IRAQ - Al Qaeda Cigarette Ban Making Enemies Yon eports AQ Order Cigarette Fingers Chopped Off

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had tarnished its name here by publicly attacking and murdering children, videotaping beheadings, all while imposing harsh punishments on Iraqi civilians found guilty of violating morality laws prohibiting activities like smoking. The AQI installed Sharia court had sanctioned the amputation of the two “smoking fingers” for those who violated anti-smoking laws. In part because local sentiment was shifting against it, AQI synthesized with other groups and undertook an image makeover, christening itself “The Islamic State of Iraq.” But the new name was just lipstick on a pig here.

On the evening of the 24th I spoke with a local Iraqi official, Colonel Faik, who said the Muftis would order the severance of the two fingers used to hold a cigarette for any Iraqis caught smoking. Other reports, from here in Diyala and also in Anbar, allege that smokers are murdered by AQI. Most Iraqis smoke and this particular prohibition appeared to have earned the ire of many locals. After an American unit cleared an apartment complex on the 23rd, LTC Smiley, the battalion commander, reported that residents didn’t ask for food and water, but cigarettes. In other parts of Baqubah, people have been celebrating the routing of AQI by lighting up and smoking cigarettes.

Other AQI edicts included beatings for men who refused to grow beards, and corporal punishments for obscene sexual suggestiveness, defined by such “loose” behavior as carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag. These fatwas were not eagerly embraced by most Iraqis, and the taint traveled back to the Muftis who sat in supreme judgment. Locals, who are increasingly helpful in pointing out and celebrating the downfall of AQI here, said that during the initial Arrowhead Ripper attack the morning of the 19th, AQI murdered five men. Townsend’s men found the buried corpses behind an AQI prison, exactly where they’d been told to look for the group grave. Locals also directed Townsend’s men to a torture house. Peering through a window, American soldiers saw knives, swords, bindings and drills. AQI is well-known for its macabre eagerness to drill into kneecaps, elbows, ribs, skulls, and other parts of victims.

One local Mufti who was said to have always worn a hood and sunglasses—and to have somehow disguised his voice—was pointed out to the Iraqi Army this weekend, who promptly captured him. Iraqi officials said today that although they did not previously know that this man was a Mufti, his name had been on their target list. The Mufti is being questioned and his name has not been released.

So...Mayor Bloomberg is aligned with AQ...Now I understand!

Sure. Mayor BloomingIdiot is aligned with AQ when he is on his own turf............New York City.

But when he made a visit to Turkey, he sat around on rugs with all the Turks who were freely smoking and the little weasel sat there with a chit eating smile on his ugly puss and didn't have the balls to say one word.

Only in NYC can he rule with his Kremlin style fist!

2002 or 2003

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG, scourge of the smoking class, has journeyed to the heart of enemy territory. The mayor was in Athens yesterday. After spending more time there today, he heads for Istanbul.

In no way is this meant to slight Greeks or Turks. But if you're looking for cities where people smoke more than wet branches set on fire, you can hardly beat Athens or, even better, Istanbul. Take it from one who spent a good deal of time in Turkey. Entering almost any public building there is like stepping into a pack of Gauloises.

As New Yorkers know, Mr. Bloomberg is a reformed smoker who approaches the subject of evil tobacco with the fervor of a religious convert determined that everyone share his enlightenment. But he sat unflinchingly among smokers in Athens yesterday, and he is unlikely to rebuke the people of Istanbul for their wicked ways. They want to smoke? Well, as the old song goes, that's nobody's business but the Turks'.

Back home, some wish that the mayor would treat New Yorkers the same way. He has become, for smokers and even many nonsmokers, equivalent to Hickey, the preachy salesman in "The Iceman Cometh" who takes the life out of the booze at Harry Hope's saloon.

Mr. Bloomberg's campaign to outlaw smoking in all bars and restaurants drew a band of dissenters the other day to Gallagher's Steak House, on West 52nd Street. Call it the Charge of the Light 'Em Up Brigade. Two dozen people, mainly cigar-smoking men, puffed while they huffed about a crusade that they consider unnecessary, given existing smoking laws that seem to work fine. To them, the proposed ban is zealotry run amok.

"What's to say against them?" the boxing commentator Bert Sugar said of cigars. "They killed George Burns at 100. If he hadn't smoked them, he'd have died at 75." For himself, Mr. Sugar said, he favors a good cigar because "it gives me something to hold onto in case I fall down."

No question, the smoky gathering at Gallagher's was a publicity stunt. But then, like any elected official, the mayor has his own publicity stunts. They are called news conferences.

There is nothing like a politically incorrect event to draw a herd of notebooks and microphones, and the anti-Bloomberg protest was no exception. It was, in the main, a witty group, reaffirming this nonsmoking columnist's conviction that people in a restaurant's smoking section tend to be more interesting, pound for pound, than those at the goody-goody tables.

O.K., some at Gallagher's were uncomfortably gung-ho in defending secondhand smoke. But they were pro-choice in the strictest sense, defending one's right to engage in legal behavior no matter how Neanderthal most people may find it.

"I'm in the business of taking care of customers, and some of them like to smoke," said Bryan Reidy, the restaurant's general manager. "We have a whole section for smokers, and so far we have no complaints from the nonsmokers. We're just concerned about the government making the decision for us."

AS for Mr. Bloomberg's contention that restaurants and bars should be treated as workplaces rather than social establishments, thus requiring government protection for employees, Nick Mellas shrugged. Mr. Mellas has tended bar at Gallagher's since 1966. Somehow, he said, he has made it to 84 with "no respiratory illnesses whatsoever."

Besides, said Francis Facciolo, a cigar-smoking lawyer, "people who work in bars choose that kind of work. If in fact there's a correlation to health problems, which I doubt, it's a choice they've made."

Cigar types far outnumbered cigarette smokers at this protest, and they happily trumpeted the virtues of their vice. "Cigarette smoking can be an isolating activity, something you do by yourself all day" said Gus Waite, who runs a school for actors in Manhattan. "But cigar smoking is primarily a social event with other like-minded people."

The point, Mr. Waite said, is that "there are 10,000 restaurants in this city." Nonsmokers have endless choices. Why, he asked, must every place be tobacco-free, effectively erasing the rights of a minority wishing to engage in an activity that is both legal and perfectly acceptable to many restaurant owners, their employees and their nonsmoking patrons?

The City Council plans a hearing on the issue next month, and there is no guarantee that Mr. Bloomberg's proposal will sail through unscathed. Mr. Waite doubted that the smoke-in would change many minds. But it was important, he said, to at least make a last-gasp stand.

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