World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #6 Disinformation, Inc.

To: All; DAVEY CROCKETT; FARS; Founding Father; milford421; Calpernia; Velveeta; struwwelpeter

[March 29,2006]

Despite partnership, Russia spying on U.S.
Sometime ally after secrets like in old days

By Douglas Birch
Baltimore Sun Foreign Staff
Originally published March 23, 2006

WASHINGTON // Even as the United States and Russia are cooperating to
resolve international crises and track militant Islamic groups, Moscow
is working at least as hard at stealing U.S. military and industrial
secrets as during the Soviet era, current and former intelligence
officials say.

Moscow's spies operate under a larger variety of "covers" than in
Soviet days, experts say, and their morale is the highest since the
mid-1980s. The Russian diaspora has created a pool of emigres, some of
whom can be bribed, cajoled or blackmailed into helping.

"The Russian target is still very much there, still doing the things
they did years ago," said Michael A. Donner, chief of
counterintelligence for the FBI, in an interview this month. "We are
scrambling to keep up."

The twist, perhaps, is that the United States vs. Russia spy game can
no longer be painted in black-and-white, good-against-evil terms, as
it generally was when members of the Politburo gathered each year atop
Lenin's Tomb. The two nations are not just rivals, they are partners
in efforts to resolve nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea, and
share intelligence on groups such as al-Qaida.

"You're allies and friends in one arena and you kind of battle each
other in the other arena," said David W. Szady, who served as the
FBI's chief of counterintelligence from 2001 to January of this year.
"Those relationships are absolutely essential. It is crucial that that
cooperation exists [to combat] terrorism. But everybody has needs for
intelligence, and therefore there are those needs to collect it."

Experts say Russia's secret agents spend a lot of time gathering
inside gossip about America's political leaders, though much of what
they get is probably available in newspapers, magazines or on the
Internet.

"There is a Soviet tradition: You only trust the things that are
classified and the things that you steal," said Dimitry Simes, a
scholar who studies Russia at the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom
in Washington.

The amount of Russian espionage in the United States dipped in the
wake of the Soviet collapse in 1991, officials and experts say, but
rebounded by 1994 under then-foreign intelligence chief and later
Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin
ordered a "massive" expansion of intelligence-gathering efforts in
Western Europe and North America, Jane's Intelligence Digest reported.
Officials and experts say Russian spying has significantly increased
under Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel.

"In 1989 and 1990, after the Berlin Wall fell, we all wanted to light
candles and sing 'Kumbaya' and wait for the peace dividends to role
in," said James Casey, chief of the Eurasia section of the FBI's
counterintelligence division. "But things haven't changed as much as
we thought they were going to change in 1989."

The Kremlin considers Chechen insurgents and Islamic militants as the
greatest threat to its security, Casey said. "But in the same breath
they'll talk about the United States. They still consider us a
strategic threat."

In Russian intelligence circles, the United States is no longer called
the glavny protivnik, or "main adversary," as in Soviet days, said
Oleg D. Kalugin, a former KGB general who worked as a spy in New York
and Washington in the late 1960s and early 1970s. "Now, it is
'Priority No. 1.'"

The designation sounds less ominous. But in terms of manpower and
level of activity, Kalugin said, there has been "a total restoration,
even an intensification" of Russian spy activity here.

Russia, he said, hopes to rebuild its influence with the former Soviet
republics and the oil-rich states of Central Asia. The Kremlin was
also stung by the victory of pro-Western governments in Georgia and
Ukraine over the past 2 1/2 years, and by NATO's expansion into the
Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in 2004.

"A great power humiliated wants to restore its influence worldwide,"
said Kalugin, who has lived in the United States since 1995. He was
tried in Moscow in 2002 and convicted in absentia of spying for the
United States.

Mostly, though, the Russians are interested in gathering military and
technical secrets, FBI officials and outside experts say, particularly
in U.S. efforts to build a ballistic missile defense system and
space-based weapons. Moscow apparently has also targeted information
about stealth technologies, such as those used to conceal warplanes
and submarines.

But it is unclear how much Russia stands to gain from acquiring
equipment such as high-tech sensors or lasers. John Pike, an arms
expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org, said the manufacture of
advanced devices requires not just sophisticated components but
experienced managers, robotic systems and highly trained workers.

"The challenge today is to find something that can be stolen and that
can be used when you bring it home," he said.

Russia's military-industrial complex may not be up to the task, Pike
said. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's military
technology was 10 years behind that of the United States; today, it is
about 25 years behind, he said.

"I think they have made essentially no technological progress since
the end of the Cold War," Pike said.

Mutual cooperation between Washington and Moscow goes beyond the
countries' diplomatic corps. Even the spies, it seems, are talking to
each other.

Russian and Western security agencies began working together on a
limited basis after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, though
there was a significant retreat by the mid-1990s. Efforts at
cooperation expanded again after the Sept. 11 attacks, to include the
sharing of information on suspected terrorist networks.

That could help explain why, in January, when the Russians said they
caught four British diplomats trying to acquire military secrets by
downloading data from a fake rock, Russian authorities did not expel
the alleged spies.

Last month, Nikolai Patrushev, director of Russia's Federal Security
Service, or FSB, told the Interfax news agency that Moscow, too, is
awash in spies seeking military secrets.

"Their operations in Russia are becoming exceptionally daring," he
said.

Western experts say the level of Western spying against Russia may
have declined along with that nation's global and regional influence,
and the diminished threat posed by its conventional military forces.
One big question is how far Russia will go in abandoning efforts at
democratic reform.

"Just five years ago, the Russian media was relatively free. There was
some freedom in parliament and in the courts," Kalugin said. "But
today that's all over. Russia is in a state of drift - and a drift
toward the old days rather than forward."

Western governments are interested in Moscow's close commercial and
diplomatic ties to North Korea and Iran. Last month, the Kremlin
confirmed that it planned to sell $700 million worth of TOR-1
surface-to-air missiles to Iran, according to news reports.

Gerald B. Richards, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who
occasionally gives lectures at the Spy Museum in Washington, said some
tourists are "absolutely amazed" when he tells them the Russians are
still aggressively spying on the United States.

"I would be absolutely awed and amazed and mind-boggled if they
weren't," Richards said. "Knowledge is power, and it's to their
benefit to know everything that we're doing. We're the big cheese now.
Everyone wants to spy on us."

douglas.birch@baltsun.com

3,101 posted on 01/28/2007 2:30:45 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; DAVEY CROCKETT; struwwelpeter

http://rbcnews.com/free/20070129095523.shtml

Arrested banker accuses Central Bank of corruption

RBC, 29.01.2007, Moscow 09:55:23.Alexei Frenkel, the former head of VIP Bank, charged with ordering the murder of Central Bank Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov in September 2006, has published another open letter, accusing the Central Bank's management of corruption in connection with admitting Russian banks to the deposit insurance system.

Frenkel said the Central Bank had divided banks applying for admission to the system into the "white and black lists". According to Frenkel, the white list included the largest state banks, subsidiaries of foreign banks and "banks-sponsors of government officials" involved in illegal cash conversion operations and offering dubious services ("semi-legal imports, withdrawal of funds abroad, tax avoidance schemes etc."). All other banks could be admitted to the insurance system if they "made voluntary contributions" of between $150,000 and $5 million depending on the size of the bank. "This was compensation for the supervisor not noticing a $1 billion gap between the bank's obligations and assets, posing a real threat to depositors," the arrested banker said.

3,102 posted on 01/29/2007 12:51:11 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; DAVEY CROCKETT; struwwelpeter

CK: A Chechnya lady-refugee kidnapped from a TRC in Ingushetia

Caucasian Knot / Memorial
27/1/2007

A Chechnya lady-refugee kidnapped from a TRC in Ingushetia

Today in the afternoon (about 1:30 p.m. Moscow time), Ms. Chabieva,
Malika Mikhailovna, born in 1969, a refugee from Chechnya, was
kidnapped
by unknown armed persons in masks from the Temporary Residence Centre
(TRC), located in the village of Sleptsovskaya, Republic of Ingushetia,
in the territory of "Mekhstroj." The press service of the regional
social movement "Chechen Committee for National Salvation" has informed
that the sister of the kidnapped woman told about the incident.
According to her words, the kidnapped woman is mother of a child of 4,
whom the culprits also tried to take away, but then changed their mind.

The relatives have no idea on what could be the reason for Malika
Chabieva's kidnapping. The nationality of the kidnappers and their
belonging to any power unit have not been established yet.

http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1174549.html

3,103 posted on 01/29/2007 1:01:40 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: DAVEY CROCKETT; All; struwwelpeter

[unknown url, from a group, think it must be the "rest of the story".....]]]

Chechen woman suspected of terror act in Armavir, nabbed

NAZRAN, January 28 (Itar-Tass)- A Chechen woman who was on the Federal
Wanted List on a suspicion of committing a terror act at the Armavir-2
railway station in the Krasnodar Territory in April 1997, was detained
in the Ingushetia village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya on Sunday, Itar-Tass
learnt at the Ingushetia Interior Ministry. The ministry specified
that the operation was carried out by officers of the republican
security service together with their colleagues from Chechnya and the
Krasnodar Territory.

``Following the detention, Malika Chabiyeva, 38, was handed over to
officers of the branch of the Federal Security Service for the
Krasnodar Territory,'' a source noted.

As a result of the terror act at the station in 1997, two people had
been killed and seven wounded.

3,104 posted on 01/29/2007 1:11:25 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; milford421; Founding Father; FARS; DAVEY CROCKETT; Calpernia

http://www.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/default_pf.aspx?NEWSID=128248

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2007 7:36 AM

The forgotten combatant
How the government may have prevented a second wave of terrorist attacks, and then turned this potential anti-terrorism success story into a constitutional showdown

By TONY BARTELME
The Post and Courier

In the early evening of Sept. 14, 2001, Greg Metz, an officer with the Peoria Police Department in Illinois, spotted a maroon Mitsubishi making a left turn without signaling. In police circles, failure to signal is a good excuse to stop drivers to see if they've been drinking, and Metz is one of the most aggressive DUI hunters in his state, nabbing more than 300 in recent years. But the man driving this car didn't seem to be drunk.

He said his name was Ali Saleh al-Marri and that he was trying to rent a house in the area. When Metz ran his name through police computers, he learned al-Marri's license had been suspended in 1991 for driving under the influence. Metz started writing a citation, and al-Marri asked if he could pay the bond on the spot, reaching into the trunk of his car for a briefcase stuffed with cash. Metz declined the offer and reported the encounter to the FBI.

From that traffic stop in Peoria and other tips, FBI agents would build an intriguing case against al-Marri. With smoke still lingering over Manhattan's Ground Zero, investigators uncovered links connecting al-Marri to a network of top-level al-Qaida leaders, including the Sept. 11 hijackers. They arrested al-Marri three months after 9/11 and found incriminating computer files in his laptop. And, in a new book, former Attorney General John Ashcroft said the agents may have thwarted a second wave of attacks on West Coast skyscrapers.

Had al-Marri been tried and convicted in a court of law, he might have become one of the Bush administration's terrorism trophies - a symbol of how good police work could protect the nation against terrorists. But al-Marri has never had his day in court. A month before his trial, President Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" and had him moved to a cell in the Charleston Naval Consolidated Brig, where he remains to this day.

Now, al-Marri is at the center of court cases that have nothing to do with his guilt or innocence. One case, in particular, puts him squarely in the middle of a constitutional tug-of-war over the president's right to indefinitely imprison terrorism suspects without charging them. On Thursday, a federal appeals court will hear arguments from the government and al-Marri's attorneys about his detention.

Legal scholars expect the case to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, in a separate case filed in Charleston federal court, al-Marri's lawyers have alleged that his solitary confinement in the Hanahan brig constitutes torture - a claim the Pentagon denies.

Throughout these court battles, al-Marri's presence has been conspicuously absent. He has no forum to rebut the government's allegations about his links to al-Qaida; he is barred from attending his own court hearings, in person or by video conference. The Pentagon has declined requests by journalists to interview al-Marri. His only contact with outsiders is with his lawyers, and on rare occasions, a representative from the International Red Cross. The brig itself remains sealed from public view and scrutiny. Unlike the military's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has had more than 1,000 visits by journalists and others, Defense Department officials have denied requests by The Post and Courier and other media to tour the brig.

As a result, much of what's known about al-Marri and his treatment has come from court documents filed immediately after his arrest, from lawyers and a chapter about al-Marri in Ashcroft's book. From these limited sources, however, a portrait can be drawn of a young man from Qatar with a mysterious past and an even more uncertain future.

Mystery in the Heartland

Peoria sits on the banks of the Illinois River and is perhaps most famous for the vaudeville-era saying that if an act played well in Peoria, it would work anywhere. Al-Marri moved to this symbol of mainstream America in the early 1980s, enrolling at Bradley University in 1987 and receiving a bachelor of science degree four years later. While there, he apparently was no stranger to college hijinks. His former landlord said al-Marri drank so much that he was evicted from his apartment. "He was a real nice guy, but he was just too damn loud," the landlord told the Peoria Journal Star in 2002 after al-Marri's arrest.

After graduation, al-Marri went back to Qatar. Then in July 2001, he contacted Bradley University, hoping to enroll in a graduate program. School officials reportedly told investigators that al-Marri seemed to be in a rush to begin studies that fall. Al-Marri arrived in the United States on Sept. 10, 2001. The timing raised some eyebrows. Friends and faculty members told the Journal Star they were surprised that he arrived two weeks after the semester started. Others said they understood that foreign students sometimes have difficulty getting their papers in order. Al-Marri ended up renting a two-bedroom apartment in West Peoria, telling a friend that the complex's parking lot would be a good place for his five children to play.

In the anxious weeks and months after 9/11, tips flooded FBI offices across the country, including the one from Metz about the traffic stop. Agents in Indianapolis also received information about a steamer chest al-Marri shipped to the United States, while FBI investigators in Peoria heard from a salesman at U.S. Cellular who had concerns about al-Marri's cell phone account.

On Oct. 2, 2001, three weeks after 9/11, FBI agent Nicolas Zambeck and another agent knocked on the door of al-Marri's apartment in West Peoria. A small boy peeked through the window, then answered the door. Al-Marri appeared a moment later.

Al-Marri was 36 at the time, a short-framed man with a sharp nose framed by thick black hair and a mustache. In broken English, he told the agents that he was from Qatar, had a student visa and was studying for a master's degree in computer information systems at Bradley University. They noticed the steamer chest and found that it contained clothes and spices. They asked when he had last been in the United States, and al-Marri reportedly told them his last stay was between 1983 and 1991. They asked more questions about his travels, gave him a business card and left.

But the FBI was only getting started. Agents combed through travel and banking records and discovered that al-Marri had in fact been in the United States during the summer of 2000.

During that visit, he set up a company called AAA Carpet. The company's address belonged to the Time Out Motel in Macomb, Ill., which was owned by a small church. The church's pastor told an Illinois newspaper that al-Marri stayed in the side of the motel for paying visitors. The other half was a shelter for wayward families. During that summer, al-Marri opened three bank accounts in the town under the name of AAA Carpet.

The questions multiplied. Why had al-Marri neglected to tell agents that he had been in the United States the summer before? Why was he setting up a company in a motel? Was he really selling carpet? Investigators scoured his phone records, matching them with other numbers in their databases.

One match stood out.

On Sept. 23, 2001, someone in Peoria used a calling card and personal identification number to call a phone number in the United Arab Emirates. Four days later, someone using al-Marri's cell phone used the same calling card and PIN to make another call.

The United Arab Emirates number was important: Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, had called the same number.

Investigators believe the United Arab Emirates number belonged to Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a key al-Qaida money man. Among other things, the FBI believed that al-Hawsawi wired $109,910 to the 9/11 hijackers the summer before the attacks.

"Although the FBI didn't know of al-Marri's significance when they first interviewed him, slowly but surely they became convinced that al-Marri was in fact part of an al-Qaida advance team sent to the United States to facilitate the next round of terrorist attacks," Ashcroft wrote in his book.

'Increasingly adversarial'

On the afternoon of Dec. 11, 2001, Zambeck and FBI agent Robert Brown returned to al-Marri's apartment.

When al-Marri came to the door, the agents asked if he would come back to the FBI's office, and while they were there, would it be all right to look around his apartment? Al-Marri consented, court records say. One of the agents spotted a laptop and asked him to bring the computer with him.

"Al-Marri gave his consent and retrieved a laptop computer carrying case that was in the closet," Zambeck said later in a court document. Al-Marri asked how long the interview would take. "It shouldn't take long at all," Zambeck replied, according to court documents.

At the FBI office, al-Marri denied knowing anyone named al-Hawsawi or calling the number in the United Arab Emirates. The interview grew "increasingly adversarial," according to court papers filed by al-Marri's lawyers. Al-Marri had been fasting that day in observance of Ramadan and asked if he would be allowed to eat dinner with his family. The agents said no. The interrogation ended about 10 p.m., when the agents drove al-Marri home and posted a surveillance team outside his apartment. The next day, al-Marri was detained as a material witness in the 9/11 investigation.

Computer analysts then examined the 80-gigabyte hard drive from al-Marri's computer. They found lectures by Osama bin Laden about jihad and martyrdom, photos of the Sept. 11 attacks, and a computer folder called "chem" with bookmarked Internet sites for hazardous substances and chemicals. They found an Arabic prayer that read, "Neither the U.S. nor anyone living in it will dream of security/safety before we live in Palestine and before the infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed." The analysts also discovered about 1,700 credit card numbers.

Armed with this and other evidence, prosecutors went before a grand jury, which indicted al-Marri on charges that he lied to federal agents, set up false bank accounts and was involved in credit card fraud.

'Snatched up'

At first, the case against al-Marri resembled many others working their way through the American judicial system. Al-Marri's lawyers began a vigorous defense, questioning how FBI agents had searched their client's apartment and examined his computer. Al-Marri entered a plea of not guilty. He was held in a jail in New York and eventually was moved back to Illinois and incarcerated in the Peoria County Jail.

In an interview with The Post and Courier, Mark Lustberg, a New Jersey lawyer, remembered al-Marri as "gentle, generous and extremely friendly. He was most upset about being denied things like access to sunlight, which he had not seen for more than a year. He had been denied all contact with family members. He wasn't getting religious materials like the Quran and a prayer rug. Those were the sorts of things that he was most focused on, even more than the case. In fact, it sometimes made it difficult to prepare the trial case because he wanted to talk about his standard of living, the decency and indecency with which he was being treated."

Then, on June 23, 2003, a month before al-Marri's trial, Lustberg and al-Marri's other attorneys learned that President Bush had issued a one-page declaration. It said al-Marri was connected to al-Qaida, that he was a danger to the United States and that he was now an "enemy combatant." Prosecutors dismissed charges against him, and a military team whisked him to the Charleston brig.

"One of the things we feel is most outrageous about the case," Lustberg said, "is that right before the trial, he was going to be afforded all protections the Constitution affords, and then he was suddenly, without notice, snatched up. Now he has been deprived of every constitutional right." The judge in al-Marri's case wasn't happy either, calling the Bush administration's move "unseemly," and saying, "I'm not naive enough to believe that this was just a coincidence."

Terrorists begin to talk

Exactly what caused the president's move remains unclear, though Ashcroft's book, "Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice," provides some insight.

On March 1, 2003, nearly four months before the president declared al-Marri an enemy combatant, Pakistani forces and the FBI raided a house in a suburb of Islamabad, capturing al-Hawsawi, the alleged 9/11 paymaster, and, more important, Khalid Shekh Mohammed, the brains behind the Sept. 11 attacks and one of al-Qaida's most brutal leaders. (Intelligence officials believe that Mohammed beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Time magazine reported recently.)

Within a few weeks of his capture, news organizations reported that Mohammed,

known as KSM in intelligence circles, had given interrogators the names of a dozen key al-Qaida operatives planning new attacks.

Investigators were told that al-Marri traveled to the United Arab Emirates just before the Sept. 11 attacks. While there, he met al-Hawsawi, who gave him $3,000 to buy a laptop, as well as about $10,000 otherwise, the government alleged in court papers.

Ashcroft wrote in his book that a senior al-Qaida leader told interrogators that al-Marri was a sleeper operative - "someone inside the country, lying low but working all the while for the enemy ... I believe KSM had planned to use al-Marri to help facilitate this next wave of attacks focused on Los Angeles." Ashcroft wrote that al-Qaida's original plan was a "two-part plot" to hit the East Coast first and follow with another strike on the West Coast. One target, he said, was the 73-story U.S. Bank building in Los Angeles.

"After al-Marri was detained in 2001, I believe it frustrated al-Qaida's plans for new attacks," he wrote, adding that al-Marri rejected "numerous offers to improve his lot by cooperating with FBI investigators" and became "a hard case." As a result, Ashcroft said, the president declared him an enemy combatant, removing al-Marri from the criminal justice system so he could be detained "at least until the war against al-Qaida was over."

Allegations of torture

In the brig, al-Marri joined two other enemy combatants, Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla.

Hamdi had been picked up in late 2001 on a battlefield in Afghanistan after training in an al-Qaida camp for a few weeks that summer. After Hamdi was held incommunicado for more than two years, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Bush administration didn't have "a blank check" to lock up people indefinitely without charges. The military flew Hamdi back to his family in Saudi Arabia after he signed an agreement not to sue the U.S. government over his treatment.

Padilla had a more notorious reputation. FBI agents arrested him in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on his way back from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ashcroft and others described Padilla as "a dirty bomber" who hoped to use a conventional bomb packed with radioactive waste in a terrorist strike. In his book, Ashcroft said Khalid Sheik Mohammed urged Padilla to blow up high-rise apartments. Federal officials have since backed away from the dirty bomber claims, and they eventually moved Padilla from the brig to a prison in Miami, where he was charged with conspiring to commit terrorist acts. His trial is scheduled for later this year.

The Padilla case offers the most detailed glimpse of conditions inside the brig. Padilla's lawyers recently claimed that interrogators and guards tortured their client by keeping him in solitary confinement for 3 1/2 years. They said that Padilla was deprived of sleep, forced to sleep on a steel platform after guards removed a foam mattress from his cell and kept the cell uncomfortably cold.

His lawyers said Padilla is now such a docile and broken man that he's unfit to stand trial. They offered photographs of guards removing Padilla from his cell as evidence of the government's heavy-handed treatment. The photos show guards shackling his arms and legs and then leading him from the cell with a visor and ear plugs.

Al-Marri spent nearly a year and a half in the brig without any contact with family or his lawyers. Eventually, in late 2004, Defense Department officials let him have meetings with his lawyers. Soon after, they filed court papers alleging that al-Marri had "suffered inhumane, degrading and physically and psychologically abusive treatment at the brig in violation of this country's most basic laws and fundamental norms."

Defense Department officials deny that al-Marri and Padilla were tortured. Still, a recently declassified report obtained by The Post and Courier notes several problems at the brig and the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The report noted that International Red Cross officials weren't allowed to meet with one detainee, and that one detainee "has (Quran), mattress, and pillow removed and is fed cold MREs (pre-packaged meals) as part of interrogation plan." The report said the "limited number and unique status of detainees in Charleston precludes interaction with other detainees. Argument could be made that this constitutes isolation."

Constitutional showdown

"Isolation is the big issue," said Andy Savage, a Charleston lawyer and part of a legal team traveling to Richmond, Va., this week for a judicial showdown in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Savage and his wife, Cheryl, visited al-Marri on Jan. 18. "I probably spent about five minutes talking with him about his case, and the rest of the time was for socialization, to talk about everything from his treatment to his diet to his family."

Savage said he first met al-Marri in fall 2004, after the government gave him top-secret clearance. "He was in chains and in leg-irons. He was literally chained to the floor. There was a Defense Intelligence Guard there and guards surrounding him." Their conversations were recorded. Everyone sat on steel stools.

"It was very uncomfortable for him because he couldn't move," Savage said, adding that he was concerned that al-Marri had been so traumatized by the isolation and interrogations that he was about to "lose touch with reality."

Conditions have improved since then, Savage and his wife said, adding that local brig officials have treated al-Marri with more compassion than Pentagon interrogators. Within the past six months or so, al-Marri has been allowed to keep photographs of his family, now back in Saudi Arabia. Guards bring him copies of USA Today during the week, and The Post and Courier on the weekends, though stories about world events often are redacted. Al-Marri sometimes complains about the lack of sports coverage for soccer.

When the Savages met al-Marri on Jan. 18, they sat on leather chairs instead of the round steel stools. Sometimes al-Marri refers to his 80-square-foot cell as his "unfurnished villa." Cheryl Savage said al-Marri's sense of humor "is what most stands out about him - how after all that's happened to him and all the isolation, he has been able to maintain his sense of humor."

Savage said he and al-Marri haven't talked about his innocence or guilt. "We've never been able to explore the evidence." Savage said most of the allegations, including those in Ashcroft's book, come from third- and fourth-hand sources. "And we believe the basis for the information was torture, which speaks for itself."

Even though al-Marri's guilt or innocence has never been explored in a court of law, the nine justices of the Supreme Court likely will decide his fate.

One of al-Marri's lawsuits involves habeas corpus, a concept rooted in centuries of common and constitutional law. Among other things, it means people who are imprisoned have a right to confront their accusers about the evidence against them. Last fall, at the president's urging, Congress passed a law that suspends habeas corpus for any alien the president decides is an "unlawful enemy combatant."

The al-Marri case challenges this law, and this week's hearing will deal with this question: Can the president imprison people potentially for the rest of their lives without hearings or a chance to rebut the president's reasoning? The answer could affect millions of people.

"With the change in the law last fall, anyone who is here as a noncitizen can be picked up off the street and has no rights for redress in the courts," Savage said. "While the government says it will never happen, it's an incredible change in the way Americans think of themselves."

Until this key constitutional issue is resolved, al-Marri may remain in the special wing in the brig that normally houses dozens of prisoners but has been set aside for him. Sometimes brig officials call the Savages when al-Marri looks severely depressed. This happened last week, and the Savages rushed to the brig. Cheryl Savage said on one recent visit, al-Marri was particularly emotional. "He never wants us to leave. He always says, 'Can you wait one more minute?' "

Al-Marri's brother held at Guantanamo

Ali Saleh al-Marri isn't the only one in his family who's in American military custody. His brother, Jarallah al-Marri, is being held in the detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba.

During a tribunal in 2004, the government said Jarallah al-Marri traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 and trained in a camp operated by Osama bin Laden.

The government said he fled after 9/11 but was arrested at the Pakistani border in December 2001.

Jarallah al-Marri acknowledged that he had travelled to Afghanistan but that he didn't know the camp was owned by bin Laden. He said he travelled alone.

In 2005 he participated in hunger strikes for 17 days to protest what he said in a letter were "inhumane conditions and religious persecution I and hundreds of other prisoners have been subject to at Guantanamo."

Reach Tony Bartelme at tbartelme@postandcourier.com or 937-5554

This article was printed via the web on 1/29/2007 6:00:29 AM . This article
appeared in The Post and Courier and updated online at Charleston.net on Sunday, January 28, 2007.

3,105 posted on 01/29/2007 3:03:24 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; milford421; Founding Father; FARS; Calpernia; DAVEY CROCKETT

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/kashmir-hunts-of-owl-or-laden/top/32179-3.html?xml

Kashmir hunts for owl or Laden!
Shamim Meraj
CNN-IBN
Posted Saturday , January 27, 2007 at 09:19
Updated Saturday , January 27, 2007 at 10:11

Srinagar: A mysterious owl search is keeping the rumour mills abuzz in Kashmir – is this a hunt for an owl or is it the hunt for Osama bin-Laden?

As the winter sun sets in Kashmir, people hurry towards the warmth of their homes except Mushtaq and his friends in a village close to Srinagar.

They are out looking for a three kg owl which, it is said, will fetch a cool Rs 30 lakhs.

But who is this man who travels from village to village searching for that perfect owl?

No one knows. Not even Mushtaq.

[snipped]

Odd rumors tend to spread quickly in Kashmir. The talk has jumped to the Internet, spawning many theories, including those that claim the owl-hunt is actually a hunt for Osama bin-Laden, or perhaps a secret foreign-funded research project. Wildlife officials say they are investigating the case.

[snipped]

continued..............

3,106 posted on 01/29/2007 6:15:43 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; milford421; Founding Father; FARS; Calpernia

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=120456

U.S. Fears Return of Mughniyeh
08:43 Jan 29, '07 / 10 Shevat 5767

(IsraelNN.com) After years of laying low, Hizbullah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh may be taking a more active role in Hizbullah’s operations outside of Lebanon. Before Osama bin Laden’s rise, Mughniyeh was considered by U.S. intelligence agencies to be the world’s most dangerous terrorist.

The U.S. fears, reported in the online February 5, 2007 edition of Newsweek, were ridiculed by an unnamed Iranian source. He suggested that it is folly to suggest that any one man is indispensable to the operations of a terrorist group.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Hizbullah+terrorist+Imad+Mughniyeh&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.netscape:en-US&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=Hezbollah+terrorist+Imad+Mughniyeh&spell=1

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US&q=+Imad+Mughniyeh&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?q=world%E2%80%99s+most+dangerous+terrorist&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

3,107 posted on 01/29/2007 6:37:20 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

3,108 posted on 01/29/2007 7:01:07 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; milford421; Founding Father

Three dead in Israel suicide bomb
A suicide bomber has killed three people at a bakery in the southern Israeli town of Eilat, police say.

The explosion ripped through the Lehamim bakery in a residential area at 0940 (0740 GMT).

Three Palestinian militant groups said they carried out the attack, saying the bomber was from Gaza but had entered Eilat via neighbouring Jordan.

The attack is the first suicide bombing in Israel since April 2006 and the first in the southern town.

Eilat, a popular diving resort some 350km (220 miles) south of Jerusalem, has previously largely escaped violence by Palestinian militants.

Body parts

Witnesses described a massive blast which shook the area.

"I saw a man with a black coat and a bag. For Eilat, where it is hot, it is strange to see someone walking with a coat. I said to myself, 'Why is this idiot dressed that way?'," Benny Mazgini, a local resident, told Israel Radio.

"Seconds later, I heard a huge blast. The building shook."

The force of the explosion left body parts scattered around the bakery, while outside trays of bread lay on the blood-stained pavement.

Eilat police commander Bruno Stein warned that more bombers might be on the loose.

"Our assumption is that it's not one bomber, and there might be more bombers in Eilat right now," he said.

'Joint attack'

Three Palestinian groups - Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and a previously unknown group called the Islamic Brigade - said they carried out the attack.

We reject these acts and we do not believe that they are in the interest of the Palestinian cause
Yasser Abed Rabbo
Spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas

They named the bomber as 21-year-old Mohammad Siksik from Gaza, saying he got into Eilat from Jordan.

The groups said the attack was planned seven months ago and warned of more to come.

Israeli police have still not confirmed who they believe carried out the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to continue fighting Palestinian militants.

"We shall... instruct our security people to continue their ongoing and never-ending struggle against terrorists and those who send them," the Associated Press news agency quoted Mr Olmert as saying.

Although the governing Hamas group was apparently not involved, its spokesmen have described the bombing as a "natural reaction" to Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza.

However, a senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack.

"We reject these acts and we do not believe that they are in the interest of the Palestinian cause and that they blacken the image of the Palestinian people," Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP news agency.

The UN Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, strongly condemned the attack: "It was an attack on ordinary people as they went about their daily lives. It can have no justification. I feel deeply for those killed and I share the pain of their families. I send them my deepest condolences."

The last suicide attack was at a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 10 people. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in that time, mainly in the Gaza Strip.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6309029.stm

Published: 2007/01/29 14:23:30 GMT

© BBC MMVII

3,109 posted on 01/29/2007 7:09:04 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; Founding Father; milford421; FARS

Pakistan Taleban vow more violence
Pro-Taleban militants have been strengthening their hold in Pakistan's tribal areas following controversial peace deals with the authorities. Haroon Rashid of the BBC's Urdu service is one of the few reporters working for a Western media organisation with access to the area.

Local militants took journalists to see the site of an air raid by Pakistan's armed forces in troubled South Waziristan region. Here, our reporter describes his meeting with the militants' leader.

After visiting the site of the bombing, we were done with the basic purpose of the trip. I asked the militants if I could see their leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

"For that, you will have to spend the night here. We will have to track him down. He is extremely busy these days," said one of the militants, Zulfikar Mehsud, who carried a powerful walkie-talkie.

The journey back to the town of Mir Ali from the site of the attack in a hamlet called Kot Kalay was eventless, except for the speed at which Zulfiqar drove the four-by-four. He said driving at 100kph was the norm on these dodgy tracks.

Given the battering the Toyota truck was taking, I asked them how long such trucks last? Eight to nine months only, I was told.

Close to midnight, we approached a check point but the paramilitary soldier removed the road blockade without even throwing a cursory glance at us.

The Taleban, too, looked neither too concerned at the check posts or security forces on the ground, or about the spy planes hovering overhead.

Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfil God's orders
Militant leader Baitullah Mehsud

Since the controversial peace accords, they say they are able to move around the area freely.

In Mir Ali, we bade farewell to the rest of the journalists since the interview with Baitullah was for the BBC only.

After spending a night in a room with at least 10 militants, I headed for Baitullah's base somewhere in South Waziristan.

This was to be my second meeting with the militant leader in almost two years. Our first encounter was in February 2005 during the signing ceremony of the peace deal at Sararogha.

But my current meeting was to take place at a time when the deal is under intense pressure.

'Jihad'

Many say Baitullah Mehsud and the supreme leader of the Taleban, Mullah Omar, have several similarities. Both have fought against the Soviet occupation, both are against photographs, both vow jihad and both keep moving from one hideout to another.

As we were preparing to leave to meet Baitullah, a man came to the militants and handed over a small blue plastic bag.

"This is how Allah takes care of our needs. This is money. Half a million Pakistani rupees [more than $8,200]," Zulfiqar said. I asked who gave it to him. "Someone," was his brief answer.

Baitullah's private army along with other militant groups have imposed a strict Islamic code in North and parts of South Waziristan.

They run a parallel government here. Music and videos are banned while militants claim people approach them for settlement of their disputes.

With a black-dyed beard, 34-year-old Baitullah greeted us in a big room with several of his armed men beside him. We sat on a new colourful quilt spread on the ground.

Baitullah seemed a man with only jihad (holy war) on his mind. During the interview he quoted several verses from the Koran to defend his stance that foreign forces must be evicted from Islamic countries.

"Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfil God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world," he says.

The militant leader on several occasions in the past had openly admitted crossing over into Afghanistan to fight foreign troops.

"We will continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out. Then we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jazia (a tax in Islam for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state)."

Suicide bombers

Baitullah predicted an even bloodier year for foreign forces in Afghanistan.

"The mujahideen will carry out even more severe attacks. If they [the West] have air power we have fidayeen [suicide bombers]... They will leave dishonoured."

The militant leader, who is suffering from a chest infection, denied an American general's claim that a Taleban leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was present in the tribal region and was organising attacks across the border. "This is all lies. They don't have any evidence."

The militants say they don't wish to fight Pakistani security forces because it only benefits the Americans.

"[Pakistan army spokesman] Shaukat Sultan holds the key to this issue," a smiling Baitullah said when asked what they would do if Pakistan continued to bomb them.

After an hour-long discussion and a sumptuous tea, we headed back to Peshawar.

Before we left, Baitullah gave us perfume and a book in Urdu on 'Why Jihad is a must'. On our way back, we saw newly built white graves on the roadside.

White Taleban flags fluttered over several of them. "These graves are of martyrs from Afghanistan," Zulfikar said as we said goodbye.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6292061.stm

Published: 2007/01/29 10:54:11 GMT

© BBC MMVII

3,110 posted on 01/29/2007 7:13:58 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; Founding Father

UK banks offer better services for Muslim customers

http://www.thriftyscot.co.uk/Finance-News/012007/uk-banks-offer-better-services-for-muslim-customers.html

UK banks offer better services for Muslim customers

UK banks offer better services for Muslim customersWhen it comes to
banking, Muslim customers generally need different services than other
customers in order to comply with Sharia, the compliant consumer
banking. HSBC was the first bank to offer services to Muslim customers
when it set up â€˜Amanah Financeâ€™ in 1998 which is a Global Islamic
financial service division.

Now more UK banks are joining in as the demand for Muslim services
grows. Sharia compliant bank accounts, home loans and car finance which
are offered in a different way to how they usually are in order to
avoid
interest, are offered by banks such as Lloyds TSB. Other services which
are offered by the Islamic Bank of Britain include savings accounts and
West Bromwich Building Society also offers child trust fund savings
accounts.

The reason Muslims do need different options is because receiving or
paying interest on anything is against the Islamic law. This means that
banks such as HSBC have to offer their products in a different way but
they do not generally mind as the Muslim market offers a lot of
business. HSBC for example buys the house jointly with its Muslim
customers and it is held in a Trust for the bank and the customer.
Finally the customer pays rent for the house and they buy the banks
share gradually over time. Whilst it may be a more complicated way of
doing it, it works out well for both customer and bank. No doubt many
non-Muslims would love that option also!

Overall the fact that more banks are getting involved is great news for
Muslims around the UK. It means that they now have more choice and it
shows that Britain is accepting them and their culture too. The Islamic
mortgages are gaining popularity all the time and since 2003 there have
been over 2,000 customers signed up for these mortgages.
January 29 , 2007

3,111 posted on 01/29/2007 7:43:41 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; Founding Father; milford421; FARS

Cameron: Radical Islam is mirror image of neo-Nazis

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23383444-details/Cameron%3A+Radical+Islam+is+mirror+image+of+neo-Nazis/article.do

Cameron: Radical Islam is mirror image of neo-Nazis
By Joe Murphy, Evening Standard 29.01.07

David Cameron today attacked radical Muslims as "the mirror image" of
the neo-Nazi British National Party.

He used a keynote speech on race and integration to signal plans for
tough measures against extremists on both sides.

Attacking the BNP for preaching "pure hate", he went on: "And those who
seek a Sharia state, or special treatment and a separate law for
British
Muslims are, in many ways, the mirror image of the BNP.

"They also want to divide people into 'us' and 'them.' And they too
seek
out grievances to exploit."

The Tory leader spoke out as a disturbing opinion poll found that
radical anti-western attitudes have grown in a generation of young
Muslims. The survey found that almost four in 10 would like to live
under Sharia law and some 13 per cent "admired" terrorists like those
in
al Qaeda.

Mr Cameron said the Conservative policy review would publish a report
on
extremism tomorrow and pledged to unveil new measures against them
before long.

Speaking this afternoon at the New Testament Church of God in
Handsworth, Birmingham, Mr Cameron was set to say that many barriers to
integration were the fault of politicians.

Multiculturalism, he was due to say, was "manipulated" to separate
communities rather than help them live together. Warning of
"educational
apartheid", in his speech he was set to say that poor schools were also
to blame because they condemned some children to poverty and were too
ignorant to challenge prejudice and extremism.

"Those who get left behind are prime targets for extremists who offer
easy explanations and point the finger of blame at other people," he
was
due to tell his audience. "Young white men are told, 'The blacks are
all
criminals.' Young Afro-Caribbean men are told, 'The Asian shopkeepers
are ripping you off.' Young Muslim men are told, 'The British want to
destroy Islam.'"

Mr Cameron's speech adds: "The best answer to ignorance like this is a
good education."

And the Tory leader was calling for a slow-down in immigration, which
"puts pressure on housing, on public services, and helps create
division, fear and resentment - among British people of all ethnic
backgrounds".

In an interview with the Sun, Mr Cameron called for a public holiday on
the Queen's birthday to encourage people to celebrate their "True
Britishness".

Today's poll found a growing minority of young Muslims are being
radicalised by political Islam.

Only six in 10 young Muslims, aged under 24, felt they had more in
common with non-Muslim people in the UK than with foreign Muslims.
Among
older Muslims, the figure was 71 per cent.

The proportion who would prefer to live under Sharia law than secular
British law differed from 17 per cent among over-55s to 37 per cent
among 16- to 24-year-olds.

Young Muslims were twice as likely to want to send their children to a
Muslim school. Almost three-quarters said women should wear the veil
and
13 per cent admired al Qaeda.

* The Tory leader came under fire today for using the term "crusade" in
a call for the integration of Muslims. Complaints followed a newspaper
article in which David Cameron called for a "crusade for fairness".
Osama Saeed, of the Muslim Association of Britain, said he agreed with
much of Mr Cameron's message, but added: "I think it is extraordinarily
sloppy language - which is the most charitable slant I can put on it."
In medieval times, the crusades were Christian military campaigns to
seize Jerusalem from the Muslims. Mr Saeed said: "George Bush launched
his 'crusade' against terrorism a few years ago - and I do not
understand the fixation with it. It is not a nice word and nice things
do not happen on the back of crusades."

3,112 posted on 01/29/2007 7:48:41 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

Upcoming Significant Events:
January 30, 1933 - Germany, Europe (Region-Wide)
Nazis Come To Power In Germany
No information provided.

January 30, 1948 - India
Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated
No information provided.

January 30, 1991 - Iraq
Skirmish at Khafji
Iraqi and multi-national force elements had their first ground engagement in the Persian Gulf War.

February 1, (year unknown) - Malaysia
City Day In Kuala Lumpur
No information provided.

February 1, 1943 - Russia
6th Army Surrenders
Germany's 6th Army surrendered to Soviet forces in Stalingrad.

February 1, 1979 - Iran
Khomeini Returns From Exile
Called the beginning of the "Ten Days of Dawn," commemorating the ten days of unrest which ended with Khomeini taking power on February 11 (the "Day of Victory").

February 1, 1984 - India
Kashmiri Separatist Executed
Maqbul Butt, a Kashmiri separatist leader, was executed in India.

February 2, 1990 - South Africa
Legalization of the ANC
President Frederik de Klerk legalized the African National Congress (ANC) and dozens of other banned opposition groups.

3,113 posted on 01/29/2007 7:53:19 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; Founding Father; milford421; struwwelpeter

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28511451.htm

Russian ultra-nationalists rally as police watch
28 Jan 2007 14:29:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
Printable view | Email this article | RSS XML [-] Text [+]

By Maria Golovnina

MOSCOW, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Russian ultra-nationalists on Sunday chanted "Glory to Russia!" and waved banners reading "Jewish fascism! There is nothing scarier!" in a sanctioned rally condemned by human rights campaigners as racist.

About 200 activists and skinheads in black leather jackets and heavy boots gave Nazi-style salutes as organisers yelled nationalist slogans from a makeshift stage at one of Moscow's central squares.

"Comrades! We are here to protect the people of Russia. This is our last frontier," Dmitry Rogozin, a nationalist politician, told a cheering crowd as dozens of riot police looked on. Similar protests were held in St Petersburg and other cities.

The rally rekindled memories of a 2005 protest when neo-Nazis were allowed to parade through Moscow yelling racist slogans. Last year, riot police foiled an attempt to hold a banned nationalist march and arrested dozens of activists.

Human rights campaigners condemned the rally's organisers -- the Russian March movement -- for using racist slogans and inciting hatred for dark-skinned foreigners, saying rallies like this are part of a nationwide surge in racism.

continued.............

3,114 posted on 01/29/2007 8:00:51 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; FARS; Founding Father

No alliance against Iran - Abdullah
Arab News - 28 January, 2007
www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=280602&news_type=Top&lang=en

Saudi Arabia yesterday denied suggestions that it was forging an
alliance
against Iran.

"This is completely untrue and against our policy," Custodian of the
Two
Holy Mosques King Abdullah said referring to Iranian media reports. "We
don't
interfere in the affairs of others," he said.

In an interview with Kuwait's Asseyassa Arabic daily, King Abdullah
also
emphasized that the campaign to spread Shiism among Sunni Arab
countries
would not succeed as the majority of Muslims follow the Sunni ideology.

"We are following up on this matter and we are aware of the dimensions
of
spreading Shiism and where it has reached," the king said. "We believe
this
process will not achieve its goal because the majority of Sunni Muslims
will
never change their belief and are immune to any attempts by other sects
to
influence them or diminish their historical power."

The Saudi leader expressed optimism about the future of the Arab
nation.

"There is nothing that prevents us from adopting unanimous decisions
and a
unified ideology," he said. "Unanimous decisions will make us strong
globally."

Referring to Shiite-Sunni conflict, the king said he was following the
matter with caution. "If we handle the situation properly, then there
will
not be any danger," he said. "But if we fail, problems may crop up here
and
there. We hope it will not happen."

Referring to his recent meeting with Iranian envoy Ali Larijani, King
Abdullah said the Kingdom's foreign policy "does not help anybody to
attack
anybody else, neither Iran nor any other country."

The king also stressed that Saudi Arabia would not allow anybody to
attack
the Kingdom or other Arab countries that have signed security
agreements
with Riyadh.

"Saudi leaders and the Saudi state know their limits in dealing with
nations, East and West," said the king. "I explained this to Larijani
and
advised him to pass the message on to his government and its followers.
If
we want to achieve success in our regional policy, we have to establish
comfortable international relations for the Gulf region because the
dangers
(the Iranian government) could fall into will fall upon all of us."

King Abdullah said he had also advised the Iranians not to endanger the
Gulf
region through their policies.

"Any state that carries out unwise actions should be responsible for
its
actions before the region's countries," he said in the interview that
was
also carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

Abdullah called on Arab countries to adopt a unified stance on major
issues
such as Palestine.

"We should not allow other states to interfere in our issues or take
the
help of others to resolve our Arab issues," he said. "We don't want
anybody
to interfere in our issues in order to become stronger."

Speaking about domestic matters, Abdullah said he was concentrating his
attention on improving the government's performance and taking measures
to
ensure just distribution of wealth all over the country. He also noted
his
endeavors to scale down bureaucratic procedures.

Abdullah said the Kingdom's efforts to promote moderation among its
people
have proven fruitful.

He commended the valor displayed by security forces in defeating
terrorists
by carrying out pre-emptive operations. "Nobody is providing cover to
terrorists now as our citizens are convinced that this is not the way
to
invite people to Islam," he said. "Terrorism is totally against the
teachings of Islam, it's not a call to reform but rather a call to
destruction and corruption."

He said Saudi Arabia would play a leading role in implementing the
resolutions adopted by GCC summits.

3,115 posted on 01/29/2007 8:05:55 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; FARS; Founding Father; Calpernia; milford421

http://childrenwithguns.blogspot.com/2007/01/sluna-slams-allan-rock.html

Links and reports on the child soldiers of the world.

3,116 posted on 01/29/2007 8:17:34 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: All; struwwelpeter; DAVEY CROCKETT; milford421; FARS

http://www.russiaprofile.org/cdi/2007/1/26/5107.wbp

January 26, 2007
The Soviet Union, the U.S. and Russia: Opportunities Lost
Washington Profile

www.washprofile.org

An interview with Stephen F. Cohen, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University and author of several books, including Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia.

Washington Profile: There have been several prominent theories proposed as to why the Soviet Union collapsed. In your extensive research on the subject, what is the conclusion that you have reached?

Stephen Cohen: It is fresh in my mind because I just published a little book in Moscow in Russian on this question. I call this book:

"Why did the Soviet Union end?" The publisher called it: "Vopros voprosov, pochemu ne stalo Sovetskogo Soyuza." I don't use the word collapse because I think that prejudges an explanation. If you say collapse, it implies an analogy with the end of tsarism in 1917, because we always say tsarism collapsed. And it suggests that the system collapsed because of some internal and irreparable, inevitable factors or defects. So I simply ask, 'Why did it end?' And as I went through the literature, I was astonished to discover that there are somewhere, depending on how you define them, six to10 rather different explanations of why the Soviet Union ended. You find this many in both the Western scholarly literature and the Russian serious literature, scholarly or journalistic. I go through, in this little book of mine, each of the six which I believe to be the most prominent. In order to explain the end of the Soviet Union, as historians will be trying to do not only on this fifteenth anniversary, but probably for the next 100 or 200 years, you need to take into account three factors.

The participating factor was Gorbachev's political and economic reforms that began in 1985 and reached their peak at about 1990 in a form of a rather extensive democratization of the former Communist system. Essentially by 1990 Gorbachev had dismantled the communist political system, what used to be called the totalitarian system (I didn't use that word, but we know what we mean by it). He had loosened state control of the economy. That made possible other factors to come into play. Some people, for example, say the Soviet Union ended because of nationalism or the Soviet Union ended because of popular unrest. But none of these factors would have come into play, probably not even today, had it not been for Gorbachev's reforms. Then came the second factor, and that was the emergence of Boris Yeltsin by about 1989, 1990. Now you had something rather unusual in history, but not unusual in Russian history where leaders have played special roles: you had a conflict between two Russian leaders, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, between two men of extraordinary political will. I define it as Gorbachev's extraordinary will to reform and Yeltsin's extraordinary will for power. This conflict created the possibility that Yeltsin could go to Belovezh Forest on December 8 and abolish the Soviet Union in order to be rid completely of Gorbachev, and to beat him completely by abolishing his presidency and his country. But then that leaves a third question and a third factor. Yeltsin didn't control an army, he didn't even have a political party. How would he be able to abolish what was still a nuclear super power of what was still nearly 350 million people, in the face of the Soviet elite, particularly the state nomenklatura, not necessarily the party, that had based its position on this state. Why did they permit Yeltsin to do this? And here I think would be the third factor, that, the high nomenklatura that might have stopped Yeltsin had been too busy privatizing the wealth of the state to care about defending it. The struggle over property actually did not begin until after the end of the Soviet Union, but early on in the late 1980s. But by 1990 and 1991, main members of the high elite, ministerial elite, even the army elite, certainly the party elite, were seizing state property for themselves, so while they were stripping the state's assets, they had no interest in defending it, so they simply stepped aside and allowed the political struggle between Yeltsin and Gorbachev to unfold, and it unfolded in the end of the Soviet Union.

continues.................

3,117 posted on 01/29/2007 8:32:54 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: nw_arizona_granny

A Chechen woman who was on the Federal Wanted List on a suspicion of committing a terror act at the Armavir-2 railway station in the Krasnodar Territory in April 1997... As a result of the terror act at the station in 1997, two people had been killed and seven wounded.

According to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents, and Svetlana's research, the only terrorist attack in 1997 was on June 28th, when a bomb exploded on the "Avrora" (Moscow to Saint Petersburg), killing 3 and injuring 7.
[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C0CE6DC1031F93BA15755C0A961958260].

I wonder if the date (and place) of the crime the woman is being charged with were reported mistakenly. Rather unlikely - Krasnodar is hard to mix up with Moscow.

My theory: back then Russia was playing down the scope of its terror problem, only reporting the acts too blatant to cover up.

Perhaps it was related to this:

Terrorist acts damage Russia's tourist business
Front page / Russia / Economics
09.09.2004

The situation will stabilize only in several years

Recent terrorist attacks have caused considerable damage to the tourist business in Russia. About 20,000 foreigners refused to go to Russia, Echo of Moscow radio station said.

Tourists started declining their intentions to visit Russia after two airliners flying to Sochi and Volgograd crashed. Europeans made the majority of the tourists, who refused to travel to Russia.

The explosion near the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow and the hostage crisis in North Ossetia, southern Russia, followed the air crashes. Denmark included Russia on the list of the countries, which were not recommended to visiting. The majority of tourist groups from Denmark, Korea and Taiwan cancelled their plans.

As a result, Russian tourist agencies have suffered about 400 million dollars of losses. Specialists believe the tourist crisis may last long, and the situation will stabilize only in several years.

3,118 posted on 01/29/2007 12:26:30 PM PST by struwwelpeter

To: All; FARS; Founding Father; milford421; LucyT; DAVEY CROCKETT; Calpernia

Going thru old emails, found this and remembered one that I posted about 2 or so weeks ago, on the Russian Linvinenko and another, from a spy, whose son had died, this might show why he was warned, with the death of a son.........

No tinfoil needed, as the facts speak for themselves.
granny

The Dunces of Doomsday, investigative journalism
The Bin Laden tapes:
Paul L. Williams and David Dastych were right
By Judi McLeod
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Paul L. Williams, author of the new book, The Dunces of Doomsday and Poland-based journalist David Dastych were right on the money when they leaked out word of Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir’s claim that not only is Osama bin Laden alive, but was preparing his next video to be aired on al-Jazeera.

The Williams-Dastych duo had discovered the fate of the world’s most elusive terrorist in an exclusive interview with Mir.

WorldNetDaily ran the story of their Mir interview on Friday. Two days later, bin Laden had issued new threats against the West, including a taped warning that ordinary Western citizens had become the chosen targets of his terrorist organization. In the tape, the Al Qaeda leader tried to justify targeting ordinary Western citizens because of their support for governments that he said were conducting a "crusader war against Islam."

Then on Monday, three terrorist bombs hit the Egyptian resort of Dahab at the height of the tourist season, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 60.

How could Williams and Dastych be so right?

William’s research is infinite and his book, The Dunces of Doomsday is destined to be a best seller. Dastych, who Canada Free Press (CFP) proudly includes as a regular columnist, is a veteran international journalist and a former intelligence operative of the Polish Intelligence and the CIA.

His CFP column on February 27, The Iraqi WMDS and the Russian Military Strategy in the Middle East, has been posted on websites the world over.

Dastych has a veteran’s history for tracking terrorism at close range. In the 1970s and 1980s, he had frequent contacts with Palestinian terrorist groups, with the Saddam Hussein regime’s diplomatic, intelligence and commercial personnel, as well as with Soviet officials, diplomats and intelligence operatives (some of them serving in Iraq and other Arab countries).

Dastych paid a huge personal price for his courage. Arrested by the then Polish Communist Security Service (SB) in 1987, condemned by a secret Communist Military Court to eight years in special prison wards for allegedly working for the CIA, Japanese Prime Minister’s Intelligence Service and for conspiring against the Warsaw Pact, he was released only by virtue of general amnesty on February 28. 1990 after the regime change in Poland.

Never a quitter, Dastych was back on spy duty soon after his release when he resumed his journalist and business activity, cooperating with American diplomacy and intelligence and with Israeli diplomats and nuclear experts.

Adopting the cover of businessman and tour-operator, the Polish journalist traveled extensively, collecting ample evidence of the illegal trade in nuclear materials, weapon parts and technology between Russia and other post-USSR states and Arab and Muslim countries, through a variety of intelligence, military and mafia channels.

The combination of Paul Williams and David Dastych in finding whistleblowing intelligence has proven itself in the chilling incidents of the last four days.

While the West could only hope that the health-hampered bin Laden was dead, Mir, the only journalist who interviewed the terrorist post-9/11, revealed to Williams and Dastych that bin Laden is still in indirect contact with al-Qaida officials.

Bin Laden boasted to Mir about how he had managed to acquire nuclear weapons for use in the great jihad against the United States.

"It is not difficult (to obtain tactical nukes)," the al-Qaeda chieftain said, "not if you have contacts in Russia with other militant groups. They are available for $10 million and $20 million." (WorldNetDaily, April 21, 2006).

Bin Laden seems to have made good on his threat against ordinary Western citizens.

Police said the Dahab explosions hit at 7:15 p.m.. when the streets were crammed with holidaymakers strolling the streets, shopping or looking for a restaurant or bar for their evening activities.

Eyewitnesses said that an explosion took place in an area dominated by restaurants and bars.

Three Americans and 17 other foreign tourists were among the 60 wounded.

Meanwhile, the Williams and Dastych combo prove that investigative journalism can provide valuable intelligence against world terrorism.

Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant.
Judi can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com

This page printed from: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/cover042506.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=David+Dastych&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1184

07.01.2007
Polish Ex-Spy: "Was My Son Poisoned in England?"
AIA

Mariusz David Dastych with his sun Olaf (photo: Dastych family archive)
David Dastych and his son Olaf
David Dastych (65) was the Polish intelligence agent in the 1960s-1980s, and since 1973 – also a double CIA agent. He was then working in Eastern Europe, in the USA, Vietnam, and China. Dastych was arrested in 1987 by the Polish counterintelligence on the charges of espionage for American and Japanese secret services. He was released from prison in 1990, after fall of the Communist regime in Poland. In the following years he was voluntarily cooperating with several western intelligence services in the framework of monitoring the illegal nuclear trade in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East. After he was severely injured in France in 1994, Dastych started his journalistic and research work, specializing in different aspects of world secret services’ activity, terrorism, and organized crime. He participated as an editor in publishing of a number of well-known books dealing with the intelligence issue, including the book named “Gideon's Spies.

The Secret History of the Mossad” by Gordon Thomas. He currently continues keeping in touch with many former and active secret servicemen in the USA, in Western and Eastern Europe, in the Middle and the Far East.

In light of the investigation of ex-FSB colonel Alexander Litvinenko’s murder in London in November 2006, David Dastych sent AIA his article about mysterious death of his son in Great Britain ten years ago. Following is this article by David Dastych.

In mid-December, at 04:00 a.m., I received a sudden phone call: “Your son, Olaf, died tonight.” It was a terrible shock. “Could that be real?”, I thought in the first moment, still emerging from a sound sleep. “Maybe this was a bad dream?” But it wasn’t. I called my ex-wife, Kalina, and she burst into tears. “How did it happen?, ”I asked her. And she told me about the sudden death of our son, witnessed by Agnes, his fiancée. It took only a few minutes, and an emergency team arrived very soon, but nothing could be done. Olaf died almost at once. How this could happen to a young, active and full of vigor man of 24? Nobody could explain. Doctors claimed it was a very strong infarct, but they were not sure. Agnes told us, he died in her arms. She was deeply shocked, and so we all were.

There was no autopsy made on the body. Olaf’s mother refused it. The funeral was arranged on the fifth day, with a crowd of people attending and Olaf’s friends playing music for him in the funeral house. It was a frosty winter, and a new part of the huge Northern Graveyard in Warsaw, still bare, with almost no trees and bushes, resembled a snow-covered field in Siberia.

Homecoming from Bradford

Olaf Dastych graduated with honors from the Warsaw Higher Economic School (SGH) in 1996. A day after his graduation ceremony, he went to England, where he was granted a scholarship for the MBA studies at the Bradford University.

This was not his first term abroad, as he had a chance to study in Denmark before. But this time he expected to accomplish much more: a full post-graduate Master of Business Administration course that could open a bright professional career for him in Poland and elsewhere. He worked very hard. Ged Yardy, his friend at Bradford MBA, wrote to me after Olaf’s death: “I think we were one of the best teams on the MBA. Olaf was central to this, his razor-sharp mind demonstrated an intelligence and maturity beyond his years. I’m sure he would have gone on to do great things. He was well liked by all.”

In December 1996, my son took a flight to Warsaw to spend Chanukah with his fiancée and Christmas with his mother and sister, Natalia. He would also meet me, as Sophie and I have invited him to our house. After New Year, he would return to England to continue his studies. But this homecoming from Bradford turned out to be the last trip in his life. Ged,

Jaqueline, Violet, Tomo and Pankar of the MBA group missed him forever.

Before and after Olaf’s funeral, I kept contacts with people in England, who knew him: his student friends, members of the MBA faculty, businessmen and officials. I called them up by phone and I faxed letters to them, trying to find out more details about his studies and his everyday life at the Bradford University. As soon as on December 17, 1996, I received a letter from Dr. Christine Parkinson, the Chairman of the full-time MBA Programme. She wrote: “Olaf was the youngest student on our MBA. He had a relatively short period of work experience but was accepted on the programme because of his outstanding academic achievements and what we saw as his potential for a very successful future. His progress on the first stage of the course fully justified our confidence in him and members of staff who taught him, and students who worked with him on joint projects, were impressed with his abilities.”

Dr. Parkinson added a bit of non-academic information, too: “He was also a very popular student who had made many friends here. He involved himself in all social activities organized by the MBAs. The last time I saw him was at the MBA Christmas party just before he left to return to Poland…”

From other people I learned, after the funeral held on Friday, December 20, that Olaf suffered a sort of heart-attack with very strong stomach pain after one of the parties he took part in, before homecoming. He was admitted to a hospital in Bradford for medical examination. Doctors asked him to stay longer in bed but Olaf refused, promising to show up for more tests after his holidays in Poland.

This information, and a lack of a post-mortem examination, turned my attention to something very suspicious. Could my son be poisoned in England? If so by whom and for what reason? I was really alarmed and I began to look back at the past events, as for a possible reason for treating my son with a death-causing “cocktail”.

“They never forget”

photo: Dastich family archive
Olaf Dastych
When I joined the CIA in 1973, in South Vietnam, one of my main concerns was how to protect my family, in case my covert mission was to be discovered by communist authorities. My concerns were met with proper attention in Langley, but there was no absolute guarantee of my family’s safety. A short time before I was arrested in Poland, in 1987, I had met with a high-ranking U.S. diplomat of the U.S.

Embassy in Warsaw. He was aware of my mission. I told him that the Polish and probably also the Soviet secret services had been tracing me for a year or so. They had no evidence but they might try to arrest me any time then. I asked for a protection of my close family. As I took no money from the American Intelligence, the only favor I asked for was to help my son to obtain scholarships for his future studies at one of the Western universities. I gave the U.S. diplomat a background on Olaf’s schooling, his language proficiency and other personal details and photos. After some time, I received a positive answer.

I went on with my secret work as usual, traveling to the USSR and to other communist countries. I could not avoid an arrest in March 1987, and I spent three years in communist prisons. In this time, Olaf graduated from his high school and began his studies. Later on, he was invited to foreign trips, then he earned a scholarship to Denmark, and finally went on to the Bradford University for a post-graduate MBA program. His future looked bright. Until that fatal day…

In the 1980s and then in the 1990s, I survived at least two attempts on my life. The perpetrators were either Soviet operatives or ex-KGB mafia killers. In the early 1990s, after leaving a communist prison in Poland, I went abroad and I volunteered to monitor the illegal nuclear trade and the secret financial deals between some states of the former USSR and “the outside world”. In this activity, I became dangerous to ex-Soviet secret services and to mafia organizations. But after December 16, 1994, when I broke my vertebral column in the French mountains, nobody tried to kill me any more. I was not a worthwhile target.

Why these enemy forces would hit my son? A defector from the Soviet secret services, whom I had met, warned me that: “They never forget”. There is a real possibility that these enemy elements could have revenged themselves on me, poisoning my son with a non-traceable substance, causing a natural death. All leads point to England as a possible place of the poisoning. And the timing of this attempt on Olaf’s life is also ominous: almost exactly two years after my accident in France, in mid-December 1994.

Because of my invalidity, I was not able to go to Bradford and (possibly) to examine Olaf’s medical records there. I am still determined to do that, and to talk to some people, who met my son at the University in December 1996, a week or so before his sudden and mysterious death.

A grave in Poland and a memorial in England

Three months after Olaf’s death, in March of 1997, I received a letter, signed by Professor David T H Weir, Director of the Management Centre at the University of Bradford. He wrote: “I am writing to tell you about a simple ceremony which we held today (March 4, 1996) to commemorate your son, Olaf Lech Dastych, and his time with us as a colleague and friend.

As you will know, we planted a tree and unveiled a simple plaque on a large rock in the grounds of the Management Centre, in Olaf’s memory. Ged Yardy, one of his friends, gave a very moving speech and I read two poems which I felt were appropriate to the occasion. You may know them. Both are by the American poet, Walt Whitman. He was a great internationalist who believed in the brotherhood of all peoples. The first is from Songs of Parting and is called “As the Time Draws Nigh”. This poem looks towards the poet’s own death. He uses the wonderful phrase to justify his life that his soul “has positively appeared.”

As the time draws nigh glooming a cloud,
A dread beyond of I know not what darkens me.
I shall go forth,
I shall traverse the States a while, but I cannot tell whither or how long,

Perhaps soon some day or night while I am singing my voice
will suddenly cease.

O book, O chants! must all then amount to but this?
Must we barely arrive at this beginning of us? – and yet it is
enough, O soul;
O soul, we have positively appear’d – that is enough.

[Then follows the second poem called “So Long!”]

Professor Weir concluded: “Olaf was with us for a very short time but he certainly “positively appeared”. He left an indelible mark in the memories of the students and staff who came into contact with him. And as the poet said: “He offered his style to everyone”. He was a highly intelligent and contributive young man. We are pleased and proud that he spent some time with us.

When you come to Bradford, you will see the small memorial that we have created to remember him. It is a small tree now but will grow straight and strong. When you come to Bradford, you will know that, as Olaf’s parents, you are among friends.”

Thank you, Professor David T H Weir. Thank you all of Olaf’s Friends. I shall come to Bradford in the footsteps of my late son. I will also try to find out when and where my unknown, ruthless enemies eventually poisoned him. “They never forget”, these hoodlums on Earth. But I, Olaf’s mourning father, “I will always remember”.

Related items:
Alexander Litvinenko: Complete Profile
Valentin Velichko - Obscure Visage of Modern Russian Regime
Polish Intelligence - The full history
Better Late Than Never: Retarded De-communization in Poland
Spying Myths of the Russian - Polish Confrontation
Polish Nightmares of the Russian Counterintelligence
Oil Secrets of the Polish Intelligence
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3,119 posted on 01/29/2007 12:42:52 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

To: struwwelpeter

More than likely you are correct.

A couple months ago, as I recall it, the Moscow airport was closed, there was a crashed plane burning on it.

I heard it, or ran across it and found it listed in several places, all over the world, but then Russia said "Not true"...

Strange, that so many had it as breaking news.

From all the people who get arrested, with little cause in Russia, we may never know the rest of the story, but I would like to.

I haven't checked the Chechen group as yet, if I didn't put your name on the post that I just posted a minute ago, take a look, it is another, that kinda goes togather.

Thanks for this one, interesting outcome.

Here it is, I think:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US&q=+railway+station+in+the+Krasnodar+Territory+in+April+1997&btnG=Search

Am I right in thinking that the Ingushetia is in the same fix as Chechnya? Dumb me, I thought that Ingushetia was a town in Chechnya, but found out last night that it is a different country.

Another of the same thought pattern as the muslims, "we controlled it once and it will always be ours"..................

3,120 posted on 01/29/2007 1:01:19 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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