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Locked on 02/01/2007 7:40:51 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
New thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1777773/posts |
Posted on 01/02/2007 7:23:18 PM PST by nwctwx
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=ivorycoast
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Note: The following news brief is a quote:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3351747,00.html
4 arrested after attacks at Ivory Coast border
Published: 01.13.07, 15:29
Ivory Coast's security forces have arrested four people after attacks on two checkpoints near the border with Ghana in which two military police and a customs officer were killed, the army said in a statement.
Army spokesman Colonel Hilaire Babri Gohourou said two of the attackers had also been killed in Friday's violence, raising the death toll to five. (Reuters)
CAIRO - Egyptian security forces detained five members of the banned opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, security sources said, in the latest round-up of Islamist critics of the government.
Security sources said the five Brotherhood members were arrested on charges of belonging to an illegal organisation and possessing Muslim Brotherhood leaflets and documents.
SNIP:The Brotherhood said that those arrested on Sunday included Mohamed Ali Bashar, a member of the Brotherhood's Guidance Office which acts as its executive, as well as Essam Hashish, an engineering professor at Cairo University.
Excerpted
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1499718.htm
Al Jazeera TV journalist detained in Egypt
14 January 2007
CAIRO — Egyptian authorities detained Saturday a journalist from the pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV network for fabricating scenes of torture staged inside Egyptian police stations, an interior ministry statement said.
Egyptian TV producer Howaida Taha Matwali was banned earlier this week from traveling to Qatar, the headquarters of the Al Jazeera network, after airport police seized 50 video tapes she was carrying in her luggage, the statement said.
Excerpted
Police failing to identify who’s behind NWFP blasts
Sunday, January 14, 2007
PESHAWAR: The NWFP police and federal intelligence agencies have failed to identify the cause behind bomb blasts and suicide attacks in the province, which has seen a number of attacks in recent months that have heightened tensions between the provincial and federal governments.
It is not clear who is behind the bombings in Peshawar – the most serious of which killed at least nine people in October 2006. Police have set up checkposts within the city and its suburbs, but they have not made any arrests or managed to control terrorist activities.
Excerpted
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/01/14/story_14-1-2007_pg7_9
Tropic of Al-Qaeda: the African link
Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland, saw the beginnings of the Islamist takeover of the Somali coast in the 1990s. Last week’s American raids were long overdue, he says.
DUBAI: A top Taliban leader in Pakistan said in remarks aired on Saturday his group would protect and guard Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri if they turned up in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. “I have not met Osama or Zawahri and they did not come to our region. We hope to see them and if they show up in our area we will protect them with our bodies and souls,” Mullah Mohammad Nazir told Al Jazeera television in remarks dubbed into Arabic.
US intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday Al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hideout in Pakistan, but the Pakistani government says the United States has not given it any information about their presence in Pakistan.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\14\story_14-1-2007_pg7_4
As of 2005, Michigan held the largest and still growing Muslim population in the United States and the second largest Arab population outside of the Middle East. Outside of Muslim-run countries, Paris—which still experiences nightly vehicle torchings and mayhem in its Islamic neighborhoods—has the largest. It is estimated that eight million Muslims now live in the US and their numbers are continuing to grow. Islam is now the second-largest religious body in the United States and is said to be its fastest growing religious movement.
Although hundreds of long-time residents of Hamtramck, MI protested the city allowing the five-times-per-day Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast over Hamtramck’s loudspeakers, the city council voted unanimously in April 2004 to allow it. Prior to the city council making its decision, public input from any citizens (except Muslims) had not been allowed. This continues today. Hamtramck resident Bob Golen was outraged by the city council’s actions and said: “So they had made up their mind before any public meeting and it’s been five-nothing ever since. This is only the beginning. They're going to use Hamtramck as a precedent. This is coming to your town, to the town down the road, and to the [next] town down the road.” Golen added that, after the city council voted to allow the calls to prayer, one of the city councilmen said that he was “proud to set a precedent in this country.”
Note: The most dangerous element of this “precedent” appears to be a US city council making a unilateral decision. No input from non-Muslim US citizen-residents was required—or permitted. Sound a bit like Shari’a law (which requires only Islamic clerics to make decisions) to you? It should. Only one-third of Hamtramck’s population is Muslim. However, it is the group that appears to now wield the proverbial sword when and where its religious practices are involved. Hamtramck’s Christians and Jews need not waste their time protesting, as this pro-Muslim (to the exclusion of other religions?) city council now firmly appears to be in control of matters relating to Islam.
Just outside of Detroit, the city of Dearborn, MI (the tenth most populated in that state) holds the second densest Arab community outside of the Middle East. In a show of force, Dearborn’s largely Shiite Muslim population took to the streets in celebration after the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Considering Hussein’s atrocities perpetrated against his own people, their reaction seemed appropriate. But, many Muslims living in the United States and enjoying the freedoms and opportunities it offers them, were outraged. And these, of course, blamed the country to which they immigrated. One example is from the publisher of US-based “The Arab American News” Osama Siblani who said: “The execution might bring some amusement and accomplishment to the Bush administration, but it will not help the Iraqi people!” He blames the US for the correct decision made by the Iraqi courts. Note: From his comments, I’m taking it for granted that Siblani votes Democrat. His statement sounds eerily like those made by our new Democrat leaders. Blaming President Bush for all perceived ills has become a worldwide phenomenon and passion.
Terrorist Hezbollah is also firmly established in Michigan and in 2006 the owner of the La Shish chain of 15 US restaurants, Talal Chahine, fled to Lebanon rather than facing federal charges that he had both evaded paying taxes and funneled $20 million in profits to Hezbollah. This is but one case and there is little doubt other terrorist-supporting activities continue to occur right under our radar. Dearborn’s Al Mabarat “charitable organization” has also been named in providing funds to Hezbollah and on 31 July 3,500 Dearborn Muslims marched in support of Hezbollah and shouted: “Jews are diseased!” The assertions by many that Michigan is the capital of Hezbollah in the United States, seems an appropriate assessment. But, Hezbollah is not the only Islamic terrorist organization that has a stronghold in Michigan. Terrorist groups al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya are also firmly entrenched in the state.
And it is not only in Michigan that these terrorists have gained a foothold—their presence is now spread throughout the US. We continue to allow the presence of those within our country who have stated and are bent upon overthrowing and destroying it. Too many tolerance-advocates continue to act in an insane and self-destructive manner by allowing these incursions to exist—placing the rest of us not only at risk but, at the mercy of our destructors. And it is now happening not only on our soil but, in our backyards.
If we persist with our consent to allow the terrorists to remain in our country and plot our annihilation, we will not even have a decade left for the USA. Our existence will be measured in a few years—or perhaps months. Considering the results of angry Republicans and conservatives, as exhibited by the 2006 midterm elections, I’m not as confident of our survival as I once was. Like Democrats and other leftists, our brethren chose to ignore the real peril that now exists, for many, right-next-door.
We the people appear to have set upon a perilous path that has every indication of leading to our end—which is precisely what the named terrorist immigrants to our country have vowed. It has been said before and I’ll say it again: Certainly, not all Muslims are terrorists. But, easily, 90+% of all current terrorists are Muslims. The bed has been made and the only decision that currently appears available is if we choose to lie in it.
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=26017
A truly frightening article.
What really jumped out at me..............."Islam is now the second-largest religious body in the United States."
Can this be true? I'm a bit skeptical.
Damascus: A Syrian security court yesterday sentenced 11 alleged Islamists to between four and 10 years in prison, the National Organisation for Human Rights (NOHR) in Syria said in a statement.
"Eleven detainees, accused of having belonged to a secret organisation seeking to modify the state's economic and social statute and weaken national sentiment, were jailed on Sunday," it said. NOHR chief Ammar Qorabi said that most of the jailed men "were accused of belonging to an Islamist extremist group".
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Syria/10096963.html
UPDATE: Al Jazeera journalist freed on bail in Egypt
Cairo: An Egyptian prosecutor has released a journalist from the Arabic Al Jazeera television on bail, judicial sources said yesterday, a day after she was arrested.
Excerpted
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10096811.html
Nowhere To Turn
The former imam of Ohio's largest mosque became a man without a country.
Jan.14.2007
Fawaz Damra, now jailed by Israeli authorities, for months sought a nation to accept him following his 2004 conviction for concealing ties to terrorist groups.
But 72 rejected him, leaving him with no choice but to be deported to his native West Bank, which led to his arrest on Jan. 4. His ties to the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, responsible for numerous suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis, made it impossible for Damra to find a new start.
Excerpted
This website claims, as of 2001, that islam is third (in the U.S.):
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm
The same website also claims that islam is the second largest world religion...and growing:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/islam.htm
Of course the figures vary quite a bit.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_numb.htm
I'm still looking for some current polls, current meaning at least 2004. If I find anything I will post and ping.
In my opinion this is part of the problem:
Muslim immigration has bounced back
This has a list, from 2004, of countries ranked by percentage of muslims listing the U.S. at #115:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_isl_per_mus-religion-islam-percentage-muslim
Thanks for the info. I guess we all view such things from our own perspective. Here in small town South Dakota, nearly everyone is either Lutheran or Catholic. In my husband's hometown in Kansas, everyone is Baptist or shunned. (LOL) My sister is LDS in Salt Lake City, and so are all of her friends and neighbors.
That said, we travel frequently, and are seeing more and more veiled women on flights. I'm the old blonde blue-eyed granny who always gets the "big pat-down". They (the Muslims) never do.
I still doubt the stats.
Iraqi police announced today, Saturday, that four civilians were wounded in a car bomb explosion near patrol station in AL-Aamel neighborhood in Baghdad. A source in the police said that a car bomb exploded near a fuel station led to the injury of four civilians and the burning of near by cars in site of the explosion.
http://www.wna-news.com/inanews/news.php?item.2753.15
Marib bomb may be terrorist (Yemen)
14/01/2007
The bombing near Queen Bilqius Temple in Marib on Saturday might be terrorist act to destabilize security, security source said. The source told NewsYemen that the bombing might want to turn away the attention of authorities to bombers in oil facilities in Safer in Marib and Al-Dhaba in Hadhramout last September as the investigations into the two attacks have been just completed. But dpa quoted a security source as saying that an old left mine exploded under the gate of the temple without casualties.
http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_news.asp?sub_no=3_2007_01_14_6510
Bomb kills 4 of family (Bangladesh)
Sunday, 14 January, 2007
DHAKA: A woman and her three daughters were killed when a crude bomb exploded in a slum in western Bangladesh yesterday, police said. The victims were garbage pickers, who brought home the device thinking it to be a food can, said a police officer in Chapainawabganj town, 330km (206 miles) west of Dhaka. “They did not realise it was a bomb and it exploded while they were trying to open it,” he said.
Another bomb went off later in the area but nobody was hurt. The police recovered two more live bombs and a search has been ordered through the slum. The police said they did not know if the bombs had been left behind in the garbage dumps by criminals or Islamist militants who had carried out a wave of bombings in 2005. “We are investigating,” the police officer said, without giving details.
Islamist militants seeking Shariah law in mainly Muslim Bangladesh killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 in a spate of countrywide bomb blasts in the second half of 2005. But their campaign suffered a blow after top leaders were arrested early last year.
Shoppers escape as bomb fails to explode (India)
IMPHAL, Jan 13: Large scale casualties to customers thronging a pharmacy at the crowded Paona Bazar was averted as a hand grenade thrown inside the medical store failed to explode.
Miscreants lobbed the hand grenade (Chinese make) inside the Mahabir Pharmacy this evening at around 5.30 pm when the shop was teeming with customers.
Excerpted
http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=35849&typeid=1
Four men were arrested Sunday in Cotabato City in connection with the spate of bombings on January 10 in three cities in Mindanao that killed seven people and injured dozens, radio DZBB reported.
The report said police picked up the four after they were overheard discussing how to make bombs.
Excerpted
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/26836/4-nabbed-over-spate-of-bomb-blasts-in-Mindanao
Soldiers Are Shot In Border Town(Mexico)
Jan.13.2007
NUEVO LAREDO -- Gunmen shot and killed a soldier and wounded another in the outskirts of this violent border city, authorities said Friday. Army Capt. Agustín Salazar was killed and an unidentified soldier was wounded late Wednesday after being shot while they were riding in a sports utility vehicle near a military checkpoint, Nuevo Laredo police said in a news release. The Mexican army declined to comment.
Nuevo Laredo police and state investigators who responded to the shooting saw a large amount of dollars, assault rifles and a grenade launcher inside the soldiers' car but were unable to investigate further after military personnel ordered them to leave the crime scene, the release said.
Suspected Leader Of Crime Ring Arrested (Costa Rica)
Jan.13.2007
SAN JOSE -- Costa Rican police arrested the leader of a crime ring called the ''Chinese Dragon'' that allegedly tried to bribe officials with $2.5 million for 500 work visas.
Mario Zamora, director of Costa Rica's immigration department said the suspect, a 38-year-old Chinese man whose full name was not released, already had paid $20,000 in exchange for four visas. He was arrested Thursday with 30 Chinese passports, Zamora said.
Thank you Oorang for these links.
Looks like the terrorists have been busy.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2693
Coalition Targets Iranian Influence in Northern Iraq
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2007 – As part of their ongoing effort to target Iranian influence in northern Iraq, coalition forces continue investigating the activities of five Iranian nationals detained in Irbil, Iraq, Jan. 11, officials in Baghdad said today.
Preliminary results revealed the five detainees are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard - Qods Force, an organization known to provide funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilize the Iraqi government and attack coalition forces, they reported.
Officials said efforts will continue to target all who break the law, attack coalition force or attempt to undermine the Iraqi government.
The facility in which the detention took place has been described by various Iraqi officials as an Iranian liaison office, but it did not enjoy the diplomatic status of a consulate, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.
The multinational force, in keeping with U.S. policy, will continue to disrupt logistical support to extremists that originate from outside Iraq, they said. These initiatives are part of a broader plan officials said includes diplomatic efforts designed to support the Iraqi government, protect the Iraqi people and seek assistance from neighboring nations.
Today on “Fox News Sunday,” Vice President Dick Cheney also touched on Iran’s involvement in Iraq, saying the Iranians use the terrorist organization Hezbollah “as a surrogate” in an attempt to topple democratically elected governments in the region.
“The threat that Iran represents is growing. It’s multi-dimensional, and it is in fact a concern to everybody in the region,” he said. “We do not want them doing what they can to destabilize the situation inside Iraq.”
(Compiled from a Multinational Force Iraq news release.)
You're welcome Cindy. Good Sunday to you.
Iran demands nationals' release
Sunday, 14 January 2007
Iran has demanded that the US military immediately release five of its nationals detained in a raid in northern Iraq on Thursday. Iran's foreign ministry says the men are diplomats and were working at the Iranian liaison office in Irbil.
US officials say they are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which they say trains and arms Iraqi insurgents. The US has the authority to pursue Iranians in Iraq who "put our people at risk", a top US official has said. "We are going to need to deal with what Iran is doing inside Iraq," said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on Sunday.
"We know there are jihadists moving from Syria into Iraq. ...We know also that Iran is supplying elements in Iraq that are attacking Iraqis and attacking our forces," he told ABC Television.
Excerpted
Add away.
I saw one of the "Iran demands" on one of the ME sites in the wee hours and the standard response sprang to mind, "Angels in Hell want ice water, too."
ON THE NET...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=saudiarabia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran
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Thanks to Texkat for starting this thread.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1767584/posts
Iran's Larijani makes unexpected trip to Saudi Arabia
Iran Focus | Jan. 14 , 2007
Posted on 01/14/2007 2:56:36 PM PST by TexKat
Tehran, Iran, Jan. 14 – Iran's chief nuclear negotiator arrived in Riyadh on Sunday on an unexpected trip to meet senior Saudi officials.
Ali Larijani, secretary general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), is to meet Saudi King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal during his stay, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
The two sides will discuss the situation in the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program, and issues of bilateral concern, it said.
His trip had not previously been announced in state media and came hot on the heels of the announcement last week by U.S. President George W. Bush of his administration's new strategy for curbing violence in Iraq.
Washington and Iraqi officials routinely blame Tehran for aiding Shiite militias responsible for dozens of assassinations in Iraq on a daily basis.
In July 2006, Larijani traveled to Riyadh where he hand-delivered a message by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to King Abdullah.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister along with his French counterpart jointly urged Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=nicaragua
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=ahmadinejad
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1767603/posts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6261721.stm
Last Updated: Sunday, 14 January 2007, 22:32 GMT
"Iran and Nicaragua vow close ties"
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pledged closer ties with Nicaragua as he continues his Latin America tour.
"We have common interests, common enemies and common goals", he said as he visited shantytowns in Managua with the Nicaraguan leader, Daniel Ortega.
Mr Ahmadinejad arrived in Nicaragua from Venezuela where he signed business agreements with President Hugo Chavez.
The Iranian president's visits are aimed at boosting ties with the region's most vocal critics of the US.
The aim is also to garner further support in the international debate over Iran's nuclear programme and its alleged interference in Iraq."
Egyptian security forces discovered a cache of explosives on Sunday in the Sinai peninsula, where bomb attacks have killed more than 100 people since 2004, security sources said.
The cache consisted of at least 500 kg (1,100 lb) of TNT hidden in two gas containers and large plastic bags and was found in the desert area near al-Arish, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, the sources said. They said the explosives were discovered after a tip-off and no arrests had been made.
"We received information that some elements were concealing large quantities of explosives," one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Egypt has blamed the Sinai attacks, the last of which took place in April, on an Islamist militant group called al-Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Jihad) and says the group is made up of Sinai bedouin with militant views.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/959899
Lanka troops capture three more Tiger bases (Sri Lanka)
14 January 2007
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan police commandos captured three more Tamil Tiger rebel bases in the island’s east, raising to 11 the number seized from the guerrillas, an official said Sunday.
The elite Special Task Force commandos took control of the three bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the district of Ampara late Saturday following a weekend offensive, a local official said.
Excerpted
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1761584/posts?page=13#13
--
http://www.inatoday.com/americalosing11507.htm
"IS AMERICA LOSING THE WILL TO SURVIVE?"
January 15, 2007
International News Analysis Today
By Toby Westerman
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