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
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/780925/a_vast_ewasteland_are_your_digital_secrets_for_sale_overseas/index.html?source=r_technology
A Vast E-Wasteland: Are Your Digital Secrets for Sale Overseas?
By Bill Lambrecht
Hard-drive security tips Delete it yourself: Software that costs between $30 and $140 can wipe your hard drive clean. Have it shredded: Private companies shred hard drives and discard them for a fee ranging from $7 to $10. Smash it yourself: Taking a hammer to your old hard drive is one surefire way to keep your data safe.
LAGOS, Nigeria - Computer files on these American high school students are private and revealing.
Some of the students have learning disabilities. Many scored low on tests. One suffered a brain injury as a child, and another ran with gangs, according to California school records that include names, birth dates and family details.
More computer files, these from an elementary school in Virginia, contain what a security expert called "the Holy Grail" for identity thieves seeking to score: teachers' Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers.
All of this sensitive information was discovered in an unlikely place: on discarded computers for sale in Nigeria, a cyber-crime capital of the world.
Unbeknown to their former owners, tens of thousands of discarded U.S. computers get shipped to Nigeria and other developing nations each month. In an ongoing investigation into the fate of electronic waste, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch bought several old American computers that had been exported to Nigeria. Computer experts in the United States later analyzed their contents.
They contained school records, private messages, photographs, financial information and other revealing materials discarded by people who were taken aback when later told of the newspaper's findings.
"We were appalled," said Polly McAllister, a reading teacher in Virginia's Fairfax County. She was one of about 30 current or former teachers and staff members at Fairhill Elementary School whose Social Security numbers were listed on a hard drive for sale in a computer market in Lagos.
"When we heard about this, I said, 'This can't be.' It's a very scary thing," said McAllister, 63. "I had never given a thought to anything like this happening. Who knew all this stuff was going to Nigeria?"
U.S. computers exported as trash often end up scattered across the landscape and leaking contaminants. The worsening problem of digital dumps was a main topic when representatives from 120 countries gathered in Kenya last month in hopes of curbing exploitative dumping.
But there's more to worry about than polluting the planet: Unless computer owners, businesses and schools take steps to remove information from their hard drives to "wipe clean" the digitally encoded devices inside computers, information stored there can come back to haunt.
Computer dealers interviewed in Lagos said that every month, they receive 500 or so shipping containers loaded with thousands of old monitors, computers, televisions and other electronic gear. Some of it is working and has value, but most is quickly junked or stripped for parts.
Then there are the hard drives that Americans have not bothered to wipe clean, potential treasure-troves of data that circulate in the Nigerian underworld.
In Nigerian computer markets - ramshackle buildings resembling flea markets in rural America - dealers keep an eye out for nonerased hard drives, testing them on computers powered by portable generators. Those bulging with information can bring $50 or more, roughly the price of a new, inexpensive drive.
You never know what you're going to find there. A year ago, the Basel Action Network, a nonprofit group based in Seattle, recorded asset tags of discarded computers, printers and other equipment from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois Department of Public Aid, the Illinois Department of Employment and the Illinois State Police.
A young Nigerian computer expert who frequents the markets described what happens: "They look especially for your transactions and money records. They try to find names of your relatives, friends and your relationships to help them with their fraud."
Many Africans know what's going on, even if Americans don't. Oladele Osibanjo is the regional coordinator for the Basel Convention, a 14-year-old global treaty aimed at preventing shipments of hazardous wastes to countries ill-equipped to handle them.
A hard drive for sale in a computer market in Lagos once belonged to Lori Schnack, a district speech pathologist for the Anaheim Union High School District in California.
It contained evaluations of high school students that detailed their test scores and problems - including autism and stuttering - along with classroom recommendations.
Schnack died last year, but her husband, Ted, an engineer, said the school district had done "a lousy job" of protecting data. His way of destroying his families' old hard drives - shooting them with a rifle - is effective, although it isn't advisable.
Anaheim schools, with 35,000 students at 22 sites, get rid of hundreds of computers each year. Until recently, that meant turning them over to the Liquidation Company, an auction house in Fontana, Calif., without bothering to remove data.
Liquidation Company officials did not return a reporter's phone messages, but they told a district representative recently that they knew some of the computers they auctioned ended up in Nigeria.
The company won't be handling any more of the Anaheim schools' computers: After inquiries by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Anaheim schools decided to seek another outlet. "We don't want anything like this to happen again," said Terry Harper, purchasing agent for the district.
School officials also began using software that erases hard drives before they are discarded, and may hire a recycling company that would shred old hard drives.
"We regret that sensitive information of this nature ended up in the public domain, and we're going to take steps to make sure that it doesn't happen again," said district spokeswoman Pat Karlak.
Fairfax County, a Washington suburb, is one of the nation's wealthiest communities with an average household income of nearly $95,000. With 164,000 students, Fairfax also claims the 14th- largest school district in the nation - and boasts of having 94,000 computers.
But for years, the district did nothing to secure its computer information.
In addition to the teachers' Social Security numbers, the hard drive purchased by the Post-Dispatch contained hundreds of internal school district documents from the mid-to-late 1990s. They included files detailing disciplinary problems, such as the case of a boy who attacked a teacher, stabbed another student and pulled fire alarms on eight occasions.
Maribeth Luftglass, an assistant superintendent for the Fairfax Schools, said the problems took place before she took charge of the district's computer systems in 2000. After she arrived, she said, she ordered computers wiped clean before they were discarded or even moved between schools.
"In the 1990s, cyber-crime was not a real hot topic," she said. "This is unfortunate, but not something we can go back in history and undo."
Changes were made, but teachers are troubled nonetheless. They worry about who already may have seen their evaluations and other personal data as well as sensitive information about students over the years.
While privacy concerns hit home to the teachers, experts say the information on the old drives poses a practical danger as well.
Identity thieves sometimes dig deeply into computers for valuable information, and some even deploy the same high-tech software used by forensic experts. But all they would have needed to do with the old hard drive from Fairfax County is plug it into any personal computer and look under a file marked "SS.Doc."
There they would have been able to harvest Social Security numbers - akin to gold for computer criminals - of Polly McAllister and the others.
"That's everything they need to apply for credit cards or anything else, and there's little that could be done to stop them," said Jay Foley, founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit group based in San Diego.
Personal details other than Social Security numbers and financial records also are prized by identity thieves, said Todd Stefan, a security specialist at Setec Investigations, based in Los Angeles, one of two companies that analyzed hard drives for the Post- Dispatch.
"If I have one bit of your information, I can masquerade as someone who knows more," he said. "And the next thing you know, I'm in your bank records."
In recent months, Americans' vulnerabilities in the computer age have been exposed by stolen laptops, eBay-traded hard drives, bungled digital record-keeping and other data breaches that exposed tens of thousands of people to identity theft.
But the discovery of hard drives in Nigeria shows the potential for more widespread threats.
Nigeria is known worldwide for computer fraud. Many of the e- mails people receive seeking business partners for recovery of mysterious fortunes - known by authorities as advance-fee fraud schemes - originate in Nigeria.
Over the years, Nigeria has perfected various "419 scams," named for the portion of the Nigerian criminal code outlawing such fraud.
Ron Williams, who runs a security firm in California, is an ex- Secret Service agent who worked on a government task force investigating Nigerian computer fraud. He described West African con artists as "masters of perpetrating identity theft and fraud. Everybody doing this has learned from them."
"They were the forerunners of identity theft. They perfected it and they are still engaged in it to a huge degree," said Williams, who sits on one of the two-dozen electronic-crimes task forces around the country established by the U.S. Secret Service.
Identity theft is common; last year the Federal Trade Commission reported 45,175 complaints from California (ranked 3rd per capita). Arizona ranked first per capita, with 9,320 complaints. But seldom do people track down how their private information was obtained, said Beth Givens, an identity theft expert who heads the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearing House in San Diego.
"How would I know that when I tossed out my computer with its hard drive a year ago that it would go to Nigeria, and someone there would be smart enough to use the information to open up a credit card in my name?" she asked.
"Or that somebody stole my identity after I donated my computer and it was sold for $5? How could I possibly connect the dots?"
(c) 2006 Sunday Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Story from REDORBIT NEWS:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=780925
Published: 2006/12/27 00:00:00 CST
© RedOrbit 2005
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/781914/perched_nyc_hawk_sees_bald_eagle_soar_by/index.html
Perched NYC Hawk Sees Bald Eagle Soar By
By RICHARD PYLE
NEW YORK - Pale Male, the famed red-tailed hawk of Central Park, was perched on the 22nd floor of the swank Beresford apartment building on Wednesday when the national emblem of the United States soared past, carrying a large fish in its talons.
"Pale Male usually sits there sort of relaxed, but he sat up straight when he saw the bald eagle," said Lincoln Karim, the man who made Pale Male and his mate Lola famous with his extensive photographic record of the romantic raptors raising fledglings in their high-rise aerie on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.
Karim, doing his usual morning routine of photographing Pale Male, had the hawk in his viewfinder when the bird suddenly went to attention.
"I looked up when Pale Male did and saw the eagle," Karim said. "They fly over in migration season, but very high. I have never seen one that close."
At that, the white-headed bird was distant enough that Karim, an Associated Press Television News technician, needed his 800mm lens to freeze it in flight, and all but one of his photos were slightly blurred by movement.
The photo showed the eagle as it appears on the national escutcheon - wings spread, head cocked in vigilance, but with what looked like a striped bass in its talons, instead of the flowing ribbon reading, "E Pluribus Unum."
Bald eagles, once highly endangered and always strictly protected by federal law, have prospered in the New York region in recent years. As fish-eaters, they live in the Hudson River highlands, and several have been reintroduced under a city program to the Inwood section of upper Manhattan. They can be seen in winter, riding ice floes down the river and fishing along the way, said Cal Von Burger, a freelance photographer and author of a book, "The Birds of Central Park."
Von Burger said he has spotted eagles over the park numerous times in migrating seasons but none has chosen to live there.
"They like high perches, and the trees aren't big enough, but unlike peregrines and other falcons they don't like buildings either," he said.
Yigal Gelb, executive director of New York City Audubon, which protects wild birds and their habitats, said eagles were rare in the park.
"Seeing one," he said, "is a pretty big deal."
Story from REDORBIT NEWS:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=781914
Published: 2006/12/27 21:00:00 CST
© RedOrbit 2005
http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=6450
Michigan's Hezbollah Connection
Jim Kouri
December 27, 2006
Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, proclaimed himself neutral -- "I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah; I don't take sides for or against Israel," he said -- there appears to be problems of Hezbollah activities within his and fellow traveler Rep. John Conyer's own backyard.
A Dearborn Heights MI, man pleaded guilty on recently to charges of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and using illegally obtained funds to help finance the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, pleaded guilty in federal court as he stood before US District Judge Gerald E. Rosen. The original indictment charged Bakri and other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods, producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, and laundering money.
Most troubling was the fact that part of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization (DFTO), according to the indictment.
Bakri faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Two other defendants, Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., have already entered guilty pleas to basically the same indictment.
"Fighting terrorism and keeping our citizens safe from its reach, is the Department of Justice's number-one priority. Raising money for designated terrorist organizations, like Hezbollah, is a serious crime which will be vigorously pursued in the Eastern District of Michigan, US Attorney Stephen Murphy said.
"Together, we will use all of the legal tools available to us to disrupt criminal activity that funds terrorist organizations," he said.
According to Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Detroit, "ICE will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to dismantle criminal organizations. Racketeering is a serious crime, and ICE will continue to investigate those who exploit our borders to facilitate their criminal enterprise."
The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zigzag rolling papers (used for rolling marijuana cigarettes), and counterfeit Viagra; to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; to transport stolen property; and to launder money.
The enterprise was international in scope and operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States.
Also named in the indictment and awaiting a January 7, 2007 trial dates are: Karim Hassan Nasser, 37, of Windsor, Ontario; Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 33, of Dearborn, Mich.; Majid Mohamad Hammoud, 39, of Dearborn Heights; Jihad Hammoud, 47, of Dearborn; Ali Najib Berjaoui, 39, of Dearborn; Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, 41, of Canton, Mich.; and Adel Isak, 37, of Sterling Heights, Mich.
Others charged in the indictment, who are currently wanted as fugitives and believed to have left the United States are: Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 37 of Lebanon, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Ali Al-Mosawi, 49, of Lebanon; Hassan Hassan Nasser, 36, of Windsor, Ontario; Ali Ahmad Hammoud, 64, of Lebanon; Karim Hassan Abbas, 37, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Mohamad Srour, 30, of Montreal, Quebec; Naji Hassan Alawie, 44, of Windsor, Ontario; and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, 52, of Montreal, Quebec.
US law enforcement is coordinating their efforts with the Canadian intelligence and security services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to capture the fugitives who escaped into Canada.
The indictment alleges that Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan Makki, ran a multimillion dollar a year contraband cigarette-trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Mich., area between 1996 and 2002.
Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal district court in Detroit to racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah. Some of the cigarettes were supplied to the organization by Mohamad Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 in federal district court in Charlotte, NC, of, among other crimes, racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah.
Makki and Mohamad Hammoud, who were not charged in the indictment, were identified as un-indicted coconspirators. They both are currently serving prison sentences in related cases for their activities in this matter.
The indictment charges that the group would obtain low-taxed or untaxed cigarettes in North Carolina and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York and bring them into Michigan and the State of New York for the purpose of evading tens of millions in state cigarette taxes. The enterprise obtained large profits by reselling the cigarettes at market prices in Michigan and New York. The enterprise sometimes used counterfeit tax stamps to make it appear as though state taxes had been paid.
The indictment additionally charges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were forwarded to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise charged a "Resistance Tax," a set amount over black-market price per carton of contraband cigarettes which their customers were told would be going to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise also solicited money from cigarette customers for the "orphans of martyrs" program run by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon to support the families of persons killed in Hezbollah suicide attacks and other terrorist operations.
The US Secretary of State has designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization. An entity may be designated as a foreign terrorist organization if the Secretary of State finds that: (1) the organization is a foreign organization; (2) the organization engages in terrorist activity; and (3) the terrorist activity of the organization threatens the security of US nationals or the national security of the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department maintain that Hezbollah terrorist cells are deeply entrenched in the United States. One of Hezbollah's largest headquarters is located in Toronto, Canada, but they claim they are members of the political-wing of Hezbollah and not its military-wing.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri's own website is located at http://jimkouri.us
http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=6444
Putin's Russian Bear Flexing Its Muscles
Jim Kouri
December 26, 2006
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether it's foreign trade or weapons technology.
And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists' desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race.
After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with Democrat President Bill Clinton in the White House, terms such as "the peace dividend" became commonplace within the Washington Beltway and in the mainstream news media. No longer was the political establishment interested in defense, and the new agenda for the US was domestic.
However, slowly and methodically Russia's steel-eyed leader Vladamir Putin began to rebuild and expand his nation's arsenal and its fighting forces. This new phase in Russia's military buildup has created fear in some quarters in the US that a new arms race exists. Recently the Russians deployed a nuclear ballistic system that their generals made clear could render US anti-missile defense systems ineffective, according to reports in the European news media.
Last year, while Americans and Europeans celebrated the 2005 Christmas holiday, the Russian army activated a large number of Topol-M class missiles that can fit nuclear warheads and travel 6,000 miles, while rapidly switching their trajectory in order to neutralize any US- or European-based interception device.
As usual, the news media in the US was so busy bashing the Commander-in-Chief regarding the Iraqi conflict and President Bush's tactics for combating terrorism, that they've failed to report on the Russian advances in weaponry and the accompanying hawkish rhetoric of the Russian military commanders.
In addition, most of the media have chosen to ignore the Russian buildup because the liberal take on the Cold War was that it was a result of a misunderstanding between two superpowers. During the height of the Cold War liberals -- some like Senator John Kerry who are still in power -- were more concerned over how many missiles and weapons we had. That mindset continues and it does no good for the liberal establishment and their media echo chamber to allow the American people to learn that their old enemy is quietly gearing up for a second arms race or worse -- a new Cold War.
While Americans believe that the only problem facing the US is terrorism, one Russian leader, General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Russia's missile forces, has mobilized a brand new Topol-M missile battalion, with each missile having a one megaton warhead. One megaton is over 35 times the power of both US bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
The Russian general claims his missile system is able to penetrate any missile defense system. He boasts that the Russian missiles are unaffected by electromagnetic blasts used by current US anti-missile systems.
While Russia had disbanded two missile divisions last year to show the US and European Union that they were serious about disarmament, it has recently been discovered that they formed close to 25 new units -- in what's considered the fastest increase of nuclear spending since the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
According to Military.Com, the US Navy carried out tests of an anti-missile interceptor, which can be launched from an Aegis class cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. A warhead from an incoming rocket was completely neutralized and destroyed one hundred miles above sea level. Its success marked the first time an anti-missile defense system succeeded in tests when launched from a warship. While not vocally announced by the Pentagon, experts believe this testing was a result of the Russian buildup.
The debut of the Topol-M and Russia's hawkish bravado mark the fastest expansion of nuclear missiles since the SS-18 and Pershing II technologies appeared during the Reagan Administration. Since that time US-Russia arms control treaty was signed in 1993 at the Kremlin and Russia struggled to fund technology to replace its aging war machine. Their defense budget also withered away due to their depressed economy situation.
With the Russians now enjoying a certain amount of prosperity thanks to its new oil wealth and weapons system sales, their nuclear missile program reemerged. Just last month an almost $2 billion increase from the Kremlin was earmarked for the military and Mr. Putin's popularity also increased as a result. Equally disturbing is that one of the larger states from the old USSR, the Ukraine asked to come back under the former Soviet military shield and they expect to be protected by the Topol-M stationed in the Volga River.
Meanwhile, the European Union has denounced Putin's sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, whose president announced his desire to "wipe Israel off the map."
With most of the US intelligence and military resources concentrated on the terrorism war, the Russians have taken advantage of the situation and have once again taken a lead role in international affairs, especially when it comes to nuclear arms and advanced weapons technology.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a staff writer for New Media Alliance (thenma.org), and he's a columnist for TheConservativeVoice.Com, AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. If you wish to sign up for his intelligence reports, write to JimKouriReports@aol.com. Kouri's own website is located at http://jimkouri.us
All you will ever need to know about islamic banking:
http://islamicfinanceandbanking.blogspot.com/
[Note: Calpernia has posted several links for this thread that are important and tie it to OKC]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759046/posts
Remains of terror group chief found in Philippines [Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani]
Washington Times ^ | December 27, 2006 | AP staff
Posted on 12/27/2006 10:01:59 AM PST by seacapn
MANILA (AP) -- Remains believed to be those of the chief of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, one of the objectives of a long U.S.-backed manhunt, have been found in the southern Philippines, the military said today. Khaddafy Janjalani is on a U.S. list of wanted terrorists with a $5 million bounty on his head for a series of beheadings, bombings and mass abductions. He has proved elusive in the dense jungles and mangroves that have become home for Janjalani and his men.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
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Australia recruits Chinese-speaking spies, says report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061228/wl_asia_afp/australiaintelligencechina_061228050618
Australia recruits Chinese-speaking spies, says report
Thu Dec 28, 12:06 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian intelligence chiefs have boosted recruitment
of Chinese-speaking spies but are struggling to attract Arabic
speakers, reports say.
The Australian newspaper said the the Australian Security and
Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had more than doubled the number of spies from
non-English speaking backgrounds in the past two years in a major
recruitment drive.
The government announced plans last year for the largest expansion in
ASIO's history, increasing the number of intelligence officers from 980
to 1,860 by 2010.
But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said it would be inappropriate to
reveal the language skills and cultural backgrounds of the new recruits.
"This campaign we've been engaged in has certainly been very innovative
and recruited high quality staff with a range of experience and
backgrounds," he told Sky News.
The Australian reported ASIO had failed to attract significant numbers
of Arabic-speaking recruits, with less than a dozen on the books of an
organisation charged with addressing the threat of Muslim extremism.
It said many of the new Chinese speaking recruits had been assigned to
a counter-espionage unit set up specifically to address concerns
Beijing was running extensive spy networks in Australia.
Many Chinese spies were believed to be operating in Australia as
business executives or under diplomatic cover while attempting to secure
military-related technology and strategic policy secrets, the newspaper
said.
Relations between Canberra and Beijing were strained last year when
Australia gave a visa to Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese diplomat who
claimed he was involved in spy activities in Canberra.
Chen, formerly first secretary at China's consulate-general, had spent
four years working in Sydney before he abandoned his post saying he
could no longer help his government repress dissidents living in
Australia.
Chen also alleged that Beijing had some 1,000 spies or informers in
Australia and that he feared persecution if he was sent home. He was
granted a protection visa in July last year.
My thanks to Milford421 for this report:
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53355
Thursday, December 14, 2006
'Zoom climb' scenario falling apart
Posted: December 14, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jack Cashill
© 2006
Slowly but surely, retired United Airline Capt. Ray Lahr and attorney John Clarke are prying open the can of worms known as the TWA Flight 800 investigation, and sooner or later the major media will have to take notice.
WABC in New York already has. Two weeks ago, the station's Jim Hoffer did a short feature headlined "Major court ruling in TWA Flight 800 case." What proved to be most newsworthy about the feature, however, was not the ruling in question but a surprising admission by former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz.
As Hoffer noted, and has been reported here previously, a U.S. district court judge in Los Angeles has granted Lahr access to most of the documents he has requested to get at the truth behind the alleged 3,200-foot "zoom climb" of the damaged aircraft.
In the WABC feature, Hoffer interviewed not only Lahr but also Goelz, who oversaw the investigation. Wittingly or not, Goelz made the stunning comment that "whether [TWA Flight 800] climbed 3,200 feet or not is really irrelevant."
(Column continues below)
Irrelevant? Really? The FBI and the CIA did not think so. In 1996-1997, the two agencies climbed over the notorious "wall" to collaborate on an animation showing how a crippled 747 could climb rocket-like for 3,200 feet after its nose had been blown off. This animation was critical. The FBI needed such a scenario to silence the media and close the case.
The CIA video could not have been more definitive. "The Eyewitnesses Did Not See a Missile," reads an underlined script on the video screen. No, "What the witnesses saw was a Boeing 747 in various stages of crippled flight." The FBI showed the CIA video at its final press conference in November 1997, thereby ending any serious investigation.
Despite doubts, the NTSB stuck to the story. At the final NTSB hearing in August 2000, Dr. David Mayer, acting chief of the NTSB's Orwellian-titled "Human Performance Division," reaffirmed the zoom climb. "As the airplane maneuvered in crippled flight," said Mayer in an attempt to explain what the eyewitnesses saw, "it appeared to fly nearly straight up." Tellingly, at no NTSB hearing were the eyewitnesses, several of them pilots or military personnel, ever allowed to testify.
Goelz himself knows just how relevant the zoom climb is. His claim that "there is absolutely no evidence that a missile was fired at this aircraft" hinges on the zoom climb. Without it, there is no way to explain the testimony of the 270 FBI eyewitnesses who had seen lights streaking up toward the plane in the seconds before it exploded. Without it, that eyewitness testimony becomes once again all but irrefutable evidence of a missile strike.
Much of that testimony was vivid and specific. One travel industry professional, for instance, told the FBI that she was standing on the beach when she noticed a 747 "level off." With her eye still on TWA Flight 800, she watched in awe as a "red streak" with a "light gray smoke trail" moved up towards the airliner at a 45-degree angle. Then, the "red streak went past the right side and above the aircraft before arcking [sic] back down toward the aircrafts [sic] right wing."
She saw "the front of the aircraft separate from the back" and watched as the burning pieces of the debris fell from the aircraft. She provided a drawing that showed the scenario in some detail, including the "upside down Nike swoosh," which ended at the plane's right wing. By the way, she correctly identified the departure of the plane's nose long before that detail became publicly known. For the record, hers is one of perhaps 100 comparably strong testimonies.
A veteran safety investigator and a serious student of aerodynamics, Ray Lahr thought the zoom climb scenario a canard the moment he saw it. There is scarcely a pilot anywhere who disagrees with Lahr. Buttressed by wide support in the aviation community, he began his nine-year quest to see the evidence used to calculate the zoom climb.
Lahr is making progress. The Los Angeles judge clearly sided with him. He ruled that the case Lahr and Clarke presented was sufficiently strong "to permit plaintiff to proceed based on his claim that the government acted improperly in its investigation of Flight 800 or at least performed in a grossly negligent fashion."
Ten years out, the evidence for a missile strike grows stronger by the week. A Pulitzer awaits the first major media organization to tackle this case in a serious way. Shamefully, none ever has.
Related special offer:
Get Jack Cashill's groundbreaking exposé, "First Strike: TWA Flight 800 and the Attack on America"
Jack Cashill is an Emmy-award winning independent writer and producer with a Ph.D. in American Studies from Purdue.
Major court ruling in TWA Flight 800 case
Many thanks to Mark Taylor. and Milford421
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=4808741
Major court ruling in TWA Flight 800 case
Eyewitness News Investigators Exclusive
By Jim Hoffer
(New York - WABC, November 29, 2006) -
A retired pilot is talking about his major court victory in a decade
long fight to obtain secret records into the crash of TWA Flight
800.
Government safety experts have long blamed the catastrophe on an
exploding center fuel tank. The man you're about to meet hopes to
disprove that.
Former retired United pilot Ray Lahr could easily be dismissed as
just another conspiracy nut, until you consider his background and
that he has the patience and determination to wear down even the
nation's top intelligence agencies as he seeks to find what he says
is the truth behind Flight 800.
At age 81, Ray Lahr could be kicking back, instead he's taking on
the CIA, the National Security Agency and the NTSB.
"This country is no stronger than the truth and confidence in our
government and if someone won't fight for that we'll lose it," Ray
said.
For nearly nine years, Captain Lahr has been trying to gain access
to records the government used to conclude that a center fuel tank
explosion, not a missile, brought down TWA Flight 800 ten years ago.
Back then, the CIA crash investigation concluded that after the fuel
tank exploded, separating the cockpit from the plane, the aircraft
continued to climb 3200 feet. The NTSB concluded the 258 witnesses
who reported seeing a streak of light from a possible missile,
actually observed burning fuel coming from plane as it continued to
move upward.
Captain Lahr refers to this as the zoom climb theory which he
believes defies physics.
"They've made some false assumptions put into that simulation
program and that's why I want that data," he said.
Captain Lahr may get some of the data. In a recent federal court
ruling, a U.S. district court judge granted the former pilot access
to most of the documents he's requested. The judge stating in his
ruling that, "taken together this evidence is sufficient to permit
plaintiff to proceed based on his claim that the government acted
improperly in its investigation of Flight 800 or at least performed
in a grossly negligent fashion."
Jim Hoffer: "What do you think these documents are going to show?"
Captain Lahr: "I believe that I could show that the zoom climb never
happened. If the zoom climb never happened then they've got to find
out what the eyewitnesses saw and the only logical conclusion there
is is that they saw a missile."
Peter Goelz, former NTSB managing director: "There is absolutely no
evidence that a missile was fired at this aircraft."
Goelz was NTSB managing director during the Flight 800
investigation. He says Captain Lahr and other conspiracy theorists
continue to ignore the evidence.
"It shows clearly that the center wing tank exploded, ignited and
tore the plane apart," Goelz said.
Goelz says the wreckage trail shows the plane did continue to fly
after it exploded.
"So we know that the plane continued in flight whether it climbed
3200 feet or not is really irrelevant," he said.
Captain Lahr thinks it is most relevant and he's not about to give
up.
Jim Hoffer: "Do you think you'll live to see these documents in your
hands?"
Lahr: "My mother's 102."
Among the documents the judge says the government should hand over
to Captain Lahr include eyewitness names, radar data and aircraft
flight data. The NTSB declined to comment on the judge's ruling
pending a possible appeal.
How the West could lose
Daniel Pipes,
THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 27, 2006
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881991915&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists? On the face of it, its military preponderance makes victory seem inevitable. Even were Teheran to acquire a nuclear weapon, Islamists have nothing like the military machine the Axis deployed in World War II nor the Soviet Union during the cold war.
What have Islamists to compare with the Wehrmacht or the Red Army? The SS or Spetznaz? The Gestapo or the KGB? Or, for that matter, to Auschwitz or the Gulag? Yet, more than a few analysts, including myself, worry that it's not so simple.
Islamists (defined as persons who demand to live by the sacred law of Islam, the Shari'a) might in fact do better than the earlier totalitarians. They could even win. That's because, however strong the Western hardware, its software contains some potentially fatal bugs. Three of them - pacifism, self-hatred, complacency - deserve attention.
Pacifism: Among the educated, the conviction has widely taken hold that "there is no military solution" to current problems, a mantra applied in every Middle East problem - Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Kurds, terrorism, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. But this pragmatic pacifism overlooks the fact that modern history abounds with military solutions. What were the defeats of the Axis, the United States in Vietnam, or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, if not military solutions?
Self-hatred: Significant elements in several Western countries - especially the United States, Britain and Israel - believe their own governments to be repositories of evil, and see terrorism as punishment for past sins. This "we have met the enemy and he is us" attitude replaces an effective response with appeasement, including a readiness to give up traditions and achievements.
By name, Osama bin Laden celebrates such leftists as Robert Fisk and William Blum. Self-hating Westerners have an outsized importance due to their prominent role as shapers of opinion in universities, the media, religious institutions and the arts. They serve as the Islamists' auxiliary mujahideen.
Complacency: The absence of an impressive Islamist military machine gives many Westerners, especially on the Left, a feeling of disdain. Whereas conventional war, with its men in uniform, its ships, tanks and planes, and its bloody battles for land and resources, is simple to comprehend, the asymmetric war with radical Islam is elusive.
BOX CUTTERS and suicide belts make it difficult to perceive this enemy as a worthy opponent. Like John Kerry, too many dismiss terrorism as mere "nuisance." Islamists deploy formidable capabilities, however, that go far beyond small-scale terrorism:
A potential access to weapons of mass destruction that could devastate Western life.
A religious appeal that provides deeper resonance and greater staying power than the artificial ideologies of fascism or communism.
An impressively conceptualized, funded and organized institutional machinery that successfully builds credibility, goodwill and electoral success.
An ideology capable of appealing to Muslims of every size and shape, from Lumpenproletariat to privileged, from illiterates to PhDs, from the well-adjusted to psychopaths, from Yemenis to Canadians. The movement almost defies sociological definition.
A non-violent approach - what I call "lawful Islamism" - that pursues Islamification through educational, political, and religious means, without recourse to illegality or terrorism. Lawful Islamism is proving successful in Muslim-majority countries like Algeria and Muslim-minority ones like the United Kingdom.
A huge number of committed cadres. If Islamists constitute 10 to 15 percent of the Muslim population worldwide, they number some 125 to 200 million persons, or a far greater total than all the fascists and communists, combined, who ever lived.
Pacifism, self-hatred and complacency are lengthening the war against radical Islam and causing undue casualties. Only after absorbing catastrophic human and property losses will left-leaning Westerners likely overcome this triple affliction and confront the true scope of the threat. The civilized world will likely then prevail, but belatedly and at a higher cost than need have been.
Should Islamists get smart and avoid mass destruction, but instead stick to the lawful, political, non-violent route, and should their movement remain vital, it is difficult to see what will stop them.
The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures. His next column will appear in mid-April, after he teaches a course on "Islam and Politics" at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California (www.DanielPipes.org).
Thanks to Milford421 for this report:
Record year for E. coli infections in Winnipeg
Record year for E. coli infections in Winnipeg
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 | 9:41 AM ET
CBC News
Contaminated beef and a day-care outbreak were factors in making
2006 a record year for E. coli cases in Winnipeg, according to
health officials.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority recorded 102 cases of E. coli
poisoning this year. The authority normally sees an average of 18
cases a year.
"Most of that is explained by the close to 60 or so cases that we
saw mostly in the month of August due to a ground-beef-associated
outbreak here in Winnipeg," said Dr. Pierre Plourde, medical officer
of health.
About 40 of those infections were in the month of August alone. On
Sept. 1, the authority announced that half of those cases were
traced back to the Dutch Meat Market in St. Boniface. The store had
distributed ground beef to a number of local restaurants and burger
joints in the first two weeks of August, the authority found.
Plourde said an additional 20 to 30 cases came from an outbreak in
October in a Winnipeg day-care centre. The centre was closed
temporarily to deal with the outbreak, and none of the children
all under age five became seriously ill, he said.
"It was a larger day care and the attack rate of the E. coli was
fairly high," he said. "Most of the kids and the staff were either
carriers or ill with the E. coli in that outbreak."
Contaminated beef and a day-care outbreak were factors in making
2006 a record year for E. coli cases in Winnipeg, according to
health officials.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority recorded 102 cases of E. coli
poisoning this year. The authority normally sees an average of 18
cases a year.
"Most of that is explained by the close to 60 or so cases that we
saw mostly in the month of August due to a ground-beef-associated
outbreak here in Winnipeg," said Dr. Pierre Plourde, medical officer
of health.
About 40 of those infections were in the month of August alone. On
Sept. 1, the authority announced that half of those cases were
traced back to the Dutch Meat Market in St. Boniface. The store had
distributed ground beef to a number of local restaurants and burger
joints in the first two weeks of August, the authority found.
Plourde said an additional 20 to 30 cases came from an outbreak in
October in a Winnipeg day-care centre. The centre was closed
temporarily to deal with the outbreak, and none of the children
all under age five became seriously ill, he said.
"It was a larger day care and the attack rate of the E. coli was
fairly high," he said. "Most of the kids and the staff were either
carriers or ill with the E. coli in that outbreak."
Plourde said public health officials across the country are
concerned with a national trend of higher E. coli counts this year.
"There were about three or four other provinces that had high
numbers comparable to ours. So we weren't the lowest, we weren't the
highest; we're somewhere in the middle," he said.
"It has generated some concern amongst public health authorities,"
Plourde added. "E. coli isn't only coming out of raw meat products,
but is spilling over into the world of vegetables."
In September, spinach was pulled from grocery stores across North America after contaminated spinach from the United States killed
three people and made 204 people ill. An Ottawa woman was one of
those made sick by the tainted spinach.
Plourde said E. coli infection rates can come in cycles and the
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority will keep a close eye on new
cases in the new year to see if this year was the beginning of a new
trend.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/12/27/wpg-ecoli.html?
ref=rss#skip300x250
FYROM army intelligence chief sacked over smuggling charge
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/world__KathiLev&xml/&aspKath/world.asp?fdate=28/12/2006
FYROM army intelligence chief sacked over smuggling charge
SKOPJE (AP) The military intelligence chief of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has been sacked after police seized a
consignment of army weapons allegedly being smuggled to Bulgaria, the
countrys defense minister said yesterday. Lazar Elenovski said military
intelligence failed to prevent the new weapons from leaving army
warehouses. The defense minister said another two senior military
intelligence officers were also removed.
FYROM police seized three trucks loaded with undocumented weapons two
weeks ago and arrested four Bulgarian men on smuggling charges.
Assad's French nightmare
By Akiva Eldar
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/806812.html
Paradoxically, Syrian President Bashar Assad, the host of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal, unintentionally managed to ease the blockage clogging the channel between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. To say "no" to the entire world all the time, Likud could have been left in power. Benjamin Netanyahu met with Yasser Arafat and sent Ron Lauder to talk to Hafez Assad. Therefore, moving for a political process with Abbas is, to a certain extent, the default option.
The prime minister clearly has not adopted the assessment of Mossad chief Meir Dagan. During the last Lebanon war, Dagan constantly reiterated his recommendation that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora should be ignored. In private talks, Olmert has said that even though he knows a successful peace process with Syria would mean leaving the Golan Heights, this would not stop him from opening negotiations. The main reason for Olmert's lack of interest in talking to Assad is Assad's desire to talk with Olmert. According to intelligence assessments presented to the senior political leadership, Syria's peace assault on Israel is basically a defensive maneuver ahead of what the Alawite regime sees as a French-American plot to bring it down. The fear of the French is greater than the fear of the Americans. Jacques Chirac does not conceal his deep hatred for those he sees as behind the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
According to the information at Israel's disposal, Assad fears that Chirac is determined not to leave the Elysee Palace so long as his friend's murderer is sitting pretty in his palace. In order to get past Chirac in one piece, Assad is willing to promise the Americans that if they back off a bit, he will seal out Al-Qaida on the Iraq border, provide information on Jihad activists and even ensure that Siniora does not prematurely join Hariri and Pierre Gemayel.
In the meantime, Washington has not responded, Paris is not changing its policy, and Olmert is not letting himself irritate either of them. Hamas is refusing to recognize Israel, Hezbollah is making threats, and Iran is acquiring nuclear capabilities. Who's left? Abu Mazen, the man whom Sharon, who brought Olmert to where he is, referred to as "a chick without feathers." When there are no songbirds, one must make do with a chick.
Listen to his mother
Olmert's refusal to talk with the Syrians made Labor MK Matan Vilnai reminisce about his mother. On Tuesday, during a discussion in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Vilnai said Assad's peace efforts should not be ignored. The retired general said that before the Yom Kippur War, "My Egyptian mother used to say we have to compromise with the Arabs. I was a young officer full of strength, and I thought we need not rush to respond to the Egyptians."
MK Yossi Beilin asked if that was also how his father, Prof. Ze'ev Vilnai, a Greater Land of Israel proponent, felt. "The smart one in the family was Mom, and Mom was always right," Vilnai answered with a smile.
Committee chairman Tzachi Hanegbi intervened: "What would happen if my mother were also always right?" said the Knesset member who forewent the right-wing doctrines of his mother, Geula Cohen, in favor of the center. It would be even more interesting if Hanegbi's Kadima colleagues, and primarily Olmert, were to start listening to Tzipi Livni's mother. The foreign minister has come a long way from the house of her father, Eitan Livni, the operations officer of the Irgun, to Condoleezza Rice's apartment in Washington.
On Saturday night less than three weeks ago, the two met there for talks that lasted nearly four hours. The meeting was described as "private," and its contents were not publicized. However, some foreign ministry officials identified the source of the report by Nathan Guttman, the Washington correspondent for the Jewish weekly The Forward, on a new American proposal to establish a Palestinian state now within temporary borders. A small group of confidantes knows this is not exactly "an American proposal," nor is it a new proposal.
On June 13, it was reported here that "Livni confirms she told senior officials that 'at the moment Abbas is not a partner for a permanent arrangement, but he can be a partner in other arrangements, on the basis of the gradual program cited in the road map." Livni specifically spoke of an agreement with the Palestinians to establish a state within temporary borders, Haaretz reported.
These borders are supposed to abut the route of the fence, an arrangement that will leave the large settlement blocs (approximately 10 percent of the area) in Israeli hands, at least until a permanent arrangement is signed. At the time, it was noted that the second stage of the road map presents the option of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state within temporary borders as "a step en route to a permanent arrangement." All of this would be in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, and with its full consent.
Then, too, the Americans were involved. Then, too, there was talk of a timetable and guarantees that would ensure temporary did not become permanent. When Beilin asked Livni not long ago to define the difference between her ideas and the plan he formulated with Yasser Abed Rabbo (a permanent arrangement by 2010), Livni responded with a smile that it really was difficult for her to see any differences.
The new thing in this story, as opposed to what was publicized in June, is the American secretary of state's increased involvement in the process, and the rise in Livni's self-confidence. Even though Livni and Olmert are members of the same party, ties between them are reminiscent of the days of the Labor-Likud rotation government of the 1980s. At the height of the second Lebanon war, when Livni sought to head to New York in order to take part in the talks ahead of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and Olmert grounded her, she learned firsthand that flattery is not her boss's strong point.
The story of the Palestinian state within temporary borders reminded veterans of Shimon Peres' way of Americanizing Israeli plans. He assumed that if he could transform his understandings with King Hussein (the London Agreement) into an American document, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir would swallow the bitter pill. The Foreign Ministry hopes that this time, the story will have a much happier ending.
What Ford saw
President Gerald Ford, who died yesterday at a ripe old age, taught Yitzhak Rabin an important lesson on the relationship between American domestic politics and foreign policy, between election-eve promises and the day after. In the late 1960s, as Republican minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ford promised Rabin, then Israeli ambassador to Washington, that the first thing he would do if he made it to the White House was move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In the mid-1970s, Prime Minister Rabin sat across from President Ford in the Oval Office. The guest reminded the president of his promise. Ford smiled and said without hesitation, "Yitzhak, my friend, from this room, life looks completely different."
In spring 1995, Rabin told me this anecdote - which is also cited in his memoirs, "Pinkas Sherut" - in the home of the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Itamar Rabinowitz. A short time earlier, he had found out that Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole and Republican House majority leader Newt Gingrich, with the help of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, were sponsoring a bill requiring the administration to move the embassy to Jerusalem no later than May 1999 (the scheduled date for a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians).
Rabin and President Bill Clinton were furious. They feared the initiative would further damage the problematic relations with Yasser Arafat and embarrass King Hussein. The prime minister was consoled by the fact that that the bill would grant the president authority to suspend it so long as he felt the move might damage the U.S.'s strategic interests.
The man who initiated the bill was Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert, who was looking for another gimmick to add to Jerusalem's 3,000-year celebration. President George W. Bush has just signed a form to suspend the law for the umpteenth time. Apparently, life seems totally different from the Prime Minister's Office, too, or as the right-wingers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon said shortly after they entered that office: "What you see from here is not what you see from there.
Specter, colleagues travel abroad, but bid for dialogue yields little
by Michael Rubin
The Philadelphia Inquirer
December 28, 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/1076
On Christmas Day, Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) arrived in Damascus for meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior regime officials. He becomes the fourth senator in recent weeks to break an informal travel embargo and visit the Syrian capital, following visits this month by Sens. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), John Kerry (D., Mass.), and Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.).
When Specter announced his intention to visit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned to ask him not to go, but the senator refused.
"I deferred to them a year ago, and I deferred to them last August," Specter told the Associated Press. "If there were any signs the administration policy [in the Middle East] was working, I'd defer to them again."
But is blind engagement any better? Specter's trip was his 16th taxpayer-funded visit to Syria since 1984. While he may relish the image of statesman, Specter has little but failure to show for his efforts.
On each trip, Syria's state-controlled television broadcast Specter's meeting with the Syrian president. Specter may believe his words are tough, but the Syrian government twists them to imply endorsement. On Jan. 5, 2003, for example, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that "the U.S. Senator... voiced the United States' appreciation for Syria's positions and efforts aimed at making the Middle East more secure and stable, adding that his country views Syria's positions as principled and rational."
On Dec. 26, 2006, Syrian television reported that Specter "stressed... Syria's pivotal role in the region." Bolstering the sense of importance and confidence of state sponsors of terrorism does not help regional diplomacy.
For all their travels, the senators who visited Damascus would be hard-pressed to name any Arab dissidents whose freedom they won. When Specter met Assad in January 2003, he did not raise the case of Ibrahim Hamidi, the Damascus correspondent for the London-based al-Hayat daily, whom the Syrian regime had ordered imprisoned just two weeks before for publishing material not cleared by state censors. Today, prominent dissidents such as Aref Dalila, Michel Kilo, Anwar al-Bunni, Mahmoud Issa, and Kamal Labwani remain imprisoned.
While Specter and Assad spoke of the importance of dialogue, blind engagement can endanger U.S. national security. In January 1990, Specter traveled to Baghdad to meet then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. For Hussein, Specter was useful. He believed the Iraqi leader's talk of peace. Over the next few months, Specter resisted proposals by Senate colleague John McCain (R., Ariz.) for sanctions on the Iraqi leader and instead called for dialogue. Hussein used the delay to rebuild his military and, on Aug. 2, 1990, ordered his tanks into Kuwait.
Specter's engagement with Iran was as poorly conceived. On Capitol Hill, he has been a leading voice for rapprochement with the Islamic republic. On Aug. 30, 2000, he accepted Iranian president Mohammad Khatami's call for a dialogue of civilizations and met with the speaker of the Iranian parliament at a New York reception. How sincere was the dialogue? While Specter and his colleagues helped legitimize Iran's image, interaction with the Islamic republic lost its taint. As European trade with Iran tripled, Khatami pumped 70 percent of the hard currency windfall into Iran's nuclear and military programs. Nor did Specter's dialogue stop the terror threat. The 9/11 Commission report shows that during this period, the Iranian government was granting free passage to and from terrorist training camps for the 9/11 hijackers.
Specter and his colleagues' latest engagement will hurt U.S. national interests as much. Syria remains a state sponsor of terrorism. Despite Specter's 16 trips, not only is Assad widely reported to be continuing to finance and offer safe haven for terrorists responsible for the deaths of Americans, but also he now reportedly facilitates their passage into Iraq. By legitimizing Assad, the freelancing senators undercut pressure from the United Nations for the Syrian ruler to accept responsibility for the Syrian role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. By conditioning Assad to expect reward for noncompliance, such engagement not only undercuts prospects for peace, but also may actually increase the likelihood of further bloodshed.
Statesmanship should involve more than accruing passport stamps and photo-ops with foreign leaders. Senators should not be dupes for dictators. Not every regime is sincere when it extends an olive branch. Diplomacy is not only about talk, but also about judgment and strategy. If Specter's strategy were so wise, his track record of engagement might not be so dismal.
Related Items
* Other items by Michael Rubin
* Other items in category Syria
* Other items in category US policy
[This is far above my knowledge, still I found it interesting to read...granny]
[www.rb.org.il]:
Chapter Nine: "The Kempler Film"
Almost two months after the Rabin assassination, Israelis were
shocked to read in their newspapers that an amateur film of the event
would be shown on Channel Two news. The film maker was announced as a
Polish tourist with a long, unpronounceable name. However, this story
changed the day of the broadcast. The film maker was, in fact, an
Israeli named Roni Kempler.
There were obvious questions asked by the public. Why had he
[Kempler] waited a month to show the film when he would have been a few
million dollars richer had he sold it to the world networks the day
following the assassination? In his sole television appearance the night
his film was broadcast, Kempler explained he was not interested in
making money. What else could he say?
It was quickly discovered that Kempler was no ordinary person.
He worked for the State Comptroller's Office and was a bodyguard in the
army reserves.
It is an extremely rare occurrence when the Israeli press
publishes an opinion that expresses doubt about the veracity of the Shamgar
Commission, which investigated the assassination on behalf of the
government. Yet in the aftermath of a most revealing expose of the
testimony of Shabak (G.S.S./General Security Services) agents and police
officers present near the murder site published by Ma'ariv on September 27,
1996, two letters were published in response.
One was from Labor Knesset Member Ofir Pines, who admitted he,
too, heard numerous security agents shout that the shots which
supposedly felled Rabin were blanks. He added rather weakly that in
retrospect, perhaps he heard the shouts because he wanted to believe that the
bullets were not real.
A second letter was from Hannah Chen of Jerusalem. She
succinctly summarized some of the most blatant suspicions about Roni Kempler.
The letter read:
"Allow me to add my doubts about the strange facts
surrounding the Rabin assassination. First, it was said that the video
film maker who captured the murder did not own his own camera, rather
borrowed one. It is odd that an amateur film maker did not own a camera
and, if he borrowed one, then from whom? Why were we not told what kind
of a camera was used? Secondly, no one initially knew that he made the
film, that a film of the assassination existed. Does that mean none of
the security agents on the scene spotted him filming from a rooftop?
And how did the video get to the media? Should not the Shabak have
confiscated the film from its owner if this was the only documentary
evidence describing the crime? And why did not the film maker voluntarily
turn over the film to the police? It is completely uncertain if the film
is authentic. In my opinion, it was tampered with. Perhaps people
were removed or bullet wounds added. It appears to me that we
were all fooled. The film maker worked for the Shabak and everything
to do with the film and the timing of its release were fake".
Ms. Chen expressed the view of many. Nonetheless, the film,
as edited as it obviously was during its two months of
non-acknowledgement, is as valuable to solving the Rabin assassination as the Zapruder
film in putting to rest the lone-gunman lie foisted on the American
public in the wake of the J.F.K. murder.
One event in particular that was captured on the film is
becoming the center of doubt about the veracity of the Shamgar Commission.
Before Rabin enters his vehicle, the opposite door closes from inside.
To almost everyone who watches that door close, it is certain that
someone, perhaps the murderer, was waiting in the Cadillac for Rabin. This
is in direct contradiction to the official conclusion that Rabin
entered an empty car. But there is more on the Kempler film that contradicts
the official findings -- much more.
As the fifteen-minute film begins, Yigal Amir looks in the
distance; and, as the television commentator noted, "Seems to be signaling
someone". It is not the first time that the possibility of an
accomplice was noted. At the Shamgar Commission, police officers Boaz Eran and
Mori Sergei both testified that Amir spoke with a bearded man in a dark
tee-shirt, whom he appeared to know, about 30 minutes before the
shooting.
As the film progresses, the viewer realizes that Shabak
(G.S.S./General Security Services) testimony before Shamgar was very
incorrect. One of the primary excuses given for not identifying Amir in the
sterile area was because of the "crowded" situation. To prove the point,
the testimony of police officers saying that "another well-known
demonstrator, who works for the city, rushed at Rabin and shook his hand", is
cited. Amir, then, was not the only anti-Rabin individual in the
sterile zone. However, Amir is not filmed in a crowd. He stands for long
minutes meters away from anyone else. No one could have missed him had
they wanted to see him.
Then, two security officers strike up a conversation with
Amir. He was noticed and apparently had something to say to the very
people who should have identified and apprehended him.
A few seconds later, Shimon Peres comes down the steps and
walks towards the crowd at the barrier. He accepts their good wishes and
walks to a spot about a meter and a half opposite the hood or Rabin's
car. He is accompanied by four bodyguards, one of whom clearly points
to Yigal Amir sitting three meters away opposite them. Peres stops,
looks inside the car and begins a conversation with the bodyguards. All
now take a good look at the Rabin limousine rear door.
At this point there is a cut. Suddenly, Peres is talking to
Rabin's driver, Menachem Damti. Damti was nowhere in the screen
previously and was likely by his post beside the driver's seat door. The cut
is significant, probably of several seconds. There was something the
folks who chopped the film did not want the public to see.
After a hard night at the rally, instead of getting into his
car and going home, Peres decided it was more important to examine
Rabin's car and have a serious chat with his driver.
Roni Kempler was asked to explain the cut in the film under
oath at Yigal Amir's trial. He [Kempler] testified that "Shimon Peres
left and I filmed him as he was supposed to enter his car. But when
Shimon Peres stood on the same spot for a long time, he stopped interesting
me cinematically. I stopped filming and started again the moment he
entered his car".
Kempler's account was wrong in every detail. If the film was
not cut and he shut off the camera, he decided to turn it back on while
Peres was still standing opposite Rabin's car, only now talking to
Damti. Many seconds later, he started walking towards his own car.
Kempler's testimony was perjured, yet Amir's lawyers, possibly not familiar
enough with the film, let him off the hook.
Peres enters his car as Rabin descends the steps. The camera
captures the agent at Rabin' rear clearly stopping. He abandons
Rabin's back deliberately; a huge gap between him and Rabin opens, allowing
Amir a clear shot at the Prime Minister. Amir draws his gun from deep
inside his right pocket and the television commentator notes, "Amir is
drawing his gun to shoot". Anyone, trained or not, could see that Amir
was drawing a gun, and at that point he should have been pounced on.
But this was not to be. Instead, he circles a student reporter named
Modi Yisrael, draws his gun and shoots.
We now play the murder frame by frame. Rabin has supposedly
taken a hollow-point 9mm bullet in his lung, yet he does not wince or
flinch. He is not even pushed forward by the impact nor does his suit
show signs of tearing. Instead, he continues walking forward and turns
his head behind him in the direction of the noise.
Three doctors watched this moment with me; Drs. B. and H.
asked for anonymity and Dr. Klein of Tel Aviv had no objection to being
cited. I asked if Rabin's reaction was medically feasible if he was only
hit in the lung or if his backbone was shattered. I was told that if
the spine was hit, Rabin would have fallen on the spot. However, in the
case of a lung wound, I was told that there are two types of pain
reaction: One reflexive, the other delayed.
Rabin did not display the reflexive reaction, which would have
most likely meant clutching the arm. Instead, he displayed a startle
reaction, painlessly turning his head toward the direction of the shot.
The conclusion of the doctors was that Rabin heard a shot, perhaps felt
the blast of a blank and turned quickly towards the noise. This was a
startle reaction, and it cannot occur simultaneously with a reflexive
pain reaction.
Rabin takes three or four steps forward, and suddenly the film
becomes totally hazy for just under two seconds. A technical expert
told me he is convinced the film was deliberately made fuzzy by an
artificial process duplicating a sudden, quick movement of the camera. To
illustrate his belief, he put his finger on one point, a white reflective
light on the windshield, and notes that it stays in the same position
while the camera is supposedly moving. Yet the haze lifts momentarily
almost two seconds later and Rabin appears, still standing but a step or
two forward. He has taken at least five steps since the shooting.
Then the swish returns and within the next round of haze, another shot is
heard but not seen.
According to the Shamgar Commission and the judges at Yigal
Amir's trial, Yoram Rubin was on top of Rabin lying on the parking lot
ground when the second shot was fired. The official version is that
after hearing the first shot, Rubin jumps on Rabin and pushes him to the
ground. Amir approached Rabin and Rubin and, while being held by at
least two other bodyguards, pumped one bullet into Rubin's arm and another
into Rabin's spleen. There followed a hiatus in the shooting, during
which Rubin thinks to himself, "A defect in the weapon", and then
according to Rubin,
"I shouted at him several times, 'Yitzhak, can you
hear me, just me and no one else, g-dammit? He (Rabin) helped me to my
feet. That is, we worked together. He then jumped into the car. In
retrospect, I find it amazing that a man his age could jump like that".
This author finds it amazing that a man his [Rabin's] age with
bullets in his lung and spleen could jump at all.
(Chapter Nine to be continued...)
Shabbat Shalom from Modi'in,
Mr. Barry Chamish
mailto:chamishba@gmail.com
www.thebarrychamishwebsite.com
ENGLISH
Books:
"Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin?"
"Israel Betrayed"
"Last Days Of Israel"
"Save Israel"
"Shabtai Tzvi, Labour Zionism And The Holocaust"
CDs:
"Zion First: The Vatican's New Campaign For Jerusalem"
Audio CD:
"Shabtai Tzvi in Denver"
Video:
"Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin?"
HEBREW
Books:
Mi Ratzakh ("Who Murdered Rabin?")
Yamaya HaAchronim ("Last Days of Israel")
Hatzeelu Et Yisrael ("Save Israel")
Shabtai Tzi ("Shabtai Tzvi")
CD:
Mi Ratzakh ("Who Murdered Rabin?")
Milkhama KHashait ("Dirty War Against The Settlers")
Please contact me at:
mailto:chamishba@gmail.com
www.thebarrychamishwebsite.com
December 28, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
Iraq violence kills 25 - in a string of gun and bomb attacks
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20984504-1702,00.html
(Iraq) Six killed in Baghdad market bombings
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/December/focusoniraq_December150.xml§ion=focusoniraq
(Iraq) Bombs rock Baghdad as Saddam judgement published
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061228/ts_afp/iraq_061228101209
Iraq Qaeda suspect blamed for U.S. kidnap captured
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061228/wl_nm/iraq_usa_qaeda_dc_1
Iraqi Qaeda allies urge backing for Somali Islamists
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28626130.htm
Somali pro-govt militias seize buildings in capital
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/December/theworld_December753.xml§ion=theworld
(Somalia) Islamic forces abandon Somalia's capital
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061228/ap_on_re_af/somalia_124
(India) Nine killed in violence in Indian Kashmir - including five
Islamic rebels
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061228/wl_sthasia_afp/indiakashmirunrest_061228111740
Hijack attempt on Russian plane foiled: Czech police - plane bound for
Geneva
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061228/wl_nm/aeroflot_hijack_dc_2
British soldier killed in Afghanistan
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/December/subcontinent_December947.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=
Karzai: Mining Afghan-Pakistan border will not stop terrorists
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/28/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Pakistan.php
Canadian troops take long, slow approach in hunt for Taliban
http://www.cjob.com/news/index.aspx?dir=national&src=ext&rem=./n122706A.xml
(Russia) Madrasahs said to lure Russians into "extremism"
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=2436
(Pakistan) Death to U.N. Workers Urged in Pakistan - new fatwa by Mufti
Khalid Shah to kill all employees of United Nations
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/death_to_un_wor.html
(Pakistan) Court Stays Dropping of Terror Charges Against Briton Rashid
Rauf (my title)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061228/wl_sthasia_afp/britainattacksairlinepakistan_061228093139
(Pakistan) One killed in Peshawar airport blast
http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/27/top3.htm
(India) A year after Indian Institute of Science (IISc) attack, shooter
still unknown
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/A_year_on_IISc_shooter_still_unknown/articleshow/960505.cms
(India) Al Qaeda threat chases tourists from India sites
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20061227-095250-4890r.htm
(India) 7/11: ATS fails to nail hawala men who routed funds - Despite
arrests in July 11 Mumbai bombings, hawala network used to channel the
money not dismantled
http://in.news.yahoo.com/061227/48/6amqh.html
(India) 'Cops stumbled on terror cells last week'
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1071558
Indonesia credits police for no bomb deaths in 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061227/wl_nm/indonesia_terrorism_dc_1
(Philippines) US, Philippine military keen to confirm death of Abu
Sayyaf leader
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061228/wl_asia_afp/philippinesattacksunrestabusayyaf_061228073823
(Thailand) Muslim shot dead, school burned in Thailand's south
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061227/wl_asia_afp/thailandsouthunresttoll_061227073224
North Korea sold gold to Thailand before sanctions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061228/wl_nm/korea_north_thailand_gold_dc_2
(Turkey) 13 acquitted in attack on U.S. troops
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_us_troops_1
(Lebanon) Hezbollah rises from ruins of its Beirut home
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-suburbs27dec27,0,4782210.story?coll=la-home-headlines
(Israel) Security forces: Suicide bombing thwarted - at the Halhul
checkpoint near Hebron
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881997461&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel threatens to renew attacks - on rocket-launching militants in
the Gaza Strip
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_61
(Israel) Youth critically wounded in Kassam attack on Sderot
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881978536&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Gaza Islamists Target Internet Cafes
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_6427-Gaza-Islamists-Target-Internet-Cafes.html
Egypt sent arms to Abbas loyalists with Israeli help
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061228/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinians_061228104748
(UK) 40 terror suspects in East Lancs - Lancashire police monitoring
more than 40 people with suspected terrorist links.
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1091223.0.40_terror_suspects_in_east_lancs.php
UK regularly scrambles jets to check planes: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061228/wl_nm/britain_security_dc_1
(UK) Terror czar calls for crackdown on small airfield use
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=425041&in_page_id=1770
France Joins the U.K. on High Alert
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/france_joins_th.html
U.S. says captured Iranians can be linked to attacks
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9646
US warns Iran over "downward spiral" with UN nuclear watchdog
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/December/middleeast_December455.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Iran fury at Blair "tirade of allegations"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2520628,00.html
Death of religious tolerance in Malaysia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20977254-2702,00.html
Report: Islamic group sues Malaysian authorities
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881996930&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Nigeria) Another oil pipeline explodes in Lagos, Nigeria
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881998737&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Al Qaeda in 2007: The Continuing Devolution
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=282341
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014582.php
December 27, 2006
"Rise up and march with Somalia to destroy Christianity and establish Khilafah"
Making clear what the war there is about. From the Islam First website, with thanks to DFS:
** Rise up and march with Somalia 2 crush Christianity
RISE UP AND MARCH WITH SOMALIA TO DESTROY CHRISTIANITY AND ESTABLISH KHILAFAH
DOORS OF JIHAD OPEN IN SOMALIA
A Somali Islamic Courts defence chief has for the first time called on foreign Muslim fighters to join his movement's war against Ethiopia.
"We're saying our country is open to Muslims worldwide. Let them fight in Somalia and wage jihad, and God willing, attack Addis Ababa," Yusuf Mohamed Siad, known as Inda'ade, said.
"Today the war is being fought by land and air," Sheikh Mahmud Ibrahim Suley, an SICS official, told reporters in Mogadishu.
"We want anyone who can help remove the enemy to come in," he told a news conference in the Mogadishu, the Somali capital and an Islamic Courts stronghold.
"Our Islamic fighters have taken control of Idale and are heading to other parts where Tigray (Ethiopian) invaders are now based, by the will of Allah, we will liberate our people and country from the Ethiopian invaders," Islamic Courts Information chief Abdurahim Ali Muddey said the AFP.
"We are at war with Ethiopia, but not with the government," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the Islamic Courts leader said on Thursday.
Somalia's Islamic courts on Monday, June 5, claimed victory over a US-backed warlord alliance after four months of fierce fighting in the capital Mogadishu that claimed the lives of hundreds as the interim government invited the courts to take part in dialogue.
"The Joint Islamic Courts are not interested in a continuation of hostilities and will fully implement peace and security after the change has been made by the victory of the people with the support of Allah," its chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Posted by Robert at December 27, 2006 09:13 AM
India: 2 ISI agents arrested
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/28isi.htm
Lucknow: 2 ISI agents arrested
December 28, 2006 12:42 IST
Two Inter Services Intelligence agents were arrested by the Special
Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police in Lucknow on Thursday, police
said.
The agents, Adil and Abduil Shakur were arrested from the Kaiserbagh
locality of the city on a tip off, STF Assistant Superintendent of Police
Vijay Bhushan told PTI.
Both were engaged in spying for the ISI and a number of documents
related to Indian army were recovered from their possession, he said.
Today in History:
December 28, 1972 - Israel, Thailand
Embassy in Bangkok Seized
Black September terrorists took hostages after seizing the Israeli embassy in Bangkok. The hostages were released in exchange for safe conduct.
December 28, (year ?) - Nepal
National Holiday
This holiday celebrates the king's birthday.
Upcoming Significant Events:
No information provided. - Andorra
Independence Achieved
An agreement between the French Count of Foix and the Spanish Bishop of Seo de Urgel in 1278 to recognize each other as co-princes of the Andorran Valleys gave the nation what has been its political and territorial form to the present day.
January 1, (year unknown) - Algeria
New Year's Day
No information provided.
January 1, 1804 - Haiti
Independence Day
The slave revolt that began in 1801 under the leadership of Pierre Dominique Toussaint L'ouverture triumphed with the establishment of an independent Haiti under Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
January 1, 1901 - Australia
Independence Day
No information provided.
January 1, 1956 - Sudan
Independence Day
No information provided.
January 1, 1960 - Cameroon
Independence Day
No information provided.
January 1, 1962 - Western Samoa
Independence Day
No information provided.
January 1, 1964 - Israel, Middle East
Fatah Day
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded at a meeting in Jerusalem.
January 1, 1984 - Brunei
Independence Day
Brunei became a sovereign state and resumed full independence from Britain.
December 29, 1945 - Serbia-Montenegro
Proclamation of the Republic
Commemorates the proclamation of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.
December 30, 1896 - Philippines
Rizal Day
Commemorates the execution of national hero Jose Rizal.
December 30, 1947 - Romania
Republic Proclaimed
No information provided.
December 31, 1968 - Philippines
Marxist-Leninist Party Founded
The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of the Philippines was founded.
December 31, 1969 - Congo
Proclamation of the Republic
President Marien Ngouabi proclaimed the People's Republic of the Congo.
December 31, 1978 - Indonesia
Killing of Fretilin President
Indonesian military forces surrounded and killed Fretilin President and Supreme Commander Nicolau Dos Reis Lobato.
December 31, 1981 - Ghana
Jerry Rawlings Seizes Power
Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings and a small group of soldiers launched a coup that succeeded, against little opposition, in toppling President Limann.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061227/ts_nm/iraq_sadr_dc
Anger in Iraq's Najaf after U.S. kills Sadr aide
Posted on Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 3:15pm
Thousands of supporters of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through the holy Iraqi city of Najaf in an angry funeral procession after a senior Sadr aide was killed by a U.S. soldier on Wednesday. Chanting "No to America" and carrying placards decrying U.S. occupation, mourners, including black-robed clerics, carried the coffin of Saheb al-Amiri through the streets. Full Story
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