Posted on 04/15/2007 4:43:46 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
Bomb explodes; homeowner escapes injury
Associated Press
Published Tuesday, June 12, 2007
FARGO — A man escaped injury after removing a plastic bottle bomb from his mailbox, police say.
Sgt. Jeff Skuza said the man saw someone putting something in his mailbox late Monday night and went to see what it was. The bottle exploded after the homeowner grabbed it and threw it on the ground, Skuza said.
It is the third or fourth case of homemade bombs being placed in mailboxes in Fargo in recent weeks, Skuza said. Police are trying to determine whether the incidents are connected.
“The mechanism inside usually varies a little bit. Usually people are able to go online, or there also are certain recipes that circulate through schools and other organizations for different chemicals that can be mixed inside a plastic bottle,” Skuza said.
The chemicals create a gas that causes the bottle to explode, he said.
“It’s basically like popping a giant balloon,” Skuza said, “But it has a fairly explosive quality to it, and it can blow a mailbox apart, and that’s where they most commonly put them, in mailboxes.”
In South Dakota, authorities in Aberdeen are investigating reports of explosive devices found in two mailboxes. One was discovered by a mail carrier Saturday. No one was hurt in either incident.
http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=76252#76252
‘Escape is impossible’
It is a destitute, oppressive place, where 70,000 Palestinian refugees
are squeezed into one square kilometre and violence is the norm.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad visits Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon’s biggest refugee
camp, and talks to the new generation of jihadis whose experience
reflects the Islamisation of Arab youth throughout the Middle East
In pictures: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on life in the camp
Tuesday June 12, 2007
The Guardian
A PLO gunman patrols the streets of Ain al-Hilweh
A PLO gunman patrols the streets of Ain al-Hilweh. Photograph: Ghaith
Abdul-Ahad
It is a Monday in early June and four bearded jihadi fighters hide in
a bicycle repair shop less than 50 meters from a Lebanese army
position at the entrance of Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, the biggest
camp in Lebanon. Around them is a familiar battle scene; the smell of
burned concrete mixed with gunpowder, a cloud of smoke rising,
hundreds of bullet-holes peppering the buildings. The street is empty
apart from an occasional lone fighter who sprints across the road from
one position to the other.
Article continues
The clashes between the jihadi Palestinian group of Jund al-Sham and
the Lebanese army had stopped a few hours ago, leaving at least one
militant dead and three injured. The army lost two men.
Residents are already on the move, fearing a repetition of the two
weeks-old battles raging in another Palestinian camp between another
jihadi group - Fatah al-Islam - and the Lebanese army. There, at the
smaller Nahr al-Bared camp in Tripoli, to the north of Lebanon, at
least 70 people had been killed.
One of the fighters, who is in his early 20s, wearing a black T-shirt
carrying the words “Allahu Akbar” and nestling an M16 rifle between
his legs, says: “They are cowards those soldiers. This is a
Palestinian camp, this is not Israel.”
The Islamist group of Jund al-Sham is believed to have no more than 50
fighters. Like other jihadi groups in the camp, some of the fighters
are veterans of the war in Iraq. They are flourishing in the
Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, which have been in place since
1948 when Palestinians fled or were expelled to make way for the
creation of the state of Israel. There are 12 such established camps
in Lebanon, the most well-known of which, Sabra and Shatila, were made
notorious in 1982 when the South Lebanon Army massacred up to 3,500
people, many of them civilians, under the watch of the Israeli army.
In many respects, Ain al-Hilweh and other camps are the microcosm of a
failed Arab state and its anger and politics: packed, crowded,
frustrated, hot-housed and surrounded by guards. They reflect the
politicisation, the Islamisation and the radicalisation of Arab youth
all over the Middle East. Their inhabitants are oppressed and kept
poor by badly managed and corrupt regimes; they are hemmed in by visa
restrictions and borders that are almost impossible to cross.
For years now the secular factions, which were in the ascendant in the
1970s, have been challenged by the rising star of jihadis and
fundamentalists. In the middle lies the besieged nation, filled with
anger, mostly at Israel, where many of their families lived until
1948. These are the realities of not only Ain al-Hilweh but of all the
Middle East.
Ain al-Hilweh is the biggest of the Palestinian refugee camps in
Lebanon, situated in the south of the country on the edge of the
ancient city of Sidon, less than an hour’s drive from the northern
borders of Israel. The name means the “Sweet Water Spring”.
Almost 50 years ago, the recently formed UNRWA - the UN relief agency
for Palestinian refugees - leased the land around the Sweet Water
Spring from the Lebanese government, to provide a temporary shelter
for the tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were then
flooding into south Lebanon.
Six decades and four generations later, the camp looks like every
other destitute Arab town; a busy market, houses built from concrete
cinder blocks packed close to each other, children and chickens
running in the dirty roads between piles of garbage, open sewers,
record shops blaring Arab pop music all day, and young men in tight
jeans standing at corners staring at other young men in jeans, looking
for a fight to break the deadly boring cycle of the day.
Just like the imagined city of the movie Escape from New York, Ain al-
Hilweh resembles a huge maximum-security prison. Walls are topped with
barbed wire, army-fortified posts and armoured vehicles. As many as
70,000 Palestinian refugees are squeezed into a square kilometre.
The unemployed, the revolutionaries and the fundamentalists roam the
streets like gangs. Violence is the norm, and escape is impossible.
Lebanese conscript soldiers, wearing tin helmets and US flak jackets
from the Vietnam era, and armed with M16 rifles, stand guard at the
checkpoints leading into the camp. Positioned behind them are
fortifications made from tyres and barrels filled with sand. They
inspect the ID cards of everyone going in or out of the camp. Drivers
are asked to open their car boots and journalists, NGO workers, and
foreigners have to get permission from the Lebanese military
intelligence just to get inside the camp.
“Sometimes we call it Gaza II,” I was told a few weeks ago by a very
thin young Palestinian student as we negotiated our way through the
checkpoint.
But when I visit the camp again two days after the recent clashes, the
main checkpoint is almost deserted. Shaken soldiers inspect my ID card
quickly and wave me through. The ground is covered with empty bullet
casings, a reminder of the heavy fighting.
A few metres on from the Lebanese army, there is another checkpoint.
This one is manned by soldiers of the armed struggle: two old men,
carrying Kalashnikovs, dressed in combat fatigues, red berets and
trainers. They are veterans from the PLO’s heyday of the 1970s.
Now you are in “Palestinian territory”.
The graffiti and posters start from there, pictures of Yasser Arafat,
the (secular, PLO) Palestinian leader next to those of Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin - the spiritual leader of Hamas, who was assassinated by the
Israelis.
The camp’s main streets, which are usually crowded with people and
motorbikes, are empty. Gunmen with different shapes of beards and of
the different factions stand at street corners, under insignias of
their militias. The street looks like a bazaar of old and new
revolutionary brands: PFLP, DFLP, Fatah, Hamas and so on.
Each neighbourhood carries the name of its inhabitants’ original
village or town in Palestine and shares a certain political loyalty to
one of the factions. Most of the camp’s residents today have never
visited their families’ homes, which are mostly in Galilee in what is
now northern Israel.
Hind is a young Palestinian woman and a leftwing activist. She doesn’t
wear a hijab, and always dresses in baggy trousers and a red, green
and black scarf. She lives outside the camp, in the city of Sidon, but
she was born in Ain al-Hilweh and knows every tiny alleyway. She can
jump between a very thick Palestinian accent and Lebanese. She spends
her time in the camp, organising activities and exhibitions. I asked
her one day what is it like to be called “a Palestinian”, though her
father was born in a refugee camp in another country, and so was she.
She told me how, after the Israeli withdrawal from the south of
Lebanon, she went with some friends to the border. “We stood on the
edge of the fence, Palestine was there in front of us,” she says. “The
air that came from Palestine was different, it was sweet, it came from
our lands.”
A few metres down the main road there is the military HQ of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Marxist
militant group that was responsible for spectacular attacks in the
1970s, such as the Leila Khaled hijacking of an El Al plane.
The HQ is a small room with two camp beds. The commander, a thin man
in his late 40s, sits on one of the beds, his red beret resting on the
top of his skull, and wisps of hair falling on to his forehead. He
drinks bitter coffee and fiddles with his phone. Around him, four
other veterans of the faction’s decades of wars gather around a small
table. They are all dressed in combat gear; everyone is on high alert
because of the clashes.
“The camp is made of different factions and everyone belongs to a
faction,” the commander tells me. “I can’t walk with you to the end of
the street because PFLP turf stops a couple of blocks from here. Each
faction has its territory.”
“It’s so easy to form a faction and a militia here,” he says. “We are
poor, our parties are not paying us, we can’t leave here and we can’t
travel, so if someone pays a young kid $500 a month, of course he will
join any movement. Most of those jihadis were once fighters with us
and other Palestinian factions.”
He thinks for a moment. “If you come to me and give me a $100,000, I
will split from the PFLP and form the PFLP: Believers’ Army. It’s so
easy.”
The contrast between the ailing, ill-equipped and ill-fed fighters of
the old “secular” factions and muscular, bearded and well-equipped
jihadis is huge.
I go to see a member of this new generation of radicals, a fighter and
commander of Usbat al-Ansar, a group of jihadist Palestinians in the
camp, called Abu Omar. We first met more than a year ago when I was
told by his friends that he was “very funny and very sweet ... he
makes jokes all the time”. The Lebanese government is said to have
sentenced him to death three times.
I walk towards the area where the clashes between the Lebanese army
and the Islamists took place, a sort of a no-man’s land between the
edge of the camp and the Lebanese army checkpoints. “Tameer” is the
Islamists’ turf, where most of the men on the streets have long beards
and some wear shalwar kameez and black prayer-caps, the signature
dress for the Salafi-jihadi Islamists in the region.
The area has also become a safe haven not only for jihadis fresh from
Iraq but also for wanted criminals such as arms dealers.
“Long live the leader Zarqawi,” is written on a wall, referring to the
al-Qaida commander in Iraq who was killed last year. A photomontaged
poster hangs from a light pole, showing a young man holding a rifle in
front of a burning US Humvee. It says: “The Martyr, the Lion, the
hero, martyred in Iraq in 2005 fighting the crusaders.”
I come across two fighters, who are relaxing by the shade of a
building and keeping an eye on the frontline. I ask them if they know
where Abu Omar is.
“Who wants to see him?” one asks me, still busy eating his ice cream.
I explain that I already know Abu Omar.
They ask me to follow, and we walk through a maze of alleyways into a
yard where Abu Omar is sitting, surrounded by his men.
Abu Omar looks like an Arab version of the Scandinavian god Thor. He
is tall with huge muscled arms, a thin waist, a thick ginger beard and
kinky long hair. Strapped to him are a small machine gun, two pistols
and eight magazines. A veteran of the jihad in Iraq, he greets me
using Iraqi words.
He once told me that his two new black (Glock) pistols - the kind that
the US army is supplying to the Iraqi police - were his “spoils of the
war”.
He was born in the Ain al-Hilweh camp. His father was born in the
camp, too; his grandfather came to Lebanon as a refugee from Galilee
when he was a small boy after the 1948 war.
When he was six years old, he got his first classes in military
training in a PLO Cubs training camp. “I was 12 when the Israelis
invaded Lebanon in 1982,” he says. “I didn’t do much fighting then but
it really helped to shape the fighter in me. We used to carry
ammunition to the fighters.”
Three years later, he became a fully fledged fighter when Shia
factions supported by the Syrians started a two-year battle against
Palestinian camps in the mid-1980s, in the midst of the Lebanese civil
war.
In the early 1990s he joined the radical Islamist Usbat al-Ansar. But
the war in Iraq was a turning point. Instead of fighting against other
factions in the camp, they found a better enemy - and like many all
over the Middle East, their long-awaited jihad dreams could be
fulfilled in Iraq.
Now Usbat al-Ansar is considered one of the strongest factions in the
camp; it is flooded with money from the jihadi networks in the Middle
East, and has a rank and file made of enthusiastic, indoctrinated
young jihadis. The story of their rise and the demise of secular
movements mirrors the story of the Middle East.
“I have been fighting since the age of six and I tell you the apostate
secular PLO fighters are more courageous than the Americans,” says Abu
Omar. “At least they don’t hide behind armoured Humvees.” He says he
went to Iraq not as a suicide bomber but to provide training to the
Iraqis and to other young Arabs, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
states. “Saddam destroyed the Iraqi army: he created a bunch of
overweight, corrupt officers who didn’t know how to fight.”
He says he participated in many attacks against the US and Iraqi army.
For a while his group had a base in the northern Iraqi town of Tal
Afar until a US-led attack forced them out of the city and he went
back to Ramadi. He did two trips of six months each to Iraq.
“People say if I am Palestinian why not go and fight for the
liberation of my country instead of fighting in Iraq?” he says. “I
tell them it’s the same people, we have the Jews here in Palestine and
the Americans are there in Iraq. Both are occupations.”
He shaved off his long beard and the Iraqis who he met at the border
supplied him with a fake ID card. (His Iraqi ID card looks as real as
my genuine Iraqi ID card.) He was given a Shia name.
He clearly understands why the jihadists are so successful in the
camp. “If the economic and security situation was stable, the jihadi
movements almost don’t exist,” he says. “It’s only when there is a
security vacuum that jihad flourishes. Just like in Iraq.”
The ice-cream fighters are standing in silent respect behind Abu Omar,
part bodyguards, part disciples. One of them, a tall and muscled man
with a pistol strapped to his waist, claims that he started the fight
with the Lebanese army the day before.
“They [Lebanese soldiers] taunted us, they told us ‘We will kill you
like we are killing Fatah al-Islam [in Nahr Al-Bared camp]’,” he says.
“So I went home with my friend and we got our weapons and started
shooting at them.” Soon other jihadis joined the fight and a full-
scale battle raged for hours. “Abu Omar had taught us how to fight,”
the young fighter told me.
I first meet Saleh in a sit-in at a PFLP rally at the entrance to the
camp, a protest demanding the release of leaders in Gaza who had been
jailed by the Israeli army a few weeks earlier.
Plastic chairs are organised in a big circle, a man is reading
speeches over a microphone, coffee is served in plastic cups, the
walls are decorated with pictures of leaders and logos, and a
Kalashnikov rifle with a red piece of cloth wrapped around the top is
laid next to the jailed leader’s picture like a bundle of flowers.
A banner hanging on the wall reads: “ We will fight for Palestine
generation after generation.”
Saleh is sitting with his friends under a poster of another dead
leader. He is 20 years old, but he looks 16. His hair is dyed orange-
blond on top. A small wooden map of Palestine hangs around his neck.
“This is from inside,” he says, referring to the parts of Palestine
that became Israel in 1948 - a mythical place for those in exile so
long. “From Jaffa.” He holds tightly to the little piece of wood as if
it is a piece of Christ’s cross.
Like most of the young men here he is unemployed and had dropped out
from school when he was 12. He joined the Marxist Palestinian group
the PFLP; his father, uncle and mother were all communist.
“I wake up in the morning and then stand around with my friends,” he
says, in the filthy PFLP office with its threadbare sofas. “It’s so
boring here. Even the people I meet I have met every day of my life.
We have talked about everything.”
“Do you go out of the camp?” I ask him.
“No.”
“Why not? The sea is very beautiful near here.”
“I don’t like to feel like a fish out the water. I don’t like going
out - every time we are stopped by that checkpoint the Lebanese
soldiers they look at you as if you are a piece of filth.”
In theory Palestinians can leave the camp freely but in practice they
are subjected to draconian controls, especially after events in Nahr
al-Bared. At the hint of any problem involving Palestinians in
Lebanon, the army seals off the camp.
For the past six decades, Palestinians in Lebanon have been at the
very margins of society and have difficult relations with the Lebanese
people, accused by some as being the cause of the civil war and fought
against by every faction at one point or another. They are subjected
to discriminatory laws: their movements are constrained, they are
banned from owning or inheriting property and they are prevented from
working in 72 specified jobs. This means that most of the young
Palestinians here are unemployed, and those lucky enough to work can
only get jobs as barbers, taxi drivers and construction workers. They
live a besieged life.
The atmosphere of lawlessness inside the camp, meanwhile, makes it the
preferred refuge for jihadis and other militiamen, many of whom are
wanted by the Lebanese authorities, which have no power inside the
camp. (They signed security arrangements with the Palestinian factions
at the Cairo agreement in 1969.)
I walk to Saleh’s house. The walls are bare concrete blocks, and his
mother, a former leftwing revolutionary, is sitting in the courtyard
peeling potatoes. A hijab is tightly wrapped round her head.
Saleh’s room tells the story of all the revolutions and defeats in the
Middle East. It is tiny - three by two metres.
There is a small bronze bust of Lenin, a red flag, a picture of Che
Guevara and two portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shia
Islamic group Hizbullah.
It might be surprising that a secular leftist could be so enamoured of
a religious party such as Hizbullah, but this is common throughout
Lebanon and the Middle East. “He is our hero now,” he says, pointing
at the cleric with his black turban and bushy beard.
Saleh’s journey is explained to me a few days later when I meet
another Palestinian in Beirut, a fighter in his 50s and a hard-core
Marxist, his face is lined with wrinkles. “I have never lost my
political compass,” he says. “Wherever the Americans and the Israelis
are, I am on the other side. So if Hizbullah and the Iranians and the
Islamists are against the Americans now, so I am an Islamist.”
Is this another reason why the Islamists are doing so well? I ask Abu
Obaida, another leader of jihadists Usbat al-Ansar. “All the other
movements have proved their failure,” he says. “The secularists,
nationalists and the communists they have all failed, the hypocrisy of
their rhetoric has been exposed.”
In the office of a secular faction, a senior official tried to explain
it better.
“We have young men who have nothing, no hope of a nation, no hope for
the right of refugees to return, nothing but the two streets of the
camp. With this situation I wouldn’t be surprised if half the camp
becomes jihadis. Ain al-Hilweh, this is your perfect Failed State.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330024040-125290,00.html
BAE faces criminal inquiry in US over £1bn payments
Justice department alarmed at claims over MoD’s role
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Thursday June 14, 2007
Guardian
The US department of justice is preparing to open a corruption investigation into the arms company BAE, the Guardian has learned. It would cover the alleged £1bn arms deal payments to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia.
Washington sources familiar with the thinking of senior officials at the justice department said yesterday it was “99% certain” that a criminal inquiry would be opened under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Such an investigation would have potentially seismic consequences for BAE, which is trying to take over US arms companies and make the Pentagon its biggest customer.
The sources say US officials were particularly concerned by the allegations in the Guardian that UK Ministry of Defence officials actively colluded in the payments. One said: “The image of all these Bob Cratchits in Whitehall sitting at their high stools processing invoices from Bandar has been a startling one to us.”
The Guardian has revealed allegations that BAE used the US banking system to transfer quarterly payments to accounts controlled by Prince Bandar at Riggs Bank in Washington. Another senior US source said this brought the payments within the ambit of the FCPA. “Prosecutors have previously taken the view that the FCPA does reach that far,” the source said.
Any decision to investigate BAE would be taken by assistant attorney general Alice Fisher, who heads the criminal division. An investigation would most likely be handled by the chief prosecutor of FCPA cases, Mark Mendelsohn, deputy chief of the justice department’s fraud section.
The department does not officially announce investigations, Washington sources say, but the company could be expected to make public announcements to the stock market if it happened. In past cases, US companies have often agreed to cooperate with criminal investigations rather than embark on litigation to defend themselves. Last night, BAE spokesman John Neilson repeated the company’s denials of any impropriety. He added: “This question is one which should be addressed to the US department of justice”. Prince Bandar has issued a statement denying any wrongdoing. He says the payments represented official Saudi government funds and were used for purposes approved by the Saudi ministry of defence.
Details of the US move came as Tony Blair told the Commons he took full responsibility for the decision to halt the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into corruption allegations against BAE and to withhold details of the £1bn payments to Prince Bandar from the anti-corruption watchdog, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, asked: “Which minister is answerable ... for the decision to withhold information from that inquiry in relation to payments made by the Ministry of Defence to Prince Bandar?”
The prime minister replied: “If he wants to blame anyone for this he can blame me, and I’m perfectly happy to take responsibility for it.”
Mr Blair did not say whether the Bandar payments were continuing. He went on: “It would lead to the complete wreckage of a relationship that is of fundamental importance of the security of this country ... That’s why I took the decision; I don’t regret it then and I don’t regret it now.”
There is a history of rancour between British officials and US prosecutors over BAE bribery allegations. Released documents show that the former FCPA prosecutor Peter Clark clashed with Sir Kevin Tebbit, former MoD permanent secretary, over the UK’s refusal to pursue allegations of corruption in the Czech Republic and in Qatar.
In the Qatar case, £7m was discovered to have been paid by BAE to the foreign minister of the Middle East oil state, and deposited in offshore accounts in Jersey. One source said: “We said to Sir Kevin, ‘There’s a roomful of documents in Jersey indicating bribery’. But he told us he had got a letter sent after the event from the ruler of Qatar saying he had no objections to the payment. We didn’t regard that as altering the legal situation.”
In London, the chairman of the OECD’s bribery panel, Swiss lawyer Mark Pieth, told a legal conference that under the terms of the anti-bribery treaty, to which the UK is a signatory, Britain could only flout it on national security grounds “in an extreme case of necessity”. That had yet to be proved. He said his personal view was that a British court should have the opportunity to decide whether the alleged payment to Prince Bandar had been legal or illegal. He hoped a judicial review would be allowed on the decision to halt the police investigation.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6708007,00.html
1 Dead, 1 Injured in S.C. Mall Shooting
Thursday June 14, 2007 5:16 AM
AP Photo WXS124
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A woman and her father were gunned down Wednesday outside a suburban mall by a man accused of stalking the woman, police said. Authorities were still searching for the shooter.
The shooting happened around 6:45 p.m. in the parking lot in front of the mall’s main entrance, Columbia Police Chief Dean Crisp said.
Michael James Young Jr. confronted the woman at the mall, then followed her into the parking lot, where he shot the woman and her father, Crisp said.
Young was free on a $75,000 bond after being arrested June 5 and charged with stalking the woman.
Robert Bell, 49, of Gaston, was shot several times and died at the scene, while his daughter was taken to the hospital, where she was able to talk to investigators, authorities said. Police have not released the woman’s name.
Her condition was not known late Wednesday.
Young, 21, was last seen driving away in a green Honda Accord, police said.
Columbiana Centre is the anchor of one of Columbia’s busiest retail centers. The mall has more than 110 stores.
The mall remained open after the shooting, officials said.
‘Bomb clubs and schools’
A DOCUMENT advocating bombing nightclubs, mixed schools and churches was found on the computer of a terrorist suspect from Bolton, a court has heard.
The jury was told that the “chilling” terror manual also suggested assassinating Government officials.
Omar Altimimi, aged 37, of Landsdowne Road, Tonge Moor, faces six charges of possessing material for a purpose connected with terrorism.
Professor Michael Clarke, an expert in terrorism and defence studies at Kings College, London, told the jury at Manchester Crown Court that the manual was a terrorist “organisational chart” adapted to apply to the UK.
The “extensive checklist” of how to set up a terror network had echoes of the infamous Encyclopedia of Jihad, al Qaida’s guide to perpetrating Holy War, Professor Clarke said.
“It is the organisational doctrine of a viable terrorist organisation,” he said.
The court heard that among propaganda hoarded on Altimimi’s home computer was an article by Osama bin Laden’s deputy.
The anti-Western diatribe by al Qaida’s Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri called for the murder of those who disagreed with extreme Islamic views.
The US has put up a £12.5 million reward for any information leading to the capture of al-Zawahiri.
Altimimi also had an article by radical Palestinian writer Sheikh Abu Mohammed al-Maqdese, the jury heard.
Several books by al-Maqdese, who preaches that democracy is always wrong, were found in the Hamburg flat of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.
Last week, the jury heard Altimimi’s computer held information describing how to hide bombs in boxes of Persil washing powder and sweets.
Video clips from Muslim extremists showing Osama bin Laden and praising the “Knights of London” for the 7/7 outrage - along with advice for suicide bombings on a bus - were also found, it is alleged.
Altimimi, who came to the UK in 2004, tried to “blend in” with his community in Bolton by applying for jobs in teaching and with the police, the jury has been told.
The father of three created three parallel identities.
Information on terrorism that had been allegedly hoarded by him was found after he was arrested on money laundering charges in February last year.
Altimimi claims no knowledge of the material and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
He also denies the acquisition and attempted possession of criminal property - £3,000 stolen from the authorities in Yemen.
The trial is scheduled to last for another two weeks.
9:57am Tuesday 12th June 2007
By Edward Chadwick
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/misc/print.php?artid=1464508
[propaganda—translation]
http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=108269&list=/index.php
The Reality And Accepted Issues From Al-Qaeda In The Land Of Kananah
Jun 11, 2007
Translation Team | Jihad Unspun © 2007
With Bush now flush with money from the Republicans and Democrats alike, their assault on Islam and acts of terrorism are blanketing the world in an effort to root out every true Muslim. In Egypt, a country where the true followers are already behind bars, some recanting their commitment to Jihad and others waiting patiently underground, the Egyptian government has been using respected Mujahid Sheikhs to sow dissent among those that remain true to Allah commands.
This statement from Al-Qaeda in the Land of Kananah (Egypt) will give you an inside look at how the Americans use psychological warfare, misinformation and out right fabrication attributed to the noble Sheikhs of our Ummah to oppress the masses and perpetrate evil in the lands of the Muslims.
We remind our viewers that the opinions and points of view expressed in this statement are those of the author and shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of JUS, the publisher, editor, writers, contributors or staff
REVIEWS ON JIHAD… REALITY AND ACCEPTED ISSUES
In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful
All praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds. Peace and prayer be upon our prophet, Muhammad, his family, and his companions.
Even though we are not aware of what was actually written in the last document the papers talked about except the releases that were published in some newspapers and internet sites, and in spite of the warning of Sheikh Syed Imam, May Allah release him from captivity, in which he called not to follow rumors, some papers and Islamic sites published some of the predictions and exaggerated analysis, and tried to dress the matter to cover its true meaning. Therefore it became compulsory upon us to express some truths and accepted facts so that the matter becomes clear for those who are unaware of it and the picture is complete for every truth seeker, and from Allah is guidance:
First, the new Islamic Sharia ruling (legal jurisprudence) that is coming from behind the freedom of the sunlight is nothing but a strategic campaign of the Egyptian intelligence, that began 10 years earlier in an attempt to destroy the Jihad ideology in Egypt. It was planned and supervised by the President of the religious activity in the Country’s Security Research committee and was delivered by Raoof Khairaat who was assassinated by the Islamic group Jama’a Al Islamiyah in 1994. It was named the plan of attraction and talking, that is, “Strike hard, but at the same time there is no harm in talking on the condition that you attract to what you want from the talks”
Fuaad Allaam, the assistant of the Country’s Security Research committee, made this clear when he said that, “The country won’t accept any change in its ideological precepts from inside the prisons except with new jurisprudence”. And he said “As they have come out on us with legal jurisprudence then it is a must that they must come back with a legal jurisprudence”. Similarly Habeeb Al Aadli, the current interior minister has said more than once that he is currently performing “the operation of taming the terrorists inside the Egyptian prisons”. Who stopped Sheikh Hamood Al Azmar, may Allah release him!, from leading the Islamic group, and he is one of the members of Shura Council in it, and announcing Sheikh Muahmmad Az Zawahiri’s presence, May Allah release him, in the prisons of Egypt after repeated denials for many years and arresting Dr. Syed Imam in Yemen, in spite of their knowledge of his leaving the Jihad group Jama’a Al Jihad and asked for his extradition after a week of his arrest. These are nothing but episodes in the intelligence project and proof of their special plan to negate the Jihad group document after the Islamic group had finished it.
Secondly, the issuing of this research from the depths of the prisons, even if we agree with what Dr. Syed Imam said in his last statement that “the lesson is in the proof and not the place from where it is issued”, no one can ignore the practices of the Egyptian interior. They adhere to the politics of the carrot and the stick, with every Egyptian detainee in order that their strategic campaign succeeds. Every day news is reported to us from inside and outside the prisons that anyone who refuses to accept or objects to the new research, is tortured with the worst kind of torture; his family and friends are barred from visiting him and he is transferred to prisons far away that are more strict of laws and guards.
Thirdly, not publishing the real script of the statement which they have claimed as the reviews of Dr. Syed Imam, but rather publishing a private statement was done in order to result in agitation, rumors and division amongst the Mujahideen inside and outside of prison. It aims to spread that this is what the Sheikh has written in his book Al Umdah. The reality is that no one knows what legal issues have been written in it. It may be a general guidance for the Mujahideen, and not a recantation from what he wrote earlier. This is what must have forced the Sheikh Syed Imam to say in his statement that was published by the permission of the Egyptian interior, “It is not right to give a ruling before knowing the conditions and it is not right for anyone to attach a saying to me except what I have mentioned in this publication. It is not right to go by rumors for the saying of the Almighty:
“Oh you who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done.” Quran 49:6
That is due to his foreknowledge of the cunning of the Egyptian interior and what it aims to achieve in this matter.
Fourthly, the condition of the Sheikh not to publish the new document alone and that it has to follow what he wrote already in his book, Al Umdah assures us he is holding steadfast to his earlier research and the real transcript of his book and his care on its publication.
Fifthly, the Dr. Syed Imam had earlier stressed that he will repudiate the jurisprudence in these documents if a correct proof is given that differs from what he has concluded, which he said in his statement, “And anything that comes in my writings that is against the correct legal ruling that is undisputed, then I back off from it and am with what the ruling says”. This points clearly to the fact that the matter is not over yet!
Sixthly, the jurisprudence that exists in the private document of the Dr. Syed Imam about which they (Egyptian Interior Ministry) said that it is the methodology of the Jihad group and the operations of the Al-Qaeda organization are sure to be done behind the bars away from the present Jihad and the reality of the organization, for everyone knows that the Sheikh has left working with the Mujahideen since 1995 when he left to work as a doctor in Yemen until one of the political security forces in Yemen arrested him and gave him to Egypt in the year 2003. So the Sheikh hasn’t received any independent news about the present state of the Mujahideen and the Al-Qaeda organization except through what is published on the pages of the papers and the radio.
Seventhly, it is not at all correct what Dr. Najih Ibraheem the manager of the Al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyah site in its latest releases that stated that Dr. Syed Imam was the first Fiqh and Knowledgeable leader of Al-Qaeda and jihad, and is conducting serious reviews over the ideologies of these two groups or that he is the basic head and thinker of Al-Qaeda. Everyone knows that Dr. Syed Imam did not ever join the Al-Qaeda organization and the first one to join Al-Qaeda was Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri and that was after Sheikh Syed Imam had left the Jihad group. In spite of the fact that the Al-Qaeda organization was and still does hold all love and respect for all the scholars of the Islamic movement in general and for Syed Imam especially and in spite that the book Al-Umdah is taught in the camps of Al-Qaeda, this is not proof of his joining the group or that he is one of their main thinkers. And we in this release assure that the superintendents of Al-Qaeda and its core thinkers are Sheikh Osama Bin Laden and Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, may Allah preserve them, and no one other than them, and what is released from them of releases and directions represents the thought of Al-Qaeda and its ideology.
Eighthly, many of the leaders of the Jihad group in Egypt inside and outside the prisons are still on their earlier understanding in the legal ruling on Jihad. Of course, they have learnt from their previous experience that has refined their thinking completely that what had happened after the release of the research on the Islamic group. But due to the terrorism of the Egyptian interior and the biased media, the stand of these leaders was not declared. This is what the Misrirun paper stressed on May 18, 2007 by Dr. Fadal who mentioned the jurisprudence on Jihad that was carried out by Dr. Syed Imam but alas it was in vain after refuting releases by Muhammad Az Zawahiri and a number of his other companions.
Ninthly, the Egyptian intelligence is currently performing its mission in Cairo for the Americans in Cairo and this follows its mission of interrogations of Al-Qaeda members who are imprisoned in the secret prisons. The new mission is psychological warfare, which goes hand in hand with the American crusade and which is no less important than the military war going on in Iraq and Afghanistan
And lastly, I call on my brothers and beloveds from the leaders of the Islamic Group in Egypt to indulge themselves in calling people to Allah and guidance to the beings, and to stop calling the Mujahideen from leaving Jihad against the Jews and the Americans in the lands of Muslims for the results of this without doubt will be to the advantage of the enemy who is waiting in anticipation to perpetrate evil in the lands of Muslims
We pray to Allah to lift the trials from our Sheikhs and brothers prisoner and to grant them steadfastness with the solid word in the world and in the hereafter… He is the Almighty and capable of it.
Muhammad Khaleel Al Hakamiyah
Al-Qaeda in the Land of Kananah
24 Jamadi Al-Awal 1428
June 10, 2007
Translation Copyright © Jihad Unspun 2007
http://vleeptronz.blogspot.com/2007/06/one-woman-and-38-men.html
Human Rights Watch
list of 38 men and one woman
detained by agents of,
or by agents acting for
the United States government
Category 1: Individuals whose detention by the United States has been officially acknowledged and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown
Hassan Ghul
On January 23, 2004, Ghul, a national of Pakistan, was apprehended in northern Iraq. Ghul is described as an al-Qaeda facilitator in the 9-11 Commission Report, which also confirms that Ghul was in U.S. custody. On January 26, 2004, President Bush congratulated U.S. intelligence agents for their role in Ghul’s apprehension. After his apprehension, Ghul was reportedly interrogated by U.S. military and intelligence officials. On December 5, 2005, ABC News reported that he had been held in a secret U.S. detention facility in Poland.[3] On July 19, 2006 his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List.[4] No other information about Ghul’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi (Abu Bakr al Azdi)
In May or June 2003, al-Ghamdi, a national of Saudi Arabia, turned himself in to authorities in Medina, Saudi Arabia, reportedly because his wife had been arrested several weeks earlier. The 9-11 Commission Report, referring to al-Ghamdi as a candidate hijacker for the attacks of September 11, 2001, acknowledged that al-Ghamdi was in U.S. custody. On July 19, 2006, his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about al-Ghamdi has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Ali Abdul-Hamid al-Fakhiri (Ali Abd-al-Hamid al-Fakhiri, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi)
Around November 11, 2001, al-Fakhiri, a national of Libya, was apprehended in Kohat, Pakistan by Pakistani officials. Al-Fakhiri is allegedly a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and the leader of the Al Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan from 1995 until 2000. Soon after his apprehension, al-Fakhiri was in U.S. custody in Kandahar, Afghanistan and reportedly came under the control of the CIA in January 2002 after a dispute between the CIA and the FBI regarding who would have control over al-Fakhiri. Reports indicate that al-Fakhiri was transferred to the U.S.S. Bataan by January 9, 2002 and then transferred to Egypt in January 2002. Al-Fakhiri may have been held in another country before being sent to a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in 2003. Al-Fakhiri was reportedly transferred out of Afghanistan in late 2003 to a secret U.S. detention facility and then transferred to Libya in late 2005 or early 2006. On December 5, 2005, ABC News reported that he had been held in a secret U.S. detention facility in Poland. [5] Statements allegedly made by al-Fakhiri after his apprehension were reportedly a key part of U.S. pre-war intelligence on Iraq. In January 2004, al-Fakhiri is reported to have withdrawn his statements. Al-Fakhiri is now reportedly held in isolation in Tripoli, and said to be suffering from tuberculosis and to be in very poor health. At least one U.S. official has acknowledged U.S. involvement in elements of al-Fakhiri’s treatment, including questioning al-Fakhiri and transferring al-Fakhiri to a third country for interrogation. On July 19, 2006 his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about al-Fakhiri’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain officially unexplained.
Category 2: Individuals about whom there is strong evidence, including witness testimony, of secret detention by the United States and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown
Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (Abu Musab al-Suri, Umar Abd al-Hakim)
On or about November 1, 2005, Nasar, a dual Syrian-Spanish citizen, was apprehended in Quetta, Pakistan, by Pakistani officials. In November 2004, Nasar was identified on the FBI “Most Wanted Terrorists” List and on November 18, 2004, the U.S. Department of State offered a reward of $U.S. 5 million for information concerning his location through its “Rewards for Justice” program and described Nasar as an al-Qaeda member and former trainer at camps in Afghanistan. Other reports describe Nasar as an ideologue and strategist, best known for his writings. Nasar is also wanted in Spain in connection with al-Qaeda activities. In April and May 2006, Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed that Nasar was wanted by both the U.S. and Syria, had been handed over to U.S. custody at least two months earlier, and was not in Pakistan. At around the same time, in March 2006, Nasar’s name was removed from at least one U.S. government list of terrorism suspects. On July 19, 2006, his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about Nasar’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain officially unexplained.
Two, possibly three, Somalis [Names Unknown] (one of whom is either Shoeab as-Somali or Rethwan as-Somali)*
Sometime prior to December 2004, two Somali nationals were apprehended and detained in a secret U.S. detention facility. Between December 2004 and late 2005, Marwan Jabour [6] reports that two Somalis were held in the cells next to his and that he sometimes would hear the Somalis talking with each other in Somali.
While in that facility, Jabour was also shown a photograph of a Somali man whom he had known previously and recognized as either Shoeab as-Somali or Rethwan as-Somali. Jabour recognized that the photograph had been taken in his previous cell in the same facility. The Somali man in the photograph may or may not have been one of the Somalis held in the cells next to Jabour between December 2004 and late 2005.
No information about these detainees’ fates has been released by the U.S. government, and their whereabouts remain unknown.
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan (Abu Talha, Abu Talaha)
On July 13, 2004, Khan, a national of Pakistan, was reportedly apprehended by Pakistani authorities with the assistance of the CIA and other U.S. agencies. Media reports since his disappearance have alleged that Khan is suspected of working as a computer and communications expert with al-Qaeda. In his 2006 memoir, In the Line of Fire, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf provides details of the apprehension and subsequent treatment of an “unnamed Pakistani national” that strongly correlate with information available regarding Khan.[7] President Musharraf records that the individual was apprehended by Pakistani officials based on “vital leads” provided by the U.S. who had also been “tracking him” and that British authorities were given “direct access” to the individual. At least one detainee held in a secret U.S. detention facility was shown photos of Khan that suggested he was in custody. On July 19, 2006, the name “Abu Tallah” was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No information about Khan’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Abdul Basit
Before or during June 2004, Basit, a national of probably either Saudi Arabia or Yemen, was apprehended and transferred to a secret U.S. detention facility where according to Marwan Jabour he spoke with other prisoners held in the facility and gave his name as “Abdul Basit.” No information about Basit’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Adnan [Last Name Unknown]
Before or during June 2004, Adnan was apprehended and transferred to a secret U.S. detention facility where according to Marwan Jabour he spoke with other prisoners held in the facility and gave his name as “Adnan.” No information about Adnan’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Hudaifa
Before or during June 2004, Hudaifa was apprehended and transferred to a secret U.S. detention facility where according to Marwan Jabour he spoke with other prisoners held in the facility and gave his name as “Hudaifa.” No information about Hudaifa’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Mohammed [Last Name Unknown] (Mohammed al-Afghani)
Mohammed, an Afghan born in Saudi Arabia, was apprehended in May 2004 in Peshawar, Pakistan. According to Marwan Jabour, Mohammed was transferred with him and two other prisoners out of a facility in Islamabad, Pakistan on June 16, 2004 and imprisoned with Jabour in a secret U.S. detention facility. No information about Mohammed’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Khalid al-Zawahiri
On February 25, 2004, al-Zawahiri, a national of Egypt, was apprehended in Azam Warak in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan by Pakistani officials. He was reportedly questioned by both Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials shortly after his apprehension, and there are indications that he was transferred to U.S. custody, possibly in Afghanistan. Reports indicate that al-Zawahiri is the son of Ayman al-Zawahiri, an alleged high-level al-Qaeda suspect. No information about Khalid al-Zawahiri’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Ayoub al-Libi
In January 2004, al-Libi, a national of Libya, was reportedly apprehended in Peshawar, Pakistan. According to Marwan Jabour, al-Libi was transferred with him and two other prisoners out of a facility in Islamabad, Pakistan on June 16, 2004 and imprisoned with Jabour in a secret U.S. detention facility. Jabour heard Ayoub al-Libi call out to him once during the first month of captivity in the secret U.S. detention facility. A prisoner with the surname al-Mahdi-Jawdeh (aka Ayoub al-Libi) (see page 13), was reportedly transferred from secret U.S. detention to Libyan custody in 2006, and may well be the same person. No information about al-Libi’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Abu Naseem
Naseem, a national of Tunisia, was apprehended in Peshawar, Pakistan, on June 17, 2003 by Pakistani authorities. He was reportedly suspected of providing forged documents to al-Qaeda, and of facilitating other al-Qaeda operations. Reports at the time of his arrest suggested that he may have been transferred to U.S. custody. Another suspect arrested on the same day was reportedly transferred to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. A witness reported hearing his voice in a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in late 2003. No information about Naseem’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Suleiman Abdalla Salim (Suleiman Abdalla, Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, Suleiman Ahmed Hemed Salim, Issa Tanzania)
On March 18, 2003, Salim, a national of either Yemen or Tanzania, was reportedly apprehended in Mogadishu, Somalia. Somali warlords reportedly abducted him from a hospital and delivered him to an airport in Mogadishu, where U.S. officials took custody of him. Salim was reportedly sought by the U.S. for alleged involvement in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Witness testimony indicates that Salim was held in at least two secret U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan during 2004. The former detainee who saw Salim said that Salim had been badly tortured while in U.S. custody: his arms had been broken, and he had been hit in the head with the butt of a gun. No information about Salim’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Yassir al-Jazeeri (Yasser al-Jaziri, Abu Yasir al-Jaziri, Abu Yassir Al Jazeeri, Yasser al-Jazeeri)
On March 15, 2003, al-Jazeeri, a national of Morocco, was apprehended in Lahore, Pakistan by Pakistani security forces, who were reportedly assisted by agents of the FBI. Reports indicate that al-Jazeeri was jointly interrogated by Pakistani and U.S. agents. Although al-Jazeeri was not included on the FBI “Most Wanted Terrorists” List at the time of his apprehension, he was characterized as among the top seven leaders of the al-Qaeda network by Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister.
Witness testimonies indicate that al-Jazeeri was held in a CIA-operated portion of Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in late 2003 through early 2004. Al-Jazeeri was transferred to a secret U.S. detention facility in April 2004, where Marwan Jabour reports that he was allowed to meet with him several times as late as June 2006. According to Jabour, al-Jazeeri told him that he had been in a place with U.S. interrogators where he had been tortured, and that he had permanent damage to his arm as a result of being badly beaten. Jabour reported, “I saw very clearly the marks of torture on his body.” [8] Al-Jazeeri also indicated that he had been subjected to loud music for four months straight.
In 2003, the U.S. government acknowledged that Yassir al-Jazeeri had been captured or killed. On July 19, 2006 his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about al-Jazeeri’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman (Asadallah)
In mid-February 2003, Abdel-Rahman, a national of Egypt, was apprehended in Quetta, Pakistan. Abdel-Rahman is the son of Omar Abdel-Rahman (the “blind Sheikh”) and according to the U.S. ran a training camp in Afghanistan prior to September 11, 2001 and had a role in planning the attacks of September 11, 2001. Information from Abdel-Rahman reportedly led to the joint U.S.-Pakistan arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a detainee who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. Reports indicate that Abdel-Rahman was in U.S. custody after his apprehension and that Abdel-Rahman was being questioned by U.S. authorities in early March 2003. On December 5, 2005, ABC News reported that he had been held in a secret U.S. detention facility in Poland. [9] On July 19, 2006 his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about Abdel-Rahman’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Majid [Last Name Unknown] (Adnan al-Libi, Abu Yasser)*
In 2003, Majid, a national of Libya, was apprehended, apparently in Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has described Adnan al-Libi as a “senior LIFG facilitator.” [10] He was reportedly held in a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in late 2003 and was apparently transferred to another secret U.S. detention facility, in which he was present in April 2004. No information about Majid’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Hassan [Last Name Unknown] (Raba’i)*
Hassan, a national of Libya, was apprehended in Pakistan, apparently in 2002. His pregnant wife, name and nationality unknown, was with him in Pakistan at the time of his arrest. Hassan is allegedly a member of the LIFG. He was apparently transferred with al-Fakhiri (aka Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi) from a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in November 2003 to a secret U.S. detention facility, in which he was present in April 2004. He was reportedly transferred to Libyan custody in late 2005 or 2006, and is reportedly being held in Tripoli. No information about Hassan’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain officially unexplained.
[First Name Unknown] al-Mahdi-Jawdeh (Abu Ayoub, Ayoub al-Libi)*
Al-Mahdi-Jawdeh, a national of Libya, is allegedly a member of the LIFG. He was reportedly held in secret U.S. detention before being sent to Libya in 2006. A prisoner with the name Ayoub al-Libi was reportedly held in a U.S. secret detention facility with Marwan Jabour (see page 11) and may well be the same person. No information about al-Mahdi-Jawdeh’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain officially unexplained.
Khaled al-Sharif (Abu Hazem)*
Al-Sharif, a national of Libya, is allegedly a member of the LIFG. Al-Sharif had reportedly been held in a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in late 2003, with al-Fakhiri (aka Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi) and Hassan (aka Raba’i). He may have been transferred to Libya in late 2005 or 2006, and is reportedly being held in Tripoli. No information about al-Sharif’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain officially unexplained.
Category 3: Individuals about whom there is some evidence of secret detention by the United States and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown
Osama bin Yousaf (Usama Bin Yussaf, Usama bin Yusuf, Usamah bin-Yusuf)
On August 7, 2005, bin Yousaf, believed to be a national of either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, was apprehended in Faisalabad, Pakistan, reportedly by tracking his cell phone, which was recorded in the phone directory of Abu Faraj al-Libi. Al-Libi was arrested on May 2, 2005 in Mardan, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities aided by U.S. intelligence officials and is one of the detainees who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. Bin Yousaf is allegedly an al-Qaeda operative closely linked to al-Libi. It was reported that maps of cities in Germany and Italy were seized from bin Yousaf upon arrest. He was reportedly transferred to Lahore on August 9, 2005 and on the following day to Islamabad, where he was interrogated by U.S. officials. No information about bin Yousaf’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Osama Nazir
In November 2004, Nazir, a national of Pakistan, was apprehended by Pakistani authorities in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Nazir was reportedly a high-ranking operative of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda. He was suspected of involvement in a March 2002 attack on a church in Islamabad’s high-security diplomatic zone, and was later linked to Shehzad Tanweer, one of the suicide bombers responsible for the London attacks of July 7, 2005. The media reported that the U.S. government sought custody of Nazir after his arrest. On July 19, 2006, his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about Nazir’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Sharif al-Masri (Abd-al-Sattar Sharif al-Masri)
On August, 29, 2004, al-Masri, a national of Egypt, was apprehended in Quetta, Pakistan, reportedly by Pakistani authorities. His apprehension was confirmed on September 1, 2004 by Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister. The Information Minister also confirmed that a second man was apprehended with al-Masri but stated that his identity was unknown. Reports alternatively indicate that this man was a national of Saudi Arabia, Yemen or Pakistan. In November 2005, U.S. sources indicated that al-Masri had told his interrogators about an al-Qaeda plan to bring nuclear materials to the United States via Mexico for use against U.S. targets. No information about al-Masri’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar (Amir Harkat-ul-Ansar Qari Saifullah)
On August 6, 2004, Akhtar, a national of Pakistan, was apprehended in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), reportedly with the assistance of UAE authorities after he had been traced by Pakistani intelligence officials. A number of media reports from August and October 2004 refer to Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister’s comments that Akhtar was transferred after his apprehension from the UAE to Pakistan and was being interrogated by Pakistani officials. An unnamed intelligence official indicated that he was possibly being interrogated in Lahore. The allegations against Akhtar include that he led Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami, was connected to a plot to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, and ran a terrorist training camp in Rishkor, Afghanistan. In connection with a habeas corpus petition filed on his behalf, the Pakistani Supreme Court has requested details from the government of Pakistan concerning his detention. The U.S. was reportedly interested in questioning Akhtar and on July 19, 2006, his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about Akhtar’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Mustafa Mohammed Fadhil (Moustafa Ali Elbishy, Hussein, Hassan Ali, Khalid, Abu Jihad)
In July or August 2004, Fadhil, a national of Egypt and possibly also Kenya, was reportedly apprehended in Pakistan by Pakistani authorities. Fadhil was named in a U.S. federal indictment concerning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. On October 10, 2001, he was placed on the FBI “Most Wanted Terrorists” List. His name was removed from the list without explanation. No information about Fadhil’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Musaab Aruchi (Mosabir Aroochi, Masoob Aroochi, Abu Mosa’ab al-Balochi, Abu Mosa’ab Aroochi, Musaad Aruchi, al-Baluchi)
On June 12, 2004, Aruchi, a national of Pakistan, was apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan by Pakistani paramilitary forces reportedly supervised by the CIA, on the basis of U.S. intelligence telephone and internet intercepts. Aruchi is allegedly a senior al-Qaeda operative and is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a detainee who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. Unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials were quoted as saying that Aruchi was held by Pakistani authorities for three days before being flown in an unmarked CIA plane from a Pakistani air force base to an unknown location. On July 19, 2006, the name “Mosabir Aroochi” was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about Aruchi’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Ibad al Yaquti al Sheikh al Sufiyan
On January 22, 2004, al Sufiyan, a resident of Saudi Arabia, was reportedly apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan, by Pakistani intelligence authorities. He was reportedly suspected of being an al-Qaeda operative. Al Sufiyan was apprehended the day after Walid bin Azmi (see page 16), and reports indicate that information provided by bin Azmi led authorities to al Sufiyan. No information about al Sufiyan’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Walid bin Azmi
In January 2004, bin Azmi, described as “an Arab,” was reportedly apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan in a raid by intelligence agencies. Bin Azmi was apprehended as part of a raid in which about a dozen individuals escaped, while those apprehended were reportedly transferred to U.S. custody, reportedly the FBI. Bin Azmi is allegedly an al-Qaeda operative who was based in Pakistan and is said to be a suspect in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000. No information about bin Azmi’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Amir Hussein Abdullah al-Misri (Fazal Mohammad Abdullah al-Misri)
On January 18, 2004, al-Misri, a national of Egypt, was reportedly apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities. Al-Misri is reportedly linked to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and al-Qaeda. A press report shortly after the apprehension quotes an unnamed Pakistani official indicating that investigators were trying to verify whether al-Misri was wanted by the U.S. government and that the FBI was likely to join local investigators shortly. The official is also reported as stating that those apprehended in the raid in which al-Misri was detained were being transfered to Islamabad, after which they were likely to be sent to U.S. custody. No information about al-Misri’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Safwan al-Hasham (Haffan al-Hasham)
On May 15, 2003, al-Hasham, a national of Saudi Arabia, was apprehended while driving from Hyderabad to Karachi, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities, possibly in the presence of U.S. officials. Media accounts indicate that al-Hasham was suspected of being al-Qaeda’s communications chief. On July 19, 2006, his name was included in the “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List. No other information about al-Hasham’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Jawad al-Bashar
In early May 2003, al-Bashar, a national of Egypt, was reportedly apprehended in Vindher (Windar), Balochistan, along with an Afghan national, Farzand Shah, by law enforcement agencies. Al-Bashar is allegedly a member of al-Qaeda operating in Pakistan and is suspected to be linked to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a detainee who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. No information about al-Bashar’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Aafia Siddiqui
On around March 28, 2003, Siddiqui, along with her three children (then aged 7 years, 5 years and 6 months), a national of Pakistan, was reportedly apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan. On March 18, 2003, the FBI had issued an alert requesting information on Siddiqui so the FBI could locate and question her. The U.S. government has alleged that Siddiqui is linked to detainees that the government has acknowledged were in the U.S. Secret Detention Program, including Majid Khan and Ali ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ‘Ali. There are a number of reports alleging that Siddiqui had been handed over to U.S. custody following her apprehension, but in May 26, 2004, then-Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as someone presenting a threat to the United States, indicating their belief that she was not in custody. No other information about Siddiqui’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and her whereabouts remain unknown.
Saif al Islam el Masry
In September 2002, el Masry, a national of Egypt, was apprehended in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, by Georgian authorities. El Masry was suspected of being a member of al-Qaeda’s high council. Media reports indicate that Georgian officials acknowledged that they transferred el Masry and others detained in the same raid to U.S. custody. No information about el Masry’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Sheikh Ahmed Salim (Swedan, Sheikh Ahmad Salem Suweidan, Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan, Sheikh Swedan, Sheikh Bahamadi, Ahmed Ally, Bahamad, Sheik Bahamad, Ahmed The Tall)
On July 11, 2002, Salim, a national of Kenya, was apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities, possibly with the assistance of U.S. law enforcement agents. Media reports indicate that he was transferred to U.S. custody at some point in 2002. Salim was named in a U.S. federal indictment concerning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Salim is still listed on the FBI “Most Wanted Terrorists” List. No information about Salim’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Retha al-Tunisi
In early to mid-2002, al-Tunisi, a national of Tunisia, was apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan. Al-Tunisi is alleged to hold a high-level position in al-Qaeda. Marwan Jabour reports that while he was held in a secret U.S. detention facility, he was shown a photograph of al-Tunisi, who was apparently in U.S. custody. This may or may not be Ridah bin Saleh al Yazidi, a Tunisian national, who is presently held at Guantánamo Bay and does not have counsel. No information about al-Tunisi’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Anas al-Libi (Anas al-Sabai, Nazih al-Raghie, Nazih Abdul Hamed al-Raghie)
In February 2002, al-Libi, a national of Libya, was reportedly apprehended in Khartoum, Sudan, after which there were reportedly negotiations between U.S. and Sudanese officials to complete al-Libi’s handover to U.S. custody. He was named in a U.S. federal indictment concerning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and on October 10, 2001, his name appeared on the initial version of the FBI “Most Wanted Terrorists” List, where his name still remains. He was probably sent to Egypt at some point after his apprehension and may now be in another country. No information about al-Libi’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
[First Name Unknown] al-Rubaia
In 2002, al-Rubaia, a national of Iraq, was apparently apprehended in Iran and later held in a secret U.S. detention facility. Another detainee held in the same secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan read the name “al-Rubaia” and information about his arrest on a cell wall. No information about al-Rubaia’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Speen Ghul
Marwan Jabour reports that while in a secret U.S. detention facility, he was shown a photograph of Speen Ghul, a national of an African country, who was apparently in U.S. custody. No information about Ghul’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
NOTES:
[3] Brian Ross & Richard Esposito, Sources Tell ABC News Top Al Qaeda Figures Held in Secret CIA Prisons, ABC News, Dec. 5, 2005, available at http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1375123 and List of 12 Operatives Held in CIA Prisons, ABC News, Dec. 5, 2005, available at http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/popup?id=1375287.
[4] The “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” List is a list that was read into the U.S. Congressional Record on July 19, 2006 by Representative J. Gresham Barrett from South Carolina, Representative Thaddeus McCotter from Michigan, Representative John Carter from Texas, and former Representative Melissa Hart from Pennsylvania. No explanation was provided by these Members of Congress concerning the sources for the list, and no further information was given when inquiries were made in preparation of this briefing paper. The List is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:H19JY6-0077.
[5] See supra note [3].
* Individuals publicly identified as missing for the first time by human rights groups are indicated by an asterisk. Note that while the detention of two Somali nationals has been previously reported, the possibility that a third Somali national was held in a secret U.S. detention facility has not been explicitly stated.
[6] Marwan Jabour was held in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and was released from custody in 2006: see Human Rights Watch, Ghost Prisoner: Two Years in Secret CIA Detention, supra note 2.
[7] Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir 241-243 (2006).
[8] Interview with Marwan Jabour, Nov. 23. 2006.
[9] See supra note 3.
[10] U.S. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Designates UK-Based Individuals, Entities Financing
Al Qaida-Affiliated LIFG, Feb. 8, 2006, available at http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js4016.htm.
© Copyright 2006, Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
[care to connect these dots?]
Slaying victim linked to JFK suspect
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
As murder mysteries here go, few are as intriguing as the
execution-style
killing of an Iranian Muslim cleric with links to a key suspect in the
alleged JFK airport bombing plot.
Mohamed Hassan Ibrahimi was abducted by two gunmen in April 2004. His
body
was found several weeks later, face down in a shallow grave. He had
been
shot twice in the head. His mouth was taped, and his hands and feet
were
tied.
The homicide made a brief splash and then turned into a cold case over
the
next three years — until earlier this month, when prosecutors in New
York
charged three Guyanese men and one Trinidadian with plotting to bomb
the
city’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Ibrahimi was a close friend of one of the men accused, Abdul Kadir, a
former
opposition member of Guyana’s parliament. Ibrahimi received money from
Iran
and changed it at a currency exchange business where another of the
accused,
Abdel Nur, sometimes ran errands, and where a suspected al Qaeda member
and
former South Florida resident wanted by the FBI, Adnan el Shukrijumah,
was
spotted in 2003. The business’ owner was slain last month.
Kadir, Nur and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahiim are jailed in Trinidad
pending
U.S. extradition requests. The fourth man accused, Russell Defreitas, a
Guyanese-born U.S. citizen, is being held in New York. Two of Kadir’s
sons
were arrested in Guyana on Sunday on charges of illegal possession of
ammunition.
At the time of Ibrahimi’s disappearance and death, Guyana’s Muslim
organizations were quick to deny speculation that the case was linked
to
international terrorism or clashes between Shiites and Sunnis. Other
speculation centered on a robbery attempt gone bad or a settling of
business
scores.
Acting Guyana Police Chief Henry Greene told The Miami Herald he would
not
speculate on who killed Ibrahimi or why.
‘’Initially, we felt it was a kidnapping. But there was no demand for a
ransom,’’ said Greene, who was head of criminal investigations at the
time.
``We could not find a motive for the killing. Just another one of those
strange killings.’’
But the slaying was certainly of importance to the Iranian government.
Four
Iranian police officers and Tehran’s ambassador in neighboring
Venezuela
came to ask about the case. Even television crews from Tehran turned up
in
this South American nation.
‘’We don’t know if it was normal practice,’’ Greene said of Iran’s
interest.
``It looked to me like there was a national interest.’’
But when Guyanese investigators began asking Iranian officials about
Ibrahimi, Greene said, Tehran never responded. ``Believe you me, we
never
got anything.’’
Representatives at the Iranian Embassy in Venezuela, contacted by The
Miami
Herald, declined to comment on the case or provide background
information on
Ibrahimi. His wife, Shabnaz, who was eight months’ pregnant with their
first
child at the time of the abduction, returned to Iran after the killing.
Little is known about Ibrahimi, 35, other than he was a Shiite Muslim
cleric
who established permanent residence in Guyana in 2000 under a work
permit
requested by a man in Guyana, identified by Greene as Zenjibari Ali.
Greene said he believed Ali also was Iranian. But Lennox ‘’Usamah’’
Merchant, a Shiite Muslim and friend of Ibrahimi’s, said in an
interview
that Ali was a native of Tanzania.
‘’Initially, he said he was traveling on business,’’ Greene said of
Ibrahimi.
But Ibrahimi soon opened the International Islamic Center of Advanced
Studies, a Shiite study center in Georgetown. And he hired two of
Kadir’s
children to teach there: son Salim Ibn Abdul Kadir, an Iranian-trained
cleric, and a daughter who also had studied in Iran, according to
Merchant.
The son became the school’s interim director following Ibrahimi’s
slaying,
but it closed shortly after. The elder Kadir was quoted in local media
reports at the time of Ibrahimi’s death as saying he was a close
friend.
Merchant, who also taught courses at the school from time to time,
describes
the school as a nongovernmental organization that received funding from
Iran, and Ibrahimi as an easygoing man dedicated to serving Shiites, a
tiny
minority within Guyana’s mostly Sunni Muslim community.
‘’Ibrahimi was not an extremist,’’ Merchant said, sitting in his living
room
in Georgetown. ``He was against these wars, these Talibans.’’
The relationship among Ibrahimi, Kadir and Ali soured at some point,
Merchant said, but he did not know why. Ali eventually left for
Tanzania.
Ibrahimi made frequent visits to the Swiss House Cambio, a currency
exchange
in Georgetown, to exchange large amounts of money he would receive,
mostly
from Iran, Merchant added.
The business was run by Farouk Razac, who police say was suspected of
links
to money laundering, cocaine smuggling and homicides. Razac was shot to
death last month in his home. His wife, a former beauty queen, has been
charged with murder in the case.
The exchange house had two other odd links: Nur, one of the JFK plot
suspects, sometimes ran errands for the business or Razac, Nur’s
friends
said. And it was the place where, in 2003, a Guyanese man reported to
the
U.S. Embassy that he had spotted Shukrijumah. The former student at
Broward
Community College, who is half-Guyanese, is wanted by the FBI as a
suspected
member of al Qaeda terrorist group.
‘’It’s very puzzling,’’ Merchant said of the Ibrahimi killing.
Merchant recalled a hysterical call from Ibrahimi’s wife at 2 a.m.
April 3,
2004, saying her husband had not returned home after receiving a call
that
there was a water leak at his school. Police say the call was
legitimate.
Merchant said he immediately called Ibrahimi’s cellphone, but it was
answered by Raymond Halley, the center’s administrator, who delivered
the
chilling news: two men carrying 9mm and .45-caliber pistols had blocked
their vehicle as they left the school, and a scuffle had ensued.
Halley reported he was at a hospital because he had been shot in the
foot
before Ibrahimi was dragged away in the gunmen’s car, Merchant
recalled.
Greene said the vehicle had fake license plates.
Halley declined to speak to The Miami Herald. Salim Kadir did not
respond to
a Miami Herald request for an interview on the Ibrahimi case.
Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo told the newspaper last week that he
initially thought little of the killing, believing it was somehow
connected
to a slew of kidnappings around that time.
But now, as the alleged JFK terrorism plot makes almost daily headlines
in
Guyana, he, too, is wondering about the unsolved case.
‘’Everything has come up now because all of the linkages that didn’t
seem
important in the past,’’ Jagdeo said. Many people on the periphery of
the
JFK plot case, he added, ``may be asked to give friendly interviews to
see
if we can piece everything together.’’
Miami Herald special correspondent Phil Gunson contributed from
Caracas.
http://www.miamiherald.com/416/v-print/story/138790.html
Arson damages Amish school in central Pennsylvania, fire officials say
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 10, 2007
BROWNSTOWN, Pennsylvania: One or more people broke into a one-room Amish schoolhouse in the middle of the night and set a fire that caused an estimated $20,000 (€14,982) in damage, fire officials said.
Firefighters responded to the fire at the Pleasant Valley School in West Earl Township shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday, according to Jonas Reiff, chief of the Farmersville Fire Company. It was put out in about 15 minutes.
Firefighters said the school’s doors were locked and there were signs of a break-in.
Deputy State Police Fire Marshal James DeWalt ruled the fire was arson. He said there were no signs of vandalism and nothing appeared to have been stolen.
The one-room schoolhouse is attended by Amish and Old Order Mennonite schoolchildren in Lancaster County’s Amish community. Classes there had recently finished for the year, Reiff said.
Police said they did not immediately have any suspects.
The building is less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Nickel Mines, where a gunman shot 10 girls — five of them fatally — at an Amish school in October; he killed himself as police closed in.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/10/america/NA-GEN-US-Amish-School-Fire.php
June 14, 2007 Anti-Terrorism News
Afghanistan Says 26 Taliban Killed in South
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,282172,00.html
(Afghanistan) Afghan Defense Minister: Iran Not Arming Taliban
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,282196,00.html
(Afghanistan) NATO: Taliban failed to mount spring offensive
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/June/subcontinent_June567.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=
(Afghanistan) Taliban commander Mullah Mahmud Baluch confirmed killed
in Afghan air strike
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/June/subcontinent_June559.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=
(Afghanistan) Taliban is accused of murdering girl who had dared to
attend school
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1929348.ece
(Afghanistan) NATO soldier “kidnapped by Helmand insurgents”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1929353.ece
Iraq mosques attacked, curfew enforced
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/wl_nm/iraq_dc_18;_ylt=Aoyfn1SyYoirtGpj2QA_REtX6GMA
(Iraq) Six Sunni mosques targeted after blast at Samarra shrine
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/14/iraq.main/index.html
(Iraq) Three Sunni mosques burned south of Baghdad
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/June/focusoniraq_June58.xml§ion=focusoniraq
Iraq PM blames shrine guards for bombing
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c45acf27-f982-4178-8afc-4a1ec2764724&&Headline=Iraq+PM+blames+shrine+guards+for+bombing
(Iraq) Explosions rock Baghdad, smoke seen by Green Zone
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813032093&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Iraq) Pentagon: Violence in Iraq rising despite “surge”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19213666/
Iraq: Suicide attack on Anti-Al Qaeda Alliance — in Ramadi on
Wednesday
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.425352068&par=0
(Iraq) Six Iraqis wounded in Kirkuk blast
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1754622&Language=en
(Iraq) US forces kill female terrorist, detain three others in Baghdad
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1754618&Language=en
Hamas now in control of Gaza Strip — Key security HQ in Gaza City,
last Fatah stronghold, falls
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570271436&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
Gaza: Hamas to convert Palestinian Security HQ into Mosque
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.425744256&par=0
14 killed as Hamas capture major Fatah post
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/June/middleeast_June258.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Hamas warns Fatah not to move fight to West Bank
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813032005&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Dozens of Hamas activists arrested by Palestinian security forces loyal
to Abbas in West Bank
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/14/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Hamas-Crackdown.php
Abbas orders presidential guard to strike back against Hamas
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/14/africa/ME-GEN-Abbas-Presidential-Guard.php
UNRWA to scale back Gaza mission
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570264955&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Fatah blame Israel for the escalating security chaos in the Gaza Strip
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=22925
(Syria) Report: Syria behind escalation in Gaza fighting
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570273990&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Lebanon) Angry mourners lambast Syria at Lebanon MP’s funeral
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070614/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonunrest_070614115401;_ylt=AvqdOk7X9mqhvD4_ie86YO3agGIB
(Israel) Two Kassams land in Sderot
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570272364&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(USA - Ft Dix Plot) Men arrested for plotting attack on U.S. military
base in New Jersey head to court
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/14/america/NA-GEN-US-Fort-Dix-Plot.php
U.S. treasury secretary calls on countries to step up efforts to combat
terrorist financiers
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/14/america/NA-GEN-US-Terror-Financing.php
FBI finds it overstepped in collecting data — Internal audit faults
national security investigations
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19215531/
(Turkey) Kurdish rebels kill Turkish officer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070613/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_kurds_19;_ylt=AtZijpd9wjcY0gtoGsvcz5ntfLkA
Somali gunmen attack Ethiopians, kill official
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/June/theworld_June455.xml§ion=theworld
Kenya: Two Women Held Over Bomb Blast
http://allafrica.com/stories/200706140403.html
(Nigeria) Army ‘kills’ Nigerian militants
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6751513.stm
Nigerian court frees oil militant
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6752551.stm
Iran says may cut more IAEA ties if sanctions worsen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/ts_nm/nuclear_iran_iaea_dc_1;_ylt=Al6y.qwmSwvJHlPf2rO1XQBSw60A
(Pakistan) Pro-Taliban militants taking over Tank
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\14\story_14-6-2007_pg7_10
(Pakistan) Militant group warns pro-govt tribal elders
http://www.dawn.com/2007/06/14/top14.htm
(Pakistan) 22 music shops bombed in the Charsadda town of NWFP in
recent months
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=6/14/2007#11
(Pakistan) Taliban parade “criminals”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\14\story_14-6-2007_pg1_2
(Pakistan) Bomb explosion in Mohmand Agency
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=6/14/2007#5
(Pakistan) 4 terrorists arrested in Sui, large arms cache seized
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\14\story_14-6-2007_pg7_30
(Pakistan) Imran Khan says Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader involved in
terrorism, money laundering
http://www.dawn.com/2007/06/14/top9.htm
Pakistan denies presence of Bin Laden, Mullah Omar
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070614/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanusbinladenomarunrest_070614133736;_ylt=A0WTUZPnSHFG7xMAeiEwuecA
(Pakistan) $50 million in US military aid to Pakistan restored
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\14\story_14-6-2007_pg1_6
Pakistani vehicles to be banned on Afghan crossing: official
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070614/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistanunrestborder_070614070216;_ylt=AqbDkWN6XXlK6MZvGPqjr3vzPukA
(India) 500 extremists killed in two years, admits Maoists in
Chhattisgarh
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=6/14/2007#14
(India) Two women sentenced to five yrs RI for role in 1993 blasts
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=cf4dd793-a907-4b0c-8f4c-a34335dbbd71&&Headline=Two+women+get+five+yrs+RI+in+’93+blasts+case
(UK) Terror suspect Zeeshan Siddiqui on the run named as tube worker
with links to 7/7 gang
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=461957&in_page_id=1770
(UK) Man linked to bomb gang revealed to be on the run - Zeeshan
Siddiqui, escaped from a mental health unit in Belmarsh prison last October
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2103039,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=15
(UK) Jihadi diary: Inside the mind - Zeeshan Siddique - dreamed of
being Jihadist
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6750911.stm
(UK) Briton found guilty of Al Qaeda plot - Qaisar Shaffi part of
Dhiren Barot Jihad group plotting to bomb US financial targets
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1950756.htm
(France) Al Qaeda targets France —Working in Algeria, the terror group
has been laying the groundwork for attacks
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-riedel14jun14,1,2171068.story?coll=la-news-comment
Canada lobbies US on behalf of Guantanamo suspect Khadr
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070613/wl_canada_afp/canadaattacks_070613221717;_ylt=AtAPts8wLO3fBY8RurJDPjYwuecA
Indonesian militants dented by leader’s capture, threat remains
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/wl_nm/indonesia_militants_dc_1;_ylt=AtU85U2CeICFDlOckzn2nGLaHXcA
Indonesia grills leading bomb suspect Abu Dujana
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1181818562233430.xml&coll=2
(Indonesia) Police step up hunt for terror group recruiter
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=930852007
(Thailand) Bomb wounds 14 police in Thailand
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/ap_on_re_as/thailand_southern_violence_1;_ylt=AuAvCl76k.uCFb4g39M.8yDuNREB
(Thailand) 3 killed, 13 schools burned in southern Thailand
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070614/wl_asia_afp/thailandsouthunresttoll_070614081626;_ylt=Ao8ewJi56HiMNDHSPsceimzuNREB
Philippine general says Muslim rebels locate kidnapped Italian
missionary
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/14/asia/AS-GEN-Philippines-Kidnapped-Priest.php
Sri Lanka rebels planning attack on Colombo port: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070614/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrestport_070614075427;_ylt=Aj17hRW_sdalnaj6PFzsJKItM8oA
(Sri Lanka) Filipino aid worker shot in Sri Lanka
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070614/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaphilippinesunrest_070614054932;_ylt=AqP0P11MEf6LvoEdziEujrBUKYUA
Other News:
(CAIR) US Muslim group denies decrease in membership
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\14\story_14-6-2007_pg7_59
(North Korea) ‘Executions of cell phone users up in N. Korea’
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813030361&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(UK) The contemporary fight against anti-Semitism
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article1928865.ece
(Italy) Protests at day release for Nazi war criminal
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21901108-1702,00.html
http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2007/issue2/jvol11no2in.html
PROMISES AND PERILS OF WEBLOGISTAN:
ONLINE PERSONAL JOURNALS AND THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Liora Hendelman-Baavur*
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iranian printed and broadcast media has been strongly controlled by the state. However, the state’s authority has been compromised due to online publishing and the free flow of information, especially through “Weblogistan”—the Iranian cyber-sphere of online self-publishing journals. This has generated much concern among the Islamic Republic authorities. Along with satellite television and mobile phones, weblogs have irretrievably changed the way people in the entire Middle East interact with one another and with the rest of the world. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s ways of coping with challenges posed by the internet in general and weblogs in particular are especially intriguing, considering that the most famous blogger in the country is the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
continues
GIMF Instructs Islamists to Infiltrate Popular Non-Islamic Forums
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP162107
June 14, 2007 No.1621
Global Islamic Media Front Instructs Islamists to Infiltrate Popular
Non-Islamic Forums to Spread Pro-Islamic State Propaganda
Recently, the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) announced a new
comprehensive media campaign titled “The Battar Media Raid to Defend the
Islamic State [of Iraq] (ISI),” [1] whose declared purpose is to repel the
intensive campaign against the ISI by Arab and Western media agencies
and to stop the increasing military campaign against the ISI by Sunni
organizations in Iraq.
In a message titled “The Battar Media Raid: How to Participate? How to
Help? What Is My Role?” the GIMF announces the beginning of the
campaign and provides a detailed description of the campaign’s goals and ways
of accomplishing them, including infiltrating non-Islamic forums for
the purpose of posting pro-ISI propaganda.
The following are excerpts from the announcement:
The Islamist Forum Must Be Like a Beehive During the Raid
“What we expect from you brothers and sisters is for the [Islamist]
forum to be like beehives during the raid... [whereby] one person takes
part in distributing [material]... another generates links... one person
writes an article... while another writes a poem... People must feel
and notice that the forums have changed radically during this blessed
raid...”
The following are the details of the plan:
Designate a Special Space on the Forum for Raid Material
“First:...Those who supervise the [Islamist] forums have a significant
role in this raid. We expect from you the following: a) to post the
raid’s slogan on the websites, forums, and blogs, as a way of expressing
support for the raid; b) to designate a special space in the forums in
which material related to the raid will be posted... so [that this
material] will be easily recognized [by forum participants]. We request that
this space be open to everyone, with registration not required; and c)
to collaborate with GIMF in matters concerning suggestions and
experience...”
Ban Anyone Who Slanders the Islamic State [of Iraq] From Disseminating
Their Poison in the Forums
“Second, we expect the following from the forums’ administrators: a) to
take control of your forums and forbid anyone who slanders [the ISI] or
[accuses it of causing] civil strife from disseminating his poison in
your forums... [and] b) to prevent futile and useless discussions and
responses... and to urge people to participate in the raid.”
Post Raid Material on [Non-Islamic] Music, Youth, and Sports Forums
“Third, beloved [raid participants], the raid is dependent on you...
The raid demands of you many things... such as expertise, especially in
the following areas: seeking religious knowledge, montage, translation
into any language, uploading material onto various types of websites,
web design, graphic design, journal and publication design, and hacking
and security. If you have expertise in any of these [fields], contact
the GIMF representative on any of the forums. If, however, you do not
possess this expertise... there are other matters you can [promote]: for
example, posting matters related to the raid in most [jihad] forums...
posting [material] in non-jihad forums, posting in non-Islamic forums
such as music forums, youth forums, sports forums, and others. Anyone who
undertakes to post the material must look into the [appropriate] manner
of spreading [the material for each type of forum]... The way in which
members of music forums address one another differs from the way
members of jihad forum address one another.”
Monitor Forum Members’ Reactions to Your Posting
“You are not required to engage in blind copying and pasting here...
[On the contrary,] you should select [carefully] the material... and the
words... and the most important issue is to monitor forum members’
reactions after you disseminate your material and to respond to them,
turning for help to your comrades in the jihad forums if you find it
difficult [to reply] to one of the reactions [from members of the non-Islamic
forums].”
“[You should also offer] commentary to the various news agencies’
websites... such as the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya websites... Even if they
do not publish your commentary... do not give up... Persist... in the
attempt to place the name of the raid in every commentary...”
Participate in Live Shows on Satellite TV
“[Another way to assist the raid is by] participating in live shows on
satellite TV... Anyone with a desire [to do so]... can contact, and
participate in, any program discussing... the jihad in Iraq... He should
be sure to mention... that he is a participant in the Battar Media Raid
to Defend the Islamic State [of Iraq]... Of course, he should mention
this fact immediately after going on the air... and not prior to that...
[This way,] millions will hear the name of the raid....”
You Can Slip a CD Into Your Friend’s Bag Without Him Noticing
“[People should also engage in] downloading various publications
related to the raid and distributing them to others... If you are afraid that
you will be exposed, you can [distribute the material] without people
noticing... [For example,] you can slip a CD into your friend’s bag
without him noticing... you can drop it into a person’s car while he is
driving... you can place it in your neighbor’s mailbox...”
Below are banners designed for the campaign, in Arabic and in English:
[1] http://alfirdaws.org/vb/showthread.php?p=135893
Bulgarian authorities arrest Islamist sharpshooter ahead of Bush’s
visit
Sofia, 15:11
Bulgaria authorities said Tuesday they had arrested a member of an
Islamist
group who allegedly tried to approach US President George Bush during
his
visit to Bulgaria earlier this week.
“The man is of Arabic origin and a member of an Islamist group. There
is
also evidence he had trained as a sniper”, Interior Minister Rumen
Petkov
told a news conference.
The man had tried to approach the president, Petkov said without
providing
further details.
He added that police also arrested three other men, aged 24, 33 and 36,
and
a woman for making anonymous threats against Bush and his Bulgarian
counterpart Georgy Parvanov.
Where in the world is Muhammad Dahlan?
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570269585&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570269585&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Jun. 13, 2007
Much has been said over the past year about Muhammad Dahlan’s role in
the
fighting between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas claims that Dahlan, a former Palestinian Authority security
commander
and a top Fatah leader, has been working with the US and Israel to
undermine
Hamas and remove it from power.
Unconfirmed reports about secret talks between Dahlan and American,
European
and Israeli security officials have appeared on a regular basis in
Hamas-linked media outlets.
Tensions between Hamas and Dahlan climaxed late last year when the
Islamic
movement openly accused Dahlan of being behind a botched assassination
attempt on the life of PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Dahlan, who has repeatedly denied allegations that he was conspiring
with
Israel and the US to bring down the Hamas-led government, is reported
to
have escaped several attempts on his life in the past 18 months.
His residence and office in Gaza City have been the target of frequent
attacks by Hamas militiamen, who have used mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades and various types of explosives.
Hamas is also believed to have prepared several booby-trapped
underground
tunnels to be used against Dahlan’s convoy. Earlier this year, Hamas
militiamen fired at a United Nations vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip
after being tipped off that Dahlan was one of the passengers.
In recent weeks Hamas officials and spokesmen have stepped up their
rhetorical attacks on Dahlan, comparing him to Antoine Lahad, the
former
commander of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army.
According to the Hamas representatives, Dahlan, with the backing of the
US
and Israel, has formed a new Fatah force in the Gaza Strip with the aim
of
fighting Hamas.
The force, they claim, has received thousands of rifles and armored
vehicles
from American and European governments.
For many years, Israeli and international media referred to Dahlan as
the
“strongman” of the Gaza Strip. Some even went so far as to argue that
Dahlan
was so popular among the Palestinians in Gaza he could take on Hamas
whenever he wanted.
But Dahlan’s status has been severely undermined over the past few
months,
largely because many of his Fatah allies and colleagues have either
been
killed or wounded or driven out of the Gaza Strip.
Last month, one of Dahlan’s key allies, Gen. Rashid Abu Shabak,
resigned as
commander of the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip after Hamas
militiamen
stormed his villa and executed six of his bodyguards. Abu Shabak and
his
family have since moved to the West Bank. Another key Dahlan ally,
Samir
Masharawi, has also disappeared from the Gaza Strip and is believed to
be
hiding in Ramallah.
Abu Shabak was Dahlan’s deputy for nearly a decade when the latter
served as
head of the much-feared Preventative Security Service. Hamas recently
accused Abu Shabak of thwarting its plan to impose security and order
in the
Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders claimed that Abu Shabak was working under the
direct instructions of Dahlan, who did not want to see Hamas succeed in
its
efforts to end the anarchy and lawlessness on the Palestinian street.
Some Americans, Israelis and Europeans have long regarded the
“charismatic”
and “pragmatic” Dahlan as the most suitable successor to PA Chairman
Mahmoud
Abbas. Former US President Bill Clinton is said to have been one of his
great admirers since the two met at the White House after the signing
of the
Oslo Accords more than a decade ago.
Abbas’s decision earlier this year to promote Dahlan to the post of PA
National Security adviser was seen by many Palestinians as part of a
US-backed effort to strengthen Dahlan ahead of a potential
confrontation
with Hamas.
But Dahlan has since spent most of his time abroad. His aides say he
lately
underwent surgery on his ankles in a German hospital. Other reports
have
suggested that he is suffering from severe epilepsy and is on intensive
medication.
Dahlan has been in Cairo for the past month amid rumors that he has no
intention to return to Gaza in the foreseeable future. Now that Hamas
has
killed many of his cohorts and friends and is threatening to eliminate
him
the moment he enters the Strip, Dahlan, who was one of the prominent
symbols
of the Oslo process, may have to seek refuge in the West Bank or one of
the
neighboring Arab countries.
The Syrian poison capsule
By Amitai Etzioni
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/870803.html
Recently I participated in a lunch at the home of the Syrian government’s representative to Washington, attended by a small group of people. The meal was arranged according to what is known as the “Chatham House rules,” which ban mention of the meeting’s specific location and of the names of the participants, but allows for unhindered discussion of what was said.
A large part of what was said at that meeting was clearly intended to prepare the ground for the visit of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who arrived in Washington the following day. The Syrian representative’s tongue slipped just once, when he acknowledged that Syria’s peace gesture contains a poison capsule.
In order to explain the nature of this poison capsule, the context in which the remarks were made has to be explained. The Syrian representative once again declared that his country wants to improve its ties with the United States. He acknowledged that Syria enjoys good relations with all the factions in Iraq and therefore is capable of helping to achieve a political arrangement to end the civil war that is tearing the country apart. He noted that Syria also has good ties with Iran and can therefore serve as a mediator between Iran and the U.S. He complained bitterly about the Bush administration’s position, which holds that there is no need for high-level talks to rebuild the ties between Syria and the U.S. He spoke of Syria’s desire to hold talks without preconditions, both with the Bush administration and with Israel.
The representative added that the expected military confrontation between Israel and Syria is most distressing, since the disputed issues could be resolved through peaceful means. Nevertheless, he said, if Israel wishes war, Syria is prepared and ready. “Israel will face another surprise, like the one that awaited it in Lebanon,” he cautioned.
He spoke somewhat bemusedly of the visit by the U.S. House of Representative Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Damascus. She brought with her a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to which “Israel is ready to enter peace talks.” Olmert was supposed to issue a public announcement along those lines the following day. The representative said that the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, smiled upon hearing Pelosi’s words and merely said, “We’ll wait and see.” The next day Olmert denied having sent such a message.
The Syrian representative reiterated that Syria is willing to begin peace talks at any time without preconditions, but noted that “Israel never agreed to this, because it would create a shared border between Syria and Hamas, through which Syria could arm Hamas as it pleased.” In other words, his remarks implied that the peace gestures are empty, because Syria knows they would entail a condition that Israel could not live with.
All of this seems to indicate that while Israel continues to express its desire for peace talks with Syria and for a two-state solution, it is thereby placing itself into a trap. When Israel refers to a Palestinian state, almost everyone, except for few diplomats specializing in the Middle East, thinks this refers to a truly sovereign state. Such a state would be free, of course, to import all the arms and foreign soldiers it wishes.
However, it seems that Israel is assuming that it will continue to oversee the borders of this Palestinian state, including those with Syria and Jordan, much like it oversees the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, and Gaza’s sea and air ports today. If that is the case, Israel will be accused of turning the Palestinian state into a prison. That is indeed how many describe Israel’s current attitude to the Gaza Strip.
Therefore, when Israel resumes peace negotiations with Syria and with the Palestinians, it would do well to stop relying on sophisticated legal distinctions between autonomous territories and sovereign territories. It must make it clear that the Palestinian state that will be established in the wake of a peace arrangement will be demilitarized and that there will be a need for effective enforcement methods, such as a combination of Israeli and European patrols, in order to maintain this demilitarization. Any other peace arrangement would contain a poison capsule.
The author is a lecturer in international relations at Georgetown University.
Thanks to Milford421 for this alert, he sends many, that I do not have the energy to post and they should be.
Join his group at the last url....
granny
FDA Recalls Toxic Toothpaste in Four U.S. States (Colgate in NY, NJ, PA & MD)
FOXNEWS.COM HOME > BUSINESS
FDA Recalls Toxic Toothpaste in Four U.S. States
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
www.foxnews.com
WASHINGTON — Five-ounce tubes of toothpaste labeled Colgate and
sold in discount stores in four states are being recalled because
they may contain a poisonous chemical, according to the importer.
A Food and Drug Administration official, Doug Arbesfeld, confirmed
that testing had found the chemical in a product with the Colgate
label. But he said the agency is unsure if it is really Colgate or a
counterfeit.
“We are aware that toothpaste is something that’s been counterfeited
in the past,” he said. “We don’t want to alarm people unnecessarily.”
There was no immediate reply to an e-mail message left with a
Colgate-Palmolive spokesman Wednesday evening.
MS USA Trading, Inc. of North Bergen, N.J., said the toothpaste may
contain diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze.
The company said the toothpaste, imported from South Africa, was
sold in discount stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and
Maryland.
“Made in South Africa” is printed on the box and includes Regular,
Gel, Triple and Herbal versions.
(Story continues below)
China Rejects FDA Warning on Possibly Toxic Toothpaste Report:
Contaminated Toothpaste Turns Up at Several U.S. Locations
Toothpaste Made in China Could Contain DEG, Cause Injury Fast Facts:
Brands of Toothpaste That May Contain Toxin The company said the
problem was discovered in routine testing by the Food and Drug
Administration. It said no illnesses have been reported to date.
The same chemical has led to the recall of several brands of
toothpaste imported from China in recent weeks.
Consumers who have purchased 5-ounce toothpaste under the Colgate
label can return them to the place of purchase for a refund, MS USA
Trading said.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/under-investigation/
Bangladeshi clergy condemns Ahmedinejad
Eminent Islamic scholar and former Chief Teacher of one of the leading madrassas in Bangladesh, Allama Sobhan criticized Iranian President Ahmedinejad saying that not only Islam but Judaism and Christianity are also two holy religions duly endorsed by Qur’an. He said Iranian president’s Israel policy is simply heinous. Allah has declared the nation of Israel as the best in the world and they (the Jews and Israelis) have been accorded high status amongst all people of all religious beliefs in the world. How Ahmedinejad wants to destroy such divine blessed nation, Sobhan questioned. He said Ahmedinejad’s destructive statements against Israel are direct violation of Qur’anic ethics.
Allama Sobhan termed Iranian president as a notorious criminal, terrorists and war monger. “No good Muslim will ever think of eliminating Jews or Israel, as those are precisely endorsed in Qur’an as blessed religion and nation” he said.
He called upon all Muslim nations to stand against Ahmedinejad and his nasty policy.
Sobhan was speaking as a guest speaker at a seminar organized by the Islamic think tanks in Dhaka .
Source: Weekly Blitz, June 13 2007 issue. Link www.weeklyblitz.net
Safi’s Soft Words Are Front for Radical Jihadists
by Winfield Myers
The Washington Examiner
June 14, 2007
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3596
When Omid Safi of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was asked recently by AP Press to comment on the Pew poll of American Muslims, which found that about a quarter of those between the ages of 18 and 29 approved of suicide bombings against civilians in at least some cases, he replied:
“Given what’s happened in Iraq and Palestine, I would be shocked if there wasn’t discontent.”
He expressed no outrage against the death of innocents, no blanket condemnation of a death-loving ideology. And, in academe at least, there was no reaction to Safi’s attempt to justify the most disturbing finding of the Pew poll.
Safi is a rising star in academic Middle East studies. He recently decamped from snowy Hamilton, NY, where he taught at Colgate University, to the idylls of Chapel Hill, where he is an associate professor of religious studies.
In April, the Carnegie Corporation awarded him a $100,000 research grant (his project is “Reforming Islam in the ‘Axis of Evil’: Contesting Islam in Post-Revolutionary Iran”) and he’s co-chair of the steering committee for the Study of Islam at the American Academy of Religion. Safi’s future in university circles looks bright.
Little wonder. Safi has mastered the art of postmodern double-speak pioneered by the late Edward Said of Columbia University, whose error-filled book Orientalism paved the way in 1978 for the politicization of Middle East studies. In Safi’s hands, politicizing becomes a way to cloak justifications for ensconcing radical Islam in the West in the language of peace.
This technique is on display in his 2006 Beliefnet article titled “A Path to Peace-Rooted Justice.” In it, Safi’s calls for peace among the children of a loving and peaceful God alternate with condemnations of the West (i.e., America, Europe, and Israel). His assertions are couched in a moral relativism that obscures, but doesn’t neutralize, his efforts to downplay anti-Western violence.
After establishing his peaceful bona fides by evoking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama, Safi admonishes Muslims to engage in self-criticism, to cease treasuring “’our own’ lives … more than that of ‘others.’” A few paragraphs later, after further warnings against privileging the self over the “other,” we get this:
“I don’t see that happening right now in the Middle East.”
One hopes at this point that he’s going to call for an end to suicide bombings and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and condemn brutal governments that engage in dhimmitude, which is the oppression of religious minorities.
Not quite. The next sentence reads: “I see my fellow Muslims cherishing and lamenting the lives of Iraqi civilians and Palestinians who live under brutal oppression. We should continue to cherish those lives, but not at the expense of demonizing Israelis or others [i.e., Americans] in the region.”
Which, of course, he has just done. But Safi is only warming up. In the next paragraph, he charges that Israeli society “is far from acknowledging the humanity of those around them,” or of “coming to terms” with the “thousands of civilians shot dead by the Israel Defense Forces.”
As for “we as Americans,” Safi charges that “we have never [emphasis original] come to terms with the humanity of Iraqis and Afghanis — if we had, we would be having a public discussion about the tens of thousands of civilian casualties as a result of our military operations.”
In these self-serving charges, Safi ignores the extraordinary risks taken by the IDF to avoid civilian casualties in its responses to rocket and sniper attacks, suicide bombings, and kidnappings of civilians and soldiers alike, many from militias hidden in neighborhoods, schools, churches and mosques.
As for America’s recognition of the humanity of Iraqis and Afghanis, he cynically discounts the sea of goodwill that existed here ahead of both wars, the brutality of Saddam and the Taliban, and the belief by most Americans that in a post-Sept.11 world, Muslims in the Middle East deserved liberty bought with American blood.
Later, Safi writes: “When ‘peace’ is used in the context of ‘security’ to reinforce the ideology of the powerful at the expense of the weak, it is a mockery.” This is an attempt to delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense.
Then: “As long as our definition of peace is simply the ‘absence of fighting,’ we are ... on our way toward stripping human beings of their ability to resist injustice.” Here again is the old argument that Palestinian “resistance” is legitimate in the face of Israeli “oppression.”
Whatever Safi’s technique — the language of peace, postmodernism, or war — his goal remains the same: the justification of radical Islam.
Winfield Myers is director of Campus Watch.
June 14, 2007 12:00 AM
Home-Invader Program?
Take a clue from Europe.
By Thomas Sowell
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTgxMGFlMTEzMmI4NjRhNjIzZDZkYTUwMWZlZDdhYTA=
People who are pushing for a “guest worker” program show not the
slightest interest in what has been happening under guest-worker
programs in Europe. Facts are apparently irrelevant.
So is logic. Guests are people you invite to your home. Gate
crashers are people who come without being invited. Home invaders are
people who break in, despite doors that have been shut to keep them out.
If the discussion of immigration laws respected either logic or
honesty, we would be talking about a program to legalize home invaders
instead of a guest-worker program.
As for facts, guest workers from third-world countries have
created centers of crime and violence in Europe, and some guest-worker
communities have become breeding grounds for terrorists.
Just as crime and violence in American inner cities have led not
only to “white flight” but also to a flight of the black, Hispanic, and
Asian middle classes, so in Europe much of the native-born European
population has fled from cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Brussels.
Joel Kotkin’s classic book The City noted the “influx of
immigrants” who were “recruited to Europe during the labor shortages of the
1950s and 1960s” who have become “an increasingly angry and sometimes
violent element in what long had been remarkably peaceful urban areas.”
Another classic book - Our Culture: What’s Left of It by Theodore
Dalrymple - found a similar pattern in France.
Long before the Muslim riots in Paris which shocked France and
the world, Dalrymple pointed out how immigrants in France had become a
major source of crime and violence, not only in Paris but in other parts
of the country.
The housing projects immediately surrounding Paris have become
concentrations of “several million” third-world immigrants - a population
filled with “the hatred it bears for the other, ‘official’ society of
France.”
They are not appeased by “the people who carelessly toss them the
crumbs of Western prosperity.” What they want is what most people want
- respect - and this cannot be given to them, least of all by the
French welfare state.
In order to feel self-respect, the young especially “needed to
see themselves as warriors in a civil war, not mere ne’er-do-wells and
criminals.”
This anti-social vision has been supported and even celebrated by
many intellectuals, much as both black and white intellectuals have
celebrated the senseless brutality and cheap vulgarity of rap music in
America.
What may be especially relevant to the situation in the United
States is that the immigrant parents and grandparents of the violent
youths came to France with a very different view.
They were glad to be in France, which for most was a big
improvement over where they came from. “They were better Frenchmen than either
their children or grandchildren,” Dalrymple noted.
They would never have booed the French national anthem at a
public event, as the later generations did - and as the American national
anthem has been booed in Los Angeles.
The later generations were not born in the third-world countries
from which their parents and grandparents escaped. They were born in
France, and resented not having the same prosperity as other Frenchmen.
Here again, the media and the intelligentsia in France, as in the
United States, tend to turn differences in achievement - “gaps,”
“disparities” - into social injustices rather than reflections of differences
in the things that create achievement.
One of the things that make many people such passionate advocates
of amnesty for illegal immigrants from Mexico is that so many Mexican
immigrants are hard-working, decent family people.
That was also true of many third-world “guest workers” in Europe,
who were glad to be there, but whose children and grandchildren have
developed very different and very poisonous attitudes - with the help of
activists, demagogues, and the media.
Today’s illegal immigrants are too often analogized to early
20th-century immigrants from Europe. But their situation is far more
similar to that of contemporary “guest workers” in Europe.
Sacrificing the Palestinian struggle
By Amira Hass
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/870808.html
Fifth column, traitors, collaborators - this is what Hamas spokesmen call those whom they hold responsible for the civil war in the Gaza Strip. They point to a “treacherous stream in the Fatah movement,” warning that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is “incapable of taking control of it.” They are referring to Mohammed Dahlan and his associates.
Abbas’ associates have a similar argument: A subversive stream in Hamas is revolting against the PA’s legitimate institutions, they say.
Each side accuses the other’s “treacherous stream” of being the puppet of foreign powers that dictate its actions. Iran and Islamic fundamentalists are cited as the influence driving Hamas, while the United States and Israel are said to be behind Fatah.
Each side is accusing the other of a half-overt plot. Hamas says Fatah tried to sabotage the elected Hamas government, and then the Palestinian unity government. Fatah says Hamas is holding on to its control in the Gaza Strip, and ignoring the acute economic, social and political deterioration this has caused, in order to take over the PLO.
Ironically, there is a grain of truth in both sides’ accusations.
As the number of people murdered and wounded in the internecine Palestinian fighting increases by the hour, and the fear grows that the fighting will spill over into the West Bank, it is hard to see that the two sides are mirror images. Both camps are turning all civilians into hostages, and sentencing them to death in their street fights, sacrificing the struggle for Palestinian liberation on the altar of their rivalry.
However, there is one important difference between the movements. While Fatah’s leaders are out of Gaza - staying abroad or in the West Bank - Hamas’ leaders have not abandoned their people.
Hamas decided this week to take over the positions of security forces loyal to Abbas, arguing that this was the only way it could stop the killings and crimes of the “treacherous stream.” But the move is in fact a statement that Hamas is the “real sovereign in Gaza.” Hamas is following in the footsteps of Yasser Arafat, who surrounded himself with paramilitary forces that Israel accepted. He regarded them as his badge of sovereignty.
Arafat’s forces had weapons and military affectations, and their leaders developed warm relations with senior Israeli defense officials - even after they left the military and became business partners. All this did not stop the process that was turning the Olso Accords into an accelerated construction project in the settlements and shrinking the area for the Palestinians.
And then, in September 2000, the intifada erupted. What began as a popular uprising was soon hijacked by the cult of armed struggle. The weapons and empty military affectations merely nurtured Israel’s policy of slicing up Palestinian territory.
Following the formation of the Hamas government, Abbas has asked for - and received - permission from Israel and the United States to bring arms into the Gaza Strip. The limited use of these weapons is now evident. Fatah’s forces are weak not because they are short of weapons, but because the Fatah movement, which failed to keep its promise that Oslo would lead to an independent state, is not offering a new action plan vis-a-vis the Israeli occupation.
As Fatah’s mirror image, the Hamas government announced it cannot pay civil servants’ wages. But it has found ways to finance the large amount of weapons being smuggled into the Gaza Strip and purchased in the West Bank.
Now it will have full “military” control of the Gaza Strip. Will this bring relief to Gaza’s 1.4 million residents? Will it improve the health system and ensure employment for university graduates? Will it remove Israel’s land and sea blockade?
It may be assumed that the military takeover of Abbas’ symbols of “sovereignty” will serve as an excuse for Israel to sever once and for all the remaining civilian and economic ties between the Gaza Strip and West Bank - a political process Israel started in 1991. Because Hamas, like its mirror image Fatah, has no coherent liberation or independence plan for Palestinians in this lifetime.
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