The controversial case of Muhammad Al-Harbi, a Saudi high school teacher accused of mocking religion, came to a surprising end on Saturday. Al-Harbi was sentenced to three years in prison and 750 lashes â 50 lashes per week for 15 weeks. The lashes are to be given in the public market in the town of Al-Bikeriya in Al-Qassim.
A number of 12th Grade students, along with some teachers from the same school, filed a lawsuit a year-and-a-half ago against Al-Harbi. He was accused of mocking Islam, favoring Jews and Christians, preventing students from performing ablutions. He was also charged with studying witchcraft. At the time, he was a chemistry teacher at Al-Fowailiq High School in the town of Ein Al-Juwa in Al-Qassim. âThis is a very cruel sentence,â Al-Harbi told Arab News. He explained over the phone that the students who filed the lawsuit had failed the monthly chemistry test. âThey asked me to give them the exam again and when I refused, they went to the principal to complain but he upheld my decision,â he explained.
According to Al-Harbi, the studentsâ actions were triggered by some Islamic studies teachers who used the studentsâ anger at Al-Harbi and convinced them to file the lawsuit. The reason for the Islamic studies teachers action has its roots five years ago when Al-Harbi joined the staff of Al-Fowailiq High School after graduating from King Saud University in Riyadh. Based on his academic record and extracurricular activities, the school principal appointed Al-Harbi as school activities organizer. Deeply disturbed by the explosions at the Al-Hamra Compound in Riyadh in 2003, Al-Harbi felt it his duty as an educator to enlighten his students and warn them of terrorism and its consequences. He went to great lengths by talking to students, hanging anti-terrorism signs around the school and speaking against terrorism. âThe Ministry of Education has recently ordered all schools to lecture students on the dangers of extremism and terrorism in general, but I was a step ahead of their decision,â said Al-Harbi.
Apparently Al-Harbiâs actions and comments against terrorism upset a number of Islamic studies teachers known for their fundamentalist beliefs. After the Al-Hamra blast in Riyadh, Al-Harbi copied an article, âCavemen Go to Hellâ written by Saudi columnist Hammad Al-Salmi in Al-Jazirah newspaper, attacking terrorists and extremists. Al-Harbi posted the article on the school bulletin board but it was ripped off and torn to pieces. The teachers, as one of the studentsâ fathers admitted to Al-Harbi, used to visit students in their homes, encouraging them to disobey Al-Harbi and calling him names. One of the Islamic studies teachers stopped Al-Harbi in a morning school assembly from speaking against Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, identified by the Saudi government as a terrorist and who was on the governmentâs list of wanted terrorists. The teacher told Al-Harbi that Al-Muqrin was a Muslim and that no matter what he had done, no one should speak against him. âThey told the students that I studied under secular teachers and thus Iâm not to be trusted in any subject except for chemistry,â said Al-Harbi.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
This is dreadful. One man in all of Soddiland took a stand for decency and tried to teach the yoots to steer away from the rocky shoals of extremism.
His reward is to have his skin flayed from his body in super slo-mo. I imagine they'll find a way to keep him alive for all fifteen of those agonizing weeks, then arrange for some "accident" in the prison so they won't have the opportunity to pardon him in time for the next Ramadan.
A sad salute to you, Mr. al-Harbi. I'd like to nominate you for the Rantburg Profiles in Courage. The entire world should be told what price one man is paying because he challenged the Wahhabs.
#2
Just like in Pakland, charges of blasphemy and apostasy are thin pretexts used to settle petty feuds, personal disputes, and enforce general orthodoxy. This is totalitarianism pure and simple. A teacher denounced by his students, encouraged by the local commisars and arrested by the state.
Why is it so hard in these cultures to stand up to the mullah mafiosos? The ones who wave the Koran and shout the loudest get their way without fail.
If the State Dept. and Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are not all campaigning for Al-Harbi within the next week, then they deserve to be disbanded. If Bush doesn't say anything, then he is lilly-livered and no better than Kerry.
How many countries still have laws against "witchcraft" on their books?
In how many countries are such accusations taken seriously?
How many of those countries are Muslim?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/14/2005 7:53 Comments ||
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#3 He was also charged with studying witchcraft.
How many countries still have laws against "witchcraft" on their books?
In how many countries are such accusations taken seriously?
How many of those countries are Muslim?
************
The question we conservative should be asking is when, ole lord, when are we going to have a real Reagan-like conservative in the White House who has the stones to call out Saudi Arabia (and Pakland for good measure) as the source of evil in the world today? Soodie should have been reduced to rubble yesterday; well, save of Mecca and Medina, but as for the rest of the country, it should resemble Carthage after the Third Punic War.
#6
When I read the headline, I was sure it had happened here, in George Bush's Amerikkka, where the American Taliban of Christian fundamentalism has seized power in a bloodless coup ... /moonbat
#7
A number of 12th Grade students, along with some teachers from the same school, filed a lawsuit a year-and-a-half ago against Al-Harbi. He was accused of mocking Islam, favoring Jews and Christians, preventing students from performing ablutions.
Shoulda given us the "A" like we told ya, Mr. Kot-tair.
#9
No separation between church and state. No freedom of speech. We are talking 7th century attitudes. Al-Harbi was a brave man--lucky he didn't get executed.
#10
I doubt he'll feel very lucky by Week 7 or so. He is meant to be a very messy, unmistakable object lesson to the rest of Soddiland...do not stray from the True Path of Allan and his chosen messengers.
THE Army has stopped actively recruiting Commonwealth and foreign soldiers because the numbers joining up have risen by nearly 3,000 per cent in seven years.
Imposing a cap on the number of Commonwealth and foreign soldiers allowed to serve in each infantry regiment has been discussed by army chiefs.
âIt is after all supposed to be the British Army, not the Commonwealth Army,â one defence source said.
However, in recent years, many regiments would not have survived without the influx of recruits from the Commonwealth, particularly from Fiji, Jamaica, South Africa and Ghana, because of drastic manpower shortages. Soldiers from overseas now account for 6 per cent of the Armyâs strength, rising to 9 per cent if the 3,000 Gurkhas recruited from Nepal are taken into account.
Last year the 1st Battalion The Princess of Walesâs Royal Regiment had 116 overseas and Commonwealth citizens serving in its ranks, representing about 20 per cent of the total strength. The Black Watch had 31 Commonwealth soldiers, most of them Fijian.
The overseas recruits are regarded as high-quality soldiers who have played an increasingly important role in operations such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many have won gallantry medals: Private Johnson Beharry, 25, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for saving the lives of his comrades in Iraq in 2003, was born in Grenada and was one of the 116 Commonwealth soldiers who joined the 1st Battalion The Princess of Walesâs Royal Regiment.
The problem for army chiefs is that the number of applicants from the Commonwealth has risen dramatically at the same time as recruits from within the United Kingdom have dropped significantly. General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, revealed yesterday that in the last financial year recruitment had fallen 7 per cent short of the target.
Yet the Commonwealth figures show that numbers have risen from 205 in 1998 to about 6,000 this year. There are currently 5,500 Commonwealth and overseas soldiers serving in the UK Field Army and another 700 recruits are under training.
Other infantry regiments with a high proportion of overseas or Commonwealth soldiers include: The Royal Scots with 89 (the latest figures relate to November last year); the 2nd Battalion The Princess of Walesâs Royal Regiment, 91; the 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets, 88; the 2nd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets, 107; and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, 85.
The sharp rise in Commonwealth recruits began a few years ago when army planners realised that there was an untapped source of soldiers in the Commonwealth who might be persuaded to join the British Army. Under the eligibility rules, recruits can join the Army if they are Commonwealth citizens or have dual nationality, of which one half must be British, or are citizens of the Irish Republic.
With gaps appearing in many of the British infantry regiments, the Army began an intensive drive to recruit from the Commonwealth, and teams were sent far and wide, from the Caribbean to southern Africa, to offer careers in the British Army. The take-up was beyond all expectation.
The influx of Fijians was particularly welcomed, not just because of their military prowess but also because of their reputation as excellent rugby players. The Armyâs rugby team has benefited accordingly.
Defence sources said that the Army had now stopped actively recruiting in the Commonwealth, even though there was still a significant shortfall in manpower.
Figures released four years ago showed that the top Commonwealth recruiting countries were Fiji, followed by South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and India.
THE FRENCH WAY
The French Foreign Legion
# The 7,600 legionnaires and non-commissioned officers come from 136 countries
# Recruits have to join under a âdeclared identityâ which does not have to be the applicantâs real one, to cater for men with pasts they wish to forget
# Frenchmen who join as legionnaires or NCOs have to change their nationality to that of another French-speaking country, so they are officially foreigners
# Applicants do not have to have military experience
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/14/2005 10:14 ||
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# Recruits have to join under a âdeclared identityâ which does not have to be the applicantâs real one, to cater for men with pasts a woman or lover they wish to forget
Thousands of opposition supporters have rallied in the centre of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in a bid to force a re-run of last weekend's disputed parliamentary elections. In a protest that echoed recent political upheavals in former Soviet bloc countries, demonstrators bore orange flags and flowers. Organisers said they hoped 15,000 people would turn out although some estimates suggested the crowd was bigger. Some in the crowd shouted âResign!â and âFreedom!â.
âLet no one think that this struggle will end. We will wage it until the end," Ali Kerimli, leader of the Popular Front, one of the three parties in the Azadliq opposition bloc, told The Associated Press. Azadliq and other opposition groups were taking part in the rally. "We are protesting because the election was not fair," Fatma Mammedova, 43, said. "We want the world to help us." Security was tight with about 800 riot police, equipped with shields and truncheons, standing guard around the square. Opposition youth activists chanted: "The police are with the people!"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I probably pay closer attention to Azerbaijan than most. It's the key to dismantaling the Iranian empire. 80% of ethnic Azeris live in Iran and represent about 30% of the population. A free and democratic Azerbijan will act as both a magnet for Azeris and seriously distabilizing force for Iran. Combine this with a robust Kurdistan and a democratic Shiia Arab controlled Iraq and their influence on the Shiia Arabs in Khuzestan and you have about the worst possible news for the Iranian empire.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/14/2005 10:26 ||
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#1
Such a warning just must be agonizing for the Chinese authorities. They have to say, but they don't want to say, but it will be worse if they don't say, but no matter what happens it will be unpleasant for them. Lots of arguments on either side.
#2
anyone know if its true that the chinese infact get hundreds of suicide boomers each year blowing up in thier cities but it just dosnt make the news??? I remember about a year or so ago a bus blew up thanks to a suicide boomer there and they said some sources reackon hundreds a year go boom there.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/14/2005 12:15 Comments ||
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Shep: anyone know if its true that the chinese infact get hundreds of suicide boomers each year blowing up in thier cities but it just dosnt make the news??? I remember about a year or so ago a bus blew up thanks to a suicide boomer there and they said some sources reackon hundreds a year go boom there.
I doubt it. Too many foreigners in China without minders. And too many Chinese traveling abroad without minders. No way to keep this kind of stuff secret. Note also that Chinese journalists routinely pass on material they are not allowed to publish to the foreign media.
#4
Shep, I don't know about suicide bombers, but China has over a 1,000 bombings a year. You might try searching the archives. Zhang and I commented on it a while back.
HONG KONG - The US government has warned Americans that they could face a security threat in clubs, restaurants and schools in southern China.
The United States, in a message posted on the Web site of its consulate-general in Hong Kong, said it has received âcredible information that a terrorist threat may exist against official US government facilities in Guangzhouâ, referring to one of the largest cities in southern China. âThis threat also may exist for places where Americans are known to congregate or visit, including clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools or outdoor recreation events.â
The message, posted on Nov. 13, follows a confusing week when the United States withdrew a statement that China had warned its luxury hotels that Islamic extremists may be planning attacks. The US government retracted that statement after Chinese security authorities informed it that the source of the reported threats was not credible. The US warning came before attacks on three international hotels in Amman, Jordan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Islamic militants arrested last week on charges of plotting a major terrorist bombing were stopped by police near Australia's only nuclear reactor last year and underwent "jihad training" at outback camps, police alleged.
A police fact sheet submitted to court here also alleged that the spiritual leader of 18 Muslim men arrested in Sydney and Melbourne on terrorism-related charges had urged his followers to unleash "maximum damage" as part of their holy war. The 20-page document, tendered in court on Friday but not released to the public until Monday, said three of the 18 had been stopped by police acting suspiciously near the Lucas Heights research reactor in suburban Sydney.
The men said they were in the area to ride a trail bike that was in the back of their car, but when questioned separately gave differing accounts of their activities, police said. Police later found that a lock on a gate to a reservoir on the grounds of the Lucas Heights facility had recently been cut, the document said.
But the government's Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which operates the Sydney reactor, played down any threat. ANSTO said in a statement the area "is regularly used by the public for trail bike riding and bushwalking" and security agencies at the time did not see the trio as a threat to the site. It also said the fencing that had been cut near the reservoir was hundreds of meters from the reactor and not part of the ANSTO facility.
Police and security agents detained the 18 men before dawn on November 8 in the country's biggest counter-terrorism operation. All were Australian-born or naturalised citizens and officials accused them of plotting a "catastrophic" act of terrorism, although no precise targets were named.
The arrests heightened security fears across Australia and sparked an extraordinary terrorism alert in the third largest city of Brisbane. Authorities in the east coast city announced in mid-afternoon that all buses and trains would unload their passengers for 30 minutes during the evening rush hour due to three anonymous telephone threats against the transport system. Local officials said they ordered the "overly cautious" reaction due to heightened security concerns following the arrests in Sydney and Melbourne. The 30-minute transport shutdown went off without incident.
The 18 detained suspects have been charged with membership in a terrorist organisation and/or stockpiling explosives components in preparation for a terrorist act. In the list of allegations released Monday, police asserted that the 18 were linked to an extremist group led by a Melbourne Muslim cleric, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr, who was among those detained. "Benbrika is a Muslim extremist and has publicly declared his support of a violent jihad," it said, adding that the cleric had "a core group of followers in Melbourne who are associated with the persons of interest in Sydney."
Police quoted Benbrika as telling some of the suspects during a meeting in February that if they wanted to "die for jihad, we have to have maximum damage". "Damage to their buildings, everything. Damage their lives to show them," he allegedly said, in statements obtained through electronic eavesdropping. "In this we'll have to be careful."
Six of the Sydney suspects allegedly underwent military-style training early this year at two properties near Bourke in the far west of New South Wales state, the report said. "Police allege that these camping and hunting trips are part of the jihad training being undertaken by this group," it said. "These trips are consistent with the usual modus operandi of terrorists prior to attacks."
Police said they found large quantities of detonators and chemicals used to make explosives during searches of the suspects' homes.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2005 08:38 ||
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The Spanish National Court has received a prosecutor's report on allegations that the CIA used an airport on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca for its program of covert transfers of terror suspects, court officials said Monday.
The chief prosecutor for the Balearic Islands submitted the report to the court in July, after a four-month investigation prompted by articles in a Mallorca newspaper, the court officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because court rules bar them from giving their names.
The newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, said earlier this month that Spanish police have identified three planes used by the CIA at the airport in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, in its "extraordinary rendition" program.
The U.S. government has been criticized by human rights groups for practicing "extraordinary rendition" - sending suspected terrorists to foreign countries, where they are detained, interrogated and subjected to possible ill-treatment.
The violence in France's poor, suburban communities persisted in the south Sunday with attackers ramming burning cars into the sides of a retirement home and a school in one southern town. But nationwide the unrest of the past 18 nights continued to subside.
National Police Chief Michel Gaudin described the declining levels of violence as a "major lull" despite scattered incidents of serious attacks, particularly in southern cities and communities.
The nation's worst violence in nearly four decades has declined slowly over the last week since its ferocious climax last weekend. Residents and police said the unrest has been curbed in many areas with a combination of parental and community pressure on the youths involved in the attacks, curfews and more aggressive arrests by police.
But groups of boys and young men continue to strike at symbols of the republic, including schools and police stations, as well as opportune targets ranging from cars to private businesses. Most of the violence has been concentrated in poor communities with large populations of immigrants and their French-born children.
The violence, which has hit nearly every major city and town in France, has open a nationwide debate over the inequities and discrimination in French society.
A poll published by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper Sunday indicated that 71 percent of those surveyed do not believe President Jacques Chirac can resolve the social problems that fueled the riots. The survey also showed that 25 percent of the respondents support the policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has capitalized on the violence to promote his National Front party's "zero immigration" platform.
Some of the worst incidents of violence over the weekend occurred in southern France. In Carpentras, a town of 28,000 people in the Provence region, young men rammed burning cars into a retirement center and a school in separate attacks Saturday night. Police said no one was injured in the attacks. On Friday night, a man on a motorcycle hurled two molotov cocktails at a mosque, slightly damaging the foyer of the building.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, France's third largest urban area, streaks of gasoline were discovered on the exterior of the Grand Mosque Sunday, but no fire was reported, police said. About 50 young men and boys rampaged through a main square in Lyon Saturday night, attacking street vendors' stalls, small shops and cars.
Arsonists torched an electronics store Saturday night in Blangnac, a community on the outskirts of the southern city of Toulouse that has been the scene of much unrest in recent nights.
In Paris, where 3,000 police were deployed around major tourist sites and government buildings after Internet and cellular telephone text message threatened violence in the central parts of the city, only one incident was reported -- a fire at a gasoline station, police said.
More incidents of violence were reported in neighboring Belgium. Police arrested about 50 people Saturday night after groups of youths confronted police in downtown Brussels. Police reported 29 buses, cars and trucks burned across the country.
In the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, youths set four cars on fire Saturday night, according to police. It's just the beginning.
#7
wow...you'd expect them to be a little less tolerant and more cantankerous then....first option should be headcracking, talk later
AOF
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 10:03 Comments ||
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#8
Most wonderful of all is how this clearly demonstrates the fallacy of any cooperation with Arab countries that sponsor terrorism.
Unlike the United States and its much reviled support of Israel, France has long pursued a policy of appeasement with pro-Palestinian factions throughout the Middle East.
When push came to shove, did all their fawning do them the least bit of good? I hope Spain is paying close attention right now.
PARIS - The French government was to meet on Monday on whether to extend a state of emergency in a number of places to tackle more than two weeks of urban unrest as the number of attacks was dropping nationwide.
An overnight curfew was still in force in 40 municipalities and authorities in the southeastern city of Lyon banned public gatherings in order to head off a repeat of clashes in the historic centre. Police said no incident was reported in Franceâs third-largest city Sunday afternoon but 15 cars were set ablaze during the day and three people who were carrying gasoline (petrol) were detained for questioning.
In the region around the southern city of Toulouse 12 vehicles were torched and 10 people detained while 12 cars were set ablaze in the Paris suburbs. In the northeastern Alsace and Lorraine regions, nine cars were gutted by fire, compared to 13 the previous night. Since the start of the unrest 2,652 arrests have been made and 375 people have been sent to prison.
Over 2,000 arrests? There's a grim milestone.
The European Union pledged to release 50 million euros (58 million dollars) for urban programmes to improve conditions in Franceâs riot-hit areas, the EU executive president Jose Manuel Barroso said before a meeting with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin late Sunday.
That'll buy them off for a month or two.
National police chief Michel Gaudin said there was âa major easing-off.
âThings should begin to get rapidly back to normal,â he added.
According to figures compiled before the riots by the police intelligence service RG, some 28,000 cars were burned in the first 10 months of the year â making an average of 650 a week, most of which were destroyed at weekends.
The centre of Paris remained calm after the authorities banned public meetings there on Saturday, fearing an influx of youth gangs from the suburbs. In the end there was no sign of trouble, and the capitalâs outskirts were also relatively quiet.
A government official also spoke of cautious optimism. âWe were expecting a hot night, but it was not as busy as he feared. We feared problems in Paris but there were none. The slowdown is now established, and things should be easier to control,â the senior official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The EU better think that 50 million euro release again. Multiply that by many more if the jihadi enclaves in other countries go bananas and the EU treasury will be broke from appeasement in a New York Minute.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/14/2005 0:21 Comments ||
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#2
50 million euros wisely expended in providing weapons to law abiding citizens could do lots to improve the situation.
#6
Welfare checks coming out? Don't think Pierre Ze Mailman will be too hot delivering them if he's gonna get his head kicked in.
Unfortunately in France it doesn't work that way: you provide your bank account number to the welfare organism and then every month the money is transferred automatically to your account. Pierre ze Mailman is not involved.
#7
Yeah, I think they do it the same way here in the People's Republic. Don't want to "stigmatize" them by making them walk down to the mailbox or stand in line or something grueling like that.
#8
Yeah, I think they do it the same way here in the People's Republic. Don't want to "stigmatize" them by making them walk down to the mailbox or stand in line or something grueling like that.
It is more about the fact that the filling and processing of checks (even before postal costs) is hideously expensive: about 15 cents versus near zero when handling is purely electronic. 15 cents multiplied by a billion makes for some real money.
BTW it works also on the reverse: income taxes and some bills can (not must, can) be paid like this.
#9
It's also because the third of the month used to be hell at banks. Once worked as a teller the day after Labor Day when it was the third. Made me want to scream like Howard Dean. Welfare checks and Social Seucurty checks came out at the same time and the banks were not good places to be. I especially liked it when after they cashed their social security check, they would ask to have the interest posted to their savings pass book. And then decide to deposit $10.00 to savings. And right behind them would be some junkie hopping around, really needing to score as he had run out of cash a week before. Probably a lot of muggings outside the banks, not to mention stolen checks with forged endorsements and false claims of forged endorsements made it a lot cheaper to go to direct deposit.
Something to keep in mind for readers the next time they're cited in the news.
When the Middle East Studies Association's annual conference ends on November 22, 2005, University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole[1] is scheduled to become the organization's president. The association describes itself as:
A non-political association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications, and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom.[2]
As president, Cole is the public face of Middle Eastern studies. His election marks an endorsement of his work by hundreds of professors in various fields of Middle Eastern studies in American universities. Cole has written four academic books but his prominence comes not from scholarship but from his commentary on history and current events.[3] As such, this commentary provides a mirror into the state of Middle Eastern studies and the widespread urge of its practioners to promote polemic over scholarship.
Cole: Israel as a Fascist Society
Juan Cole: The Likud coalition in Israel does contest elections. But it isn't morally superior in most respects to the Syrian Baath. The Likud brutally occupies 3 million Palestinians (who don't get to vote for their occupier) and is aggressively taking over their land. That is, it treats at least 3 million people no better than and possibly worse than the Syrian Baath treats its 17 million.âSeptember 9, 2004[4]
Middle East Quarterly: Freedom House gives Syria its lowest rating of "not free" for both political rights and civil liberties.[5] In contrast, Israel has a rating of "free."[6] The analogy between Likud and the Syrian Baath misunderstands the nature of comparative politics. The Likud has an active membership and contested leadership; the Baath is subordinate to Bashar al-Assad. Cole ignores the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, its massacres of perhaps 20,000 in Hama in 1982, and the imprisonment of at least 17,000 political prisoners.[7]
Cole: No American media will report the demonstrations in Israel[8] as fascist in nature, and no American politicians will dare criticize the Likud. But the fact is that the Israeli predations in the West Bank and Gaza are a key source of rage in the Muslim world against the United States (which toadies unbearably to whatever garbage comes out of Tel Aviv's political establishment), something that the 9-11 commission report stupidly denies.âJuly 26, 2004[9]
MEQ: Cole's characterization of peaceful demonstrations as "fascist" is inaccurate. Fascism suggests an autocratic system that seeks to regiment and control every aspect of social, political, and economic life. This cannot apply to Israel, which has from its independence been fully democratic. Israelis often demonstrate against their government's policies. Cole also fails to acknowledge U.S. political criticism of various Israeli governments. In 1991, Secretary of State James Baker declared Sharon persona non grata in Washington[10] and President H.W. Bush opposed issuing loan guarantees to Israel.[11] More recently, the Pentagon blacklisted Israeli Defense Ministry director-general Amos Yaron because of a dispute over Israel's military relationship with China.[12] Lastly, Jerusalemânot Tel Avivâis the capital of Israel.
Cole: Judaism has given us so much that is noble in ethical religion, and what the Likud is doing is an insult to that long and glorious tradition. Likud's real roots lie not in the Bible but in Zionist revisionism of the Jabotinsky sort, which is frankly a kind of fascism.âMarch 21, 2003.[13]
MEQ: Cole's dislike for Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), an early Zionist leader who moved Zionism from intellectual debate to reality by organizing illegal immigration into Mandatory Palestine and helped establish a Jewish state, is a constant theme in his Internet postings. Cole resents the establishment of the Jewish state. In January 2003, he wrote, "While one certainly cheers the British for giving refuge in Palestine to Jews fleeing Hitler, it would have been nobler yet to admit them to the British Isles rather than saddling a small, poor peasant country with 500,000 immigrants hungry to make the place their own."[14] Cole's insistence that Likud's willingness to defend Israel against terrorism suggests a break with the "glorious tradition" of Judaism, a religion in which he holds no expertise, suggests a misunderstanding of both the democratic process which brought Likud to power and the divisions between religion and state which mark Israeli governance.
Cole: Dual Loyalties
Cole: It is an echo of the one-two punch secretly planned by the pro-Likud faction in the Department of Defense. First, Iraq would be taken out by the United States, and then Iran. David Wurmser, a key member of the group, also wanted Syria included. These pro-Likud intellectuals concluded that 9-11 would give them carte blanche to use the Pentagon as Israel's Gurkha regiment, fighting elective wars on behalf of Tel Aviv (not wars that really needed to be fought, but wars that the Likud coalition thought it would be nice to see fought so as to increase Israel's ability to annex land and act aggressively, especially if someone else's boys did the dying).âAugust 29, 2004[15]
MEQ: Cole suggests that many American Jewish officials hold dual loyalties, a frequent anti-Semitic theme.[16] Suggestions that American Jewish officials desired "someone else's boys" to fight is anti-Semitic and a common refrain in Cole's commentary.[17] Cole's commentary is often derivative and dishonest; he often substitutes others' web commentaries for the effort of tracking down original sources. In the case of "the one-two punch," he adopts the narrative espoused by the Lyndon LaRouche movement[18] and mischaracterizes the contents of the Institute for Advanced Strategy and Political Studies paper[19] that actually chastised Israel for not supporting the U.S. fight against terrorism and made suggestions about how Jerusalem could be more supportive of Washington.
Cole: Likud Manipulation
Cole: The rightwing Zionists want to racialize the Sudan conflict in American terms, as "Arab" versus "black African" because they want to use it to play American domestic politics and create a rift among African-Americans and Arab-Americans. Both of the latter face massive discrimination in contemporary society, and they should find ways of cooperating to counter it. What is happening in Darfur is horrible with regard to the loss of life and the displacement of persons, but the dispute is not about race. It is about political separatism and regionalism.âMarch 27, 2005[20]
MEQ: In contrast to those in the region,[21] Cole argues that there has not been an ethnic component to the Sudanese conflict and implies that suggestions that ethnicity is a factor are a Zionist conspiracy. Since hostilities erupted after Khartoum's 1983 decision to impose Islamic law over the predominantly Christian and animist southern region of the country, approximately two million persons have died.[22]
Cole: If Rice is going to be a successful Secretary of State, she simply has to get back control of US foreign policy from the Likudniks in the Bush administration.âJanuary 20, 2005[23]
MEQ: Cole promotes an anti-Semitic myth while misunderstanding the process of U.S foreign policy. The president and the U.S. Congress set the direction of U.S. foreign policy. A secretary of state is charged with implementing it. Several times weekly, a Principles' Committee, consisting of the secretaries of state and defense, the national security advisor, and the director of national intelligence, meets to resolve any policy questions. In response to charges of undue influence by Jewish American officials, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said, "I suppose the implication of that is that the president and the vice-president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs."[24]
Cole: With both Iraq and Iran in flames, the Likud Party could do as it pleased in the Middle East without fear of reprisal. This means it could expel the Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan, and perhaps just give Gaza back to Egypt to keep Cairo quiet. Annexing southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, the waters of which Israel has long coveted, could also be undertaken with no consequences, they probably think, once Hizbullah in Lebanon could no longer count on Iranian support. The closed character of the economies of Iraq and Iran, moreover, would end, allowing American, Italian, and British companies to make a killing after the wars (so they thought).âAugust 31, 2004[25]
MEQ: No Israeli expulsion of the Palestinians or annexation of Lebanese land has occurred. Cole's comment appears to reflect his belief in the Arab nationalist and Islamist claim that Israel seeks to stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates.[26] This is one of many Cole predictions that are detached from reality.
Cole: Israel as Cause of Terrorism
Cole: That British police have received training in Israel in stopping suicide bombers with the technique of shooting the suspect in the head has not made things easier in that regard [sic].âJuly 25, 2005[27]
MEQ: In most cases, Israel thwarts suicide attacks without violence.[28] Following the shooting of a Brazilian tourist by the London police on July 22, 2005, Tom Gross, the Jerusalem correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, wrote, "Had the Israeli police shot dead an innocent foreigner on one of its buses or trains, confirming the kill with a barrage of bullets at close range in a mistaken effort to thwart a bombing, the UN would probably have been sitting in emergency session by late afternoon to unanimously denounce the Jewish state."[29]
Cole: our press and politicians do us an enormous disservice by not putting the Israeli announcement about the Jerusalem barrier on the front page. This sort of action is a big part of what is driving the terrorists (and, of course, Sharon himself is a sort of state-backed terrorist, anyway). The newspapers and television news departments should be telling us when we are about to be in the cross-fire between the aggressive, expansionist, proto-fascist Likud coalition and the paranoid, murderous, violent Al-Qaeda and its offshoots.âJuly 11, 2005[30]
MEQ: The separation fence has reduced terrorism 75 percent.[31] Saudi Arabia, India, Morocco, Turkey and even the United Nations in Cyprus built similar barriers before Israel, in each case reducing terrorism or, in the latter case, communal violence.[32]
Cole: According to the September 11 Commission report, Al-Qaeda conceived 9/11 in some large part as a punishment on the U.S. for supporting Ariel Sharon's iron fist policies toward the Palestinians. Bin Laden had wanted to move the operation up in response to Sharon's threatening visit to the Temple Mount, and again in response to the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, which left 4,000 persons homeless. Khalid Shaikh Muhammad argued in each case that the operation just was not ready.âJuly 8, 2005
MEQ: Martin Kramer points out that the 9-11 Commission determined the hijacking plan was conceived by early 1999, that Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount took place in September 2000 when he was head of the opposition, and that the Jenin operation took place in April 2002, seven months after 9/11. After these factual problems were pointed out, Cole surreptitiously changed his original posting. [33]
Cole: It is obvious to me that what September 11 really represented was a dragooning of the United States into internal Middle East political conflicts. Israel's aggressive policies in the West Bank and Gaza have poisoned the political atmosphere in the Middle East (and increasingly in the Muslim world) for the United States. It is ridiculous to suggest that radical Islamists don't care about the Palestine issue.âSeptember 9, 2004[34]
MEQ: Cole ignores events such as the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, and on the USS Cole in 2000, all of which took place during periods of seeming progress in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Cole: We don't need any more U.S. buildings blown up because our government is coddling cuckoo [Israeli] settlers who are stealing other people's land to fulfill some weird religious power fantasy.âJanuary 2, 2004[35]
MEQ: The 9-11 Commission determined that planning for the terrorist attacks began during the Camp David II process as it appeared that Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasir Arafat would agree to a comprehensive peace agreement.[36]
Cole: Taking Liberty with the Facts
Cole: Was American journalist Steve Vincent killed in Basra as part of an honor killing? He was romantically involved with his Iraqi interpreter, who was shot four times. If her clan thought she was shaming them by appearing to be having an affair outside wedlock with an American male, they might well have decided to end it. In Mediterranean culture, a man's honor tends to be wrought up with his ability to protect his womenfolk from seduction by strange men.âAugust 8, 2005[37]
MEQ: According to Vincent's wife, he was not romantically involved with his Iraqi interpreter.[38] Iraq is not part of the Mediterranean world; Baghdad is more than 500 miles from both Tel Aviv and Beirut.
Cole: Even medieval Islamic law recognized the right of Christians, Jews, and other monotheists to practice their religion and enjoy rights to their lives and property. This relative tolerance has often been enhanced in the twentieth century by the rise of nationalism, wherein Arab Christians sometimes are privileged as symbols of national authenticity because Christianity predated Islam in the nation's history.âAugust 3, 2004 [39]
MEQ: As Martin Kramer points out, "Iraqi nationalists perpetrated massacres against Iraq's Christians in 1933 and against its Jews (who also predate Islam in Iraq's history) in 1941."[40] Cole's understanding of medieval Islam is also selective. Harun al-Rashid (786-809) originated the practiceârevived by the Nazis more than a millennium laterâof requiring Jews to wear yellow patches.[41] The eleventh century Saljuq dynasty also required Jews to wear yellow patches and shuttered Christian-owned taverns.[42] Both Christians and Jews had to pay extortionate taxes until they converted "voluntarily" to Islam.[43] In nineteenth century Iranâwithin Cole's self-declared scope of expertiseâIslamic clerics whipped up anti-Christian pogroms.[44] Only in the early twentieth century, did Jews and Christians win equal rights within Iran,[45] and then only briefly.
Alex Joffe is director of Campus Watch, at www.campus-watch.org.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/14/2005 09:47 ||
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"Judaism has given us so much that is noble in ethical religion, and what the Likud is doing is an insult to that long and glorious tradition."
#2
Likud is operating well within the long and noble Jewish tradition of each having a different idea of what should be done, and arguing fiercely for it until a momentary consensus is achieved.... pending changing conditions or new information. Professor Cole is busily demonstrating that he is a consummately ignorant ass, not nearly as intelligent as he fondly believes. And of course an antisemitic bigot, but presumabley that goes without saying.
#3
Too often criticism of Likud and US-Israel relations is equated with anti-Semitism. These Quixotic extrapolations not only fail to refute an opposing opinion but dilute the authentic mission of stopping religious bigotry. IMHO
#4
You want to assert that the Likud is the equivalent of the Syrian Baathists, DG? I must've missed all the Israeli political prisons and regular thumping of opposition figures ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/14/2005 14:15 Comments ||
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#5
dual citizenships hurt in that loyalties are always in question, whether we're talking Israeli/US or Mexican/US.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#6
There is one similarity between Lefties and Muslims: members of both groups have have intellectual integrity of cockroaches on PCP.
#7
Like Jessie Jackson's Hymie comments, it appears Black Americans have no love for Jews. TW can you postulate on where this bigotry comes from? I'm a non-prac Christian American mutt 17 generations removed from my European heritage with out a prejudical bone in my body. Although I do agree with racial profiling. Where does anti-semitism come from?
#8
As a cockroach (but not on PCP), I find that comparison insulting.
Please refrain form insulting us roaches in the future ok? Thanks!
Posted by: Charlie the Cockroach ||
11/14/2005 15:37 Comments ||
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#9
RW - good poit, especially since Jews were heavily represented in the non-black civil rights figures
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 15:48 Comments ||
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#10
Great documentation of the moonbattery of cole, and by extention, to middle east studies due to the election of cole as their leader. Alas, no additional datum was needed here. But the WHY in the title seems unanswered. WHY are middle east studies in general so wacked out?
Posted by: Dave ||
11/14/2005 18:20 Comments ||
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#11
"You want to assert that the Likud is the equivalent of the Syrian Baathists, DG?"
Huh...what? I don't recall making any such assertion. I just find it humorous that anytime there is criticism of anything Isreal the Ole anti-Semitism accusation usually is part of the rebuff. I also find it equally humorous that Islamists always find a way to blame everything bad on the Jews. Is it a cynical sense of humor or just sick in the head? I'm not sure myself.
#12
it's Israel, and they have other than Likud members. Check on your Arab parliaments and see how much diversity they have. Your attention (assuming no agenda) would be better spent there, DG. Barring that, you welcome attention of the negative type, antisemitism one aspect of that...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 18:49 Comments ||
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#13
I was referring to this:
These Quixotic extrapolations not only fail to refute an opposing opinion but dilute the authentic mission of stopping religious bigotry.
Cole says in the excerpts provided that he considers Likud just as bad the Syrian Baathists. That may not make him an anti-Semite, but it sure as hell tells you a lot about how warped his sense of moral equivalence is. Then again, this is a guy whose only way to explain to his readers just how bad Ahmadinejad is was to compare him to Bush.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/14/2005 20:23 Comments ||
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Thoughts on Afro-American antisemitism? Ok, I'll try, although I'm likely to get in very deep shit here, with people whose opinions I value... and with the caveat that I was born in 1961, and so wasn't paying much attention during the critical period, and these thoughts are very off the cuff.
Alllll righty then, in no particular order, and with the hope that you read to the end before you crucify me:
Following the initial non-violent Civil Rights movement and, indeed, fighting with them for primacy amongst the Black community was the violent Black Power movement. This fight had been going on since the very beginning pre-Civil War, the two threads of the argument being represented by Booker T. Washington, who advocated self-improvement and trades training for former slaves -- to make them economically independent of the White community -- and Frederick Douglass -- who demanded that the White community recognize that that African-Americans were equally as human, and therefore entitled to the same protections under the law as the White citizenry. I do not argue here that either Professor Washington or Professor Douglass advocated violence, but rather that they sought different means to improve the lot of their fellows.
A strong minority of the non-violent Civil Rights movement were Whites who sympathised with the unjust predicament of their Black countrymen, and a significant portion of those were Jewish. We were always told that this was because of the traditional Jewish call for justice and mercy, and especially equality under the law, a deficit of which is a strong part of Jewish history. Which is pretty much why, along with a very strong streak of idealism, there are Jews to be found in every kind of justice and liberation movement (cf. the early and even later versions of the Communists and Socialists, and the neo-cons nowadays).
However, for the Black Power movement, anything that smacked of the White Boss Man had to be removed from view and memory, lest the tale of Black self-empowerment be weakened. And the Jews in this country, for the most part, are Caucasian. So stories of Jewish slave-owners in the anti-bellum South were told and re-told, horror tales of grasping Jewish landlords and cheating shopkeepers to beware of in the North, and the existence of Jewish participation, support, and even leadership alongside their Black fellows in the Civil Rights movement erased from memory. Thus I had a Black colleague once who'd grown up with Dr. King's children in Atlanta, who told me in all seriousness that all the good things in the world had been invented by Black people, and all the bad things, including AIDS and war, came from Whites. She then recommended to me her "little Jewish ob-gyn," because Jews are better doctors than Blacks -- she'd even dropped the Black woman who'd treated her previously, because the woman just couldn't be as good.
And of course, people like Jesse Jackson and whoever now leads the Black Muslims are just evil and bigotted, and would be the same no matter to what ethnicity or skin colour they'd been born.
But truth be told, that woman was the only African-American, or Black of any nationality, who said or thought such things. And I was 28 years old before I met her. Certainly I am not aware of such sentiments from the Black members of Rantburg, and I would argue that they are as fine representatives of their people as the rest of the good people here.
Ok, you can get mad at me now, but I tried my best.
A conference on Islam and pluralism opened in Vienna with a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for "continuing dialogue among the great religions" to fight extremism. "Clearly there is a need to unlearn our collective prejudices, to promote a continuing dialogue among the great religions, a dialogue based on the premise that diversity in thought, in belief, and in action, is a precious gift, not a threat," Annan said in a statement read in Vienna by his special advisor Lakhdar Brahimi. The statement said: "We must also unite in our efforts to address the extremism that is, alas, on the rise not only in Islam but among adherents of many faiths."
"I mean, have you SEEN what the Methodists did last week? They issued a fatwa on whipped-cream-in-a-can. They say you have to whip it yourself with your Sunbeam mixer...or else."
Annan, who was not in Vienna, said the response to extremists must be not violence but "the logic of peace, of reconciliation, of inclusion and mutual respect. "We must resolve, even more firmly, to build nations within which people of different communities can coexist, and enjoy equal rights," Annan said. Conference host Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said: "Mistrust and violence are also growing on both the regional and global level, not least in Europe, where an increasing number of Moslem citizens are seeking their rightful place in society.
The 'rightful place' being "in charge with the jewelliest turban and the curliest slippers," of course. Working on an equal basis with the rest of the citizenry towards building a prosperous nation at peace with other prosperous nations is far too demeaning.
"This conference should foster mutual understanding, dialogue and cooperation between cultures and religions," Plassnik said. Former moderate Iranian President Mohamed Khatami warned the conference against taking "a radical approach of pluralism", saying that the "crusades" of the past taught that war must not happen again. "Religions should listen to each other and focus on what brings them together to save the world from from chemical and nuclear weapons," he said. Others attending the conference include Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and the secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Turkey's Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
And so on and so forth. Vienna has pretty good food, I've heard. And somehow the Lutherans there have managed not to boom anything in the last three centuries or so...
#1
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said: "Mistrust and violence are also growing on both the regional and global level, not least in Europe, where an increasing number of Moslem citizens are seeking their rightful place in society.
Thanks, Kofi. At least we know who's gonna get blamed for the...extremism. Not that we didn't know.
Another example of why releasing releasing terrorists and guerrilas is a losing strategy. How many of the 189 being released today will go back to their old habits?
American forces detained and later released an Iraqi with the same name as one of the suicide attackers who struck three hotels in Amman, Jordan, last week, the U.S. military said Monday. Jordanian authorities said Safaa Mohammed Ali, 23, was among the suicide attackers who struck last Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt, SAS Radisson and Day's Inn hotels, killing at least 57 people.
A statement by the U.S. command said someone by that name was detained in November 2004 in connection with the American assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The command said it could not confirm whether the person detained was the same man who took part in the Amman attack.
"He was detained locally at the division detention facility" but was released two weeks later because there was no "compelling evidence to continue to hold him" as a "threat to the security of Iraq."
And of course, the Standard Histerical Islamic Thoughtprocess:
Many Jordanians, however, expressed doubt al-Rishawi's confession was real or that she was even involved in the plot. "I don't buy it. There are many contradictions, and it just doesn't make sense," said Mohammed al-Fakhiri, a 33-year-old mobile telephone shop owner in the Jordanian, capital, Amman. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2005 08:11 ||
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#1
"I don't buy it. There are many contradictions, and it just doesn't make sense,"
Like the old worn line that Muslims don't kill other Muslims? Wakeup or be buried.
Jordan has launched a crackdown on the large Iraqi emigrant community in wake of Al Qaida suicide attacks last week. Officials said more than 120 people have been arrested since the triple suicide strikes in luxury hotels in Amman on Nov. 9. They said most of the detainees were Iraqis -- including suspected supporters of Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi -- who came to Jordan over the last five years. "There are only two logistical places that they [attackers] could have come across -- either the Iraqi or the Syrian borders," Jordan's King Abdullah said. Jordan was said to have 400,000 Iraqis. Many of them left Iraq for Jordan during the Saddam Hussein regime.
And many after the Saddam Hussein regime. Leave us not forget them...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Here's an idea. How about jugging Sammy's family and seizing their assets?
A senior Palestinian official has called for a U.N. investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat, reiterating allegations that the Palestinian leader was poisoned by Israel. Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah faction, said Arafat was poisoned by Israel "because he was a stumbling block to (Israeli) plans." Other Palestinians have made the same charge in the past and Israel has repeatedly denied it. The PLO will ask the U.N. Security Council "to form an international investigating commission into the assassination of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat." Kaddoumi told reporters on Saturday. Arafat died in a French hospital on Nov. 11, 2004 at age 75. The exact cause of death remains unknown, fueling persistent rumors that he was either poisoned or died of AIDS.
I'd go with the AIDS theory, myself. I don't think I'd touch his mausoleum without rubber gloves, in fact...
Kaddoumi was speaking in Damascus after meeting representatives of the Syria-based radical Palestinian factions opposed to the PLO's peace accords with Israel. He said all Palestinian groups are united in holding Israel fully responsible for Arafat's death.
What else can they do? Admit that one of his bodyguards infected him with a terminal pox? I think I'd just let the matter drop if I was them...
Arafat died in a military hospital outside Paris, two weeks after being flown there from his West Bank compound in Ramallah, where he had been cooped up for three years under Israeli siege. The Percy Military Hospital, which treated Arafat, has not clarified the cause of death, and its medical records, recently leaked to reporters, have proven inconclusive.
In that case, it's probably because they don't want to commit themselves to a politically sensitive statement about the leader of a group noted for booming cars.
Those records, obtained by two Israeli journalists who shared them with The Associated Press, cast doubt on the conspiracy theories. French doctors who treated Arafat at Percy concluded he died of a "massive brain hemorrhage" after suffering intestinal inflammation, jaundice and a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC. But the records are inconclusive about what brought about DIC, which has numerous causes ranging from infections to colitis to liver disease.
I confess. It was me. I prayed for sepsis and — poof! — there it was.
On Friday, the Palestinians in the West Bank marked the first anniversary of Arafat's death. Arafat's nephew, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa, said at the time he is convinced his uncle did not die of natural causes, and that Israel killed him.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
A "probe" is what probably got him in trouble in the first place...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 20:44 Comments ||
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French doctors who treated Arafat at Percy concluded he died of a "massive brain hemorrhage" after suffering intestinal inflammation, jaundice and a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC
Ariel Sharon kept telling the old bugger to "stick it up his ars!" Appears he took the recommendation quite literally.
The escape of terrorist suspect Omar al-Farouq from the United States detention may be a ploy to track down most-wanted terror master Osama bin Laden, a former intelligence chief told The Jakarta Post. A.M. Hendropriyono, former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) director said he had strong grounds to suspect a hidden agenda behind the escape of al-Farouq, a Kuwait-born terrorist suspect who Indonesia handed over to the United States in September 2002, one month before the Bali blasts that killed 202 people.
"Following his escape, al-Farouq appeared in an interview with an Arabian TV station brandishing an automatic rifle. It is impossible that a terrorist group would trust and give him a gun after three years in US detention. It is possible that he was prepared by his users to conduct a special mission," Hendropriyono said.
"Second, it is quite strange that Washington remained silent about al-Farouq's escape. It can be assumed that US security authorities were informed of his escape from the prison in July, but until now, President George W. Bush has not explained it, at least not to the American public," he added.
Hendropriyono, who was responsible for al-Farouq's transfer to US custody, said it was very likely that al-Farouq had been brainwashed during his confinement at the Baghram maximum security detention centre in Afghanistan.
"Brainwashing does not take years, it can take just two days," he said.
Hendropriyono said it appeared that al-Farouq's brainwashing had been effective, as al-Farouq was cooperative and provided detailed information when two Indonesian police officer questioned him in Afghanistan following the hand-over. Al-Farouq had led the police to Muslim cleric Abu Bakar al-Bashir, who is serving his 30-month jail term for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali blasts.
He also said it was possible that the US was using al-Farouq to trace terrorist networks in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and locate bin Laden, who is still at large following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
The fact that Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned of possible strikes by al-Farouq, indicates that Indonesia was never informed of the apparent US plan, said Hendropriyono.
"But if he returns to Indonesia anyway, BIN and the police know all his contact persons and the accomplices he may look for in Bogor, Poso, Palu, Makassar and Ambon, five towns where he operated between 1999 and 2002," he said.
Asked about the public outrage toward him for handing al-Farouq over to the US three years ago, Hendropriyono said the Indonesian authorities had no legal basis to charge him for terrorism, because the country had not enacted an applicable law.
"BIN arrested him because he was one of the most-wanted persons in connection with the September 11 tragedy, and then deported him for immigration violations and identity card counterfeit. BIN was never instructed by the US. or other countries to arrest him.
"We nabbed him because he was dangerous, and if he had not been arrested, more people might have been killed in bomb attacks," he said.
Al-Farouq was arrested by intelligence agents in the Bogor Grand Mosque after BIN received a video recording showing him leading a bloody attack on a Christian village in Poso, Central Sulawesi.
Hendropriyono said al-Farouq had held five different passports and various fake Indonesian identity cards under different names but did not speak Indonesian.
The former intelligence chief expressed regret that one of al-Farouq's operatives who was later arrested, Seyam Reda, had escaped, and many members of al-Qaeda-related groups were still operating in Poso, where sectarian conflict left 1,000 dead between 2000 and 2001, and where earlier this month, three schoolgirls were beheaded by a masked gang in October and two others were shot dead in a separate incident.
Al-Farouq, Reda and several other al-Qaeda operatives were brought into the country by Parlindungan Siregar in 1999, Hendropriyono said. Parlindungan has been declared a suspect in the Madrid bombing in March last year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/14/2005 10:03 ||
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Why does this give me mental images of Cartman al-Farouq and an 80 foot rectal satellite dish?
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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Cartman
Anyone else having problems with preview not working?
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2005 10:53 Comments ||
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Surely, this time, Lucy won't yank the football away.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohammad ElBaradei is pressing members of the agency's board of governors to give Iran "one last chance" before sending Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, IAEA officials and European diplomats told Newsmax in Vienna. The decision to refer Iran to the UN Security Council could come on Thanksgiving Day, when the IAEA Board of Governors has its next scheduled meeting to discuss "new information" discovered by inspectors in Iran, the officials said.
ElBaradei discussed a potential "face-saving" deal European negotiators could offer Tehran during meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. and IAEA officials said. "Our message to Iran is that they have an opportunity to influence the timing and nature of the report to the UN Security Council," a State Department official said.
Portions of the offer, which the Europeans have not embraced, were leaked to the New York Times, which reported on Thursday that Iran would be allowed to continue to produce uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), the feedstock used for uranium enrichment, as long as it exported the product to Russia where it would be enriched to produce reactor-grade fuel.
But a European official directly involved in the negotiations with Tehran denied that the Russia proposal was even on the table, and said the New York Times report was false. "There is no offer," he told Newsmax in Vienna today. "Why should we make an offer? The Iranians must come to us" since they were the ones who had reneged on their promises to suspend all enrichment-related activities. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice also denied the New York Times report. "There is no U.S.-European proposal for the Iranians. I want to say that categorically," she said on Thursday.
An IAEA official present at the Washington, DC meetings where the idea was discussed found other inaccuracies in the New York Times account. "The idea is to allow Iran to make uranium tetrachloride (UF4) I presume they mean uranium tetraflouride â not UF6 â and to keep it under strict IAEA monitoring," the official said. "A moratorium or a total ban on all fuel cycle activities is a non-starter, because of [Iranian] national pride." Like Aryan pride or Bushido. Remember what happened to them.
The U.S. continues to push for a "renewed suspension" of all nuclear fuel processing and enrichment in Iran, a State Department official said. "This is the bar that has been set by the IAEA, and these are our instructions: Iran must renew suspension, renew cooperation with the IAEA, and resume negotiations with the EU3."
The IAEA believes Iran could agree to limit work at Isfahan to UF4 because trial production runs of UF6, which is made from UF4, have been "crap," a senior IAEA official said. "The quality is just no good. This will allow Iran to save face."
The European official, who had just emerged from a meeting in Vienna of the political directors of the three European Union countries (France, Germany and the UK), insisted that ElBaradei had not presented the U.S. offer as a done deal or even as an informal proposal. "Lots of ideas are being discussed," he said.
He called it "something someone wants to float. A trial balloon." European and U.S. officials insisted that it was not up to ElBaradei to lobby the board or to float proposals, but to report the results of IAEA inspections in Iran. "Only the board makes decisions," a State Department official said.
An IAEA official present at the meeting in Washington said that Secretary of State Rice had asked ElBaradei to be "the messenger boy" to Tehran. "Since the Secretary General would like to find a solution that does not send Iran's case to the UN Security Council, he had no problem with that," the official said.
Diplomats in Vienna speculated that the U.S. offer, which would allow Iran to invest in an enrichment facility in Russia but not to enrich uranium itself, was designed to win Russian support at the Security Council should Iran veto the offer, which is expected.
The EU-3 are working on a non-paper they will circulate before the Nov. 24 board meeting that "lays out our red lines and the principles that must underpin" an eventual agreement, the EU official said. A "non-paper." Perfect for non-men with non-courage and non-intelligence from non-nations with non-militaries.
The IAEA is trying to convince Board of Governors members that referring Iran to the UN Security Council could prompt Iran's radical new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to expel IAEA inspectors from Iran. "It's much better to keep IAEA inspectors in Iran than to send Iran to the UN Security Council in New York without a strategy," a top IAEA official told Newsmax in Vienna. "They did that three years ago with North Korea. And look where we are now" Right. They had made zero progress until the inspectors left, then suddenly claim full capability in weeks.
Iran's new nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has threatened to toss out IAEA inspectors if the Board of Governors refers their case to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Larijani, a Revolutionary Guards intelligence officer, once headed Iran's state broadcasting agency. "At least now Iran is respecting the Additional Protocol, though not actually obeying it" the IAEA official said. The Additional Protocol requires Iran to provide extensive information on previously clandestine nuclear facilities and to allow international inspectors to visit undeclared sites throughout the country.
Despite the clear pattern of cheat and retreat, the EU-3 agrees with ElBaradei that some solution must be found to prevent sending Iran to the UN Security at the end of this month. "So we go to New York, the inspectors get tossed out, and we get a war. Then what have we achieved?" the European official said. You've let Iran get an extra year on their Manhattan Project. That's what you wanted, right?
#3
The IAEA is trying to convince Board of Governors members that referring Iran to the UN Security Council could prompt Iran's radical new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to expel IAEA inspectors from Iran.
Let him! Sure paid off handsomely for ole Saddam and his two charming sons.
#5
I say, give 'em another chance. After all, ElBaradei is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and who are we poor slobs to question his judgement? I mean, question a very important bureaucrat who knows everything?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/14/2005 23:05 Comments ||
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#6
please close all "/sarcasm" labels...thank you
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 23:31 Comments ||
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Wanking for show. UN nuclear chief to press Iran on compromise Proposal would move program to Russia
The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency is supporting a proposal that calls for Iran to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, and he plans to carry the details with him to Tehran within days, diplomats said yesterday.
The planned trip by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is meant to persuade Tehran to accept the initiative aimed at eliminating Iran's capacity to make fuel for nuclear weapons, despite an initial rejection.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of the Iranian nuclear agency, ruled out the compromise proposal on Saturday and insisted that the uranium enrichment program must be carried out in Iran.
But a European official and a diplomat close to the agency downplayed Aghazadeh's reaction, saying it was given before he had seen the plan, which would first be presented to the Iranians by ElBaradei and his delegation. Both officials received anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information.
Speaking from outside Vienna, the European official said ElBaradei was acting with the approval of the European Union and the United States, which have endorsed the arrangement.
The official said Iran had little choice but to accept the proposal if it wanted to avoid the likelihood of a European-US push to refer it to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions when the IAEA's 35-nation board meets Nov. 24 in Vienna.
A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, had no comment on the report.
Washington says Iran is aiming to produce nuclear warheads. Tehran says its program is solely to produce electricity and insists it has the right to develop the entire nuclear fuel cycle on its own.
In an effort to blunt chances of referral to the Security Council, Iran recently allowed IAEA inspectors to revisit the Parchin military site, southeast of Tehran.
Another diplomat close to the agency said yesterday that initial results of environmental samples from the site showed no trace of radiation, although US officials say the site may be part of Iran's nuclear arms research program.
But the diplomat emphasized that further tests were needed before a conclusion could be reached. Specialists have said Iran could have conducted "dry testing" without radioactive components even if it was working on a nuclear weapons program in Parchin.
Diplomats said earlier this year that US officials presented computer simulations to IAEA officials this summer indicating that Iran was trying to design a nuclear warhead to fit on its Shahab missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and other Middle Eastern countries.
Reacting to a report in The New York Times yesterday that offered new details on the presentation, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran that the US intelligence information was "rubbish."
The Times said the Americans asserted that the simulations and other documents came from a stolen Iranian laptop.
The head of a UN murder inquiry is insisting on interviewing six Syrian officials in Lebanon, rebuffing a Syrian proposal for them to be questioned elsewhere, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. The official, who asked not to be named, said the ministryâs legal adviser Riad Al-Daoudi had met in the Lebanese capital last week with Detlev Mehlis, who is trying to find the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. But the official said the German prosecutor had refused to discuss Syriaâs concerns about where its officials should be questioned and had ignored its counterproposals. âMehlis was rigid and did not pay any attention to the issues raised by Riad Al-Daoudi,â the official said. âDaoudi visited Beirut on an unofficial mission to touch base with Mehlis on the details of his request.â
Mehlisâ team wants to interview the Syrian officials, said by Lebanese political sources to include the brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, at its headquarters near Beirut. Daoudi told Mehlis Syria felt this could cause internal problems in Lebanon and affect Syrian-Lebanese relations, the official said. Daoudi had also proposed that the UN team choose a venue in Damascus for the questioning, or hold it at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, he added. âMehlis refused to discuss this issue. None of the issues that (Daoudi) raised was agreed upon,â the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Willis passionate about Iraq war
Actor says he will pay for the capture of bin Laden, al-Zarqawi
HT Laura Ingraham...
Brings new meaning to "Die Hard - With a Vengence"
Getting stories out of Iraq isn't easy. Actor Bruce Willis found that out first hand when he went over to visit U.S. Troops serving in the Armed Forces.
Willis told MSNBC-TV's Rita Cosby that he does not understand why the really good things he saw happening inside Iraq are not being reported by the media.
Willis publicly announced he would offer $1 million reward to a civilian if they turned in Zawahiri, bin Laden, or al-Zarqawi. But, he also offered the same $1 million reward in 2003 for the capture of Saddam. But will Willis pay up?
RITA COSBY, LIVE AND DIRECT HOST: You know, Bruce, in 2003, you admirably offered $1 million for the capture of Saddam. I have to ask you, because just last night we had on our show so many of those pictures, those horrific pictures of what happened in Jordan.
And right now, we've got three thorns in our side. We've got Zawahiri, of course, who is Osama bin Laden's right-hand guy. You've got Osama bin Laden himself. And then you've got al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi who every believes is behind the mastermind of the attack, just those horrible attacks on three hotels just the other night.
Are you prepared even right now to maybe offer $1 million for one of them?
BRUCE WILLIS, ACTOR: Well, that was a conversation I was having with members of the military. I've since been told that military men and women cannot accept any reward for the job that they're doing. It was more about my passion for trying to stop Saddam Hussein.
COSBY: Would you offer that if somebody else, let's say a civilian, is willing to turn one of them in and finally put this to an end?
WILLIS: Yes, I would. Yes, I would.
I want to live in a world, and so do the Iraqi people want to live in a world, where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed. And, I mean, doesn't everybody want that? Who doesn't want that?
#2
Sajida al-Rishawi, who ought to have some great leads on the Zarqawi network, should take him up on the offer and go into a witness protection program. Maybe Willis can recommend a good plastic surgeon in La-La Land.
#3
first hollywood type too do something bloody brilliant, top man lets hope he might start a trend going - hell i'd donate 100 bucks or whatever to the pot to catch old Binny and his chums
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/14/2005 15:08 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 16:08 Comments ||
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#7
First off, WAY TO GO BRUCE! I love a guy who puts his money where his mouth is! Also, this begs the question: Why aren't more affluent people offering up money for rewards? I guarantee that the bad guys want to harm them more than anyone else. So why hasnât Gates offered up say $20 Million? Heck he could write it off as a business expense. I will make a promise right here that when I hit the Mega Lottery on Tuesday ($310 Million), I will add another million each for Bin Laden, Omar, and Zarqawi. Maybe then Bruce and I can pal around some weekend?
#8
Bruce also made "Tears of the Sun" - on DVD now - which portrayed our troops as exactly you'd hope they'd be: courageous, compassionate, first class killers of our enemies, and men. Rent it if you don't wanna buy it
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 18:16 Comments ||
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#9
Bruce also made "Tears of the Sun" - on DVD now - which portrayed our troops as exactly you'd hope they'd be: courageous, compassionate, first class killers of our enemies, and men. Rent it if you don't wanna buy it
The hell with all that. Buy it. I rate it as one of the best war movies ever made, and the action on this film is exactly how Frank describes it.
There is out now a Special Edition of the film which I soon hope to pick up.
Buy it. Show Bruce how we support all of our heros, even the ones on film.
CHILDREN orphaned by the Kashmir earthquake are being âadoptedâ by terrorist groups that hope to train them to fight in the jihad, or holy war, writes Dean Nelson. Pakistanâs leading human rights organisation, the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, said jihadi groups fighting the Indian government were taking orphans off the streets and putting them in training camps.
The organisation said it also had evidence that sympathetic government officials were passing children on to the jihadis to be looked after.
The popularity of the Islamic militants has risen sharply since the earthquake struck on October 8, killing more than 87,000 people. The militants were among the first to arrive with aid at some of the worst affected villages. Their organisation and ability to commandeer lifting equipment and tents have generated significant new support. But according to human rights campaigners they are using their new popularity to smuggle weapons and recruit the young and vulnerable.
Because the widows and orphans need new ammo. Their old ammo was buried in the quake. It's logical unless you're an infidel.
âWe have heard from very reliable sources and seen with our own eyes that orphaned and lost children are being taken by jihadi organisations in northern Pakistan to be trained,â said Fahad Burney, of the trust.
Jamaat-ud Dawa, one of the largest jihadi groups in Pakistan, has called openly for orphans to be handed over for an âIslamic educationâ.
Pakistan moved quickly following the quake to ban adoptions after aid agencies warned of child trafficking.
Another hazard facing children is pneumonia, which is taking its toll among the 750,000 survivors living in tent camps. Action Against Hunger said it was now seeing one or two cases every day, and was aware of some children dying from the illness.
Much more important to get new ammo to the orphans than to provide them with penicillin. Ev'yone knows that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2005 10:35 ||
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HEAVY fighting apparently sparked by an Islamic militia's moves to close cinemas and video stores in the lawless Somali capital has killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 21. Must have been that crowd they filmed in those Blockbuster commercials.
Clashes between gunmen loyal to Mogadishu's Islamic courts and local militia defending the densely populated Yaqshid district began yesterday and flared again today. I understand the gunfire began when gunmen loyal to Mogadishu's Islamic courts began shooting themselves in the head after being forced to watch "Gigili" twice in a row.
"The Islamic courts' militia are trying to close all entertainment centres of the district," one local resident Ahmed Dhuhulow said. Let's see...isla-la-lamic logic allows the killing of random people to ensure people can't watch "Shrek"?
Three people died yesterday and another nine today in clashes that caused inhabitants to flee the area and shops to close, witnesses said. Criminally insane = Islamic courts'
Heavy firing could be heard from all over Mogadishu, home to one million of Somalia's 10 million people and scene of frequent street battles during 14 years of anarchy. Coming to a theater near you soon...Paris, Lyon, Rotterdam and Berlin.
"We have not opened the schools this morning, because of the shooting and heavy bullets which are falling down," said school teacher Abdullahi Hassan. And we have Saudia Arabia to thank for this. I say 1 tactical nuke at every wahhabi hell-hole that fosters and supports this insanity around the world.
At least two civilians hit by stray bullets, as well as militiamen, were among the 12 dead, witnesses said. The wounded included a child hit by a bullet in the chest. insanity.
Leaders of Mogadishu's influential Islamic courts oppose Western and Indian films which they say promote immorality in the mainly Muslim nation. Message to the crimminally insane leaders of Mogadishu's influential Islamic courts: Where does it say in the Qoran that the random, senseless slaughter of innocent muslims is justified in order to enforce islamic rule? Is a "Shrek" DVD worth a human life? Where is the moral outrage in the Arab street?
Its the Kaffir Indian wimmen actresses tempting the muslims from the ways of Allah
Calm has returned to the Somali capital Mogadishu after 11 people were killed and 20 wounded in weekend fighting. The clashes pitted militia belonging to the Islamic courts against owners of cinemas showing dubbed Bollywood films
The Islamic courts have been attempting to control the activities of the cinemas - accusing them of fuelling crime, drug abuse and immorality.
Last month, the court's militia stormed a studio where Bollywood films were being translated and destroyed equipment.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairman of the Islamic courts, says they open from early in the morning showing "scandalous movies to children even not allowed by producers in their home country".
Posted by: john ||
11/14/2005 14:38 Comments ||
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#3
The woman pictured above is not a calming influence. However, certainly no reason to go jihad (postal).
Now if the jihadists would get behind a jihad against Barbara Streisand, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, etc., I might join in.
#4
Indian films are quite popular in the Africa and the Arab world.
There is a lot of over the top acting (which needs no translating), with dancing and singing and they're also long (2-3 hours) so the crowd gets their money's worth.
and actresses like Mallika Sherawat (above) are popular for obvious reasons...
Posted by: john ||
11/14/2005 15:37 Comments ||
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#5
In this war of civilizations I will do my part and P2P share all the pr0n I can lay my hands on to Muslims.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman have reportedly decided to resolve their differences in the next meeting of the Muttahidaâs supreme council. âIt has been decided by both leaders to resolve the issues that caused differences between them at a meeting of the supreme council, which is likely to be held by the end of the month,â sources told Daily Times. The decision was taken at a meeting between Qazi and Fazl at the formerâs residence last week.
There was no contact between the two leaders for more than 15 days as they did not even make any phone calls to each other during this period. Sources said contacts were terminated after Fazl allowed Akram Khan Durrani, the NWFP chief minister, to participate in the National Security Council (NSC) meeting convened by President Pervez Musharraf soon after the earthquake to discuss the relief strategy. They said participation by the NWFP chief minister in the NSC meeting angered Qazi, as he was already annoyed with Fazl due to the seatsâ adjustment issue in the local government elections. They said that Liaquat Baloch, the deputy secretary-general of the MMA, played an important role in ending the cold war between the top leaders of the six-party alliance.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
"today we settle. Tomorrow is a new day. I will be in charge then...."
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 0:21 Comments ||
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A delegation of catholic bishops of Pakistan will visit the school, convent and three churches that were attacked on November 12 at Sangla Hill, Nankana Sahib district. The bishops will lodge a first information report (FIR) against the people suspected of being behind the attacks. They demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the matter. The delegation of two to three bishops will visit the school, convent and churches today and a black day will be observed on November 17. Missionary and Christian schools will remain closed on that day.
Bishops from various churches, representatives of missionary groups and several non-government organisations (NGO) strongly condemned the attacks. The Catholic Church, Church of Pakistan, National Council of Churches, Salvation Army and National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) held an emergency meeting at Lahore and demanded action against the accused so that Christians are protected in Pakistan. The meeting said that such incidents were well supported by discriminatory laws and minorities would continue to fight to repeal discriminatory laws. Bishops of catholic and protestant missions sent a letter to President General Pervez Musharraf, demanding the government take action against the attackers. âThis sad incident reminds us of Shanti Nagar Village, which was burnt to ashes,â said the statement issued by National Commission for Justice and Peace Executive Secretary Peter Jacob, adding that such incidents had led to Christiansâ insecurity. Catholic Bishopsâ Conference of Pakistan President Lawrence J Saldanha condemned the attacks and said that extremist leaders were responsible for this act of terrorism.
âWe call for an impartial judicial inquiry into the allegations against a Christian for desecrating the Holy Quran, which resulted in the attacks,â he said. He said that the role of law enforcing agencies and local leaders should also be looked into. Compensation should be paid for the damages, he said and urged Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to visit Sangla Hill to determine the magnitude of destruction. He said that Christians were a peaceful community and they had participated in the October 8 earthquake relief operations. The protestant bishop of Lahore, Dr Alexander John Malik, said that the allegations against the Christian did not mean that people could take the law into their own hands. The bishop said that police had been told about the attacks but they did not respond properly. He said that a Lahore High Court judge should look into the matter and the culprits should be brought to justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Duh! Whaddaya think you're going to find? A surprise?
I think I have some idea of what Perv's been smoking. I wouldn't indulge, myself...
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that there was âno possibilityâ at all that radicals could take over Pakistan, especially in light of the recent local government elections.
Ummm... Right. I think that's what they said just before the Bastille was stormed. And I'm sure Nikolas said something along those lines to Alexandra...
... no possibility those rebels will fire at Fort Sumter; it's Federal property after all ...
âThere is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this country is a moderate country, and moderate forces have reasserted themselves, and religious forces have gone down,â the president said on CNN.
Pakistan's "moderates" are occasionally somebody else's wild-eyed lunatics...
Gen Musharraf rejected suggestions Pakistan was not doing enough to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, saying the countryâs intelligence organisations were unified with the military in battling terrorism and trying to find the Al Qaeda chief. âThey are my enemies,â he said of Al Qaeda. âQuite clearly, we are operating against them. And there is no doubt that we will keep operating against them. Iâm not scared of that.â
They don't appear to be, either...
Gen Musharraf defended his recent attempts to engage Israelâs government, saying most Pakistanis support his policy. âWhen we are talking to the Israelis and the Israeli foreign minister, or I address the Jewish congress, I am very clear that this is the strategic direction that Pakistan needs to take,â Musharraf said. âThe vast majority of Pakistanis, the media, the intelligentsia, the masses, have all accepted this. Nobody is questioning me at all.â
"Except for the turban and automatic weapons set, of course..."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Perv is actually correct.
There is zero chance of a takeover. The Pak state serves the army (not the other way around) and the army will tolerate no threats to its power and economic priviledges (it controls a substantial part of the Pak economy).
Pakistan's army has killed more of its own citizens that any other existing regime. They are ruthless when needed and will slaughter any serious threat without mercy.
The jihadists are a tool of the army and have always been so. There is a leaked ISI document from two years ago which was quite open about this. Occasional protests by jihadis were actually encouraged because they gave the impression of a state under threat. Pak leaders could then claim "Apres Moi Le Deluge" (after me the flood) and demand foreign aid from the US.
This has been a standard tactic from the very first pak prime minister Liqiat Ali Khan in 1948. He also pointed to the fundos waiting in the wings.
Jihad also dates from this time. Jinnah threatened the British with jihad and it was a Pathan tribal lashkar, with dreams of jihad which first invaded Kashmir.
Posted by: john ||
11/14/2005 16:37 Comments ||
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#2
so it needs to be made clear to the Pak army that the consequences of continuing support for Jihad will outweigh any Saudi funding they receive. Clear answer- remove the source of funds. Wetwork req'd - messy scenes needed, thankyouverymuch
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2005 18:09 Comments ||
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#3
Saudi funding allowed Pak to develop nukes.
During the rule of PM Benazir Bhutto, she was denied permission to visit Pak enrichment facilities but the Saudi Prince Turki had a full tour (he who pays the piper calls the tune).
Saudi is buying a lot of Pak assembled Chinese armor. Now this stuff is basically junk when compared to the American M1A1 tanks and Bradleys the Saudis possess but can't even use properly.
So why are they buying it?
The equipment is for a Pak brigade. Given US security guarantees, this Pak army presence is quite strange. It is not a tripwire force because Iran would not fear Pak and it is too small to deal with a serious Iranian or future Iraqi attack.
So why the brigade? It is probably there to secure vital pak assets - nukes - being kept in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi may have leased Pak nukes.
Posted by: john ||
11/14/2005 18:22 Comments ||
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#4
thx John.
Saudi may have leased Pak nukes. It makes alot of sense... but how solid do you think this intel is?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/14/2005 20:47 Comments ||
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#5
but how solid do you think this intel is?
Posted by: Red Dog 2005-11-14 20:47
This is all about Kingdom insurance against the loonies in Iran. Nuclear prolifertion in action.
This has been coming out in bits and pieces for some time now.
In the end, all you have is a credible case. Nothing absolute.
The Saudi purchase of Chinese ballistic missiles is another indicator. They lacked the nuke warhead those missile were designed to carry.
Guess which country was supplied with the warhead designs?
Gen Musharraf defended his recent attempts to engage Israelâs government, saying most Pakistanis support his policy. âWhen we are talking to the Israelis and the Israeli foreign minister, or I address the Jewish congress, I am very clear that this is the strategic direction that Pakistan needs to take,â
This is all about a desperate Pak attempt to derail Indo-Israel cooperation
In space...
According to multiple sources, India has begun discussions with the defense ministry and IAI regarding a possible purchase of a clone of the TechSAR satellite to enhance New Delhi's strategic intelligence and targeting capabilities.
and nuclear submarines
The first functional ATV will be launched by 2007 , It will be an SSGN and displacing some 6,500 tonnes and will be a derivative of Russia's new Severodvinsk-class(yasen) SSGN.
The ATV will also have the ability to carry up to eight ready to launch vertically launched "Strategic" cruise missile each with a range of 800 Km that will be armed with nuclear warhead, Although DRDO's ADE and DARE have since 1990 been trying to develop such a cruse missile called "SAGARIKA" it was decided in November-2003 that the ADE and DARE would co-developwith RAFAEL of Israel such a cruise missile and its vertical launched canister,inertial guidance, launch-control and solid-fuel rocket booster systems.The miniaturized nuclear warhead for the missile will however be developed solely by BARC and DRDO. The nuclear-tipped missile will be kept disassembled on-shore in peacetime and be deployed on the ATV only during "extreme national emergencies"
Posted by: john ||
11/14/2005 21:54 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.
The controversial case of Muhammad Al-Harbi, a Saudi high school teacher accused of mocking religion, came to a surprising end on Saturday. Al-Harbi was sentenced to three years in prison and 750 lashes â 50 lashes per week for 15 weeks. The lashes are to be given in the public market in the town of Al-Bikeriya in Al-Qassim.
Thousands of opposition supporters have rallied in the centre of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in a bid to force a re-run of last weekend's disputed parliamentary elections. In a protest that echoed recent political upheavals in former Soviet bloc countries, demonstrators bore orange flags and flowers. Organisers said they hoped 15,000 people would turn out although some estimates suggested the crowd was bigger. Some in the crowd shouted âResign!â and âFreedom!â. 
HONG KONG - The US government has warned Americans that they could face a security threat in clubs, restaurants and schools in southern China.
A conference on Islam and pluralism opened in Vienna with a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for "continuing dialogue among the great religions" to fight extremism. "Clearly there is a need to unlearn our collective prejudices, to promote a continuing dialogue among the great religions, a dialogue based on the premise that diversity in thought, in belief, and in action, is a precious gift, not a threat," Annan said in a statement read in Vienna by his special advisor Lakhdar Brahimi. The statement said: "We must also unite in our efforts to address the extremism that is, alas, on the rise not only in Islam but among adherents of many faiths."
A senior Palestinian official has called for a U.N. investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat, reiterating allegations that the Palestinian leader was poisoned by Israel. Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah faction, said Arafat was poisoned by Israel "because he was a stumbling block to (Israeli) plans." Other Palestinians have made the same charge in the past and Israel has repeatedly denied it. The PLO will ask the U.N. Security Council "to form an international investigating commission into the assassination of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat." Kaddoumi told reporters on Saturday. Arafat died in a French hospital on Nov. 11, 2004 at age 75. The exact cause of death remains unknown, fueling persistent rumors that he was either poisoned or died of AIDS.
The head of a UN murder inquiry is insisting on interviewing six Syrian officials in Lebanon, rebuffing a Syrian proposal for them to be questioned elsewhere, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. The official, who asked not to be named, said the ministryâs legal adviser Riad Al-Daoudi had met in the Lebanese capital last week with Detlev Mehlis, who is trying to find the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. But the official said the German prosecutor had refused to discuss Syriaâs concerns about where its officials should be questioned and had ignored its counterproposals. âMehlis was rigid and did not pay any attention to the issues raised by Riad Al-Daoudi,â the official said. âDaoudi visited Beirut on an unofficial mission to touch base with Mehlis on the details of his request.â
CHILDREN orphaned by the Kashmir earthquake are being âadoptedâ by terrorist groups that hope to train them to fight in the jihad, or holy war, writes Dean Nelson. Pakistanâs leading human rights organisation, the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, said jihadi groups fighting the Indian government were taking orphans off the streets and putting them in training camps./mallika%20sherawat/mallika%20sherawat8e.jpg)
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman have reportedly decided to resolve their differences in the next meeting of the Muttahidaâs supreme council. âIt has been decided by both leaders to resolve the issues that caused differences between them at a meeting of the supreme council, which is likely to be held by the end of the month,â sources told Daily Times. The decision was taken at a meeting between Qazi and Fazl at the formerâs residence last week. 
A delegation of catholic bishops of Pakistan will visit the school, convent and three churches that were attacked on November 12 at Sangla Hill, Nankana Sahib district. The bishops will lodge a first information report (FIR) against the people suspected of being behind the attacks. They demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the matter. The delegation of two to three bishops will visit the school, convent and churches today and a black day will be observed on November 17. Missionary and Christian schools will remain closed on that day. 
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that there was âno possibilityâ at all that radicals could take over Pakistan, especially in light of the recent local government elections.
