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Posted on 04/01/2006 5:00:12 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Europe's botched civilization, perverted by socialism and lost faith, seems to have lost the will, the passion to sustain itself. If it continues to practice today's multiculturalist leftism, Europe's demographic doom will be sealed. Some harbingers:
In Brussels, Belgium, the most popular name for baby boys is now Mohammad. Sustaining the population of a nation requires that on average each couple gives birth to 2.1 children. The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to 3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe. Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into Muslim families. In France at least 12 percent of the population is already Muslim, the fruits mostly of immigrants from former French colonies in North Africa. If present birth trends continue, by 2030 a quarter of France's people will be Muslim, more than enough to determine who controls the national parliament and executive. As this columnist recently noted, the nuclear-armed French military is already 15 percent Muslim. Adjacent Switzerland is now 20 percent Muslim. The German newspaper Deutsche Welle days ago reported that Germany's birth rate in 2005 fell to a level lower than at the end of World War II, to a "historic low," more than fifty percent lower than those of France and Great Britain. But at a meeting this week in Berlin that brought together the interior ministers of six European nations, Germany's leftwing Social Democrats continued to oppose the application of any test or standard that would restrict who could migrate into Germany.
The burgeoning Muslim population within Europe is not evenly spread. It is largely concentrated in and around big cities, whose local politicians feel its pressure acutely and often bend to that pressure. In the Netherlands the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam nearly have Muslim majorities now.
These Islamic enclaves are already taking on the character of conquered provinces that no longer belong to the European countries around them. As FrontPage Magazine recently quoted from the new book While Europe Slept by liberal American expatriate Bruce Bawer:
In France, a public official met with an imam at the edge of Roubaix's Muslim district out of respect for his declaration of the neighborhood as Islamic territory to which she had no right of access. In Britain, imams have pressed the government to officially designate certain areas of Bradford as being under Muslim, not British, law. In Denmark, Muslim leaders have sought the same kind of control over parts of Copenhagen. And in Belgium, Muslims living in the Brussels neighborhood of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek already view it not as part of Belgium but as an area under Islamic jurisdiction in which Belgians are not welcome.
June 16, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
At least 19 killed in Iraq, 11 in Baghdad mosque bombing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060616/ts_afp/iraqunrest_060616104502;_ylt=AvPL.lJmAkdzvTbsJWMevf2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
Related story to mosque bombing: 'Shoe bomber' hits Baghdad mosque
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5086326.stm
Iraqi Forces Capture Terrorist Leader; Coalition Forces Foil Kidnapping
- DOD press release: Sheik Aqeel arrested in Karbala - commands
terrorist network
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2006/20060615_5430.html
(Indonesia) Bashir urges Muslims to fight - urges "jihad" for
"combating infidels" "to uphold the faith"
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19493448-23109,00.html
(India - Kasmir) Militants hack off noses, tongues - Islamist militants
killed a villager in Indian Kashmir by slitting his throat and cut off
the tongues and noses of four others, accusing them of being police
informers
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19493697-23109,00.html
Documents Support Saddam-Taliban Connection - Second in series of
reports
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199757,00.html
Iraq to take over security responsibility - in southern Iraq this month
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_security;_ylt=Ai_oHisalTymAU57gnahYVELewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--
Forty insurgents killed in Afghanistan: coalition
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/June/subcontinent_June565.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=
England Warns: Al Qaeda Plans to Attack Saudi Arabia - per Middle East
Newsline
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=105512
Al Qaeda Encouraged War Between America and Iran - Per Captured
Documents in Iraq
http://www.nysun.com/article/34591
45,000 from terror-linked nations freed since 2001
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0%2C1299%2CDRMN_15_4774070%2C00.html
Atlanta terror suspects: Danger or naive?
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150408211221&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
Iran's Ahmadinejad: Holocaust should be investigated
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355506362&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel - Seven Kassams Since Last Night
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=105520
Israel's weapons used against Israelis; Terrorist tells WND rifles
given to Abbas for 'security' employed in shooting attacks
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50664
(UK) London Educational System: Providing Terrorism in Context or Moral
Confusion?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2227886,00.html
Washington sniper reveals four new shootings: report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502142.html
[a post to study and research...I have mentioned several times the tests that were on the space ship disaster, here is a sample of what was on it]
Worms Survive Shuttle Disaster
http://www.cmu.edu/magazine/03fall/wormsurvive.html
http://www.dss.mil/training/csg/security/T5terror/Kidnap.htm
Kidnapping and Hostage
Survival Guidelines
The chances of your being kidnapped or taken hostage are small. If it does happen, your chances of survival are high. Kidnapping is a terrifying experience, but you probably possess more personal resources than you think to cope with the situation. Remember, you are of value to those who are holding you only if you are alive, and they want to keep you that way. Your best defense is passive cooperation. The more time passes, the better your chances of being released alive.
Kidnapping can happen anywhere -- you can be taken off the street, from a car, or from your hotel room or residence. The best opportunity for escape is in the beginning, during the confusion of the apprehension while you are still in a public place. If escape is impossible or too risky, you should nevertheless try to cause as much commotion as safely possible to draw attention to the situation. You need to make others aware that an abduction has taken place so that the authorities are notified and the search can begin. Otherwise, it could be hours or days before your absence is reported. Also see Defensive Driving Overseas.
Once you have been forced into a vehicle, you may be blindfolded, beaten (to cause unconsciousness), drugged, or forced to lie face down on the floor of the vehicle. In some instances, hostages have been forced into trunks or specially built compartments for transporting contraband. If drugs are administered, do not resist. Their purpose will be to sedate you and make you more manageable. It is probably better to be drugged than to be beaten unconscious. If you are conscious, follow your captors’ instructions.
While being confined and transported, do not struggle. Calm yourself mentally and concentrate on surviving. Attempt to visualize the route being taken, make a mental note of turns, street noise, smells, etc. Try to keep track of the amount of time spent between points. You will be asked questions about this after your release in an effort to determine where you were held.
Once you have arrived at your destination, you may be placed in a temporary holding area before being moved again to a more permanent detention site. If you are interrogated:
* Retain a sense of pride but act cooperative.
* Divulge only information that cannot be used against you. Make every effort to avoid embarrassing the U.S. and the host government.
* Do not antagonize your interrogator with obstinate behavior.
* Concentrate on surviving. If you are to be used as a bargaining tool or to obtain ransom, you will be kept alive.
After reaching what you may presume to be your permanent detention site (you may be moved several more times), quickly settle into the situation.
* Be observant. Notice the details of the room, the sounds of activity in the building and determine the layout of the building by studying what is visible to you. Listen for sounds through walls, windows or out in the streets, and try to distinguish between smells. Note the number, names, physical description, accents, habits , and rank structure of your captors. Try to memorize this information so that you can report it after your release.
* Know your captors. Memorize their schedule, look for patterns of behavior to be used to your advantage, and identify weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Use this information to assess opportunities to escape.
* Expect to be accused of being an intelligence agent and to be interrogated intensively. Do not admit to any accusations. Keep your answers short and don't volunteer information or make unnecessary overtures.
* Try to establish a rapport with your captors. Family is a universal subject. So are sports and many hobbies. Your goal should be to get the hostage takers to view you as a real person, rather than simply an object. Listen actively to the terrorists' feelings and concerns, but never praise, participate in, or debate their "cause." If you know your captors' language, use it. Ask them to teach you their language.
* Speak normally. Don't complain. Avoid being belligerent and comply with all orders and instructions. Once a level of rapport or communication is achieved, try asking for items that will increase your personal comfort. Don't be afraid to ask for anything you need or want such as medicines, books, or papers. Make requests in a reasonable, low-key manner.
* Plan on a lengthy stay and devise a way to keep track of the passage of time. If isolated, you can approximate time by noting changes in temperature between night and day, the frequency and intensity of outside noises (traffic, birds), and by observing the alertness of guards.
* Establish a daily schedule of mental as well as physical exercise. If your movement is extremely limited, use isometric and flexing exercises to keep your muscles toned. To maintain your strength, eat what you are given even if it does not look appetizing and you don't feel hungry. Use relaxation techniques to reduce stress.
* If you detect the presence of other hostages in the same building, try to devise ways to communicate.
During interrogation, do not be uncooperative, antagonistic, or hostile towards your captors. Captives who display this type of behavior are often held longer or become the object of torture or punishment. Take a simple, tenable position and stick to it. Be polite and keep your temper. Give short answers. Talk freely about nonessential matters, but be guarded when conversations turn to matters of substance. Don't be lulled by a friendly approach. Remember, one terrorist may play "Good Guy" and one "Bad Guy." This is the most common interrogation technique.
Watch for signs of "Stockholm Syndrome" which occurs when the captive, due to the close proximity and the constant pressures involved, begins to relate to, and empathize with, the captors. In some cases, this relationship has resulted in the hostage becoming sympathetic to the point that he/she actively participates in the activities of the group. Establish a friendly rapport with your captors, but maintain your personal dignity and do not compromise your integrity.
If forced to present terrorist demands to authorities, either in writing or on tape, state clearly that the demands are from your captors. Avoid making a plea on your own behalf.
Be patient, as hostage negotiations are often difficult and time consuming. Remember, your chances of survival increase with time. Most episodes of kidnapping or hostage-taking end with no loss of life or physical injury to the captive. Eventually you will probably be released or rescued. Do not try to escape unless you are certain of success. If you are able to escape, go first to a U.S. Embassy or Consulate to seek protection. If you cannot reach either, go to a host government or friendly government office.
If an attempt is made to rescue you, keep a low profile and immediately follow all instructions. Rescue will generally be attempted only after negotiations have failed. That means that lives of hostages, terrorists, and rescue forces are all at risk during the rescue. You don't want to be shot in the confusion while the rescue team identifies the terrorists, who may try to disguise themselves as hostages. To protect yourself, follow these rules:
* DO NOT RUN. Drop to the floor and remain still. If that is not possible, cross your arms on your chest, bow your head, and stand still. Make no sudden moves that a tense rescuer may interpret as hostile.
* Wait for instructions and obey all instructions you are given.
* Don't be upset if a rescuer isn't sure whether you are a terrorist or hostage. Even if you are handcuffed and searched, do not resist. Just wait for the confusion to clear.
Related Topic: Defensive Driving Overseas, DoD Code of Conduct.
HOME | ANTITERRORISM CONTENTS | TOP OF PAGE | HELP
INFORMATION | CONDUCT | THREATS | TECH VULNERABILITY | ASSISTANCE
SPY STORIES | TREASON 101
Personal Conduct and
Reporting Requirements
Standards of Personal Conduct
What is expected of me? Examples of behavior of potential security concern. Guidelines for adjudicating security clearances.
Self-Reporting on Your Personal Activities
Reporting foreign contacts, foreign travel, intent to marry or cohabitate, financial and substance abuse issues, certain outside activities, etc. Pre-publication review. Reporting foreign intelligence activities.
Reporting Improper, Unreliable, or Suspicious Behavior
Reporting responsibilities. Counterintelligence indicators. Security and suitability issues. Preventing violence. No good excuses for not reporting. Examples of how people like you made a difference. Hot line phone numbers.
U.S. Government Ethics Standards
Gifts. Frequent Flyer Benefits. Impartiality. Misuse of Position. Financial Interests. Outside Activities. Post-Employment Limitations.
http://www.dss.mil/training/csg/security/Conduct.htm#Personal%20Conduct
http://www.dss.mil/training/csg/security/Spystory/Intro.htm#True%20Spy%20Stories
True
Spy Stories
Learning from Experience
Hacking Computers from Overseas
You Can Make a Difference
Illegal Export of Poison Gas
Ames: Too Many Weaknesses
Lalas: Something Wasn't Right
American Travelers Abroad
Lipka: No Statute of Limitations
Cavanagh Wanted to Be Wealthy
Notable Industrial Espionage Cases
Charlton: Disgruntled Engineer
Pollard: Grandiose Imagination
Consulting Led to Espionage
Ramsay Recruited Drug Users
Espionage Killed the Company
Walker Was "Intrinsically Evil"
Hamilton Tried to Prevent a War
Voice Mail Is Vulnerable bar
Learning from Experience
Espionage is said to be the second oldest profession. (For those who have to ask, the oldest is prostitution.) Like the oldest profession, the basics of espionage really haven't changed much over the past two thousand years. But there are a number of newer developments in the kinds of people involved, what they are after and how they accomplish the dirty deed.
Experience is the best teacher, so past cases have been selected and described to illustrate important points. Some timeless truths that need to be repeated may be best illustrated by an older case. Due to security, legal, privacy, and practical bureaucratic considerations, it usually takes several years after an arrest and conviction before unclassified information on new cases becomes available for broad dissemination.
[ an old report, but note that Iran was buying Sarin gas]
http://www.dss.mil/training/csg/security/Spystory/Poison.htm#Illegal%20Export
Illegal Export of Poison Gas
Juwhan Yun, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Korean origin, ran a legal weapons-exporting company called Komex International in Newark, NJ. The company did most of its legitimate business with South Korea. In 1988, Yun inquired of a New York company about purchasing ammunition for South Korea. A former U.S. customs agent who happened to work at the New York company reported Yun to Customs, as he had suspicions that the ammunition may really be for some country other than South Korea.
Based on this tip, Customs put an undercover agent into contact with Yun. Over the course of six months, the agent, masquerading as an arms dealer, negotiated with Yun for TOW missiles, Stinger missiles, classified U.S. missile technology, radar systems and other military items for illegal export. U.S. authorities legally tapped Yun's phone and fax machine, and this revealed his relationship with Charles Caplan, a convicted felon in England who was notorious for his Iranian and Libyan dealings.
Yun was monitored while Caplan asked him to procure a quantity of the deadly nerve gas Sarin. Shortly thereafter, Yun asked the undercover agent if he could provide Sarin in large quantity for clandestine export to Iran. Sarin is an odorless, colorless liquid or vapor that can cause death within minutes after it is inhaled or absorbed by the skin.
Yun suggested the undercover agent mislabel the Sarin as crankshafts on the export paperwork, but asked the agent to procure a phony export license at a cost of $50,000 as a backup. It was learned later that Caplan's client (presumably Iran) was interested in large explosive devices of liquid Sarin designed to be dropped from aircraft.
In January 1989, Yun traveled to London to meet with Caplan and his principals. While there, he opened an account at the Korea First Bank under a fictitious name for eventually wire-transferring funds from London to his American supplier for the Sarin. Yun was arrested shortly after his return. He was convicted of conspiring to export 500 quarter-ton bombs of nerve gas valued at $5 million.
Related Topic: Illegal Technology Transfer.
References
Frances Ann Burns, "Nerve Gas Defendant Due for Sentencing," United Press International, July 22, 1989. Daniel J. Wakin, "Man in Custody for Alleged Attempts to Buy Nerve Gas for Exportation," Associated Press, January 13, 1989.
HOME | SPY STORIES CONTENTS | TOP OF PAGE | HELP
INFORMATION | CONDUCT | THREATS | TECH VULNERABILITY | ASSISTANCE
SPY STORIES | TREASON 101
[I have not dug into this site, but do expect many finds.]
http://www.jcs.mil/
Today's reports:
President George W. Bush, surrounded by members of his Cabinet and his national security team, talks with reporters June 12, 2006, in Camp David, Md., during the first day of a two-day meeting on Iraq. President Bush is joined by, from left to right, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns. White House photo by Eric Draper.
Chairman wishes Army Happy Birthday
WASHINGTON, June 14, 2006 -- Congratulations to the United States Army on the occasion of your 231st birthday. For more than two centuries, the men and women who have worn the Army uniform have served with honor and distinction. Today’s generation of Soldiers continue to add to that incredible legacy every day. From deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, to humanitarian operations at home and abroad, Army men and women are making the world a better place. Letter
U.S. Remains Committed to Iraq's Success
WASHINGTON, June 14, 2006 – President Bush's visit to Iraq and the historic joint meeting of the U.S. and Iraqi Cabinets yesterday represent an important sign of solid U.S. support for Iraq's new government, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. Story
England Urges Review of Guard Changes
WASHINGTON, June 14, 2006 – Proposed legislation that would elevate the National Guard Bureau's status within the Defense Department needs extensive review and discussion, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing here yesterday. Story
Bush Summit Focuses on Iraq Strategy
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2006 - President Bush brought together his interagency team on Iraq today at Camp David to discuss plans to help Iraq's new government succeed now that its Cabinet is fully formed and terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead. Story | Transcript
Pentagon Memorial to be Place of Remembrance
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2006 - The Pentagon Memorial will be an important way to remember the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and will be a place for their family members and others to gain solace and inspiration. Story
Pay Statements to Inform Troops of Data Loss
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2006 - The Defense Department will inform servicemembers who could be affected by the May theft of personal data from the Department of Veterans Affairs through their monthly pay statements. Story
Chairman Reflects on Leadership, Service
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany, June 9, 2006 - Thirty-nine years to the day after his U.S. Naval Academy commissioning in 1967, Gen. Peter Pace, the first Marine to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, still isn't ready to call himself a good leader. Story | Traveling with Pace
Privacy & Security Notice | About JCS | Contact Us
http://www.google.com/search?q=free+survival+classes+on+internet&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
different and looks useable:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Learn+to+survive+a+disaster&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=How+to+survive+a+disaster&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Must be something here that I need to learn:
http://www.google.com/search?q=free+college+classes+on+internet&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Homemaking+classes+on+the+internet+free&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Good:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Instructions+to+make+it+yourself+for+survival&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
***Learning and info plus links:
http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/s_index.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=lost+job+how+to+survive&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=+how+to+survive+without+money&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
LOL, many links want to sell a book for $20.00 on how to feed a family for $10.00.....
http://www.google.com/search?q=Feed+a+family+on+%2410.00+a+week&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
{ No need to ask why I did these googles, as I don't know}
Good morning, Ruth. :)
Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.
[a post to study and research]
from the June 16, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0616/p01s04-woiq.html
Picture of a weakened Iraqi insurgency
Document released Thursday by Iraq's government appears to show that Al Qaeda in Iraq feels vulnerable.
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BAGHDAD
An Al Qaeda document linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi purports to show that Iraq's insurgents believe they face a "current bleak situation" that may require fomenting a war between the US and Iran to "get out of this crisis."
The document, released Thursday, could not be independently authenticated. But senior Iraqi officials were ebullient about its message, as well as the magnitude of intelligence "treasure" that has emerged surrounding Mr. Zarqawi's death.
This is "the beginning of the end of Al Qaeda in Iraq," Mowafaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, declared Thursday, adding that the data include network names and locations gleaned from Al Qaeda computers captured before Zarqawi's death. "The government is on the attack now ... to destroy Al Qaeda and to finish this terrorist organization in Iraq."
"The documents and all the arrests mean there has been a depletion of talent" among Zarqawi's group, says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm.
"They will have to lick their wounds and reconfigure their security, to protect whatever assets they have left," says Mr. Ranstorp, who heads the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies. The document indicates that Al Qaeda needs to recalibrate "not just psychological warfare, but must shape its actions to get some traction in the population."
"If I were the US, I would continue to drill a hole, and continue to undermine [Qaeda's] legitimacy," adds Ranstorp. "With the killing of Zarqawi, the Americans momentarily have the upper hand."
Since American jets struck Zarqawi's hideout last Wednesday, the US military and Iraqi forces have conducted 452 raids, killing 104 insurgents and capturing 759 "anti-Iraqi elements," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said in Baghdad Thursday.
The news came as the Pentagon confirmed that US military deaths in Iraq have now reached 2,500.
The release of the document coincides with a security clampdown in Baghdad, meant to prevent Zarqawi followers from fulfilling promises to launch revenge attacks.
Spearheading that campaign is the new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who the US military Thursday identified as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian who met Zarqawi in Afghanistan in 1999. Al Qaeda websites claimed the new leader to be Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, apparently a nom de guerre for Mr. Masri.
"Al-Masri's intimate knowledge of Al Qaeda in Iraq and his close relationship with [Zarqawi's] operations will undoubtedly help facilitate and enable them to regain some momentum if in fact he is the one that assumes the leadership role," said General Caldwell.
Masri is an Afghan-trained explosives expert who began his militant career in 1982, when Al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, led Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Caldwell said. In Iraq, he said, intelligence gleaned from raids in April and May show that Masri has been the key link for foreign fighters traveling from Syria to Iraq.
But the organization Masri takes over may be weakening under pressure from US and Iraqi forces, if the assessment from the Al Qaeda document reflects the view of this extreme faction of Iraq's insurgency.
The document appears undated and does not mention Al Qaeda by name, but was found on "some kind of computer asset that was at a safe location" prior to Zarqawi's death, said Caldwell.
"Here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance," reads the document, according to an English translation from Mr. Rubaie's office. "Massive arrest operations" have caused the resistance to "lose many of its elements," it notes. Insurgents are at a further disadvantage by the growing number of trained Iraqi forces, are losing a media campaign "presenting its work as harmful to the population," and suffering from tighter financial restrictions.
The result is that US and Iraqi tactics are "creating a big division among the ranks of the resistance and jeopardizing its attack operations," which have "weakened [insurgent] influence," the document reads.
It makes no mention of specific tactics, such as beheadings, targeting civilians and any Shiite Iraqis - elements pioneered in Iraq by Zarqawi - which have alienated many Iraqis sympathetic to the broader, antioccupation aim of the insurgency.
It says only that US and Iraqi forces are "taking advantage of the resistance's mistakes and magnifying them to misinform."
Among the solutions is to "use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance," the document states. That may prove difficult, says Ranstorp in Sweden, because a top Al Qaeda in Iraq media chief, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, was believed killed in the week before Zarqawi.
"This means their ability to put on a brave face has been damaged," says Ranstorp. "There have been some substantive man losses - qualitative losses" of Al Qaeda operatives.
The Al Qaeda document gives a broad assessment, from apparent ordnance shortages to stoking a clash between the US and Iran. It also includes a lengthy list of potential "delegated wars" that would ease pressure on the resistance.
"The best of these wars to be ignited is the one between the Americans and Iran, because it will have many benefits in favor of the Sunni and the resistance," the document reads. Among those benefits are the "possibility of acquiring new weapons from the Iranian side, either after the fall of Iran or during the battles."
It even asks the rhetorical question of how to draw the US into open conflict with Iran. "It is necessary first to exaggerate the Iranian danger and convince America ... of the real danger coming from Iran."
Its six suggested methods that read like a how-to guide for creating friction. They include sending out "threatening messages against American interests" and blaming Iran; "executing operations of kidnapping hostages" and blaming Iran; "advertising" that Iran has chemical and nuclear weapons "and is threatening the West."
Bomb attacks against the West would be blamed on Iran "by planting Iranian Shiite fingerprints and evidence"; declaring ties between Iran and "terrorist groups (as termed by the Americans)"; and "disseminating bogus messages" that Iran has weapons of mass destruction and "there are attempts by the Iranian intelligence to undertake terrorist operations in America."
Violence continued, despite the Baghdad crackdown. Ten Shiites were pulled off a bus and executed by gunmen in Baquba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and just a few miles east of the village of Hibhib, where Zarqawi was killed.
Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
[a post to study and research]
from the June 12, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0612/p01s02-woiq.html
Next target: Zarqawi's global web
The slain leader was developing a wider terror network, particularly in Europe.
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BAGHDAD - American investigators are exploiting the intelligence bonanza found in the rural safe house north of Baghdad where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed last Wednesday.
Analysts say that the memory sticks, hard drives, and documents found there and at some 56 other sites raided after the Jordanian militant's death are likely to damage Mr. Zarqawi's networks. The US military describes the finds as a "treasure trove."
The new intelligence leads could uncover terrorist operations far afield from Iraq - particularly in Europe - as Zarqawi had begun to piece together a much wider network of militants, experts say.
"The US government will have a firm understanding of Zarqawi's network, not only in Iraq, but Zarqawi's global network," says Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. "Zarqawi had penetrated at least 20 European countries, Canada, ... and even established cells in Southeast Asia."
Some say the scale of Zarqawi's operations - bolstered by recruits inspired by his battlefield exploits in Iraq - may have begun to rival the less visible Osama bin Laden.
"Zarqawi was building a global terror network parallel to Al Qaeda of bin Laden," says Mr. Gunaratna, who is also author of "Inside Al Qaeda." "The killing of Zarqawi is a huge victory - not so much against the Iraqi insurgency, because the insurgency will continue, [but] internationally.... And this network will suffer."
Zarqawi's followers vowed to fight back Sunday with "major attacks" in Iraq, and to renew their "allegiance" to Al Qaeda chief, Mr. bin Laden. An Internet statement said the leadership of Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq met after his death, and promised to "prepare major attacks that will shake the enemy like an earthquake."
The group - posting its message on a site used by the umbrella Mujahideen Shura Council - did not name a successor to Zarqawi.
Depending on what media survived the bombs and the caliber of the more than two-dozen suspects detained in the raids, the information could potentially be in league with that gleaned from the fall of Kabul in 2001 or the capture of Al Qaeda operational mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan in 2003, experts say.
"There is a pattern of senior associates of Al Qaeda, that they keep so much information, so much data - they like to have everything close to their chest, and have it with them," says Michael Radu, the co-chair of the Center on Terrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.
Zarqawi's network, especially in Europe, "is much more extensive than that of bin Laden or [Al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman] al-Zawahiri," says Mr. Radu. "I wouldn't be surprised if we see another wave of arrests in Europe. Then we will know if what was captured [in Iraq] and after was indeed important for [Zarqawi's] network."
Jordanian security officials estimate that Zarqawi recruited, trained, and sent back 300 militants, who are now awaiting orders in their home countries to strike, according to a report in Sunday's edition of The New York Times.
The US military in Baghdad is not further describing the contents or value of the Zarqawi material, says spokesman Maj. Douglas Powell, because "the intelligence is still being developed and we're not ready to address anything specific." Maj. Gen. William Caldwell says he is pushing to have some information quickly declassified.
US forces have "had a steady drum beat of operations against the Al Qaeda network here in Iraq since the Zarqawi operation," Gen. George Casey, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, told Fox News on Sunday. "We will continue to go after [Zarqawi's] network and disrupt it in what we feel is a very vulnerable period. And so we hope to take advantage of that."
Zarqawi's top followers will assume that US forces are exploiting the new leads, says Gunaratna. "Some key operatives will change their venue and their methods," he says. "They will know that Zarqawi's material has been compromised."
The ultimate value of the intelligence from "such a big event" as last week's raids "depends on how [Zarqawi's network is] organized. The goal is always to cut off the head," says a US official in Baghdad familiar with terrorism investigations.
"Think about it like a corporation. The little guy is going to have information about his boss, who will know about the subdivision - the best thing is to get them all," says the official. "But not everybody is organized that way; it is not necessarily a hierarchy."
Indeed, Zarqawi's network appeared to operate alongside - not necessarily over - a broader Iraqi insurgency. Last January Zarqawi helped form the Mujahideen Shura Council, bringing together several Sunni insurgent groups that share Al Qaeda's ideology of turning Iraq into an Islamic state.
"His Shura Council is 80 percent Iraqi, so [US and Iraqi forces] will continue to hunt those people," says Gunaratna. "But Zarqawi has made this group very Iraqi. He has seeded his ideas and values to those Iraqis."
Indeed, Zarqawi's adherents seem to be working on revenge. A string of attacks have continued unabated in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, killing an average 19 people a day over the past three days.
Also Saturday, a more prescient clue: a gruesome video on the Internet of the beheading of three uniformed Shiites, that were claimed in the video to be members of a death squad - a tactic often used by Zarqawi himself against Western hostages.
"Iraq is the front defense line for Islam and Muslims, so don't fail to follow the path of the mujahideen [holy warriors], the caravan of martyrs and the faithful," said Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, the Iraqi leader of Council.
"As for you, the slaves of the cross [Christian coalition forces], the grandsons of Ibn al-Alqami [Shiites], and every infidel of the Sunnis, we can't wait to sever your necks with our swords," warned Mr. Baghdadi, according to an Associated Press translation of the Internet statement.
But the ability of Zarqawi's acolytes to produce and disseminate such videos also may prove to undermine such technically savvy groups.
"They have to keep track of all these little cells they have, and contacts. And the fact that so many have computer training is a temptation to put everything on a hard drive, because who can memorize all those individuals and aliases?" says Radu, of FPRI, about Al Qaeda leaders. "The electronic age is a double-edged sword for them, because it makes them vulnerable if those things are captured."
Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
[Take a look at this story, the maps and charts]
USA > Society & Culture
from the June 14, 2006 edition
After long decline, murders rise in small cities
By Amanda Paulson and Sara Miller Llana | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor
CHICAGO AND BOSTON – It's too soon to call it a trend, but last year's jump in murders - particularly in smaller cities - has some police and crime experts worried.
continued......
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0614/p01s01-ussc.html?s=u2
[ a post for study and research...Interesting that Russia is building their military again..]
from the June 16, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0616/p06s01-woeu.html
Russia aims to tighten military draft law
A new bill would cancel a third of all legal reasons for draft deferments.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
MOSCOW
Until this week, Denis Glotov believed he was exempt from Russia's compulsory military service due to a rare neurological problem identified in his childhood and confirmed by recent tests in a state hospital. But on Wednesday, his local recruitment office simply set aside the medical record and ordered Denis to report immediately for basic training.
"We're going to fight this, but the chances are not good once he's been inducted into the Army," says Denis's father, Viktor, who is a lawyer. "The problem is that the military recruiters are under so much pressure to provide warm bodies that they're just grabbing anyone they can lay their hands on, and figure they'll sort out the legalities later."
Due to falling birthrates over the past two decades, Russia's pool of young men available for military service is shrinking rapidly, triggering what Mr. Glotov and others describe as frantic efforts by recruiters to keep the 1.3- million strong armed forces flush with manpower. At the same time, public opposition to the country's universal conscription system is rising. A poll conducted this month by the state-run VTsIOM polling agency found that 50 percent of Russians now want a US-style all-volunteer force, up from 39 percent two years ago.
A new bill passed this week by the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, aims to square that circle by reducing the obligatory term of service from two years to one, while canceling about a third of all legal reasons for draft deferments, beginning in 2008.
Some experts say the new measures will solve little, and could hamper serious efforts to reform and professionalize the Soviet-era military behemoth. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin pledged to abolish the draft by 2000, but his successor, Vladimir Putin, has lately dropped his early talk of evolving toward a system of paid volunteers by 2010.
No all-volunteer army
"Right now, the official position is that Russia will have conscription forever," says Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense expert. "But canceling deferments will increase social tensions, while one-year terms of service are simply not workable from the military's point of view. Many people believe that's just a carrot that will be taken away later."
While students at major academic institutions will still not be drafted until graduation, deferments will be ended for most in vocational and technical schools. Men with pregnant wives, small children, or dependent parents will also be called up. Most controversially here in culturally conscious Russia, thousands of artists, dancers, and musicians who currently enjoy exemptions will see them lifted. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov personally lobbied for that change, saying he saw no reason why balalaiyeshniki - which translates roughly as "banjo-strummers" - shouldn't have to serve.
"We are terribly worried about this," says Larisa Kazantseva, director of music school for teenagers in Pushkino, which is near Moscow. "A musician's hands are his main instrument, and their hands will be ruined in the Army." She says the country's demographic crisis is already visibly hitting Russia's artistic potential, and conscription will deepen the loss. "A few years ago we had plenty of talented young men coming up, but there are already fewer of them. The country is losing its cultural edge," she says.
Medical deferments are not to be changed under the new bill, which Mr. Putin is expected to sign into law in coming weeks. But experts say the number of cases like Denis Glotov's, where recruiters simply ignore the rules, are likely to keep growing.
"Recruiting stations have their own doctors, who often flagrantly contradict the medical documentation," says Svetlana Kuznetsova, chair of the Moscow Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, a grass-roots organization that counsels draft-age youth. "It happens especially near the end of the annual recruitment drive, when the order comes down: 'take everything that moves,' " she says.
About 1.3-million Russian men reached the age of 18 in 2005, but that will drop by a third in 2010, according to the State Statistics Service. Experts say the pool of available young men may plummet by about half again in the following decade. "The system of conscription is doomed by demographic factors," says Mr. Felgenhauer. "Our generals are clinging to the old model of a mobilization army, in which huge numbers of boys with rifles and masses of tanks win wars. But it's obvious Russia won't be able to sustain that, with or without conscription."
The military's bad reputation
One reason conscription is unpopular, and draft-evasion rife, is the Russian Army's reputation for brutal hazing, corruption, and negligent leadership. The Russian media has widely covered this week's court hearings in the case of Private Andrei Sychev, who was brutally beaten by superiors on a Siberian military base, and subsequently denied medical treatment until gangrene destroyed his legs.
Experts say Mr. Sychev's fate is not unusual. Official figures show that 1,300 soldiers died in noncombat incidents last year, many of them related to hazing. "We believe the actual figure is much higher," says Ms. Kuznetsova. "Our Army is not a normal institution, it's a horror story."
Many countries, including Israel, Finland, and Switzerland have conscript armies, in which recruits are trained in their youth and then called up periodically for service. But Russia's reserve system has largely broken down due to disorganization and lack of funding, while the Army scrambles to replenish its ranks by inducting about half a million 18- to 27-year-old men annually. Experts say the new law, which will reduce the length of obligatory terms from two years to one in 2008, will only intensify the recruitment crisis while doing little to improve the national defense.
"One year's service may be enough to fill the ranks, but you can't properly train people in that time," says Svyatoslav Netlyayev, a journalism professor and former military journalist. "You're going to see a big increase in confusion."
Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
[a post for study and research, unknown url]
No hard evidence links defendant, terror group, FBI agent says
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.
An FBI agent testified Thursday that the government has no evidence
other
than the defendant's own statements linking a former graduate student
to
Palestinian Islamic Jihad _ a group labeled a terrorist organization,
which
Arwah Jaber is accused of trying to help.
And Jaber later recanted most of those statements, FBI agent Ricky
Blair
testified during Jaber's trial.
Blair, called as a witness by the defense, said the government's
investigation failed to find any correspondence between Jaber and the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
"There were no pledges and no videotapes," Blair said.
A naturalized U.S. citizen born in the West Bank, Jaber, 34, was
arrested
June 16, 2005, as he waited to board a flight at Northwest Arkansas
Regional
Airport at Highfill. His trial on the terrorism-help charge, as well as
other charges accusing him of lying to immigration officials and
providing
false information on credit card applications, began Monday in federal
court.
Jaber was expected to testify as the trial continues Friday. After
closing
arguments by the defense and prosecutors, the case should then go to
the
jury.
Blair said there was also no hard evidence that Jaber ever made a call
to a
spiritual adviser, as the government claims.
Blair said witnesses told him that Jaber told them he made the call
from a
pay phone in the early morning hours but Blair said agents would have
had to
know the location of the phone and the number to determine whether any
calls
were made. No attempt was made to get records from public phones in the
area
of Jaber's home, he said.
Jaber recanted the phone story in interviews with the FBI.
Blair also said agents interviewed Jaber on June 13, 2005, but left
without
arresting him.
"He had committed no crime on the 13th, we couldn't arrest him," Blair
said.
A former CIA officer also testified Thursday for the defense as an
expert on
Middle Eastern terror groups. Frank Anderson said he doesnt think Jaber
is a
terrorist.
Anderson told jurors that Jaber's actions in the days leading up to his
arrest were inconsistent with his statements that he was going to
Palestine
to help the group fight Israel.
"A real terrorist wouldn't announce his intentions to the world by
sending
an e-mail or telling people," Anderson said.
These actions were not consistent with Jaber's statements, Anderson
said.
He said his opinion was based not only on Jaber's behavior, but the
people
he associated with and his understanding of the movement's ideology and
history.
"He wouldnt (even) get a D on a political examination," Anderson said.
Anderson said most potential terrorists are associated with radical
preachers and mosques and they tend to associate with like-minded
individuals. Most are recruited or have family ties to terrorist
organizations, and most don't decide on their own to go do something,
Anderson said.
Jaber also would not likely have traveled to Amman, Jordan, as he
apparently
planned, if he had been trying to join up with the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, Anderson said. The group is based primarily in the Gaza Strip
and a
person traveling from Amman would have to make two border crossings and
travel through Israel to get there, according to Anderson.
Jaber contends that he and his wife were traveling to the West Bank, on
the
other side of Israel adjacent to Jordan, to visit his family. Entering
the
West Bank from Amman is common, Anderson said. He also said Jaber
having
another Palestinian name, Orwah Houshia, is not unusual and was not a
sign
that he was trying to become a terrorist.
Anderson said the name Orwah is a Palestinian spelling of Arwah and
Houshia
is a village or place name related to his family. Anderson downplayed
government allegations that Jaber's use of another person's Social
Security
number to get a credit card and open a bank account were signs that he
was
turning terrorist.
"While terrorists may do that, lots of other people do too," Anderson
said.
Jaber's wife, Dawn, testified that both the name and credit card
actions
were a matter of Jaber having bad credit.
"He's lived in this country for 13 years, he loves this country," Dawn
Jaber
said.
Thursday, Patricia Koski, associate dean of the University of Arkansas
graduate school, said Jaber's e-mail to a professor threatening to join
the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad struck her as another grad student being
dramatic.
"I think if he had made a direct threat against someone I would have
been
concerned," Koski said.
060616 034003
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
[a post for study and research]
ANSAR AL-ISLAM HELPER
Terror Suspect Arrested at Frankfurt Airport
An Iraqi man has been arrested and charged with supporting the
terrorist group Ansar al-Islam. His case is connected with two other trials due
to begin next week in Germany.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,grossbild-534227-421376,00.html
The suspect was arrested in the transit lounge of Frankfurt Airport
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,grossbild-534227-421376,00.html
Zoom
AP
The suspect was arrested in the transit lounge of Frankfurt Airport
An Iraqi man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of providing
support to a terrorist group in Iraq. The 36-year-old man, identified only
as Burhan B., was arrested on Monday in the transit lounge of Frankfurt
Airport and charged with financially and logistically supporting Ansar
al-Islam, a radical group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq. A federal judge
on Tuesday ordered him to be held in custody on suspicion of supporting
a foreign terrorist organization and violating German export laws,
according to a statement from federal prosecutors.
The detained man is said to have had contact with Ata A. R., who is
accused of playing a central role in Ansar al-Islam's European network.
Ata A. R. is due to go on trail next week in Stuttgart in connection with
a plot to kill the former Iraqi Prime Minster Ayad Allawi during a
visit to Germany in 2004.
Prosecutors said that Burhan B. made at least three transfers from
Germany on Ata A.R.'s behalf totalling €22,000 to Ansar al-Islam between
November 2003 and May 2004.
The arrest of Burhan B. this week is likely connected with the case of
two other Iraqi men who are due to appear before a Munich court next
Tuesday under suspicion of collecting money for Ansar al-Islam over a
number of years. Their trial is expected to last until December.
Ansar al-Islam, formed in the Kurdish parts of Iraq, is thought to
include former al-Qaida members who fled after the United States toppled
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. The organization and its successor, Ansar
al-Sunna, are suspected of a string of deadly attacks on US troops and
Iraqi police as well as foreign embassies, international organizations
and rival Iraqi groups.
smd/spiegel/ap
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,421376,00.html
[There is a big shortage of Asphalt in Hawaii]
Explosion At Tesoro Refinery Damages Liquid-Asphalt Tank - Hawaii
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13308844/
KITV-TV
8:09 a.m. HST June 14, 2006
EWA, Hawaii - An explosion in a tank at Tesoro Hawaii's oil refinery
blew a hole in the tank used to make liquid asphalt, according a
spokeswoman for the company. It happened at about 11:40 a.m.
Tuesday.
After the hole was blown out the top of the tank, the tank was seen
smoldering, according to Tesoro spokeswoman Jeanette Mukai.
continued............
[ a post for study and research]
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/15/heft15062006.html
Man who knew some bomb-plot suspects says Islamic extremism prevalent
Last Updated Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:05:56 EDT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html
A Toronto-area man who knew some of the 17 people charged in connection
with
an alleged bomb plot in Ontario says one had some fairly extreme views.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2006/06/07/bombplot-courtroom06060
7.jpg
Alleged bomb plot suspects in a Brampton courtroom, Tuesday June 6,
2006.
(John Mantha/CBC)
Mohammed Robert Heft claims Faheem Ahmad thought the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks
on New York and Washington were a good thing for Islam.
Heft converted to Islam in his twenties. He says he fell briefly into a
radical religious mindset but then regained his perspective. That's
when he
started helping troubled Muslims at a Scarborough, Ont., shelter.
He says he knows five of the 17 people facing terrorism-related
charges,
some of whom came to the shelter. He never heard any of them advocate
violence against Canadians, but he says he had a long and disturbing
debate
with Ahmad, 21, two months ago outside of a Scarborough mosque.
"He believed the 19 people involved in the World Trade Center bombings
were
martyrs and he was handing out DVDs openly of wills and testimonies of
those
19 people suggesting what they did was right," said Heft.
But Heft has a different impression of another of the suspects,
25-year-old
Stephen Chand, whom he describes as quiet and not at all political.
"I felt no threat from Steven Chand. This alleged [threat of] beheading
of
the prime minister sounds like a Hollywood movie to me."
Heft says a lot of young Muslims are angry and extremism is prevalent
in the
Toronto area. They get upset when they hear of alleged atrocities
overseas
in places like Iraq.
"People get emotional. Imagine if somebody came into your house and
raped
your family, or by mistake just blew up your family, you'd get a little
angry.
"I mean we get angry ... when the water isn't hot in Canada or we lose
our
electricity for a day. So imagine what these people overseas are going
through."
Heft knows personally about the road to religious extremism. He says
when
he was in the thick of it, he would have killed his own parents had
they
come between him and his newly chosen religion.
He blames the spread of extremism on the internet and what he calls
"do-it-yourself Islam," where uneducated scholars are bending the
peaceful
word of the Koran to suit their violent ideology.
"For the last two years I've been involved in this mentality. I was
dealing
with it on a grassroots level. All it takes is a little education and
sorting out who to take religion from."
Heft is hoping to open a new Islamic centre and residence for Muslim
men and
women. The idea is to help troubled young people and get those who have
become radical back on track.
He says the problem of extremism is something the Muslim community has
to
face up to and solve itself.
[plans to poison U.S. Military water, scuba diving, blow up more ferries.]
It should be noted that Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafy Janjalani has been
associated with Umar Patek and Dulmatin, two Indonesian nationals who
were involved in the bombing in Bali, Indonesia in 2002. In an
unrelated event, Abu Bakar Bashir,[/b] the 69 year-old Indonesian
cleric and Islamic terrorist leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, was freed
from prison on Tuesday.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/site/modules/news/
[Florida and Georgia flights cancelled]
From the Northeast Intelligence Network:
Top Stories: US : Posted by admin on 2006/6/14 5:08:43 ( )
By Sean Osborne, Assistant Director, Military Affairs Senior Analyst
sosborne@homelandsecurityus.com
*14 June 2006: On Monday, June 12, 2006, several Delta flights to and
from the Southwest Florida International Airport were canceled or
rescheduled due to "reported problems with the instruments" in the
aircrafts,
The Northeast Intelligence Network is investigating as these
cancellations appear unusual given the reasons stated.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/site/modules/news/
[a post for study and research]
When did the Palestinians lose the war?
By Bradley Burston
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=727818
The Palestinians may soon become the first side to lose the same war
twice.
At the outset of the uprising, it seemed that the Palestinians couldn't
lose -
and did.
Now, the problem may be that the Palestinians cannot seem to find a way
to
win. In fact, they may not have one left.
It depends, in no small part, on terrorism. Specifically, it depends on
the
ability of Hamas and the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs to resist the temptation
to
resume suicide terrorism in the heart of Israeli cities.
It also depends on Qassams. Qassams and Katyushas and whatever else the
Islamic Jihad, urged on by Iran, may be tinkering with in some Gaza
basement.
It depends on whether they continue to fire them from the ruins of
settlements
we evacuated, whether they continue to target civilian populations
within the
Green Line.
That is, it depends on whether it continues to be worth it to the
Palestinians
to squander whatever sentiment still exists in Israel for giving back
any land
to the Palestinians.
It may already be too late. The damage to the Palestinian cause may
already be
irreversible. In six years of the most self-destructive rebellion in
memory,
the Palestinians in general and Yasser Arafat in particular, literally
blew to
pieces the phenomenal and even one-sided sympathy they enjoyed in the
world at
large.
Thanks to the suicide bomber, gone is the David vs. Goliath image of a
brave
and noble people fighting 21st century weaponry with nothing but
stones.
Thanks to corruption, mismanagement, macho posturing and, now,
intramural
killing, gone is the image of the Palestinians as the Jews of the Arab
World,
the image of a people whose unity, worldliness, intelligence,
industriousness,
responsibility, resourcefulness, purposefulness, financial acumen, made
them
natural and preferred candidates for governing an independent state.
Thanks to thousands of Qassams fired from Gaza since the Disengagement,
gone
is the Israeli public's support for further withdrawals in the West
Bank, and,
in fact, for the concept of Palestinian statehood.
Hamas can continue to claim the Gaza withdrawal as a victory. But Hamas
and
the Palestinians at large know the truth even better than we know it:
Gaza was a curse we were desperate to rid ourselves of.
So when did the Palestinians lose the war?
Maybe it was this week, when Fatah and Hamas gunmen traded death for
death,
arson for arson, when Hamas - which came to power because of its
ability to
salve social ills - lost popular support by the day as the Gaza economy
went
from execrable to worse.
Maybe it was something as simple as Palestinian government workers
screaming
at the parliament "We are hungry. We are hungry."
Maybe it was something as complex as public opinion in France, where
recent
polls recent polls show that over the past four years, French support
for
Israel has doubled, pulling even with traditional French public backing
for
Palestinians.
In countries like India and England, once the very best friends the
Palestinians could want, there is a sense that the last thing the world
needs
now is one more terror state.
Maybe, after all these years, and all these dead, the world is tired of
terrorism.
Perhaps it's time the words resistance and self-defense, when applied
to
explosives delivered directly to innocent people, should be retired,
along
with the explosives and projectiles they describe.
Maybe there are good reasons why the world has grown tired of this idea
of
Palestine, the cost of Palestine, the very cause of a Palestine for
which
resistance is existence.
Enough.
It is time for Palestine to end its adolescence as a nation. It has
proven
that it can fight. Now it needs to prove that it can stop.
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