SEOUL (AFP) Some of the South Korean Christian aid workers held hostage by Afghanistan's Taliban said they were beaten for refusing to convert to Islam and protecting female captives, a hospital chief said Monday.
"We found through medical checks that some male hostages were beaten," Cha Seung-Gyun told reporters after the 19 freed aid workers -- 14 women and five men -- underwent examinations at a hospital outside Seoul.
They had returned home Sunday after six weeks in captivity. "They said they were beaten at first for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert," Cha said.
The disclosure was likely to increase public sympathy for the ex-hostages, mostly in their 20s and 30s, following increasing criticism of what was seen as a reckless trip to a war-torn devoutly Islamic nation.
President Roh Moo-Hyun on Monday ordered that the former captives repay some of the costs of their rescue, which followed a deal between South Korean government negotiators in Afghanistan and the hardline Islamic insurgents.
The hospital chief said two male hostages, Je Chang-Hee and Song Byung-Woo, were beaten or threatened with death whey they refused to move out of a dugout shelter and leave some of their female colleagues behind.
But Cha said medical checks on the women showed no signs of rape, and they did not report having been sexually assaulted.
#2
This story has me torn. Getting captured while trying to spread the Gospel in these countries puts Western Nations in a tough spot. However, if they actually succeeded in flipping some folks to Christianity -- on top of exhibiting this kind of bravery when captured...
#4
True. And only the Taliban have the real story on why they shot the pastor and his associate. If those two had converted, they would still be alive.
#5
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert their populations to Christianity.
Forced conversions are just about the best way to destroy a religion that I can think of, short of genocide. One can never trust those who accepted conversion to be honest, you see, and in the end the people separate into Old Blood and New, the authorities institute Inquisitions to ferret out the fakes, and heresies -- developed by converts who didn't quite grasp the subtle details of their new faith, and by false converts sabotaging their new masters -- flourish.
Separately, there is no way of knowing that conversion, however false, would have saved the two who were murdered. The Taliban are takfiri, and happily kill those who stray even the slightest from their defined way of doing things.
#6
Not if the Taliban had done the converting, TW. They are firmly in the "you love life, we love death" camp. Forced conversions, like that of Steve Centanni in Gaza, are propaganda triumphs aimed at the radical Islamic base.
#7
"They said they were beaten at first for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert,"
So, folks, let's all remember, "THERE IS NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION!"
Got that? Recall all the riots over Benedict's quoting of this?
Excal, I think trailing wife has a valid point, especially so with respect to Islam and its practices of kitman and taqiyya. Forced conversions would almost assure some wolves in sheep's clothing.
Far better is to simply execute the top tiers of Islam's clerical aristocracy wherever we go so that Muslims have the newfound freedom to convert without a flurry of death fatwas. Any imam or maulvi meddlesome enough to issue one gets a free .50 caliber third eye whilst we go about this bothersome task. Nation by nation, we must prune away these parasitic beturbanned strangler vines whose edicts and authoritarian rule keep Muslims chained to their creed. Given the opportunity to escape, any who remain are declared the enemy and treated as such.
#8
We don't have to convert them by force. Simply give them freedom of religion where anyone can practice their religion and evangelize and convert others to their religion (as long as its not by force).
I think there is a very good reason Islamic countries outlaw evangelism by Christians or Jews (or athiest for that matter) - often under pain of death. Allan simply cannot compete.
#9
Thank you for expanding on that thought, Zenster. mrp, I suspect the Taliban would be just as happy killing one of their converts if he failed to toe the line on any one of their picayune rules. But I agree about the propaganda point. I keep forgetting about that.
CrazyFool, you're right about the conversions. Both Sunni and Shia clerics have been openly worried about the conversion rate for the last few years that I'm aware of; I've seen unsubstantiated claims of numbers in the millions over some recent period. We've had articles here about situations in various Muslim countries, and certainly in the West there seems to be a division between those quietly falling away (like occasional poster Apostate) or those openly converting (that poor woman in Australia whose rapist justified the action on the grounds of her apostasy, no doubt justifying his mercy on the grounds that he let her live), and those becoming more violent in their beliefs.
#10
CrazyFool, as with many others, also hits the nailhead. RECIPROCITY needs to be the one single non-negotiable feature of dealing with Muslim majority nations. No immigration in? Then no immigration out. No freedom of religion? Then no mosques in foreign countries.
Reciprocity is so counter to the Muslim sense of entitlement that this one aspect alone could be used as a central lever to overturn Islamic superiority or expose it for the outright fraud that it is.
Peace cannot be restored in the war-ravaged Afghanistan unless the Karzai government includes the Taliban in the peace process and in the government, former Afghan president Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani told Daily Times on Sunday after a seminar on improvement of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The seminar was arranged by the Forum for Area Studies and Information Centre (FASIC), a private non-profit organisation.
Besides the Taliban, the government should also include other anti-government factions in the ongoing peace dialogue, he said, adding that the Afghan war would continue if the Taliban were not made part of the peace negotiations and included in the government. He said efforts to include the Taliban in the peace dialogue were continuing as they could play an important role in the ongoing peace negotiations and that the government would soon contact the Taliban.
The recently held Loya Jirga is a good step and it is necessary to continue it, he said, hoping that the Jirga would produce good results. The former president said the foreign forces were adding to the problems of the Afghan people. War is not a solution to problems, he said.
Rabbani said Pakistan and Afghanistan had close religious ties and some elements had been trying to damage these relations. Whatever happens in Afghanistan, it has a direct impact on Pakistan, he said, adding that durable peace in Afghanistan is a necessity for the region. Rabbani said the war in the name of terrorism was a conspiracy against Muslims. We have to unite and work against it, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I agree that the Taliban play an important role in the peace process. For their part, they all need to die and then there can be peace. We've all seen what leaving their kind to their own devices leads to, so I don't buy it for a minute.
(SomaliNet) In protest against what they called the illegal detention and torture of fellow Muslims in an anti-terrorist drive urged on by the United States, Kenyan Muslims marched on police headquarters in Nairobi on Thursday. The protest involving a few dozen Kenyans followed months of simmering tensions between the east African nation's Muslim community and authorities they accuse of persecuting and arresting them on US government orders.
"We don't expect this in our country. Just how much power do the Americans have over the Kenyan government?" said Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum.
That's human rights for Muslims, you see, and none for the rest of you infidels.
However, American and Kenyan authorities said they could not immediately comment. Human Rights groups accuse Kenya of involvement in a clandestine US practice of detainee transfer.
"You mean we have to comment on that nonsense again?"
Kenyan police arrested scores of people on the Somali border in January and February after allied Ethiopian and Somali government troops chased Islamist fighters Washington accuses of having links to Al-Qaeda out of Mogadishu. Human rights groups say Kenyan authorities put dozens of terror suspects from Kenya on secret rendition flights to Ethiopia for interrogation by US officials. Local activists said none had been prosecuted in any court.
That's right. They're all in Gitmo right now, gaining weight.
"We know from a released prisoner that it is Americans doing the aggressive interrogating, and the Kenyan government is making it possible for them," Kimathi said.
Thanks Kenya, we owe you one.
Protesters demanded at police headquarters to know the whereabouts of two brothers who have gone missing. They said Kenyan police took the younger brother to Somalia, then Ethiopia, in January without charge or explanation. He was able to contact relatives once to tell of his torture, the activists say.
Why take him to Somalia when Diego Garcia isn't so far away?
Police seized his older brother last week outside a Nairobi mosque, according to relatives who were told nothing further and fear he faces the same fate as his younger brother.
Just mindin' his own bidness outside a mosque ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
This was in here Saturday. I didn't care then either...
Feeling less welcome in London, Paris or New York, growing numbers of Saudis and other Gulf Arabs prefer the warm reception and relaxed atmosphere of Cairo for their summer holiday. Everything has changed since September 11, 2001, this is the high season, says Jean-Pierre Mainardi, manager of the Egyptian capitals Nile Hilton hotel that provides a temporary home to many Gulf visitors. I wonder why that could be? Why on Earth would they feel any less than welcome?
Hotels, furnished apartments, shopping malls, cabarets, everywhere moves on Arab time, as Cairenes call it, whether theyre making money from, or being annoyed by, the influx. Almost two million Arabs choose to come here every year, including an unprecedented 400,000 Saudis last year.
Nowadays there is little desire to spend holidays in Europe or the US because of the lengthy and invasive visa applications, strict immigration checks and the general feeling many Arabs have of being a suspect after the attacks on the US World Trade Centre and bombings in Europe. Hm. I wonder why that could be? Why do we suspect them? I'm baffled, myself.
A family will take six to ten rooms, including one for the maid, for an average of three weeks. For the hotel, this means a summertime occupation rate of over 90 per cent. Others prefer to rent furnished apartments in the upmarket districts of Mohandiseen or Dokki. Six to ten rooms? Jeez, that's a lot. But do they provide special, low-quality rooms for the maid? How do you know if the maid is miserable or not?
Sixty per cent of our clientele comes from the Gulf, says Maged Abdel Azim, who runs a flat rental agency that charges up to $200 a day for three-bedroom apartments. Some owners however refuse to rent out their properties. These wealthy visitors, who fascinate and exasperate in equal measure, also spend a lot of time in the shopping malls, where the women are easily noticed by their full-length black niqab.
#3
another bad thing about the west, from the point of view of rich gulf Arabs, is that, in the west, some in the middle class resent ostentatious and crass displays of wealth
in Cairo such a display of wealth gets a lot of favorable attention;
on the downside, the hookers in Cairo probably don't bath as often as they do in, say London ; with Paris hookers its probably a wash (long way to go for a pun wasn't it)
#5
Now, see, this is what I've said before - if those crazy Hamas guys in Gaza got wise they would build resort hotels and get into the tourist business as well. I'm sure they have a nicer climate and cleaner beaches. Oh, I know, swimming at the beach is unIslamic but so are hookers and cabarets. C'mon you guys. Get with it. You may have to settle for killing a few less Joooooos but you can't live on welfare forever, can you? Oh, I guess if you are Palestinians you can.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/03/2007 13:44 Comments ||
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#6
with Paris hookers its probably a wash (long way to go for a pun wasn't it)
A bit OT : I'm really not hooker-savvy, but I'm led to understand than organized prostitution in Paris is overhelmingly filled with eastern Europe girls, managed by russian, turkish and albanese mobsters, and african girls from Nigeria or subsaharan countries, managed by african mobsters. That is, except perhaps for the african girls or the transvestites from latina america who may be rarer in less "diverse" countries/capitals, the Paris hookers are the exact same girls found all over Europe, including London, I'm not sure their hygiena differs much from country to country; not saying parisian hookers aren't still present, but they've been pushed aside by this industrial prostitution (which is protected from the predation and rackeetering of the Youths, as a sidenote, unlike the traditional hookers), both by violence and through sheer mass.
Not sure how to parse this announcement so I thought I'd throw it all up here and see what sticks...
North Korea agreed Sunday to account for and disable its atomic programs by the end of the year, offering its first timeline for a process long sought by nuclear negotiators, the chief U.S. envoy said.
Kim Gye Gwan, head of the North Korean delegation, said separately his country's willingness to cooperate was clear in return for "political and economic compensation" but he mentioned no dates.
Christopher Hill, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, said two days of talks between the United States and North Korea in Geneva had been "very good and very substantive" and would help improve chances of a successful meeting later this month with Japan, Russia, South Korea and China in six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program and improving relations between North Korea and other countries. "One thing that we agreed on is that the DPRK will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007," Hill told reporters. Hill said the declaration will also include uranium enrichment programs, which the United States fears could be used to make nuclear weapons. "When we say all nuclear programs, we mean all," he said.
Continued on Page 49
#2
McZoid, not sure that is really the case, at least not in the sense of a magic bullet. Consider sanctions on Saddam, how long they've been in place.
#3
Kimmie the Younger has pissed off the ChiComs with his stunts, and the US banking assault has cut the whole regime off from access to their slush funds overseas. Methinks that the ChiComs are cleaning house in preparation for the Olympics, and do NOT want Kimmie or one of his generals to pull a Tet or Battle of the Bugle on the SoKors before or during the Games. That would effectively end the Olympics in Bejing and cost the Chinese major face.
#4
I believe Shieldwolf nails it. In the 'Middle Kingdom', FACE is everything.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/03/2007 9:04 Comments ||
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#5
Kimmie has no oil and so may be more desperate and less able to bribe the French and the U.N. types than Saddam was. Could be the only bargaining chip he has is the nuke program. Could also be his health is failing to the point where some of the more pragmatic generals are calling the shots and willing to make a deal. Now if they'd just aim a few shots at Kimmie's head...but then he might already be dead.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/03/2007 14:08 Comments ||
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#7
More Stall "We MIGHT be able to get rid of nukes by (Unspecified Date)
Now what'll ya give us?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/03/2007 15:52 Comments ||
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#8
"In return for this we will receive political and economic compensation
Yep, just stall, stall, stall.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/03/2007 15:54 Comments ||
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#9
Without unfettered on-the-ground inspection and verification, this is so much tripe. Kimmie's little Paradise on Earth is on the ropes and he needs to be propped up in the worst way. Without verification provisions with teeth, I call Bullsh*t. The NORKS have been liars for over 50 years, so will they really change?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/03/2007 17:29 Comments ||
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#10
Nothing will change until all hands holding North Korea's nukes are cold and dead.
Prime Minister John Howard has refused to be drawn on the details of a security pact expected to be signed with US President George W Bush this week. The deal is believed to provide the Australian military with access to top-secret American weapons systems.
Mr Howard says he will be discussing a range of security issues with Mr Bush when they meet for APEC. "I'm not going to expand anymore, except to say a lot of issues will be discussed by the President and me, including defence issues and we have a very close relationship with the United States in those matters," he said. "And that relationship can always in a practical way be made closer."
Also, Mr Howard says there is still considerable work ahead for the Australian battle group in southern Iraq. Mr Howard will be discussing the security situation in Iraq with Mr Bush during his APEC visit and says he is not surprised by the British pullback.
But he says Australian soldiers will be staying put. "There is an on the ground Iraqi-specific reason why we keep our forces there," he said. "There is also a strong ally, good friend reason.
"Some people enjoy the fact that the Americans are under pressure and I think that it's important for the long-term value of the alliance that when a good friend is under pressure, if it's not against your national interest to do so, you should stand by them, rather than partially walk away from them."
In addition, Mr Howard hopes this week's APEC summit will lead to some progress in the current Doha round of trade talks. The long-running negotiations have been bogged down for months, but Mr Howard says he is still optimistic of achieving success. Mr Howard says the APEC forum is unlikely to make significant inroads in world trade, but any progress will be a step forward.
"I doubt that we will lay down a strict timetable, but APEC is a marvellous forum for the world trading community to be reminded of the importance of the Doha round," he said. "Doha is still the best general hope in the world for trading matter and APEC is a good opportunity to put the bunsen burner under the process."
Posted by: Oztralian ||
09/03/2007 04:09 ||
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#1
This is a test. If this had been a real war, there would now be no one alive in Iraq. In the event of a real war you will be advised to breath easier but show no outward sign of jubilation or triumphalism. This is a test. We return you now to your regular posting.
(didn't know so much WMD material had been found though)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/03/2007 13:59 Comments ||
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#4
14 out of 16. I must be too literal.
Iraqis welcomed our troops with bullets, IIRC. LATER, in Bahgdad, we were cheered (by some, anyway).
Resistance started the same day we invaded.
Like I said, too literal.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/03/2007 15:22 Comments ||
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#5
This is a test. If this had been a real war, there would now be no one alive in Iraq. In the event of a real war you will be advised to breath easier but show no outward sign of jubilation or triumphalism. This is a test. We return you now to your regular posting.
[cue Control Voice]
There is nothing wrong with our ability to kick your whiney Islamic ass. Do not attempt to interfere. We are controlling the situation. If we wish to kick it harder, we will go all Medieval. If we wish to kick it softer, we will only open up a six-pack on you. We will control the duration. We will control the intensity. We can roll you up; make your eyelids flutter. We can smear you into a soft blur or sharpen your pencil with a machete. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will beat on you until only your hair doesnt hurt. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with you that a prolonged ass-kicking cant cure. You are about to be on the receiving end of a major smackdown. You are about to experience the shock and awe which reaches from inside our missile silos to Tehrans city limits.
NEW YORK: America's spies, like America's teenagers, are secretive, talk in code and get in trouble if they're not watched closely. It's hard to imagine spies logging on and exchanging "whuddups" with strangers, though. They are just not wired that way. If networking is lifeblood to the teenager, it is viewed with deep suspicion by the spy.
The intelligence agencies have something like networking in mind, though, as they scramble to adopt Web technologies that young people have mastered in the millions. The idea is to try to solve the information-sharing problems inherent in the spy world - and blamed, most spectacularly, for the failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In December, officials say, the agencies will introduce A-Space, a top-secret variant of the social networking Web sites MySpace and Facebook. The "A" stands for "analyst," and where Facebook users swap snapshots, homework tips and gossip, intelligence analysts will be able to compare notes on satellite photos of North Korean nuclear sites, Iraqi insurgents and Chinese missiles. A-Space will join Intellipedia, the spooks' Wikipedia, where intelligence officers from all 16 U.S. spy agencies pool their knowledge. Sixteen months after its creation, officials say, the top-secret version of Intellipedia has 29,255 articles, with an average of 114 new articles and more than 4,800 edits to articles added each workday.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:19 ||
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#2
Aware that such a system could be vulnerable to a mole, officials say computers will flag users who download masses of data or repeatedly seek information outside their work area
#3
The older intelligence guys would rather have a dozen 9/11 failures than give up one inch to the real enemy: competing intelligence agencies. And they don't understand computers, either. I read a piece about the internal systems that the CIA guys use when searching for information, and it's pathetic. They can't even use AND or OR when specifying search terms.
#4
My information is dated, but neither the CIA nor any of the military agencies had a truly working information-sharing program in the 1980's that actually portrayed fused intelligence data. Everything was compartmented, and you had to have six or seven different clearances to see even a small amount of data. The fit's going to really hit the shan in about five years when we have 50-60 drones, a dozen satellites, and 200 ground stations all pumping out data every day. The way it was done 30 years ago isn't viable today, and the way things are done today won't be what's needed five years from now. Something's got to change, and if it takes getting rid of some of the deadwood at CIA, DIA, NGIS, NSA, or the military departments, so be it. Another 9/11 is intolerable.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/03/2007 22:50 Comments ||
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The militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is active in Jammu and Kashmir, and its two splinter groups have joined hands with international terror group al Qaeda to fight Pakistani forces. The Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba joined al Qaeda to increase terrorist activities targeting the Pakistan Army, government personalities and installations, a media report from Pakistan said. Militants of these groups are being led by Abu Ali Tunisi, a terrorist from Tunisia. Tunisi, based in North Waziristan, is coordinating with the groups and individuals who believe in bringing about a revolution through terrorism, Pakistani daily The News reported.
The Jaish-e-Mohammed was formed by Masood Azhar following his release on December 31, 1999 with two other terrorists in exchange for the passengers of an Indian Airlines plane hijacked from Kathmandu to Afghanistan. The JeM, banned in India for fomenting trouble, has been declared a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.
In 2003, the JeM splintered into Khuddam ul-Islam (KUI) and Jamaat ul-Furqan (JUF). Pakistan banned the KUA and JUF in November 2003. The Jaish was an offshoot of the Harkat-ul-Ansar, which kidnapped five foreign tourists in Kashmir in 1995. Lashkar-e-Jangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba are considered as off-shoots of the Jaish and are mainly involved in targeting Shias in Pakistan.
This article starring:
Harkat-ul-Ansar
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jamaat ul-Furqan
Khuddam ul-Islam
Lashkar-e-Jangvi
Sipah-e-Sahaba
Abu Ali Tunisi
al-Qaeda
Masood Azhar
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 18:16 ||
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The heads of the six religious parties that form the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal will meet here today to finalise a policy on a number of key political issues. We will review the presidential election, return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan and other issues, said Syed Abdul Jalil Naqvi of the Millat-e-Jafria Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Pir Abdur Rahid Naqshbandi of the JUI-Senior, Prof Sajid Mir of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith and Sahibzada Abu Alkhair Al Zubair of the JUP have confirmed their participation at the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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An Afghan writer, who claims to have spent about six months at a secret cell in Peshawar after authoring a book on The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo, has accused the intelligence agencies of detaining 35-40 people at a secret prison located somewhere between Gora Qabristan and Peshawar airport. Most of the inmates were suffering from tuberculosis without any healthcare facilities available to them, said Abdur Raheem Muslim Dost, who is presently imprisoned at the Peshawar Central Prison on charges of violating visa rules and illegal stay in Pakistan.
In an interview with Daily Times at the jails meeting room, he said, Detention cells at the Guantanamo Bay are far better than those I witnessed in Peshawar, being run by the intelligence agencies, Dost recalled.
Comparing detention cells of the infamous Guantanamo Bay and Pakistan, he said the authorities at Camp X-Ray did not stop him from writing what he wanted. But, regrettably, we were deprived of the same facility in Pakistan, said the Afghan writer, who earlier spent three and a half years in US custody at Bagram Airbase, Kandahar Airport and Camp X-Ray in Cuba.
Dost said Gitmo detainees had written 22 poems, which were published in the form of a book titled The Detainees Speak.
Dost said Pakistani intelligence agencies personnel detained him through Khyber Agency political authorities, which charged him under Section 40 of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act. If authorities consider publication of my book written on wrongdoings and injustices by the agencies with innocent detainees, then I will made this mistake time and again, he said. Dost said that Saleh Muhammad from Sadda in Kurram Agency was brutally tortured. He said Mufti Muneer Shakir and Qari Subhanullah, released recently, were also at the same dungeon.
Dost, a Mohmand tribesman from the Sahibano village of Ningarhar in Afghanistan, said they were kept in tiny rooms and were allowed to go out twice a day.
Asked about the reasons for his incarceration, he said it was because of co-authoring a Pashto language book, Da Guantanamo Matay Zolanay (The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo) published in Peshawar in July 2006.
On September 29, 2006, agencies personnel and CID police arrested me while I was coming out of a mosque in Academy Town after Friday prayers, he said, adding that the agencies personnel drove him handcuffed and blindfolded to their office near the Army Stadium. I was already familiar with the detention centre, as I had spent some time there before I was shifted to Guantanamo Bay in 2001, he added. He said an intelligence official, in his mid-30s, questioned him about the book. I explicitly told him that I had co-authored the book and would write another one once I was released, he said.
He said that on May 22, the agencies handed him over to the Nasirbagh Police where he remained for a night. The next day, he said, the secret agents shifted him back to their secret detention cell, wherefrom he was later handed over to Khasadar force in Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency.
Asked about the required documents for his stay in Pakistan, he said he had been living here for the last 35 years. Afghan Commissionerate had issued me a registration card, which was seized by the agencies personnel during my detention and was not returned, he added. Dost was arrested from Peshawar on November 17, 2001 soon after the fall of the Taliban government in neighbouring Afghanistan. He was release along with his brother on September 24, 2004, after which they published a 500-page book about their incarceration at the Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere as prisoners.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Really? Ya think?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/03/2007 9:59 Comments ||
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#2
Gitmo has better nutrition, health care and educational opportunities than most of Pakistan
Posted by: john frum ||
09/03/2007 15:47 Comments ||
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Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Sunday that the ruling PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had not honoured commitments with the MMA in the past and cooperation with the ruling party was thus impossible.
Talking to reporters at the Parliament Lodges on Sunday, he said that Chaudhry Shujaat had signed agreements but had never honoured them. We have not violated any agreement with President Pervez Musharraf, and I am ready for a live TV debate with the president on violated commitments, he added.
Maulana Fazl said the matter of giving up governments in the NWFP and Balochistan had been left to the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM). We are ready for everything if the opposition groups take a collective decision on resignations, he said. Maulana Fazl said that he would never accept a uniformed president. The APDM was a joint platform for the opposition parties and every decision would be taken after consultation, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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The US-led war on terror will be in safe hands if democracy returns to Pakistan, exiled former leader Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday as he prepares to defy the military regime by returning home. Its very simple: were all against terror, Sharif told CNN, recapping his excellent rapport with then US president Bill Clinton before he was ousted as Pakistans prime minister by President Pervez Musharraf.
You cant fight terror the way Musharraf is fighting it. He needs the threat of terror for his own survival. We will fight terror out of conviction, he said. You cant win the battle against terror when the nation is not behind you, when the people of the country are not supporting you, when the parliament is not behind you, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Shiites now dominate the once mixed capital, and there is little chance of reversing the process.
It was their last stand. Kamal and a handful of his neighbors were hunkered down on the roof of a dun-colored house in southwest Baghdad two weeks ago as bullets zinged overhead. In the streets below, fighters from Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fanned out and blasted away with AK-47s and PKC heavy machine guns. Kamal is a chubby 44-year-old with two young sons, and he and his friends, all Sunnis, had been fighting similar battles against Shiite militiamen in the Amel neighborhood for months. They jumped awkwardly from rooftop to rooftop, returning fire. Within minutes, however, dozens of uniformed Iraqi policemen poured into the street to support the militiamen. Kamal ditched his AK on a rooftop and snuck away through nearby alleys. He left Amel the next day. "I lost my house, my documents and my future," says Kamal, whose name and that of other Iraqis in this story have been changed for their safety. "I'm never going back."
Thousands of other Sunnis like Kamal have been cleared out of the western half of Baghdad, which they once dominated, in recent months. The surge of U.S. troopsmeant in part to halt the sectarian cleansing of the Iraqi capitalhas hardly stemmed the problem. The number of Iraqi civilians killed in July was slightly higher than in February, when the surge began. According to the Iraqi Red Crescent, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has more than doubled to 1.1 million since the beginning of the year, nearly 200,000 of those in Baghdad governorate alone. Rafiq Tschannen, chief of the Iraq mission for the International Organization for Migration, says that the fighting that accompanied the influx of U.S. troops actually "has increased the IDPs to some extent."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
09/03/2007 09:42 ||
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#1
Ya play hard, ya pay hard...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/03/2007 11:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It was their last stand.
Kebab? Falafel? Shwarma? Enquiring minds want to know!
As to all the other Sunni suffering, payback's a non-male canine, eh?
AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday, using the war zone as a backdrop to argue his case that the buildup of U.S. troops is helping stabilizing the nation.
The president secretly flew 11 hours to Iraq as a showdown nears with Congress over whether his decision in January to order 30,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq is working.
Bush and his national security team flew directly to this air base in a remote part of Anbar province, bypassing Baghdad in a symbolic expression of impatience with political paralysis in the nation's capital. The gesture underscored the U.S. belief that the spark for progress may come at the local level.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived ahead of Bush and conferred with senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, before opening a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and other top Iraqi officials from Baghdad.
To a large degree, the setting was the message: Bringing al-Maliki, a Shiite, to the heart of mostly Sunni Anbar province was intended to show the administration's war critics that the beleaguered Iraqi leader is capable of reaching out to Sunnis, who ran the country for years under Saddam Hussein.
Bush has held up Anbar as an example of recent progress, especially on the security front, although the province is still economically deprived and not yet stable enough to turn over to full Iraqi control.
Next week, Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, testify before Congress. Their assessment of the conflict, along with a progress report the White House must give lawmakers by Sept. 15, will determine the next chapter of the war.
The United States cannot sustain the troop buildup indefinitely. And with Democrats calling for withdrawals and a rising U.S. death toll that has topped 3,700, the president is hardpressed to give Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's much more time to find a political solution to the fighting.
Bush stopped in Iraq ahead of his visit to Australia for an economic summit with Asia-Pacific leaders. The trip was a closely held secret for obvious security reasons, although speculation about the trip arose late last month when first lady Laura Bush said she was staying home to tend to a pinched nerve in her neck.
The president, who also went to Iraq at Thanksgiving 2003 and in June 2006, was scheduled to leave for Australia on Monday, but Air Force One took off from Andrews Air Force Base Sunday evening instead.
He was joined by his top advisers, including National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Joining Gates were Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East. Fallon flew aboard Gates' Air Force plane from Washington. The mission to shore up support for the war was shared with only a small circle of White House staffers and members of the media, who were told that if news of his trip leaked early, it would be scrapped.
The White House arranged Bush's trip at a pivotal juncture in the Iraq debate. Some prominent GOP lawmakers have broken with Bush on his war strategy, but so far, most Republicans have stood with Bush. In exchange for their loyalty, they want to see substantial progress in Iraq soon.
Making his case before the Sept. 15 report deadline, Bush recently delivered a series of speeches to highlight how the temporary military buildup has routed out insurgents and foreign fighters.
The president has described what he calls "bottom-up" progress in Iraq and often cites a drop in violence in Anbar Province, once a hotbed of insurgency. The turnaround occurred when Sunni Arab leaders joined forces with U.S. troops to hunt down members of al-Qaida, although it's unclear whether they'll back a unified Iraqi government as well.
Critics of the war argue that while the troop buildup may have tamped down violence, the Iraqis are making almost no headway toward political reconciliation. They cite a handful of gloomy progress reports trickling out of Washington that show some success in curbing violence, but little progress toward political power-sharing agreements.
There are now 162,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including 30,000 that arrived since February as part of Bush's revised strategy to provide security so Iraqi leaders could build a unity government.
Bush met on Friday with his top military chiefs at the Pentagon who expressed concern about a growing strain on American troops and their families from long and often multiple combat tours.
Still, early indications are that the president intends to stick with his current approach at least into 2008 despite pressure from the Democratic-led Congress and some prominent Republicans. Right now, the White House is working to keep Republican members of Congress in the president's fold to prevent Democrats from amassing the strength to slash war funds or mandate immediate troop withdrawals.
#1
I love it when he does these surprise visits because the moonbats spend weeks venting and ranting about it. After a few months thsy seethe about how Bush "Never goes to Iraq."
#2
And they call this guy a coward. Sure, he's got security, and gets to pick the time and place, and intends to keep the plans secret, but he's wearing the biggest bull's eye on his back the world has ever seen when he goes there, and he knows it and does it anyway.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation on Sunday into last weeks deadly clashes surrounding a Shiite religious celebration in Karbala, promising that it would be conducted without bias. The announcement came only hours after anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the government to investigate the violence, which many have blamed on his own Mahdi Army militia. The firebrand clerics followers threatened to take unspecified measures if the government refused its demand, and criticized recent raids against the Mahdi Army by US and Iraqi forces. A statement from al-Malikis office said an investigative committee was being formed to look into the Karbala bloodshed, which saw more than 50 people killed and hundreds injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The perpetrators were bearded, ugly, fanatical and belligerent. Start with the Karbala phone book.
#2
The insurgents, the shia, and al qaeda, all know that Maliki is a puppet with an already stamped 'bus pass' in his back pocket when the US pulls out, or when 'miss Hillary' come a callin! Like the Shah Of Iran, history is repeating itself, with perhaps Al-Sadr licking his chops; in the wings!
#3
This has been going on ever since the Palestinians got control of the Temple platform, whereon their mosque sits. From what I understand, there's a minor industry for archeologists sifting through the detritus tossed away by the Muslims as they labour to destroy the evidence.
Correct, eLarson. There was a modest rebuilding following the return from the Babylonian Exile under the Persian Emperor Cyrus, but apparently it was such a poor effort that the priests who remembered the original wept when they saw it. link p.45 ff Herod's rebuilding was long overdue, and so outshone that which it replaced that it replaced it's predecessors in our imagination as well.
#5
Yet one more reason to eject all Muslims from Jerusalem and Israeli territory. Islam is nothing but a juggernaut of cultural, religious and ethnic cleansing. This genocidal ideology has worn out its welcome for all time. Either we set about removing it from this earth or endure a century of agonizing war and terrorism while fighting these psychotics in skirmish mode.
We must scrape away the entire top ranks of Islam's clerical aristocracy to give ourselves breathing room and permit Muslims to safely convert away from Islam. After that, those who persist in perpetuating this barbaric savagery masquerading as a religion need to be killed. Either we ignore the continued slaughter of countless thousands each year or finally put a halt to this vicious predatory monster. Unfettered, Islam will kill more people than all of its followers combined. That one fact represents a simple tipping point which demands the immediate and catastrophic dismantling of this genocidal filth.
#6
They ask me what makes us no different from them in that case. Well, Moslems make crappy caretakers of well.... most anything religious or cultural. They burn the roots of the tree of life, and partake in the tree of "good and evil". They participate willingly to directly violating God and all state sovereignty.
They are running 80% of the wars on this planet currently. And quite frankly, there are bigger things that demand the attention of most people than people running around in black ski masks and hijabs with ak's.
This doctrine renders people spiritually dead and unable to practice freewill and learning. It is presumptuous, making God into what is convient to them and fighting under said banner mistakenly.
They come for everyone who do not bow to them. Very selfish.
President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday announced a series of changes to Paleo election laws aimed at bolstering his Fatah Party, as well as the latest attempt by the Palestinian leader to marginalize Hamas. With Abbas decree, Palestinians will now vote solely for party lists, while district voting will be eliminated. Hamas swept parliamentary elections last year in large part because of a strong showing at the district level. The decree also requires all presidential and parliamentary candidates to recognize the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole, Legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
Somewhere in the ftid bowels of Hell, Yasser Arafat is smiling. Ugh.
He also has announced plans for new elections, though no date for the vote has been set.
Apparently my surprise meter took a bullet from the Hamas Executive Force today and has to be sent for repairs. I'm sure you'd understand.
In a further blow to Hamas, the new election law calls for a runoff in presidential elections until a candidate receives an absolute majority. The change would make it far more difficult for Hamas to capitalize on divisions among secular parties.
RPGs at thirty paces would be quicker and a real crowd-pleaser.
But while Abbas claims to be the leader of all Palestinians, Hamas remains firmly in control in Gaza and is unlikely to accept a new vote. Regular parliamentary elections are not scheduled until 2010. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum rejected the changes. Hamas objects to this policy of monopolizing decision making and will not deal with its outcome, he said.
"It ain't monopolized decision-making until we say it's monopolized decision-making!"
Barhoum said only the parliament, which is controlled by Hamas, has authority to change election law. But Abbas said he now holds such authority since parliament is no longer functioning.
Ah, the pleasures of Unity Government.
Abbas new government has been welcomed in the West and by Israel. Abbas has held a series of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the goal of drawing up a framework for a future peace deal ahead of a U.S.-sponsored conference in November. But Abbas cautioned that his talks with Olmert have a long way to go. He said if he cannot reach a specific agreement with Israel by November, the conference will be a failure.
"Yo, Israel. DIAF."
"Nuts."
"That's it. We're outta here!"
Abbas spoke at a news conference with the visiting European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. It will be a very intense time and we hope the upcoming period will be constructive and positive toward advancing the peace, Solana said.
"Speaking for Europe, we are feeling intensely positive towards the upcoming and very constructive shrimp cocktail advancing toward our table."
In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas continued to hold nearly 60 Fatah supporters, including 11 children, who were arrested on rioting and incitement charges at a protest on Friday. Fatah has organized public rallies for the last two weeks to denounce Hamas takeover. Hamas accuses Fatah supporters of trying to organize a violent comeback. Scores of Fatah supporters were snatched from the streets and their homes following the Friday rally. Hamas has ordered suspects to post bail of $240 a monthly salary for many Gazans.
Most likely but surely entirely coincidentally the exact amount of money forwarded to each Fatah loyalist by approving Western governments.
In Ramallah, the PLOs Executive Committee said the crackdown proves that Hamas aims to establish a repressive fascist system.
There are increasing indications that Fatah is trying to organize an intifada against Hamas, as Fatah members in the Gaza Strip try to snap out of what one commander termed a state of "depression" following their defeat at the hands of Hamas in June.
Abu Haroun, commander of the Abu Rish Brigades in the Gaza Strip, said over the weekend it would take a long time before Fatah recovered from the humiliating defeat. He said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and top Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan were both to blame for the collapse of the Fatah-controlled PA security forces in the Strip.
Nonetheless, over the past two weeks, Fatah supporters have twice clashed with Hamas militiamen following Friday prayers. Some Palestinians regard the street protests as a sign that Fatah is trying to regain control over the Gaza Strip.
Fatah officials expressed deep satisfaction with the anti-Hamas demonstrations. They denied, however, that the protests had been organized by Fatah, saying they were spontaneous and reflected the growing discontent with Hamas among Gazans.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a senior Fatah leader and close aide to Abbas, said the demonstrations were meant to send a message to Hamas that it must cancel its "bloody coup." He said the events in the Gaza Strip also sent a message to the world that the majority of the Palestinians were opposed to the Hamas takeover.
Another Fatah official, Fahmi Zaareer, said the protests showed that the Palestinians were fed up with Hamas. "The countdown for bringing the Hamas regime down has begun," he said. "We expect the protests against Hamas to escalate in the coming weeks."
Hamas leaders said they did not rule out the possibility that Fatah members would resort to an "armed struggle" against the Islamist movement. They added that there was growing evidence that Fatah was preparing for armed attacks on Hamas figures and institutions. They also noted that over the weekend Hamas militiamen discovered a weapons factory inside the house of a former Fatah security commander in the Strip.
Fatah warlord Abu Haroun admitted that his men were depressed and angry. He said he and many colleagues were working hard to "boost the morale of our fighters."
"It hasn't been easy for us because what happened last June was a big shock for us. It was a psychological blow. Our mother organization, Fatah, collapsed and this was too much for us."
Like many Fatah members, Abu Haroun blamed Abbas and Dahlan for the defeat. "President Abbas made too many mistakes," he said. "The biggest mistake was the Mecca Accord [on a PA unity government with Hamas], because he came closer to Hamas, and not vice versa. That's why he lost in the end."
Abu Haroun said another mistake Abbas made was to appoint Dahlan as his national security adviser. "Our security forces lost the battle because they lacked motivation and because they were too lazy," he said. "They also lost because someone like Dahlan was in charge of the security forces and all the armed wings of Fatah. Dahlan has been a total failure and that's how many see him."
According to Abu Haroun, who has been forced to keep a low profile since the Hamas takeover, the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip did not fight because they did not feel there was anything worth fighting for. "Our security forces lost the battle even before it started," he said. "The morale of the security officers was very low and many of them never opened fire at Hamas. In fact, many security officers and policemen stopped showing up for work days and weeks before the Hamas takeover."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
SO the Jooooos won.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/03/2007 7:46 Comments ||
Top||
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday announced changes in the Palestinian election law aimed at bolstering his Fatah party against the rival Hamas group. It was the latest step taken by Abbas meant to marginalize Hamas since the Islamic militant group violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas has kicked Hamas out of the Palestinian government and announced plans for new elections. No date for the vote has been set.
Under the new law, Palestinians will vote solely for party lists, while district voting will be eliminated. In the last legislative election in early 2006, half the seats were chosen on a national list and the other half by districts. While the national voting appeared to be close, election officials said Hamas had won a large majority in the district races. Hamas apparently took advantage of divisions in Fatah; the long-ruling party fielded multiple candidates in many districts, splitting the Fatah vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder how the control systems work? I tend to think of the recoil of a conventional 12 guage shotgun and its recoil effects. It would seem that it would be difficult to stay on target with such a small helicopter when firing both shotguns simultaneously in automatic mode.
#2
IIRC/IIUC, the AA12 automatic shotgun use a felt-recoil mitigating system derived from the Ultimax 100 Lmg's, which greatly reduce the stress on the shooter, far from what one would normally expect from a 12 gauge.
#5
JohnQC, the controls systems on these rotary UAVs tend to be built using artificial neural nets and other associative AI methods. The controls for this one were done by Neural Robotics.
Put simply, the control software constantly adapts to new patterns of difference between their instantaneous state and their more goals (including velocity, heading and altitude). As a result, it teases out temporary, sometimes very complex, patterns of factors to be adjusted and then these are refined through feedback between the evolving state of the vehicle and the goals.
I've seen video footage of fixed wing micro UAVs landing on a totally vertical strip of velcro. Same principles involved.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Sunday declared victory over terrorism after the army seized the last Islamic militant stronghold in a northern Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
"It is the greatest national victory for Lebanon over the terrorists in Nahr el-Bared," Siniora said, hours after the Lebanese army took control of the camp in a ferocious battle that left 39 militants of Fatah Islam and five soldiers killed. Another 20 militants were captured and an unknown number has fled, with troops giving chase. "It is a great success that the Lebanese army has achieved over the terrorists, those who sought chaos, destruction and tragedies for Lebanon," he said in a televised speech to the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#2
Just like I wonder how the houses featured on "organize me" shows look a few months and a few years later... I wonder how Lebanon will keep up the joint in the short, medium and long haul.
To me, "Victory over terrorism" rings like "We have defeated the business cycle". We'll see.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday lashed out at elements inside Iran who he said were disclosing nuclear secrets to foreigners and wanted to see the country punished with tough UN sanctions.
There has been a person who passed information to the foreigners and encouraged them to issue tougher resolutions against Iran, Ahmadinejad told a gathering of Islamist students, according to the ISNA news agency. He is a member of an official organisation that is now insulting the government in their newspapers. Ahmadinejad, whose culture minister has already denounced a creeping coup in the press,
Believe me, we're familiar with the feeling...
did not name the individual or the critical newspapers. He said this person had regular meetings with foreigners and even informed them on disagreements (inside Iran) and objected that the adopted resolutions were weak. Ahmadinejad also criticised another unnamed person who he said travels to Persian Gulf countries and calls on them not to cooperate with the current government. He did not give further details. The UN Security Council has imposed two sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear work, which the West fears could be diverted towards weapons development. Moderates inside Iran have attacked Ahmadinejad for his handling of Irans nuclear programme while the reformist press frequently publishes opinion articles critical of his rule.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
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#1
I would surmise that 'those' seeing the 'writing on the wall' are also NOT wanting to be on the next deck of cards issued after the Iranian threat is bombed back 15 years! Such aforethought by individuals can in fact spur epiphanys, leading to leaks and admonishments!
Long article, only the best parts shown here.
This summer, the 22-year-old Portland State University pre-law student pursued a years-long dream. The young Muslim traveled to Cairo to broaden his understanding of his faith, following the path forged by Malcolm X, whose thinking about race relations changed after he visited Egypt and other parts of the Mideast and Africa.
At first, his voyage of discovery was a thrill ride. He was welcomed by Egyptians ecstatic to find not only an American-born Muslim, but one named after one of Islam's greatest heroes: Salahudin, the warrior who pushed the Crusaders out of Jerusalem and raised a hilltop fortress in this very city.
But Ali brought his American tendency for criticism and skepticism to a part of the world that values obedience and cohesion above all. He challenged much of what he saw, and ultimately he found himself uncomfortable in the heart of the Muslim world. "This place went from like cool to weird in the last week," Ali said in the days before he left. "I'm ready to get back home. I'm kind of tired right now." At least you have that opportunity. The people that live there don't. I bet he takes it for granted.
Cultural and class differences have long formed a barrier between African American Muslims and immigrant believers as well as within the black community between the Nation of Islam and those practicing mainstream Sunni Islam. What, you're kidding?
But Ali belongs to a new group of African American Muslims who have encountered few such obstacles. In California and in college, he counts Arabs, South Asians and Iranians among his closest friends. "In college we're all one big group," he said. "In the mosque we're all together. Where I come from, there's no, 'that's the black mosque and that's the Pakistani mosque.' " Yeah, because those are the educated ones who know how to blend in to the infidel's society.
Often under the tutelage of liberal-minded clerics, he was also encouraged to question the Koran and its teachings. He found himself leery of the ways of coreligionists with roots abroad, especially the older generation. Often, he said, they tried to impose their own cultural habits as religion. I am shocked, shocked to hear of this.
"They say a tattoo is haram," or sinful, he said. "Why? Where is that in the Koran? They say, 'Well, the prophet never had tattoos.' I say, 'Oh, do you drive a car? Did the prophet drive a car? I don't see you riding around on no camel.' " Applying logic - no wonder he doesn't fit in.
In early July, he flew to Cairo via Los Angeles and Moscow on a grueling 50-hour journey aboard the Russian airline Aeroflot and enrolled in Arabic classes at one of the city's language schools. Oof. Aeroflot? Must have really been trying to save money.
"Man," he said, arriving for the start of classes. "I woke up this morning to the call to prayer today for the first time in my life." And then the next thing I thought of was to get the hell out of this country.
But the petty ways some Egyptians viewed the faith he reveres rattled Ali. Once, he got into a cab with a driver who demanded he prove that he was a Muslim by reciting the fatiha, the opening chapter of the Koran.
"For what?" Ali asked.
"I want to see if you're really a Muslim," the driver told him. "Recite the fatiha."
The driver flustered him. As if the measure of a good Muslim was how well he had memorized the Koran. It's not? Where did that idea come from?
"You recite it for me," Ali demanded. "I want to see if you're a Muslim!"
He yearned to head back to the Portland campus for Ramadan. He and his fellow Muslim students are organizing their second annual holiday "fast-a-thon": Non-Muslims can join in the traditional dawn-to-dusk abstention from food and drink. "There's a reason why they're over there and not here," he said. "They're really the best and the brightest." And they'll still strap bombs onto themselves and try to kill us.
As his Arabic improved, he talked with people around Cairo and was touched by the simple hopes of impoverished Egyptians struggling to wriggle free of poverty and hardship. "You meet these ordinary people with these little lives, and they're like, 'Inshallah, life will be better,' " he said, using the Arabic for "God willing." Maybe if they had a little less inshallah, and a little more get-up-and-go, their lives would be better. But then they wouldn't be Muslims, would they?
#1
But Ali brought his American tendency for criticism and skepticism to a part of the world that values obedience and cohesion above all. He challenged much of what he saw, and ultimately he found himself uncomfortable in the heart of the Muslim world.
Didn't grasp that key element did he? The word Islam means "submission", or the total surrender of oneself to God (Arabic: اÙÙÙ, AllÄh). Or as its implemented, by anyone who claims the name of Allah as their copyright or trademark.
#2
"There's a reason why they're over there and not here," he said. "They're really the best and the brightest."
Ah the conceit of being at college, "I'm here, so I'm so much smarter than anyone else". I had that, once.
"You meet these ordinary people with these little lives, and they're like, 'Inshallah, life will be better,' "
'Little lives'? Who does this guy think he is!?
"You recite it for me," Ali demanded. "I want to see if you're a Muslim!"
Ah, the master race - 'nuff said. Jerk.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/03/2007 14:43 Comments ||
Top||
#3
following the path forged by Malcolm X, whose thinking about race relations changed after he visited Egypt and other parts of the Mideast and Africa.
And discovered they wouldn't talk to him.Saying he "Wasn't black",
yep he came back changed, having your lies thrown in your own face will do that
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/03/2007 16:01 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Gosh, you mean that teh lions of Islam are LESS tolerant than the evil Christians that inhabit America. Who would have thunk it?
#5
For hundreds of years before Columbus landed on some Carrib islands, the muzzies were running a lucrative and sustained slave trade from sub-Sahara Africa through Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad. Notice how that all disappears in the 'blame the white man' guilt trip?
#6
Worst of all is howafter undergoing so much trivial bullshit overseasthis pathetic little wanker will probably find himself wanting for not being Islamic enough.
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.
SEOUL (AFP) Some of the South Korean Christian aid workers held hostage by Afghanistan's Taliban said they were beaten for refusing to convert to Islam and protecting female captives, a hospital chief said Monday.
(SomaliNet) In protest against what they called the illegal detention and torture of fellow Muslims in an anti-terrorist drive urged on by the United States, Kenyan Muslims marched on police headquarters in Nairobi on Thursday. The protest involving a few dozen Kenyans followed months of simmering tensions between the east African nation's Muslim community and authorities they accuse of persecuting and arresting them on US government orders. 
Prime Minister John Howard has refused to be drawn on the details of a security pact expected to be signed with US President George W Bush this week. The deal is believed to provide the Australian military with access to top-secret American weapons systems.
NEW YORK: America's spies, like America's teenagers, are secretive, talk in code and get in trouble if they're not watched closely. It's hard to imagine spies logging on and exchanging "whuddups" with strangers, though. They are just not wired that way. If networking is lifeblood to the teenager, it is viewed with deep suspicion by the spy.
The heads of the six religious parties that form the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal will meet here today to finalise a policy on a number of key political issues. We will review the presidential election, return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan and other issues, said Syed Abdul Jalil Naqvi of the Millat-e-Jafria Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Pir Abdur Rahid Naqshbandi of the JUI-Senior, Prof Sajid Mir of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith and Sahibzada Abu Alkhair Al Zubair of the JUP have confirmed their participation at the meeting.
An Afghan writer, who claims to have spent about six months at a secret cell in Peshawar after authoring a book on The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo, has accused the intelligence agencies of detaining 35-40 people at a secret prison located somewhere between Gora Qabristan and Peshawar airport. Most of the inmates were suffering from tuberculosis without any healthcare facilities available to them, said Abdur Raheem Muslim Dost, who is presently imprisoned at the Peshawar Central Prison on charges of violating visa rules and illegal stay in Pakistan.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Sunday that the ruling PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had not honoured commitments with the MMA in the past and cooperation with the ruling party was thus impossible.
The US-led war on terror will be in safe hands if democracy returns to Pakistan, exiled former leader Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday as he prepares to defy the military regime by returning home. Its very simple: were all against terror, Sharif told CNN, recapping his excellent rapport with then US president Bill Clinton before he was ousted as Pakistans prime minister by President Pervez Musharraf.
Shiites now dominate the once mixed capital, and there is little chance of reversing the process.
There are increasing indications that Fatah is trying to organize an intifada against Hamas, as Fatah members in the Gaza Strip try to snap out of what one commander termed a state of "depression" following their defeat at the hands of Hamas in June. 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday announced changes in the Palestinian election law aimed at bolstering his Fatah party against the rival Hamas group. It was the latest step taken by Abbas meant to marginalize Hamas since the Islamic militant group violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas has kicked Hamas out of the Palestinian government and announced plans for new elections. No date for the vote has been set. 
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Sunday declared victory over terrorism after the army seized the last Islamic militant stronghold in a northern Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
