Free Republic

If the problem of Islamic-inspired terrorism wasn't painfully obvious before, the London bombings have driven home the point yet again. In the West our contact with murderous acts of terrorism supposedly in the name of Islam has been relatively limited but dramatic nonetheless. In all of the furor, the constant stream of reports--from London, Madrid, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq--of dead, injured, kidnapped, terrorized and brutalized populations, it is easy to be overcome by the horror, easy to forget that the fight against Islamo-fascism is a necessary, even mandatory struggle. As pleasant, as liberating, as it might seem to be able...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian security forces have killed an Arab extremist who was trying to illegally cross into neighboring Lebanon with other suspected militants, Syria's official news agency reported Sunday. Two Syrian soldiers also were killed in the clash that erupted after the Arab man opened fire on a Syrian border patrol, according to the news agency SANA. No details were provided on the nationality of the slain man, who was identified only by his initials M.Z. The report did not say when the clash happened or where along Syria's border with Lebanon it was. The agency said 34...

A reader wants to know if, in light of this upsurge in violence, I still believe, as I wrote in a column Feb. 27th, that "the war in Iraq is all but won." My answer is emphatically yes. The suicide attacks gather ominous headlines, but are failing in their strategic purpose. They have not diminished the willingness of Iraqis to enlist in the army and the police. Between 1,500 and 3,000 more sign up each week. And the Shia and the Kurds have not been goaded into bloody confrontations with the Sunnis. The insurgents have to be discouraged by the...

Though the violence and death tolls on all sides are mounting, with a series of deadly bombings and other attacks, it appears — through the swirling dust and the fog of war — that al-Qaida in Iraq is in an increasingly untenable position. The guerrillas are mounting more sophisticated attacks than in the past — albeit fewer — but their political purpose is clear-cut. The strikes are directed partly against the Iraqi government and partly against the Sunni political leadership. The guerrillas want to force the Sunni leaders to remain in opposition to the new Shia-dominated government. In speaking of...

Charles Pasqua, a former French minister of interior, has emerged as one of the highest-ranking targets of the widening investigations into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. United Nations, US and French investigators are examining Iraqi documents that show officials in Baghdad were instructed to transfer his lucrative oil allocations to an offshore company, to shield him from criticism. Mr Pasqua's alleged role has emerged as inquiries turn to the role of foreign governments in the corruption within the humanitarian aid programme. France and Russia, which opposed the 2003 invasion, have long been accused in the US of being too close to...

HAYY EL-RAMEL, Lebanon (AP) - As soon as the truckloads of Syrian soldiers had left for home, Mariam Majzoub started dishing out paint to erase the last vestiges of their 29-year presence. Her children, nephews, nieces and neighbors stuck Lebanese flags on top of the abandoned posts near her home in this tiny Bekaa Valley village, slapped whitewash on the walls and celebrated the departure date in green paint: "Independence 2005, Sunday, April 17." "We started dancing in the street even before they turned the corner," said Majzoub, her plump face glowing with joy. "We could finally express ourselves, and...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said it was concerned over Syria's continuing interference in Lebanon despite the withdrawal of troops by Damascus from its smaller neighbour. Syrian troops were seen packing up and heading out of Lebanon on Monday, ushering in a new era for the country which has been in the military and political grip of Damascus for 29 years. "If the Syrian military forces get out, it will be a big step but the jury is still out on whether Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs has come to an end," said a US State Department official, speaking...

ANJAR, Lebanon (Reuters) - Syrian intelligence quit its Lebanese headquarters in the border town of Anjar on Monday, virtually completing a pullout of Syrian forces from Lebanon and ending Damascus's 29-year domination. As the last Syrian military and intelligence units pulled out, Lebanon's Syrian-installed security apparatus showed signs of collapse with the resignation of the country's most powerful security chief allied with Damascus. Rustum Ghazaleh, Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon, left for Damascus but was to return on Tuesday to take part in a farewell ceremony for Syrian forces, security sources and witnesses said. The sources said only about 200...

BEIRUT, March 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was reportedly to declare a detailed schedule of widrawing his troops from Lebanon, as a UN fact-finding mission report found Lebanon’s inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri seriously flawed and held Syria responsible for insecurity and disorder in its neighbor Arab country. The reported announcement is seen as critical to the organization of Lebanese parliamentary elections in May. Interviewed by French television Thursday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Assad was now within days of announcing a schedule for the withdrawal of the...

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Spanish police on Friday arrested a Syrian who they believe helped recruit radical Islamists to be sent abroad and had ties with suspects charged in last year's train bombings. Police, who gave the suspect's name as Mohannad Almallah Dabas, was arrested at his home in Madrid. The Interior Ministry said he and his brother used an apartment in Madrid to house recruits or people passing through. They were assisted by Basel Ghalyoun, a Syrian already jailed for his suspected role in the March 11, 2004 bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500, the...

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer MDEIREJ, Lebanon - Syrian soldiers loaded trucks with furniture and other supplies Monday and drove east from the Lebanese mountain posts they have held for decades, the first signs of a redeployment to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley announced by the leaders of the neighboring nations. The pullback began as more than 70,000 Lebanese shouting "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" thronged Beirut in the biggest demonstration yet of anti-Syria anger that has fueled recent street protests. Washington rejected the redeployment as insufficient. Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Lebanese counterpart, Emile Lahoud, met in Syria's capital, Damascus, to...

Arab-Americans & Their Communities of Cleveland by Mary Haddad Macron introduction by Danny Thomas from the preface: "We are hopeful...that during these difficult times we may be able to contribute to a better understanding of the Arab world, of their contributions to world civilizations, and their impact on the development of the American nation in general and Cleveland in particular." from the introduction: "The contributions of the Syrian and Lebanese people in the political, educational, professional and business life of America are numerous. These achievements were made despite serious obstacles and prejudices which they faced in the early years. This...

CAIRO, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday sent intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Syria for talks over tension between Syria and Lebanon, Mubarak's spokesman Suleiman Awad said. Speaking to reporters, Awad said that Mubarak was seeking an effective action to contain the tension within an Arab framework. The envoy will convey a message to the Syrian leadership, Awad said. Earlier in the day, Mubarak said in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that something has to be done to deal with the difficult situation. Syria is under pressure from the Lebanese opposition to pull its...

This is my first post so I hope I got it right. This is breaking here in San Anonio. A single engine plane has been forced down at Stenson Field south of San Antonio. Homeland Security, DPS and SAPD are on the scene. They are waiting for a Chinese tranlator but they have Chinese illegals in custody and said that the pilot was someone Homeland Security has been looking for. I'll post more as it comes available.

Damour lay across the Sidon - Beirut highway about 20 km south of Beirut on the slopes of a foothill of the Lebanon range. On the other side of the road, beyond a flat stretch of coast, is the sea. It was a town of some 25,000 people, containing five churches, three chapels, seven schools, private and public, and one public hospital where Muslims from near by villages were treated along with the Christians, at the expense of the town. On 9 January 1976, three days after Epiphany, the priest of Damour Father Mansour Labaky, was carrying out a Maronite...

PARIS - Muhamed al-Jundi, the Syrian driver of two French journalists taken hostage in Iraq in August, filed suit at a Paris court Tuesday alleging torture and mistreatment by the US army. “The suit is against members of the US armed forces in Iraq who were guilty of mistreating me, who tortured me, who threatened to kill me,” he said. Jundi, 47, was captured with reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot on August 20 south of Baghdad and found in a house in Fallujah on November 12 when US troops invaded the city. The two Frenchmen were released on December...

Syrian Behind Train Attack, Spain Says ADRID, Oct. 25 - A Syrian jailed since 2001 and thought to be a major operative for Al Qaeda has been identified as the prime mover behind the March 11 terror attacks in Madrid, a high-ranking intelligence official told the Spanish Parliament on Monday. While Spanish officials have identified several different men as possible masterminds during the past few months, the remarks on Monday about the Syrian, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, represent the clearest statement of responsibility yet made by a senior investigator. Advertisement "It is very clear to...

UNITED NATIONS - France and the United States introduced a U.N. resolution Thursday urging Syria for a second time in six weeks to withdraw from Lebanon and calling for quarterly reports from Secretary-General Kofi Annan on its progress. The two countries decided to keep up their pressure after Algeria, Pakistan and other Security Council members opposed a presidential statement they introduced seeking the same action. While presidential statements need approval from all 15 council members before they are read in the council chamber, resolutions are put to a vote. Syrian troops have been in Lebanon for 28 years and Damascus...

<p>CHICAGO (AP) -- Federal prosecutors accused a Syrian-born American of once leading a Muslim charity that the Treasury Department calls a terrorist group, and said he tried to help Osama bin Laden get a nuclear weapon.</p> <p>The government said Mohamed Loay Bayazid was president of the suburban Chicago-based Benevolence International Foundation in 1994, about the same time he is accused of trying to get uranium for al-Qaida.</p>

A Syrian and an Algerian have been arrested in Spain in connection with the March 11 Madrid train bombings, the Spanish interior ministry said. Detained in the south-east coastal city of Valencia, Safwan Sabagh and Abdelkrim Beghadali, both 41, had been previously arrested in March in connection with the same investigation but released for lack of evidence. The ministry said their fingerprints were found in the apartment in the Madrid suburb of Leganes in which seven people suspected of involvement in the bombings blew themselves up as the police closed in on April 3. Their prints, and well as two...

MINNEAPOLIS - A Louisiana woman of Syrian descent was charged with trying to evade currency reporting requirements Monday after being caught with more than $24,000 in concealed U.S. currency when boarding a flight to her homeland. Amneh Ahmad Abbas, 49, of New Orleans, was ordered held without bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan. Another hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Syrian security agents raided a number of houses in a northwestern region, arresting 25 people and confiscating computers and books, a Syrian human rights group said Tuesday. In a statement faxed to foreign news agencies in Syria, the Human Rights Association in Syria said the raid took place over the weekend in Hama province, located an estimated 200 kilometers northwest of the capital Damascus. Four Muslim preachers were among those arrested, the group said. It said the officers also confiscated computers, CDs and books. The reasons for the crackdown were not disclosed, the group added. The human rights group called...

It's been two-and-a-half weeks since the first "Terror in the Skies, Again?" article was posted on WomensWallStreet.com and subsequently set off an international debate.  From the cockpit to the coffee shop, from the water coolers to the halls of Congress, countless numbers of people have been talking -- and shouting -- about this article.  It seems that anyone who reads the article develops a strong opinion, which in turn creates more questions.  Flight #327 has opened Pandora's box.Last week, when the name of the band was revealed (Syrian singer Nour Mehana) one side shouted: See, we told you so!  Then,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Census Bureau has provided population data on Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland Security, including their ancestry and the cities and postal areas in which they live, The New York Times reported on Friday. While the information sharing is legal, so long as the data do not identify individuals, civil liberties and Arab-American groups called it a breach of public trust and likened it to steps taken against Japanese-Americans in World War II, the newspaper said. One set of data listed cities with more than 1,000 Arab-Americans. The other, more detailed set, provided ZIP...

Information officer Andy Adame, from the Border Patrol Tucson sector says, “I guarantee it’s not true.” However, seasoned Border Patrol field agents have shared some disturbing information with the Tumbleweed as well as other civilian sources with the hope the information will make it to the general public. The Tumbleweed has verified information that a flood of middle-eastern males have been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona. The increased patrols in the Huachuca Mountains area of Cochise County, seems to have diverted the flow of OTM’s, “other than Mexicans” east to the Chiricahua Mountains. Adame, who says...

THE SYRIAN BAND PLAYLIST By Michelle Malkin · July 27, 2004 From the never-ending Flight 327 files...Writer Heather Wilhelm looked a bit closer at the Syrian Wayne Newton Nour Mehana's tunes. Not exactly Danke Schoen. Heather reports: Mr. Mehana has a nice little song on his recent CD, by the way. It's called "Um El Shaheed." In English, that's "Mother of a Martyr." I noticed "Um El Shaheed" on Nour Mehana's web site. "Shaheed," I knew, meant "martyr," but that was as far as my Arabic could go. Since martyrdom seemed an odd topic for a casino crooner, I called...

Two very interesting stories....Syrian men on flights.

Authorities Conclude Switzerland Likely Used as Base for Financing, Logistical Support for 9/11 Attacks by Al-Qaida By Daniela Sigrist Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 24, 2004 BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Investigators have concluded that Switzerland was likely used as a base for financing and logistical support for the Sept. 11 attacks by al-Qaida, the country's attorney general said Thursday. Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said authorities plan to begin court proceedings in the coming weeks in three terror cases, capping investigations started four days after the 2001 suicide hijackings in New York and Washington. A special task force initially was charged...

A German scholar of ancient languages takes a new look at the sacred book of Islam. He maintains that it was created by Syro-Aramaic speaking Christians, in order to evangelize the Arabs. And he translates it in a new way

Syrian Authorities Break Up Rare Protest Monday March 8, 2004 11:46 PM By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press Writer DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - In a capital awash with Syrian flags, posters supporting President Bashar Assad and pamphlets declaring his party's achievements on its 41st anniversary, a paper banner raised Monday urging freedom for political prisoners did not fit in. Syrian authorities quickly tore it up, broke up the rare demonstration and arrested the small group of activists - who knew that was the most likely outcome of their call for change. A U.S. diplomat observing the demonstration was also briefly detained,...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday accused the Israeli government of following "the policies of escalation and extremism," making the Middle East a more dangerous place.In a speech at a banquet honoring Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Assad turned to Syria's recurring theme that Israel and its occupation of war-conquered Arab lands were at the core of Palestinian-Israeli violence and turmoil throughout the region. Assad accused Israel of rejecting an Arab willingness to make peace. He claimed that tension throughout the region was due to "the policies of escalation and extremism the Israeli government...

Syrian PM Criticizes U.S. in Iraq Saturday November 29, 2003 4:31 AM CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Syria's prime minister has criticized the U.S. presence in Iraq and labeled the anti-U.S. fight inside the Mideast nation a ``liberation movement.'' ``Despite all accusations that they are terrorists, these are Iraqi citizens who are fighting the occupation,'' Prime Minister Naji al-Otari said in remarks were published Friday in the Egyptian magazine Al-Mussawar. He also vowed Syria would never endorse the U.S. actions in Iraq, and he dismissed the threat of sanctions. Congress approved a measure enabling the president to impose economic sanctions on...

NEW YORK: US officials believe they have found a big chunk of Saddam Hussein "legendary fortune" and that as much as three billion dollars in Iraqi assets are lying in Syrian-controlled banks, a media report said. "Washington is anxious to determine that the money is not funding violence against Americans in Iraq, or being drawn down by regime officials and supporters", the Time Magazine says. Since the fall of Baghdad in April, the report says, American officials have scoured the globe in search of Saddam Hussein's legendary fortune. For months, the report says, the US has quietly insisted that Damascus...

Syrian envoy causes alarm as Israel cuts short military leaveDamascus slaps down ambassador as tension rises across region and fears grow for Palestinian leader By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem 09 October 2003 A senior Syrian diplomat warned yesterday that Damascus would respond militarily if Israel were to carry out another raid on its territory. The remarks by Syria's ambassador to Spain, Mohsen Blial, were down played as his "personal understanding" of the country's stance, while the official view - expressed in letters to the United Nations urging that Israel be condemned - was unchanged. "If Israel attacks Syria one, two...

Sep 24, 2003 Air Force Translator Charged With Espionage at Guantanamo Bay Prison By Matt Kelley Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Military officials have charged an Air Force translator at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects with espionage and aiding the enemy for allegedly trying to send information about detainees to Syria. The Pentagon's disclosure of the case against Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi of Detroit comes three days after officials said a Muslim chaplain at the base had been arrested. The chaplain, Army Capt. Yusef Yee, has been held without charge since his Sept. 10 arrest....

<p>On the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the leader of the Muslim Salafi al-Muhajiroun Movement, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad, praised al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden whom he described as "the lion of the Muslim nation."</p>

Syrian rights group calls for release of Al-Jazeera scribe AP[ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2003 06:55:26 PM ] DAMASCUS: A Syrian human rights group on Sunday called on Spain to release Syrian-born Al-Jazeera journalist Tayssir Alouni, who was arrested Friday for alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. "We call for the immediate release of Mr. Tayssir Alouni, and for providing all journalists everywhere with the necessary protection from the security mentality," said a statement issued by The Human Rights Association. Alouni, 48, was arrested Friday from his home in Alfacar, a village near the southern Spanish city of...

Syrian rights group calls for release of Al-Jazeera scribe AP[ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2003 06:55:26 PM ] DAMASCUS: A Syrian human rights group on Sunday called on Spain to release Syrian-born Al-Jazeera journalist Tayssir Alouni, who was arrested Friday for alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. "We call for the immediate release of Mr. Tayssir Alouni, and for providing all journalists everywhere with the necessary protection from the security mentality," said a statement issued by The Human Rights Association. Alouni, 48, was arrested Friday from his home in Alfacar, a village near the southern Spanish city of...

The United States has returned five Syrian border guards wounded and taken by American forces during a June 18 clash on the Syrian-Iraqi border, a Syrian government spokesman said Monday. The announcement, carried by Syria's official news agency SANA, said the guards were handed over to Syria on the Syrian-Iraqi border and taken to hospital for further treatment. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa had said Sunday that Syria wanted to avoid escalating tensions with Washington and was instead engaged in quiet diplomacy over the return of the border guards.

Nearly 300 Syrian intellectuals, engineers, lawyers and political activists have asked President Bashar Assad for comprehensive reforms to ostensibly buffer the country from American criticisms. In a letter to the president, they asked him to implement a series of reforms. They include the revocation of martial law and security trials, the immediate release of all political prisoners and return of exiles. The group said Israel and the occupation of neighbouring Iraq by the United States had changed the region. "We address you at this moment, which is unique in its dangers and challenges, as the occupation of the West Bank...

'King of clubs' being sheltered by Syrian army By Damien Mcelroy in Damascus (Filed: 11/05/2003) The king of clubs from America's card deck of most wanted Iraqis is being sheltered at a military base in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to a Gulf diplomat. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice-president of Iraq and one of Saddam Hussein's closest henchmen, is said to be under the protection of Syria's Republican Guard in the decrepit military base near the airport. He is among thousands of regime figures who are believed to have slipped into Syria before Damascus sealed the border. Izzat had...

Syria is granting free passage across its border with Iraq to volunteers who wish to join the fight against the U.S. and British forces. Thus far, dozens of volunteers, primarily Palestinians from the refugee camps in Lebanon, have crossed over into Iraq through Syrian-controlled border posts. The passage of volunteers with Damascus's consent has given rise to the theory that the U.S.-fired missile that struck a Syrian bus traveling in Iraq was an intentional attack on a busload of such volunteers. The bus left Damascus on Sunday and was hit by the missile some 50 kilometers inside Iraqi territory. The...

Hamburg: Ahead of the September 11 attacks, German intelligence attempted to recruit an Islamic extremist who was a key link to the Hamburg terrorist cell of hijackers, according to a news report. The report in Der Spiegel magazine, due to hit newsstands tomorrow, says German intelligence approached Syrian-German terrorist suspect Mohammed Haidar Zammar. Zammar, currently in detention in Syria, is widely believed to have recruited the suicide pilots who hijacked planes and flew them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. As early at 1996, however, German intelligence approached Zammar with a lucrative incitement to provide information on radical...

Gunmen shot and killed a Libyan and a Syrian in a mafia-style attack in Bulgaria's capital of Sofia, according to police Wednesday. One or two "professional assassins" fired at least 10 times at Feisal Zakar, aged 54, who was born in Tripoli, Libya, and Matar al Ruleh, aged 48, a Syrian citizen, in Sofia's Lozenets neighborhood late Tuesday, a police statement said, according to SPA. Even though the victims had no clear criminal record, they possessed "large amounts of money of unclear origin," it said. Police officials have attributed street shootings and bombings claiming several dead and wounded over the...

BERLIN: A German-born Syrian suspected of involvement in the September 11 attacks and currently detained in Syria, has admitted he had planned to bomb the US consulate in Hamburg in 1998, a German news report said on Saturday. Mohammed Haydar Zammar admitted during interrogation that he had kept a watch on the consulate in the north German city, but abandoned the plan because of the tight security measures in place there, the magazine Der Spiegel said in its edition to be published on Monday. The magazine, which did not cite its source for the report, did not indicate the circumstances...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Syrian man charged with celebrating the many deaths of the September 11 attacks on the United States went on trial in the German capital on Thursday. The 34-year-old man is charged with attacking a Turkish salesman after demanding to know whether he was a Jew or an American and whether he approved of the attacks. The charges say a Palestinian man also participated in the attack. The man's attorney said there was nothing political about the fight, one day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last year, adding that the Turkish...

Syria's state security court sentenced prominent opposition figure and lawyer Habib Issa, 56, to five years in prison for threatening the constitution and inciting armed revolt, Issa's attorney Hassan Abdel Azim told reporters. Azim blasted the verdict as "iniquitous and illegal" and called it a "political decision aimed at terrorising ... the national democratic opposition." Issa was also punished for "spreading lies that weakened the morale of the nation; inciting dissension between denominations" and "publishing false information inside the country," Azim added Monday, according to AFP. Issa, 56, was arrested last September in a dragnet that rounded up nine other...

AMMAN: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met last week with his Iraqi counterpart, Saddam Hussein, on the border between the two countries, an independent Jordanian newspaper reported Tuesday. Al-Hilal, which quotes unnamed sources, said Assad took with him to the meeting his brother, Maher, as well as the head of the Syrian intelligence services. During the encounter, Saddam presented Assad with an ancient rifle taken from the Iraqi museum, said the weekly newspaper, whose report could not be independently confirmed. Relations between Iraq and Syria, which are ruled by rival wings of the Baath party and severed ties in the 1980s,...

Denmark, holder of the EU presidency, on Thursday urged Syria to free all its political prisoners after several were sentenced in a crack-down on dissent. "EU urges Syria to release all political prisoners," the presidency said in a statement. Rights group Amnesty International last week demanded that Syria release activist Walid al-Bunni and liberal economist Aref Dalila, who were sentenced to five and 10 years respectively on July 31 for trying to overturn the constitution by calling for political freedom. "The EU deeply regrets the prison sentences passed recently against a number of individuals peacefully exercising their legitimate right to...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday addressed his country’s armed forces through the People’s Army and the Arab Soldier magazines, on the occasion of the 57th anniversary of the foundation of the Syrian Arab Army. In his address to the Armed Forces, Assad stressed the prominent role played by the army in Syria’s history, on the way to ultimate victory. Assad further emphasized that Army Day is a day of the homeland, stressing his commitment to the policy of his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad and the determination to enjoy a better future. The Syrian leader underlined that the...