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
C414 Down Near Atlanta, Three Lost
Officials Report Fog In Area
Firefighters report at least three people were killed after a Cessna
414
Chancellor crashed on approach to Briscoe Field, outside Atlanta, GA
Monday
night.
Lt. Craig Stanley, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Fire Department,
said
the twin-engine aircraft (file photo of type, below right) impacted a
dirt
parking lot about 75 yards from the runway just after 8:40 pm. He says
crews
are still searching for other possible victims.
“There was a fire, obviously a lot of wreckage, a lot of debris in
the
area,” Stanley told the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Officials report fog in the area at the time of the crash, and the
plane
went down on its second approach to land at the suburban airport. The
plane's pilot was in contact with the tower at Gwinnett County, Stanley
said, but there was no distress call from the aircraft.
The controller on duty at Briscoe Field called 911 after seeing an
orange
glow near the plane's last reported position.
Officials say the plane's flight plan indicates it was inbound to
Gwinnett
County from Pembroke Pines, FL.
The victims have not been identified. Investigators with the National
Transportation Safety Board are due to arrive onscene Tuesday.
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 62950 Make/Model: C414 Description: 414,
Chancellor
Date: 12/25/2006 Time: 0141
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N
Missing: N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
City: LAWRENCEVILLE State: GA Country: US
DESCRIPTION
ACFT CRASHED ON APPROACH, THE THREE PERSONS ON BOARD WERE FATALLY
INJURED,
LAWRENCEVLLE, GA
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 3
# Crew: 1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0 Min: 0
Unk:
# Pass: 2 Fat: 2 Ser: 0 Min: 0
Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0
Unk:
WEATHER: LZU 0045Z 00000KT 1/2SM FG VV001 08/08 A2968
OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Approach Operation: OTHER
Departed: PAHOKEE, FL Dep Date: Dep. Time:
Destination: LAWRENCEVILLE, GA Flt Plan: IFR Wx
Briefing:
Last Radio Cont:
Last Clearance:
FAA FSDO: COLLEGE PARK, GA (SO11) Entry date:
12/26/2006
FMI: www.faa.gov
aero-news.net
Report: Comair Pilot Fired After FA Smells Alcohol
Airline Will Not Confirm Events Are Related
A pilot for Delta Connection carrier Comair has been let go from the
airline, after a flight attendant noticed the smell of alcohol on the
pilot's breath before a flight earlier this month.
Cincinnati, OH television station WLWT-TV reports the incident occurred
on a
December 1 flight at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
(KCVG). Sources tell the station the pilot was removed from the flight
after
the FA smelled alcohol, and alerted supervisors.
Comair confirmed an incident occurred, and that the pilot involved was
no
longer with the airline... but refused to link the two events. WLWT
states
its sources confirm the pilot was fired.
Authorities have not released the reading of a blood-alcohol test
administered to the pilot after the incident. The FAA states pilots
cannot
have a BAC level higher than .04 percent.
The agency says less than 10 pilots per year, out of nearly 142,000 who
hold
an airline transport rating, are caught violating BAC limits.
FMI: www.faa.gov, www.comair.com
aero-news.net
Global Islamic Media Front Inciting Muslims to Participate in Jihad in Somalia
http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications238306&Category=publications&Subcategory=0
Statement Published by the Global Islamic Media Front Inciting Muslims
to Participate in Jihad in Somalia
By SITE Institute
December 26, 2006
Inciting Muslims to participate in jihad in Somalia, writing of doing
such as a religious obligation incumbent upon them, the Global Islamic
Media Front published and distributed a document among jihadist forums
yesterday, Monday, December 25, 2006, titled: “Ride the Horses of
Allah: Not a Single One of You Should Pray During the Feast Day Except in
Addis Ababa”. Arguing that the road of jihad has been opened to Addis
Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the author uses a combination of
Qur’anic verses, words from Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, cheerleading, and
ridicule to motivate prospective Mujahideen to take up arms and travel to
Somalia. The document states: “Come on you lion, get up roar and show the
infidels the strength of the soldiers of the Merciful One. Come on my
brother, aren’t you tired from sitting with the women? No, in the Name
of Allah, even the women did not sit, but they got up and did jihad and
terrorized the enemies, so where are you? What is your role?”
A translation of the message is provided to our Intel Service members.
U.S. Says Captured Iranians Can Be Linked to Attacks
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/middleeast/27iranians.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
U.S. Says Captured Iranians Can Be Linked to Attacks
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: December 27, 2006
BAGHDAD, Dec. 26 — The American military said Tuesday that it had
credible evidence linking Iranians and their Iraqi associates, detained
here in raids last week, to criminal activities, including attacks
against American forces. Evidence also emerged that some detainees had been
involved in shipments of weapons to illegal armed groups in Iraq.
U.S. backs Ethiopia in Somalia
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192360218&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
U.S. backs Ethiopia in Somalia
Says nation has security concerns stemming from rise of Islamists
From Wire Reports
Dec 27, 2006
American involvement in the war in Somalia appeared to deepen yesterday
with reports that American planes were spotted overflying Somalia and
possibly funneling battlefield intelligence to Ethiopian forces.
Click here.
Maj. Kelley Thibodeau, spokeswoman for the task force of American
military personnel based in nearby Djibouti, told reporters, "I am not at
liberty to discuss that."
There are more than 100 American soldiers in Ethiopia helping train
troops. But Thibodeau said, "Officially, we haven't put anybody in
Somalia. The Americans don't go forward with the Ethiopians. They are training
Ethiopians in Ethiopia."
In Washington, the State Department signaled support for the Ethiopian
military operations against Islamic militants in Somalia, noting that
Ethiopia has had "genuine security concerns" stemming from the rise of
Islamist forces in its eastern neighbor.
Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos also noted that the Ethiopian
military acted at the request of Somalia's internationally backed secular
government, which had been resisting with little success the spreading
influence of the more powerful Islamist forces. Gallegos had no
information on whether the U.S. has been bolstering the Ethiopian military
through delivery of supplies. He noted that Ethiopia has said its action
is intended to prevent further aggression by the Islamic Courts militias
of Somalia.
The Bush administration has been increasingly alarmed by the growing
strength of the militias and the welcome they reportedly have given to
al-Qaida militants.
The Islamic militants operate under the umbrella of the Council of
Islamic Courts.
The government has no presence in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, its
reach limited to the western town of Baidoa. In contrast, the CIC has
dominated the country's entire southern region.
A priority U.S. goal in Somalia is the capture of three reputed
al-Qaida militants wanted in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania in 1998 and a hotel in Kenya in 2002. The three are from Sudan,
Kenya and the Comoros Islands, off Africa's east coast.
Al-Qaida militants are operating with "great comfort" in Somalia,
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said recently.
The Islamists have caused unease in Washington by expressing interest
in establishing a "Greater Somalia" that would include ethnic Somali
regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
Two weeks ago, the Pentagon recommended a new U.S. military command for
Africa, which is seen as having greater strategic importance to the
U.S. since the start of the fight against terrorism.
Currently, U.S. military responsibility for Africa has been split among
several commands, all based elsewhere.
The U.S. consistently has backed the establishment of an African force
to help defend the Baidoa government, thus creating a power balance
between the government and the CIC and enhance prospects for negotiations
on power sharing.
But with Ethiopia's invasion, creation of the force now seems highly
unlikely.
Ethiopia has been backing the Somali government for months, while
Eritrea has been supporting the Islamists.
Iran Is Seeking More Influence in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/asia/27afghan.ready.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Iran Is Seeking More Influence in Afghanistan
Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
A sign on the new highway from Herat to Iran says “God is great” but also sends another message: This road built courtesy of Iran.
By DAVID ROHDE
Published: December 27, 2006
ISLAM QALA, Afghanistan — Two years ago, foreign engineers built a new highway through the desert of western Afghanistan, past this ancient trading post and on to the outside world. Nearby, they strung a high-voltage power line and laid a fiber-optic cable, marked with red posts, that provides telephone and Internet access to the region.
continued..........
Mumbai 7/11: Suspects obtained Iran pilgrimage visas to get to Pakistan
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/26blasts.htm
Many 7/11 accused obtained 'pilgrimage visas' for Iran
December 26, 2006 20:25 IST
Passport agents and tour operators have told the police that many of
the
accused in the July 11 serial train blasts case had obtained
"pilgrimage
visas" for Iran, ostensibly for visting Shia religious sites in that
country.
It is the case of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, the agency probing the
blasts,
that some of the accused had been to Pakistan via Iran to take training
in
arms and ammunition.
The statement of some of the witnesses in the bomb blasts case,
recorded
under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code before a magistrate, were
opened in the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act Court
on
Tuesday.
In his statement, a package tour operator said one Mushtaq approached
him in
2004 with Muzammil's (accused in the case) passport saying that the
latter
was a Shia and wanted to go to Iran for the 'ziyarat' and hence asked
for
making arrangements for his visa and tickets.
Accordingly, the travel agent made all arrangemnets but Muzammil did
not
join his tour.
Another travel agent said that over a period of time, the tour
operators
arranged for the travel of July 11 blasts suspects Tanvir Ansari,
Muzammil,
Zameer, Mohammed Ali Chipa and Feroze Ghaswalla along with one Zulfegar
to
Iran.
"People from the Shia sect visit Mashhad in Iran to pray at the
mausoleum of
the eighth leader of the sect Imam Raza, Qoom city where the mausoleum
of
his wife Fatima, and Tehran where the mausoleum of Aalim Khomeni are
located," the agent said in the statement.
The authorities affix a stamp on the passports of the pilgrims based
upon
which he is served the holy food, the witness said, adding no such
stamps
were found on the passport of Muzammil and Zameer.
"They had never gone for ziyarat in Iran," he said.
"I have seen the photocopies of passports of Muzammil, Zameer, Sohail,
Faisal and Tanvir (all July 11 blasts suspects), but none have the
stamp of
the authorities. They have never been to Iran for ziyarat," said the
second
operator.
According to the ATS, Faisal is the mastermind behind the explosions
and had
arranged for the training in Pakistan for all the other accused in
camps run
by Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence.
"If I had known that they are not Shias, I would not have arranged for
their
travel," he said.
Seven powerful explosions had rocked the first class compartments of
suburban local trains in Mumbai during the evening rush hour on July 11
killing more than 185 commuters and injuring over 600.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759107/posts
Russia links YUKOS boss to Litvinenko
Reuters ^ | Wed Dec 27, 2006 | Guy Faulconbridge
Posted on 12/27/2006 12:26:05 PM PST by A. Pole
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53513
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
U.S. finally admits Arafat
murdered American officials
State Department declassifies report
on 1973 terror attack in Khartoum
Posted: December 27, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Joseph Farah
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – After 33 years of secrecy, the U.S. State Department has finally declassified a document admitting it knew the late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, plotted and supervised the murders of two U.S. diplomats in Sudan in 1973, a cover-up first exposed by WND in January 2001.
Yasser Arafat
The document, released earlier this year, with no fanfare, makes it clear the Khartoum operation "was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval" of Arafat, a frequent visitor to the White House throughout the 1990s who died in 2004.
In the attack March 1, 1973, eight members of the Black September terrorist organization, part of Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO, stormed the Saudi embassy in Khartoum on Arafat's orders, taking U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, diplomat Charge d'Affaires George Curtis Moore and others hostage, and one day later, killing Noel, Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid.
(Story continues below)
The admission comes 33 years after James J. Welsh, then the National Security Agency's Palestinian analyst, saw a communication intercepted from Arafat to his terrorist commandos in Sudan.
Within minutes, Welsh told WND, the director of the NSA was notified and the decision was made to send a rare "FLASH" message – the highest priority – to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum via the State Department.
But the message didn't reach the embassy in time. Somewhere between the NSA and the State Department, someone decided the warning was too vague. The alert was downgraded in urgency.
The next day, eight members of Black September, part of Arafat's Fatah organization, stormed the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, took Noel, Moore and others hostage. A day later, on March 2, 1973, Noel, Moore and Eid were machine-gunned to death – all, Welsh had insisted for years, on the direct orders of Arafat.
Welsh, who left the Navy and NSA in 1974, spoke to WND about the incident in 2001 after years of attempting to get answers from his own agency and the State Department. He became particularly troubled about the cover-up of Arafat's role in the murders of American officials when President Clinton invited the PLO leader to the White House for direct negotiations on the Middle East.
Ever since, he had been on a personal one-man mission to uncover the tape recordings and transcripts of those intercepts between Arafat and Fatah leader Salah Khalaf, also known as Abu-Iyad, in Beirut and Khalil al-Wazir in Khartoum.
"I have decided that my oaths of secrecy must give way to my sense of right and wrong," he told WND. "I was particularly outraged as I had spent four years following these individuals and, at the moment of our greatest intelligence coup against them, an uninformed GS level had pooh-poohed our work and cost the lives of two U.S. diplomats," he recalls.
Welsh has continued to research the Arafat murders continually and stumbled upon the 2006 State Department document during a routine Internet search.
The document goes on to say that Fatah leaders never expected their hostage-taking to result in the freeing of the captives. A primary goal of the attack, it says, "was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement which many Arabs believe would be inimical to Palestinian interests."
The report also said the Khartoum operation demonstrated the ability of the Black September organization to strike where least expected and warned the U.S. was at risk of future attacks from the group and its Fatah allies.
Welsh believes the initial cover-up of the communications breakdown and the role of Arafat was launched to prevent embarrassment to the State Department and White House. President Nixon, he points out, was in the death throes of the Watergate scandal at the time. The last thing he needed, Welsh speculates, was an international scandal to deal with on the front page of the Washington Post.
Later, after Nixon was gone, Welsh believes the whole matter of the Arafat tapes was kept quiet to protect the future viability of signals intelligence intercepts of this kind. And, finally, he said, the cover-up persisted to foster Arafat's role as a "peacemaker" and leader of the Palestinian cause.
Back in 1973, Welsh had received spontaneous transcripts of the dialogue between Arafat and his subordinates. But, under NSA protocol, he was not permitted to keep copies. Under normal procedure, he expected copies of the final transcripts and tapes to arrive on his desk for further analysis. They never came.
"Things were recorded but never arrived at my desk," he recalls. "I know they were recorded because I was receiving simultaneous reports from a collection site. The warning I drafted for the State Department was based on those reports."
After the deadly attack in Khartoum, Arafat ordered the eight gunmen to surrender peacefully to the Sudanese authorities. Two were released for "lack of evidence." Later, in June 1973, the other six were found guilty of murdering the three diplomats. They were sentenced to life imprisonment and released 24 hours later to the PLO.
Before surrendering, the Khartoum terrorists demanded the release of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the convicted assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, as well as others being held in Israeli and European prisons. Nixon refused to negotiate.
Death to U.N. Workers Urged in Pakistan
December 27, 2006 4:00 PM
Habibullah Khan Reports:
Taliban_peace_nr_2Kill all employees of the United Nations is among the instructions issued to followers in a new fatwa that was issued in Pakistan this week.
Yet another worrisome sign that the Taliban is gaining further ground in the northwest frontier provinces of Pakistan, an extremist leader has issued a fatwa instructing followers to target and kill all employees of non-government organizations, including workers for the United Nations and human rights organizations.
The United Nations has already heeded the warning and has banned all travel for employees to the area where the fatwa was issued and has cautioned employees from traveling to nearby regions.
In his fatwa, Mufti Khalid Shah terms all employees of NGOs as agents of Jews and Christians. Shah stresses that there is no need to ask permission to kill and that everyone should declare jihad. He also adds that the time has come to use weapons of mass destruction against his enemies.
continued..........
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/incl/printable_version.php?pnt=225
Americans and Russians Agree U.S. is No. 1, But Disagree on the Up and Comers
Questionnaire
The United States is unquestionably the world’s dominant nation, Russians and Americans agree. But while Russians put themselves among today’s top three powers—and believe they will play a larger role in the future—Americans see China as their chief rival for global influence.
A new joint poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org and the Levada Center got these and other results from representative samples of the American and Russian publics surveyed in June and early July, 2006.
Asked to rate the influence of 11 countries on a scale of 0 to 10, respondents in both countries gave by far the highest score to the United States. Americans on average give their own nation an 8.77; Russians give their former Cold War rivals an 8.74. No other country is given a score higher than 8 by either public.
But that is where bilateral agreement ends. Russians look West for the next most important world power, ranking the European Union as No. 2, with a score of 7.14. They choose themselves as No. 3, giving the Russian Federation a score of 6.56.
Americans, in contrast, see their closest rival in the East, selecting China as the second most influential country in the world. China, already an economic power in Asia and an emerging military force, gets a score of 6.63, a hair higher than the United States’ closest international ally, Great Britain, which gets 6.61.
Americans don’t give Russia much weight in the world: the former super power is ranked No. 6 with a score of 5.67. That’s after Japan (6.20) and the E.U. (5.78).
G8_USRussia_Jul06_graph9.jpgNor do most Americans see Russians as increasing their influence over the next ten years. A majority (55%) say Russian power will stay about the same. A quarter (24%) say it will increase and 18 percent say it will decline. Again, Americans see China as the country most likely to gain more power in the immediate future: 70 percent say Chinese influence will increase, 24 percent say it will stay the same and only 3 percent believe it will decline.
Most Russians, however, think their country will play a larger role on the world stage in the near future. Sixty percent say Russia will become more influential over the next decade; 22 percent say their influence will stay the same and seven percent say it will decline. They are less sure about China. Half (50%) say Chinese power will increase, 27 percent say it will stay the same and 6 percent say it will decrease.
On India, about half of both Americans (51%) and Russians (50%) think its power will remain about the same. But more Americans (38%) than Russians (21%) think the world’s most populous democracy will increase its influence.
On the European Union, half of Americans (51%) think its influence in the world will not change; 36 percent think it will rise and 11 percent believe it will decline. A plurality of Russians (39%) believe the E.U. will play a larger role in the world, 33 percent say its influence will stay the same and 9 percent say it will shrink.
In Russia, Levada Center polled 1,600 respondents (margin of error +/-2.5%) June 9-14, 2006. In the United States, Knowledge Networks polled 1,059 respondents (margin of error +/- 3.1) from June 27-July 2, using its nationwide panel, which is randomly selected from the entire adult population and subsequently provided internet access. For more information about this methodology, go to Knowledge Networks.
G8_USRussia_Jul06_graph8.jpg
[charts did not print]
Reports about China
http://www.americans-world.org/digest/regional_issues/china/ch_summary.cfm
[this has many hidden links and attached links on site]
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53543
Thursday, December 28, 2006
HOMELAND INSECURITY
Muslim sensitivity training for 45,000 airport workers
Security officials told 'to be aware that they may also be praying'
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The Transportation Security Administration – created after 9/11 to safeguard America's airports – is providing Islamic sensitivity training to 45,000 airport security officers so they'll know what to expect when Muslims fly from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia to participate in the annual "hajj," or pilgrimage to Mecca.
"We put out information telling everyone that hajj is coming; this is the time frame; individuals are going to be traveling with these types of items," TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser told the State Department's USINFO Web site Tuesday. Calling it "cultural sensitivity training," Kayser added that airport security officials need "just to be aware that they may also be praying."
Ironically, just last month six Muslim imams were ejected by federal authorities from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis because they were deemed a potential security threat. Among the various behaviors that unnerved fellow passengers was the group's prayers in the airport prior to their flight.
Welcoming TSA's Islamic sensitivity training is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which describes itself as "America's largest Islamic civil liberties group." In a press release praising the program yesterday, CAIR noted that it distributes a pocket guide titled "Your Rights and Responsibilities as an American Muslim."
"As an airline passenger," the CAIR guide states, "you are entitled to courteous, respectful and non-stigmatizing treatment by airline and security personnel. You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory."
The press release also quoted the group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, as saying CAIR representatives nationwide have met with not only the TSA, but also from Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection officials on "issues related to cultural sensitivity and national security."
Indeed, CAIR has developed a wide-ranging advisory and teaching relationship with government on the subject of protecting Muslim interests.
As WND reported previously, last June a senior Department of Homeland Security official from Washington personally guided CAIR officials on a behind-the-scenes tour of Customs screening operations at O'Hare International Airport in response to CAIR complaints that Muslim travelers were being unfairly delayed as they entered the U.S. from abroad.
However, CAIR itself is a controversial organization. It is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Moreover, several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.
During the June airport tour, CAIR was taken on a walk through the point-of-entry, Customs stations, secondary screening and interview rooms. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were asked to describe for CAIR representatives various features of the high-risk passenger lookout system. Brian Humphrey, Customs and Border Patrol's executive director of field operations, assured CAIR officials that agents do not single out Muslim passengers for special screening and that they must undergo a mandatory course in Muslim sensitivity training. The course teaches agents that Muslims believe jihad is an "internal struggle against sin" and not holy warfare.
Customs agents involved in the CAIR tour at O'Hare told WorldNetDaily they were outraged that headquarters would reveal sensitive counterterrorism procedures to an organization that has seen several of its own officials convicted of terror-related charges since 9-11.
CAIR says the June tour allayed its concerns about profiling and that it "looks forward to continuing the relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices in the region, and to furthering understanding between the organizations as well as facilitating future communication in order to eliminate problems for Muslim travelers before they even arise."
As WND reported, the Department of Homeland Security invites CAIR itself to conduct sensitivity training for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and supervisors (CBP's counterparts) in Chicago. The course is taught by local CAIR officials Christina Abraham and Mariyam Hussain. More than 30 ICE staffers have gone through the CAIR awareness program so far.
CAIR – which is bankrolled by the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that formally recognized the Taliban – also offers religious and cultural sensitivity training about Islam and Muslims to the military. In June, for example, CAIR trained more than 300 military personnel at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
Also in June, CAIR was invited by the Pentagon to a ceremony dedicating the first Islamic center in Marine Corps history at Quantico headquarters outside of Washington.
Washington-based CAIR also has regular meetings with the FBI and Justice Department. In fact, FBI case agents complain the bureau rarely can make a move in the Muslim community without first consulting with CAIR, which sits on its advisory board. CAIR in the past has cried racism and bigotry when the bureau has moved unilaterally with investigations and raids in the community.
CAIR has also been dogged by the statements of Omar Ahmad, as reported by a California newspaper, that "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant," and, "The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." Although the newspaper's publisher and the reporter stand by the quotes, Ahmad and CAIR dispute their accuracy.
The pilgrimage to Mecca is a religious duty for Muslims, which attracts about 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims very year, according to Saudi officials.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., reports that about 15,000 American Muslims made the pilgrimage in 2005.
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53535
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Answers to OKC panel's questions
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jack Cashill
© 2006
After a two-year inquiry, the House International Relations investigative subcommittee has announced that far too many questions into the origins of the Oklahoma City bombing of April 1995 remain unanswered.
To this point, the FBI and the mainstream media have looked for the truth only in those places where they are least likely to find it. In her stunning book, "The Third Terrorist," Jayna Davis documents beyond reasonable doubt where that truth leads: not only to the Philippines, which Nichols visited frequently, but also to an Iraqi cell in Oklahoma City. In her role as a reporter for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, Davis interviewed more than 20 reliable eyewitnesses who identified a crew of Iraqi nationals that had almost assuredly helped McVeigh assemble and deliver the bomb, among them the most probable John Doe No. 2, Iraqi national Hussain Al-Hussaini.
(Column continues below)
This is not to deny that Nichols and McVeigh also received logistical support from local white supremacists. That is altogether likely and not at all contradictory. What is unlikely, however, is that the locals could have taught the boys how to build a truck bomb much like the kind that routinely shake things up the Middle East.
To make the OKC case comprehendible, allow me to focus on one detail. Timothy McVeigh's missing license plate. If the story McVeigh told about the plate was false, a story the prosecution pushed as well, the Clinton Justice Department likely misdirected the investigation to avoid its larger terrorist implications. As the subcommittee report reveals, McVeigh was fully capable of lying. In fact, he failed his polygraph test on the question of whether he had outside help.
Following the license plate helps cut through the clutter. As is well known, the absence of a rear plate caused the Oklahoma state police to stop McVeigh as he drove north out of Oklahoma City up I-35 an hour and a half after the bombing.
After his conviction, McVeigh told his story to two reporters from his hometown Buffalo News, Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, and they in turn retold it in a useful book published in 2001 called "American Terrorist." As McVeigh recounted the incident, he had driven an old yellow Mercury Marquis to Oklahoma City three days before the blast and parked this car in a small, run down parking lot.
After parking, McVeigh claimed he removed the car's Arizona license plate, stuck it in his pants, and then stashed it in his storage shed when he got back to Kansas. He did so, as he tells the story, in the improbable hope that a trooper would pull him over as he fled the scene and then tie him to the crime through "the envelope of clues on the seat beside him," a packet of anti-government literature.
The McVeigh that one meets in "American Terrorist" is a powerful and creative superman. He somehow taught himself how to build a massive truck bomb and was even prepared to assemble the 7,000-pound monster himself – in one morning. This would have meant loading onto his rented truck 108 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate, three 400-pound drums of liquid nitromethane, several crates of highly explosive Tovex sausage, spools of shock tube and cannon fuse and the 55-gallon drums to measure and mix these materials in.
As McVeigh told it, Terry Nichols showed up at his Kansas storage facility when he was halfway through the loading process and then only because he was afraid of what McVeigh would do to his family if he did not. The pair then drove to a nearby lake and spent the next three hours mixing the 13 500-pound barrels of explosives. When finished, they added 17 bags of ANFO. Although McVeigh claimed to have been a self-taught bombmaker, he had no particular mechanical gifts. Still, he managed not only to mix and load all these elements precisely but also to design and perfectly execute a dual-fuse ignition system.
A Washington Post article from a week after the blast – when the truth was still being shared and reported – suggests the improbability of this story. "Law enforcement sources," reads the Post, "said the 4,800-pound bomb that caused the explosion probably required at least two to three people to construct and considerable patience and planning. Building such a device 'would be extremely labor-intensive.'" The bomb that McVeigh described proved to be half again bigger than that and built by two inexperienced guys in one morning.
McVeigh's post-conviction story of his labors largely tracked with the prosecution's. After constructing the bomb, he allegedly drove alone towards Oklahoma in the loaded truck. After crossing the Oklahoma border, he stopped for the night at a small gravel lot near a conveniently unnamed "roadside motel." By his own timeline, however, he would have reached this motel about 2 p.m. That makes for a really long and pointless night.
The next morning, as he told it, McVeigh drove into Oklahoma City alone, saw no one, and no one saw him. He lit the fuses and then parked the Ryder truck in front of the Murrah building. He then grabbed the thick packet of anti-government materials he brought with him, jumped out of the truck, and walked and ran with packet in hand to the Mercury Marquis parked nearby.
In constructing a story that is in large part false, the storyteller almost inevitably adds a detail that clashes with other elements of his own story. So it is with the license plate. On the same page that authors Herbeck and Michel repeat McVeigh's account of the plate's absence, they blandly say of McVeigh's getaway, "He drove at what he considered the normal speed for motorists, about two miles per hour above the speed limit. He signaled all his turns and obeyed all traffic signs and signals."
When I met Dan Herbeck for lunch in Buffalo a few summers ago, I just had to ask him about this disparity. Why did McVeigh bother driving so carefully if he purposefully took the plates off? According to Herbeck, that's what McVeigh told him and Michel, and that's what they reported.
In her book, Jayna Davis, tells a different story altogether. She interviewed and names a series of people who saw the Ryder truck and identified McVeigh in the minutes before the blast. These witnesses invariably placed a short, foreign-looking, dark-skinned man in the passenger seat.
In fact, the FBI had been looking for a man who fit this description since they first traced the truck back to Eldon Elliot's body shop in Junction City, Kan. "FBI spokesman Weldon L. Kennedy said investigators were still trying to identify John Doe No. 2," wrote the Washington Post April 28, "a man who accompanied McVeigh when he rented the Ryder truck in Junction City, Kan."
Twenty minutes before the blast in downtown Oklahoma City, employees at a tire store spotted two men of the same description in the Ryder truck, and even gave the men directions to the Murrah building intersection.
McVeigh's defense attorney Steven Jones put one eyewitness on the stand in the McVeigh trial, the terribly injured Daina Bradley.
"It was a Ryder truck," Bradley had cried out to rescuers who were in process of amputating her leg to extricate her from the rubble, "It pulled up, a foreign looking man got out, and then before long, everything went black." The prosecution undermined Bradley's testimony by pointing to Bradley's real history of emotional problems, but Bradley made this claim to her rescuers 24 hours before the FBI knew that a Ryder truck was involved.
Jayna Davis also identified and interviewed numerous eyewitnesses at the Cactus Motel in Oklahoma City who saw – and smelled – the Ryder Truck as well as the Mercury Marquis and a brown late-model pickup. These witnesses traced McVeigh's arrival to late afternoon April 18 and swore they watched him leave the motel on the morning of the 19th with several Middle Eastern men in a convoy of three vehicles. An Oklahoma state police teletype, authorized by the FBI, would target a brown pickup driven by a "Middle Eastern male, 25 to 28 years of age" throughout the day on the 19th.
One has to read Davis's book to understand the scope of her investigation, but the license plate tale sums up her case nicely. Five minutes before the blast, printing operator Jerry Nance noticed an unusual car in the downtown Oklahoma City parking lot near where he worked. It was dilapidated yellow Mercury Marquis. Behind the wheel was a dark-skinned, Middle Eastern-looking man in a ball cap.
Nance remembers the car well. When he walked back towards it, after having retrieved something from his own car, the Mercury Marquis almost ran him over. Now, however, the Middle Eastern man was sitting in the passenger seat, and a white man was recklessly driving the car out of the parking lot. As the Mercury Marquis passed Nance, it thumped over a concrete marker and shook the license plate loose so it dangled by a single bolt.
Two minutes later, the Murrah building blew up. Nance informed the FBI of this incident before anyone knew McVeigh had been apprehended in a yellow Mercury Marquis. Eight days later, the FBI extensively quoted Nance and the tire store employees in its request before a federal judge to hold McVeigh over for trial. One tire store eyewitness picked McVeigh out of a line-up of look-alikes even before he saw McVeigh on TV. The Washington Post of April 28 confirms the same:
The magistrate, Ronald L. Howland, ordered McVeigh to be held without bail after listening to four hours of testimony from FBI special agent John Hersley in which he described eyewitness accounts of a yellow Mercury with McVeigh and another man inside speeding away from a parking lot near the federal building (italics mine}.
At some point, McVeigh let his passenger off, and it is possible that the passenger removed the plate under the guise of securing it. To further set McVeigh up for the fall, that passenger might also have left the anti-government materials in McVeigh's car. This explanation makes more sense than McVeigh running through the Oklahoma City streets with a packet of literature in hand. It also tracks with the M.O. of Ramzi Yousef at the first World Trade Center bombing, who let his accomplices, the locals who helped construct the bomb, take the fall. Those amateur jihadists got arrested when they went back to get their deposit on the missing truck.
It is possible too that the plate just fell off on its own. In either case, McVeigh could not have known it was gone. In fact, the trooper who arrested him would later report McVeigh's shock at discovering the plate was missing. If McVeigh had removed it himself, his careful escape seems pointless, even foolish. His use of pseudonyms and pay phones and his earlier calls to the anti-government underground seeking safe haven would likewise make no sense.
The FBI refused to even look at the material Jayna Davis had gathered. Rather than put a single witness on the stand who could place McVeigh in or near Oklahoma City on April 19, the prosecution chose to build an entire case on circumstantial evidence. Much as with TWA 800, however, the FBI lost all interest in the eyewitnesses as soon as the White House had established its talking points.
"Could the al Qaeda explosives expert [Ramzi Yousef] have been introduced to the angry American who proclaimed his hatred for America," writes Richard Clarke of Nichols' visit to the Philippines in his book "Against All Enemies." "We do not know, despite some FBI investigation."
"Some FBI investigation?" Why was there not a massive FBI investigation? The House subcommittee now asks this very question. Although the committee may be too polite to say so, the reason Islamic terrorist links were ignored has more to do with politics than with security. Once arrested, McVeigh and Nichols served as poster boys for the natural progression of the "Republican revolution." The Clinton administration and its media allies spun OKC so hard to the right that it left America dizzy. If, however, the arrested bombers proved to be mere "lily whites" – that is stooges recruited by Islamic terrorists to take the fall – they would lose their political value.
As an added bonus, the "lily white" factor encouraged America's progressive to scold those who had publicly presumed that Islamic terrorists were behind the bombing. This included not only the political right but also non-partisan terrorist experts like Steven Emerson, who had already been upbraided for "bigotry and misrepresentations" and "creating mass hysteria against American Arabs" for his PBS documentary "American Jihad." In fact, it was in Oklahoma City in late 1992 that Emerson, covering an unrelated press conference for CNN, first stumbled upon the jihadi presence in the United States.
Then too, as with the first World Trade Center bombing and possibly with TWA Flight 800, an Iraqi connection would have forced a serious military response, about which the Clinton administration was always queasy.
To the detriment of our national security, the orchestrated Democratic reaction to Oklahoma City shamed reporters and investigators from pursuing Islamic terrorism aggressively. This, Jayna Davis documents all too painfully from her personal experience. The scary thing is they are still trying to shame us. As to the FBI, its veterans are just trying to cover their tracks and protect their reputations – business as usual.
Related special offer:
"The Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing"
Jack Cashill is an Emmy-award winning independent writer and producer with a Ph.D. in American Studies from Purdue.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C12%5C28%5Cstory_28-12-2006_pg7_8
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Iranian MPs vote to cut cooperation with IAEA
TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament on Wednesday approved a bill that obliged the government to “revise its cooperation” with the UN nuclear watchdog after Tehran was slapped with Security Council sanctions.
The text of the bill was approved by an overwhelming majority in the conservative-controlled parliament, with 167 in favour and 21 against.
The formulation leaves the government a free hand to cut cooperation as it feels best. This could involve limiting UN inspections of its atomic sites, a move that has been urged by several lawmakers. “Officials from the Foreign Ministry and the supreme national security council should be left to interpret the text,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi who promoted the bill in parliament on behalf of the government.
Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel echoed comments from other top officials that Iran did not intend to quit the NPT but emphasised the government could interpret the bill as it wanted.
“The government should react (to the bill) in a way appropriate to the international pressure. This could mean quitting the NPT or staying there. We will give a free hand to the government to take decisions,” he added.
Almost immediately after it was passed, the bill was approved as law by the Guardians Council which vets all parliamentary legislation.
“Rejecting this resolution means that a resolution that is even stricter will be passed in two months. The best solution is to establish a bridge with the other countries to reduce the tension,” said reformist MP Nourredine Pirmoazen. However a conservative deputy, Ebrahim Karkhaneie, said that “no country has the right to renounce its legitimate rights under threats”.
Meanwhile, Iranian oil and gas officials have complained that US pressure on foreign banks not to lend to Iran have resulted in financing problems for key energy projects.
In a related development, diplomats said that the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors might meet in January to discuss the UN’s levying of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\28\story_28-12-2006_pg7_7
Manhandling of reporter bothers US Embassy
Staff Report
PESHAWAR: The US Embassy in Islamabad has raised the issue of the “manhandling” of a New York Times reporter with the foreign ministry and ministry of information and broadcasting.
“The US Embassy has raised the issue and hope such incident will not be repeated in future,” a diplomatic source requesting anonymity told Daily Times on Wednesday.
Carlotta Gall covering Pakistan and Afghanistan for New York Times told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the Special Branch police “harassed her and photographer Akhtar Soomro in Quetta on December 19.”
“Pakistani authorities must investigate this incident immediately and assure that journalists are allowed to work freely,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, adding, “We are alarmed by the use of government security services to harass journalists reporting in Pakistan on issues of global significance.”
Home | Na
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\28\story_28-12-2006_pg7_10
N-trafficking doubles between 2000-05
* Department of Homeland Security confirms 215 global incidents in 2005
* Says increase due to threat awareness and extensive screening
WASHINGTON: The United States Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that the reported incidents of trafficking and mishandling of nuclear material worldwide had doubled between 2000 and 2005, largely because of heightened awareness and more extensive screening procedures.
A Homeland Security spokesman, Jarrod Agen, said that the department had received 215 reports of nuclear trafficking and related criminal activity worldwide in 2005, as compared to 100 incidents in 2000. The incidents included illegal diversion, purchase, sale, transport or storage of nuclear material.
“Only a handful of the known illicit nuclear/radiological trafficking incidents involved weapons-usable nuclear materials,” Agen said. “Of the known smuggling incidents to date, the vast majority were profit-motivated scams involving bogus materials.”
The number of trafficking incidents recorded by the Department of Homeland Security was more than double of that reported in August by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Geneva-based United Nations nuclear watchdog said that it had received reports of 103 incidents of illicit trafficking and other unauthorised activities involving nuclear and radioactive materials in 2005.
It cited a 2005 New Jersey case in which a laboratory inadvertently disposed of 3.3 grams of highly enriched uranium. A lab worker failed to locate one of several samples in a shipment and apparently threw it away with the packaging, which was buried at a landfill.
The lab was later fined US$3,250 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
However, the Homeland Security figures included IAEA reporting as well as other information obtained by intelligence and law enforcement agencies, Agen said.
“What has doubled is the number of reported events,” he said, adding that this was “due mainly to an increase in awareness, more comprehensive reporting and an increase in the number of number of detection devices”.
“We screen about 80 percent of all cargo that comes into the US through radiation portal monitors, and by the end of next year we will be at 100 percent. That gives you an indication of how seriously we take screening for radioactive material.”
Authorities will begin scanning US-bound freight for nuclear and radiological materials in seven overseas ports early next year as part of the US Secure Freight Initiative.
Port authorities in Pakistan, Britain, Honduras, South Korea and Singapore were among those are participating, Agen said.
Since the Sept 11 attacks on the US, security awareness has increased globally, while Washington has increased the number and sophistication of screening machines across the country. reuters
[Mengal?]
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\28\story_28-12-2006_pg7_27
Mengal to be tried in Karachi Central Jail
KARACHI: A case against former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal will be heard in the Karachi Central Jail, the Sindh Home Department announced on Wednesday.
Mengal, who also heads the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), was sent to jail on Tuesday by an anti-terrorism court till January 5, 2007, for his alleged involvement in the abduction of two army personnel. nni
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\28\story_28-12-2006_pg1_2
Sectarian strife can engulf Muslim world
* President says Islam not in conflict with modernisation
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Sectarian strife could sow the seeds for a disaster that could engulf the entire Muslim world if not addressed immediately, President General Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday.
The Muslim world must take urgent steps to end sectarian strife, the president said in a lecture, titled ‘Vision of an Islamic, democratic and welfare state in Pakistan’, to a gathering of scholars and intellectuals from the Muslim world at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The president said that socio-economic and political problems within the Muslim world also needed to be addressed urgently and stressed upon the resolution of lingering political disputes. “Now is the time to act immediately to resolve long-standing political disputes including Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, in a just manner and with dignity and honour,” he said.
Gen Musharraf said Islam is not in conflict with democracy and modernisation, but stressed that modernisation was distinct from westernisation. He pointed out that there is no consensus among Muslims about the interpretations of Islam and illiteracy had worsened the situation. He said the teachings of Islam had generally been left to semi-literate religious people. He said that extremist and obscurantist elements are trying to impose their rigid views on the vast majority, while “fringe ultra-modern elements” are propagating secularism. He said both these elements were wrong and there was a need to end the ongoing turmoil between enlightenment and obscurantism. “We need to work for reconciliation with the world at large,” he said.
“We must achieve peace with honour and dignity and strive for socio-economic emancipation as the Muslim world cannot progress with a confrontationist approach.” The president said obscurantist and extremist elements were strengthening misperceptions about Islam.
He said the whole world is in turmoil, but the Muslim world is suffering the most. He called for concerted efforts to end these sufferings and added that the Muslim world must contribute collectively to this end.
Internal strife within the Islamic world is hampering economic progress, he said. No country could make economic progress living in a vacuum in this globalised world, he said, and called for greater interaction with the international community for scientific advancement.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\28\story_28-12-2006_pg11_1
17 banned groups warned against collecting hides
By Shahzad Malik
ISLAMABAD: The government has told the provinces to make sure that 17 banned religious and militant organisations are not able to collect the hides of sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha.
“The Interior Ministry has issued this directive to the four provinces and the Islamabad district administration while asking them to step up security around places where Eidul Azha prayers will be offered,” sources said.
Seventeen organisations have been banned under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. These are Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi, Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan, Khudamul Islam, Islami Tehrik Pakistan, Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, Jamiatul Furqan, Jamiatul Ansar, Hizbul Tahreer, Khairunnas International Trust, Islamic Students Movement and Balochistan Liberation Army. Jamaatud Dawa Pakistan and Sunni Tehrik are on a watch list.
The sources said that intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry warned that members of banned militant and religious outfits would try to collect hides of sacrificial animals under fake names. The militants would ask the khateebs (prayer leaders) of their sects to appeal to people in their areas to collect hides for the welfare of poor students getting religious education there, the sources said. However, the fear is that money from the hides would be used to finance terrorist activities.
The provinces have also been asked to issue directives to district authorities to keep an eye on 570 prayer leaders who, under Section 11EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, are not allowed to leave their areas during Eidul Azha, the sources said.
The Interior Ministry has also directed the authorities concerned of the four provinces and the district administration of Islamabad to mobilise officials of the Special Branch of the police to keep an eye on members of banned militant organisations, the sources said.
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