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Posted on 11/01/2005 6:57:01 PM PST by nwctwx
Granny can direct you to some amazing sites for usage of these products!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1535747/posts
Oil prices climb after Al-Qaeda call for attacks on oil
facilities
AFP ^ | 7-Dec-2005
Posted on 12/07/2005 9:28:32 AM PST by jmc1969
Oil prices rose, holding above 60 dollars per barrel in New York after
Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared to call for
attacks on oil installations in the Middle East.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January,
added 45 cents to 60.39 dollars per barrel in electronic dealing on
Wednesday.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery
gained 55 cents to 58.16 dollars per barrel.
"This morning (on Thursday) light crude futures were higher after a
top Al-Qaeda official urged attacks on oil sites in the Middle East,"
analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said.
"In a video, Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on
mujahideen to concentrate their attacks on Muslims' 'stolen' oil."
(Excerpt) Read more at todayonline.com ...
ON THE NET...
http://trackingalqueda.blogspot.com/2005/12/might-be-interesting-site-to-watch.html
http://www.hizb.org.uk/
http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizbnew/
http://www.internet-haganah.us/jihadi/HuT.html
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp%3Fslug%3DDemonstration%2Bflays%2BBritain%27s%2Bterror%2Blaws%26id%3D82324
Given that:
1. AQ recently made threats to western petrol/fuel assets.
2. Scotland Yard just warned about terrorist attacks in the UK
3. The date is 12/11/05
A terrorist attack seems somewhat probable. Don't want to jump to any conclusions yet, but there's a lot of pieces that fit. But even it it was AQ, they'll probably tell us it was a bottle rocket that started it.
APPARENTLY (unconfirmed) this is an accident.
Yes, you are right...AQ has made a number of threats.
WorldNetDaily.com: "AL-QAIDA NUKE REACTOR THREAT Order to strike U.S. plants posted at Islamic forum" (October 8, 2005) (Read More...)
Posted on 12/10/2005 10:19:19 PM PST by rhainw
A senior State Department official is warning that terrorists are continuing to seek nuclear, chemical and biological weapons for use in future attacks. "If terrorists acquire these weapons, they are likely to employ them, with potentially catastrophic effects," said Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and the senior Bush administration arms proliferation policy-maker.
Mr. Joseph also said the U.S. government will not back off from sanctions imposed on an Asian bank that the Treasury Department said was part of the North Korean government's illegal counterfeiting and money-laundering program.
On terrorism, Mr. Joseph said a well-organized terrorist group with technical expertise could fashion a crude nuclear device once it obtains the fissile material for the bomb's fuel.
Biological weapons also would be used in an attack by terrorists because of the availability of dual-use equipment and access to pathogens, some of which occur naturally, he said. "The bioterror challenge presents a low-cost means of a potentially high-impact attack,"
Mr. Joseph said in a speech Friday at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. A copy of his remarks was obtained by The Washington Times.
"We cannot rest as long as enough material for even one nuclear weapon remains unsecured," he said.
U.S. intelligence officials have said al Qaeda was working on developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
Documents obtained from al Qaeda facilities there showed that the group had conducted research and some experiments.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden also has said that obtaining nuclear arms is a religious duty for his extremist followers.
On North Korea, Mr. Joseph said the administration will not back off the sanctions imposed in September on Macao-based Banco Delta Asia. /
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
MEMRI.org - Special Dispatch Series - No. 1044: "NEWLY-RELEASED VIDEO OF AL-QAEDA'S DEPUTY LEADER AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI'S INTERVIEW TO AL-SAHAB TV" (NOTE: "EXCERPTS OF THE VIDEO ARE POSTED IN TWO PARTS ON MEMRITV: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=951 & http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=952 ") (December 8, 2005)
INTERNET-HAGANAH.US: "ZAWAHIRI INTERVIEWED BY AL-SAHAB" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "This is reportedly the complete version of something that was first seen in September. Links for download will be found here: http://www.alferdaws.org/leqa/ The first two links demonstrate yet again how archive.org is becoming a main point of distribution for al-Qaida related propaganda and communications: http://www.archive.org/download/alsahab4/dr1final.mpg http://ia300240.us.archive.org/3/items/alsahab4/dr1final.mpg ") (December 7, 2005)
You're welcome Gucho.
Note: The following text is a quote:
---
http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20051226.txt
NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
December 10, 2005
Release Number: 05-12-26
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IRAQ: MOSUL BOMBING CELL MEMBERS SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT BY THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT OF IRAQ
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi Ministry of Justice officials announced today that four members of al Qaeda in Iraq, who were members of the Mosul Bombing Cell led by Abu Talha, were found guilty by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq of violation of Article 194 of the Iraqi Penal Code for attacking Iraqi Police, Iraqi National Guard, and Coalition Forces and sentenced each of them to life (20 years) imprisonment on Nov. 23.
This successful conviction is another landmark for the Iraqi judicial system. The verdict reinforces the will of the Iraqi people that former regime members, insurgents, foreign fighters and their supporters are being held accountable and punished by a court of justice.
On May 29, Iraqi Police, Iraqi National Guard and Coalition Forces apprehended Bilal Mahmoud Abdul Hadi (aka Abu Muhommad), Abdullah Muhammed Atala Muhammed (aka Abu Muhammed), Mohammed Ben Rabit Saadam (aka Abu Amar), and Ishmail Muhammad Abdullah Bin Abdullah during a raid in the Anbar area. The defendants are foreign fighters, from Jordan, Syria and Algeria, who entered the country of Iraq illegally and committed crimes ranging from murder and terrorism to possession of illegal weapons. These detainees were captured in a house where the kidnapped Governor of Anbar was found, but he had been murdered. The defendants resisted arrest and a firefight ensued before all defendants were eventually captured.
This legal decision in conjunction with other actions currently being taken by the Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces illustrates that the sovereign Iraqi government is mustering all security, judicial and financial measures at their disposal in order to disrupt and detain insurgents, terrorists and their supporters.
-30-
Sami's Guardian Angel - FBI MUSLIM AGENT: Gamal Abdel-Hafiz
Sami's Guardian Angel By
Paul Sperry FrontPageMagazine.com | December 9, 2005
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20487
"I didn't see the evidence," explained one male juror who this week voted to acquit former Florida professor Sami al-Arian on charges he conspired to help Palestinian terrorists kill Israelis and Americans.
Don't blame federal prosecutors for that. They did the best they could with the reams of circumstantial evidence they had, which was powerful enough by itself to sway even al-Arian's defense team to admit he had at least "some affiliation" with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and may have cheered news of the terror group's attacks.
But prosecutors could have had an open-and-shut case if it weren't for a reluctant FBI agent who in hindsight turned out to be al-Arian's guardian angel. Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, a devout Muslim from Egypt who speaks fluent Arabic, refused to secretly tape-record his fellow Muslim brother al-Arian in defiance of repeated requests from FBI colleagues working the al-Arian case.
And that ultimately hurt the government's chances of putting al-Arian away. Rewind to 1998 That year, Abdel-Hafiz met a Muslim activist through a friend at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center outside Washington, a hard-line Wahhabi mosque the agent regularly attended at the time, and the same mosque that would later give aid and comfort to some of the 9/11 hijackers. The two men exchanged business cards. Not long afterward, Abdel-Hafiz got a call from al-Arian in Florida.
The Tampa professor and Muslim activist said he got the agent's business card from the mutual acquaintance and wanted to know if he would do him a favor and, among other things, poke around the FBI to see if it had ever opened an investigation into alleged death threats against terrorism researcher Steve Emerson. Al-Arian wanted to try to catch the pro-Israel Emerson possibly exaggerating claims he made in congressional testimony about such threats. Remarkably, Abdel-Hafiz agreed to look into the issue for al-Arian, bureau sources tell me.
Hearing of the encounter, the FBI's Tampa field office asked Abdel-Hafiz to follow up by asking al-Arian several questions related to a counterterrorism case they were building against him -- and secretly record his answers. Abdel-Hafiz agreed to speak to al-Arian by phone but said he would not record the conversation without al-Arian's knowledge. The lead Tampa agent on the case, Barry Carmody, was scandalized by his refusal, calling it "outrageous."
Then Abdel-Hafiz met, unexpectedly, with al-Arian at an American Muslim Council conference in Washington and wrote a summary of their conversation, which he had not coordinated with Tampa. The report he filed was not well received by Carmody and his team of investigators in Tampa -- or by FBI agents John Vincent and Robert Wright, whose Chicago investigation dovetailed with the al-Arian case.
"After Gamal had a conversation with Sami al-Arian, he made a lot of self-serving statements for al-Arian and denigrated the FBI agent (Carmody) who was investigating the case," says Vincent, who also had a run-in with Abdel-Hafiz over his refusal to wear a wire to record another Muslim under terror investigation -- Soliman Biheiri, who is tied to al-Arian (investigators found the his phone number in Biheiri's computer address book). Abdel-Hafiz tried to explain to Vincent that a "Muslim does not record another Muslim."
"So we knew there was a problem," Vincent adds. "We had suspicions about whether Gamal would write down conversations accurately."
What's more, "There were also complaints that he was meeting with subjects of investigations in Washington without advising the Washington field office," he says. Abdel-Hafiz, 46, is a good friend and former college roommate of Biheiri's Washington-based ex-bookkeeper, Abbas Ebrahim, as I first revealed in my book, "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington."
Agent Carmody says Abdel-Hafiz hurt the al-Arian probe by refusing to record the professor in the bureau's effort to get him to admit financing Palestianian terrorist acts. Al-Arian even bragged to Abdel-Hafiz that the Tampa office did not have a strong case against him -- thanks in large part to Abdel-Hafiz.
'Sami is a very smart man' In an exclusive interview for my book, I asked Abdel-Hafiz why he did not record al-Arian at their private meeting. And he told me, simply, "I had no recording equipment with me." Hmm.
But then he went on to say the Tampa office of the FBI handled the case clumsily. "These people think Sami al-Arian is an idiot," he says. "But Sami al-Arian is a very smart man."
Or at least smart enough to get a little help from a friend on the inside.
Abdel-Hafiz, a devout Sunni Muslim whose Egyptian father is known as a Quran memorizer, showed a pattern of pro-Islamist behavior, say agents who worked with him. Yet FBI headquarters overlooked it and even promoted him.
Carmody, Vincent, and Wright all complained to headquarters about Abdel-Hafiz twice refusing on religious grounds to tape-record Muslim terrorist suspects. Despite that, he was handpicked in early 2001 by former FBI Director Louis Freeh to become the FBI's deputy legal attache at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- a key post in the battle against al-Qaida, which had hit American military barracks inside Saudi and a warship in neighboring Yemen.
After 9/11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers turned out to be Saudi nationals, Abdel-Hafiz was in a prime position to run down leads in the Saudi capital. Only, that didn't happen, at least not as often as headquarters had hoped. Agents back in Washington complained about his performance there, saying they were not getting answers to the hundreds of leads they were sending him in Riyadh. Abdel-Hafiz says he was one of only two people manning the office there and was further hobbled by an antiquated computer system.
But he and his boss Wilfred Rattigan, a black convert to Islam, had nonetheless found time to fly off to Mecca for the hajj, where they surrendered their FBI cell phones to Saudi nationals and were out of contact with officials back in the U.S. who were trying to ring them up about investigations into al-Qaida and 9/11. Both Rattigan and Abdel-Hafiz, who have since been reassigned within the bureau, wore traditional Muslim headgear and robes while on the job in Saudi Arabia, further outraging fellow agents.
When a senior supervisor was sent to the Riyadh office nearly a year after 9/11, she found secret documents strewn all over the office, some even wedged between cabinets. She also found a huge backlog of boxes each filled with three feet of paper containing secret, time-sensitive leads. Much of the materials, including information on Saudi airline pilots, had not been translated or reviewed.
It's anyone's guess how many terror cases were compromised in the Saudi office. But agents who worked with, or tried to work with, Abdel-Hafiz on domestic terror cases have no doubt he hurt their efforts to put away al-Arian. And if prosecutors don't retry al-Arian on any of the counts the jury deadlocked over, investigators fear they might lose momentum in a related terror-financing case in the Washington suburbs involving the so-called Safa group -- a case that is potentially bigger than the al-Arian case.
Safa case now in jeopardy?
A key conduit in the alleged Safa terror-financing network, a think tank called the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, is headquartered in a three-story brick office building at 500 Grove Street in Herndon, Va. (this site and others raided after 9/11 can be viewed by clicking on the "Wahhabi Corridor" link posted on the companion website to my book at http://www.sperryfiles.com). Investigators traced funds from IIIT to al-Arian, who had been accused of heading the U.S. wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Taha al-Alwani, an Islamic scholar at IIIT, was an alleged unindicted co-conspirator in the al-Arian indictment. Investigators have accused al-Alwani -- who also heads one of the nation's most prestigious Islamic institutions, the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (which has trained Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military and U.S. prison system) -- of taking steps to conceal alleged payments to Palestinian terrorists. In a letter seized by investigators, al-Alwani advised his pal al-Arian to construct a "facade" to disguise a $50,000 donation to one of al-Arian's alleged PIJ terror fronts in the U.S.
Despite the government investigation, IIIT is still in business, still listed in the lobby directory on the second floor of the Herndon building.
What's more, IIIT president al-Alwani once signed a copy of a fatwah declaring that violent "jihad is the only way to liberate Palestine," according to a federal affidavit for a search warrant used to raid the think tank in 2002. In a search of al-Arian's home computer, investigators back in Tampa found copies of a document called "The Manifesto of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine," which shuns any peaceful resolution to the conflict with Israel. It also calls the U.S. "the great Satan America."
Another Safa group leader, Jamal Barzinji, is also directly connected to al-Arian -- and closely tied to Palestinian terror causes, according to the same affidavit.
"Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] but also with Hamas," alleges senior federal agent David Kane in the affidavit, which was also used to obtain warrants to search the homes of Barzinji and his partner al-Alwani.
In addition, Barzinji is a long-time associate of al-Qaida fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi, now serving time in federal prison. Al-Arian is also close to Alamoudi.
Some of the information gleaned from the Herndon raids aided the conviction of Alamoudi. And investigators say their investigation of Barzinji, al-Alwani and their Saudi-backed Safa group entities is still alive.
But they had hoped for a conviction of al-Arian, because it would have moved the Safa case forward. "We were hoping for a snowball effect," says a law enforcement official who originally helped the feds build the case.
Right now he says only a small share of the hard drives and other materials confiscated from the homes and offices raided more than three years ago have been fully translated. "They don't have the damn resources," explains the official, who works with the FBI and the National Counter Terrorism Center in McLean, Va. "They don't have the (Arabic) language skills or computer forensic personnel to go through it all. And yet it's a gold mine of information."
Secret plot to 'infiltrate' Washington
One of the more disturbing developments from both investigations so far is the allegation that al-Arian and al-Alwani and other Islamic activists in the Washington area may have hatched a secret plan, according to other confiscated documents, to "infiltrate the sensitive intelligence agencies" in Washington, and spy for the enemy.
Both Alamoudi and al-Arian were no strangers to the White House. During the trial, al-Arian's lawyers used his meetings with senior government officials, including Karl Rove in the White House, to defend him against charges he was involved in terrorist activities. They argued that official Washington would not have embraced a terrorist (even though they had embraced convicted terrorist Alamoudi).
But that may have been part of the plan. Al-Arian had ingratiated himself with Rove's best friend Grover Norquist, a powerful GOP operative in Washington sympathetic to Muslim causes. Norquist, whose name was invoked by al-Arian's lawyers in the trial, started an Islamic lobbying group several years ago and recently married a Palestinian Muslim activist. The Islamic group, which was founded with seed money from Alamoudi, has placed a number of questionable Muslim activists -- including the son of a Wahhabi preacher who helped Osama bin Laden's second in command raise money -- inside the Bush administration, including the White House, the Transportation Department and the Homeland Security Department, as well as other sensitive agencies.
Al-Arian, who has met privately with Norquist in his Washington offices, has said that Norquist "delivered" on his promise to get President Bush, via Rove, to agree to end the government's use of undisclosed evidence to deport suspected Middle Eastern terrorists. A paid lobbyist for Norquist's Islamic Institute -- David Hossein Safavian -- in fact lobbied the government hard on that issue, as I first reported in my book. (Safavian also shows up on Senate lobbying records as a paid agent for terrorist Alamoudi.) And before 9/11, al-Arian was scheduled to meet with Bush in person to discuss the issue. It seems plausible to some investigators now that al-Arian may have also got Norquist to deliver on the placement -- or infiltration -- operation.
Even Safavian ended up inside the White House with a high-level job, before getting caught up in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal and losing his coveted position.
And loyal Muslim brother Abdel-Hafiz all the while was inside the FBI also doing al-Arian favors -- and he is still working there as an agent with access to classified information. And believe it or not, the bureau is busy hiring more Muslim agents like him.
That's right: before Abdel-Hafiz graduated from the FBI academy in 1995, there were no other Muslim agents in the bureau. Now there are seven, and FBI Director Robert Mueller is busy recruiting more.
"We are recruiting Muslims as special agents," he said. "We have been very active in pushing more for Muslim Americans to consider a career with the FBI."
How comforting.
Paul Sperry, formerly Washington bureau chief of Investor's Business Daily, is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington" (Nelson Current, 2005). Email:
sperry@sperryfiles.com.
(Note: The backdrop to this story is the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement that gave rise to Hamas, PIJ and al-Qaida. The more famous members of this Muslim mafia include Osama bin Laden's mentor Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. But it has a large American presence, too, and its known American members include Alamoudi. Before going to the slammer, he attended 9/11-tied Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., which is run by several members of the Muslim Brotherhood who also run the Muslim American Society, or MAS, which is headquartered in neighboring Alexandria, Va. -- in the same office park where bin Laden's nephew ran a charitable front.
Investigators believe MAS operates as the U.S. front for the Brotherhood. Dar al-Hijrah's original deed of trust was signed by Alamoudi pal Barzinji. Their associate Biheiri is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Biheiri's ex-bookkeeper is pals with FBI agent Abdel-Hafiz, who is from Egypt, birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdel-Hafiz also attended Dar al-Hijrah. I will stop there.)
Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20051227.txt
NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
December 10, 2005
Release Number: 05-12-27
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IRAQ: MORE DETAINED AS A RESULT OF OPERATION ABLE RISING FORCE
TIKRIT, Iraq – In an update to the results of military operations conducted Dec. 9, Operation Able Rising Force netted additional detainees, for a total of 52 detainees in police custody, including the seven reported Dec. 8.
The operation was a combined effort between Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, local police and troops from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
Occurring in Khadisia, about eight kilometers north of Tikrit, Operation Able Rising Force was set up to locate and detain suspected terrorists. Among the 52 detainees were three terrorists wanted for IED attacks against civilians and the military.
-30-
Note: The following text is a quote:
---
http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20051228.txt
NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
December 10, 2005
Release Number: 05-12-28
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IRAQ: THREE AL QAEDA TERRORIST CELL MEMBERS SENTENCED BY THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT OF IRAQ
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi Ministry of Justice officials announced today that three members of an al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist cell, located in the Adhamiya area of Baghdad, were convicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq for threatening the public safety, crimes against the security of Iraq and belonging to armed groups who threaten the Iraqi people.
The CCCI found Musab Kasar Abdul Rahman al-Hafith, also know as “Yunis,” guilty of threatening the public safety on Nov. 16 and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment. Uthman Awad Hamid Ahmed al-Jubouri, also known as Ossman Awad Hamid Ahmed, was found guilty of crimes against the security of Iraq on Nov. 22 and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. Daud Salman Mohammed Ali al-Barmani was found guilty of belonging to armed groups who threaten the Iraqi people on Dec. 5 and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
The members of the Adhamiya terrorist cell have planned and participated in armed attacks against Iraqi Police, Iraqi National Guard, Iraqi civilians, and Coalition Forces. The cell is also responsible for getting foreign Anti-Iraqi Forces fighters into Iraq from locations such as Morocco, Tunisia, and Northern Africa.
These successful convictions show that the Iraqi security forces are continuing to work toward capturing and bringing to justice all active members of this deadly insurgency. These verdicts reinforce the will of the Iraqi people that former regime members, insurgents and their supporters are held accountable and punished by a court of justice.
-30-
Note: The following text is a quote:
---
http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20051229.txt
NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
December 10, 2005
Release Number: 05-12-29
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IRAQ: U.S. PATROL FINDS MUNITIONS CACHE ALONG SIDE OF ROAD
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Task Force Baghdad Soldiers on patrol discovered a large cache of munitions in southwest Baghdad Dec. 9.
The Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, found 180 40-millimeter rounds half-buried in the ground on the side of the road. The stockpile was in the vicinity of previous weapons cache sites discovered earlier by Task Force Baghdad Soldiers.
An explosive ordnance disposal team later destroyed the 180 rounds.
-30-
Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2005/20051210_3607.html
U.S. Forces Dealing With Different Enemy in Anbar
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2005 – The enemy in Anbar province is different from that in other areas of Iraq, U.S. officials here said.
While terrorists and foreign fighters pose a continuing problem, most of those fighting coalition forces are Iraqi "rejectionists," Multinational Forces West officials said on background.
Officials characterize rejectionists as mostly Sunni Arabs who see the interim government in Baghdad as favoring Shiite and Kurdish interests. "There is a fear of Shiia dominance here," an official said. "There is also a fear of dominance by Iran." Roughly 60 percent of Iraq's population is Shiite. Twenty percent is Kurdish, and 20 percent Sunni Arab.
Sunnis boycotted January elections for a National Assembly to write the new national constitution. "While there were moves to increase Sunni representation in writing the constitution, most Sunnis believe their viewpoint was underrepresented," a U.S. embassy official said.
Yet, officials say, Sunnis recognized their mistake and will participate in Dec. 15 elections. Fallujah is a case in point. The city of more than 200,000 was a hotbed of insurgent activity in 2004. In December 2004, U.S. Marines and Army and Iraqi units went into the city and cleared terrorists out. In January 2005, only about 7,000 Fallujans voted in parliamentary elections. In the October 2005 constitutional referendum, more than 200,000 people in the greater Fallujah area voted, according to figures from the Independent Election Commission of Iraq. Officials expect that a greater number of Fallujans will vote Dec. 15.
In the provincial capital of Ramadi, the voting story is different, officials said. Before the October referendum, terrorists and Iraqi rejectionists intimidated the people of the city of about 500,000. Only about 4 percent of those eligible voted. Multinational Forces West officials believe they have improved the security situation in the city and that a far greater percentage of the population will vote Dec. 15.
Fear of domination by the Shiite majority has caused a two-track development in the province, officials said. Citizens are willing to participate in the election because they want their views heard and changes made. But they also still are willing to kill coalition troops, officials said.
One senior Multinational Force Iraq spokesman likened the situation to Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland: there are both militant and political wings of the Sunni camp.
Officials said it is important for any new government to produce results. Embassy officials said that most people in Iraq view the interim government as ineffective. Only the Iraqi security forces have a favorable rating and are respected, according to polls.
Traditional crime also complicates the security picture in Anbar. The border with Syria and Jordan was a construct after World War I. Family and tribal ties crisscross all borders in the region. Smuggling has been a way of life in the region for thousands of years, officials said.
Smugglers offer services to any who can pay. In addition to smuggling cigarettes, alcohol, electronics and porn, smugglers also bring in terrorists and the money suicide bombers need to carry out their missions.
Controlling the border with Syria has been tough. Officials said Syria has not done enough to stop the traffic across their border. Operations in the western Euphrates River Valley have disrupted smugglers' routes and stopped some of the flow of suicide bombers in to Iraq. But disrupting the smuggling routes means driving those involved more firmly into the ranks of Iraqi rejectionists.
"Nothing is easy or simple" in the region, a Multinational Forces West official said. Still, with all the challenges, it would be a mistake to "run out" on the Iraqis, the official said. "We need to hold our ground," he said. "It's worth doing."
Related Site:
Multinational Force Iraq
On a side note, isn't Grover Norquist associated with FR in some manner? I could swear that I vaguely remember him connected to some of the prominent members here, but I can't recall for certain. I may have to do some digging tomorrow when I'm acually awake.
On a side note, isn't Grover Norquist associated with FR in some
manner? I could swear that I vaguely remember him connected to
some of the prominent members here, but I can't recall for certain. I
may have to do some digging tomorrow when I'm acually awake.<<<
While you are digging on Grover, please verify my feeble memory on these points, he may be a muslim or is married to a muslim and is he associated with CAIR?
Never knew of him being here, but something rings bells, I have read of him before.
I know the article I posted is long, but wanted all the facts on the table, as the muslim FBI man keeps popping up.
Guess my feebleness isn't all that bad, as yet.......
***
Is Grover Norquist an Islamist? [Weblog] - Daniel Pipes
Indeed, Norquist married Samah Alrayyes, a Palestinian Muslim, on April 2, 2005,
... Grover Norquist has for some years now been promoting Islamist ...
www.danielpipes.org/blog/451 - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
***
http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=is%20Grover%20Norquist%20a%20muslim%3F
AL-QAEDA DEPUTY PRAISES TALIBAN GAINS IN AFGHANISTAN IN NEW TAPE
CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri has praised Taliban leader Mullah Omar for winning back control of large regions of Afghanistan and urged Muslims to wage holy war against the West, according to a tape that surfaced on Sunday.
The tape, which is about 48 minutes long, was believed to have been made at about the same time as the last tape attributed to al-Zawahri — a Sept. 19 video.........
The latest tape was also a rallying call to Muslims to attack Western interests........
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-12-11-alzawahri_x.htm?csp=34
Bomb explodes at Spanish post office, ETA blamed
MADRID (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside a post office in Spain's northern Basque region on Sunday, causing substantial damage but no injuries, and police said the attack was probably the work of the ETA separatist guerrilla group.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051211/ts_nm/spain_explosion_dc
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