Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

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MUHAFIZ.WMV 15-Aug-2004 14:29 4.2M

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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04080080.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

40-THOUSAND CHRISTIANS FLEE IRAQ, OFFICIAL SAYS
Pope offers help to end Najaf violence

By: Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

BAGHDAD / NAJAF (ANS) -- Tens of thousands of Christians have fled Iraq where fierce battles raged Tuesday August 17, between American forces and the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a government official confirmed. (Pictured: From left, President Ghazi al-Yawer, PM Iyad Allawi, Deputy PM Barham Saleh, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, former member of the governing council. Source: Voice of America).

Displacement and Migration Minister, Pascale Isho Warda, the only Assyrian Christian in the country's interim government, said 40,000 Christians had already left Iraq since five church bombings blamed on Islamic militants killed up to 15 people two weeks ago, the French News Agency (AFP) reported.

The number of fleeing Christians was much higher than previously estimated, and more believers were expected to follow amid signs of growing Muslim violence in areas such as the troubled town of Najaf, although the Vatican said late Tuesday, August 17, it was prepared to mediate a halt to the fighting.

But Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini told reporters the Holy See was only willing to mediate if requested to do so by both sides in the conflict in what is seen as 'the Shiite holy city' in Iraq.

"The Holy See, obviously, is always disposed to help the parties to talk to each other and have a dialogue, on condition there exists a real will to commit to a peaceful solution to the crisis," he said.

MEDIATION PLANNED

Catholic media reported that the mediation was expected to be directly handled by the Cardinal Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, who is said to be closely following developments in the conflict. Sodano reportedly told Italian state radio this week that all sides should "respect the holy character of the city. Therefore, the appeal that I make in the name of the pope is that there is a return in any case to honest talks."

News of the Vatican's planned intervention came as an eight-member peace delegation returned to Baghdad empty-handed early Wednesday, August 18, with members of the group that al-Sadr hadn't met with them, a decision that the cleric's aides said was due to the fighting.

Journalists described a scene of clashes between between U.S. troops and the Shiite cleric's militia men who are hold up in a Muslim shrine. An Iraqi photographer working for London-based news agency Reuters was shot in both legs Tuesday, August 17, during battles between Shiite Muslim militia and U.S. forces in the holy city of Najaf.

However in a development expected to raise questions among human rights groups, Police chief General Ghaleb al-Jazairi said earlier he was under orders from the interior minister that all journalists, local and foreign, must leave the area.

LIVE BROADCAST INTERRUPTED

Mohammad Kazem, an Iraqi correspondent for Iranian television, was detained at gunpoint by police in the middle of a live broadcast from a rooftop, AFP said.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi reiterated his insistence that the militia disarm and quit Najaf for there to be any peaceful solution to the crisis. "The government responds favorably to the demand from the national conference that the Najaf crisis be resolved peacefully," he said in a statement.

In Baghdad, the renewed violence overshadowed however a long-awaited national conference to create a functioning assembly in what was seen as Iraq's first experiment in democracy in decades.

MORTAR BOMBS

Mortar bombs exploded in the heavily fortified compound around the venue, shaking the building as organizers screamed at participants to get away from the windows, an AFP reporter said. After a speech given by UN envoy Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, dozens of delegates leapt out of their seats, shouting: "As long as there are air strikes and shelling, we can't have a conference."

Since this weekend at least five people were reportedly killed when US forces carried out multiple bombing raids in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, after coming under attack by Sunni Muslim insurgents, a doctor and the military said. The US-led coalition meanwhile announced the deaths of three soldiers in 24 hours.

A US soldier was killed in northern Baghdad while a Dutch soldier and a Ukrainian officer were killed in separate incidents south of the capital, AFP said. Iraqi Christians, who are mainly Assyrians, have expressed concern that violence will especially affect them as they are seen by Muslim militants as supporters of the U.S.-led coalition. While some church officials have said there are roughly 2.5 million Assyrian Christians in Iraq, most estimates spoke recently off 750,000 as an increasing number of believers are fleeing to countries such as Syria and Jordan.

Read more on these and other news stories on news agency BosNewsLife at website http://www.bosnewslife.com

Award winning Journalist Stefan J. Bos was born on the 19th of September 1967 in a small home in downtown Amsterdam, in the Netherlands not far from the typewriter of his father, who was (and still is) a Reporter and ghostwriter. Already at a very young age Bos decided to become journalist and finally arrived in Hungary, the same country where his parents had smuggled Bibles during Communism.

Bos has traveled extensively to cover wars and revolutions throughout the region and received the Annual Press Award of Merit from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his coverage about foreign policy affairs including Hungary's relationship with NATO and the European Union. Stefan J. Bos can be reached at: stefan@bosnewslife.com.

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

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I heard 2 itching, one vomiting....sigh

With all the recent anthrax hoaxes, the "rotten lemons" in the cargo a couple of weeks ago, and now this you have to wonder if there is a setup in the works.

It is an amazing sight.
Thank you.

Sounds like the cab drivers received the CAIR talking points memo.

Bump to reread later.

Not enough coffee yet to comprehend!??!

Bookmark post #2609.

Nice work!

Powder spill shuts Fort Wayne airport

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A white powder spilled from a bag being unloaded at the Fort Wayne Airport this morning, making at least one airport worker ill and forcing the closure of the airport.

Six people were undergoing decontamination at the airport, Fort Wayne’s WPTA TV reported.

The bag was being unloaded from an American Eagle flight from Chicago, airport spokeswoman Sandra Lux said. She said the bag belongs to a doctor from Beirut, Lebanon, who was not on the flight.

One worker became ill after coming in contact with the powder and two others complained of severe itching.

The airport terminal was shut down and all fights were delayed after the 2 a.m. incident.

Lux said that officials were attempting to contact the doctor and determine what the white powder is.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/9/171265-1029-093.html

Thanks for compiling that info. We need to get this guy.

Hi Vel - I see you're bright and early as usual with the big story of the morning. This looks like more than powdered sugar.

Actually Liz heard it this morning, I just followed up with the article.

Why on earth is a bag on a plane *without* the passenger???

The passenger: a doctor from Beirut.

If this bag hasn't been reported lost or reported lost soon . . . passenger not on bored . . . hmmmm

Right, but the doctor was not on the plane at Fort Wayne airport.

I was told basically the same thing. Those symptoms are similar to what one gets when on edrinls wayyyyy too much. And that is a regular occurence at Put-in-Bay.

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=a7265c81-d71a-4c37-8a49-7b041d29156d

'A lot' of Canadians in al-Qaeda track between words
Toronto, Vancouver men at terror training camp, Khadr says

Stewart Bell
National Post

August 17, 2004

"A lot" of Canadians trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and some still live freely in Canada, Abdurahman Khadr testified at a court hearing at which he revealed chilling new details about Canadian terror suspects and his father's ties to Osama bin Laden's training camps.

Mr. Khadr, a 21-year-old Toronto man who underwent weapons and explosives training at four camps in Afghanistan, said in testimony made public yesterday that he had given CIA agents the names of several Canadians who trained at camps such as Khalden.

"I know a lot of people that are living in the West and are living in Canada, and that live their everyday life now and are not under arrest or anything, that have been to Khalden," Mr. Khadr testified at a July 13 hearing in Montreal.

"I had a lot of friends that were Canadians that came to Afghanistan and went to training," Mr. Khadr said. "Some of them are dead now and some of them are back in Canada and some of them are under arrest."

His contention that graduates of the Afghan camps are living normal lives in Canada comes as U.S. officials are concerned that al-Qaeda might try to use Canada as a staging ground for a terrorist strike some time before November's presidential election.

Mr. Khadr testified the training camps did not instruct recruits to "go after America," but provided basic weapons training for Muslims, whom he said are obliged to prepare to defend Islamic countries from attack. But it is now widely known the camps were run by al-Qaeda and taught recruits how to attack Western targets.

Among the Canadians who attended the camps were Amer and Ahmad El-Maati of Toronto, a Vancouver man he knew as Amer, who was killed in a 1998 U.S. missile strike, and a Canadian named Idriss, who was arrested for plotting to blow up an embassy in Azerbaijan, Mr. Khadr testified.

He also testified he met Mahmoud Jaballah in Peshawar, Pakistan. Mr. Jaballah is an Egyptian being detained by Canadian authorities following his arrest in Toronto. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) alleges he is a member of the Al Jihad terrorist group. His lawyers argued at a hearing yesterday that he should not be deported to Egypt because he would face torture there. (See story Page A6)

Mr. Khadr's testimony, which fills 176 pages, lends support to accusations by CSIS that Mr. Khadr's father, the late Ahmed Khadr, was a central figure in Canada's Sunni Islamic extremist network until he was killed last year during a shootout with Pakistani security forces.

Known in Afghanistan as al-Kanadi, or the Canadian, his father's house is depicted in the testimony as a hub of Canadian jihad activity. Canadians travelling to Afghanistan to train with al-Qaeda would often pass through the Khadr family home, Abdurahman said.

"We regularly got information if there was any Canadians. In a lot of cases, these Canadians would stay at our house before they would go to Afghanistan. Otherwise, if they didn't stay in our house, then we would know that there is a Canadian coming, you know, to go to Afghanistan and he is going to Khalden or he is going to the [Khalden camp] guesthouse."

The Khadr family raised as much as $70,000 during annual fundraising visits to Canada, he added. The money, raised mostly at mosques, was for Health and Education Projects International, a non-profit organization run by Ahmed Khadr.

Abdurahman said he did not know where the money went but said he had no evidence it financed terrorist training camps. He did admit, however, that his father was close friends with three men who ran al-Qaeda's training camps, including Abu Zubaydah.

He also admitted the Khadr charity had sent supplies to Khalden camp. "I was in Khalden and there was a container of clothes and medicine that came from Canada. And later I saw medicine from the same container and clothes in the camp, in the training camp."

The testimony is the latest chapter in the saga of the Khadrs, a Canadian Muslim family that lived in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1985 to 2001. Although the family long denied any ties to terrorism, the Khadrs now admit their close association to bin Laden and his top aides.

Ahmed Khadr first went to the region as a representative of the Ottawa-based humanitarian group Human Concern International. He became a friend of bin Laden and together they helped finance the fight against the Soviets in the 1980s.

He was later arrested for his alleged role in the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, but he was released after several months. Abdurahman testified the release came after Jean Chretien, then the prime minister, "used his influence on Benazir Bhutto," then the prime minister of Pakistan.

Later, the Khadrs moved into bin Laden's compound in Jalalabad and became what Abdurahman described as an al-Qaeda family.

In November, 2001, Abdurahman was captured by Northern Alliance rebels and handed over to British and American intelligence agents. He claims he co-operated with the CIA and was sent to Guantanamo Bay and Bosnia to spy for the Americans.

His brother Omar was arrested in July, 2002, and remains at Guantanamo. Abdurahman said in his testimony that Omar, accused of killing a U.S. soldier, had confessed at first but then stopped talking.

"My brother Omar co-operated with the FBI and he was ready; they were being ready to release him and then he was in his cellblock and people saw that he was being ready to be released so they told him: 'Oh, you told everything. You are going to Hell. So if you don't change, you are going to Hell.' So the next time he went to interrogation, he denied everything, so they took away everything from him and he is still there now."

His father was killed and his youngest brother, Karim, was injured in a shootout in Pakistan in October, 2003. His mother, Maha Elsamnah, returned to Canada with Karim in the spring, raising an outcry among Canadians who wanted the family barred from the country.

Abdurahman made his comments while testifying as a defence witness in the case of Adil Charkaoui, a Moroccan arrested in Montreal after CSIS alleged he was an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. Mr. Khadr testified that while he knew many of the Canadians who trained in Afghanistan, he had never seen Mr. Charkaoui.

Government lawyers tried to discredit him, noting he had changed his story several times. They also emphasized he had not recognize the names of such other Canadian terrorist suspects as Mohammed Marzouk, Abousofian Abdelrazik, Samir Ezzine and Abdallah Ouzghar.

He admits to lying in the past but said that two days after giving a false account of his activities at a news conference in Toronto, he told his lawyer, Rocco Galati, he was actually a CIA informer. He insists he is telling the truth now and just wants to live a normal life in Canada.

He is also suing the Canadian government for a passport, which the government refuses to issue because of his family's al-Qaeda links.

© National Post 2004