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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PSACLO0&show_article=1&cat=0

90 Homes Evacuated Near Colo. Wildfire
Jun 19 11:58 PM US/Eastern
By CATHERINE TSAI
Associated Press Writer
NEW CASTLE, Colo. (AP) - White and yellow smoke billowed into the western Colorado sky Tuesday as firefighters battled three wildfires likely sparked by lightning that have burned at least 2,000 acres and forced evacuations of 90 homes.

One fire was burning in steep terrain dotted with rural subdivisions between New Castle and Glenwood Springs, about 160 miles west of Denver. The blaze had grown to 1,000 acres, or about 1.5 square miles.

No structures had burned, but one firefighter suffered a hand injury, said Suzanne Silverthorn, a spokeswoman for fire commanders.

Residents of 110 more houses were advised to leave. It was not immediately known how many people had left their homes. Three people had checking to a school being used as an emergency shelter in New Castle.

“It’s been a really scary fire,” Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said. “Its behavior has been bizarre. We’re struggling to get a handle on it.”

Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Boyd said the fire was moving east, toward the homes. On Monday, firefighters said the flames were within a half-mile of houses, but Boyd had no new distance on Tuesday.

A second fire in a remote and rugged area near the town of Cameo, 180 miles west of Denver, had reached 1,000 acres by Tuesday morning but had not grown further by mid-afternoon, BLM spokeswoman Mel Lloyd said. Three aircraft and 75 ground crew members were on scene.

One fire near Parachute had been held to just 4 acres but was a concern because it was just 200 yards from homes and natural gas wells.

All three fires were blamed on lightning strikes Sunday.

About 200 firefighters, five aircraft and six fire engines were battling the fire near New Castle, and more crews were on the way.

The wind began to pick up Tuesday afternoon, as fire managers feared, and tongues of flame and black smoke were visible within the white plume.

The fire was not far from the site of the July 1994 Storm King Mountain wildfire that killed 14 firefighters.

In California, a wildfire broke out Tuesday in a brush-filled canyon below a residential neighborhood in northern San Diego.

A city firefighting helicopter was brought in before sundown to drop water on the fire. No evacuations were reported.

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-216

Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 766-1277
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Jakes Fireworks Inc. Recalls Fireworks Sold by World Class Distributors
Due to Burn and Injury Hazards

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in
cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary
recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using
recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: March or Die Mine/Shell Fireworks Devices

Units: About 4,000

Distributor: Jakes Fireworks Inc., of Pittsburg, Kas.

Hazard: The tubes on these fireworks devices could become loose, making
the devices unstable during use. If the device tips over during use, it
could pose burn and injury hazards to bystanders.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The recalled fireworks are a 500 gram mine/shell device
that consists of nine, 3-inch tubes with a single fuse for ignition.
The
device measures 16”x16”x13” and its packaging is a dark blue cardboard
label with the words “March or Die” printed in red.

Sold by: World Class Distributors nationwide from April 2006 through
May
2006 for $40.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the product and contact
Jakes Fireworks for a replacement product.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Jakes Fireworks
at
(800) 766-1277 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or
visit the company’s Web site at www.jakesfireworks.com

To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07216.html

********************************************************

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-217

Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 766-1277
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Far East Imports Recalls Fireworks Due to Eye Injury Hazard

Name of Product: 300 Shot Saturn Missiles Battery Fireworks

Units: About 13,600

Distributor: Far East Imports, of Pittsburg, Kan.

Hazard: These fireworks devices can travel in an unexpected and
dangerous direction, which could pose eye and other injury hazards to
bystanders.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The recalled fireworks are a 200 gram multi shot device
that consists of 300 individual missiles with a single fuse for
ignition. The device measures 2 1/2” by 23 7/8” by 3 1/4” and its
packaging has a red and yellow label and the words “Saturn
Missiles-Battery-300 Shots Finale” printed on it.

Sold by: Boomer Distributors nationwide from April 2006 through July
2006 for $10.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using this fireworks and
contact Far East Imports for a replacement product.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Far East Imports
at (800) 766-1277 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday,
or
visit the company’s Web site at www.fareastimporting.com

To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07217.html

********************************************************

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-218

Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 231-6083
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Children’s Necklaces Recalled by GeoCentral Due to Lead Poisoning
Hazard

Units: About 19,000

Importer: GeoCentral, of Napa, Calif.

Hazard: The metal clasp on the necklace contains high levels of lead.
Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse
health
effects.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The recalled necklaces consist of a multi-colored
butterfly
pendant on a multi-colored seed bead 16-inch necklace. The product’s
packaging includes a white hang card with “GeoJewelry” printed on the
front underneath “GeoCentral.”

Sold at: Souvenir and gift stores nationwide from January 2006 through
May 2007 for about $2.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled jewelry away
from
children and return them to store where purchased for a full refund or
contact GeoCentral for information on how to obtain a full refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact GeoCentral at
(800) 231-6083 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or
visit the firm’s Web site at www.geocentral.com

To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07218.html

********************************************************

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2007
Release #07-219

Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 292-6813
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Gateway Inc. Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard

Name of Product: Gateway Lithium Ion Battery Packs

Units: About 14,000

Battery Distributor: Gateway Inc., of Irvine, Calif.

Hazard: These lithium-ion battery packs can overheat, which could pose
a
fire hazard to consumers. This is not an internal battery cell defect.

Incidents/Injuries: Gateway has received four reports of battery packs
overheating, including minor property damage. No injuries have been
reported.

Description: The recalled battery packs were shipped as the primary or
spare battery pack for some Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks,
and are identified by part numbers: 6500760 or 6500761. The part number
and “made by SMP” are printed on a label on the underside of the
battery
pack.

Sold through: Gateway’s professional and direct distributors and
Gateway
Country stores nationwide from May 2003 through August 2003. The
computers with these batteries sold for between $1,200 and $2,400 and
individual batteries sold for between $60 and $90.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using these recalled batteries
immediately
and contact Gateway to receive a replacement battery. Consumers can
continue to use the notebook computers safely by turning the system
off,
removing the battery pack, and using the AC adapter and power cord to
power the system until the replacement battery is received.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Gateway at (800)
292-6813 between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. CT seven days a week or visit the
company’s Web site at www.gateway.com/battery

To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the
recalled product, please go to:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07219.html

Jihadis Post Scenario for the Defeat of the United States

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373415
Jihadis Post Scenario for the Defeat of the United States
By Abdul Hameed Bakier, Erich Marquardt

On May 14, jihadi forum users Abu Kandahar and Roslan al-Shami posted a
five-point scenario for the collapse of the United States and the rise
of the Islamic ummah, entitled, “The Next Strikes in the Heart of
America, When and How.” It appeared on the al-ommh.net forum, although at
least one other jihadi forum, alhanein.com, reposted the scenario. The
posting outlines a scenario for attacking the United States, although the
sheer size of the operation suggests that it is jihadi propaganda and
not an actual plan that could be operationalized. The alleged operation
is dedicated to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of
Iraq.

The first stage in the scenario involves multiple terrorist attacks on
three major U.S. cities, preferably with nuclear weapons, using an
unspecified number of trucks. The scenario places priority on attacking New
York City because it is the central artery of the U.S. economy and it
would prove that the mujahideen are capable of recurrent attacks on the
same target. The second city to attack is Los Angeles, an important
West Coast “atheist” city. The third “city” to be attacked is Florida
because, they argue, it is an East Coast congregation city and has the
Kennedy Space Center (considering the description, the statement’s authors
probably meant Orlando). While those are the three primary cities for
attack, the writers of the document suggest that if the mujahideen wish
to expedite the collapse of the United States, they should also conduct
attacks in Seattle since it is a strategic border city; Washington, DC,
the political center of the United States; and cities in Texas, since
the “biggest oil companies” are located there.

According to the writers, the purpose of attacking these specific
cities is to cause a sharp decline in the U.S. economy; mass amounts of
casualties; the support for the mujahideen by anti-U.S. countries such as
Cuba and Venezuela; a decrease in American support for their own
government; the withdrawal of the “blasphemous” U.S. military from Islamic
territories; mass military desertions; and the inability to fuel U.S.
military fighter jets. The document also outlines how the fallout from such
large-scale attacks would cause the U.S. military to return to the
United States in order to conduct massive relief operations. They refer to
the example of how Hurricane Katrina overburdened the U.S. National
Guard, calling the hurricane a “Soldier of God.”

After such attacks, they argue that the Islamic State of Iraq will
seize the opportunity to launch mass strikes on the apostates in the Iraqi
military and police, paving the way for the third stage of the
scenario: the commencement of the golden era of the triumphant Islamic
conquests that includes the implementation of Sharia, the liberation of the
Arabian Peninsula, the removal from power of “the U.S. ruling family” in
Jordan and, finally, the big march toward Palestine. In the end, even
Washington DC will fall to the mujahideen and that will conclude the
final stage of Islamic control of the globe.

The scenario appears less of a planned operation than a hope for the
fulfillment of a prophecy. The supposed factuality of the scenario is
based on various verses in the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings.
Nevertheless, some of the users on the forums who discussed the
scenario asserted that all of the details to execute the operation had already
been prepared. One such user, by the alias of Abu Nedal, said, “For
your knowledge, the operations are ready and awaiting the orders from our
leader Osama bin Laden, God protect him, to decide what he deems
appropriate either to strike now or to wait.”

Islamist extremists have always fabricated factitious scenarios for
victory over the West based on their own interpretations of Quranic
prophecies in times of crisis and defeat. Nevertheless, al-Qaeda has shown
prior interest in acquiring nuclear materials for use in an attack, and
it is necessary to take such forum postings seriously as they display
the mindset and the intent, although perhaps not the capability, of
al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.

Al-Qaeda’s American Recruit Releases Something Entirely New

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373449
Al-Qaeda’s American Recruit Releases Something Entirely New
By Michael Scheuer

As the 19th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s founding nears later in 2007,
Western analysts have accumulated an enormous body of primary-source
material upon which to base judgments, assessments and predictions. While it
is a truism to say that al-Qaeda is a “learning organization”—in the
sense that it studies failed operations and adapts—it is not often enough
remembered that al-Qaeda is also an organization that devotes large
amounts of time and resources to teaching, informing and warning. Needless
to say, much of this latter activity is directed to the Muslim world,
but not since the United States confronted Ho Chi Minh and General Giap
during the Vietnam conflict have they had a foe as eager as al-Qaeda to
educate them about its motivations, war aims and intentions. Indeed,
al-Qaeda has taken the passion of the North Vietnamese to inform and warn
a step further by recruiting a U.S. citizen to serve as an
English-speaking, Islamist mentor for the American audience.

The American Adam Gadahn—now known as Azzam al-Amriki (Azzam the
American)—has emerged as the third most important spokesman among al-Qaeda
leaders, following Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri [1]. While
officially only a member of al-Qaeda’s media committee, Gadahn has joined
bin Laden as the only other al-Qaeda member who has devoted entire
statements to directly addressing the U.S. president and American citizens.
To be sure, al-Zawahiri has ridiculed the president and talked to
Americans, urging conversion and warning of coming attacks, but for the most
part these statements have been in the context of regional issues—such
as Iraq—for which he is the group’s lead spokesman. Gadahn, therefore,
is at the core of al-Qaeda’s most important U.S.-oriented communication
projects—although this does not necessarily mean he is fully involved
in military operations—and seems to serve as the speaker responsible for
ensuring that there is no way Americans can misunderstand what bin
Laden is talking about. Speaking in the idiom of American English, and
often using contemporary slang, Gadahn is the sledge that drives home the
spike of bin Laden’s messages for Americans.

In this role, Gadahn’s May 29 videotape entitled “Legitimate Demands”
constitutes a rare and perhaps singular item in the immense corpus of
al-Qaeda’s statements, interviews, essays, sermons and editorials [2]. At
the most basic level, it completes what appears to have been Gadahn’s
assignment to amplify bin Laden’s effort to satisfy his post-9/11
critics by ensuring that Americans were—according to the Prophet Muhammad’s
guidance—offered the chance to convert to Islam and warned about coming
attacks well before they occurred. Bin Laden both offered conversion
and warned Americans multiple times between Spring 2002 and Summer 2006,
and Gadahn focused on clarifying bin Laden’s conversion offer in a
lengthy September 2006 video called “An Invitation to Islam” [3]. Gadahn’s
words in the conversion video were shorn of most of the Quranic
references common to bin Laden’s rhetoric and were spoken in the American
vernacular.

Gadahn’s May 29 “Legitimate Demands” amplifies and clarifies bin
Laden’s multiple warnings to the American people about future attacks [4]. It
is unique in the al-Qaeda archive in its almost complete lack of
Islamic terminology and allusions, as well as in its frank, almost brutal
directness. In the video, Gadahn not only reemphasizes the threats bin
Laden already has made, but in essence says that time is up for Americans
to consider his boss’s words and implicitly warns an attack in the
United States is near.

Gadahn first deftly turns the idiomatic phrasing of some U.S. leaders’
rhetoric back on them, describing Washington’s actions in Iraq and
Afghanistan as “your empire of evil,” and asserting that al-Qaeda is not
calling “for negotiations. We don’t negotiate with baby-killers and war
criminals like you! No, these are legitimate demands that must be met”—a
clear play on the White House spokesperson’s 2005 response to bin
Laden’s truce offer: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists. We put them out of
business.” Gadahn then denounces the “futile, farcical maneuvers [on
Iraq] on Capitol Hill,” adding that, “You may or may not be aware of it,
but today…things aren’t going to well for your Crusader coalition [in
Iraq and Afghanistan]. In fact, things are going really badly…In other
words, you’re losing on all fronts and losing big time” [5].

The core of Gadhan’s presentation is focused on bin Laden’s traditional
positions, but his words are phrased in a manner that adds up to the
most maximalist set of demands al-Qaeda has ever issued regarding what
the U.S. president and Americans must do to avoid being attacked again
domestically. Bin Laden’s use of inference, ambiguity and a patient,
in-sorrow-not-anger tone is gone. In their place, Gadahn substitutes—and we
must assume with the consent of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri—implacable
demands that al-Qaeda knows cannot and will not be met, and which are
reminiscent of those presented to Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in
1914 when Vienna intended war, not a settlement.

Gadahn’s demands on Washington are nothing less than a complete U.S.
withdrawal from the Muslim world, warning that a failure to do so “will
make you [Americans] forget all about the horrors of September 11th,
Afghanistan and Iraq, and Virginia Tech” [6]. He says that “every last one
of your [America’s] soldiers, spies, security advisors, trainers, and
attaches and so on” must leave the Muslim world “from Afghanistan to
Zanzibar.” If a single individual remains, he warns, the United States
will be attacked [7]. “Stop all support and aid; military political,
economic and otherwise to the 56-plus apostate regimes of the Muslim world
and abandon them to their well deserved fate at the hands of the
soldiers of Islam,” Gadahn demanded, explaining that if Washington does not
“comply in full,” the mujahideen would “deem it sufficient to continue to
fight and kill Americans” [8]. On Israel, Gadahn repeated the pattern:
“End all support, moral, military, economic, political or otherwise to
the bastard state of Israel. And ban your citizens, Zionist Jews,
Zionist Christians and the rest from traveling to occupied Palestine or
settling there. Even one penny of aid will be considered sufficient
justification to continue the fight” [9].

Gadahn closed by repeating al-Qaeda’s demand that Washington “free all
Muslim captives from your prisons, detention facilities and
concentration camps,” and expanded the traditional al-Qaeda demand for U.S.
non-intervention in the Muslim world’s affairs by adding that U.S. officials
must “impose a blanket ban on all broadcasts to our region, especially
those designed to alter or destroy the faith, minds, morals and values
of our people.” This last comment is worth noting because it goes quite
a bit beyond the limited degree of attention and specificity al-Qaeda
generally accords to the impact of U.S. culture on Muslims.

Gadahn’s bare-knuckled and supremely confident presentation sharpens
and clarifies the message of warning bin Laden has repeatedly delivered
to Americans; it is spoken by an American, in modern English, and is
studded with contemporary slang and catch-phrases. Gadahn’s words also
have a note of finality about them, as if he is saying there will be no
more warnings from al-Qaeda, and the choice for Americans is between
surrender and domestic attack. Again, this is out of character for the
rhetoric of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, and it suggests that they ordered
Gadahn to make a last-warning to Americans before al-Qaeda attacks inside
the United States. The obvious unacceptability of the demands also
suggests that al-Qaeda has an attack ready and that nothing short of a U.S.
capitulation would deter it. In Gadahn’s words, “the die has been cast”
and an era has begun that will see “your end, not ours” [10].

Notes

1. The very best account of Adam Gadahn and the road he traveled to
al-Qaeda is Raffi Khatchadourian, “Azzam the American. The Making of an
al-Qaeda Homegrown,” New Yorker, January 22.
2. “Legitimate Demands, A Message from Mujahid Brother Adam Yahiye
Gadahn (Azzam),” IntelCenter, May 29.
3. “An Invitation to Islam,” IntelCenter, September 2, 2006.
4. See, for example, Osama bin Laden, “Message to the American People,”
al-Jazeera, October 30, 2004. Bin Laden’s consistent indictment of the
United States has six components, and they are mirrored in Gadahn’s
statement: unqualified U.S. support for Israel; the U.S. military and
civilian presence on the Arabian Peninsula; the U.S. military presence in
Muslim countries; U.S. exploitation of Muslim energy resources; U.S.
protection for tyrannical Muslim governments; and U.S. support for Russia,
India and China against Muslims.
5. “Legitimate Demands, A Message from Mujahid Brother Adam Yahiye
Gadahn (Azzam).”
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. It is worth speculating that Gadahn’s words also have a
Machiavellian intent given that they come at a time when the inspirational and
instigating power of Osama bin Laden’s rhetoric is increasingly visible
around the world in the proliferation of Islamist groups that claim
allegiance to bin Laden and his ideas, but have no command-and-control
relationship with al-Qaeda. For example, on the weekend of June 2-3, a
homegrown, al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist group intending to attack Kennedy
Airport in New York was broken up by U.S. law enforcement authorities. It
may be that Gadahn’s final-straw message reflects al-Qaeda’s realization
that it has no control over these homegrown Islamist groups, and that
by throwing down the gauntlet now bin Laden’s stature as the leader of
the Sunni Islamist movement will grow by analysts associating his
inspiration as a motivating force when one of the homegrown groups in the
United States or elsewhere is finally successful.

http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2007/06/stalins-killing-fields-russian-golgotha.html

Sunday, June 17, 2007
Stalin’s Killing Fields: The Russian Golgotha? We think not.

As is always the case where Russia is concerned, when there is one step forward there are always at least two steps back. The New York Times documents the opening of a new memorial to victims of Stalin on Moscow’s outskirts, and this is good news, yet it quotes a Russian visitor saying “This place is our Russian Golgotha. There is Golgotha in the Holy Land, where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. All of Russia was Golgotha in the 20th century.” Do Germans refer to Auschwitz as “their Golgotha”? Do Americans talk about the Japanese camps this way? In fact, this is the exact opposite of the truth. Russians were not suffering for the sins of mankind, but for their own sins, and they were as much inflicting suffering as receiving it. Not only did they sit idly by while Stalin carried out his purges, many informed on their neighbors and benefited from the purges. The complicity of the Russian people themselves in the atrocities of Stalin is not recognized in this neo-Soviet memorial, nor is it reflected in the comments of this Russian or any other mainstream person in Russia today. Those, like Starovoitova and Politikovskaya, who dare to make such points find themselves pushing up daisies. Only a Russophile flight of egomania could possibly allow one to analogize the Russian people to Jesus Christ. Abraham Lincoln made a similar comment about American suffering during the Civil War, but in America the suffering was between two fully armed groups of rivals fighting over coherent political ideologies. In Russia, the armed state attacked the unarmed population on the ad hoc basis of preserving its power, and the vast majority stood by doing nothing. That’s not Golgotha, it’s just gross.

Worse still, the Orthodox Church, which bore the brunt of the attacks for which this memorial was created, is currently complicit in the rise of a neo-Soviet state, a Holy Russian Empire, and is condoning the persecution of rival religous groups. A proud KGB spy governs the nation, and he has rehabilitated Stalin, the KGB and even the Soviet anthem. It does not appear that Russians have learned anything positive from the Stalin era.

BUTOVO, Russia — Barbed wire still lines the perimeter of the secret police compound here on the southern edge of Moscow where more, perhaps far more, than 20,000 people were shot and buried from August 1937 through October 1938, at the height of Stalin’s purges. Now, gradually, Butovsky poligon — literally, the Butovo shooting range — is becoming a shrine to all of the victims of Stalin’s murderous campaigns. Grass-covered mounds holding the victims’ bones crisscross the pastoral field, which is now dotted with flowers and birch trees.

Searing portraits from victims’ case files found in the archives of the secret police are displayed, along with a grim month-by-month chart of executions, in front of a small wooden church in the field. “This place is our Russian Golgotha,” said Andrei Kuznetsov, 34, a social worker, making the sign of the cross recently in front of a newly built white stone church near the site, the Church of the Resurrection and the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. “There is Golgotha in the Holy Land, where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. All of Russia was Golgotha in the 20th century.”

The killing ground is a symbol of a much larger, bloodier conflict in Russian society, that between the Bolsheviks and the Russian Orthodox Church. One thousand of those killed here are known to have died for their Orthodox faith. More than 320 have been canonized as “new martyrs” of the church — bishops, monks, nuns and lay people who were victims of Soviet rule. The new church was consecrated on May 19 as part of the celebration of the reunion of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Church Abroad, an émigré group that broke away in the 1920s. The walls of the church are filled with icons of the new martyrs, including one depicting their executioners shooting them. Glass cases in the lower church are filled with their personal items, like an executed priest’s prayer book and his violin.

The names of the victims are engraved on plaques lining one of the fences around the field. The fence overlooks dachas that were built in a parklike setting for officials of the K.G.B., the secret police agency was a successor of the Stalin-era N.K.V.D. and endured until the collapse of the Soviet Union. “They say the strawberries grew especially large at these dachas,” said Galina Pryakina, 70, nodding at the mounds of bones as she traced her finger across the plaques and found the name of a monk, now a saint, killed on the same day as her father, June 4, 1938. She visited the site this year on the fourth Saturday after Easter, a day that Patriarch Aleksy II of the Russian Orthodox Church has chosen in recent years to commemorate Butovo’s martyrs. “I spent 66 years looking for him,” Ms. Pryakina said of her father. She was an infant when he was arrested, supposedly as a Romanian spy, and she and her mother were sent into exile. Three years ago, she journeyed to Moscow from her home in southern Kazakhstan to find her father’s burial place. She headed for a cemetery in the city’s north, but a woman at a bus stop — Ms. Pryakina is convinced that it was a vision of the Virgin Mary — directed her to Butovo. Within minutes, her father’s name was tracked in a database here.

The Rev. Kirill Kaleda, rector of the Church of the Resurrection and the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, has a tragically intimate connection to the parish. His grandfather Vladimir Ambartsumov, who was a priest, is one of the new martyrs. He was arrested in 1937 and sentenced to “10 years without the right of correspondence,” the official euphemism for a death sentence. The Kaleda family spent decades searching for him. “I remember very well how when we were little, after our morning and evening prayers, we would add a prayer asking to find how our Grandpa Volodya died,” Father Kaleda said. “It seemed that hope of learning the circumstances of Grandfather’s death had almost vanished. We had thought he died somewhere in the camps.”

Mikhail Mindlin, a concentration camp survivor who devoted his retirement in the 1980s and 1990s to systematically studying Soviet repression, fought to have the existence of the Butovo killing ground recognized by the state. Eventually, thanks to sympathetic K.G.B. officials, files with the names of those executed on the orders of Stalin’s henchman Nikolai I. Yezhov were found in secret police files.

The scope of the killings is staggering. Butovo’s victims ranged from peasants and factory workers to czarist generals, Russian Orthodox hierarchs, German Communists, Latvian writers, invalids and even Moscow’s Chinese launderers, dozens of whom were executed as enemies of the people. Ultimately many Soviet officials, including Yezhov and other N.K.V.D. officials who carried out the purges, were gunned down at Butovo and elsewhere as the revolution consumed its creators. Some objections have been raised to the Russian Orthodox focus of the memorial, given the wide variety of victims buried here. But Arseny Roginsky, the chairman of Memorial, an organization that works to catalog Soviet crimes and help victims of repression, said the church had stepped into a void left by the state. “It’s a bit strange that this is a purely Orthodox place, but nothing tragic,” he said. “I don’t really like this. I think this should be a multicultural place. “But it’s better that there be something than nothing. If the state is not ready to understand the meaning of terror in its history, the role and place of terror in its history, it’s not so terrible that the Orthodox Church took it upon itself.”

Thanks for reading La Russophobe [Who is a Freeper]

Iran’s Long Game Sets Stage for War (back)

June 17, 2007

by Uzi Mahnaimi

ISRAEL awoke last Friday to find itself encircled by enemies with its most determined foe, Iran , entrenched on its southern doorstep in Gaza .

Hamas’s stunningly swift victory in a brief civil war has left the Jewish state at its must vulnerable for three decades.

Inspired by a philosophy of militant Islam and backed by Iranian weaponry and military training, Hamas poses a direct threat to Israel and, if left unchecked, will soon be in a position to step up its lethal rocket attacks on towns and villages across the border.

In Lebanon to the north, Israel faces Hezbollah, the militant Syrian-backed militia, which has rebuilt its frontline forces - also with Iranian help - since last summer’s war exposed the shortcomings of the Israeli defence forces. The Lebanese government can do little to curb Hezbollah’s growing strength.

’ Tehran has succeeded in planting an Iranian division in the north and now they have a foothold in the south by establishing their southern division - Hamas,’ said a source in Israel ’s defence ministry.

Then there is Syria , with which Israel is still officially at war. Damascus is demanding the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said recently his country did not want war with Syria but warned that a ‘miscalculation’ could spark one.

To the east - beyond Jordan - lie the deeply unstable Iraq and the greatest threat of all in Israeli eyes, Iran . Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has declared that Israel should be ‘wiped off the map’ and continues to advance a nuclear programme in defiance of the United Nations security council.

Israeli intelligence has little doubt that if Israel or the US attacks Iran’s burgeoning uranium enrichment programme, much of the retaliation will come from Tehran’s clients on its borders.

They are also watching a fierce debate inside the US administration between doves led by Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and hawks such as Vice-President Dick Cheney, on the repercussions of any military strike against Iran .

With the doves seemingly holding the upper hand in Washington , US support for a hardline Israeli response may be fading. But Israeli leaders continue to warn that they will prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Ehud Barak, who is expected to be appointed defence minister tomorrow, met Olmert to agree a crisis plan to deal with the threat of Hamas before Olmert left for Washington to meet President George W Bush this week.

’ Israel will not tolerate a Hamastan at its back door,’ said one of Barak’s close associates.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1942881.ece

Treasury Designates al-Qaeda, LIFG Operatives (back)

June 15, 2007

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated three Libyan individuals who are members of both al Qaida and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Today’s action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which is aimed at prohibiting transactions with terrorists and their supporters and freezing their assets.

‘These terrorists execute roles throughout al Qaida and LIFG, from recruitment to military training to procurement of explosive components,’ said Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). ‘We are publicly holding them to account for their dangerous actions.’

Identifying Information

Nur Al-Din Al-Dibiski

AKAs: Salem Nor Eldin Amohamed al-Dabski
Salim Nur al-Din al-Dabski
Salim Nur al-Din al-Dabaski
Abdallah Rajab
Abdullah Ragab
Abu al-Ward
Abd al-Ward
Abu al-Wurud
Abu Naim
DOB: circa 1963

POB: Tripoli , Libya

PASSPORT: 1990/345751 ( Libya )

Nur al-Din al Dibiski traveled to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, where he joined al Qaida and received military training in al Qaida’s camps. Dibiski is believed to be a senior member of the LIFG and a member of that terrorist group’s military committee. Dibiski also joined the LIFG while he was in Afghanistan , and as of August 2005 was identified as a member of the LIFG in Iran .

Sa’id Yusif Ali Abu Azizah

AKAs: Said Youssef Ali Abu Aziza
Sa’id Yusif Ali Abu Azizat
Sa’id Yusif Abu Aziz
Sa’ud Abu Aziz
Abu Therab
Abu Thurab
Abu Turab
Abdul Hamid
Abd al-Hamid
DOB: 1958

POB: Tripoli , Libya

PASSPORT: 87/437555 ( Libya )

Sa’id Yusif Ali Abu Azizah is a member of and recruiter for al Qaida, and was responsible for al Qaida’s publications and mass media operations. Azizah, who underwent terrorist training in an al Qaida training camp, supervised one of bin Laden’s guesthouses in Peshawar , Pakistan .

Azizah joined the LIFG in 1995. Azizah has long been involved in recruiting new LIFG members and sending them to Afghanistan for military training and combat experience. On behalf of LIFG, Azizah has focused on the return of recruits to Libya to conduct operations against the government.

Azizah was identified as a member of al Qaida in Canada in 2003, and became the leader of the LIFG in Canada in 2004.

Ali Sulayman Mas’ud `Abd Al-Sayyid

AKA: Aly Soliman Massoud Abdul Sayed
AKA: Mohamed Osman
AKA: Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
AKA: Ibn al-Qayyim
AKA: Ibn El Qaim
AKA: Al-Zawl
DOB: 1969

POB: Tripoli , Libya

PASSPORT: 96/184442 ( Libya )

Abd al-Sayyid is one of al Qaida’s early members and is reportedly a member of the al Qaida military committee. He was assigned by al Qaida’s leadership to deliver messages to al Qaida members in Libya that contained instructions for terrorist plots in Libya . `Abd al-Sayyid was also tasked by LIFG to enter Libya secretly, and was involved in arming an al Qaida group in Libya .

Abd al-Sayyid was at one time in charge of al Qaida activities in Yemen , where he tasked one al Qaida operative to obtain electrical ‘igniters’ for explosives. In 1993, `Abd al-Sayyid coordinated with a LIFG member to bring an explosives expert to Yemen to make an improvised explosive device to be catapulted on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.

Abd al-Sayyid later returned to Sudan , where he was in charge of al Qaida operations and was a regional LIFG leader. He followed orders of the LIFG leadership, particularly LIFG leader and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) Abd al-Rahman al-Faqih. `Abd al-Sayyid also received funds from a Switzerland-based LIFG member.

In 2003, `Abd al-Sayyid received explosives detonators from a LIFG security committee member in Sudan and was involved in planning an attack on the Sudanese president and vice president.

Source: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp462.htm

TERRORISM PREVENTION

The Mullahs’ Achilles Heel (back)

June 15, 2007

The past week has very possibly been the key turning point in the drive to cripple the Iranian government and force it to back off its nuclear weapons program. Uncovered by the mainstream media, a courageous and far-sighted effort by Reagan’s assistant secretary of defense, Frank Gaffney, to force state pension systems to stop investing in companies that do business with Iran or Sudan has won key victories in Florida, California, and Ohio.

Spurred by vigorous lobbying by key legislators in each state, these massive pension funds are now committed to disinvest from companies that invest in Iran ‘s or Sudan ‘s energy industries.

Gov. Charlie Crist (R) of Florida signed legislation last week banning such pension-fund investments. On June 5, the California Assembly unanimously voted to require CalPERS and CalSTRS, the public employee and teacher retirement systems, to disinvest from companies that invested in Iran ‘s defense, nuclear or oil industries. CalPERS has about $2 billion now invested in companies that would be covered by the law. Imagine the hit that these companies’ CEOs and directors will take in their bonuses that are linked to stock prices when these shares are dumped on the market! California Assemblyman Joel Anderson, noting that ‘money is the mother’s milk of terrorism,’ decried how California pension funds - the largest in the country - are ‘funding © terrorist groups that are trying to kill us.’

Meanwhile, in Ohio , the five public pension systems gave in to demands from state legislators that they too disinvest from companies that are doing business in Iran and Sudan . The pension funds had originally resisted calls for disinvestment, claiming they impeded their mission of maximizing returns on their investments, but they have now told the state House Speaker, Jon A. Husted - who brokered the deal - that ‘they would work to pull most of their money out of companies with ties’ to Iran or Sudan, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Their decision came as a bill to require such disinvestment was working its way through the legislature.

These actions come on top of the trailblazing decision of Missouri state Treasurer Sarah Stillman to stop investing in companies that do business with Iran , Syria , Sudan or North Korea .

United Nations sanctions are important, but these state pension decisions directly impact the 485 companies that Gaffney’s group, has found to invest in the four terror-sponsoring nations identified in the Missouri disinvestment program.

Iran ‘s key vulnerability is its economy, which is totally dependent on energy revenues. Eighty-five percent of government revenues come from the energy sector, and these revenues are expected to drop from $55 billion in 2006 to only $44 billion this year due to a rise in domestic demand for energy and decreasing energy production. By 2014, it is estimated Iran will export no oil at all unless foreign investment comes to the rescue and helps generate additional production. Iranian oil reserves are the second largest in the world, but are of no use to the ayatollahs unless they can get at them. By cutting off foreign investment in the energy sector, these state government s have gone a long way toward destabilizing the Iranian regime.

Now it is up to Congress to pass legislation requiring the Bush administration to apply the sanctions already legislated in the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act passed in the mid-90s but never applied due to national security waivers by Presidents Clinton and Bush. By forcing the president’s hand - even passing the bill over his veto - Congress will relieve Bush of a political quandary. The reason the president keeps granting waivers on the applications of the formidable set of sanctions that could descend on Iran is that Europeans resent the extraterritorial application of American power over their companies that invest in Iran . (That’s why state pension fund disinvestment is so effective: It is a way of leveraging foreign companies through market forces even though we have no political control over them.)

All the speculation about military action against Iran misses the point: It is through economic disinvestment in their energy and banking industries that we can exert maximum leverage and likely topple this pernicious regime - or force it to give up its nuclear program.

Dick Morris is a former adviser to President Clinton. To get all of Dick’s his columns e mailed to you, register for free at DickMorris.com

Source: http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28763

TERRORISM RESPONSE

U.S. Secretly Met With Followers of Blind Sheik Omar (back)

June 16, 2007

Followers of Omar Abdel Rahman made overtures to U.S. diplomats one year before the radical sheikh entered the United States on a visa approved by a CIA agent.

During several meetings with diplomatic officers at the U.S. embassy in Cairo , members of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) provided extensive details about the operations of one of Egypt ‘s most notorious terrorist organizations.

Initiated by al-Gama’a, the meetings were aimed at creating a dialogue with the U.S. in the hopes of eventual, unspecified cooperation. The initiative was based on a perception that the U.S. enjoyed similar cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt .

Less than four years after the approach, an al-Gama’a terror cell led personally by Abdel-Rahman bombed the World Trade Center in New York City .

The 1989 meetings are described in secret cables from the U.S. embassy in Cairo , which were declassified and released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by INTELWIRE.

THE APRIL 1989 MEETING

An April 25, 1989 cable from the Cairo embassy describes several meetings between unidentified ‘embassy officers’ and a self-proclaimed member of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. The name of the member is redacted, as are several other sections of the cable.

Signed by U.S. ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, the cable is addressed to several other U.S. embassies and to U.S. intelligence services and military posts. It was classified as ‘secret.’

Known as the ‘blind sheik,’ Rahman was considered the main spiritual guide for both al-Gama’a and al-Jihad, otherwise known as Egyptian Islamic Jihad. At the time of the meeting, Rahman was under detention in Egypt but was expected to be released shortly.

In meetings with embassy officials, the member said al-Gama’a and al-Jihad were, in fact, the same organization. Historically, the two groups have had overlapping membership and agendas. Today, they are considered separate organizations, and Al-Gama’a has renounced the use of violence.

The member estimated al-Gama’a membership as between 150,000 and 200,000, a figure which the embassy suspected was exaggerated.

The member said he was part of al-Gama’a Shura Council while he was in prison, between September 1981 and October 1988. He said his specialty was organizing protests and demonstrations. The member disputed government characterizations of al-Gama’a as ‘secret’ and ‘violent’ and disavowed attacks that had been attributed to the group.

The member provided printed material concerning Rahman and al-Gama’a beliefs and goals. He said the group found the government of Saudi Arabia to be ‘the best Islamic government today’ but faulted Saudi King Fahd for failing to take a hard line against Iran .

However, the member said, Rahman met with an Iranian delegation in Pakistan during the autumn of 1988 and was ‘favorably impressed.’

Rahman also traveled to the United States in 1988 to speak a conference, the member said. The ‘blind sheikh’ traveled to the U.S. yearly, the member said, on trips supported by Saudi Arabia .

Embassy officials were skeptical about some of the claims made by the member and recorded their suspicions concerning his motives, as well as questioning whether his approach to the embassy had the blessing of his superiors in al-Gama’a.

Embassy officials noted that their skepticism ‘leaps instantly from the favt that he has revealed much more than we would have considered prudent.’

THE MAY 1989 MEETING

In May, embassy officials met with ‘a young lawyer of ‘The Islamic Group’ (or Jihad as it is called by the government).’ The meeting came after ‘repeated recent contacts’ between al-Gama’a and U.S. diplomats, the cable states.

The May cable is addressed only to the Secretary of State, the consul in Alexandria and the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington , D.C. It is signed by Wisner and classified ‘secret’ and ‘department only.’

The lawyer repeated the figure of 150,000 to 200,000 members and reiterated other key points from the April cable. Embassy officers believed this figure included a loose group of ‘sympathizers’ and did not ‘represent an Islamic revolutionary vanguard.’

He claimed ‘he was informing us about his group as a result of a ‘change in thinking’ within the group.’

Al-Gama’a was ‘concerned about the ‘radical and violent image’ of the group presented by the government,’ according to the lawyer.

The laywer said an individual, whose name was redacted, ‘had persuaded them that U.S. diplomats were ‘sincere,’ so they decided to present this ‘true picture’ directly to’ embassy officers. It’s not clear whether this is a reference to the individual described in the April cable, or whether that individual and the lawyer are the same person.

The cable states:

‘[redacted] had told us separately that [redacted] had opined that the government was not persecuting the Muslim Brotherhood because the U.S. was ‘supporting’ the Muslim Brotherhood against the more radical Islamic trends. On this widely accepted conspiratorial premise, the ‘Islamic Group’ may be making its own bid for outside support.’

An embassy officer told the lawyer that ‘the U.S. does not intervene in internal affairs nor support any group of any sort against the government of Egypt .’

Among the points and claims made by the lawyer:

Members of al-Gama’a are ‘unified in a single ideology, though there are different ‘styles’ of action from region to region.’

Members can directly contact other members across Egypt .

Omar Abdel-Rahman was described as the mufti of the group, or alternatively as its emir. The former title is a religious position, the latter implies some degree of operational control. However, a separate individual was identified as the chief operational leader. The name of that person is redacted.

The 11 members of al-Gama’a Shura Council were named by the lawyer, but the names were redacted from the cable before its release by the State Department.

The lawyer characterized other known Egyptian Islamist groups as having been disbanded or largely imprisoned, including Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Takfir Wal Hijra. Later reporting suggests this claim was significantly inflated.

The Muslim Brotherhood was seen by al-Gama’a as part of the ‘governing establishment.’

Al-Gama’a members ‘reject the concept of ‘takfir,’’ i.e., condemning opponents such as the government as infidels who may be attacked with impunity.

The lawyer claimed the Egyptian government had ‘pinned’ the name Jihad on al-Gama’a in order to blame the group for attacks on Christians. The laywer denied al-Gama’a had any role in attacking Christian interests in Egypt .

The laywer accused the Muslim Brotherhood of ‘playing games’ and acting out of personal and property interests.

‘Local groups of Islamic youth exist around the country,’ according to the lawyer. ‘Because they lack proper religious guidance, they do crazy things’ which are then blamed on al-Gama’a. However some of these youth are also members of al-Gama’a, he conceded.

Sayyid Qutb and his book is the group’s primary ideological inspiration, particularly his anti-secular (and anti-American) tract ‘Milestones on the Road.’

The cable concludes with a reference to a follow-up cable describing the organizations ties to foreign governments. However, the follow-up cable was not included in this FOIA release.

THE 1990 VISA

Approximately one year after the last meeting in Egypt , in May 1990, Omar Abdel Rahman obtained a visa to enter the United States (Time Magazine, May. 24, 1993). The visa was issued in by the U.S. embassy in Khartoum , Sudan .

Rahman’s name had been placed on a terrorist watchlist that should have kept him out of the United States . Embassy officials said the visa was issued in error and began an investigation of the embassy official who approved the passport.

That official turned out to be an officer of the CIA (New York Times, July 14, 1993). According to the Times, the CIA officer was working as a consular official as part of his official cover and did not act on behalf of the CIA. Officials described the event as a ‘coincidence,’ according to the Times.

Rahman traveled from Sudan to Pakistan , then entered the U.S. in July 1990. He was subsequently indicted and convicted for leading a cell of terrorists in New York City responsible for the World Trade Center bombing and a thwarted ‘Day of Terror’ plot in which several New York landmarks were targeted for simultaneous truck bombings.

INTELWIRE has obtained more than 1,400 pages of declassified U.S. State Department documents concerning Egyptian radical groups. For more information about INTELWIRE research services, please contact J.M. Berger.

Source: http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=genera_j_m__ber_070615_u_s__secretly_met_wi.htm

POLICE AND CRIME ISSUES

British Law Threatening U.S. Freedom of Speech (back)

June 16, 2007

The author of a U.S.-published book that accused a former Saudi banking executive of funding terrorism is battling a precedent that experts say could give any foreign libel law priority over U.S. free press and speech guarantees.

The case involving Rachel Ehrenfeld is one of the ‘most important First Amendment cases of the past 25 years,’ and its potential for damaging the U.S. free press is ‘not yet readily recognized,’ 30-year American Civil Liberties Union board member Harvey Silverglate told her.

Ehrenfeld, who has posted information about her case on the website of the American Center for Democracy, which she directs in its research of Middle East-based terrorism, told WND the situation is very simple, and very scary.

In 2003, she documented and wrote, ‘Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It,’ that alleged Saudi Arabian billionaire Khalid Salim A. Bin Mahfouz helped in that pipeline of financing.

Mahfouz formerly was president of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia and Forbes estimates his personal wealth at more than $3 billion. He says he condemns terrorism and never has assisted Osama Bin Laden or others.

Several of those books were purchased via the Internet by British buyers, and a short time later Mahfouz filed a libel action against Ehrenfeld within Great Britain, where antiquated libel laws put the burden of proof on the defendant.

She didn’t respond, and later was ordered by a British High Court judge to pay about $120,000 in a down payment on damages as well as destroy copies of her book, which had been published by Bonus Books.

However, she’s battling back, claiming what was described as ‘libel tourism’ is impeding her ‘ability to research and write freely about international terrorism’ and is seeking through the U.S. courts to have that ruling nullified.

She recently moved a step toward victory when the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the New York State Supreme Court for a clarification on a state law that appears to give U.S. courts jurisdiction on the issue.

Judge Wilfred Feinburg, at the Court of Appeals, concluded, ‘The question is important to authors, publishers and those, like Mahfouz, who are the subject of books and articles. The issue may implicate the First Amendment rights of many New Yorkers, and thus concerns important public policy of the state.

‘Because the case may lead to personal jurisdiction over many defendants who successfully pursue a suit abroad against a New York citizen, the question before us is also likely to be repeated,’ he continued.

Circuit Judges Pierre N. Leval and Jose A. Cabranes joined Judge Feinberg in the ruling.

The focal point is where should such claims be handled, in a nation like England where several books were purchased online, or in the United States, where the book was written, and where Mahfouz has had business activities because he served Ehrenfeld with documents in New York.

The case bears some striking similarities to a lawsuit that WND is appealing now to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In that case, WND, based in Oregon, has been ordered by a Tennessee state court decision that in order to use the truth of some articles as a defense in a defamation case it also must reveal sources – to which WND does not have access – regarding the articles written by free-lance reporters that were posted on the Internet news provider’s website during 2000.

The implications of that case, also, are huge regarding the First Amendment, because unless the state decision is overturned, shield law protections like those that protected Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their pursuit of the Watergate scandal could be banished nationwide.

‘If this is law, all President Nixon needed to do in order to retain his presidency is sue Woodward and Bernstein for defamation, force them into this Hobson’s Choice and, by presumption, establish that the information attributed to the confidential source was false,’ said attorney Larry Parrish, who is handling the appeal of a Tennessee lawsuit brought by a top Al Gore fundraiser.

‘The alternative for Woodward and Bernstein would have been to disclose the name of Deep Throat and suffer a breach of confidence judgment in favor of Deep Throat,’ he said.

The appeal to the Supreme Court is in a landmark $165 million defamation lawsuit involving WND, in which a Tennessee appeals court banned WND from defending itself based on the truth of a series of articles during the 2000 presidential election, because they included information from a confidential source to which WND didn’t have access.

Ehrenfeld told WND her book was thoroughly documented before it was published, and the Saudi billionaire chose England to file his action because of the libel laws, which are opposite of U.S. laws.

‘In the United States, he doesn’t have a case. But in England all you have to do is file a case. Then the defendant has to prove what he or she writes is true, and not done with malice,’ she said.

She told WND that could have been done, but the costs would have been extremely high.

‘The book was not published in England. I don’t live in England. I don’t see any reason to go to England. The expenses would have been horrendous,’ she said.

A U.S. district court judge to whom her original complaint was assigned agreed that U.S. courts had no jurisdiction in the foreign matter, but the 2nd Circuit panel recognized the dangers developing.

‘They decided that I have a case [in U.S. courts] and therefore every American writer in a similar situation can to the same thing,’ she told WND.

‘This is a very important case for reporters and writers and national security,’ she said.

She expressed concern that major media influences in the United States have largely, to date, ignored the case about a precedent to which they could become subject.

Media ignoring pivotal cases

Joseph Farah, editor and founder of WND, has expressed the same concern about the battle his company has been waging for years.

‘I know many of my colleagues in the press care about the First Amendment,’ he said. ‘Anyone who cares about the First Amendment needs to start caring about this monumental case. This has the potential to be bigger than New York Times v. Sullivan. Yet little media interest has been stirred.’

Lee Kaplan, in an article on FrontPageMagazine.com said the Ehrenfeld ruling from the appellate court was a ‘breath of fresh air’ from the ‘Saudi petrodollars [that] buy influence throughout the world for the Islamic feudal kingdom that finances world terrorism and propaganda.’

‘In suing Mahfouz here in the USA, Ehrenfeld asked the Federal Court to declare the default judgment against her obtained by bin Mahfouz in England’s High Court – details concerning his terror financing as outlined in ‘Funding Evil’ – as unenforceable in the U.S., and contrary to the free speech protections that all Americans enjoy. The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals established for the future that other American writers and publishers will not be silenced by Saudi petrodollars and their influence on information in America,’ he concluded.

Should Mafhouz pursue the complaint in the United States, he noted, then he also would be subject to U.S. laws and Ehrenfeld ‘can demand his financial records in pre-trial discovery to show the validity of her terrorism-financing accusations.’

Daniel Kornstein, Ehrenfeld’s lawyer, said the situation of libel claims brought by non-U.S. citizens in foreign courts against American writers ‘has been on the increase and is an alarming trend.’

‘It is a vitally important issue for the publishing industry and for authors because of the concerns it raises about the chilling effect on free speech,’ he said.

In an article for The Family Security Foundation Inc., Adrian Morgan noted that present UK libel laws are based on a statute from 1819 and puts the burden of proof of the defendant.

Just last month, he noted, the London Times concluded that the nation’s libel laws ‘have never been about protecting individuals … they are about protecting the rich and powerful.’ That article was removed from its website soon, because even reporting critically on individual cases can violate the laws.

Ten years earlier, a libel case in Maryland concluded with a ruling that a UK money award could be waived, because it violated the U.S. protections of free speech, Morgan wrote.

Ehrenfeld, with a Ph.D. in criminology from the Hebrew University School of Law, has lectured at Columbia, researched at New York University and has acted as an adviser to the U.S. Defense Department.

Ehrenfeld said the costs of such litigation continues to rise, and donations can be sent to the Legal Support Fund at the American Center for Democracy.

Ehrenfeld is considered an authority of the ‘shadowy movement of funds through international banking and governments to fund terrorism.’

Fluent in several languages, she has testified before congressional committees, as well as the European Parliament, and provided evidence to the British Parliament, and consulted government agencies such as the Department of Defense and Homeland Security.

She also is a member of the board of directors of the Committee on the Present Danger along with former Secretary of State George Schulz and former CIA Director James Woolsey.

In the WND case still pending, the 2000 reports by the free-lance writers mostly documented allegations of corruption involving then-Vice President Al Gore and others in Gore’s home state. Some Tennessee observers believe the series had such impact that it was responsible for Gore losing the state – and thus the presidential election. Had Gore won his home state, the disputed Florida vote in 2000 would have been meaningless and Gore would have had enough electoral votes to become president.

The reports included information about a Savannah, Tenn., auto dealer, friend of Gore and Democrat activist Clark Jones, who brought the action and has been determined by the courts to be a public figure.

Jones, who raised more than $100,000 for Gore’s presidential campaign, alleges personal embarrassment and humiliation from the articles, which said he reportedly intervened in a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe into narcotics trafficking in Hardin County in 1999. The car dealer also alleges the articles implicated him in the 1980 arson of his own business, the Jones Motor Company, and also pegged him as a suspected drug dealer.

Parrish said the decision, if not changed, would be disastrous for the news industry.

‘Because of the Internet invading the news dissemination business, it’s to a point that the rules for the entire nation will be determined by the state with the most restrictive rules of law,’ Parrish said. Almost every newspaper, broadcast station or news service posts information on websites, and nothing can prevent those postings from being downloaded in any location, in this case Tennessee.

Since Tennessee law as it is being applied gives reporters the same opportunity for withholding a confidential source in a civil defamation case as they have before a grand jury – none, he said, that very well could become the standard nationwide.

‘Investigative reporting has been able to exist and continues with the requirement that names be divulged in a grand jury. You transport that same requirement into a civil defamation case against reporters and you will shut down the information from confidential sources,’ Parrish said.

‘It is not complicated. This Court [U.S. Supreme Court] explicitly and unequivocally has held that there is a newsgatherer’s First Amendment privilege of nondisclosure; the court of appeals straightforwardly ruled that there is no such privilege…’ the appeal to the Supreme Court said.

‘This Court, to protect the public interest in free-flowing access to news, at a heavy price to public figure-plaintiffs in civil defamation suits, has repeatedly ruled that the First Amendment makes it extraordinarily difficult for a public figure to obtain a judgment in such a civil defamation suit. All of the public policy this Court has so assiduously declared will go up in flames if what was … decided can occur without this Court intervening to reverse,’ the appeal said.

Source: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56207

TERROR MODUS OPERANDI

Jemaah Islamiyah Dreams of Islamic State (back)

June 15, 2007

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), whose leader Indonesian police announced Friday they had in custody, draws its inspiration from Al-Qaeda and dreams of creating a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

The outfit is accused of carrying out a slew of bloody attacks in Indonesia, most notoriously the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people and dragged the region into the global battle against extremism.

JI’s ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state, and it uses terrorist attacks to destabilise regional governments.

It has its roots in Darul Islam, a group which fought for an Islamic state in Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s and survived a military defeat in the 1960s.

JI was nurtured by Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and fellow Indonesian Hambali while they were in exile in Malaysia after fleeing Indonesia under the rule of former dictator Suharto.

According to court documents, Bashir formally co-founded JI in Malaysia in 1993 with Abdullah Sungkar and assumed leadership when Sungkar died of natural causes in 1999.

Hambali, along with many top JI militants, had fought in the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. He helped build JI into a terrorist network inspired by what he had learnt from Al-Qaeda, of which he was a senior member.

Captured JI head Zarkasi trained in Pakistan while the head of JI’s military wing, Abu Dujana, who was caught as he rode his motorcyle just hours earlier last Saturday, also fought in Afghanistan, according to police.

Two JI militants under arrest in Indonesia have said that its bombers believed they were fulfilling bin Laden’s wishes.

‘Both Hambali and Abu Bakar Bashir issued the fatwa (religious edict) from Osama bin Laden which says all Muslims must defend themselves and take vengeance for the actions of Americans, because they have wronged, or killed civilians everywhere,’ said one of the militants, Mohamed Nasir Abas.

Jemaah Islamiyah, whose name means ‘Islamic community’, has staged more than 50 bombings or attempted bombings in Indonesia since April 1999.

These included the Christmas Eve bombings in 2000 that targeted 38 churches or priests and killed 19 people, a suicide attack on Jakarta’s Marriott hotel in August 2003 which killed 12 and another suicide blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September 2004 in which 12 people died.

The group is also suspected of involvement in bombings in the Philippines, where its followers have attended training camps, and of bomb plots in Thailand and Singapore.

Dozens of alleged members have been rounded up in the region and former operations chief Hambali is in US custody after being arrested in Thailand in 2003.

Bashir, JI’s alleged spiritual leader or ‘emir’, was released from prison in June last year after serving time for a criminal conspiracy that led to the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

The white-bearded cleric, who has hailed bin Laden as a ‘true Muslim fighter’ but denies terror links, was cleared of more serious charges of planning terrorist attacks.

Indonesian police killed one of JI’s most wanted members, Malaysian Azahari Husin, in a raid in November 2005 but his compatriot, Noordin Muhammad Top, remains on the run.

Two Indonesians named Dulmatin and Umar Patek are also at large.

Analysts say JI has split in recent years between supporters and opponents of attacks on targets which have taken a heavy toll on mainly Muslim Indonesians.

Police allege that Dujana had sheltered Noordin, who is said to head the militant splinter group, but said he is refusing to give any information about his whereabouts.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/index.php?News%20Flash&p=54&type=2&sec=91&aid=2007061534

Let’s Welcome Hamas (back)

June 15, 2007

History has a way of repeating itself, and not always proceeding from tragedy to farce, as the shopworn quotation from Karl Marx would have it.

“Calm settled over Gaza today,” reports the New York Times this morning. In the wake of Israel’s complete withdrawal in 2005, and the ensuing jockeying for power between Hamas and Fatah, the former has now come to power in the strip. What now?

Already there are voices explaining that if Hamas is to satisfy the aspirations of the long-suffering residents of Gaza, it will inevitably be compelled to abandon its terroristic tactics and to embrace a more pragmatic and realistic approach to Israel and to the world around it. And as if on cue, we have a confirming dispatch this morning from the Associated Press: “Hamas vowed Friday to secure the release of kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston, a promise seemingly meant to avoid alienating the outside world and to tell other armed groups in Gaza that it intends to impose order.” Britain’s Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell, visiting Israel earlier this week, “held out hope that Hamas or some within it would yet moderate,” telling the Jerusalem Post that “I genuinely don’t think that [Hamas’s] positions are set in tablets of stone forever and a day.”

Perhaps, but what can we learn from the recent past?

When Israel withdrew from the security zone it had established in southern Lebanon in 2000, there were numerous predictions, noted the Israeli analyst Gal Luft in 2003, “that the radical Shiite group Hizballah, whose forces had relentlessly attacked the occupying Israeli troops, would close up military operations and henceforth focus solely on Lebanese domestic affairs.”

But what actually happened? First, wrote Luft, Hizballah declared that its “objective was the liberation of the entire land of Palestine and the destruction of the ‘Zionist entity.” It then seized control of the entire buffer zone that had been occupied by Israel and turned it into “a de facto state within a state.” Hizballahland” was what Luft christened this territory as he pointed to the fact that the terrorist organization had “managed to amass an impressive stockpile of weapons, including 10,000 rockets and missiles capable of hitting a quarter of Israel’s population.”

That was 2003. By 2006, Hizballah had 20,000 rockets and missiles, and its depredations led Israel and Lebanon into a massive and bloody war.

What lies ahead for Hamastan? It is of course conceivable—anything being conceivable—that the newly empowered Hamas leadership will move in the direction of pragmatism; that is what our own pragmatic logic suggests they should do. But perhaps these Islamic radicals operate under a different system of reasoning. The spectacle of the losers of the Gaza power struggle—their fellow Palestinians—being tossed from fifteen-story buildings and shot in the knees before being shot in the head suggests that sometimes it is not only history that goes in cycles, but illusions about history as well.

Source: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/schoenfeld/547

Canada: Controversial Islamist Editor to be Honoured by Arab Group (back)

June 15, 2007

A man who once described Canada — his adopted homeland — as a ‘fully paid-up member of the Anglo-Saxon mafia’ is being honoured tomorrow evening following a two-day meeting of the Canadian Arab Federation at Toronto’s City Hall.

Today and tomorrow the CAF will be celebrating its 40th anniversary and holding its policy convention at that famous landmark paid for by Toronto taxpayers.

Zafar Bangash, editor of Crescent International, an Islamist newsletter, will be honoured Saturday night at the CAF’s gala dinner at Brassaii Bistro, 461 King St. W., for his ‘unwavering’ support of Palestine.

Besides calling Canada the mafia, on Sept. 16, 2001 when all of us were still reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Bangash, while denouncing the killing of innocent civilians, wrote the attack ‘was most likely a successful attempt by one of America’s many victims to hit back very, very hard.’

Bangash, who in his writings refers to the vast majority of Canadians — that being non-Muslims — as ‘kuffar or kufr’, which means non-believers and infidels, calls on all Muslims to either commit and ‘prepare ourselves to make the kinds of sacrifice that were required of Ibrahim (sacrificing his son) ... or we rely solely on material resources and sink to the level of the kuffar,’ (Feb. 2004).

So, sacrifice everything, including your children fighting the hated kuffar, or become like the loathed kuffar.

Nothing negative?

Ah, but perhaps when Bangash refers to kuffar, he just means non-Muslims and intends nothing negative by it, right? Not according to his writings.

In his April 1-15, 1999 posting, Bangash writes: ‘Most importantly, few Muslims realize that Allah demands of his guests that they openly declare their dissociation from the kuffar and mushrikeen (the Noble Qur’an, 9:1-3).’

It would appear, however, that Bangash will make an exception Saturday night as he will rub elbows with other reward recipients including kuffar-like Sid Ryan, president of CUPE, Ontario, who was instrumental in leading his union to boycott Israel.

How does that saying go: The enemy of my enemy is my friend?

Of course the common enemies are: the Great Satan, (aka, the U.S.), the Great Satan No. 2 (aka, Israel) and Zionists (i.e., most Jews.)

Ever wonder what will happen to us kuffar should Bangash’s oft-repeated dream of making Canada an Islamic state modelled after Iran come to pass?

In his July 1-15, 1999 editorial (which like the others can be read on muslimedia.com) states: ‘As Allah says in the noble Qur’an, ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and those who are with him are harsh towards the kuffar but kind and compassionate towards each other,’ (47:29).’

So much for equality for all!

Bangash is also a big fan of Hezbollah and Hamas, organizations that Canada has declared illegal.

When reached yesterday in Toronto by phone, Khaled Mouammar, national president of the CAF, refused to believe that Bangash uses the term kuffar.

‘No, no, no, he has never said that,’ exclaimed Mouammar. ‘He’s a man of dignity. He has no blood on his hands like those Israeli war criminals who come to Canada and are received by our politicians, like Ariel Sharon,’ said Mouammar, who is also giving an award to Ehab Lotayef, the Montreal activist behind a boycott of Chapters and Indigo book stores because the owners are Jewish and support Israel.

The irony in all this is that recently, the CAF urged Toronto Police Service’s Hate Crime Unit to monitor an upcoming Fraser Institute conference on the terrorist threat in Canada.

As for Canada being like the mafia, the mafia would never stand for such disloyalty.

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/2007/06/15/4262675-sun.html

ISLAM

U.S. Muslims: The Culture War (back)

June 17, 2007

A recent poll found that American Muslims are largely assimilated into American society. But in cities with growing Muslim populations, the assimilation process isn’t always going so smoothly.

CBN News recently traveled to Minneapolis, where demands by some Muslim immigrants are causing a backlash.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has traditionally been known as a busy Midwestern hub — not a cultural battleground.

That changed last November, when six Muslim imams were kicked off a U.S. Airways flight there. Passengers complained the imams were praying loudly and moving about the plane speaking Arabic.

The incident sparked a media firestorm and many local Muslims blamed the airport, not the imams. It also highlighted a cultural divide in the twin cities.

Much of the debate surrounding Muslims in Minneapolis centers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Not only did the infamous ‘Flying Imams’ incident take place here; there’s also been an ongoing controversy surrounding Somali Muslim cabbies refusing to carry passengers who have alcohol in their possession.

Katherine Kersten, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, said, ‘The Muslim American Society - Minnesota chapter issued a fatwa regarding the transportation of alcohol by cabbies at the airport - telling them that essentially they would burn in hell, that they would be cooperating in sin, that they would be forbidden to do this.’

The Chicago Tribune has described the Muslim American Society, or MAS, as the American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide Islamist movement.

Somali activist Omar Jamal says that groups like this have attempted to radicalize the city’s growing Somali Muslim population.

‘The majority of Somali people really thought that the idea was crazy — to refuse service to a passenger carrying alcohol,’ Jamal explained. ‘And this was only cooked up by a very small group — and other organizations like MAS and CAIR.’

The airport has threatened to suspend any cabbies who turn down passengers for religious reasons. But that hasn’t stopped the radical movement from expanding its influence.

The Minneapolis Community and Technical College recently installed ritual foot washing basins in its bathrooms. Muslim students will be able to wash their feet before they pray.

Kersten says the school hasn’t always been so eager to accommodate students’ religious beliefs.

‘There is a very strong disfavor on the part of the administration when it comes to Christianity,’ she said. ‘You know, Christmas decorations, any music that has even a remote connection to Christmas during the Christmas holiday season. Whereas the administration there seems to be bending over backwards to provide welcome and accommodation to Muslim students.’

School officials declined CBN News’ request for an interview. The school has been consulting with the Muslim Students Association’s accommodations task force on how to better serve its Muslim students. The MSA. was founded by the Saudi government.

Kersten says the group wants more than just foot baths.

‘They want to see separate housing for Muslim students on campus,’ she said. ‘They want to see separate food, or halal — ritually pure food. They want separate hours for Muslim women in gyms and swimming pools. They want imams and religious counselors paid with public funds. And they want religious and holiday observances of Eid — the end of Ramadan and other Muslim holidays on public school campuses here.’

Some local Muslims feel they have been victims of discrimination and that the accommodation is overdue.

Ahmed Tharwat hosts ‘Belahdan,’ a cable program in the twin cities focusing on Arab-American issues.

‘We used to think, like, racism and immigrants’ issues are blacks’ or Latinos’ issues,’ he said. ‘And now we find out that we are the new blacks in this country now.’

‘We are a country of customer service,’ he said. ‘We accommodate the big, the divorced, the gay, the tall, the overweight. We accommodate a lot of people, including Muslim cashiers at a Minneapolis Target store who refused to check pork products. Pigs are considered unclean in Islam. So the cashiers were reassigned to another department.’

Likewise, 70 Somali Muslims recently walked off their jobs at an Omaha meat packing plant because they weren’t given enough time to pray. They were allowed to return to work.

Tharwat says these are labor-management issues that should be resolved by the companies.

But Kersten fears that America could be heading down the same path as Europe and Canada, where a growing number of Muslims are demanding to govern themselves by Islamic Sharia law.

She says an official from the Muslim American Society told her the following:

‘All you Americans should be learning Islamic law, because it’s going to be important. There are two systems here that conflict, and they’ll have to live in harmony.’

Tharwat says that the choice is simple.

‘We have eight million Muslims,’ he said. ‘What do you want to do with them? Do you want to alienate them the way we did to blacks and other minorities? Or do we want to accommodate them and not fall in the problem the Europeans did?’

Muslim leaders here say that Minneapolis should serve as a model for other U.S. cities in its willingness to accommodate its Muslim minority.

But critics say there’s a fine line between accommodation and subjugation. It’s an issue that other U.S. cities may soon have to deal with, as their Muslim communities continue to grow in numbers and influence.

Source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/174333.aspx