Hezbollah calls for huge protests
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has called for a huge turnout for opposition protests aimed at bringing down the anti-Syrian government.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah called on Lebanese people to join protests and civil disobedience starting on Friday.
The government of PM Fouad Siniora has been under pressure over its backing for the setting up of a UN tribunal to try the killers of Rafik Hariri.
The government has said that it will not back down over the tribunal.
"We appeal to all Lebanese, from every region and political movement, to take part in a peaceful and civilised demonstration on Friday to rid us of an incapable government that has failed in its mission," Sheikh Nasrallah said in a television broadcast.
Tensions
Hezbollah and its allies have been threatening these protests for weeks.
Six pro-Syrian ministers resigned from the Lebanese cabinet earlier this month after it approved draft United Nations plans for an international tribunal on Mr Hariri's murder.
Tensions between the pro-Syrian and pro-Western factions escalated after the killing of industry minister Pierre Gemayel last week.
Allies of Damascus argue that the cabinet's backing for the tribunal is unconstitutional because the Shia community in Lebanon was not represented in the cabinet when it made its final decision.
Many in Lebanon accuse Damascus of orchestrating the killings of Mr Hariri, Mr Gemayel and other prominent anti-Syrian figures. Syria denies any involvement in the deaths.
In 2005, Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon after a presence of 29 years, following massive domestic and international pressure following the assassination of Mr Hariri.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6159461.stm
Published: 2006/11/30 14:06:21 GMT
© BBC MMVI
November 30, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
(Thailand) Two killed, two injured in Thai south
http://www.thenews.com.pk/update_detail.asp?id=13729
(Afghanistan) Teacher disembowelled and murdered for teaching girls -
one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at
Ghazni
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=500838&ObjectID=10413099
(Iraq) Maliki: Iran has no influence over Iraq
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/November/focusoniraq_November250.xml§ion=focusoniraq
Iraq panel to call for troop pullback - Iraq Study Group to unveil
report on December 6
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/30/america/web.1130policy.php
Joint Chiefs oppose Iraq pullout
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061130-123121-9493r.htm
Commentary: Talking to the rogues - Iran and Syria
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20061129-091012-4449r.htm
Indian police file charges alleging Pakistan ties to Mumbai blasts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/wl_sthasia_afp/indiapakistantrainattacksprobe_061130121926
(India) 3 suspected Islamic rebels killed in Indian Kashmir: army
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/30/asia/AS_GEN_Kashmir_Fighting.php
(Lebanon) Hezbollah seeks government downfall
http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20061130-063614-9733r.htm
Lebanon's pro-Syrian opposition calls for protests - Hezbollah-led
campaign on Friday in Beirut
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061130/wl_nm/lebanon_protest_dc_3
Bush tells Jordan's Abdullah time not ripe for dialogue with Syria
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/pl_afp/jordanusbushsyria_061130003855
Hezbollah in Latin America
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10694
(Somalia) Islamic fighters ambush Ethiopian convoy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_re_af/somalia_1
Ethiopian parliament authorizes action against Somali Islamists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/ts_afp/somaliaunrest_061130114540
Al-Qaeda ensconced comfortably in Somalia, U.S. official says
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20061129-1420-us-somalia.html
Terror Watch: Showdown over Jose Padilla
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15958572/site/newsweek/
(UK) Terrorist suspects lose extradition battle - to United States:
Babar Ahmad and Haroon Rashid Aswat
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2479448,00.html
(Egypt) Terrorists condemned to death for Taba bombings
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881788352&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Terrorism: Philippines and Indonesia Forge Closer Police Ties
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.364833534&par=0
(Australia) Missing pilot 'counter-terrorist'
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20851771-1702,00.html
Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6158195.stm
Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20061130-121342-7687r.htm
(Spain) Head of ETA logistics cell is arrested in France
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=34729
Border security system posts just 1 terror case
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-11-30T003618Z_01_N29385299_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-USA-FINGERPRINTS.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C1-topNews-3
Commentary: Free Speech in an age of terrorism - Newt Gingrich
http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=3819
Related News:
Pope In Turkey: Protest By Islamic Ultra-Nationalists Flops
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.364789228&par=0
New York Times Is Handed A Defeat in Charity Probe Case - investigation
into leaks about raids against Islamic charities in 2001
http://www.nysun.com/article/44195
More Muslims gaining political ground - Although Maryland
delegate-elect doesn't trumpet faith, his win signals surge
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15958637/
Alleged Nazi war criminal wins time
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20848396-1702,00.html
Nuclear poison: the deadly trade
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1957301,00.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1957301,00.html
The killing of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium 210 created headlines
around the world. It also raised disturbing questions about Russian
secret
agents and a lethal and growing black market in radioactive waste
Sunday November 26, 2006
http://www.observer.co.uk/
The Observer
It was hardly the stuff of international espionage. On the day
Alexander
Litvinenko's was fatally poisoned, the former Russian spy's last public
meeting rarely deviated from football, Irish wolfhounds and, befitting
his
adopted country, the weather.
Around mid-afternoon, Litvinenko met Russian businessmen Dmitry Kovtun
and
Alexandrei Lugovei - who says that Litvinenko did not drink anything
while
they were with him. Later Kovtun left the lobby of the Millennium Hotel
in
London's Grosvenor Square and headed north to watch CSKA Moscow take on
Arsenal. Litvinenko went home in the drizzle to Muswell Hill, his trip
caught by grainy CCTV, which is still being studied by Scotland Yard
last
night.
They would never meet again. Even before the full-time whistle,
Litvinenko
felt odd. The former Russian spy called Kovtun the following day to
cancel
their meeting. He felt worse. The dissident had no idea he was dying.
Neither could the 43-year-old have deduced he was the victim of what
could
be one of the most elaborate assassinations in political history, a
killing
never before seen on British soil, orchestrated with such audacity that
his
death has bewildered Scotland Yard's most experienced detectives.
It promises to be one of the most bewildering and diplomatically
challenging
investigations in the force's history. Little more than two days since
Litvinenko died after becoming the first human to have been killed with
the
rare, powerfully toxic radioactive material polonium 210, inquiries
have
shifted thousands of miles east to the vast interior of the Russian
steppes,
in particular the rusting relics of the Soviet nuclear trade and its
burgeoning black market in radioactive materials.
The sheer difficulty of acquiring polonium 210 has though, for now,
shifted
the spotlight on to state-sponsored scientists working in Russian
research
laboratories and the country's massive nuclear reprocessing plants.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtaining
the
material would require a level of access unthinkable only the most
well-connected of individuals - just possibly with state backing.
A United Nations expert in the trade of nuclear materials said the
sophistication required to harness polonium's poison as a murder weapon
meant it could not have been executed by a 'lone assassin', a madman
with a
grudge to take out. Such is the difficulty of obtaining radioactive
material, it would have to be someone with skill and powerful
connections.
And, whoever they are, they collected enough extremely rare radioactive
material to ensure doctors discovered a 'major dose' in the frail,
sallow
body of Litvinenko. Such material, it is believed by experts, could
only
have come from the massive nuclear structures of the old Soviet Union
where,
during the collapse of the empire, security was often sacrificed.
Polonium
can only be gained from such reprocessing plants or equally complex
nuclear
research plants. You cannot buy this stuff from local criminals.
The UN is expected to begin investigating which of the nuclear
reprocessing
plants the polonium 210 that destroyed the internal organs of the
Russian
exile may have come from.
First up, will be the principal plant in Krasnoyarsk, 600km east of
Tomsk, a
massive, remote structure notorious for the radioactive contamination
of
Siberia's major rivers. Although UN officials remain sceptical the
material
may have been procured on the black market, British police are though
to be
liaising with the IAEA on whether the rare isotope may have originated
on
Russia's flourishing underground trade in nuclear and radioactive
sources.
After all, on several occasions in the past 15 years, Russian police
have
intercepted smugglers trying to carry the alpha-radiation emitting
substance
out of the former Soviet Union. In 1999 an army officer was caught
trying to
cross from Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan clutching a glass capsule marked
'RA
23-54' and a metal canister covered with lead foil. Under
interrogation, he
admitted it contained a radioactive mixture of polonium and beryllium,
used
in Russia to trigger nuclear chain reactions. He had stolen the
material
from the Baikonur cosmodrome, where he worked, and intended to sell it
in
Uzbekistan. Other cases involve the theft of several canisters of
polonium
210 from a secretive research centre in the city of Sarov called the
All
Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, a sprawling complex
known as Russia's Los Alamos.
Beyond rows of barbed wire and troop patrols, experts have admitted
polonium
isotopes are still produced there. Disturbing reports of thefts from
the
site continue to surface. In 1993 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
reported
that 10kg of polonium had gone missing from the plant. Two years ago
the
IAEA established that Iran has been conducting experiments with
polonium 210
as part of its nuclear programme, possibly using material obtained from
Russia.
Meanwhile, the National Threat Initiative in Washington warns that
Russia's
porous borders present little obstacle to smugglers carrying
radioactive
substances out of the country and that concern over Russia's huge
stockpile
of nuclear and radioactive materials slipping on to the international
black
market remained undimmed. Yesterday Vladimir Slivyak of the Eco-Defence
organisation in Moscow, warned that radioactive substances are often
poorly
guarded and vulnerable to theft. Even so, IAEA sources say they have
never
confirmed a single case of polonium 210 being smuggled on the black
market,
indirectly giving weight to allegations that Litvinenko's death was a
state-
sponsored assassination.
But Litvinenko's death holds even greater resonance; claims that a
terrorist
organisation managed to acquired a rare, powerful radioactive material
which
was smuggled into Britain where it was targeted with deadly effect have
caused much concern among UK security services. Officials are concerned
that
next time the target might be greater than the internal organs of a
single
human.
Intelligence sources said they had recently confirmed al-Qaeda is
intensifying efforts to obtain a radioactive device amid new figures
revealing that the black market of radioactive material is prospering.
Smugglers have been caught trying to traffic nuclear material more than
300
times in the past four years, a doubling of such seizures.
It is little surprise that the man charged with investigating
Litvinenko's
death is Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's deputy assistant commissioner
who has
taken the lead in protecting Britain from Islamic terrorists. He is
understood to believe that tracking down the polonium 210 found in
Litvinenko could unlock the key to his death, the toxic material's very
rarity the factor that guides British police to those responsible.
Officials from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston and
Porton
Down, the government Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, will
today
continue studying samples of the radioactive material extracted from
the
tablecloth of the sushi restaurant where Litvinenko ate the day he
died.
Experts maintain that the sample will yield its own 'fingerprint' which
can
be used to track down where the polonium came from. So far, all they
can say
with reasonable surety is that the polonium 210 looks likely to have
come
from Russia and must have been smuggled into Britain relatively
recently; it
has a half-life (the length of time during which is radioactivity
declines
by 50 per cent) of just 138 days. Whoever is responsible knew what they
were
doing, appreciating the ease and safety with which the material could
be
transported in, say, a glass jar without detection or risk to its
carrier.
'For anybody looking to kill an individual using nuclear material,
polonium-
210 would be the radioactive isotope of choice,' said a IAEA source. A
perpetrator may have entered Britain shortly before 1 November, the
date
Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned, and one line of inquiry is
that
they a may have fled London after administering the deadly dose, safe
in the
knowledge that as the first alpha rays entered Litvineko's body, he was
good
as finished.
No on disputes that Litvinenko had mustered his fair share of enemies.
Some
were dangerous, others less so, yet whether light can ever pierce the
fog of
claim, counter-claim and smoke and mirrors that characterise this case
is
hard to predict. Litvineko's dissident friends blame the Kremlin. The
Kremlin blames Litvineko's dissident friends. Rogue Russian agents have
been
named, but still no central suspect has emerged.
Scotland Yard is thought to have sought the first tentative help from
the
Kremlin via Foreign Office officials. Officers too are examining four
sheets
of A4 thrust before Litvinenko by Italian lawyer Mario Scarmella on the
day
it is presumed he was poisoned. They reveal how Russia's security
services
'had decided to use force' against Litvinenko for 'incessant
anti-Russian
activities'. But, in keeping with such a case, it is impossible to
determine
whether the documents are a hoax or genuine. The more outlandish
theories
speculate that Litvinenko's own allies could have been the culprits.
Even by
the Machiavellian standards of Russian politics, such a plot would mark
something of a new nadir.
Moscow's elite has been stunned at the British response to the scandal
amid
suspicion that the whole affair was some elaborate lie designed to
discredit
a post-soviet Russia. Vladimir Kuznetsov, former chief of Russia's
state
atomic control agency, even came out to describe Litvinenko's death by
polonium 210 as mere 'journalistic invention'.
They also point at the police's response to the death, which veered
from an
investigation into a 'suspicious poisoning' to 'how this man became
ill'.
Officially Scotland Yard has yet to launch a murder inquiry, claiming
they
still do not have enough evidence to rule out Litvinenko's death as an
accident or suicide. But could it be suicide? Was this a desperate
final act
of man marginalised by the mainstream for whom his anti-Kremlin message
depended on the oxygen of publicity?
Certainly, Litvinenko's profile has never been greater. Even his most
incendiary allegations against the Kremlin had played to little effect
in
Russia. Yet his deathbed description of Putin as a 'barbaric and
ruthless'
president played to millions worldwide. And, regardless of which
direction
the case twists next, the inquest and accompanying attacks on Putin
from
dissidents promise fresh embarrassment for the president.
The involvement of Russia's intelligence service also remains a matter
of
scorn in the Kremlin. Sergei Ivanov, spokesman for the SVR, one of the
organisations that replaced the KGB, said accusations of an
assassination
plot organised by his service, were 'some kind of science fiction'.
Sergei
Markov, an analyst and Kremlin consultant, pointed the finger at
renegade
elements within the security services, still vengeful over his claims
of
corruption and murder among Russia's intelligence agencies. He added
that
suggesting the Kremlin arranged the poisoning was absurd: 'That is just
a
symptom of Russophobia, one of the main prejudices now active in
Europe.'
Police will also examine the so-called Chechen connection, in
particular
alliance with the Chechen separatist envoy, Akhmed Zakayerebel Akhmed
Zakayev, who lives on the same Muswell Hill street as Litvinenko and is
rumoured to be on a hit list after the Russian parliament passed a law
approving use of hit squads to eliminate terrorists abroad. Yet one
nagging
issue torments those looking into the case; Litvinenko was small-fry,
an
exile whose anti-Kremlin criticisms were largely ignored in his
homeland. In
London, only his closest friends would recognise him. 'Litvinenko just
wasn't worth it. He didn't pose a threat,' one FSB veteran told The
Observer
We may never know how damaged Litvinenko's insides were by the
polonium, his
body remaining so contaminated it may be deemed simply too toxic to
touch.
As his friend Alex Goldfarb said: 'It is like being exposed to
Chernobyl but
not from outside but within.'
This week police will begin questioning witnesses. Kovtun is likely to
be
among those to be notified to ascertain precisely what, if anything of
interest, may have arisen in the Millennium Hotel. So too his business
partner, Andrei Lugovoi who also met Litvinenko on 1 November.
Yesterday
Kovtun said the fact traces of polonium 210 were found at several
different
locations across London supported his claim that he was not involved
with
Litvinenko's illness.
The former KGB officer, told The Observer that he met Litvinenko that
day
principally to discuss a simple business deal. 'It's quite clear that
we had
nothing to do with it,' he said. 'Of course, we will be very happy if
all
suspicion is removed from us, but on the other hand there's now this
information and the possibility that we may have received a dose of
radiation while meeting him [Litvinenko].'
No arrests are expected imminently, but Metropolitan Police sources say
that
a list of witnesses has been prepared - and Foreign Office sources are
not
expecting the Kremlin to prevaricate or refuse to help with British
inquiries for help.
Key figures in a plot straight out of a Cold War thriller
Mario Scaramella
Italian academic and security expert who is part of an Italian
parliamentary
inquiry into KGB activity. Says he met Litvinenko for lunch lasting 35
minutes in the Itsu sushi bar on London's Piccadilly on 1 November, the
day
he became ill. Claims they met because both their names were on a hit
list
which he had received an email about. Scotland Yard plan to interview
him.
Alex Goldfarb
Friend of Litvinenko. Runs the International Foundation for Civil
Liberties,
a human rights group funded by Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch
emigre
who lives in London and is a critic of Vladimir Putin. Berezovsky is
the man
Litvinenko claims he was ordered to assassinate by the FSB, the KGB's
successor. Goldfarb has accused the Kremlin of ordering his friend's
murder
and implicated Andrei Logovoi.
Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun
Lugovoi, another ex-KGB officer, and Kovtun, another Russian, met
Litvinenko
at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, just after his encounter
with
Scaramella. Lugovoi, now a security operator in Moscow, insists he had
nothing to do with any poisoning, and that the trio met to discuss a
potential business deal. Claims the dead man drank nothing at their
meeting
and has offered to give an interview to the police.
Anna Politkovskaya
A prominent Russian journalist with the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta
who
was shot dead in her Moscow block of flats on 7 October. Litvinenko is
known
to have been investigating her death when he was poisoned. Courageous
and
outspoken critic of President Putin and Russia's policy towards
Chechnya.
Wrote regularly about human rights abuses. Joint winner in 2004 of the
Olof
Palme Prize for human rights work. Politkovskaya had previously
received
death threats in response to her work.
Final 2 sentences say it all: Islam's message to non-Muslims:
convert,
submit to slavery, or die.
Iran's Ahmadinejad: America's New Pen Pal
Kenneth R. Timmerman
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006
http://newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/11/29/154329.shtml?s=lh
WASHINGTON -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has followed up his
18-page letter to President George W. Bush earlier this year with a
five-page missive to the American people.
In the earlier letter, which left the Bush White House shaking their
heads
with wonderment, the Iranian leader invited Bush to embrace Islam. That
is a
well-established Islamic tradition when dealing with an enemy just
prior to
war. If they refuse, then the Muslims are "justified" in destroying
them.
The letter released today follows a similar pattern. In it, Ahmadinejad
lays
out his case for America's "injustice," using the term no fewer than 12
times in the five pages.
The concept of Justice lies at the very center of the Islamic faith.
Justice
is considered the backbone of all creation, handed down by the
Almighty. The
faithful should strive to achieve justice, to "secure justice," as
Ahmadinejad puts it. Those who pursue injustice, on the contrary, are
spitting in the face of Allah.
Ahmadinejad claims that America, under Bush, is pursuing injustice.
In making his case, he does not position himself as president of Iran,
but
attempts to set himself up as a spokesman for all Muslims. Thus, Iran
itself
barely figures in his letter.
Instead, Ahmadinejad focuses on America's support for Israel, the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, and the Bush administration's "moral corruption,"
or as
he puts it, the administration's pursuit of "darkness, deceit, lies,
and
distortion."
Students of recent Iranian history will recall that the "crime" most
often
used to justify a death sentence by Islamic Republic revolutionary
courts
during the early years of the revolution was "corruption on earth."
This was
how the regime simply eliminated its opponents or those who rejected
absolute clerical rule.
Media commentators in the U.S. are likely to pick up on the "public
relations" side of the letter. Ahmadinejad calls on the U.S. to bring
the
troops home from Iraq, to cut off support for Israel, and to stop
"kidnapping presumed opponents from across the globe" and holding them
in
secret prisons.
He even has some advice for the new Democrat majority in Congress: Bend
to
the Muslim agenda, or you will be tossed out of power.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly tries to appeal to Americans as people of faith,
who
share Islamic values. "We, like you, are aggrieved by the
ever-worsening
pain and misery of the Palestinian people," he drones. "Persistent
aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for
the
rightful owners of the land of Palestine."
And he trots out his old anti-Semitic saw, claiming that "the Zionists"
control America "because they have imposed themselves on a substantial
portion of the banking, financial, cultural, and media sectors."
But to focus on these parts of his letter, however silly and
objectionable
they may be, would be to miss the main point. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is
not the
Hugo Chavez of the Persian Gulf. He knows that soon he will have his
finger
on the nuclear trigger.
Citing from the Quran at the close of his letter, he says that if
Americans
"repent" of their "injustice," they will be blessed with many gifts.
"We
should all heed the divine Word of the Holy Qur'an," he says.
The context of this particular verse (28:67-28, Sura "Al-Qasas," or The
Narration), is very clear. It follows a graphic description of
destruction
and devastation that will befall those who fail to repent of their
injustice.
It also sets out the terms of the tradition Muslim warning to the
enemies of
Allah. "And never will your Lord destroy the towns until He sends to
their
mother town a Messenger reciting to them Our Verses." This is is
precisely
what Ahmadinejad is doing in his letter.
Dump Bush, allow the Muslims to destroy Israel, and adopt Islam - or
else
you will be destroyed. This is Ahmadinejad's message.
Kenneth R. Timmerman is president of the Middle East Data Project,
author of
"Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran," and a
contributing editor to NewsMax.com.
Stolen cars in U.S., Mexico may be aiding terrorists
http://www.khou.com/news/local/crime/stories/khou061128_cd_cartheft.34f2a2bd.html
Stolen cars in U.S., Mexico may be aiding terrorists
It is a crime that affects us all: car theft costs Americans $8 billion
dollars a year.
We all pay for it through higher insurance rates.
Authorities think some of that money and even the cars themselves may
actually be aiding terrorists
If that's not enough, 11 News learned there is a huge hole in the
system
that makes it even easier for the criminals
It happens thousands of times a year, another car vanishes, stolen.
"In the city of Houston we have approximately 60 vehicles stolen a
day,"
said T.J. Salazar, HPD Auto Theft Division.
It is Salazar's job to find them
What is the scope of this problem? Salazar said it's huge.
Think of Jose Luis Cayon as Salazar's mirror image. He works for a
Mexican
private insurance consortium.
It is his job to find vehicles, too. Those are vehicles that have been
reported stolen in Mexico.
He looks everywhere.
"We have already recover cars from New York, from Florida, from Ohio,
from
Virginia..." he said.
He also located one in the city of South Houston.
"The vehicle was stolen in Baja California in 2002," said Salazar.
It's now seized.
Salazar and Cayon have been working together looking for stolen cars on
both
sides of the border
"Overall I believe that it is going to be well organized theft rings,
international theft rings that are doing this. They know that the
consequences of being caught are nil," said Salazar.
So Salazar and Cayon are doing the job that their governments won't do.
The problem is the stolen car found in South Houston.
"It is legitimate registration and she has a title to it," said
Salazar.
It was stolen in Mexico and legally re-titled here in Texas
How can that happen?
The problem is Texas and Mexico don't exchange information about their
stolen vehicles.
That leaves the Texas Department of Transportations Title and
Registration
system missing something.
"We just take the information that is transmitted to us via the
Department
of Public Safety," said Bill Dobson, Regional Director for TxDOT.
If there is an indication that it's stolen, it stops the registration
process, or it should.
"We can pick by license plate, VIN, or document number," Dobson said.
When asked if someone walked up today with paperwork information on the
vehicle, a title would be issued, Dobson said it would and the title
would
be transferred.
The state may not know but it is simple for you to find out.
We went to Carfax and entered the same VIN number. The Texas title info
is
clear, but so is the fact that the vehicle has been reported as stolen.
Dobson can't answer why TxDOT can't make that check.
The difference is Carfax has accepted stolen vehicle information from
the
Mexican Insurance consortium.
In fact that consortium has already given its database of Mexican
stolen
cars to both the Department of Transportation and the Department of
Public
Safety.
DPS would not do an interview for this story, saying in a statement
simply
that it only enters stolen information from incidents that occur in
Texas.
Harris County Tax Assessor Collector Paul Bettencourt's office operates
the
state's title and registration system here.
"If they have offered that and we haven't accepted then they are the
geniuses and we are the idiots," said Bettencourt.
It is a two-way hot car highway. Cars stolen here are just as easy to
move
to Central America
Cayon and Salazar have gone around the system, exchanged the
information
the government won't and found, "At the present time we have 548 that
are
stolen from the City of Houston alone that are registered in 12
different
states in Mexico. Legally," according to Salazar.
"This is not a few hundred bucks or millions. This is multi-digit
million
dollar fraud," Bettencourt said.
The legally re-titled cars are often resold and the cash is pure
profit.
This is multi-million dollars on both sides.
That's a frightening thought to international law enforcement.
"They know that many of the money that comes from auto theft goes to
finance
the terrorist," said Cayon.
"Terrorists are known to use vehicles," said Salazar.
Stopping the flow of cash to terror groups is something the feds have
spent
billions on.
What is the fix for this? It is frighteningly simple and costs next to
nothing.
"Mexico stolen vehicles entered in our national crime information
center
like we do with Canada. That would be the ideal thing. That way there
is no
question," Salazar said.
That's right. The federal government already cooperates with Canada and
trades the stolen vehicle information, but not with Mexico
Why?
"They are still thinking that the Mexican part is not secure," said
Cayon.
"On our side very closed minded and not wanting to cooperate in that
type of
flowing of information," Salazar said.
But at least one Mexican and one American aren't afraid to work
together.
So this car is off the street.
One car, one title at a time.
But more are coming. Every day the holes in the system and the border
stay
open.
The Department of Public Safety would not do an on-camera interview for
this
story, saying only it only enters information on cars stolen in Texas.
DPS suggested it was the FBI's jurisdiction to cover foreign stolen
vehicles.
In fact, we have discovered the FBI's counterterrorism unit has an
ongoing
investigation into cars stolen in the U.S., even some from here in
Texas,
being used in car bombings in Iraq.
Law enforcement officials within the FBI and other local jurisdictions
told
11 News that car theft is a significant source of cash for some terror
groups.
Dog eats dog in fractured Iraq
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK30Ak15.html
Dog eats dog in fractured Iraq
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - Nearly 40 years ago, a senior Syrian diplomat was
apprehended at
gunpoint by Iraqi border security, charged with spying on the Ba'athist
regime in Baghdad. Angrily the Syrian took out his diplomatic passport
and
said: "You cannot arrest me. I have immunity!" Unable to hold back his
laughter, the Iraqi officer chuckled: "We killed Nuri al-Said [the
14-time
prime minister of Iraq under the monarchy]. What in the world makes you
think that
http://goldsea.com/GAAN/adclick.php?n=a923457d
http://goldsea.com/GAAN/adview.php?what=zone:117&n=a923457d
we cannot kill you as well?"
His statement applies equally to Iraq today. Nobody is immune, and any
person, no matter how senior or seemingly well protected, runs the high
risk
of being kidnapped, mugged or assassinated. In such a chaotic
environment,
the Egyptian-educated Sunni heavyweight Harith al-Dari, leader of the
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), should not have been surprised
when
Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani issued a warrant for his arrest
recently.
He was charged with spreading "division and strife" among the Iraqi
people.
The order to arrest Dari was clearly inspired by Shi'ite politicians
and
supported by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Some say it was a very
unwise
decision on Maliki's part, since the AMS controls the imams of 3,000
Sunni
mosques, all of which could be used to ignite violence against the
Baghdad
government. Others say it is a great publicity stunt for Dari himself,
because he was sinking into oblivion and the arrest warrant made him
famous
and popular, not only in the Arab world, but throughout the Middle East.
Dari, however, was in Amman, Jordan, when the warrant was issued. Had
Boulani and Maliki actually wanted to arrest him, they could have done
that
before he left the country. This, however, would have caused an
uncontrollable increase in sectarian violence. They wanted the warrant
as a
warning message to Dari: to play Iraqi politics by their rules, or
remain in
exile - or jail.
Muqtada al-Sadr, who is Dari's counterpart in Shi'ite politics, called
on
the outspoken Sunni cleric to issue religious fatwas prohibiting Sunnis
from
attacking Shi'ites "because they are Muslims". He asked for another
fatwa
prohibiting Sunnis from "joining the terrorist al-Qaeda organization
because
it kills Muslims". Finally, he asked Dari to support the rebuilding of
the
Golden Mosque in Samarra - a revered Shi'ite shrine that was destroyed
in a
terrorist attack, believed to be al-Qaeda's doing, in February.
Only when Dari accepted these demands, Muqtada added, would he condemn
the
arrest warrant made by Boulani, who himself is a former Sadrist.
AMS spokesman Mohammad Bashar Faydi said the warrant revealed the
"bankruptcy of the sectarian government". He accused Boulani of
"supporting
terrorism" by covering for militias "that are killing the Iraqi
people".
Scores of politicians have come out to condemn the warrant at a time
when
Shi'ite clerics are allowed to roam freely, under protection of the
Shi'ite
government of Maliki. Even Sunni politicians, such as parliament
Speaker
Mahmud al-Mashadani, whom Dari has criticized for assuming office under
the
Americans, are now sympathetic to Dari. Shi'ite cleric Mahmud
al-Hasani, a
challenger to Muqtada in Shi'ite politics, and former prime minister
Iyad
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, have also criticized the warrant.
The reason everyone in the Shi'ite community is so annoyed with the
Sunnis
is their vocal criticism of the new Shi'ite-dominated post-Saddam
Hussein
Iraq. Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leading Sunni leader, had spoken from Amman
on the
100th birthday of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim
Brotherhood,
warning against making Iraq a satellite state to Iran. He called for
action
"lest Baghdad become a capital for the Safavids".
The AMS, after all, is a product of Banna's Brotherhood, which has had
a
branch in Mosul since the 1930s. The Safavids Dulaimi was referring to
were
the Shi'ite dynasty that ruled Baghdad from 1508 to 1534. They were
replaced
by the Sunni Ottomans. Dari himself called on the United States, the
United
Nations and Arab states to refrain from supporting Maliki, "otherwise,
the
disaster will occur and the turmoil will happen in Iraq and other
countries".
The Arab League, under the urging of Saudi Arabia and Jordan,
intervened on
Dari's behalf, and he spoke to the Saudi daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat,
saying he
was undeterred by the arrest warrant, adding that those who had taken
up
arms against the US would not disarm for the sake of entering the
political
process.
Reprisal attacks over the Dari affair led to the kidnapping of Ammar
al-Saffar, a member of Maliki's al-Da'wa Party, in Baghdad and the
assassination of Ali al-Adhadh, of the Shura Council for the Supreme
Council
for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and his wife as they were
driving through a Sunni neighborhood of the Iraqi capital. Adhadh had
been
earmarked to become the new Iraqi ambassador to the UN, and the SCIRI
had
loudly supported the decision to put Dari behind bars. A Sadrist member
of
the Ministry of Health were kidnapped as well, and Muqtada's offices in
Baquba were raided by Sunni militants.
As all of this was taking place in Iraq, US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) director Michael Hayden admitted that only 1,300 members of the
insurgency are actually members of al-Qaeda. This means that of the
40,000-strong insurgency, only 3.25% are from al-Qaeda. The Sunni
tribes
operating in the insurgency are, in Hayden's words, "in the low tens of
thousands". This implies that the remainder of the armed groups are
Shi'ite.
Is it entirely surprising, then, that none other than Muqtada came out
with
an unusual offer. Speaking to his followers, he called for
rapprochement
between political and religious forces, saying: "Let us shake hands,
and I
want nothing from you. Is it not enough that in our division and
arguments
there is a service to the enemy?"
Speaking on the seventh anniversary of his father's martyrdom, Muqtada
said:
"If the late Sadr had been among you, he would have said, 'Preserve
your
unity. Don't carry out any act before you ask the hawza [Shi'ite
seminary in
Najaf]. Be the ones who are unjustly treated and not the ones who treat
others unjustly.'" Members of Muqtada's movement had threatened to
resign
from the cabinet if Maliki agreed to meet with President George W Bush
in
Amman on Wednesday.
For the first time since his name began to shine, Muqtada's "wise"
words
fell on deaf ears. Over the past week, in response to the massive
sectarian
attacks on the Shi'ite enclave, Sadr City, in Baghdad - and despite
Muqtada's calls for calm - armed Shi'ite groups stormed the offices of
the
AMS and the Sunni shrine Abu Hanifa, damaging them extensively. One
group
invaded the Huriyya district of Baghdad, burning four Sunni mosques,
killing
30 people and wounding 48. Six of those killed were burned alive with
gasoline as they left the mosque on Friday.
The UN declared that 3,709 people were killed last month - the highest
death
toll since the US invasion took place 44 months ago.
In the Sunni stronghold al-Anbar province, gun battles have taken place
between former Ba'athists belonging to al-Awda Party and Sunni militias
loyal to al-Qaeda. Prominent cleric Abdul-Sattar Abu Risheh has called
on
the Sunnis of Anbar to resist al-Qaeda. This spells out an increasing
Sunni
divide. The former Ba'athists have been so successful, and recently
created
a secular paramilitary Sunni party called al-Awda (The Return), that
al-Qaeda guerrillas are forced to divert some of their attention from
fighting the Americans and members of the post-Saddam order to fighting
the
Ba'athists.
Al-Qaeda has gone so far as to drop flyers in Anbar saying that any
member
of al-Awda will be shot. The flyer read: "The Ba'ath secular party will
find
no quarter in the new principality of the Islamic state of Iraq."
Former
generals in Saddam's regime have since been murdered in Anbar. A tribal
council in Anbar said last weekend that Sunni tribesmen had killed 55
members of al-Qaeda.
All of this boils down to one fact: Maliki's security plan of which he
boasted when coming to power in May has proved an utter failure. Not
only
has he disappointed Sunnis but even the Shi'ites - after the latest
bombings
in Sadr City - have lost faith in him. This was made clear when he
visited
the slum there to pay respect to the hundreds of victims who were
killed
last week. Rather than be welcomed in his own constituency, Maliki was
received with stones and angry Shi'ites.
These divisions in the Shi'ite front challenge the CIA director's
claim,
which says the Sunnis are not as powerful as they seem to be in the
insurgency. If the Sunnis are not in control, and apparently nor are
the
Shi'ites, then who is? The answer is: nobody! The Sunni insurgency is
clear
divided, more so after the killing of al-Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
in the
summer. It is now becoming Ba'athists, or secularists and tribesmen,
versus
al-Qaeda.
The Shi'ite street is also divided, with one group clearly emerging
around
Maliki and Muqtada, and the other loyal to Iran and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim
and
his SCIRI. The US is caught in the middle of this labyrinth, and
clearly has
no clue on how to get out. The now-dominant Democrats in the US
Congress are
expected in January to demand some sort of troop withdrawal, starting
mid-2007. But until then, chaos is becoming stronger by the minute in
Iraq.
This might explain why the Americans have explored, over the past few
weeks,
several options to stabilize the country. One option is to talk to Iran
to
control the Shi'ite insurgency. The other is to talk to Syria to
control the
Sunni insurgency. The third option - too difficult for the Bush
administration - is to talk to both.
Talking to Iran, in any way, is too difficult for the Americans, and if
they
were to acknowledge the need to deal with Tehran, it would have to be
through the Syrians. The US approved the sending of a senior British
envoy
to Damascus last month to meet with President Bashar al-Assad and
demand -
among other things - Syrian support for the Maliki government.
Syria responded promptly by sending Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualim
to
Baghdad, which agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations with Syria.
This
gives great credibility to Maliki's cabinet in the eyes of Iraqi
Sunnis.
Syria is also preparing to receive a senior Iraqi security delegation,
which
includes Interior Minister Boulani, to discuss bilateral relations - an
act
that surely is pleasing to the Americans.
But bringing the Sunnis to order in Iraq will not be easy without the
support of Saudi Arabia. And Syria's relations with Riyadh are
currently
tense because of the situation in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia's support
for
Syria's opponents in Beirut, including parliamentarian Saad al-Hariri
and
Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora.
As long as there is no Syrian-Saudi rapprochement, the Sunni street of
Iraq
will remain divided, because Saudi Arabia has control over Iraqi
Sunnis, and
uses it extensively to counterbalance the meddling of Iran in Iraqi
affairs.
And Iran's influence on the Shi'ite street is paramount. If the US
wants to
pacify the Shi'ite street, it must talk to Tehran. Unless this happens,
the
situation will remain as chaotic as it has become since February.
The motto will remain: "We killed Nuri al-Said. What in the world makes
you
think that we cannot kill you as well?"
Exploding e-passports? Depends on the country
As RFID-chipped passports gain adoption around the world, successful
attempts to crack them are on the rise as well. Germany, the
Netherlands and
the United Kingdom have already reported compromised data, while
countries
such as New Zealand remain sure it can't happen there. But what if the
goal
wasn't data theft but detonation?
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/1054404/107300/42758/2/
E-passport security? Depends on the country
U.K., Germany report cracks; New Zealand steady; U.S. goes boom
Juha Saarinen Today's Top Stories or Other Security Stories
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Voice-over-IP will dominate the enterprise in the next few years - are
you
ready?
IP Communications
November 29, 2006 (Computerworld New Zealand) -- Reports from the U.K.
indicate that radio frequency identification chips in passports can be
cracked. "Smart" passports from Germany and the Netherlands have been
compromised as well, according to researchers. However, differences in
chip
implementation from nation to nation may mean that some passports are
easier
to crack than others.
For instance, British newspaper The Guardian reports that it was able
to
access the data stored on RFID cards in Britain's newly launched smart
passports in as little as 48 hours. On the other hand, the New Zealand
Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) says there isn't enough
information
contained within New Zealand's passports' chips to create counterfeit
travel
documents.
DIA passport manager David Philp confirms that it is possible to access
the
information stored on the RFID chips and use it to make a clone.
However,
the RFID chip in the e-passports currently issued in New Zealand is
just one
security feature out of more than 50 contained in the passport.
Having just a cloned chip isn't sufficient to create a counterfeit
passport,
says Philp says, adding that such an endeavor is quite involved. While
New Zealand passports are "highly desirable," the DIA has seen very few
credible
counterfeited ones, he says.
While the general design goal of the e-passport is to lock the holder's
identity to the document in a secure manner, Philp says that there has
to be
a balance between risk management and customer service.
The passport has to be readable around the world in a reasonable amount
of
time and ideally in more situations than just immigration.
Philp gives airport check-ins as one example of where RFID-equipped
passports should be readable.
Making the e-passport harder to read is possible, Philp says, but it
would
make immigration processing take longer and inconvenience people.
Researcher Peter Gutmann at the University of Auckland's department of
computer science is skeptical that RFID chips provide any real security
benefit. In fact, Gutmann goes further and says in a technical
background
paper, "Why biometrics is not a panacea" (download PDF), that RFIDs in
passports "are a disaster waiting to happen."
German and Dutch passports have already been compromised, according to
Gutmann, and this can be done remotely as well. He points to successful
attacks by Dutch RFID security specialist Harko Robroch, who has
intercepted
passport and reader device communications from five meters away.
Gutmann
says eavesdropping on the reader was possible up to 27.3 yards.
In comparison, the Guardian article says U.K. passports are readable
from
within three inches away. That's far closer than the distance from
which
Robroch was able to intercept data, but in crowded settings, such as
public
transportation, it's possible that people would be that close to one
another
and that someone would be able to siphon off data stored in an RFID
chip.
However, Gutmann's worst-case scenario for RFIDs in passports occurs
not
when they're being compromised for counterfeiting purposes, but when
they're
being used to identify the holder. Moreover, the RFID chip could be
used to
trigger explosive charges, and Gutmann points to a study that shows the
current U.S. passport design caused a small, nonlethal explosive charge
concealed in a rubbish bin to detonate.
Terrorists could then use the RFID chips in passports to target
specific
nationalities automatically, says Gutmann.
Canada calls for reinforcements in Afghanistan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061128.wkorinriga1128/BNStory/Front
Canada calls for reinforcements in Afghanistan
PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail Update
Riga, Latvia - Canada wants reinforcements for its embattled troops in
Kandahar - not just the lifting of restrictions that currently keep the
forces of major European allies far from the fighting, Foreign Minister
Peter MacKay said Tuesday.
"Lifting caveats is part of the equation," Mr. Mackay said, adding that
leaders will thrash out whether other nations have the ``capacity and
willingness to send more soldiers, to put more boots on the ground."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pushing combat-shy Europeans to ease
the
burden on Canadian troops doing much of the fighting - and dying - in
southern Afghanistan.
He got some support Tuesday at the NATO summit from U.S. President
George
Bush.
Member nations must accept difficult assignments if we expect to be
successful," Mr. Bush said, a pointed reference to several big European
nations that have kept their soldiers far from the fighting in southern
and
eastern Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Taliban suicide bombers struck against yesterday,
underscoring
just how dangerous Afghanistan remains.
Only a day after two Canadian soldiers were killed when a suicide
bomber
rammed an explosives-laden car into their armoured vehicle, another
attack
Tuesday injured a soldier in Panjwayi district west of Kandahar. The
wounded
soldier was airlifted to the big NATO base at Kandahar airport.
"The Canadians are doing more than their fair share," Mr. Mackay said,
echoing NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Mr. Scheffer lashed out at the failure of the world's most powerful
military
bloc to find the troops desperately needed in the embattled south of
Afghanistan where Canadians, Americans, British and Dutch forces are
fighting a fierce counter-insurgency against the Taliban.
"It is not acceptable that our mission in the south still lacks 20 per
cent
of its requirements," Mr. Scheffer said.
He also called for a lifting of national restrictions, imposed by some
European governments which keep their troops far from the fighting and
unavailable to reinforce the south.
"Caveats take away operational effectiveness," Mr. Scheffer said.
"We can ill afford reconstruction armies that cannot handle combat."
Aside from Poland, which has offered a 900-soldier battle group due to
arrive in Afghanistan early next year, no NATO government has offered
to
fulfill the shortfall of more than 2,500 soldiers needed to combat the
Taliban.
Mr. Harper, who arrived here after an overnight flight from Ottawa will
hold
talks with Polish President, Lech Kaczynski.
U.S. president George W. Bush, speaking in neighbouring Estonia before
arriving in Riga, echoed the call for more forces from European
nations.
"To succeed in Afghanistan, NATO allies must provide the forces NATO
military commanders require," he said. More than 21,000 U.S. troops are
in
Afghanistan, with a majority now under NATO command.
Latvia's no-nonsense President Vaira Vike-Freiberga also warned
arriving
leaders that they must take tough decisions to insure the success of
NATO's
first long-distance mission.
"A half-hearted presence there doesn't seem to be worthwhile. We must
either
go there, get the job done or say we are unable to deal with it and
leave
that country to its fate," she warned.
Being told to cut and run if they won't stand and fight won't go down
well
with some European leaders, especially when it comes from the president
of
their tiny, Baltic host state.
But the blunt calculus of body count underscores which nations are
shouldering most of the burden.
Canadian soldiers have suffered more than one-quarter of the combat
deaths
in Afghanistan this year, with 32 killed. Germany, with a contingent
400
soldiers larger than the 2,300 Canadians, hasn't been involved in any
fighting and has suffered no combat casualties. Canadians are getting
killed
at a rate five times the average for NATO and U.S. forces in
Afghanistan.
Although Afghanistan will dominate the agenda, NATO leaders, at the
first-ever summit held in a former Soviet city, are also expected to
rebuff
the membership hopes of Croatia, Macedonia and Albania. All three
Balkan
states have token forces in Afghanistan but NATO is keen to avoid
irking
Moscow over any further expansion.
Alliances leaders are also expected to agree to jointly buy a small -
perhaps four - giant Boeing C-17 military transports to alleviate the
chronic difficulty of most NATO nations to deploy and re-supply their
forces.
The stakes remain high. At a pre-summit speech, U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar,
chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations committee said: ``If the
most
prominent alliance in modern history were to fail in its first
operation
outside of Europe due to a lack of will by its members, the efficacy of
NATO
and the ability to take joint action against a terrorist threat would
be
called into question."
With Iran's help, Hizbollah trains Iraqi Shi'ite militiam en
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/17506.html
With Iran's help, Hizbollah trains Iraqi Shi'ite militiamen
A senior American intelligence official said on Monday that the
Iranian-backed group Hizbollah had been training members of the Mahdi
Army,
the Shi'ite militia in Iraq that is headed by Muqtada al-Sadr.
The official said that between 1,000 and 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi
Army
and other Shi'ite militia groups from Iraq had been trained by
Hizbollah in
Lebanon, mostly in small groups. A small number of Hizbollah operatives
have
also visited Iraq to help with training there, the official said.
Iran has facilitated the link between Hizbollah and the Shi'ite
militias in
Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though
there
is debate among intelligence officials about whether it has the
blessing of
the senior leadership in Syria, the official said.
The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules
set by
his agency, and discussed Iran's role in response to questions from a
reporter.
The interview occurred at a time of intense debate over whether the
United States should enlist Iran's help in stabilizing Iraq. A commission
headed by
James A. Baker III, a former secretary of state, and Lee Hamilton, a
former
Democratic Party lawmaker, is expected to call for direct talks with
Tehran.
The claim about Hizbollah's role in training Shi'ite militias could
strengthen the hand of those within the Bush administration who oppose
talks
with Iran.
The new American account is consistent with a claim made in Iraq this
summer
by a mid-level commander of the Mahdi Army, who said his organization
had
sent 300 fighters to Lebanon, ostensibly to fight with Hizbollah forces
there. "They are the best-trained fighters in the Mahdi Army," the
militia
commander said in an interview in Iraq. He spoke on condition of
anonymity.
The specific assertions about Iran's role went beyond those made
publicly by
senior American officials, though Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director
of
the Central Intelligence Agency, did tell Congress earlier this month
that
"the Iranian hand is stoking violence" in Iraq.
The American intelligence on Hizbollah's role is based on human
sources,
technical means, and interviews with detainees captured in Iraq,
American
officials said.
American officials say that the Iranians have also provided direct
support
to Shi'ite militias in Iraq, including explosives and trigger devices
for
roadside bombs, and training for several thousand fighters, mostly in
Iran.
The training is carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps
and the
Ministry of Intelligence and Security, they say. American officials
also
suspect that in some cases the Iranians may have provided guidance to
the
Shi'ite militias to attack specific targets in Iraq.
[url unknown]
GOOD NEWS FOR CANADIANS
AGAINST SUICIDE BOMBING
* CANASB is in regular contact with Public Safety and Emergency
Preparedness Minister Stockwell Day and the Prime Minister's office.
The
Conservative Canadian government told us they would help Liberal
Senator
Grafstein's Bill S-206, considered a "Made in Canada Solution", to
specifically
cover suicide bombing as terrorism. Click links to read.
* Bill S-206 was referred to the Standing Senate
Committee on
Legal and Constitutional Affairs for Hearings. See "Breaking News" in
our
www.canasb.ca web site as many leading Liberal and Conservative
Senators support
the Bill.
* CANASB's Letter to the Senate supporting the Bill is
signed by
"A remarkable collection" of prominent Canadian political, religious
and
business leaders including Bob Rae, John Tory, Ed Broadbent, David
Peterson,
General MacKenzie, Gerald Schwartz, Salim Mansur and the Anglican
primate. We
will send it to the Senate and publicize it nationally when the
Hearings start.
* Passing Bill S-206 to declare "suicide bombing as
terrorism"
would be a first for any parliament in the world.
* The Australian Parliament became the first in the world
to pass
a bipartisan motion urging suicide terrorism be declared a "crime
against
humanity". Many experts consider suicide bombing as "terrorism" and as
a "crime
against humanity" interchangeable concepts.
If you want to know more about the above, please open the attached
documents.
Again we, at CANASB want to thank you for your support, we will let you
know of
the new development as we progress.
Best regards,
Roxanne LaBrie
Vice President Communications
CANASB
Abe Foxman: Judging a Book by Its Cover and Its Content: A review of "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" by Jimmy Carter
Judging a Book by Its Cover and Its Content
http://www.adl.org/israel/carter_book_review.asp
A review of "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" by Jimmy Carter
(Simon & Schuster, November 2006)
Posted: November 13, 2006
By Abraham H. Foxman
One should never judge a book by its cover, but in the case of former
President Jimmy Carter's latest work, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid",
we
should make an exception. All one really needs to know about this
biased
account is found in the title.
It is truly shocking, at a time of Islamic extremism running rampant,
of
suicide bombs polluting cities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, of
Iran
publicly stating its desire to wipe Israel off the map and building
nuclear
weapons to achieve that end, of the missile and rocket attacks by
Hezbollah
and Hamas on Israel, that Jimmy Carter can to a large degree only see
Israel
as the party responsible for conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians.
In some ways, Carter's book reminds me of the outlandish paper on "The
Israel
Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by professors John Mearsheimer and
Stephen
Walt, though he doesn't go to their extremes. Like them, his
examination of
almost every issue concerning the conflict results in blaming Israel
for most
or all of what has gone wrong.
Listen to his conclusions: "Israel's continued control and colonization
of
Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive
peace
agreement in the Holy Land." And, "The bottom line is this: Peace will
come to
Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing
to
comply with international law, with the road map for peace.".
In order to reach such a simplistic and distorted view of the region,
Carter
has to ignore or downplay the continuing examples of Palestinian
rejection of
Israel and terrorism, which have been part of the equation from the
beginning
and which are strong as ever today. He has to minimize or condemn all
the
instances of Israel's peace offers and withdrawals, most particularly
former
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's initiative at Camp David in 2000,
Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and current
Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert's campaign pledge to withdraw from the West Bank.
And he
has to frame every example of Palestinian distress as simply the
product of
Israeli repression instead of Palestinian extremism, e.g., the economic
condition of the Palestinians, which has much to do with the continued
terrorism against Israel.
Much as in the paper of Mearsheimer and Walt, one doesn't have to be a
pro-Israel advocate to recognize that the issues in the long conflict
are a
lot more complicated than Carter would portray. It's particularly
revealing,
that at a time when even many Arab leaders are recognizing the
destructive and
dangerous policies of the Palestinians, Carter can hardly bring himself
to
speak to such matters.
It is not the goals that Carter seeks that are so troubling -- he calls
for a
two-state solution, with Palestinians and Israelis living securely in
two
states, which, of course, is the policy of Israel -- but his obsession
with
blaming Israel for these goals not being achieved.
The problem with this approach is two-fold. He unjustly encourages
Israel-bashers around the world. The legitimizing factor of being able
to
quote a former President of the United States and winner of the Nobel
Peace
Prize cannot be overestimated.
Secondly, this gives comfort to the extremists on the Palestinian side
who are
reinforced in their extremism by this kind of "analysis." In the end,
it is
the Palestinians themselves who are hurt by such a biased approach
because
they become even further entrenched in their illusions about weakening
Israel
and the need not to change.
As disturbing as Carter's simplistic approach is, however, even more
disturbing is his picking up on the Mearsheimer -Walt theme of Jewish
control
of American policy, though in much more abbreviated form and not being
the
focus of his work. Referring to U.S. policy and the "condoning" of
Israel's
actions, Carter says: "There are constant and vehement political and
media
debates in Israel concerning its policies in the West Bank but because
of
powerful political, economic, and religious forces in the U.S., Israeli
government decisions are rarely questioned or condemned, voices from
Jerusalem
dominate our media, and most American citizens are unaware of
circumstances in
the occupied territories." In other words, the old canard and
conspiracy
theory of Jewish control of the media, Congress, and the U.S.
government is
rearing its ugly head in the person of a former President.
It is sad that Mr. Carter would attempt to use his influence in this
way. It
is dangerous because he will be used by elements that want to undermine
support for Israel in this country.
Ultimately, we have faith in the good sense, fairness and understanding
of the
American people. They know that life in the Middle East is much more
complicated and will require seeing all sides of the issue, something
President Carter doesn't seem to be interested in doing.
Rioters in 16-hour battle at migrant removal centre
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2026816.ece
Rioters in 16-hour battle at migrant removal centre
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Published: 30 November 2006
The Independent
Specialist teams of anti-riot prison officers spent more than 16 hours
fighting to quell a riot that engulfed Britain's largest and most
troubled
immigrant removal centre.
The Home Office accused detainees of staging "a deliberate attempt at
sabotage" to stop them being deported after all four wings were hit by
trouble early yesterday morning.
Lin Homer, the director general of the Home Office's Immigration and
Nationality Directorate, said detainees were being moved to other
centres or
to prison after a day of unrest. She vowed that no foreign prisoners
would
be released and said the Home Office would continue "vigorously" to
remove
people from Britain.
Specially trained officers from across southern England rushed to the
Harmondsworth centre, west London, after a series of fires were lit and
staff lost control. Police sealed the perimeter as dozens of inmates
were
seen crowding a yard. The words "SOS Freedom" were scrawled on a sports
court.
The disturbances came less than 24 hours after the chief inspector of
prisons, Anne Owers, delivered a damning verdict on Harmondsworth,
saying
her report was the worst she had had to write on such a detention
centre. Ms
Owers said six out of 10 detainees felt unsafe and criticised high
levels of
force.
The centre was opened five years ago to hold foreign nationals. Two
thousand
are brought to the centre every month before they are flown out of
Britain.
Specialist teams of anti-riot prison officers spent more than 16 hours
fighting to quell a riot that engulfed Britain's largest and most
troubled
immigrant removal centre.
The Home Office accused detainees of staging "a deliberate attempt at
sabotage" to stop them being deported after all four wings were hit by
trouble early yesterday morning.
Lin Homer, the director general of the Home Office's Immigration and
Nationality Directorate, said detainees were being moved to other
centres or
to prison after a day of unrest. She vowed that no foreign prisoners
would
be released and said the Home Office would continue "vigorously" to
remove
people from Britain.
Specially trained officers from across southern England rushed to the
Harmondsworth centre, west London, after a series of fires were lit and
staff lost control. Police sealed the perimeter as dozens of inmates
were
seen crowding a yard. The words "SOS Freedom" were scrawled on a sports
court.
The disturbances came less than 24 hours after the chief inspector of
prisons, Anne Owers, delivered a damning verdict on Harmondsworth,
saying
her report was the worst she had had to write on such a detention
centre. Ms
Owers said six out of 10 detainees felt unsafe and criticised high
levels of
force.
The centre was opened five years ago to hold foreign nationals. Two
thousand
are brought to the centre every month before they are flown out of
Britain.
Attacks on Iraq's oil industry
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
LONDON - Reuters
A mortar attack set ablaze oil storage tanks in northern Iraq on
Monday,
police said.
A source at the state North Oil Company said output from the region
could
be reduced for some time.
Before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the pipeline from the northern
Kirkuk
oilfields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan was shipping some
700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to world markets. Now, the pipeline
operates
intermittently at best because of constant sabotage attacks.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has relied almost
exclusively on
its southern Basra oil terminal in the Gulf for exports. Oil production
has
been stuck at 2 million bpd with exports of 1.5 million bpd. That
compares
to a pre-war output of just under 3 million bpd and exports of around 2
million.
Past strikes on Iraq's oil industry and its employees:
Nov. 27, 2006 -- A mortar attack set ablaze oil storage tanks in
northern
Iraq, police said. A source at the North Oil Company said output from
the
region could be reduced for some time.
July 2006 -- A sabotage attack along Iraq's northern oil export route
to
Turkey fractured both pipelines and halted flows, an Oil Ministry
official
said.
July 16, 2006 -- The head of Iraq's North Oil Company, Adel Qazaz,
was
kidnapped in Baghdad, an Oil Ministry official said
June 10, 2006 -- Iraq resumes intermittent pumping along the
Iraq-Turkey
pipeline.
June 8, 2006 -- Gunmen kidnap a senior oil ministry official on his
way
home from work. Kidnappers have not contacted the ministry or family of
Muthana al-Badri, Director General of Iraq's State Company for Oil
Projects
(SCOP).
June 7, 2006 -- Four Iraqi oil employees were kidnapped as they
return
from checking on an oilfield near the northern oil hub of Kirkuk. No
group
claims responsibility.
March 2006 -- A blast hit Iraq's Southern Oil Company headquarters in
Basra, damaging one of its buildings, but operations were not affected,
a
source in the company said.
Feb 2006 -- A bomb tore open an oil products and fuel pipeline near
the
northern Iraqi refinery town of Baiji, disrupting supplies.
Jan 2006 -- Insurgents blow up at least two pipelines feeding the
main oil
pumping station in Kirkuk, halting exports from the north that had only
just
resumed.
Dec 2005-Jan 2006 -- Shipments of Basra Light from the Gulf drop to
their
lowest level since 2003 at 1.1 million bpd due to bad weather and
logistical
problems.
Oct 2005 -- Four blasts hit a main gathering centre for at least four
fields that feed the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, halting northern oil
exports.
Oct 2004 -- Jordanian militant Zarqawi threatens to attack foreign
trucks
carrying imports of oil products into Iraq.
Sep 2004 -- The obscure "Followers of Zarqawi Group" claims
responsibility
for an attack on Iraqi oil pipelines near Kirkuk that halt crude
exports to
Turkey.
June 2004 -- Saboteurs blow a hole in one of Iraq's southern oil
export
pipelines and disrupt shipments to world markets.
Apr 2004 -- Statement from Zarqawi claims responsibility for a foiled
suicide boat attack on Iraq's vital Basra oil terminal.
C 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc.
www.turkishdailynews.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746570/posts
F-18 just crashed near my home. Just east of the airfield. (Miramar)
Posted on 11/30/2006 12:44:17 PM PST by Pukin Dog
Pilot ejected, and has been located.
[Pilot safe, near San Diego.]
November 30, 2006 PM Anti-Terrorism News
MEMRI: Lebanon on the Brink of Civil War: Popular Street Actions To
Begin Tomorrow, December 1, At 3 PM Local (8 AM ET)
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD137306
Iranian Weapons Arm Iraqi Militia and Hezbollah Training Also Linked to
Iraq Violence; US evidence of Iranian support for Iraq terrorists -
brand-new weapons from Iranian factories
http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=2688501
(Iraq) Bush rejects idea of pullback; Maliki says Iraqis can take over
by June
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/30/news/bush.php
India: 30 Mumbai Attack Suspects Charged
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.364922049&par=0
(India) 7/11-like terror can hit Mumbai again
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai_may_encounter_more_711-like_terror_attacks_Police/articleshow/660415.cms
(Somalia) At least 12 killed in suicide car bomb blasts
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20852341-401,00.html
Turkey holds 18 in Qaeda swoop during Pope visit: TV
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000045.html
Data on U.S. military's Iraqi operations leaked onto Internet -
Privately owned personal computer loaded with file sharing software
responsible
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/30/D8LNDQ3G0.html
NY court says ferry passengers can be searched to deter terrorism
http://www.silive.com/newsflash/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1164918643205760.xml&storylist=simetro
Commentary: What is a 'moderate' Muslim? - Irshad Manjii
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2476832_1,00.html
Democrats Reject Key 9/11 Panel Suggestion - Neither Party Has an
Appetite for Overhauling Congressional Oversight of Intelligence
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901317.html
Related News:
Saddam's forces filled mass graves with children
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/wl_mideast_afp/iraqtrialsaddam_061130131130
Spanish school cancels Christmas - so as to not offend Muslims
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?storyid=2006-11-29T171300Z_01_L29524422_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-CHRISTMAS-CANCELLED.XML&type=oddlyEnoughNews&WTmodLoc=Oddly+Enough-C3-More-2
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=%22Syria%22&ei=utf-8
1. Bush tells Abdullah time not ripe for dialogue with Syria Open this result in new window
AFP via Yahoo! News - Nov 29 4:38 PM
US President George W. Bush told King Abdullah II of Jordan the time was not ripe for dialogue with Syria, which would only see encouragement for its interference in Lebanon, a White House official said here.
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2. Talks with Syria would be akin to approval - Bush Open this result in new window
The Daily Star Lebannon - 2 hours, 48 minutes ago
US President George W. Bush told King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday the time was not ripe for dialogue with Syria, which would only see encouragement for its interference in Lebanon, a White House official said here. The king told the president during a dinner at Amman's Raghadan Palace that a solution to the Palestinian problem.
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3. Iran, Syria review regional developments Open this result in new window
Islamic Republic News Agency - Nov 30 7:41 AM
Iran - Syria -Regional developments Iran's Ambassador to Damascus Mohammad Hassan Akhtari conferred with the Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara on issues of mutual concerns.
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4. Iran, Syria agree to connect power networks via Iraq, Turkey Open this result in new window
Payvand Iran News - Nov 30 7:22 AM
Iran and Syria on Wednesday reached an agreement to connect their electricity networks via Turkey and Iraq, Iran Energy Minister said. -MNA
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5. German foreign minister may include Syria in tour Open this result in new window
AlertNet - Nov 30 5:18 AM
Source: Reuters BERLIN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier may visit Syria during a four-day visit to the Middle East to prepare for the country's EU presidency which starts in January ...
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6. What Iran & Syria Want Open this result in new window
RealClearPolitics.com via Yahoo! News - Nov 29 6:02 AM
On Thursday, President Bush will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in Jordan. The vast majority of the meeting will undoubtedly focus on the challenges of controlling the sectarian violence in Iraq and achieving national reconciliation, but the President should also get a thorough debriefing on Iraq's recent dealings with Iran and Syria.
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7. France, U.S. agree useless to talk to Syria: Chirac Open this result in new window
Reuters via Yahoo! News - Nov 29 5:23 AM
France and the United States agree there is no point in talking to Syria because the conditions for an honest dialogue do not exist, President Jacques Chirac said on Wednesday.
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8. More Iraqi Refugees Escape to Syria Open this result in new window
ABC News - Nov 29 11:26 AM
Thousands More Iraqi Refugees Escape Daily to Syria, Fleeing Violence for Precarious Existence
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9. Assad: Syria to Challenge U.S. Efforts Open this result in new window
Los Angeles Times - Nov 29 8:43 AM
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said Wednesday his country will continue to challenge U.S. efforts to exert control over the Middle East, sounding a defiant tone ahead of President Bush's arrival in the region for talks on Iraq.
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10. Time not ripe for dialogue with Syria, Bush tells Abdullah Open this result in new window
Khaleej Times - Nov 29 7:09 PM
AMMAN - US President George W. Bush told King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday the time was not ripe for dialogue with Syria, which would only see encouragement for its interference in Lebanon, a White House official said here.
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http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
Terror of the world, collection of blogs and news.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10694
This is a MUST READ, on Hezbollah in Latin America.
Interesting opinion on Putin and Russia.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10691
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/rss/16134135.htm
Government computers quietly rate millions of travelers for terrorism
potential
WASHINGTON (AP) - For the past four years, without public notice,
federal
agents have assigned millions of Americans and other international
travelers
computer-generated scores assessing the risk they pose of being
terrorists
or criminals.
The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk
assessments. And the government intends to keep them on file for 40
years.
Earlier in November, the government disclosed the existence and details
of
the Automated Targeting System (ATS) for the first time in the Federal
Register. Privacy and civil liberties lawyers, congressional aides and
even
law enforcement officers said they thought the ATS had been applied
only to
cargo.
The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States
after computers assess their travel records, including where they are
from,
how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way
travel,
seating preference and what kind of meals they ordered.
The Homeland Security Department notice called it ``one of the most
advanced
targeting systems in the world'' and said U.S. ability to spot
criminals and
other security threats ``would be critically impaired without access to
this
data.''
Still, privacy advocates view ATS with alarm. ``It's probably the most
invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number
of
people affected,'' David Sobel, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a civil liberties group devoted to electronic data issues,
said
in an interview.
A similar DHS data-mining project for domestic air travelers -- now
known as
Secure Flight -- caused a furor two years ago in Congress, which has
barred
its implementation until it can pass 10 tests for accuracy and privacy
protection.
[unknown url]
Brazil to boost security at Rio's airport after attack on British
tourists
A restricted arrival zone will be set up later this week at the Rio De Janeiro international airport in efforts to protect tourists after
Sunday's
robbery of a busload of British travelers, the airport authorities
announced
on Tuesday.
Infraero, a Brazilian state-owned company that runs 68 airports
including
the above one, said only firms that can present credentials provided by
the
Infraero will be granted the access to the zone. Taxi drivers, bus
drivers
and tourist guides will have to apply for such a permission. Otherwise
they
will not be allowed to pick up passengers at the airport.
The measure aimed to provide more safety to tourists coming to Brazil,
said
Pedro Azambuja, Infraero's regional superintendent.
Several attacks on tourists buses coming from the airport here have
taken
place this year.
Criminals usually chose targets at the airport and shadowed them while
communicating with their accomplices who monitor highways, said the
police.
Once the criminals found there were no policemen around, they robbed
their
victims.
That was what exactly happened to 18 British tourists, who were
assaulted
Sunday dawn shortly after their arrival.
Their bus was forced to pull over on the highway by a utility vehicle
with
three armed men aboard, who robbed the tourists and ran away.
Famous for its annual Carnival bash, its sandy beaches and verdant
mountains, Rio has long been Brazil's most popular tourist destination,
but
it also has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Source: Xinhua