Life, the Universe, and everything

2003-05-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

The print version of The Atlantic magazine's May issue has a great article on the corruption of the Sauds. Available online here:
The Fall of the House of Saud
Americans have long considered Saudi Arabia the one constant in the Arab Middle East—a source of cheap oil, political stability, and lucrative business relationships. But the government is also deeply corrupt, and gives succor to terrorism. Now, a former CIA operative argues, the Saudi royal family is on the verge of collapse—and much of the global economy could collapse with it
by Robert Baer

(Thanks to Jonathan for the link)

2003-05-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

I found this to be a very inspirational story. It speaks volumes about the resilience of the human spirit and the will to live.

2003-04-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

How does the Assad family maintain its power in Syria?

2003-04-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

pro-Saddam British politican was rewarded handsomely for his efforts

George Galloway, the Labour backbencher, received money from Saddam Hussein's regime, taking a slice of oil earnings worth at least £375,000 a year, according to Iraqi intelligence documents found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad.

Also see Washington Post article on the subject.

Via Imshin and Instapundit and Tim Blair and Andrew Sullivan. (yes the blogosphere is all over this one.)

Now it appears Galloway siphoned his annual $600k kickback from Saddam through the U.N. oil for food program (aka oil-for-palaces program as General Tommy Franks put it.) This incredibly corrupt program allowed the U.N> to skim a 2.2% commission on Iraqi oil as well as keep 1,000 U.N. pencil pushers employed (not to mention 3,000 Baath party loyalists within Iraq.) If you think Enron was bad --- the books on the deals done through oil for food are completely closed with no independent accounting oversight.
Run, don't walk, to read Claudia Rosett's NY Times article on the subject before it goes into the archive. Excerpt:

The oil-for-food program is no ordinary relief effort. Not only does it involve astronomical amounts of money, it also operates with alarming secrecy. Intended to ease the human cost of economic sanctions by letting Iraq sell oil and use the profits for staples like milk and medicine, the program has morphed into big business. Since its inception, the program has overseen more than $100 billion in contracts for oil exports and relief imports combined.

It also collects a 2.2 percent commission on every barrel — more than $1 billion to date — that is supposed to cover its administrative costs. According to staff members, the program's bank accounts over the past year have held balances upward of $12 billion... the oil-for-food program has evolved into a bonanza of jobs and commercial clout. Before the war it employed some 1,000 international workers and 3,000 Iraqis. (The Iraqi employees — charged with monitoring Saddam Hussein's imports and distribution of relief goods — of course all had to be approved by the Baath Party.)

Initially, all contracts were to be approved by the Security Council. Nonetheless, the program facilitated a string of business deals tilted heavily toward Saddam Hussein's preferred trading partners, like Russia, France and, to a lesser extent, Syria. About a year ago, in the name of expediency, Mr. Annan was given direct authority to sign off on all goods not itemized on a special watch list. Yet shipments with Mr. Annan's go-ahead have included so-called relief items such as "boats" and boat "accessories" from France and "sport supplies" from Lebanon (sports in Iraq having been the domain of Saddam's Hussein's sadistic elder son, Uday)...

The quantities of goods involved in shipments are confidential, and almost all descriptions on the contract lists made public by the United Nations are so generic as to be meaningless. For example, a deal with Russia approved last Nov. 19 was described on the contract papers with the enigmatic notation: "goods for resumption of project." Who are the Russian suppliers? The United Nations won't say. What were they promised in payment? That's secret...

Bureaucratic lags notwithstanding, putting a veil of secrecy over tens of billions of dollars in contracts is an invitation to kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling done under cover of relief operations. Of course, with so little paperwork made public, it is impossible to say whether there has been any malfeasance so far — but I found nothing that would seem to contradict Gen. Tommy Franks's comment that the system should have been named the "oil-for-palace program." Why, for example, are companies in Russia and Syria — hardly powerhouses in the automotive industry — listed as suppliers of Japanese vehicles? Why are desert countries like Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia delivering powdered milk?

And then there is this menacing list of countries that supplied "detergent": Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Yemen and Sudan. Maybe all that multisourced soap was just a terrific bargain for doing the laundry. But there is no way for any independent parties — including the citizens of Iraq, whose money was actually spent on the goods — to know.

Mr. Annan's office does share more detailed records with the Security Council members, but none of those countries makes them public. There is no independent, external audit of the program; financial oversight goes to officials from a revolving trio of member states — currently South Africa, the Philippines and, yes, France.

As for the program's vast bank accounts, the public is told only that letters of credit are issued by a French bank, BNP Paribas. Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq, entitled to goods funded by 13 percent of the program's revenues, have been trying for some time to find out how much interest they are going to receive on $4 billion in relief they are still owed. The United Nations treasurer told me that that no outside party, not even the Kurds, gets access to those figures.

Then there is the program's compensation commission, which is supposed to dole out 25 percent of all oil-for-food proceeds to people and companies harmed by Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. It has so far dispensed $17.5 billion and approved a further $26.2 billion. Who decides on compensation claims? Commission members are picked from a "register of experts" supplied by Mr. Annan. One staff member told me that that this register cannot be released because it is "not public." The identities of the individual claimants are, of course, "confidential."

Another article on the subject from the U.K. Times: Saddam's billions from oil for food corruption

KICKBACKS from Iraq’s oil sales have run into billions of dollars because of loopholes in the United Nations Oil-for-Food system designed to feed the Iraqi people.
Diplomats said yesterday that Saddam Hussein’s regime sometimes exacted an illegal surcharge of as much as 55-75 cents (30-45p) a barrel on its daily oil sales of some two million barrels under the programme, although the amount was generally 15-25 cents.

“We thought they were getting at least $500 million a year in illegal kickbacks,” one Western official said.

The money funnelled to Baghdad helped to finance its banned weapons programmes, but it could also have been used to buy influence abroad...

The main beneficiaries were companies from Saddam’s political protectors at the United Nations, some of them trading companies with little more than a brass plate on the door.

Over the seven years of the Oil-for-Food programme, Russian companies got $7.3 billion of Iraqi business, almost twice as much as firms from any other country. Next on the list of leading trading partners were Egypt, with $4.3 billion; France, with $3.7 billion; and Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and China with $3 billion each.
Read the rest.

Spread the word folks, spread the word.

2003-04-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

In the May print issue of the Atlantic magazine:

Long Shot
An eccentric new company called Sea Launch is sending large rockets into space from a floating launch pad that sails to the Equator for blast-off. Has the era of private space travel begun?
by Gregg Easterbrook

2003-04-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

"I'm Right, You're Wrong, Go to Hell" Religions and the meeting of civilizations
by Bernard Lewis

2003-04-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

The House of Saud

Well this is an oldy but goody - if you haven't read it yet, read it now:

Saudi Arabia's Links to Terrorism: A briefing by Laurent Murawiec

also, the print version of The Atlantic magazine's May issue has a great article on the corruption of the Sauds. Alas not available online:
The Fall of the House of Saud
Americans have long considered Saudi Arabia the one constant in the Arab Middle East—a source of cheap oil, political stability, and lucrative business relationships. But the government is also deeply corrupt, and gives succor to terrorism. Now, a former CIA operative argues, the Saudi royal family is on the verge of collapse—and much of the global economy could collapse with it
by Robert Baer

2003-04-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

The April 2003 issue of Middle East Intelligence Bulletin is now fully accessible online

Contents:

SYRIA
Special Report:
The US-Syrian Crisis and the End of Constructive Engagement
The Bush administration's unprecedented use of coercive public diplomacy in the crisis with Syria suggests that the State Department's management of relations with Damascus has been definitively discredited.
Gary C. Gambill

Syria's Proxy Forces in Iraq
Syrian-backed terrorist groups and radical extremists have poured through the Syrian-Iraqi border to engage American forces in Iraq.
Ziad K. Abdelnour

LEBANON
Al-Manar and the War in Iraq
Hezbollah's television station has begun a propaganda campaign against American forces in Iraq patterned on its incitement of terrorism against Israel.
Avi J. Jorisch

Hezbollah Reportedly Acquires SA-18 SAMs
Hezbollah's reported acquisition of the SA-18 surface to air missile would dramatically improve its air defense capabilities.

IRAN
The Origins of Iran's Reformist Elite
Iran's reform movement is largely an outgrowth of factional politics and remains disconnected from the alienated masses.
Mahan Abedin

THE WAR ON TERROR
What's Wrong with American Spies?
Once the dust settles in Iraq, attention in Washington will turn again to intelligence reform, an issue that has sparked intense discussion inside (and outside) the beltway.
Thomas Patrick Carroll

TO SUBSCRIBE TO MEIB CLICK HERE

2003-04-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

British agents conducted illegal, secret war on IRA

An intelligence community that saw itself as above the law and free to indulge in extensive illegality, not excluding murder, was depicted yesterday in a damning report by Britain's most senior policeman.

Files on 26 Northern Ireland murders were examined by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, as part of his inquiry into collusion between intelligence agencies and loyalist killer gangs.

Hmmm. Mr. Blair, given your grave concern about Israel's fight against terrorists I'm sure you would agree that your own government's tactics vis a vis the IRA were unhelpful. Perhaps we should set up a roadmap to peace in the British Isles. Now let's see, who shall we choose as the quartet? You of course, will not be invited as a participant, we'll learn from your example of keeping the country most affected by the process out of the picture.

In this article, we have a most interesting bit of information:

Among those already identified as involved in collusion is Gordon Kerr, former director of a secretive British army intelligence arm called the Force Research Unit that sought to plant agents within the ranks of all Northern Ireland paramilitary groups.

Kerr, who until recently was Britain's military attache to China, today holds the rank of brigadier—equivalent to a one-star general—and is currently in Iraq.

In 1992 Kerr testified in court on behalf of Brian Nelson, who had been exposed by Stevens' first collusion probe as a British agent working undercover as the Belfast UDA's top intelligence officer—the person primarily responsible for identifying who should be shot and scouting where they would be most vulnerable.

Kerr testified at the time that Nelson saved scores of lives by passing on details of impending UDA attacks that the agent had helped plan.

Nelson was convicted of conspiring to murder several Catholics, but won an early parole from prison in 1997 and received a secret "safe house" in England. He died last week of a brain hemorrhage.

Let's see, the heat is turned up and someone who is quite important to the investigation dies of a brain hemorrhage. Now, am I the only one who finds this a bit too coincidental?

2003-04-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

A very happy Passover!

More Passover info here, here and here.

Lots of recipes in all the above links, and a few more here.

2003-04-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

In the face of evil don't keep silent.

Thousands of jubilant Iraqis, ready for a brand-new beat, dance in the street to celebrate the toppling of a brutal dictator whose tyranny has lasted 24 years but not 24 hours more. Preoccupied with the dramatic image of a noose around Saddam's neck as he is dragged to the ground in Baghdad's al-Fardous square (a 20-foot metal statue of Saddam, that is), the world largely overlooks the news of another dictator, Cuba's Fidel Castro, so far besting the Iraqi tyrant's run by 20 years and counting. Keep reading.

2003-04-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

Al Qaeda in Mexico Seek Entry to U.S. - Bill Gertz (Washington Times)

At least 14 al Qaeda members are said to be in Mexico, working with Mexican organized crime groups and attempting to infiltrate into the U.S. to conduct attacks.
Additionally, intelligence officials said captured al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed recently told U.S. officials that al Qaeda was planning to carry out a firebombing attack on Washington's Metrorail.

2003-04-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

Arab Volunteers Draw U.S. Scrutiny
Several thousand guerrilla fighters from Arab countries have flocked to Iraq in the past few weeks to join the battle against U.S. and British forces, with many of them now in the capital engaging in suicidal attacks, senior U.S. officers said Tuesday. They come from Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories. Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, expressed outrage at the tactics employed by Arab fighters and some of the Iraqi paramilitary members. "They literally hide behind women and children, holding them in their houses as they fire," he said. (Washington Post)

2003-04-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Palestinian Terrorist Training Camp Discovered in Iraq

U.S. Marines have discovered a large-scale terrorist training camp for the Palestinian Liberation Front, southwest of Baghdad, as well as documents indicating that Iraq sold weapons to the PLF for its fight against Israel as late as January. The hidden facility could accommodate at least 600 people at a time. "This proves the link between Iraq and terror groups," said Capt. Aaron Robertson, an intelligence officer. (Los Angeles Times)

Battles in Baghdad Pit U.S. against Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians -
According to reports, the defense of Baghdad is largely being carried out by some 5,000 Palestinian, Syrian, and Jordanian troops. Iraqis surrendering to U.S. forces have detonated explosive belts strapped to their bodies as the Americans approached them. A directive was issued to force all surrendering Iraqis to undress before approaching U.S. forces to prevent a recurrence of such incidents. (Jerusalem Post)

2003-04-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

"Be Strong Baghdad" - new Palestinian Authority music video

Palestinian Media Watch reports a new Palestinian Authority music video being broadcast repeatedly during the last few days on official Palestinian television glorifies the "heroic" fighting of the Iraqis and celebrates the casualties inflicted on the US forces. Pictured twice are scenes of US soldiers carrying away a body of a killed comrade, and the last picture in the video is a coffin draped with American and British flags.

The following refrain is sung repeatedly:

"Be strong, Baghdad, be strong
Pressure the evil ones.
Don't fear bombings and siege
Pull the trigger.
The despicable ones must go. "

The video shows numerous scenes of cheering Iraqis holding their automatic rifles aloft and includes Iraqis celebrating near a downed US helicopter.

The clip is named "Be Strong Baghdad" and the vocalist is the popular Palestinian singer
Jamal al-Najar.

[to view music video click on this link]

[Note: Whereas around the world music videos are used for entertainment, MTV type music videos are used by the Palestinian Authority as a primary tool in its hate indoctrination apparatus.]

to SUBSCRIBE to PMW's reports send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

2003-04-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

The US Army's 3rd infantry division, 2-7 Mechanized Infantry Brigade, is involved in a fierce battle with Palestinian and Jordanian gunmen in the industrial area of southern Baghdad.

The people shooting at US forces are using coordinated attacks using RPG's, suicide trucks, artillery, and sniper fire. Two journalists and two military personnel were killed in the coordinated attack by the Palestinian and Jordanian fighters.

Military sources are saying that they know from prisoners of war that the Palestinian and Jordanian fighters are attempting to reorganize Iraqi resistance in Baghdad.

The military sources called the gunmen "thugs".

There are some US casualties, but many more enemy casualties. Source.

2003-04-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

966 people murdered in the Congo: 966 people had been killed in summary executions by what witnesses believe were ethnic militias in the town of Drodro and nearby villages. Investigators who traveled to the area said they had seen at least 20 mass graves with blood and clothing scattered about. They also saw at least 49 survivors who were badly wounded.

I wonder if any newspaper has deemed this atrocity worthy of front page mention.

2003-03-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

France and Germany tied to slavery

The American Anti-Slavery Group expressed deep concern today over French and German policies of placing economic objectives ahead of the human rights of Southern Sudanese people forced into human bondage as part of the Sudanese government's genocidal jihad.

2003-03-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

America haters at Columbia University:
A Columbia University professor told thousands of students and faculty that he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" _ referring to the 1993 ambush in Somalia that killed 18 Americans and inspired the movie "Black Hawk Down."
The professor, Nicholas De Genova, also called for the defeat of U.S. forces in Iraq and said, "The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military." And he asserted that Americans who call themselves "patriots" are white supremacists.

2003-03-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

Regarding what to do with post war Iraqi oil, two great articles:

POWER TO THE PEOPLE -- THE IRAQI PEOPLE

The Bear's Lair: What to do with the oil

This reminds me of the successful Chilean transition to a privatized pension system. Also see this article by Jose Pinera, who as Chile's secretary of labor and social security, was the architect of that country's successful privatization of its pension system.

on the subject of energy check out the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, focused on Energy Security

2003-03-28T05:13:00.000-08:00

What's the U.S. military doing about radical Muslim soldiers?

Not enough.

Once you've read the above link, click here for more.

2003-03-27T13:52:00.000-08:00

Heh.

2003-03-27T13:43:00.000-08:00

Check this out!!
Protestwarrior.com, a website created to help arm the liberty-loving Silent Majority with ammo -- ammo that strikes at the intellectual solar plexus of the Left.

2003-03-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

A super flash photo pres dedicated to the soldiers of Operation Iraqi Freedom

2003-03-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

Saddam's bag of rotten tricks

2003-03-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

MURDER IN THE 101ST AIRBORNE

2003-03-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

Women on the front lines.

2003-03-26T05:02:00.000-08:00

US pounds Al-Qaeda base in northern Iraq

2003-03-26T04:57:00.000-08:00

The fragger - Muslim terrorist from the word go

Hasan Karim Akbar is the Muslim, Nation of Islam, convert who murdered his fellow soldiers in the 101st airborne.

Frank Gaffney writes about the Fifth Column in our midst.
Daniel Pipes writes: Murder in the 101st Airborne.

Here is a post from this fifth columner from 1994.
One quote from Akbar's 1994 post (found by an LGF poster) :

"May Allah, the Most Just, the Most Wise, the All-Knowing, the Most Merciful,
guide us to the straight path and make us the people who will reestablish the
Islamic State and make deen above all other ways of life."

2003-03-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

Is democracy like sex?

2003-03-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

How do you say "freedom of speech" in Arabic?

2003-03-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

How a terrorist enterprise was created, maintained, financed, and coordinated from the safety of the United States

By Steven Emerson

The indictment of the Islamic Jihad terrorist leadership operating out of
the United States since 1984 was unprecedented in scope and magnitude.
With 50 counts (166 pages), it revealed in fascinating detail the internal
conversations, discussions, planning and covert financing of one of the
most murderous terrorist enterprises in the world. It uncovered a world we
never get to see: how a terrorist enterprise was created, maintained,
financed, and coordinated from the safety of the United States.

From issuing communiques on behalf of suicide operations to arguing how
their monies were being spent by factions in the Islamic Jihad, the
indictment - spanning 19 years - shows a key to Islamic terrorists'
success in planting themselves in the heart of the West: the ability to
deceive the public, media and government in portraying themselves as part
of America's pluralist ethnic mosaic.

Islamic Jihad has been officially headquartered in Damascus, Syria, but
the indictment makes clear that its CEO was a professor at the University
of South Florida in Tampa, Sami Al-Arian - who ran the terror apparatus
under the guise of externally operating three seemingly innocent entities:
a Muslim academic institute, a Palestinian humanitarian-aid group and an
Islamic religious center. As yesterday's evidence makes staggeringly
clear, Al-Arian & Co. used these entities as a perfect cover to operate a
violent terrorist group that has killed more than 100 civilians, including
two Americans.

The indictment contains conversation after conversation of Al-Arian
conspiring with Islamic Jihad leaders outside the United States to
coordinate and finance the Islamic Jihad group. Count 42 states: "The
enterprise members, while concealing their association with PIJ [Palestine
Islamic Jihad], would and did seek to obtain support from influential
individuals in the United States under the guise of promoting and
protecting Arab rights. The enterprise members would and did make false
statements and misrepresent facts to representatives of the media to
promote the goals of PIJ."

Back in 1994, I produced and reported "Jihad in America," a PBS
documentary that exposed the secret Islamic Jihad cell that Al-Arian ran
from Tampa. I interviewed Al-Arian - who, of course, denied any terrorist
affiliation. But the documentary also revealed statements by Al-Arian
championing terrorism, the existence of Islamic Jihad publications
distributed from his office, the use of his academic institute as a cover
for Islamic Jihad and actual videos of Islamic Jihad terrorist conferences
he organized in the United States.

Virtually every national Islamic "civil rights" group - created with the
same guile that fostered the success of Al-Arian's organization -
responded by claiming that we were "attacking Islam" and that we were
stereotyping all Muslims. That pattern of obeisance to terrorism was
repeated yesterday following issuance of the indictment.

Hiding under the patina of promoting Arab and Muslim rights, these groups
gathered impressive supporters in the media, Congress and intelligentsia
who jumped on to the "Al-Arian is the victim" refrain, further emboldening
him to literally get away with murder.

The list of scoundrels who assiduously and systematically protected
Al-Arian's terrorist enterprise included then-Rep. David Bonior, Martin
Merzer of the Miami Herald, The St. Petersburg Times' Sue Aschoff and
countless others.

Al-Arian was so successful in his deception that he was invited to the
White House four times, meeting with both President Clinton and President
Bush.

In the end, Al-Arian succeeded in his deception via the same exact formula
that constrained the FBI - deterred by the fear of being accused of
"racial profiling" - from investigating Islamic militants training in U.S.
flight academies in the months before 9/11. This formula lies at the heart
of Western vulnerability to terrorist groups implanted in our midst. Al
Qaeda and Hamas used it in setting up Islamic "civil rights" groups and
charities throughout the '90s - designed to tar with the broad epithet of
"racism" anyone who would have exposed their secret terrorist connection.

The Justice Department demonstrated that the United States was not going
to sit quietly and allow this murderous deception to continue. Democracies
only act, a British politician once said, when there is blood in the
streets. For the last 10 years, rivers of blood have flooded Tel Aviv,
Jerusalem, New York and Washington. Unfortunately, the terrorist facade,
while damaged by the indictment yesterday and the series of post-9/11
effective one-two counter-terrorist punches by the Bush administration, is
still vibrant in the United States.

The terrorists had a good 10 years on us. Whether we are able to truly
dissipate their infrastructure in the future will depend on the response
that is forthcoming

2003-03-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

Palestinian Media Watch reports:

The Palestinian Authority [PA] has consistently seen Iraq as one of its closest allies and Palestinian enmity towards the United States dates back to the first Gulf war when Palestinians supported Iraq in their attack on Kuwait. Iraq has recently gained even more status in the PA due to Iraq’s support of their terror war with Israel. Especially prominent are the large financial grants that Saddam Hussein has given to families of suicide bombers in public ceremonies televised on PA TV.

For these reasons the PA as policy, has sided openly with Iraq the coming war and continues to send them messages of support combined with vicious expression of hatred directed toward the United States.

This past Friday, in the official Sermon on PA TV by religious figure Ibrahim Madiras, America is defined as “the foremost enemy of the Muslim nation” and is compared to Pharaoh of the Bible who said, according to Islamic tradition: “There is no God besides me….” The US war against Iraq is said to be an imperialist war over oil, and the war on terror is said to be the guise for the theft of the oil. Attacks on US policy appears regularly in the PA media.

The following is from the sermon:

“America is the first-degree enemy of the Palestinian people and the Islamic and Arab nations. Yes, America is the foremost enemy of this people. America is the foremost enemy of the Muslim nation, because it has started a war against this Arab, Islamic people… Iraq possesses far more oil … than the oil reserves in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and America wants to have control over the oil. Therefore it has created various methods and fabricated lies and deceit in order to enter into a war against Iraq…. America is behaving like Pharaoh at this time; I only see within America what we saw and heard from Pharaoh, the curse of God upon him. America is behaving like Pharaoh right now. It is telling the whole world: “There is no God besides me…” (Surat Alkatzetz, verse 38). The entire world is standing there saying ‘no’ to war against Iraq and ‘no’ to war against the Arab nation. Yet America is saying what Pharaoh said: “There is no God besides me….” [PA TV February 21, 2003]

to SUBSCRIBE to PMW's reports send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

2003-03-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

Palestinian Arabs use Ambulances for Terror Activities
Aslam Jabril, a Red Crescent ambulance driver, has been charged in the Beit El military court with using ambulances to transport guns and explosive belts to terrorists of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Nablus and Ramallah.

2003-03-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

Saudi-Funded U.S. Group Recruits for al Qaeda -
The Saudi-funded, al Qaeda propaganda machine is in full effect behind the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), an ostensibly mainstream organization that had five of its members arrested and indicted at the end of February. IANA receives half its funding from the Saudi government and the other half from mostly Saudi private donors, according to a New York Times interview with IANA's director, Mohammed al-Ahmari. Backed by the Saudis, IANA has become a glorified al Qaeda recruitment center. Two of the most radical sheiks in Saudi Arabia who provide religious justification for al Qaeda, Salman Al-Awdah and Safar al-Hawali, have several fatwas (religious rulings) and statements plastered all over IANA's websites that legitimize suicide bombings, terrorist attacks, and spit hatred towards the West. (National Review)

2003-03-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

The French Connection - William Safire
France, China, and Syria all have a common reason for keeping American and British troops out of Iraq: the three nations may not want the world to discover that their nationals have been illicitly supplying Saddam Hussein with materials used in building long-range surface-to-surface missiles. (New York Times)

2003-03-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

Palestinian Arabs Receive Checks from Saddam Hussein
Palestinian families received $245,000 in checks from Iraq on Wednesday. The family of a Palestinian suicide bomber received a check for $25,000. The other 22 families received $10,000 each. Officials of the Arab Liberation Front said Hussein has paid $35 million to the kin of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since September 2000. (Reuters/Washington Post)

2003-03-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

A brief excerpt from Hollywood and "Anti-war" (a more accurate term is pro-appeasment or pro-Saddam) Hypocrisy:

In fact, the Clinton administration was far less willing to seek approval from the United Nations for its bombing campaign than the Bush White House has been over Iraq. In criticizing the Bush team's decision to seek an 18th U.N. resolution to justify the use of force in Iraq, Richard Holbrooke, a Clinton U.N. ambassador, points out that "in a roughly similar situation, in 1999, the Clinton administration and our NATO allies decided to bomb Serbia (for 77 days) without even seeking U.N. approval, after it became clear that Russia would veto any proposal. This contrast with the supposedly muscular Bush administration is especially odd when one considers that Saddam Hussein is far worse than Slobodan Milosevic, and that Iraq has left a long trail of violated Security Council resolutions, while there were none in Kosovo."

Mr. Clinton himself now cautions against going to war in Iraq, but he seems to be having an argument with the man by the same name who occupied the White House for eight years. Here is President Clinton on Iraq in 1998: "What if Saddam fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction? . . . Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And someday, some way, I guarantee you he'll use the arsenal."

2003-03-13T16:31:00.000-08:00

From Honestreporting:

This week, Yasser Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas ("Abu Mazen") as prime
minister to run the day-to-day affairs of the Palestinians.

On Wednesday, Arafat then met in his Ramallah office with representatives
of Russia, the EU, and the UN, and demanded they put pressure on Israel --
now that he has agreed to share powers with a prime minister.

BBC reports on Arafat: "The Palestinian leader has thrown his weight
behind the reform process," and that "Mr Arafat
has been told that easing his grip on power is a key condition to restart
peace talks."

Actually, since Arafat hand-picked Abbas, it does not satisfy the world's
demand for the introduction of democratic reforms into the Palestinian
system.

And since it turns out that Arafat is maintaining control of two crucial
portfolios -- security and peace negotiations -- the Abbas appointment
does not satisfy President Bush's demand for "new leadership not
compromised by terror."

As the Jerusalem Post writes: "The whole American-European-Israeli idea
was to transform Yasser Arafat into a figurehead and transfer power to a
more palatable replacement. That, so far, is clearly not what is
happening."

---- Media Spin ----

Let's look at how the media is spinning this one.

For starters, The Guardian's Conal Urquhart (his real name) writes: "Mr
Abbas has the stature and ability to sign a peace deal independently..."

This assertion should come as quite a surprise to Arafat, who gave Abbas
no such "ability." (Comments to: letters@guardian.co.uk)

And The Independent (UK) trumpets this headline: "Palestinians Vote for
Powerful Premier" -

"Powerful"?! (Comments to: newseditor@independent.co.uk)

By contrast, the Chicago Tribune's headline spoke the plain truth:

"Arafat remains boss in deal to appoint prime minister: PLO chief keeps
reins on police, talks for peace"

---- Background: Who is Abbas? ----

Mahmoud Abbas holds a Ph.D. in history from Moscow's Oriental College,
where his doctoral thesis served as a basis for his 1984 book, "The Other
Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism." In this book,
Abbas raised doubts that gas chambers were used for extermination of Jews,
and suggested that the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust was "less
than a million."

Abbas also proposed the sickening, bizarre claim that the Holocaust was a
joint Zionist-Nazi plot. He wrote: "The Zionist movement led a broad
campaign of incitement against the Jews living under Nazi rule, in order
to arouse the government's hatred of them, to fuel vengeance against them,
and to expand the mass extermination."

It was this type of talk that led Austrian Freedom Party leader Jorg
Haider and French politician Jean Marie Le Pen to be ostracized by the
international community.

So how does BBC profile Abbas?

"A highly intellectual man, Abu Mazen [Abbas] studied law in Egypt before
doing a PhD in Moscow. He is the author of several books."

BBC offers no details of the appalling contents of Abbas' writings.

Meanwhile, much of the media is praising Abbas as a "moderate" for having
criticized the use of armed attacks against Israelis. The same BBC profile
reports: "Referring to the current intifada, Abu Mazen has called for a
halt to armed attacks on Israeli targets to avoid giving Israel a pretext
to destroy the last vestiges of Palestinian autonomy."

Note that Abbas does not oppose killing Israeli civilians from a moral
standpoint; he just finds it strategically ineffective.

Further, in a March 3 interview with the London-based "A-Sharq al-Awsat,"
Abbas called for the continuation of armed struggle, and seemed only to
rule out suicide missions inside the Green Line.

Comments to BBC at:
newsonline.complaints@bbc.co.uk

See a full report on Abbas' Holocaust revisionism here.

---- Palestinian Denial of the Holocaust ---

Yasser Arafat and the PA have systematically dismissed the horrors of the
Holocaust -- in speeches, television appearances, interviews and books --
both before and after the Oslo accords were signed.

The PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeedah, featured an article by Palestinian
author Nabil Salam, declaring:

"Since its establishment, the racist Zionist entity has been implementing
various forms of terrorism on a daily basis which are a repetition of the
Nazi terror. This proves the shared roots of Nazi and Zionist thought.
This also explains the cooperation between the Jews and Nazis during World
War II, through which was revealed the forged claims of the Zionists
regarding the alleged acts of slaughter perpetrated against the Jews
during the same period." (September 3, 1997)

A PA television moderator declared: "It is well-known that every year the
Jews exaggerate what the Nazis did to them. They claim there were 6
million killed, but precise scientific research demonstrates that there
were no more than 400,000." (August 25, 1997)

Hassan al-Agha, a professor at the Islamic University in Gaza City,
declared on PA television in 1997:

"The Jews view it [the Holocaust] as a profitable activity so they inflate
the number of victims all the time. In another ten years, I do not know
what number they will reach... As you know, when it comes to economics and
investments, the Jews have been very experienced ever since the days of
The Merchant of Venice."

Seif Ali Al-Jarwan, writing in the Palestinian newspaper Al Hayat
Al-Jadeeda, declared:

"They concocted horrible stories of gas chambers which Hitler, they
claimed, used to burn them alive. The press overflowed with pictures of
Jews being gunned down... or being pushed into gas chambers... The truth
is that such persecution was a malicious fabrication by the Jews." (July
2, 1998)

Furthermore, Palestinians have refused to incorporate any aspect of the
Holocaust into their educational curricula, fearing it might strengthen
Zionist claims to Palestine. Hatem Abd Al-Qader, a Hamas leader, explained
that such instruction would represent "a great danger for the formation of
a Palestinian consciousness"; it would directly threaten Palestinian
political dreams and religious aspirations, such as the promise by Allah
that the whole of Palestine was a sacred possession to the Arabs.
(Al-Risala, Apr. 13, 2000)

And finally, The New York Times (April 6, 1989) reports that Fuzi Salim
Ali Madi, one of the leaders of Arafat's elite unit, Fatah Force 17,
selected the moniker "Abu Hitler" and named his two sons "Eichmann" and
"Hitler."

Read more about "Palestinian Holocaust
Denial" in this article by Robert S. Wistrich.

2003-02-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

On March 2, 1973, thirty years ago, the US diplomats Cleo Noel and
George Curtis Moore were murdered by terrorists in Khartoum, Sudan.
Arafat was personally implicated.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, IsraPundit has
posted today (28 Feb, 2003) an exclusive interview with James J
Welsh, the US National Security Agency (NSA) analyst who covered this
case. The question of Arafat's involvement is elucidated in the
interview in detail.

2003-02-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Thank you Imshin for the welcome back :-) Was wondering if anyone noticed I was gone!

2003-02-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

IRAQIS WANT TO BE LIBERATED FROM THE BRUTAL TYRANNY OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
WOMEN FOR A FREE IRAQ.

2003-02-25T18:43:00.000-08:00

i hope the angelic do survive...

How evil are you?

2003-02-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

Reverend Jackson, let me speak! By Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, and editor of the Paris-based Politique Internationale.

spent part of last Saturday with the so-called "antiwar" marchers in London in the company of some Iraqi friends. Our aim had been to persuade the organizers to let at least one Iraqi voice to be heard. Soon, however, it became clear that the organizers were as anxious to stifle the voice of the Iraqis in exile as was Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

The Iraqis had come with placards reading "Freedom for Iraq" and "American rule, a hundred thousand times better than Takriti tyranny!"

But the tough guys who supervised the march would have none of that. Only official placards, manufactured in thousands and distributed among the "spontaneous" marchers, were allowed. These read "Bush and Blair, baby-killers," " Not in my name," "Freedom for Palestine" and "Indict Bush and Sharon."

Not one placard demanded that Saddam should disarm to avoid war.

The goons also confiscated photographs showing the tragedy of Halabja, the Kurdish town where Saddam's forces gassed 5,000 people to death in 1988.

We managed to reach some of the stars of the show, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, the self-styled champion of American civil rights. One of our group, Salima Kazim, an Iraqi grandmother, managed to attract the reverend's attention and told him how Saddam Hussein had murdered her three sons because they had been dissidents in the Ba'ath Party; and how one of her grandsons had died in the war Saddam had launched against Kuwait in 1990.

"Could I have the microphone for one minute to tell the people about my life?" 78-year old Salima demanded.

The reverend was not pleased.

"Today is not about Saddam Hussein," he snapped. "Today is about Bush and Blair and the massacre they plan in Iraq." Salima had to beat a retreat, with all of us following, as the reverend's gorillas closed in to protect his holiness.

..was it not amazing that there could be a rally about Iraq without any mention of what Saddam and his regime have done over almost three decades? Just a little hint, perhaps, that Saddam was still murdering people in his Qasr al-Nayhayah (Palace of the End) prison, and that as the Westerners marched, Iraqis continued to die?

THE IRAQIS would had much to tell the "antiwar" marchers, had they had a chance to speak. Fadel Sultani, president of the National Association of Iraqi authors, would have told the marchers that their action would encourage Saddam to intensify his repression.

"I had a few questions for the marchers," Sultani said. "Did they not realize that oppression, torture and massacre of innocent civilians are also forms of war? Are the antiwar marchers only against a war that would liberate Iraq, or do they also oppose the war Saddam has been waging against our people for a generation?"

Sultani could have told the peaceniks how Saddam's henchmen killed dissident poets and writers by pushing page after page of forbidden books down their throats until they choked.

Hashem al-Iqabi, one of Iraq's leading writers and intellectuals, had hoped the marchers would mention the fact that Saddam had driven almost four million Iraqis out of their homes and razed more than 6,000 villages to the ground.

"The death and destruction caused by Saddam in our land is the worst since Nebuchadnezzar," he said. "These prosperous, peaceful and fat Europeans are marching in support of evil incarnate." He said that, watching the march, he felt Nazism was "alive and well and flexing its muscles in Hyde Park."

Abdel-Majid Khoi, son of the late Grand Ayatollah Khoi, Iraq's foremost religious leader for almost 40 years, spoke of the "deep moral pain" he feels when hearing the so-called " antiwar" discourse.

"The Iraqi nation is like a man who is kept captive and tortured by a gang of thugs," Khoi said. "The proper moral position is to fly to help that man liberate himself and bring the torturers to book. But what we witness in the West is the opposite: support for the torturers and total contempt for the victim."

Khoi said he would say "ahlan wasahlan" (welcome) to anyone who would liberate Iraq.

"When you are being tortured to death you are not fussy about who will save you," he said.

Ismail Qaderi, a former Ba'athist official but now a dissident, wanted to tell the marchers how Saddam systematically destroyed even his own party, starting by murdering all but one of its 16 original leaders.

"Those who see Saddam as a symbol of socialism, progress and secularism in the Arab world must be mad," he said.

Khalid Kishtaini, Iraq's most famous satirical writer, added his complaint.

"Don't these marchers know that the only march possible in Iraq under Saddam Hussein is from the prison to the firing-squad?" he asked. "The Western marchers behave as if the US wanted to invade Switzerland, not Iraq under Saddam Hussein."

Keep reading.

2003-02-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

Blood Stained Belgium

A very personal j'accuse by a former Belgian Jew: The Belgians as true Europeans, By Isi Leibler

I spoke at a luncheon in the presence of delegates and guests. Suspending diplomatic niceties I confessed to the Belgians that I had strongly opposed holding a World Jewish Congress meeting in a city which had become the capital of the new anti-Semitism in Europe.

Here is what I said: "Your government, and particularly your foreign minister, Louis Michel, have employed such outrageous double standards against Israel that they warrant being described as anti-Semitic.

"Some of the allegations of atrocities against Israel were so outlandish that they were reminiscent of the Middle Ages when Jews were being accused of poisoning the wells and utilizing the blood of Christian children to make unleavened bread.

"Would you tolerate a neighboring territory orchestrating, funding, and blessing as 'holy martyrs' suicide murderers targeting your civilian population? Would you tolerate a situation in which Belgian women and children were terrified at being blown to pieces in your cafes and shopping centers? Would you tolerate street side celebrations by your neighbors sometimes just a few kilometers away, frequently displayed on your TV screens, rejoicing at the carnage that they had inflicted on your people?"

.."It is a mark of shame," I said "for your country - most of whose Jews were exterminated by the Nazis - to now stand at the forefront of actions designed to undermine the only democratic state in the Middle East; the state which also provided a haven to survivors of the Holocaust.

..THE RELATIONSHIP with Belgium has deteriorated considerably since the meeting described above. But the Ariel Sharon issue was the last straw. For a government whose predecessors were responsible for the murder of literally millions of Congolese citizens, to give the green light for a court to sit in judgment on Sharon is simply beyond belief.

Only a fool or a charlatan would suggest that this initiative was motivated by a na ve desire to promote human rights, especially having regard to the fact that this act was initiated 20 years after the events and conducted without reference to the Phalangists who actually carried out the massacres.

And of course this action must be seen in the context of a country which has effectively been leading the pack in demonizing Sharon while simultaneously defending Palestinian terror and extolling Yasser Arafat as a noble statesman fighting for human rights.
Keep reading.

Belgium refused to investigate suspected Nazi war criminals

Belgium, whose Supreme Court ruled that after he leaves office Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can be tried for war crimes stemming from the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in 1982, turned down requests to investigate alleged Nazi criminals in 1990 because of a statute of limitations.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office, said that in 1990 he submitted a list of 14 suspected Nazi war criminals who emigrated to Belgium after World War II, most of them from the Baltic states, to the Belgian Justice Ministry.

..The list of suspected Nazi war criminals Zuroff gave the Belgian authorities included Petras Kazlauskas, Jonas Vosylius, and Antanas Laurinavicius, who according to the Wiesenthal Center served in the 12th Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion which murdered thousands of Jews in Byelorussia. They left for Belgium in 1947.

In addition, the list included Jurgis Deksnis, who "played an active role in the murder of the Jews of Vilkaviskis [Lithuania]"; Jonas Kuzmickas, who "played an active role in the murder of the Jews of Alytus [Lithuania]"; Vaclovas Meskauskas, who "participated in the murder of the Jews of Kelme [Lithuania]"; Bronius Sprindys, who was a "participant in the murder of the Jews of Ukmerge [Lithuania]"; and Antanas Taujauskis, who "participated in persecution and murder of civilians in the Kaunas district [Lithuania]."

According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, when the Germans invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940, between 90,000 and 110,000 Jews lived there, of whom some 20,000 were German Jewish refugees; 25,631 of them were deported to extermination camps during the war, and only 1,244 returned.

2003-02-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

Info on the 8 Islamic Jihad Men Indicted in US Court on Terrorism Charges

Eight people, including four U.S. residents, were charged today in a 50-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Tampa, Fla. with supporting, financing and relaying messages for the Islamic Jihad.

Those arrested in the United States today were reportedly setting up a terrorist cell at the University of South Florida. They are:

- Al-Arian, the Florida college professor running the Islamic Jihad's U.S. operations. Al-Arian is a native of Kuwait and teaches engineering.

- Sameeh Hammoudeh, 42, born in the West Bank, now a resident of Temple Terrace, Fla. He also is an instructor at the University of South Florida and administrator at the Islamic Academy of Florida.

-Hatim Naji Fariz, 30, born in Puerto Rico and now living in Spring Hill, Fla. He is a manager at a medical clinic.

-Ghassan Zayed Ballut, 41, a West Bank native now living in Tinley Park, Ill., and owner of a small business.

Four men who live abroad were also charged. It is not clear as yet whether they have been arrested as well. They are:

-Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, 45, a Gaza Strip native and now resident of Damascas, Syria. He is described as the worldwide leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and is a former instructor at the University of South Florida.

-Bashir Musa Mohammed Nafi, 50, originally from Egypt and now living in Oxfordshire, England. The indictment describes him as the United Kingdom leader of the group.

-Mohammed Tasir Hassan Al-Khatib, 46, originally from the Gaza Strip and now living in Beirut; described as the treasurer of the organization.

-Abd AL Aziz Awda, 52, born in Israel and now imam of the Al Qassam Mosque in Gaza Strip. The indictment calls him the founder and "spiritual leader" of the group.

Background Information on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Brief Overview: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad originated among militant Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the 1970’s. It is committed to Jihad for the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. The United States - which included the PIJ on its list of terrorist organizations - has been identified as an enemy of the PIJ. The PIJ also opposes moderate Arab governments that it believes have been influenced by Western secularism. The PIJ has killed approximately 150 people in past eight years, and has carried out hundreds of attacks, including the August 9th, 2002 Sbarro pizzeria suicide bombing in Jerusalem which killed 15 and injured 130 people.

The PIJ's headquarters are based in Damascus, Syria. Until the IDF Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002, the PIJ's infrastructure in Jenin was the strongest in the Palestinian Authority territories, mostly due to the massive financial aid it received for its activities from the PIJ leadership in Syria. The PIJ infrastructure suffered a severe blow with the death of the head of the military infrastructure in Jenin, Mahmud Tu'albe (who was involved in multiple terrorist attacks inside Israel), and the arrest of senior operatives.

List of Terror Attacks Carried Out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad

History: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini) was founded in 1979-80 by Palestinian students in Egypt, who had split from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip. The founders were highly influenced by the Islamic revolution in Iran on the one and hand, and the radicalization and militancy of Egyptian Islamic student organizations, on the other.

The founders - Fathi Shqaqi, `Abd al-`Aziz `Odah and Bashir Musa - were disappointed by the supposed moderation of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and what they considered the neglect by the Egyptian Islamists of the priority that should be given to the Palestinian problem. Shqaqi and Musa, therefore, proposed a new ideological program, which became the basis for the new organization. They claimed that the unity of the Islamic world was not a precondition for the liberation of Palestine, but on the contrary, the liberation of Palestine by the Islamic movements was the key to the unification of the Arab and Islamic world. In other words: the Jihad for the liberation of Palestine by Islamic movements will bring upon the expected Jihad for the reconstruction of the greater and one Islamic state.

The admiration of the three Palestinian militants for the Islamic revolution in Iran was at that time unique of its kind in the Arab world and among the Islamic Sunni movements. Not only did they consider the Iranian revolution as a model for the Arab world, but they accepted the principle of "the leadership of the men of religion" (vilayet-i-faqih) although it was a Shi'ite concept. Shqaqi was also the first in the Arab Sunni world to write, already in March 1979, a book glorifying Khomeini and the Iranian revolution, which was banned by the Egyptian authorities.

This group of Palestinian students maintained close relations with radical Islamic Egyptian students, some of whom were involved in the assassination of president Sadat, in October 1981. As a result, the Palestinian Islamic radicals were expelled from Egypt and returned to the Gaza Strip, where they formally began their activity as an Islamic Jihad organization.

The faction was involved in subversive and terrorist activity in the Territories in the 1980s. During the year 1987, prior to the Intifada, it carried out several terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip. In August 1988 the two faction`s leaders, Shqaqi and `Odah, were expelled to Lebanon, where Shqaqi reorganized the faction, maintaining close contacts with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards unit stationed in Lebanon and with Hizballah. Shqaqi expanded the political connections of the faction and became a prominent member of the new Rejection Front which emerged after the Israeli- Palestinian Oslo agreement, under Syrian influence.

Shqaqi was killed in October 1995 in Malta, allegedly by Israeli agents. His successor is Dr. Ramadan `Abdallah Shalah, who has resided several years in Florida, U.S.A, and moved to Damascus at the beginning of 1996. Shalah has not the charisma and the intellectual and organizational skills as Fathi Shqaqi and this has influenced the organization's position and activity.

The group has been active on the political scene in the Territories, mainly in the Gaza Strip, among students and intellectuals. Until the foundation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, the Islamic Jihad groups did not have connections to Hamas, and were regarded even as rivals in the Gaza Strip. Since then, and mainly after Hamas switched to the strategy of suicide terrorist bombings, there was some operational cooperation between the two organizations in carrying out attacks like the one in Beit-Lyd, in February 1995, or in coordinating simultaneous terrorist attacks. Shqaqi 's death undermined the PIJ's position in the Territories and Hamas no longer sees it as a threatening rival.

The group has offices in Beirut, Damascus, Tehran and Khartoum, but its activity is focused in Lebanon, where there are several tens of Palestinian members. It has some influence in the Gaza Strip, mainly in the Islamic University, but not in a way that can endanger the dominant position of Hamas as the leading Islamic Palestinian organization.

During the 1980s several other groups of Palestinian Islamic Jihad were formed, but the main faction which has survived is the group founded by Shqaqi.

(Source: The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya)

Additional background Information

The Islamic Jihad Terror Infrastructure in Jenin and the Role of its Damascus Office

The Islamic Jihad:The Imperative of Holy War (An in-depth analysis of the terrorist group by Boaz Ganor, Excecutive Director of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.)

2003-02-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

JIHAD WORLDWIDE

Venezuelan Islamist charged in London for carrying live hand-grenade at airport

Hasil Mohammed Rahaham-Alan, 37, appeared at Bow Street Magistrates Court charged with possession of an explosive, possession of an article for terrorist purposes, and carrying a dangerous item on a flight. He was arrested last week during a huge security alert that saw the army station more than 400 troops at Heathrow airport, west of London. Police said Rahaham-Alan had a Venezuelan passport and arrived on a flight from Caracas.

2003-02-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

Huge weapons stash uncovered in Gaza Strip. The Islamic terrorists' arsenal included 250 kg (550 pounds) of explosives and a ready to use explosive belt

2003-02-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

Tragedy in South Korea: arsonist murdered about 100 people inside a South Korean subway train.

2003-02-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

The German government suppressed evidence of small pox virus arsenals in Iraq for months, fearing such news could undermine Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder's re-election campaign, according to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

2003-02-16T22:57:00.000-08:00

the term "unilateral" in reference to the campaign to disarm Iraq is incorrect. This is as multilateral as it gets:

The prime ministers of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the U.K., Hungary, Poland and Denmark, and the Czech president recently voiced their unequivocal support for the U.S.' campaign to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein in an eloquent article.

The Vilnius 10--Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, followed with a similar statement.

If anyone is behaving unilaterally it is the members of the Axis of Weasels, France, Germany, and Belgium, who for the sake of their existing oil contracts and lucrative arms deals with Iraq, are willing to condemn the Iraqis to continued death and torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein.

2003-02-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

"The boy is gone," eulogized Benni Bahagon after he hoarsely croaked out the Mourner's Kadish for his son, his face contorted in agony.

2003-02-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

The New York Times finds a backbone. Via Andrew Sullivan.

2003-02-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

The PRICE of their "PEACE"

2003-02-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

"American prosperity, democracy and security all hinge on a cheap, clean, uninterrupted flow of energy. Today, we are dependent for our energy on regimes that derive their power from oil and use it to fuel terror and spread hatred toward our country and our democracy. A shift from oil is the best weapon against America's enemies and the best guarantor of prosperity, freedom and security for generations to come. We do not need to give up our cars or curtail our driving freedom. Through technology we can shake the yoke of our energy dependence without compromising our way of life."

IT'S TIME TO SET AMERICA FREE.

"Today I ask a this question, one that should dictate American energy policy for the 21st century: Why are we importing oil from countries that are exporting lethal terrorism by groups who hate our freedoms and despise our way of life? [..] It is time we seek out new partnerships. It is time we find new sources of production. It is time we turn America's imagination, technology, and ingenuity loose. America, it is time we turn off the spigots of terrorist oil. [..] This requires bold leadership to redefine the National priority. [..]

A great Nation assumes the challenges that accompany a great cause. America has never shied from the leadership of challenge. In the arsenal of the American spirit is the American ability to overcome great barriers. We must act now to fasten that spirit to our backs and move ahead. This new psyche can empower America. This new psyche can embolden our allies to action. Action and inaction, challenge and ease have always been the two paths of mankind. Fellow citizens, we will choose the paths of action and challenge with boldness and determination, convinced by the rightness of our convictions and hopeful of the changes to come. In all that must be done, I know that America is ready and able to conquer this challenge."
Senator Conrad Burns, Montana (R), September 12, 2002

"The wealth produced by oil underlies the power of the three totalitarian movements in the Middle East that have chosen to make war on us: the ruling Iraqi Baathists and Iranian mullahs, and al Qaeda, which was spawned by Saudi money. [..] We are at war. We should start by asking what we can do, as soon as possible, to undercut our enemies' power. Other considerations should now follow, not lead. [..] If we do not act now, we will leave major levers over our fate in the hands of regimes that have attacked us or have fallen under the sway of fanatics who spread hatred of the U.S., and indeed of freedom itself. [..] For all of them, their power derives from their oil. It is time to break their sword."

R. James Woolsey, CIA Director, 1993-95, Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2002

SET AMERICA FREE.

2003-02-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

BELGIUM - THE BLOOD OF THE CONGO STAINS YOUR HANDS.

First - If you haven't yet, read this article by Bret Stephens regarding Indirect Responsibility.

The Belgians see themselves as having the moral right to try Sharon. History, however, teaches us a different lesson:

"An open space in the South Congolese jungle, January 17th, 1961. Illuminated by
some headlights, the Belgian captain gives the order to open fire. A thunderous
salvo of rifle fire echoes through the jungle. Almost immediately Patrice Lumumba,
the Congo's first and only democratically elected Prime Minister and two of his ministers fall to the ground, mortally wounded." Source.

"along with the uncounted thousands who died of disease and famine, many Congolese were killed by Leopold's agents for failing to meet production quotas for ivory and rubber, the territory's principal sources of wealth before its diamonds, copper and zinc were discovered. Mr. Hochschild estimates the total death toll during the Leopold period at 10 million." Source.

"Two cases (of mutilation) came to my actual notice while I was in the lake district. One, a young man, both of whose hands had been beaten off with the butt ends of rifles against a tree; the other a young lad of 11 or 12 years of age, whose right hand was cut off at the wrist. . . . I both these cases the Government soldiers had been accompanied by white officers whose names were given to me. Of six natives (one a girl, three little boys, one youth, and one old woman) who had been mutilated in this way during the rubber regime, all except one were dead at the date of my visit." Source.

Israeli Civil Rights Group Seeks Prosecution of Former Belgian Officials for Murder of African Leader (IMRA)

In 1960, the Congo won independence from Belgium and elected Patrice Lumumba as their first prime minister. In December 1960, Lumumba was arrested and on January 17, 1961, he was dragged from his cell and brutally tortured by Belgian police officials. In the evening he was brought, along with two other members of his party, before a police firing squad and executed.
A Brussels-appointed governmental commission found that Belgium was indeed responsible for the African leader's killing in 1961. The Government of Belgium offered an official apology to the Lumumba family, but no individuals were prosecuted for the crime.

See also Lawmaker Seeks to Prosecute Belgians over Congo - Gideon Alon (Ha'aretz)

2003-02-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Free Voices of Iraq
is a series of Perspectives by Iraqi political activists, essays in which they speak out about Saddam Hussein’s persecution of the Iraqi
people and the prospects for bringing democracy and freedom to a post-Saddam Iraq.

"Saddam Hussein himself is a weapon of mass destruction. Disarmament is not enough… His ongoing wars against the Iraqi people must be stopped.”

Safia Taleb Al Souhail, Advocacy Director for the Middle East and Islamic World at the International Alliance for Justice, www.i-a-j.org, a human rights advocacy group. She shares the stories of six Iraqi women who met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair last December to brief him on the Ba’ath regime’s persecution of their
communities.

"Removing Saddam Hussein would liberate the Iraqi people’s energy and talents so that they may be directed towards good, not evil.”

Rend Rahim Franke, the Executive Director of the Iraq Foundation, (www.iraqfoundation.org) a non-profit organization working for democracy in Iraq. She discusses the prospects for democracy in Iraq and argues that a free Iraq would act as a catalyst for democracy in the Middle East.

"All of the Iraqi opposition is united around two common goals: The removal of Saddam Hussein, and the creation of democracy in Iraq. We welcome the United States’ leadership in helping us to achieve these goals.”
Entifadh K. Qanbar, the Director of the Washington, D.C. office of the Iraqi National Congress, www.inc.org.uk, a coalition of Iraqi opposition groups. He calls on United States to commit itself to supporting a democratic Iraq post-Saddam, and forge a new kind of relationship with an Arab state whose political legitimacy will be based on the consent of its people, not the power of its rulers.

"When the President of the United States drives through Baghdad in his limousine, the streets will be filled with thousands of Iraqis waving American and Iraqi flags."
Dr. Barham Salih, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, www.puk.org. He explains that a military intervention to remove Saddam Hussein would not be a war on Iraq, but a liberation of Iraq, and points to the success of Kurdish self-rule in the no-fly zones as a model for Iraq’s democratic future.

AN IRAQI GUARDIAN READER WRITES:

"I write this to protest against all those people who oppose the war against Saddam Hussein, or as they call it, the "war against Iraq". I am an Iraqi doctor, I worked in the Iraqi army for six years during Iraq-Iran war and four months during Gulf war. All my family still live in Iraq. I am an Arab Sunni, not Kurdish or Shia. I am an ordinary Iraqi not involved with the Iraqi opposition outside Iraq.

I am so frustrated by the appalling views of most of the British people, media and politicians. I want to say to all these people who are against the possible war, that if you think by doing so you are serving the interests of Iraqi people or saving them, you are not. You are effectively saving Saddam. You are depriving the Iraqi people of probably their last real chance get rid of him and to get out of this dark era in their history. . . .

Where were you while Saddam has been killing thousands of Iraqis since the early 70s? And where are you are now, given that every week he executes people through the "court of revolution", a summary secret court run by the secret security office. Most of its sentences are executions which Saddam himself signs.

I could argue one by one against your reasons for opposing this war. But just ask yourselves why, out of about 500,000 Iraqis in Britain, you will not find even 1,000 of them participating tomorrow? Your anti-war campaign has become mass hysteria and you are no longer able to see things properly."
(link to this Guardian article via Instapundit.)

Things aren't always what they seem:

France and Germany. Follow the money.
BY KHIDHIR HAMZA:

My 20 years of work in Iraq's nuclear-weapons program and military industry were partly a training course in methods of deception and camouflage to keep the program secret. Given what I know about Saddam Hussein's commitment to developing and using weapons of mass destruction, the following two points are abundantly clear to me: First, the U.N. weapons inspectors will not find anything Saddam does not want them to find. Second, France, Germany, and to a degree, Russia, are opposed to U.S. military action in Iraq mainly because they maintain lucrative trade deals with Baghdad, many of which are arms-related. Keep reading.

How many of those who say they are unreservedly in support of the Khmer revolution would consent to endure one hundredth part of the present sufferings of the Cambodian people? --François Ponchaud, 1977

How many of those who say they unreservedly opposed to liberating Iraq would consent to endure one hundredth part of the present sufferings of the Iraqi people?

2002-11-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

Save the Children demands that the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, appoint a committee to investigate the deliberate targeting of children by Palestinian terror organisations. Such activity is a War Crime under the Geneva Convention.

The High Commissioner's address is: OHCHR-UNOG, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland.

His telephone number in Geneva is (41-22) 917-9000.

His fax number is (41-22) 917 9010.

Every reader and every blogger should phone him up and ask him when he is going to investigate this war crime against children.

2002-11-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

SAVE THE CHILDREN

2002-11-13T14:07:00.000-08:00

The tide of unrest in Iran is rising and looks like it will vomit the mullahs on the shores of destruction. let's hope this is the beginning of the end for the Islamist dictators of Iran.

2002-11-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

Why the Left Really Hates Israel
By Dennis Prager November 13, 2002

Why does the left support the Palestinians against Israel?

The question is rarely asked. It is simply taken for granted
that the left -- Europe, the Western news media, the universities, the
liberal churches, the arts world -- supports the Palestinians and the
larger Arab/Muslim worlds in their war against Israel.

But the question does need to be asked. For it is completely
inconsistent with the left's professed values to side with
Israel's enemies. Just about every value the left claims to
uphold Israel upholds and its enemies do not.

The left speaks about its passion for democracy ("power to the
people"). Yet it is Israel that is a fully functioning democracy, as
opposed to all of its Arab and Muslim enemies. Yasser Arafat is
precisely the self-aggrandizing, corrupt dictator-type that the left
claims to hold in contempt.

The left claims to have particular concern for women's rights.
Yet it is Israel that has as highly developed a feminist
movement as that of any Western country. It is Israel that
conscripted women into its armed forces before almost any
Western country. At the same time, the state of women's rights
among Israel's Muslim enemies is perhaps the lowest in the
world.

The left's greatest current preoccupation is with gay rights.
Yet it is Israel that has annual gay pride days, while Egypt
and other Arab and Muslim countries arrest homosexuals.

It is Israel that has an independent and highly liberal
judiciary. It is Israel that has a leftist press. It is Israel
that has been governed more by leftist, even socialist, parties
than by rightist ones. Israel's enemies have none of this.

So, why isn't the left out there leading pro-Israel
demonstrations?

The answer is as important as it is contemptible.

In general, the left does not care about women, independent
judiciaries, minorities, democracy, gays or almost anything
else for which it marches. That is why the left opposed
America's war in Afghanistan, which liberated women from
being treated like animals.

Nearly all the causes the left speaks for are noble-sounding
covers for its real agenda -- the overthrowing of Western,
especially Judeo-Christian and capitalist, values. Remember
the chant at Stanford, "Hey, hey, ho ho, Western civ has got
to go"? That is what animates the left.

In psychoanalytic terms, it is antagonism to one's father
and his values. In a commencement speech he gave this year,
the former president of Dartmouth College, James O. Freedman,
a man of the left, said that the purpose of a college
education is "to question your father's values." Those of
us not on the left believe that the purpose of a college
education is to discover what is true and what is good.

America embodies all that the left dislikes. It is the most
religious of the industrialized democracies (proudly and
uniquely Judeo-Christian). It is also the most capitalist.
And, what drives the left especially crazy is that with
all this religion and capitalism, America is the most powerful
force on earth -- economically, militarily and culturally.

Israel is Little America. It, too, is religious (though a
secular state like the United States, it is proudly Jewish).
It, too, celebrates capitalism. There are no demonstrations
in Israel against McDonald's. On the contrary, even before
McDonald's opened there, Hebrew replicas like "McDavid's"
were established.

And Israel, like America, celebrates its national identity,
not the "world" identity that the left affirms. The left
loathes nationalism unless it is anti-Western, like Palestinian
or Cuban. America does not jump to attention when world
treaties are signed and Israel is the U.N.'s pariah, rendering
America and Israel the left's "axis of evil," far more reviled
than Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

The question, "Why does the left support the Palestinians?"
is an extremely important one. At this time in history nothing
so illustrates the left's nihilism as does its support of the
Palestinians against Israel.

2002-11-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

How YOU can help defeat terror.

Wow. Read THIS as a followup.

2002-11-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

Muslims who wish to speak up against the Saudi culture of hate are silenced by the American Muslim establishment (which is financed by the Saudis.)

2002-11-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

Ross Getman discusses Al Qaeda, Anthrax, and Ayman Zawahiri.

2002-10-29T00:30:00.000-08:00

Tacoma police Monday named D.C.-area sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo as suspects in Tacoma killing earlier this year and said a weapon possibly used by one of them was involved in the vandalism of a local synagogue. The slaying victim was a 21-year-old woman found shot to death in her home with her 6-month-old unattended in a nearby bedroom.

2002-10-29T00:22:00.000-08:00

Eight Lebanese immigrants to Australia have been convicted for a series of gang rapes involving four young women. Their family believes they should not be punished for rape, and that the only thing they did wrong is having sex out of wedlock, for which they should be judged by Muslim law. Read the interview.

2002-10-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering what the goal of Jihadis is? When they will consider their grievances addressed and back off? Click here.

Any questions?

2002-10-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

A woman's right to defend herself.

2002-10-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

On Monday, Dr Amir Aziz was detained in Lahore, Pakistan by Pakistani and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials. Amir is said to be wanted by the US in connection with allegations that he supplied anthrax spores and biochemical weapons formulae to Islamist terrorists. He has also openly admitted to treating Osama bin Laden, as well as wounded Taliban, al-Qaeda and militant fighters in Kashmir.

Why is this not in the news?
Why are those who were so busy pushing the lone-white-guy-mad-scientist theory regarding the Anthrax mailings, not discussing this? Why??? More here.
Read this too: Who Is Syed Athar Abbas?

2002-10-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

Complicit in murder rape and torture: a canadian oil company.
The Presbyterian Church of Sudan vs. Talisman Energy, Class Action Lawsuit
"The complaint charges Talisman with violations of international law for participating in the Sudanese Government's ethnic cleansing of Christian and other non-Muslim minorities in areas of southern Sudan where Talisman is exploring for oil", according to Carey R. D'Avino, a director of the American Anti-Slavery Group, and Stephen A. Whinston, attorneys for the plaintiffs.
Rev. John Sudan Gaduel, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Sudan in Bentiu, has had churches in his Parishes bombed, church leaders slain and villages annihilated by helicopter gunships to clear the way for oil exploration. He says "Talisman is on the front lines of human rights abuses in southern Sudan and it is time they are held accountable for their role in the brutal 'jihad' that is killing my people and creating millions of refugees."
The complaint alleges that Talisman is engaged in an "unholy alliance" with the National Islamic Front Government of Sudan by knowingly participating in the Government's campaign of ethnic cleansing, to create a cordon sanitaire around Talisman's oil exploration, extraction and transportation infrastructure. Talisman continues to provide financial and logistical support for the Sudanese military knowing that the armed forces are engaged in a "jihad" against the non-Islamic civilians in the south. The roads and airfields built and maintained by Talisman serve as strategic military assets for the Sudanese armed forces who use them to launch bombing runs and ground attacks on civilian targets in violation of international law. Oil revenues not only earn Talisman significant profits, they also provide a war chest for the Government to purchase weapons and build munitions factories for its "jihad" against the south, which has resulted in 2 million civilian deaths, 4 million civilian refugees, and the enslavement of innocent men, women and children.
According to D'Avino and Whinston, "Talisman, a New York Stock exchange company, cannot be allowed to profit from its partnership with a morally corrupt government. Corporations cannot simply hire thugs to protect their operations and then feign surprise when the thugs commit a crime. At some point, respect for human rights and international law must not be sacrificed for the sake of the corporation's bottom line."

2002-10-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

Khaled Abu Toameh reports: Masked men belonging to [Arafat's] Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades shot dead Haifa Sultan, 39, in Nablus on Friday night after accusing her of collaboration with Israel.
"She shouted and cried that she was innocent but they shot her in the head and she died instantly," said a resident of the casbah.
Her younger sister, Adibeh, was also accused of collaboration and was shot in the legs. One Fatah activist said the plan was to kill the two women, "but for some reason the younger sister was only injured. There is a debate now whether she too should be killed. Some say she should be taken out hospital and executed while others claim she is innocent."

Someone remind me again why is it that "liberals" support Arafat?

2002-10-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

Russians Probe Chechen-al Qaeda Link - Christina Lamb and Ben Aris (Telegraph - UK)
A number of Arab fighters, believed to be of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni origin, were among the group that seized control of the Moscow theater. "There were definitely Arab terrorists in the building with links to al Qaeda," said a senior Western diplomat.
Suspicions about al Qaeda's connection deepened after the Chechens broadcast a pre-recorded message on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television network, which is frequently used by bin Laden and his lieutenants. Russian officials said that the hostage-takers had made several calls to the United Arab Emirates during the siege.

Israeli SWAT Founder Commends Moscow Rescue (Reuters)
The founder of Israel's premier counter-terrorist unit has commended the Russian handling of the Moscow theater siege and said the casualties from gas inhalation were unavoidable.
"In such rescue operations, one or two dead hostages out of a dozen is considered a success. The same can be said of 100-odd dead out of 800," said Assaf Hefetz, formerly Israel's national police chief, who set up and commanded the Israeli police unit known as Yamam.
"They had an unprecedented dilemma of having to free so many people when faced by so many terrorists. Any hold-up could have meant one of the suicide bombers taking the whole building down. By neutralizing everyone in there, the Russians took the only alternative to surrender," added Hefetz.

2002-10-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

We interrupt this broadcast for an Action Alert from the National Women's Health Network: Keep your grubby hands off my body:

URGENT ACTION NEEDED -- FDA Reproductive Health
Drugs Advisory Committee Chair: Bush Selection Favors Prayer for PMS and Opposes the Use of Contraception by Unmarried Women

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Hager is a practicing
obstetrician-gynecologist, and sources told Time magazine that in his private practice he will not prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. He is also the author of a book which suggests that women
who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying.

The Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee is responsible for offering expert scientific and medical advice to the FDA on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics,
gynecology, and related specialties. The committee's
responsibilities include all contraceptive drugs and drugs used in performing medical abortion as well as drugs used for
infertility treatments, hormone replacement therapy and
labor and delivery.

Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Women rely on the FDA to ensure their access to safe and effective drugs for reproductive health care including products that have been proven to help safely prevent pregnancy. For some women - such as those with certain types of diabetes and those undergoing treatment for cancer - pregnancy can be a life-threatening condition. Religion should not be a barrier to access to safe and effective drugs that are necessary for preserving and promoting women's health and
protecting women's lives. There is no place at the FDA for someone who, based on religious beliefs, would deny unmarried women access to technologies which are a part of mainstream medical care and to which all women have a legal right.

To appoint a person who advocates religion as a treatment for medical conditions to such an influential position at the agency responsible for regulation of medical drugs is to deprive the FDA and the women who rely on it of the scientific and medical expertise they deserve.

The National Women's Health Network urges you to email President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov or call the White House at 202-456-1111.

Sample Sript: "I oppose the appointment of Dr. Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and ask the president to select a committee chair with a track record of making
medical decisions based on science instead of religion."

If you send an email please send a copy to the National Women's Health Network office at jwashington@womenshealthnetwork.org.

2002-10-28T01:46:00.000-08:00

APEC toughens anti-terror stanceThe 21 members of the Asian Pacific economic summit have agreed to a series of counter-terrorism measures aimed at protecting transport, finance and information systems.

2002-10-28T01:38:00.000-08:00

At least 13 Maoist rebels and a soldier were killed in Nepal when the guerrillas, fighting against constitutional monarchy, tried to raid a rural airport.
Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't still have to deal with communists? What's with these people? Haven't they gotten the message that communism in addition to being an evil system was a miserable failure?

2002-10-28T01:33:00.000-08:00

You wouldn't know it from reading this CNN report: Over 20 die in suspected rebel attack
but I did some digging and looks to me like those "rebels" may actually be Islamic militants. A shock, I know.

2002-10-28T01:10:00.000-08:00

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - AUSTRALIA
The Australian government has officially listed Jemaah Islamiya (JI) as a terrorist organization amid reports the group has targeted northern Australia to form part of an Islamic superstate. The group headed by Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, is responsible for the October 12 bombings in Bali which killed more than 180 people, the majority of them Australian tourists.

2002-10-28T01:04:00.000-08:00

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - American diplomat shot dead near his home in Amman, Jordan
The diplomat had been identified as Lawrence Foley of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "Gunmen sprayed the diplomat with several shots, killing him instantly." USAID is the main American agency for providing international disaster relief, helping poor countries and promoting democratic reforms.

2002-10-28T00:58:00.000-08:00

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - INDONESIA
Hundreds of supporters of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir have clashed with police as he was taken from an Indonesian hospital for questioning over links to a terrorist network blamed for the bombings in Bali.

2002-10-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - ISRAEL
An Arab terrorist murdered 3 Israelis and wounded 20 people in a suicide bomb attack at the gas station at the entrance to Ariel.
The dead were identified as Lt. Matan Zagron, 22, of Itamar and Maj. (res.) Tamir Masad, 41, of Ben-Shemen. The name of the third victim, a 31-year-old resident of a community in Samaria wasn't released for publication late Sunday night.
As of Sunday night, 15 soldiers and civilians remained hospitalized, three in serious but stable condition. The IDF Spokesman said two soldiers were seriously wounded and eight suffered moderate to light wounds.
Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and later Hamas claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

Close to 11:30 a.m., a female worker at the restaurant at the gas station spotted the terrorist, who entered Ariel through a gate that had until recently remained closed.
Local resident David Gilboa and a security guard approached the terrorist, grabbed his arms and pinned him on the ground, and alerted soldiers standing nearby. Several soldiers raced toward the terrorist, aimed their weapons, and fired.
Shahar Keshet, a student at the Ariel College, had just filled his car and was leaving the gas station when he heard shouting.
"I saw the owner of the gas station jump someone, wrestling with him and calling out that he was a terrorist. I jumped out of my car and cocked my gun and raced toward them. We held his arms and I kicked his head, and soldiers also kicked his head so he would lose consciousness. We struggled with him, and when we spotted the belt of explosives, I shot him once or twice in the head," he told reporters from his bed in Beilinson Hospital.
Keshet, who suffered shrapnel wounds, said that a moment later there was an explosion, and that he thought one of the soldiers had shot the terrorist in the chest.
His girlfriend, Nofar Amitai, told reporters that she fled from the car fearing an explosion after she heard cries that the terrorist was wearing a belt of explosives.
"I heard soldiers arguing whether to kill the terrorist or not... Shahar shot him in the head and another soldier shot the terrorist in the chest after spotting the explosives... There was an explosion... I was hysterical, I couldn't find Shahar... It took me a long time to calm down," she told Channel 2.
Bus driver Laizee Biton said he arrived to pick up soldiers around 11:20. "I heard the hotel owner shouting and saw that he and two soldiers were wrestling with the terrorist. I took out my gun and raced to the site and then heard three gunshots and then a fourth and a large explosion.
I fell backward from the force of the blast and my whole body hurt and then I saw blood spurting from my arm... people were laying bloodied on the ground," he said.

Help the wounded. Help the families.

2002-10-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

In 1977, Black Muslims in Washington, DC, seized the District Building, the B'nai B'rith building, and the Islamic Center, in the process shooting Washington DC city councilman Marion Barry in the chest. They held over 100 people hostage.

2002-10-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

The Nation of Islam poses a clear and present danger to the security of the United States.

Do you remember Louis Farrakhan's "1996 Anti-American World Tour" :

Iran:
Farrakhan arrived in Iran on Saturday, February 10, to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the country's Islamic revolution...
Farrakhan was also reported to have maintained that "Iran is now in the vanguard of an Islamic revolution that is sweeping the earth." An Iranian newspaper quoted him as saying, "You can quote me: God will destroy America by the hands of Muslims. ... God will not give Japan or Europe the honor of bringing down the United States; this is an honor God will bestow upon Muslims."..
"We live in the center of corruption and struggle in the heart of the Great Satan. Thus we need your spiritual aid." ..
"we shall utilize American Muslim unity as a lever of pressure against the United States' arrogant policies." He asserted that Iran's "Islamic revolution is a perfect example of a government based on the Koran."

Libya:
Farrakhan arrived in Tripoli, Libya, where he met with Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi...
Later that year, the Libyan leader spoke by satellite to Nation of Islam's Saviour's Day Convention in Chicago, and told Farrakhan supporters that he was prepared to provide weapons to a black army in the U.S. to destroy "white America."

And some domestic highlights:
The Final Call (September 2, 1997) reported that "he [Farrakhan] said Blacks in America are under a 'death decree' from the U.S. government but America is under a 'decree of death' from God." (Baltimore, August 15, 1997) He also told that same audience that there is a "conspiracy to dumb you down."
(Note: Final Call is the newspaper of the Nation of Islam)
"A decree of death has been passed on America. The judgement of God has been rendered and she must be destroyed..."
New York Amsterdam News, 8/14-20/97
Harlem, NY, 8/9/97

Links via an LGF poster.

2002-10-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Nation of Islam poses a clear and present danger to the security of the United States.

Adding info to the post Today's Criminal Is Tommorow's Islamic Terrorist:

Charles Colson: When news broke that Abdullah al-Muhajir, the man accused of planning to build a "dirty bomb," was a graduate of America’s prison system, I wasn’t surprised. During twenty-six years walking the cellblocks of America’s prisons, I’ve encountered a growing Muslim presence. Keep reading.

Congress of Racial Equality Chairman Roy Innis, the head of one of the nation's most prominent civil rights organizations, has warned the White House that the rise of radical Islam within America's black community could provide a breeding ground for the perpetrators of the next wave of terror attacks against the U.S. Keep reading.

Daniel Pipes, "Converts to Violence": It came as no surprise to learn that the lead suspect as the Washington, D.C.,-area sniper is John Allen Muhammad, an African-American who converted to Islam about 17 years ago. Nor that seven years ago he provided security for Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March." Even less does it amaze that he reportedly sympathized with the 9/11 attacks carried out by militant Islamic elements.
All this was near-predictable because it fits into a well-established tradition of American blacks who convert to Islam turning against their country...Converts most likely turn anti-American when they adhere to either of two specific forms of Islam: either the Nation of Islam (NoI, the black-nationalist sect that originated in Detroit in 1930) or militant Islam (mostly imported from the Middle East and South Asia). Keep reading.

Looking to history: The Janissaries were the elite fighting force of the Moslem Ottoman Empire for centuries. Their ranks were filled with young Christian men (who often converted to Islam) conscripted to fight for the sultan. They became instrumental in holding together the Ottoman Empire precisely because they were free from the tribal loyalties that left other Moslem Arabs and Turks, at times, conflicted. In today's parlance, we would merely call them Moslem extremists.
While most reporters (and unfortunately the White House) look at the John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla stories as some type of strange socio-religious anomaly, these instances are anything but. The advent of Jihad Johnny and Abdullah al Muhajir represent the revival of a proved weapon of radical Islam - the Janissary warrior. And the recruitment has just begun.
The key element in the recruitment of the new Janissaries is to seek out and evangelize those who are disaffected with Western culture. In the case of John Walker Lindh, Islam provided a young man with moral boundaries when his parents would (or could) not. With Jose Padilla, the story was different.
Padilla was recruited to his new vocation as an Islamic terrorist after prison. Time will show that Padilla was not alone.

JAILHOUSE ISLAM
Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services June 19, 2002:

The mail brings a letter from a self-identified African-American prison inmate (several of the same type have arrived since Sept. 11). He predicts Islam will take over the world and America's days are numbered.

This man is one of many converts to radical Islam under a program indirectly funded by Saudi Arabian money through the National Islamic Prison Foundation, which underwrites a 'prison outreach' program. This program is likely to be discussed at the fifth annual Islam in American Prisons Conference, scheduled for July 5-7 at the Holiday Inn O'Hare International in Rosemont, Ill.

One of the co-sponsors of the gathering is the Islamic Society of North America, which has ties to other Muslim groups in the U.S., some of which are up to no good. Let us hope that under the new Justice Department guidelines, the FBI will be attending and taking notes.

Prison Fellowship Chairman, Charles Colson, who heads a Christian ministry to prisoners, believes radical Islamic clerics, trained in Saudi Arabia, are converting large numbers of African-American inmates not only to their religion, but to their political objectives, including virulent anti-Americanism. Colson thinks such inmates could serve the radicals as terrorists once they are released, murdering their own countrymen in a kind of 'payback' for perceived injustices done to them by white America.

Last Oct. 20, The New York Times quoted Faheem Shuaibe, imam at a large, predominantly black mosque in Oakland, California, as saying that more than 200 African-American imams have been trained so far in Saudi Arabia. Shuaibe told the newspaper: "There was a very deliberate recruitment process by the Saudis, trying to find black Muslims who had a real potential for Islamic learning and also for submission to their agenda. They taught Islam with the intent to expand their influence. A principal target was to stop indigenous Muslim leadership in America from tinkering with their religion."

According to the Times' story, the brand of Islam being taught and exported was the most extreme sect, known as Wahhabism.

'These are bad guys,' says Colson, who contrasts his Christian ministry, which uses volunteers to visit inmates, with the 'extreme agenda' of the Wahhabi Muslims, who do not utilize volunteers, but rely on imams. Colson says he has been in 600 prisons (counting the one in which he served time for Watergate crimes). He calls some of the anger of black inmates 'legitimate' because of sentence disparity and the anger they feel at themselves. These angry men are being shaped by radical clerics in a way that will threaten America's interests when they get out.

There are 2 million people in American prisons. Most are men and only 30% are white. 'If only 5% of the African-American population is disaffected,' says Colson, 'that is an enormous pool from which the radicals can draw.'

Inmates of whatever faith, or of no faith, are entitled to visits by lay or professional ministers. But Supreme Court rulings grant the prison system the right to determine who might undermine order and who best preserves it. Wardens in state prisons and officials in the Federal Bureau of Prisons should issue new guidelines and bar radical Islamists.

While the government is at it, a serious investigation should be conducted into the proliferation of Islamic front groups in this country. Influential American political activists are rumored to be taking money from Islamic states and seeking to shape U.S. foreign and domestic policies that may not be in the best interests of their own country. They should also be the focus of journalistic concern.

This is war, after all. German spies were hunted down and exposed during the Second World War, as were spies and other threats to American freedoms during the Cold War. We should be doing the same with this greater contemporary threat.

The Islamic Society of North America - A Fifth Column:
Global Intelligence Alert
October 28, 1998

"Pakistan's fundamentalist Islamic movement continued to gain momentum over the weekend, with a rally of the country's leading Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami. Jamaat leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmad launched the Oct. 23-25 rally in Islamabad claiming, 'This grand demonstration of faith is a harbinger of a great movement for Islamic Revolution (Inqilab)!'

Among the tens of thousands in attendance at the Islamabad rally were guests of honor, Syed Salahuddin, chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the pro-Pakistani Islamic rebel organization in Kashmir, Golboddin Hekmatyar, former Prime Minister of Afghanistan, and Ibrahim Ghousha, the official spokesman for HAMAS. Jamaat had also formally invited, 'the hero of the Islamic world,' Osama bin Laden, to attend, and had formed special uniformed units of mojahedin youth to provide security had be attended."

JI runs two sub units of the ISNA - Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Assembly of North America (including "Islamway" indoctrination media). The following agenda of the ICNA's 1998 convention includes the following: "Sept. 19, 1998: Sequoia Conference Center, 7530 Orangethorpe Ave., Buena Park, California.

"Guest Speakers:
Qazi Hussain Ahmad (Ameer of Jamaat Islami of Pakistan.
Muzammil Siddiqi (President of ISNA, and Director of ICNA."

Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Association, and a community imam and scholar in Italy writes: "Local branches of the radical organizations that promote terrorism in the Middle East are taking root in Western countries." He quotes Shiekh Kabbani, of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, that the extremists "took over 80 percent of the mosques in the United States." Shiekh Palazzi wrote: "the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Muslim Brethren front organization in the United States... Likewise, the American Muslim Council (AMC) is another branch of the Muslim Brethren."

An LGF poster notes:
On September 16, 2001 G.W. Bush took personal Oval Office counsel from Qazi's then number one American stooge - Muzammil Siddiqi (ISNA) - and, the next day, appeared with Siddiqi at the Islamic Center (Washington) and said of the ISNA leader and his HAMAS colleagues of CAIR and the AMC:

"This is a great country. It's a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it's my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They're outraged, they're sad. They love America just as much as I do...The face of terror is not the true face of Islam. ISLAM IS PEACE."

At a Sept. 10, 2002 meeting at the Embassy of Afghanistan to America, Bush again met with the foreign front leaders and praised same. After Qazi's MMA won two Pakistan provinces on a strict Taleban-sharia platform, in the recent elections, the American Ambassador to Pakistan met with JI leaders, and accepted same as "moderates."

Under Islam, Muslims are required to treat the U.S. Constitution as a de facto authority, only the Koran being a de jure instrument. They are using American freedoms as a means to bloody ends. I would go further than Colson advocates, including prohibition of Islamic khutbah from any public institution, and banning of the ISNA (and wings, including the Muslim Students Association), AMC and CAIR, and stripping of citizenship from any foreign born national who demonstrates treatment of U.S. laws as of de facto authority.

From an online ask-a-mullah islamic advice website, registered in Saudi Arabia :(the URL is http://www.islam-qa.com , it redirects to the addresses in the link.)

Muslims in Western armies are encouraged to become traitors.

2002-10-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

This site is boycotting Ben and Jerry's. Why? B/c Ben is an America hating wackjob of the Hanoi Jane variety. You can hate all you want buddy, but not with my support.

2002-10-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Jihadis giving you trouble? JDAM - The Smart Solution.

2002-10-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

Legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier Saturday for what he said was the last time, more than a half-century after he became the first person to accomplish the feat.
Yeager said he considered it "a waste of time" to be scared during any of his flights.
"If you can't do anything about the outcome of something, forget it," he said. "Instead you better concentrate on staying alive where you are."

Words to live by.

2002-10-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

Fighting Terror: Do's and Don'ts for a Superpower
Extracted from Ralph Peters' book, "Beyond Terror", chapter "When Devils Walk the Earth". posted by an LGF commenter.

1. Be feared.

2. Identify the type of terrorists you face, and know your enemy as well as you possibly can. Although tactics may be similar, strategies for dealing with practical vs. apocalyptic terrorists can differ widely. Practical terrorists may have legitimate grievances that deserve consideration, although their methods cannot be tolerated. Apocalyptic terrorists, no matter their rhetoric, seek your destruction and must be killed to the last man. The apt metaphor is cancer - you cannot hope for success if you only cut out part of the tumor. For the apocalyptic terrorist, evading your efforts can easily be turned into a public triumph. Our bloodiest successes will create far fewer terrorists and sympathizers than our failures.

3. Do not be afraid to be powerful. Cold War-era gambits of proportionate response and dialog may have some utility in dealing with practical terrorists, but they are counter-productive in dealing with apocalyptic terrorists. Our great strengths are wealth and raw power. When we fail to bring those strengths to bear, we contribute to our own defeat. For a superpower to think small - which has been our habit across the last decade, at least - is self-defeating folly. Our responses to terrorist acts should make the world gasp.

4. Speak bluntly. Euphemisms are interpreted as weakness by our enemies and mislead the American people. Speak of killing terrorists and destroying their organizations. Timid speech leads to timid actions. Explain when necessary, but do not apologize. Expressions of regret are never seen as a mark of decency by terrorists or their supporters, but only as a sign that our will is faltering. Blame the terrorists as the root cause whenever operations have unintended negative consequences. Never go on the rhetorical defensive.

5. Concentrate on winning the propaganda war where it is winnable. Focus on keeping or enhancing the support from allies and well-disposed clients, but do not waste an inordinate amount of effort trying to win unwinnable hearts and minds. Convince hostile populations through victory.

6. Do not be drawn into a public dialog with terrorists, especially not with apocalyptic terrorists. You cannot win. You legitimize the terrorists by addressing them even through a third medium, and their extravagant claims will resound more successfully on their own home ground than anything you can say. Ignore absurd accusations, and never let the enemy's claims slow or sidetrack you. The terrorist wants you to react, and your best means of unbalancing him and his plan is to ignore his accusations.

7. Avoid "planning creep". Within our vast bureaucratic system, too many voices compete for attention and innumerable agendas, often selfish and personal-intrude on any attempt to act decisively. Focus on the basic mission: the destruction of the terrorists with all the moral, intellectual and practical rigor you can bring to bear. All other issues, from future nation- building, to alliance consensus, to humanitarian concerns are secondary.

8. Maintain resolve. Especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, experts and diplomats will always present you with a multitude of good reasons for doing nothing, or for doing too little (or for doing exactly the wrong thing). Fight as hard as you can within the system to prevent diplomats from gaining influence over the strategic campaign. Although their intentions are often good, our diplomats and their obsolete strategic views are the terrorist's unwitting allies and diplomats are extremely jealous of military success and military authority in their region (where their expertise is never as deep or subtle as they believe it to be). Beyond the problem with our diplomats, the broader forces of bureaucratic entropy are an internal threat. The counter-terrorist campaign must be not only resolute, but constantly self-rejuvenating in ideas, techniques, military and inter-agency combinations, and sheer energy. Old hands must be stimulated constantly by new ideas.

9. When in doubt, hit harder than you think necessary. Success will be forgiven. Even the best-intentioned failure will not. When military force is used against terrorist networks, it should be used with such power that it stuns even our allies. We must get over our cowardice in means. While small-scale raids and other knife-point operations are useful against individual targets, broader operations should be overwhelming. Of course, targeting limitations may inhibit some efforts but, whenever possible, maximum force should be used in simultaneous operations at the very beginning of a campaign. Do not hesitate to supplement initial target lists with extensive bombing attacks on nothing if they can increase the initial psychological impact. Demonstrate power whenever you can. Show, don't tell.

10. Whenever legal conditions permit, kill terrorists on the spot (do not give them a chance to surrender, if you can help it). Contrary to academic wisdom, the surest way to make a martyr of a terrorist is to capture, convict, and imprison him, leading to endless efforts by sympathizers to stage kidnappings, hijackings, and other events intended to liberate the imprisoned terrorist(s). This is war, not law enforcement.

11. Never listen to those who warn that ferocity on our part reduces us to the level of the terrorists. That is the argument of the campus, not of the battlefield, and it insults America's service members and the American people. Historically, we have proven, time after time, that we can do a tough, dirty job for our country without any damage to our nation's moral fabric (Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not interfere with American democracy, values, or behavior).

12. Spare and protect innocent civilians whenever possible, but do not let the prospect of civilian casualties interfere with ultimate mission accomplishment. This is a fight to protect the American people, and we must do so whatever the cost, or the price in American lives may be devastating. In a choice between us and them, the choice is always us.

13. Do not allow the terrorists to hide behind religion. Apocalyptic terrorists cite religion as a justification for attacking us; in turn, we cannot let them hide behind religious holidays, taboos, strictures, or even sacred terrain. We must establish a consistent reputation for relentless pursuit and destruction of those who kill our citizens. Until we do this, our hesitation will continue to strengthen our enemy's ranks and his resolve.

14. Do not allow third parties to broker a peace, a truce, or any pause in operations. One of the most difficult challenges in fighting terrorism on a global scale is the drag produced by nervous allies. We must be single-minded. The best thing we can do for our allies in the long-term is to be so resolute and so strong that they value their alliance with us all the more. We must recognize the innate strength of our position and stop allowing regional leaders with counterproductive local agendas to subdue or dilute our efforts.

15. Don't flinch. If an operation goes awry and friendly casualties are unexpectedly high, immediately bolster morale and the military's image by striking back swiftly in a manner that inflicts the maximum possible number of casualties on the enemy and his supporters. Hit back as graphically as possible, to impress upon the local and regional players that you weren't badly hurt or deterred in the least.

16. Do not worry about alienating already-hostile populations.

17. Whenever possible, humiliate your enemy in the eyes of his own people. Do not try to use reasonable arguments against him. Shame him publicly, in any way you can. Create doubt where you cannot excite support. Most apocalyptic terrorists, especially, come from cultures of male vanity. Disgrace them at every opportunity. Done successfully, this both degrades them in the eyes of their followers and supporters, and provokes the terrorist to respond, increasing his vulnerability.

18. If the terrorists hide, strike what they hold dear, using clandestine means and, whenever possible, foreign agents to provoke them to break cover and react. Do not be squeamish. Your enemy is not. Subtlety is not a superpower strength but the raw power to do that which is necessary is our great advantage. We forget that, while the world may happily chide or accuse us - or complain of our inhumanity - no one can stop us if we maintain our strength of will. Much of the world will complain no matter what we do. Hatred of America is the default position of failed individuals and failing states around the world, in every civilization, and there is nothing we can do to change their minds. We refuse to understand how much of humanity will find excuses for evil, so long as the evil strikes those who are more successful than the apologists themselves. This is as true of American academics, whose eagerness to declare our military efforts a failure is unflagging, or European clerics, who still cannot forgive America's magnanimity at the end of World War II, as it is of unemployed Egyptians or Pakistanis. The psychologically marginalized are at least as dangerous as the physically deprived.

19. Do not allow the terrorists sanctuary in any country, at any time, under any circumstances. Counter-terrorist operations must, above all, be relentless. This does not necessarily mean that military operations will be constantly underway. Sometimes it will be surveillance efforts, or deception plans, or operations by other agencies. But the overall effort must never pause for breath. We must be faster, more resolute, more resourceful and, ultimately, even more uncompromising than our enemies.

20. Never declare victory. Announce successes and milestones. But never give the terrorists a chance to embarrass you after a public pronouncement that the war is over.

21. Impress upon the minds of terrorists and potential terrorists everywhere, and upon the populations and governments inclined to support them, that American retaliation will be powerful and uncompromising. You will never deter fanatics, but you can frighten those who might support, harbor or attempt to use terrorists for their own ends. Our basic task in the world today is to restore a sense of American power, capabilities and resolve. We must be hard, or we will be struck wherever we are soft. It is folly for charity to precede victory. First win, then unclench your fist.

22. Do everything possible to make terrorists and their active supporters live in terror themselves. Turn the tide psychologically and practically. While this will not deter hardcore apocalyptic terrorists, it will dissipate their energies as they try to defend themselves and fear will deter many less-committed supporters of terror. Do not be distracted by the baggage of the term assassination. This is a war. The enemy, whether a hijacker or a financier, violates the laws of war by his refusal to wear a uniform and by purposely targeting civilians. He is by definition a war criminal. On our soil, he is either a spy or a saboteur, and not entitled to the protections of the U.S. Constitution. Those who abet terrorists must grow afraid to turn out the lights to go to sleep.

23. Never accept the consensus of the Washington intelligentsia, which looks backward to past failures, not forward to future successes.

24. In dealing with Islamic apocalyptic terrorists, remember that their most cherished symbols are fewer and far more vulnerable than are the West's. Ultimately, no potential target can be regarded as off-limits when the United States is threatened with mass casualties. Worry less about offending foreign sensibilities and more about protecting Americans.

25. Do not look for answers in recent history, which is still unclear and subject to personal emotion. Begin with the study of the classical world, specifically Rome, which is the nearest model to the present-day United States. Mild with subject peoples, to whom they brought the rule of ethical law, the Romans in their rise and at their apogee were implacable with their enemies. The utter destruction of Carthage brought centuries of local peace, while the later empire's attempts to appease barbarians consistently failed.

2002-10-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

The DC Nation of Islam snipers have been linked to al-Fuqra. That's the gang that murdered Danny Pearl
As one LGF poster notes:
Muslims of the Americas (MOA) is an Islamic extremist group with ties to Al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization that has carried out firebombings and murders in the United States.
MOA was founded and is led by the radical Pakistani cleric El Sheikh Sayyid Mubarik Ali Jilani (commonly known as Sheikh Jilani or Sheikh Gilani). Based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jilani established MOA in 1980, after arriving in the United States for the first time. In the 1980s, Jilani, who claims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, actively recruited American Muslims to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. MOA claims to have offices in six U.S. cities and Toronto, and it maintains secluded residential communities in New York, Virginia, California, and possibly other states. The group also runs a Web site and an e-mail mailing list.
The available evidence strongly suggests that MOA has served as a corporate front for another group founded by Sheik Jilani, the terrorist organization Al-Fuqra, which has committed firebombings and murders on U.S. soil. Both Sheikh Jilani and MOA officials deny that Al-Fuqra even exists, and MOA claims to be a "peaceful" group. Though relatively few members of MOA have been arrested for criminal activity, two residents of the MOA community in Virginia were recently arrested for firearms violations, and a resident of the MOA community in California was recently arrested for the murder of a Sheriff's Deputy.
Members of Gilani's front - "Muslims of Americas" - have been jailed for scores of crimes. Two Canadian members plotted to bomb a theater that was frequented by Hindus. One member admitted to plotting the murder of Rashid Khalifa, a Muslim who was subject to a Wahhabi extermination fatwah. Daniel Pearl was kidnapped after he took up an invitation to meet an al-Fuqra member in Pakistan.

Until shortly after 911, MOA ran an extremist website, that posted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as fact. This Russian tzarist forgery is by the way also being broadcast as fact on Egyptian television. To remind, Egypt gets $2billion a year in US tax money as aid.

They are extremely active in the Virginias, and their operational headquarters is suspected to be in a structure which they refer to as: "the Red House." The name is thought to refer to "blood of kafirs."

Most MOA terrorists are Caribean converts to Islam, as was one sniper: Malvo.

Click over here and read MOA incitement against Christians, Jews, gays, and America.

2002-10-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

The Chechen terrorists are Islamists. The Bali terrorists are Islamist. The DC snipers are Nation of Islam followers. Richard Reid aka shoe bomber was a convert to Islam. Jose Padilla was a convert to Islam. The 9/11 terrorists were Islamists. The Algerian murderers are Islamists. The Sudanese enslaving and murdering Christians are Islamist. The Nigerians who condemned Amina Lawal to death for being raped and having a baby out of wedlock are Muslim. The homocide-bombers attack Israel are Muslims. The Pakistani terrorists attacking India are Islamists.
Any questions?

2002-10-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us."
George Orwell

And don't you forget it.

2002-10-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Muslim terrorists in Moscow have been neutralized.
Ask yourself why not one major news station notes that the "Chechen rebels[sic]" are Islamic fundamentalists fighting for the establishment of Sharia (Islamic law) in Chechnya.
Sadly, 90 or so hostages died in the rescue operation. What is certain though is that the death toll would have been much higher had Russian special forces not conducted the rescue, and given the terrorists time to blow up the theater. Wind Rider [no relation ;-) ] has some comments.

Following links via LGF poster Adam.

One bystander, Igor Konstantinov, in his 60s, was in no doubt about what he thought. "Putin has only one choice. (U.S. President George W.) Bush showed the world what to do with these bastards after September 11. It's Putin's turn to liquidate them in Russia."

CNN report from 1999:
The rebels are believed to be members of the Wahhabi sect of Islam [just like the Saudis], which supports independence for the mostly Muslim regions of the Caucasus. The Islamic Council that proclaimed Dagestan an independent state has called on Basayev to drive all non-Muslims out of the region.
Basayev said he had handed over control of his army to a Jordanian named Khattab, who is said to be a Wahhabi.

The Daghestan-Chechnya reunification concept was supported by Daghestan's Akintsy Chechens and local Wahhabis, who cherish the idea of a Shari’ah republic. Small wonder, but congressional members chose an Islamic revolution as the main reunification instrument, Mamayev pointed out.
A subsequent Daghestani coup was attempted pretty soon. In May 1998 local Islamists, as well as the supporters of Nadir Khachilayev, chairman of the Russian Moslem League, and his brother Magomed Khachilayev, seized the building of Daghestan's State Council in Makhachkala. A green flag was then hoisted over that building, with the rebels demanding that the republican leadership be changed. The rebels were supported by several armed Wahhabi communities.

(green being the koranic color, green flags are used universally by Islamofascists.)

BBC 1999 -
The insurgents fighting Russian federal forces in Dagestan, for example, were frequently referred to as Wahhabis. But their leaders, we are led to believe, are the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev and the shadowy Arab activist "Khattab".
Basayev, however, has never expressed any enthusiasm for Wahhabism or any other "imported" forms of Islam. Khattab, on the other hand, who is thought to be from Saudi Arabia itself may well be a Wahhabi.
Shamil Basayev has never expressed support for Wahhabism
But what unites him and Basayev is not Wahhabism, but romantic notions of a worldwide - or at least region-wide - Islamic Jihad or holy war.
[Oh, much better. I'm so relieved now.]
Note the green headband in the photo. This is the dead relative you've heard about in the news of the past weeks newest dead terrorist.
Supporters of the Wahhabi theory point to the fact that one of the main sponsors of international Islamic militancy is the dissident Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden.

2002-10-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - ALGERIA
Islamists have killed 21 people from the same family, including a three-month-old baby.
The attack took place in the north-western province of Chlef.
Five other people were reported to be in a serious condition with bullet wounds to the head.
The attack came in the early hours of Friday local time in a remote village about 125 miles (200 km) west of the capital, Algiers.
Security services sent to the area have launched an operation to track down those responsible.
The Algerian government says the Armed Islamic Group - or GIA - is known to be active in the area.
Link via Dr. Jal Hampson.

2002-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

During a recent fact finding trip to Southern Sudan, Freedom Now World News discovered overwhelming evidence that young black, boy slaves are repeatedly gang-raped by their Arab masters. While previous reports on slavery have focused mainly on the gang-rape of female slaves, sociologist and investigative reporter, Maria Sliwa received testimony from numerous boy victims of rape.

2002-10-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

There is a parallel between India, Russia, and Israel --all of the conflicts (Kashmir, Chechnya, WB-Gaza) are perceived to be about territories but at their core are not. They are about pan-Islamism (and in the secular Arab Baatist version [as in Syria and Iraq] this becomes pan-Arabism.) Those of us with a secular, liberal, tolerant outlook at the world have a natural tendency to look at conflicts such as these in terms of territory, b/c territorial conflicts are negotiable, and thus, resolvable. They are not existential. Our world right now is in the throes of an existential war between Islam and the West, and Israel, India, Russia are simply at the frontlines of this conflict. Our enemy does not wish to negotiate. Our enemy does not desire what we think any rational human being would desire - life. Our enemy worships death. It is time to re-examine our premises. What do we do about this? We keep in mind that this is going to be a really long war, and we have to persevere until a few basic things change.
Saudi Arabia has power because Saudi Arabia has oil. Saudi Arabian oil money markets Islamism and finances terror. When will this stop? When the world stops buying Arab oil. When will that happen? It depends on how quickly the world understands that Arab oil = Arab $$= $$ for terror. At current oil pumping rates, by 2020, 90% of remaining oil reserves (about 100 years worth of reserves) will be in the hands of Arab states. 9% in South and Central America (mostly Venezuela) and 1% in the former Soviet Union (the various -bezans.) China, US, etc will all run out of reserves within 20 years. If the Western world does not become energy independent by that point, we are screwed. To put it bluntly. We will be at the complete mercy of the Arabs.
We need to choose - either take over ALL of the Arab oil fields, or become energy independent.
We have the technological means to do so (methanol based fuel cells are just one example - GM,Toyota, Nissan, Honda are all coming out w fuel cell vehicles) but a huge fixed cost investment is required to make this a reality (there has to be a methanol refueling station everywhere there is now a gas station; large methanol producing plants need to be built.) We put a man on the moon, we can do this. Here is one way.
Until we commit and execute on one of the two policies, the fires of Islamism will continue to rage, encouraged by petrodollars.

2002-10-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

Astronomer sees black hole eat star

2002-10-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

In a satiric article published in the London daily Al-Hayat, Egyptian playwright Ali Salem mocked the Arab media's incitement to extremism. "I am looking for sponsors for the establishment of a modern kindergarten for extremism, for children under four (because after age five, you cannot teach a person anything new). Thus, I would guarantee that when they reach high school and university, these children will remain extremists; no creature nor any scientific curriculum could undermine their extremism, or tame them."

Sadly, it's not just a joke. Take a look at the reality.

2002-10-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

Andrew Sullivan has alot to say about the Nation of Islam DC terrorists.

2002-10-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

THEIR FATE WILL BE OURS
A Special Report On The Moscow Hostage Crisis

2002-10-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Daniel Pipes will appear on Fox News at 11:00 a.m., EDT on Friday, Oct. 25, to discuss the Washington-area sniper, building on his Friday New York Post article, "Converts to Violence?"

2002-10-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is time for us to learn a lesson from the Russians.
Early in Hezbollah's reign of terror, the group made the mistake of kidnapping three Soviet diplomats. Moscow never expressed any outrage, never made any threats but simply sent in its KGB assassins. Soon, dead Shiites started showing up on garbage dumps all over the Lebanese capital, castrated and horribly tortured.
Hezbollah never bothered the Soviets again.

Take a look at this poster. As the text says:
Terrorism is a disease. Meet the Doctor.
Spetznaz Warning: Taking hostages may be dangerous to your health.

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA spy in the Middle East, argues that the only way to douse the fires of Islamic radicalism is through stunning, overwhelming, military force.