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

What is Going on in Madagascar ? (back)



February 8, 2007

by Douglas Farah

It is passing strange that Madagascar , the large island off of East Africa , has come up several times in the past week in relation to terrorism and terror finance.

The first was the death of Osma bin Laden’s brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, well-known for his support of radical Islamists. He happened to be on the island as a gemstone dealer.

Seems as though the group that killed him took his computer and some personal belongings, but not the stones that were there. Somewhat unlikely for a robbery. Given Khalifa’s extensive ties to al Qaeda financial activities and various designated terrorist financiers and charities, the connection to the gemstone trade is tantalizing.

From the earliest days of my diamond coverage I was told of a strong al Qaeda connection to rubies and sapphires in Madagascar , begun at about the same time as al Qaeda’s interest in diamonds in West Africa and tanzanite in Tanzania .

This fits with the timeframe of al Qaeda making a concerted move to put their assets into commodities. The move came after the August 1998 bombing of two American embassies in East Africa and the subsequent freezing of some $220 million of Taliban and al Qaeda gold in the Federal Reserve system by the Clinton administration.

(The freezing was almost accidental, as the Clinton people had no idea the gold was here. But sometimes it is better to be lucky than have good intelligence, perhaps.)

Sapphires led to a mining boom in Madagascar , beginning in 1998, drawing a large influx of foreigners, including a large contingent of Islamists from Pakistan and the Arab Peninsula eager to cash in.

There are folks in the intelligence community that do not agree with my findings on this issue, but there are also senior folks in the community who not only believe it to be true, but who believe Khalifa was involved in the gemstone trade on behalf of al Qaeda and/or other Islamist groups.

What is interesting is the surfacing in Madagascar of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of the architects of the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa, as well as one of the three main al Qaeda operatives identified by my sources as being in Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2000-2001 to buy diamonds.

Fazul is from the nearby Comoros Islands , as was reportedly on the ground in Liberia , staying at a guest house rented by Ibrahim Bah, during the time al Qaeda was buying diamonds.

Fazul is also believed by the intelligence community to be directly involved with the Islamists in Somalia , now driven from power but trying to make a come back.

I find all of this too much to be a coincidence. Draw your own conclusions.



Source: http://www.douglasfarah.com/article/157/what-is-going-on-in -madagascar.com


3,981 posted on 02/12/2007 10:14:46 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; Founding Father

Zawahiri blasts US President Bush, calls for Muslims to disavow
treaties in Middle East in new video tape

If US
President George W. Bush had any lingering doubts about how the Al
Qaeda
leadership feels about him, those doubts will almost certainly be put
to rest
with the latest tape to be released by Al Qaeda second-in-command Dr.
Ayman al
Zawahiri.
The tape, forty minutes, forty-two seconds in length,
features an audio tape of Zawahiri's voice played while a still image
is
displayed of the Al Qaeda lieutenant in white turban, with AK-47 on his
rights. The video includes English subtitles and was
released with both English and Arabic transcripts. The tape was
announced late this afternoon
on a variety of jihadist websites where similar tapes are customarily
released
The first portion of the tape seems to be focused on words
for America; the second half of the tape appears directed
at the Islamic Ummah worldwide.
In the tape, he launches into a full scale verbal attack on
President Bush, accusing him of being an alcoholic, a liar, and a
gambler, with
an addictive personality:
Bush suffers from an addictive
personality, and was an alcoholic. I don't know his present condition
(Americans know best about that, as they are experts in alcohol and
addiction
to it), but the one who examines his personality finds that he is
addicted to
two other faults: lying and gambling. As regards lying, his record is
well
known, and he has gone down in history as one of its most notorious
liars.
He addresses the American people directly, holding them
responsible for Bush's policies because they "chose him twice".
He explains to the American public that the nature of Al
Qaeda has shifted from that of a group to that of individual terrorism,
calling
it the "Jihadi Intifada".
The first matter is that you are
not facing individuals or organizations, but are facing the Jihadi
Intifada of
the angry, alert Muslim Ummah. Therefore, you are just wasting your
time and
effort by claiming to seek to eliminate this person or that or
such-and-such
group or organization.
Zawahiri has words for members of the Democratic party as
well:
As for the Democrats in America, I tell
them:
The people chose you due to your
opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq,
but it appears that you are marching with him to the same abyss, and it
appears
that you will take part with him in the defeat and certain failure,
with God's
permission. And the American people shall discover that you are all one
side of
the same coin of tyranny, criminality and failure; that failure which -
by the
grace of God - has neutralized the endeavors of the traitors who
entered Kabul
and Baghdad on the backs of American tanks, and has dashed their hopes
as they
see the Mujahideen come closer and closer to victory, which has led
them to
urgently appeal to America for help and implore it to continue to
occupy their
lands and raise the banners of the Cross over their heads.
Zawahiri instructs the Islamic Ummah to reject international
agreements in the Middle East:
And we must confront the
international resolutions which are meant to impose on us the will of
the Zionist/Crusader
West. We must reject all of those resolutions which cut off parts of
the lands
of Islam and hand them over to its enemies, starting with the
resolution to
partition Palestine, continuing with Resolution 244, the Camp David,
Wadi
Arabah, and Oslo accords, and the resolutions to occupy Afghanistan and
Iraq,
and finishing with Resolution 1701 and the Security Council resolutions
for the
intrusion of trespasser forces into Darfur and Somalia.
He specifically calls upon the Lebanese people to reject Resolution
1701:
That's why I ask my brothers in
Islam and Jihad in Lebanon not to give in to Resolution 1701, nor
accept the
pushing back of the Lebanese border 30 kilometers, nor accept the
presence of
the international Crusader forces in the south as a barrier between
them and
Occupied Palestine, even if that resolution is agreed to by all
official
political forces licensed by the Lebanese government, on the basis of
international balances and foreign connections
He reiterates his statement of loyalty to Mullah Omar,
leader of the Taliban, and calls for Muslims to disregard nationalistic
loyalties and instead assign their loyalties to Islam:
And we - by the grace of Allah and
His guidance - have pledged allegiance to the Commander of the
Believers, Mulla
Muhammad Umar, who is an Afghan.
That's why I ask my Muslim brothers
in general and the callers and Mujahideen and their media organizations
in
particular to highlight the concept of Islamic brotherhood and disown
all
partisanship, loyalties and animosities based on nationalism, and I ask
them
not to allow the wrongdoing of a faction or entity motivate them to
speak evil
of that party's entire people or race.
He addresses the situation in Palestine
as well, instructing the Muslims in the area to work for the
establishment of
an Islamic state in Palestine,
instead of supporting an individual faction or political party:
I'm not asking them to join HAMAS,
Islamic Jihad or al-Qaida, but rather, I'm asking them to return to
Islam, in
order to fight for the establishment of an Islamic state over all of
Palestine, and not for the establishment of a secularist
state which will please America
on crumbs of Palestine.
He reiterates his call for reinforcements for the jihadis in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria,
and Somalia:
And on the basis of the facts I
know, I call on my Muslim brothers to go forth to Afghanistan,
Iraq, Algeria and Somalia, because your brothers the
Mujahideen are in need of men, money, materiel, opinion, expertise and
information.
A more in-depth analysis will be released shortly. A transcript of
the tape
and a copy of the video have been provided to our subscribers.




For more translations and news on terrorism, visit
http://www.lauramansfield.com
or visit our forum at http://www.lauramansfield.com/forum/

Strategic Translations is a service provided by Laura Mansfield through
http://www.lauramansfield.com


3,982 posted on 02/12/2007 10:23:47 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; Founding Father; FARS; Calpernia; milford421

[I am not sure about this one]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2011751,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

The parallel universe of BAE: covert, dangerous and beyond the rule of law


How long can Britain's biggest arms company run a secret service and trump the armed forces in political influence?

George Monbiot
Tuesday February 13, 2007
The Guardian

There is a state within a state in the United Kingdom, a small but untouchable domain that appears to be subject to a different set of laws. We have heard quite a bit about it over the past two months, but hardly anyone knows just how far its writ runs. The state is BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms company. It seems, among other advantages, to be able to run its own secret service.

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


3,983 posted on 02/12/2007 10:31:11 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; Founding Father; FARS; struwwelpeter; DAVEY CROCKETT; Calpernia

Russia prepares for 'wars of the future'

The Russian military embarks on an ambitious procurement plan to beef up conventional forces on the continent and maintain a nuclear force capable of overwhelming the US National Missile Defense.

By Simon Saradzhyan in Moscow for ISN Security Watch (12/02/07)

The Russian military will spend a total of some 5 trillion rubles (US$189 billion) between 2007-2015 to replace 45 percent of its current arsenal with new weaponry systems ranging from submarine-launched ballistic missiles to new aircraft carriers for deep-water missions, in what reflects the country's resurgence as a global player.

According to an official statement, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told the federal parliament on 8 February that the new arms and rigorous training should prepare Russia's war machine for the future.

"There are cardinal changes in what is going on in the world and the armed forces need to be prepared for […] wars of the future," according to the minister, who also holds the rank of deputy prime minister and is one of the possible contesters in the 2008 presidential race.

In line with the Defense Ministry's 2007-2015 armament program, the Russian military will spend a total of 300 billion rubles on procurement this year alone, according to Ivanov. Russia's defense budget has been growing steadily thanks to economic growth fuelled by high oil prices and a consumer boom. As a result of the surge in federal budget revenues, the Defense Ministry quadrupled its budget from 214 billion rubles in 2001 to 821 billion this year.

Experts say the Defense Ministry's shopping spree reflects the Kremlin's desire to transform the continuing economic resurgence into geopolitical dividends by beefing up conventional forces while maintaining the strategic nuclear forces' so-called assured destruction capability of in order to flex muscles in the adjacent neighborhoods in the short-to-medium term and across the globe in the longer term.

"The procurement plan demonstrates that Russia at least wants to acquire capability to project military-political influence at least on the regional level [..]," Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) and member of the Defense Ministry's Public Council, told ISN Security Watch in a Saturday phone interview.

Ivan Safranchuk, director of the Moscow office of the Washington, DC-based World Security Institute, concurred. "This is a sign that Russia wants to expand projection of its influence in the world, " Safranchuk told ISN Security Watch in a Wednesday phone interview.

The experts specifically pointed out that talk of procuring new aircraft carriers was one sign that Russia was seeking to expand its zone of influence. The decision to procure more could be made in 2009, the statement quoted Ivanov as saying. The Russian navy currently has one Soviet-era aircraft carrier and would have to build new ones from scratch since the sole maker of this ship in Soviet times is located in now-independent Ukraine.

As part of the shopping spree, the military will procure a total of 31 ships for the navy in 2007-2015, according to Ivanov. The ministry will also procure new arms for 40 tanks, 97 infantry and 50 airborne battalions in line with the 2007-2017 programs, he said.

As part of the reforms, the military will also stop procuring arms directly and rely on the Federal Agency for Arms Deliveries. Ivanov said this agency would become fully operational in 2008 to procure arms, equipment and other items for all of the so-called power agencies.

In his report, the minister also affirmed the Russian military's right for a preventive conventional strike and ruled out any new personnel cuts in the 1.1-million strong force, but assured that the share of professional soldiers would continue to grow among the rank-and-file.

The minister also reported that Russia may adopt a new military doctrine several years from now, once a new national security document was crafted and reaffirmed plans to replace the existing military district with regional commands.

The new doctrine is needed to formulate a response to expansion of the US presence in Russia's backyard, General Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces said in remarks posted on the Defense Ministry's web site on 9 February

"The US military leadership's course aimed at maintaining its global leadership and expanding its economic, political and military presence in Russia's traditional zones of influence" has become a top threat for Russia's national security, Baluyevsky said.

Among other things, the armament program provides for construction of new "cheaper and more efficient" early radar warning stations on Russian territory, according to Ivanov. He said one such station, already built near St Petersburg, would allow the military to detect incoming missiles on territory spanning from Western Europe to the North Pole.

The stations are designed to fill in holes left in the Russian military's early warning capabilities by the disintegration of the Soviet Union as well as to decrease its dependence on these capabilities from former Soviet republics, according to Ivanov.

"We have plans to continue construction of these stations so that we won't depend on anyone, including our allies," Ivanov said in a reference to Belarus. Belarus has been Russia's closest ally and the two countries even operate a joint air defense system, but relations have been strained by a dispute over prices of Russian energy exports to Belarus.

The Russian strategic triad currently relies on data collected by early warning radars in Baranovichi in Belarus and Mukachevo and Sevastopol in Ukraine, as well as in Gabala, Azerbaijan. The Russian military has lost one such station in Skrunde, Latvia.

Ivanov did not say how many early warning satellites the military plans to procure in line with the program, but he did say that this year alone would see the armed forces acquire four satellites and four launch vehicles from the national defense industry.

To further decrease the dependency on facilities outside Russia, the Russian military will continue to spend 1 billion rubles a year to build a new base for the Black Sea fleet, which currently is based in Ukraine's Crimea in accordance with an agreement that expires in 2017.

The Russian military will also be less dependent on launches of heavy satellites to geostationary orbits from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia is leasing from Kazakhstan, once launch pads for Soyuz-2 and Angara rockets are built at the Plesetsk springboard in the Arkhangelsk region, according to the arms program.

The program also provides for procurement of at least 50 mobile versions of Topol-Ms as well as dozens of silo-based versions of this intercontinental ballistic missile. The mobile-driven ICBMs are harder to detect, but the Russian military is not so concerned with beefing up the mobile component of the Strategic Missile Forces that it would revive construction of train-driven ICBM systems, which were designed and produced in Ukraine in Soviet times, according to the minister. This year alone will see 17 ICBMs procured, the minister said. In comparison, the military had purchased around 10 ICBMs or fewer per year in recent times.

The next several years also will see the strategic nuclear triad continue operating 50 long-range Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers and acquire new early radar warning stations on Russian territory, according to Ivanov.

In addition to new Topol-M's ICBMs, the Russian military also is set to procure Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). However, this procurement was delayed after a series of launch test failures in what also puts off commissioning of a new generation of atomic submarines.

The increase in the annual rate of procurement of nuclear missiles is not sufficient to replace the ICBMs that the military needs to decommission in the next five years, but would "would still allow to maintain its strategic military capability at an acceptable level," according to Safranchuk.

The Russian military needs to decommission almost all Soviet-built ICBMs in 2012-2015 due to expiration of their service lives in what would leave the strategic triad with only several hundred warheads on operational delivery systems in all three components of the triad, according to Safranchuk's estimates.

Pukhov of the CAST center agreed: "There is no talk about any kind of pseudo symmetry between the US and Russia in this, but the nuclear forces would still suffice to overcome the missile defense."

However, according to the influential Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye (Independent Military Review) weekly, the rate of commissioning of new arms "doesn't correspond with the real threats."

The weekly's 9 February issue agreed that Ivanov's estimate that some 45 percent of the existing arms would have been replaced by 2016, but argued that many of the remaining older systems could break down in what "may possibly lead to lack of armaments."

Russia's new military program comes as the US moves forward with plans to site missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic - intentions that have put Russia on edge and which many believe prompted Moscow's very detailed release of its new defense program.

While Washington claims the planned Polish and Czech installations are intended to defend against missiles fired by Iran or North Korea, Moscow claims that the real intention has more to do with Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov once again attacked the US missile defense shield on sidelines on a security conference in Munich on 11 February as well as called abrogation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the US and the Soviet Union, which eliminated medium-range missiles. He described the treaty as "a relic of the Cold War."


Simon Saradzhyan is a veteran security and defense writer based in Moscow. He is a co-founder of the Eurasian Security Studies Center in Moscow.

Related articles from the ISN Publishing House:

Moscow Defense Brief 1/2006


Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004


3,984 posted on 02/12/2007 10:41:42 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; FARS

Sectarian tensions simmer in Bahrain

Violent clashes last week in Bahrain appear to bolster theories of a widening Shia-Sunni struggle in the Middle East, but critics of the ruling al-Khalifa dynasty tell ISN Security Watch that this is far from the case.
By Dominic Moran in Tel Aviv for ISN Security Watch (07/02/07)

Simmering Bahraini sectarian tensions erupted into violence again on Friday with security forces battling stone-throwing Shia protesters in several areas of the Gulf island kingdom.

The unrest was caused by the arrest of opposition activists and emphasizes the difficulties facing the Sunni al-Khalifa monarchy in establishing the credibility of recent reforms in an atmosphere embittered by ongoing allegations of sectarian discrimination and the Shia-Sunni struggle in Iraq.
Troubled history

Bahrain is the only Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member state with a Shia majority - estimated at between 60-75 percent of the population.

The Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty was established in Bahrain in 1811 following the family's second invasion of the island. Sectarian tensions with their Shia subjects have flared sporadically, becoming a constant irritant since independence from the UK in 1971.

In 1981, an Iranian-based radical Shia movement styling itself as The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain launched a coup attempt, intending to install a theocratic Shia regime.

Details of the coup attempt are sketchy, but according to unconfirmed reports, the insurgents were accompanied by Iranian intelligence officers and intended to assassinate key members of the ruling family and cabinet ministers.

The coup was planned by supporters of "an Iranian cleric who claim Karbala [Iraq] as their home base and are back there now," Bahrain and Saudi Arabia specialist, visiting assistant-professor Toby Jones from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, US, explained to ISN Security Watch.

"They are Khomeinists and revolutionaries and they did organize a cell and attempted to overthrow the Bahraini government. I imagine they did have some support or at least some sympathy from Iran, but it was not an Iranian government-directed coup attempt," he added.

Radical Shia rioted in 1994 after women were allowed to participate in a sporting event. The violence escalated into a low-intensity Shia "insurgency" between 1994 and 2000, punctuated by several bombings.

According to reports, the events of the insurgency, in which around 40 people died, largely occurred in the areas of the island in which the indigenous Shia Baharna people predominate.

In an interview with ISN Security Watch, vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Nabeel Rajab alleged that the Baharna have suffered from systematic discrimination at the hands of the state.

"Two years ago we [BCHR] made a statistical report that showed that 75 percent of the population are Shias, but when it comes to jobs they are only 18 percent, Rajab said. "In the army, the security force and police they are below 2 percent."

"They have also been marginalized in politics," he charged. "Today they are less than 25 percent of the ministers, and half of the cabinet are the royal family."

The BCHR has been a fierce critic of government policy and has led agitation for Shia rights. BCHR President Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was one of three opposition activists arrested last Friday.

Friday's clashes were largely confined to Baharna areas northwest of the capital Manama.
Reform

Upon assuming the title of emir in 1999, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa launched a wave of democratic, security and governance reforms, promising his subjects that his top priority was "achieving national unity and internal security, through the solidarity of all Bahrain citizens, without discrimination, whatever their origin or creed."

The reforms, which were presented as a series of royal makramas [concessions], included measures to allow the formation of political associations; the granting of political rights to women; a general amnesty for political prisoners and exiles; the abrogation of state security laws; and the institution of a 40-member National Assembly elected on the basis of a general franchise.

Rajab argues that Sheikh Hamad was encouraged by the US to institute reforms, but has since stepped back from active involvement. "We believe that the Americans and the West have [now] pulled out and there is no more pressure on our government," he said.

"I think they [reforms] have been largely cosmetic," Jones opined.

"What has changed is that there's a greater degree of ability for people to be critical […] without any kind of government crackdown. So there was a loosening of the grip on speech to some extent - although that has slowly been eroded in the last year and a half."

Asked to elaborate, Jones said: "The new national security law has been a disaster. It basically creates a very broad framework in which criticism of the government is not tolerated, particularly criticism of individual members of the royal family."
Election

The second national elections for the reinstated National Assembly were held on 25 November 2006, with Shia opposition groups participating in a national poll for the first time since 1973.

Pro-government Sunni parties maintained their control of the parliament in the election, returning 22 lawmakers to the 40-seat parliament.

The predominantly Shia opposition represented by the left-leaning National Democratic Action Association (NDAA) and National Accord Association (INAA) garnered 18 mandates.

Both parties had boycotted the 2002 National Assembly elections citing concerns that the legislature was not being afforded sufficient powers.

Asked to explain the Shia policy reversal, Jones said: "They felt like they could put additional pressure on the government by coming in and being critical within the institution [National Assembly]. But they also left open the option that they would walk out and paralyze it. That would be a disaster."

Liberal parties and women failed to win any electoral contests, although one female candidate, Latifa al-Qouhoud, became Bahrain's first woman parliamentarian after running unopposed in her constituency.

The failure of liberal parties to make any impact emphasizes the primacy of underlying sectarian tensions in the minds of voters.

The election "has brought a lot of disappointment to the people," Rajab told ISN Security Watch, claiming the result was fixed by a series of gerrymanders.

"The way that the [government] has divided the country to make the majority opposition to have a low [number of] seats and the loyalist areas have more seats [was done intentionally] to make sure that the Shia are a minority in the parliament."

The powers of the National Assembly are effectively delimited by an upper house populated by royal appointees, which is able to block assembly initiatives.

"The elected branch of parliament is used mostly as a debate society," Jones charged. "It is largely an empty vessel and I think it was designed to be that way."

Executive power in the kingdom remains largely in the hands of a ruling troika within the royal family: Sheikh Hamad, Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, and the king's uncle, Prime Minister ýKhalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa. The trio's relationship to their primary political support base, the wider royal family, is managed by the Family Council.

It is in the struggle to balance this traditional power structure with the demands of the emerging democratic system that sectarian tensions have been exacerbated.
Crackdown

The strong performance of Shia parties in the November poll and the failure of the elections to dampen strident opposition assertions of discrimination have left the government in a quandary as to how to respond.

A decision appears to have been made recently to reassert control through a wave of arrests targeting prominent government critics.

The official Bahrain News Agency confirmed on Saturday that three opposition activists arrested the previous day - al-Khawaja, INAA head Haasan Mushaimaand and rights activist Shaker Abdul-Hussein - had been charged with "promoting change to the political system through illegitimate means, inciting hatred of the political system, agitation and harming the public interest."

As news of Friday's arrests spread, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Shia villages and towns burning garbage and tires and throwing stones at riot police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes that continued throughout the day.

Regional crisis

The Shia-Sunni political struggle in Bahrain is being conducted against the backdrop of a developing civil war between the sects in nearby Iraq and the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Past links between a small group of Bahraini Shia radicals and Iran appear to have lapsed over the years though. According to reports, some of those involved in the failed 1981 coup are now members of mainstream Shia political parties.

It can be safely assumed that Iran has both an ideological and pragmatic interest in the emergence of a Shia government in Bahrain, which would likely see the expulsion of the US 5th Fleet from its strategically important base on the island.

"There's a large Iranian ethnic community whose roots do go back to the other side of the Gulf. They are probably 15 to 20 percent of the Shia population. But a lot of them have been in Bahrain for as long as the al-Khalifa have," Jones said.

It is the fear of an Iran-backed Shia government and alleged Iranian involvement in the Iraq war that assures the al-Khalifa dynasty of strong US and Gulf state support.

While the potentially destabilizing nature of the wider Iraq and Iran crises on Bahrain should not be elided, both Jones and Rajab warn against reading what is inherently a long-term, localized civil struggle for reform and political power as an integral element in a wider regional sectarian struggle.

"The government has always played the card that the Shia in Bahrain are a potential fifth column for Iran and are more sympathetic to Khomeini and the legacy of the [Islamic] revolution than they are to the homeland," Jones said.

"The disintegration of Iraq simply lends power, credibility and the significance of a regional breakdown to the way they've framed their domestic politics for about 30 years."


Dr Dominic Moran is a senior writer for ISN Security Watch based in Tel Aviv.

From the ISN blog

IR Concepts & Theories: Have Your Say

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17219
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004


3,985 posted on 02/12/2007 10:46:05 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

Kirkuk Arabs fear government expulsion

Kurdish talk of forcing Arabs out of Kirkuk threatens to open a much-feared northern front in the nascent sectarian civil war that would bring devastation to mixed communities.

Commentary by Dominic Moran in Tel Aviv for ISN Security Watch (09/02/07)

Rising inter-communal tensions in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, exacerbated by a series of car bombings on Saturday that left four dead and 37 wounded, were aggravated further this week with the unveiling of a plan to relocate thousands of Arab residents.

The Iraqi Higher Committee for the Normalization of Kirkuk agreed on Sunday that Arab residents, descended from families that moved to the city under Baathist rule, should be relocated to their original home towns.

It is unclear as yet whether the measure, which has been sent to the cabinet for approval, will include Arab residents of the ethnically mixed city of 1 million, who have fled violence in southern and central areas since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Contradictory media reports have further muddied the waters, saying that descendants of families that have been in the city since either 1957 or 1968 would be targeted.

The measure appears designed to pave the way for the transfer of Kirkuk and the surrounding region to Kurdish control.

Kurdish officials, privy to the deliberations, told reporters that committee members had agreed that those being relocated should receive land in their previous home towns and monetary compensation estimated at between US$15,000 and US$25,000 per household.

Close to 500 Arab residents of the city participated in a demonstration against the committee's decision on Wednesday morning. Political representatives of Kirkuk's Arab population have decried the proposal as a form of forced migration.

"We vehemently reject this decision. We will not leave Kirkuk by force or without force. If they [Kurds] try to force us out of the city, then there will be dangerous reactions against them," Shia cleric Sheikh Raad al-Najafi told the IRIN news agency.

It is unclear from reports what forms of coercion would be brought to bear against Arab residents who refused to leave their homes. Kirkuk's Arabs are mostly Shia who were relocated to the northern city from southern and central regions under Saddam Hussein's post-1991 "Arabization" program.

Over 120,000 Turkoman, Kurdish, Chaldean and Assyrian residents were forcibly evicted from the city under the program as Hussein sought to cement his power in the oil-rich northern region in the wake of the 1986-1989 Anfal campaign, in which an estimated 50,000-100,000 Kurds died.

The committee decided in an earlier meeting to promote the return of those driven out of Kirkuk under the Hussein government by providing returnees with land and up to US$7,000 in compensation.

This offer would largely affect the estimated 350,000 Kurds who have migrated to the city since 2003. Many returned to their homes after the fall of the Baathist regime to find that Arab families had moved in, creating a debilitating housing crisis that has stoked inter-ethnic tensions.

The influx of Kurds has strengthened Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) claims that the city and surrounding al-Tanim province should be ceded to Kurdish control. The KRG has exercised almost complete authority over northeastern Iraq since 1991.

The Kirkuk region boasts an estimated 2 percent of known global oil stocks. The US recently succeeded in overcoming Kurdish objections to a draft agreement on the sharing of hydrocarbon revenues based on the relative strength of each ethno-sectarian community in the wider Iraqi population.

In return, the Kurdish bloc in the central government won a renewed commitment to Article 140 of the 2005 national constitution, mandating a binding local referendum on the future of the oil-rich region, which should be held by the end of 2007.

Turkey and Iraqi Sunni-Arab parties have expressed their strong objections to the extension of KRG influence over the region through the plebiscite, which is expected to find a majority in favor of incorporation of Kirkuk in the Kurdish autonomous zone.

There has been a sharp spike in insurgent violence in Kirkuk in recent months with 348 people killed and 1,474 injured from the start of 2006 to 20 January 2007, according to police statistics. Of those murdered, 69 appeared to have been killed in death squad executions.

Analysts estimate that 150,000 Arab and Turkoman residents of Kirkuk have fled the city since 2003, amid alleged intimidation, violence, abductions and the destruction of property, purportedly abetted by Kurdish peshmerga forces.

Sunday's committee decision effectively rubber stamps these alleged expulsion efforts and, if passed into law, would constitute a dangerous legislative precedent with wide ramifications for the development of nascent federal ethno-sectarian states.

The potential use of the overstretched Iraqi military to forcibly evacuate tens of thousands of Kirkuk citizens from their homes appears essentially impracticable and would poison relations with the US.

The measure threatens to open a much-feared northern front in the nascent sectarian civil war that would bring devastation to mixed communities while further eroding the already tenuous role of the central government as a bulwark against the full break down of the state.

With its melting pot of ethnic and religious communities, Kirkuk was long seen as a symbol of coexistence. The Hussein government tore apart these fragile bonds but it is beholden on this Iraqi government not to compound one injustice with another.


Dr Dominic Moran is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in the Middle East.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).

Related articles from the ISN Publishing House:

Middle East Report, Nr. 56: Iraq and the Kurds - The Brewing Battle Over Kirkuk

Middle East Report, Nr. 26: Iraq's Kurds - Toward an Historic Compromise?

The Ethnopolitical Dynamics of Elections

The Model of Ethnic Democracy

Towards Ratification: Conference on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Informal International Consultative Meeting in the Area of Minority Issues

Implementing the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

A Milestone Constitution

Masque of Democracy: Iraqi Election System Still Disfavors Sunni Arabs, Favors Kurds

Middle East Briefing, Nr. 19: Unmaking Iraq - A Constitutional Process Gone Awry

Related entries from the ISN Links Library:

Kurdish Human Rights Projects (KHRP), London, UK

Kurdistan Development Coporation (KDC), London, UK

From the ISN blog

IR Concepts & Theories: Have Your Say
Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17231
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004


3,986 posted on 02/12/2007 10:49:05 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)
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To: struwwelpeter
'I wonder what toxins I would have to ingest in order to understand the online course that I'm taking:'
"bez pollitra ne razberyosh'."- and here's your answer. 500ml in 80 proof.
3,987 posted on 02/12/2007 11:17:02 PM PST by GSlob
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To: All; Founding Father; FARS; milford421; Calpernia

http://chapelhillblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/waynes-world-coyotes-spies-and.html

Monday, February 12, 2007
Wayne's World: Coyotes, Spies and Terrorists on Our Border


Wayne's World: Coyotes, Spies and Terrorists on Our Border
by Wayne Simmons (more by this author)
Posted: 02/12/2007

My world -- the world of intelligence operations -- is one Americans do not see. It is made up of a constant succession of moves and countermoves. I've been retired from the outside paramilitary branch of the CIA for a number of years, and that fact set me to thinking of people such as me who may also be out of the game officially, but unlike me are hiring out to the highest bidder. Along our borders, these people are working still, and not just for the garden-variety drug smuggler.

In the prosecution of the Global War against Terror (GWOT) the current debate over the security of U.S. borders is an argument that many, including myself, cannot comprehend. Those of us from the intelligence world have for years been beating our chests and yelling at the top of the mountain that this great nation was slowly, methodically being penetrated by terrorist’s from around the world. The terrorists waltzing across our borders today are not drug cartel mules successfully smuggling tons of cocaine or pot in to virtually every city in America. They are highly trained, highly skilled, former intelligence operatives employed by nations that are what the State Department calls, "State sponsors of terrorism."

The drug cartels that I worked against over 25 years ago were interested only in the American dollar. As cunning and ruthless as the South American drug cartels were then (and still are today they understand that attacking the United States with bombs and IED's will spell the demise of their most profitable distribution outlet. Having worked against organized crime cartels worldwide including the Middle East, Central and South America, the Far East and in Central Asia, I have seen first hand the vast depth of the criminal pool that is available for hire and how their mission statement has changed. Smuggling of narcotics across our Southern border has expanded to include the smuggling of humans and nuclear triggers and devices. Mexico has become the headquarters for terrorists to recruit, proselytize and raise money. The operation and growth of terrorist cells in Central and South America is alarming. Who are these people, my former counterparts, who are working for these sponsors of terrorism? That is an easy question to answer and the answer is even easier to prove.

The Iranian secret police, formerly SAVAK under Shah Reza Pahlavi, has been replaced by the theologically correct SAVAMA or (VEVAK) (Ministry of Intelligence and National Security). In 1979 when the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini ended the almost 40 year rule of Shah Reza Pahlavi during the Islamic revolution he simply changed the name from SAVAK to SAVAMA. The new intelligence service was a mirror of the old only now the newly named and reconstituted SST (State Sponsored Terrorist's) Intelligence service worked for the Ayatollah. In 1991 VEVAK would eventually reach out and assassinate the leader of the National Resistance Movement of Iran, Shapour Bakhtiar. Bakhtiar was the last Prime Minister under the Shah of Iran. Testimony at the the trial of one of the assassins would point directly to the Iranian government as having ordered the hit. As recently as 2005, a major Iranian smuggling ring was broken up near the Mexican-U.S. border. Evidence would later show that over 60 Iranians were smuggled across the border.

The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (also Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI) is the largest and most powerful of the three Pakistani Intelligence Services. It was determined that ISI was the mastermind of the July 11, 2006 Mumbai, India train bombings which killed over 200 people in the Indian financial center. ISI is a working model of the Iranian secret police, SAVAK and were initially trained by the CIA and French Intelligence. ISI has been accused of having an incestuous relationship with the Taliban and being very sympathetic to their cause. Although ISI is vital to our continuing intelligence in Afghanistan, they have been linked to political assassinations, arms smuggling, including nuclear and missile technology and of course, narcotics smuggling.

(CISEN) (National Security and Investigation Center) Mexican Intelligence is only one of approximately 17 different intelligence organizations in Mexico. The diligence and hard work of many in CISEN has been compromised by corrupt operatives who have deep, long standing ties to the drug cartels and organized crime families. Mexican Federal Police are notoriously corrupt and have been directly linked to the abduction, torture and murder of DEA agents. For over 20 years US law enforcement personnel stationed in Mexico have been the targets of drug cartels and the Federal Police. In 1985 Special Agent Enrique Camarena and Mexican Captain Alfredo Zavala were kidnapped and tortured by corrupt Mexican law enforcement, military and the powerful drug cartels.
In 1986 DEA Special Agent Victor Cortez and DEA informant Antonio Garate-Bustamante were abducted and tortured. Though they were eventually released the bravado and total disregard for US law enforcement was evident.

Hezbollah, with the exception of the 9/11 attacks, is responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization in the world. Funded, supplied and trained by Iran, Hezbollah is no longer a terrorist organization limited to death and mayhem in the Middle East. U.S. intelligence has known for some time that Hezbollah has penetrated all major cities in the US. The FBI broke up a Hezbollah smuggling ring in Mexico which smuggled everything from cigarettes and weapons to credit cards and narcotics. In 1984 Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured and murdered CIA Beirut Station chief, William Buckley. In April 1983 Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63, including 19 Americans. FBI Director Robert Mueller has admitted in testimony that he believes suicide bombers inside of the US were inevitable.

Russian KGB -- FSB -- GRU are certainly the best known of all of the foreign intelligence services. The CIA and FBI know first hand the involvement of the FSB, formerly, KGB in SST worldwide. State-sponsored assassinations orchestrated by Russian security services are an every day occurrence. In November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB spy, was murdered using the radioactive poison Polonium 210. There has been first hand testimony from former FSB agents that Usama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was trained by the FSB. Yassar Arafat was for decades the terrorist operative for the KGB. Russian intelligence has provided training, money and weapons for SST for decades. It has been widely speculated that the Russians leaked the US war plan to the Iraqi's immediately prior to the invasion.

I have repeatedly warned over the last few years that my counterparts from intelligence services of countries that support SST are seizing this moment in time are hiring out to those who want to attack Americans at home, on our soil. Highly trained and skilled operatives who worship only the dollar are now the modern day gunfighters. They have sold themselves to the terrorist's and cannot be stopped using standard operating procedures of law enforcement. They cannot be seen by those who have not been trained to see them. They will not be stopped by our porous borders. Along with the cocaine and pot, dirty bomb components and nuclear devices will arrive, or have already.

The U.S. has been calm for over 5 years, spared from attack since 9-11. Those that clamor for securing our borders are right. I fear however, it is too late. The terrorist groups and nations that sponsor them are making their move, hiring the former intelligence operatives whose skills at penetrating our borders are at least as good as those of the people trying to protect it. So what is our counter-move?

It is not enough to close our borders. That, surely, must be done. But our counter-move must include covert operations -- in both Canada and Mexico -- to discover not only the terrorists but the old intelligence masterminds who can help them enter America with whatever weapons they may have. We have to deal with these old intel hands the same way we deal with the terrorists. In my old job, we used to call these, "active measures."

posted by Suzanne Cameron @ 8:22 AM


3,988 posted on 02/12/2007 11:30:54 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; milford421; FARS; Founding Father; Calpernia

http://chapelhillblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/record-bond-for-durham-nc-illegal.html

Monday, February 12, 2007
Record Bond for Durham, NC Illegal Alien drug smuggler


$10M bond may be record in Durham

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun
jstevenson@heraldsun.com
Feb 11, 2007 : 8:45 pm ET

DURHAM -- When Jorge Jiminez-Salinas walked into Durham County Superior Court last week, he had two nearly record-setting numbers hanging over his head.

He was under a $10 million bond, one of the largest in Durham history, and he faced charges of trafficking in roughly 20 kilograms -- or more than 40 pounds -- of cocaine, another figure that approached precedent-setting levels.

That amount of cocaine reportedly has a street value in the half-million-dollar range.

Some lawyers said $10 million might have been the highest bond ever set locally, but court computers are not programmed to provide such information. A time-consuming hand search would be required to determine if a greater figure was ever set.

It is known, however, that no one charged even with first-degree murder is currently under such high bond in Durham.

But when Jiminez-Salinas left the courtroom Wednesday, his bond had been reduced to $550,000, still a lofty sum by local standards.

Prosecutor Jim Dornfried said that Jiminez-Salinas was believed to be in the United States illegally from Mexico, and that he was apprehended as he passed through Durham in October.

The cocaine was in a vehicle occupied by Jiminez-Salinas, and the defendant also was implicated by information obtained through wiretaps, according to Dornfried.

The prosecutor did not say what led authorities to suspect Jiminez-Salinas, but he theorized that Jiminez-Salinas was in North Carolina to establish a cocaine distribution center and was not merely a "runner," or transporter, of the drug.

On the wiretaps, Jiminez-Salinas reportedly talked about hiring people to market the cocaine in "various faraway cities," Dornfried added.

The prosecutor said Jiminez-Salinas was well above street-level sellers in the drug trade, but was not among the ranks of top-level distributors who seldom get caught. Rather, he described him as a "middleman."

Even without a prior criminal record, Jiminez-Salinas faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of more than 14 years and a fine of at least $250,000 if convicted.

But defense lawyer Bill Thomas contended last week that Dornfried was getting ahead of himself, and that a $10-million bond was "clearly excessive."

"It was punitive in nature," Thomas said of the original bond. "That's not proper. Remember, the purpose of bond is not to punish. It is designed to guarantee a defendant's appearance in court. The judge was correct to lower the amount. The new bond is substantial but more reasonable under the circumstances."

According to Thomas, Jiminez-Salinas is married with three children in Mexico, is a university graduate and has never been convicted of any crime.

Beyond that, a lab report had not been received as of late last week, so it wasn't certain that the white powder found with Jiminez-Salinas actually was cocaine, Thomas said.

The defense attorney had no comment on Dornfried's theory that Jiminez-Salinas intended to establish a drug distribution center.

"He is free to speculate all he wants to," Thomas said of Dornfried. "I wouldn't comment on that. It wouldn't be appropriate."

However, federal authorities expressed concern as long ago as 2004 that North Carolina was becoming a hub for drug traffickers who repackage cocaine and marijuana coming out of Mexico, then send it north.

"It's a dramatic change in the way North Carolina is viewed with regard to drug enforcement," U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney said then. "It's no longer just a state where drugs are brought to be consumed here. They're repackaged and redistributed up the Eastern seaboard."

At that time, agents had tracked cocaine from staging areas in North Carolina to Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore and points farther north.

According to federal officers, this represented an alarming change from previous years, when mid-level dealers in North Carolina had to travel or send couriers to New York, Florida, California, Texas or Arizona to get their drug supplies.

One reason for the shift, officials theorized, was that dealers needed to find new hubs after law-enforcement pressure was toughened at traditional cocaine entry points like Miami, Los Angeles and Houston.

The fact that North Carolina is traversed by three major Interstate highways makes it an ideal "transshipment" state, officials said three years ago.

posted by Suzanne Cameron @ 8:12 AM


3,989 posted on 02/12/2007 11:35:53 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://chapelhillblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/durham-nc-hispanic-teen-charged-with.html

Sunday, February 11, 2007
Durham, NC Hispanic teen charged with possessing weapon of mass destruction


Teen charged with gun at school


BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Feb 10, 2007 : 11:18 pm ET

Durham County sheriff's deputies charged a teenager with having a firearm on school grounds Friday morning after finding a sawed-off rifle in a car at Southern High School.

The teen, Luis Vargas-Jaimes, 16, of 11-B Sergeant Place, also faces counts of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, and a further count of possessing weapons on school grounds. The weapons charge alleges that he had a knife and brass knuckles.

A magistrate ordered Vargas-Jaimes held in the Durham County Jail pending a $22,000 secured bond.

Deputies arrested a second youth, Gerson Enrique Molina, 16, of 2816 Beck Road, with Vargas-Jaimes at Southern High School on Friday and charged him with having weapons on school grounds. They allege that Molina also had brass knuckles. He went free after posting a $1,000 secured bond.

Neither Vargas-Jaimes nor Molina was enrolled at Southern.

Sheriff's Office Capt. John Flamion, who supervises the department's school resource officers, said the incident began after Deputy Brad O'Briant watched a car pull up to the school next to its tennis courts around 7:15 a.m. Friday.

O'Briant said he was on the lookout for the car because it had pulled up to the school in the same place on Thursday. Though the driveway between the school and the tennis courts isn't commonly used for pick-ups and drop-offs, two students ran out of the building and got in the hatchback Thursday before it drove off.

The department's school resource officers were also on alert Friday because there had been a fight Thursday afternoon at Northern High School after classes let out.

"We didn't know at one point whether it was all tied together," Flamion said. "One of the kids in the car knew some of the people we were dealing with the day before at Northern. But what we really think at this point is that they were there to pick up some friends and leave campus and go off like they did the day before."

After seeing the car pull up on Friday, O'Briant walked up to it and asked the teens inside to get out so he could identify them.

The deputy "didn't recognize them as students at the school," so from the start there was the potential for a trespassing charge, Flamion said. Then the car's driver proved not to have an operator's license, "and it went from there."

Deputies alleged that the .22-caliber rifle was in the back of the car, in pieces. About 6 inches of its barrel had been sawn off, apparently to make it easier to conceal. It was designed to receive bullets from a magazine, but even had it been fully assembled, its operator would have had to work the rifle's bolt action before each shot.

As designed, and as broken down, "it wasn't set up for a mass terrorist attack," Flamion said.

The knife seized during the search was something of a "novelty" item, as it was designed to resemble a pistol and had only a 2-inch blade, Flamion said.

O'Briant reported finding brass knuckles on one of the teens, and in the car's cabin.

Possession of a sawed-off rifle is "illegal in and of itself" in North Carolina, whether or not it's on school grounds, Sheriff Worth Hill said.

The state's definition of weapons of mass destruction covers rifles that have a barrel shorter than 16 inches. The one seized Friday at Southern had an 11 1/2-inch barrel, according to the arrest warrant for Vargas-Jaimes.

Hill said he was "real proud" of O'Briant for "being on alert" and following up on what he'd seen on Thursday.

Flamion said authorities were still investigating Thursday's fight at Northern High School, which involved three people. Officials intended to review video from a security camera to see if they could identify the participants, and Principal Rodriguez Teal "was going to suspend a couple of them," Flamion said.


3,990 posted on 02/12/2007 11:38:33 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; LucyT; DAVEY CROCKETT; Calpernia

Mexica/communist video and others:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65eJavAVT7M

Several up to date articles on the illegal situation, all good:

http://chapelhillblog.blogspot.com/

Crime victims of the illegals:

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.html


3,991 posted on 02/12/2007 11:50:10 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; Calpernia

[this was on page 2]

# Mysterious package causes evacuation Open this result in new window
The Arizona Republic - Feb 09 2:50 PM
A suspicious black box discovered outside an elementary school Friday was a cardboard beer box covered in plastic and filled with paper.




http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=ush2-mail&ei=UTF-8&p=Suspicious%20Package%20found&fr2=tab-web

1. Breaking News: Suspicious Package Found in Downtown Lubbock Open this result in new window
KCBD-TV Lubbock - Feb 12 10:02 AM
Updated 11:39am- Newschannel 11 is on the scene in downtown Lubbock where bomb dogs and the Lubbock County Bomb Squad is on the scene. We're told a suspicious briefcase was found in the sheriff's parking lot Monday morning.
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2. Suspicious package found at Guadalupe elementary school Open this result in new window
ABC 15 Phoenix - Feb 09 12:40 PM
A suspicious package has been found outside Frank Elementary school in Guadalupe. There are no students at the school today because of a special teacher workday.
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3. Suspicious Package Found At SEPTA El Station Open this result in new window
CBS 3 Philadelphia - Feb 09 4:30 AM
SEPTA El service was briefly interrupted after a suspicious package was found by Philadelphia Police Friday morning.
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4. Package alert as minister visits Open this result in new window
BBC News - Feb 12 7:19 AM
A suspicious package found during a tour by Transport Minister Tavish Scott is dealt with.
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5. BREAKING NEWS: Suspicious package at Guadalupe school Open this result in new window
12 News Phoenix - Feb 09 12:25 PM
Emergency crews were called to Frank Elementary School in Guadalupe Friday afternoon. A suspicious package was found at one of the entrances. There were no students at the school on Friday because teachers had a special work day.
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6. Suspicious package found at Willow Lawn Open this result in new window
NBC 12 Richmond - Feb 09 4:39 AM
There were some stunned shoppers after police descended on the Willow Lawn Shopping Center yesterday afternoon. Police and explosives experts were called to the mall after a suspicious package was spotted outside the Triple A building.
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7. Suspicious package forces PBIA to close for two hours Open this result in new window
Sun-Sentinel - Feb 10 8:57 AM
The Palm Beach International Airport has reopened after a suspicious package prompted a two-hour investigation, airport officials said.
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8. Smith evacuates area after package found Open this result in new window
The Daily Hampshire Gazette - Feb 09 10:58 AM
NORTHAMPTON -- Smith College ordered a science building to be evacuated this morning after a suspicious package was found in a first-floor bathroom. Public safety officials at the college also cleared a 150-area around Burton Hall, according to a college spokeswoman.
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9. Suspicious package shuts down Calcasieu Parish DA's office Open this result in new window
KATC 3 Lafayette - Feb 08 3:54 AM
LAKE CHARLES, La. The Calcasieu Parish District Attorney's Office was shut down for more than three hours as law enforcement agencies investigated a suspicious package...
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10. Bomb Scare Open this result in new window
KLBK CBS 13 Lubbock - Feb 12 3:10 PM
A bomb scare puts part of downtown Lubbock on lockdown Monday morning. Just before 10:00 am, a suspicious suitcase was found under a tree on the East side of the Lubbock County Courthouse across Buddy Holly Avenue.
Save


3,992 posted on 02/13/2007 12:14:23 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; Calpernia; LucyT; Velveeta

A writer in Australia, her blog is about many of her family, who emigrated from Ireland about 1840 and later.

http://stirrers-dream.blogspot.com/


3,993 posted on 02/13/2007 12:46:38 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; FARS; Founding Father; milford421

http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_043172330.html

Feb 12, 2007 5:26 pm US/Eastern
Explosive Found In Charlton Clothes Donation Bin

(WBZ) CHARLTON Worcester's district attorney and the state police are investigating after an anonymous tip led them to a Charlton clothing donation bin which had a bomb inside.

According to officials, a 32-year-old hand grenade, more than half a pound of military explosives, five electric blasting caps and five copper or bronze blasting caps were found inside a donation bin in a parking lot along Route 20 near a golf driving range.

Officials took the explosive to a wooded area where crews detonated the device.

No injuries were reported. The westbound lane of Route 20 was closed while the bomb was removed.


3,994 posted on 02/13/2007 1:03:38 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; milford421; Founding Father; FARS; Calpernia

http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_043083357.html

Feb 12, 2007 6:30 pm US/Eastern
10-Year-Old Girl Arrested For Attack In Target

(WBZ) DORCHESTER A 10-year-old girl from Jamaica Plain has been arrested for a shocking and brutal attack at a Target department store in Dorchester.

Boston police say a gang of four young girls jumped a 22-year-old woman at the South Bay Target just before 4 p.m. Sunday after the woman bumped into the 10-year-old in an aisle and allegedly refused to apologize.

Police spokesman officer Eddy Chrispin told WBZ the girls knocked the woman to the floor, hit her, ripped some of her hair out and took off her pants.

Chrispin said witnesses told police the 10-year-old kicked the woman repeatedly in the head and stomach as she was being stripped and punched by the other three girls.

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


3,995 posted on 02/13/2007 1:08:31 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; DAVEY CROCKETT; Calpernia; Founding Father; FARS; Donna Lee Nardo; LucyT

http://www.pipss.org/document449.html

Next document >>
Alexander Salagaev, Alexander Shashkin & Alexey Konnov
One Hand Washes Another : Informal Ties Between Organized Criminal Groups and Law-Enforcement Agencies in Russia
Abstract

This article discusses the forms, contents and peculiarities of the existing informal ties between members of organized criminal groups and representatives of law-enforcement agencies in the Tatarstan Republic of Russia. Particular attention is paid to the origins of informal ties; ways how these relations are established, maintained, and utilized by both parts; causes of corruption in the law-enforcement agencies and the possibilities to understand it. The main conclusions are based on the results of ninety-six in-depth interviews with the law-enforcement officers, businessmen, members of organized criminal groups, and journalists conducted in main cities and towns of the Tatarstan Republic under support of the Transnational Crime and Corruption Centre at American University.

continues...


Index for one issue:

http://www.pipss.org/sommaire448.html


3,996 posted on 02/13/2007 1:26:57 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; struwwelpeter; FARS; Founding Father

JRL: One more time on the Alexander Litvinenko case

#32 - JRL 2007-34 - JRL Home
From: "Vadim Birstein"
pipeline.com
Subject: on the Litvinenko case
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007

One more time on the Alexander Litvinenko case

In his detailed excellent analysis of Litvinenko's assassination and
the current political events in Russia published in Johnson's Russia
List #29 on February 6, 2007 (#43), Prof. Vladimir Shlapentokh stated
that polonium-210 was "the first radioactive material to be used in a
murder." In fact, another agent, Nikolai Khokhlov, was the first
victim known to be poisoned by a radioactive substance. In that case,
which took place in West Germany in 1957, KGB assassins used
radioactive thallium.

The stories of Litvinenko and Khokhlov have much in common.
Litvinenko, a FSB officer, was ordered to kill the Russian oligarch
Boris Berezovsky, but, instead, after releasing this information at a
press conference in 1998, he escaped from Russia to live in London.
Khokhlov, an officer of the 12th Department of the 2nd MVD Main
Directorate (the successor to Pavel Sudoplatov's infamous Buro No.1,
which placed terrorists and assassins abroad), arrived in Germany in
February 1954 with an order to kill Georgii Okolovich, chief of
operations of the anti-Soviet Russian émigré organization the National
Labor Alliance (NTS). As was usual in such assassination cases, this
order had been approved by the Presidium of the Central Committee.
Khokhlov was provided with a sophisticated electrically operated gun
with a silencer that fired cyanide-tipped bullets. The gun was
concealed inside a cigarette packet.

Instead of killing Okolovich, Khokhlov defected to the CIA and told
Okolovich and CIA officials about his mission. In 1957, still living
in West Germany, Khokhlov fell ill and was hospitalized. Sudoplatov
described Khokhlov in his controversial memoirs as an unstable person
who "claimed that he was poisoned at a cocktail party by the KGB"
[Sudoplatov, P., et al., "Special Tasks" (Boston: Little, Brown & Co.,
1994), p. 247]. No doubt he was irritated that American doctors had
saved Khokhlov's life. Unfortunately, his appearance was much altered.
Khokhlov wrote in his autobiography [Khokhlov, N., "In the Name of
Conscience" (NY: David McKay, 1959), p. 363]:

"I . . . was an exhibit of the achievements of Soviet science. Totally
bald, so disfigured by scars and spots that those who had known me did
not at first recognize me, confined to a rigid diet, I was
nevertheless also living proof that Soviet science, the science of
killing, is not omnipotent."

Khokhlov's poisoning with radioactive thallium is mentioned in the
classic book on Soviet secret services by Christopher Andrew and Oleg
Gordievsky [Andrew, Ch., and O. Gordievsky, "KGB: The Inside Story"
(NY: Harper Collins Publ., 1990), p. 464]. This book gives many
examples of assassinations and kidnappings by the Russian secret
services during Soviet years. Ironically, even more information about
such events appears in new books published by FSB and SVR historians
which aim to glorify these services and their history. From these
recent publications we learn that death squads led by Yakov
Serebryansky acted throughout Western Europe in 1920s-30s; Yakov
Blyumkin was hunting for Boris Bazhanov, one of Stalin's secretaries
who dared to defect to the West in 1928, but ended up killing the
wrong man; Naum Eitingon, Blyumkin's deputy and Sudoplatov's future
collaborator and organizer of Trotsky's assassination, planted a bomb
that killed Chinese Marshal Chang Tso-lin in 1928 (this was the second
Soviet attempt on Marshal's life) and unsuccessfully tried to kill
Franz von Pappen, the German Ambassador in Turkey, in 1942; Sergei
Spiegelglas, the executioner of Stalin's personal enemies, supervised
several political killings and kidnappings in Europe and shot NKVD
defector Ignacy Reiss (Poretsky) in 1937; Alexander Korotkov
assassinated several people in Europe in the late 1930s and, according
to a fellow agent, pushed Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovak Foreign Minister,
out of a window in February 1948. However, these acts were only the
tip of the iceberg. If Litvinenko's killers were from the Russian
secret services, retired or active, they were following a long
OGPU/FSB/SVR tradition. During Soviet times, political assassinations
were routinely discussed at Politburo/Presidium meetings and ordered
by the members of the Politburo/Presidium, with the secret service
leaders reporting back on the success or failure of these orders.

Given this history, I am amazed that some journalists who covered the
case did not believe that Litvinenko's assassination could have been
ordered at the highest Russian political level (see, for instance,
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=147021). Especially in
light of the law adopted in July 2006 that explicitly gives the
Russian President the right to order the secret services to kill
"extremists" abroad (for example,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6188658.stm). It has only been 15
years since the demise of the Soviet Union. Why is it so difficult to
believe that this assassination could have been ordered by the Russian
president, especially one who is the former head of the FSB and has
the legal right, according to Russian law, to order such an
assassination? If Putin did order the Litvinenko's assassination, it
is very likely he felt completely justified in doing so.

But the reporting on the Litvinenko murder was flawed in other ways
than just the lack of historical context. For instance, the extensive
reporting about Litvinenko's alleged relationship with a Russian
student lacked important biographic details. On November 25, 2006 the
British "Telegraph" reported on a press conference given by "two
academics from the University of Westminster," Julia Svetlichnaja and
James Heartfield
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/25/npoison225.xml).
On December 3, 2006 the British "Guardian" described Svetlichnaja as
"a 33-year-old Russian-born academic who is examining the roots of the
Chechen conflict for a book she is writing"
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,329651798-103610,00.html)
and "a Russian academic . . . who met Litvinenko earlier this year and
received more than 100 emails from him"
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1962830.00.html).
Svetlichnaja said she had met with Litvinenko a number of times and
that he told her that "he was going to blackmail or sell sensitive
information about all kinds of powerful people." While I am certainly
not going to defend the character of someone like Litvinenko, this
statement makes him out to be a blackmailer who would tell his
business to someone he hardly knew, which is very inconsistent with
the almost universal reports of how cautious he was.

I decided to check up on the alleged Chechnya specialist Svetlichnaja,
and took the simple step of opening the website of the University of
Westminster. There Julia Svetlichnaja is described as "a Phd Candidate
at CSD. Under the supervision of Professor Chantal Mouffe, Julia is
working on the nature of the relationship between art and politics"
(http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ssh/page-1966). The title of Svetlichnaja's
thesis will be "Art of Empire?," and there is no notion that anything
will be connected with Chechnya in her thesis. According to the site,
Svetlichnaja has published abstracts (not even papers, so she is not
much of an "academic") entitled "Art of absence against valorisation
of subjectivity" (2005), and "Relational Paradise as a delusional
democracy­a critical response to a temporary contemporary relational
aesthetics" (2006) in the proceedings of two conferences. With this
background, why was she talking to Litvinenko?

The description of Svetlichnaja's co-participant in the interview on
Litvinenko, Professor James Heartfield (born James Hughes), is more
impressive. The site of University of Westminster says: "He is
studying the dynamic towards European integration, from the point of
view of diminishing national sovereignty. He has written widely on
European civil society, the `death of the Subject,' and economic
regeneration" (http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sshl/page-1110). However, another
website provides information from Professor Heartfield's past that
possibly sheds light on why he was involved in the Litvinenko case:
"He is a Manchester branch organizer of the now defunct Revolutionary
Communist Party; in the early nineties, wrote for Living Marxism until
it was closed by a libel action in 2000. He helped write the party's
manifesto"
(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Heartfield).

Given the background of these two, did anybody verify if Svetlichnaja,
in fact, had 100 emails from Litvinenko? Did anybody try to check if
the photos of Litvinenko Svetlichnaja actively distributed were
authentic? None of the reports mention whether these checks were done,
but given the ease of falsifying photos and emails, they certainly
should have been checked out. I do not know if Svetlichnaja's
interviews were simply self-promotion or, perhaps, disinformation
disseminated through her, for instance, by the FSB. But it is clear
journalists should inform their readers when there are possible
ulterior motives at work.

Here is one more example of one-sided reporting around the Litvinenko
case. On November 20, 2006, the British "Independent" published an
article entitled "Mary Dejevsky: Caution . . . handle allegations of
poisoning with care." The author, analyzing Anna Politkovskaya's
murder and poisoning of Litvinenko, advices caution regarding
conclusions on the involvement of President Putin in these cases
(http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_1/mary_dejevsky/article1998839.ece).
At the end, she writes:

"I would also recall this. In February 2004, journalists were invited
to a plush hotel (. . . in Piccadilly), to be regaled with an
extraordinary story from a bedraggled Russian MP, who was standing
against Putin in imminent elections. The MP, Ivan Rybkin, gave a
muddled account of being abducted, put on a train [going to Kiev­V.
B.], drugged and filmed in compromising positions. It was all, we were
told, the doing of Putin and his secret agents.

The truth turned out to be rather different. Rybkin, not for the first
time, had been on a bender. He and his supporters abroad had found an
ingenious way of `explaining' his absence to his wife and discrediting
Putin at the same time. Alas, Rybkin could not keep up the pretence."

Unfortunately, Ms. Dejevsky did not release the source of her "truth"
about Rybkin or even say why she thought her characterization of this
incident was true. What evidence does she have that Rybkin was lying?

I have no illusions about the life style of contemporary Russian
politicians like Rybkin. However, to me Ms. Dejevsky's scenario does
not look convincing. A Russian long-time politician who was so
ambitious that dared to become a rival of Putin in the presidential
race commits a political suicide. Wasn't it too convenient for Putin
that Rybkin allegedly suddenly went on a wild bender at the beginning
of their race?

I also know the history of Soviet/Russian secret services and in my
opinion, the drugging of Rybkin was certainly a possibility. In
Rybkin's case Ms. Dejevsky should have at least mentioned the opinions
of Litvinenko and Oleg Kalugin, who were both professional KGB
officers. They had no doubt that a psychotropic drug known as SP-117
was given to Rybkin (http://grani.ru/Politics/Election/p.60303).

As many of such drugs, SP-117 consists of a dote and an antidote.
According to Litvinenko and Kalugin, 15 minutes after taking two drops
of the dote dissolved in any drink, a person looses all control. This
condition lasts for several hours, and the state of disorientation can
be prolonged by giving the person more of the dote. When given the
antidote, the person comes to his senses in about 10 minutes, but has
no memory of what happened to him.

Kalugin had this to say about the Rybkin affair (my translation from
Russian): "For instance, he might have been forced to take `the dote,'
and then was taken to a hidden place where he was kept in an
disoriented state for several days. In this state `girls' could be
placed with him and any compromising film could be made. On the film,
it would look like a completely drunken man having fun with
prostitutes. Also, any kind of a `confession' could have been
extracted from him, for example, that he was an agent of 20 foreign
intelligence services. . . He might have been threatened with a repeat
of this `experiment' and with the leak of compromising materials to
the press if he did not step down from the presidential race." Rybkin
did in fact step down.

In another interview given on December 1, 2006, Kalugin said (again,
my translation): "I think Ivan Rybkin was the last victim who managed
to come alive out from such a situation. The preparation SP-117 was
administered to him. It is an old drug, we used it in Washington in
the 1960s. It is very easy to use: one needs to put a small amount of
it in wine, tea, in anything, and a person becomes disoriented, looses
control, and starts to talk a lot. We used it on two persons, we
wanted them to release the truth. However, for extracting information
this preparation is not efficient. . ."
(http://www.nrs.com/news/int/usa/011206_164256_87715.html).

Rybkin was lucky if he was given only SP-117. The same year former KGB
officers in the Ukraine put dioxin into the food of Viktor Yushchenko,
the rival of Moscow-supported candidate Viktor Yanukovich, at a
"friendly" dinner. As in Khokhlov's case, skillful doctors saved
Yushchenko's life. But, like Khokhlov's, Yushchenko's face became
disfigured.

Therefore, I think that history teaches us that the Soviet/Russian
secret services' ruthlessness, ingenuity and willingness to eliminate
perceived enemies should not be underestimated and authors would be
well advised to study this history before writing about their
activities.

Dr. Vadim Birstein
www.vadimbirstein.com,
the author of "The Perversion of Knowledge: The True Story of Soviet
Science" (Westview Press, 2001; Basic Books, 2004).




Unfortunately, I dont have any time now to translate this article on
Svetlichnya, which sheds still more light on her, and her intentions.
"What a pitiful creature" that what Litvineko said about her, when she
left his house. M.L.


http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2007/01/31/20070131145623387.html
Yahoo! Groups Links


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


3,997 posted on 02/13/2007 1:58:51 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; Founding Father; milford421; FARS; Calpernia

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=26770

See No Jihad, Hear No Jihad
By FrontPage Magazine
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 5, 2007

In a decision that reveals the state of denial on American campuses, the editorial board of the Georgica Tech student paper – The Georgia Tech Technique – has rejected an ad from the Terrorism Awareness Project warning students about the threat that radical Islam poses to America. Nor is it the first campus publication to chill open debate on radical Islamic terrorism.

Entitled “What Americans Need To Know About Jihad,” the ad warns students that “the goal of jihad is world domination,” and that “Jihad’s battle cry is ‘Death to America.’” The ad includes quotes from several radical Islamic leaders, such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has declared, “Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute. Death to America. I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide.”



The Technique ad department initially accepted the ad and processed payment for it. But then the editors got a hold of it and killed the deal.



When asked to explain why the ad was rejected, an editor at the Technique declared that it was “hateful,” “offensive,” and “misleading.” In particular, the editor was upset that the ad draws a connection between Islamic radicals and the Nazis. This complaint refers to the pamphlet titled The Nazi Roots of Palestinian Nationalism and Islamic Jihad, which is advertised in the ad. The pamphlet describes the role that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the universally recognized father of Palestinian nationalism, played as a follower of Adolf Hitler during WWII.



When a representative from TAP offered to alter the ad, the Technique replied that everything in it was offensive and no alteration would help.



“The Technique’s rejection of this ad reveals exactly why the Terrorism Awareness Project is needed on America’s campuses,” commented TAP National Coordinator Stephen Miller, who is currently a senior at Duke University. “Universities and Middle East Studies Departments turn a blind eye to the threat of radical Islam, resulting in ignorance and denial. The editors of the Technique claimed that our ad was ‘hateful’ and ‘misleading,’ and refused to print it even if it were limited to actual quotes from radical Islamic leaders. In other words, the Techique's editors are simply trying to suppress the truth about the radical Islamic threat.”



The Technique is one of 15 college newspapers which have so far been approached about running the TAP ad. Several other universities—including Purdue, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan—have rejected the ad, some without providing any reason for its rejection.



Jeffrey Wienir, who has been responsible for placing the ad in many of campus newspapers across the nation, also handled rejection calls. “When they reject the ad, I begin asking piece-by-piece: ‘What can we change to make the ad acceptable for your publication? What if we remove this, or that?’”



The editors, he said, usually branded the ad “hateful” and “misleading,” without specifying any change that could be made. One campus newspaper told Wienir it refused to run the article, because it feared those scanning the ad might think it was a pro-jihad organization (which does not speak well of the educational level of its students). Another said, incredibly, that any description of Islam would be misleading, because it was “not produced by a member of that group—as if I couldn't speak about jihad unless I was a jihadist.”



The TAP ad has been accepted for publication at a number of universities, including some of the most left-wing (and pro-Palestinian) campuses in the country: San Francisco State University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Duke University.



TAP has also produced a short flash video entitled The Islamic Mein Kampf, which documents the genocidal agendas of Islamic radicals like Iranian president Mahmoud Achmadinejdad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The video was distributed to more than 850,000 individuals across America this week, including the entire liberal arts faculties of several universities.



The Terrorism Awareness Project (TAP) is a new national program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. It was launched this week to alert the American public—and particularly American college students—to the threat posed by radical Islam. The TAP ad and video clip can be viewed on the program’s website at www.terrorismawareness.org.


3,998 posted on 02/13/2007 2:14:19 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; Founding Father; FARS; milford421; Calpernia

http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/Articles/Too%20late%20to%20halt%20Iran%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s%20nuclear%20bomb.html

Too late to halt Iran’s nuclear bomb, EU is told

By Daniel Dombey and Fidelius Schmid in Brussels

Published: February 12 2007 22:18 | Last updated: February 12 2007 22:18


3,999 posted on 02/13/2007 2:19:13 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; StillProud2BeFree; Calpernia; milford421; FARS; Founding Father

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/02/sheikh-gilanis-money-pipeline.html

Monday, February 12, 2007
Sheikh Gilani’s Money Pipeline

by Baron Bodissey

Khadijah GhafurKhadijah Ghafur is a follower of Sheikh Gilani, the Pakistani founder of the Muslims of America and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. She herself established the Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound known as “Baladullah” in rural California. Last August a California Superior Court judge sentenced her to fourteen years in prison for embezzling money from a chain of charter schools that she established.

It was a classic Fuqra operation — scam the government for a lot of cash, and then use it… for what?

The Mercury News has been investigating that exact question:

Where did the money go?

The answer could lie in evidence never introduced in court. The Mercury News has learned of several overseas fund transfers, a mysterious letter and a web of connections between Ghafur and an obscure Pakistani cleric known as Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Gilani.

Supporters say Gilani is a charitable teacher and spiritual leader who promotes self-improvement. But over the years, state and federal authorities have described him as the head of an international terrorist group who draws financial support from followers in the United States.


Ghafur was a shrewd operator. The charter school business looked like a golden opportunity to her:
- - - - - - - - - -

Ghafur, the community’s matriarch, had lofty ideas and a knack for getting people to embrace them. She impressed Fresno school officials in 1998 with her plans for a charter school serving low-income families.

California was then in the vanguard of a national movement. New rules opened the door for community groups to create schools and operate them with public funds.

“We all wanted to believe in what they were doing, what they said they intended to do,” said Marilyn Shepherd, then-director of charter schools with the Fresno district.

Ghafur opened the first Gateway Academy charter school in Fresno in 2000. There was another campus housed in a ramshackle building at Baladullah.

In less than a year, Ghafur had built an empire of a dozen campuses around the state, mostly by affiliating with existing private schools. In official documents, Gateway projected a 2001-02 enrollment of 1,400 students.

The number would never reach more than half that.

[…]

Fresno school district officials, meanwhile, were becoming concerned. A Gateway campus had reported 100 percent attendance — a rarity at any school — on a day when Shepherd visited and found the classrooms closed. Gateway also was reporting an unexplained operating deficit of $1.3 million. Fresno officials asked the state Department of Justice for help.

The assignment went to Special Agent Thomas Win, a veteran white-collar crime investigator based in Fresno. Win, 46, is genial and intensely focused, the kind of cop who favors Hawaiian shirts on his own time but wears a crisp suit and tie to work. It didn’t take him long to discover that Ghafur had 29 bank accounts. To him, the sheer number signaled that someone might be moving money around surreptitiously.

Poring through records with a forensic accountant, Win found evidence that Ghafur used money from the school to repay debts, including loans for the purchase of Baladullah and other property.

The evidence would persuade a jury in July 2006 to convict Ghafur on 13 counts of grand theft, misappropriation, fraud and tax evasion.


But there was a lot more money unaccounted for.

The number of accounts and the flow of money made Win suspect “structuring” — an illegal ploy to move large sums without detection, by keeping individual transactions below $10,000, the minimum level before banks must report to the federal government.

But it was the destination that raised Win’s eyebrows. Ghafur had transferred the money to her husband, Salih Ghafur, in Islamabad, Pakistan.


Anyone who studies Sheikh Gilani notices that the man likes money. Lots of it. According to sources, members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra are required to send thirty percent of their income to their spiritual master in Pakistan. Tithing is not good enough for the sheikh!

Sheikh Gilani also has a thriving online business selling his tapes and books, complete with Paypal and shopping carts.

So what does he use all that money for?

Analysts who study the Alice in Wonderland world of Pakistani extremist groups say Gilani has supported Muslim insurgents in the disputed Chinese-Pakistani-Indian region of Kashmir. In recruiting videos from the 1980s, seized by authorities, Gilani boasted that he provided “highly specialized training in guerrilla warfare” and encouraged anyone interested in joining to contact the Muslims of the Americas.


Which brings us right back to Charlotte County, Virginia, and the Muslims of America compound in Red House. This part might sound familiar to the people of Charlotte County:

Baladullah wasn’t just a residential enclave, though about 100 men, women and children lived there in mobile homes. It’s unclear whether everyone there was a Gilani follower, and some would later deny that Baladullah was officially connected to Gilani. But a sign out front announced it was also a campus of International Qur’anic Open University, the educational arm of Gilani’s movement.

Although the nearest neighbor was miles away, the property was surrounded by a fence and occasionally guarded by young men with guns.


Regular readers of this blog know this setup. It’s the standard modus operandi for Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

Here are some words about Sheikh Gilani’s people that the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors might want to ponder:

In an internal planning document, the Department of Homeland Security listed Jamaat ul-Fuqra in 2005 among a handful of U.S.-based Islamist organizations that “require continued monitoring.”

The document, first disclosed by Congressional Quarterly, said Ul-Fuqra has 1,000 to 3,000 members and “continues to conceal its activities and prepare itself for a possible confrontation with U.S. authorities.” [emphasis added]


The leader of this group has a road named after him in Charlotte County. The Board of Supervisors voted last week to affirm that name and retain it on the county road sign.

The Sheikh lives well enough on his American cash cow. But he has other uses for the money as well:

Canadian authorities say Ul-Fuqra leaders are actively recruiting North Americans “to send regular donations in support of Fuqra jihad activities in Kashmir,” according to a classified Canadian government report quoted by the National Post newspaper in June.

“It is very clear” that Gilani gets money from his American followers “for supporting Kashmiri militants and establishing the network of the Qur’anic University,” said Mohammad Amir Rana, who tracks extremist groups for a Lahore think tank, the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.


So the money trail leads from the pockets of American taxpayers through the members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra in the United States into the hawala network and eventually gets to Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan, where it is put to good use slaughtering infidels in Kashmir. Blowing up buses and schools. Kidnapping. Massacring entire villages. Ethnic cleansing.

Nice call, Charlotte County.


Hat tip: B.O., via email.

Baron Bodissey | 2/12/2007 12:07:00 AM


4,000 posted on 02/13/2007 2:38:16 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)
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