Dawa,' says a UN relief worker who does not want to be named.
The Jamatud Dawa now plans to buy helicopters to reach the victims in inaccessible areas.
The Jamatud Dawa is progressing slowly but steadily on its jihadi and welfare agenda, and at this rate has a good chance to become an alternative state with the capacity to govern things in an institutionalized manner. The net result is, jihad and jihadis are becoming stronger day by day.
As of today, they are stronger than the civilian administration, if not the military. And they are capable of giving the military establishment a tough time, as they have shown in Waziristan.
Posted by: john ||
10/22/2005 13:39 ||
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"The Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six pro-Taliban religious parties, has given a countrywide call through mosque loudspeakers, banners and pamphlets, to adopt children orphaned in the October 8 earthquake."
And errr .... ummm. ... ahem ... turn them into human-bombs some day in the not too distant future.
Posted by: Jim Marrs Nail File ||
10/22/2005 15:11 Comments ||
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#2
slaves now, boomers and fodder later
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2005 15:24 Comments ||
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Various ayahs will raise them, ensuring motherly love,' says Professor Zafar Iqbal, head of teh Jamatud Dawa's education wing.
'The government will utterly fail to raise the orphans since it does not have the capacity. It is corrupt. Moreover, its social service credentials are abysmal.
And the Taleban are not even more "abysmal"? It is difficult to imagine another group with less respect for human life. They make Pakistan's government look like Mother Teresa.
An anti-Christian demonstration by a thousand or so Muslims outside the Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt last week earned only a few lines in the Arab dailies and was largely overlooked by the Western media. But this religious flash-point did not escape the notice of the jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda, in fact they have turned it into anti-Christian video-propaganda on the Internet. Footage of the demonstration at Muharram Bik, near Alexandria, has appeared on forums used by al-Qaeda linked groups, with an exhortation to follow this example and attack Christians."Oh Islam, we will defend you with our body and soul!; "Christians and Jews, the army of Mohammed will return": these were just two of the slogans shouted by the crowd who staged a rally outside the church in Muharram Bik, after unconfirmed rumours that it had hosted a theatre performance that offended the prophet Mohammed.
Video film of Wednesday's protest appeared on Friday on a forum much used by al-Qaeda aligned groups. The five-minute sequence follows various stages of the demonstration, which was prevented by riot police from getting near the church.
After this protest, a statement threatening the clerics of the church, signed "mujahadeen of Egypt", appeared on the Internet on 18 October. The Islamist group , which has also claimed responsiblity for the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, incited Muslims to take action against Christians in revenge for the alleged offence against Mohammed. "After hearing this news, we had decided without hesitation to destroy that church," it said, noting that the "government dogs" - the police - had surrounded the place of worship to protect it.
However the group goes on to make further threats, adding: "Any Christian from that church who reads a sermon there will become one of the targets."
Someone was taking heed, as two days later the Al-Quds al-Arabi paper headlined: "Muslim student stabs nun in the church of Alexandria". On 19 October, a student brandishing a knife entered the church shouting anti-Christian slogans. The man, later identified as Ali al-Jani, wounded the nun and a person who intervened to protect her.
The Coptic Christian minority in Egypt is numerically the largest Christian community in the Arab world and percentage-wise, the second after Lebanon. Copts make up ten per cent of the Egyptian population and were present in the country prior to the arrival of Islam. Normally tranquil relations between Egypt's predominantly Muslim population and the Copts occasionally become tense, particularly over allegations of forced conversions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:16 ||
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I find it supremely ironic that al Qaeda squawks endlessly about a "crusade" against Islam while they wage their own campaign of violence against all other religions. Sauce for the proverbial goose needs to be pumped up their collective @sses until their heads explode.
The opposition in the National Assembly expressed concern on Friday at the situation of the victims of the earthquake and criticised the army for its policy of secrecy.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that coordinated efforts by the civil and military authorities were required to provide relief to the affected people. âThe relief operation should be supervised by the members of the parliament instead of the army,â he said.
He repeated claims that the army was intentionally misreporting its casualties in the quake, and claimed that approximately 3,000 army personnel, including one brigadier and five colonels, had lost their lives. âAround 3,000 soldiers died up in the mountains, but the army spokesman was assuring the nation that all was well,â he said, adding that the earthquake had exposed the militaryâs inefficiency.
Qazi said that relief operations should be conducted by the civil administration under supervision of the members of parliament, so that the details of the operation are transparent. âThe army does not allow the audit of its activities, and then expects us to believe them when it says that its accounts are in order,â he said.
The MMA president also stressed the need to immediately open schools for refugees. He also criticised western media reports suggesting that Al Qaeda was entering Kashmir under the pretext of relief activities. âIslamic welfare trusts should not be prevented from providing help to their brethren based on mere doubts,â he said. Qazi also targeted President Pervez Musharraf for usurping power and rendering the parliament powerless.
Azra Fazal of the Pakistan Peopleâs Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) regretted that Pakistan was the leading producer of tents but was suffering from shortage in a time of crisis. âThe government should supply food to the people in remote areas, instead of helping industrialists stockpile desperately needed goods to create artificial shortage and increase prices,â she said.
Education Minister Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi said that the army was taking every possible step to ensure the safety of the affected people with assistance from local and foreign relief workers.
He said that 450 army personnel died in the earthquake and 600 were injured. âThe army could not get immediate damage reports because the entire communication system was damaged by the quake,â he said.
He said that the federal government has decided to restart tent schools in all affected areas and teams have been sent to assess the situation.
Health Minister Nasir Khan said that the government was providing every possible medical facility to the affected people in far-flung areas. He also ruled out the spread of any epidemic, saying that adequate preventive measures have been taken. âAdoption of children orphaned in the quake is absolutely out of the question. The government is trying to reunite the children with their families,â he said.
Earlier, Mehnaz Rafi of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) suggested that the National Assembly adopt a particular area for rehabilitation and use the Assemblyâs funds for this purpose. However, Naheed Khan of the PPPP opposed the motion, saying that the National Assembly represents the federation of Pakistan, and should not favour a particular area.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/22/2005 00:11 ||
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#1
Meanwhile... Pakistan had Tetanus vaccine stocks of 4000..
That's right... 4000 doses for a population of 160 million.
Posted by: john ||
10/22/2005 9:34 Comments ||
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#4
Meanwhile...pressure from the IMF...
Will Perv cancel the 3 billion dollar F-16 order and the 1 billion dollar Eyrie-AWACS order ?
Not very likely...
Pakistan's military leadership will face pressure Monday on the international stage, when they attend an international donors conference in Geneva.
The International Monetary Fund is trying to keep a close eye on how Pakistan's government is spending the money that is coming into the country through international appeals.
IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato emerged this week from meetings with Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Aziz with a suggestion that rippled through Pakistan's military leadership -- he suggested diverting money from the military to fund relief efforts.
"I think the defence expenditure needs to be reassessed under the circumstances," Mr. de Rato declared publicly after the meetings.
Posted by: john ||
10/22/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#5
And Perv will condemn the villagers to death because the mere sight of Indian airforce choppers will destroy Pak honor and dignity
Nato commanders say they cannot find enough helicopters. About 69 helicopters are involved in the rescue effort; a further 24 US aircraft and three British Chinooks are due to arrive next week.
India could provide dozens of helicopters but an offer of help is mired in history and politics.
Posted by: john ||
10/22/2005 16:23 Comments ||
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#6
Methinks Pervy hold his manhood cheap -- and far too often.
Chaudhry Amir Hussain, the National Assembly speaker, has invited Israeli Vice-Education Minister Majali Wahabi to visit Pakistan. According to BBC, the speaker met the Israeli minister in Geneva on Friday. In the meeting that lasted quite a while, he thanked the Israeli Minister for Israel's cooperation and support at this critical juncture and invited him to visit Pakistan. The Israeli minister told the journalists that Israel was the first country that offered relief to Pakistan and the speaker sincerely appreciated this gesture. He said the relations between the two countries were blossoming with time.
Meanwhile an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that Israel is sending relief goods that include tents, medicines, woollen blankets and eatables for earthquake victims.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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The world has just weeks to help restore peace in Sudan's Darfur region or risk watching it slide back into civil war with repercussions for the whole region, UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres says. Mr Guterres says a patchy cease-fire is falling apart as the two main rebel groups begin to disintegrate and an African Union (AU) peace force is hopelessly undermanned, under-equipped and under-funded. He also says the world appears to have lost interest. "Everything is getting out of control. This is happening on both sides," Mr Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said. "The crucial moment is from now to the end of the year." He added: "We are close to a moment in which a new major tragedy might occur in Darfur. It would have a major impact on the neighbours ... and on the whole African region."
The United Nations says at least 2 million Sudanese have been turned into refugees in their own country by two-and-a-half years of fighting between rebels, the Sudanese Army and Arab militias known as Janjaweed, believed to be backed by Khartoum. Another 200,000 have been forced to flee to camps in neighbouring Chad. Rape, murder and robbery are rampant, and food is scarce despite the efforts of aid agencies. A sixth round of faltering peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja was adjourned until November on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Bush called it what it was a few years ago. The ROW said he was just Bush-Hitler talking through his ass. If we still had a propaganda outfit in this country worth its name we would Rub It In. Instead everybody with watch them die and the Chinese will protect their access to Sudan's oil.
Nothing here. Just walk away.
#3
"Everything is getting out of control. This is happening on both sides," Mr Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said. "The crucial moment is from now to the end of the year." He added: "We are close to a moment in which a new major tragedy might occur in Darfur. It would have a major impact on the neighbours ... and on the whole African region."
Lots of starving women and children as well as goats. Please send in our glorious UN peacekeepers to get some sex handle things.
South Sudan will not wait for its constitution to be approved by Khartoum before forming a government, a vital move toward the reconstruction of the devastated land, southern Sudan's president said yesterday. Salva Kiir, the president of south Sudan and head of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement, declined to say when he would name the heads of more than 20 ministries the southern administration announced this week.
But he promised it would happen before the constitution, still being discussed in the southern parliament, was approved by the Sudanese government's Justice Ministry. "We will not wait for that. We will have to put in place a caretaker government until when the constitution is out, then that government will be confirmed. So it will not take a couple of weeks again," Kiir told Reuters. "The formation of the government of south Sudan will be soon."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Is that you Grady?
Posted by: Red Sanford ||
10/22/2005 4:23 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Sheikh Abdul Muhsin al Obeikan, legal advisor to the Saudi ministry of justice and member of the Shura (consultative) Council, revealed on Thursday he was willing to debate with Abu Basir al Tartousi, the spiritual leader of the Salafi trend, in a location and time of his choice, after announcing on his program âHiwar ma al Ghaebâ (conversations with the absent) his readiness for a discussion with those with reservations. His position on the legality of the insurgency in Iraq and other topics would mirror the fatwas (religious edicts) of Sheikh Saleh bin Uthaymeen and Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz which forbids suicide operations entirely.
One of six Bahraini detainees being held at Cubaâs Guantanamo Bay detention center was the subject of sexual abuse and witnessed at least one act of Qurâan desecration by US soldiers while being held in Afghanistan, according to a new report. Bahraini detainee Jumah Al-Dossary who is being held there claimed that he was subjected to sexual abuse and that he witnessed US soldiers at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan desecrate the Qurâan by cleaning their boots with pages they had ripped from it.
Italian investigators say Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization is moving deep into the Mediterranean peninsula's underworld of organized crime. Italian media recently revealed that hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives coming from North Africa are being sent to Northern Europe though a maze of safe houses belonging to the Neapolitan Camorra, a Naples-based criminal network akin to the Mafia.
Hamas yesterday blasted US President George W. Bush for failing to mention a timetable for an independent Palestinian state when he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington on Thursday. The movement also accused Bush of trying to divide Palestinians by asking Abbas to disarm the Palestinian resistance. âBush said he wanted to see a Palestinian state, but without a timetable,â Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. âHe went back on his last promise,â Abu Zuhri said, referring to comments made by the US leader when he was re-elected last November.
Iran's supreme leader accused the U.S. on Friday of seeking global domination and vowed his country would not give into demands to abandon its disputed nuclear program. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also alleged that Washington was stirring Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq, and criticized Muslim countries who commit the "bad deed" of recognizing Israel. "Our main opponent in the nuclear issue is the U.S. government," Khamenei said in a Friday sermon to thousands of worshippers at Tehran University. "The Americans claim Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. We know they are lying and the audience know they are lying too. This hard-line war-seeking government in the U.S. is seeking an empire and world domination." Khamenei said the U.S. "will not stop in the Middle East."
Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said UN Security Council Resolution 1559 will soon "bring pressure to bear on the weapons of the resistance and the weapons of the Palestinians, to serve the interests of Israel." Fadlallah's comments came during his Friday sermon at al-Imam al-Hassanayn mosque in Haret Hreik, in Beirut's southern suburbs.
US President George W. Bush has demanded immediate UN action to deal with what he called a "deeply disturbing" U.N. investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Speaking from California, Bush said: "The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement."
A UN report implicating high Syrian and Lebanese officials in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri sent shockwaves in Middle East political circles. Syria denounced the report as âpolitically biasedâ while the United States sought a UN follow-up. The document put Syria on a collision course with the UN Security Council, where the United States, Britain and France have been laying the groundwork for crippling economic sanctions against the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Syria, which had suffered from terrorism, stands by the international efforts exerted to uproot terrorism for reaching a world free of the armed conflicts and governed by the international law and principles of legitimacy resolutions, Syrian delegation interposition at the International Parliamentary Federationâs General Assembly underlined Thursday. â It is the time for extirpation of terrorism source and giving up arbitrary and oppression policy as well for distinction between terrorism and peoplesâ right to resist the occupation and liberate their homes.â The interposition said. 
The opposition in the National Assembly expressed concern on Friday at the situation of the victims of the earthquake and criticised the army for its policy of secrecy.
The world has just weeks to help restore peace in Sudan's Darfur region or risk watching it slide back into civil war with repercussions for the whole region, UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres says. Mr Guterres says a patchy cease-fire is falling apart as the two main rebel groups begin to disintegrate and an African Union (AU) peace force is hopelessly undermanned, under-equipped and under-funded. He also says the world appears to have lost interest. "Everything is getting out of control. This is happening on both sides," Mr Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said. "The crucial moment is from now to the end of the year." He added: "We are close to a moment in which a new major tragedy might occur in Darfur. It would have a major impact on the neighbours ... and on the whole African region." 
South Sudan will not wait for its constitution to be approved by Khartoum before forming a government, a vital move toward the reconstruction of the devastated land, southern Sudan's president said yesterday. Salva Kiir, the president of south Sudan and head of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement, declined to say when he would name the heads of more than 20 ministries the southern administration announced this week.
