Posted on 06/16/2006 2:08:19 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution by David Kennedy Houck
First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?
Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]
Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.
The Internal Muslim Enclave The internal Muslim enclave proposed by the Islamic Center for Human Excellence in Arkansas represents a new direction for Islam in the United States. The group seeks to transform a loosely organized Muslim population into a tangible community presence. The group has foreign financial support: it falls under the umbrella of a much larger Islamic group, "Islam 4 the World," an organization sponsored by Sharjah, one of the constituent emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[5] While the Islamic Center for Human Excellence has yet to articulate detailed plans for its Little Rock enclave, the group's reliance on foreign funding is troublesome. Past investments by the United Arab Emirates' rulers and institutions have promoted radical interpretations of Islam. [6]
The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may seek to segregate schools and offices by gender. The enclave might also exercise broad control upon commerce within its boundaries—provided the economic restrictions did not discriminate against out-of-state interests or create an undue burden upon interstate commerce. But most critically, the enclave could promulgate every internal law—from enforcing strict religious dress codes to banning alcohol possession and music; it could even enforce limits upon religious and political tolerance. Although such concepts are antithetical to a free society, U.S. democracy allows the internal enclave to function beyond the established boundaries of our constitutional framework. At the very least, the permissible parameters of an Islamist enclave are ill defined.
The greater American Muslim community's unapologetic and public manifestation of belief in a separate but equal ideology does not bode well. In September 2004, the New Jersey branch of the Islamic Circle of North America rented Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey for "The Great Muslim Adventure Day." The advertisement announcing the event stated: "The entire park for Muslims only." While legal—and perhaps analogous to corporate or other non-religious groups renting facilities, the advertisement expressly implied a mindset that a proof of faith was required for admission to the park. In his weblog, commentator Daniel Pipes raises a relevant and troubling question about the event: because it is designated for Muslims only, "Need one recite the shahada to enter the fairgrounds?"[7]
While U.S. law might give such Muslims-only events the benefit of the doubt, flexibility may not go both ways. There is precedent of Islamists taking advantage of liberal flexibility to more extreme ends. Canada provides a useful example into how Islamist groups can exploit liberal legal tolerance. In 1991, Ontario, Canada, passed a seemingly innocuous law called the "Arbitration Act."[8] This act permitted commercial, religious, or such other designated arbitrators to settle civil disputes outside the Canadian justice system so long as the result did not contradict Canadian law. Like U.S. authorities are beginning to do now, Canadian legislators decided to give religious groups the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they would still hold national law to be paramount.
In October 2003, under the auspices of the Ontario legislation, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice created Muslim arbitration boards and stated its intent to arbitrate on the basis of Islamic law.[9] A national furor erupted, particularly among Canadian Muslim women's groups that opposed the application of traditional Islamic (Shari‘a) laws that would supersede their far more liberal and egalitarian democratic rights. After nearly two years of legal wrangling, the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, held that religious-based arbitrations "threaten our common ground," and announced, "There will be no Shari‘a law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."[10] On November 15, 2005, McGuinty's provincial government submitted legislation to amend the arbitration act to abrogate, in effect, all religious arbitration.[11] Requests for Muslim enclaves within larger U.S. communities may signal that U.S. jurisprudence will soon be faced with a similar conundrum. Islamist exceptionalism can abuse the tolerance liberal societies have traditionally extended to interface between religious and secular law.
Prior to the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice demands to impose Shari‘a, the Arbitration Act worked well. Unfortunately for Canadian Jews, the repeal ended state-enforcement of agreements reached by the use of a millennia-old rabbinical court system called beit din (house of law) that had for decades quietly settled marriage, custody, and business disputes. Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, expressed his lament: "If there have been any problems flowing from any rabbinical court decisions, I'm not aware of them."[12] Canadian Catholics likewise were stopped from being able to annul marriages according to Canon Law and avoid undue entanglement in civil courts. Abuse of the spirit of the law, though, ended up curtailing local liberty. Rather than soften the edge between religion and state, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice threatened to eliminate it with the imposition of Shari‘a. The Canadian experience demonstrates how flexibility can backfire when all parties do not seek to uphold basic precepts of tolerance. The Little Rock application raises the specter of a parallel situation. While The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may state it wants to create a clean-living community, might the community's extreme interpretation of Shari‘a force a reconsideration of just how much leeway the U.S. government gives religious communities?
As the Muslim community in the United States grows, an increasingly active Islamist lobby has submitted numerous white papers and amicus briefs to legislators and courts arguing for the religious right of Muslims to apply Shari‘a law, particularly in relation to family law disputes.[13] This looming jurisprudential conflict is significant for it raises issues about the rights of community members to marry outside the community, forced marriages, and the minimum age of brides, and whether wives and daughters may enjoy equal inheritance. In cases of non-family law, it raises the question about whether the testimony of women will be considered on par with that of men.
No previous enclave in U.S. history has ever been so vigorously protected by agents of group identity politics or so adamantly defended by legal watchdogs; nor has any previous religious enclave possessed the potency of more than one billion believers around the world. Islamic-only communities may also benefit from the largess provided by billions of petrol dollars to finance growth. The track record of Saudi and other wealthy Persian Gulf donations and charitable efforts are worrisome. There is a direct correlation between Saudi money received and the spread of intolerant practices. In 2004, for example, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Al-Haramein Foundation, one of Saudi Arabia's largest nongovernmental organizations, because of its financial links to Al-Qaeda.[14] Additionally, American graduates of Saudi academies advance Wahhabist interpretations of Islam inside the U.S. prison system,[15] and Saudi-subsidized publications promote intolerance inside U.S. mosques.[16]
A Muslim enclave is uniquely perilous because there are few if any internal enclaves that adhere to a polity dedicated to the active abrogation of secular law and the imposition of a supreme religious law. The concept of Shari‘a is so fundamental to Islam, that even today, prominent Muslim jurists argue over whether a Muslim can fully discharge Shari‘a obligations while residing in a non-Muslim territory.[17] Yet, in spite of this apparent conundrum, Muslims have resided peacefully in non-Muslim lands since the seventh century. In the greater context, there may be a breach in the dike for Islamist groups residing in the United States because the Baltimore and Little Rock enclaves must acknowledge the U.S. Constitution as the paramount basis of civil law.
A dissident Islamic sub-community is filled with dichotomous propositions: from the presumed supremacy of Shari‘a-based law over secular law; the melding of religion and polity versus the constitutionally mandated separation of same; to the politics of group and factionalism, versus assimilation and pluralism. To deny the settlement of a Muslim-only community based solely upon prejudices formed after September 11 would be illiberal. But the alternative, opening the door to Islamic enclaves without scrutiny, is as dubious.
The Enclave under U.S. Law Existing U.S. legal precedent, though, may provide some grounds for handling expansive demands for Islamic enclaves. U.S. legal views of internal enclaves derive from the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled the concept of separate but equal to be unconstitutional.[18] While the case revolved around the right of black children to attend white schools, it promulgated a concept that is anathema in today's world of multiculturalism: neither the state nor any constituent group could claim equality through separation.
Enclaves can exist, though. As courts have ruled on issues relating to equality under the law and upon the autonomy of religious practice, two distinctive features of internal U.S. enclaves have taken shape: first, the boundaries of the enclave should be recognized by local inhabitants. Second, the enclave cannot supersede the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens of a state.
Because most rights secured by the constitution are protected only against infringement by government action, the Supreme Court has avoided establishing a bright-line test as to the limits of religious liberty. Any religious group or individual seeking to establish an internal enclave has the right to limit residency, promulgate local rules, and perhaps even collect fees or taxes to support nominal community services.
Such enclaves do not hold final sway over the rights of non-residents, however. In Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Company[19] and Flagg Brothers v. Brooks,[20] the court outlined constitutional protections for private citizens in which any entity, religious or otherwise, exercising governmental authority over private citizens remains subject to the provisions of the First and Fourteenth amendments. In both cases, the court affirmed that citizens of a state retain their right to "due process of law" under the Fourteenth Amendment, even when inside an enclave. These holdings, however, do not prevent enclaves from restricting the individual freedoms of their inhabitants.
The Supreme Court has ruled upon the limits of religious liberty. In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the court outlined the circumstances in which the government could act to restrict religious independence. The court held that the free exercise clause "embraces two concepts—freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society."[21]
Christopher L. Eisgruber, professor of law at New York University, explained. He argued that, "the Constitution permits government to nurture ideological sub-communities founded upon premises inconsistent with the constitution's own commitments."[22] He maintained that such dissident sub-communities can provide important "sources of dissent"[23] and asserted that even if an enclave embraced ideals contrary to constitutional ideals, it should still be granted the right to pursue its own vision of good. For example, he wrote:
[Though] it is regrettable that young women in Kiryas Joel [a Satmar Hasidic enclave] will grow up in a starkly sexist culture, and it is regrettable that the Amish children of Yoder will find it very hard to become astronomers or lawyers … it would also be regrettable if the United States were not home to any sub-communities which, like the Satmars or the Amish, rejected principles of justice fundamental to the American regime.[24]
According to Eisgruber, tolerance of the intolerant is fundamental to the freedoms espoused by Western liberal democracy. While Islamists might use such logic to argue for the permissibility of Shari‘a communities, such tolerance has limits. Enclaves do not have carte blanche to act. Both the state and national legislatures must retain control over the extent of accommodation, and there should be no subsidization of the enclave by the government.[25] Such limits ensure that the government can constrain those sub-communities that might espouse more radical, violent, or racist views.[26]
It is usually when the U.S. government moves to uphold the rule of law that most Americans first learn of an internal enclave. Few Americans knew of the philosophy espoused by anti-government activist Randy Weaver until 1992 when the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms raided his compound at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, killing Vicki Weaver, their infant son, Sam, and the family dog.[27] Nor did many Americans know about David Koresh and his religious views until a raid the following year on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which a resulting fire killed fifty adults and twenty-five children under the age of fifteen.[28] While tragic, such events involved cults or political splinter groups. The growth of Muslim enclaves raises the specter of such conflicts occurring on a much larger scale.
While the court has interpreted the establishment clause to empower the government to constrain dissident sub-communities when necessary to protect public safety, it has been wary of addressing legal issues requiring intrusion upon the religious polity. Because the First Amendment provides for religious freedom, the court has confined itself to ruling upon three basic issues: property disputes between national religious hierarchical organizations with affiliated breakaway entities; accommodations under the free exercise clause; and the prohibition against the establishment of a state religion. New challenges, though, may lead to new interpretations.
The Antithesis to Democracy Is concern over internal Muslim enclaves justified? On their face, the fundamental principles of the internal Muslim enclave are no more invidious than any other religious enclave. But ideology matters. Many proponents of an Islamic polity promote an ideology at odds with U.S. constitutional jurisprudence and the prohibition against the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. The refusal to recognize federal law makes Islamist enclaves more akin to Ruby Ridge than to the Hasidic and Amish cases cited by Eisgruber.
Muslim theologians describe Islam not only as a religion but also as a system of state. The Qur'an—viewed by Muslims as the word of God—is replete with instructions about governance. An enclave promoting Islamic mores does not necessarily restrict itself to a social atmosphere but also one of governance. Traditional Islamic law controls the most basic aspects of everyday life and may make any Islamic enclave irreconcilable with the basic presumptions of Western liberal democracy and secular law.
While many American Muslims practice Islam and embrace the fundamental principles of the U.S. Constitution, others do not. There are consistent attempts by Islamist elements overseas to strengthen their own radical interpretation of Islam at the expense of moderation and tolerance. Saudi donors, for example, have propagated the ideology of Islamism, which seeks to interweave a narrow and often intolerant interpretation of religion into an all-encompassing political ideology. The number of imams and jihadists who have been outspoken in identifying the supremacy of Shari‘a to democracy underlines the incompatibility of Islamism and democracy. The late Saudi theologian, Sheikh Muhammad bin Ibrahim al-Jubair, for example, stated,
Only one ambition is worthy of Islam, to save the world from the curse of democracy: to teach men that they cannot rule themselves on the basis of man-made laws. Mankind has strayed from the path of God, we must return to that path or face certain annihilation.[29]
Prior to Iraq's January 30, 2005 elections, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an audiotape in which he declared war upon democracy and denounced its tenets as "the very essence of heresy, polytheism, and error."[30] Nor is Islamist antipathy for democracy limited to popular elections. According to a Saudi publication distributed at a San Diego mosque, "[Democracy is] responsible for all the horrible wars … more than 130 wars with more than 120 million people dead [in the twentieth century alone]; not counting victims of poverty, hunger and disease."[31] Such sentiments reflect a common theme among Islamists: democracy is the antithesis to everything pious and pure in Islam; and, in truth, democracy is the direct and substantial causal effect of Muslim suffering and injustice in the world today.
This does not mean that Islamists are unwilling to use democracy for their ends. But while they accept the trappings of democracy, they continue to reject its principles because the Shari‘a, to them the perfect rule of law, cannot be abrogated or altered by the shifting moods of a secular electorate. Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab weekly Al-Mustakillah, explained,
The heart of the matter is that no Islamic state can be legitimate in the eyes of its subjects without obeying the main teachings of the Shari‘a. A secular government might coerce obedience, but Muslims will not abandon their belief that state affairs should be supervised by the just teachings of the holy law.[32]
He could draw from plenty of examples. In 1992, for example, Ali Balhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, declared, "When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling."[33] While mayor of Istanbul, Islamist Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoðan quipped, "For us, democracy is a streetcar. We would go as far as we could, and then get off."[34] As he eviscerates the judiciary, many Turks wonder about his sincerity.[35]
Experience abroad is relevant, as it goes to the heart of the sincerity of proponents of the Little Rock and Baltimore enclaves, an issue compounded by the willingness to accept donations from Persian Gulf financiers.
Conclusion How Muslims reconcile Islamic polity within the confines of Western liberal democracy is an unresolved issue. This process will take years to evolve and is likely to convulse in further violent episodes. Presently, many Muslims reject wholesale the notion of a dominant secular law and instead seek the imposition of a pan-Islamist state under the guidance of Shari‘a. These Islamists view secular modernity and the democratic practices of radical egalitarianism, individual rights, and free exercise of religion as a direct and substantial threat to their belief system, and they are intent on employing violence against the West for the foreseeable future. The remainder and majority of the Muslim world must reject nihilism and engage in widespread debate regarding Islam's role within the world community.
The local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, might proceed with the proposed Muslim enclave, but the Arkansas courts and its legislature should not abdicate its responsibilities to ensure that Western liberal rights and protections remain supreme. The government should monitor both the rhetoric and behavior of these communities. As the Supreme Court stated in Cantwell: the freedom to believe is absolute, but the freedom to act, in the nature of things, cannot be, especially as to the safety and preservation of the American democracy.[36]
David Kennedy Houck is an attorney at Houck O'Brien LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678760/posts
FBI: Hezbollah Can Strike in U.S.
newsmax ^ | Sunday, Aug. 6, 2006 1:58 p.m. EDT | newsmax staff
Posted on 08/06/2006 11:13:02 AM PDT by do the dhue
A handful of money scams uncovered across the United States in recent years bearing Hezbollah's fingerprints have some experts worried that if orders were given to launch a terror attack against the U.S. the means are in place to do so.
The FBI has made Hezbollah a central target of its counterterrorism efforts, setting up a unit dedicated to tracking the group and assigning agents to develop sources in Lebanese and other Middle Eastern communities across the country, report National Security Correspondent Dan Ephron and Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff in the August 14 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, August 7).
Security officials worry that if Hezbollah does one day decide to strike, it can exploit an already-existing network in this country.
"You often see in these groups that people who deal in finances also have military backgrounds," Chris Hamilton, who was the FBI's unit chief for Palestinian investigations until last year, tells Newsweek. "The fact is, they have the ability [to attack] in the United States."
American screw-tightening on Iran over its nuclear program, might prompt Hezbollah to issue such an order. Iran is Hezbollah's main political and financial backer.
Story Continues Below
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.google.com/search?q=+Islamic+militant+activities+outside+the+US+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
XXX
http://www.google.com/search?q=+Islamic+militant+activities+inside+the+US+&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Islamic+identity+in+the+United+States&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=retained+much+of+his+Muslim+identity&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
XXX
http://www.google.com/search?q=most+influential+Islamic+thinkers+in+the+United+States&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
clinton
http://www.google.com/search?q=Militant+Islamic+Base&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Militant+Islamic+Base+in+U.S.&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Militant+Islamic+Base+in+U.S.+identify+members&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
interesting:
http://www.google.com/search?q=activities+of+the+Islamic+militant+group+Hezbollah&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Please be sensitive:
http://www.google.com/search?q=activities+of+the+Islamic+militant+group+Hezbollah+in+U.S.&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
WMD
http://www.google.com/search?q=House+subcommittee+on+international+terrorism+and+non-proliferation&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=hizbollah+can+strike+in+U.S.&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=hizbollah+will+strike+in+U.S.&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=hezbollah+will+strike+in+U.S.&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape%3Aen-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Islamic+terror+in+U.S.&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Very interesting:
http://www.google.com/search?q=hezbollah+documents&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Interesting:
http://www.google.com/search?q=confidential+documents+of+hizbollah&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
train derails
Train derails northwest of Tucson
KVOA.com - Tucson,AZ,USA
Five cars of a Union Pacific freight train have derailed along I-10 at Avra Valley Road north of Tucson. ... The train was eastbound when the accident happened. ...
See all stories on this topic
Philippine troops overrun abandoned Abu Sayyaf camp
Aug 5, 2006, 17:43 GMT
Zamboanga City, Philippines - Philippine troops overran an abandoned camp of Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels on a southern island as the military offensive entered its fifth day, an army commander said Saturday.
Brigadier General Alexander Aleo said the abandoned camp was located in Indanan town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, a stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked guerrillas.
Aleo said the troops recovered explosives from the camp which used to be a bomb-making facility for the rebels. He added there were no reported clashes on Saturday as the rebels fled deeper into the jungle.
The military claimed at least 12 Abu Sayyaf rebels, including the son of Abu Sayyaf leader Raddulan Sahiron, were killed in the clashes since they erupted Tuesday.
Several soldiers were also wounded in the fighting.
More than 2,000 people have fled to two evacuation centres in Indanan town to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
The attack was launched following intelligence reports that two top Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants were hiding in the area under the protection of the Abu Sayyaf.
Dulmatin and Omar Patek are key suspects in the October 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed more than 200 people.
The United States has included the Abu Sayyaf in its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations due to alleged links to the international al-Qaeda terror network.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/article_1187372.php/Philippine_troops_overrun_abandoned_Abu_Sayyaf_camp
July 2000......
http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cmnews/2000/00-07-23.cmnews.html
July 23 , 2000
[02] US Embassy linked to Hizbollah arrests
THE U.S. Embassy in Nicosia has been linked to Operation Smoke Screen – an undercover operation to thwart fund-raising operations in the US for the Hizbollah group in Lebanon.
In an affidavit unsealed by the federal court on Friday, it is alleged that a US government official working at the American Embassy had been bribed to issue US visas to some members of a group of 18 people arrested in pre-dawn raids on homes and businesses in North Carolina and Michigan.
The suspects are alleged to have supplied money and night vision devices to Hizbollah by trafficking in contraband cigarettes across state lines, Reuters news agency reported.
They have been charged with conspiracy to violate immigration laws, conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes and money laundering, North Carolina US Attorney Mark Calloway said in Charlotte.
Operation Smoke Screen began 3 1/ 2 years ago as a probe into cigarette smuggling after an off-duty North Carolina deputy sheriff spotted a group of people loading thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes into cars with out-of-state licence plates outside a discount cigarette outlet.
The group allegedly took cigarettes from North Carolina, where taxes are assessed at 5 cents a packet, to Michigan where the tax is 75 cents, and made a profit by selling at the higher price.
Federal agents say a vanload of cigarettes smuggled out of the Carolinas to states where higher taxes are assessed could yield $8,000-$10,000 per trip.
The case evolved into an international investigation based in large part on information from several confidential sources who infiltrated the group, according to the affidavit filed in federal court.
One of those sources told federal agents the group met weekly at the home of the group’s apparent leader, Mohamad Hammoud, or other members to discuss Hizbollah activities and listen to speeches.
The confidential source told federal agents he was present when Hammoud "put aside for Hizbollah several thousand dollars in cash, representing the proceeds from trafficking in contraband cigarettes. The funds to be sent to Hizbollah also consisted of donations solicited and collected by Mohamad Hammoud from individuals who support Hizbollah."
Described as a ‘designated foreign terrorist organisation’ by the US, the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbollah led the battle against the 22-year Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. The Israeli army withdrew in May.
© Copyright Cyprus Mail
http://www.google.com/search?q=+Operation+Smoke+Screen+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=undercover+operation+to+thwart+fund-raising+operations+in+the+US+for+the+Hizbollah+group+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=American+Embassy+had+been+bribed+to+issue+US+visas+to+some+members+of+a+group+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Could be important:
http://www.google.com/search?q=arrested+in+pre-dawn+raids+on+homes+and+businesses+in+North+Carolina+and+Michigan.+&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
You I grew up without all she talks about...
WHY ARE AMERICANS IGNORANT OF 'AGENDA 21'?
Joyce Morrison
August 6, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
The United Nations Agenda 21 was signed by the United States in 1992 and 14 years later, people are still in the dark. If you were to ask at random the question, "Have you heard of Agenda 21?" the answer would be an over-whelming "No," although it is being implemented in every local community.
Agenda 21 is a 40 chapter document listing goals to be achieved globally. It is the global plan to change the way we "live, eat, learn and communicate" because we must "save the earth."
"Its regulation would severely limit water, electricity, and transportation - even deny human access to our most treasured wilderness areas, it would monitor all lands and people. No one would be free from the watchful eye of the new global tracking and information system," according to Berit Kjos, author of Brave New Schools.
Maurice Strong, Secretary-general of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro said, "...[C]urrent lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class - involving high meat consumption and large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and workplace air-conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable. A shift is necessary which will require a vast strengthening of the multilateral system, including the United Nations.
In other words, the Global plan is for us to live on the level of third world nations. That means no box mixes or microwave meals, limited use of fuel of any kind, no air-conditioning and very little meat. When the cost of freon skyrocketed, when mad cow disease hit, the National Animal Identification System introduced, the price of fuel soared, it has become apparent that given time, these sustainable controls will be put into place - one way or another - and the Global Governance is powerful.
In 1992, Agenda 21 began to change our lives. In that same year, Al Gore wrote his book, Earth in the Balance. To advance his cause, he has now written another piece of fiction entitled, An Inconvenient Truth about global warming…..he even starred in the movie. He also thinks he invented the internet.
Although groundwork had been laid, it took a Bill Clinton to actually introduce something so invasive to our nation and get by with it without the public becoming aware. President Clinton appointed his "President’s Council on Sustainable Development" and he literally gave away the rights and freedoms the framers of the Constitution had provided.
People in the United States may not know about Agenda 21 and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, but people around the world do. They know that Chicago has one of the greatest numbers of activities existing at the local, neighborhood and/or microregional level. They also know that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors and promotes activities in this field through their Office for Sustainable Ecosystem and Communities.
Found on a Slovakian website: "To the leading countries in the field of development but especially of practical using of sustainable development indicators belong to the U.S.A. At the top level these activities are promoted by the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (1996), which defined a set of ten national goals toward sustainable development. These goals express in concrete terms the elements of sustainability. Alongside the goals are suggested indicators that can be used to help measure progress toward achieving them.”
Agenda 21 is certainly not a secret. The internet is full of how Agenda 21 has been fulfilled through Smart Growth planning, land use, sustainable development and extreme environmentalism. The so-called agenda is grant driven to your city council or county board in terms of sustainable, visioning, partners, tourism and stakeholders, along with consensus and other terms with the intent to make you believe we are running out of all our resources and we must do our part and "save for tomorrow. [See Agenda 21's Table of Contents.]
It has nothing to do about “saving anything” – it has everything to do with “control.” Sadly, very few congressmen even know Agenda 21 is actually running our country when they are voting to send grant money back home. Agenda 21 is incentive driven as the planners know that greed in the heart of man will be his downfall.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, better known as ANWR, has oil we need to be drilling for the security of our nation. Environmentalists don’t seem to understand we are dependent on foreign oil from nations who do not like us and our nation’s defense is at stake. The area where drilling would occur is just a dot in this vast land, yet they would gamble the strength of our nation in behalf of their favorite word --"pristine."
At the same time, technology is advancing and we may not need the oil later. But we do need it now.
Henry Lamb of Eco-logic, Restructuring the U.N.,
The world changed on 9-11. No longer can the world tilt at the windmills of a fantasized "global village." No longer can visions of "sustainable development" be justified in a world where "sustainable freedom" is the only possible solution to the economic and power vacuum that foments acts of terrorism.
There is a better way.
Nations can and, ultimately, must learn to live as neighbors, free from the web of "international laws" that dictate which activities are "sustainable" and which are xenophobic and unacceptable. Nation-to-nation relationships, just like neighbor-to-neighbor relationships, should be fashioned voluntarily, driven by mutual benefit. For the first time in a century, the United States may be exploring this possibility.
Henry Lamb is right. We can live as neighbors with other nations but we do not need to live under a "web of international law." There are dedicated citizens in the United States who are wise enough to set our nation’s guidelines without following Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development as set forth by the United Nations. [See DVD: Liberty or Sustainable Development?]
One of the main goals of Agenda 21 is to redistribute the wealth to third world countries and to bring our great nation to its knees in the name of socialism, fascism, communism or some other “ism.” Our founding fathers founded this nation on the belief of a Sovereign God and we have been blessed. Do you know the Gods of the nations to which we would become equal?
http://www.newswithviews.com/Morrison/joyce36.htm
This is bull...
Russia looks at suing Shell
Lucian Kim and Stephen Voss
2006-08-07
RUSSIA said it will sue Royal Dutch Shell Plc to halt the development of oil and gas fields at Sakhalin Island because the US$20 billion project's pipelines may cause environmental damage
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/08/07/288356/Russia_looks__at_suing_Shell.htm
Russia launches telecoms satellite
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1154866684650R221
US sanctions on Russia ‘unlawful’
By Neil Buckley in Moscow and Stephanie Kirchgaessnerin Washington
Published: August 6 2006 21:17 | Last updated: August 6 2006 21:17
Moscow has condemned as groundless and unlawful a US move to impose sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest defence groups over arms sales to Iran.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0dedcbba-2581-11db-a12e-0000779e2340.html
Lebanon fighting must stop now: Putin
From correspondents in Moscow
August 07, 2006
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin told British Prime Minister Tony Blair today "of the need for an immediate halt to hostilities" in Lebanon, the Kremlin said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20042544-23109,00.html
Blair holds talks on Lebanon with Bush and Putin
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-06T154732Z_01_L05125696_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST-BRITAIN.xml
Davey, when you have enough 'brownie points', you may go to this link:
http://portlandcrime.blogspot.com/
http://tocrime.blogspot.com/
There are so many links here, that I am afraid to post it:
[last link is source link for this report]
Three men charged in connection with a fire at a reputed crack house in New Brunswick are heroes, not criminals, said many people at a public meeting with the RCMP Wednesday night.
The charges against the men stem from a riot on July 22 in which about 40 people - some reportedly armed with guns, knives and baseball bats - burned a house to the ground in the island community of Castalia where drugs were allegedly being sold.
During the melee, four male residents of the home were badly beaten, and a woman was escorted off the island for her own safety. Shots were fired at a car but the driver was not hurt. Several people suffered minor injuries.
On Tuesday night, the Mounties sent as many as 70 officers to Grand Manan responding to reports of a plan to burn down another reputed crack house.
[Source - CBC]
70 Mounties! The Island usually has a patrol of 4! They insist that people should remain calm and not take the law into their own hands. But, locals say the "vigilantes" are heroes, because police weren't doing enough to protect them from drug dealers and related criminal activity.
Police are also worried that there may be a push back from the drug dealers themselves, and that the community is at risk of increased violence. I have to wonder about that. I imagine that anyone involved in illegal drug operations would not be so interested in setting up shop in such a volatile place. They tend to not want so much attention.
In short... could it be that these local vigilantes actually rid the island of its drug problem? Could four men, fed up with criminals and thugs taking over their neighbourhoods and communities, have succeeded in doing what police and the justice system could never do?
Time will tell.
What's more, we'll see if this becomes a trend. With Guardian Angels spreading their wings throughout Ontario and B.C., communities may be setting themselves up to take matters in their own hands.
Now, I'm not saying we should all get our pitch forks and torches and head to the local farm house suspected of being a meth lab! I'm not even advocating vigilantism of any sort. However, I'll be looking out for similar activity throughout the rest of the country.
And, certainly while I'm out on the coast, I'll be watching the shores, looking for the smoke and the flames.
Have a great week, and while I'm away... do be kind.
H-
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2006/06-08-06.apeen.html
[01] Defence Miinister Meimarakis on crisis in the Middle East
National Defence Minister Evangelos Meimarakis has said that "the government not only was not absent from the crisis in the Middle, but also made a substantial intervention."
In an interview in Sunday's edition of "Eleftherotypia" newspaper, Meimarakis, responding to criticism which the government has received, mainly from the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), referred to "the participation of the Navy in operations for the evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon and to the humanitarian aid which our country is giving from the very first moment."
He stressed that he dismisses this criticism and said that "interventions were made both by the Prime Minister (Costas Karamanlis) and by the Foreign Minister (Dora Bakoyannis), who pioneers in the efforts of the international community for peace in the Middle East."
The defence minister said that "it is premature for us to discuss whether Greece will take part in a peacekeeping operation, given that there is not yet a request."
To a question whether he believed that the developments in Lebanon will have an affect on Greek-Turkish relations, Meimarakis replied that "I do not see it possible," adding that "Greece is working for the creation of a climate of zero tension in the region."
Reffering to the recent visit to Turkey by National Defence General Staff chief Admiral Panagiotis Hinofotis, Meimarakis termed its results as "encouraging." He said that "in this visit military issues were discussed which have to do with confidence-building measures and the technics for the greatest results of these measures were examined."
Meimarakis also stressed that "Greece supports Turkey's European course." However, he underlined that "the government has made it clear that a blank cheque is not given to anyone," given that "that Turkey's complete adherence to relations of good neighbourliness is demanded."
On the armaments programme and particularly on the purchase of aircraft, the minister said that "the needs of the Air Force have been covered in part with the purchase of 30 F-16" and that "for the other 30 required for the number of 60 new aircraft to be completed, we will make an assessment both on the operational aspect as well as on the cost."
On armaments, he said that "the aim of government is for expenditures to be reduced and not exceed one per cent of the Gross National Product."
[02] Deputy FM on Greece's aid to Lebanon
Deputy Foreign Minister Evripidis Stylianidis has said that "Greece has yet again received the praise of the international community and particularly the moving 'thank you' by those affected by the war in Lebanon for its immediate and effective reaction."
In an interview in the Sunday edition of "Adesmeftos Typos" newspaper, Stylianidis said "the Foreign Ministry activated all its strength for the evacuation of thousands of people from the war-zone who were not only Greeks but also other European and American citizens, while with the coordinating responsibility of Hellenic Aid, we were the first who reached the battle field, transporting not without danger, considerable amounts of humanitarian aid."
The deputy foreign minister recalled that "already transported to Lebanon, with six C-130 cargo planes of the Air Force and Navy carriers, have been loads of cargo with medicine and other useful material which was gathered by non-government organisations under the coordination of Hellenic Aid."
He said that "at the same time, Hellenic Aid also undertook to transport a part of the international aid, while a fund raising has begun in Greece and the money which will be collected by private individuals, agencies and non-governmental organisations will be deposited in a special account and will be used, both in the phase of the granting of urgent humanitarian aid, as well as in the phase of the reconstruction after the ceasfire and the imposition of a permanent ceasfire, which we hope and struggle for it to be imposed as soon as possible."
[03] Minister criticises PASOK on Emporiki Bank
Employment and Social Protection Minister Savvas Tsitouridis has launched a stinging attack against Vasso Papandreou, head of the Economy Department of the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), regarding the issue of the sale of Emporiki Bank.
In an interview in the Sunday edition of "Ethnos" newspaper, Tsitouridis accused Vasso Papandreou that "she is threatening administrative bodies of social insurance funds," and termed such actions as "unacceptable, third-world and interventions of shame."
The employment minister also said that "the reactions of the bank's employees come from a minority which gives a rearguard battle." He underlined that "he does not understand their reactions," given that "not only jobs are not endangered, but also new prospects are opening for the expansion and increase of jobs in and out of Greece."
He also said that there will be a legislative initiative in autumn for the creation of a Social Solidarity Fund.
To another question, Tsitouridis said that "the status of early retirement will not be harmed and supported will be all those who after the age of 50 find difficulty in finding a job so as to complete the required time for them to get their pension."
[don't miss the end, what does he really mean?]
http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cna/2006/06-08-06.cna.html
CYPRUS - LEBANON - PEACE FORCE
Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said that the Republic of Cyprus would decide whether or not it would participate in a peacekeeping force for Lebanon if and when the UN decides to establish such a force and calls on Cyprus to contribute.
To a comment that Turkey has expressed its willingness to lead this peacekeeping force, Pashiardis said Turkey had been invited to the Rome meeting on the Middle East.
``I do not know the exact reasons for which Turkey was invited and participated in this meeting, nor of course do I know the reasons why some people want the involvement of Turkey in efforts to solve the escalating crisis in Lebanon and peace in the region. I can only assume that the sole serious reason is Turkey`s unquestionable and recognised specialisation in issues of invasion, victimisation of refugees and ways of creating refugees,`` he said
http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2006/06-08-04.rferl.html#25
SERBIAN PROSECUTORS LINK POLICE GENERAL TO KILLINGS OF ALBANIAN AMERICANS
The office of Serbia's war crimes prosecutor announced on August 3 that a former top police official has been linked to the 1999 slayings of three American citizens of Albanian descent, UPI reported the same day, citing the daily "Blic."
The newspaper quoted prosecutors as saying that Vlastimir Djordjevic, a former police general, is one of the suspects in the murders of Iliya, Mehmet, and Agron Bitichi in July 1999.
The Bitichi brothers were born in the United States and lived in New York before they traveled to Kosova. Djordjevic, who retired in 2001, is under indictment from the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia for ordering the killings of Kosovar Albanian civilians.
He is believed to be hiding in Russia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 8, 2006). BW
http://www.google.com/search?q=Vlastimir+Djordjevic&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Iliya%2C+Mehmet%2C+and+Agron+Bitichi&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=International+Criminal+Tribunal&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
blame clinton for the muslim killers....
http://www.google.com/search?q=+ordering+the+killings+of+Kosovar+Albanian+civilians&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Could lead to lots of googles...LOL
http://www.google.com/search?q=He+is+believed+to+be+hiding+in+Russia&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2006/06-08-04.rferl.html#03
GERMAN LEADER PROTESTS VIOLATION OF OLIGARCH'S RIGHTS
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the conditions in which former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is being held in a Siberian prison as "unacceptable," the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported on August 4.
She added that violations of human rights in the prison worry her government greatly and harm Russia's standing in international public opinion. Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison sentence in the remote Chita Oblast for fraud and tax evasion after a trial that was widely viewed as politically motivated and engineered by the Kremlin. Merkel says the German government has demanded "on more than one occasion" that the Russian authorities respect international standards of human rights. Her comments came in reply to a plea from the opposition Free Democrats for her to raise Khodorkovsky's case with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Her letter was released by the Free Democrats and published on August 3 in the daily "Berliner Zeitung" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," April 18, 26, 27, and 28, 2006). PM
http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2006/06-08-04.rferl.html#05
ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY WANTS TO STOP SAKHALIN-2 PIPELINE WORK
The Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), which is a branch of the Natural Resources Ministry, said in a statement on August 3 that the Russian Academy of Sciences has determined that mudslides could damage or destroy the Sakhalin-2 natural-gas pipeline at unspecified sites, Interfax reported.
The agency accordingly called for a halt to work on the project until a safer route for the pipeline can be found. Oleg Mitvol, who is deputy chief of Rosprirodnadzor, said that poor planning is responsible for the problem.
London's "Financial Times" wrote on May 25 that the Russian authorities are considering revising some existing oil and gas deals with foreign partners in order to further tighten Russian control over energy resources.
Those projects include Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 26, 2006). PM
GAZPROM OPPOSES EXXON PIPELINE TO CHINA
The daily "Kommersant" on August 3 quoted an unnamed source at Gazprom as saying that the Russian natural-gas monopolist opposes a plan by Exxon Mobil to build a major pipeline from Sakhalin to China.
The source added that the project would compete with Gazprom's own and is not included in the existing development plan for the Far East and eastern Siberia.
Viktor Ishayev, who is the long-serving governor of Khabarovsk Krai, met with Stephen Terni of Exxon Mobil's subsidiary Exxon Neftegaz Limited in Khabarovsk on August 2 to discuss building a pipeline to supply gas from Sakhalin to China (see "RFE/RL Newsline," August 3, 2006).
The authorities in Moscow will have the final word. PM
http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2006/06-08-04.rferl.html#06
RUSSIAN PROSECUTORS ORDER EXTRADITION OF 'ANDIJON' REFUGEES
By Gulnoza Saidazimova
Russian prosecutors have ruled that 12 Uzbeks and a Kyrgyz national should be extradited to Uzbekistan to face charges of involvement in the unrest that provoked a deadly government crackdown in May 2005. The decision comes despite the fact that all 13 have been granted UN refugee status since their detention in Russia more than a year ago.
The 13 men have been in detention in Ivanovo, northeast of the Russian capital, since June 2005. On August 3, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office announced that it had decided to extradite them all to Uzbekistan.
Defense lawyer Svetlana Martynova told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that the news came as a serious blow to her clients. She characterized fellow defense lawyer Irina Sokolova's assessment: "They don't feel well. Irina says they have all lost weight, [and] their health has deteriorated badly. And, of course, they all fear a return to their country. As [Irina] said, they all were crying in the courtroom."
In a statement posted on the website of the Prosecutor-General's Office on August 3, authorities said the Uzbek extradition request is not politically motivated but based solely on criminal charges. The statement also said Russia has received written assurances from Uzbek officials that the 13 will neither be tortured nor sentenced to death. But it is also unlikely that Russian authorities would aggressively monitor their treatment, particularly as Moscow grows increasingly cozy with Uzbekistan's strong-arm administration.
International rights advocates and a number of Western governments suspect Uzbek authorities of routinely torturing detainees. Independent rights groups have expressed fear that just such a fate could await these refugees if they are forcibly returned.
Uzbek authorities accuse the 13 men of involvement in the Andijon unrest in May 2005, which it has characterized as a terrorist uprising. The defense says that all but one were out of the country at the time, and he was only in Andijon to obtain a new passport.
Lawyer Martynova adds that her Uzbek clients simply are not the revolutionary type. She says nearly all are university educated and all have lived and worked in Russia for years.
After their arrest, the 13 applied for refugee status in Russia. The Russian Federal Migration Service rejected their applications based on the extradition request from Uzbekistan. But UN representatives visited them in custody and granted them refugee status.
The UN's half-century-old convention on refugees clearly states that no refugee may be expelled lawfully except "on grounds of national security or public order." Russian authorities have not accused these detainees of any wrongdoing.
The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center says the charges brought against them are fabricated. "I talked to their friends, relatives, and colleagues," Memorial's Bahrom Hamraev told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. "I have examined the issue from all viewpoints. These people have no connection to the Andijon events whatsoever. I believe it is nothing but slander by the Uzbek government."
Defense lawyer Martynova also claims the case is politically motivated. She said it is rooted in the defendants' public activism during the run-up to Andijon, when protests mounted over a trial of suspected Islamic radicals:
"The three of them published an Internet article in March [2005]. They appealed to the public to attract attention to the situation in Uzbekistan -- to arbitrariness, torture, [and] executions without trials amid poverty and devastation," Martynova said. "However, they also wrote that they did not want a violent change of the constitutional regime but simply wanted to highlight what was going on. But they did not call for violence, although they expressed their position. It was in March, right before the Andijon events. I believe that was the reason."
Yelena Ryabinina, who heads the Central Asian political immigrants program for the Moscow-based rights group Civic Assistance (Grazhdanskoye Sodeistviye), says officials in Tashkent accuse the men of having financed the unrest from Russia. But if that were the case, she says they should face trial where they are suspected of having committed the crime -- in Russia.
Critics of Moscow's cooperation in these cases note that Russian officials went so far as to strip their own citizen, Hatam Hajimatovan, an ethnic Uzbek detained along with the others, of his citizenship. He has since fled through Ukraine and resettled in Norway, with UN political asylum.
Ryabinina said the Uzbeks in Ivanovo are victims of the recent rapprochement between Moscow and Tashkent. "Of course, undoubtedly, it has been a result of the rapprochement since the very beginning," she said. "After the Andijon tragedy, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was virtually the only one who not only did not condemn [Uzbek President Islam] Karimov for mass shootings of his own citizens, but practically supported him and recognized his correctness."
A Russian Supreme Court decision on July 21 might provide a ray of hope for these detainees. The court ruled that the extradition case of an Uzbek man, Bayramali Yusupov, accused by Uzbek authorities of Islamic extremism in 1999 should get another hearing from a lower court.
Ryabinina said the defense in this case will appeal the prosecutors' extradition order within 10 days. "Lawyer Irina Sokolova has the appeal ready," she said. "As soon as [the text of] the official decision is received -- and [the Uzbeks] get not only faxed copies but also [originals of] official documents -- they will appeal. If the first court -- the Ivanovo regional court -- does not comply with the appeal, they will appeal to the Supreme Court."
The Uzbek refugees have also sought help from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which they petitioned in January. That case will proceed more emphatically, according to their lawyers, following this latest setback at the hands of Russian prosecutors.
(Gulnoza Saidazimova in an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague.)
http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2006/06-08-04.rferl.html#43
Davey there is other news at this link, that will interest you...........
when you have enough 'brownie points'
http://www.hri.org/docs/USSD-Terror/97/
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
APRIL 1998: PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 1997
Office of the Secretary
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
Department of State Publication 10535
CONTENTS
* Introduction
* The Year in Review
* Africa Overview
* Asia Overview
* Europe and Eurasia Overview
* Latin America Overview
* Middle East Overview
* Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
* Appendix A: Chronology of Significant Terrorist Incidents
* Appendix B: Background Information on Terrorist Groups
[Next]
The original report can be found at http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/1997Report/1997index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.hri.org/docs/usa.html
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Congress, Department of State & Central Intelligence Agency
Congress
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* Background Notes: Greece, October 1999 [October 1998] [October 1996]
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* Human Rights Country Practices Reports, 1998 (February 26, 1999)
* Human Rights Country Practices Reports, 1997 (January 30, 1998)
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* Human Rights Country Practices Reports, 1993 (January 31, 1994)
* Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1997 (April 30, 1998)
* Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1996 (April 30, 1997)
* Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1995 (April 30, 1996)
* Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1994 (April 1995)
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http://www.hri.org/docs/inter/41-03-08_1.doc.html
Translation of an open letter to Hitler from M. Georges Vlachos, published in the Kathimerini of Saturday, March 8th, 1941.
[Greek Text]
To His Excellency, Adolf Hitler,
Chancellor of the German Reich
Excellency,
Greece, as you know, wished to keep out of the present war. When it broke out she had barely recovered frim the wounds that she had suffered from various wars and dissensions at home. She had neither the strength nor the intention, nor any reason to take part in a war, the end of which, no doubt, would be of great importance to the whole world, but at the start did not offer any direct threat to her integrity. Let us ignore her declarations on this point, let us ignore the official documents published in the White Book, let us ignore the speeches and articles which bore witness to her permanent desire to keep out of the war. Let us take into account one fact only. When, after the Italian sinking of the Helle in the port if Tenos, Greece found the remains of torpedoes, when she had proof that these torpedoes were Italian, she kept silent. Why? Because if she had disclosed the truth she would have been forced either to declare war, or to see war declared against her. Greece never wished for war with Italy, neither by herself nor with allies, whether these be British or Balkan. She wished only for her small part of the world to live as quietly as possible, because she was exhausted, because she had fought many wars and because her geographical position is such that she could not have as an enemy either the Germans on land or the English on sea.
At the moment of the sinking of the Helle, Greece, apart from her pacific longings, had a guarantee as well, bearing two signatures. The Italian signature, which had guaranteed her against all aggression on the part of Italy, and that of England, which was a spontaneous guarantee of Greek integrity. Nevertheless, when, some time after the sinking of the Helle, Italy had shown clearer signs of her future aggression, Greece, convinced that the first signature was valueless, did not turn, as she should have turned, towards the country which had given her the second. She turned - do you remember, Excellency? - towards yourself, and she asked for your protecion. What was the reply we were given then? What was said I do not know exactly, but this I know, because I heard it from the lips of our late President himself, that Germany replied to our request by advising us not to offer any pretexts - that is to say, not to mobilise - and to stay quiet.
We did not offer any pretexts,we did not mobilise; we slept quietly, or rather we were sleeping quietly - for that evening the Italians had invited us to dinner - when the Italian Minister appeared with his ultimatum. To whom and where then would you have liked us to turn? Towards Italy, whose valueless signature we had in our pocket with the remains of the torpedoes? But it was the Italians who had declared the war. Towards yourself? But unfortunately that very morning of October 28th, you were in Florence. To remain alone? We had no air force, no material, no money and no fleet. We turned then to the signature left, to the English. And those whose own homeland was in flames, those were keeping anxious watch and ward on the Channel, those who, they said it themselves, had not sufficient material for their own defence, they came, and they came immediately. Without haggling, without excuses, they came, and a few days later on the front in the mountains of Epirus, where the brutal Italian aggression had begun, fell together the Greek troops and the first English airman.
What happened after that you know well, you and the whole world. The Italians have been thrashed. They have been thrashed there man to man by us, the weak and Feeble Greeks. Not by the English, because no English soldier has set foot in Albania. The Italians have been thrashed. Why? Because they had no ideals, because they had no heart in the fight, because - but this is another story. In the face of this victory, it is sure because we have been told so, you have remained a spectator. "This affair," you said, "does not interest me. It concerns the Italians only. I will only interfere when the English army lands at Salonika in numbers." We could have asked your Excellency: "Florence? Is it a fact that on the very day that the Italians attacked us you were meeting them on the banks of the Arno, and you handed over to them the Greeks?" But we did not wish to ask. Hidden away with the remains of the Italian torpedoes we hid Florence also, and when indiscreet people brought it to our notice we said, "They were not in agreement, the Italians deceived them." Why?
Because thatis what we wished to believe. That is what it was our interest to believe. So at the same time as we were advancing in Albania, our relations with Germany went smoothly on their way. The swastika flew from your Legation on New Year's day, it came to half-mast when Metaxas dies, and your Minister paidhis respects to the new President of the Council. Commercial dealings were renewed, and you yourselves protested strongly on one occasion when an American paper announced that German tanks had appeared in Albania. You as spectators, and the English, our allies, with their air force and their fleet. Only that. You know how we tried to keep that "Only that" a reality. Enough to say that when an English aeroplane crashed at Salonika we asked the English not to salvage it themselves, in order that not even ten British soldiers should appear there, in order that there should be no misunderstanding, no pretexts. You laugh? How right you are.
But all the time that our relations were like this, while a certain calm due to the German attitude remained, you had begun to concentrate forces in Rumania. But the first contingent were to teach the Rumanian army, the second to protect the oilfields, the third the frontiers. The fourth... but the fourth contingent was 300,000 men. The writer went as a journalist to Bulgaria, covering the road over which now pass your soldiers. And when he came back he said to the late President, "The road to Sofia has just been widened. The wooden bridges have just been strengthened, the shavings of the carpenters are still lying on the ground. It is clear that the Bulgarians have got ready hastily the road on which an army passes."
And after that what was Greece to do? To see the Germans on the frontiers of Bulgaria? To count their ships on the Danube, to see them entering Sofia and allying themselves with the Bulgarians? To hear the Bulgarians talking of their national claims, and to keep calm in the knowledge tha the Germans are at Koula to guard the Rumanian oilfields?
But enough. Forget the past. Come to facts. According to every witness station in the world it appears that the Germans wished to invade Greece. Why? If an attack on Greece was from the beginning essential to the interests of the Axis, M. Grazzi would not have been laone four months ago at three o'clock in the morning. Germany and Italy would have been together. Fron the beginning, therefore, the attack on Greece does not seem to have been necessary for the Axis. Apparently now it is. But why? Is it an order that a front was not to be created in the Balkans against Germany? But this comes out of a fairy story. Neither the Greeks nor the English - this was stated officially in a communique of March 6th, and is shouted from the housetops by logic - nor Serbia nor Turkey have any reason for spreading the war. The war as it has been is big enough for all these countries. Is it, then, in order to save the Italians in Albania? But what sort of salvation is this? The Italians have been thrashed openly and for all eternity, and will not the public opinion of the world be certain of this thrashing as soon as a single German soldier steps on to the soil of Greece? Will not the whole world shout that forty-five millions of Italians after having attacked our poor eight millions, have now to call for help to another eighty-five millions? But if the Italians wish to be saved, why should others come to their help in a way which is particularly humiliating for them when we could save them ourselves with pleasure and without exposing them to ridicule? Let the Italians evacuate Albania, let them shout from the housetops that they are tired of chasing us and are satiated with glory and have decided to retire. We will help them. But, Excellency, perhaps you are going to say to us, "This is all very well, but what about the English?"
But it is not we, your Excellency, who made the English come to Greece. It was the Italians. And now you wish us to say farewell to those whom the Italians brought here. So be it. Let us say it. But to whom? To the living. But how can we throw out the dead? Those who died on our mountains. Those who, wounded, fell to earth in Attica and drew there their last breath. Those who at a time when their own country was in flames came to Greece and fought there, died there, and there found their graves. Listen, your Excellency, there are deeds which cannot be done in Greece, and that is one of them. We cannot throw out either the living or the dead. We will throw out no one, but we shall stand here upright by their side until the day when the sunshine breaks through the storm.
Everyone is saying that you intend to invade Greece. But we do not believe it, and we are an ingenuous people. We do not believe it of your army, with its history and its traditions which even its enemies do not deny. We do not believe that your army is willing to disgrace itself by such an action. We do not believe that a great power armed to the teeth, with a population of eighty-five millions fighting to create in the world a "New Order," an Order which we thought to be founded on right, we do not believe that this great power wishes to attack on the flank a little country which already struggles for its liberty against an Empire of fourty-five millions.
What would your army do, your Excellency, if instead of horse and artillery we sent to receive them on the frontier our twenty thousand wounded in their bloody bandages? But no, that cannot be. Small or great, that part of the Greek army which can be sent there will stand in Thrace as they have stood in Epirus. There they will await the return from Berlin of the Runner, who came five years ago to light the torch at Olympus. We shall see this torch light a fire, a fire which will light this nation, which has taught all other nations how to live, and will now teach them how to die.
This translation of the open letter is Appendix II of the book Greece Against the Axis by Stanley Casson first published in London in 1941 by Hamish Hamilton and reprinted 3 times in 1942.
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[LOL, I came to this site hours ago, on the last google, on the hizballah thread and will leave now........LOL]
http://www.hri.org/docs/inter/
Interesting Documents
* 8 March 1941 Blachos' open letter to Hitler [English translation] (12 kbytes)
* 17 May 1996 Background Paper on the Pontian Genocide (9 kbytes)
* 16 May 1996 The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (19 kbytes)
* 14 May 1996 European Centre for Classical Studies - Executive Summary (30 kbytes)
* 04 April 1996 Toyrkikes monomereis diekdikhseis sto Aigaio (17 kbytes)
* 04 April 1996 Chronology of Turkish actions and claims against Greece, 1955-1996 (6 kbytes)
* 29 November 1995 Press Communique M-DPC/NPG-2(95)117 (17 kbytes)
* 31 October 1995 U.S. Atlantic Council: Nuclear Weapons and European Security (15 kbytes)
* 26 October 1995 AFSOUTH Operational Update - Oct. 26, 1995 (7 kbytes)
* 25 October 1995 Latvia Election Report [Complete Document] (39 kbytes)
* 20 October 1995 AFSOUTH Operational Update (7 kbytes)
* 19 October 1995 NAA: Projecting Stability in an Undivided Europe (27 kbytes)
* 09 October 1995 NAA: Science, Technology and Partnership for Peace (30 kbytes)
* 06 October 1995 NAA: Nuclear Proliferation - Draft Information Document - October 1995 (54 kbytes)
* 29 September 1995 STUDY ON NATO ENLARGEMENT - SEPTEMBER 1995 (152 kbytes)
* 28 September 1995 NAA: SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE SOUTHERN REGION (36 kbytes)
* 26 September 1995 NAA: NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION (55 kbytes)
* 20 September 1995 NAA: The NAA Enlargement Process: Maintaining the Momentum (21 kbytes)
* 08 September 1995 9505-7: NATO Review No.5 - September 95 (24 kbytes)
* 04 April 1995 PARATHRHTHS (6 kbytes)
* 29 March 1995 UN - S/1995/222: REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL PURSUANT TO SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 947 (1994) (95 kbytes)
* 26 March 1995 Ap8pa gia to IMRO (12 kbytes)
* 20 March 1995 Institute of Turkish Studies (5 kbytes)
* 06 October 1993 Imvros and Tenedos - Violations of the Lausanne Treaty (11 kbytes)
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Interesting.
Another blood bath, no matter who fires the first shot.
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