Posted on 02/26/2007 4:18:14 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Rafsanjani Concentrates on Koran in Friday Prayer 1st Sermon
Iran: Rafsanjani Concentrates on Koran in Friday Prayer First Sermon
First Sermon of Friday Prayers delivered by Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, chairman of the Iranian Expediency Council, in Tehran -- live
Originally published on 3/23/2007 by Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Radio 1 in Persian
[Rafsanjani begins amidst chants of slogans by the congregation in his support. The congregation also chants "Death to America", "Death to Israel", "Death to opponents of velayat-e faqih" and "Nuclear energy is our absolute right"] Thank you very much and may God's assist you and grant you victory [members of the congregation] very much. And of course [nuclear energy is your absolute right]. Please let me begin and make the most of the time we have.
In the name God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds. May God's peace and salutations be upon His Apostle [Prophet Muhammad] and to his infallible household and imams. We seek refuge in God from the evil of the damned Satan. I recommend that you should all worship God, observe His piety and follow the Koran, which has instructions for us all. I hope that Almighty God will help bestow His particular favours upon us, by enabling us to observe piety. And may He assist us to perform our religious obligations. I also beseech Almighty God, in the first week of the New Year, to grant us a year for all blessings combined with progress, prosperity and in line with the implementation of justice.
Our listeners and members of the prayer congregation remember that several years ago I began to allocate my first prayer sermons to the issue of the Koran. You also remember that, during these discussions, I said that at present the Koran is most important existing document of the world, which is the most valid evidence for guiding mankind to prosperity.
This Koran is something of which the Islamic ummah should be proud. We must therefore study the Koran more thoroughly. For some time in the past, we used to allocate all our first prayers sermons to the Koran. However, for a period in between, we debated the 20-year future outlook of the country in those sermons. Since we have finished the discussion on the 20-year outlook, we are resuming our discussion on the Koran from today.
In order to refresh the memory of our listeners, I shall briefly review what we discussed on the subject in our past sermons. Afterwards I shall begin a very important discussion which will be just the beginning of the subject.
In the past, I spoke about the issue of divine revelation, the essence of divine revelation, the way the Koran was revealed [to Prophet Muhammad], and the style of the Koran's written form and the method of its compilation. I also discussed the subject of the methods of safeguarding the Koran which have taken place through divine assurance. The latter was the most significant part of the discussion which shows how the Koran was safeguarded [to be handed down to future generations]. We therefore conclude that some ignorant individuals, who on occasions comment on the possibility of certain verses having been modified, are making a great mistake. I am saying this because such a mistake is not like making a blunder in a scientific subject. On the contrary, such an error is a dangerous one because they question a heavenly document which is harmless but at the same time very beneficial to mankind. It is an unjust act to question a document which was revealed [to the Prophet].
The Koran has remained the same since it was revealed. Thanks to the Prophet's foresight, it was first written down on the day of Nowruz. The written pieces were later compiled under the supervision of the angel [Gabriel] who was the harbinger of the divine revelation. During these processes, every verse was discussed carefully [to ascertain its authenticity]. The compiled version was later formally distributed among all the Islamic realms.
During my previous discussions on the subject, I also spoke on the recitation and interpretation of each verse. Of course, there are various valid interpretations of some verses. This is not a problem and the differences of opinion are acceptable. This is because there were different dialects even in those days [Arabic language is written and spoken at different levels]. The old version of the dialects gradually became the formal style of reciting the Koran.
I also discussed the topic about the Koran being a miracle. That is, the Koran is a miracle in both the meaning of its content and the style of its writing as literary masterpiece. Basically, in response to the critics [of the early Islamic era] who were demanding that the Prophet should show them a miracle, the Koran was revealed as the miracle. Of course, the Prophet performed other miracles, but the Koran has remained the creative and eternal miracle. And as far as the real miracle is concerned, we must seek this in the content of the Koran.
I also discussed the subject of the ethics, as covered by the Koran. In fact I allocated 10 of my first sermons to this subject. During those discussions, I almost covered all the fundamental interpretation concerning the ethical values in Islam, with the Koran as the focal point of the discussion.
As far as the Koranic verses on the divine commandments are concerned, I made a brief reference in the past. I promised to allocate more time to the subject in the future. Now the future has arrived; and I begin the verses of commandments from today. These are the verses which order the people and create some obligations for [the Islamic] society. This is a highly crucial subject; and it is going to be very long. The subject will, God willing, provide the necessary information to answer the much asked questions on this subject. It is not as if the subject of the commandments has not been covered in the past. In fact, we have had writers who began the task of compiling the commandment verses from the second century of Hijra [9th century AD]. And fortunately, the first compiler was a Shi'i Muslim. The Sunni compilers began the task later. Of course, some publications of the Sunni sects, such as the books written by Sahufi and his contemporaries, have said that Imam Shafe'i was the first man to compile the commandment verses. That is right of course, he did compile some of the commandment verses. However, history shows that the first compiler was a person who was a scholar working with Imam Sadeq and Imam Baqer [5th and 6th imams of the Shi'is].
At present there are dozens or perhaps hundreds of books in our libraries on the subject of the commandment verses. These are the interpretation of the commandment verses written as theses by both Sunni and Shi'i scholars as well as by the followers of other Islamic sects. The reason for this is that the subject is naturally dealing with the people's need for practical instructions. That is, the people need to know how they should act in their daily life. To be fair, these are some valuable books and the hard work of their writers is appreciated. We must not underestimate their efforts. The writers have been very precise on various theological subjects, while paying attention to the verses of the Koran. Their masterpieces are the asset for our work and an asset for this discussion.
However, there is a vacuum in the existing books. That is, they have not covered two important subjects in their interpretation of the commandment verses. In my new series of discussions, I therefore intend to address these two voids. At the same time, I shall discuss the commandment verses.
The Sunni and Shi'i writers, in their books on the commandment verses, have approached the subject in two different ways. The Shi'is have written their theses mainly on the basis of the sequence which the commandment verses were revealed. And their interpretation of the Islamic rituals follows the same order. For instance, the first verse on the practical rituals was about the act of ablution [before starting prayers or before reading the Koran]. The same procedure was first initiated by the [Shi'i] scholars over a thousand years ago. The clerics studying in seminaries have followed the same order. This is very good and a valuable method of approach.
On the other hand, the Sunnis begin their debate from the first verse of the Koran, instead of the first commandment verse. For instance, they start from the verse: "In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate". That is, they debate whether the verse is a formality to begin reciting the Koran or is an instruction to Muslims. Very well, both of the two approaches are good. However, there is a void here. Since the Koran is the pivotal point of forming an Islamic society, and since it has been the foundation of Islam and the Islamic teachings, it is important to respect the sequence of each verses revelation [to the Prophet]. In other words, the order prescribed by chief theologians on the subject of jurisprudence is not as important. As you know, the current sequence of the chapters in the Koran does not follow the sequence of their divine revelation. For instance, the Chapter Baqarah is the second chapter of the existing Koran. And as we know, the chapter was revealed [to the Prophet] in Medina. There were a large number of chapters, which were revealed in Mecca [before the Prophet's move from Mecca to Medina]. Most of the Mecca verses are at present written on the last section of the Koran.
Well, within each chapter, there are instructions to the believers. Therefore, if there is a commandment or an instruction in a chapter, its sequence in the order of revelation is the important point. This is because the circumstances of the period affected the content of each chapter. This is significant because it will help us to understand the content and interpretation of each verse better. I point out again that the sequence followed by the [Sunni] theologians on the basis of the existing order of the Koranic chapters is also important because the scholars have performed their valuable task. Their work has its place and we shall benefit from their endeavour too. However, we must strive to find an order which will enable us to interpret each commandment on the basis of the sequence in which they were revealed to the Prophet. This will be a difficult task because it will not be easy to find the sequence and the verses with commandments.
A large number of books have been written on the subject and there has been plenty of research. When you read the Koran, you notice that the first line of each chapter is about the place of its revelation. They were either revealed in Mecca or Medina, but their sequence is not mentioned. Furthermore, in accordance with the instructions of the Prophet himself, some of the chapters which were revealed to him in Mecca are placed in the category of the Medina chapters, and vice versa. God willing, I shall observe all these issues in my coverage of the subject. Of course, as I said, it will be a difficult task and we therefore require some assistance from researchers to ascertain this sequence of each chapter as it was revealed. At any rate, we have some valuable reference material at our disposal.
The second void, which is even more important than the sequence of revelation, is that the historians and the interpreters of the commandment verses have customarily published their work in the form of theses, usually entitled: Practical instructions. That is, the existing theses of the theologians at our disposal today have mainly concentrated on the Koranic verses which have practical application for our daily life. However, the instructions of the Koran are not limited to the ones published in the theses. For instance, we have a large number of political commandments, which are not mentioned in any of the existing theses. Moreover, we have commandments on our world view. We also have commandments about our beliefs, about the principles of our policies and about the fundamental aspects of our strategies. There are instructions to cover all these matters. Perhaps these instructions are more important because they concern the fundamental aspects of an Islamic society. However as I said, these instructions are not mentioned in the existing theses. I am not saying that the issues have never been part of the interpretation [by Islamic scholars]. Such interpretations have their own place, but they are not passed down as part of the commandment verses.
You know that when you study various books on the interpretation of the Koranic verses, the writers have divided the Koranic subjects into several categories. There are books which have interpreted the stories of the Koran. There are also books about the science subjects in the Koran. Furthermore, there are books which have interpreted the literary aspect of the Koran, etc. There are many such works. One of them is about the commandment verses. This work requires expansion. That is, we must undertake the necessary endeavour to publish a book which comprehensively covers all the verses which are regarded as instructions in the Koran. There are various forms of instructions. There are instructions for [the Islamic] government, for the economy, for political issues, cultural matters, knowledge, or personal matters. My discussion will therefore cover all the subjects within the sequence of the Koran's revelation. I beseech God to enable me to fulfil this task.
Of course I have worked on the subject before. About 50 years ago, when I was working for a periodical on the social and scientific aspects of Islam, we wanted to base our magazine on the teachings of the Koran. The job drew our attention to the shortcomings in the publications concerning the interpretation and understanding of the Koran. From that date I and some of my friends decided to address these shortcomings. I was sentenced to three years imprisonment later, which provided a very good opportunity for me to lay the foundations for the task. We published the results entitled: the Interpretation and Guide to the culture of the Koran. Incidentally, the latest edition of the book, which deals mainly with the commandment verses, will become available shortly. This book will be very helpful. And at this point I would like to ask the researchers in the seminary and universities to assist us in this endeavour if they can. They can of course publish the results of their research independently.
My book, which is being published shortly, contains every [Islamic] commandment with reference to the Koran. We have provided the necessary references with the verse number and name of the chapter in the Koran. The commandments are compiled in alphabetical order and therefore make it easy to find relevant subjects. This will provide the foundations for my future work. Thanks to this book which is an asset to me, my job will become easier. I hope that other works of research will be added to this asset, God willing. At present, there are large numbers of research workers, who are studying the Koranic instructions. Their work will be very useful particularly in specialized subjects.
Now, before starting my discussion, I would like to mention an introductory prompt. My introductory topic is that we regard the Koran as the document of a comprehensive ideology, a divine doctrine. A comprehensive ideology is a doctrine which comprises philosophy, beliefs, strategy as well as primary and secondary instructions. That is, the doctrine specifies the duties of individuals, societies and governments. The objective of my discussion is to prove that Islam comprises all these feature in the Koran. Of course, the Islamic narratives, instruction books and the manuscript on jurisprudence have clarified this point.
Of course, every such narrative or discussion must be based on the Koran. That is, it must make reference to the Koran, be it as long segments of a chapter or as a short allusion in a verse. However, most of them [the narratives and the manuscript on jurisprudence] have not observed this point. We must not think that the Koran is merely a book on religious ethics and education issues. The Koran incorporates such subjects. In fact its coverage of these subjects is the best available. However, it covers other subjects extensively. It said that there are 500 verses on divine commandments, but when I explain my method of research, you will realize that there are many such verses. Of course, some of the verses are repetitive, but they add to the number of mentions.
You see, the Koran has addressed the first issue of a society which is the structure of its government. This shows the political dimension of its instructions. There are political commandments which indicate the obligations of an Islamic state. We must lift these instructions from the Koran in order to see the specifications of an Islamic state as viewed by the Koran. Of course, in pursuit of this task, we shall operate in accordance with the traditions observed by the Prophet. This is because the Prophet was the true interpreter of the Koran. All the Koranic verses were either divine revelations communicated to him by the angel Gabriel or they were instilled in the Prophet's heart directly by God as the source of knowledge. We have inherited the book as the Prophet's tradition. It comprises instructions on matters of the economy.
It includes political instructions, namely internal political issues, foreign diplomacy and the method of establishing ties with other nations. It has scientific instructions. It has discussed the issue of acquiring knowledge and unravelling the facts behind nature. It has instructions on educational issues, including the obligations of society and individuals to seek education and to educate others. It has many instructions on ethical values. It teaches the people in society to observe moral values and to have consideration for others. It has specified the obligations of each individual from birth to death. Furthermore, it has instructions for the family. Islam has instructions on all these matters. We can therefore elaborate on the subject in the coming weeks, God willing. I do not know how long it is going to take. The discussion should address the public as men on the street who listen to my sermon on the radio. I must therefore speak in a manner during my Friday prayer sermons which everyone can understand.
Of course, the subject also covers some technical and scientific issues [which I shall not discuss in my sermons]. We have compiled these issues, which we shall debate with researchers, God willing. Such a debate will become like an academic discussion. It will also provide the backing for our sermons.
Let me summarize my discussion today by saying that we are on the threshold of starting a very important discussion in our Friday prayers sermons. As I said, the issue has been in my mind since before the revolution. However, the debate was delayed for various reasons which I have mentioned. Now Almighty God has provided the opportunity from the early days of the year 1386 to start the discussion. I beseech God and call upon you to pray too that we shall succeed in performing this crucial duty. We must discuss the instructions of the Koran with the people in our society. I am sure that so far my discussion has been rudimentary. This will be completed by others in the future, God willing.
When I am due to deliver my next Friday prayers, I shall discuss the chapter Alaq [the Blood-Clot], which many researchers and experts believe was the first chapter which was revealed to the Prophet. The chapter contains several commandments. However, we shall later separate various discussions on the subject to be debated gradually.
We seek refuge in God from the evil of the damned Satan. "Verily, we have given thee abundance; so pray unto the Lord and sacrifice. Surely, he who hates thee is the one cut off" [from the Koranic chapter, named Abundance]. [The first sermon ends with chants of "God is Great"]
: Tehran Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Radio 1 in Persian -- state-run radio
Possibility of US Advising Israel To Attack Iran Not Ruled Out
Arabic Editorial: Possibility of US Advising Israel To Attack Iran Not Ruled Out
Editorial: "Bolton's Lebanese Admission"
Originally published on 3/23/2007 by Al-Quds al-Arabi (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic
John Bolton, former US delegate [at the United Nations] and one of the most prominent hawks of the neo conservatives, admitted that his country's government blocked the passing of a UN Security Council resolution to stop the war in Lebanon to give the Israeli forces an opportunity to put an end to Hizballah's presence and destroy its military capabilities. His admission means that the United States was a direct partner in this aggression, that is, if it had not planned the aggression.
During the Israeli aggression against Lebanon last summer, many news reports indicated that it was the United States, which advised the government of Ehud Olmert to launch an attack on Hizballah on the pretext of retaliation for the killing of three of its soldiers and abduction of two others.
The US Administration was never happy with the existence of the Lebanese Islamic resistance because it viewed this resistance as an obstacle that stands in the way of its plans in the entire region. This is especially true in light of the fact that the US Administration planned early to carry out military strikes to destroy the Iranian nuclear reactor and to revenge against Syria because of its close alliance with Tehran and failure to fully cooperate with the US plan to occupy Iraq. That is why US President George Bush described both Iran and Syria as the axis of evil.
The United States' role in the recent war in Lebanon shows that the Arab governments, which supported this aggression and held Hizballah responsible out of their belief that the Israeli forces would emerge victorious, are sheer tools designed to implement all US plans in the region, beginning with the invasion and occupation of Iraq and ending with the current plans to resort to military option against Iran.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shim'on Peres admitted before an inquiry commission that he opposed the war on Lebanon because he was not convinced of its usefulness. However, it seems that he opposed the war because he was not satisfied with the new Israeli role, that is to say, the launching of wars on behalf of the US Administration. It is a pivotal and unprecedented role since the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine.
In the past, it was usual for Israel to wage wars against the Arabs while the United States rushed to support it and supply it with all means of military and political support, including its protection against any punishment at the UN Security Council.
Now, however, the situation has changed and Israel fights the United States' wars in the region. In addition to being dangerous, such a role does not suit the convictions of many Israelis, led by Shim'on Peres.
It is an extremely serious development, which might lead to numerous developments in the future. The possibility of the US Administration advising the Israeli Government to launch a similar war against Iran is not ruled out. The administration of President Bush, which suffers successive defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, may find itself unable to launch a third war against Iran due to the strong opposition that it faces at the US Congress, which is dominated by the opposition Democratic majority.
The Israeli forces, which suffered a major defeat in Lebanon, might suffer a greater defeat if Israel decides to launch a war against a powerful and ready state, such as Iran, which possesses various types of long-range missiles, in addition to an advanced military industry.
[Iranian spiritual leader] Ali Khamene'i announced yesterday that his country will strongly respond to any aggression targeting it and that it will use all the means available to it. This means that Iran will not stand idle and will pay back twofold.
An Iranian retaliation will definitely target the Jewish state, in addition to US bases and interests in the Gulf region. Also, Iran will close the Hormuz straits through which 18 million barrels of oil pass to consumers in the West every day.
If Hizballah fired 4,000 rockets deep into Israel, how many Iranian and Syrian missiles will be fired at the same targets if war breaks out?
: London Al-Quds al-Arabi (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic -- London-based independent Arab nationalist daily with an anti-US and anti-Saudi editorial line; generally pro-Palestinian, pro-Iraqi regime, tends to be sympathetic to Bin Ladin. URL: http://www.alquds.co.uk/
AFP: Afghan Journalists Under Threat
AFP: Afghan Journalists Under Threat in South by Taliban, Corrupt Poilce
By Sylvie Briand
Originally published on 3/23/2007 by AFP in English
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 24, 2007 (AFP) - Threatened by the Taliban and corrupt police, regarded with suspicion and in danger of capture, Afghan journalists say they risk their lives working in the lawless south.
In the city of Kandahar, reporters installed in a "press centre" in a local hotel spend much of their time rushing to the scenes of bombings and counting the dead and wounded in front of the ripped-up body of a suicide attacker.
This small group of men, many of them freelancers for foreign media, say security has deteriorated over the past year, pointing to an ambush that included rocket-propelled grenade fire in the city and several assassinations.
Now, they say, the risks are even higher, with the freeing March 19 of an Italian journalist in exchange for five Taliban prisoners -- a deal widely condemned as setting a dangerous precedent.
"The freeing on Monday of the Italian journalist was a victory for the Taliban," says Fazal Rahman, president of a journalists' union in Kandahar.
"They (the Taliban) know now that they can get what they want by kidnapping a journalist. It is difficult to feel secure in that context."
Militants seized Italian Daniele Mastrogiacomo in Helmand, a flashpoint of the Taliban insurgency, neighbouring Kandahar. They beheaded his Afghan driver and have not yet released his Afghan translator.
Moving outside of Kandahar city has long been difficult because of Taliban, corrupt police and bandits operating on some roads, says journalist Salih Mohammad Salih. But now it "must be 10 times more dangerous."
The arrival of an Afghan "asking strange questions" and in a tribal area that is not under government control can arouse suspicion, says the young man, one of a few journalists who regularly visit Helmand.
"I originally come from that province. They know my tribe, my family, but despite that, I do not say I am a journalist," says the reporter for Azadi radio, the Pashtun service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
"It is sometimes difficult to know who you are dealing with," he says.
"I know if the Taliban arrest me, it is the end for me. I work for 'infidel' media. And my government will never help me," he says.
In parts of the south like Helmand, where military officials acknowledge that remote areas are in militant control, even those representing the government can encounter problems.
"On one side is the Taliban who threaten us because we report on what NATO is doing and on the other the local authorities who don't want us to talk to the Taliban," Salih says.
"It is an area without law where the Taliban, like the security forces, are a threat."
Abdullah Shahood, a reporter with the Al-Jazeera network, says the high rate of illiteracy in the south is also a problem.
"People do not know what the job of a journalist is," he says.
The insurgency, that started after the Taliban was removed from government in late 2001, makes heavy use of propaganda as all sides try to persuade ordinary Afghans they are right.
Top Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, the man who held the Italian journalist, -- and accused him at first of being a spy -- last year threatened those who spread "lies" for the foreign forces.
He has also said that the killing of journalists working for "infidels" was allowed by Islamic Sharia law.
Foreign reporters who embed with NATO troops in Kandahar are reminded of the threat when they arrive.
"Journalists have become targets of great value for the Taliban," says John Nethercott, a spokesman for Canadian troops.
: Hong Kong AFP in English -- Hong Kong service of the independent French press agency Agence France-Presse
Le Monde: Al-Qaeda 'Planning to Attack UNIFIL'
France's Gen Pellegrini: Radical Sunni Groups 'Planning to Attack UNIFIL'
Report by Laurent Zecchini: "Lebanese Sunni Islamists and Al-Qa-'ida Threaten UNIFIL"
Originally published on 3/24/2007 by Le Monde (Internet Version-WWW) in French
France's General Alain Pellegrini, former commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL,) believes that the UN blue helmets are threatened by (Sunni) "radical Islamist groups affiliated to Al-Qa'ida," present in Lebanon of coming from outside the country, rather than by the Shiite Hizballah. He said that Islamists "are drawing up plans to attack UNIFIL," but declined to be any more specific. In the past, he said, measures have been adopted to thwart a number of actions.
In Paris Thursday 22 March, wearing civilian clothes, because he is now on the reserve list, General Pellegrini presented a review of his mandate at the head of UNIFIL, of which he transferred command to Italy's General Claudio Graziano at the beginning of February.
Welcoming the cessation of hostilities, which has lasted since the end of the war in August 2006, he admitted that there is a risk of UNIFIL's becoming "bogged down to some extent," since the blue helmets have no influence on the political process, and we are witnessing a "complete government impasse" in Beirut.
General Pellegrini went on to deplore the "unacceptable" overflights by Israeli aircraft in Lebanon, but acknowledged that they are not about to cease, because Tel Aviv believes that they are necessary as long as Hizballah is supplied with weapons from Syria.
The zone under UN mandate is "free of illegal weapons," he said, though this does not mean that they are absent north of the River Litani and on the al-Biqa' plane.
General Pellegrini believes that UNIFIL's experience shows that a "robust mandate brings efficiency," and he regards this as a "test bench" for relations between civilians and the military.
: Paris Le Monde (Internet Version-WWW) in French -- leading left-of-center daily
Member of Forum Rejects Al-Baghdadi's Declaration Against Muslim Armies
Originally published on 3/15/2007 by Jihadist Websites -- OSC Summary in Arabic
Terrorism: Member of Forum Rejects Al-Baghdadi's Declaration Against Muslim Armies
On 15 March, a forum member posted an item criticizing Abu-Umar al-Baghdadi's recent statement in which he declared all members of the military under the current governments in the Muslim world as non-believers.
The forum member described Al-Baghdadi's recent statement as "a major disappointment" for all Muslims who, he said, were eager to hear "the wisdom and compassion he promised in his previous statement." He wrote that he shared many of Abu-Umar al-Baghdadi's points but was distraught over his "pervasive declaration that members of the armies of all [Islamic] countries are apostates." He defended members of the military in the Islamic world claiming that he knew "many military men who supported jihad." He said that Al-Baghdadi's statement has "deepened the schism...and brought joy to Bush and his supporters." He blamed Abu-Umar al-Baghdadi for not "learning from experience...and from knowledgeable and levelheaded scholars" and for "destroying the jihadist project." The forum member urged Al-Baghdadi to reconsider his denouncement of members of the military in the Islamic world and called on everyone to be open to criticism of the jihadist leadership. Most responses agreed with him. The opposition to him defended Al-Baghdadi's position and blamed Arab armies for defending "tyrant governments" and for their inaction vis-a-vis the war in Iraq.
This is a Marxist magazine, opens to a page on the history of taking over in India:
http://pkray.blogspot.com/index.html
March 23, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version
China Spy Case Set To Open on the Coast
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 23, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/51013
SAN FRANCISCO — With little fanfare, one of the most significant Chinese espionage trials in years is set to get under way next week in a Southern California courtroom.
A senior engineer for a company with numerous American Navy contracts, Chi Mak, 66, is charged with attempting to smuggle designs for quiet submarines to China and with acting as an unregistered agent of China in America. Four other members of Mr. Mak's family face similar charges and are expected to be tried separately at a later date.
The alleged ring was broken up in 2005 when agents intercepted two of the family members at Los Angeles airport preparing to board a flight to Hong Kong. According to the government, hidden in their carry-on bag, in a package of CDs for learning English, was a disk containing sensitive, encrypted data on quiet propulsion systems for submarines.
Mr. Mak, a naturalized American citizen born in China, has pleaded not guilty. "My client's character is absolutely unblemished," a defense attorney, Ronald Kaye, said.
A lawmaker who is following the prosecution said he believes it addresses only a small part of a far-ranging intelligence gathering effort by Beijing. "So much of what happens with China goes on under the radar screen. It is not just this case," Rep. J. Randy Forbes, a Republican of Virginia, said.
A spokesman for the Office of the Counterintelligence Executive, Ross Feinstein, said China is considered one to have one of the world's most active espionage programs, along with Russia, Iran, and Cuba. "China is at the top of our concerns," Mr. Feinstein said.
One of the unusual aspects of Mr. Mak's case is that he is not charged with espionage as such. In addition, the government has not alleged that the designs on the disk seized at the airport were classified. Instead, prosecutors claim that the data involve the kind of weapons-related technology that requires an export license, something Mr. Mak never sought.
Mr. Kaye said the government made little effort to safeguard the material. "As you can see in the pleadings … every document in this case was distributed at a public conference," the attorney said.
Material in the public domain is usually exempt from export controls, but the government argued that an embargo imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1991 made it illegal to share even widely disseminated defense materials with Beijing.
Defense lawyers have argued that the "munitions list" the government contends the submarine-related designs were on is vague and subject to interpretation. After Mr. Mak and his family members were arrested, the government obtained certifications from the State Department that the data were covered, but Mr. Kaye asserted that it is unfair to hold his client criminally responsible because of a determination made after he was arrested. The defense attorney also noted in court filings that Mr. Mak's employer, Power Paragon, concluded that one of designs was not subject to export controls.
Judge Cormac Carney, who will oversee the trial, ruled that the State Department determinations are binding. However, to get a guilty verdict, the prosecution will be required to show that Mr. Mak knew that he was breaking the law by attempting to send the data to China.
Jurors are expected to see excerpts from audio and video surveillance of the suspects, including a camera placed over Mr. Mak's dining room table. After a defense request, the government has agreed not to play for jurors certain inflammatory statements Mr. Mak allegedly made on the tapes, including claims that America brought terrorist strikes on itself and that North Korea has the right to develop nuclear weapons.
Judge Carney has ruled that jurors may hear that, decades ago, Mr. Mak recorded the comings and goings of American warships in Hong Kong harbor in a logbook he kept. Jurors also may hear about torn-up notes allegedly found in Mr. Mak's home that prosecutors contend are a Chinese government shopping list for information on missile defense, artillery, and torpedo systems. The prosecution also may play a recording suggesting that Mr. Mak was part of "the red flower of North America," a term prosecutors claim is code for a Chinese intelligence operation.
In a move that could trigger a First Amendment battle, prosecutors have indicated that they plan to close a portion of the trial to the press and public. In a filing earlier this week, the prosecution said it plans to clear spectators from the Santa Ana, Calif., courtroom when a "classified booklet" related to the case is introduced into evidence. There is no indication in the brief whether the judge has approved this technique or whether jurors made privy to the information would be prevented from discussing it once the trial concludes.
Potential jurors were in court earlier this week to fill out a questionnaire. Jury selection is expected to get under way in earnest on Tuesday, with opening arguments likely that day or the next. A spokesman for the prosecution, Thomas Mrozek, said he could not comment because his office considers the trial to be in progress.
Mr. Forbes said he is not surprised at the allegations in the California case because China's interest in submarine technology is particularly acute. "Within a few years, they're actually going to have more subs than the United States will have," he said.
The congressman said he worries that the focus by the press and policy-makers on other national security issues is diverting attention from China's long-term efforts in America. "Iraq has got the headlines today, but you mark this down: Five years from now, we're not going to be talking about Iraq, we're going to be talking about China," he said.
March 23, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign
March 23, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version
U.N. Links to Counterfeit Cash Are Probed
BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 23, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/51025
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations and American authorities are investigating a case in which a sizable amount of suspected counterfeit $100 bills was kept in a U.N. agency's safe in Pyongyang for 12 years, and is yet to be turned over to American authorities.
An official familiar with the U.N. Development Program's rules of operation told The New York Sun yesterday that several details of the agency's public version of the counterfeit story "don't make any sense."
The official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, said other officials in the agency's New York headquarters must have known about the suspect bills much earlier than this month, as they claim.
Rather than a case of neglect, the official said, it is quite possible that the UNDP avoided reporting about the existence of the counterfeit bills because it feared that if a scandal came out, its operation in North Korea would be suspended.
The UNDP, the principal U.N. agency in Pyongyang, has withdrawn the bulk of its staff from North Korea recently anyway, after American officials accused it of violating its own rules. The United Nations has announced that it will audit all aspects of its activities in the communist country, but the audit may take a long time, as it apparently has not yet begun its work in earnest.
A sum of $3,500 in counterfeit bills is now known to have been stored in the UNDP's safe 12 years ago, and the money is only now "in the process" of being turned over to American authorities, according to the agency's spokesman, David Morrison.
"We are looking into the counterfeit angle," an American government official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed.
Mr. Morrison yesterday detailed the outline of the story, which was first reported by Claudia Rosett in the online edition of National Review.
In Mr. Morrison's version, an Egyptian consultant who provided services to the UNDP in North Korea was the source of the 35 bills in American currency that landed in the agency's safe "sometime in 1995."
The suspect bills remained in that safe until, according to Mr. Morrison, "UNDP senior management became aware of this last month and immediately sought the advice of U.S. officials on how to proceed." Currently, he added, the UNDP "is making arrangements to turn the bills over to the U.S. authorities."
Mr. Morrison's version contradicts several of his previous statements, including his insistence that "we don't deal in cash" other than small amounts that are defined as "petty cash."
There have been seven managers of the Pyongyang office since 1995, the UNDP official who spoke to the Sun yesterday noted. "Do you want to tell me that none of them noticed that $3,500 in cash is lying in the safe, that none of them asked where that forgotten sum came from, and that they never reported it to headquarters?"
The official added that according to the agency rules, a "safe report" has to be filed with UNDP headquarters once a year, detailing the contents of the agency's safe. "How did that money stay in the safe for 12 years then?" he asked. "This story just doesn't add up."
According to Mr. Morrison, the suspected counterfeit money was received by the UNDP when the Egyptian consultant "sent" the bills to its office in Pyongyang. "His bank had refused to accept the bills and invalidated them," he added. Mr. Morrison has not identified the Egyptian man.
The consultant "informed us that these were bills that he received at a bank in the Democratic People Republic of Korea when he cashed a check we had given him for his services," Mr. Morrison said. "He did not provide anything to enable UNDP or the DPRK Foreign Trade Bank to confirm that those were, indeed, bills from that bank. The DPRK Foreign Trade Bank did not accept the notes."
Part 5 of Dr. Bryjak's article looks like a good candidate for the 'Nord-Ost' site.
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=plane+crash&ei=utf-8
1. Burnet County Plane Crash, Occupants Unharmed Open this result in new window
KXAN 36 Austin - 16 minutes ago
The plane crash happened around 10:43 a.m. Sunday morning, in the town of Spicewood, in Burnet County. According to Texas Department of Public Safety, the plane went down shortly after taking off.
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2. Three Men From Joppa Killed In Plane Crash Open this result in new window
WJZ 13 Baltimore - 2 hours, 14 minutes ago
Federal investigators continued their work Sunday trying to figure out what caused a small plane to crash in Baltimore County Saturday morning. Peggy Lee Reports On The Fatal Crash Near The Hillendale Country Club Alex DeMetrick Has Neighbor Reaction
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3. Agency seeks plane crash witnesses Open this result in new window
The Gilroy Dispatch - Mar 24 2:38 PM
Gilroy - Investigators are seeking witnesses to a December plane crash in Gilroy, in the hopes of determining what caused the fatal accident.
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4. Three men die in plane crash Open this result in new window
Baltimore Sun - Mar 25 12:58 AM
Six-seat aircraft went down in Balto. Co. Three friends bound for a NASCAR race in Tennessee were killed yesterday when their small plane crashed shortly after takeoff into a patch of woods near a Jacksonville home.
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5. Maryland Plane Crash Update Open this result in new window
WSLS Newschannel 10 Roanoke - 2 hours, 11 minutes ago
JACKSONSVILLE, Md. (AP) - The small plane that crashed in a wooded suburban neighborhood in Baltimore County on Saturday, killing three men from Joppa, didn't appear break up in flight, a National Transportation Safety Board official said.
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6. Somalia plane crash a mystery Open this result in new window
UPI - Mar 24 10:35 AM
Authorities had yet to determine Saturday whether a Belarusian cargo plane that crashed in Somalia was shot down or crashed because of mechanical problems. ...
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7. Maryland Plane Crash Open this result in new window
WSLS Newschannel 10 Roanoke - Mar 25 1:01 PM
JACKSONSVILLE, Md. (AP) - Police in Maryland say three men were killed when a single-engine plane crashed this morning in Baltimore County. The men were identified as 45-year-old Theodore Ryder,48-year-old Paul Sorensen and 48-year-old Timothy Connor. All three were from Joppa.
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8. Banner Plane Crash Spares Man's Life Open this result in new window
Florence Morning News - Mar 24 8:58 PM
It's not unusual to see a banner plane flying in the sky along the beach this time of year. But what some beach goers saw one due Saturday... was anything but usual.
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9. Couple rescued from Blair County plane crash Open this result in new window
WHP CBS 21 Harrisburg - Mar 25 4:30 AM
Authorities in Blair County say two people have been rescued from a small plane that hit the side of a mountain this morning.
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10. Belarus says plane shot down in Somalia Open this result in new window
Reuters via Yahoo! News - Mar 24 7:58 AM
Belarus said on Saturday a missile caused a plane crash in Mogadishu that killed 11 of its citizens, while the Somali government said the incident looked more like an accident than an attack by ever bolder insurgents.
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Psychologist Kitav-Smyk believes
that
thousands of adolescent girls and women are suffering from “Chechen
depression” — a state of mind characterized by feelings of extreme
desperation and hopelessness. <<<
Yes, this is a good candidate for the Nord Ost and Beslan pages.
I wanted to reread it, as I was mind dumb when I posted it, it is good and my mind flew as I read it.
England has had some terrible female gangs, that were, if possible, more deadly than the normal male gangs. Also France, if my memory is right, the girls were in the 14 to 15 age bracket.
We are also seeing girl gangs in the U.S., does it go all the way back to the schools and the communist teaching that they do?
Is it Al Gore's movie, they are forcing all the kids to watch, and kids, who have no conception of the fact that 100 years will not matter to them?
I noted that many muslim women who lost their virginity, were willing to die as a terrorist, as they were ruined.
Does that play a part with our young women here?
Few of them are still virgins. [here]
I want to check out his links, we really have not read that much about the 'black widows'.
Yes, it will fit with the work you have on your pages.
H.R. 1324: To urge the Secretary of State to designate the Quds Force, a unit of Iran's Islamic...
HR 1324 IH
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1324
To urge the Secretary of State to designate the Quds Force, a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as a foreign terrorist organization.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 5, 2007
Mr. SAXTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To urge the Secretary of State to designate the Quds Force, a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as a foreign terrorist organization.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Quds Force, also known as the Qods Force, is a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps which carries out military operations outside of Iran and is responsible for the export of terrorism for Iran.
(2) The Quds Force provides weapons to and conducts paramilitary training and provides organizational, financial, and planning support for terrorist groups, namely Hamas, Hizbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), each of which is designated by the Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).
(3) The Quds Force, which was previously called the Lebanon Corps, assisted Hizbollah in the suicide truck bomb attack on the United States Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983.
(4) Reports indicate that the Quds Force, using a variety of tradecraft, collects intelligence and organizes operations of Shiite armed elements against United States military forces in Iraq.
(5) An article published on February 1, 2007, in the Sobh-e Sadeq, considered the official publication of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, explicitly described the abduction of several American soldiers to the Al-Mahdi Army in Iraq and threatened that kidnapping Americans and taking them `to whatever destination is easier than procuring a container of trashy Chinese merchandise'. The article claimed the existence of professional and highly-skilled operational and security officers for the purpose of `ambushing American soldiers' and stressed that `it would be sufficient for it to simply loosen its purse strings a little. Then we would witness a line up of a variety of blue-eyed blonde soldiers, who would become grain to be fed to hungry gamecocks that are waiting for our signal.'.
(6) The Quds Force provides support for terrorist organizations conducting operations against the State of Israel.
(7) The Quds Force should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization in order to facilitate prosecution against its agents operating in the United States and abroad.
(8) The Government of the United States should urge European, Arab, African, Asian, and other governments not to allow members of the Quds Force to enter their respective countries.
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
Congress--
(1) urges the Secretary of State to designate the Quds Force (Qods Force), a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) in order to focus attention on the threat this organization poses to the United States and the international community;
(2) condemns the acts of terrorism perpetrated by the Quds Force; and
(3) condemns the support provided by the Quds Force for Shiite armed elements reportedly conducting operations against United States military forces in Iraq and for terrorist organizations conducting operations against the State of Israel.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1324
(Pakistan Unrest) Plot to Topple Musharraf - Demonstrations Monday
(Pakistan Unrest) Plot to Topple Musharraf - Demonstrations Monday in Islamabad - Pakistan Muslim Party leader Sharif and Pakistan People's Party Bhutto plan return from exile in pact to topple Musharraf
Bhutto and Sharif plan return from exile in a pact to topple Musharraf
London Sunday Telegraph
By Tim Shipman and Massoud Ansari in Karachi, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:44am BST 25/03/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DJS3AJBLKDYLTQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/03/25/wpak25.xml
Two exiled former prime ministers of Pakistan will launch a joint attempt this week to drive the current president, Pervez Musharraf, from power.
Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif agreed to join forces during a meeting in London after weeks of political crisis in Pakistan have left its military strongman with a tenuous grip on power.
Thousands of their supporters are expected to take to the streets tomorrow in co-ordinated demonstrations, culminating in a rally in the capital, Islamabad.
Miss Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party and Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League will protest against Gen Musharraf's decision to sack the country's chief justice, who had opposed his attempts to cling to power. But last night a close ally of Miss Bhutto, who has twice been prime minister, made clear that the removal of Gen Musharraf, who is also army chief of staff, is the -ultimate goal.
Wajid Shams-ul-Hasan, the former Pakistani high commissioner in Britain, said: "The seriousness of the crisis in Pakistan means that we have formulated a joint strategy to neutralise Gen Musharraf and to ensure that the next elections are free and fair. This has become a very explosive situation for Musharraf. He should go and the army should go back to barracks."
A spokesman for Mr Sharif said: "We want his resignation and then free and fair elections without Musharraf. With him sitting there, you cannot get free elections."
The current crisis arose because Gen Musharraf wants Pakistan's National Assembly to rubber stamp his rule for another five years before it is dissolved for elections, due later this year.
The chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, had said the plans were unconstitutional and pressed for Gen Musharraf to surrender his army post as well. Gen Musharraf -suspended him on March 9 claiming the judge had abused his position, provoking the worst crisis since he overthrew Mr Sharif and seized power in a military coup in 1999.
The pact between Mr Sharif and Miss Bhutto is significant since, until now, the public protests over the crisis have been led by lawyers rather than politicians.
Half a dozen judges, including a high court judge and deputy attorney general, have tendered their resignations and a further 16 are expected to stand down in protest.
On Friday, lawyers again took to the streets brandishing banners reading: "It is death for Musharraf".
If they return to Pakistan, Miss Bhutto and Mr Sharif face arrest on corruption charges, which they each claim are politically motivated. They are still the de facto leaders of their political parties.
After two hours of talks last week, Mr Sharif said: "We have jointly decided to struggle against this military dictatorship and do everything within our means to stop the brutalities Musharraf is committing against institutions in Pakistan."
He met Miss Bhutto after rumours that she had been in talks with Gen Musharraf. Mr Hasan, Miss Bhutto's ally, accused Gen Musharraf's supporters of spreading the rumours to divide the opposition. "There are no differences between us," he said.
Mr Hasan confirmed that Miss Bhutto was prepared to risk imprisonment to return to Pakistan and run for election, either to the National Assembly or to the Senate. "The time has come for her to go back," he said. "Musharraf may dare to arrest her but we are confident that she will be cleared by the judiciary. Musharraf has no moral authority."
The next flashpoint for Gen Musharraf will come when the supreme judicial council considers the fate of the chief justice.
Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricketer, who now leads his own Movement For Justice party, said that Gen Musharraf was in a lose-lose situation. "If he gets the decision against Mr Chaudhry, nobody is going to accept it and these protests will increase tenfold. If Mr Chaudhry is reinstated as a chief justice, we now can see that Musharraf won't be able to continue as a president and army chief of staff at the same time." He added: "Once he is out as chief of staff, he will become irrelevant."
Legal experts say that revulsion at the treatment of the chief justice has backfired on the president. Syyeda Abida Hussain, a former Pakistan ambassador in Washington, said: "The chief justice of Pakistan suddenly taking a stand against a military dictator has motivated all of us. It is really something from God." Another lawyer claimed: "It seems like a beginning of the end for Musharraf."
Gen Musharraf's position has been further imperilled by an apparent change of heart in the US, where diplomats and intelligence officials are disenchanted with the president's failure to combat fully fundamentalist Muslim terrorists operating in the tribal areas in the north-west of the country who have repeatedly crossed into Afghanistan to attack British and American forces.
A CIA report leaked to the New York Times a week ago revealed that the Bush administration would be content to see Gen Musharraf replaced by his army deputy, Ahsan Saleem Hyat, and the former banker Mohammedmian Soomro installed as president. It concluded that a takeover of Pakistan by extremists Islamic mullahs - the doomsday scenario long feared by Washington - was no longer the most likely outcome of his removal from power.
A British diplomatic source stressed that while Britain is happy to do business with Gen Musharraf as long as he continues counter-terrorist co-operation, the loyalty of the British government is to Pakistan's "institutions rather than individuals".
Miss Bhutto called on the international community to force Gen Musharraf's hand. "If democracy must be defended in Afghanistan, then democracy in Pakistan must be defended, too," she said. "It is important for the international community to stop turning a blind eye."
gun at school, 7year old with loaded gun in school, also 8 year old and others, need to see more than one page.
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=gun+at+school&ei=utf-8
Iran partially suspends U.N. cooperation
Associated Press
Sunday, March 25, 2007
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
Iran announced Sunday that it was partially suspending cooperation with
the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, citing the "illegal and bullying"
U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on the country for its refusal to
stop enriching uranium.
Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman, told state television
that the suspension would "continue until Iran's nuclear case is referred
back to the IAEA from the U.N Security Council."
In New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said "a few
select countries don't have the right to abuse the Security Council."
"The Security Council has to be aware of its own position and status.
Actions that are illegal, unwarranted and unjustified will reduce the
credibility of the Security Council," he said in Persian through a
translator.
He said Iran has repeatedly sought negotiations with the powers that
drafted the resolution against the Islamic republic: the five permanent
council members - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China - and
Germany. But he accused those countries of lacking the political will to
reach a breakthrough.
"If this political will existed, the other side wouldn't have imposed
preconditions on the talks," Mottaki said, referring to demands by the
U.S. and its allies that Iran first halt enrichment before they engage
in negotiations on its nuclear program.
He said the world has two options to proceed on the nuclear issue:
continued negotiations or confrontation.
"Choosing the path of confrontation ... will have its own
consequences," he said without elaborating.
Elham said the Iranian Cabinet decided Sunday to suspend "code 1-3 of
minor arrangements of the safeguards" with the International Atomic
Energy Agency.
Under Iran's Safeguards Agreements with the IAEA, part of its
commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the country is obligated
to inform the agency six months before it introduces nuclear material
of any kind into any facility.
Beyond that, Iran has voluntarily committed itself to informing the
agency of any planned new nuclear construction beforehand - a commitment
it has not always kept. For instance, it delayed informing the agency
three years ago that it was building tunnels in the central city of
Isfahan to house parts of its uranium enrichment program.
The Security Council sanctions, which send a strong message that Iran's
defiance will leave it increasingly isolated and warn of even harsher
penalties ahead, were immediately rejected by Iran, which said it had no
intention of suspending enrichment.
The country claims it needs the uranium enrichment for electricity
generating purposes while the United States and its allies fear the program
is used for nuclear arms making.
Elham, the government spokesman, said until now Iran's cooperation with
the IAEA went beyond its requirements as a signatory to the
international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In the past Iran has kept "promptly informing" the IAEA under the
organization's safeguards about its nuclear plans, Elham said. In 2002, Iran
began voluntarily implementing the IAEA safeguards.
Sunday's decision is a response to "Saturday night's illegal and
bullying resolution by the Security Council," Elham said.
Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright said Sunday's decision
could clear the way for Iran to carry out clandestine nuclear work related
to enrichment - a possible pathway to nuclear arms. Albright, whose his
Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security
tracks Iran's nuclear program, said that Iran may be looking to build a
"backup facility" for enrichment that would remain undetected - and safe -
in case of attack by the United States or Israel.
The new, moderately tougher sanctions include banning Iranian arms
exports, and freezing the assets of 28 people and organizations involved in
Iran's nuclear and missile programs. About a third of those are linked
to the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps that answers to the
leadership in Tehran.
They also ask countries to restrict travel by the individuals subject
to sanctions, as well as arms sales to Iran and new financial assistance
or loans to the Iranian government.
The measure also said all sanctions would be suspended if Iran halts
enrichment and made clear that the country can still accept a package of
economic incentives and political rewards offered last year if it
complies.
___
Associated Press writers Justin Bergman in New York and George Jahn in
Vienna contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
[unknown url]
From http://2003.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2003/68n/n68n-s17.shtml (Novaya Gazeta), 15.09.2003
"I MUST PUNISH ALL OF YOU"
A report from the 'Black Widow' training center
The road loops back on itself; the descent into the Vedeno valley has begun. At one point I get the feeling that I have returned to the past: it was on just such a sunny day that we came here in 1996. During the first war, the Russian forces had mighty blockhouses in every village, and to get by them I had to change clothes and go on foot to Vedeno. Vehicular traffic was not allowed.
Everything repeats itself, even the curving letters "OMON (Russian paramilitary police) don't shoot" on the shot-up Vedeno courtyards. True, there are no block posts anymore. Or bridges. After Vedeno the road practically ends. We still creep along for a few kilometers until we come to a stream that has eroded through the path. Past this, through the trees, a small hamlet peers out at us. In front of a house on the hamlet’s edge, some fine-looking Caucasus elders sit on a bench, each holding a staff tied up with intricate threads. The Chechens accompanying me begin a long exchange of greetings and the news. Men begin to flow from all sides. They politely greet us and silently seat themselves on their haunches.
Someone recognizes me: "Ah, I remember you. You came after that soldier in the first war."
An old man names the village and the name of his field commander. Everything is correct. After this, they forget about me. In a half-hour a young woman appears, the woman I traveled here to see. The conversations grow silent, and I get out the camera.
"No, that's forbidden," the old man who remembered me shakes his head. "You ahead and talk," and then they forget about us once again.
We move aside. I look into the eyes of the girl that I traveled a week in Chechnya just to look at, and perhaps to ask just one question....
‘Black Widows’
The female suicide bomber, or smertnitsa, was thought up after ‘Nord-Ost’. The whole world saw the girls in black. The terror act conducted by these young highlanders was a vividly planned cinema event. The result: hundreds of suffocated people and close-ups of broken bodies, a public execution - a lesson for the terrorists. The kamikazes came there to die, and that is what they got. Delivered right to your home, by television.
Women committed terrorist acts in Russia before the events on Dubrovka, but they began to talk about the ‘phenomenon’ and the ‘Palestinian version’, when the ‘black widows’ killed more than 200 in less than half a year. It became understood that the Chechen women had declared war on us. All of us, to the last, including babies, old men, and invalids.
We began to think, and the journalists began to look for them. Why? In order to ask the question: why would girls suddenly decide to part with their lives?
But this is not exactly a secret, and one example is Gilshurkayeva, the kamikaze at ‘Nord-Ost’ who in two wars lost two husbands, one after the other. Her 13-year-old brother was taken away one night by the military. Since then, he is ‘missing in action’. Aishat and Khadishat Ganiyeva (also at 'Nord-Ost') lost during bombing raids two brothers, and their older sister Fatima disappeared without a trace. One night they were arrested by the military and released four days later, but what was done to them - the girls would not say. The next time they disappeared, they were only seen again as corpses at Dubrovka. Zulikhan Ehlikhodzhayeva was detained by the military twice before she carried out the terrorist attack at Tushino. Zarema Muzhikhoyeva lost her entire family in two wars. After leaving her young daughter with a grandmother, she left to blow up a Moscow restaurant on the Tverskoy. And so on. Each of the more than 20 female suicide bombers who have blown themselves up since 2000, when 10th-grader Fatima marked the beginning of the war of the ‘'Black Widows’, had similar fates. This is why the revelations of special forces officers sound strange, when they talk about the recruitment of drug addicts and the weak-minded, and those with Down’s Syndrome.
I did not come looking for Malika in order to hear about her nightmare one more. I needed to understand why they were preparing all this for us. For this very reason I traveled from one village to the next, attempting to find the threads that would bring us here, to mountainous Chechnya, where women, the source of life, are turned into bombs, the carriers of death.
Malika's story - meeting with a kamikaze
Chechnya at night is frightening. You lay there listening closely to every sound outside. They come for people at night. They park outside the village, and unknown men with black handkerchiefs on their faces (like Hollywood cowboys) sneak into the houses and take away the residents. Before, it was only the men, but now they take women as well. Thus is happened to Malika. She grew up without a father, and there were only women in her home, her mother and two younger sisters. One night, in the beginning of July, she was awakened by armed men in masks stumbling through their home.
They took Malika away because she would not keep silent. According to her mother, she tried talk a stranger out of stealing her younger sister's CD player. The girl was released a few days later. She does not say anything, but soon a certain ‘nephew’ came and took her away.
I do not sleep; I listen attentively to each and every rustle outside. I have to wait for the master of the house to awaken, and then we will leave. In the room are girls who look no more than 20 years old. The exception is a fellow of about 30. This is the ‘nephew’. Most of the time he is silent, and follows our conversation attentively. One of the girls agrees to be filmed on video, though only from behind.
She tells how her two friends were killed before her very eyes. Once they fought on Dudayev's side, but later threw down their weapons. Some men tried to persuade the children were persuaded to join Kadyrov's ‘special unit’. After refusing, they were killed in broad daylight in a town in Daghestan.
“I would have gone myself, but I wasn't yet prepared.”
“What do you mean by ‘prepared’?”
“It means to no longer be afraid of anything.”
This village is by no means a mountain village, and it is located in a region, which is considered to be ‘loyal’. Here fifteen girls are being ‘prepared’. ‘Preparation’ is sitting around under the care of the ‘nephews’. At some point they decide if a future terrorist has matured, and that girl is sent into the mountains.
“They go to one of Khattab's camps. They think they killed him, but all his camps are still as active as before. There they read the Koran and learn how to handle weapons. Afterwards they become very calm,” says the ‘nephew’.
I look at the ‘nephew’, and for some reason it seems to me that he is hiding the mockery that is in his eyes. I talk to the girls for a long time, practically the whole night. They are, in general, normal, Caucasian-style polite young people, and they have not told me anything new. Our newspapers long ago and regularly wrote of the horrors of their life. How an entire generation has grown up in war, about the fact that these young people have never known a different life. We all knew this long ago. Except for one thing, perhaps - these young people, whose eyes ‘shine with intellect’, for several hours in a row have been discussing how to best arrange a public explosion, how to kill themselves and take with them the greatest number of peaceful lives possible. It is similar to the Japanese ‘quality circles’ - each one is trying to report their desire to die more effectively. Meanwhile, the taciturn ‘nephew’ sits in the shadows and listens, and listens, and listens...
Where they are taken
The Vedeno hunting preserve was organized in 1963, and consists of almost 45 thousand hectares of virgin forests. Only very high officials came here to hunt. More simple folk were accommodated at a number of tourist camps and recreation centers in the Khua Khulum river valley. The Vedeno reservation adjoins Shatoiskiy - another twenty or more thousand hectares of impenetrable forests. You can drive around the perimeter of this land in a half a day, or get lost in it for months. To fight people who are hiding there is possible only with the help of aircraft, helicopters, and heavy artillery.
For example, the Olympic ski resort, built in the 1970s on Lake Kezenoi Am, is at a height of almost 2000 meters. It is possible to seize this base, but holding it when surrounded by a hostile population is not. As far as I know, it is now in a relatively normal state - even in winter the sun shines brightly on Lake Kezenoi Am for the most part, and one can live here safely and comfortably. Aircraft has practically ceased to bother the rebels - men armed with Russian anti-aircraft weapons cover the approaches, and the obsolete Mi- helicopters and Su- attack aircraft cannot operate on cloudy days. To say nothing of the fact that only carpet bombing with deep penetrating charges (which would eat up the air force's budget in a week) would be effective. The only road was destroyed long ago. To drive up there in a tank is clearly suicidal. The surrounding ridges reliably shelter the lake from artillery fire, and in order to bring effective fire to bear one has to drag the guns almost to the top of the snowy peaks.
Kezenoi Am is only one example of a natural fortress, and indeed there are the even more famous Bamutskiye caves - four grottos dug in times immemorial, which go 20 meters down and interconnect. This was before the war. What they have since dug there on the crest of the 'soft' Andes is difficult to even imagine. Here are what are described as the notorious ‘Khattab camps’ where Malika must go. Thus far she lives in the small mountain settlement, awaiting her conductor.
She is not yet a suicide bomber, but she has already passed ‘selection’. According to the ‘nephews’, Malika will have a choice after she completes her studies in the mountains, though I doubt it. Today the smertnitsa is the most effect weapon of the fighters. Those who are called ‘Wahhabis’, and in general all who did not lay down their weapons, are no less afraid of Kadyrov’s punishment units. This is especially felt in such villages as Yermolovka or Komsomolskoye: people are squeezed between one horror and another. But the fighters have a better ‘image’ - they do not come in the night and do ‘clean ups’. Therefore the girls go to them. Therefore every Chechen considers it his duty to hide them - it is a new secret weapon.
Malika is really calm. True, she is still far from the ‘enlightenment’ I described. Besides this, from her clothing it is evident that she does not yet adhere to some radical Islamic movement. I ask that very question:
“Malika, will you really kill? What if an innocent baby is killed in your explosion?” Only now does Malika raise her eyes to me.
“It means that for them it was so ordained...”
“But then, everything that happened to you, probably, this also was so ordained...”
“Yes, I must punish them...”
“Who are ‘they’?”
The girl looks me in the eyes and clearly says: “All of you.”
First I took this like a slap. I still tried to talk the girl out of it, I even questioned the degree of her faith, asked her what was going into her preparation, who would teach her and where... Malika answered unwillingly.
Only after several days did I understand that she never answered my main question: why did she decide not simply on suicide, but on the murder of the innocent?
We are all innocent only in our own personal understanding. Exactly as Malika considered herself absolutely innocent when soldiers broke into her house, took her away, and raped and infected her. Thousands of such Chechens, guilty of nothing, have undergone ten years of collective responsibility for politicians who could not agree among themselves in time. Some of them, who underwent various brutal punishments, have decided that all of us must bear the same collective responsibility because we did not protect, for example, Malika. So she thinks.
This the very thing that we learn in our school literature courses, what they said and continue to say, those who some prefer to call the ‘conscience of the nation’: the writers, scientists, and philosophers. What Thor, the Bible, and the Koran wrote. It is a recorded truth: the most terrible criminal is one who silently watches a crime being committed. Is this specifically why Malika will come to kill us? She believes that we must all pay for our terrible crime, for our silence.
“Can the world be saved through blood?”
She does not answer my question.
Gulya KHAYRULLINA, Chechnya - Moscow
[History 2003]
Criminal Enterprise in the Political Economy of Middle Eastern Terrorism
http://www.ciaonet.org/pbei/winep/policy_2003/2003_697.html
Criminal Enterprise in the Political Economy of Middle Eastern
Terrorism
The Washington
http://www.ciaonet.org/pbei/sites/winep_policy2003.html
Institute for Near East Policy
By Matthew Levitt
PolicyWatch #697
January 3, 2003
The information in this PolicyWatch is partially drawn from a larger
article
entitled "The Political Economy of Middle East Terrorism," Middle East
Review of International Affairs, vol. 6, no. 4 (December 2002). For the
full
text, visit www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/levitt/levitt1202.pdf
At least five terrorist suspects who entered the United States
illegally
from Canada during the Christmas holidays are now the subjects of an
international manhunt. The suspects' international travel was
apparently
facilitated by Pakistani criminal elements engaged in the production of
false documents, including forged visas and passports. The nexus
between
criminal and terrorist activity is not new. Indeed, international
terrorism
is facilitated and financed by an array of states, groups, fronts,
individuals, businesses, banks, criminal enterprises, and nominally
humanitarian organizations.
Since the attacks of September 11, experts and decisionmakers have
focused
much attention on charitable and humanitarian organizations, as well as
official and unofficial banking systems in the network of terrorist
financing. The political economy of terrorism, however, relies just as
heavily on legitimate businesses and, increasingly, criminal activity.
Legitimate Business
Investigations into al-Qaeda sleeper cells in Europe in the wake of
September 11 have revealed the widespread use of legitimate businesses
and
employment by al-Qaeda operatives as sources of support for both
themselves
and the network's activities. For instance, according to congressional
testimony by a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official, a
construction and plumbing company run by members of an al-Qaeda cell in
Europe hired mujahedin (holy warriors) who had recently fought in
countries
such as Bosnia. Cell members ran another business buying, fixing, and
reselling used cars. In these and other examples, cell members deposit
their
legitimate salaries, government subsidies, supplemental income from
family
members, and terrorist funds received by cash or wire transfer into the
same
one or two accounts. According to the Lebanese state prosecutor,
members of
an al-Qaeda cell broken up in that country funded their own activities
by
buying and selling cars in Germany; apparently, they had also discussed
establishing other business interests to cover the cell's activities.
Legitimate employment offers terrorists cover, livelihood, and,
sometimes,
useful international contacts. Muhammad Haydar Zammar, the Syrian-born
German national who recruited a number of the September 11 hijackers,
worked
at Tatex Trading, whose director, Abd al-Matin Tatari, was reportedly a
member of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood. One of the company's principal
shareholders is Muhammad Majid Said, director of Syria's General
Intelligence Directorate from 1987 to 1994.
Criminal Activity
Criminal enterprises have also serviced the spread of terrorism. Ahmad
Omar
Sayid al-Shaykh -- convicted of the abduction and murder of Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl -- linked up with Aftab Ansari, a
prominent
figure in the Indian mafia, to provide al-Qaeda with recruits, false
documents, safehouses, and proceeds from kidnappings, drug trafficking,
prostitution, and other criminal activities.
Al-Qaeda and Hizballah raise millions of dollars in drug money to
support
their operations. In the past, according to one account, al-Qaeda
raised as
much as 35 percent of its operating funds from the drug trade. For its
part,
Hizballah benefits from the drug business in Lebanon much as al-Qaeda
did
from the drug business in Afghanistan. Hizballah uses the Beqa'a
Valley's
poppy crop not only for funds, but also to buy support from Israeli
Arabs
ready to carry out terrorist operations.
Hizballah and other terrorist groups also traffic narcotics in North
America
to support their activities in the Middle East. A Drug Enforcement
Agency
(DEA) investigation into a pseudoephedrine smuggling scam in the
American
Midwest led investigators as far as Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, and other
Middle
Eastern countries, including bank accounts tied to Hizballah and Hamas.
DEA
chief Asa Hutchinson confirmed, "a significant portion of some of the
sales
are sent to the Middle East to benefit terrorist organizations." A
senior
U.S. law enforcement official added, "There is a significant amount of
money
moved out of the United States attributed to fraud that goes to
terrorism."
Groups like al-Qaeda and Hizballah also capitalize on illicit gold and
diamond markets. One official noted the "influx of hard-core Islamist
extremists" in the Congo -- including those from Hizballah and other
groups
-- involved in diamond smuggling. Authorities in Belgium issued an
arrest
warrant for Victor Bout, a notorious arms trafficker suspected of
supplying
weapons to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as to warring factions
throughout Africa in an elaborate guns-for-diamonds scheme.
Smuggling, kidnapping, and extortion are well-established activities
employed by terrorist groups. In June 2002, for example, Muhammad and
Chawki
Hamud, two brothers involved in a Hizballah support cell in Charlotte,
North
Carolina, were found guilty of funding Hizballah activities from the
proceeds of an interstate cigarette smuggling ring. Seven other
defendants
pled guilty to a variety of charges stemming from this case (in
addition to
conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists), including
cigarette
smuggling, money laundering, and immigration violations. In South
America,
Hizballah operatives engage in a wide range of criminal enterprises to
raise, transfer, and launder funds in support of their terrorist
activities.
These enterprises include, among others, mafia-style shakedowns of
local
Arab communities, sophisticated import-export scams involving traders
from
India and Hong Kong, and small-scale businesses that engage in a few
thousand dollars worth of business but transfer tens of thousands of
dollars
around the globe. Taking a page from Hizballah operatives in the
Tri-Border
area (where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet), Hamas and other
groups
fund themselves with the proceeds of pirated multimedia. Copying
intellectual property brings in millions of dollars a year in
"royalties"
that terrorist groups collect from criminals engaged in the counterfeit
multimedia business. Hamas, Fatah, and even senior members of the
Palestinian Authority may participate in such activities.
In the United States, law enforcement officials are investigating a
variety
of criminal enterprises suspected of funding Middle Eastern terrorist
groups, including the stealing and reselling of baby formula, food
stamp
fraud, and scams involving grocery coupons, welfare claims, credit
cards,
and even unlicensed t-shirts sales. U.S. officials believe "a
substantial
portion" of the estimated millions of dollars raised by Middle Eastern
terrorist groups comes from the $20 million to $30 million annually
brought
in by the illicit scam industry in America. Recent examples include an
Arab-American in Detroit caught smuggling $12 million in fraudulent
cashiers
checks into the United States, and a fitness trainer in Boston accused
of
providing customers' social security and credit card numbers to Abd
al-Ghani
Meskini, an associate of Ahmad Ressam, the Algerian convicted of
plotting to
blow up Los Angeles international airport in 2000.
Conclusion
As things stand today, terrorist and criminal elements exist in a
symbiotic
relationship aimed at overcoming the increased counterterrorism
measures
employed by the international community post-September 11. Terrorist
financing is an international problem, facilitated by ever-increasing
globalization and borderless financial and electronic markets.
Combating
terrorist financing demands an international strategy focused on
constricting the environment in which terrorists raise, launder, and
transfer funds -- with greater attention given to the roles played by
legitimate businesses and criminal activity in the network of terrorist
financing and logistical support.
Matthew Levitt is a senior fellow in terrorism studies at The
Washington
Institute.
It is a recorded truth: the most terrible criminal is one who silently watches a crime being committed. Is this specifically why Malika will come to kill us? She believes that we must all pay for our terrible crime, for our silence.<<<
She is right, it is our silence that has put the world in the mess it is today.
This article is one of the best ever written, you need to make a thread of it, so more know what goes on in their minds.
What a shame the world has reached this point.
There will always be someone to take advantage of the weak.
I might understand the hate, enough to die for it, but I have a problem with those who train and push the weaker into the death act, and continue to live themselves.
To me these trainers and recruiters are nothing more than 'thphoid marys'.
Thank you for posting this, I got sidetracked and have not taken a good look at the black widows.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1035
Give Abboud the Boot: Why Does Syria Need Two Ambassadors in Washington?
By David Schenker
Weekly Standard, March 12, 2007
It's been two years since the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri caused the United States to withdraw its ambassador from Syria. But even as the U.S. embassy in Damascus continues to function without its senior diplomat, Syria maintains not one but two ambassadors to Washington. Officially, Syrian president Bashar Assad's top diplomat in the United States is Ambassador Imad Moustapha. Assad's second, unofficial -- but reliably pro-Syria -- envoy is Lebanon's ambassador to Washington, Farid Abboud.
The absence of a Lebanese ambassador to Washington who is accountable to his own government reflects the ongoing Syrian influence in Lebanon and the fractious nature of Lebanese politics. While the Bush administration has adapted to this dynamic by finding alternative interlocutors to Abboud, the situation remains problematic for Lebanon.
Abboud has been in Washington for eight years, a remarkable tenure given the typical ambassadorial rotation lasts only four years. He was appointed by the pro-Syria Lebanese president Emile Lahoud -- who himself was chosen by Assad. And despite the tectonic shift in Lebanese politics away from Syria following the assassination of Hariri, the unabashedly pro-Syria, pro-Hezbollah Abboud remains ensconced in the embassy. The anti-Syrian Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has thus far been incapable of dislodging him.
Not that they haven't tried. Last summer, during the Hezbollah-Israel war, Abboud was recalled to Beirut for condoning Hezbollah's attacks on CNN. Instead of returning to Beirut with his tail between his legs, Abboud stayed in Washington. Lebanon's strife-ridden parliamentary politics have allowed Abboud to remain ensconced in the ambassador's residence.
Abboud has been, in effect, protected by the ongoing power struggle between Hezbollah and the so-called March 14 forces, the anti-Syria alliance led by Siniora. In November 2006, after Hezbollah cabinet ministers -- including Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh -- withdrew from the government in a gambit to attain more political power, Siniora tried to appoint 58 new ambassadors, all of whom had already been vetted. The move was blocked by pro-Syria president Lahoud, who refused to approve the new diplomats in the absence of the Hezbollah foreign minister's consent. Months later, the deadlock continues, and Abboud's title remains.
But Abboud's ability to function as a diplomat has been seriously eroded. Essentially, Abboud has spent the last six years of the Bush administration largely isolated, having little or no contact with executive branch personnel. Since 2003 Abboud has met with only one senior administration official -- then Deputy Secretary of Defense-designate Gordan England -- but the meeting happened only because of negligence on the part of one of England's junior staffers. As a matter of policy, the administration has treated Abboud as a Syrian official and has studiously avoided contact.
The ongoing quarantine of Abboud has thrust the Lebanese deputy chief of mission Carla Jazzar -- a longtime foreign-service professional unaffiliated with Syria and not beholden to President Lahoud -- to the forefront of Lebanese diplomacy in Washington. Much to the chagrin of Abboud, for the past few years Jazzar has surfaced as the de facto charge d'affairs, the primary senior Lebanese diplomatic contact with the U.S. government. And by all accounts, she has proven an outstanding interlocutor. Indeed, many had hoped that after Abboud, Jazzar would be appointed ambassador.
In October, however, it was announced that Antoine Shadid, a veteran Lebanese professional diplomat, would replace Abboud. (Abboud has been reassigned to Tunisia.) Rumors abound as to when Shadid will finally be posted, but given the crisis in Lebanon, it can't be soon enough. Jazzar has done a fine job representing her country both with the U.S. government and in the media, but the uncertain dynamic of a deputy chief of mission loyal to Lebanon and a lame duck ambassador beholden to Syria has not advanced Lebanon's interests in the United States.
The challenges facing the pro-democracy government of Prime Minister Siniora are extremely complex and daunting. Making matters worse is the fact that Beirut's senior representative in Washington neither represents nor advocates on behalf of the elected government in Lebanon. While the Bush administration has long considered Abboud a problem, it has avoided taking any steps to expel him, lest unintended and potentially damaging consequences ensue.
The Bush administration has committed itself to supporting the Siniora government in its struggle against Syria and Iran. And in this context, it would be helpful if the senior Lebanese diplomat in the United States also truly represented and supported his government in Lebanon. Given the ongoing crisis in Lebanon, Washington and Beirut are looking forward to Abboud's eventual departure. His eviction notice is long overdue.
David Schenker is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. From 2002 to 2006, he was the Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestinian affairs adviser in the office of the secretary of defense.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1038
Putin's New Friends: Moscow Hosts Hamas
By Matthew Levitt
Weekly Standard, March 19, 2007
In recent congressional testimony, the new director of national intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell, warned that Russia, flush with petrodollars, feels "emboldened . . . to pursue foreign policy goals that are not always consistent with those of Western institutions." How true. From the murder in London of KGB/FSB critic Alexander Litvinenko to the blocking of international sanctions against Iran's nuclear weapons program, recent events make clear that Russia's foreign policy is increasingly assertive and, from the American point of view, unhelpful.
The most recent confirmation of this coincided with McConnell's congressional testimony. Even as the director of national intelligence sat before the Senate Armed Services committee, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was hosting Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Moscow -- for the second time within a year. The red carpet visit occurred despite Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence, or accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements as required by the Quartet comprising the United States, European Union, United Nations, and -- yes -- Russia.
Moscow's angling for a greater role in the Middle East is nothing new. Its diplomatic overture to Hamas comes at the same time Russia is considering the sale of advanced anti-tank weapons systems to Syria (previous Russian arms shipments to Damascus were provided to Hezbollah militants and employed against Israel in last summer's war). But Russia's outreach to Hamas is particularly strange because Moscow has its own reasons to be wary of the radical Islamist Palestinian group.
In July, Russia's Federal Security Service, successor agency to the KGB, released a list of 17 organizations the Russian Supreme Court had identified as "terrorist." The FSB's counterterrorism chief described all 17 groups as a threat to the Russian state and noted that almost all were linked in some way to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the 17. Hamas, however, was not listed, though it openly describes itself as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and frequently features deceased Brotherhood dignitaries like Hassan al-Banna and Abdullah Azzam alongside Hamas leaders on its posters and pamphlets. The reason for not listing Hamas, the counterterrorism chief explained, was that Hamas was not engaged in violent activity in Russia, nor was it linked to illegal armed groups operating in the North Caucasus. But Hamas supporters do maintain a presence in Russia, and the group does express solidarity with Chechen fighters, including suicide bombers.
Hamas operates some 20 websites in a variety of languages -- including Russian -- to reach key constituencies. The fact that Hamas finds supporters among Russian speakers should not surprise, given the extent to which Hamas identifies with and glorifies Chechen terrorism, especially on its Internet sites and in recruitment and radicalization materials distributed in the West Bank and Gaza.
For example, the Hamas website Palestine-info featured a fatwa (religious edict) written by Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Seif, described as the mufti of the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Chechnya. The fatwa finds that Chechen and Palestinian suicide attacks are both legitimate because they are part of the wars against Russia and Israel, respectively. The fatwa also rules in favor of deploying female suicide bombers, citing the example of the suicide attack executed by Hawaa Barayev in Chechnya in June 2000. Another website, Islamway, which focused on supporting what it called the Chechen jihad, also issued calls to support the jihad in Palestine. The site called on readers to donate money to provide jihadists "with weapons and physical strength to carry on with the war against those who kill them."
Hamas radicalization materials distributed in the West Bank and Gaza cite the Chechen jihad as the standard to which Palestinian militants should aspire. In raids of Hamas institutions in 2003 and 2004, Israeli forces found extensive materials -- posters, videos, CDs -- praising Chechen rebels and leaders like Shamil Basayev and Khattab, expressing solidarity with Chechen terrorism, and indoctrinating Palestinian youth to engage in similar attacks. One CD, entitled "The Russian's Hell," displays scenes from the fighting in Chechnya interspersed with religious messages justifying jihad and claiming that those killed in the course of jihad go to heaven as martyrs. A poster included on a CD found at two different Hamas institutions features Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Chechen leaders Basayev and Khattab, and Osama bin Laden. According to Israeli authorities, materials such as these were distributed by Hamas at the American University in Jenin in November 2003, at Hebron University in February 2004, and at the Hebron Orphan Asylum in August 2004.
Such materials prove successful indoctrination tools, as evidenced by the comments of a leader of the Abu Rish Brigades, a Gaza-based collection of disaffected Fatah operatives with close ties to Hamas. In the words of the group's spokesman, "Our banner is jihad everywhere, even Chechnya. Our aim is to liberate every piece of land in Palestine, including what is now called Israel."
Several Russian newspapers blasted the Hamas visit, and Mashaal was reportedly refused a meeting with Putin. But Lavrov attempted to paint the visit as a success, claiming to have "received confirmation" that Hamas would cease firing Qassam rockets at Israeli population centers from Gaza. Recent trends leave reason to question Lavrov's optimism.
Over the past year Hamas established its own standing militia -- the "executive force" -- to rival mainstream Palestinian security forces. Reports now suggest Hamas plans to increase its size from 6,000 to as many as 12,000 members. Moreover, Israeli defense officials recently revealed that Hamas is sending hundreds of members to training camps in Syria and Iran. The operatives enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza and from there travel on to Damascus and Tehran. Israeli officials are also concerned about reports that Hamas is using the intra-Palestinian cease-fire recently negotiated in Mecca to import and stockpile weapons.
All this comes against the backdrop of the Israel Security Agency's newly released 2006 terrorism report, which documents an 80 percent increase in the number of suicide bombers arrested before they could carry out their attacks. The report notes that approximately 53 percent of attacks in 2006 were executed by operatives from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Clearly, a year in power has not moderated Hamas, which continues to conduct attacks of its own and does nothing in its role as the duly elected government to stop attacks by other militant groups.
Russia's newfound assertiveness, the director of national intelligence testified, will "inject elements of rivalry and antagonism into U.S. dealings with Moscow." It already has.
Matthew Levitt directs the Stein program on terrorism, intelligence, and policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and is the author of Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (Yale, 2006).
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