Ping to new thread:)
DAVID W. BARNO
© 2006 David W. Barno
From Parameters, Summer 2006, pp. 15-29.
“War is . . . an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.”
— Carl von Clausewitz1
The strategic nature of war has changed, and our military and government are striving to adapt to fight and win in this new environment. Today we are engaged in a global counterinsurgency, an unprecedented challenge which requires a level of original strategic thought and depth of understanding perhaps comparable only to that of the Cold War. Our ongoing political-military actions to achieve success in Iraq and Afghanistan are simply subordinate efforts of this larger, complex world war.
Our enemies today clearly understand the value of asymmetrical approaches when dealing with the overwhelming conventional combat power of the United States military. Unfortunately, our unmatched conventional capability has slowed the US response to the changing, asymmetrical nature of modern war.2 We as a military are at risk of failing to understand the nature of the war we are fighting—a war which has been characterized as “a war of intelligence and a war of perceptions.”3 We must confront this dilemma and take our thinking to a new strategic level in this era to understand the tools and strategic approaches required to create victory in this very different 21st-century environment.
Fourth Generation Warfare: Global Insurgency
MORE AT LINK...
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/parameters/06summer/barno.htm
Yahoo! News
Wildfires in Spain reported to be arson
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Dozens of wildfires raged across northwestern Spain on Monday, and authorities said most of the blazes that have killed three people and destroyed thousands of acres of woodland were deliberately set.
More than 90 wildfires were reported over the weekend in Galicia, where almost 12,355 acres have been charred. Authorities said 85 were still ablaze Monday.
Many of the fires had been started near each other with a clear intention that winds would fan them into one big conflagration, said fire department spokeswoman Iria Mendez.
Most were started on wooded slopes near inhabited areas, regional environment spokesman Alfredo Suarez Canal said.
Police arrested a 24-year-old man suspected of starting several wildfires after authorities acted on tips from residents in Cerdedo, a town in Pontevedra, the Galician regional government said.
The man, whom authorities have not linked to any of the three fire-related deaths in Galicia since Thursday, was identified only by his initials.
Earlier, authorities said a 74-year-old man had died while fighting a fire in Pontevedra. Manuel Aprada Fontella, who had joined other neighbors as a volunteer in the firefighting operation, was found late Sunday.
Wildfires also were reported on the other side of Spain in the northeastern region of Catalonia.
Continued..................
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/ap_on_re_eu/spain_forest_fires&printer=1;_ylt=Ar700N6xjAyhG37sEFQ7lpRbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Yahoo! News
Transatlantic flight turns back to London over security alert
57 minutes ago
British authorities questioned four people at London's Heathrow Airport after a flight to Boston turned around midway across the Atlantic because of a security alert.
American Airlines flight 109 carried 240 passengers and 13 crew members on the Boeing 777 jet, which landed back in London four hours after it departed.
Four of the passengers were escorted from the plane when it landed in London, where six police officers were waiting for them, a Heathrow Airport spokeswoman told AFP.
Anneliese Morris of American Airlines said the turn-around was "due to a security issue that needed to be resolved in London," but declined to comment further.
A spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police told AFP four people were interviewed by police officers at the airport, but had not been arrested. She declined to give details on the four.
Britain's domestic Press Association said the four passengers questioned were believed to be a man who had been travelling with three women, believed to be his mother and two sisters.
continued.................[may have been on no-fly list]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060807/wl_uk_afp/britainusairplane&printer=1;_ylt=AsL4Jtu5ZTwzG50syMrg827jOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
07/ 08/ 2006 RIA Novosti Agence russe
U.S. sanctions related to Russia arms deals with Venezuela
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060805/52295389.html
MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Defense Ministry said
Saturday
U.S. sanctions against two Russian state-owned companies were linked
with their contracts with Venezuela.
The U.S. State Department announced Friday the introduction of
sanctions
against Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport and state-owned
aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi over their cooperation with Iran.
A high-ranking official in the Defense Ministry said, "Obviously, this
decision is a reaction to recent successes of our companies in
concluding beneficial contracts on arms supplies to Venezuela."
Russia signed $1-billion contracts on supplies of 30 Su-30 Flanker
air-superiority fighters and 30 helicopters to Venezuela in July prior
to the visit to Russia by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has
moved to curb American influence in the region and consolidate ties
with
other South American nations since he came to power in 1998.
The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the U.S. sanctions Friday saying,
"Our companies stand accused of violating the Iran Nonproliferation Act
of 2000. We consider these actions by the U.S. State Department
unacceptable."
"Russian companies cooperating with other countries in the
military-technical sphere are acting in strict compliance with the
rules
of international law, as well as Russian law, including Russia's
obligations on nuclear nonproliferation and export control," the
ministry said.
The source in the Defense Ministry also said the U.S. accusations that
the Russian companies were supplying technologies, which Iran could use
to produce weapons of mass destruction, were groundless.
"They [the companies] have violated no international obligations and
the
U.S. is well aware of this," he said.
The source called the U.S. sanctions "dishonest competition on the arms
market."
Some countries, led by the United States, suspect Tehran of pursuing a
secret weapons program. Iran has consistently stated that it only wants
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Oh, wow, new thread. Thanks, Davey. Glad to be included.
jm
Saudi-funded charity linked to Bali bombs
Cameron Stewart
August 08, 2006
SAUDI Arabia has been secretly bankrolling the terror group responsible for killing 92 Australians in the two Bali bombings.
US intelligence agencies have confirmed links between a Saudi charity, the International Islamic Relief Organisation, and the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah.
The IIRO is also registered in NSW under the name of Shafiq Rahman Abdullah Khan - a prominent member of Sydney's Muslim community who helps distribute Saudi government funds to Islamic projects in Australia.
However, Mr Khan insisted yesterday that the IIRO was not active in Australia.
"They never did open an office here and I am not representing them," he told The Australian.
The IIRO is not listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia, but in 2004 the federal Government warned Saudi Arabia to alert it about all Saudi funds arriving in the country after ASIO expressed concern about how they might be used.
The US Treasury last Thursday publicly identified the Indonesian and Philippines offices of the Saudi government-sanctioned IIRO as "facilitating fundraising for al-Qa'ida and affiliated terrorist groups".
It has also identified a senior IIRO official in Saudi Arabia, Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman al-Mujil, of "using his position to bankroll the al-Qa'ida network in Southeast Asia".
It describes Mr Mujil as a "major fundraiser" for JI, the group that carried out the Bali bombings of 2002 and last year.
The Australian and US governments have long been concerned about the role played by the Saudi charities in funding terrorist groups, but the US has not openly accused Saudi Arabia of funding JI until now.
American academic Zachary Abuza said it was clear that the IIRO was "complicit in killing Australians".
"Saudi charities in Southeast Asia have been the primary conduit of Wahabism and other intolerant interpretations of Islam into the region," Dr Abuza told The Australian yesterday.
"In Indonesia, the IIRO funded many projects of KOMPAK, a charity that at the very least JI penetrated.
"At the time of the (first) Bali bombing, four of the 13 branch officers were JI members."
The IIRO is an enormous Saudi charity with branch offices in more than 20 countries. It is funded by the Saudi Government and by donations from wealthy private Saudi citizens. Although it also provides genuine charity services, the IIRO is also a vehicle to spread extremist Wahabist interpretations of Islam around the globe.
The Saudi Government denies deliberately sponsoring terrorism through the IIRO, but many terror experts and some Western governments believe the Government is complicit in its funding of terror groups.
"I really cannot imagine that they do not know about this - it is a systemic problem," Dr Abuza said.
Speaking about the IIRO, US Under-Secretary for Terrorism Stuart Levey said: "It is particularly shameful when groups that hold themselves out as charitable or religious organisations defraud their donors and divert funds in support of violent terrorist groups."
There are at least two Saudi charities in Australia: the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and the Muslim World League.
Mr Khan said he registered the IIRO in NSW in 1989 at the request of the Saudi charity on the expectation that it would set up an office in Australia.
But he said the charity never followed up and so it was not active in this country.
Australian terror expert Clive Williams said the US decision to name and shame the IIRO in Indonesia and The Philippines may not achieve anything because it was almost impossible to control how the charity's funds were used.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20054517-2702,00.html
[as we fight the battle of terror today and for the survival of our country, remember that this is the agenda that is the base of most of our troubles........]
Communist Goals - 1963 Congressional Record
Source: Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
Published: Jan 10, 1963 Author: "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen
Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
[These googles are part of the Agenda 21, post, above]
http://www.google.com/search?q=AGENDA&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US&q=AGENDA+21&btnG=Search
world and a socialism link:
http://www.google.com/search?q=AGENDA+21+in+US+west&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
Still active today:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Sagebrush+Rebellion++2006&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=+BLM+Sagebrush+Rebellion++2006+&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
Utah: clinton and west
http://www.google.com/search?q=+BLM+Sagebrush+Rebellion++2006+&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
Check this mining:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Agenda+21+U.S.+small+miner&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
start here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Agenda+21+U.S.+Wilderness+area+in+West&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
important rivers:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Agenda+21+U.S.++rivers+waterways+UN&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
mixed:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Agenda+21+U.S.++Death+Vally+UN&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
cair, M.M., socialist :
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.netscape:en-US&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=Agenda+21+U.S.++Death+Valley+UN&spell=1
parks and more, good info:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Agenda+21+U.S.++parks+UN&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.netscape:en-US&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=Agenda+21+U.S.++parks+IN&spell=1
http://www.google.com/search?q=UN+has+control+of+++in+U.S.&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
Start here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=UN+has+control+of+public+land+++in+U.S.&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=FEMA++Agenda+21&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
CC camps and clinton:
http://www.google.com/search?q=FEMA++Clinton+orders+prep+Agenda+21&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
Very good:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Clinton+Agenda+21+FEMA+&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Clinton+gave+America+away&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
good
http://www.google.com/search?q=Clinton+gave+America+land+to+UN&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
Very important
http://www.google.com/search?q=Clinton+gave+America++to+UN&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
World Terrorism prior threads:
WT Thread #1: [Started on January 1, 2006]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1550424/posts?page=4809
WT Thread #2: [The communist manifesto, muslim manifesto and list of elected in U.S. who belong to the Socialist party, on the first page of the thread]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1607641/posts?q=1&&page=4951
Thread #3:
Beginning of Israel/Lebanon War and so much more.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1650751/posts?q=1&&page=4601
Thanks, Davey!
Getting back to you from the last thread
It works for me to copy and paste, LOL...probably since I don't know any better)
Bin Laden's man " Mohamed the American" in Silicon Valley
Bin Laden's man in Silicon Valley
"Mohamed the American' orchestrated terrorist acts while living a quiet suburban
life in Santa Clara
Lance Williams, Erin McCormick, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, September 21, 2001
He was the California connection to Osama bin Laden's fearsome terrorist
organization -- an architect of horrific acts of violence against his adopted
country, even as he lived a quiet suburban lifestyle in Silicon Valley.
For much of a decade he commuted from the West Coast to the terrorist camps of
Afghanistan and Sudan, where he trained bin Laden's men in guerrilla military
tactics, surveillance and explosives.
The unsuspecting Americans who met him in his duplex in Santa Clara knew him as
Ali A. Mohamed, a cordial, under-employed Egyptian immigrant with an Army
background, a U.S.-born wife and frequent business abroad.
But to his fellow terrorists, he was Abu Mohamed ali Amriki -- "Mohamed the
American" -- a hard-driving military taskmaster who trained bin Laden's own
personal security cadre and was a top aide and confidant of the shadowy
terrorist kingpin himself.
Until his 1998 arrest for plotting the terror bombing of two U.S. embassies in
East Africa, Mohamed "was the California connection, period," for bin Laden,
said lawyer Sam A. Schmidt, who defended another accused terrorist in the
embassy bombing trial this year.
Now in prison and presumed to be a government informant, Mohamed could be a key
connection for U.S. investigators probing bin Laden's links to the suicide
hijackers who flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon last week,
some experts say.
In remarks to a judge last year when he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges,
Mohamed admitted a long list of such crimes: training guerrillas who attacked
U.S. soldiers in Somalia in 1993; arranging a summit conference of anti-U.S.
terrorist organizations in Sudan in 1994; plotting the suicide bombings of
American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people and
injured thousands.
Other suspected activities during his California days include raising money for
the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, implicated in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat, and smuggling sleeper agents for bin Laden into the
United States from Canada.
For the U.S. government, Mohamed is important today because he has extraordinary
insights into the inner workings of bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, says
Yonah Alexander, director of the Potomac Institute's Center for Terrorism
Studies in Washington, D.C., who has researched Mohamed's life. He may even have
had personal contacts with some of the hijackers responsible for last week's
attacks.
"In his previous life, perhaps he trained some of these people," Alexander said.
"Clearly (the government) has interrogated him, and we assume they are doing it
now, because he is a very important source."
Mohamed's story also is important because it shows how easily even a top- level
terrorist can operate unmolested and undetected from the very heart of the
United States.
Terrorist groups have "woven themselves into the fabric of America," said Harvey
Kushner, an international security expert and professor at Long Island
University. "That is why this is going to be a long, protracted war (against
terrorism). The enemy is not outside, it's within us."
TRIAL RECORDS REVEAL
MOHAMED'S SECRET LIFE
The details of Mohamed's two lives were obtained from court records generated
during two major terrorism trials, from defense lawyers and security experts who
have investigated his background and from people who knew him in California.
By these accounts, Mohamed, 49, is a well-educated Egyptian national, fluent in
English, who graduated from both the University of Alexandria and a Cairo
military academy. In about 1971, he joined the Egyptian army, rising to the rank
of major.
As he told a federal judge in New York last year, his links to Middle Eastern
terrorist groups go back 20 years: In 1981, he joined the Egyptian Islamic
Jihad, a group of radical Muslim fundamentalists opposed to the Egyptian
government's ties to the United States and Israel that included members of the
Egyptian military.
That same year Mohamed first visited the United States, graduating from a
special program for foreign officers at the U.S. Army Special Forces school at
Fort Bragg, N.C., according to a report by Steven Emerson, an author and
terrorism expert.
Mohamed left the Egyptian army about three years after Sadat's death, then
worked for a time as security adviser for EgyptAir, the national airline, said
attorney David Ruhnke, who researched Mohamed's history for the embassy bombing
trial.
Shortly after that, the terrorist operative returned to the United States and
established himself in the Bay Area after romancing an American divorcee whom he
met on a transatlantic flight in 1985.
Mohamed was traveling from Egypt to New York, he said, while the divorcee, a
medical technician from Santa Clara, was returning to the West Coast after a
vacation in Greece, according to two longtime acquaintances who asked not to be
named because of safety concerns.
Within a few days of arriving in the United States, Mohamed phoned the divorcee
and then turned up in the Bay Area, according to the acquaintances. After a
six-week courtship, they were married in Reno.
Mohamed's wife seemed genuinely devoted to her husband, but the acquaintances
suspected that, for him, it may have been "a marriage of convenience," as one
put it -- a way to obtain a "green card" and an American home.
Mohammed moved into his new wife's Santa Clara duplex. People who met him there
said he was cordial, well-spoken and physically fit; he described himself as a
former Egyptian army officer who hoped to do intelligence work for the United
States.
But that didn't pan out, and after a year of unemployment, he enlisted in the
U.S. Army.
While his wife remained in California, Mohamed became a sergeant and was again
stationed at Fort Bragg's Special Warfare Center, where he trained officers in
Middle Eastern culture and geography. He also became a U.S. citizen, his
associates said.
But even while an American soldier, court records show, Mohamed worked on behalf
of militant Islamic groups.
In the late 1980s, he turned up in a Brooklyn, N.Y., refugee center for people
displaced by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, according to evidence in the
1995 trial of El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian terrorist convicted of plotting to
bomb the U.N. headquarters in New York.
In Brooklyn, Mohamed gave combat training to Muslim recruits bound for
Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion, said defense lawyer Roger Stavis.
Nosair was among the guerrilla fighters Mohamed trained, he said.
Although the United States was then providing training and money to the
anti-Soviet rebels, the government said Mohamed's activities were unauthorized.
SPENDING MORE TIME
AWAY FROM HOME
Mohamed was discharged from the army in 1989. He returned to Santa Clara, where
he served for a time in the Army Reserve and tried but failed to get a job as an
FBI interpreter, according to lawyers familiar with his background.
He worked as a security guard at the old Sylvania plant in Mountain View,
acquaintances said, and ran a computer consulting firm out of his home.
Mohamed often complained that he couldn't find a good job and, after a time,
according to his acquaintances, he began spending months abroad, saying he had
found work in Egypt. For long periods he was out of touch.
His wife "would say he's in the desert, and he can't call me," one acquaintance
recalled.
For some of his overseas jobs, Mohamed seemed not to be paid in money. Instead,
"he'd bring back 24-karat gold bracelets," the acquaintance recalled.
And at one point in the early 1990s, Mohamed's wife told one of the
acquaintances that her husband was in Afghanistan, training people for a man
named bin Laden. At the time the name was virtually unknown in this country, and
it seemed to mean nothing to the wife.
"Maybe I am dumb, but I did not know who this guy was, bin Laden," this person
said. "I just didn't know."
GETTING TOGETHER
WITH BIN LADEN
Mohamed's 1980s work with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad eventually drew him to bid
Laden, the multimillionaire son of a Saudi construction magnate.
Bin Laden, who had helped finance and train the Islamic guerrillas who finally
expelled the Soviet invaders from Afghanistan in 1989, became increasingly
anti-American after the United States defeated Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf
War, and he began advocating a holy war to drive America from the Middle East.
He founded al Qaeda ("the base"), the terrorist organization implicated in a
long list of deadly anti-American attacks.
"I was involved in the Islamic Jihad organization, and the Islamic Jihad
organization had a very close link to al Qaeda, the organization for bin Laden,
" Mohamed told the New York judge. "And the objective of all this, just to
attack any Western target in the Middle East, to force the government of the
Western countries just to pull out from the Middle East."
L'Houssaine Kherchtou, a onetime bin Laden guerrilla who turned U.S. government
witness in the embassy bombing trial, said he had met Mohamed -- he called him
"Amriki" -- in 1991 at a camp near Peshawar, Pakistan.
Mohamed, he said, was a high-ranking member of al Qaeda, a "very, very strict
and not gentle" taskmaster who trained cadre members in how to reconnoiter
targets for terror bombings.
Mohamed told the judge that in 1992 he had been in Afghanistan, providing
"military and basic explosives training" to bin Laden's terrorists. The
curriculum also included intelligence trade craft: "I taught my trainees how to
create cell structures that could be used for operations," he said.
There were other tasks as well. In 1991, Mohamed said, he helped relocate bin
Laden from Afghanistan to the African nation of Sudan, where the
multimillionaire set up another network of paramilitary camps.
In about 1992, Mohamed said, he helped set up an al Qaeda cell in Nairobi,
Kenya, along with a car business to earn money and a refugee-assistance charity
that provided fake IDs for the terrorist gang.
In 1993, Mohamed said, bin Laden told him to scout prospective bombing targets
in Nairobi, as bin Laden wanted a strike to retaliate for that year's U.S.
intervention in Somalia.
Mohamed said he had scouted the French Embassy, the U.S. AID office and the U.S.
Embassy. He took photos and maps to Khartoum for a meeting with the terrorist
boss.
"Bin Laden looked at the picture of the American Embassy and pointed to where a
truck could go as a suicide bomber," Mohamed told the court.
The Santa Clara resident also said he had arranged security for a conference in
which bin Laden's al Qaeda met with Imad Mughniyeh, security chief for
Hezbollah, the Iran-sponsored organization reputedly responsible for attacks
that included the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed
241.
"Hezbollah provided explosives training for al Qaeda and (Egyptian Islamic)
Jihad," he said. "Iran supplied Egyptian Jihad with weapons."
In 1994, while he was at the al Qaeda cell in Nairobi, Mohamed came under FBI
suspicion in connection with a probe of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind
Islamic cleric arrested and ultimately convicted for masterminding the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center, which killed six and injured 1,000.
At the FBI's request, Mohamed said, he flew to the United States to be
interrogated. Mohamed lied to the FBI, claiming no links to terror, admitting
only that he had trained Islamic guerrillas to fight the Russians in
Afghanistan.
After that, Mohamed said, al Qaeda told him not to return to Nairobi. From his
home in Santa Clara, he began tracking the Rahman case for bin Laden, relaying
what he could learn about the progress of the FBI probe. He also made telephone
calls from his home in California to bin Laden associates in Nairobi,
according to court testimony.
While back in California, Mohamed said, he did other tasks for bin Laden. Twice,
he said, he aided the terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, a co-founder of the Egyptian
Islamic Jihad, by then an aide to bin Laden and later a suspect in the embassy
bombings, when he visited America to raise money.
Alexander, the Potomac Institute's terrorism expert, said intelligence sources
believed Mohamed also had helped smuggle bin Laden agents into the United States
via Canada.
Around 1997, Mohamed's acquaintances said, he and his wife moved to Sacramento,
where he worked for a video distribution company.
On Aug. 7, 1998, terrorist bombs exploded at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and in
Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. Mohamed was again an FBI suspect. Court records show
that 10 agents searched his Sacramento apartment, downloading the entire
contents of Mohamed's two computers and photographing documents in English and
Arabic found inside.
Among the documents were terrorist training manuals, describing surveillance and
assassination techniques, and instructions on how to plant explosives to blow up
buildings.
When he pleaded guilty, Mohamed said that after the embassy bombings, he had
planned to leave the United States and return to Afghanistan to meet with bin
Laden. Before he could get away, he was subpoenaed to testify before a U.S.
grand jury in New York.
"I testified, told some lies and was arrested," he said.
ADMITS PLAN TO KILL
SOLDIERS, DIPLOMATS
Mohamed was indicted along with bin Laden and 22 other alleged terrorists. Only
six were brought to trial. In October 2000, Mohamed, who was facing the death
penalty if convicted, pleaded guilty to five conspiracy charges, including
plotting to kill U.S. soldiers in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, plotting to murder
U.S. ambassadors and other embassy officials and plotting to kill "United States
civilians anywhere in the world," as another prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald,
summarized the charges.
But he has never been sentenced, and defense lawyers and security experts
believe he had begun giving evidence about bin Laden to the government in hopes
of winning his release from prison.
Acquaintances said Mohamed's wife, who declined to talk to The Chronicle, had
expressed surprise after his arrest, but she remained loyal, corresponding with
him and visiting him in prison.
The acquaintances said they were shocked and troubled at how easily the
terrorist they knew as Ali Mohamed had duped them.
"It boggles the mind that anyone who lived this close here could possibly have
anything to do with something this horrible," said one. "It makes you wonder
about anyone else we were so taken in by."
Said the other: "I wonder sometimes, when he saw how we lived, if he wasn't
sorry. Or can they just live two lives?"
[Appears the Zawahiri message was correct, in his call for the Egypt group to join in the jehad...granny]
Feds Hunt For 11 Egyptians Missing In U.S.
Links for articles below, from here:
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=%22Iran%22&ei=utf-8
Monday, August 7, 2006 6:32 PM PDT
Jail for man who tried to export sensors to Iran
Reuters via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 2:41 PM PDT
An American-Iranian man was sentenced to a year in prison on Monday for trying to export sensors to Iran that are normally used to detect liquid or gas pressure but could also be used to detonate explosives.
Hizbollah fighter tells Israel he trained in Iran
Reuters via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:35 AM PDT
A Hizbollah fighter captured by Israel has told interrogators he received training in Iran and arrived there on a flight from Syria, a tape of the interrogation released by the Israeli army showed on Monday.
Bush raps Syria, Iran
AFP via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:19 AM PDT
US President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran of fomenting "chaos" in the Middle East, and said both knew exactly what they must do to escape US diplomatic crosshairs.
Iran says US or Israeli attack will face "raging sea"
Reuters via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 8:06 AM PDT
Any U.S. or Israeli attack against Iran will be returned by a force 100 times stronger, the head of the Revolutionary Guards said on Monday, as pressure mounts on Tehran's atomic work and its support for Hizbollah.
Syria and Iran must rein in Hizbollah: Bush
Reuters via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 7:34 AM PDT
President George W. Bush on Monday blamed Hizbollah for provoking the crisis in Lebanon and called on Syria and Iran to rein in the organization.
Iran still plans reply to atomic incentives deal
Reuters via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 4:52 AM PDT
Iran still plans to reply by August 22 to a big power offer of incentives to stop making nuclear fuel, an official said on Monday, but more senior politicians have already rejected the terms of the package.
Iran Says It Will Ignore U.N. Deadline on Uranium Program
New York Times Sun, 06 Aug 2006 10:47 PM PDT
The country’s chief national security official maintained that Iran would not halt enrichment as a precondition to negotiations.
SoCal man sentenced for attempting to ship sensors to Iran
Los Angeles Daily News Mon, 07 Aug 2006 5:51 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES - A computer technician was sentenced Monday to a year in prison for trying to ship to Iran more than 100 pressure sensors that could be used as components in explosive devices.
AFGHANISTAN, IRAN AND TAJIKISTAN PROBE CLOSER ECONOMIC TIES
EurasiaNet.org Mon, 07 Aug 2006 1:22 PM PDT
Iran is attempting to cultivate closer ties with Afghanistan and Tajikistan as part of a diplomatic effort to alleviate international pressure over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran insists it will not freeze nuclear work by Hiedeh Farmani Tehran, Aug 6, 2006
Space War Mon, 07 Aug 2006 6:53 AM PDT
Iran insisted Sunday it will not freeze uranium enrichment, in defiance of a UN resolution and warned it could even expand its nuclear programme which the West fears is a cover for efforts to build the bomb.
See more news stories that match my keyword
Oil Mafia and Passdaran’s Billion-Dollar Contracts/Hamid Ahadi
7/3/2006 roozonline.com
Hamid Ahadi
03 Jul 2006
Following the signing of an agreement for $7 billion between Iran’s Oil Ministry and the Khatam al-Anbiya Reconstruction Organization belonging to the elite Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps, informed sources have expressed their concerns that the events that had in the past followed the Passdaran’s intrusion into business activities at the expense of murders, imprisonment of investors, suspension of investments, and the flee of managers would be repeated again, and there would be no body to contain the destructive consequences of the trend.
The disclosure of the events that led to this large contract, and the purchase of shares of the Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies with controversial management, were the reasons for the negative publicity of Iran’s hardline media against the company and the hostility of the Passdaran to the management of this oil enterprise. Fars news agency, which is under the influence of Iran’s hardliners, quoted ‘an informed source’ and revealed that the value of Oriental Oil Kish was about $90 million, and that ‘talks for a final price were underway.”
Oil Kish was created about four years ago through a number of private investors and the express permission from senior officials of the Islamic regime. The mission of the company was to develop oil and gas resources over fields that Iran shares with some of its regional neighbors. Soon, the company won on-shore and off-shore contracts for its mission. This included Paydar fields shared with Iraq, Foroozan offshore fields shared with Saudi Arabia, and Salman and Hengam fields shared with Qatar. But perhaps the biggest victory for the company came when it acquired permission to work with the American giant Halliburton.
Even at that time some had informed the company that they would not be able to cooperate with it without the participation of individuals connected to the military. Oil Kish rejected those warnings. And that is when the ‘revelations’ about the company began to appear in the pro-government media such as Keyhan newspaper and Baztab news website which has strong links to the economic branches of the Passdaran. The first attacks were for the cooperation that the company was pursuing with Halliburton, which forced Oil Kish to cancel. But the pressures continued leading to the arrest of Sirus Nassseri, the vice-chairman of the Board of Directors of the oil company, who was also a member of Iran’s negotiating team with the international community over the nuclear issue. This forced the company to suspend its activities altogether.
At the same time, Oil Kish began to have a formidable rival every time it bid for a contract from no other than Passdaran Corps’ Khatam al-Anbiya Reconstruction Organization. But the Khatam company mostly lost the competition due its lack of expertise.
When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president last year and announced his policy of fighting the oil mafia, the ground-work for arresting the mangers of Oil Kish gained momentum. In one of their first acts, supporters of president Ahmadinejad tried to install a Passdaran commander as the minister of oil, which was rejected by the Majlis (Iran’s Parliament). Vaziri Hannaneh, the then minister of oil displayed his decision not to participate in the fake scandals under the name of ‘oil mafia’ and thus did not remove the valuable managers and personnel of the oil industry. This is when the battle went underwater, but continued even more fiercely, but eventually reached a compromise.
Apparently, with that agreement, the managers of Oriental Oil Kish company, including Nasseri, were acquitted while the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps were the given the oil contracts, while it would purchase all the shares of Oriental, including its contracts. This happened last week when Rahim Safavi, the supreme commander of the Passdaran signed the multi billion dollar contract with Khatam al-Anbiya.
It is reported that Passdaran’s commercial organization which is now the largest business and economic trust in the country, especially in the oil sector, had as its goal to achieve this status even from the days of the presidency of Mohammad Khatami in the late 90s. In those days, however, few thought it would succeed in its goal. But as events have turned out, the recent $7 billion contract was signed without the normal bidding process and outside any controls.
A veteran oil industry specialist said of the recent contract that Khatam al-Anbiya is not going to implement anything and only acts as a primarily contractor who will subcontract the actual work to others, mostly foreign experts, thus reaping large profits as a middle-man. What is worrisome, he said is that this new arrangement may again produce the same kind of criminal activities that took place when the military institution got involved in business deals in the past.
This is why two Majlis deputies have already asked cabinet ministers to appear before the legislature and respond to the questions about contracting the oil deal to the Passdaran and what is the role of the private sector in the arrangement.
http://www.cyrusnews.com/news/en/?mi=3&ni=449
7/23/2006 roozonline.com
Soheil Asefi
23 Jul 2006
The fire in the Middle East is approaching the unpredictable point by the day. What are the long term goals of Israel and the United States in this process? Will this crisis pull Iran into it as well? Dr Dawood Hermidas Bavand is an analyst and university professor on international affairs spoke with Rooz about the US plans for this event, and how Hezbollah was ambushed in to it. Read on for his views.
Rooz (R ): What are the goals of the escalating crises in the Middle East?
Dawood Hermidas Bavand (DHB): Two goals may be mentioned. At one time counting on their hardware they had a plan to democratize the region etc which ran into problems. In other words, after getting bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also an unfavorable public opinion, the US could not pursue this program. So now they are trying the same goal through a different strategy, logic and motivations.
R: There is evidence that the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier by Hamas and Hezbollah are only the beginnings of a detailed scenario for the region.
DHE: Yes. It is very clear recent events are not taking place simply because of the two Israeli soldiers.
R: So what is the goal?
DHE: The goal is to cripple Hezbollah in Lebanon or make it inoperative. But if the conflict extends to Syria, it will certainly not stop there because governments that support Syria will get into the conflict, expanding the clash. At that point, the US would intervene. And based on formulated plans, the US would act on different premises.
R: What is Israel’s long-term strategy in this?
DHE: Foremost it is to destroy all opposition levers around itself. This means the destruction of any means that exist on its borders that can harm it.
R: With the continuation of the current trends, is there likelihood for a regional war?
DHE: For those who are blamed for some of these events, such as Syria, such a possibility exists very seriously militarily and also from a distance. Today the US is following its goal of democratization differently, without provoking a reaction from its population. In short, since the US could not achieve its goals using traditional instruments, that goal will be pursued through the creation of a crisis, which appears to be through Israel and its neighbors. Regarding the other countries in the region, which have been identified in the past, the US will probably use a different approach [through the military]. That will depend on how the attack on Syria progresses. If Syria is militarily attacked, then other countries in the region will most likely be militarily attacked as well.
R: It is said that Damascus, and more than that Tehran, has been the principal supporters of Hezbollah. How does this play into all of this?
DHE: This is just an excuse. Hezbollah is not the real issue. There is a wider plan in the making. Wider than the Bekka valley and Hezbollah. If these events are, as the Prime Minister of Israel has said, to eradicate the roots of the crisis in the region, it is clear that the operations will not be limited in scope. And no matter how passive Syria plays it, eventually it will be dragged into the conflict because of its support for Hezbollah. And once Syria is pulled in, inevitably other countries too will be attacked.
R: Is this crisis specifically threatening Iran?
DHE: If it gets to Syria, it will get to Iran as well.
R: So can one say that Hezbollah has got into this situation through the careful planning of its opponent, i.e. the neocons of the US?
DHE: Perhaps it has been trapped. They (the Americans) do create traps and then follow up with their long term interests.
R: How do you think Iran’s policy towards Israel (annihilating it from the map of the world, the Holocaust, etc) has impacted the position of Israel and the US towards Iran?
DHE: You see we are now past the phase of talk and theories. The Holocaust etc are not the issues any longer. They believe that the Islamic Republic is a potential danger to them and so they use every occasion to its utmost. When they accept the consequences of attacking innocent people, it is clear that intend to pursue their plans on a larger scale.
R: Which means an attack on Iran?
DHE: They will not enter ground forces into Iran. With their advanced weapons, they will hit almost all the strategic and economic facilities. A strike from a long distance.
R: So do then they will implement their regime change plans?
DHE: Of course. They tried it one way, it did not work. Now they are pursuing their goals on the pretext of destroying the supporters of terrorism. Syria will most likely see changes, as will others. It all depends on the kind of strikes they utilize. They certainly do have a plan for regime change, but whether it will take place or not depends on how things develop.
R: Many observers believe that George Bush intends to settle the Iranian issue before the end of his term?
DHE: Yes, it appears so. As I said earlier, this issue is not related to simply two soldier prisoners. This was a trap. Especially as the Americans have supported Israel’s actions to be in self defense, which is really laying the groundwork for their own intervention and the advancement of their plans.
http://www.cyrusnews.com/news/en/?mi=1&ni=465
http://www.cyrusnews.com/news/en/
Hunger strike by Iranian asylum seeker in The Hague enters critical phase/Save the life of a refugee in The Netherlands!
The Hague, August 7th 2006 - Negotiations between the Immigration and Naturalization Department (IND) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and the Iranian asylum seeker Ali Anoushei, have entered a decisive, critical phase. Anoushei has been on hunger strike near the Dutch Parliament building for 57 days. During talks 4 days ago, the IND offered him a review of his recently rejected asylum request, promising his case the utmost in care and consideration.
SUMMARY REPORT ON STATE OF AKBAR’S BODY
The security and intelligence forces of the tyrannical and despotic government of the Islamic Republic placed the naked body of my son in a estate car in a very inappropriate conditions and threatened us that they would return Akbar’s body to Tehran, would bury him secretly and would not inform us of his burial location, if we were to hold a funeral procession or to cause any disturbance.
Iran: Death of Jailed Student Dissident
The United States condemns the Iranian government's severe repression of dissidents, and its continued crackdown on civil society and those fighting for personal freedom in Iran. The regime's actions resulted in the recent death of imprisoned Iranian student activist Akbar Mohammadi. Mr. Mohammadi died on July 30, reportedly as a result of a prolonged hunger strike, still in the notorious Evin Prison where he has been held for his role in pro-democracy student demonstrations in July 1999. Unfortunately, Mr. Mohammadi's detention was notan isolated case.
Another Prisoner of Conscience Died in Prison in Iran
We are writing to inform you that yet another innocent human being has died in Iran under the Islamic Republic╝s watch. His crime was to practice his right to assemble, as stated in the Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Reza Pahlavi's message on Mohammadi's murder
Seven long and terrible years of torture, abuse and maltreatment, tragically ended yesterday for our courageous compatriot, Akbar Mohammadi, with his murder at the hands of his jailers, who carried out the execution order issued by the security apparatus of the criminal clerical regime.
A letter to The conference of the so-called 5+1 / Fred Saberi
Last night, Akbar Mohammadi, a 36 year-old pro-democracy activist who was on a hunger strike to protest his own detention and call for the release of all political prisoners, died in the Evin Prison in Tehran. Mohammadi, who had spent several years in prison, had been arrested along with thousands of other students (including his brother Manocheher Mohammad) following the 1999 students protest triggered by the vigilantes attack on a peaceful campus rally in support of freedom of the press.
Alarm to all human rights organisations !/Yesterday Ahamd Batebi arrested.!
Ahmad Batebi in connection with peaceful student demonstrations in July 1999,yesterday the 29 of July was violently arrested in his home and taken a way to an unknown area. They searched his home and took away his private documents which put’s Mr Batebi´s life in even greater danger. Last year, after several years of external struggle by politicians outside the country and human rights organisation, Mr Batebi, after having served half of his prison punishment was awarded one year’s conditional furlough which was now broken by this illegal and inhuman arrest.
the UN's new Human Rights Council and Saeed Mortazavi
We, the undersigned, who are fighting for achieving democracy in our country, would like to have your attention for the following serious matter: Recently, you accepted Mr. Saeed Mortazavi (a government prosecutor widely known to have sanctioned the torture and the execution of political prisoners)as a part of Iranian delegation to the UN's new Human Rights Council. Saeed Mortazavi is responsible for the custody and interrogation of many prominent Iranian political prisoners.Among them the canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi of Montreal, who died while in prison in Iran, of wounds suffered at the hands of her jailers.
Bavand: The Middle East Crisis is an American Scenario
The fire in the Middle East is approaching the unpredictable point by the day. What are the long term goals of Israel and the United States in this process? Will this crisis pull Iran into it as well? Dr Dawood Hermidas Bavand is an analyst and university professor on international affairs spoke with Rooz about the US plans for this event, and how Hezbollah was ambushed in to it. Read on for his views.
Iranian Opposition Divisions Mar Visit to White House/BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
CAIRO, Egypt — A planned meeting in the White House of Iran's opposition fell short of expectations yesterday as a rift among the factions emerged.While two senior Bush administration officials met with 30 Iranian activists and academics to discuss the future of Iran, the son of the late shah, Reza Pahlavi, and Iran's leading dissident, Akbar Ganji, who is touring America this month, did not attend.
Ramin Jahanbegloo Forced to Confess before Camera/Omid Memarian
While hundreds of Iranians around the world participated in the three-day hunger strike called by prominent investigative journalist Akbar Ganji, and called for the release of Ramin Jahanbegloo, Akbar Mousavi Khoeini and Mansour Osanloo, hard-line Resalat daily announced that a film showing Ramin Jahanbegloo’s confessions was ready for airing.
Ganji: Violence in the name of Islam
On Monday evening Akbar Ganji, Iran’s most prominent investigative journalist who spent 6 years in prison and was finally released after a prolonged hunger strike 2 months ago and who is on a world tour, received the 2006 international Aubuchon award to his journalistic work in Iran. John AUbuchon was a veteran television correspondent.
SOS /UN Secretary General, Mr. Kufi Annan /Dr. Zahra Erfani
I am writing to bring to your attention, That Mr. Keyvan Rafiee the Iranian Human Rights activist has been arrested on charge of dissemination of news about the situation of Students Movement and political prisoners in Iran.
Iranian activist on hunger stike in New York
Ganji:We must organize a broad peace coalition Interview with writer and radio producer Goudarz Eghtedari on various aspects of the hunger strike Ganji: We should not legitimize or cooperate with the IRI Ganji: The U.S. is too preoccupied with Iraq and Afghanistan to inavde Iran. The danger is that the U.S. would bomb Iran's infrastructure Gani: Change impossible within the framework of IRI constitution Interview with Banoo Saberi political activist who's husband Abbas Ali Monshi Roodsari was executed
Tabarzadi On Ahmadinejad: Not Pinning Our Hopes on Him/Farnaz Ghazizadeh
Heshmatollah Tabarazadi was a revolutionary student leader who later turned reformist and was imprisoned for dissident activities. He shares his views on his contemporary president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an interview with Rooz Online.
Varjavand: Dangerous Decisions Loom Over Iran/Soheil Asefi
As the G8 summit progresses, Rooz Online talked with Iranian international affairs expert Parviz Varjavand. He believes that the streamlining of the views and positions of China and Russia with those of the US would lead to harsher decisions over Iran regarding its nuclear stand off at the meeting. In view of the new Middle East crises and Tehran’s diplomatic and domestic postures, decisions at the summit could be very threatening to the national security of Iran, he added. Read on for excerpts of the interview.
Last Day of Hunger Strike in London
It was the last day of the hunger strike in London, which took place in solidarity with Iran's prisoners of conscience.Those who took part in the hunger strike had two common denominators. They were Iranians and they wanted to see the prisoners of conscience in Iran set free.Whether they were republicans, monarchists, Left or Right, they respected each other for the hardship they put themselves through to publicise Iran's political prisoners of conscience.
Hunger Strike for Human Rights in Iran
The human rights situation in Iran continues to deteriorate. Petitions and protests to end the abuses have gone unanswered. During the past year, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government has sought to monopolize power in Iran by silencing and suffocating all independent and dissenting voices. The suppression of demonstrators in Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, and Kurdistan, the silencing of labor, women, and student movements and the vicious attacks on demonstrators throughout the past year, are all evidence of the ongoing and abhorrent human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This page continues at the link..............
Irankhabar Official Web site of the Iranian in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta – Canada
http://www.iran-khabar.com/
Jobs, immigration help, links and news links, schools also.
Not much, just a good way to figure out how to get in.
Majlis speaker calls on youth to maintain their high morale
Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA
Iran-Israel-Lebanon
Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel said here Monday that the self-sacrificing spirit of the Lebanese combatants has thwarted Israel's savage attacks.
Addressing a gathering of university students, he said members of University Jihad should maintain their jihad-oriented spirit.
High morale of the Iranian people led to triumph of the Islamic Revolution and bloods of thousands of people helped them restore spirit of jihad in the country, he said.
This is such an jihad-oriented spirit of Muslim youths that has defeated Israel's acts of savagery being perpetrated under support of the US and the West, he said.
"We are able to overcome all difficulties in the world through the jihad-oriented spirit and reliance on Almighty God," he said.
It is possible to make good on all backwardness of the past thorough commitment and hard work, he underlined.
1430/1412
---> Iran-Israel-Lebanon
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0608072724181349.htm
[To me, the last couple posts, sounds like a good dose of brainwashing]
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0608070384181717.htm
New ME in the offing despite US demand: Velayati
Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA
Iran-Lebanon-Advisor
An advisor of the Supreme Leader, Ali-Akbar Velayati, said here Monday that a new Middle East would undoubtedly be created despite US demands.
Velayati's remarks came as he addressed an international conference which opened here Monday on the regional and international repercussions of the Zionist regime's continuing offensive in Lebanon.
"Regional states have long known that they can overcome the paper tiger -- the Zionist regime -- which superpowers have created." He compared measures taken by Western states in the Balkans war and measures now being undertaken in the war in Lebanon, saying the emphasis is on wasting time and letting the greatest number of Muslims be massacred."
Pointing to the massacre of 200,000 Bosnians and the silence of the West during the Balkans war, he added that "the same events are being repeated in Lebanon."
The United Nations Security Council is mandated to preserve international peace and security, he said, and regretted that the "US has prevented establishment of a ceasefire in Lebanon while Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice) in her regional tour makes it clear that a new Middle East would have to be based on US demands." He said the US-France draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon has been changed under US pressure, and added that the change is intended to meet the Zionist regime's interests.
"If the Zionist regime continues its attacks on Lebanon, it will sustain more damage. This is while the Lebanese Hezbollah will continue to resist like a mountain.
"The United States and West intend to materialize parts of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 that they could not implement. They intend to materialize parts of their new Middle East plan in Lebanon and Palestine.
"The Islamic world and Lebanon will not yield to their sinister designs," Velayati stressed.
2327/2321/1414
---> Iran-Lebanon-Advisor
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0608070598181631.htm
Mottaki's message on Lebanon submitted to Russian counterpart
Moscow, Aug 7, IRNA
Iran-Russia-Message
Iran's Ambassador to Russia Gholam-Reza Ansari here Monday submitted a message of the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the Zionist regime's aggression on Lebanon.
In a meeting with Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andre enisov, Ansari outlined Iran's stance on the ongoing developments in the region and called for establishment of a ceasefire in Lebanon.
He expressed his regret over the great human and financial loss inflicted to the Lebanese people after 26 days of savage attacks by the Zionist regime.
"Any possible resolution will not be acceptable if it does not establish a reasonable balance and refuses to take into account the rights of the Lebanese people and their resistance.
"The United States, along with certain other countries, intend to issue a one-sided resolution in favor of the Zionist regime calling for a ceasefire, exchange of prisoners, settlement of international forrces and even putting limitation on military aid.
"Those issues will be undoubtedly the base for future disputes and will not end in sustainable peace," Ansari said.
Denisov, for his part, said that as of now establishment of a ceasefire is the most important issue and that Russia has made great efforts to include the issue in the draft resolution.
Russia would continue its efforts to create greater balance in the resolution so the Lebanese government and nation would accept it, he added.
He also urged all influential countries in the region to immediately end the massacre in Lebanon.
2327/2321/1414
---> Iran-Russia-Message