Posted on 02/26/2007 4:18:14 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
No one to counter Chavez In a region where the leading ideology is Bolivarianism, there is not one leader positioned to offer a better idea for a brighter future.
Commentary by Sam Logan for ISN Security Watch (23/02/2007)
For over two decades, the prevailing ideology in Latin America was neo-liberalism, a Washington-born idea that claimed the power of open markets would lift the region’s poor from misery. It did not, and corruption ran rampant.
While democracy still remains strong, resentful voters ushered in a new generation of neo-populist leaders touting a new idea: a form of socialism, called Bolivarianism, that has slowly but surely become the loudest and most prevalent ideology.
Bolivarianism is anti-capitalist, supports nationalization, regional trade with like-minded countries and above all, suggests that a country should rely on itself or fellow socialist states, not imperialist powers, as a source of the economic growth that will lift all from poverty. It is a sort of refurbished socialism that is not a guiding light for the future.
Latin America cannot readily absorb the economic shock of open markets, nor can it get bogged down in the trappings of old socialist ideas. A blended ideology must be promoted, but the problem is that no one is strong enough to counter Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the leader of Bolivarianism.
Chavez calls it Socialism for the 21st Century. Cuba's Fidel Castro passed him the torch. Leaders around the region pay homage to their own past as socialist upstarts through hugging and laughing with Chavez on the international stage while taking care of often pro-capitalist, neo-liberal business at home.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva is a perfect example. He has the leftist background and eye for fiscal conservatism to become a great ideological counterweight to Chavez. His politics represent an ideal blend for the region. But his politically weak position at home and strong voices from his own left deter any would be shouting match with Chavez.
Within a week after winning his second term in office, Lula visited Chavez for a photo opportunity on a bridge linking both countries. That was in November, and it looks like Lula’s administration will remain bogged down until March as he struggles to get past his party’s sordid past and form a working cabinet willing to share the same table.
Argentina of the past could have been a counter weight to the Bolivarian ideology. But since Nestor Kirchner has come to power, Argentina has become a Venezuelan puppet.
Chavez has literally bought the support of his southern neighbor with over US$3 billion in purchases of Argentine debt. The most recent purchase occurred on 16 February, when Venezuela dumped another US$750 million into Argentine government coffers.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has the politics to promote an ideological battle with Chavez. Colombia has been a model of economic growth through a mixture of neo-liberal policies and social programs. But Uribe has serious problems.
Political allies are falling like dominos due to links with former paramilitary leaders. And if Uribe took the time to speak out for neo-liberalism and against Chavez, he would be dismissed as another of Washington's puppets. Colombia is a top recipient of US aid.
The only other leader who could take up an ideological fight with Chavez is Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He has the right politics and his country has a history of not blindly supporting the US. Voting against the US invasion of Iraq at the UN is a clear indication. But Calderon won on the thinnest possible mandate. His opposition controls enough seats in the Mexican Congress to block any unwanted initiative, and his focus is on Mexican organized crime, not on verbal sword play with Chavez.
Finally, the US has launched a diplomatic offensive in the region. This is to be a year of engagement, but the US president is clearly obsessed with the war in Iraq, not with putting a muzzle on Venezuela’s leader for the sake of the region’s future. Washington is doubly discredited, first for promoting an ideology that clearly did not work, and second for doing nothing about it.
Latin America needs an independent leader willing to stand up to Chavez, but that leader does not exist on the region’s geopolitical map. Bolivarianism will continue to seep into the minds and hearts of millions across Latin America. Chavez and his pool of allies will control the headlines until the next round of presidential elections tell the world how the region has embraced this new ideology.
As Chavez puts it, Socialism for the 21st Century is just getting started. If that is true, then he will continue to trumpet his ideology until Latin Americans learn, the hard way, that Bolivarianism did not carry them much farther from poverty than neo-liberalism. Disillusionment with reality may then spread faster than hope for the future.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam Logan is an investigative journalist who has reported on security, energy, politics, economics, organized crime, terrorism and black markets in Latin America since 1999. He is a senior writer for ISN Security Watch based in Brazil.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).
3 Stoned, Shot for Adultery (back)
March 15, 2007
(SA) Peshawar - Pro-Taliban extremists in a Pakistani tribal area stoned and then shot dead two men and a woman for alleged adultery, said officials and witnesses on Thursday. About 800 tribesmen watched the executions by the Lashkar-i-Islam (Army of Islam) group on Wednesday in the Khyber tribal district on the border with Afghanistan, they said. The trio was tied with ropes, and tribal elders and other men gathered at a patch of open ground and stoned them. Two masked members of the hardline group then shot them with Kalashnikov rifles, said witnesses. The killings are likely to fuel concern about the 'Talibanisation' of parts of Pakistan and the introduction of Islamic sharia law, particularly in the tribal areas and in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
'The Lashkar-i-Islam men caught them and after investigations it was proved that they were guilty of adultery,' said a group on condition of anonymity. 'Illicit activities' Members of the religious group, led by cleric Mangal Bagh, raided a house on Monday and abducted the three after local residents suspected them of 'illicit' activities, said residents in the Bara region said. The victims were named as Allah Noor and Shahzad while the woman was identified as Taslima.
The local administration said it did not intervene in the situation as the restive tribal agencies were semi-autonomous and Pakistani laws did not apply. 'We had reports about the killings, but we do not interfere in the matters related to tribal customs and traditions,' said a tribal administration official. Last year, 25 people died in street battles in Bara between mullahs who used illegal radio stations to preach rival versions of Islam. One of the mullahs, Mufti Munir Shakir, is the spiritual leader of the Lashkar-i-Islami chief. The latest killings come less than two months after two lovers were tied to trees and stoned to death by angry relatives in Donga Bonga village in central Punjab province, in a so-called 'honour killing'.
Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10- 1462_2084077,00.html
The Coming War with Islam II (back)
March 16, 2007
Schoolboys in my native Hungary used to recite an old ditty. It conjured up emotions ossified in the seams of time. Stork, stork, ciconia,
What makes your foot bleed? A Turkish lad is slashing it A Magyar lad is mending it With a fife, a drum and a fiddle of reed. The wounded stork's song was a fragment of tribal memory bobbing to the surface from the collective unconscious of a great historical hurt. It was a bitter lay, a denunciation of the Ottoman Empire, the Xanadu of imperial Islam. The Turks had occupied Hungary for six generations. Although the 150 years of Turkish rule occurred during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Magyars never quite got over it.
The national bird's lament was a manifestation of recollected trauma, but as the words cast a spell of their own, on the playground we repeated them oblivious to their overtones of ethnic and civilizational hostility. Apart from the puzzle of how to mend a bleeding foot with musical instruments, we were enticed by the alliteration of the first line. It rendered the Latin word for stork -- ciconia -- as gilice in Hungarian, to harmonize with the Hungarian word for stork -- golya -- and made the first line go: Golya, golya, gilice. Mournfully pronounced as goh-yah, goh-yah, ghi-lih-tzeh, the words burrowed into our minds. The fiddle of reed (no one knew what a fiddle of reed was, but it sounded magical) was icing on the cake.
The melodious ditty would be viewed as offensive to 'diversity' today. We meant to give no offence to anyone -- none of us had ever seen a Turkish lad -- but we did associate the song with what we had been told about the Turkish occupation of Hungary -- the Turkish hodoltsag or bondage, as we invariably referred to it, just as Palestinians refer to the creation of Israel as nakba, or catastrophe.
Being in thrall to the Turk meant being in thrall to Islam. This was worse than being in thrall to the German -- Hungary's other great historical trauma -- for Germans were at least kin in Christ, while Turks were Muslims.
Christianity's roots in Hungary were not very deep, but they did go back to the 9th century (with pagan revolts extending into the 11th). The Magyars, a coalition of seven tribes of nomadic horsemen from Siberia, kept riding west until they emerged from familiar Asia and found themselves in alien Europe. This happened shortly before the end of the first millennium. The Magyar chieftains concluded that they had no choice but to adopt Christianity and settle in the fertile lands along both banks of the river Danube, in a region the Romans had called Pannonia.
The chieftains did not realize that they had picked a natural conflict zone. They pitched their tents in the borderlands between civilizations. Buda Castle was still a long way from being built in 895 AD, but the grey Danube (it was never blue) roiling at the foot of the future seat of Hungary's kings was the last in a series of moats between East and West, Asia and Europe, paganism and monotheism. In due course, it became a moat between Islamand Christendom.
Having made the mistake of settling in a bad geopolitical neigbourhood, the Magyars would come to see themselves as defenders of the West, to which they did not belong, against the East, to which they did. This resulted in Hungarians having a love-hate relationship with both the East and the West for the next thousand years. 'East' meant Mongolian and
Tartar marauders at first, but the expansion of the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century gradually changed its meaning to include Islam. The crescent moon became a symbol of menace, as the Muslim world made up for the ground it lost in southwestern Europe by its conquests in the southeast. By victories such as Kosovo, the Prophet's armies gained in the Balkans what they forfeited in Spain. Eventually their success saw them sweep across the great plains of Hungary and Transdanubia, their high tide reaching the walls of Vienna on two occasions, the last time in 1683.
The Magyars resisted Islam's advance for nearly a century, but eventually they succumbed at Mohacs Field in 1526. After that debacle, Hungary's 150 years of bondage began. Ottoman rule was not unmitigated evil -- for instance, horticulture and architecture flourished under it -- but it was still a nightmare of caprice and corruption. The Sultan's soldiers were fatalistic in combat and merciless in victory. The Porta -- the Turkish court -- combined dizzying hauteur with abject servility. It also combined, along with its entire culture, Oriental cruelty with Muslim self-righteousness. Most measures were considered justified against the giaours (infidels). The trauma of imperial Islam lingers in the lower Danube basin to this day.
I am offering this potted history of the region because my reader is likely to be the product of what I have called 'the 60-year gap.' Assuming that he or she was born after 1918 (the year General Allenby rode through the gates of Damascus) but before 1979 (when the Ayatollah Khomeini deposed the Shah of Iran and the mujahedeen began resisting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan), my reader belongs to the only about three generations in 1,400 years during which the struggle between the Islamic and non-Islamic world was on standby. This 60-year gap between the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the resurgence of militant Islam was one of the few periods in which people, as long as they lived in certain sheltered parts of the world, such as Western Europe and North America, could be blissfully unaware that their civilization was at war with another.
Even this 60-year gap was a matter of perception rather than reality. The struggle never abated. Pakistan and India conducted fullscale engagements, as did Israel and the socalled rejectionist Arab states surrounding it. Still, in the Western perception -- and in the Arab perception as well to some extent -- the struggle in those years was between the forces of Arab 'national liberation' and Western 'imperialism' rather than between the armies of the Prophet and those of the infidels.
The illusion of a gap in the ancient struggle lasted three generations and had certain consequences. One was that when the smouldering fire of Islam's jihad erupted again in 1979, it caught many, if not most, Westerners by surprise. The 14-century-old conflagration was burning brightly, with American hostages being paraded in Tehran, but many people took another 22 years to notice the flames. Millions did, finally, on a picture-perfect September morning in 2001, though others denied seeing the fire even then. Some still deny it.
Having grown up in the land of the bloodied stork, I saw 9/11 from a different perspective. A 'Turkish lad' slashing a bird's foot was not totally unfamiliar to me. Though I had no sympathy for wanton rage, coming from the East I could understand how it might arise more easily than Westerners. Irrationality was as irritating to me as to any other creature of a Cartesian culture, but as a native of the Danube basin, I found it less puzzling. I could also entertain the politically incorrect notion that we might be at war, not just with 'terrorism' in general, but with the specific terrorism of Islam.
Perhaps Muslim resentment and rage should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Western ascendancy had been rubbing salt into the wounds of Islamic decline for centuries. As the Princeton scholar Bernard Lewis observed in 1990:
'For a long time now there has been a rising tide of rebellion against this Western paramountcy, and a desire to reassert Muslim values and restore Muslim greatness. The Muslim has suffered successive stages of defeat. The first was his loss of domination in the world, to the advancing power of Russia and the West. The second was the undermining of his authority in his own country, through an invasion of foreign ideas and laws and ways of life and sometimes even foreign rulers or settlers, and the enfranchisement of native non-Muslim elements. The third -- the last straw -- was the challenge to his mastery in his own house, from emancipated women and rebellious children. It was too much to endure, and the outbreak of rage against these alien, infidel and incomprehensible forces that had subverted his dominance, disrupted his society and finally violated the sanctuary of his home was inevitable. It was also natural that this rage should be directed primarily against the millennial enemy and should draw its strength from ancient beliefs and loyalties.'
For radical Islam, this millennial enemy was not only America or Israel, but the entire 'House of War,' the world of non-Islamic beliefs and values in general, and Western beliefs and values in particular. The countries of Europe could not exempt themselves from this jihadist view by conciliatory gestures. Neither could Canada.
Stork, stork, ciconia, What makes your foot bleed?
The answer had slammed into the Twin Towers on the morning of Sept 11, 2001.
- Excerpted with permission from Reflections on Islam: Ideas, Opinions, Arguments, by George Jonas, published by Key Porter Books Ltd. ? 2007 George Jonas.
Source: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id= c2727806-3212-4217-944b-7144baebacf5
[2003 too long to post, good comments]
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/880495/postsFBI sees terror; family sees good son Ex-resident of Miramar being sought in terror case
The Miami Herald ^ | 03/31/2003 | BY DAVID KIDWELL AND LARRY LEBOWITZ (Natalie McNeal contributed)
Posted on 03/30/2003 11:11:40 PM PST by miltonim
He is now among the most hunted men in America.
But to his family in South Forida, Adnan Gulshair El'Shukri-jumah is the son who -- at the age of 8 -- took over as head of his home in Saudi Arabia in the absence of his missionary father.
They describe him as a brother who loved to picnic in the desert outside Medina and enjoyed American movies but not America's permissive customs.
Though the subject of a global manhunt for his suspected involvement in possible terrorist activities, family members say he was just a normal, good-natured young man who dreamed of a family of his own, whose young adult years in Miramar were filled with driving children to school, buying groceries and taking college courses.
He sometimes went with his father to lead Islamic worship services and took his Muslim heritage seriously. But by their account, Adnan El'Shukri-jumah never showed any signs of taking up the militant causes of extremists.
GOVERNMENT'S VIEW
U.S. thinks suspect joined
with terrorists before 9/11
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070318/UPDATES01/70318004
Teen accused of firing gun in school
CINCINNATI (AP) - A 16-year-old high school student was indicted on adult charges accusing him of firing a gun at an assistant principal in the school's hallway.
A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Markeith Ford on Friday on charges of felonious assault, illegally bringing a gun to school and improperly discharging a firearm.
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Taft High School assistant principal Dixon Edwards testified at an earlier hearing that he saw the gun and when he tried to stop Ford in the hallway on Jan. 8, the boy fired the gun and left the building.
School officials said there were very few students in the hallway at the time, and no one was hurt. Police arrested Ford a short time later.
The teen had the gun to protect himself and fired accidentally, Assistant Hamilton County Public Defender Michael Buschbacher said. But Assistant Prosecutor Katherine Pridemore said Ford warranted being charged with felonious assault because he is accused of pointing a deadly weapon at Edwards and firing.
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6237429&nav=menu368_2_9
March 16, 2007
Teens charged with bringing gun, ammo into middle school
Teens bring guns to school (03/16)
Two teenage boys are under arrest in Montgomery County, charged with bringing a handgun into Auburn Middle School this morning. The sheriff's office says at least one of them "made statements regarding plans to shoot the school resource officer, principal and a student at the school."
Investigators say the two suspects are 14 and 15-year-old boys. Their names are not being released. The Sheriff's office says the gun was a 22-calibre revolver and "ammunition was also found."
Deputies credit an aware student for bringing the information to the school resource officer's attention.
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6233785&nav=menu368_2
March 15, 2007
Police investigate homemade bombs found in a Pearisburg park
Bombs found in Pearisburg (03/15)
Police in Pearisburg need help determining who placed two homemade bombs in a local park.
In January, a maintenance crew found the crude explosive devices at the entrance to Whitt River Bend Park. One of the devices was partially detonated.
Police turned the evidence over to the State Police crime lab. The police chief says the homemade bombs could have hurt someone. He's hoping someone in the community has information.
If you can help in the investigation, give Pearisburg police a call.
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070318/UPDATES01/70318005
Passenger train breaks down, spends night stuck in northeast Indiana
WATERLOO, Ind. (AP) - An Ohio-bound Amtrak train spent hours stuck on its tracks in northeast Indiana after breaking down with engine failure, a spokesman said.
The train had left Chicago at 7:05 p.m. Thursday for Toledo, Ohio, but broke down a few hours later and was stuck much of the night east of Waterloo, Ind., about 75 miles west of Toledo, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said.
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The 165 passengers on the train were offered alternate transportation, including flights, and some took advantage of it, Cole said.
The engine that failed was in a train car that had to be replaced entirely, Cole said.
Coni Walters of Goshen said she boarded the train in Elkhart at 11:45 p.m. Thursday headed to Washington, D.C., for a wedding rehearsal. The train did not resume its journey until about 9 a.m. Friday, she said.
"We're in the middle of nowhere," she said before the train got going.
http://www.centralohio.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/B8/20070317/NEWS01/703170304/1002
Local man sentenced for impersonating an officer
The Gazette Staff
A man with local ties has been sentenced to seven years in prison for impersonating a police officer and entering people's homes.
Scott Moll, 42, of Chillicothe, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of impersonating a peace officer, a third-degree felony, and another second-degree felony of impersonating a peace officer.
Moll reportedly entered victim's homes in Galena, which is in Delaware County, while wearing clothing and badge of a law enforcement officer and identifying himself as "Capt. Miller" of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office. Moll was arrested March 10, 2006.
According to information from the Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney's office, Moll also handcuffed one resident during the incident. Moll had come into contact with about five other residents, who reported "Capt. Miller" to authorities as a suspicious person.
"Police officers will always have their ID with their badges," said Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney Dave Yost.
Moll is being housed at the Delaware County Jail.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHAN_VIOLENCE?SITE=NNCO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Mar 19, 3:46 AM EDT
Bomb Hits U.S. Embassy Convoy in Kabul
By FISNIK ABRASHI
Associated Press Writer
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A car bomb exploded next to a U.S. Embassy convoy on a busy road in Kabul on Monday, setting an embassy SUV on fire, officials said.
Joe Mellott, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said several people in the convoy were wounded, one seriously. He said the U.S. ambassador was not in the convoy.
An initial alert over an embassy warning system said: "A U.S. Embassy convoy was struck by a suicide bomber in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy," according to an Associated Press reporter who heard the alert over the phone.
continued.....
http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html
ONI on China
The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has produced a 130-page report on China's navy that reveals new details of its structure, doctrine and function.
Key to China's naval forces are new and deadlier submarines, and Beijing is producing several types at a very rapid pace, including five new ballistic-missile submarines.
The report identified what it called Beijing's "capability of nuclear counter-attacks," a reference to new missile submarines that will be equipped with JL-2 long-range nuclear missiles.
China's navy also is beefing up "integrated combat capabilities" to better conduct combat in "offshore campaigns," the report stated.
"In accordance with the principle of smaller but more efficient troops, the [People's Liberation Army] navy has compressed the chain of command and reorganized the combat forces in a more scientific way while giving prominence to building maritime combat forces, especially amphibious combat forces," it stated. China's navy "has also sped up the process of updating its weaponry and equipment with priority given to the development of new combat ships as well as various kinds of special purpose aircraft and relevant equipment," the report stated.
China's submarine forces are given "first priority" of all branches of the navy, it stated.
One significant disclosure: China is building a nuclear-submarine base on Hainan island that U.S. specialists say could be used in the future to interdict vital sea lanes in Southeast Asia, a key worry of Pentagon planners.
The Hainan base is thought to be where China will deploy some of the five new Jin-class missile submarines.
Overall, China is building new naval weapons with advanced guidance, power and other characteristics using what the Chinese call "informationalized" elements, such as long-range precision-strike weapons, which are part of ballistic and cruise missiles.
The goal of the naval buildup: transforming China into "the pre-eminent regional power in East Asia," said William E. Tarry, director of ONI's Naval Analysis Directorate.
"By acquiring some of the world's most impressive naval technologies from abroad while simultaneously building advanced indigenous submarines, combatants and naval aircraft, China is positioning itself to play a growing role in regional and transregional affairs," Mr. Tarry wrote in a preface to the report.
The report does not contain details on weapons and states, in a dig at Chinese military secrecy, "the [navy] does not openly publish information on the types and numbers of weapon systems and equipment in its inventory."
According to the Pentagon, China in 2006 had 70 warships, including 25 destroyers, 45 frigates, 55 submarines, about 50 amphibious lift ships and about 45 coastal missile patrol craft.
http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/ring022307.html
February 23, 2007
Notes from the Pentagon
Spy release
Former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst Ronald Montaperto, convicted last year on espionage-related charges that involved passing secrets to China, is scheduled to get out of federal prison Sunday. Prosecutors say he will be barred from meeting any Chinese intelligence personnel as a condition of his release.
Montaperto pleaded guilty in June to improperly storing classified intelligence documents and admitted as part of a plea deal that he verbally passed both "secret" and "top secret" intelligence to two Chinese military intelligence officers during 60 meetings over a number of years.
He spent three months at the minimum-security prison at Fort Dix, N.J.
The court order in the case states that Montaperto "shall have no contact with any foreign government or agents thereof, except with the express permission of [Department of Defense], and shall not seek or accept, personally or through another person or entity, any benefit from such foreign government or agent thereof."
If Montaperto is paid or receives benefits from the Chinese or their agents, he will have to turn them over to the U.S. government.
"There's also a provision in the plea agreement that prohibits him from disclosing classified information," one law-enforcement official close to the case said.
Montaperto's conviction was a major blow to a network of politically powerful pro-China intelligence officials and academics who share his views of China.
U.S. intelligence officials have said that Montaperto's disclosures to Chinese intelligence coincided with the loss of a major electronic eavesdropping program against China that had helped track Beijing's illicit arms exports.
Before sentencing, Montaperto received letters of support from several current and former intelligence officials, including DIA analyst and friend Lonnie Henley, who ultimately was reprimanded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for his defense of Montaperto.
Mr. Henley also had criticized the FBI for investigating Montaperto in an e-mail to a group of China specialists. The e-mail defended Montaperto as someone who only wanted to improve U.S.-Chinese relations and who was persecuted by the FBI as a result.
Despite the letter of reprimand, Mr. Henley recently was promoted to acting national intelligence officer for East Asia. Montaperto was sentenced to three months in prison by federal Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, who said the light sentence was the result of the letters of support he received from current and former intelligence and military officials, despite what he called a "very serious charge."
Montaperto claimed the passing of intelligence to China was unintentional and the result of being tricked by two Chinese officers.
March 9, 2007
Notes from the Pentagon
Sutter criticized
The director of the FBI's Washington Field Office has rebuked former CIA analyst Robert Sutter for his recent refusal to help the FBI better understand China's intelligence activities.
Joseph Persichini Jr., assistant FBI director in charge of the Washington office, told reporters and editors of The Washington Times last week that the FBI continues "reaching out" to many members of the community for information as part of its counterintelligence program.
Asked about negative comments made by Mr. Sutter regarding the FBI, Mr. Persichini said: "That's his personal opinion, and he's just one person in a community of thousands."
Mr. Sutter said in an e-mail to a group of China affairs specialists that he met with two FBI counterintelligence agents who sought his help in learning about Chinese intelligence-gathering activities.
"I told the agents that while they seemed like nice people and I tried to be cooperative with the U.S. government, I could not trust them or have any assurance that they would not use any information I provided in some way that would hurt me or others," he said.
Mr. Sutter said he was upset by the FBI "sting" of former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ron Montaperto, who pleaded guilty in June to illegally withholding classified information and admitted as part of a plea deal that he improperly passed both "top secret" and "secret" intelligence to two Chinese military-intelligence officers.
Mr. Persichini said the FBI will continue to seek information from multiple sources and will continue to request help from other academics and specialists.
Regarding Mr. Sutter, he said: "It's sad that he has that opinion, but I don't believe it is widespread."
China chat group
U.S. government policy and intelligence officials who are part of a private China affairs Internet group, which includes former CIA analyst Robert Sutter, are being advised to stop sending e-mails to the group amid concerns about disclosures of classified information.
The chat group in the past had been called "Chinasec," short for China security. Participants say it has sought to promote two themes: Use group members' contacts with reporters at the New York Times, The Washington Post and other press outlets to manipulate coverage and discussion of China's growing military activities, and to obtain sensitive or classified information and tips from the approximately 15 members of the group who hold high-level U.S. government security clearances.
One member of the group, a Pentagon employee who held a clearance above the "top secret" level, quit the chat group this week in the aftermath of the exposure in this newspaper of Mr. Sutter's refusal to help the FBI track Chinese spies. The official explained in an e-mail to the group that he could not obtain official authorization for future e-mail discussions.
The defense official warned other officials and contractors who are members of the chat group that if they, too, hold top-secret clearances they can be penalized for continuing to participate.
The official explained that the deputy secretary of defense several years ago sent a memorandum to all officials with access to secrets stating that it is a criminal security violation to discuss work-related matters on an unclassified Internet chat group.
A similar CIA-related chat group was disbanded several years ago amid concerns about disclosures of classified information.
China's intelligence service is known to be among the most aggressive at collecting intelligence electronically from such forums, mainly through sympathetic group members who have frequent contacts with Chinese nationals.
The group's moderator, Michael Swaine of the Carnegie Endowment, could not be reached for comment.
Among the chat group's participants is Dennis Wilder, a CIA analyst who is currently the senior National Security Council staff director for Asia. Mr. Wilder in April posted an insider's account of President Bush's summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Acting National Intelligence Officer for East Asia Lonnie Henley also is a participant.
Another frequent contributor is Chris Clarke, currently the head of China affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Mr. Clarke has posted reports on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and critical comments of U.S. government reporting from Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Other group postings have sought to play down the significance of the Jan. 11 anti-satellite weapons test by China, and some were critical of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her tough views of China.
One participant, Evan Medeiros of the Rand Corp., recently was cautioned by other group members for posting a sensitive e-mail that appeared to be based on a CIA file.
Several former CIA China specialists have been known to post to the group from their contractor offices, often surrounded by classified documents on their desks.
According to one U.S. official, Mr. Swaine recently rejected a U.S. government request to provide information on former group member Ron Montaperto, who pleaded guilty to espionage-related charges in June.
Montaperto had made hundreds of postings over the 12-year history of the group. Some members now advocate that all e-mail posting files be destroyed rather than maintained at the Carnegie Endowment.
http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/ring030907.html
OSD/JS FOIA Requester Service Center Reading Room.
* Detainee Related Documents
* Documents on the TALON System
* Documents concerning the service of President George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard. Information within these documents has been redacted to protect the privacy of individuals, 5 USC § 552(b)(6).
* Videos of American Flight 77 striking the Pentagon on September 11, 2001
Video 1 (WMV)
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* Annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Program Reports
* Other Documents
Master Reading Room List - Page 1
Master Reading Room List - Page 2
from:
http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/reading_room/
[I don't have time to mess with pdf right now, and do not want to loose this report....so here it is....granny]
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/sovietunion/gulag_study.htm
U.S. - Russia
Joint Commission
on POW/MIAs
US and Russian Flags with crossed staffs and POW-MIA below
Joint Commission Support
Directorate (JCSD)
The Gulag Study
The Gulag Study is a compilation of reports asserting that U.S. servicemen were held in Soviet camps and prisons. The study draws upon accounts from varied sources, many of whom claim to have been incarcerated in the Soviet Gulag system. The memoirs of a former Soviet Gulag inmate who lists several names that correlate to missing U.S. servicemen comprise a significant contribution to this study, which was originally prepared as a working document by the U.S. side of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs. The Gulag Study was released to the public in February 2001, and is accessible through the DPMO and JCSD web pages.
Recent interviews with refugees, defectors, and others; U.S. diplomatic and military archival material; and other first-hand and indirect reporting sources have contributed to an extensive database for managing information regarding alleged sightings of Americans, particularly members of the armed forces, detained in Russia and the former Soviet Union. This database also includes the names of individuals who have been repatriated, including foreigners erroneously identified as Americans. The sheer volume of this information lends credence to the fact that U.S. servicemen were detained in the Soviet prison camp system following World War II, and during the Korean, Vietnam, and Cold Wars. The U.S. side of the Commission compiled and substantially expanded the database immediately after the 16 th Plenum for delivery to the Russian side in April 2000.
JCSD personnel have conducted preliminary investigative trips to the major locations of prisons and camps in the former Soviet Union. These trips provided an initial logistics review, familiarization with the area, sampling of prisoner cards for known names, and personal interviews to determine potential leads and sources for further investigation. In October 2000, JCSD personnel traveled to Vorkuta in the Komi Republic in order to establish a research agreement with the Russian Memorial society. A team of ten Russians will review both prisoner index cards in the Vorkuta Archives and prisoner memoirs in the Vorkuta museum in an effort to determine whether U.S. POWs were detained in the Komi Republic.
In May 2001, JCSD personnel traveled to Perm to meet with government officials from the Perm Oblast. During the visit they also took the initial steps toward establishing a research agreement with the Perm chapter of the Memorial society, similar to the one with Vorkuta. In addition to archival research, this contract will include interview expeditions to the sites of former camps in Perm Oblast.
Perm-36 Special Camp, located in Perm, Russia. This site is now a museum.
Additionally, JCSD has conducted interviews with former inmates of the Gulag, camp guards, workers and administrators, academicians and veterans in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union. These interviews have unearthed valuable leads for further investigation. In addition, JCSD's contemporary interviews correspond well to those conducted under contract by the Polish Karta Center's research project. Karta searches for American citizens missing since World War II on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Finally, JCSD analysts conduct analysis of historical reports obtained through archival research at the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress and other archives and libraries in the United States. These documents range from State Department cables to U.S. military debriefings of German and Japanese POWs repatriated from the Soviet Union during the 1950s.
Regardless of the credibility that either side of the Commission ascribes to any single source of information, existing evidence supports further investigation into the issue of possible American POWs in the former Soviet Union.
Current Report:
>>> February 11, 2005 Report Image to indicate that the report is in PDF format <<<
Previously:
June 22, 2002 Report Image to indicate that the report is in PDF format
New additions and changes are highlighted in Bold Text.
In Russian, the text reads: Gulag Study, 4th Edition, 22 June 2002
November 20, 2001 Report | Image to indicate that the report is in PDF format
June 22, 2001 | Image to indicate that the report is in PDF format
February 7, 2001 Image to indicate that the report is in PDF format
[could be interesting, have not checked it]
http://www.defenselink.mil/home/features/Detainee_Affairs/
Detainee Affairs
High Value Detainees
Summary of the High Value Terrorist Detainee Program
Detainee Biographies
Policy
DoD Detainee Program DoD Directive 2310.01E
Link to Army FM 2.22-3 Human Intelligence Collector Operations
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
New Stories on GITMO Proceedings American Forces Press Service and other DoD news coverage of proceedings at Guantanamo Bay.
Detainees at Guantanamo Bay List of articles, news releases, transcripts, photos, and fact sheets concerning detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Guantanamo Detainee Process Fact sheet for the Guantanamo Detainee Process that includes a brief description of each process, the responsible organization, a point of contact, and a website.
Guantanamo Bay Detainee Name List List of detainees who went through the complete Combatant Status Review Tribunal process.
(All detainees who went through Round 1 of the Administrative Review Board process are also found on this list.)
Info from Guantanamo Detainees Summary of information gleaned from interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo.
Joint Task Force – Guantanamo Joint Task Force – Guantanamo home page that includes news reports and the Task Force newsletter ‘The Wire.’
46 NEW GITMO Photos New Defense Dept. photos from April 5, 2006.
GITMO Photos Defense Department photos of detainee facilities at Guantanamo Bay.
U.S. Southern Command Southern Command home page (go to Media Resources) that includes news releases, testimony transcripts, and other information concerning detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Detainee Investigations
Detainee Investigations DoD coverage of detainee investigations, including the released reports, news releases, articles, briefing transcripts, and background information.
Military Commissions
Military Commissions Information on military commissions, including official DoD documents, background information, and news releases.
Reviews
Combatant Status Review Tribunals/Administrative Review Board List of news releases, briefing transcripts, and official updates pertaining to the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Reviews Boards.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/articles.aspx
03/18/2007 : U.S. Refutes Taliban Claim of Shooting Down Helicopter in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2007 - U.S. military officials refuted a Taliban claim that they shot down a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province on March 16.
03/18/2007 : Suspected Terrorists Captured, Killed in Iraq; Weapons Caches Found
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2007 - Coalition forces nabbed numerous suspected terrorists and uncovered several weapons caches in operations in Iraq over the past few days, military officials reported.
03/18/2007 : Scores of Iraqi Civilians Injured in Terrorist Chlorine Gas Attack
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2007 - About 350 Iraqi civilians and six coalition force members were treated for chlorine gas exposure after suicide bombers detonated chlorine- laden dump trucks in three separate incidents March 16, military officials reported.
03/18/2007 : Eight Soldiers, Marine Killed in Iraq; DoD Identifies Earlier Casualties
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2007 - Eight U.S. soldiers and a Marine died recently during operations in Iraq, military officials reported, and the Defense Department has identified previous casualties.
03/18/2007 : Gates Says Committed to Fixing Walter Reed Problems, Praises Medical Staff
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2007 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged today on CBS's “Face the Nation” that he was “angered and offended” when he learned of problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but recognizes they don’t reflect on the hospital’s top-notch medical staff.
03/18/2007 : Gates: U.S. Troop Surge in Iraq Paving Way for Political Solution
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2007 - The U.S. troop surge in Iraq is in its early stages, but seems to be paving the way for a political solution to the country’s woes, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today on CBS's “Face the Nation.”
03/17/2007 : Al Qaeda Stoking Sectarian Violence in Iraq, Gates Says
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2007 - Al Qaeda and other extremist groups have worked hard to provoke sectarian violence in Iraq, yet the situation there cannot be called a traditional civil war, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.
03/17/2007 : Bush Urges Congress to Pass Emergency War Spending Bill Without Strings
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2007 - It is vital Congress pass an emergency war spending bill as soon as possible and without strings attached, President Bush said during his weekly radio address today.
03/16/2007 : ‘Evolutionary’ Developments Underlie Baghdad Gains
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - Recent improvements in Baghdad’s security situation are the result of compounding “evolutionary” developments, the U.S. official responsible for training the Iraqi army said today.
03/16/2007 : IED Kills Four Soldiers; Operations Net Terrorism Suspects
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - Four coalition soldiers died in a roadside-bomb attack today, and 34 suspected terrorists were detained in operations taking place over the past few days in Iraq, military officials reported today.
03/16/2007 : Tribal Leaders Helping to Stem Violence in Diyala Province
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - Tribal leaders are cooperating with U.S. and Iraqi security forces to reduce terrorist-staged violence in Diyala province, senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials said today.
03/16/2007 : America Supports You: Utah Expresses Gratitude to Troops
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - Utah will observe “Thank a Soldier Day” tomorrow and March 19 to express gratitude to the servicemembers who protect America’s freedoms.
03/16/2007 : Soldier Killed in Iraq; DoD Identifies Earlier Casualty
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - A Multinational Division North soldier was killed and another was wounded yesterday while conducting operations in Iraq’s Salah ad Din Province, military officials reported today.
03/16/2007 : Fallon Takes Reins of Central Command
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., March 16, 2007 - For the first time since the United States created a combatant command with responsibility for the Middle East, Northern Africa and Southwest and Central Asia, a naval officer took over the helm of U.S. Central Command here today.
03/16/2007 : Security Plan Working as Violence Drops in Northwest Baghdad
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - Moving coalition forces out of big forward operating bases and into smaller community-based combat outposts as part of the Baghdad Security Plan has reduced violence and helped to stabilize northwestern Baghdad, a senior Army officer serving there said today.
03/16/2007 : Bush Assures Wounded Warrior Commission He’ll Act on Recommendations
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - President Bush met this morning with members of the Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors to tell them he’s behind their efforts and will act on the problems they identify.
03/16/2007 : Support Troops Put Surge Total at 28,000 U.S. Servicemembers
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - The total number of U.S. servicemembers who will be part of the surge in Iraq will be about 28,000 overall, a Defense Department official said today.
03/16/2007 : America Supports You: Group Remains ‘Always Faithful’ to Injured Warriors
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 - A four-year-old servicemember support group has proved to be “Always Faithful” as it continues to assist Marines, sailors and other military members who have been injured during their service in the global war against terrorism.
03/16/2007 : Nature of War Makes Airlift Essential, General Says
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 16, 2007 - Airlift is essential to success in the war in Afghanistan, the commander of U.S. Transportation Command said here March 14.
03/16/2007 : CENTCOM Coordination Center Represents Strong Coalition
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., March 16, 2007 - In a nondescript building at U.S. Central Command headquarters here, officers from 64 countries work together daily to ensure the coalition fighting terrorism in the Middle East remains strong and well organized.
03/15/2007 : ‘Muse of Fire’ Gives Eyewitness Accounts of War
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - “Muse of Fire,” a film that debuted here last night, uses American troops’ eyewitness accounts and private journals to bring to life the tragedy, pain, horror, death and even the hope and optimism of war.
03/15/2007 : America Supports You: Top Enlisted Servicemember Gets Special Delivery This story contains photos.
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - The military’s top enlisted servicemember received a very special care package at his Pentagon office this morning.
03/15/2007 : U.S. Joint Forces Command Effects Military Transformation
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - A U.S. military combatant command with headquarters in Norfolk, Va., is helping warfighters worldwide think and fight jointly to win the war against terrorism, a senior U.S. military officer told the House Armed Services Committee at a hearing here today.
03/15/2007 : Coalition Troops Support Afghan Forces in Arrests, Operations
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - Coalition and Afghan forces arrested four people this morning during an operation targeting a known terrorist safe house, military officials reported.
03/15/2007 : U.S. Military Program Targets Terrorism in North Africa
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - The United States is keeping a watchful eye on developments in North Africa to ensure terrorists don’t gain a foothold there, a senior U.S. military officer said in remarks provided to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee at a hearing here today.
03/15/2007 : Marine, Soldier Killed in Iraq; Two Previous Casualties Identified
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - A soldier and a Marine died yesterday during operations in Iraq, military officials reported today, and the Defense Department has identified two previous casualties.
03/15/2007 : Coalition Forces Kill Terrorists; IED Blast Wounds Civilians
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - Coalition forces killed four terrorists and detained 11 suspected terrorists during raids over the past several days targeting al Qaeda networks in Iraq, military officials reported.
03/15/2007 : America Supports You: Pentagon Honors Groups for Troop Support This story contains photos.
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - The Defense Department recognized a troop-support group and a corporation here today for their teamwork in supporting the nation’s servicemembers.
03/15/2007 : America Supports You: Mom Asks Americans to ‘Have a Heart’
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - An Army mom in Malone, N.Y., is asking Americans to show their compassion and make life a little more pleasant for troops serving overseas through her Have a Heart/Adopt a Soldier program.
03/15/2007 : Acquisitions Chief Outlines Streamlined Processes This story contains photos.
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 - As the Defense Department works to simplify its acquisitions processes, it can borrow best practices from business, but also must factor in variables businesses simply don’t have to deal with, the Pentagon’s acquisitions chief told reporters here yesterday.
Gulf states can respond to any Iran attack: Bahrain
Sun Mar 18, 8:44 AM ET
Arab states in the Gulf have the capability to respond to any attack from neighbouring Iran, Bahrain's defence minister said in an interview published on Sunday.
"Gulf countries are able to defend themselves against Iran... we have the military strength and capability," Khalifa bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa told the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.
He added that any conflict between Western powers and Iran over its controversial nuclear programme would impact other states in the region, including Bahrain.
Washington fears Iran is secretly developing an atomic weapon, a charge Iran strongly denies insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy production only.
The island state of Bahrain is a key ally of the United States and is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. Washington also has troops stationed in Kuwait.
The minister said Bahrain, as well as other Arab states, would "respond with force to defend itself" if Iran blocked the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a confrontation over its nuclear drive.
The strait at the southeastern tip of the Gulf separates Oman from Iran.
Almost all crude exports from oil-rich Gulf states go through the strait, making it the world's most important oil passage.
Iran is a key OPEC member and the world's fourth-biggest oil producer.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070318/wl_mideast_afp/irannuclearpolitics
Thanks to Milford421 for this report:
Virus outbreak reported for second straight voyage - San Diego, CA (Holland Amer
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070304-9999-1m4cruise.html
Virus outbreak reported for second straight voyage
By Matthew T. Hall
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 4, 2007
SAN DIEGO – A stomach flu soured the vacations of at least 167 of
1,260 passengers aboard the Ryndam cruise ship before it ended a 10-
day voyage in San Diego yesterday.
It was the second consecutive trip – and the fourth since May – that
forced the ship's operators, Holland America Line, to report
outbreaks to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
Vessel Sanitation Program.
continued.......
Thanks to Milford421 for this report:
Car fire reported at former Barbers Point Air Station - HI
Updated at 1:42 a.m., Sunday, March 18, 2007
Car fire reported at former Barbers Point Air Station
Advertiser Staff
Firefighters and police were sent to the scene of a reported car fire
at about 1:10 a.m. today on the grounds of the former Barbers Point
Naval Air Station.
The fire was said to be at the intersection of Roosevelt and Rabaul
avenues.
There was no mention of any injuries associated with
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Mar/18/br/br5718092463.html
[Photos to match description on site]
http://www.ctc.usma.edu/imagery_warfare.asp
The Islamic Imagery Project
Home | Nature | Geography and Political | People | Warfare and Afterlife | Other | .pdf version
Part IV: Weapons, Warfare and the Afterlife
Click on an image to see the English translation of the image text
The Afterlife
The Path of the Koran
Paradise, the Heavenly Garden
Hell for Enemies of Jihad
The Black Flag, al-raya
Weapons
Weapon, pre-modern
Weapon, modern
Weapon combination
Crossed Weapons
Blood
Bloody Sword
Blood, Martyr & State
Blood on Desert
Bloody Text
The Path of the Koran
back to top
Jihadi propagandists employ symbols and text in order to create a visual distinction between correct and incorrect Islamic belief and practice by invoking the “Path of the Koran” motif. Images which contain the Koran serve as a reminder (or admonishment) to Muslims to uphold their religious duties.
One of the examples below is split into three parts, each represented by certain symbols and colors. At the center of the image is a scale. On the left side of the scale sits a violin and an ‘ud. On the right side, which outweighs the left, sits some greenery, a white rose, and a book that indicates the Koran. The full text of the image reads: “O People of Iraq: No (to) the amusement/diversion (lahw) of stringed instruments (ma’aazif) – (yes to) the path of the Koran.” “The Path of the Koran,” is here indicated by the book itself and the white rose, which represents martyrdom. Thus this image is asking its audience (young Muslim men) to reevaluate their lives and turn from worldly pursuits (i.e. secular pastimes, her represented by the instruments) to the path of Islam. Here, the path of Islam is represented by suggestions of martyrdom (white rose) and heaven (greenery).
__________________
Paradise, the Heavenly Garden
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There is perhaps no greater inspiration for jihadi activists than the belief that they will be rewarded for their sacrifice by being granted entrance into the garden (janna) of heavenly paradise. Symbols and images may allude to paradise indirectly or directly. The word used to indicate heaven, janna, also means “garden” and indicates the garden of paradise that awaits those Muslims who have lived particularly just, obedient, and pious lives. Janna is an important and well-developed notion in Islamic discourse. It is mentioned in the Koran and is often used to describe the rewards awaiting those Muslims who have died (or will die) as martyrs. The term janna evokes all of the aspects associated with attaining this reward, including the accompanying huris (pure, virgin angels).
In the images below, the heavenly paradise motif is explicit and its message clear. In the foreground of one of the examples, two hands hold a scroll and a small branch. The scroll reads: “A Call (invitation) to Paradise (janna).” The Arabic word for call, dawa, also means invitation and is also used for the propagation and proselytization of Islam. Thus, this call is both to Islam and to the rewards that a true Muslim receives: heavenly paradise.
__________________
Hell for the Enemies of Jihad
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The motif of jahanam, which means “hell” in Arabic, is often used in jihadi propaganda to discredit enemies and to emphasize the notions of good (Islam) and evil (enemies of Islam). The concept of Hell in Islam is similar to that in Christianity and Judaism. It is a place of eternal suffering and fire for the wicked, the tyrannical, and the unjust.
In one of the examples below, the concept of hell is used to boast about the deaths of what are represented as two American soldiers. The text of the image reads the same in both Arabic and English, literally: “They went to Hell.” The notion of hell and the gruesome pictures serves as propaganda against the Coalition Forces, and they are an attempt to boast of jihadi victories. It also serves to bolster the resolve and reinforce the religious righteousness of the anti-occupational jihadi insurgency. By labeling dead Coalition soldiers as people who are destined for Hell, the jihadi cause (i.e. those who brought about the death of these soldiers) is presented as the righteous side of the conflict.
__________________
The Black Flag
(al-raya)
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The Black Flag (al-raya) traces its roots to the very beginning of Islam. It was the battle (jihad) flag of the Prophet Muhammad, carried into battle by many of his companions, including his nephew ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib. The flag regained prominence in the 8th century with its use by the leader of the Abbasid revolution, Abu Muslim, who led a revolt against the Umayyad clan and its’ Caliphate. The Umayyads, the ruling establishment of the Islamic world at the time, were seen as greedy, gluttonous, and religiously wayward leaders. The Abbasid revolution, then, was aimed at installing a new, more properly Islamic ruling house that would keep orthodox Islam at the center of its regime. Since then, the image of the black flag has been used as a symbol of religious revolt and battle (i.e. jihad). In Shiite belief, the black flag also evokes expectations about the afterlife. In the contemporary Islamist movement, the black flag is used to symbolize both offensive jihad and the proponents of reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate.
In the primary example, we see a picture of the black flag (al-raya) superimposed on a map of the world. On the flag is the shahada, or the Muslim decree of faith, and at the bottom of the image there is a line in Arabic script that reads: “Assembly of the Fleet-Footed (i.e. jihadi fighters)” (muntada al-safinat). In the background of much of the right side is a masked jihadi fighter looking onward. This image clearly suggests a global jihadi aim. That is, with the black flag covering the entire globe, the one who views this image recognizes that the banner of revolt and battle (al-raya) has been raised over the entire globe, which advocates an offensive jihad in all parts of the globe.
__________________
Weapons,
pre-modern
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Weapons are symbolically important in Islamic culture and are commonly used as motifs in jihadi visual propaganda. Depictions of weapons can be broadly categorized as either modern or pre-modern. Pre-modern weaponry includes swords or spears, and is used to suggest the violent reality of the jihadi struggle. These images also link jihadi struggle to early Islamic history and the first generation of Muslims. Swords are seen as noble weapons that embody the purity, nobility, and overall righteousness that is associated with early Islamic heroes and their jihadi campaigns. Therefore, depictions of the sword indicate a desire to link the current jihadi movement and its aims to those of the early Islamic ancestors, and to thus legitimize and depict current jihadi activities as the modern extensions of successful early Islamic jihadi campaigns.
__________________
Weapons, modern
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Modern weapons, such as rifles and RPGs, illustrate the violent nature of jihadi warfare and also exaggerate the power of the jihadists’ military technology. Modern weapons evoke modern jihadi victories (or perceived victories) such as the expulsion of the Soviets from Afghanistan. In this manner, modern weapons embody the inherent capacity of the jihadi movement to overcome and defeat the West, using the latter’s own military technology. Modern weapons are also used by jihadi soldiers and martyrs to associate themselves with violent jihadi activism and construct their identities as participants in jihad. Including a weapon in the photograph of individuals suggests heroic participation in the violent side of jihadi activism.
__________________
Weapons, combination
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Weapons may be used in different combinations, or presented in different ways, to evoke more complex sentiments. An example of this is the combination motif, which combines pre-modern and modern weapons. By combining a sword and a rifle with other symbols, both the connotations of pre-modern Islamic history and modern jihadi successes are evoked. In this manner, swords can be used to give modern weapons (such as rifles or RPGs) a nobler connotation, and link them to Salafi notions of the Prophet’s companions and their successful (and religiously legitimate) jihadi campaigns.
__________________
Weapons Crossed
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Weapons can also be used in different combinations, or presented in different ways, to evoke more complex sentiments. One of these methods is the “crossed” motif. It is employed by various groups throughout the Muslim world, and is usually done with swords, rifles, and RPGs. While this motif evokes all of the meanings associated with each weapon used, it is also used more generally to suggest a group’s participation in, or espousal of, the contemporary jihadi movement.
__________________
Bloody Sword
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Blood symbolizes violence, martyrdom, sacrifice, injustice, tyranny, oppression, and victory in battle.
In the example below, blood drips from the sword of a jihadi fighter, evoking both the literal violence inherent in the jihadi struggle and the possibilities of a military victory. The blood emphasizes the strength and power of the jihadi fighter and affords him an inflated stature (that of a strong, successful warrior). The jihadi fighter’s sword, shield, and garments also connect him (and thus the greater jihadi struggle) to notions of the Islamic past, especially to the first generation of Muslims and their success in jihad. Thus, blood dripping from a sword, as seen in this image, has strong Salafi connotations.
__________________
Blood with Martyr and Country
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In the example below, blood is used to symbolize the sacrifice and the martyrdom of a jihadi fighter. That the blood is “spilled” over Saudi Arabia both indicates where the fighter was martyred but it also speaks to the oppression and tyranny of the Saudi regime vis-à-vis their relationship to the radical Islamic movement in their country.
__________________
Blood on Desert
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In this image, blood is shown spilled on a shield and the ground. It suggests the sacrifice that jihad entails and alludes to the goal of martyrdom for jihadi fighters. That the blood is shown on the desert ground is significant for two reasons: 1) It speaks to the active jihad in Iraq, while also making this movement broader and thus more inclusive to a non-Iraqi, sympathetic Muslim audience. 2) It evokes the deep historical traditions related to Muslim jihad campaigns in early Islamic history. The sword and the shield, which are both symbols of pre-modern Islam, have Salafi connotations and remind Muslims that jihad requires sacrifice.
__________________
Bloody Text
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Text dripping with blood, or “bleeding text”, is a common motif in jihadi imagery. In this particular image, we see the name “Husayn” dripping with blood. This image has a particular meaning to Shiites in that it references the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn. In this regard, the blood also symbolizes the oppression, tyranny, and injustice surrounding the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn and his companions in the 7th century, as well as of the general oppression of Shiites under Sunni regimes. While the blood glorifies Husayn’s martyrdom specifically, it also glorifies martyrdom in general.
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