http://citypages.com/databank/28/1394/article15776.asp
Everything We Know
About Security Is Wrong
So says counterterrorism contrarian Bruce Schneier.
And the transportation security administration is listening.
New UK PR Policy on Terrorists (back)
August 20, 2007
After the terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow almost two months ago, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared that his country had sustained attacks from criminals, not terrorists.
David Rieff points out in his New York Times Magazine article titled ‘Policing Terrorism’ (July 22, 2007) that Brown told his ministers not to use the phrase ‘war on terror’ and not to use the word ‘Muslim’ when describing these criminals acts. Brown’s Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said, ‘Terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions.’
It is fairly clear that Brown’s and Smith’s goal is to send a message to British Muslims that they should not feel as if they are going to be victims of a backlash from either British security forces or people.
This is a smart move, especially since England has had to deal with homegrown terrorists that live in the same cities and neighborhoods they attack. Former PM Tony Blair’s stance was more ‘divisive, threatening social peace between communities in Britain,’ in the word of Rieff. Making British Muslims feel comfortable in English society, thus less prone to extremism and more likely to help security officials, is smart but Brown’s message is still damaging and counter-productive.
Brown’s mistake was calling terrorists criminals. This is misleading to the public and incorrect. Security agencies and their governments should not treat terrorist like criminals and should not react to terrorist attacks as they would to a criminal act.
Racist ‘hate crimes’ are treated differently in many countries, even with different detectives and task forces than regular police units, because the ideology that fuels these crimes is different than regular criminal activity. Terrorism too should be treated like a hate crime, that is, differently.
One of the main differences between criminals and terrorists is how each group operates.
Criminals are opportunists. They will strike when they see fit for their own benefit, and when they feel they won’t get caught. Terrorists will attack whenever this is a target. They also do not care if they are caught, especially if they are of the suicidal variety.
In addition, and possibly more important, the ideologies behind criminal and terrorist behavior are completely different and must be not treated the same way.
One does not steal because they fundamentally believe that things must be stolen. Drug cartels do not supply the world with illegal substances because they believe wholeheartedly in drug consumption. Criminals steal, deal drugs, and commit crimes because they want to benefit themselves.
Terrorists on the other hand, kill because they believe the murder of their enemies advances their cause, even if their own personal benefit is diminished.
Brown, of course, is not the only politician to make the mistake of diminishing or misrepresenting the threat of terrorism.
John Edwards made this mistake when he claimed that the war on terror was nothing more than a ‘bumper sticker slogan.’ Although this was also a political tactic it was still damaging to how the West could perceive this war, which is real both in rhetoric and in practice.
Fortunately, Edwards was criticized for his remarks and was not supported in those comments even by Democrats.
Brown’s comments on the other hand were much more tactful. Rieff was in agreement with Brown’s description of terrorism. In fact, the name of his article ‘Policing Terrorism’ should give hints to how Rieff feels about Brown’s reaction to terrorists.
What is more troubling is that since Brown was not nearly as blunt as Edwards was, his comments could signal a change in how many British perceive the attacks against them and the reason for the attacks against London and Glasgow (and anywhere else in the world) will not be properly understood.
When the motive is not understood our ability to confront terrorism is reduced. The evil that terrorists spew and the belief of radical Muslims that they will raise the banner of Islam over the White House and 10 Downing Street will be ignored because Brown, Smith and many others are equating bombs with bums, and terrorists with criminals.
The motives and ideology of terrorists are vastly different than those of criminals and we must understand this vital point if we want to win the war against terror.
Source: www.israelforum.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=13054
Censored Articles from the ‘Middle East Times’ in Egypt (back)
August 22, 2007
Throughout its 20-year publishing life in Egypt, the Middle East Times newspaper had never been given a license to publish and Egyptian law gave the Ministry of Information the right to arbitrarily ban any newspaper printed outside Egypt from entering the country.
The censor reviewed all of our issues upon arrival at the airport before allowing them to be distributed. We censored ourselves, but sometimes we pushed the limits and lost several issues every year.
This was bad for sales and advertising revenue. Over time we developed new systems. One was an agreement to submit a proof of each issue to the censor in advance. If they didn’t like an article, or a paragraph, or a sentence, we took it out and left a space. There we printed the words, ‘We apologize that we were unable to print in this space.’
In no time, the censor told us we were not allowed to mention in this space the reason it was there.
This did not look good either for us or for them.
So, finally we agreed to submit all text for scrutiny before printing. Deleted sections were replaced with text or filled with an illustration or picture.
The print publication was suspended by us in 2003.
Reasons for Censorship
Report on human rights abuses:
* Criticize the president or his family
* Criticize the military
* Refer to any ill-treatment of Egyptians in ‘friendly’ Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.
* Discuss modern, unorthodox interpretations of Islam.
* Report on discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt.
* However, the censor was very arbitrary — sometimes these things went through, sometimes they didn’t.
What Did They Censor?
Here is a selection of some stories that the Egyptian authorities censored:
* An Embarrassment in Exile
* Book ban exposes Azhar censorship
* Boycott US, then boycott Mubarak
* Brothers backtrack on gizia
* Bulls-eye say Egyptians as they celebrate anti-US attacks
* Cairo’s ‘Jack the Ripper’ terrifies women
* Call-girl ring for the rich and famous
* Can international courts curb abuses in Egypt?
* Cash gist
* Controversy swirls around Egypt’s early Islamic history
* Copt contests hotel dismissal
* Copts crusade to bring back converted girls
* Copts pay protection money to fundamentalists
* Deported Egyptians ‘faced abuse’
* Detainee families lose hope
* Does Egypt want nuclear weapons?
* Don’t participate in killing and torture of our people
* Economic woes embolden opposition
* Egypt marks 15 years of Mubarak
* Egyptian journalists hospitalized
* Egyptians celebrate an American Catastrophe
* Egyptians rejoicing
* Economic woes embolden opposition
* Enraged Copts riot over sexual expose of defrocked monk
* Freedom of speech under attack
* Fundamentalists demand Mafia-style protection money from Copts
* Gay Muslims come out in San Francisco parade
* Gihad celebrates 6 October
* Hiding themselves in the crowd
* In search of what went wrong
* Italians swarm into Western Desert for military exercises
* Jordanian chairman turns on his paper
* Journalists group protest expulsion of MET publisher
* Madonna draws recruits to the Kabbalah
* Militants celebrate ‘eid’ with church attack
* [Nothing] Censored this week…
* Orientalism, anyone?
* Out to catch the street
* Police uncover call-girl ring
* Protestors condemn prison torture
* Report logs ‘wide abuse’ of human rights in Egypt
* Sleeping Rough on the Streets of Cairo
* Sleeping rough on the streets of Cairo
* Students rally in support of an ‘Islamic alliance’
* Stop teasing us, say Egyptians
* Thanks a lot, Mr. President - but that’s illegal
* The tragedy of administrative detention
* Torture frequent and widespread in Egypt
* Torture victim’s wife calls for justice
* US government facilities in Egypt partially suspended
* With friends like Egypt…
Source: www.metimes.com/censored/
[2006 ‘The Plan’
ISLAM
Thinking About the Resurgence of Muslim Aggression (back)
October 9, 2006
by Col. Gerry Hickman
Islam began in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. From the outset, the religion was spread by military force. Aggression was justified as a holy war, or jihad, that the Muslims believed sanctified by God.
Although conversion to Islam was by force, some conquered peoples not only accepted Islam but also joined in its mission. Most notable perhaps were the Ottoman Turks.
The rise of Islam occurred at what was for its followers a propitious time. Byzantium, the last outpost of Roman rule, was in final collapse. When Constantinople fell to the Turks, few other states or rulers were strong enough to resist the Muslim tide.
Yet, a fragmented Europe fought valiantly. When Muslim aggression finally was halted at the gates of Vienna, and restricted to the Iberian Peninsula, its vigor was dissipated. For many centuries, Western Civilization would be safe.
Stopped in Europe, Islam moved on to conquer large parts of Asia. Today, centuries after the first Muslim horsemen brought war to the Middle East, Islam dominates countries from Africa’s west coast to the eastern tip of Indonesia.
Reportedly, some 1.5 billion people subscribe to the Islamic faith.
Obey the Sharia
In countries controlled by Islam, nonbelievers must bow to Islamic dominion. All must obey the Sharia, i.e., Islamic laws drawn from the Koran and interpreted by Islamic priests. The culture created under the Sharia disapproves of thought and progress not sanctioned by the priesthood.
Possibly it is this development more than any others that accounts for the widespread impoverishment of Muslim countries. Islamic intellectuals deny it, while blaming the problems of its peoples on Europe and America, i.e., the West.
During the past century Islamic intellectuals, principally clerics, began preaching a Muslim resurgence, calling for a reawakening of Muslim militancy and resumption of Islam’s ancient holy war.
Perhaps to make their goal more acceptable, the activists asked Islamic populations, ‘If Allah intends an earthly paradise for his followers, why is it that the world’s most prosperous peoples are those of the corrupt West?’
For the 0Islamic man, the question was answered in no uncertain terms. Western countries, particularly America, it was said kept the Muslim man and his family poor, and caused all his problems.
While the material progress of the West was frustrating to Muslim intellectuals, far more infuriating to them was the growing influence within Islamic society of Western values. Rightly, they foresaw that liberalizing philosophies would weaken Islam.
The original solution offered in rising Islamic thought was to sternly reinforce Shariah law within Muslim countries, while driving Westerners out of them. Such thinking led directly to the spread of radical Islamic teaching.
Today, aggressive Muslim resurgence continues to be fueled by radical Islamic thought, promulgated throughout much of the huge Muslim community. In practice, such thinking has already resulted in the Iranian Revolution, the Taliban, and among other violent groups, al Qaeda.
War Between Civilizations
Thus was born what Harvard University professor Samuel Huntington has called ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ The liberal Western Civilization and the Shariah of Islamic Civilization are perhaps so different as to make their clash inevitable.
In her book, Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror, Mary Harbeck of Johns Hopkins University, writes of current Islamic intellectuals:
‘…all assume that Muslims have a duty to spread the dominion of Islam, through military offensives, until it rules the world…’
Harbeck notes that Azzam, perhaps foremost among modern Islamic activists, believes that ‘The jihadist is obliged to perform with all available capabilities until there remain only Muslims or people who submit to Islam’.
Presumably, ‘all available capabilities’ is supposed to justify the premeditated murder of women, children, and indeed anyone who does not subscribe to Islam.
It would seem then, that the nineteenth-century goals of reinforcing the Shariah within Islamic countries, while expelling Westerners from them, have morphed into a much larger objective.
In the event, the resurgence of Muslim aggression, asleep for centuries, is now fully awake and on the move. Hugely funded, already in control of Iran, and believing that they are doing what God wants them to do, those who invoke jihadism probably cannot be stopped by military force alone.
Yet a united West, relying at the least on its diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military strengths should be able to once again contain the jihadist movement. Every possible tool will be needed because religious revolutions have throughout history been hard to stop. At stake are Western Civilization and the continued evolution of mankind.
Scoffing at Warnings
While many scoff at such warnings, one need only refer to the Muslim activist question, ‘If Allah intends an earthly paradise for his followers, why is it that the world’s most prosperous peoples are those of the corrupt West?’
The question implies correctly that Muslims, once the world’s foremost astronomers, mathematicians, and scientists, are now among the world’s most intellectually starved and impoverished peoples. Conquest of the West and establishment of Shariah would surely halt progress not sanctioned by the jihadists.
Western peoples are only gradually awakening to the threat posed by the resurgence of Muslim aggression. The best-selling book in Denmark today, written by two of the nation’s leading progressive intellectuals, almost stridently issues a wake-up call. Yet, only vicariously have most people now benefiting from the philosophies of Western Civilization known war. Nor have most known poverty.
Having grown up in affluent societies based on liberalizing philosophies, it is perhaps hard for Westerners to grasp their growing peril.
Too often Americans, as well as Europeans, dispute with each other about parts of the developing struggle. Lost in the contention is the broader need of the West to find ways to stop the Islamic jihad before it has the capability of truly mass destruction.
Even now, Iranian jihadists are reportedly working feverishly to create a nuclear weapon. Compared to the explosion of a nuclear bomb, even the al Qaeda attack on New York would be found exceedingly minor.
Strategic and Tactical: Understanding the Difference
Thus it is that when Americans urge a speedy U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, they display purely tactical thinking. Either willingly or unwillingly, they fail to see the conflict in Iraq for what it actually is —only part of a much broader war.
‘A profound ability to think small’ is an old saying that describes those who can only see the tactical elements of any wider, strategic struggle.
A profound ability to court disaster might be a better way to put it.
Although difficult to achieve in an environment of political discord, more Americans and Europeans must learn to focus on the overall ‘War on Terror’. Failure to do so could trigger bad consequences —untoward events that are probably still preventable.
By keeping a larger view always in mind, Westerners might be less distracted by events in Iraq, or other single pieces of a much broader struggle. Learning to think in strategic terms could help the West unite against the serious peril that now threatens it.
Perhaps in time the big picture will materialize for most Americans. Within it, Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, Iraq, President Bush, the Taliban, liberals, conservatives, and other individuals and entities are but pieces. Altering a tactical element of the big picture, such as withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, might somehow benefit the enemy but will not alter his goals.
While early removal of U.S. power from Iraq might encourage and even embolden the enemy, its strategy as attributed to Azzam will remain unchanged.
It is enemy strategy that the West must defeat. To achieve victory, a Western strategy with a clear goal must be developed.
Seemingly, the goal should be to protect Western Civilization –a goal so sweeping in scope that it might be difficult for some to countenance.
Identifying the Enemy
Opposing Western Civilization is at the least a violent, ruthless, and determined segment of the Muslim world. No meaningful reports about its actually size within Islam apparently exist. Claims that only a small percentage of Muslims are involved in what they call a holy war must therefore be discounted or at least seriously questioned.
Western strategy must take into account that the size and strength of the Muslim force might be larger than current speculation suggests. The strategy should also address the proper way to identify the enemy.
While our adversaries indeed commit terroristic acts, simplistic labeling of a readily identifiable enemy as ‘terrorists’ obscures the true nature of the enemy and makes understanding of the broader war extremely difficult.
As an early step in helping Westerners to think of the war in strategic terms, the governments should abandon the meaningless term ‘War on Terror’. Confusing at best and meaningless at worst, the term was apparently coined to appease the supposed large majority of Muslims opposed to the allegedly few radicals among them.
Whether or not Western governments are willing to admit it publicly, the fact remains that the Western world is engaged in a great religious conflict that could grow into a significantly larger worldwide struggle. Muslims constitute the enemy force that the West must somehow dismember. Perhaps not all Muslims are involved in the struggle, as Western political and other thought leaders proclaim, but the enemy force is indisputably Muslim.
Rather than calling the struggle a ‘War on Terror’, Western governments might better call the conflict what it is: Defense Against Muslim Aggression. No doubt this would instigate protests from supposedly peaceful Muslims, but their remarks should be measured against the value of helping Americans and Europeans to focus on the threat.
Some Muslims have proclaimed a ‘holy war’, and correctly reject the idea that they are merely nihilistic terrorists. The sooner the West comes to accept this self-proclaimed, true nature of its adversaries, as well as the broader context of the struggle thrust upon it, the better its nations can equip themselves –politically, economically, socially, and militarily —to contain it.
Western Civilization is the ultimate target of Islamic jihadism. As a foremost beneficiary of Western culture, America is identified by Muslims, whether peace loving or not, as the epitome of all that their customs proscribe. The aggressors have openly declared war on America, with the avowed intention of destroying its culture and converting its people to their Islamic forms.
Meanwhile, because Muslim aggressors expect Europe to be easier than America to overcome, it is expected by Islamic intellectuals to be the first part of the West to capitulate. Inroads there are being made, and the anticipated appeasement is being achieved.
The Muslim Strategy
While I have not seen a Muslim strategy enunciated, it clearly involves several discernible aspects. The ultimate goal, the spread of Islam, appeals to all members of the faith –whether or not they are radicals. The idea of converting hopelessly corrupt societies to Islam is universally seen as worthwhile.
What the allegedly peaceful Muslims fail to recognize is that the jihadists intend not only to spread Islam, but also to purify it from within according to the Shariah.
States that embrace Islam but not Islamic jihadism might suffer severe penalties.
Recognizing that the list is incomplete, following are several identifiable elements of Muslim aggressor strategy:
1) Patience. Some Muslim religious leaders talk of a war to the death that might take more than a century.
(Whether or not the U.S. withdraws soon from Iraq must seem fairly inconsequential to an enemy strategist who thinks in terms of decades. The withdrawal might help, hinder, or have no effect on the aggressor, but would not in the event be viewed as an end to his holy war.)
2) Teach virulent radicalism in Muslim schools and mosques by arousing and nurturing abiding hatred of America, Europe, and indeed Western Civilization.
(Saudi Arabia reportedly has not lived up to its commitment to suppress such instruction. Other nations, such as Iran, never made such promises.)
3) Teach young Muslims that the murder of non-believers as well as the sacrifice of their lives guarantees their entry into paradise.
(Again, Muslim countries reportedly are not taking steps to curb such preaching.)
4) Assure relatives of those thus sacrificed that they will be compensated.
(Both Saudi Arabia —and formerly Iraq— reportedly pay or have paid families of suicide bombers as much as $25,000 in honor of their sacrificed children.)
5) Recruit, train, and heighten the indoctrination of young Muslims to murder, destroy, and intimidate.
(This element of Muslim aggressor strategy is apparently spreading. Young Muslims born in Britain, for instance, committed murder by bombing subways.)
6) Without apology, seek every opportunity to kill all who do not subscribe to the radical beliefs of the Muslim aggressors. While the main target will always be Western Civilization, Muslims who fail to support the radicals are also targeted.
(Through such intimidation, the Muslim aggressors earn at least passive acceptance of other Muslims.)
7) Develop both willing supporters and unwilling supporters among Muslim and other peoples, thereby creating an obscure and supportive sea in which the jihadist might swim until sufficiently strong to abandon secrecy..
(The quiet takeover of Lebanon by radical Muslims while the Lebanese either offered aid or passive non-resistance is an example.)
8) Encourage Muslim immigration into Western countries, many of whose native populations are shrinking due to declining birth rates, thereby forming separate and rapidly growing cultural enclaves and developing the ability to turn Western liberal philosophy to gains for Islam.
(The influx of Muslims into Europe and America is large, and ongoing. Some reports claim more than eight million Muslims now live in the United States. Western failure to appreciate the danger of this element of Muslim aggressor strategy could result in increasing numbers of killings by homegrown Muslim jihadists. London subway bombings and the plot to destroy 10 U.S. airliners by English born and raised Muslims are examples. )
7) Rely on the Western news media to serve its propaganda aims.
(The news media reportage of fighting in Iraq has focused largely on casualties without accounts of Allied military achievements and heroism. Such day-by-day reports have gradually discouraged many Americans and Europeans and obscured the true nature of the enemy.)
8) Use the Western news media as a source of intelligence.
(Revelations of previously secret U.S. efforts to counter funding, communications, and other radical Muslim activities allow the jihadist aggressor to reduce losses and shift tactics.)
9) Use the West’s own liberality against it.
(Capitalize on liberal ideals –ideals that Muslim aggressors consider corrupting influences— to create confusion among Western peoples. Example: Inspire efforts to extend to Muslim aggressors captured by Western forces all conceivable Constitutional rights enjoyed by Americans and Europeans in their own countries.)
10) Intimidate Western leaders into appeasement.
(According to the Paris edition of the New York Herald-Tribune, the European Union announced that it will ‘investigate’ European banks that have helped the U.S. track the flow of funds to Muslim aggressors.)
11) Continuously push non-radical Muslims to become radical.
Understanding Enemy Organization
For centuries, discernible hierarchies have led Western peoples. Chains of command have existed whether in kingdoms, empires, or republics. Yet there is no such hierarchy within the Islamic jihadist movement.
Instead, both nation states and lesser groups, some of which are exceedingly small, independently plan and conduct Muslim aggression. Inspiration for the formation of aggressor cells, each operating on its own but often supported by established jihadist entities, is apparently spread by roving clerics. The United Kingdom recently expelled one such priest, but the task is made difficult by the Western belief in freedom of religion.
As shown by the London subway bombings, the operations of a homegrown aggressor cell might also be at least partially planned by other Muslim radicals, but the British cell was independent.
That the cell was part of modern Muslim aggression is indisputable, but the fact is that no chain-of-command issued orders to it. Even the roving clerics who convince young Muslims become jihadists seemingly operate independently.
What Aggressor Strategy Seems to Envision
Through intimidation wrought by cold-blooded murder in both Muslim and Western countries, the Muslim strategist seems to envision ever increasing numbers of willing supporters among Muslims, growing numbers of Western converts to Islam, and increasing civil discord throughout the West.
By the time the West awakens to his overall strategy, the aggressor strategist must anticipate that Islamic countries will already by purified by the stern enforcement of Shariah. Assuming that the West at last responds meaningfully, a battle to the death between the clashing civilizations would then occur.
Islamic intellectuals, the true Muslim strategists, believe Western Civilization is so corrupt that it is incapable of defending itself against a determined Islam. They believe that Muslim forces will take control of Western countries. Those Westerners who refuse to convert to or else bow to Shariah law will be killed.
With the West conquered, the rest of the world would then be targeted.
Note that since it was not America who declared war on Muslim aggressors, we Americans cannot of ourselves now declare the conflict ended. The war will end only after Muslim jihadism has been thoroughly discredited in the community of 1.5 billion believers, and recalcitrant jihadists have been defeated.
An end to the conflict might take a long time. Radical Islamists have stated that the war might last 100 years or more.
Although the U.S. Government, news media, and Western intellectuals tell us repeatedly that the majority of the Muslim religion’s huge membership is peace loving, careful examination of the larger picture reveals that within those populations at least some of the apparent jihadist strategy is working. There appear to be insignificant numbers of Muslims who actively oppose the radicals.
The heart of Muslim aggressor resurgence seems to lie in Saudi Arabia and Iran. While the Saudi government has forcibly restrained Muslim attacks, it reportedly continues to tolerate the schools that might be central to the entire jihadist movement. Meanwhile, Iran openly ignores appeals to halt nuclear weapons production, and reportedly has supported aggressor operations in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq.
Iraq
In the West, despite a beginning awareness of the broader problem, most of the focus remains on Iraq. Lightning rods of contention are the president of the United States and the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Given the threat of broader Islamic jihad, it seems pointless to castigate either a sitting U.S. president or a British prime minister. While it is possible that different leaders might more effectively combat the jihadist movement, any administration will face a far broader conflict than that now occurring in Iraq. Whether under the leadership of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, or others, the West should unite against a graver peril than any posed by Iraqis alone.
Until the West acknowledges the real nature of Islamic resurgence and the war that it pursues, Western leaders will probably appear uniformly weak, indecisive, or worse.
One discernible aspect of Western strategy is that of creating democracies in Islamic countries presently under totalitarian forms of government. Ultimate goal of Western strategists is to get help from governments based on the Western model of popular rule.
While this approach has appeal in parts of the West, and might eventually be helpful in suppressing the jihadist movement, in light of events it to be somewhat forlorn. Free elections were achieved in both Iraq and Palestine.
Violence in Iraq continues despite a massive turnout on its election day. And some ask, ‘What good did it do to democratize Palestine only to have Hamas elected overwhelmingly?’
Perhaps what America and its allies should recognize that above all the jihadist movement must be discredited and contained. To achieve that purpose America and European countries might be forced to work with totalitarian governments rather than seeking to overthrow them.
Defeating the modern Muslim aggressor is where the vital interest of America and its European allies lie. The West might have little choice in choosing partners to help protect the mutual vital interests of both.
Sense of Urgency
The West it would seem must soon develop a sense of urgency. It cannot long continue to dither. The enemy is identifiable, as is his goal. To reach it, the Muslim jihadist movement has shown itself capable of the most abhorrent acts. Now, it stands at the threshold of achieving incalculable destruction.
Iran we are told may soon have a nuclear bomb. Western leaders plead with the Iranians to stop development of the weapon, yet development seemingly continues apace.
Those who would withdraw our forces from Iraq now must overlook or else ignore Iranian nuclear developments. Should the West eventually be forced to use military power to stop Iran, would it not be tactically advantageous to have bases and lines of communication operating in the country next door?
Overlooked in most reporting is the danger of Pakistan falling into the control of Muslim aggressors. What Americans and Europeans should not forget is that Pakistan already has nuclear weapons, and a sizeable population of radical Moslems.
Should Muslim jihadists come to power in Pakistan, the nuclear problem there would immediately become even more serious than that posed by Iran.
Just as its ancient predecessors, the modern Islamic jihadist movement seeks to rebuild the Muslim world in its own image, destroy Western Civilization, and eventually convert the remaining people of the world. The movement has developed a clearly perceptible strategy designed to achieve its ultimate goal.
In the meantime, our European friends and we Americans appear to be weak and indecisive. Measured against the broader threat, attacks on the sitting U.S. president and British prime minister are at best simply expressions of frustration. Changing Western leaders might lead to greater effectiveness in combating the resurgence of jihadism, but will hardly change its goal.
Appeasement of Muslims by the West is foolish. Those who have historically sought to appease their enemy have found themselves only encouraging further aggression. Like the men trapped by crocodiles, the strategy of the appeaser is to be the last one eaten.
Having identified the enemy and examined his strategy while reviewing the Western response, one might shudder at thoughts of the future. Yet, there is still time for the beneficiaries of Western Civilization to unite, bring all possible resources to bear, and once again contain ages-old Muslim expansionism.
Source: http://www.americandaily.com/article/15962
[Maybe google will find the free article versions]
E-Library on Islamic Econ & Finance (back)
August 22, 2007
Please be advised that the there is a paid memebership when it comes to reading some of the articles on this site. Below are a few articles from the E-Library on Islamic Econ & Finance that are readable to the public.
* An Economic Explication of the Prohibition of Riba in Classical Islamic Jurisprudence. - Mahmoud El-Gamal
* Islamic Banking in Australia -Nidaul Islam
* No-Interest-Financing-Concepts for Islamic and Capitalist Cyber-City-Clusters by Michael Schreiber
* Can Islamic Banking Survive? A Micro-Evolutionary Perspective - Mahmoud El-Gamal
* The Design of Instruments for Government Finance in an Islamic Economy - Nadeem Ul Haque and Abbas Mirakhor (IMF Working Paper)
Source: http://islamic-finance.net/elief.html
August 23, 2007 Anti-Terrorism News
(U.S.) Foreign aid groups face terror screens that receive U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) funds — U.S. to require information on key personnel for secret screening program
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20402964/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294215,00.html
(Iraq) 32 killed, 15 kidnapped in Al Qaeda fighting with rival Sunni Arab militants (my title) — Al Qaeda kidnapped 15 Iraqi women and children — Diyala villages of Tamim and Ibrahim Yehia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/iraq_dc_68;_ylt=Ak.7oxfE984NC_.VJwx.EjVX6GMA
(Iraq) Sunni village attacked, leader killed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070822203352;_ylt=AiEZMF6VDMwl58I30hwh11xX6GMA
(Iraq) Wednesday truck bomb death toll rises to 27 - attack on police station (my title)http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22292847-663,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22292847-663,00.html
(Iraq) US suffers 34 casualities in Iraq in one day
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=1013809
(Iraq) ‘Chemical Ali’ back in Iraq court over Shiite repression
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/iraqtrialshiitesopen_070823082956;_ylt=Agfn1l3HzAUpQTVvaEmCU99X6GMA
(Iraq) US general blames Britain for Basra crisis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/23/wkeane123.xml
(Afghanistan) Taliban ambush leaves 10 Afghan guards dead
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/asia/AS-GEN-Afghanistan.php
(Afghanistan) Bombers target Afghan police chief - in the Helmand town of Gereshk
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan_070822233829;_ylt=AvSX1gwQUIMwrn6LdqrW6rPOVooA
(Afghanistan) German hostage in Afghanistan appears in video
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/afghan_hostages_dc_2;_ylt=AnZgQF3bzOUzrdHapLD1xjnOVooA
(Afghanistan) Bomb kills 2 Canadians in Afghanistan — Zhari district of southern Kandahar province - on Wednesday
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_as/afghan_canadian_soldiers_1;_ylt=Aj0yqWM79GCHETZ52eC2oMXOVooA
(Afghanistan) Al-Qaeda teach kids, 6, to kill
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007390138,00.html
(Pakistan) Pro-Taliban militants attack Pakistani camp - dozen soldiers wounded
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistanunrest_070823094101;_ylt=ApqM8Hl9uBAP2VXTTJrlSr_zPukA
(Pakistan) Group clash leaves six dead in Pakistan — at a peace jirga in Zargari in Hangu district
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=9164d9ed-0d45-4fc8-848b-e8692227d534&&Headline=Group+clash+leaves+six+dead+in+Pakistan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\23\story_23-8-2007_pg7_6
(Pakistan) Five terrorists arrested in Islamabad
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#11
(Pakistan) Ex-Taliban commander killed in Balochistan
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#7
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\23\story_23-8-2007_pg7_20
Pakistani militants are released from jail — dozens of suspected Islamic militants have been released from prison without trial
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2310632.ece
(Pakistan) NGOs stopped from working in Swat — threatening letters from suspected militants
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\23\story_23-8-2007_pg1_9
(Pakistan) Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs blasts pro-US foreign policy - blames Jewish people for 9/11 attacks, and cites Qu’ran as basis for enmity against other religions
http://www.dawn.com/2007/08/22/top6.htm
(Indian Kashmir) Militants attack para-military post in Jammu and Kashmir
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#8
(Indian Kashmir) Policeman among two persons killed by militants in J&K
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Policeman_killed_by_militants_in_JK/articleshow/2303501.cms
(India Assam) Grenade hurled in Assam
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#9
Indian actor Sanjay Dutt freed on bail - convicted on weapons charge for 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_as/india_dutt_trial_9;_ylt=ArL0OKLm3H.liXOdC7DX2L1A7AkB
(India) Five persons supplying diesel to Sri Lankan LTTE arrested in Tamil Nadu
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#12
(U.S.) Feds want Oregon Islamic charity figure held — Pirouz Sedaghaty of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation
http://www.katu.com/news/local/9319852.html
(U.S.) Background on Al-Haramain Surveillance Hearing
http://www.zombietime.com/al-haramain_surveillance/
(U.S.) Islamic Charity in Michigan Wants Documents Seized in Courterterrorism Investigation Returned — Life for Relief and Development
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3514472
http://wbztv.com/nationalwire/MuslimCharityRaided/resources_news_html
(U.S.) Report: Two Michigan Muslim Charities Shut Down - Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO) and Mabarrat
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=435ccffd6f487a0859706c22db94a03c&from=rss
(U.S.) Report: Flying Imams drop suit against passengers, but not against flight attendants and captain
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017880.php
http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007/08/not-all-john-does-out-of-imams-sights.html
(U.S.) More Iraqis cross Southwest border seeking asylum
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_6684100
(U.S.) Bomb threat briefly shuts New York State highway
http://today.reuters.com/investing/FinanceArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-08-22T155703Z_01_N22444781_RTRIDST_0_NEWYORK-SECURITY.XML
Turkey charges two over plane hijacking
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/turkeyhijackcourt_070823072605;_ylt=Aoso2fklFH7RZB4IaMwMYDjtfLkA
Algeria: Al-Qaeda ‘apologizes’ for attack on ex-Islamist rebel leader Mustafa al-Kartali
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1229013058
Philippines: Security alert after blast injures 14 people
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1225949944
(Philippines) More residents flee Philippine fighting
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_afp/philippinesattacksunrestevacuees_070823032210;_ylt=AooSpqiEvp7j3dlRJURIf.pUKYUA
Lebanon army awaits news from militants on evacuation
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonunrest_070823084324;_ylt=AsIWba_Ob1ryxSiD80y12v7agGIB
(Lebanon) Two Lebanese soldiers die in battle with Islamists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/lebanon_fighting_dc_1;_ylt=AgtDRRaUAL5mkdpRCo.i.mXagGIB
Lebanon arrests 2 Palestinian suspects in bombing targeting UN mission
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779144151&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Hizbullah threatens to set up second gov’t if unity gov’t not formed
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3441014,00.html
Hizbullah Building Defensive Line North of Litani River
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132114
Iran Revolutionary Guards try to get around nuclear sanctions
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779139642&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Iranian dissident warns of US actions — by declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/August/middleeast_August252.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
(Iran) Lawyer: Iran detainee free, but has no passport
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779138742&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Poll: Palestinians prefer Fatah gov’t over Hamas-led cabinet
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896753.html
Israeli, Hamas forces clash inside Gaza
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/August/middleeast_August250.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
(Gaza) Three Qassam fighters injured in S. Gaza shelling
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=1013777
(Israel) 3 IDF troops lightly wounded in Nablus
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1187779139271&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Israel) Police break up Hamas, Islamic Movement meeting in Jerusalem
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896438.html
(Israel) In Two Months Terrorists Fire 300 Rockets into Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132125
(Israel) Kassam rocket lands near Sderot
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779137431&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel offers Palestinians control of Gaza-West Bank link in talks on deal
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Palestinians.php
(Israel) CNN Special Compares Yesha Jews to Muslim Terrorists — media watch dog states that CNN’s “God’s Warriors” compares the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria to Islamist terrorists
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132118
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=3&x_outlet=14&x_article=1354
USA Today Article on ISNA Leader — without mentioning that ISNA has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in Holy Land Foundation trial
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-20-mattson-islam_N.htm?csp=34#uslPageReturn
http://www.nysun.com/article/55778
Syrian Information Minister: The U.S. - A Viper-Like Fascist State; Teshreen: ‘U.S. Leaders Are Terrorists and Serial Killers’
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD169007
(UK) Britain frees assets eyed in jet plot — lifted financial sanctions against Shazad Khuram Ali, was suspect in transatlantic jet plot to attack USA
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_re_eu/britain_terrorism_finance_1;_ylt=Altm2jdcH3Iy0cJOChQE7DITv5UB
(UK) Britain ready to back down on asylum for its interpreters in Iraq
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2310532.ece
(UK) Britain to start terrorism survival course
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Britain_to_start_terrorism_survival_course/articleshow/2300951.cms
(UK) Scotland: Terror accused ‘saw bomber video’ — Mohammed Atif Siddique
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/6960285.stm
(UK) Scotland: Terror trial student was a model high school pupil, court is told
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1335972007
(UK) Scotland: Muslim warns of Scotland’s ‘home-grown’ terror threat
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1335502007
(Australia) Terror Suspect Jack Thomas allowed to travel interstate
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22295500-29277,00.html
Australian police slams Haneef’s lawyers
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Australian_police_slam_Haneefs_lawyers/articleshow/2302845.cms
(Australia) Haneef case must end, say Australian lawyers
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=007b3056-64ff-46a7-86a7-5114dfa59ff6indiandocsinukterrorplot_Special&&Headline=Haneef+case+must+end%2c+say+Australian+lawyers
Russian serviceman killed in attack in Ingushetia
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Restive-South.php
(Sudan) Darfur rebel faction threatens to pull out of peace talks over refugee camp raid
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/africa/ME-GEN-Sudan-Darfur-Rebel.php
(Morocco) Islamists test Morocco’s democracy limits in polls
http://africa.reuters.com/country/MA/news/usnL21814640.html
(Columbia) 5 Colombian farmers killed in FARC attack
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779137152&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Commentary: The Viral Spread of Explosive Technologies in the Land of Jihad
http://www.douglasfarah.com/article/238/the-viral-spread-of-explosive-technologies-in-the-land-of-jihad.com
Other News:
Italy: Protests against new mosque, Egypt’s treatment of Christian convert
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.1229012746
Iran: 24 hair salons closed in latest moral campaign
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1226660388
Malaysian paper apologizes for picture of Jesus holding cigarette — (no global protests or threats by Christians)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/asia/AS-REL-Malaysia-Jesus-Picture.php
Indian communists adamant about U.S. nuclear deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/india_nuclear_dc_1;_ylt=AkAasz0Q9WHZhKyVWxoBcAhA7AkB
(Germany) Support for Nazi ideas still haunts Germany, says gov’t minister
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896214.html
(U.S.) Foreign aid groups face terror screens that receive U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) funds —
U.S. to require information on key personnel for secret screening program
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20402964/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294215,00.html
(Iraq) 32 killed, 15 kidnapped in Al Qaeda fighting with rival Sunni Arab militants (my title) — Al Qaeda kidnapped 15 Iraqi women
and children — Diyala villages of Tamim and Ibrahim Yehia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/iraq_dc_68;_ylt=Ak.7oxfE984NC_.VJwx.EjVX6GMA
(Iraq) Sunni village attacked, leader killed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070822203352;_ylt=AiEZMF6VDMwl58I30hwh11xX6GMA
(Iraq) Wednesday truck bomb death toll rises to 27 - attack on police station (my title)
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22292847-663,00.html
(Iraq) US suffers 34 casualities in Iraq in one day
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=1013809
(Iraq) ‘Chemical Ali’ back in Iraq court over Shiite repression
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/iraqtrialshiitesopen_070823082956;_ylt=Agfn1l3HzAUpQTVvaEmCU99X6GMA
(Iraq) US general blames Britain for Basra crisis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/23/wkeane123.xml
(Afghanistan) Taliban ambush leaves 10 Afghan guards dead
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/asia/AS-GEN-Afghanistan.php
(Afghanistan) Bombers target Afghan police chief - in the Helmand town of Gereshk
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan_070822233829;_ylt=AvSX1gwQUIMwrn6LdqrW6rPOVooA
(Afghanistan) German hostage in Afghanistan appears in video
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/afghan_hostages_dc_2;_ylt=AnZgQF3bzOUzrdHapLD1xjnOVooA
(Afghanistan) Bomb kills 2 Canadians in Afghanistan — Zhari district of southern Kandahar province - on Wednesday
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_as/afghan_canadian_soldiers_1;_ylt=Aj0yqWM79GCHETZ52eC2oMXOVooA
(Afghanistan) Al-Qaeda teach kids, 6, to kill
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007390138,00.html
(Pakistan) Pro-Taliban militants attack Pakistani camp - dozen soldiers wounded
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistanunrest_070823094101;_ylt=ApqM8Hl9uBAP2VXTTJrlSr_zPukA
(Pakistan) Group clash leaves six dead in Pakistan — at a peace jirga in Zargari in Hangu district
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=9164d9ed-0d45-4fc8-848b-e8692227d534&&Headline=Group+clash+leaves+six+dead+in+Pakistan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\23\story_23-8-2007_pg7_6
(Pakistan) Five terrorists arrested in Islamabad
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#11
(Pakistan) Ex-Taliban commander killed in Balochistan
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#7
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\23\story_23-8-2007_pg7_20
Pakistani militants are released from jail — dozens of suspected Islamic militants have been released from prison without trial
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2310632.ece
(Pakistan) NGOs stopped from working in Swat — threatening letters from suspected militants
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\23\story_23-8-2007_pg1_9
(Pakistan) Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs blasts pro-US foreign policy - blames Jewish people for 9/11 attacks,
and cites Qu’ran as basis for enmity against other religions
http://www.dawn.com/2007/08/22/top6.htm
(Indian Kashmir) Militants attack para-military post in Jammu and Kashmir
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#8
(Indian Kashmir) Policeman among two persons killed by militants in J&K
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Policeman_killed_by_militants_in_JK/articleshow/2303501.cms
(India Assam) Grenade hurled in Assam
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#9
Indian actor Sanjay Dutt freed on bail - convicted on weapons charge for 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_as/india_dutt_trial_9;_ylt=ArL0OKLm3H.liXOdC7DX2L1A7AkB
(India) Five persons supplying diesel to Sri Lankan LTTE arrested in Tamil Nadu
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=8/23/2007#12
(U.S.) Feds want Oregon Islamic charity figure held — Pirouz Sedaghaty of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation
http://www.katu.com/news/local/9319852.html
(U.S.) Background on Al-Haramain Surveillance Hearing
http://www.zombietime.com/al-haramain_surveillance/
(U.S.) Islamic Charity in Michigan Wants Documents Seized in Courterterrorism Investigation Returned —
Life for Relief and Development
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3514472
http://wbztv.com/nationalwire/MuslimCharityRaided/resources_news_html
(U.S.) Report: Two Michigan Muslim Charities Shut Down - Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO) and Mabarrat
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=435ccffd6f487a0859706c22db94a03c&from=rss
(U.S.) Report: Flying Imams drop suit against passengers, but not against flight attendants and captain
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017880.php
http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007/08/not-all-john-does-out-of-imams-sights.html
(U.S.) More Iraqis cross Southwest border seeking asylum
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_6684100
(U.S.) Bomb threat briefly shuts New York State highway
http://today.reuters.com/investing/FinanceArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-08-22T155703Z_01_N22444781_RTRIDST_0_NEWYORK-SECURITY.XML
Turkey charges two over plane hijacking
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/turkeyhijackcourt_070823072605;_ylt=Aoso2fklFH7RZB4IaMwMYDjtfLkA
Algeria: Al-Qaeda ‘apologizes’ for attack on ex-Islamist rebel leader Mustafa al-Kartali
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1229013058
Philippines: Security alert after blast injures 14 people
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1225949944
(Philippines) More residents flee Philippine fighting
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_afp/philippinesattacksunrestevacuees_070823032210;_ylt=AooSpqiEvp7j3dlRJURIf.pUKYUA
Lebanon army awaits news from militants on evacuation
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonunrest_070823084324;_ylt=AsIWba_Ob1ryxSiD80y12v7agGIB
(Lebanon) Two Lebanese soldiers die in battle with Islamists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/lebanon_fighting_dc_1;_ylt=AgtDRRaUAL5mkdpRCo.i.mXagGIB
Lebanon arrests 2 Palestinian suspects in bombing targeting UN mission
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779144151&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Hizbullah threatens to set up second gov’t if unity gov’t not formed
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3441014,00.html
Hizbullah Building Defensive Line North of Litani River
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132114
Iran Revolutionary Guards try to get around nuclear sanctions
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779139642&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Iranian dissident warns of US actions — by declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/August/middleeast_August252.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
(Iran) Lawyer: Iran detainee free, but has no passport
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779138742&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Poll: Palestinians prefer Fatah gov’t over Hamas-led cabinet
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896753.html
Israeli, Hamas forces clash inside Gaza
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/August/middleeast_August250.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
(Gaza) Three Qassam fighters injured in S. Gaza shelling
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=1013777
(Israel) 3 IDF troops lightly wounded in Nablus
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1187779139271&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Israel) Police break up Hamas, Islamic Movement meeting in Jerusalem
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896438.html
(Israel) In Two Months Terrorists Fire 300 Rockets into Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132125
(Israel) Kassam rocket lands near Sderot
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779137431&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel offers Palestinians control of Gaza-West Bank link in talks on deal
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Palestinians.php
(Israel) CNN Special Compares Yesha Jews to Muslim Terrorists — media watch dog states that CNN’s “God’s Warriors”
compares the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria to Islamist terrorists
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/132118
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=3&x_outlet=14&x_article=1354
USA Today Article on ISNA Leader — without mentioning that ISNA has been named an unindicted
co-conspirator in Holy Land Foundation trial
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-20-mattson-islam_N.htm?csp=34#uslPageReturn
http://www.nysun.com/article/55778
Syrian Information Minister: The U.S. - A Viper-Like Fascist State; Teshreen: ‘U.S. Leaders Are Terrorists and Serial Killers’
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD169007
(UK) Britain frees assets eyed in jet plot — lifted financial sanctions against Shazad Khuram Ali, was suspect in
transatlantic jet plot to attack USA
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_re_eu/britain_terrorism_finance_1;_ylt=Altm2jdcH3Iy0cJOChQE7DITv5UB
(UK) Britain ready to back down on asylum for its interpreters in Iraq
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2310532.ece
(UK) Britain to start terrorism survival course
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Britain_to_start_terrorism_survival_course/articleshow/2300951.cms
(UK) Scotland: Terror accused ‘saw bomber video’ — Mohammed Atif Siddique
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/6960285.stm
(UK) Scotland: Terror trial student was a model high school pupil, court is told
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1335972007
(UK) Scotland: Muslim warns of Scotland’s ‘home-grown’ terror threat
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1335502007
(Australia) Terror Suspect Jack Thomas allowed to travel interstate
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22295500-29277,00.html
Australian police slams Haneef’s lawyers
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Australian_police_slam_Haneefs_lawyers/articleshow/2302845.cms
(Australia) Haneef case must end, say Australian lawyers
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=007b3056-64ff-46a7-86a7-5114dfa59ff6indiandocsinukterrorplot_Special&&Headline=Haneef+case+must+end%2c+say+Australian+lawyers
Russian serviceman killed in attack in Ingushetia
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Restive-South.php
(Sudan) Darfur rebel faction threatens to pull out of peace talks over refugee camp raid
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/africa/ME-GEN-Sudan-Darfur-Rebel.php
(Morocco) Islamists test Morocco’s democracy limits in polls
http://africa.reuters.com/country/MA/news/usnL21814640.html
(Columbia) 5 Colombian farmers killed in FARC attack
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779137152&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Commentary: The Viral Spread of Explosive Technologies in the Land of Jihad
http://www.douglasfarah.com/article/238/the-viral-spread-of-explosive-technologies-in-the-land-of-jihad.com
Other News:
Italy: Protests against new mosque, Egypt’s treatment of Christian convert
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.1229012746
Iran: 24 hair salons closed in latest moral campaign
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1226660388
Malaysian paper apologizes for picture of Jesus holding cigarette — (no global protests or threats by Christians)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/asia/AS-REL-Malaysia-Jesus-Picture.php
Indian communists adamant about U.S. nuclear deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/wl_nm/india_nuclear_dc_1;_ylt=AkAasz0Q9WHZhKyVWxoBcAhA7AkB
(Germany) Support for Nazi ideas still haunts Germany, says gov’t minister
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896214.html
Cashill Newsletter: The War on Weldon Gets Scarier
1. This week, we feature further news in the War on former Rep Curt Weldon. Jack Cashill’s investigation uncovers the attempts to silence him, unseat him, and why — in this four-part series.
1. The War on Weldon Gets Scarier - Part 1 (ran 8/20/07 in WND)
2. The War on Weldon Gets Scarier - Part 2 (ran 8/21/07 in WND)
3. The War on Weldon Gets Scarier - Part 3 (ran 8/22/07 in WND)
4. The War on Weldon Gets Scarier - Part 4 (runs today in WND)
Or start with Part 1: http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/WeldWar1.htm
2. Monday, August 27th at 9:05 AM (Central) Jack Cashill will be on-air at KSFO 560 AM with Melanie Morgan and Brian Sussman to discuss Jack’s recent columns (see above). So even if you’re in Timbuktu, click on http://ksfo.com/showdj.asp?djid=2347 and choose “Listen Now” to hear the live broadcast on your computer.
Don’t miss #4.....................granny
CAIR Says It’s Been ‘Smeared’ by Association With Criminal Case
CAIR concedes membership down
August 22, 2007
By Audrey Hudson - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
says
it’s suffering a decline in membership and fundraising and blames the
Justice Department for listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in a
Texas
case against a charity accused of ties to terrorists.
CAIR asked a U.S. District Court in Dallas to strike it from the list
of
more than 300 other Muslim groups named as unindicted co-conspirators
in the
government’s case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and
Development. The case is being tried in Dallas.
“The public naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator has impeded
its
ability to collect donations as possible donors either do not want to
give
to them because they think they are a ‘terrorist’ organization or are
too
scared to give to them because of the possible legal ramifications of
donating money to a ‘terrorist’ organization,” CAIR said in an amicus
curiae
brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Texas.
The brief cites reporting by The Washington Times as evidence of the
organization’s declining membership. When this account of declining
CAIR
membership was published in The Times earlier this summer, CAIR
denounced it
as a “hit piece.”
The Justice Department shut down the Holy Land Foundation and in 2004
indicted several of its top officers, who are accused of raising $36
million
from 1995 through 2001 for the benefit of organizations and persons
linked
with Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the Clinton
administration in 1995. The foundation raised $12.4 million after the
designation that made such fundraising illegal, prosecutors say.
The 42-count federal indictment accuses the foundation’s officers of
conspiracy, providing support to terrorists, money-laundering and
income-tax
evasion.
On May 29, the Justice Department made public a list naming 307
unindicted
co-conspirators - including CAIR - in the case now being tried before
U.S.
District Judge A. Joe Fish.
“The name of CAIR has been smeared by association with a criminal case
that
ostensibly involves the charitable funding of a ‘terrorist’ group,” the
brief, filed last week, sets out. The brief argues that federal
prosecutors
had no legitimate governmental interest in publicly releasing the names
of
CAIR and other unindicted co-conspirators. “Instead, the disclosure is
the
vindictive attempt of the government to smear a group which has been
critical of the government’s actions in aggressively and selectively
prosecuting Muslim groups or persons,” CAIR told the court.
It goes on and on...................................granny
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/threats-situational-awareness-and.html
August 22, 2007
Threats, Situational Awareness and Perspective
Source: Stratfor
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August 22, 2007 18 07 GMT
In last week’s Terrorism Intelligence Report, we said U.S. counterterrorism sources remain concerned an attack will occur on U.S. soil in the next few weeks. Although we are skeptical of these reports, al Qaeda and other jihadists do retain the ability — and the burning desire — to conduct tactical strikes within the United States. One thing we did not say last week, however, was that we publish such reports not to frighten readers, but to impress upon them the need for preparedness, which does not mean paranoia.
Fear and paranoia, in fact, are counterproductive to good personal and national security. As such, we have attempted over the past few years to place what we consider hyped threats into the proper perspective. To this end, we have addressed threats such as al Qaeda’s chemical and biological weapons capabilities, reports of a looming “American Hiroshima” nuclear attack against the United States, the dirty bomb threat, the smoky bomb threat, and the threat of so-called “mubtakkar devices”, among others.
Though some threats are indeed hyped, the world nonetheless remains a dangerous place. Undoubtedly, at this very moment some people are seeking ways to carry out attacks against targets in the United States. Moreover, terrorism attacks are not the only threat — far more people are victimized by common criminals. Does this reality mean that people need to live in constant fear and paranoia? Not at all. If people do live that way, those who seek to terrorize them have won. However, by taking a few relatively simple precautions and adjusting their mindsets, people can live less-stressful lives during these uncertain times. One of the keys to personal preparedness and protection is to have a contingency plan in place in the event of an attack or other major emergency. The second element is practicing situational awareness.
The Proper State of Mind
Situational awareness is the process of recognizing a threat at an early stage and taking measures to avoid it. Being observant of one’s surroundings and identifying potential threats and dangerous situations is more of an attitude or mindset than it is a hard skill. Because of this, situational awareness is not just a process that can be practiced by highly trained government agents or specialized corporate security countersurveillance teams — it can be adopted and employed by anyone.
An important element of this mindset is first coming to the realization that a threat exists. Ignorance or denial of a threat — or completely tuning out to one’s surroundings while in a public place — makes a person’s chances of quickly recognizing the threat and avoiding it slim to none. This is why apathy, denial and complacency are so deadly.
An example is the case of Terry Anderson, the Associated Press bureau chief in Lebanon who was kidnapped March 16, 1985. The day before his abduction, Anderson was driving in Beirut traffic when a car pulled in front of his and nearly blocked him in. Due to the traffic situation, and undoubtedly a bit of luck, Anderson was able to avoid what he thought was an automobile accident — even though events like these can be hallmarks of pre-operational planning. The next day, Anderson’s luck ran out as the same vehicle successfully blocked his vehicle in the same spot. Anderson was pulled from his vehicle at gunpoint — and held hostage for six years and nine months.
Clearly, few of us are living in the type of civil war conditions that Anderson faced in 1985 Beirut. Nonetheless, average citizens face all kinds of threats today — from common thieves and assailants to criminals and mentally disturbed individuals who aim to conduct violent acts in the school, mall or workplace, to militants wanting to carry out large-scale attacks. Should an attack occur, then, a person with a complacent or apathetic mindset will be taken completely by surprise and could freeze up in shock and denial as their minds are forced to quickly adjust to a newly recognized and unforeseen situational reality. That person is in no condition to react, flee or resist.
Denial and complacency, however, are not the only hazardous states of mind. As mentioned above, paranoia and obsessive concern about one’s safety and security can be just as dangerous. There are times when it is important to be on heightened alert — a woman walking alone in a dark parking lot is one example — but people are simply not designed to operate in a state of heightened awareness for extended periods of time. The body’s “flight or fight” response is helpful in a sudden emergency, but a constant stream of adrenalin and stress leads to mental and physical burnout. It is very hard for people to be aware of their surroundings when they are completely fried.
Situational awareness, then, is best practiced at a balanced level referred to as “relaxed awareness,” a state of mind that can be maintained indefinitely without all the stress associated with being on constant alert. Relaxed awareness is not tiring, and allows people to enjoy life while paying attention to their surroundings.
When people are in a state of relaxed awareness, it is far easier to make the transition to a state of heightened awareness than it is to jump all the way from complacency to heightened awareness. So, if something out of the ordinary occurs, those practicing relaxed awareness can heighten their awareness while they attempt to determine whether the anomaly is indeed a threat. If it is, they can take action to avoid it; if it is not, they can stand down and return to a state of relaxed awareness.
The Telltale Signs
What are we looking for while we are in a state of relaxed awareness? Essentially the same things we discussed when we described what bad surveillance looks like. It is important to remember that almost every criminal act, from a purse-snatching to a terrorist bombing, involves some degree of pre-operational surveillance and that criminals are vulnerable to detection during that time. This is because criminals, even militants planning terrorist attacks, often are quite sloppy when they are casing their intended targets. They have been able to get away with their sloppy practices for so long because most people simply do not look for them. On the positive side, however, that also means that people who are looking can spot them fairly easily.
The U.S. government uses the acronym TEDD to illustrate the principles one can use to identify surveillance, but these same principles also can be used to identify criminal threats. TEDD stands for Time, Environment, Distance and Demeanor. In other words, if a person sees someone repeatedly over time, in different environments and over distance, or one who displays poor demeanor, then that person can assume he or she is under surveillance. If a person is the specific target of a planned attack, he or she might be exposed to the time, environment and distance elements of TEDD, but if the subway car the person is riding in or the building where the person works is the target, he or she might only have the element of demeanor to key on. This also is true in the case of criminals who behave like “ambush predators” and lurk in an area waiting for a victim. Because their attack cycle is extremely condensed, the most important element to watch for is demeanor.
By poor demeanor, we simply mean a person is acting unnaturally. This behavior can look blatantly suspicious, such as someone who is lurking and/or has no reason for being where he is or for doing what he is doing. Sometimes, however, poor demeanor can be more subtle, encompassing almost imperceptible behaviors that the target senses more than observes. Other giveaways include moving when the target moves, communicating when the target moves, avoiding eye contact with the target, making sudden turns or stops, or even using hand signals to communicate with other members of a surveillance team.
In the terrorism realm, exhibiting poor demeanor also can include wearing unseasonably warm clothing, such as trench coats in the summer; displaying odd bulges under clothing or wires protruding from clothing; unnaturally sweating, mumbling or fidgeting; or attempting to avoid security personnel. In addition, according to some reports, suicide bombers often exhibit an intense stare as they approach the final stages of their mission. They seem to have tunnel vision, being able to focus only on their intended target.
Perspective
We have seen no hard intelligence that supports the assertions that a jihadist attack will occur in the next few weeks and are somewhat skeptical about such reports. Regardless of whether our U.S. counterterrorism sources are correct this time, though, the world remains a dangerous place. Al Qaeda, grassroots jihadists and domestic militants of several different political persuasions have the desire and capability to conduct attacks. Meanwhile, criminals and mentally disturbed individuals, such as the Virginia Tech shooter, appear to be getting more violent every day.
In the big picture, violence and terrorism have always been a part of the human condition. The Chinese built the Great Wall for a reason other than tourism. Today’s “terrorists” are far less dangerous to society as a whole than were the Viking berserkers and barbarian tribes who terrorized Europe for centuries, and the ragtag collection of men who have sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden pose far less of a threat to Western civilization than the large, battle-hardened army Abdul Rahman al-Ghafiqi led into the heart of France in 732.
Terrorist attacks are designed to have a psychological impact that far outweighs the actual physical damage caused by the attack itself. Denying the perpetrators this multiplication effect — as the British did after the July 2005 subway bombings — prevents them from accomplishing their greater goals. Therefore, people should prepare, plan and practice relaxed awareness — and not let paranoia and the fear of terrorism and crime rob them of the joy of life.
About Stratfor
Stratfor is the world’s leading private intelligence company delivering in-depth analysis, assessments and forecasts on global geopolitical, economic, security and public policy issues. A variety of subscription-based access, free intelligence reports and confidential consulting are available for individuals and corporations.
Posted by Naxal Watch at 12:46 PM
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/kosovo-real-flashpoint.html
August 22, 2007
Kosovo: The Real Flashpoint
Source: Stratfor
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August 22, 2007 16 34 GMT
Summary
Unidentified assailants attacked a Kosovar Serbian couple Aug. 20 — precisely the type of event that enflames Serbian nationalism and might trigger the return of Serbian forces to Kosovo. But any decision in Belgrade to send troops to Kosovo first requires a green light from Russia.
Analysis
A young Serbian couple was assaulted Aug. 20 near the Kosovar city of Gracanica, an outer suburb of the provincial capital of Pristina, Serbian television reported Aug. 21. Although the identity of the assailants is currently unknown, it is being implied in media reports that Albanians are responsible for the assault of the male and rape of the female. Such an event is precisely the sort of development that sparks nationalist passions in Serbia and could usher Serbian forces into Kosovo, but any go order from Belgrade depends on the opinion of another power entirely: Russia.
NATO forces ejected Serbia from Kosovo in 1999, severing Belgrade’s control over what Serbs view as their homeland. To make a very long and painful story more manageable, most Serbs believe they are not to blame for the Yugoslav wars and instead that they have been the victims of relentless punishment by both the West and their immediate Balkan neighbors. They see Kosovo as simply the latest in a long line of humiliations and now the de facto ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo is pushing the government to the brink.
According to the 1999 U.N. settlement that still formally rules Kosovo, Serbia is entitled to station 1,000 troops in the breakaway province to look after places of cultural significance and the Serbian population (currently about 5 percent of the province’s 2 million people). However, concerns among the NATO commanders who run security — and command 16,000 heavily armed NATO troops — in Kosovo have so far prevented those troops from being deployed.
In the past week — before the Aug. 20 assault — many Serbian politicians were clamoring for Serbian forces’ return to the territory. The most important of these politicians is Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica himself, whose political party — Democratic Party of Serbia-New Serbia — also happens to control the Interior Ministry, from which those forces would be drawn and commanded.
This does not mean an intervention is imminent, or at least not for the obvious reasons. Serbia is exhausted — morally, financially and physically — from 17 years of war, sanctions and conflict. The Serbian middle class — represented in the government by two different political parties — does not want a conflict over Kosovo; it simply wants to get on with rejoining the European community. So while Kostunica technically has the power to move forces into Kosovo, he represents the second-largest party in a three-party coalition that would not back him up on the issue. He will not move alone.
But he would move with some prodding. Serbian nationalists — Kostunica included — consider Russia to be their most powerful, if not only, foreign ally and are grateful for Moscow’s refusal to sign off on any U.N. plan that would formally split Kosovo from Serbia. As long as that political cover holds, Kosovar independence will simply not get the U.N. stamp of approval.
Russia, of course, is playing its own game. The Kremlin does not give a whit about Kosovo, but Russian strategists certainly recognize the value of an issue that can send fractures through the Western community. NATO’s 1999 Kosovo operation was controversial in the West at the time, and imposing a final status remains controversial today. Put Russia in a position of influence with the Serbs and give Moscow the institutional leverage (via its U.N. veto) to stymie progress, and the Russians have the option of triggering a crisis — or simply allowing one to boil over — whenever they like.
Like, just perhaps, now.
Russia is attempting to refashion as much of the international system as it can before the United States disentangles itself from Iraq, and to do so at as low a cost to itself as possible. A dysfunctional Serbia/Kosovo, therefore, is in Russia’s best interest because it installs a point of permanent instability in a region that is now within NATO and EU borders.
A green light from Moscow could send Serbian forces into Kosovo and spark a crisis with NATO. After all, if you were the NATO commander on the ground, would you fire at a force that is legally entitled to be there and doing little more than protecting civilians whose security NATO has been unable to guarantee? The answer would likely be “maybe” — definitive enough to keep the Serbs from acting on their own thus far. But if the Russians provided political cover for a Serbian move into Kosovo, that “maybe” would quickly become an “absolutely not.”
Best of all for Moscow, the forces would be Serbian — not Russian — so in the highly likely event that something goes drastically wrong, it would be no skin off the Russians’ nose. Russia wants the world to see the West backing down — publicly — from a confrontation with Moscow. With such a capitulation, the Kremlin feels it could then craft a whole range of security parameters to its liking. For that to happen, quiet disengagements — such as previous developments in Kosovo, with the West backing away from forcing the issue of Kosovar independence — do not suffice. The sort of crisis Russia envisions would be one in which Serbia takes all the risk, while Russia is clearly seen as the instigator.
Which means the real question is not whether the Serbs will move but whether the Russians will urge them to. And that will be a decision driven by the logic of Russia’s needs — something that has absolutely nothing to do with Serbia and/or Kosovo.
About Stratfor
Stratfor is the world’s leading private intelligence company delivering in-depth analysis, assessments and forecasts on global geopolitical, economic, security and public policy issues. A variety of subscription-based access, free intelligence reports and confidential consulting are available for individuals and corporations.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/afghanistan-dadullahs-strategic-name.html
August 22, 2007
Afghanistan: Dadullah’s Strategic Name-Dropping
Source: Stratfor
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August 22, 2007 19 30 GMT
Summary
Osama bin Laden is alive and actively involved in operations against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, top Taliban military commander Haji Mansour Dadullah said, according to the transcript of a video released Aug. 22. The statement offers a glimpse of the Taliban’s leadership structure and probably was motivated more by a desire to confirm Dadullah’s position than to provide an update on bin Laden’s status.
Analysis
The younger brother of former top Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well, according the transcript of a 12-minute video released Aug. 22. In the video, which features an interview with top Taliban military commander for Southern Afghanistan Mullah Bakht Mohammad — aka Haji Mansour Dadullah — the younger Dadullah said bin Laden gave him his blessing to succeed his brother, who was killed during fighting with U.S. and Afghan forces in May.
Haji Mansour’s claims about bin Laden’s health are aimed at asserting his own position rather than assuring jihadists that bin Laden is still alive.
The video is dated June 15, around the time of Haji Mansour’s last video, and shows him giving a commencement address to a class of suicide bombers before supposedly dispatching them to conduct attacks against the West. The interview was in Pashto with an Arabic voice-over and English subtitles.
The Arabic voice-over suggests the video is meant for a foreign audience. Haji Mansour refers to bin Laden only briefly, dropping his name in the context of the jihadist leader endorsing him as the Taliban’s military leader in Afghanistan and directing him to “follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahideen may not weaken.”
If the video was in fact made in June, the interview would have taken place about a month after Haji Mansour’s brother was killed in Helmand province, making it similar to a communique regarding his assumption of military command. Like his older brother, Haji Mansour was born in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, which — along with Helmand — is where most of the fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces occurs.
Claiming close association with bin Laden was a trademark of Mullah Dadullah’s videos. The elder brother was featured in a video released on Al Jazeera a few weeks before his death, in which he claimed bin Laden himself planned and directed the suicide bombing at Bagram Air Base during a surprise visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in February. The younger Dadullah thus seems to be following in his brother’s footsteps
The video provides interesting insights into the Taliban’s overall leadership structure. If the younger Dadullah has the blessing of Arab-dominated al Qaeda, then he probably heads the Taliban faction closer to the Arab jihadists. Meanwhile, Maulvi Jalal-ud-Deen Haqqani heads the faction with a greater affinity with the Pakistanis.
Haji Mansour’s name-dropping indicates he is trying to rally supporters and confirm his status as the Taliban’s commander in an important combat theater. This suggests his hold on power is not completely solidified.
About Stratfor
Stratfor is the world’s leading private intelligence company delivering in-depth analysis, assessments and forecasts on global geopolitical, economic, security and public policy issues. A variety of subscription-based access, free intelligence reports and confidential consulting are available for individuals and corporations.
Posted by Naxal Watch at 12:49 PM
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/negotiation-in-new-strategic.html
August 22, 2007
Negotiation in the New Strategic Environment: Lessons from Iraq
Authored by Mr. David M Tressler.
In stability, security, transition, and reconstruction (SSTR) operations like the U.S. mission in Iraq, negotiation is a common activity. The success or failure of the thousands of negotiations taking place daily between U.S. military officers and local civilian and military leaders in Iraq affects tactical and operational results and the U.S. military’s ability to achieve American strategic objectives. By training its leaders, especially junior ones, to negotiate effectively, the U.S. military will be better prepared to succeed in the increasingly complex operations it is conducting—in Iraq as well as the ones it will face in the new strategic environment of the 21st century. This monograph analyzes the U.S. Army’s current predeployment negotiation training and compares it with the negotiating experience of U.S. Army and Marine Corps officers deployed to Iraq. The author argues that successfully adapting to the nature of the contemporary operating environment requires changes that include increased training in negotiation. Based on interviews with U.S. officers, the author identifies three key elements of negotiation in SSTR operations and offers recommendations for U.S. soldiers to consider when negotiating with local Iraqi leaders; for U.S. military trainers to consider when reviewing their predeployment negotiation training curriculum; and for the Army and Marine Corps training and doctrine commands to consider when planning and structuring predeployment training.
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http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/pakistan-under-siege.html
August 22, 2007
Pakistan Under Siege
By Zia Mian
22 August, 2007
Fpif.org
Pakistan is 60 years old. For over 40 years of its life, it has been ruled directly or indirectly by its army. Each cycle of military rule has left the country in desperate crisis.
The rule of General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, has been no different. Beset on all sides, he now seeks, with American help, to ride out the storm and stay in power.
Down this path lies even greater disaster.
Origins of Failure
Pakistan’s leaders have failed it from the beginning. At independence, its founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, adopted the British colonial title and powers of governor-general. He died within a year, leaving no clear vision of the country’s identity or future, no broad-based, cohesive, national political party or movement to guide it, no tradition of democracy. Pakistan fell into the hands of a civil service and army that knew only colonial habits.
There were four governor-generals and seven prime ministers in the first 10 years, rising and falling through palace intrigues, but all powerless in the end. Pakistan could not even create a constitution. Then, in 1958, came the first military coup. General Ayub Khan told the country the army had no choice. There was, he said, “total administrative, economic, political and moral chaos” brought about “by self-seekers, who in the garb of political leaders, have ravaged the country.”
General Ayub Khan ruled for a decade. His two goals were strengthening the army and modernizing of the society and economy. The General negotiated a close military alliance with the United States, which was looking for Cold War clients around the world. American dollars, weapons, advisors, and ideas poured into Pakistan. The result was the 1965 war with India, wrenching social change, and grievous inequality. By the end of his rule, it was said that 22 families controlled two-thirds of Pakistani industry and an even larger share of its banking and insurance sector.
Eventually, the people rose in revolt. The demands for representation were greatest in East Pakistan, home to the majority of Pakistan’s people. Elections were held and a nationalist party from the East emerged victorious, but the army and its political allies were mostly from West Pakistan and would have none of it. The army went to war against its own people. There were appalling massacres. In 1971, with help from India, East Pakistan broke free and became Bangladesh.
Lost Generation
The army relinquished power in the West. But the new civilian leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, lacked a democratic temperament, and treated opposition as threat. He nationalized large sectors of the economy, further strengthening already unaccountable bureaucrats, doled out government jobs to his followers, established Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, and refined the practice of buying public support by appeasing the mullahs.
In 1977, the army took back control, and executed Bhutto. The new ruler, General Zia ul Haq, sought to Islamize Pakistan. He introduced religious laws, courts, and taxes, supported radical Islamist madrassas (seminaries) and political parties, and altered school textbooks to promote a conservative Islamic nationalism. Work on the bomb proceeded apace.
The United States turned a blind eye to both the dictatorship and the bomb. It poured billions of dollars into Pakistan to buy support for a war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Pakistan army trained and armed Islamic militants from around the world, with American money, and sent them across the border to fight godless communism. The jihad was born.
General Zia died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988, and the Soviet Union admitted defeat and left Afghanistan. Elections were held, only to have the army become the power behind the throne. America re-discovered that Pakistan was building the bomb, and imposed sanctions. It was too late.
The new crop of leaders, including Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir, descended into corruption and intrigue, each seeking the army’s help to take office. There were nine prime ministers in 10 years. Some actively courted the mullahs, none tried to undo the Islamic order created by General Zia. A generation was abandoned to intolerance, violence, and radical Islam.
The army demanded the lion’s share of national resources. The politicians paid up, even though the economy crumbled and one-third of Pakistanis fell below the poverty line. The army continued to dominate foreign policy. It helped create, train, arm, and lead the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. The goal was to create a client regime and secure Pakistan’s western borders. The people of Afghanistan paid a terrible price.
A similar strategy was tried in Kashmir. Pakistan organized and armed Islamist fighters and sent them to battle. Kashmiris, who have struggled for decades for the right to decide their own future free from Indian rule, found themselves trapped between the violence unleashed by Indian armed forces and Pakistan-backed militants.
Amid the chaos, in 1998, India and then Pakistan tested nuclear weapons and a year later went to war. Both sides hurled nuclear threats. Pakistan’s elected politicians went along, claiming credit at every opportunity.
The Musharraf Era
There were few protests when the army, led by General Pervez Musharraf, seized power in 1999. “The armed forces have no intention to stay in charge longer than is absolutely necessary to pave the way for true democracy to flourish,” he promised. Instead, he rigged elections and made a deal with Islamist political parties willing to support him as president.
After the September 11 attacks, the United States dropped its opposition to General Musharraf. It needed Pakistan’s support for another American war. Money poured in (over $10 billion so far), and demands for a return to democracy disappeared.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, many Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters fled across the border to Pakistan’s tribal areas where they have reconstituted themselves. Under U.S. pressure, the Pakistan army has tried to go into the tribal border areas to show they are tackling the Taliban and al-Qaeda there. They have met resistance. Also, there are many in the army who do not want to fight what they see as an American war. The army has resorted to missile attacks from aircraft, helicopter gun ships, and artillery. As civilian casualties have grown, local people have turned against the army, and some have joined the militants.
The al-Qaeda and Taliban influence has started to spread from the remote border areas to larger towns and even major cities in the two border provinces. These militants have made common cause with local Islamist groups, who find recruits in Pakistan’s countless madrassas and its many Islamic political parties. Militants have attacked soldiers, policemen, local officials, ordinary people, and national leaders, including Musharraf. Suicide bombings have claimed hundreds of lives across the country.
Islamist fighters have taken over whole villages. Emulating the Taliban, they repress women, close girls’ schools, attack DVD and music shops, destroy TVs, and demand men grow beards and go to the mosque. The movement has spread even to the capital. For six months, Islamist students and fighters occupied a mosque in Islamabad and set up their own court. The government sat by until forced to act by national and international pressure. The bloody storming of the mosque served only to fuel the militancy and enrage public opinion.
Sectarian violence has accompanied the rise of the militant Islamists. Armed Sunni groups, some linked to major political parties, have attacked Shias and religious minorities with abandon. Hundreds have died. Even though the groups are banned, they operate with impunity, their leaders appearing in public.
The Islamists are not the only armed resistance to the state. There is an insurgency in Pakistan’s largest province, Baluchistan, fuelled by demands for greater autonomy and control over their natural resources. It is a longstanding grievance. The Pakistani army crushed the latest in a series of four insurgencies. Baluch groups have obstructed and attacked gas facilities, gas and oil pipelines, electricity transmission towers, and train tracks. They have also targeted foreign companies seeking to explore new gas fields in the province and working on other development projects there. They have also called protests and strikes.
The Democratic Challenge
The army’s effort to confront Islamists and Baluch insurgents has created its own crisis. Over the past few years, the government has taken into custody hundreds of people and, after they “disappeared,” denied ever having arrested them. Their families found an ally in the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court. He has demanded that the government produce the missing people in court. General Musharraf responded by firing the chief justice. Musharraf’s greater fear is that an activist court would block his effort to continue in power as president.
There was a national movement for the reinstatement of the chief justice. Judges resigned, lawyers went on strike, and police attacked demonstrations by lawyers outside the Supreme Court. Across the country, large crowds gathered to hear and support the chief justice. The Supreme Court declared that the chief justice must be reinstated. Musharraf had to concede defeat.
The Court is now hearing the cases of the missing people. The government has produced some and dragged its feet on others. The chief justice has threatened to jail a senior law enforcement official and summon the chiefs of Pakistan’s armed forces if the government will not produce the people in court. As elections loom, and Musharraf seeks to retain power, the Court has already begun to hear appeals on voter registration.
Some hope that restoring a semblance of democracy could turn the tide against the Islamists and reduce the nuclear danger. Musharraf, with U.S. help, is trying to cobble together a deal to stay in power. He is considering dumping his Islamist allies in exchange for support from Benazir Bhutto, who would be cleared of the corruption charges that she fled and allowed to return from exile. It will not be enough.
In the Musharraf years, the army has consolidated its power in new ways. Generals rule provinces, run government ministries, administer universities, and manage national companies. The army’s business interests now span banking and insurance, cement and fertilizer, electricity and sugar, corn and corn flakes. They will not give this up without a fight.
For the army, the outside world appears threatening too. As India’s economy grows and it increases military spending in leaps and bounds, Pakistan’s army looks for ways to keep up. With the United States cultivating a new strategic relationship with India, the army fears losing its oldest ally. It worries how it will sustain its nuclear, missile and conventional weapons arms race with India. The army must extract yet more from Pakistan’s economy. A civilian government rule will not be allowed to challenge these priorities.
Military rule and puppet politicians have brought Pakistan to its present dreadful state. Rather than keeping Musharraf in power, the world must demand that Pakistan’s army yield control over government and economy once and for all. Only a freely elected and representative government that can actually make decisions can pursue economic development as if people mattered, confront the Islamists, and make peace with India.
Zia Mian is a physicist with the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus (online at www.fpif.org). An earlier version of this piece appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Copyright © 2007, Institute for Policy Studies.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/chinese-abroad-to-be-better-protected.html
August 22, 2007
Chinese abroad to be better protected
By Li Xiaolun (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-22 07:07
The Foreign Ministry will soon expand its consular services to better protect the interests of Chinese living or traveling abroad, a senior official said in Beijing on Tuesday.
“There are 34 million Chinese going abroad every year, and the figure is increasing at a double-digit rate,” said Wei Wei, director of the department of consular affairs of the Foreign Ministry.
“The number of cases in which Chinese citizens get in trouble abroad has exceeded 30,000 a year,” he noted.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the number of overseas Chinese workers is about 675,000, and the figure for Chinese companies abroad is more than 10,000.
Given the large number, there have been some tragic or unpleasant incidents.
Last month, two Chinese employees were arrested in Iran for mistakenly “taking pictures of sensitive facilities” because of lack of familiarity with the local situation.
On July 8, three Chinese nationals were killed in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar.
Eleven days later, a suicide bomber attacked a group of Chinese engineers in Baluchistan, southwest Pakistan.
The new consular protection center is upgraded from the 10-plus staff of the division of consular protection under Wei’s department.
The center, which now has a staff of 20, will be enlarged gradually, said Ma Cuihong, deputy head of the center.
Also yesterday, the department issued a revised version of a brochure on consular protection and assistance.
“It comprises five parts, including special warnings, the services that consular officials can and cannot offer, as well as answers to frequently asked questions,” said Wei, who handed the guidebooks to passengers and answered their questions at Beijing Capital International Airport.
Compared with the two previous versions issued in 2000 and 2003, the 2007 brochure is more practical and detailed, with additional contact information of relevant governmental institutions, especially Chinese embassies and consulates, said Wei.
The first batch of 50,000 copies will be mainly distributed at Beijing airport, and also at Shanghai and Guangzhou airports.
“We will ask our embassies and consulates to distribute the brochures abroad. Visitors can also download the content at www.fmprc.gov.cn,” added Wei.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/iranshahr-kidnappers-not-related-to.html
August 22, 2007
Iranshahr kidnappers not related to the Rigi ring: intelligence minister
TEHRAN, Aug. 21 (MNA) — The armed gang that kidnapped some Iranian nationals in southeastern country and took them to Pakistan is not linked to Abdulmalak Rigi’s terror cell, Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeii said here on Tuesday. On Sunday, some armed bandits closed a road between Iranshahr and Chabahar, set several cars and two trucks on fire, and took 21 civilians as hostage to Pakistan.
The hostages were freed and the bandits were arrested by Pakistani security forces on Monday in Baluchistan province, southwest of Pakistan.
Abdulmalak Rigi (also known as Emir Abdul Malik Baluch) leads Jondollah which is a militant organization that is based in Pakistan’s Baluchistan and affiliated with Al-Qaeda. It has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan.
In some cases it is possible that bandit groups cooperate with Rigi’s organization but they are not organizationally linked, Ejeii told reporters.
Released hostages handed over to Iranian officials in Quetta Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan prov, Aug 22, IRNA
Iran-Pakistan-Hostages-Handover
The 21 Iranian hostages released on Monday during a military operation in Pakistan were handed over to Iran’s Consulate in Quetta city Wednesday morning.
Governor of Sistan-Baluchestan, Habibollah Dahmardeh, told IRNA that the released hostages were handed over to Iranian officials by Pakistani police and will later be transferred to Zahedan on a private flight.
“All members of the group are in good health and will return to their family soon,” Dahmardeh said.
The group were taken hostage by armed bandits on a road near the city of Chabahar in this southeastern province on Aug 19.
The kidnappers then took the hostages across the border into Pakistan.
They were released the day after during a military operation by Pakistani security forces in cooperation with their Iranian counterparts in Baluchistan province of Pakistan.
A number of the bandits were killed during the operation and some others were arrested.
The arrested bandits will be later expatriated to Iran based on an agreement between Tehran and Islamabad.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/repressive-regimes-are-prepared-for.html
August 22, 2007
Repressive regimes are prepared for cyberwar
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?WT.mc_id=070822daily&storyID=8300
Last week, a Chinese court sent Chen Shuqing, a dissident internet writer, to jail for four years on charges of subversion. Meanwhile, in the northern Russian city of Syktyvar, 21-year-old blogger Savva Terentyev is looking at two years in prison for making a derogatory comment about the police in an online diary.
Two disparate cases, thousands of miles apart, that send a very clear message about how ruthlessly China and Russia are patrolling their internet borders. This vigilance could serve as useful preparation for cyber war, an increasingly important battlefield where the West risks being overwhelmed.
The internet is a conduit of free speech but also a weapons delivery system. Authoritarian regimes have had to develop defences against the internet to stem the flow of independent thought.
And having learnt how to defend themselves, these states are well- versed in techniques that can be deployed against other nations.
In China any politically sensitive material is blocked by a complex firewall called jindun gongcheng, the Golden Shield. It prevents Chinese citizens in internet cafes from logging onto anything potentially subversive, like a blog supporting independence in Tibet or Taiwan. Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia use similar shields. China’s shield is so sophisticated at blocking inbound traffic it could one day be used to block incoming cyber-attacks.
Meanwhile Russia has also been flexing its muscles in cyberspace, as shown by the attacks on Estonia in May. The virtual barrage that was launched against the Baltic republic showed the world that Vladimir Putin’s regime had the ability to take out a country’s electronic infrastructure, leaving their economy vulnerable to attack. It’s alleged that Russia also targeted opposition and state websites in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Murad Gassanly, an Azeri human rights activist said: “During the cyber attacks against Estonia, all opposition-linked Azeri websites went down at the same time. My colleagues in Georgia and Belarus noted their websites were down as well. It was integrated and looked like there was a central plan to it.”
Any operation such as this would need to be coordinated, and the suggestion is that Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, was behind the planning of these attacks.
Cyber security expert, Gadi Evron, who advised Estonia during the attacks, hasn’t ruled out this theory. Following this first wave of attacks on Estonia, more sophisticated cyber weapons were used, with ‘botnets’ sending traffic to Estonian addresses at 100-1,000 times their normal rate. This pattern reflects what happened in the other former Soviet states.
“Our organisation received 600,000 hits within eight hours that day,” Gassanly said. “We normally have 20,000 hits a month. It was sufficient to get our website blocked by our provider. The same thing happened in Georgia and Belarus.”
It is easy to conceal the source of the attacks and blame them on hackers. “It’s the internet, and the internet is chaos,” Evron explains. “Attacks happen all the time.”
But while large-scale intimidation and attacks are easier to co-ordinate, the might of the totalitarian state finds it more difficult to target individual bloggers in cyberspace. In these cases, as the jailing of Chen Shuqing and Savva Terentyev’s impending trial demonstrates, the state cracks down in a more traditional fashion.
FIRST POSTED AUGUST 22, 2007
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-us-army-ordering-robot-spy-blimp.html
August 23, 2007
Is US Army ordering robot spy blimp?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/23/droid_airship_peeper_purchase/
Inflatable airborne Peeping Tom flotillas forecast
By Lewis Page ; More by this authorPublished Thursday 23rd August 2007 13:12 GMTFree whitepaper - The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments The US Army seems to be moving to acquire a robotic spy blimp, able to float high in the sky for lengthy periods and monitor activities on the ground below.
According to a routine Pentagon summary dated yesterday, Telford Aviation of Dothan, Alabama was awarded an $11,195,164 contract for “operational support for Medium Airborne Reconnaissance Surveillance Systems.” The contract was awarded by the US Army’s Communications-Electronics Command.
Unmanned Spy Blimp. Credit: Telford Aviation.
Telford Aviation is a company which provides leased aircraft, maintenance and parts to the civilian market. It’s central operations are based in Maine: but it also has a “Government Programs” arm based in Dothan, Alabama.
The Telford Government Programs office webpage has a section titled “Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS),” under which it says:
“Today Telford Aviation provides all operational support for a 30,000 cubic foot airship and is part of a research and development team developing a 80,000 cubic foot airship designed for counter terrorism, port security and border patrol. Telford Aviation expects to build and operate this system within the near future.”
The 30,000-cubic-foot ship is presumably the unmanned Skybus 30K, whose consortium of producers is headed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the well-connected behemoth government tech provider. The Skybus 30K is described as a “testing and demonstration platform for a series of large airships,” and was developed by SAIC and Telford at the Loring UAS Test Centre in Maine under a Navy contract. It was given an experimental FAA airworthiness certificate last month.
SAIC says that the Skybus “can loiter for 30 to 40 hours, can travel up to 35 knots, and has faint visual, radar, infrared, and acoustic signatures.”
The Loring Development Activity, the business park operating on the old Loring airforce base, says that the Skybus “has the potential to support military surveillance operations.”
Putting all this together, it seems clear that the US Army’s “Medium Airborne Reconnaissance Surveillance Systems” - not a term it normally uses - will be robot spy airships intended for ground surveillance. The US Army already operates tethered aerostat balloons for this purpose, and has previously trialled manned blimps. But now it appears to be moving forward with self-propelled robot aircraft.
One might hope that the Army’s interest is in spying on Iraqi insurgents and Taliban gunmen, using cheap-to-run airships which can lurk in the sky for days on end above the range of handheld anti-aircraft missiles. The manned airship in the 2004 trials was said to be able to comfortably exceed 10,000 feet if required, which would keep it safe from shoulder-launched missiles even if they could lock on to its feeble signatures.
“The airship platform can provide a clear and detailed view of the activity on the streets below and yet stay out of the range of many weapon systems,” according to a contractor involved in that trial.
“The military could fly a controlled, quiet orbit over an area like Fallujah, day or night, and be able to locate insurgents placing explosive devices or setting up ambushes,” added another.
But other US government customers could fly a nice quiet orbit over other areas closer to home, too. SAIC thinks its baby would be good for “a variety of security and intelligence operations including border patrol, port security, survivor search, wildlife management and sports event monitoring.”
Of course, a blimp isn’t all that different from police helicopters or - if you’re very important to the Yanks - spy satellites, that we’re all quite used to being watched by. If we live in Southwest Asia, we’re also quite accustomed to a variety of robot planes too. But it costs like crazy to monitor people from above with most of those - especiually for any sustained period - and in many cases a target will know that the spy platform is there. (Even secret spy satellites are often tracked by enthusiastic amateurs.)
Robo-blimps, by contrast, should be cheap, persistent and quiet, very hard to notice at night, and thus could bring with them an explosion in aerial spying activity. Analysts have been predicting their advent for some time.
It appears that the day may be here.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/growing-pains-for-democracy-in-yemen.html
August 23, 2007
Growing pains for democracy in Yemen
The view of Yemen as a safe-haven for terrorists has overshadowed recent moves in that country’s struggle in the search for democracy.
By Martina Fuchs for ISN Security Watch (23/08/07)
The July 2007 suicide bombings in Marib that left seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis dead reinforced the image held by some of Yemen being a weak and lawless state that is unable to exercise control over its own territory. On a purely domestic level, however, it is worthwhile to analyze the recent democratization process by the government before assessing the destabilizing factors and threats of any possible al-Qaida infiltration.
Yemen has made substantial political progress since its 1990 unification and civil war four years later. The country reveals features of a nascent democracy and demonstrates government commitment to developing the instruments of a modern state. But, this commitment is only partial. The country’s politics are dominated by the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh preserving a monopoly of power. This prevents the establishment of a full parliamentary democracy.
On paper, the political landscape presents a multiparty system of 40 groups. In reality, few of them have any representation in parliament. The GPC being the dominant player has led to increasingly dysfunctional Yemeni institutions and governance. There are no formal restrictions limiting the organization of opposition parties, but the government has nevertheless created a difficult environment for opposition parties to operate. Saleh loyalists dominate the business and political arena including the ruling party, the ministries, the parliament as well as the official media.
“With the absence of a factual opposition’s role, some people here call their democracy ‘another military rule with a citizen uniform,’ Mohamed Al-Azaki, a Yemeni journalist and researcher at the Saba Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Sana’a, told ISN Security Watch.
Even with those views, according to Al-Azaki, some believe that the system “is still much better than in Egypt, Algeria or Saudi Arabia.”
Presidential elections bring more of the same
In September 2006 Yemen held its second presidential and local council elections since unification. Saleh was re-elected with 77 percent of the vote. Violence, accusations of fraud from the opposition, serious press freedom violations and detention of journalists also accompanied the electoral process. Despite these observations, the EU’s Election Observation Mission categorized them as “free and fair.”
The elections also saw the first viable opposition candidate, Faisal Ben Shamlan, to challenge the president. Shamlan was supported by the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), a coalition of five opposition parties that included Islah, Yemen’s main Islamist party and best-organized opposition group.
According to Al-Azaki, even with Saleh having to face a serious candidate, his win did not prompt him to follow through with pre-election pledges. “We didn’t notice any improvements in the economic life and the development sector like the 2006 electoral platform had promised. […]
“President Saleh tried to get his 2006 electoral platform into action by forming a governmental committee to carry it out [...] Now we are in August 2007 and his platform is still stuck on the shelf.”
Signs of instability
Yemen shows symptoms of a fragile state, with democratic aspirations being undermined by tribal violence and a rampant small arms proliferation. In 2004, the northern province of Sa’ada witnessed tribal clashes caused by an uprising of members from Yemen’s large community of Zaidi Shiite Muslims.
In a September 2004 article, the daily news service NewsYemen reported that the conflict had declined after the death of Hussein Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi, a Zaidi cleric who lead the movement, but resumed in 2005, causing a large number of internally displaced people. According to Amnesty International’s Annual Report for that year, hundreds of people were killed amid armed clashes between the security forces and Al-Houthi’s followers.
According to Al-Azaki, “[There is] no democracy without safety and stability, and there is no democracy with a dead opposition and corrupt opposition leaders. The current insecurity situation can actually destroy what remains of democratic process.”
Al-Azaki explained that sectarian Shiite war, a corrupt opposition and Islamic extremists along with al-Qaida elements are destroying the oil, gas and tourism industries which can turn a fledgling democracy like Yemen into a Somali-style crisis or even a new Iraq.
Human rights and freedom of expression
Human Rights Watch has reported incidents of political activists, human rights defenders and journalists being subject to harassment and detention by police and security forces. According to a July 2007 article published in the Yemen Observer, increasingly, press freedoms are being violated in the interests of national security.
“Yemen still has no freedom of the press, which I see as utterly necessary for democracy. We are restricted from criticizing the president directly, from addressing religion, from making any argument against capital punishment, and from covering major stories,”Yemen Observer editor Jennifer Steil told ISN Security Watch.
” For example, we were unable to get into Sa’ada to cover the war there, and so really no one in Yemen has any idea what really happened up there - we only know that it was devastating.”
Steil noted that even though the Information Ministry continues to deny licenses for new newspapers, using various excuses, “[F]inally, under pressure from Parliament, it granted 25 new licenses recently. So that is some progress.”
Even with this progress, the internet in Yemen still remains censored.
Strengthening civil society
On a positive note, the number of women registered to vote has increased from half a million casting ballots in the 1993 parliamentary elections to more than three million in the 2006 elections. At the same time, civil society organizations and members of parliament have begun demanding more transparency and accountability from the government.
According to the Yemen News Agency SABA, civil society organizations have increased rapidly. The total number of associations, foundations, syndicates and political parties reached 3200 in 2001 with about 36 human rights NGOs.
“There are some good institutional and legislative changes here, but it remains to be seen how well Yemen can implement these changes,” Steil said. “I am skeptical about the country’s ability to enforce anything smoothly, given that corruption is still rampant and just getting an exit visa to get out of the country is a total nightmare. Getting anything done in Yemen takes 100 times longer than it does in the developed world,” she commented.
Analysts emphasize that the root cause of the political crisis in Yemen is the extreme concentration of executive power; a solution must therefore be preceded by the decentralization of political power. But at the same time, the government is unable to exert full control over remote tribal areas, faces difficulties in implementing the recent peace agreement in the Northern region of Sa’ada and struggles to combat the illicit spread and misuse of small arms.
For these reasons, Al-Azaki noted, the road to democracy will be long and possibly treacherous.
“There is a widely known Yemeni proverb that says ‘Ruling Yemen is like trying to dance on the head of a snake.’”
Martina Fuchs has a MA in Economic History and International Relations from the University of Geneva and wrote her thesis about the impact of small arms on sustainable development in Yemen. She is currently completing an internship at the ISN and is enrolled at the American University in Cairo for a postgraduate diploma in TV journalism.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/geopolitical-diary-russia-rewrites-post.html
August 23, 2007
Geopolitical Diary: Russia Rewrites the Post-Cold War Rule Book
Source: Stratfor
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August 23, 2007 02 00 GMT
Georgia has accused Russia of violating its airspace again. According to Georgia, its radar recently tracked a Russian aircraft penetrating Georgian airspace near Abkhazia — a pro-Russian breakaway region and an area of substantial Georgian-Russian tension. The first incursion allegedly took place Aug. 6 and involved a missile fired at a Georgian village. Whether intentional or not, the missile didn’t explode. That incursion occurred near another Georgian breakaway region, South Ossetia.
The Russians have denied both incidents, claiming the first was a Georgian provocation. Ignoring the fact that parts of the missile could be identified, Georgia has little reason to create a crisis. It is fully aware that U.S. intervention against Russia is unlikely at this point, and that anything more than rhetorical support from European countries is equally unlikely. At least for now, a crisis would leave Georgia alone. Therefore, antagonizing the Russians at this point really doesn’t make a great deal of sense.
But increasing Georgian insecurity does make sense for Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow withdrew from most of the Caucasus region, leaving behind Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan — all former Soviet republics that are now independent states. It also left behind a series of dispute fragments in a region where ethnic and religious strife is endemic. Russia lost its secure frontier with Turkey, replacing it with an unstable and frequently violent border.
The direct threat to Russia was the part of the Northern Caucasus that it continued to control, which included Chechnya. If Russia had abandoned Chechnya, it would have lost its foothold in the Caucasus and, along with it, any natural defensive position. But the Russians decided disintegration stopped there and fought to hold their position.
The Russians believed, with substantial reason, that arms were reaching the Chechen guerrillas via Georgia through the Pankisi Gorge. The minimal Russian charge was that the Georgians, closely aligned with the United States, were not doing enough to stop the flow of weapons. The maximum Russian claim was that the Georgian government was facilitating arms smuggling, supported by the United States, which wanted to see the Russian Federation disintegrate.
The Russians therefore have historically viewed Georgia, allied as it is with Washington, as a direct threat to their national security. First, there was the Chechen issue. Second — and far more important in the long run — was the entire matter of the Russian frontier in the Caucasus. The old Soviet-Turkish frontier allowed Russia to secure the Caucasus and limit insurgencies among ethnic groups. The current frontier is an invitation to insurgency and constantly threatens to draw Russia into conflicts in the region.
Russia is aligned with Armenia, which is afraid of the Turks. It has good relations with Azerbaijan, having military facilities there, as well as trade relations. Georgia is Moscow’s problem. It destabilizes Russia’s southern frontier and is seen as facilitating instability in Russia itself. Georgia’s close relationship with the United States has in the past made it immune to Russian pressure, but close relationships with the United States are not worth what they used to be, or what they might be in the future.
We have spoken before of Russia’s current window of opportunity. The two incursions into Georgia — both of which we believe were intended to be noticed — put the Georgians on notice that, in Russia’s mind, Georgian autonomy is no longer a settled matter. Russia might not be planning to occupy Georgia, but it is letting the Georgians know that it believes they have freedom of action. The moves were designed to make the Georgians extremely concerned — and it is working.
The Russians want to see an evolution in Georgia in which Tbilisi acknowledges that it is within the Russian sphere of influence and, as such, retains its independence to the extent that it is prepared to accommodate Russian interests. Those obviously include collaboration on the issue of Chechen weapons — now a bit of a dated subject. But this specifically means Georgia should shift its relationship with the United States. The Russians do not want to see Washington using Georgia as a foothold in the Caucasus.
Russia is rewriting the post-Cold War rule book. Georgia is one of the places that matter to Russia, and Russia is signaling the Georgians to reconsider their national security interests. It will be interesting to see what the Georgians do, and — assuming they maintain their current stance — what the Russians do next. Moscow did not carry out these incursions without a plan. The Russians have started small. We would be surprised if they restrained themselves in the face of a continuation of Georgian policies toward the United States and the region.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/russias-space-guru-opts-for-evolution.html
August 23, 2007
Russia’s space guru opts for evolution
17:39 | 23/ 08/ 2007
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - Russia’s Federal Space Agency will go slow on its strategy for manned flights. At any rate, this is the implication made by its chief, Anatoly Perminov, at a news conference held at the MAKS-2007 air show on August 22.
“Our main goal is to use the reliable old systems for manned flights,” he said in a preamble to the subject of new spacecraft and deep space studies. As a matter of fact, his words can be taken as a long-awaited policy statement, bringing much needed clarity to the issue of Russia’s space transport system development, and informing about future prospects for Russian and international manned flight programs.
Can the goal be considered achieved? Let us pause and consider two basic points heard despite the roar of MiG and Su fighter jets performing fantastic stunts overhead.
First, after saying that a $400-500 billion manned journey to Mars was currently an impossibility, he stressed the need for “thorough modernization of existing manned spacecraft and development of new ones on their basis.” Second, he underscored that new equipment would be developed in close contact with the European Space Agency.
So far so good. But one wonders how long we can continue to upgrade and modernize equipment that was first developed years and years ago? The Soyuz, which has been over-modernized, is doubtless a very dependable workhorse, but there are limits to everything. Perhaps there are some new ideas for modernization? I would gladly listen to them, or read about them, but alas.... And then what does it mean, “development of new craft on the basis of reliable old ones?” New in relation to what? Again the roar of a diving Su-30 drowned the answer.
That’s it. The important thing, according to Vitaly Lopota, the new president of Russia’s Space and Rocket Corporation Energia, is that we have four new projects concerning manned flight. It is a pity that he did not so much as hint at the specifics. And no MiGs were in the air at the time....
If anything, it is unlikely that these vaguely outlined plans will move beyond the research and development stage. So a new space vehicle is not an immediate prospect.
In other words, questions over manned ships following the winding up of the space shuttle program - by October 2010 at the latest - have remained unanswered. How to increase International Space Station crews with the help of old if upgraded three-seat Soyuz craft is not clear.
The Soyuz will not miraculously change to become a Kliper. It is obvious that the Kliper program has been abandoned once and for all. In Perminov’s view, the winged configuration of a space ship is no good. Even the Americans, he argued, abandoned the airframe idea for a new transport vehicle. True, shuttles existed and still exist. But the Russian guru is sure that Russia need not imitate the prohibitively costly American experience when it has the low-cost Soyuz project.
Maybe it would be a good idea to take a closer look at the Europeans? But their leisurely pace in making crucial decisions may have a bad effect and slow down the evolution of Russia’s space effort, bringing it more in line with that of the human race.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/08/india-us-sponsored-pax-democratica.html
August 23, 2007
India & The US-Sponsored Pax Democratica
Source: SAAG
by B. Raman
In an article titled “Democratisation And Failed States: The Challenge of Ungovernability” published in the summer 1996 issue of “Parameters”, the quarterly journal of the US Army War College, Dr. Robert H. Dorff, Visiting Professor of Foreign Policy at the US Army War College and Associate Professor of Political Science at the North Carolina State University, traced the evolution of the idea of a community of democracies to the Clinton Administration’s first National Security Strategy entitled “A National Security Strategy of Engagement And Enlargement” published in July 1994.
2.The Strategy projected the US strategic objective as “protecting, consolidating and enlarging the community of free market democracies.” Dr. Dorff wrote: “The US post-Cold War strategy of engagement and enlargement began with public pronouncements in the last year of the Bush (the father of the present President) Administration and then was formally articulated under President Clinton. Fundamentally based on the premise of the “democratic peace” (democracies do not go to war with other democracies), this strategy entails the active promotion and expansion of the community of democratic, free-market countries as a way of applying national resources toward the pursuit of strategic objectives.”
3. At an Open Forum on democracy organised by the US State Department on November 10,1999,Mr.James Robert Huntley, writer and international affairs consultant, explained the theme of a book of his titled “Pax Democratica: A Strategy For the 21st Century”. He traced the evolution of international relations through four phases, namely, the age of the empire, the balance of power, international co-operation and the latest phase of community-building among democracies and claimed that democracies rarely went to war with each other and rarely indulged in internal violence against their own people,
4. Speaking at the same forum, Mr. Penn Kemble, Special Representative of the US Secretary of State for the Community of Democracies Initiative, described the aim of the Initiative as the revitalisation of democracy in the international system. Mr. Helmut Sonnenfeldt of the Brookings Institution said that the idea of Pax Democratica was to see if a viable means existed to build an approach to peace around an idea and institutions rather than around a nation.
5.Subsequently, on November 22,1999, Mr.Bronislaw Geremek, formerly of the Solidarity funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and then the Polish Foreign Minister, announced at Warsaw that the first international meeting of the Community of Democracies would be held at Warsaw on June 26-27, 2000, under the joint sponsorship of the US, Poland, Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Mali and South Korea.
6.In a statement issued in Washington the same day, the State Department endorsed the initiative and said: “ The goal of the Community of Democracies Ministerial is to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of existing international organisations in their support for democracy. Governments attending the meeting will affirm their commitment to a core set of universal democratic principles……They will develop a common agenda to bolster democratic institutions and processes, improve co-ordination of democratic assistance programmes and more effectively respond to threats or interruptions to democracy.”
7. Mr.Penn Kemble used to be on the Board of Directors of one of the NED’s core affiliates, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). His sister Eugenia used to be the Director of the Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI), another core affiliate of the NED. He also headed the Executive Committee of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, a neo-conservative group within the Democratic Party. Mr. Kemble, who was allegedly part of the clandestine cell set up in the White House during the Reagan Administration by Col. Oliver North of the Iran-Contra case, also headed the PRODEMCA, Friends of the Democratic Centre in Central America, until it was wound up. The NED’s financial assistance to the anti-Sandinista elements in Nicaragua used to be allegedly funneled through PRODEMCA by Mr. Kemble, who was reputed to be an expert in the clandestine financing of foreign political groups co-operating with the US in its national objectives.
8. Under his stewardship, the PRODEMCA used to place full-page advertisements in the 1980s in the “Washington Post”, the “Washington Times” and the “New York Times” calling for congressional funding of US $ 100 million to assist the Contras. Col. North allegedly used the PRODEMCA to funnel money to the Contras and the PRODEMCA acted in tandem with Carl Channel’s National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty.
9. Amongst the others posts held by Mr. Kemble in the past were as a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, of the Social Democrats, USA, and of the radio programme advisory committee of the US Information Agency (USIA), in which capacity he used to advise on the running of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty by the CIA from Munich and the Voice of America.
10. Mr. Kemble was a close associate of Ms. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the US Permanent Representative to the UN during the Reagan Administration, who was also a member of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority and the Committee on the Present Danger, both of which were strongly anti-communist. She was also associated with other anti-communist organisations such as the Committee for the Free World, PRODEMCA, the American Enterprise Institute, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the Social Democrats, USA, and the highly secretive Council for National Policy. She was also a member of the Board of Advisers of the Centre for Religious Freedom, an outfit of the Freedom House.
11. According to media reports, the Warsaw meeting, which decided to set up the Community of Democracies, was jointly funded by the Stefan Batory Foundation of Poland, founded in 1998 by Mr. George Soros to counter the resurgence of communism in East Europe, and the Freedom House of the US, which was founded in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie to oppose Nazism and Communism in Europe.
12. The Freedom House was a strong supporter of the NATO and worked in close co-operation with the CIA and Col. North’s clandestine cell in the Reagan White House in carrying on psywar against the USSR and other communist countries and in funneling assistance to the Afghan Mujahideen and the Arab mercenaries, including Osama bin Laden, through various front organisations such as the Afghanistan Information Centre, the Afghanistan Relief Committee, the Committee for a Free Afghanistan, the American Friends of Afghanistan etc. The Freedom House received its funding from the USIA, the Agency For International Development (AID), the NED and a number of ostensibly private foundations, one of which was the Soros Foundation. It is alleged that the sister of Maj. Rabinder Singh, the CIA’s mole in the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) who fled to the US in 2004, used to work in AID.
13. The late William Casey, the Director of the CIA under Mr. Reagan, and Col. North, whom Casey used to call “my son”, encouraged the setting-up of a network of so-called non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to be used for covert political activities abroad without the direct involvement of the CIA, on the model of the Freedom House and the foundations set up much later by the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (the Federal Information Service), the West German external intelligence agency, to funnel financial assistance to the anti-communist elements in the then East Germany, the anti-Salazar forces in Portugal, the anti-Franco forces in Spain and the Eurocommunist elements in France and Italy. A common name occurring in the lists of money-givers of almost all these organisations was the Soros Foundation.
14. In an article written on April 20, 2000, on the so-called Community of Democracies, I had written as follows: “There is no harm in India participating in the forthcoming Warsaw conference on the Community of Democracies, but keeping in mind the worrisome aspects of some of the dramatis personae and the birth of the idea itself from the USA’s post-Cold War national security strategy to promote US strategic objectives, a cautious approach is called for. Over-enthusiasm and wishful-thinking that India is now an equal partner of the US in a new jihad for democracy would be unwise. The USA is advancing the idea from behind the scene with the help of some NGOs and personalities of Cold War parentage to promote its strategic interests. The mask is that of Warsaw, but the face behind the mask is that of Washington. We should avoid letting ourselves be used by Washington in this venture to advance its interests unless there is a genuine convergence of the interests of the US and India. “
15. But the Government of Shri A. B. Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, became an enthusiastic supporter of this initiative in the expectation that its support for this initiative would make the US remove its economic sanctions imposed against India after its 1998 nuclear tests. An immediate outcome of this initiative was destabilisation in Georgia and Ukraine by pro-US elements with financial and other assistance provided by the various shady organisations, which were associated with this intiative.
16. Simultaneously, the attention of the American jihadists for democracy turned to Asia in order to build a similar community or concert of democracies which can undertake covert operations against China and Myanmar in the name of spreading and strengthening democracy. Even earlier, during the Clinton Administration, the US had started a Radio Free Asia, similar to Radio Free Europe which was run by the CIA during the cold war from Munich, to make broadcasts to the people of Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia in China, Myanmar and North Korea. Many of the Pax Democratica assets of the US intelligence community were transferred to Asia.
17. Since the visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, to the US in July, 2005, there has been concern not only in China, but also in military circles in Myanmar that as a quid pro quo for the USA’s civilian nuclear co-operation with India, the latter has agreed to help the US in its Pax Democratica initiative in Asia. These concerns were strengthened by the following observations of President Bush in his address at a restricted public meeting at Purana Qila in Delhi on March 3, 2006: “The world has benefited from the example of India’s democracy, and now the world needs India’s leadership in freedom’s cause. As a global power, India has an historic duty to support democracy around the world......India is also showing its leadership in the cause of democracy by co-founding the Global Democracy Initiative. Prime Minister Singh and I were proud to be the first two contributors to this initiative to promote democracy and development across the world. Now India can build on this commitment by working directly with nations where democracy is just beginning to emerge. As the world’s young democracies take shape, India offers a compelling example of how to preserve a country’s unique culture and history while guaranteeing the universal freedoms that are the foundation of genuine democracies. India’s leadership is needed in a world that is hungry for freedom. Men and women from North Korea to Burma to Syria to Zimbabwe to Cuba yearn for their liberty. In Iran, a proud people is held hostage by a small clerical elite that denies basic liberties, sponsors terrorism, and pursues nuclear weapons. Our nations must not pretend that the people of these countries prefer their own enslavement. We must stand with reformers and dissidents and civil society organizations, and hasten the day when the people of these nations can determine their own future and choose their own leaders. These people may not gain their liberty overnight, but history is on their side.”
18. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan from December 13 to 16, 2006, at the invitation of Mr. Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minster, caused concern in China, which tended to see an American nudge behind the sustained attempts since April, 2005, to bring India and Japan closer together. The Chinese did not see it as a natural corollary of India’s Look East Policy. Instead, they saw in it the thin edge of the wedge in what they apprehended as an American attempt to contain China.
19. In my article on Dr. Singh’s visit to Japan, I had stated as follows: “The Chinese look upon Western-style democracy as a potentially subversive force, which could have a disintegrating influence in China-—particularly in its peripheral regions such as Tibet. Talk of democracy as a uniting force brings to their mind the idea of the community of democracies floated by the Bill Clinton Administration, India’s association with it and visions of what happened in Georgia and Ukraine. The Chinese fear not so much the military strengths of India and Japan despite their strong military capabilities, as their ideological strengths arising from their democratic roots. In his address to the Japanese Parliament, Dr. Singh spoke of India’s vision of an “arc of prosperity’ extending from India to Japan. Is there a well-concealed additional vision of an “arc of democracy”? That is the nagging question in the Chinese mind. It will nag even more after they have read Dr. Singh’s positive reaction to the idea of “closer co-operation among the major democracies of the region”. “
20. Indian leaders and policy makers have been repeatedly stressing that India’s developing relations with the US, Japan and Australia are not directed against China or any other country. This has not satisfied the Chinese because they see quite the opposite being said by analysts in the US. They saw and continue to see the agreement in principle on Indo-US Civil Nuclear Co-operation reached by President Bush and Dr.Manmohan Singh during the latter’s visit to Washington in July, 2005, as an American quid pro quo for India agreeing to be a US surrogate against Iran and China. The expected role of India against Iran finds mention in the Hyde Act, but not its expected role against China.
21. Similar concerns are nursed by the military junta in Myanmar since the visit of Mr. Bush to India in March,2006. This should explain their reported post—March 2006 decline in enthusiasm for the sale of gas to India from the gas fields in the Arakan area. It is even alleged by some sources that there has also been a decline in enthusiasm for energy co-operation with the military junta of Myanmar in New Delhi after the visit of Mr. Bush to India.
22. The forthcoming joint naval exercise by the navies of India, the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore in the Bay of Bengal in the beginning of September has added to the concerns in China as well as Myanmar. The exercise has been projected partly as humanitarian to improve their co-ordination for disaster relief and partly as to test their capabilities for joint or co-ordinated action against non-State actors such as pirates, maritime terrorists and maritime smugglers of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction material.
23. This projection has not carried conviction to Beijing and the Myanmar military junta. China tends to see it as one more step in the US designs to contain the Chinese naval power. Myanmar sees it as a US attempt to pep up the morale of the pro-democracy elements in Myanmar. For the first time in recent months, there were demonstrations by pro-democracy elements in Rangoon and some other parts of Myanmar on August 19 and 22, 2007. The demonstrations were ostensibly against the recent increase in fuel prices and the economic hardships of the people. The military junta seems to see a link between the recrudescence of unrest by pro-democracy elements loyal to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and the forthcoming naval exercise. Their fears may be imaginary, but may result in a further suppression of political dissidents.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)