http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.223834268&par=0
ERRORISM: INTERNET TERROR THREATS TO OMAR SHARIF
AKI - Rome,Italy
(AKI) - Death threats to the ... A threatening message from user 'bachirma1' on one of
the forums used by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda, reads:"In my view Omar ...
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=19694#
The spies just may end up loving us
By Rami G. Khouri
Commentary by
Saturday, October 29, 2005
This is a moment of potential change in Washington and its foreign policy, for two main reasons: domestic pressures, legal problems and
strengthening opposition may reduce President George W. Bush's power in the last three years of his second term; and new approaches or
tactics may be sought to address some of the nagging issues that challenge the United States abroad, especially with respect to Iraq, Iran
and the declared American policy of promoting democracy and freedom.
The Middle East has been the focus of the Bush team's foreign policy since September 11, 2001, and it continues to define important
aspects of America's engagement with the world. Viewed from both the U.S. and the Middle East alike, the relationship between these two
regions seems to touch on a series of issues that is each important in its own right. Together, they comprise a rich and compelling agenda
of mutual engagement that offers both befuddling challenges and historical opportunities. Into this broad tapestry of issues has now been
added the striking and important announcement that was made in Washington earlier this week, namely that efforts "to bolster the growth
of democracy" are now among the top three missions for American intelligence agencies around the world.
This is intriguing, to say the least, and a very positive development in many ways, but also perilous in others. It has to be viewed within
the wider context of the multiple big issues that define U.S.-Middle East relations: Iraq; Arab-Israeli peace-making; Iran's nuclear
ambitions; terrorism; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; the promotion of democracy and the rule of law; the enhancement
of socio-economic development and meeting basic human needs; Turkey and its moves to enter the European Union; global diplomatic
intervention in the Lebanon-Syria arena via the UN Security Council; and securing energy supplies.
Other issues in the region also deserve our attention, such as Darfur, the status and rights of women, youth conditions and prospects,
minority rights, migrant workers' rights, and water sharing and environmental issues, to mention just a few. But the 10 issues I mentioned
above resonate widely around the region and the world, and in most cases have already generated serious interventions by foreign powers.
The U.S., whether one likes it or not, remains the major power that usually tries to define the agenda, and the means, of foreign
intervention in the Middle East. This is done through war and occupation, regime-change threats or implementation, economic pressures
and embargos, diplomatic action or positive economic and other inducements that aim to foster changes in the behavior of various Middle
Eastern governments or political movements.
At this moment of subtle reassessment in how it intervenes and engages diplomatically in the region, Washington is also absorbing the
important lessons of several parallel dynamics: its difficult military and political experience in Iraq, the more successful effort to pressure
Syria via UN Security Council resolutions, the ongoing diplomatic engagement of Iran via EU states, the apparent breakthrough on nuclear
issues with North Korea, and the still strong backlash around the world to U.S. attempts to define a global agenda on fighting terror,
promoting democracy and holding accountable perpetrators of war crimes or crimes against humanity.
So when Washington's new strategy document formally makes promoting democracy among the top three missions for its intelligence
agencies (the other two are counterterrorism and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction), we in the Middle East
should judge this in the wider context of the issues that concern us and the dynamics that bind us to the U.S. and other foreign powers. In
this respect, it is certainly good that Washington now institutionalizes democracy and the rule of law as primary, long-term goals of its
foreign policy, moving beyond only the rhetorical flourishes of presidential speeches aimed mainly at domestic audiences.
It is more problematic that this is to be done in part through the work of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. This is not unusual for
the U.S., though, which normally talks about and dances around the challenge of promoting democracy and freedom in the Middle East,
rather than grappling with it directly through a more consistent set of policies that seek freedom in Palestine as well as Iraq, and
democracy in Tunisia as well as Lebanon. It is somewhat awkward for the U.S. to promote democracy through spies and spin doctors - in
other words through its intelligence agencies and its naive public diplomacy efforts now headed by the heroic Karen Hughes, who carries the
burdens of her impossible mission on strong Texan shoulders.
Despite these misgivings, the world should seriously explore this new U.S. strategy. We should welcome the professed American goals to
promote democracy, especially throughout the Middle East, but we should also make it clear that this policy will fail if it is implemented with
the same inappropriate tactics and tone - unilateralism, militarism, selective and erratic implementation, the dictating of goals, efforts to
buy partners and friends - that have plagued other American efforts in this respect. We who are the intended beneficiaries and targets of
this policy should engage the U.S. and others in the West to ensure that it does bring about flourishing Middle Eastern democracies that we
have long sought for ourselves. Such success requires a change in traditional American diplomatic policies, tactics and styles, as well as a
change in Arab attitudes that have generally shunned or discounted the seriousness of American efforts in this direction.
A strategy document for U.S. intelligence agencies for promoting democracy and the rule of law around the world is a lot more meaningful
in my book than a speech by the American president. We must move quickly to find out if this is another Western or American deception,
or a serious strategic shift. We must call America's bluff on this to determine if it is, indeed, a bluff or not. If it is serious, however, we
would be criminally negligent to ignore what may be a historic opportunity for Arabs, other Middle Easterners, Americans and the Western
democracies to work together - perhaps for the first time in the past century - for goals that would generate a win-win situation for all
concerned. We have work to do.
Unable to open this site:
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=43600
HM man arrested with mobile phones, sim card
NewKerala.com - Ernakulam,Kerala,India
Jammu: A Hizbul Mujahideen(HM) supporter was apprehended by security forces at
Khara, 14 km south-east of Suigarh, in Doda district. ...
Off Topic:
An interesting report on his trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar,
not politics, simple and cheap real life tourist.
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2005/10/28/news/tanzania.html
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=9283
US Demands Syria Shut Down Islamic Jihad
The Conservative Voice - Kernersville,NC,USA
By Sher Zieve -- Joining Russia, the UN and the EU, on Friday the US demanded that
Syria shut down Islamic Jihad offices in Damascus. ...
http://www.fox23news.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=2210207C-10A5-4B1B-9472-22A4D106253E
Muslim doctor is sent to prison for more than two decades for charity fraud
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - An Iraqi doctor once tagged as a terrorism suspect and later convicted of conspiring to
violate U.S. sanctions was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors had continued to argue that Dr. Rafil Dhafir had terrorist ties that made him a national security
threat and urged a sentence of at least 24 years.
Defense attorney Deveraux Cannick had sought leniency for his 57-year-old client, saying he had done good works
for patients and for Iraqis who suffered because of Saddam Hussein and the first Gulf War.
Dhafir was convicted in February on 59 counts including misusing $2 million that donors gave to his unlicensed
charity, Help the Needy, and spending $544,000 for his own purposes.
The jury said Dhafir - an oncologist who practiced in Rome, N.Y. - also defrauded Medicare out of $316,000 by
billing for treatments as if he'd been in his office, when he was actually out of state or overseas. Dhafir was also
found guilty of evading $400,000 in federal income tax payments by writing off the illegal charity donations.
Source: The Associated Press
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511714/posts
Vanity Thread: Reporting an odd occurrence
yesterday in Houston
10/29/05 | kinghorse
Posted on 10/29/2005 1:01:14 PM PDT by kinghorse
continued........
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511432/posts
Hizbullah accuses U.S. and Israel of manipulating
UN reports
Daily Star ^ | October 29, 2005 | Adnan El-Ghoul
Posted on 10/28/2005 11:07:00 PM PDT by ncountylee
BEIRUT: Hizbullah accused Washington and Israel on Friday of
manipulating UN reports to stir internal strife in Lebanon and Syria,
while defending Syria and the search for truth and justice by the
family of the late Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. The party's Secretary
General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lashed out at UN special envoy
Terje Roed-Larsen's recently released second report on the
implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, saying, "The
report is full of poisonous incitement aimed at ruining the relations
between the various Lebanese factions."
Nasrallah was speaking in Beirut's southern suburbs during a massive
rally held to mark Jerusalem Day, an honorary holiday created by the
late Ayatollah Khomeini to call for the liberation of Palestine.
continued at link, see #8 for interesting post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511713/posts
Iraqi Security Forces Detain 12 Iranians, While
Sneaking through the Borders
Al Muheet ^ | 29/10/2005
Posted on 10/29/2005 12:55:36 PM PDT by jmc1969
Baghdad – Today, the Iraqi security forces in Diala province have
arrested 12 Iranian nationals, while they were sneaking to Iraq in the
city of Medeli, near the borders between the two countries.
The Iraqi news agency has quoted an officer with the Iraqi borders
security saying, "The detainees are drug smugglers. An amount of
herbs and plants that are used in making drugs has been seized." The
officer added that investigation is going on with the detainees to
identify the authorities that they are dealing with, in Iraq.
On the other hand, The Iraqi government has announced the
detention of the top financer of gunmen in Al Faluja, known as
Men'eim Shaker Al Kubaisi. A statement by the ministers' council said,
"Al Kubaisi was distributing money to what the statement described as
'criminal gangs' in Al Faluja city, for the purpose of attacking Iraqi
security forces for the justification of assisting the city residents."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511701/posts
Man Charged In Fake Flu Shot Case
KPRC News ^ | October 28, 2005
Posted on 10/29/2005 12:12:36 PM PDT by kinghorse
Man Charged In Fake Flu Shot Case Shots Contain Purified Water
POSTED: 4:56 pm CDT October 28, 2005 UPDATED: 5:15 pm CDT
October 28, 2005
HOUSTON -- A man was charged Friday, accused of intentionally
administering fake flu shots to hundreds of ExxonMobil employees,
KPRC Local 2 reported.
Iyad Abu El Hawa, 35, is accused of attempting to defraud Medicare by
giving fake flu vaccines, according to U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg.
Officials said El Hawa substituted a purified form of water for the
vaccine.
(continued and more info in links)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511471/posts
Extremists behead three Christian students in
Indonesia
Bangkok Post ^ | 29 October 2005 | Bangkok Post
Posted on 10/29/2005 4:24:58 AM PDT by Cornpone
Jakarta (dpa) - Three Christian students were beheaded and three
others wounded in the eastern Indonesian province of Central
Sulawesi Saturday, following a new violence in the region torn by
sectarian conflict.
The bodies of the Christian students, who lived at the same village in
Poso district town, were found at different places, with their heads
taken as far as 25 kilometres away, the state-run Antara news agency
reported.
The three students were killed while they were on their way to school,
about nine kilometres from their homes. Another three students had
suffered serious stab wounds in the attack, Antara said.
(continued)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1502667/posts?page=16
The Meaning of Beheading
National Review ^ | October 24, 2005 | Theodore Dalrymple
Posted on 10/14/2005 3:27:04 PM PDT by neverdem
(continued at link and you will want to read the comments)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1511034/posts
MAN PLEADS GUILITY TO THE PRODUCTION AND
TRANSPORTING OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY INTO THE
USA
ICE - Operation Predator ^ | October 27, 2005
Posted on 10/28/2005 10:28:32 AM PDT by Calpernia
MAN PLEADS GUILITY TO THE PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTING OF
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY INTO THE USA
ALEXANDRIA – United States Attorney Paul J. McNulty announced that
Burhan Mahmod Hinawi, age 44, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pled
guilty today to a one count criminal information charging him with
production of child pornography outside the United States and
transporting child pornography into the USA. Hinawi is scheduled to be
sentenced on January 20, 2006, by Senior District Court Judge Claude
M. Hilton. He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years imprisonment.
Court documents allege that Hinawi produced videos of himself
engaging in various sexual acts with male and female children
between the ages of 12 and 15. Hinawi remains in custody pending
sentencing.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security and prosecuted for
the United States by Assistant United States Attorney Gerald Smagala.
# ICE #
Comments also contain info.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1510851/posts?page=26
Iran Rally
Calpernia has posted several important posts from Laura Mansfield, about Iran in post #25.