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NEW YORK (AP) - A bookstore owner and a jazz musician agreed soon after the Sept. 11 attacks to try to help terrorists in Afghanistan buy weapons and communications equipment to fight American soldiers, the government charged Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Hou said Abdulrahman Farhane, 51, and the musician, Tarik Shah, 42, spoke with an FBI informant about the plot in Farhane's bookstore in December 2001 "while the ruins of 9/11 were still smoldering." The prosecutor asked that Farhane be held without bail on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and trying to cover up his...

It was too much to hope, it turns out, that for once James Earl Carter might just stand aside. But no, when the Palestinian Arabs go to the polls and hand control of their parliament to a terrorist organization that denies the right of Israel to exist and maintains overtly anti-Jewish and anti-American policies, who should show up to certify the elections and express his faith in the ability of Hamas to transform itself? None other than President Carter, most recently via his appearance on CNN's "Larry King LiveThe former president started by describing the Palestinian vote as a "beautiful...

Democrats may claim victim status for unintended consequences, but at the end of the day, their policies have ultimately produced our current problems with the Axis-of-Evil and their nukes. One only need go back to the Carter administration to reveal the ugly facts. Between World War II and 1979, Iran was the model of progressive Middle Eastern modernity and was undeniably our strongest ally within the Muslim world. However, after Carter’s election, he decided the Shah didn’t measure up to human-rights standards. A leftist mainstream media campaign ran stories of Iranian government-sponsored torture while willfully neglecting to report the Soviet...

OPERATION: ENDURING FREEDOM Taliban hunting an American? Opposition leader executed reportedly accompanied by U.S. agent By Toby Westerman © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com At the same time some 1,500 opponents of the Taliban – warriors and holy men – gathered in Peshawar, Pakistan, to lay plans for the next Afghan government, Taliban fighters located and killed one of their most influential opponents – and may be hunting for an American reported to have accompanied him. Abdul Haq, a well-known hero of the anti-Soviet guerrilla war and long-standing opponent of the Taliban, was found south of the Afghan capital, Kabul, captured and then killed, ...

Iran’s president has shot to the forefront of Holocaust denial in recent days, but it may seem more like self-denial: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad need only look to his country’s Hitler-era past to discover that Iran and Iranians were connected to the Holocaust and the Nazi regime, as was the larger Arab and Islamic world under the leadership of the mufti of Jerusalem. Iran’s links to the Third Reich began during the pre-World War II years when it welcomed Gestapo agents and other operatives to Tehran, allowing them to use it as a Middle East base for agitation against the British and...

Ahmadinejad is no Shah and Wears no Turban December 28, 2005 Iran va Jahan Cyrus Kadivar Nobody doubts the true essence of the tyranny that has overshadowed Iran’s proud culture since 1979 with its medieval bigotry, violence, militancy and disregard for human rights. In a recent article entitled “A shah with a turban” written by Thomas L. Friedman and published over Christmas in the International Herald Tribune the author’s poor choice of words undermined what was a damning condemnation of the current president of the Islamic republic of Iran. I totally agree with him that Iran is no “democracy” and...

Plans for the Queen Mother to fly to Iran in Concorde were blocked by Harold Wilson because he was worried about the plane's safety, it has been revealed. The Labour prime minister intervened days before the planned trip in April 1975 when told there was a problem with the engine. Aviation watchdogs said the plane could be flown by an experienced test pilot. But Wilson said the government's position would be "indefensible" if the engine fault became known. The episode is revealed in government records from 1975 which have now been released for the public to see at The National...

As if a light were switched off, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, portrayed for 20 years as a progressive modern ruler by Islamic standards, was suddenly, in 1977-1978, turned into this foaming at the mouth monster by the international left media. Soon after becoming President in 1977, Jimmy Carter launched a deliberate campaign to undermine the Shah. The Soviets and their left-wing apparatchiks would coordinate with Carter by smearing the Shah in a campaign of lies meant to topple his throne. The result would be the establishment of a Marxist/Islamic state in Iran headed by the tyrannical Ayatollah...

Subject: Good Post I don't remember the name of the AOL member who wrote this post . However , he has given a great deal of thought to the only solution we in America face against Islamofacism . The author of this post should be given spots on Larry King , CNBC , Fox News Network , ABC , CBS , NBC , BBC , and most of all AL JAZEERA . "To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it,...

Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily Volume XXII, No. 46 Monday, March 15, 2004 Founded in 1972 Produced at least 200 times a year © 2004, Global Information System, ISSA Role of US Former Pres. Carter Emerging in Illegal Financial Demands on Shah of Iran Exclusive. Analysis. By Alan Peters,1 GIS. Strong intelligence has begun to emerge that US President Jimmy Carter attempted to demand financial favors for his political friends from the Shah of Iran. The rejection of this demand by the Shah could well have led to Pres. Carter’s resolve to remove the Iranian Emperor from office. The linkage...

I. Summary The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) is an armed Iranian opposition group that was formed in 1965. An urban guerrilla group fighting against the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, it was an active participant in the anti-monarchy struggle that resulted in the 1979 Iranian revolution.1 After the revolution, the MKO expanded its organizational infrastructure and recruited many new members. However it was excluded from participating in power sharing arrangements, and the new revolutionary government under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini forced it underground after it instigated an armed uprising against the government in June 1981. The majority of its...

An outlawed Iranian opposition group, which obtained a permit from the New York Police Department to hold a demonstration in front of the United Nations today, attracted an estimated 2,500 supporters to protest the presence of Iran’s president at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly. But many of the crowd, coming from Denmark, Germany, Canada, Eritrea and Sudan, acknowledged that they had been recruited by the organization to attend the rally for money, and that all their expenses – including international air fare, hotels, and a daily stipend - had been paid by the organization. “Basically, what you...

<p>September 17, 2002 -- NEW Jersey voters already concerned about Sen. Robert Torricelli's low ethical threshold now learn that he's been a paid shill for a group the government identifies as a terrorist organization. Called on this by his Republican opponent, Douglas Forrester, in a debate Thursday, Torricelli said the group had been pulled from the State Department's global terror list and given a clean bill of health. Not true.</p>

In Muslim nations that go to the ballot box, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, extremist political parties get crushed by voters. Those extremists are not able to earn more than a small per cent of the vote. Most people want good government, the electricity to work, the trains to run on time, low crime and so forth. The people are wise, and with a proper outlet to let that wisdom flow to government, superior outcomes prevail. Voters choose secular political parties over religious ones, and moderate parties over extremists. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the two best examples of...

Imagine one morning you wake up to find out that your income has doubled. What will you do? Oil-exporting nations have faced this question for the past year or so. And with crude oil prices likely to rise further next winter the question may become even more pressing. The various beneficiaries of the bonanza have found different answers to the question- ranging from prudent to reckless. But before assessing the various answers let us recall what has happened. The conventional wisdom in January 2003 was that oil prices would stabilize at between $22 and $25 per barrel for the rest...

Former President Jimmy Carter was expected to take his first dive in a submarine Thursday since his Navy career ended in 1953, leaving Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay with his wife Rosalynn aboard his newly commissioned namesake, the USS Jimmy Carter. The visit and overnight dive by the Carters, which had been kept confidential for about a week, will conclude Friday with his appearance at a press conference. Lt. Cmdr. Monica Richardson, public information officer for Submarine Group 10 at Kings Bay, said the Carters will tour the base during their visit, which included an invitation-only event with local dignitaries...

Al Muhajiroun (Khavarej) is referred to a clandestine group of four who cooperated to assassinate four leaders at promptly the same time: Imam Ali who was a religious leader (the fourth Suni's Khalif and the first Shiite's Imam), Moavieh who was the leader of the land, Amro Aas who was a canning politician and a senior advisor to Moavieh, and - Of the four only one, namely Ibn Moljam, successfully carried out his assassination by wounding Imam Ali with a poisonous sword, during the Imam's pray. Imam Ali died of his wound on the third night, the 21st, of Ramadan....

Akbar Ganji is dying in a hospital in Tehran. He is not a prophet. He is not calling for a revolution. He is not doing George Bush a favor. He is a man who speaks his mind and is willing to die for it. But he must not die. We must do everything we can to force the authorities to let him go home. Ganji is not everyone's favorite dissident. He quotes Khomeini, he looks up to Ayatollah Montazeri, and his circle of friends and allies includes leading religious reformists such as Saeed Hajjarian and Abdolkarim Soroush. Because of his...

Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer and former U.S. President, has a huge problem: his mouth. The things emanating from that orifice are bizarre in the extreme, considering that Carter was arguably the worst president in the history of the United States. His most recent foot-in-mouth episode involves his running commentary on George W. Bush’s veracity and the "atrocities" committed by American soldiers in the war on terrorism. Carter maintains that had the U.S. not waged war against the Taliban who were sponsors of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, or deposed Saddam Hussein, then the Islamic terrorists would have no...

When American bombs were raining down on what is left of Afghanistan, fellow Muslims in the neighbouring Islamic republic of Iran took out to the Streets. Contrary to our expectations in the West, they did not rally to denounce the 'Great Satan' - the name given to America by the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Instead, ordinary Iranians, in one of the most extraordinary shifts in the geopolitical landscape since September 11, challenged their own hard-line Islamic clerics who swept Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from power in 1979. Tens of thousands of men and women also demonstrated, in several cities, after World...

TEHRAN: Iran confirmed on Sunday that hardline president-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad will attend the UN General Assembly in New York in September, dismissing any possible US visa restrictions in the wake of allegations of his role in the US embassy siege. “Yes, Mr Ahmadinejad and the accompanying delegation will go to New York to take part in the UN world summit, he will also meet with the Iranians there,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. Asefi again denied US allegations about Ahmadinejad’s possible role in the 1979 hostage-taking at the US embassy in Tehran following the Islamic revolution, a...

In 1947, Ruhalhah Khomeini, then a mid-ranking mullah in Qom, issued a “fatwa” (opinion) that made it incumbent on “the faithful” to murder Ahmad Kasravi. It took a group of eight “faithful” to plan and carry out the murder several months later. A jubilant Khomeini told his entourage that he had “eliminated that paragon of impiety” for ever. At the time of his murder Kasravi was one of Iran’s leading intellectuals. A veritable Renaissance man, he was a senior jurist at the high court, a distinguished historian, a magnetic orator, a master of the Persian prose, and a best-selling author....

In south Tehran there is a huge walled cemetery dedicated to the martyrs, the young men who died fighting in the 1979 revolution and the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988. This vast city of the dead, complete with its own subway station and shops, does not share Arlington National Cemetery's sublimely stoic aesthetic of identical tombstones, row upon row. In Tehran's war cemetery, each of the fallen is remembered individually with his own martyr's shrine, a sealed glass cabinet on a stand. The cabinets are filled with faded photos of men forever young, some in helmets or red bandannas, some carrying...

U.S. Policy Options for Iran: Sham Elections, Disinformation Campaign, Human Rights Abuses, and Regime Change Excerpt from Executive Summary While the Bush administration has been reluctant to adopt an unambiguous policy of regime change for Iran, the outcome of the Iranian electoral process, disinformation campaign, and violations of human rights require adoption of an explicit regime change policy for Iran.  An ambiguous American policy was somewhat effective prior to the June 2005 Iranian elections. That policy allowed Washington to support the European diplomatic initiative toward Iran without fear of being blamed for sabotaging negotiations by threatening the regime’s existence....

Scotland's Gleneagles stands ready to host the G8 summit. Two main topics have been announced to the media: world poverty and Iran! The climate is ripe too for both these discussions. Millions around the world suffer from poverty. And Iran's unique situation after its election of Ahmadinejad who incidentally was elected based on promises of fighting both poverty and the arrogance of industrial nations, the very nations that will be meeting tomorrow. Their agenda for Iran, which most likely includes a military approach to changing the country's political system, is reminiscent of a similar meeting the G8 held in the...

IN HIS essay on Iran in the current issue of Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens describes his journey to a cemetery, south of Tehran, for victims of the Iran-Iraq war. A subway guard gave him directions to the cemetery, which is beside a memorial to Ayatollah Khomeini, fomenter of Iran's Islamic revolution. "Why the [expletive]," the guard added, "would you want to go to that bastard's grave?" The young guard's attitude, which appears to be shared by about three-quarters of his countrymen, illustrates why the recent election was a sham. According to the Iranian government, former secret policeman Mahmoud Ahmadeinejad defeated...

TEHRAN, IRAN – The ritual burning of the US flag is not going to stop. Nor will the chants - especially on Iranian revolutionary anniversaries - of "Death to America." Unlike every other presidential candidate who hinted at a thaw in relations, to appeal to the majority of Iranians who say they want better US ties, hard-line president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran "has no significant need" for the US. But beneath the anti-US façade is a nation that has much in common with its stated nemesis - from an ambitious self-image and public reliance on the divine, to a habit...

Roya Hakakian's story of growing up Jewish during the Iranian Revolution. Revolution. Everything in Iran changed on February 1, 1979, the day Ayatollah Khomeini returned to our country a few days after the departure of the Shah. Suddenly, millions were demanding an end to 2,500 years of monarchy--including hundreds of young Jews who joined the revolution against the wishes of their elders, hoping to recast their identities as secular Iranians who could assimilate seamlessly into the fabric of the promised utopia. Khomeini quickly took on the status of an "imam," only a step away from prophet in the Shi'ite tradition,...

At around the age of eighteen, I became interested in politics. Prior to that, my attention was focused elsewhere due to my age, I believe. I did not understand the real meaning of political language, but I tried, mostly without success, to seek out sources to research and understand it. When I turned eighteen, in accordance with Muslim education, I completed an intensive program of Islamic study, which took four to five months. During this time, I began reading non-Iranian, secular books. While reading history, sociology, anthropology, and religious texts, it became clear to me that, when religion moves from...

FAIRFAX, Va., June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Reza Pahlavi of Iran, in response to a direct invitation by political prisoners in Iran, pledged his solidarity and announced his plans to go on a three day hunger strike starting Friday, June 10. "Solidarity with political prisoners of Iran and support for the legitimate quest for freedom, human rights and economic opportunity in Iran transcends all political boundaries and ideologies," said Reza Pahlavi, opposition leader to the clerical regime of Iran. Yesterday, in a communique, signed by numerous political prisoners, in Iran, the June 17 presidential elections were rejected as "sham and undemocratic."...

SWITCH on your satellite television receiver in Tehran nowadays and something is amiss - "No Signal", the otherwise fuzzy television screen says for much of the day and night. With presidential elections just over a week away, Islamic Iran's technological guardians appear to be waging a war against enemies in the airwaves - opposition-run television channels. However, the problem is that they may also be frying people's brains. "Microwaves," explained an Iranian satellite television technician, who earns his keep by installing dishes even though they are technically banned. "They're jamming, and these signals used to block the satellites have never...

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." -Dalai Lama By Farhad Mafie November 16, 2003 Hold on to Your Hat! Some days the Persian Gulf is referred to as the Arabian Gulf. Some days Rumi?the great Iranian poet and philosopher?is referred to as a poet from Afghanistan or a poet from Turkey. Some days Sina or Avicenna, Râzi, Farabi, Birouni?the great Iranian scientists?are referred to as Arab scientists. Some days Iranian arts are referred to as Islamic arts...

PARIS, 3 June (IPS) Prince Reza Pahlavi joined his voice to other Iranian dissidents inside and outside Iran to urge Iranians not to participate in the coming presidential elections and do not give popular legitimacy a “discredited regime”. “With more than 20 million votes, (outgoing President) Mohammad Khatami was not able to implement his reform program, what can a Hashemi Rafsanjani do, a man who is also very unpopular?”, the 45 years-old son of the late Iranian Monarch observed during a press conference held in Paris on 2 June on the invitation of the French-American Press Association, referring to reports...

Prisoner Abuse: Self-flagellation over alleged human rights violations is not a foreign policy, but a recipe for long-term disaster. Some who now complain about Guantanamo had a key hand in making it necessary. Newsweek's retraction of its story on the alleged flushing of pages from the Quran down a Guantanamo commode has not dissuaded critics convinced that Guantanamo is, as Amnesty International put it, a modern-day "gulag." One of those who believe the human rights of prisoners at Guantanamo are being violated is former President Carter. Speaking in September 2003, two short years after 9-11, he opined as to how...

NEW YORK - (KRT) - The Bronx martial arts expert arrested in an alleged plot to build a secret al-Qaida training camp is a well-known city jazz musician who has backed greats like Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter, friends said Tuesday. Tarik Shah, 42, has played bass at local clubs for years, and fellow musicians said they've never heard him espouse an allegiance to Osama bin Laden. "This man talks about music. That's all he talks about," said pianist Donald Smith, 61, who last month played with Shah at St. Nick's Pub in Harlem. "The only thing we know is...

While browsing through the ancient Persian history, I was struck and fascinated by another subject Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism has not only made a major contribution to the ancient philosophical thought but has also had a deep imprint on the Persian history and culture. Since ages, man has been striving to search for the meaning and purpose of life. Two ancient philosophies threw up answers to this eternal quest. One came out of the Vedic thought of re-incarnation (samsara) which believed in perpetual cycles of life, death and re-birth. It believed that soul (atma) finally got liberated (moksha) based on man's good...

US State Department Report Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, by Kenneth Katzman. Washington, Nov 1992. 6 p. Doc. call no.: M-U 42953-1 no.92-824F Announcement of US about Mojahedin United States Department of State Washington, D.C 20520 UNCLASSIFIED DECL: OADR Dear Mr. Chairman: In accordance with section 523 of the FY 1994-95 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Public Law No. 103-236, I am pleased to submit on behalf of the secretary of state the report, "people's Mojahedin of Iran." The Administration has welcomed the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review of the people's Mojahedin of...

A New York martial arts expert who is charged with conspiring to help train al Qaeda members is the victim of a "desperate prosecution on the government's behalf," his lawyer said on Tuesday. Tarik Ibn Osman Shah was arrested on Friday in New York after a two-year sting operation in which prosecutors said he had been taped pledging support to Osama bin Laden. He is charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Shah, who is also a professional jazz musician, was presented briefly in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday...

A Palm Beach County doctor arrested on terrorism-related charges plotted to treat "wounded jihadists" in a plan hatched with a New York martial-arts expert to recruit and train al-Qaida members, federal officials said Sunday. Both men were arrested during the weekend. The second suspect, Tarik Ibn Osman Shah, 42, was apprehended in the Bronx on Saturday in the same investigation that snared Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 50, an emergency-room doctor who lives in a gated community west of Boca Raton. The men, U.S. citizens, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, the terrorist organization led by Osama bin...

NEW YORK (AP) - The FBI arrested a Florida doctor and a New York martial arts expert on federal terrorism charges, saying they conspired to treat and train terrorists, prosecutors announced Sunday. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. New York police spokesman Paul Browne said Shah was arrested early Friday. Florida authorities said Sabir was arrested Saturday. Both are American...

A man claiming to have kidnapped an Italian aid worker in Afghanistan told media overnight he had killed her, but a government spokesman said she was still alive. Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for the CARE International aid agency, was snatched this week when four gunmen stopped her vehicle on a central Kabul street and bundled her into a white Toyota car. Timoor Shah, who has claimed in several conversations with media to be holding Ms Cantoni, said he killed her after President Hamid Karzai's government refused to accept his demands. "We strangled her with a rope at nine...

A Quarter of a century ago, on May 8th 1980, the Islamic Republic executed an Iranian woman whose only crime was educating her compatriots and setting an example for so many who gained their rightful place in our society. She was to face the firing squad for having provided the opportunity so that Iranians could study, train and therefore, render their expertise for the betterment of our people’s lives and society. None of the above however, were stated on Dr. Farrokhrou Parsa’s sentence nor appeared on her death certificate. She was condemned to death like thousand of others on the...

One of the most vexing questions animating observers and analysts of Iranian politics is: why despite being extremely unpopular and incompetent, are the fundamentalists still in power? One factor that may provide a partial explanation is the huge change of the dominant ethos among large sectors of the population. In the 1970s and 1980s, the dominant ethos among large sectors of the Iranian people was idealistic, altruistic, and celebrated sacrifice for the greater good. Today, on the contrary, the predominant ethos have become excessive selfishness, acquisitiveness, cynicism, and lack of willingness to make the smallest sacrifice to protect the common...

It would have made for a jarring sight at any place of leisure. But the large black banners mourning the death of the Prophet Muhammad and his grandson Hasan were cause for particular dismay among the small army of skiing enthusiasts expecting a day of care-free enjoyment on Iran's slopes. The proclamations signified that the Islamic authorities had ordered the closure of Dizin, the country's leading ski resort, in memory of the religious figures, both of whom died more than 1,300 years ago. It was a mourning festival observed with passionate intensity in mosques throughout Iran. But among the affluent...

On April 1, 1979, the greatest April Fool's joke of all time was played on the people of Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed the "first day of God's government," and established himself as the grand ayatollah. The events that followed that proclamation have had a lasting effect not only in Iran, but in the entire Middle East. The newly-crowned grand ayatollah showed the rest of his Arab brethren how to unify secular, social and religious groups in their hatred for the shah and the United States and use it as a political and military tool to overthrow the government – and...

Police have entered a Lufthansa plane at Brussels airport, 13 hours after a group of Iranian monachists began a hunger strike and sit-in. The flight arrived on Thursday from Frankfurt, but 59 unarmed European citizens of Iranian origin refused to disembark at Brussels. They are demanding to speak to a member of the European Parliament. The plane has now been moved away from the terminal, but it is not clear if the protest is over. Earlier story http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBAJDMT56E.html shows that Iranian monarchists are demanding diplomats from EU, Russia, US sign a form promising not to help the Islamic regime in...

America has played an outsized role in Iran over the past century, and is now criticizing the government over the country’s nuclear program. This January, Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran was “right at the top of the list” of potential trouble spots. Yet, despite the current turmoil and decades of anti-American propaganda from the Iranian government, many Iranians express admiration for the United States. In the March issue of Smithsonian magazine, the article “A New Day in Iran?” finds that Iranians say they admire, of all places, America. “The paradox of Iran is that it just might be the...

War brutalizes man, every afghan bears living testimony to this. If the landscape of Afghanistan bears the craters of the endless war, the political and military leadership in Afghanistan also carries war's indelible scars. It is important never to lose sight of this. Ahmed Shah Mas'ud was born to an army family in 1953 in the Panjshir Valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul. His father was a colonel in the Afghan Army and enrolled his son at Kabul's Lycee Istiqlal High School. Upon graduation Mas'ud joined Kabul's Polytechnic Institute. In 1973 King Zahir Shah was deposed and exiled by...

An Afghan warlord who settled in Britain kept a human dog to bite his victims and waged a campaign of kidnap and torture against civilians, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. Faraydi Zardad, a veteran fighter against the Russians and the Taliban, was the commander of soldiers manning checkpoints on the Jalalabad road, the vital supply route between Kabul and Peshawar. He had complete authority in the area between 1992 and 1996 and "had a fearsome reputation for being cruel and merciless", the court was told. In the first prosecution of its kind Zardad, 41, who was arrested while living...

WASHINGTON, Nov 01, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Already divided between north and south, war-ravaged Afghanistan appears to be moving toward a more permanent partition.The process of partition began long before the extremist Taliban militia was formed in 1994. According to some analysts it started with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.Created as a buffer zone between British India and the former Russian empire, Afghanistan survived the departure of the British from the subcontinent in 1947 because the fear of Soviet communism kept its various factions together.The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and its disgraceful ...