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

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World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #6 Disinformation, Inc.
Global Politician/Ocnus.Net ^ | Dec 17, 2006 | Professor Daniel M. Zucker

Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT

VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.

From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.

One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.

MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.

Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.

Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.

Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.

He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.

http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml

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KEYWORDS: globaljihad; history; iran; iusepinglistsforspam; jihad; kgb; lebanon; news; patricelumumbaschool; qassemsoleimani; reports; research; russia; syria; terrorist; wot; wt

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To: All; milford421; Calpernia; Velveeta

Last weeks alert for the priest, who attacked a woman at the church, he was arrested yesterday in the Phoenix area.

The 3 men that were in the manhole, 2 are now listed as dead and the other is in bad shape.

There appears to be questions, on what they were doing in there and OSHA has also been called.

I am getting the updates from the radio at kdwn.com, which now has a listen live button.

3,361 posted on 02/02/2007 4:34:54 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

3,362 posted on 02/02/2007 4:49:11 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; milford421

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/02/sleeper_cells_in_the_united_st.html

February 02, 2007

Sleeper Cells in the United States and Canada

3,363 posted on 02/02/2007 5:01:15 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; milford421

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/terror-with-a-british-accent/2007/02/02/1169919534113.html#

Terror with a British accent

Julia May, London
February 3, 2007
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
A giant billboard illustrates the tensions in Birmingham, with Muslims reacting to hostility from the wider community, says a public policy researcher.

A giant billboard illustrates the tensions in Birmingham, with Muslims reacting to hostility from the wider community, says a public policy researcher.
Photo: AP
AdvertisementAdvertisement

THE mental image is grisly: masked men stand behind a kneeling man. If they speak, it is with a British accent.

The exhausted captive denounces the British military, calls for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, and praises Allah.

One of the captors raises a sword, and in one clean movement, severs the man's head.

The footage is now on the internet, and another gruesome death becomes the property of a global audience.

This hypothetical scene is carried out in Britain. The captors and the victim are all British Muslims.

The plot is novel, audacious and perplexing, which is why the arrests on Wednesday of nine apparently British-born men in Birmingham created a media frenzy and has social researchers and British Muslims scrambling for answers.

It is important to note that allegations that the men planned to abduct and broadcast the murder of a serving British Muslim soldier remain unconfirmed publicly by police and the Government. They come from media, based on anonymous sources.

The most substantial information released by the West Midlands Police, who are in charge of the six-month investigation, is a confirmation that the men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.

There are many questions left. The allegations suggest new patterns in terrorism on Western soil: Muslim against Muslim; countrymen against countrymen; more sophisticated forms of communication, and a crime that does not seek to inflict mass casualties.

At the heart of it, say Muslims and non-Muslims, is an identity crisis among young, British-born Muslims. They say this crisis is a problem for the whole community, not just Muslims. The spokesman for the Islamic Society of Britain, Ajmal Masroor, says many young British Muslims feel disenfranchised.

The society, which has a branch in Birmingham, is encouraging mosques and governments to create leadership opportunities for young Muslims.

But Mr Masroor says: "Even if these crimes are to do with alienation or foreign policy, no frustration or feelings can justify such planning or criminal behaviour."

Rick Muir, of London's Institute for Public Policy Research, says that "home-grown" radical Islamists tend to be male, second or third-generation Muslims reacting to hostility from the wider community.

He says that they now relate more to their religious identity than their national identity.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/terror-with-a-british-accent/2007/02/02/1169919534113.html?page=2

Terror with a British accent

Julia May, London
February 3, 2007
Page 2 of 2
A giant billboard illustrates the tensions in Birmingham, with Muslims reacting to hostility from the wider community, says a public policy researcher.

A giant billboard illustrates the tensions in Birmingham, with Muslims reacting to hostility from the wider community, says a public policy researcher.
Photo: AP
AdvertisementAdvertisement

THE mental image is grisly: masked men stand behind a kneeling man. If they speak, it is with a British accent.

The exhausted captive denounces the British military, calls for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, and praises Allah.

One of the captors raises a sword, and in one clean movement, severs the man's head.

The footage is now on the internet, and another gruesome death becomes the property of a global audience.

This hypothetical scene is carried out in Britain. The captors and the victim are all British Muslims.

The plot is novel, audacious and perplexing, which is why the arrests on Wednesday of nine apparently British-born men in Birmingham created a media frenzy and has social researchers and British Muslims scrambling for answers.

It is important to note that allegations that the men planned to abduct and broadcast the murder of a serving British Muslim soldier remain unconfirmed publicly by police and the Government. They come from media, based on anonymous sources.

The most substantial information released by the West Midlands Police, who are in charge of the six-month investigation, is a confirmation that the men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.

There are many questions left. The allegations suggest new patterns in terrorism on Western soil: Muslim against Muslim; countrymen against countrymen; more sophisticated forms of communication, and a crime that does not seek to inflict mass casualties.

At the heart of it, say Muslims and non-Muslims, is an identity crisis among young, British-born Muslims. They say this crisis is a problem for the whole community, not just Muslims. The spokesman for the Islamic Society of Britain, Ajmal Masroor, says many young British Muslims feel disenfranchised.

The society, which has a branch in Birmingham, is encouraging mosques and governments to create leadership opportunities for young Muslims.

But Mr Masroor says: "Even if these crimes are to do with alienation or foreign policy, no frustration or feelings can justify such planning or criminal behaviour."

Rick Muir, of London's Institute for Public Policy Research, says that "home-grown" radical Islamists tend to be male, second or third-generation Muslims reacting to hostility from the wider community.

He says that they now relate more to their religious identity than their national identity.

"Identity is something that goes hot and cold," he says. Groundbreaking research on national and religious identity compiled by the institute will be released on February 18. It shows that religious identity is much less salient for older British Muslims than their children.

Mr Muir says: "For young Muslims, their religion is much more politicised, which says something about the political context of the world … A lot of young Muslims feel that they're under attack and are being monitored by the rest of society." Add lower literacy, less access to jobs, and the angry exhortations of groups such as al Qaeda, and the mix can become dangerous, says the international security director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London, Sajjan Gohel.

"A lot of the youngsters, they don't quite feel British, but don't know a lot about their own background," he says. "That uncertainty is exploited."

Terrorist groups indoctrinate the young and impress their minds, point them in a direction and channel their frustration.

This creates the conditions for autonomous groups with their own structure, funding and leadership to spring up, bonded by the goals and ideology of Osama bin Laden and his contemporaries.

"Most people now are being recruited within their own society because they can become the perfect terrorist, the invisible enemy that can disperse into the fabric of the community," Mr Gohel says. "There is no uniform, no smart missile that can eliminate them." He believes that to dismantle this process the messages of radicals have to be taken seriously — not ridiculed, but analysed and systematically discredited by other prominent Muslims.

Mr Gohel says that not enough is being done to counter the rhetoric in fundamentalism, particularly when it is justified using the Koran.

Young Muslim radicals are savvier than their predecessors at using technology.

The art of terrorism is making each attack more horrific than the next, Mr Gohel says, so using the internet to broadcast attacks is designed to keep the memory of the atrocity entrenched in the mind.

"The pain is more audible in an act of terrorism against one person," he says. "If people are being killed in a mass casualty attack, it is as horrific, but we get lost in statistics. We don't know their names, their backgrounds."

If it is true that the Birmingham group was planning to attack a Muslim soldier from their own country and broadcast it to the world, they would have been trying to raise the stakes and attract attention through an act of perceived disloyalty, Mr Gohel says.

"Terrorism survives on the oxygen of publicity. It uses modern communication tools for a medieval barbarity. That's one of the downsides of globalisation."

Less navel-gazing by non-Muslims about the threat of terrorism is crucial to changing the state of play, says Mr Muir.

"There are a lot of white British people that need to change their behaviour. When you think of extremism, it's not just radical Muslims. It's the British National Party, it's the rise of Islamophobia."

Mr Masroor, too, is unequivocal about the need for shared responsibility. "I say to the world, stop blaming young Muslims for this. Let's find a collective solution to overcome this collective problem."

3,364 posted on 02/02/2007 5:08:48 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

Thanks also to Milford421 for this report:

Daniel Pipes' Weblog
My Talk at the University of California-Irvine

February 1, 2007
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/725

My talk last night at the University of California-Irvine, on the topic of "The Threat to Israel's Existence," was disrupted just over 15 minutes into my lecture by what appear to be goons of an Islamist persuasion. Three videos on the internet document my remarks, then their response:

* http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7799137429880565337 (anonymous) covers all 53:29 minutes of my talk, from beginning to end. The disruption begins at 15:09 with the calling out of my name. I resume speaking at 17:25.
* http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5158780407631950723&hl=en (posted by Reut Cohen) offers 5:42 minutes of me, then the disruption, and follows the disrupters outside as they chant "anti-Israel" in conjunction with other slogans, such as "anti-oppression," "anti-racism," and "anti-hate." At one point, at 12:00, the leader predicts that "it's just a matter of time before the State of Israel will be wiped off the face of the map," in response to which the crowd, self-exiled, standing in the dark and the cold, yelled out "Takbir" and "Allahu Akbar." In response, those who remained in the auditorium chanted "Am Yisrael Chai."
*

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4939925831604188462&hl=en (anonymous) starts with the disruption, then jumps several minutes my replies to questions. For the wonderful standing ovation that followed on my conclusion, go to the 32:48 minute mark.

Michael A. Baker provides an account of the evening at "Daniel Pipes – in The Arena at UC Irvine." For reactions to the videos, see those at LittleGreenFootballs.com and JihadWatch.org.

Comments:

(1) I had been forewarned that such a staged exit was in the works, so I frontloaded my comments, to insure that the Islamist contingent got a full dose of my thinking; specifically.

(2) This is the first campus disruption I have experienced in nearly two years, since the Rochester Institute of Technology in April 2005. I don't know if it's the specifically awful environment at UCI (what one of the chaplains terms a place where "hate and bigotry grow and spread like a cancer") or the moment we are in that accounts for this particular agitation; I tend to think the former factor counts most.
(3) I second the observation by "waterdragon52" posted at JihadWatch.org: "All these thugs have managed to do is to prove Pipes's thesis that we are witnessing a crash between civilization and barbarism" – a reference to my recent talk in London, "Radical Islam vs. Civilization." (February 1, 2007)

* Other items in category Academia
* Other items in category Arab-Israeli debate in the U.S.
* Other items in category Daniel Pipes autobiographical

3,365 posted on 02/02/2007 5:20:01 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; milford421

From: JEWISH CANADA [mailto:news@jewishcanada.ca]
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 14:09

Subject: B'nai Brith urges Yahoo GeoCities to remove convicted
hatemonger's
racist website

Press Release Logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

B’nai Brith urges Yahoo GeoCities to remove

convicted hatemonger’s racist website

MONTREAL, February 2, 2007 – B'nai Brith Canada-Quebec Region has
contacted
Yahoo Geocities to request the immediate removal of a website,
originally
created by convicted hatemonger Jean-Sébastien Presseault, which
advocates the
murder and genocide of Blacks and Jews. Presseault was sentenced two
weeks ago
to a 6-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to the wilful
promotion of
public hatred through the website.

"We have urged Yahoo GeoCities to exercise good corporate citizenship
by
immediately taking down the hate-filled website, which is the
brainchild of
convicted hatemonger Jean-Sébastien Presseault," said Allan Adel,
National Chair
of the League for Human Rights. "This case illustrates the relative
ease with
which hatemongers can disseminate their messages online and how sites
that are
taken down can all too readily pop up elsewhere on the net. We call on
Yahoo
GeoCities and the entire Internet service provider community to take up
this
challenge in concerted and coordinated effort with law enforcement,
government
agencies, academics, educators and community groups."

This incident falls on the heels of a recent conference held in
Montreal
entitled 'Hate on the Internet: Is Your Child a Target?' which focused
on this
very issue. The Jewish human rights group maintains and operates a
website,
www.hateontheinternet.com, where individuals can report incidents of
online
hate, as well as a 24/7 community Anti-Hate Hotline 1-800-892-2624,
allowing
victims of hate crimes access to support from experts in the field.

B'nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875

as the Jewish community's foremost human rights organization

3,366 posted on 02/02/2007 5:25:23 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

http://www.opinioneditorials.com/currentqpt.html

January 26, 2006 - February 1, 2006

Welcome to another edition of the Quill Pen Ten. Veterans of the OpinionEditorials.com community know it as the QPT. The QPT is a collection of the ten most-interesting and most-popular op-eds of the preceding week.

The QPT is brought to you by your friends at Frontiers of Freedom. Frontiers is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans and restoring constitutional limits on the extent and power of government.
Presenting the Quill Pen Ten:

Helen and Peter Evans: Eco-Freaks and projected self-loathing
Why is it that, "Whenever Nature displeases us, it must be our fault for doing something that displeased Nature"? This was a question raised by John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, speaking at the Heritage Foundation on January 23, 2007 in support of his new book "Eco-Freaks: Environmentalism is Hazardous to Your Health!" If the winter's too hot, summer's too cold, hurricane Katrina too extreme, environmentalists always conclude that it's because we did something wrong, like atmospheric pollution, habitat destruction and/or the paving of America. Not only does this knee-jerk reaction indicate a colossal sense of self-importance, that importance lies in what we are doing wrong...

Jeffrey Liakos: Education: Key to American Values
Hundreds of thousands of parents, and millions of students, have made the decision to home school. This is a significant and growing movement, enjoying increasing popularity. Concerns about the quality of academics, the need for individual choice, and safe learning environments have fueled this growth. The home school approach is conducive to meeting individual needs, maximizing student potential, and providing a safe classroom and wholesome environment...

Joe Bell: The State Of The Union Is About The State Of Iraq
Prior to giving his State of the Union address, well-meaning political pundits suggested President Bush, given his unpopularity, focus on things that are going well, like the economy, and avoid Iraq as much as possible. To have done so would have been irresponsible. Iraq is the single most important issue on the agenda. The nation has, for years, agonized, argued and waffled over Iraq. America is at its current wobbly juncture because it has largely reverted back to a pre-9/11 mindset – an era where the nation fooled itself into thinking it was not at war...

Dan Abbett: Back in the DSSR
On every issue, from raising taxes to socialized medicine, the new majority is finally making it clear where their “new direction” is headed, straight for a socialistic republic. The Democrats are making it clear that they intend to ensure that the government makes every decision in your life, whether it is what benefits you must offer your employees, how much you must pay them to how you raise your child, the Dems have a plan for that...

Kevin Roeten: Supreme Court Retirement Will Change How America Thinks
How can a retirement in the Supreme Court change how America thinks? That retirement will happen—it’s happened recently---and it will happen again. But if you talk about the aborting illegally, eyebrows are raised. If the current 5-4 decision on Roe vs. Wade changes, the act of abortion will literally effect how millions of Americans think and act. Interestingly, the head of a judicial watchdog group says he believes that 86 year old Justice John Paul Stevens may retire...

Mike Burleson: Why Can't the West Rearm?
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, many in the military may have breathed a sigh of relief that the days of lean defense budgets were finally over. Ever since the end of the cold war and the disappearance of a clear adversary, defense spending steady declined, in not only the US, but all Western nations...

Lee P. Butler: New Democrat Party Slogan: Stop Bush, Save The Terrorists… Pull Out Now!
One of the most pronounced signs in the crowd screamed, “Impeach Bush for war crimes”. Liberal media elitists were enraptured with the sights and sounds of terrorist sympathizing protestors who had gathered in Washington to give the man they consider the world’s only terrorist a wake up call that they don’t like the fact that he supports killing their terrorist buddies in Iraq...

Barbara J. Stock: Why Is it Hillary Clinton’s Turn?
Is it possible for Hillary Clinton to separate herself from her infamous husband and now claim center stage for herself? America was told it was getting "two for the price of one," when Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1993. If Bill and Hillary were truly co-presidents for eight years, why then, does Hillary even deserve her own personal presidency?...

Dan Sernoffsky: Putting some heat on global warming
In some ways, it's almost ironic. While the advocates of man-made global warming turn up the volume on their screeds against the United States, rather sizeable parts of the U.S. find themselves digging out after one of the worst winter storms on record...

Chris Adamo: America After The Next Attack
It is neither alarmist nor prophetic to state with grim certainty that America will, in the not too distant future, suffer yet another major Islamist attack, possibly dwarfing the enormity of 9-11. Since shortly after that event, forces both within our nation and abroad have diligently sought to undermine American resolve to appropriately respond to the enemy. As a result, that enemy now perceives a growing and broadening opportunity to eventually hit us again...

OpinionEditorials.com is a project of Frontiers of Freedom. The ideas and opinions expressed herein do not
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(c) 2002 - 2007 Frontiers of Freedom | All rights reserved
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3,367 posted on 02/02/2007 5:30:47 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12208

Pius XII and WWIIKGB intent on linking Pius XII with Nazis, says former spy

Washington DC, Jan 26, 2007 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- A former high-ranking officer with the KGB claims that the Kremlin and the Russian intelligence agency in the 1960s were set on executing a smear campaign against the Catholic Church, and the main target was Pope Pius XII.

In a recent issue of the National Review Online, Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who eventually defected from the former Soviet bloc, recounts how the KGB and the Kremlin designed the deliberate campaign to portray the Pius XII “as a coldhearted Nazi sympathizer.”

“In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a super-secret plan for destroying the Vatican’s moral authority in Western Europe,” writes Pacepa. “Eugenio Pacelli, by then Pope Pius XII, was selected as the KGB’s main target, its incarnation of evil, because he had departed this world in 1958. ‘Dead men cannot defend themselves’ was the KGB’s latest slogan.”

The code name for this operation against Pope Pius XII was “Seat-12.”

The KGB used the fact that Archbishop Pacelli had served as the papal nuncio in Munich and Berlin when the Nazis were beginning their bid for power against him. “The KGB wanted to depict him as an anti-Semite who had encouraged Hitler’s Holocaust,” says Pacepa.

To do this, the KGB wanted some original Vatican documents to “slightly modify”. So they called in Pacepa, who was working for the Romanian intelligence service.

Pacepa says he became the Romanian point man. He was authorized to falsely inform the Vatican that Romania was ready to restore its broken relations with the Holy See, in exchange for access to its archives — in order to find historical roots that would help the Romanian government publicly justify its change of heart toward the Holy See — and a one-billion-dollar, interest-free loan for 25 years.

Between 1960 and 1962, the Romanian spy sent hundreds of archival documents connected in any way with Pope Pius XII to the KGB. Pacepa says none of the documents were incriminating in themselves, but they were sent to the KGB in any case.

The KGB used these documents to produce a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy. It eventually saw the stage in Germany in 1963, under the title The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy. It proposed that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged him to go ahead with the Jewish Holocaust. The German director claimed to have 40 pages of documentation attached to the script that would support the thesis of the play.

The play ran in New York in 1964 and was translated into 20 languages. The play then led to a flurry of books and articles, some accusing and some defending the pontiff.

“Today, many people who have never heard of The Deputy are sincerely convinced that Pius XII was a cold and evil man who hated the Jews and helped Hitler do away with them,” Pacepa writes in the National Review Online. “As KGB chairman Yury Andropov, the unparalleled master of Soviet deception, used to tell me, people are more ready to believe smut than holiness.”

Pacepa says the truth has finally begun to emerge with the canonization process of Pius XII, which was opened by Pope John Paul II.

“Witnesses from all over the world have compellingly proved that Pius XII was an enemy, not a friend, of Hitler,” says Pacepa.

He also refers to the book The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis, by David G. Dalin, which has compiled further proof of Archbishop Pacelli’s friendship for the Jews.

“At the start of World War II, Pope Pius XII’s first encyclical was so anti-Hitler that the Royal Air Force and the French air force dropped 88,000 copies of it over Germany,” he concludes.
_________________

http://www.google.com/search?q=Dead+men+cannot+defend+themselves%E2%80%99+was+the+KGB%E2%80%99s+latest+slogan&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

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

http://www.google.com/search?q=code+name+for+this+operation+against+Pope+Pius+XII+was+%E2%80%9CSeat-12.%E2%80%9D+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=depict+him+as+an+anti-Semite+who+had+encouraged+Hitler%E2%80%99s+Holocaust&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

also Cuba:

http://www.google.com/search?q=+Pacepa%2C+who+was+working+for+the+Romanian+intelligence+service&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=KGB+chairman+Yury+Andropov&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

http://www.google.com/search?q=How+Pope+Pius+XII+Rescued+Jews+From+the+Nazis&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US

3,368 posted on 02/02/2007 5:49:56 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; struwwelpeter

From: Jamestown.org

PUTIN ORDERS FSB TO SAFEGUARD ELECTIONS AND ECONOMIC ASSETS

This week Russian President Vladimir Putin broadened the role of the Federal Security Service (FSB). At the FSB’s annual board meeting on January 31, he instructed the agency to provide security and combat nationalist and extremist ideologies during the upcoming regional and national elections and to protect Russia's economic interests. This move is his latest effort to expand the FSB’s power, much to the concern of many Russian democrats.

Putin told board members, “It is important not only ensure law and order, but also to safeguard society from any attempts at the ideology of extremism, national[ism], and religious intolerance percolating into the public and political arena. Elections are a very important democratic instrument for forming the state authorities, authorities, which are responsible and elected as a result of a sound political competition,” cautioning that the FSB “should work strictly within the legal framework, and any of your actions should be based on the Constitution and Russian laws” (Itar-Tass, January 31). Elections to local legislatures in 14 Russian regions will be held March 11, followed by the State Duma elections in December and presidential elections in March 2008.

Putin is also raising salaries for FSB careerists. Putin told the FSB board that in 2007 salaries for career officers would increase by nearly 25%, a raise more than double Russia’s average annual salary increase. The largesse follows a similar increase in 2006, when Putin’s government gave the FSB an additional 27% in direct added revenue.

The increased funding represents Putin’s ongoing interest in the service. He has personally attended five of the last six annual meetings of the FSB Board (Kommersant, January 31). Putin served in the Soviet Union’s notorious KGB, the FSB's predecessor, from his recruitment in 1975 to his resignation in August 1991. Putin headed the FSB in 1998-99 before being appointed prime minister.

At the meeting, FSB boss Nikolai Patrushev addressed the FSB’s traditional role in combating foreign espionage, saying that in 2006 his agency thwarted the activities of 40 foreign special services and 89 of their agents. Patrushev added that in 2006 Russia’s security services blocked more than 300 terrorist actions and investigated more than 200 criminal cases involving Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Interfax, January 31).

Putin has expanded the FSB’s traditional focus and ordered it to crack down on corruption and economic crimes. “Contemporary Russia is conducting an active foreign policy in many directions. We are integrating into the global economy and it is important that we prevent leaks of classified political and economic information,” Putin said, emphasizing that it is necessary “to reliably protect promising scientific developments and technologies.”(Prime-Tass, January 31).

Putin’s comments about safeguarding economic secrets are doubtless driven by the rapid growth of Russia’s economy. Thanks to record high global energy prices, last year Russia's economy grew 6.7%, according to preliminary estimates by the state statistics agency (Lenta.ru, January 31). The increased government revenues from the export of hydrocarbons are a mixed blessing, however. Putin himself has acknowledged the distorting effect of energy exports on the national economy and urged businessmen and government officials to find ways to increase development in Russia’s high-technology sectors that will manufacture products that can compete in the global economy. Such a move would have been a fact of diversifying Russia’s export economy, which at present is largely dependent on exporting oil, natural gas and other natural resources.

In 2005 Russian exports exceeded $240 billion, consisting of energy resources, armaments, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, fertilizers, and timber (RIA-Novosti, March 27, 2006). Largely due to booming crude oil and base metal prices, Russia's foreign trade surplus rose to $140.1 billion in the period January-October 2006, with oil exports accounting for 35.2% of the total (Journal of Turkish Weekly, January 13). Riding on record-high energy prices and raw material exports, in January 2007 Russia became the world’s 10th-largest economy, with a $960 billion gross domestic product (St. Petersburg Times, January 9).

Russia's energy exports have distorted this picture, however, as they now finance about 30% of the government's budget. The 2007 Russian budget is based on forecasts for Russian export crude to remain at $61 per barrel. But Putin is facing an uphill task in attempting to diversify the Russian economy.

At present, Russian industrial exports primarily consist of armaments; last year Rosoboroneksport sold armaments worth $5.3 billion, with advanced aircraft accounting for 57% of the sales (Rosoboroneksport press release, January 19). Putin evidently hopes to rebuild the vaunted Soviet scientific establishment and wants the FSB to protect any innovative technologies that Russia’s scientific elite may develop from Western theft and exploitation. It will not be easy, as a decade and a half of under-funding and neglect has damaged the Soviet scientific infrastructure, leading to a massive brain drain abroad.

The upshot of Putin’s January 31 presentation to the FSB is that in the near term, the agency will be busier than ever, expanding its activities into areas that did not previously cover, from elections to economic espionage. It is an ambitious agenda, and the only certainty is that Patrushev and his agency will continue to receive the unstinting support of the Russian president.

--John C.K. Daly

3,369 posted on 02/02/2007 5:55:59 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; FARS

Thanks to Milford421 for these reports:

Pennsylvania, New York, Washington, DC, Texas, Wisconsin....Iowa,
Missouri

Man threatens to blow up hospital helicopter in Iowa.

Bomb Threat - Building Evacuated, TX.

http://www.reviewonline.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=5988
Beaver County bridges reopen after bomb threat

The Associated Press

BEAVER, Pa. — Four Beaver County bridges were closed overnight after
a bomb threat but all reopened by late Thursday morning after crews
found nothing suspicious on them.

The bridges, two each over the Ohio and Beaver rivers, were closed
shortly after midnight when someone made a hang-up call to the
county 911 center, police said.

Police traced the call to a pay phone, where they found a note
saying there was a bomb on one of the bridges. All four spans, about
25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, were closed as a precaution,
county emergency officials said.

The East Rochester-Monaca Bridge over the Ohio River reopened about
8:15 a.m. Thursday to help ease traffic jams in the area. The
Rochester-Monaca Bridge, also over the Ohio River, and the Beaver-
Rochester and Bridgewater bridges, both over the Beaver River, had
reopened by shortly after 11 a.m., according to the state Department
of Transportation.

The Rochester-Monaca Bridge along Route 18 carries about 13,000
vehicles a day, and the East Rochester-Monaca Bridge along Route 51
averages nearly 16,000 vehicles, according to PennDOT. The bridges
over the Beaver River carry a combined 14,000 vehicles daily.

No one has been charged with making the threat.

Section: News Posted: 2/2/2007

http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20070202/UPDATE/302020008

Bomb threat forces Tompkins County to evacuate building
February 2, 2007
Post Comment
Gannett News Service

Advertisement

ITHACA — The Tompkins County Human Services Building remained closed
for the day following a bomb threat Thursday afternoon, county
officials said.

The building, located at 320. W. State St., was evacuated at about 2
p.m. as a precaution after a caller said there was a bomb in the
building, the officials said. The caller claimed the bomb would go
off at 3 p.m., they added.

County employees blocked access to the parking lot while the Ithaca
Police Department responded to the scene. Employees were advised to
leave for the day.
An exhaustive, 45-minute search by Ithaca Police failed to turn up
an explosive device, and at about 3:30 p.m., a few employees were
permitted to enter the building to retrieve personal items, county
officials said. The building remained closed to the public for the
rest of the day.

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/under-investigation/

3,370 posted on 02/02/2007 5:58:57 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; Founding Father; milford421; FARS

There is so much here, and I am too tired to sort it out.

Israel, Iran, protests and more.

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/

3,371 posted on 02/02/2007 6:57:13 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: FARS

Pings may be easier to follow, but then you are missing more than you know, that isn't pinged.

At times, my hands do not enjoy typing, even a few names.

3,372 posted on 02/02/2007 6:59:15 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; milford421

Update on update, for Las Vegas manhole.

KDWN says, it was an accident, a man working on the ? at the manhole, fell in, the other 2 men went in to save him.

One is still fighting for his life, the other 2 Heroes are dead.

For some reason, they have had a hard time getting the bodies out of the hole.

3,373 posted on 02/02/2007 7:03:51 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

Thanks for this to Milford421

112 Ill Passengers - FL Cruise Ship Holland America's Volendam - 1 Death

http://www.local10.com/news/10897467/detail.html

Another Sick Ship Arrives At Port Everglades
74-Year-Old Man Dies During Cruise

This particular vessel had the "norovirus" incident in the
past...see archives for story.

POSTED: 7:35 am EST February 1, 2007

3,374 posted on 02/02/2007 7:15:02 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; milford421; FARS

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015071.php

February 01, 2007
Minneapolis car rampage driver: "Allah made me do it"

Shades of Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, who wrote lengthy treatises explaining his hit-and-run murder attempts as fidelity to the Qur'an, and echoing the initial statement made by Omeed Aziz Popal -- which was later discounted by investigators.

"Rampage behind the wheel leaves trail of destruction," by David Chanen and Anthony Lonetree in the Star Tribune, with thanks to Tim:

As Arie Ford went inside to gather her two children from her Minneapolis home Wednesday morning, a man stole her idling car. A few blocks away, he repeatedly rammed that car into a cab driven by her brother and injured a well-known 79-year-old North Side clothes store owner.

Within minutes, the man was at the intersection of N. 7th Street and Plymouth Avenue, bouncing off cars and between buildings, stealing a van and then crashing that, too, police said. The five minutes of chaos ended when a group captured the man and held him down until police arrived.

Witness Jeffrey Ford said the suspect's father told officers the suspect had mental problems.

"He could have hurt a lot of people," said Arie Ford, who isn't related to Jeffrey Ford.

Lois Schupmann, the business owner who was injured when the stolen car rammed the cab, was in satisfactory condition Wednesday evening. Nobody else was hurt.

When asked by investigators why he went on the crime spree, the 22-year-old suspect said, "Allah made me do it," according to a source with knowledge of the case.

Posted by Robert at February 1, 2007 09:51 AM

3,375 posted on 02/02/2007 7:31:41 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

http://www.jihadwatch.org/

Iranian agents nabbed in Gaza, 1 commits suicide

Hundreds of weapons and a equipment for producing Qassam rockets found at a "Hamas-linked" university. By Ali Waked for Associated Press:

Palestinian security officers arrested at least five Iranian citizens during a raid at the Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold in Gaza City, a security official said. One of the Iranians committed suicide during the raid. Six to nine Palestinians were killed in the raid, sources said.

[...]

The raid on the Hamas-linked university in Gaza was carried out by national security forces affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hundreds of weapons and a lathe for the production of Qassam rockets were seized in the raid.

A Hamas official denied the claim and said there were no Iranian citizens at the university.

Posted by Marisol at 07:20 AM | Comments (12)

3,376 posted on 02/02/2007 7:35:20 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

Thanks to Milford421 for this alert:

Powerful Explosion at Post Oil Plant - TX

http://www.kcbd.com/global/story.asp?s=6027179

/1/07
Powerful Explosion at Post Oil Plant

An investigation continues into a powerful explosion at an oil plant
in Post Thursday night.

The blast happened at the George R. Brown Oil Plant in Post about
7:30 in the evening.

Few details are available at this time as authorities are still
investigating the exact cause of the explosion and fire. There were
no reported injuries.

NewsChannel 11 News Story Archives-2006

Looking for a story, then search our archives. They are organized by
the month and the day that they aired.

3,377 posted on 02/02/2007 7:38:49 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All; milford421; Donna Lee Nardo; Calpernia; Velveeta; DAVEY CROCKETT; Founding Father; LucyT

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1778484/posts

EXCLUSIVE Breaking News - Tribal Revolt Against Islamic Regime in Iran
Reports Inside Iran ^ | 2/2/07 | Reports & Alan Peters

Posted on 02/02/2007 11:31:07 PM PST by FARS

Reports from Inside Iran

Armed revolt by Bakhtiari, Lor and Ghashghai tribes against the Islamic Regime has reportedly flared up.

Yesterday, freedom seeking tribal fighters in the Isfahan and surrounding provinces and region began fighting local Islamic Regime forces and freeing their villages and townships from the Islamic Regime's control.

The Semirom area, which is on the Ghashghai tribal migrations route, apparently saw heavy fighting and more clashes occurred in between Isfahan Province and Yassooj further south, which is the center of the Boyer-Ahmadi tribal territory.

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

3,378 posted on 02/03/2007 1:12:22 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

Thursday, February 1, 2007. Issue 3587. Page 3.
FSB Told to Stop Political Extremism
The Moscow Times

Dmitry Astakhov / Itar-Tass
Putin on Wednesday at a gathering of senior FSB officers at the
agency's headquarters on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called on the Federal Security
Service to combat political extremism and racism in the run-up to the
State Duma election in December and next year's presidential contest.

"It is important not just to ensure the rule of law and order, but
also to safeguard society from attempts to introduce extremist and
racist ideas," Putin told senior officers at FSB headquarters on
Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, Gazeta.ru reported.

Putin also called for vigilance in the battle against terrorism and
corruption.

As parliamentary campaigns get under way in a number of regions this
spring and the Duma campaign heats up in the fall, some candidates are
likely to try to capitalize on the growing popularity of nationalism
in society.

In his remarks, Putin, who headed the FSB in 1998 and the first half
of 1999, praised the agency's performance in 2006. He mentioned
specifically the suppression of the insurgency in Chechnya and the
absence of security breaches during the Group of Eight summit in St.
Petersburg and the summit with the European Union in Sochi.

Putin promised hikes in the FSB's budget and in officers' wages. The
FSB budget, which is classified, increased by 27 percent in 2006 and
will rise by a similar amount this year, Putin said.

The president said the agency would receive 20 percent more money for
weapons and equipment this year, and that salaries in the agency would
jump by 25 percent over last year.

Putin exhorted the agency to increase their efforts to "counter the
terrorist threat," Interfax reported. He said the FSB-led National
Anti-Terrorist Committee, created last year, had proven effective in
coordinating the government's response to terrorism.

The president also told officers to step up their efforts to battle
corruption. "The business community in this country should be reliably
protected from corruption," he said.

3,379 posted on 02/03/2007 4:11:14 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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To: All

AN INCONVENIENT TOPIC;
European Union proposes a laboratory to identify human remains in
Chechnya
Nadezhda Krasilova

How to identify Chechnya's dead; Council of Europe Secretary-General
Terry Davis proposed yesterday that a modern laboratory should be
established in Russia to identify the bodies of people who died or
disappeared during hostilities in Chechnya.

Council of Europe Secretary-General Terry Davis proposed yesterday
that a modern laboratory should be established in Russia to identify
the bodies of people who died or disappeared during hostilities in
Chechnya.

The Council of Europe has repeatedly raised the issue of establishing
a laboratory to identify the bodies of people who have died in
Chechnya. "Forensic idenfication of the bodies is very important,"
said Terry Davis. "We are aware of the despair experienced by the
families of people who have gone missing. At least this would give
them some sort of clarification about the fate of their loved ones."
Davis also noted that the Council of Europe can't afford to pay the
full costs of equipping such a laboratory. "As far as I'm aware, the
Russian authorities intend to make such a request of the European
Union - but I won't venture to predict the reply."

The Russian government's idea of involving the Council of Europe in
establishing the laboratory has drawn an ambivalent response from
Russian experts. A forensic laboratory has been operating in
Rostov-on-Don for years, and it is capable of doing tests of this
nature. It was established on the basis of the Defense Ministry's
famous Laboratory 124, which worked from 1994 to 2003 on identifying
bodies from the first war in Chechnya. Laboratory 124 was headed by a
military forensics specialist, Colonel Dr. Vladimir Shcherbakov. This
laboratory, using modern equipment, never had a single case of
mistaken identification; thus, it prevented hundreds of mistaken
burials.

But Shcherbakov's independent statements and occasional media reports
about the numbers of unidentified soldiers from the Chechen war
spoiled the Defense Ministry's statistics and annoyed the top brass.
In 2003, Laboratory 124 was disbanded and absorbed by the forensics
department, and Shcherbakov was shunted into the military reserve.
"They buried the laboratory, so to speak," said Shcherbakov at the
time, commenting on his own dismissal. "They harassed me with
inspections for four years, but they feared to dismiss me without
cause. I believe that after a while, nobody at all will be working
here on identification of bodies from Chechnya."

This proved to be an accurate prediction. The laboratory continues to
function; for example, it was used to identify the bodies of Beslan
victims and Kursk submarine victims. But the unidentified casualties
of Chechnya have been forgotten. After Laboratory 124 was broken up,
thousands of unidentified bodies were removed from its morgue
refrigerators and buried. At the laboratory's Chechnya branch,
unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave.

Alexander Cherkasov from the Memorial human rights organization says
that Terry Davis's proposal is logical. "The Europeans are saying: if
you can't cope with organizing this work, let us help," says
Cherkasov. "The international community has experience in identifying
the victims of military conflicts - in the Balkans, for example." But
Cherkasov maintains that the famous Laboratory 124 would be quite
capable of carrying out this task.

Valentina Matvienko, chairwoman of the Russian Union of Soldiers'
Mothers Committees, says she can't see the point in Terry Davis's
proposal. She also maintains that the Rostov-on-Don laboratory is
quite capable of identifying bodies. "Why build a new laboratory, if
the specialists are already there, the equipment is there, and the
funding is there," says Melnikova. "The real issue is that
unidentified bodies need to be exhumed." Melnikova says that Davis
must have been "misinformed" in order to come up with such a proposal.
"The Russian federal budget has a spending item to cover funding for
finding, exhuming, and identifying the dead. True, this spending item
is buried somewhere in the classified part of the budget," says
Melnikova. "This money should have been allocated to the commission on
prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action, but the commission
has been disbanded. As far as we know, the money is being paid to the
government of Chechnya - but nothing is being done about
identification, since the bodies have been buried. Over 2,000
unidentified bodies have been buried in Chechnya alone." According to
Melnikova, the annual funding of 50 million rubles is sufficient for
the purpose. Only the most important factor is lacking: political will.

Source: Novye Izvestia, January 31, 2007, p. 2

Translated by Elena Leonova

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/

3,380 posted on 02/03/2007 4:13:27 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)

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