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Thread Twenty-four here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331735/posts |
Posted on 12/23/2004 10:30:10 PM PST by nwctwx
PHOTOS (high bandwidth)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1322199/posts
I'm not sure that I'm looking at the same info as you, but googling "Chafiq" brings up some foreign sites that reveal a Chahla Chafiq, a female Iranian writer living in France, a Chafiq sports figure, and several other writers including a Palestinian (Mounir) Chafiq who specializes in criticizing materialism, capitalism, and imperialism.
There's also a Mohammed Chafiq who's 78 and head of The Royal Institute of Culture where he's planning an in depth study on the art of the carpet. I don't think we have to worry too much about him.
Wanted terrorist Chafiq bin Muhammed (Ayadi) 40, a London-based businessman with ties to 911 sounds more feasible, but he's not Dekkak, unless it's a pseudonym.
Not much comes up for "Dekkak" except a French Doctor (Rachid) and a place in Egypt called Kom Al-Dekka.
This guy's a mystery, but hope this helps.
Photo of the day!!!!
This photo taken in a house in Mosul shows well the situation of our people. Our community is occupied by the Kufir. Muslims are under siege and persecuted from Detroit to Gibraltar up to Timor and in Indonesia! Pride and honor has disappeared from the hearts of many Muslims... That Allah give back to us the pride and honor that our people knew in the past!
Photos of the valiant lions of Islam at Ramadi!!!Allah Akbar
RIYADH, 18 January 2005 Would-be terrorists hoping for a free ride on the information superhighway instead are getting tangled in the World Wide Web as officials are keeping close tabs on Internet cafes and whos who in cyberspace.
Three Internet cafes, including one located in downtown Riyadh, have been raided by security officials in a move to crack down on terrorists who have been using public cafes to exchange information, post terror messages and issue threats to organizations, government agencies and nations.
Yeah, and a mosque in Manhattan, KS, too. (And we've only got a population fo 45,000 or so.) Same deal: the Wahhabis have to make sure their brand is the one available rather than the watered down version of Islam from, say, Bangaladesh.
bookmark
THANK YOU Penguino.
That's interesting.
Thanks Fair Opinion.
ping to 2972
US CERT.gov: "Current Activity"
http://www.us-cert.gov/current/
http://news.com.com/ISP+suffers+apparent+domain+hijacking/2100-1025_3-5538227.html?tag=nefd.top
"ISP suffers apparent domain hijacking"
Published: January 16, 2005, 1:20 PM PST
By Steven Musil
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
ICC--CCS.org: THE WEEKLY PIRACY REPORT
http://www.icc-ccs.org/prc/piracyreport.php
CIA.gov: NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL - Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project: "MAPPING THE GLOBAL FUTURE: NEW CHALLENGES TO GOVERNANCE" (Read More...)
CIA.gov: NIC - Article: "COUNTERTERRORISM AFTER AL QAEDA" by Paul R. Pillar, National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia (ARTICLE NOTE: "Paul R. Pillar is a former deputy chief of the Central Intelligence Agencys Counterterrorist Center and author of Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy. The views in this article are the authors own. Published in The Washington Quarterly, volume 27, no.3 Summer 2004, pp 101-113") (Read More...)
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20050117.shtml
"Inaugural doomsday?"
Cal Thomas
January 17, 2005
http://www.wtop.com/?sid=391558&nid=417
"Inauguration Security Goes Above and Beyond
A lot of the security will not be seen."
J.J. Green, WTOP and FederalNewsRadio
Washington
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05010076.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com
Monday, January 17, 2005
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP ABDUCTED IN IRAQ
Abduction Came On A Day Of Violence Across Iraq
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
MOSUL, IRAQ (ANS) -- A Catholic archbishop in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul has been kidnapped by insurgents, the Vatican says. Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was abducted from outside his church in the city, according to news agency reports. (Pictured: Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa),
The Vatican said in a statement that it deplored "in the firmest way such a terrorist act," and asked that the archbishop be freed immediately.
There have been a number of attacks on Iraq's Christian minority. Two churches were bombed in Mosul in December.
IRAQI CHRISTIANS' LONG HISTORY
Archbishop Casmoussa, who was appointed leader of the city's Syrian Catholic community six years ago, was seized by gunmen at about 1700 local time (1400 GMT) as he was about to enter his car, a local priest told the AFP (Agence-France Presse) news agency.
The kidnappers forced him into the trunk of their vehicle before speeding away, he said.
Christians make up some 3 percent of Iraq's population of about 25 million.
The Syrian Catholic church belongs to the Eastern rite of Catholicism. It is one of a number of semi-autonomous Catholic churches in the Middle East, which pledge allegiance to the Pope in Rome but enjoy a degree of independence in their religious rites.
Although there have been a number of attacks on Christian targets, Iraqi security forces have been the focus attacks by mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents trying to derail the election.
Turkishpress.Com citing AFP said gunmen kidnapped the Catholic archbishop in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul in what the Vatican condemned as a "terrorist act" as persistent violence dogged the run-up to landmark January 30 elections.
Archbishop Casmoussa, leader of Mosul's Syrian Catholic community, was seized by gunmen at around 5 pm (1400 GMT) as he was about to enter his car, local priest Father Faraj told AFP.
The kidnappers then tossed him into the trunk of their vehicle before speeding away, said the priest, who follows the rival Chaldean rite.
The Chaldean patriarch in Baghdad, Emmanuel Delly, said Casmoussa "was abducted outside his home as he was returning from a pastoral visit in the diocese of Mosul.
"He was abducted and taken off in a car. We don't know who took him, nor the reason why," Delly told the missionary news agency Misna by telephone.
"We gave the news to the Vatican and now we are doing everything possible to trace him and we hope we can save him."
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls said the Holy See "condemns in the firmest manner this terrorist act and demands that Monsignor Casmoussa be rapidly returned safe and well to his ministry."
The motive of the abduction was not immediately clear but it came amid mounting sectarian violence in the run-up to this month's election. The home of the Chaldean patriarch was attacked late last year prompting condemnation from Pope John Paul II.
In Baghdad, a spokesman for one of the main Christian political parties suggested the abduction might be an attempt to intimidate the community into staying at home on polling day.
"It could be an attack on Christians who are willing to participate in the elections," said Assyrian Democratic Movement spokesman William Warda.
Reuters said the Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped Monday in what the Vatican called an "act of terrorism."
Archbishop Casmoussa was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq, where the local church has been the target of a bombing campaign which has rattled the tiny Christian minority.
"We have received news of the kidnapping of the
Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters. He gave no details of the abduction.
"The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry," he said.
Christians make up some 3 percent of Iraq's population of about 25 million and have traditionally kept a relatively low profile, mindful of their precarious position in an overwhelmingly Muslim society.
A spate of bombs have hit churches and hospitals in the past few months, leaving numerous dead and injured.
Iraq's 650,000 Christians are mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics. Many have left Iraq and the Vatican fears more will go.
Last month the Vatican's foreign minister warned that anti-Christian feeling was spreading in Iraq and other Muslim countries because the war on terrorism was seen as linked to Western political strategy.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.
Pope John Paul strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq by US and Coalition forces.
Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic church, an ancient rite present mostly in the Middle East. There are two Syrian Catholic dioceses in Iraq -- one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul.
According to the Vatican yearbook, Casmoussa was born in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh.
The Associated Press (AP) reported: "The Holy See deplores in the firmest way such a terrorist act," a Vatican statement said, demanding that he be freed immediately.
A priest in Iraq said on condition of anonymity that the archbishop was walking in front of the Al-Bishara church in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of Muhandeseen when gunmen forced him into a car and drove away.
Mosul is a northern Iraqi city that in recent months has been a hotspot of violent insurgency.
The reason for the kidnapping was unclear, but Christians -- tens of thousands of whom live in and around Mosul -- have been subjected to attacks in the past.
Christians make up just 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people. The major Christian groups in Iraq include Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians. There are small numbers of Roman Catholics.
Cathnews.Com reports that Dr Joaquin Navarro Valls, Vatican press spokesman, has condemned the abduction as "an act of terrorism" according to the news reports.
Archbishop Casmoussa is leader of the Syrian Catholic community which has close links to Rome.
The BBC reports: "Archbishop Casmoussa, leader of the city's Syrian Catholic community, was seized by gunmen at around 1700 (1400 GMT) as he was about to enter his car, a local priest told the AFP news agency."
"The kidnappers forced him into the trunk of their vehicle before speeding away, he said."
BACKGROUND ON SYRIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
*Observes the Liturgy of St James, performed in Syriac, though certain readings are in Arabic
*Practiced mostly in Iraq and Lebanon
*In communion with Roman Catholic church since the 17th century.
**This story was prepared using information gleaned from internet websites
** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
OFF TOPIC...
ROBOTIC DOGS
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Robotic+Dogs%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
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