Threat Matrix: December 2007

Previous Thread ^

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933202/posts

“My harrowing story, by the teenage girl who was sentenced to 200 lashes . . . .”
Daily Mail ^ | 30. November 2007 | Richard Pendlebury
Posted on 12/01/2007 6:46:42 AM PST by UKrepublican

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “My harrowing story, by the teenage girl who was sentenced to 200 lashes after being gang raped in Saudi Arabia

When a teenage girl was gang raped in Saudi Arabia,a court sentenced HER to 90 lashes. After she complained,it was increased to 200. Now, the victim speaks for the first time...

She was only 19 and a new bride when it happened.

Seven men held her at knifepoint and, for a number of hours, she was subjected to a horrific gang rape.

But when she later went to the authorities, they sentenced her to 90 lashes.

She complained in the media, so the punishment was increased to 200 lashes and imprisonment.

Her lawyer has been suspended for speaking out against it.

Too outlandish to be true? Well, these are the bare facts of the so- called “Qatif girl” case, which has become a cause celebre among Western liberals and in Saudi Arabia, the West’s most important Middle Eastern ally.

Earlier this week, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, declared that what had happened was, indeed, an “outrage”.

But he did not mean that the rape victim had suffered a gross injustice.

No, only that criticism of his country was a foreign conspiracy.”

[Cindy]

PERSECUTION.ORG
http://www.persecution.org

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1161.html

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Sun Dec 02 2007 02:22:11 GMT-0800 (PST).

Worldwide Caution

October 09, 2007

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=farc

#

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071202/FOREIGN/112020038/1003

“Rebels’ hostages ‘live like the dead’”

PARIS —

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The document was part of a haul of letters and grainy video seized from captured leftist guerrillas that showed for the first time since 2003 that Mrs. Betancourt and three U.S. contract workers were still alive.

Mrs. Betancourt, a former presidential candidate kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002, tells how she sleeps under a mosquito net in a hammock, washes in rivers and says she has tried to escape.

“All these years have been terrible, but I don’t think I would still be alive without the commitment they have brought to all of us here, who live like the dead,” she wrote, according to Reuters news agency.”

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=nuclear
http://memritv.org/subject/en/121.htm

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

#

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/01/africa/02iran.php

“Iranian pushes nuclear talks back to beginning”
By Elaine Sciolino Published: December 1, 2007
PARIS:

[Cindy]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071129-6.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/budget/2008/index.html

#

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/20071201.html

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 1, 2007

President’s Radio Address

Just the Facts: 2007 War Funding by the Numbers
In Focus: Budget Management

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Next week, Congress returns from its Thanksgiving recess. Members are coming back to a lot of unfinished business. And the clock will be ticking, because they have only a few weeks to get their work done before leaving again for Christmas.

Congress must address four critical priorities. First, Congress needs to pass a bill to fund our troops in combat. Second, Congress needs to make sure our intelligence professionals can continue to monitor terrorist communications so we can prevent attacks against our people. Third, Congress needs to pass a bill to protect middle-class families from higher taxes. And fourth, Congress needs to pass all the remaining appropriations bills to keep the Federal Government running.

Congress’s first priority should be to provide the funds and flexibility to keep our troops safe and help them protect our Nation. Beginning in February, I submitted detailed funding requests to Congress to fund operations in the war on terror. Our military has waited on these funds for months. The funds include money to carry out combat operations against the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq. They include money to train the Afghan and Iraqi security forces to take on more responsibility for the defense of their countries. And they include money for intelligence operations to protect our troops on the battlefield.

Pentagon officials recently warned Congress that continued delay in funding our troops will soon begin to have a damaging impact on the operations of our military. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has already notified Congress that he will transfer money from accounts used to fund other activities of the military services to pay for current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — and no more money can be moved. So he has directed the Army and Marine Corps to develop a plan to lay-off civilian employees, terminate contracts, and prepare our military bases across the country for reduced operations. Military leaders have told us what they need to do their job. It is time for the Congress to do its job and give our troops what they need to protect America.

Another priority Congress must address is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. FISA provides a critical legal framework that allows our intelligence community to monitor terrorist communications while protecting the freedoms of the American people. Unfortunately, the law is dangerously out of date. In August, Congress passed legislation to help modernize FISA. That bill closed critical intelligence gaps, allowing us to collect important foreign intelligence. The problem is, this new law expires on February 1st — while the threat from our terrorist enemies does not.

Congress must take action now to keep the intelligence gaps closed — and make certain our national security professionals do not lose a critical tool for keeping America safe. As part of these efforts, Congress also needs to provide meaningful liability protection to those companies now facing multi-billion dollar lawsuits only because they are believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend our Nation following the 9/11 attacks.

Congress’s third priority should be to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was designed to ensure that the wealthy paid their fair share of taxes. But when Congress passed the AMT decades ago, it was not indexed for inflation. As a result, the AMT’s higher tax burden is creeping up on more and more middle-class families. If Congress fails to pass legislation to fix the AMT, as many as 25 million Americans would be subject to the AMT. On average, these taxpayers would have to send an extra $2,000 to the IRS next year. This is a huge tax increase that taxpayers do not deserve, and Congress must stop.

Finally, Congress has important work to do on the budget. One of Congress’s most basic duties is to fund the day-to-day operations of the Federal Government. Yet we are in the final month of the year, and Congress still has work to do on 11 of the 12 annual spending bills. Congressional leaders are now talking about piling all these bills into one monstrous piece of legislation — which they will load up with billions of dollars in earmarks and pork-barrel spending.

This is not what Congressional leaders promised when they took control of the Congress at the start of the year. In January, one congressional leader declared, “No longer can we waste time here in the Capitol, while families in America struggle to get ahead.” He was right. Congressional leaders need to keep their word and pass the remaining spending bills in a fiscally responsible way.

The end of the year is approaching fast, and Americans are working hard to finish up their business. Yet when it comes to getting its business done, Congress is only getting started. Members of Congress now have only a few weeks left before they head home for the holidays. Before they do so, I urge them to do their job: fund our troops, protect our citizens, provide taxpayers relief, and responsibly fund our government.

Thank you for listening.

END

[Cindy]

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=8cf4c563-7f4d-4265-a1e1-c372adbff99c&k=26017

“Canada faces repeated threats like Air India, former RCMP commissioner tells inquiry”
Kim Bolan , CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, December 01, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Urgent legislative changes are needed to improve the information flow between CSIS and the RCMP to keep Canadians safe from an increasing terrorist threat, former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the Air India inquiry Friday.

Zaccardelli said many of the same problems between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP that existed when Air India Flight 182 was bombed in 1985 remain 22 years later.”

[Global2010]

Off hand how many miles does Jerusalem cover?

[Global2010]

Close enough though.

[angelsonmyside]

Thanks to each of you that keep this going and for all you do. This is such an important thread and I appreciate you keeping me on the list. I do enjoy keeping up with it.

[Diogenesis]

FReepers worldwide salute nwctwx and Cindy for their outstanding, continuous, thorough and meticulous efforts.
We cannot thank either of you enough. Thank you both for all you do.

[StillProud2BeFree]

The first night of Hanukkah is Wednesday.

[PGalt]

FReepers worldwide salute nwctwx and Cindy for their outstanding, continuous, thorough and meticulous efforts. We cannot thank either of you enough. Thank you both for all you do.

Well stated, Diogenesis. Thank you Ian & Cindy and all contributors/researchers/linkers.

and from pg.31 of the "Recommended Reading" UN Report at the beginning of this thread...

109. A practical way for listed individuals and entities to circumvent the arms embargo is through use of the Internet. The Internet has become a potential recruitment centre providing passive radicalization, active indoctrination and theoretical terrorist instruction. Trainers are available in virtual camps to pass on their knowledge without ever needing to be in physical contact their students. The Team has provided the Committee with analysis regarding the use of the Internet by Al-Qaida and its associates and is conducting further work on the subject; in doing so, it will consider specific recommendations relevant to the implementation of the arms embargo.

...ping to jveritas...you should be in charge of this instead of these UNaccountable bureaucrats.

[angcat]

thank you!

[Cindy]

I don’t know.

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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Jerusalem&btnG=Google+Search

[Cindy]

Thank you to all of you.

I’m glad you are reading TM.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=alqaeda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=alqaida

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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018997.php

December 2, 2007

“Oz Inmates studying al-Qaeda manual”
(SYDNEY MORNING HERALD)

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “ISLAMIC extremists are using an al-Qaeda training manual to give them instructions for taking over the state’s toughest jails, prison authorities have alleged.

Up to 40 inmates had established an internal organisational structure to maintain morale, resist interrogation and recruit members to Islam.

The prisoners had set up leadership groups in several maximum-security jails, with their activities governed by the code outlined in the al-Qaeda manual for incarcerated followers.

A number of Corrective Services staff have been targeted, some with violent threats by inmate groups. Other staff have been singled out for conversion to Islam.”

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran

#

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2220465,00.html

“Young woman doctor who fell foul of Iran’s ‘love police’ was strangled”

“GP dies in custody after arrest for sitting with her fiancé in the park - and the police say it is suicide”

Robert Tait in Tehran
Sunday December 2, 2007
The Observer

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Nothing about Zahra Baniyaghoub’s life suggested she would have wanted to end it. With a flourishing career as a doctor and a stable relationship with a man she loved, she seemed to have everything to live for.

But when she died suddenly in the custody of Iran’s morals and virtues police - an organisation empowered by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to enforce Islamic behavioural standards - officials reported it as suicide.”

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=youths
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=france

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933597/posts

“France stunned by rioters’ savagery”
The Sunday Times (of London) ^ | Dec. 2, 2007 | Matthew Campbell
Posted on 12/02/2007 9:06:11 AM PST by ml/nj

[jveritas]

Thank you very much for your trust in me my FRiend :) The problem is that even if you have a great plan to combat the Terrorist Cyberspace, it will become very ineffective when being implemented by a bureaucratic agency.