Posted on 06/19/2007 4:43:36 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=plane+crash&ei=utf-8
1.
* .
Madison Doctor Dies In New Mexico Plane Crash Open this result in new window
WAPT Jackson - 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
New Mexico state police say a doctor from Mississippi was killed in a plane crash over the weekend.
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Inadequate oxygen, pilot error blamed in fatal crash of St. Paul man’s plane Open this result in new window
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune - Jun 19 11:15 AM
CHARLESTON, W.Va. Inadequate oxygen supplies and planning are being blamed for last year’s fatal crash of a plane that was hundreds of miles off course before it plummeted into the backyard of a Winfield home, says an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. William R. Cammack Jr., 56, of St. Paul, Minn., was flying from Montana to his home on March 17, 2006, when air traffic ...
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Freeway plane crash Pilot escapes wreckage unhurt; motorist hospitalized with moderate injuries Open this result in new window
San Diego Union-Tribune - Jun 19 3:43 AM
CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune A single-engine Cessna 177 made an emergency landing facing east in the westbound lanes of state Route 78 yesterday evening. Foam was sprayed on the freeway as a precaution against fire. Freeway plane crash
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Pair hurt in plane crash Open this result in new window
Washington Daily News - Jun 19 7:21 AM
A Washington man, involved in a plane crash Sunday near Washington’s Warren Field Airport, was listed in critical condition Monday at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.
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Four injured in plane crash near Homer Open this result in new window
KTUU Anchorage - 2 hours, 15 minutes ago
Four people were injured in a plane crash south of Homer on Yukon Island this morning. According to medical staff, one is listed in critical condition.
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Plane crash victim gets out of hospital Open this result in new window
The Idaho Statesman - Jun 18 11:14 PM
A California woman injured in a Valley County plane crash was released from the hospital Monday, a McCall Memorial Hospital official said. A search team found Suzanne Beers, 54, of Laytonville, Calif., Sunday afternoon, three days after sh
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One dead in New Mexico plane crash (7:30 a.m.) Open this result in new window
Las Cruces Sun-News - Jun 18 11:01 PM
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — One person was killed in the crash of a small plane in the Sandia Mountains after a search that began after an emergency locator beacon signal was detected.
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Malawi plane crash Britons are named Open this result in new window
Guardian Unlimited - Jun 18 5:34 PM
Five British tourists who were killed in Malawi plane crash were on a two-week cycling tour of the African country.
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Preliminary report on plane crash completed Open this result in new window
The Daily News Transcript - Jun 18 10:31 PM
The National Transportation Safety Board has completed its preliminary investigation into the June 4 plane crash in Canton that killed Dover resident Agnes Imregh.
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Names of Valley County Plane Crash Victims Released Open this result in new window
FOX 12 Idaho - Jun 18 11:16 PM
Boise, Idaho — Iinvestigators have released the names of the pilot and passenger of a plane that crashed in Valley County over the weekend. The 55-year-old pilot, Berkeley Snow, was found dead at the crash scene.
Garden gnomes hid smuggled snakes
Australian customs officials have found live reptiles hidden in the hollowed insides of ceramic garden gnomes sent as gifts from England.<<<
The snake in a photo was not a rattlesnake, but it could have been.
Another way to get poison delivered, if you don’t want to use kids toys.
Post as you please. LOL <<<
“Yes, Boss”!!!
I have to ask do you have on your pin striped suit and heels?
Is that where you have been? [out in the barn, oiling the whip and making sure it is just right?]
Laughing back at you, with a hug.
Hamas Thanks Muslim Brotherhood for Weapons and Cash
Naturally, the Muslim Brotherhood is their ‘godfather’.
http://www.judeoscope.ca/article.php3?id_article=0614
Hamas Thanks Muslim Brotherhood for Weapons and Cash
Hamas newspaper editor Sheik Yazeeb Khader tells the Globe and Mail how
the
Palestnian Islamist terror organization acquires its weapons and thanks
Muslim Brotherhood for “never being stingy” in providing financial and
other
aid to its Palestinian wing. But don’t expect humanitarian NGOs like
Amnesty
International to change their
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE120051999?open&of=ENG-348
line
about how “The Muslim Brotherhood, [...] has renounced violence and has
consistently condemned the violent activities of armed Islamist groups”
or
Canada http://www.judeoscope.ca/breve.php3?id_breve=3591
‘s “Cairo
20”
anti-war (sic!) activists to withdraw their solidarity with the
international Islamist powerhouse.
Source: The
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070615.GAZATICKTOCK15/TPStory/TPInternational/Africa/
Globe and Mail
Sheik Yazeeb Khader, a Hamas newspaper editor who is now in hiding in
the
West Bank as Fatah steps up its retribution there, said that Hamas had
learned from the success of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.Hezbollah used
a
network of tunnels to smuggle weapons into position ahead of its war
last
summer against Israel.
“We buy weapons from every source. Everybody wonders where Hezbollah
gets
its weapons; same with the resistance in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Mr.
Khader
said. “Because we are a resistance movement, we can buy weapons from
the
devil. We buy weapons from every source, and we buy all the weapons we
can
get our hands on.”
Mr. Khader gave credit to the international Muslim Brotherhood, of
which
Hamas is an offshoot, for “never being stingy” in providing financial
and
other aid to the Palestinian wing. Hamas also makes its own weapons, he
said, including the Qassam rockets it uses to attack Israel.
http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/06/19/693412.html&cvqh=itn_bombing
http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/06/19/693412.html&cvqh=itn_bombing
75 Killed by Bombing at Baghdad Mosque
BAGHDAD - A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central
Baghdad,
killing 75 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S.
soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and
Bradley
fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary.
The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22
insurgents
in the offensive, the U.S. military said.
The thunderous explosion at the Khillani mosque in the capital’s
commercial
area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a
week
after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite
shrine in
the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a
curfew
aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.
Gunfire erupted shortly after the blast, which police said occurred in
a
parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just
inside it to crumble.
Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
because
they feared retribution, said at least 75 people were killed and 204
were
wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the
debris.
The mosque’s imam, Sheik Saleh al-Haidari, said it was a truck bomb and
the
explosion hit worshippers as they were leaving afternoon prayers.
“This attack was planned and carried out by sick souls, damaging the
mosque’s outer wall and collapsing my office and the room above it,”
al-Haidari told The Associated Press by telephone.
“There are number of bodies being pulled from the rubble and a number
of
worshippers were killed or injured,” he said, adding that he was not
inside
the mosque when the blast occurred.
The Khillani mosque is named after a much-revered Shiite figure who,
according to Shiite tradition, was one of four deputies anointed by the
Imam
Mohammed al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century and will return
to
restore justice to humanity.
AP Television News video showed a huge pile of rubble where the wall
used to
be, but its turquoise dome was intact. The Imam Ali hospital in the
Shiite
district of Sadr City was packed with victims, many badly burned.
Karim Abdullah, the 35-year-old owner of a clothing store, said he was
on
his way to pray at the mosque when the explosion caused his motorcycle
to
wobble, forcing him to pull over.
“I stopped in shock as I saw the smoke and people on the ground. I saw
two
or three men in flames as they were getting out of their car,” he
added.
The raids, dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” took place in Baqouba,
the
capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover
of
darkness, the military said. The operation was still in its opening
stages,
it added.
The commander of Iraqi military operations in Diyala, Maj. Gen.
Abdul-Karim
al-Rubaie, said handcuffs, swords and electricity cables _ apparently
used
as torture implements _ had been seized from militant safe houses in
the
area.
The operation was part of new U.S. and Iraqi attacks on Baghdad’s
northern
and southern flanks, which military officials said were aimed at
clearing
out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had
fled
the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.
A top U.S. military official said American forces were taking advantage
of
the arrival of the final brigade of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to
open
the concerted attacks.
“We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaida and
other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the
areas
clear and to really take on al-Qaida,” the senior official said on
condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the
operation.
“Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar
province
and specifically Diyala province.”
The hard-line Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars denounced the joint
operations in Diyala, calling them “barbaric acts” and promising they
“will
not stop the people from persisting in their efforts to gain their
liberty,
unity and independence.”
Al-Qaida has proven to be an extremely agile foe for U.S. and Iraqi
forces,
as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Baqouba from
Anbar
province, the sprawling desert region in western Iraq. There is no
guarantee
that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries would prevent
it
from migrating to other regions to continue the fight.
In recent months, the verdant orange and palm groves of Diyala have
become
one of the most fiercely contested regions in Iraq. The province is a
tangle
of Shiite and Sunni villages that has played into the hands of al-Qaida
and
allied militants who have melted into the tense region and sought to
inflame
existing sectarian troubles.
Al-Qaida has conducted public killings in the Baqouba main square and
otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code. The
terror organization’s actions in the province have caused some Sunni
militants, al-Qaida’s natural allies, to turn their guns on the group
with
U.S. assistance and blessing. Some militant Shiites are likewise
joining
government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim
extremists.
Separately, the U.S. military announced the death of an American
soldier in
Baghdad. The soldier was killed by small arms fire during combat in an
eastern section of the capital, a military statement said. No other
soldiers
were wounded in the attack, which took place Monday, it said.
The death brought to at least 3,528 the number of U.S. military
personnel
who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003,
according
to an AP count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least
2,889
died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s
numbers.
In southern Iraq, police and hospital officials said the death toll
reached
30 in clashes that continued into a second day between Mahdi Army
fighters
and Iraqi security forces in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of
Baghdad.
Some 150 people were wounded, authorities said. The officials, who
declined
to be identified because they feared retribution, said most of the
casualties were police officers or militiamen. A delegation from
radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s office arrived in the city to try to
end the
fighting, according to the city council.
A curfew was imposed on Nasiriyah on Monday, and remained in effect a
day
later.
Iranian-made rockets were seized in raids in central Nasiriyah, police
said.
In other violence reported by police, a roadside bomb killed the head
of a
Shiite tribe and two people traveling with him near Hillah, about 60
miles
south of Baghdad.
A roadside bomb also missed a police patrol but hit two civilian cars
in the
Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, killing two
people and wounding five.
[Many hidden urls in article]
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/003791.html
June 19, 2007
The Islamists’ Nuclear Terrorist Threat - 1 of 2
This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.
The Islamists’ Nuclear Terrorist Threat
Part One (of Two)
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference
On June 11 last week, a five-day conference began at the Intercontinental Miami Hotel, to discuss the threat of nuclear terrorism. The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference was attended by about 500 law enforcement officers. Speakers included Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Ms Frances Fragos Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to the President and Dr. Richard Falkenrath of the NYPD, Deputy Commissioner, Counterterrorism for the City of New York. Several US government agencies were represented at the conference. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union had also sent representatives to witness the proceedings. The meeting coincided with another conference in the same program, which took place simultaneously in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. There were satellite link-ups to the Kazakh convention, where representatives of 40 nations were present.
The Miami and Astana conferences were the latest to be held to discuss the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, a program which was officially announced on July 15, 2006, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Russia. Originally a joint US/Russian initiative, the program is now subscribed to by 50 other nations. On October 29-30, 2006, the inaugural conference of the program in Rabat, Morocco, was attended by representatives of 12 nations. That event saw Morocco becoming the 13th member of the program, and concluded with a resolution to fight the threat of nuclear terrorism from a broad front, involving other willing nations, to create a “vast alliance”. The second conference took place in Ankara, Turkey, in February.
MuellerThe opening speech of the Miami conference was made by the head of the FBI, Robert S. Mueller III. In this speech, Mr Mueller stated that the need to secure “loose nuclear material” was paramount. He said: “ Al Qaeda has demonstrated a clear intent to acquire weapons of mass destruction. In 1993, Osama bin Laden attempted to buy uranium from a source in the Sudan. He has stated that it is Al Qaeda’s duty to acquire weapons of mass destruction. And he has made repeated recruiting pitches for experts in chemistry, physics, and explosives to join his terrorist movement.... We have often said that the next terrorist attack is not a question of if, but when. If we up the ante to a nuclear terrorist attack, we know it is a question of if, but we cannot let it become a question of when. Now is the time to act.”
On Tuesday June 12, Dr. Richard Falkenrath addressed the conference and spoke of security agencies’ preoccupations with the dangers of shipping containers potentially carrying nuclear components. He said: “This is the big focus. I don’t know why they’ve gotten so much attention. They are important and I am not suggesting to ignore them, but they should not be the focus of attention above and beyond all others as a potential delivery vehicle.” He warned that trucks and vans (which are easy to acquire and pass unnoticed in large cities) and also small aircraft and light vessels, could become the vectors by which nuclear weapons could be transported.
On the same day, Vayl Oxford, Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office in the Department of Homeland Security, said that the US Coast Guard would be furnished with radiation detection technology. He said that more than 90% of all cargo entering the US is already being scanned for radiological content. He said that agents of the FBI are detailed full-time to the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.
Dr Vahid Majidi, head of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate spoke of the conference’s success in “opening a dialogue with our partner agencies and the international community on the entire scope of weapons of mass destruction.” He mentioned bilateral agreements which took place last week between the US and five nations which would lead to greater intelligence cooperation. Those countries are Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Chile, and Mexico.
robotOn Wednesday at Miami’s Orange Bowl, delegates from 28 nations watched a demonstration of how law enforcement officers would tackle a radiological dispersal device (”dirty bomb” or RDD) being constructed in a mock warehouse. Two SWAT teams and a team from the Department of Energy Radiological Assistance Program descended on the scene. Once the radiological materials and “dirty bomb” were “discovered”, these were neutralized by a robot, which sprayed water onto them.
There is a real need for agencies to be prepared for the threat of a nuclear attack, but while making preparations to combat such a scenario, government agencies seem to be simultaneously trying to avoid spreading panic. The FBI writes on its website “even if the likelihood of such an attack in the near-term is fairly low”.
Fissile Nuclear Devices
There are valid reasons to be concerned about the plausibility of a nuclear attack, and particularly one aimed at the heart of a major US city, such as Washington DC or New York. The simplest nuclear fission device would involve highly enriched uranium (HEU), in a “gun-assembly” of the type used in Hiroshima. Essentially, the Hiroshima A-bomb comprised a six foot-long gun barrel, only six inches in diameter, and sealed at both ends. One end of the barrel contained a mass of Uranium-235, with a second mass housed in the center of the barrel. At the opposing end, sealed within the barrel, were conventional explosives. Once detonated, the conventional explosives propelled the central mass of uranium isotope into the mass at the opposing end, causing nuclear fission.
nukeThe minimum amount of HEU needed for a fissile device is far more than weapons-grade plutonium - about 25 kilograms or 55 pounds, though with a beryllium reflector less than 15 kilograms (33 pounds) is needed. Hiroshima’s “Little Boy” bomb is said to have contained 60 kilograms (132 lbs) of uranium-235. The “Fat Man” bomb which was detonated at Nagasaki contained 6.1 kilograms of plutonium-239. To extract 25 kilograms of easily fissionable HEU from natural uranium, a starting quantity of 3,570 kilograms or 7,860 pounds is required.
The “yield” of the Hiroshima bomb was about 10 kilotons - i.e. it had the destructive power of 10,000 tons of TNT. It detonated in mid-air and killed 66,000 people instantly. Half a mile from the explosion’s center, there was total vaporization, destruction within a mile radius, and within a two and a half mile radius, everything flammable caught fire. The HEU in the Hiroshima bomb was only 80% pure. About 12 kilograms of extremely pure HEU could feasibly produce a fissile device with a yield of 10-20 kilotons. Detonated from the ground, the most likely terrorist scenario, the extent of destruction from a 10-20 kilotons would not be as high as that witnessed at Hiroshima, but as I will explain in Part Two, it would still be catastrophic.
To prepare weapons-grade uranium-235, specialized centrifuges, uranium hexaflouride gas and other components are required. These components are strictly controlled in the West. Despite this, Abdul Qadeer Khan was able, with the assistance of Dutch citizen Henk Slebos, to import vital nuclear bomb components to Pakistan. A. Q. Khan went on to create Pakistan’s first nuclear bombs, which were detonated on May 28, 1998.
AQKhanA. Q. Khan admitted in February 2004 that he sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but was subsequently pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf. The fruits of Khan’s subterfuge have been devastating. In September 2005 Musharraf admitted that Khan had illegally sent centrifuges to North Korea, and on October 9, 2006 Pyongyang detonated its first nuclear bomb.
Shortly after Khan’s 2004 televised confession, Sri Lankan “middleman” Buhary Syed Abu Tahir stated that around 2001, Khan sent enriched uranium to Libya. Abu Tahir, who resides in Dubai and Malaysia, where he is married to a Malaysian national, was not prosecuted for his involvement in the illegal shipments. Malaysia claimed he had broken no national law. Around 1994-5, Khan had sent two containers of used centrifuge components to Iran. These had been shipped via Dubai, where Khan had an apartment. Iran paid $3 million for this consignment.
On Tuesday April 11, 2006 Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced on national TV that his country had enriched uranium to a level required for nuclear fuel, though only on a “laboratory scale”. While Ahmadinejad claimed that “our enemies cannot do a damned thing”, his audience chanted “Death to America”. At its nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Iran then had 164 enrichment centrifuges.
Mohammad Saeedi, Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, announced on April 12, 2006 that in the fall of 2006 the nation would begin to construct a 3,000-centrifuge plant, followed by a 54,000 centrifuge plant at an underground facility at Natanz. It is only a matter of time before Iran possesses the means to create its own uranium-235. As it already funds terror group Hamas, and is implacably hostile to Israel, it is likely that Iran will voluntarily donate uranium-235 to terrorist causes, if it does not attack Israel on its own initiative.
Uranium-235 is less detectable to radiological sensors than plutonium, particularly if it is surrounded by lead. The costs of producing this material are astronomical, but attempts to obtain such enriched uranium have been made on numerous occasions by members of Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden is on record as stating that obtaining nuclear weaponry is a “religious obligation”. In 2002, authors M & G Bunn produced a report for the International Atomic Energy Agency (pdf format) entitled “Reducing the Threat of Nuclear Theft and Sabotage”.
The authors stated (p 3) that “there have been a number of confirmed cases of theft of kilogram quantities of weapons-usable material in the former Soviet Union. Russian officials have confirmed that as recently as 1998, there was an insider conspiracy at one of Russia’s largest nuclear weapons facilities to steal 18.5 kilograms of HEU - one that was stopped before the material actually left the gates.”
The authors recommended that more cooperation was needed between Russia and America to consolidate their defenses against terrorists’ acquisition of nuclear materials, and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism certainly aims to fulfill that requirement. In June 2003, Jane’s Intelligence Digest reported that since 1992 there were 175 attempts by criminals and/or terrorists to acquire or smuggle radioactive substances.
In 1998 in Italy criminals were caught attempting to sell 19.9% enriched uranium, and in April 2000 Colombia, a small consignment of HEU - 66% of which contained uranium-235 - was discovered in the possession of an animal feed salesman. In the same month an amount of enriched uranium weighing 920 grams was seized in the former Soviet state of Georgia. In July 2001, a quantity of 1.7 kilograms of uranium-235 was discovered in Georgia, apparently on its way to Turkey. The material was thought at the time to have come from a Russian submarine. In the same month, five grams of enriched uranium were discovered in Paris, and in Germany, a man was arrested for stealing contaminated plutonium.
In 2004 in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, a smuggler was found to have kept 60 small containers of weapons-grade plutonium-239 in a sheepfold. Earlier in the same year, two Kyrgyz citizens were jailed for trying to sell 110 grams of the isotope cesium-137 (one of the radioactive byproducts released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident), which could have been used to create a “dirty bomb”.
In September 2004, a quantity of 15 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium-235 (enough to create small fissile device) was discovered in Sanliurfa, Turkey. The material was hidden under the seat of a taxi.
There will be obstacles for terrorists to overcome before a working fissile nuclear device is created, but with rogue Islamist states such as Iran close to preparing their own weapons grade HEU, such a scenario may be closer than we care to acknowledge. Pakistan was the latest nation to join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, and it maintains that its nuclear facilities are fully secured. However, should Pakistan fall to a Talibanized regime, the likelihood of such materials being sold or exported becomes high.
Another scenario discussed by Bunn and Bunn in 2002 was an attack upon an existing nuclear facility. Even if such an attack took place at a depot for spent nuclear fuel, depriving it of its water-cooling systems, a subsequent conflagration (if it reached 900 degrees Celsius) could cause a zirconium fire, leading to the release of radioactive cesium isotopes.
There have already been two thwarted attempts by Islamists to sabotage the nuclear research facility at Lucas Heights in Sydney, Australia, which could similarly lead to the release of isotopes such as those released at Chernobyl (cesium-134 and -137, and iodine-131). When this nuclear accident occurred in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986, these isotopes were carried 1,300 miles westward to north Wales. Here rain caused sheep-grazing land to be contaminated with isotopes of cesium which remain two decades later. The main regional economy of lamb production was devastated.
In Part Two, I will discuss the (perhaps more likely) scenario of an attack by an RDD or “dirty bomb”. I will also analyze the findings of various studies which detail the responses to, and likely outcomes of, attacks by both fissile devices and RDDs.
Adrian Morgan
© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved
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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 19, 2007
http://www.westernresistance.com/
June 17, 2007
Denmark: Islamists Seize Power In Kindergarten
In Denmark, the national branch of the international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir makes no secret of its contempt for Jews, Western values and the politics of the West. On August 17, 2006 Fadi Abdullatif, leader of Danish Hizb ut-Tahrir, was sentenced to three months’ jail for threatening the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen in leaflets which were distributed in 2004. These fliers had called for the elimination of any Western leaders who tried to prevent Muslims from going to Iraq to fight the coalition troops. Abdullatif was additionally found guilty under anti-racism laws of calling for the killing of Jews on the Hizb ut-Tahrir website.
Now, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark has shown its radical side in the way it has behaved in relation to a kindergarten. The following article appeared in Jyllands-Posten and Berlingske Tidende.
The translation was made by our good friend and contributor from Denmark, WIking.
**********
Hizb ut-Tahir seize power in Kindergarten
Men from Hizb ut-Tahir have seized power in a privately owned kindergarten in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen. They demand that children are not taught democratic values. The authorities threaten to close the institution down.
The municipal administration of Copenhagen has under dramatic circumstances taken over the administration of the institution and threatens to close it down, according to a report in the Danis newspaper ‘Berlingske Tidende’
This unusual step has been taken after parents and members of the Islamistic party Hizb ut-Tahir earlier this year have gained majority in the governing board and taken control over the institution named Salam, and demand that the children are not taught according to democratic values.
The parents have also demanded segregation, different playground for boys and girls. Last year, furious parents demanded the destruction of Christmas related items the children had picked up at a visit to the zoo, claiming the Santa Claus headgear represent Christian values.
In February, after Hizb ut-Tahir gained the upper hand in the board, the leader of the institution quit her job together with another pedagogue. The institution is now lead by a team of 6 believing Muslim women, which has lead the auditors of the municipality of Copenhagen to raise the alarm. The municipality has now taken direct control over the place until a new leadership has been appointed.
“It is unquestionably the tension between what is called pious or fundamentalistic Islam and traditional Danish democratic thought that is at the core of this conflict. The municipality has on other occasions experienced conflicts in its institutions, also religious conflicts, but never has the tension been as high as now”, says Jan Dehn of ‘Children and Youth office’.
One of the leading members of the parents group, the convert Abdul Hamid Henrik Lund, confirms his connection with Hizb ut-Tahir: “All the parents are what the Danes will call fanatics. We are Muslims and determined that ‘the brain of our children get the right programming’ (sic). We don’t want them to ‘run about on Blagards Plads (a square in Copenhagen), behaving like monkeys’ (sic). Those children cause trouble because they have neither Danish nor Muslim roots. To us it is important that children grow up with values - they must know what is halal and haram.”
Translation by Wiking.
**********
Wiking’s previous contributions can be found here:
June 6, 2007: Denmark: Muslim Headscarf May Be Worn By Judges
May 30, 2007: Opinion: An “Infidel’s Prayer To Allah”
September 24, 2006: Denmark: Muslim Anger At Cartoonist’s Lack Of Apology
October 18, 2006: Islam: A Danish Blogger’s Perspective
October 2, 2006: Denmark: Community Going Nuts Over Walnut Theft
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis
http://www.walidphares.com/artman/publish/cat_index_3.shtml#1330
Radio
Phares on Several different radio programs, links above.
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/w_phares/print/06162007.htm
Syro-Iranian Massacre of Politicians in Lebanon
Terrorism Dr. Walid Phares
June 16, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/w_phares/06162007.htm
With the assassination of Lebanese MP Jebran Tueni in December 2006, months after the murder of political leaders George Hawi and Samir Qassir during the summer, the Syro-Iranian terror war room had opened a bloody hunt against the democratically elected Lebanese Parliament.
After the withdrawal of regular Syrian forces from Lebanon in April 2005, Bashar Assad and his allies in Tehran designed a counter offensive (which we described then and later) aiming at crumbling the Cedars Revolution. One of the main components of this strategy was (and remain) to use all intelligence and security assets of Syria and Iran in Lebanon in order to “reduce” the number of deputies who form the anti-Syrian majority in the Parliament. As simple as that: assassinate as many members as needed to flip the quantitative majority in the Legislative Assembly. And when that is done, the Seniora Government collapses and a Hezbollah-led cabinet forms. In addition, if the Terror war kills about 8 legislators, the remnant of the Parliament can elect a new President of the Republic who will move the country under the tutelage of the Assad regime.
As incredibly barbaric as it seems in the West, the genocide of the legislators in Lebanon at the hands of the Syrian regime and its allies is very “normal” by Baathist (and certainly by Jihadist) political culture. During the 1980s, Saddam Hussein executed a large segment of his own Party’s national assembly to maintain his regime intact. In the same decade, Hafez Assad eliminated systematically his political adversaries both inside Syria and across Syrian occupied Lebanon to secure his control over the two “sister” countries. So for Bashar to order the assassination of his opponents in Lebanon as of the fall of 2004 to perpetuate his domination of the little Baathist “empire” is not a stunning development: it is the standing procedure in Damascus since 1970.
And to “achieve” these goals, the junta in Syria has a plethora of tools and assets left in Lebanon. First, the vast Syrian intelligence networks still deeply rooted in the small country; second, the powerful Iranian-financed Hezbollah with its lethal security apparatus; third, the Syrian-controlled groups within the Palestinian camps from various ideological backgrounds including Baathists, Marxists, or even Islamist such as Fatah al Islam; fourth the pro-Syrian and Hezbollah sympathizers “inside” the Lebanese Army as well as the units and security services still under the control of General Emile Lahoud; fifth, the client militias and organizations remote-controlled by Syrian intelligence such as the Syrian National-Social Party; and sixth, operatives inserted within political groups gravitating around Damascus such as those of Sleiman Frangieh, Michel Aoun and Talal Arslan. In short, the Syro-Iranian axis has a wide array of security and intelligence assets from which it can select the most appropriate perpetrators for each “take down.” The Assad regime has its “own” Sunni operatives to kill Sunnis, Christians to murder Christians and Druze to eliminate Druze and has the full resources of Hezbollah terror to obstruct the Government of Lebanon and ultimately crumble it.
The “reduction” –both physical and political- of the Lebanese Parliamentary majority began as soon as the assembly was elected in the spring of 2005. The Lebanese opposition to Assad and Hezbollah got originally 72 seats out of the 128 members, a comfortable majority to resume the “liberation” of the country from occupation and Terrorism. In December of 2006 a car bomb kills MP Jebran Tueni bringing the majority to 71. Though he is quickly replaced by his father Ghassan, the latter’s old age and unwillingness to pursue the same anti-Terrorist activism is a negative in the big battle. In January 2006 a majority-MP Edmond Naim, dies of old age. The anti-Cedars revolution pressure brings in Pierre Daccache, “neutral” in principle, but essentially close to now Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun. Since, the majority has 71 seats. In December of 2006, majority-MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated by Syrian operatives. The number of dedicated MPs falls to 70. Few weeks ago, Syrian threats compel the Alawi MP from the north to quit the majority, bringing the number to 69. Today’s assassination of Sunni Walid Eido, a fierce opponent to the Syrian regime brings the number of MPs to 68. Four more assassinations and the Parliamentary majority in Lebanon would collapse, bringing back Ahmedinijad and Assad’s Terror power to the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean.
What can be done to stop the legislators’ massacre in Lebanon and its dramatic consequences?
The UN Security Council, under resolutions 1559 and 1701 should intervene massively by ordering and overseeing the following steps:
a) Put all remaining 68 MPs under direct international protection. A special international security force should be dispatched to Lebanon, gather the endangered legislators in one or several protected locations and escort them later to perform their constitutional duties.
b) Ask the Lebanese Government of Mr Seniora to organize the appropriate legislative elections in the districts of Matn and Beirut to replace the assassinated MPs Gemayel and Eido. Dispatch UN observers to oversee these elections.
c) Ask the Lebanese Parliament to elect a new President during the constitutional period beginning in August and escort the 68 endangered MPs (plus the two newly elected ones) to the location of the Presidential elections and provide security during the voting process.
By doing so, the UNSC would be implementing its own resolutions, fulfilling the democratic process in Lebanon and fighting back against Terrorism with the power of the people of Lebanon. For when a new democratically elected President is elected in Lebanon, the road –still very difficult and dangerous- to democracy will be paved.
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy and the author of the War of Ideas. Dr Phares was one of the architects of UNSCR 1559. He is also a Professor of Middle East Studies at Florida Atlantic University and a contributing expert to FOX News. The international version of Professor Walid Phares’ Future Jihad is now released. The new title is “Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West” Published by Palgrave/St Martin; New York and London (December 2006).
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, its editorial staff or its publisher. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Photographs featured in The New Media Journal are for educational purposes only. While some of them are factual in nature others are creations meant to incite thought to further the socio-political and ideological conversation amongst of our readers. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media or ideological organizations . The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a group of non-compensated, independent writers bringing researched, fact-based commentary to the public in the midst of the mainstream media’s blatant, agenda-driven bias. The New Media Journal is a non-profit educational effort.
The New Media Journal.us © 2007
Jihad Among Junipers & Mint Juleps
Terrorism Dr. Paul Williams, PhD
June 2, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/p_williams/06022007.htm
The Islamic practice of taqiyya, meaning “deception” or “concealment,” has been refined into an art-form at a jihad training compound for African American converts near the small town of Red House in Charlotte County, Virginia.
The fifty-acre compound is easy to find since the main road leading to it has been named Sheikh Gilani Lane in honor of the guru and founder of a terrorist organization with close ties to Osama bin Laden. The Board of Supervisors of Charlotte Country are either oblivious to the threat of radical Islam on American soil or clandestine advocates of the great jihad.
At the end Sheikh Gilani Lane is a sign – barely visible through the overgrown brush – that reads, “The Muslims of the Americas.” The sign serves to make the place appear as an innocuous religious settlement, until one realizes that The Muslims of the Americas is, in reality, an outgrowth of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, an alleged sister agency to al-Qaeda.
Several weeks before 9/11, a guard house and a gate had been erected at the entrance to the Red House compound.
But the guard house and the gate are now gone, and no sentries – armed or otherwise – are in sight, that is until you get well inside the complex of old trailers and pre-fab shanties. The only person to be seen in the the compound is an African American crone in a full black burqa sans the face cover known as a hijab. The day is hot and humid and the burqa serves to give the wizened old woman the appearance of a wayside witch from a Grimm’s fairy tale.
“The men are all gone,” the crone says from a park bench. “No one is here.”
The Red House compound certainly appears deserted. A few mobile homes, several rusty old trailers, and a few mounds of debris among waist-high weeds remain along an old dirt road that runs through the Islamic village, but there appears to be little of interest, let alone concern.
As soon as the investigators park their car and trek into compound, the old woman removes a mobile phone from a sachet and dials a number.
In a matter of minutes, a pick-up truck appears at the entranceway. Two young African Americans dressed in skull caps and jalabiyahs emerge from the vehicle. “What are you doing here?” they ask.
Jamal, an Egyptian journalist, says in Arabic, “I’m here to see the Imam. Where does he live?”
One of the young men, whose Arabic name translates as “Slave of God”, indicates that the Imam is not in and he should knock on the door of a ramshackle blue structure where he was told “Ahmed”, one of the Elders may be found.
Jamal proceeds to the structure and rings the bell, but no one answers. Another member of our investigative team knocks at the doors of the trailers and mobile homes but there is no response. Some of the windows to the homes have been holed up with bricks save for openings that are ideal for assault rifles.
The young African Americans, who have shown up on the scene, are becoming agitated. They begin to make calls on their cell phones.
Then something miraculous happens.
At the Imam’s residence, Muslim men begin to emerge in droves from a small storage shed attached to the house. It seems like a scene from a Marx Brothers movie in which dozens of people pour out of a closet. The investigators are suddenly surrounded by forty or fifty members of the complex in Islamic gowns and white skullcaps.
“What brings you here?” they ask.
“We heard about the village,” Jamal says, “and wanted to pay a visit. I thought I could stop by for evening prayers.”
“The evening prayers are over,” says one of the newly materialized men, who could be a professional body builder.
In the blink of an eye, another wondrous thing occurs.
Hundreds of more African Americans in Islamic garb materialize from the dense forests, the high grass of the open meadows, and the rusty trailers that just seconds ago appeared to be deserted.
A covey of late model cars and SUV’s converge on the compound from a network of dirt roads. The Muslims who emerge from the vehicles appear more affluent than the others. The men wear white halabiyahs with matching head coverings. The women are dressed in colorful caftans and flowing abayas. They seem to be models from the Crescent Moon boutique.
“Are you the police?” a female villager asks through the shaded window of the Imam’s residence.
“No,” Jamal answers. “We just stopped by to join in prayer.”
“This is not a place for tourists,” screeches the woman in the Imam’s house, “and we don’t like you taking pictures of our houses and automobiles.”
By this time, the Red House compound is swarming with hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children – and several appear to be deeply agitated by the intruders.
Jamal produces a card from a radical imam he had met the day before at the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. It serves as a ticket out of the place.
What is taking place in the Red House complex? Is the complex amidst the rolling hills of southern Virginia a peaceful Islamic village where devout Muslims have gathered to retreat from the hustle and bustle of contemporary American life in order to pray, meditate, and to live in strict accordance with the traditions of their faith? Or is it something more sinister – something that should alarm every American who is concerned about the threat of radical Islam?
These factors are clear:
1) There is an underground bunker at the complex that may be used for paramilitary training and possibly to harbor deadly weapons for use in the great jihad against Christians and Jews. Twenty-four members of this Jamaat ul-Fuqra complex already have been arrested for trafficking in illegal firearms, including the ammunition for AK-47s.
2) Members of the compound have been sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan for specialized training in guerilla warfare – a fact confirmed by Thomas P. Gallagher, a Special Agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
3) The Red House compound regularly receives visits from suspicious guests from Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
4) The Red House cell of ul-Fuqra has metastasized so that similar Islamic compounds have popped up in neighboring Prince George and Campbell Counties. The 25 acre facility in Prince George County is situated on Mahareen Road, a name selected by the Muslim newcomers and duly approved by the local ordinance officials. Mahareen is the plural of the Arabic mahar, meaning “clever one.” The facility in Campbell County is considerably larger, occupying more than 100 acres. An additional compound reportedly has materialized in Bedford County near the city of Roanoke.
5) Several Virginia compounds appear to possess obstacle courses, and firing ranges.
6) Members of the compounds have been known to refer to themselves as “soldiers of Allah” and “Mohammad’s commandos.”
7) What happens in the Red House compound stays in the Red House compound. The members of the radical Islamic community rarely appear in the nearby town; conduct little business with local merchants; and stay to themselves.
The Muslims of the Americas, the tax-exempt corporation which owns and operates the Red House compound, was formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. It is, according to an official report, a “front organization” for terrorist activities. A 2005 Homeland Security report predicts that the Muslims of the Americas will sponsor a major terrorist attack on American soil.
The parent organization of The Muslims of the Americas is Jamaat ul-Fuqra or “community of the impoverished” which retains headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan. The purpose of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, as established by Sheikh Gilani, is not to serve some beneficent good for the cause of the impoverished but rather to “purify” Islam through violence.
A quack practitioner of something called “Quranic psychiatry, Sheikh Gilani refers to himself as “the sixth Sultan ul Faqr.” The Sheikh claims to have supernatural powers and to receive regular visits from “non-human beings.” In 1979, Gilani came to believe that he could begin the processing of purifying Islam through violence with the aid of socially disgruntled and economically disenfranchised blacks within the inner cities of New York and New Jersey. The basis of this belief was Gilani conviction that a sizeable number of African Americans fostered an innate hatred of the United States and could be easily convinced to further the cause of global jihad. Many may have viewed Gilano’s mission as a cockamamie scheme that smacked of racism, but it worked like a hypnotic charm from Scheherazade.
At the al-Farouq mosque in Brooklyn, a dingy establishment at 554 Atlantic Avenue, Gilani, sporting ammunition belts, spoke of Islam as the cure for all societal ills and called upon the young men in attendance to take up arms in the holy war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Hundreds answered the call and headed off to a training camp in Abbotabad, Pakistan that had been established by Osama bin Laden and other members of the mujahadeen.
Knowing the need for new recruits, Gilani turned to the penal system and focused his attention on converting incarcerated blacks to his radical Islamic doctrine. Imams and religious instructors were dispatched to local, state, and federal prison facilities to accomplish this objective. The results were mind-boggling. Thousands converted on a weekly basis, drawn to the offers of protection, special meals, and release from work detail for daily prayers and the entire month of Ramadan.
Gilani soon came to the realization that it would be financially advantageous to train new recruits for the holy war on American soil rather than to pay the freight of sending them to Pakistan, and the sites of his other training camps throughout the world. And so, Islamberg in Hancock, New York came into being. Soon other hamaats were established in such places as Hyattsville, Maryland; Falls Church, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulane Country, California; Commerce, California; and Onalaska, Washington. The Red House compound cropped up in 1993. Others are under construction, including an expansive facility in Sherman, Pennsylvania. How many hamaats are now in place throughout the United States is anyone’s guess. A low-ball figure is 38.
Before becoming a citizen of the Red House compound or any of the other Fuqra communities, the recruits – primarily inner city black men who became converts in prison – are compelled to sign an oath that reads: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.” They are also obliged to contribute 70% of their welfare checks and other sources of income to Muslims of the Americas, Inc.
Mission accomplished among the African Americans, Sheikh Gilani returned to his native Lahore circa 1990. In December 1993, he was an honored guest at an international gathering of jihadis at the residence of Hassan al-Turabi in Khartoum. At the gathering, attended by members of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, Sheikh Gilani, Osama bin Laden, and other prominent terrorist leaders were caught on film chanting, “Down, down with the USA!” “Down, down with the CIA,” and “Death to the Jews.”
Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra have been convicted in US courts of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers’ compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen fire-bombings between 1979 and 1990. Associates of the group were also instrumental in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The criminal charges against the group and the criminal convictions are not things of the past. In 2001, a 19 year-old former resident of the Red House compound a California compound was charged with the first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy in California. By 2004 federal investigators uncovered evidence that linked both the DC “sniper killer” John Allen Muhammed and “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid to the group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded in the process of attempting to obtain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.
Even though Jamaat ul-Fuqra has been involved in bloody bombings and sundry criminal activities, recruited thousands of members from federal and state penal systems, and appears to be operating paramilitary facilities for militant Muslims, the terror organization remains to be placed on the official US Terror Watch List, and The Muslims of the Americas continue to operate, flourish, and expand as a legitimate nonprofit, tax-deductible charity.
Meanwhile, the hills of rural Virginia are alive with the sound of jihad.
But few, it seems, are listening.
Shawn Michaels, Jamal Babour and Dr. Hugh Cort contributed to this article.
Paul Williams is the author of “The Al Qaeda Connection” and forthcoming “The Day of Islam”.
American Muslims Ready to Attack USA?
Terrorism Sher Zieve
May 30, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/zieve/05302007.htm
I have waited for about a week to comment on a new Pew poll that queried over a thousand Muslims living in the United States. The reason I held back from commenting on the unnerving (some publications have called them hair-raising) results, is that I was waiting to see if ‘moderate’ Muslim leaders would officially comment. Sadly—as has become the norm—they have not done so in or with any large or even medium-sized numbers.
The mainstream media still largely continue to ignore the imminent threat posed by the terrorists in our midst. Instead, they report that a new Pew Poll suggests American Muslims are “largely assimilated, happy with their lives and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.” The dangerous and present problem with this is that the media discounts or ignores the intensely disturbing Pew Poll findings. Those findings include and divide out the response of 26% of American Muslims’—between 18 and 29 years of age—to one of the poll questions regarding the efficacy of homicide (AKA “suicide”) bombings.
This middle-class American Muslim population said that suicide bombings on US soil could be justified! Some have calculated that the Pew poll-cited 26% of these 18-29 year old Muslims currently living in the US constitutes a minimum of 200,000 individuals who currently believe that the bombings are not only acceptable to them but, necessary if meant to ‘protect’ their religion. However, having no truly accurate figures as to how many Muslims are now in the United States—let alone those between 18 and 29—this figure is highly speculative and may even be higher.
In an apparent attempt to lull the public into a life-threatening complacency, the consistently left-leaning mainstream media has chosen to play these facts down—or not report them at all. They, instead, choose to run stories on ‘Islamophobia’. Sorry old media but, a fear based upon the worldwide substantive perpetrations of horrific acts upon others by adherents of Islam and the Muslim religion is not irrational.
Do these Pew poll data mean that this group of young American Muslims is ready to attack the USA? No—not by these data, alone. But, this poll is not the only indicator of the growing in-country threat from Islamists.
For years, something very alarming has been steadily growing upon the shores of the United States. It is the development and expansion of Islamic paramilitary compounds. Three of these, according to Greg Copley President of the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), include “Islamberg in New York, Ahmedabad in Virginia, and Holy Islamville in South Carolina, and so on are places which have been formed largely by Jamaat ul-Fuqra—which is a fundamentalist jihadist movement, which has been involved in terrorist activity and supporting terrorist activity.”
Copley continues with: “The U.S. government, for example, claimed that ul-Fuqra members were involved in more than a dozen bombings and arson attacks during the 1980s and 1990s” and adds that members were “possibly responsible for a couple dozen homicides, and possibly linked to the murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was killed in Pakistan.” These fortresses are closed to the public and consist of Muslims from Pakistan, men who are said to have converted to Islam while in US prisons and their families. In Paul Williams’ compelling article “Springtime in Islamberg”, a sentry at the fortification is quoted as saying: “Our community is not open to visitors!”
These strongholds are also said to consist of many who have threatened the US with violent acts and were, or are currently, on terrorist watch lists. And, apparently, their children are being raised to embrace and emulate the hatreds and radical tenets of their parents. It is unclear how many of these paramilitary enclosures exist throughout the country and/or where they are strategically located. But, considering the ideologies of those who operate them the purpose and mission seem clear. And their goals do not give the impression of being at all positive to or for non-Muslim US citizens.
The areas involving violence perpetrated by the group Jamaat ul-Fuqra is shown here.
With Islamic separatist militaristic training compounds appearing across the country, we can only guess at when their followers will begin to implement their training. One item, however, remains extremely curious. In the past, the US government has arrested, burned out or blown up other militaristic compounds on US soil. The most recent notable example is the Clinton Administration’s burning of the Branch Davidians religious cult headquarters. Yet, this in-the-USA reported Islamic multi-branch paramilitary movement is allowed to continue. What’s that all about? Do you think Pew’s 26% figure might actually be low?
One thing that is a certainty is that young terrorists or terrorist-supporting individuals are now being raised, taught and trained on American soil. Considering the fact that radical Islam has loudly sworn time and time again that it will destroy us, does the fact that this is being allowed to occur make any sense—any at all—to you? Perhaps radical American Muslims won’t attack today. But, from all challenge indications being thrown down in front of us, they certainly seem to be gearing up for tomorrow. And while our courageous and dedicated men and women overseas are fighting and dying to keep them there, we are letting the terrorists in through our back door and, all too often, even the front.
Sher Zieve is an author, political commentator, Staff Writer and Program Director for The New Media Alliance a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. Zieve’s Op/Ed columns are widely carried by multiple Internet Journals and sites and she also writes hard news. Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Boston Star, Massachusetts Sun, Sacramento Sun, in International news publications and on multiple University websites.
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, its editorial staff or its publisher. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Photographs featured in The New Media Journal are for educational purposes only. While some of them are factual in nature others are creations meant to incite thought to further the socio-political and ideological conversation amongst of our readers. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media or ideological organizations . The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a group of non-compensated, independent writers bringing researched, fact-based commentary to the public in the midst of the mainstream media’s blatant, agenda-driven bias. The New Media Journal is a non-profit educational effort.
Socialists in Democrat Clothing
Politics Lance Fairchok, Senior Writer
June 19, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/l_fairchok/06192007.htm
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism,” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
Seven years into the twenty-first century, Mr. Thomas’ prediction is coming close to fruition; the presidential elections of 2008 may well validate his faith in “liberalism” and its Trojan horse delivery of Socialism. After decades of slow yet persistent desensitization to Socialism in our schools, in our media and in government policy, Americans have become complacent to what the ramifications of Socialism would be upon our prosperity, our individual freedoms and our national identity. Political candidates espouse openly socialist policies without eliciting the slightest outrage or significant comment, so successfully have the philosophies of Marx and Lenin permeated the national debate.
“Many of you are well enough off that the tax cuts may have helped you. We’re saying that for America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” – Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate
Karl Marx could have written those words, for he was certainly part of their inspiration:
“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need.”
This statement on its face seems a reasonable philosophy, charitable and humane. However, the hard lessons of history have taught us otherwise; the application of utopian ideals by those who would govern using them has always led to disaster and ruin.
The ideology originates from a profoundly mistaken understanding of human nature, one that misinterprets human self-interest as greed and holds human altruism in distain, assuming it is calculated by self-interest alone. Communism, Socialisms most virulent strain, has been so spectacular a failure it is hard to fathom how anyone could continue to excuse its excesses. Yet, we still see Communist leaders idolized with the same adolescent leftist naiveté that made Pol Pot, Ayatollah Khomeini and Fidel Castro palatable in the West. As is always the case, their depredations shock and embarrass their apologists and quickly disappear from our newspapers and television sets, if they can be found there at all.
Socialists are ever mutable, shifting and accommodating in the winds of political change. They quickly forget the often-horrific consequences of their advocacy. The death of Venezuela’s democracy is now a very real possibility, but few will point to former President Carter for enabling a dictator by validating an obviously rigged election. This amnesia is one of the consistent afflictions of Socialism and the left.
Let us dissect Senator Clinton’s statement, and examine not what is said, but what is inferred. Sometimes a very few words can reveal a great deal. Perhaps we can gain insight into what would be in store for America under a new Clinton administration.
“Many of you are well enough off that the tax cuts may have helped you.”
The persistent theme from the Democrats is that only the rich benefited from tax cuts, and one is to conclude that those with low incomes did not. The sentence uses a clever rhetorical tool to cover what is a lie. The overwhelming evidence is that the tax cuts worked wonders, significantly increasing revenues, reducing unemployment, expanding the economy and reducing the deficit. Even low income households benefited, with millions having their tax burden erased. [1] Unless one knew that those 20% of Americans with the lowest income only pay 1% of taxes, her claim might make sense. In fact, the 20% with the highest income, the “rich,” contribute almost 70% of tax revenues. The “tax cut for the rich” claims are propaganda resurrected from a by-gone era, one where exacerbating class differences could get votes.
But, who thinks in terms of “class” anymore? Socialists do. It has been their fertile political ground for many decades, a fall back position for everything from Hurricane Katrina to voting fraud. The “disenfranchised,” the poor, the old, the “undocumented Americans” are the proletarian victims of the bourgeois exploiters. As an ideology, it is frayed at the seams in a country overwhelmingly middle class and upwardly mobile.
The National Center for Policy Analysis observed in 2004 that:
“The U.S. Department of the Treasury estimates that repealing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would raise taxes an average of $1,544 for more than 100 million Americans and cost a married couple with an income of $40,000 and two children $1,933 annually.“
In 2007, those numbers almost certainly will have gone up. The Democrat claim that the tax cuts benefited only the rich is demonstrably false.
NEW YORK (AP) — Dow, S&P 500 Hit Record Highs on Data
Wall Street carved out a solid advance Friday after data on job creation, manufacturing and inflation injected the market with renewed confidence about the economy and sent major indexes to record closes. (Associated Press 1 June 2007)
Let’s look at the next sentence.
We’re saying that for America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut that short and not give it to you.
She fully intends to rescind or fail to renew the tax cuts. Using “probably” makes the statement more palatable by taking of the definitive edge. Doing so would allow “for America to get back on track.” That statement begs the question, back on track to where? What is Senator Clinton’s vision for America? With a vigorous economy and a highly productive middle class, what problems does she see that need fixing? Health Care? Poverty? Immigration? Iraq? We can only wonder. Repealing the cuts would go a long way in making our economy actually match the lefts negative propaganda.
“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”
Where have we heard “the common good” before? It is the title of a book written by radical anti-American leftist Noam Chomsky. Web search the phrase and you get 1,290,000 hits, mostly on the sites of religious organizations, colleges and universities, leftist and Socialist groups. The phrase has been used by well-intentioned religious and political figures for centuries, a disarming platitude that hides all the hideous potentiality of despots and dictators. It usually means “the common good” that they envision with the insufferable arrogance of those who anoint themselves as enlightened.
Let us return to Marx for a moment. “From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” and compare that to Hillary Clinton, “We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.” Of course, “what is best for society” is never defined, but as the proletariat unfairly suffers under the abuses of the bourgeoisie Senator Clinton believes government should make things fair…
“Fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right government policies.” – Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate, May 29, 2007
How does one ensure “fairness” for over 300 million Americans? Everyone has a story of something that unfairly happened to him or her. Personalize the politics; distill them down to a very common, common denominator. We promise to be “fair”! When has big government ever ensured fairness?
For Democrats, the current prosperity is a troublesome dilemma, for how does one point to the disadvantaged and poor to fuel populist moral campaigns, when there are so few? How does one use economics in campaign rhetoric when unemployment is below 4.5 percent? By finding a new group to campaign for such as “undocumented Americans” and demeaning the jobs people have, promising better ones in a never-ending cascade of opportunistic promises that are never fulfilled, yet somehow, astonishingly, are believed. Socialist goals of income redistribution, profit caps, increased tax rates and programs to fix every real or imagined ill in American society are waiting in the wings.
Socialists reject the fundamental premise of a Democratic society; things work best with the least possible government interference. The Socialist formula is government involvement in all aspects of the lives of its citizens. This is called Statism and it inevitably leads to a society controlled by political elites where citizens loose their voice and then their freedom. The Socialist state assumes it can solve societal problems and shape that society through its policies and taxes. European Socialist “Democracies” tax their citizens as high as 60%. Small businesses are folding from excessive regulation and taxes. Unemployment is high and social problems, rather than being corrected from government involvement, are exacerbated.
Socialism bleeds the vitality from a nation; it dilutes the national will, and lulls the citizenry into fatal complacency that makes it ill suited to survival. Existential threats are ignored as social programs progressively consume larger and larger portions of national budgets. Simply put, Socialism is a disaster.
Senator Clinton carefully constructs her public statements to obscure her foundational beliefs, but as you see, they still leak through. The Democrats have embraced Socialism. She may be unaware how obvious it is to those who study history, or she may think the public is desensitized enough that it no longer matters. Democrat “spokespersons” deny it even as the party pushes for policies that are clearly Socialist, policies that have a disturbing record of failure, of increasing spending far out of proportion with benefits, and doing the exact opposite of what the proponents promise. The utopian delusions of Socialism have always induced this dangerous myopia. It is as if they are afflicted with a pathological inability to see the historical consequences or are made so shortsighted by their desire for power they are oblivious to those consequences.
“...because an uninsured person who goes to the hospital is more likely to die than an insured person. I mean, that is a fact. So what do we do? We have to build a political consensus and that requires people giving up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground. The same with energy. You know, we can’t keep talking about our dependence on foreign oil and the need to deal with global warming and the challenge that it poses to our climate and to God’s creation and just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people.” – Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate, June 3, 2007
The American love of individual freedom combined with our willingness, even eagerness, to contribute to our communities with our time, labor and money makes our nation a singular achievement in human history. Our Founding Fathers created a system that understood what best motivates its citizens: a desire to better their lives and the lives of their families. Our willingness to forgo easy comfort and short-term gain for a greater and more lasting prosperity has made us what we are. We expect to work for what we have. We take pride in our labors. We expect our fellow citizens to do the same. We are generous with our charity precisely because it is voluntary. We bridle under oppressive government regulation. We know that utopias are a fairytale, and thankfully, a significant majority of us can still spot a charlatan.
Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate, said in 1992:
“The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they’re not.”
For once, I agree.
Vladimir Lenin wrote that, “A lie told often enough becomes truth.” In the struggle for the soul of America, the Socialists are counting on it.
“The past shows unvaryingly that when a people’s freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not long be found at all.” – Richard Weaver, 1962
1. The Tax Foundation, August 17, 2004, Fiscal Fact No. 14 Bush Tax Cuts Erased Income Tax Burden for 7.8 Million Families
Lance Fairchok is a senior writer for The New Media Journal. He is a retired Air Force Intelligence professional with many years of service in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. His travels left him fascinated by the wide differences in human cultural perceptions and how ideas spread in diverse populations. He writes and does research on a variety of subjects to include totalitarian ideologies, radical Islam and press accuracy. He currently teaches and writes on the Emerald Coast of Florida.
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, its editorial staff or its publisher. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Photographs featured in The New Media Journal are for educational purposes only. While some of them are factual in nature others are creations meant to incite thought to further the socio-political and ideological conversation amongst of our readers. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media or ideological organizations . The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a group of non-compensated, independent writers bringing researched, fact-based commentary to the public in the midst of the mainstream media’s blatant, agenda-driven bias. The New Media Journal is a non-profit educational effort.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Former Y-12 Personnel Kept Security Clearances
A U.S. Energy Department audit found that more than 100 one-time workers at two nuclear weapons sites in Tennessee were allowed to keep top-security clearances after leaving those facilities, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 18, 2006).
The investigation by the DOE inspector general’s office followed up on a 2003 review of security access and security badge issues at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and the former K-25 uranium enrichment site, which is now the East Tennessee Technology Park.
“Our recent analysis … indicates that these issues persist,” stated Inspector General Gregory Friedman in the May 24 report.
“We identified 142 employees (at Y-12) who were no longer associated with the department but still maintained an active security clearance. All except two … had ‘Q’ (top-security) clearances,” the report states.
Thirty-four more people “who had reportedly worked at ETTP and should have had their security clearances terminated or transferred were still listed as active,” it adds. Eighteen of those people had top-security clearances.
There have also been problems at the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories since 2003 in collecting security badges from exiting personnel, the report stated.
“It is not a good news story when you have badges floating around,” said Peter Stockton, a senior investigator at the Project on Government Oversight watchdog group.
Standard protocols were followed regarding clearances at the Oak Ridge sites, and there were no security issues, according to government and contractor officials. Personnel shifting to other high-security work could maintain their clearances while those not returning had to turn in their badges, they said.
“There was no problem. There is no problem,” said Mike Monnett of Y-12 managing contractor BWX Technologies.
“The IG report made a claim about security clearances for people who no longer work here,” he added. “Those people have valid requirements for those clearances.”
None had been fired, Monnett said (Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press/The Knoxville News Sentinel, June 18).
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2007_6_19.html
http://claudiarosett.pajamasmedia.com/
portrait of the author
Links
logo of Foundation for Defense of Democracies Bio and Articles National Review Online Fox News The New York Sun The Weekly Standard The Philadelphia Inquirer Committee on the Present Danger Middle East Media Research Institute The Hudson Institute
Essays
Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society”
June 18, 2007
Planes, Mercedes, Iran and Oil-for-Food-for-Sudan
Planes
I see that Victor Davis Hanson is blogging about the miseries of modern air travel. I’ll chime in to say that I’ve just been in Paris to cover a meeting of Iranian dissidents (more on that below) and the trip from New York felt longer than the three-day meeting itself. What was supposed to be an 8 hour 10 minute route, with a quick connection in Zurich, turned into a 19 hour extravaganza — plus the two-hour advance check-in time to wait in the snaking line (airlines operate as if perpetually surprised that customers would show up at all; in delicatessens, by contrast, they at least let you take a number and browse during rush hours) and then go to security and start hopping around on one foot while shucking gear into those little tubs (where are the ergonomists of America? surely there’s a better way). All-in-all, including a hopelessly missed connection, and further delays, the trip was about 24-hours door-to-door.
But the enduring memory — and in the event it did seem to last forever — was the delay at JFK after we had boarded the plane and left the gate for an early evening takeoff. A 10 minute delay became an hour. Then that turned into another hour. Then the pilot announced he was waiting to hear from the control tower, and had no idea when we would go. He turned off the seatbelt sign and the crew — hallelujah — began passing out snack packets of Soletti Happy Mix. The plane was still sitting on the apron. There was no bad weather. There was no mechanical problem. There was just an amazing airplane jam at JFK. Another hour went by. The plane rolled into a queue that stretched as far as we could see. Another hour went by. Finally, a bit after 10 PM, we took off. Crew members said this has become routine at JFK. One steward said that out of 17 flights he had worked in previous weeks, only one had made the trip on time — the problem being that JFK just can’t deal with the traffic.
Iranians for Regime Change, and a Note on North Korea
In Paris, the news was all about the French legislative elections (and the Hamas coup in Gaza), but my main interest — along with a few other items — was in the 200 or so Iranian-born exiled dissidents meeting in a nondescript basement conference hall to launch a movement they are calling Solidarity Iran. I filed an article about it last night, and have already heard from other Iranian dissidents, saying this group can’t get anywhere, is full of has-beens, some of whom helped bring the Islamic Republic to power in the first place, and isn’t worth listening to. Possibly, but even if they get nothing else right, these folks have an aim that our own government seems to have dropped — they want an end to the Islamic regime in Tehran. Not negotiations, not Condi Rice meeting with bagmen for the mullahs, not a Libya solution focused on the nuclear program while giving the tyrants a pass. The Iranian exiles in that Paris basement had plenty to say about why the only real answer in Iran is to bring down the regime. That’s a message worth paying attention to. If Jimmy Carter himself were to utter it, I’d listen.
The same message applies to North Korea. We have now allowed Kim Jong Il to extort help in his money laundering from what is arguably the most powerful institution on earth after the U.S. mililtary: the Federal Reserve. We will pay dearly for that.
And Yes, In the Oil-for-Food Sludge, Another Mercedes Bobs to the Surface
Just when you thought you’d heard it all, the same United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal which led to investigations that outed Kojo Annan’s tax-free and duty-free Mercedes (bought in Europe and shipped to Ghana under false use of Kofi Annan’s UN Secretary-General status) has now led to allegations in India about another Mercedes, this one allegedly connected to kickbacks via a New Delhi connection with UN relief activities in Iraq. Here’s a link to the story, complete with photos of the alleged documentation, found in a pen drive.
Sudan
And of course we have recently heard the proposal from a former member of Paul Volcker’s inquiry into Oil-for-Food, Richard Goldstone, to set up a UN Oil-for-Food program in Sudan. Goldstone’s assumption, I guess, is that based on the lessons of Oil-for-Food, this could now be well run. Not a chance. But I suppose it could be more efficiently run. Instead of pretending to manage a relief program, the UN could cut the middlemen, ship luxury cars in bulk to whomever, and oversee the direct deposit of kickbacks into private accounts. If it’s too much for the UN to handle, maybe the Fed can help out?
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PSACLO0&show_article=1&cat=0
90 Homes Evacuated Near Colo. Wildfire
Jun 19 11:58 PM US/Eastern
By CATHERINE TSAI
Associated Press Writer
NEW CASTLE, Colo. (AP) - White and yellow smoke billowed into the western Colorado sky Tuesday as firefighters battled three wildfires likely sparked by lightning that have burned at least 2,000 acres and forced evacuations of 90 homes.
One fire was burning in steep terrain dotted with rural subdivisions between New Castle and Glenwood Springs, about 160 miles west of Denver. The blaze had grown to 1,000 acres, or about 1.5 square miles.
No structures had burned, but one firefighter suffered a hand injury, said Suzanne Silverthorn, a spokeswoman for fire commanders.
Residents of 110 more houses were advised to leave. It was not immediately known how many people had left their homes. Three people had checking to a school being used as an emergency shelter in New Castle.
“It’s been a really scary fire,” Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said. “Its behavior has been bizarre. We’re struggling to get a handle on it.”
Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Boyd said the fire was moving east, toward the homes. On Monday, firefighters said the flames were within a half-mile of houses, but Boyd had no new distance on Tuesday.
A second fire in a remote and rugged area near the town of Cameo, 180 miles west of Denver, had reached 1,000 acres by Tuesday morning but had not grown further by mid-afternoon, BLM spokeswoman Mel Lloyd said. Three aircraft and 75 ground crew members were on scene.
One fire near Parachute had been held to just 4 acres but was a concern because it was just 200 yards from homes and natural gas wells.
All three fires were blamed on lightning strikes Sunday.
About 200 firefighters, five aircraft and six fire engines were battling the fire near New Castle, and more crews were on the way.
The wind began to pick up Tuesday afternoon, as fire managers feared, and tongues of flame and black smoke were visible within the white plume.
The fire was not far from the site of the July 1994 Storm King Mountain wildfire that killed 14 firefighters.
In California, a wildfire broke out Tuesday in a brush-filled canyon below a residential neighborhood in northern San Diego.
A city firefighting helicopter was brought in before sundown to drop water on the fire. No evacuations were reported.
NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-216
Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 766-1277
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
Jakes Fireworks Inc. Recalls Fireworks Sold by World Class Distributors
Due to Burn and Injury Hazards
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in
cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary
recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using
recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: March or Die Mine/Shell Fireworks Devices
Units: About 4,000
Distributor: Jakes Fireworks Inc., of Pittsburg, Kas.
Hazard: The tubes on these fireworks devices could become loose, making
the devices unstable during use. If the device tips over during use, it
could pose burn and injury hazards to bystanders.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported.
Description: The recalled fireworks are a 500 gram mine/shell device
that consists of nine, 3-inch tubes with a single fuse for ignition.
The
device measures 16”x16”x13” and its packaging is a dark blue cardboard
label with the words “March or Die” printed in red.
Sold by: World Class Distributors nationwide from April 2006 through
May
2006 for $40.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the product and contact
Jakes Fireworks for a replacement product.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Jakes Fireworks
at
(800) 766-1277 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or
visit the company’s Web site at www.jakesfireworks.com
To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07216.html
********************************************************
NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-217
Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 766-1277
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
Far East Imports Recalls Fireworks Due to Eye Injury Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in
cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary
recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using
recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: 300 Shot Saturn Missiles Battery Fireworks
Units: About 13,600
Distributor: Far East Imports, of Pittsburg, Kan.
Hazard: These fireworks devices can travel in an unexpected and
dangerous direction, which could pose eye and other injury hazards to
bystanders.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported.
Description: The recalled fireworks are a 200 gram multi shot device
that consists of 300 individual missiles with a single fuse for
ignition. The device measures 2 1/2” by 23 7/8” by 3 1/4” and its
packaging has a red and yellow label and the words “Saturn
Missiles-Battery-300 Shots Finale” printed on it.
Sold by: Boomer Distributors nationwide from April 2006 through July
2006 for $10.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using this fireworks and
contact Far East Imports for a replacement product.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Far East Imports
at (800) 766-1277 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday,
or
visit the company’s Web site at www.fareastimporting.com
To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07217.html
********************************************************
NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-218
Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 231-6083
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
Children’s Necklaces Recalled by GeoCentral Due to Lead Poisoning
Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in
cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary
recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using
recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Butterfly Necklaces
Units: About 19,000
Importer: GeoCentral, of Napa, Calif.
Hazard: The metal clasp on the necklace contains high levels of lead.
Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse
health
effects.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported.
Description: The recalled necklaces consist of a multi-colored
butterfly
pendant on a multi-colored seed bead 16-inch necklace. The product’s
packaging includes a white hang card with “GeoJewelry” printed on the
front underneath “GeoCentral.”
Sold at: Souvenir and gift stores nationwide from January 2006 through
May 2007 for about $2.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled jewelry away
from
children and return them to store where purchased for a full refund or
contact GeoCentral for information on how to obtain a full refund.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact GeoCentral at
(800) 231-6083 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or
visit the firm’s Web site at www.geocentral.com
To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07218.html
********************************************************
NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-219
Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 292-6813
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
Gateway Inc. Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in
cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary
recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using
recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Gateway Lithium Ion Battery Packs
Units: About 14,000
Battery Distributor: Gateway Inc., of Irvine, Calif.
Hazard: These lithium-ion battery packs can overheat, which could pose
a
fire hazard to consumers. This is not an internal battery cell defect.
Incidents/Injuries: Gateway has received four reports of battery packs
overheating, including minor property damage. No injuries have been
reported.
Description: The recalled battery packs were shipped as the primary or
spare battery pack for some Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks,
and are identified by part numbers: 6500760 or 6500761. The part number
and “made by SMP” are printed on a label on the underside of the
battery
pack.
Sold through: Gateway’s professional and direct distributors and
Gateway
Country stores nationwide from May 2003 through August 2003. The
computers with these batteries sold for between $1,200 and $2,400 and
individual batteries sold for between $60 and $90.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should stop using these recalled batteries
immediately
and contact Gateway to receive a replacement battery. Consumers can
continue to use the notebook computers safely by turning the system
off,
removing the battery pack, and using the AC adapter and power cord to
power the system until the replacement battery is received.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Gateway at (800)
292-6813 between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. CT seven days a week or visit the
company’s Web site at www.gateway.com/battery
To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07219.html
Jihadis Post Scenario for the Defeat of the United States
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373415
Jihadis Post Scenario for the Defeat of the United States
By Abdul Hameed Bakier, Erich Marquardt
On May 14, jihadi forum users Abu Kandahar and Roslan al-Shami posted a
five-point scenario for the collapse of the United States and the rise
of the Islamic ummah, entitled, “The Next Strikes in the Heart of
America, When and How.” It appeared on the al-ommh.net forum, although at
least one other jihadi forum, alhanein.com, reposted the scenario. The
posting outlines a scenario for attacking the United States, although the
sheer size of the operation suggests that it is jihadi propaganda and
not an actual plan that could be operationalized. The alleged operation
is dedicated to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of
Iraq.
The first stage in the scenario involves multiple terrorist attacks on
three major U.S. cities, preferably with nuclear weapons, using an
unspecified number of trucks. The scenario places priority on attacking New
York City because it is the central artery of the U.S. economy and it
would prove that the mujahideen are capable of recurrent attacks on the
same target. The second city to attack is Los Angeles, an important
West Coast “atheist” city. The third “city” to be attacked is Florida
because, they argue, it is an East Coast congregation city and has the
Kennedy Space Center (considering the description, the statement’s authors
probably meant Orlando). While those are the three primary cities for
attack, the writers of the document suggest that if the mujahideen wish
to expedite the collapse of the United States, they should also conduct
attacks in Seattle since it is a strategic border city; Washington, DC,
the political center of the United States; and cities in Texas, since
the “biggest oil companies” are located there.
According to the writers, the purpose of attacking these specific
cities is to cause a sharp decline in the U.S. economy; mass amounts of
casualties; the support for the mujahideen by anti-U.S. countries such as
Cuba and Venezuela; a decrease in American support for their own
government; the withdrawal of the “blasphemous” U.S. military from Islamic
territories; mass military desertions; and the inability to fuel U.S.
military fighter jets. The document also outlines how the fallout from such
large-scale attacks would cause the U.S. military to return to the
United States in order to conduct massive relief operations. They refer to
the example of how Hurricane Katrina overburdened the U.S. National
Guard, calling the hurricane a “Soldier of God.”
After such attacks, they argue that the Islamic State of Iraq will
seize the opportunity to launch mass strikes on the apostates in the Iraqi
military and police, paving the way for the third stage of the
scenario: the commencement of the golden era of the triumphant Islamic
conquests that includes the implementation of Sharia, the liberation of the
Arabian Peninsula, the removal from power of “the U.S. ruling family” in
Jordan and, finally, the big march toward Palestine. In the end, even
Washington DC will fall to the mujahideen and that will conclude the
final stage of Islamic control of the globe.
The scenario appears less of a planned operation than a hope for the
fulfillment of a prophecy. The supposed factuality of the scenario is
based on various verses in the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings.
Nevertheless, some of the users on the forums who discussed the
scenario asserted that all of the details to execute the operation had already
been prepared. One such user, by the alias of Abu Nedal, said, “For
your knowledge, the operations are ready and awaiting the orders from our
leader Osama bin Laden, God protect him, to decide what he deems
appropriate either to strike now or to wait.”
Islamist extremists have always fabricated factitious scenarios for
victory over the West based on their own interpretations of Quranic
prophecies in times of crisis and defeat. Nevertheless, al-Qaeda has shown
prior interest in acquiring nuclear materials for use in an attack, and
it is necessary to take such forum postings seriously as they display
the mindset and the intent, although perhaps not the capability, of
al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
Al-Qaeda’s American Recruit Releases Something Entirely New
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373449
Al-Qaeda’s American Recruit Releases Something Entirely New
By Michael Scheuer
As the 19th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s founding nears later in 2007,
Western analysts have accumulated an enormous body of primary-source
material upon which to base judgments, assessments and predictions. While it
is a truism to say that al-Qaeda is a “learning organization”—in the
sense that it studies failed operations and adapts—it is not often enough
remembered that al-Qaeda is also an organization that devotes large
amounts of time and resources to teaching, informing and warning. Needless
to say, much of this latter activity is directed to the Muslim world,
but not since the United States confronted Ho Chi Minh and General Giap
during the Vietnam conflict have they had a foe as eager as al-Qaeda to
educate them about its motivations, war aims and intentions. Indeed,
al-Qaeda has taken the passion of the North Vietnamese to inform and warn
a step further by recruiting a U.S. citizen to serve as an
English-speaking, Islamist mentor for the American audience.
The American Adam Gadahn—now known as Azzam al-Amriki (Azzam the
American)—has emerged as the third most important spokesman among al-Qaeda
leaders, following Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri [1]. While
officially only a member of al-Qaeda’s media committee, Gadahn has joined
bin Laden as the only other al-Qaeda member who has devoted entire
statements to directly addressing the U.S. president and American citizens.
To be sure, al-Zawahiri has ridiculed the president and talked to
Americans, urging conversion and warning of coming attacks, but for the most
part these statements have been in the context of regional issues—such
as Iraq—for which he is the group’s lead spokesman. Gadahn, therefore,
is at the core of al-Qaeda’s most important U.S.-oriented communication
projects—although this does not necessarily mean he is fully involved
in military operations—and seems to serve as the speaker responsible for
ensuring that there is no way Americans can misunderstand what bin
Laden is talking about. Speaking in the idiom of American English, and
often using contemporary slang, Gadahn is the sledge that drives home the
spike of bin Laden’s messages for Americans.
In this role, Gadahn’s May 29 videotape entitled “Legitimate Demands”
constitutes a rare and perhaps singular item in the immense corpus of
al-Qaeda’s statements, interviews, essays, sermons and editorials [2]. At
the most basic level, it completes what appears to have been Gadahn’s
assignment to amplify bin Laden’s effort to satisfy his post-9/11
critics by ensuring that Americans were—according to the Prophet Muhammad’s
guidance—offered the chance to convert to Islam and warned about coming
attacks well before they occurred. Bin Laden both offered conversion
and warned Americans multiple times between Spring 2002 and Summer 2006,
and Gadahn focused on clarifying bin Laden’s conversion offer in a
lengthy September 2006 video called “An Invitation to Islam” [3]. Gadahn’s
words in the conversion video were shorn of most of the Quranic
references common to bin Laden’s rhetoric and were spoken in the American
vernacular.
Gadahn’s May 29 “Legitimate Demands” amplifies and clarifies bin
Laden’s multiple warnings to the American people about future attacks [4]. It
is unique in the al-Qaeda archive in its almost complete lack of
Islamic terminology and allusions, as well as in its frank, almost brutal
directness. In the video, Gadahn not only reemphasizes the threats bin
Laden already has made, but in essence says that time is up for Americans
to consider his boss’s words and implicitly warns an attack in the
United States is near.
Gadahn first deftly turns the idiomatic phrasing of some U.S. leaders’
rhetoric back on them, describing Washington’s actions in Iraq and
Afghanistan as “your empire of evil,” and asserting that al-Qaeda is not
calling “for negotiations. We don’t negotiate with baby-killers and war
criminals like you! No, these are legitimate demands that must be met”—a
clear play on the White House spokesperson’s 2005 response to bin
Laden’s truce offer: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists. We put them out of
business.” Gadahn then denounces the “futile, farcical maneuvers [on
Iraq] on Capitol Hill,” adding that, “You may or may not be aware of it,
but today…things aren’t going to well for your Crusader coalition [in
Iraq and Afghanistan]. In fact, things are going really badly…In other
words, you’re losing on all fronts and losing big time” [5].
The core of Gadhan’s presentation is focused on bin Laden’s traditional
positions, but his words are phrased in a manner that adds up to the
most maximalist set of demands al-Qaeda has ever issued regarding what
the U.S. president and Americans must do to avoid being attacked again
domestically. Bin Laden’s use of inference, ambiguity and a patient,
in-sorrow-not-anger tone is gone. In their place, Gadahn substitutes—and we
must assume with the consent of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri—implacable
demands that al-Qaeda knows cannot and will not be met, and which are
reminiscent of those presented to Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in
1914 when Vienna intended war, not a settlement.
Gadahn’s demands on Washington are nothing less than a complete U.S.
withdrawal from the Muslim world, warning that a failure to do so “will
make you [Americans] forget all about the horrors of September 11th,
Afghanistan and Iraq, and Virginia Tech” [6]. He says that “every last one
of your [America’s] soldiers, spies, security advisors, trainers, and
attaches and so on” must leave the Muslim world “from Afghanistan to
Zanzibar.” If a single individual remains, he warns, the United States
will be attacked [7]. “Stop all support and aid; military political,
economic and otherwise to the 56-plus apostate regimes of the Muslim world
and abandon them to their well deserved fate at the hands of the
soldiers of Islam,” Gadahn demanded, explaining that if Washington does not
“comply in full,” the mujahideen would “deem it sufficient to continue to
fight and kill Americans” [8]. On Israel, Gadahn repeated the pattern:
“End all support, moral, military, economic, political or otherwise to
the bastard state of Israel. And ban your citizens, Zionist Jews,
Zionist Christians and the rest from traveling to occupied Palestine or
settling there. Even one penny of aid will be considered sufficient
justification to continue the fight” [9].
Gadahn closed by repeating al-Qaeda’s demand that Washington “free all
Muslim captives from your prisons, detention facilities and
concentration camps,” and expanded the traditional al-Qaeda demand for U.S.
non-intervention in the Muslim world’s affairs by adding that U.S. officials
must “impose a blanket ban on all broadcasts to our region, especially
those designed to alter or destroy the faith, minds, morals and values
of our people.” This last comment is worth noting because it goes quite
a bit beyond the limited degree of attention and specificity al-Qaeda
generally accords to the impact of U.S. culture on Muslims.
Gadahn’s bare-knuckled and supremely confident presentation sharpens
and clarifies the message of warning bin Laden has repeatedly delivered
to Americans; it is spoken by an American, in modern English, and is
studded with contemporary slang and catch-phrases. Gadahn’s words also
have a note of finality about them, as if he is saying there will be no
more warnings from al-Qaeda, and the choice for Americans is between
surrender and domestic attack. Again, this is out of character for the
rhetoric of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, and it suggests that they ordered
Gadahn to make a last-warning to Americans before al-Qaeda attacks inside
the United States. The obvious unacceptability of the demands also
suggests that al-Qaeda has an attack ready and that nothing short of a U.S.
capitulation would deter it. In Gadahn’s words, “the die has been cast”
and an era has begun that will see “your end, not ours” [10].
Notes
1. The very best account of Adam Gadahn and the road he traveled to
al-Qaeda is Raffi Khatchadourian, “Azzam the American. The Making of an
al-Qaeda Homegrown,” New Yorker, January 22.
2. “Legitimate Demands, A Message from Mujahid Brother Adam Yahiye
Gadahn (Azzam),” IntelCenter, May 29.
3. “An Invitation to Islam,” IntelCenter, September 2, 2006.
4. See, for example, Osama bin Laden, “Message to the American People,”
al-Jazeera, October 30, 2004. Bin Laden’s consistent indictment of the
United States has six components, and they are mirrored in Gadahn’s
statement: unqualified U.S. support for Israel; the U.S. military and
civilian presence on the Arabian Peninsula; the U.S. military presence in
Muslim countries; U.S. exploitation of Muslim energy resources; U.S.
protection for tyrannical Muslim governments; and U.S. support for Russia,
India and China against Muslims.
5. “Legitimate Demands, A Message from Mujahid Brother Adam Yahiye
Gadahn (Azzam).”
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. It is worth speculating that Gadahn’s words also have a
Machiavellian intent given that they come at a time when the inspirational and
instigating power of Osama bin Laden’s rhetoric is increasingly visible
around the world in the proliferation of Islamist groups that claim
allegiance to bin Laden and his ideas, but have no command-and-control
relationship with al-Qaeda. For example, on the weekend of June 2-3, a
homegrown, al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist group intending to attack Kennedy
Airport in New York was broken up by U.S. law enforcement authorities. It
may be that Gadahn’s final-straw message reflects al-Qaeda’s realization
that it has no control over these homegrown Islamist groups, and that
by throwing down the gauntlet now bin Laden’s stature as the leader of
the Sunni Islamist movement will grow by analysts associating his
inspiration as a motivating force when one of the homegrown groups in the
United States or elsewhere is finally successful.
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2007/06/stalins-killing-fields-russian-golgotha.html
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Stalin’s Killing Fields: The Russian Golgotha? We think not.
As is always the case where Russia is concerned, when there is one step forward there are always at least two steps back. The New York Times documents the opening of a new memorial to victims of Stalin on Moscow’s outskirts, and this is good news, yet it quotes a Russian visitor saying “This place is our Russian Golgotha. There is Golgotha in the Holy Land, where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. All of Russia was Golgotha in the 20th century.” Do Germans refer to Auschwitz as “their Golgotha”? Do Americans talk about the Japanese camps this way? In fact, this is the exact opposite of the truth. Russians were not suffering for the sins of mankind, but for their own sins, and they were as much inflicting suffering as receiving it. Not only did they sit idly by while Stalin carried out his purges, many informed on their neighbors and benefited from the purges. The complicity of the Russian people themselves in the atrocities of Stalin is not recognized in this neo-Soviet memorial, nor is it reflected in the comments of this Russian or any other mainstream person in Russia today. Those, like Starovoitova and Politikovskaya, who dare to make such points find themselves pushing up daisies. Only a Russophile flight of egomania could possibly allow one to analogize the Russian people to Jesus Christ. Abraham Lincoln made a similar comment about American suffering during the Civil War, but in America the suffering was between two fully armed groups of rivals fighting over coherent political ideologies. In Russia, the armed state attacked the unarmed population on the ad hoc basis of preserving its power, and the vast majority stood by doing nothing. That’s not Golgotha, it’s just gross.
Worse still, the Orthodox Church, which bore the brunt of the attacks for which this memorial was created, is currently complicit in the rise of a neo-Soviet state, a Holy Russian Empire, and is condoning the persecution of rival religous groups. A proud KGB spy governs the nation, and he has rehabilitated Stalin, the KGB and even the Soviet anthem. It does not appear that Russians have learned anything positive from the Stalin era.
BUTOVO, Russia — Barbed wire still lines the perimeter of the secret police compound here on the southern edge of Moscow where more, perhaps far more, than 20,000 people were shot and buried from August 1937 through October 1938, at the height of Stalin’s purges. Now, gradually, Butovsky poligon — literally, the Butovo shooting range — is becoming a shrine to all of the victims of Stalin’s murderous campaigns. Grass-covered mounds holding the victims’ bones crisscross the pastoral field, which is now dotted with flowers and birch trees.
Searing portraits from victims’ case files found in the archives of the secret police are displayed, along with a grim month-by-month chart of executions, in front of a small wooden church in the field. “This place is our Russian Golgotha,” said Andrei Kuznetsov, 34, a social worker, making the sign of the cross recently in front of a newly built white stone church near the site, the Church of the Resurrection and the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. “There is Golgotha in the Holy Land, where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. All of Russia was Golgotha in the 20th century.”
The killing ground is a symbol of a much larger, bloodier conflict in Russian society, that between the Bolsheviks and the Russian Orthodox Church. One thousand of those killed here are known to have died for their Orthodox faith. More than 320 have been canonized as “new martyrs” of the church — bishops, monks, nuns and lay people who were victims of Soviet rule. The new church was consecrated on May 19 as part of the celebration of the reunion of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Church Abroad, an émigré group that broke away in the 1920s. The walls of the church are filled with icons of the new martyrs, including one depicting their executioners shooting them. Glass cases in the lower church are filled with their personal items, like an executed priest’s prayer book and his violin.
The names of the victims are engraved on plaques lining one of the fences around the field. The fence overlooks dachas that were built in a parklike setting for officials of the K.G.B., the secret police agency was a successor of the Stalin-era N.K.V.D. and endured until the collapse of the Soviet Union. “They say the strawberries grew especially large at these dachas,” said Galina Pryakina, 70, nodding at the mounds of bones as she traced her finger across the plaques and found the name of a monk, now a saint, killed on the same day as her father, June 4, 1938. She visited the site this year on the fourth Saturday after Easter, a day that Patriarch Aleksy II of the Russian Orthodox Church has chosen in recent years to commemorate Butovo’s martyrs. “I spent 66 years looking for him,” Ms. Pryakina said of her father. She was an infant when he was arrested, supposedly as a Romanian spy, and she and her mother were sent into exile. Three years ago, she journeyed to Moscow from her home in southern Kazakhstan to find her father’s burial place. She headed for a cemetery in the city’s north, but a woman at a bus stop — Ms. Pryakina is convinced that it was a vision of the Virgin Mary — directed her to Butovo. Within minutes, her father’s name was tracked in a database here.
The Rev. Kirill Kaleda, rector of the Church of the Resurrection and the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, has a tragically intimate connection to the parish. His grandfather Vladimir Ambartsumov, who was a priest, is one of the new martyrs. He was arrested in 1937 and sentenced to “10 years without the right of correspondence,” the official euphemism for a death sentence. The Kaleda family spent decades searching for him. “I remember very well how when we were little, after our morning and evening prayers, we would add a prayer asking to find how our Grandpa Volodya died,” Father Kaleda said. “It seemed that hope of learning the circumstances of Grandfather’s death had almost vanished. We had thought he died somewhere in the camps.”
Mikhail Mindlin, a concentration camp survivor who devoted his retirement in the 1980s and 1990s to systematically studying Soviet repression, fought to have the existence of the Butovo killing ground recognized by the state. Eventually, thanks to sympathetic K.G.B. officials, files with the names of those executed on the orders of Stalin’s henchman Nikolai I. Yezhov were found in secret police files.
The scope of the killings is staggering. Butovo’s victims ranged from peasants and factory workers to czarist generals, Russian Orthodox hierarchs, German Communists, Latvian writers, invalids and even Moscow’s Chinese launderers, dozens of whom were executed as enemies of the people. Ultimately many Soviet officials, including Yezhov and other N.K.V.D. officials who carried out the purges, were gunned down at Butovo and elsewhere as the revolution consumed its creators. Some objections have been raised to the Russian Orthodox focus of the memorial, given the wide variety of victims buried here. But Arseny Roginsky, the chairman of Memorial, an organization that works to catalog Soviet crimes and help victims of repression, said the church had stepped into a void left by the state. “It’s a bit strange that this is a purely Orthodox place, but nothing tragic,” he said. “I don’t really like this. I think this should be a multicultural place. “But it’s better that there be something than nothing. If the state is not ready to understand the meaning of terror in its history, the role and place of terror in its history, it’s not so terrible that the Orthodox Church took it upon itself.”
Thanks for reading La Russophobe [Who is a Freeper]
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
The Moscow Times reports:
German journalists have awarded President Vladimir Putin with their Closed Oyster prize for “continued obstruction of the free press in Russia.”
“Putin is a flawless opponent of press freedom and relentlessly suppresses uncomfortable truths,” said Thomas Leif of Netzwerk Recherche, the German journalists association that confers the annual prize to highlight impediments to the work of investigative reporters. Heribert Prantl, one of Germany’s most prominent political journalists, said in a laudation published Monday that Putin viewed himself the “caretaker of Russia’s frailty” and would not allow this task to be complicated by a critical press or an independent justice system. “Freedom of information in Russia means being free to love Putin. ... Freedom of the press means being free to write what Putin likes,” wrote Prantl, a journalist with Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Putin skipped the award ceremony in Hamburg over the weekend, and organizers said that the Kremlin never replied to their written invitation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin appreciated criticism based on reality but as of late a lot of criticism has been simply for the sake of criticism, Kommersant reported. “Closed like an oyster” is a German expression for somebody who is unwilling to talk about something. Among former prizewinners is Germany’s discount chain Aldi, notorious for not responding to press inquiries.
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