Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1969332/posts
‘Honour’ killings grow as girl, 17, stoned to death
Kurdish Media ^
Posted on 02/12/2008 3:53:57 PM PST by ddtorquee
It is seven months since Du’aa was stoned to death by a mob in the Kurdish hillside village of Basshiqa, northern Iraq
...Du’aa was taken to the home of Sheikh Sulaiman Sulaiman, the senior Yazidi figure in the village.
...A 65-year-old uncle, Salim, a science teacher, backed the head of their tribe, Omar Hamko, 73, in demanding that she be killed to “cleanse the family honour”.
Her father would not countenance it. He proposed that she be married to a cousin and moved to Syria.
...When the uncle insisted that he would decide Du’aa’s fate as the elder sibling and head of the local Communists, her father ordered him out of the house.
...Salim sent sons, nephews and party supporters to surround the home of the sheikh, firing shots into the air. “They came with guns and stones, shouting and screaming in anger,” the sheikh said last week.
Looking back on the terrible scenes that followed, he lamented the manner of Du’aa’s killing, but not her death.
...the sheikh said. “It was down to her family to cleanse her shame. Maybe kill her with one bullet, electrocution, any manner but not through this awful stoning.
...The mobile phone clips show her being taken straight from the sheikh’s house to the marketplace in a headlock, wailing and screaming as armed police watched in silence.
In the marketplace, she came under a hail of stones and her face and clothes were soon covered in blood. Among those hurling the stones were several male cousins from her father’s side of the family and one – Araas – from her mother’s. It was Araas who approached as she tried to struggle to her feet and smashed a large piece of concrete over her head to finish her off.
(Excerpt) Read more at kurdmedia.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: honorkilling; honorkillings; islam; murder; muslims; Click to Add Keyword
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“According to the human rights ministry in northern Iraq, 598 women have been burnt, beaten, shot, strangled, thrown from tall buildings, force-fed with lethal drugs, crushed by vehicles, drowned, decapitated or made to kill themselves so far this year, exceeding the 553 recorded for the whole of 2006. “
1 posted on 02/12/2008 3:53:58 PM PST by ddtorquee
blog:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/02/homeland_security_chief_on_thr.php
“Homeland Security Chief on Threats - Real and Hyped”
By James Gordon Meek
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “On the fifth anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security, its second leader, Michael Chertoff, talked to me about his deepest fears about terrorist threats and why he frets over Europe and Canada more than Mexico. In the interview published Sunday in the New York Daily News, the secretary of Homeland Security said “more than a dozen” people linked to Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and other extremists have tried to enter the U.S. through ports of entry on the northern border, he said, while there have been almost no such attempts at U.S.-Mexico checkpoints.
Aboard his sleek Gulfstream V jet (callsign “Coast Guard One”), Chertoff also discussed America’s growing complacency toward terror threats, why racial profiling at airports is “foolish” and explained how terror plots get hyped by some in the government.
The former prosecutor and judge often thrust into the political debate over illegal immigration denied that the Mexican border has been an easy way for Al Qaeda to penetrate the U.S.
“When we’ve had instances - and there have not been many - where we’ve caught terrorists trying to sneak in, it’s been through ports of entry using false documents, and I think we’ve been more concerned about Canada as a platform than Mexico,” he said.
Chertoff said “much more than a dozen” stopped at the Canadian border since the 9/11 attacks were connected to “a mix” of terror groups through “either a financial connection, maybe a family connection, maybe communications.”
“I don’t mean that they swore bayat to [Osama] Bin Laden, but [the link to terrorism was] something I would consider to be Al Qaeda-related,” he explained.
Beyond America’s land borders, Chertoff has made a point lately of warning that Europe is “what worries me the most.”
The News reported late last year that counterterror officials were concerned about intelligence indicating a small number of white, Anglo-looking Europeans had joined Al Qaeda and received training in Pakistan’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan - which Chertoff says is precisely why racial profiling “would be foolish.”
“The enemy quite consciously tries to recruit people … who don’t fit a particular image of what a terrorist looks like,” he said. Officials are deeply alarmed by evidence “that Al Qaeda is recruiting Europeans who have clean papers and training them and sending them back, either to attack Europe or take advantage of the Visa Waiver Program and attack us.”
“We’re concerned about people who are European, or at least have European backgrounds, who are able to move around, that don’t have a record and would fit in with local society and therefore are less likely to make a mistake that might call attention to them,” he continued.”
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http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1202822855108.shtm
“Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith at a Press Availability Following a Private Meeting on Bilateral Agenda”
Release Date: February 11, 2008
Washington DC
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http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/testimony/testimony_1202483610690.shtm
“Statement of Chief Procurement Officer Thomas W. Essig before the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology of the Committee on Homeland Security”
Release Date: February 7, 2008
Cannon House Office Building
(Remarks as Prepared)
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