World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World.

First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?

Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]

Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.

The Internal Muslim Enclave The internal Muslim enclave proposed by the Islamic Center for Human Excellence in Arkansas represents a new direction for Islam in the United States. The group seeks to transform a loosely organized Muslim population into a tangible community presence. The group has foreign financial support: it falls under the umbrella of a much larger Islamic group, "Islam 4 the World," an organization sponsored by Sharjah, one of the constituent emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[5] While the Islamic Center for Human Excellence has yet to articulate detailed plans for its Little Rock enclave, the group's reliance on foreign funding is troublesome. Past investments by the United Arab Emirates' rulers and institutions have promoted radical interpretations of Islam. [6]

The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may seek to segregate schools and offices by gender. The enclave might also exercise broad control upon commerce within its boundaries—provided the economic restrictions did not discriminate against out-of-state interests or create an undue burden upon interstate commerce. But most critically, the enclave could promulgate every internal law—from enforcing strict religious dress codes to banning alcohol possession and music; it could even enforce limits upon religious and political tolerance. Although such concepts are antithetical to a free society, U.S. democracy allows the internal enclave to function beyond the established boundaries of our constitutional framework. At the very least, the permissible parameters of an Islamist enclave are ill defined.

The greater American Muslim community's unapologetic and public manifestation of belief in a separate but equal ideology does not bode well. In September 2004, the New Jersey branch of the Islamic Circle of North America rented Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey for "The Great Muslim Adventure Day." The advertisement announcing the event stated: "The entire park for Muslims only." While legal—and perhaps analogous to corporate or other non-religious groups renting facilities, the advertisement expressly implied a mindset that a proof of faith was required for admission to the park. In his weblog, commentator Daniel Pipes raises a relevant and troubling question about the event: because it is designated for Muslims only, "Need one recite the shahada to enter the fairgrounds?"[7]

While U.S. law might give such Muslims-only events the benefit of the doubt, flexibility may not go both ways. There is precedent of Islamists taking advantage of liberal flexibility to more extreme ends. Canada provides a useful example into how Islamist groups can exploit liberal legal tolerance. In 1991, Ontario, Canada, passed a seemingly innocuous law called the "Arbitration Act."[8] This act permitted commercial, religious, or such other designated arbitrators to settle civil disputes outside the Canadian justice system so long as the result did not contradict Canadian law. Like U.S. authorities are beginning to do now, Canadian legislators decided to give religious groups the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they would still hold national law to be paramount.

In October 2003, under the auspices of the Ontario legislation, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice created Muslim arbitration boards and stated its intent to arbitrate on the basis of Islamic law.[9] A national furor erupted, particularly among Canadian Muslim women's groups that opposed the application of traditional Islamic (Shari‘a) laws that would supersede their far more liberal and egalitarian democratic rights. After nearly two years of legal wrangling, the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, held that religious-based arbitrations "threaten our common ground," and announced, "There will be no Shari‘a law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."[10] On November 15, 2005, McGuinty's provincial government submitted legislation to amend the arbitration act to abrogate, in effect, all religious arbitration.[11] Requests for Muslim enclaves within larger U.S. communities may signal that U.S. jurisprudence will soon be faced with a similar conundrum. Islamist exceptionalism can abuse the tolerance liberal societies have traditionally extended to interface between religious and secular law.

Prior to the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice demands to impose Shari‘a, the Arbitration Act worked well. Unfortunately for Canadian Jews, the repeal ended state-enforcement of agreements reached by the use of a millennia-old rabbinical court system called beit din (house of law) that had for decades quietly settled marriage, custody, and business disputes. Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, expressed his lament: "If there have been any problems flowing from any rabbinical court decisions, I'm not aware of them."[12] Canadian Catholics likewise were stopped from being able to annul marriages according to Canon Law and avoid undue entanglement in civil courts. Abuse of the spirit of the law, though, ended up curtailing local liberty. Rather than soften the edge between religion and state, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice threatened to eliminate it with the imposition of Shari‘a. The Canadian experience demonstrates how flexibility can backfire when all parties do not seek to uphold basic precepts of tolerance. The Little Rock application raises the specter of a parallel situation. While The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may state it wants to create a clean-living community, might the community's extreme interpretation of Shari‘a force a reconsideration of just how much leeway the U.S. government gives religious communities?

As the Muslim community in the United States grows, an increasingly active Islamist lobby has submitted numerous white papers and amicus briefs to legislators and courts arguing for the religious right of Muslims to apply Shari‘a law, particularly in relation to family law disputes.[13] This looming jurisprudential conflict is significant for it raises issues about the rights of community members to marry outside the community, forced marriages, and the minimum age of brides, and whether wives and daughters may enjoy equal inheritance. In cases of non-family law, it raises the question about whether the testimony of women will be considered on par with that of men.

No previous enclave in U.S. history has ever been so vigorously protected by agents of group identity politics or so adamantly defended by legal watchdogs; nor has any previous religious enclave possessed the potency of more than one billion believers around the world. Islamic-only communities may also benefit from the largess provided by billions of petrol dollars to finance growth. The track record of Saudi and other wealthy Persian Gulf donations and charitable efforts are worrisome. There is a direct correlation between Saudi money received and the spread of intolerant practices. In 2004, for example, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Al-Haramein Foundation, one of Saudi Arabia's largest nongovernmental organizations, because of its financial links to Al-Qaeda.[14] Additionally, American graduates of Saudi academies advance Wahhabist interpretations of Islam inside the U.S. prison system,[15] and Saudi-subsidized publications promote intolerance inside U.S. mosques.[16]

A Muslim enclave is uniquely perilous because there are few if any internal enclaves that adhere to a polity dedicated to the active abrogation of secular law and the imposition of a supreme religious law. The concept of Shari‘a is so fundamental to Islam, that even today, prominent Muslim jurists argue over whether a Muslim can fully discharge Shari‘a obligations while residing in a non-Muslim territory.[17] Yet, in spite of this apparent conundrum, Muslims have resided peacefully in non-Muslim lands since the seventh century. In the greater context, there may be a breach in the dike for Islamist groups residing in the United States because the Baltimore and Little Rock enclaves must acknowledge the U.S. Constitution as the paramount basis of civil law.

A dissident Islamic sub-community is filled with dichotomous propositions: from the presumed supremacy of Shari‘a-based law over secular law; the melding of religion and polity versus the constitutionally mandated separation of same; to the politics of group and factionalism, versus assimilation and pluralism. To deny the settlement of a Muslim-only community based solely upon prejudices formed after September 11 would be illiberal. But the alternative, opening the door to Islamic enclaves without scrutiny, is as dubious.

The Enclave under U.S. Law Existing U.S. legal precedent, though, may provide some grounds for handling expansive demands for Islamic enclaves. U.S. legal views of internal enclaves derive from the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled the concept of separate but equal to be unconstitutional.[18] While the case revolved around the right of black children to attend white schools, it promulgated a concept that is anathema in today's world of multiculturalism: neither the state nor any constituent group could claim equality through separation.

Enclaves can exist, though. As courts have ruled on issues relating to equality under the law and upon the autonomy of religious practice, two distinctive features of internal U.S. enclaves have taken shape: first, the boundaries of the enclave should be recognized by local inhabitants. Second, the enclave cannot supersede the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens of a state.

Because most rights secured by the constitution are protected only against infringement by government action, the Supreme Court has avoided establishing a bright-line test as to the limits of religious liberty. Any religious group or individual seeking to establish an internal enclave has the right to limit residency, promulgate local rules, and perhaps even collect fees or taxes to support nominal community services.

Such enclaves do not hold final sway over the rights of non-residents, however. In Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Company[19] and Flagg Brothers v. Brooks,[20] the court outlined constitutional protections for private citizens in which any entity, religious or otherwise, exercising governmental authority over private citizens remains subject to the provisions of the First and Fourteenth amendments. In both cases, the court affirmed that citizens of a state retain their right to "due process of law" under the Fourteenth Amendment, even when inside an enclave. These holdings, however, do not prevent enclaves from restricting the individual freedoms of their inhabitants.

The Supreme Court has ruled upon the limits of religious liberty. In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the court outlined the circumstances in which the government could act to restrict religious independence. The court held that the free exercise clause "embraces two concepts—freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society."[21]

Christopher L. Eisgruber, professor of law at New York University, explained. He argued that, "the Constitution permits government to nurture ideological sub-communities founded upon premises inconsistent with the constitution's own commitments."[22] He maintained that such dissident sub-communities can provide important "sources of dissent"[23] and asserted that even if an enclave embraced ideals contrary to constitutional ideals, it should still be granted the right to pursue its own vision of good. For example, he wrote:

[Though] it is regrettable that young women in Kiryas Joel [a Satmar Hasidic enclave] will grow up in a starkly sexist culture, and it is regrettable that the Amish children of Yoder will find it very hard to become astronomers or lawyers … it would also be regrettable if the United States were not home to any sub-communities which, like the Satmars or the Amish, rejected principles of justice fundamental to the American regime.[24]

According to Eisgruber, tolerance of the intolerant is fundamental to the freedoms espoused by Western liberal democracy. While Islamists might use such logic to argue for the permissibility of Shari‘a communities, such tolerance has limits. Enclaves do not have carte blanche to act. Both the state and national legislatures must retain control over the extent of accommodation, and there should be no subsidization of the enclave by the government.[25] Such limits ensure that the government can constrain those sub-communities that might espouse more radical, violent, or racist views.[26]

It is usually when the U.S. government moves to uphold the rule of law that most Americans first learn of an internal enclave. Few Americans knew of the philosophy espoused by anti-government activist Randy Weaver until 1992 when the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms raided his compound at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, killing Vicki Weaver, their infant son, Sam, and the family dog.[27] Nor did many Americans know about David Koresh and his religious views until a raid the following year on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which a resulting fire killed fifty adults and twenty-five children under the age of fifteen.[28] While tragic, such events involved cults or political splinter groups. The growth of Muslim enclaves raises the specter of such conflicts occurring on a much larger scale.

While the court has interpreted the establishment clause to empower the government to constrain dissident sub-communities when necessary to protect public safety, it has been wary of addressing legal issues requiring intrusion upon the religious polity. Because the First Amendment provides for religious freedom, the court has confined itself to ruling upon three basic issues: property disputes between national religious hierarchical organizations with affiliated breakaway entities; accommodations under the free exercise clause; and the prohibition against the establishment of a state religion. New challenges, though, may lead to new interpretations.

The Antithesis to Democracy Is concern over internal Muslim enclaves justified? On their face, the fundamental principles of the internal Muslim enclave are no more invidious than any other religious enclave. But ideology matters. Many proponents of an Islamic polity promote an ideology at odds with U.S. constitutional jurisprudence and the prohibition against the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. The refusal to recognize federal law makes Islamist enclaves more akin to Ruby Ridge than to the Hasidic and Amish cases cited by Eisgruber.

Muslim theologians describe Islam not only as a religion but also as a system of state. The Qur'an—viewed by Muslims as the word of God—is replete with instructions about governance. An enclave promoting Islamic mores does not necessarily restrict itself to a social atmosphere but also one of governance. Traditional Islamic law controls the most basic aspects of everyday life and may make any Islamic enclave irreconcilable with the basic presumptions of Western liberal democracy and secular law.

While many American Muslims practice Islam and embrace the fundamental principles of the U.S. Constitution, others do not. There are consistent attempts by Islamist elements overseas to strengthen their own radical interpretation of Islam at the expense of moderation and tolerance. Saudi donors, for example, have propagated the ideology of Islamism, which seeks to interweave a narrow and often intolerant interpretation of religion into an all-encompassing political ideology. The number of imams and jihadists who have been outspoken in identifying the supremacy of Shari‘a to democracy underlines the incompatibility of Islamism and democracy. The late Saudi theologian, Sheikh Muhammad bin Ibrahim al-Jubair, for example, stated,

Only one ambition is worthy of Islam, to save the world from the curse of democracy: to teach men that they cannot rule themselves on the basis of man-made laws. Mankind has strayed from the path of God, we must return to that path or face certain annihilation.[29]

Prior to Iraq's January 30, 2005 elections, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an audiotape in which he declared war upon democracy and denounced its tenets as "the very essence of heresy, polytheism, and error."[30] Nor is Islamist antipathy for democracy limited to popular elections. According to a Saudi publication distributed at a San Diego mosque, "[Democracy is] responsible for all the horrible wars … more than 130 wars with more than 120 million people dead [in the twentieth century alone]; not counting victims of poverty, hunger and disease."[31] Such sentiments reflect a common theme among Islamists: democracy is the antithesis to everything pious and pure in Islam; and, in truth, democracy is the direct and substantial causal effect of Muslim suffering and injustice in the world today.

This does not mean that Islamists are unwilling to use democracy for their ends. But while they accept the trappings of democracy, they continue to reject its principles because the Shari‘a, to them the perfect rule of law, cannot be abrogated or altered by the shifting moods of a secular electorate. Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab weekly Al-Mustakillah, explained,

The heart of the matter is that no Islamic state can be legitimate in the eyes of its subjects without obeying the main teachings of the Shari‘a. A secular government might coerce obedience, but Muslims will not abandon their belief that state affairs should be supervised by the just teachings of the holy law.[32]

He could draw from plenty of examples. In 1992, for example, Ali Balhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, declared, "When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling."[33] While mayor of Istanbul, Islamist Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoðan quipped, "For us, democracy is a streetcar. We would go as far as we could, and then get off."[34] As he eviscerates the judiciary, many Turks wonder about his sincerity.[35]

Experience abroad is relevant, as it goes to the heart of the sincerity of proponents of the Little Rock and Baltimore enclaves, an issue compounded by the willingness to accept donations from Persian Gulf financiers.

Conclusion How Muslims reconcile Islamic polity within the confines of Western liberal democracy is an unresolved issue. This process will take years to evolve and is likely to convulse in further violent episodes. Presently, many Muslims reject wholesale the notion of a dominant secular law and instead seek the imposition of a pan-Islamist state under the guidance of Shari‘a. These Islamists view secular modernity and the democratic practices of radical egalitarianism, individual rights, and free exercise of religion as a direct and substantial threat to their belief system, and they are intent on employing violence against the West for the foreseeable future. The remainder and majority of the Muslim world must reject nihilism and engage in widespread debate regarding Islam's role within the world community.

The local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, might proceed with the proposed Muslim enclave, but the Arkansas courts and its legislature should not abdicate its responsibilities to ensure that Western liberal rights and protections remain supreme. The government should monitor both the rhetoric and behavior of these communities. As the Supreme Court stated in Cantwell: the freedom to believe is absolute, but the freedom to act, in the nature of things, cannot be, especially as to the safety and preservation of the American democracy.[36]

David Kennedy Houck is an attorney at Houck O'Brien LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

12.06.2006
Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review
AIA staff
Day of Russia goes under tight security as terrorist acts possible

Celebrations of the Russia's Day (photo: Reuters)
Celebrations of the Russia's Day
Secret and security services of Russia are on full alert as the country celebrates its Independence Day. On this day, in 1990, the Russian parliament formally declared its sovereignty. The holiday has been officially recognized since 1991 when it was established by Boris Yeltsin, who was the president of the Russian Federation at the time. The holiday was renamed as Russia's Day in 2002, when it was included as a holiday in the new Labor Code. More than 200000 law enforcement officers ensure security of Russian citizens during the celebrations, a senior Interior Ministry official said Monday, RIAN quoted. Alexander Chekalin, first deputy interior minister, said police patrol and quick-response units had been strengthened all around the country, especially in places of mass gathering of people, including airports, railway stations, and at high security facilities. The police said traffic in the center of Moscow had been restricted for the duration of the festivities. There are fears of possible terrorist acts during the celebrations, as it happened during other holidays in various places in Russia. For example, on May 9, 2004 Ahmad Kadyrov, pro-Russian President of Chechnya was killed. In May this year Russian FSB and Anti-terrorist center reported averting tens of terrorist acts in different regions during the celebrations of the May 1 and Easter. As AIA reported previously, FSB officials fear activization of the Chechen separatists. There are forecasts of increasing of their activity in summer, as their leaders - Shamil Basaev and Movladi Udugov pronounced of "transferring military activities over the Volga river" and possible actions in the large Russian cities.

Russian FSB: Ukrainian Foreign Ministry heads are on the US payroll
Russian FSB sources said to the Novii Region Russian edition that Ukrainian Foreign Ministry heads are on the US payroll. The newspaper cites the sources saying that Pentagon have already transferred money to the personal accounts of Ukrainian officials in the US banks, but they will have an access to it when Ukraine will join NATO. The newspaper also cites unnamed Ukrainian expert and Belarus diplomat, who confirmed this version of the Russian secret service.

Russian FSB destroyed militant's base in Ingushetia
A militant's base discovered during a sweep operation in a forest outside village of Yandare in Ingushetia (Northern Caucasus) early on Sunday morning has been destroyed, a spokesman for the local branch of the Federal Security Service told Interfax. "A silver-colored VAZ-21114 car was found on the base. The car might have been used during the latest crimes in Ingushetia", he said. The militants apparently left the base shortly before the arrival of security units, he added. A radio receiver, ammunition, household stuff, medicines, food supplies, and other belongings were found at the base, the spokesman said. Ingush special operations police commander Musa Nalgiyev, his small children, bodyguard and driver were killed in the village of Karabulak early on Friday morning. Senior local official Galina Gubina was also shot dead in a nearly simultaneous attack in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya.

Azerbaijani secret services deported political leader of Iranian Azerbaijanis
Leader of the South Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement (SANAM) Mahmoudali Chohraganli was deported from Baku by the local secret services. He was sent to Dubai and further to the USA. Head of the SANAM's Europe bureau in Turkey Mahmoud Bilgin told APA that at the night of the 9th of June-the fifth day of his stay in Turkey, Chohraganli was deported by the local secret services to Baku from Istanbul. He was offered several countries to leave for, but he decided to go to Azerbaijan. After 10-hour-stay at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport, the SANAM leader was also deported by the Azerbaijani confidential bodies. Bilgin regretted for such negligence towards the SANAM leader but he hoped for permanent support from Turkey and Azerbaijan. "South Azerbaijani Turks have always considered Turkey and Azerbaijan as their supporters. However, we could not have thought that our supporters will fear of the Persian regime in the period when Iran is collapsing. We call on these states to back their southern brothers. However, let them not to think that South Azerbaijani Turks will not be able to determine their fortune without their support. We believe the power and will of struggle of 35 million South Azerbaijani Turks," Bilgin underlined. It is considered that deportations of the SANAM leader were made under Iranian pressure.

China calls for more security services' cooperation in the SCO framework
All member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) support the strengthening of cooperation of security services and resistance to terrorism, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Li Huei has said.
"At present China as well as other SCO countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) are targets of the plans of international terrorists. Therefore it is a common aspiration of SCO member-states to strengthen cooperation in security and resistance to terrorism, extremism and separatism," he told a Monday briefing dealing with the summit beginning in Shanghai on June 15, Interfax reported.
He said that the anti-terrorist exercises held in the SCO framework on both a bilateral and multilateral basis are an important component of this resistance and that the practice will continue. "SCO exercises serve to strengthen peace and stability in the region and throughout SCO and they are not directed against third countries or organizations," he said.
As Russian media reports, SCO countries started combining common list of the wanted perpetrators, extremists and terrorists, for joint activities aimed at their apprehension. The list will be based on the one created by SCO's antiterrorist regional staff – RATS. The common list will provide all the SCO members' security services with extensive data on possible terrorist activity and that will assist in predicting and preventing of hostile activities.

Central Asian states' secret services join forces against militants
Secret services of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan joined forces to search for the militants from the gang that attacked Kyrgyz Batken region on May 12. The gang, which consisted of natives of these countries, killed five Kyrgyz security officers. Five gang members managed to escape and became wanted in all of the abovementioned states. So it was decided that the secret services will seek them jointly, local media reported.

Bulgarian ex-spy apologizes to Serbs
Georgi Koritarov, former agent of the Bulgarian secret service Darzhavna Sigurnost (DS), and at present one of the most popular journalists in Bulgaria, asked Serbs for forgiveness. "I apologize to the citizens of Serbia for having worked for the Bulgarian intelligence services on their territory. I contacted many people, some of whom are popular politicians at present, but my actions did not do anyone harm”, Koritarov said in an interview with the Serbian newspaper Blic. Revealing of Koritarov's name as DS agent last week by the Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumen Petkov was largely discussed by the Bulgarian media. “I know how that happened. Being a popular journalist, I often criticized the Interior Minister blaming him for not being able to tackle with corruption. They probably thought that I would ask them not to announce data about my past. No matter how paradoxical it may sound, my life is independent”, Koritarov said. It all happened in 1977, when Koritarov got out of the obligatory military service by means of a forged diagnosis about epilepsy. The secret services learnt about that and made him work for them. Koritarov’s first task was to observe the work of a lecturer in Serbian studies in the Sofia University, where he studied. Later, Koritarov joined a youth organization. He often traveled to former Yugoslavia working as an interpreter. “One of the leading figures then was Predrag Bulatovic, who is now a leader of the opposition in Montenegro. The secret services told me to keep him under observation”, Koritarov said. He did not point to other names saying he did not want other people to have problems because of his past. Koritarov left the services in 1984. “They had great demands, which I could not fulfill”, the Bulgarian journalist told the Blic. He added that he hopes he would preserve his colleagues and personal friends in Serbia, who were not linked to his past. “I apologize if I have insulted anyone”, Koritarov said, FOCUS reported.

Bulgarian media top chair: Declassifying State Security agency archives is manipulative
Declassifying of the files from archives of the former State Security agency (DS) in Bulgaria is manipulative, Georgi Lozanov, the Chair of the Bulgarian media coalition said in an interview for FOCUS News Agency. “Selecting separate persons, which throws doubt that you wanted to tell part of the truth. There may be no guarantee”, he said. Lozanov has even calculated a formula, which explains the debate surrounding the opening of the classified files of State Security: (Will + Connoisseurship + Civil control) / Time = Justice.

New Romanian law helps former president escape accusations
The head of the Institute for the Study of the Communism's Crimes (ISCC), Marius Oprea, said the new law of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) will help former President Ion Iliescu escape accusations of having collaborated with the Securitate. Oprea expressed his indignation that a simple informer of the former secret police is subject of public criticism while Iliescu will get away, according to the new law, Bucharest Daily News reported.
The ISCC head said Iliescu was a prime secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and he was the one approving the recruitment of informers of the Securitate. In addition, he used to decide for some party members to be followed or to have their homes bugged.
"Party members could be recruited as informers by the Securitate only with the approval of the prime secretary, who was Ion Iliescu. (...) Why should the one giving these approvals get away? I don't understand why a bloody informer needs to be subject of public opprobrium, while Ion Iliescu to be just fine?" wondered Oprea. He explained that the new law will not find Ion Iliescu an informer because he was in a higher position. "Ion Iliescu was an activist his whole life, since he was in high school until now," said Oprea, who is also a state advisor on security matters.

Trial of former Czech StB officers postponed indefinitely
The Prague City Court today postponed indefinitely the hearing of the case of the almost 50-year-old murder that was allegedly committed by two Communist secret police (StB) officers who sent a parcel with explosive to then Strasbourg governor Andre Tremeaud, that killed his wife. Of the two accused, Milan Michel, 79, alone turned up at the court. "To continue the hearing would mean an attempted murder," his lawyer Cestmir Kubat said. In the past, Kubat defended many former StB members, including Alois Grebenicek, the father of Miroslav Grebenicek, a former chairman of the Communist party (KSCM) which is a member of the Czech Parliament, CTK reported.
Kuban insisted on the postponement of the hearing due to his client's bad health condition who, he said, has the right to live. "Mrs Tremeaud only had the right to live," state attorney Martin Omelka objected. The laywer of Stanislav Tomes, the second defendant, said that although Tomes was interested in the case he was ill at present. The court has therefore decided to review the health condition of both defendants and then decide how it will continue the proceedings.
If found guilty, Michel and Tomes face up to 15 years in prison.
According to the police, the suspects expected the lethal parcel, which they passed off for a box of cigars, to be unwrapped by Tremeaud at a reception during the session of the European Community of Coal and Steel, which was also attended by several leading French politicians. However, it was opened by Henriette, Tremeaud's wife, only three days later. She died from injuries she received in the explosion. The prosecution of Michel and Tomes was proposed by the Office for the Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism (UDV) which has been dealing with the case since 1996.
The StB's participation in the Strasbourg explosion was disclosed by Ladislav Bittman, a former StB officer who emigrated to the USA in 1968, in his book The Deception Game that appeared in 1972.
Bittman lives under a new name in the USA and teaches at Boston University. According to him, the bomb attack was to be the culmination of a disinformation campaign masterminded by the Soviet secret service KGB with the aim to arouse an impression that neo-Nazism was being activated in Germany.
The extensive campaign aimed to thwart the German-French reconciliation process and the emergence of the European Community.

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=916

[This is hot off the press for today, what do you make of the beginning, about Iran??]

16.06.2006
Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review
AIA staff
Iranian Intelligence to pressure on Iranian refugees and dissidents abroad

ranian Minister of Intelligence and Security Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie
Iranian Minister of Intelligence and Security
Following the recent uprisings in the northern provinces and demonstrations across the country, which the Iranian secret services has attributed protests to "foreign elements", Tehran decided to "strike back". As local sources reported, the Minister of Intelligence and Security Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezhei expressed fear that “the enemy is trying to sow divisions among the people and their government.” He claimed that “a number of the instigators of the unrests are located over the borders and we have begun to make them lose hope in their tactics. Through the Foreign Ministry, we are in contact with the governments of countries where these people are residing or have fled to or from where they are being directed. We have tried to convince these countries to hand them over to the Islamic Republic or at least restrict their activities”. But it is insufficient to his mind, so the Iranian secret services will start acting abroad to oppress "instigators". Mostly it applies to the Iranians in Azerbaijan and leaders of the Iranian Azerbaijanis abroad, local sources report.
As AIA previously reported, Tehran's secret services recently have boosted their work in the countries of the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. The regional activity of Tehran's secret services concerns mainly the South-Caucasian and Central-Asian politics of the USA. From the point of view of confidential information, Iranian representatives pay most attention to the regional contacts of the Americans in political and military sphere, in particular – to the Pentagon, CIA, and NATO officials' visits to the countries of the region. The Iranians also have a particular interest in all contacts of the employees of the local US embassies, and in the activity of US academic circles and humanitarian foundations. Iranian special services' primary purpose is to collect information about possible use of the states in the region for military, intelligence, and propaganda activity of the USA against the Ayatollahs' regime.

Tajik security services investigate a series of explosions in the capital
Tajik security services are checking into a series of explosions in Dushanbe, which took place yesterday's night and one explosion at the gas pipeline. Three explosions rocked the capital of Tajikistan - by the Iranian embassy, 100 meters from the country's Parliament, near a charitable foundation run by the leader of an Islamist party, and near the Constitutional Court. No one was injured, though explosions caused minor structural damage. A terrorist attack has not been ruled out by the secret services. In a separate incident, a gas pipeline exploded early Friday 20 kilometers outside Dushanbe, leaving central regions of Tajikistan without gas. Fire-fighters needed five hours to bring the flames under control.

Russian scientist accused of espionage claims he is not guilty
Russian scientist Oscar Kaibyshev, a former director of the Institute for Metal Superplasticity Problems, accused of espionage for South Korea, claims he is not guilty, Russian media reported. Supreme Court of the Volga republic of Bashkortostan started reviewing his case. As defense claims, many evidence in case is irrelevant or was obtained by the FSB illegally. For example, South Korean citizens were searched and questioned illegally, without a warrant and without a decent translation.But the court dismissed most of the applications against the evidence. As AIA reported previously, the espionage trial of a Russian scientist has been previously adjourned in January after the defendant complained of feeling unwell. Kaibyshev, 66, stands accused of passing dual-use technology to South Korea The trial of the scientist from Ufa, 1,500 km southeast of Moscow, is being held behind closed doors as the Russian FSB claims that top-secret information will appear in the case. The case against Kaibyshev, who faces 10 years in prison if convicted, was initiated after FSB officers detained last year a South Korean delegation that was leaving Russia with 500 pages of technical documentation and several compact discs containing technical data from Kaibyshev's institute. The institute said the confiscated data focused on years of collaboration between the institute and the tire maker ASA, a subsidiary of Seoul-based Hankook Tire. Kaibyshev said that the firm was using superplastic technology in designs for high-pressure tires. The technology is apparently able to stretch titanium alloy to improve its mechanical properties, but FSB experts said the technical data provided to South Korean experts could be used to produce missiles and weapons.

Russian FSB to run drill in Novosibirsk
On Friday night Russian FSB will run an antiterrorist drill in Novosibirsk (Russia's third largest city) metro, local media reported. The drill will include releasing hostages captured by the terrorists in the underground. All the local special and security services will participate in the training.

Russian FSB forming special medical service
Russian FSB forming joint special medical service for the country's secret services, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported. Each service has today its internal medical structure, as the employees of such bodies need "special" treatment and health control. Of course, all the data on their medical condition and treatment is highly classified. The head of the FSB and the Russian President recently urged to develop the special medical services. They will be soon combined into one joint structure.

Lithuanian members of parliament curious about new prime minister's youth interest in KGB
The former Minister of Transport and Communications and Finance Zigmantas Balcytis, who has been the Acting Prime Minister of Lithuania since June 1, was proposed on June 15 by the country's President Valdas Adamkus, to the post of the Prime Minister. During the following debate on the candidacy of Balcytis at the Lithuanian Seym (parliament) the members of parliament were interested most of all in the details of the contender's biography. As the correspondent of the Regnum news agency reports from Vilnius, they questioned Zigmantas Balcytis about his activities as a head of a unit of the Komsomol (the Communist Youth Union) under the Soviets. The members of parliament also wanted to clear out whether the information was true that in his youth Balcytis even wanted to join the KGB, but was rejected because of bad health. Balcytis denied the information, announcing he failed to hold a leader's position in the Komsomol and added that he was an instructor-controller there and was in charge of financial flows. As for the KGB, he declared that had never aspired joining the security service. I was really turned down on account of poor health, well, not from the KGB, but from an aviation school," Balcytis is quotyed by the Regnum as saying.

Latvian President blocked publishing of the "KGB sacks"
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga blocked parliament's decision to publish the names of nearly 4500 suspected Soviet secret police informants, Novonews reported. To her mind the files in the notorious "KGB sacks" are too fragmentary and mixed, while nobody knows who are the people in the files – informants or victims of the KGB. As AIA reported last week, Latvia's parliament approved a bill to publish the names in the state newspaper Vestnesis on November 1. The date was picked to steer clear of any political influence on upcoming parliamentary elections in October. When the Soviet intelligence service left Latvia, most files showing who worked with the KGB, and who they informed on, were taken back to Moscow. Those left contain mainly the names of agents active in 1991, when they were recruited and by whom, according to officials overseeing the files. With the publishing of the names, an accompanying statement would explain that the role of those identified was unclear, and that they could have been coerced into working with the KGB or be completely innocent.
Two years ago, Vike-Freiberga sent a similar bill back to parliament for reconsideration, saying it did not stipulate who would have access to the files and how they would be used. Her veto can be overridden in Parliament with a two-thirds majority vote.

CIA has had a staff in Bulgaria – the most active on the Balkans
“CIA has had a staff in Sofia for a few years already. It was established around the embassy”, Serbian military analyst Milovan Drecun told FOCUS News Agency. He said he referred to people working for the intelligence services. According to the analyst, the CIA’s staff is one the most active ones on the Balkans. “As reports said, it will become more influential, because the USA will deploy military bases in Bulgaria and the intelligence should defend them from the activities of extremists, Milovan Drecun said. Also, he said that Bulgarian secret services are performing certain activities, connected to the region by order of the US services. Drecun grounded his claims on his reliable sources from the leadership of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and KFOR. According to him, the Bulgarian services are very active on the Balkans and have strong presence in Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo. FOCUS reminds that Drecun told the Montenegrin newspaper Dan that a CIA staff in charge of the Balkans had functioned for years in Sofia. The leader of the Montenegrin opposition Predrag Bulatovic had been observed at its order.

A scandal in Romanian politics connected with Securitate's collaborator – the head of the coalition
Sources within the Romanian authority in charge of granting access to files of former communist intelligence services, or CNSAS, Friday said the members of the authority concluded unanimously the head of ruling coalition Conservative Party Dan Voiculescu was a collaborator of the former secret services. If they are not contested, CNSAS decisions become final and are published in the Official Gazette within 15 days, unless the persons found to have collaborated with the communist secret services step down from their public posts.
Last week, the Conservative Party, or PC, nominated Voiculescu for the state minister post left vacant by businessman and PC member George Copos, who resigned early June citing his disapproval of the new Fiscal Code draft approved by the Government.
Voiculescu said he planned to take the state minister seat. He asked CNSAS to run a check of his past, as the law required.
On Thursday, Voiculescu said he would appeal in court any decision that implies he was a collaborator during the communist regime.
On Friday, the president of PC's executive board, Sabin Cutas, said if CNSAS' conclusion, which was reached after a six-hour meeting Thursday, finds Voiculescu did indeed collaborate with the former secret services, than he would resign his seat in the Senate, Mediaform reports.
As Bucharest Daily News reported, after being heard on Tuesday by the CNSAS, Voiculescu admitted that two new files had appeared out of the blue and asked the intelligence agency to explain why it kept them secret for 16 years. "I officially ask intelligence chief Radu Timofte to explain publicly why the documents sent to CNSAS now were absurdly kept secret for 16 years and to specify when the agency had discovered these files," said Voiculescu, adding that the agency should immediately send to CNSAS any other documents they may have on him.

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=920

From the Iran part, from 2005.

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=201

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011843.php

June 15, 2006

Fitzgerald: Obey those Infidel laws/

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald comments on the
slippery

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011839.php

Sistani fatwa:

In the various Muslim websites of the "Ask Mr. Fatwa" or
www.islam-online
type, one of the Most Frequently Asked Questions from Muslims living in
the
Lands of the Infidels is: "Do I have to obey the laws of these
Infidels"?

The answer given, very gingerly, is: "You may obey any laws of the
Infidels
that do not contradict Islam."

The clear implication is that you have no duty to obey the laws of the
Infidel nation-state in which you have been allowed to settle or in
which
you live, none at all, if those laws somehow are seen to contradict
Islam.

And this, of course, is how those Muslim websites, in English, give
advice
now, after having become well aware that Infidels are monitoring them.
Since
all Muslim groups are keenly aware of the need to watch out for those
pesky
prying Infidels, they do not go on to spell out all the ways in which
Infidel laws -- manmade laws, laws that are made without reference to
Allah,
the sole source of authority, of legal and political and every other
kind of
legitimacy for a Believer -- are flatly contradicted by the Shari'a.

Nor is it only a question of laws, of the kind that regulate some areas
of
behavior through norms and sanctions. Islam offers a Complete
Regulation of
Life. It goes far beyond what any non-Muslim legal system does.

Furthermore, outside the hearing and viewing of those Infidels, another
attitude and other kinds of advice are given by at least some clerics.
The
hukm (not fatwa, I was recently reminded) against Rushdie is a clear
call to
commit murder, as a righteous and rewardable act, by a Muslim or
Muslims in
the Lands of the Infidels. That has the full weight of Muslim (Shi'a)
authority.

Many Muslims appear to regard the Lands of the Infidels as, by right,
theirs
-- they need only wait, and wait, for the right demographic changes.
Bruce
Bawer describes a Muslim cleric in Norway telling his followers that
they
could steal as they wished from the Infidels, for this was not theft --
it
was helping themselves to the Jizyah that they had every right to
demand.
That attitude, that it is licit, even admirable, to take the property,
or
have one's way with the women, of the Infidels, is certainly reflected
in
the criminal statistics in every single European country, where Muslim
crime
kicks the beam. If 70% of the rapes in Scandinavian countries are
committed
by Muslims who make up 2-3% of the population, is one not entitled to
draw
certain conclusions? If 50% or more of the prisoners in France are
Muslim
when they make up 10% of the population, yet Islam supposedly offers
them
those family values and stability that Muslim groups like to talk about
when
pretending they have something, anything, in common with
"conservatives"
(see the sly appeal, for example, by the young Turk -- not Young Turk--
Mustafa Akyol), are we supposed not to notice?

What is most telling, what is most amazing, what must never be
forgotten,
about the Sistani fatwa is that Muslims living in the West are being
told,
in the view of uncomprehending and misreporting Infidels, by a cleric
living
in Iraq, that they may, that they should, obey the laws of Canada if
they
live in Canada, but only insofar as Muslim values are "not ridiculed."
This
is really a milder, clever version of the statement to be found every
day at
Muslim websites in answer to queries from Muslims Who Want to Know:
"You may
obey the laws of the Infidel land in which you happen to live [seldom
is the
particular country specified -- why should it be? What does that
distinction
matter to Muslims?] as long as those laws do not contradict Islam in
any
way." Al-Sistani's formulation -- you should obey the local laws of the
local Infidels [in this case those of Canada] "insofar as Islamic
values are
not ridiculed" is softer in expression, with possibly just a little
leeway
in that phrase "Islamic values" rather than the flat-out appeal to the
Shari'a.

But here we are. 2006, and in Canada, some are pleased that a cleric
who
lists as "unclean" or "najis" at his official website "blood, spit,
excrement, semen and Infidels" should be hailed for his "moderation"
and his
generous concession. How nice of him to tell Canadian Muslims who
follow his
views that they should, whenever "Islamic values are not ridiculed,"
take
the trouble to obey those Infidel laws, of that Infidel state of
Canada.

No doubt Canadians should be grateful to Al-Sistani. How nice of him,
and
how nice of those Muslims in Canada who will heed him, and try to obey
those
laws -- just so long, of course, "Islamic values are not ridiculed."
And
that formulation, of course, depends on just how thin-skinned and quick
to
take offense Muslims are -- we saw the mass riots and boycotts and
threats
of murdering every single Dane, the reaction to the publication of
twelve
largely anodyne cartoons. What else might be taken to offend or violate
or
"ridicule" Islamic values?

At least Sistani did not say, as Muslim clerics and individual Muslims
have
said (in Norway as mentioned above and elsewhere), that they are
entitled to
take property from the Infidels as Jizyah due them. At least he did not
say
they could do what they wished with those Western women, whose dress
apparently makes some Muslims conclude that they deserve what they get
(see
the "Lebanese" -- i.e. Lebanese Muslim -- gang rapes in Sydney a few
years
ago).

Worse and still worse.

Posted by Robert at June 15, 2006 09:27 AM | Print this entry

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/06/011843print.html

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this
entry

Thanks to granny for this post of hope...

QUICKLY! FILL YOUR LAMPS!

Mark Mallett

I RECENTLY met with a group of other Catholic leaders
and missionaries in Western Canada. During our first
night of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, a couple
of us were suddenly overcome with a deep sense of
grief. The words came to my heart,

“The Holy Spirit is grieved over ingratitude for the
wounds of Jesus.”

Then a week or so later, a colleague of mine who was
not present with us wrote saying, “For a few days I
have had the sense that the Holy Spirit is brooding,
like brooding over creation, as if we are at some
turning point, or at the beginning of something big,
some shift in the way the Lord is doing things. Like
we now see through a glass darkly, but soon we will
see more clearly. Almost a heavyness, like the Spirit
has weight!”

Perhaps this sense of change on the horizon is why I
continue to hear in my heart the words, “Quickly! Fill
your lamps!” It’s from the story of the ten virgins
who go out to meet the bridegroom (Matt 25:1-13).

The ten virgins represent those who are baptized. Five
of the virgins (whom Jesus calls “wise”) bring oil for
their lamps; the other five bring no oil, and thus are
called “foolish.” Ah! Christ warns us: to be baptized
is not necessarily enough. It is not enough to say,
“Lord, Lord…” Jesus says, “Only the one who does the
will of my Father” will enter heaven (Matt 7:21).

James tells us, “What good is it, my brothers, if
someone says he has faith but does not have works?”
(2:14) “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one
of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
(Matt 25:40). Indeed, one who is baptized is born
again. But if he does not respond to this Grace—if he
returns to the deeds of darkness—he is like one who is
stillborn.

Thus, the oil in the lamps is L O V E.

But one might be tempted to despair at this moment:
“What if I have spent my life in sinfulness,
selfishness, and laziness? I have hardly any good
works! Is it too late to fill my lamp?”

Jesus answers this in another parable where a
landowner pays the same day’s wage to laborers who
started at dawn, and to those who began working at the
end of the day at 5 o’ clock. When the former
complained, the landowner said, “Are you envious
because I am generous?” (Matt 20:1-16)

The only time it is too late… is when it is too late:
when your lungs have ceased filling and your heart has
stopped pumping. Just before dying from crucifixion,
the repentant thief was told by Christ, “Today you
will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). In another
parable, the tax collector who was “greedy, dishonest,
and adulterous…went home justified” because of his
confession: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk
18:13). Salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus who
simply caught the glance of Jesus (Lk 19:2-9). And the
prodigal son was embraced by his father on the boy’s
way to ask forgiveness (Lk 15:11-32).

At the heart of each of these “last minute”
conversions is faith—not good works.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
this not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not
from works, so no one may boast. —Ephesians 2:8

But it is equally clear that this faith moved each
recipient to repentance; that is, they made a choice
to leave behind their old life and pursue the moral
life which following Christ implies. They were moved
by love. Their lamps were filled to overflowing with
the love which God had poured into them (Rom 5:5). And
thus, because “love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt
4:8), they were truly saved.

The generosity of God’s mercy is breathtaking.

But so is His justice. These examples, I believe,
refer more to pagans, and not the baptized. We who
have heard the Gospels, who have the Sacraments at our
fingertips, who have taste and seen that the Lord is
good… what is our excuse?

You have lost the love you had at first... Remember
then how you accepted and heard; keep it, and repent.
If you are not watchful, I will come like a thief, and
you will never know at what hour I will come upon you.
—Rev 2:2:4, 3:3

To us especially the words of James applies: “a person
is justified by works and not by faith alone” (2:24).

I know your works; I know that you are neither cold
nor hot... So, because you are lukewarm... I will spit
you out of my mouth." —Rev. 3:15-16

Faith without works is dead. —Ja 2:26

Jesus follows this warning in Revelations saying, “For
you say, “I am rich and affluent and have no need of
anything” (3:17). In the parable of the virgins, it
says they all fell asleep. Could this be, perhaps, the
sleep that affluence and riches have brought upon the
European and Western churches in particular? “Realize
how far you have fallen”! (2:5)

In the parable of the virgins, midnight did not
signify the immediate coming of Christ; there was
still a short period of delay. I believe this may be
the period which we are entering (however long that
period lasts). What is clear, is that those “virgins”
who prepared for the trial beforehand, were the ones
who made it to the wedding feast.

Hear again the words of John Paul II:

“Be not afraid! Open wide your hearts to Jesus
Christ!”

NOW is the time to get on our knees, to empty our
hearts of all sin, and let them be filled again with
the love of God—giving that love to our neighbour…
that our lamps will not be found empty.

For the clock may be about to strike midnight.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice, 'Harden not
your hearts... —Heb 3:7

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