Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Jordanian to Hang for Murder of British Tourist (back)
December 22, 2006
by Jenny Percival
A Jordanian court sentenced a man to death today for killing a British accountant and injuring five other Western tourists in an attack at an amphitheatre in the capital Amman .
Nabil Ahmad Jaoura, 38, a Palestinian refugee born in Baqaa camp on the outskirts of Amman , was motivated by a hatred of Western foreign policy and the need to avenge the death of his brothers in an Israeli raid.
He opened fire on a group of tourists as they left the Roman amphitheatre in Amman on September 4, killing Christopher Stokes, 30, an accountant, from Littleborough near Rochdale .
Two of the wounded tourists were British - Karen Sparke and Kathryn Mills, both from Salisbury - one Dutch, one Australian and one from New Zealand . A Jordanian policeman was also hurt.
Mr Stokes's parents, Rod and Norma, said the verdict would help them 'move on a little bit', although getting through Christmas would still be a struggle.
Mr Stokes, 59, said: 'It feels like closure for us in one part. We can move on a little bit.'
His wife, Norma, 60, continued: 'We’re just relieved that the verdict has come quickly. It’s what we were expecting.'
Mr Stokes added: 'We’ve no strong revenge feelings at all. We take the view that if it was an act of terrorism as they say and if it’s the law of the land that the guy be executed, then that’s it.
'We’re not saying this is how it should be, but we don’t feel we’re in a position to judge the laws of another country.'
The computer programmer said that he and his wife, a retired primary school teacher, had 'never really identified with or thought about' the gunman.
He said: 'We’ve regarded him the same as a runaway bus or train killing our son. We’ve got enough to bother about without thinking about him.'
During his trial, Jaourah denied murder but admitted being responsible for the shooting. But in a unamimous decision, a three-man military tribunal found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to hang.
On hearing his sentence, Jaoura shouted 'I am a jihadist (Muslim holy warrior) in God’s path ... Allahu Akbar (god is greatest).'
Alaa Atoum, his court-appointed lawyer, who had pleaded for mercy for his client on the ground that he had no criminal record, said he would appeal against the sentence.
It is unusual for a death sentence passed in Jordan to actually be carried out, according to the Jordanian Embassy. It is often commuted to life imprisonment on appeal or after a royal pardon.
Jaoura had been charged with 'perpetrating terrorist acts that led to the death of a person, and the illegal possession of a firearm'.
Officials said that their questioning of Jaoura showed he was driven by deep anger at perceived Western and US support for Israeli military offensives in Lebanon and Gaza , but had no links with any political organisation.
Jaoura confessed in court to opening fire on the tourists and said he was motivated by deep hatred of Western policies towards Arabs.
After hearing the verdict, the bearded Jaoura shouted: 'Arabs and Muslim will never submit to Western domination or humiliation and will remain masters of their destiny.'
Prosecutors said he had also sought revenge for the killing of his two brothers in an Israeli raid on Lebanon in 1982.
Mr and Mrs Stokes, speaking today from the home they had shared with Christopher, said getting through Christmas would be a difficult.
Mr Stokes said: 'Christmas is only in four days and Christopher was always home for it. It’s going to be so hard without him.
'We’re trying to get through Christmas this year the best we can by keeping the family together and sharing our memories of Christopher - but it will be a struggle.'
He said that his visit to Jordan last month with his wife had been more helpful than Jaourah’s sentencing in dealing with their son’s death.
'We met a lot of people connected with the shooting - the policeman who was shot at and made the arrest and witnesses who worked at the tourist site - as well as the British ambassador.
'But, most importantly, we did the thing Christopher was most looking forward to in his trip and never got to do: we visited Petra , an archaeological site.
'It’s so sad Christopher never made it - he was to go the next day. He would have loved it. It’s incredible, I recommend it to anyone.'
Christopher, a chartered accountant who was nicknamed 'The Count' for his love of numbers, had resigned from his job a few weeks before he embarked on a five-week tour of the Middle East .
Described by his family as 'down-to-earth' and a 'loving and caring son', he had become 'nuts' about travelling and learning about other cultures after first backpacking around Europe in his mid-20s.
His parents had thought he would be safe in Jordan .
The shooting was the first bloodshed to hit the pro-Western kingdom since triple al-Qaeda suicide bombings at luxury hotels in November 2005 which killed 60 people.
Anti-Western sentiment has traditionally been strong among Jordanians, and in recent years major conflict in the region has several times inflamed public opinion and driven angry individuals to attack Westerners indiscriminately.
The majority of Jordanians are Palestinians who fled to Jordan after the creation of Israel in 1948. Many of them say Western indifference encourages Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians.
Jordanian security officials say the rise of militancy in Jordan is tied to anti-American sentiment that has grown stronger since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Israeli military offensives against Palestinians.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2514214,00.html
Mumbai 7/11: Chargesheet Details Train Attack (back)
December 22, 2006
by Abhishek Sharan
The Anti-Terrorist Squad on Thursday filed a 10,667-page chargesheet in the serial July 7 blasts in a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court.
The chargesheet names a total of 28 accused in the case, of which 13 are in judicial custody, while the remaining 15 are absconding. Lashkar-e-Tayyeba’s (LeT) India commander Azam Cheema (53), LeT’s western India commander Faisal Sheikh (32) and Jalgaon resident and former state president of the banned SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) Asif Khan Bashir Khan alias Junaid are named as the masterminds of the blasts.
Cheema, a Pakistani, is among the absconders. The other absconders include seven Pakistani bombers — Aslam, Hafizullah, Saabir, Abu Bakar, Kasam Ali, Ammu Jan, and Abu Hasan. Another absconder, Ehsanullah, had brought 15-20 kg RDX and helped assemble the bombs. The others who are on the run include Faisal’s brother Rahil (supposedly in UK ), Rizwan Dawre, Abdul Razak, Sohail Sheikh, Hafiz Zuber and Abdul Rehman. Two other Pakistanis — Abu Osama and Mo hammed Salim — are dead.
All the accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, MCOCA, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, Railway Act, Passport Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
On July 11, seven RDX-based ‘cocktail’ explosive devices went off in first-class compartments of seven local trains during the evening rush hour, killing 187 and injuring over 800.
According to the ATS, Faisal allegedly orchestrated the blasts on Cheema’s order, who sent nine Pakistani ‘bombers’ to execute the blasts.
The filing of the chargesheet brings to an end the five-month long investigations. It cites 2,037 witnesses in the case and details the body of evidence the ATS has gathered including their statements, confessions of the accused, inquests-reports, panchnamas and material that the ATS seized.
The evidence includes incriminating material such as mobile handsets, computer hard discs, reports from handwriting experts, call records of mobiles used by accused etc. The evi dence also includes remnants of electronic items used by Sajid Ansari to make ‘timers for the bombs’, report of RDX traces recovered from Faisals’ Maruti van that had transported him and the bombers before the blasts.
The chargesheet also has some interesting details — the ATS spent Rs 27 lakh in probing the case, spent roughly 3.82 manhours during investigations and spent Rs 2.10 lakh for photocopying documents. The ATS team brought the chargesheet to the court in 15 bags.
Source: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Default.aspx
Pakistani Guilty in N.Y. Terror Trial (back)
December 20, 2006
A Pakistani man was convicted in New York Wednesday of financially supporting a militant separatist group in India , federal prosecutors said.
Khalid Awan, 44, was convicted of providing money to the Khalistan Commando Force, a now-weakened militant group whose goal was to form the Sikh state of Khalistan in India's Punjab state and parts of neighboring states.
The group, founded in 1986, is considered a terrorist group by India and called freedom fighters by its supporters.
It is said to have been responsible for thousands of deaths, including numerous assassinations of prominent Indian government officials, and hundreds of bombings, acts of sabotage and kidnappings.
'The war on terror is a global battle,' said Roslynn Mauskopf , U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. 'We will not permit individuals in our jurisdiction to finance terrorist groups responsible for murder and violence in any part of the world.'
Awan faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison when he is sentenced March 7.
Source: http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20061220-114853-5548r.htm
[This requires a barf alert]
The 'Sympathetic' Terrorist (back)
December 21, 2006
by John Perazzo
In a December 10th Sunday Times of London article titled 'Jose, Victim of a Sinister New America,' Andrew Sullivan charges that the United States has become a nation where 'the constitution no longer applies,' and where 'almost eight centuries since the Magna Carta, Americans are at the mercy of a new king [President Bush], who can jail without charges and torture at will.' The protagonist in Sullivan’s woeful tale of injustice is 36-year-old Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert who was arrested in May 2002 and was thereafter detained by the U.S. government for three-and-a-half years as an 'enemy combatant' who aspired to contribute to the worldwide Islamic jihad by killing large numbers of Americans. Sullivan’s chief complaint is that Padilla was denied the protection of '[t]he basic principle of … habeas corpus — the notion that the government cannot detain a citizen without charging him with crimes that can be brought before a court and a jury of his peers.'
To give his readers some background, Sullivan explains that Padilla 'was a troubled youth, joining a street gang when [his] family moved to Chicago , and was once jailed for aggravated assault.' This description of Padilla’s past is notable not for what it tells us (i.e., almost nothing), but rather for what it does not tell us. Here’s the full story: In his early teens, Padilla joined a mostly Puerto Rican gang called the Latin Disciples. When he was 14, he and several friends assaulted and robbed three men. When one of the victims attempted to chase down the attackers, one of Padilla’s accomplices stabbed that victim in the stomach. Padilla then helped the knife-wielder throw the bleeding man to the ground, at which point Padilla kicked him in the head. The pair stole cash from the victim's pockets and left him in an alley, where he subsequently died. Padilla was convicted of aggravated battery and armed robbery and was placed in juvenile detention until May 1988, a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday.
But of course, Jose Padilla is by no means the only person ever to have engaged in such youthful indiscretions as abetting manslaughter. What really matters is that such people eventually get their acts together and live good lives as adults, right? Sullivan tells us: 'After serving his sentence, he [Padilla] converted to Islam and professed non-violence.' Alas, however, the 'nonviolent' Padilla went on to compile a rap sheet of adult crimes as well — offenses ranging from assault to unlawful weapons possession to attempted theft. Court documents show that in most of those instances, he tried to punch, kick, and slash the police officers trying to apprehend him. In 1991 he was arrested in Broward County , Florida and charged with aggravated assault for a road rage incident where he fired his gun from a car; in 1992 he was convicted of aggravated assault. In 1997 his driver’s license was suspended indefinitely for speeding.
Sullivan further informs us that this new, improved, 'non-violent' version of Jose Padilla chose to devote some of his time and energy to charity work. 'He went to the Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale , Florida ,' writes Sullivan, 'and worked for a charity suspected of Islamist terror ties.'
Suspected of Islamist terror ties? Sullivan’s insertion of that verb leads readers, naturally, to wonder whether such suspicions were really warranted, or whether they were perhaps nothing more than the unfounded imaginings of anti-Muslim bigots. As it turns out, the charity to which the allegedly maligned Jose Padilla chose to lend his services was the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), which was formed in 1992 by the merging of two already existing organizations — one which raised funds for the Afghan mujahedeen who were battling the Russian military in the Middle East, and another which was founded by Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa — to finance both the newly emerging al Qaeda network and the Abu Sayyaf Islamic rebels in the Philippines. BIF opened an office in Florida in 1993, then moved to Chicago in order to be closer to terrorist fronts that Hamas had established in the United States . Once in Chicago , the group actively sought donations from Muslim Americans and other sources in order to fund terrorist operations in Chechnya and the Philippines .
With the passage of the Patriot Act, the U.S. government moved to close down BIF after determining, from evidence uncovered at BIF offices in Bosnia , that the funds it raised were being sent to al Qaeda for the purpose of buying weapons and transporting terrorists all over the world. In November 2002, the U.S. Treasury Department formally classified BIF as a funder of terrorism. Incidentally, Mr. Khalifa — who co-founded Jose Padilla’s charity of choice — was a man whose varied interests extended well beyond such pursuits as supporting al Qaeda’s weapons-procurement efforts: He also helped finance Operation Bojinka, a foiled 1995 plot that would have simultaneously detonated bombs aboard eleven U.S.-bound airliners, blowing them up almost simultaneously in mid-flight over the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.
Apart from his charity work, it seems that Padilla was also an avid traveler: 'He visited Egypt , Saudi Arabia , Afghanistan , Pakistan and Iraq ,' writes Sullivan. 'Returning to Chicago on May 8, 2002, Padilla was arrested and held under a warrant related to the 9/11 attacks.' This account makes Padilla seem like a tourist who was taken into custody — for no definably good reason — after returning from a sightseeing excursion in the Middle East . Perhaps Mr. Sullivan’s readers would be interested to learn that Padilla’s 1998 move to Egypt occurred when he suddenly left his American wife and moved to a Cairo suburb (some accounts say he went to teach English, others say he went to learn Arabic), and took the name Abdullah al-Muhajir. (Padilla later told investigators that his travels had been sponsored by 'friends' interested in his education.) Unsatisfied by the secular, state-controlled brand of Islam taught in mainstream Egyptian schools, he soon moved to Pakistan where he studied a militant form of Islam and married the widow of a jihadist. His American wife learned of her husband’s most recent betrothal through an Egyptian-American friend.
As for Padilla’s 'visit' to Afghanistan , it seems that sightseeing was not a high-priority item on his itinerary. Instead, he went to the city of Kandahar to fill out a 'Mujahideen Identification Form/New Applicant Form' which enrolled him in the al Qaeda-affiliated al Farouq training camp. Padilla’s application (which was later found by the FBI) is dated July 24, 2000 and bears his alias, Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir, as well as his birth date — October 18, 1970. While attending this camp for training in the use of weapons and explosives in the fall of 2000, Padilla was first introduced to al Qaeda military commander Mohammed Atef, with whom he would subsequently have several additional meetings. In July or August 2001, Atef sent Padilla and a designated accomplice to be trained in the art of blowing up buildings — a skill Atef hoped Padilla could eventually put to use in the United States . The mission was called off, however, when the two trainees found it impossible to work together amicably.
After 9/11, Padilla spent some time living with Atef in the house where the latter was eventually killed by a U.S. air strike in November 2001. Seeking to avoid further danger, Padilla decided, as Sullivan puts it, to 'visit' Pakistan , where he became acquainted with Osama bin Laden’s deputy Abu Zubaydah. Padilla approached Zubaydah with an idea that dovetailed nicely with his BIF charity work: He wanted to follow Internet instructions for creating a nuclear bomb, and then detonate it somewhere in the United States . Skeptical about Padilla’s ability to carry out such an attack, Zubaydah suggested that wrapping explosives in uranium (to create a radiological 'dirty bomb') might be more feasible.
In any event, he sent Padilla to Pakistan to discuss the various possibilities with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. As it turned out, Mohammed deemed the original plan to blow up American apartment buildings the most feasible option of all. He instructed Padilla and an accomplice to locate (via an Internet search) twenty high-rise buildings (preferably in New York , Florida , or Washington , DC ) which had natural gas supplied to the apartments, and to rent two units in each building. The men were then to seal all openings in their rented apartments, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the apartments simultaneously at a later time. Mohammed paid each of the two men $20,000 for this operation and sent them on their way.
Jose Padilla left Pakistan on April 5, 2002, spent a month in Egypt , and then traveled to the U.S. to carry out his mission. When he arrived at Chicago O’Hare Airport on May 8, 2002, he was immediately interviewed and arrested by FBI agents, who were first tipped to Padilla's al Qaeda connection by Abu Zubaydah, who had been captured in Pakistan and delivered to American custody in March 2002. In June 2004 the Justice Department released a declassified document showing Padilla’s plans and al Qaeda connections in detail. It should be noted that the information therein comes not only from Padilla’s own admissions, but also from a number of additional al Qaeda detainees who independently confirmed the details that Padilla gave, particularly about the plots to detonate a 'dirty bomb' and to blow up apartment buildings.
Andrew Sullivan claims that Padilla’s admissions vis-a-vis the foregoing terror plots were coerced by the use of torture, citing the allegations of Padilla’s attorney, who says that his client was 'put in stress positions for hours at a time'; was 'shackled and manacled for hours in his cell'; was exposed to 'noxious fumes … causing his eyes and nose to run'; was forced to endure 'extremely cold' temperatures in his cell 'for long stretches of time'; was 'threatened with being cut with a knife and having alcohol poured on the wounds'; was 'threatened with imminent execution'; was 'hooded and forced to stand in stress positions for long periods'; was 'forced to endure exceedingly long interrogation sessions, without adequate sleep, wherein he would be confronted with false information, scenarios and documents to further disorientate him'; and was forced 'to endure multiple interrogators who would scream, shake and otherwise assault [him].' 'Mr. Padilla was denied even the smallest and most personal shreds of human dignity,' lamented the attorney, 'by being deprived of showering for weeks at a time, yet having to endure forced grooming at the whim of his captors.' Sullivan further cites the assertion, made by someone who had recently visited Padilla, that the prisoner was exhibiting physical manifestations of stress (such as facial tics) that were 'particularly poignant.'
American authorities emphatically deny the allegations that Padilla was tortured. Those allegations, however, raise a larger issue: Exactly how do Padilla’s advocates believe U.S. interrogators should have sought to extract information from him? Presumably we are to conclude that the interrogators ought to have seated him in a soft, comfortable chair and implored him in a most gentlemanly fashion to reveal — for the good of humanity — everything he knew about past and present terror plots.
Another of Sullivan’s complaints is this: 'The charges [the Justice Department] brought in November 2005 included no mention of any dirty bomb, no link to Al-Qaeda, and no charge of conspiracy to commit acts of terror in America.' The actual charges against Padilla included 'conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country ... for the purpose of opposing existing governments and civilian factions and establishing Islamic states under Sharia (Islamic law), and material support for terrorism.' As Patrick Devenny of the Center for Security Policy has explained, the reason the indictment did not address Padilla’s plans to attack the United States is this: 'Were the Justice Department to seek criminal charges stemming from Padilla’s activities in Afghanistan and elsewhere, they would be required to call mass murderers such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammad [i.e., Khalid Shaikh Mohammed] and Abu Zubaydah, who are still valuable sources of information in the War on Terror, to the witness stand. This would undoubtedly lead to calls for those two men — along with other al-Qaeda leaders — to be afforded rights reserved for conventional criminal suspects, an unacceptable surrender of mandated war powers.'
Finally, Sullivan laments that 'Padilla, an American citizen, was detained without being charged for 3½ years. It was nearly two years before he had access to a lawyer.' The reason for this is neither sinister nor mysterious. Padilla was aligned with an organization, al Qaeda, that has formally declared war on the United States . Not illogically, the U.S. considered the Padilla case a military rather than a law-enforcement matter, which is why the government maintained that he could be held at length as an 'enemy combatant' and interrogated without formal charges and without access to a lawyer. Designated 'enemy combatants' are entitled to neither the rights of soldiers under the laws of war, nor the civil rights of defendants in the criminal-justice system.
Then in March 2005, a federal judge in South Carolina District Court ruled in the opposite direction, calling the Padilla case a 'law enforcement matter, not a military matter,' and declaring that the U.S. government could not continue to hold him without formally charging him with a crime. The government then asked the Supreme Court to hear the case directly, but in June the Court announced that it was refusing the request. Three months thereafter, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court decision and ruled that President Bush did in fact have the authority to detain Padilla without charges. Stated the Court of Appeals: 'The Congress of the United States, in the Authorization for Use of Military Force Joint Resolution, provided the President all powers necessary and appropriate to protect American citizens from terrorist acts by those who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. … Those powers include the power to detain identified and committed enemies such as Padilla, who associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban regime … entered the United States for the avowed purpose of further prosecuting that way by attacking American citizens and targets on our own soil …' On October 25, Padilla’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to limit the government's power to hold their client and other U.S. terror suspects indefinitely and without charges. The Bush administration was given a November 28 deadline for filing arguments, and on November 22 the government formally indicted Padilla on the aforementioned 'material support of terrorism charges.'
This sequence of events is hardly evidence that Sullivan was even remotely justified in calling America a nation where 'the constitution no longer applies,' and where the people 'are at the mercy of a new king who can jail without charges and torture at will.' In point of fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Source: http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26015
Problems with Beslan Counter-terror Operation Revealed (back)
December 22, 2006
The parliamentary commission investigating the terrorist attack in Beslan in 2004 has revealed a number of problems related to the professional skills of participants in the counter-terrorist operation and officials who supervised it, Federation Council First Deputy Speaker Alexander Torshin, who heads the commission, said on Friday.
The functioning of the headquarters responsible for the operation was not smooth, either, he said.
'The headquarters did not include President of North Ossetia Dzasokhov, Parliament Speaker Mamsurov, Interior Minister Dzantiyev and a number of other officials,' Torshin said. tm la
Source: http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11651871
Racial Profiling (back)
December 20, 2006
by Walter E. Williams
Charges of racial, religious and ethnic profiling swirl in the wake of US Airways' removal of six imams. According to police reports, the men made anti-American statements, were praying and chanting 'Allah,' refused the pilot's requests to disembark for additional screening and asked for seat-belt extensions for no obvious reason. Three of the men had no checked baggage and only one-way tickets.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), five of the men have retained lawyers and are probably going to bring a discrimination lawsuit against US Airways.
Racial profiling controversy is nothing new. For a number of years, black Americans have made charges of racial profiling by police and store personnel who might give them extra scrutiny. Clever phrases have emerged, such as 'driving while black' and now 'flying while Muslim,' but they don't help much in terms of understanding. Let's apply some economic analysis to the issue.
God, or some other omniscient being, would never racially profile. Why? Since He is all-knowing, He'd know who is and is not a terrorist or a criminal. We humans are not all-knowing. While a god would have perfect and complete information about everything, we humans have less than perfect and incomplete information.
That means we must use substitutes such as guesses and hunches for certain kinds of information. It turns out that some physical attributes are highly correlated with other attributes that are less easily, or more costly, observed.
Let's look at a few, and the associated 'profiling,' that cause little or no controversy. Mortality rates for cardiovascular diseases were approximately 30 percent higher among black adults than among white adults. The Pima Indians of Arizona have the world's highest known diabetes rates. Prostate cancer is nearly twice as common among black men as white men.
Would anyone bring racial profiling charges against a doctor who routinely ordered more frequent blood tests and prostate screening among his black patients and more glucose tolerance tests for his Pima Indian patients? Of course, God wouldn't have to do that because He'd know for sure which patient was more prone to cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer and diabetes.
It is clear, whether we like it or not, or want to say it or not, that there is a strong correlation between terrorist acts and being a Muslim, and being black and high rates of crime. That means if one is trying to deter terrorism and in some cases capture a criminal, he would expend greater investigatory resources on Muslims and blacks.
A law-abiding Muslim who's given extra airport screening or a black who's stopped by the police is perfectly justified in being angry, but with whom should he be angry? I think a Muslim should be angry with those who've made terrorism and Muslim synonymous and blacks angry with those who've made blacks and crime synonymous. The latter is my response to the insulting sounds of car doors locking sometimes when I'm crossing a street in downtown Washington , D.C. , or when taxi drivers pass me by.
It would be a serious misallocation of resources if airport security intensively screened everyone. After all, intensively screening someone who had a near zero probability of being a terrorist, such as an 80-year-old woman using a walker, would not only be a waste but it would take resources away from screening a person with a much higher probability of being a terrorist.
You say, 'Williams, are you justifying religious and racial profiling?' No. I'm not justifying anything any more than I'd try to justify Einstein's special law of relativity. I'm trying to explain a phenomenon.
By the way, I think some of the airport screening is grossly stupid, but I'm at peace with the Transportation Security Administration. They have their rules, and I have mine. One of mine is to minimize my association with idiocy. Thus, I no longer fly commercial.
(Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University in Fairfax , Va. , and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Media Research Center 's Free Market Project.)
Source: http://www.examiner.com/a-468528~Walter_E__Williams__The_e conomics_of_racial_profiling.html
Veiled Murder Suspect Dupes Heathrow Security (back)
December 22, 2006
The revelation that one of Britain 's most wanted men evaded every checkpoint at Heathrow Airport disguised as a woman wearing a veil, and then boarded a plane to freedom has raised questions about airport security.
Using his sister's passport and wearing a full niqab covering last year, Mustaf Jamma managed to flee to his native Somalia , officials said. Jamma, 26, was a chief suspect for the murder of police Const. Sharon Beshenivksy, 38.
The officer died in November 2005 from gunshot wounds suffered during a holdup at a travel agency in northern England . Another officer was also wounded.
Amid a politically charged atmosphere, concerned Britons have characterized rules allowing veiled passengers to board without showing their faces as a security loophole.
In response, MPs have demanded an inquiry into the escape plot and have called for immigration officers to ask all passengers to show their faces before boarding any flights.
As of Wednesday, British reports said major airports across the United Kingdom continued operating as normal.
Jamma's escape has also refocused attention on the niqab, a traditional full veil that covers most of the face, leaving slits for the eyes.
The covering is traditionally worn by Muslim women in Britain . In October, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the veils were a barrier, a 'mark of separation,' to Muslim integration in the country.
Concerns about the naqib have provoked accusations of 'Islamophobia' in the media.
Police believe Jamma fled sometime between Christmas Day and New Year's Day after the botched armed robbery. A court convicted his brother, Yusuf Abdillh, 20, for Beshenivsky's murder on Monday.
The British Airport Authority has said it is up to the airlines to review and inspect passengers' passports.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/12/21/airport- escape-061221.html
'Robbers Had Tried to Pray at Mosque' Before PC was Shot (back)
December 21, 2006
by Andrew Norfolk
Robbers went to say prayers at a mosque two hours before embarking on an armed raid that led to the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, a court was told yesterday.
Two members of the alleged murder gang went to a mosque in Leeds for Friday prayers but returned early to their safe house because they had missed the start of the service.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court has heard that the men were late getting up on the day of the robbery. Four had spent the previous night drinking champagne and vodka before visiting a brothel.
Raza ul-Haq Aslam, who is accused of murder on the basis that he acted as a look-out during the raid at a Bradford travel agency, told the court yesterday about the hours before PC Beshenivsky died and PC Teresa Milburn was injured.
The jury has heard that Mr Aslam was an employee of Caradon Estates, a company paid by the Home Office to provide accommodation for asylum-seekers. One of its properties in Leeds became a temporary base for the men who allegedly carried out the raid.
Mr Aslam, 25, said that he arrived at the house on the morning of November 18 last year to find most of the occupants asleep. He said that he later washed himself in preparation for Friday prayers at about 1pm, but Hassan Razzaq and a man he knew as Uncle returned to the house and told him that the service at a nearby mosque had already started.
Mr Aslam said that he decided instead to pray in the house. He said that he had then planned to buy some food from a local shop but was persuaded by Faisal Razzaq, Hassan’s brother and another Caradon employee, to drive with him to Bradford to eat there.
Mr Aslam said that he and Faisal Razzaq travelled in one car and were followed by another vehicle, carrying Muzzaker Shah and two Somali brothers, Yusuf and Mustaf Jama. The prosecution says that these were the three robbers on their way to Universal Express. They are said to have tied up its employees before Shah shot the two officers as the trio escaped.
Mr Aslam said that when they arrived in Bradford , Faisal Razzaq gestured to indicate a road for the second car to turn into. He and Faisal Razzaq parked near by, and went for some lunch. Twenty minutes later they returned to Faisal Razzaq’s car.
'There was a lot of police cars flying about the area. Faisal Razzaq looked a bit agitated,' Mr Aslam said. Five minutes after they returned to the house in Leeds , he said that Shah and the Jama brothers entered, 'shouting and screaming. The loudest person was Muzzaker Shah. They were saying thing like ‘We effed up’.'
Mr Aslam said that Shah and the Jama brothers started shaving each other’s heads. They showered and he heard someone talking about burning their clothes. He said he saw Shah produce 'a wad of cash', which he gave to the Jama brothers.
Questioned by Mukhtar Hussain, QC, for the defence, Mr Aslam said that he had discovered what had happened at the travel agency when he watched the news at home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, that evening.
He said that he telephoned Faisal Razzaq, who confirmed that the robbery had been committed by Shah and the Jamas brothers. Under cross-examination by Ben Nolan, QC, for Faisal Razzaq, Mr Aslam insisted that he had not made any mobile phone calls to assist with the robbery.
'I’m not part of Shah’s gang. Faisal Razzaq is. Please don’t mix me up with him,' he said. Three weeks after the robbery, Mr Aslam said that he had told a neighbour, a police officer, that he had information about the shootings and asked him what to do. The officer told him to telephone Crimestoppers, using a pseudonym. He made the call and contacted the incident room. One motive, Mr Aslam admitted, was the £100,000 reward that had been offered.
Mr Aslam, Faisal Razzaq, 25, and Hassan Razzaq, 26, each deny charges of murder, robbery and four firearms offences. Yusuf Jama, 20, admits robbery and two firearms offences but denies murder and two further firearms offences.
Shah has admitted murder, robbery and four firearms offences and will be sentenced at the end of the trial, which was adjourned until Monday.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2458727,00.html
CAIR Presents Six Step Method To Lodge Phony Discrimination Claims (back)
December 13, 2006
by Daniel Pipes
CAIR, the Saudi funded Islamist pressure group has issued a directive outlining how Hajis [Muslims who are making the pilgrimage to Mecca ] can participate in the organization's cultural jihad while en route to the Middle East .
Amplifying on the groundless allegation that Muslims are continually subjected to discrimination while traveling - 'flying while Muslim' - CAIR advised Muslim pilgrims on how to create phony 'civil rights' cases, first by establishing a chip-on-the shoulder attitude:
'As an airline passenger, you are entitled to courteous, respectful and non-stigmatizing treatment by airline and security personnel. You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory.'
Proper hostile attitude thus stoked, CAIR's jihadis then counsel taking the following steps, at which point we assume the organization's legal intimidation team will jump into action.
1. Ask for the names and ID numbers of all persons involved in the incident. Be sure to write this information down.
2. Ask to speak to a supervisor.
3. Ask if you have been singled out because of your name, looks, dress, race, ethnicity, faith, or national origin.
4. Ask witnesses to give you their names and contact information.
5. Write down a statement of facts immediately after the incident. Be sure to include the flight number, the flight date, and the name of the airline.
6. Contact CAIR to file a report. If you are leaving the country, leave a detailed message, with the information above at 202-488-8787.'
This action by CAIR apparently had its roots in the Minneapolis airport Imam 6 stunt last month, which set the stage to help further this extension of the organization's increasingly militant tactics. CAIR has admitted that it is underwriting the cost of the Imams' litigation.
Source: http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hajijihad121306.htm
Palestinian Killed Prostitute as Acceptance Test to Terror Group (back)
December 22, 2006
Indictment: Palestinian killed prostitute as acceptance test to terror group
Palestinian seeking to join terror group charged with murder of Israeli prostitute as 'acceptance test', also charged with conspiracy to kill soldier and membership in terror organization.
State prosecutors filed an indictment at the Haifa District Court against Yussef Kassem Abu Hanani, a 28 year old Palestinian charged with the murder of a Jewish woman in downtown Haifa in 2001.
The indictment charges that Abu Hanani carried out the murder to demonstrate his commitment to the terror organization he wished to join, with the act serving as the acceptance test. Abu Hanani is also accused of conspiring to murder an Israeli soldier, a plan which ultimately was not carried out.
The indictment claims that the defendant, along with a friend, sought to join the Omar al-Mukhtar terror group, operated by Hizbullah in Jordan . To be accepted into the organization the two were required to kill a Jew. The two terror-hopefuls then planned the murder, equipping themselves with two long knives purchased in the city of Sachnin in northern Israeli.
The two then traveled by taxi to Haifa , with the knives concealed on their person.
Attorney Lilach Tamir of the Haifa district prosecution notes that upon arrival in Haifa the two men hailed another taxi, asking the driver to take them to an area where they will be able to find prostitutes. The driver let the men down on Independence St, where the two waited for nightfall.
Charges separated from military court trial
It was then that they located known prostitute Dina Guetta and after a short haggle she and Abu Hanani headed towards a side alley. 'The defendant them removed the knife from his clothes and stabbed the woman in her chest,' details the indictment, 'the defendant knocked her down to the ground and gagged her mouth with his left hand when she began to scream. He then stabbed her twice more in the chest and in her upper left thigh.'
The indictment claims that when the woman could finally scream no longer, the defendant left the area.
The indictment also charges Abu Hanani with conspiring to murder an IDF soldier. Along with a friend the defendant had planned to ambush the soldier from behind and break his neck while his friend stabbed the soldier from the front. The plan was never realized.
The indictment was first filed in 2004 to the Samaria military court. The indictment also included a series of terror acts carried out by the defendant in Samaria ; including planting explosive devices, carrying out shooting attacks against IDF troops, dealing in arms and more. Abu Hanani's defense attorney claimed during the trial that the charge of the prostitute's murder should be filed in a civilian court.
The prosecution accepted the demand, and the charges were separated from the military court trial. Abu Hanani is charged with murder, conspiracy to commit a crime and membership in a terror organization.
Justice Yitzhak Amit of the Haifa District Court extended on Monday afternoon Abu Hanani's arrest until the completion of all legal proceedings against him.
Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3341481,00.html
Time is the Jihadists Ally (back)
December 9, 2006
by Robert Fulford
As part of their culture of death, Islamic terrorists now use young women (and even occasionally a grandmother) as suicide murderers. The appearance of the first female killers, a few years ago, shocked people who believed they knew something about Islam. It was particularly appalling that Hamas, who claim to be pious, sent out girls wearing belts of explosives. Surely Islamic law forbids it.
When Ehud Yaari came to Toronto recently, I raised that issue with him. He's spent his whole working life, some 35 years, studying Arabs and their ways as a reporter on Israel 's Channel 2 and a columnist in the Jerusalem Report.
Muslims, Yaari says, were also puzzled by this problem. But Islam, like most religions, can be malleable. Hamas eventually received religious permission for the use of female bombers.
Of course they had to face the virgins question. A young man who blows himself up in order to murder innocent people will be rewarded in heaven, it is said, by having 72 virgins at his disposal. What do girls and women get? Yaari says they are promised they can choose for their own one of the young male martyrs. Terrorist groups have distributed brochures on this point in the universities of the West Bank , describing suicide bombing as romantic.
What the young male martyrs will have to say about this is not altogether clear. But theological questions are always complicated.
A sixth-generation Israeli, the descendant of Jewish farmers from Ukraine , Yaari was born in 1945 in Metulla, a village in northern Israel surrounded on three sides by Lebanon . He learned conversational Arabic as a child, began taking lessons at 10, and was ready to study classical Arabic poetry by the time he reached the Hebrew University .
He understands the subtleties of Arabic oratory in ways that people with less learning, whether Arabs or not, can't grasp. He goes farther in admiration of Osama Bin Laden's rhetoric than anyone I've read: 'A speech by Bin Laden is a masterpiece,' he says, in its allusions to previous writing, its hinted-at meanings, its elegance.
Yaari believes that jihadists decided long ago, perhaps as long ago as the failed Yom Kippur war with Israel in 1973, that they can't hope to defeat the military technology of the West. Instead they have adopted what Yaari calls 'The doctrine of persistent conflict,' the most promising version of warfare they've come up with since the West developed superior weaponry centuries ago.
They can't have victory anytime in the near future, but they can deny victory to the West -- in Iraq , Afghanistan , Lebanon and several other places. 'The Arabs feel they have the answer to the West in military terms.' Working within that doctrine, of persistent conflict, Islamists may pause for a ceasefire now and then, perhaps even sign a peace treaty, but they won't give up. Eventually, they assume, the West will collapse under terrorist pressure. Then a new caliphate will arise and govern Europe (one Arab theory holds that its first capital will be Copenhagen ).
Later it will expand to put the whole world under Islamic law. This is the one thing on which the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hamas etc. all agree.
Their strategy rests on a powerful component, time. In the past, time has often been the friend of warriors, notably those who lay siege to a town or a castle and wait for starvation to defeat the inhabitants. But time has never been so central to strategy as it is with Islamists. Their enemies, above all the restless, impatient democracies, worry constantly about the length of a war. Witness the U.S. now desperately trying to devise a timetable for leaving Iraq .
But the Islamists have no such worries. They believe they will win someday, not necessarily in 20 years, perhaps not in a century. Quite possibly, not a single fighter of today will see victory. No one worries about that, at least in public. Persistence will produce victory. If you believe that success is mandated and predicted by God, why would you care how long it takes?
This manner of thinking, so unlike anything most of us know, poses a painful question: How do you defeat a movement that does not expect to see victory? The West, as Yaari points out, has no strategy for this kind of war, no doctrine its armies can learn and its politicians can preach. In fact, it appears that so far the West doesn't even know it needs a new strategy.
Source: http://www.religionglobe.com/
Senator Boxer Rescinds Award To CAIR (back)
December 22, 2006
Americans Against Hate (AAH), a civil rights organization and terrorism watchdog group, appreciates the decision made by United States Senator Barbara Boxer to rescind the award her office had presented to the Executive Director of CAIR-Sacramento Basim Elkarra.
Both CAIR and Elkarra have exhibited the type of extremist behavior that is not worthy of awards or accolades. Former officials from CAIR are currently in prison, serving time for terrorist-related crimes involving Hamas and Al-Qaeda. In fact, CAIR can thank Mousa Abu Marzook, the second in command of Hamas today, for its very existence.
Unfortunately, too many in America 's government, media and religious institutions have made CAIR out to be a legitimate group, rarely mentioning its numerous ties to terrorism. AAH and its subdivision CAIR Watch were created to expose CAIR and others like it for having these ties.
AAH Chairman Joe Kaufman stated, 'We are proud of Senator Boxer. By taking back this award, the Senator has shown that she is conscious of the 'extreme' problems that Basim Elkarra and his group, CAIR, pose to the public. We only hope that others recognize this, as well, and never again think about granting CAIR or its representatives any type of award.'
See also ' U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer Gives Award To CAIR Extremist: AAH Calls on Senator Boxer To Withdraw Award'
Joe Kaufman is available for interview. E-mail: info@americansagainsthate.org.
Source: www.americansagainsthate.org
Counter-Jihad: The Specter Haunting Islam (back)
December 22, 2006
by Stephen Schwartz
What many Americans do not know, in large part because neither the media nor our government has found it appropriate to inform us, is that preaching jihad is a prevalent habit in American mosques, perhaps even more so than in the Middle East. As FSM Contributing Editor Stephen Schwartz observes, the Middle East is, surprisingly, host to a new movement of counter-jihad, a phenomenon that just may end the scourge of jihad, and thus America must support at every turn.
A specter is haunting Islam: the specter of counter-jihad.
'Counter-jihad' is unlike the term 'Islamofascism,' which originated with and is used by Muslim intellectuals – notwithstanding the squeals of Islamist radicals and their apologists, who claim it is a slur on the entire religion.
By contrast, counter-jihad was invented by a clever Catholic friend of mine – perhaps thinking of the Catholic counter-reformation. He uses the term to refer to proven Muslim moderates seeking to expel radicals from the leadership of Islamic communities in the West.
The radicals preach jihad, and by it they mean a campaign of permanent, armed violence against non-radical Muslims, as well as against non-Muslims.
What, then, would counter-jihad look like?
Counter-jihad means that authoritative and respected Muslim rulers and clerics, both Sunni and Shia, as well as spiritual Sufis, would take the initiative – from the top levels of the Muslim worldwide community or umma – to defeat the extremists that dominate American and British Islam.
Unfortunately for the world, radical Islam resembles Soviet Communism in many ways. Both have been totalitarian – and totalitarian social ideologies excel at keeping those they rule over under tight control, in Muslim communities in the West no less than in Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, I will argue that Islamist totalitarianism succeeds better in the West than in the Muslim world.
When Soviet Communism fell, it did so after shedding the blood of millions of innocent victims. But it had also suppressed a series of heroic uprisings from below. In 1921, anti-Leninist sailors rose up and were massacred in the Russian port of Kronstadt . During the Spanish civil war of 1936-39, indigenous Spanish liberals and reformers had to fight infiltration by Soviet police terrorists.
After the Sovietization of Eastern Europe, rebellion was a recurring problem for the Muscovite rulers of 'their zone.' In 1953, workers and young people were killed in then-East Berlin , fighting Soviet tanks with their bare hands. Three years later and 50 years ago this year – in an anniversary shamefully ignored by the West – ordinary people of every description, from intellectuals to peasants, rose up in the Hungarian Revolution, aimed at securing the independence of their country from Soviet direction. Thousands were killed by Russian arms and thousands more fled from Hungary .
Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia had managed to attain independence from Russian dictation by peaceful means – although he preserved communist governance at home. A similar process began with the emergence of the Solidarity trade union in Poland in 1989, but aimed at abolishing communism altogether. Still, neither Tito nor the Poles could alone undermine the Soviet system. And many people continued fighting Sovietism with weapons in hand – notably, the Nicaraguan contras, whose brave struggle coincided with the strikes and demonstrations of the Poles.
But the end of world Communism did not come from Poland or Nicaragua – it had to come from Moscow itself, which buckled under pressure from the U.S.
The 'counter-revolutionary' or 'contra' movements for liberation from Moscow provide a precious storehouse of experience for counter-jihadists seeking to end the threat of radical Islam to the world.
The anti-Communists fought in the streets, with rocks when they had nothing else; but their main tools were intellectual – dissident writings, unlicensed publication, underground dissemination of anti-regime literature.
They were typically motivated – especially in Poland , Hungary , and Nicaragua – by the morals and principles of the Christian churches.
The Catholic church and its official representatives stood with the anti-Communists.
The opponents of Communist rule concentrated, to the degree they could, on creating a new society within the shell of the old, by establishing independent civil institutions.
Muslims in countries ruled by radicals are following an amazingly similar path, whether the mainstream media bothers to report it or not.
In Iran , for example, dissident students have turned their universities upside down in a bid to end clerical interference in their personal life. Iranian labor union members have paraded with signs calling on the government to forget Hezbollah in Lebanon and spend money improving people’s lives at home. Iranian Sufis have repeatedly confronted government officials in mass protests against restrictions on their rights.
Saudi Arabia has seen a remarkable development in the commercial capital of Jeddah: women there now refuse to wear the face-covering known as niqab or, in the West, the veil. The women of Jeddah have effectively driven the Saudi religious militia or mutawwa, who previously patrolled the streets whipping those who were insufficiently pious, out of their city. Jeddah is now nicknamed 'the San Francisco of Saudi Arabia' – not because of the bizarre sexual identity the West Coast city has acquired, but because, as in the 1960s, it is the center of new ideas and habits.
Millions of Muslims in Islamic countries yearn for an end to radicalism and hope the much-feared 'clash of civilizations' can be avoided. They want their religion to enjoy a positive image in the world, much as Christian dissidents under Communism struggled for freedom of conscience.
Moderate Muslim clerics and intellectuals must now step forward to affirm their commitment to the values of the counter-jihad: an end to religious aggression by Muslim extremists, a renewal of coexistence with other faiths, general religious and political freedom everywhere. Muslim clerics and Sufi shaykhs can provide indispensable help in creating new alternatives to old and brittle structures. Instead of financing terrorism, Muslim charitable donations can support modern schools, including centers for religious debate within Islam, and between Muslims and non-Muslims.
But America still faces problems in this context.
First, the American and British Muslim communities are so thoroughly penetrated by radicals that moderate Muslims find almost no space in which they can express themselves. American and British Islam embody an extraordinary and shocking fact: in Muslim countries, mosques are typically the only places where free discussion can take place, since all other institutions exist to monitor and prevent expressions of discontent.
As perverse and weird as it must seem, there is now more freedom to discuss the future of Islam in Saudi mosques than inside American mosques. America has general freedom, but mosques are an island of conformity. Muslim countries have little or no civic freedom, but mosques are often a free speech area.
Second, America must act directly to oppose radical Islam by pressing consistently for change from the rulers of countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran , as well as by identifying and seriously assisting the proponents of counter-jihad.
Third, Western mainstream media will probably not help in the liberation of the Muslim world. Anti-Communist counter-revolution never got a fair treatment in the Western media, and with appeasers like James Baker and Lee Hamilton doing their best to put the genie of democracy back in the bottle in the Middle East, it is doubtful that the spreading counter-jihad will get any decent publicity before it prevails. I predict Americans will be caught by surprise when Saudi Arabia turns the corner to a normal system of governance, and if, as so many of us wish, the deluded Ahmadinejad falls in Tehran .
But capitalism and democracy will succeed in the Islamic world, even if the enemies of both free markets and political liberty, back here in the West, scoff at the concept. History does not move backward, even in the sands of Arabia . Counter-jihad may end the menace of jihad to the world.
Source: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=466833
Why Radical Islam - and Why Now? (back)
December 21, 2006
by Victor Davis Hanson
Read any newspaper or turn on any news broadcast and you're bound to encounter stories of Islamic radicals fighting, killing and threatening each other — and just about everyone else.
In Somalia , jihadists, with the support of al-Qaida, have clashed with troops loyal to the country’s internationally recognized interim government and now threaten neighboring Ethiopia with all-out war.
Nearby in Darfur , Muslim militiamen called janjaweed are waging genocide against black Christian and animist villagers — apparently with the consent of the Sudanese government.
Shiite and Sunni militias, each claiming to represent true Islam, keep slaughtering each other in Iraq .
Hezbollah ('Party of God') seeks to destroy democracy in Lebanon by provoking Israel , which it is sworn to eliminate.
On the West Bank, Hamas and Fatah have taken a timeout from their attacks on Israel to murder each other and innocent bystanders.
The Iranian Shiite theocracy — when not hosting Holocaust deniers or sending terrorists into Iraq — issues serial pledges to finish off Israel .
The shaky Pakistani leadership pleads that it can neither target Osama bin Laden nor stop Taliban jihadists hiding out in the remote regions of Pakistan from streaming back into Afghanistan .
In Europe , opera producers, novelists, cartoonists and filmmakers are increasingly circumspect out of fear of death threats from Islamists.
While each conflict is unique and rooted in its own history, the common thread — radical Islam — is obvious. It's thus worth asking why this violent, intolerant strain of Islam has taken hold in so many unstable places — and at this particular time.
The ascent of radical Islam is, perhaps, the natural culmination of a century's worth of failed political systems in Muslim countries that were driven by morally bankrupt ideologies, led by cruel dictators, or both.
In the 1930s, German-style fascism appealed to Arabs in Palestine and Egypt . Soviet-style communism had sympathetic governments in Afghanistan , Algeria and Yemen . Baathism took hold in Syria and Iraq . The secular Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser promised a new pan-Arabism that would do away with colonial borders that divided the 'the Arab nation.' Then there is the more pragmatic authoritarianism that survives in Muammar el-Qaddafi's Libya or in the petrol-monarchies in the Gulf.
Radical Islam may be as totalitarian and as morally bankrupt as any of these past or mostly defunct 'isms,' but its current appeal isn't hard to figure out. Unlike fascism or communism, radical Islam is locally grown, and not plagued by charges of foreign contamination. Indeed, Islamists claim to wage jihad against the modernism and globlization of the outside, mostly Westernized world. Such a message resonates in stagnant, impoverished Muslim countries.
Of course, while the people of the region may be poor, the Islamist movement isn't. Huge oil profits filter throughout the Muslim world, allowing Islamists to act on their rhetoric. In today's world, militias can easily acquire everything from shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles to rocket-propelled grenades. With such weapons, and on their own turf, Islamists can nullify billion-dollar Western jets and tanks.
There is still another reason for the rise of Islamists: They sense a new hesitation in the West. We appear to them paralyzed over oil prices and supplies and fears of terrorism. And so they have also waged a brilliant propaganda war, adopting the role of victims of Western colonialism, imperialism and racism. In turn, much of the world seems to tolerate their ruthlessness in stifling freedom, oppressing women and killing nonbelievers. So how, aside from killing jihadist terrorists, can we defend ourselves against the insidious spread of radical Islam? Here are a few starting suggestions:
Bluntly identify radical Islam as fascistic — without worrying whether some Muslims take offense when we will talk honestly about the extremists in their midst.
At the same time, keep encouraging consensual governments in the Middle East and beyond that could offer people security and prosperity, while distancing ourselves from illegitimate dictators, especially in Syria and Iran , that promote terrorists.
Establish that no more autocracies in the Middle East and Asia will be allowed to get the bomb.
Seek energy independence that would collapse the world price of oil, curbing petrodollar subsidies for terrorists and our own appeasement of their benefactors.
Appreciate the history and traditions of a unique Western civilization to remind the world that we have nothing to apologize for but rather much good to offer to others.
Finally, keep confident in a war in which our will and morale are every bit as important as our overwhelming military strength. The jihadists claim that we are weak spiritually, but our past global ideological enemies — Nazism, fascism, militarism and communism — all failed. And so will they.
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University , and author, most recently, of 'A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.'
Source: http://www.townhall.com/content/b9d291d9-e9b7-4861-b639- adbece7a4b42
[The jihad version of the zawahiri tape, and the reason for all the terror alerts]
Ayman Al-Zawahiri “Realities Of The Conflict Between Islam And Unbelief”
http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=107032&list=/home.php&
TRANSCRIPT:Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri "Realities Of The Conflict Between
Islam And Unbelief"
Dec 24, 2006
Shaykh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri | As-Sahab Media
Here is the complete official English transcript of Dr. Ayman
Al-Zawahiri's latest video address in which he addresses several
issues including the impotency of the Hamas effort in Palestine, the
coming victory in Iraq and other pressing issues facing the Ummah.
We remind our viewers that the opinions and points of view expressed
in this statement are those of the author and shall not be deemed to
mean that they are necessarily those of JUS, the publisher, editor,
writers, contributors or staff
REALITIES OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ISLAM AND UNBELIEF
In the Name of Allah, and all praise is due to Allah, and may peace
and prayers be on the Messenger of Allah and on his family, companions
and allies.
Muslim brothers everywhere: peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah
and His blessings.
A number of critical events in our Islamic world are passing us these
days, and I deem it important for us to emphasize a number of their
fundamental characteristics, in view of the importance of educating
the Ummah in the facts of the conflict between Islam and infidelity,
from both a legal as well as factual point of view.
The first thing that I wish to talk about is the passing of 89 years
since the Balfour Declaration, in which someone who didn't own the
Holy Land of Palestine gave it to someone who didn't deserve it…
That historical event which we must not allow to pass from memory, and
which we must transmit from generation to generation, in order that we
be aware of the extent of the animosity of Britain and the Crusader
West in general to the Muslim Ummah…
The animosity of Britain to Islam which stretches over centuries:
isn't it the one who used to occupy most Islamic lands? Isn't it the
one who moved Abd al-Aziz Al Sa'ud and al-Husayn ibn Ali to stab the
Ottoman state in its back? And isn't it the one who handed over to the
Jews one of the holiest places of Islam?
And today in Palestine, conspiracies to abort the Jihad and surround
the Mujahideen are being hatched by the same forces which created
Israel and with the cooperation of their agents among our people.
I repeat to you, my brothers, that we must be conscious of the legal
and factual realities of this conflict, lest the treacherous
leadership deceive us and we get lost in the market of political
bargaining.
And the first of these facts which we must be conscious of and focus
on and repeatedly emphasize, is that the fighting must be for
elevating the Word of Allah, and that the elevation of Allah's Word on
His earth means the elevation of His Law (Shari'ah), and that the
Muslim cannot possibly be a believer without litigating to Divine Law
alone to the exclusion of all other laws. The Truth (Exalted is He)
says,
"But no, by your Lord (O Muhammad), they are not believers until they
make you judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls
no resistance to your decisions, but accept them with the fullest
conviction." (4:65)
Thus, it is unimaginable that the Muslims could create a government in
Palestine or elsewhere based on the rule of other than the Shari'ah,
and whose authority doesn't come from the Shari'ah.
And the second of these facts is that the recovery of every land which
was once a land of Islam is the personal duty of every Muslim.
Therefore, as Muslims, we cannot possibly concede to Israel so much as
a hand-span of Palestine, and there is no difference as far as we are
concerned between Palestine 1948 and Palestine 1967: all of it is
Palestine and all of it belongs to the Muslims, and all the
international resolutions which bit off chunks of it and allowed the
presence of Israel on it – from the partition resolution to
Resolution
1701 – are null and void, non-binding resolutions, which aren't worth
so much as a mosquito's wing on the scales of Islam.
It is our duty to reject and cast off these resolutions and wage war
on them, instead of taking indecisive stances towards them, and saying
that we shall respect them and acknowledge them as a fact of life, and
other such terms which lead to the forfeiture of the Muslims' rights.
Recognizing these resolutions implies recognizing the Hebrew state in
the land of Palestine, criminalizing Jihad against it, and isolating
the Mujahideen outside it from the Mujahideen inside it.
And the secularists who have approved these resolutions are criminals
in the eyes of Islam who have agreed to the establishment of Israel in
one of the holiest places in Islam.
These secularist traitors – who have renounced Islamic Law, agreed to
the presence of Israel and traded Palestine for crumbs – cannot
possibly have any legitimacy, and we cannot possibly recognize them as
legitimate rulers, much less consider them our brothers. They are
enemies of Islam and Muslims who have turned their backs on the
Shari'ah of Islam and surrendered the Muslims' lands to the Jews.
The third fact is that every way other than Jihad will only lead us to
loss and failure, and those who attempt to liberate the lands of Islam
through elections which are held on the basis of the secular
constitutions or the resolutions surrendering Palestine to the Jews
will never liberate one sand-grain of Palestine: instead, their
actions will lead to the smothering of the Jihad and blockading of the
Mujahideen.
Backtracking in front of the West will not make them happy with us,
regardless of how much expertise we acquire in maneuvering,
equivocating and talking. The Truth (Exalted is He) says,
"The Jews or the Christians will never be satisfied with you unless
you follow their religion." (2:120)
The fourth fact is that recognition of Israel takes many forms. Among
the forms of recognition of Israel is membership in the United
Nations, because Israel is a member like the rest of the members, and
it is the obligation of all members – according to the text of the UN
charter – to respect its sovereignty and the integrity of its
territories.
And one of the regrettable events in this sphere concerns the
conference of "emerging democracies" which was held under UN auspices
in Qatar this past October and which the Israeli foreign minister
refused to attend because a delegation from the Palestinian government
which included members of the HAMAS movement was attending the
conference! i.e., they complain about attending the same conference as
us, while we eagerly compete for that! Is this the political action
which protects the honor and rights of the Muslims?!
Another lamentable example in this context is the recent draft
Security Council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of the Arab
grouping and vetoed by the United States, which condemned the latest
Israel aggression against Gaza in addition to condemning the launching
of rockets against Israel. The ambassador of Palestine at the United
Nations supported this draft and regretted America's objection to it:
i.e., the Palestinian government adopted and supported a draft
resolution criminalizing Jihad against Israel!
And here we must make clear the true nature of the United Nations. The
United Nations is an organization hostile to Islam. Its charter is
based on the rule of other than the Shari'ah and obligates all UN
members, including the governments of the Islamic countries, to
recognize Israel, because it – like them – is a member of the UN.
And
it also obligates them to recognize Russia's occupation of Chechnya
and the Muslim Caucasus, China's occupation of East Turkistan, Spain's
occupation of Ceuta and Melilla and the occupation of other Muslim
lands by non-Muslim governments which are part of the UN.
And furthermore, the UN is the one who established the Jewish presence
in Palestine, the Crusader presence in Afghanistan, and the Crusader
occupation of Iraq, and it is the international false witness which
runs the rigged elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is the one
who today is attempting to enable the Crusaders to invade Darfur under
cover of the UN. The United Nations is the one whose international
forces are today deployed on the borders of Lebanon, to prevent the
meeting up of the Mujahideen from outside Palestine with those within
it, in order to complete the blockade against the Mujahideen in
Palestine. The United Nations is a tool in the hands of the United States and its Crusader partners for taking over the world through
intimidation, enticement and extortion, and it has a leadership
comprised of the Big Five and a backyard called the General Assembly
in which the weak states shout at one another.
And among the forms which the recognition of Israel takes is the
acceptance of the legitimacy of the Palestinian National Authority
which came in being on the basis of the Oslo accords.
And among the forms which the recognition of Israel takes is the
acceptance of the legitimacy of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the
PNA and America's man in Palestine.
And authorizing the Palestinian Liberation Organization – which
recognizes Israel – to negotiate with Israel is an abyss which leads
in the end to the crushing of Jihad and recognition of Israel.
Disregarding the legal and factual realities of the conflict between
unbelief and Islam has led to some of the brothers in Palestine being
led from a lull in the fighting to elections on the basis of a secular
constitution, then from elections on the basis of a secular
constitution to respecting the international resolutions, then from
respecting international resolutions to approving the "prisoners'
document", then from approving the "prisoners' document" to a
government of national unity, and then from a government of national
unity to their expulsion from the cabinet…and the story continues.
How is it that they didn't demand that Palestine have an Islamic
constitution before entering any elections? Aren't they an Islamic
movement? Don't they strive for Allah's Word to be the highest?
We hear talk of an agreement to restructure the PLO. But what we know
and what the entire world knows is that the PLO is a secular
organization which calls for the establishment of a secular state in
Palestine, and that the PLO is the one who recognized Israel and
abandoned more than 80% of Palestine and agreed to the accords of
disgrace and surrender So on what basis are they calling for the
restructuring of the PLO? We had hoped that the brothers would demand
an Islamic charter for the PLO before talking about restructuring it.
And furthermore, what would their stance be were the PLO to be
restructured through elections – as we hear – and the majority
chose
abandonment of Palestine and agreeing to recognize Israel?
And this opens the door to the biggest question: what is the authority
which rules? Is it the majority of votes? Or Divine Shari'ah?
I hope that no one replies to me by saying that Palestine has its
individuality and the people of Palestine know it better than anyone
else.
First of all, Palestine is the cause of every Muslim, just as all the
Muslims' causes are the causes of every Muslim in Palestine. Secondly,
I'm not talking about details and secrets about which the people of
Palestine know best: rather, I'm talking about the fundamentals of
Islam and Shari'ah and the right of Shari'ah to rule, and I'm talking
about refusing to compromise on one sand-grain of Islamic land.
That's why I say to our brothers in Palestine: brothers in Islam;
brothers in Jihad; brothers in Ribat, sacrifice and martyrdom-seeking:
hold onto your Qurans, hold on to your rifles.
My Muslim brothers in Palestine: all Muslims stand with you, and wish
to offer their lives in exchange for the liberation of al-Aqsa, so
stand with your Muslim brothers in Islam in Chechnya, Afghanistan,
Kashmir and Iraq, and let the world hear your support of them.
I also encourage the Muslim Ummah to support the people of Palestine
with all the support they can, in order that the flame of Jihad is not
extinguished in the environs of Jerusalem.
And I call on all Muslims to back the Mujahideen in Palestine with
their persons, wealth, materiel, opinion and expertise, in spite of
the international resolutions and in spite of the Sykes-Picot borders.
The second thing I wish to talk about is the passing of five years
since the entrance of the Crusaders to Kabul, surrounded by their
agents who sold their religion for a paltry worldly price and some of
whom used to claim to belong to Jihad and the Islamic movement, but
Allah revealed what was in their hearts, and so they entered Kabul on
the backs of the Crusader tanks and under their cross.
The American government thought that it had scored an easy victory,
but Bush didn't have a clue about what awaited him in Afghanistan. And
the truth about the Americans and their allies began to come to light
in Tora Bora and Shah-i-Kot. And the Jihadi resistance began to
increase, with the Bush administration claiming that it was the
remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban in order to cover up its losses, and
Bush claiming that he keeps on his desk pictures of the leaders of
al-Qaida and crosses out the pictures of those of them who are killed
or captured. And in vain, the Western media and with it the
international false witness, the UN, sought to cover up the
catastrophe. And so began the campaign of lies and deception: first
the Loya Jirga, then the interim government, then the presidential and
parliamentary elections…those elections which took place under the
threat of aerial bombing to destroy any village suspected of harboring
resistance to the Crusader. And I can authenticate specific incidents
in which the Crusader-helping traitors threatened those who cooperate
with the Mujahideen not merely with death, but with the destruction of
their entire village, and then carried out their threat.
I mentioned previously the presidential and parliamentary elections in
Afghanistan. In regard to the presidential polls, the vote-counting in
it took 15 days, during which the ballot boxes were passed from
bandits to warlords to American military and intelligence. And as for
the parliamentary elections, the counting of its votes took one month.
And it is for the intelligent people of the world to imagine what can
happen in Afghanistan in one month.
And despite all this deception, the scandals came to the surface:
Qala-i-Jangi, the massacre in the container trucks, the atrocities at
Shiberghan prison and the mass graves at Dasht-i-Laili, as the
resistance increased, and then the Crusader retaliation and the
killing of tens of thousands of Afghans and the destruction of
hundreds of villages, while the Taliban's Jihadi resistance under the
command of the Commander of the Believers Mulla Muhammad Umar – the
symbol of Islamic honor in this era – grew, prospered and spread…
The Afghan nation declared with blood and sacrifice just who was the
legitimate leadership around which it rallied, and exposed the rigging
of the UN's elections, which the hypocritical international community
applauded, despite everyone's knowledge of the extent of the
manipulation…
The Pushtun tribes on both sides of the border declared their
allegiance to the Taliban, joined the Jihad against the Crusade and
stood firm in the face of the combined bombing of the Americans and
Crusaders…
And the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and Pakistan wrote an honorable
chapter in the history of Islam.
And in this regard, I hail our Muslim brothers in Pakistan on their
demonstrations against the traitorous Musharraf government after the
treacherous aggression against the religious school in Bajaur, and I
hail the Mujahideen of Pakistan on their heroic, martyrdom-seeking
confrontation of the Crusaders' agents in Pakistan. And I remind them
that the way to deliverance is in supporting the forces of the Islamic
Emirate in Afghanistan with their persons and wealth, and not through
parliamentary ruses or elections polluted with bribery, cheating and
manipulation…
And finally the American administration was forced to admit the
irrefutable facts and the failure of its Crusade in Afghanistan…
And the Taliban proved once more that if the Muslim masses embrace the
cause of Jihad and find the steadfast Mujahid leadership, not even the
strongest power on earth can quell them.
And the Taliban reveal, with their historic, heroic stance, the dirty
role played by the religion-dealing traitors in Iraq and the scholars
of beggary in Cairo, Riyadh, Amman and our other capitals.
And America will be defeated in Afghanistan and pull out soon, with
Allah's permission, and it is now seeking to organize the agents who
will succeed it in Afghanistan, and this is the same deteriorating
situation which the Soviets faced before their withdrawal, and the
American efforts shall – Allah willing – lead to the same failure
which the Soviets suffered.
And the Islamic Emirate shall return to Kabul soon – Allah willing
–
following the Crusader pullout, and its popularity has not merely
increased in Afghanistan, but also in neighboring countries. And these
are facts known to all.
The Afghan people, in a quarter of a century, have defeated – by the
grace of Allah – the two superpowers in this world, so may Allah
grant
long life to this poor, steadfast, Mujahid people. It is the duty of
the Muslim Ummah to back them, and this is the least it can do to
fulfill the duty it owes to them.
The religious, military and political history of mankind shall bear
witness that the strongest power in history was defeated by a power
much stronger, greater and purer than it: the power of Mujahid Islam.
So bear witness, O history, and bear witness, O mankind, "And
sufficient is Allah as a witness."
I repeat what I mentioned previously: the backing of the Jihad in
Afghanistan and Iraq today is to back the most important battlefields
in which the Crusade against Islam and Muslims is in progress. And the
defeat of the Crusaders there – soon, Allah permitting – will have
a
far-reaching effect on the future of the Muslim Ummah, Allah willing.
The third thing I wish to talk about is a message to the Democrats in
America.I tell them: you must realize two facts.
The first is that you aren't the ones who won the midterm elections,
nor are the Republicans the ones who lost: rather, the Mujahideen –
the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq – are the ones
who
won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones
who lost.
The second fact is that the Mujahideen are still – by the grace of
Allah – in the field, their weapons with which they fell the
Democrats
are still ready and aimed, and the Mujahideen won't stop inflicting
losses on you until you leave our lands, stop plundering our
treasures, and stop backing the corrupt rulers in our countries.
And if you don't refrain from the foolish American policy of backing
Israel, occupying the lands of Islam, and stealing the treasures of
the Muslims, then await the same fate.
You must realize that a new period of world history has begun. The
period of the offspring of Abd al-Aziz Al-Sa'ud, the grandsons of the
Sharif Husayn and Sadat, Mubarak and Arafat has passed, and the period
of Khalid Islambouli, Abdullah Azzam, Abu Hafs the Commander, Khattab,
Muhammad Atta, Muhammad Siddique Khan, and Shehzad Tanwir (Allah have
mercy on them) has begun. And if you are unable to comprehend this
transformation, then blame no one but yourselves.
Depart from our lands and stop supporting the corrupt rulers, and
don't prevent the Muslim Ummah from establishing its legitimate Shura
state accountable to it.
And I tell both the Republicans and Democrats: you are attempting in
panic to find a way out of the disasters which surround you in Iraq
and Afghanistan, but you are still thinking with the same idiotic
mentality. Thus you try to negotiate with certain parties to secure
your departure, although these parties don't have a way out for you,
and your attempts will only succeed in further frustrating you, Allah
willing, because you aren't negotiating with the real powers in the
Islamic world. And it appears that you shall embark on a painful
journey of failed negotiations, after which you shall come back –
Allah permitting – with no other choice but to negotiate with the
real
powers.
And I tell them: Bush reflects the level of thought of the American
nation, despite all the research centers, specialists, thinkers and
historians it has. A nation which chooses Bush as its president is a
nation of negligible morals, ideology and intellect. And it suffices
to take a look at his recent meeting with the beggar al-Maliki in
Amman, and the differences and disputes which permeated it and blew up
in public despite their strong need to project it as a successful
meeting.
The fourth thing I wish to talk about is a message to the American
people. I say to them: you only realized the failure of the
administration and toppled the Republicans' candidates after the
Mujahideen slaughtered you, and you didn't listen to the voice of
morality, justice, principles and intellect. And the Mujahideen's
weapons continue to be raised and aimed, by the grace of Allah.
The formula for your safety is "You shall never dream of security
until we truly experience it in Palestine and all lands of Islam," and
not the fallacious formula with which Bush deceives you when he says,
"We strike the terrorists in their countries so that they don't strike
us in ours." On the contrary: if we are struck in our countries, we
shall never stop striking you in your countries, with Allah's power
and permission.
And as our commander, Shaykh Usama bin Ladin (may Allah preserve him)
told you, "As you bomb, you will be bombed, and as you kill, you will
be killed."
And the fifth thing which I want to talk about is a message to the
Muslim Ummah. I say to it:
O my Muslim Ummah, you must choose between two choices: the first is
to live on the margins of the New World Order and international law
and under the control of the arrogant enemies of Islam, dishonored,
humiliated, plundered and occupied, with them meddling in your beliefs
and true religion, sticking their noses in all your foreign and
domestic affairs, and you living the life of a vassal, lowly,
disgraced and defiled.
And the second choice is that you rely on your Lord, renew your
Tawheed (worship of the one God), rise up with your true faith, follow
the revealed religion of Allah, and stand with it in the face of the
arrogant criminals, as your truthful and trustworthy Prophet (peace be
upon him), his righteous companions, and his purified family (Allah
was pleased with them all) stood in the face of the world, inviting,
giving the good news, warning and performing Jihad in order that
Allah's Word be made the highest and the word of the infidels the
lowest. And there is no third choice.
The Crusaders and Jews will only be pleased with the Muslim Ummah if
it is satisfied with vassalage, humiliation and repression. If,
however, the Ummah sets about repelling the aggression which has been
committed against it for centuries, it gets nothing but bombing,
destruction, torture, occupation, abuse and infringement, because in
that case it is not eligible for human rights, due to it being a
species of animal which has attacked its Western masters.
This is the logic of the materialistic Western Crusader civilization,
and this is their culture, and this is the mentality which motivates
them, however much they try to hide it or claim that they don't
discriminate on the basis of religion, or that they have rid
themselves of Crusader spirit, or that they only want to spread
freedom, justice and equality.
Do we still have any doubt about the extent of the despicability and
maliciousness of the Crusade which is being waged against us? The
Crusades against us have never stopped, but have only differed in
their form, magnitude and appearance, while continuing through the
ages.
My intention today isn't to talk about Western Crusader corruption and
perversion, but rather, I wish to discuss the role of the Muslim Ummah
and its duty towards this continuing aggression against our religion,
sacred things, lands and children.
The first thing I want to bring to attention of myself and my Muslim
brothers is the necessity of being aware of the fundamentals of the
Shari'ah and facts on the ground.
Among the pillars of this awareness is that the Ummah define who its
real leaders are, those who sacrifice in the path of helping Islam,
and who the clamaints to leadership are, those who search for their
gains by selling out the religion and running after personal
ambitions, or retreat from the real confrontation and run circles with
the Ummah in endless mazes, because every single time, they recoil
from rising to the challenge, give precedence to safety, and slide
step by step towards the abyss of secularism.
Is it possible for the leaders of the Ummah to be the religion-sellers
in Iraq and Afghanistan who colluded with the Crusaders before, during
and after their invasion, and entered Kabul and Baghdad on the backs
of American tanks?! How is it possible for the Jihad against the Jews
in Lebanon to be Halaal while the Jihad against the Americans in Iraq
and Afghanistan is Haraam?! How is it possible for cooperation with
the Zionist enemy in Lebanon to be treason, while cooperation with the
Crusader enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan is security and progress?! How
is it possible that we rush to participate in the two governments set
up by the occupier in Afghanistan and Iraq, recognize and support
them, and defend them and confront those who perform Jihad against
them, while cooperation with the Crusader occupier in Lebanon and
Palestine is betrayal?!
And moreover, how is it possible that Islam is exploited in the
marketing of this inconsistency and fraud?
With which Quran or which Sunnah does someone dare to sell the Muslims
in the name of the religion, the Prophet (peace be upon him), his
righteous companions, and his purified family (Allah was pleased with
them), and that he make legal their homes, persons, and sacred things
for the Crusaders and Jews?
Has Islam, the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet, and the legacy of his
purified family and righteous companions become a commodity in the
market of politics for coming to power and extending influence?
What religion is this? What morality is this? What honor is this?
Rather, what collapse is this?
History has recorded, and continues to record, that when the Crusaders
waged their assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq, the people of faith and
Jihad held their own, while the religion-traders sold the countries
for power and position. The masks have fallen, the facts have come
out, and the secrets have been revealed, and woe unto the traitors on
the judgment of history, and woe unto them on the Day of Accounting.
"Nay, the Hour [of judgment] is the time promised them [for their full
recompense], and the Hour will be most grievous and most bitter."
(54:46)
"The day in which neither wealth nor sons will avail, but only he
[will prosper] who comes to Allah with a sound heart." (26:88-89)
The treads of the American Crusader tanks will have no mercy on those
who applauded their entrance to Afghanistan and Iraq, and the favor
will be returned to them in the worst way.
I call on every independent, honorable and intelligent follower of the
religion-sellers who support and beg for the Crusader presence in Iraq
and Afghanistan and forbid Jihad against it to examine himself and to
remember that he will meet his Lord alone:
"And each of them will come to Him singly on the Day of Resurrection."
(19:95)
and to remember that following the leaders and elders in their
misguidance is of no avail after evidence has been shown. The Truth
(Exalted is He) says,
"If you could see when the wrongdoers will stand before their Lord,
throwing the words [of blame] to one another! Those who were deemed
weak will say to the arrogant ones, `Had it not been for you, we
should certainly have been believers!' The arrogant ones will say to
those who had been deemed weak, `Was it we who kept you back from
guidance after it reached you? Nay, rather, it was you who
transgressed.'" (34:31-32)
And I call on every independent, honorable and intelligent one to ask
himself a courageous and brave question: were Imam Ali (may Allah
honor him) or our chief Hasan or our chief Husayn (Allah was pleased
with them) today present in Iraq or Afghanistan, would they have
colluded with the Crusaders in the invasion of the lands of Islam, and
then cooperate with them and fight the Mujahideen in defense of them?
Would they have participated in the governments put in place by the
Crusaders and blessed by the United Nations, and would they have
obeyed the orders of Bremer, Tommy Franks and Lakhdar Brahimi? Or
would they have declared Jihad against them and those who help them?
And I call on every independent, honorable and intelligent one to ask
himself: is this the Islam for which Imam Ali and Husayn (Allah was
pleased with them) sought martyrdom?
And I ask him to ask himself: why should Jihad be Halaal in Lebanon
but Haraam in Iraq and Afghanistan? And why should America be the
Great Satan in Lebanon but the Great Ally in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Those who pretend not to see the existence of the current Crusade, and
try to portray the conflicts with the Crusader West as being separate,
restricted conflicts, or those who differentiate between the Crusade
against Iraq and Afghanistan and the Zionist-Crusader war against
Lebanon, or those who call for Jihad against America and Israel in
Lebanon while at the same time calling for cooperation with America
and peace with Israel in Iraq and Afghanistan, or those who don't
believe in the unity of the Muslim Ummah in its defensive war against
the Crusade in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, or
those who entered Kabul and Baghdad on the backs of American tanks, or
those who participated in the puppet regimes created by the Crusader
occupier in Afghanistan and Iraq: these cannot possibly lead the Ummah
in its defense against the Crusade, because he who is missing
something cannot give it.
And by the same token, the scholars of beggary cannot lead the Ummah
in its Jihad against the fiercest Crusade it has ever faced.
How can the Ummah's Jihad be led by those who permit Al Saud to send
for the Americans to occupy the Arabian Peninsula and then claim that
the massive armies, giant fleets and roaring squadrons of bombers are
under the "protection" of Al Saud, who defend and protect them with
their emaciated, soft army which can't even protect itself?!
Or by those who tell the youth that it is not permitted to travel for
Jihad to Iraq and Afghanistan? Or by those who claim legitimacy for Al
Saud and that their obedience is obligatory and claim the necessity of
the pledge of allegiance to them, for which they invented a law which
restricts it to the sons and grandsons of Abd al-Aziz, including the
insane, comatose, atheists, unrighteous and apostates among them, and
excludes the just, reliable and distinguished in the nation and its
leaders and thinkers, because they are slaves of Al Saud who have
nothing to do with the rule which the sons of Abd al-Aziz inherited
from their father who won it with the blade of the sword and the gold
of the English, and which his sons consolidated with the invading
American hordes? Don't Al Saud's scholars of beggary remember the
statement of the Commander of the Faithful Umar bin al-Khattab, with
whom Allah was pleased, "When did you enslave the people after their
mothers delivered them as freemen?"
Haven't Al Saud's scholars approved their government's decision to
build a 900-mile-long wall on the Saudi-Iraq border at a cost of 12
billion dollars to protect the security of the American forces and to
prevent the Mujahideen on the Peninsula from joining their brothers in
Iraq? Were this money to be spent on a real army, it would have
sufficed the people of the Peninsula from begging the Crusaders to
defend their flabby show army.
And how is it possible for the Ummah's Jihad to be led by those who
permit the rulers of Egypt to kill the Mujahideen and make peace with
Israel? Or those who permit the Muslims to fight in the American army
against their brothers in Afghanistan? Or those who obligate the
Muslim women in France to remove their Hijabs in obedience to its
Islam-combating secular government? Or those who obligate the Muslims
in Britain to obey Elizabeth, the head of the Church of England? All
these and their likes cannot possibly rise to the level of leadership,
because they have fall into the depths of beggary.
The courageous, resolute, martyrdom-seeking women of Bayt Hanun are a
thousand times braver and more honorable than the religion-selling
traitors in Iraq and Afghanistan and the scholars of beggary in Cairo,
Riyadh, Amman and Sana'a.
It also isn't right that the Jihad of the Ummah be led by those who
will lead it into the mazes of daubing oneself with secularism,
backing down on the fundamentals of the faith and running after the
mirage of elections.
Entering the elections under the umbrella of secular constitutions to
bring the Islamic movement to power, in addition to its violating the
Shari'ah, is also a futile method of achieving Islamic change and
mobilizing the Ummah for Jihad against it enemy. It failed in Algeria,
failed in Yemen, failed in Jordan, failed in Egypt, and it is today
failing in Palestine.
The lamentable, distressing thing is that the movements which recoil
from confrontation have bestowed legitimacy upon traitors like
Mubarak, Al Saud, Ibn Hussein, and Ali Abdullah Salih, and abandoned
the fundamentals of the religion and became part of the system's
tricks to absorb the resentment of the Muslim Ummah and drain it in
the labyrinth without enacting any real change; on the contrary, the
American Zionist plan continues while the leaderships of these
movements wear out their support bases on the merry-go-round of rigged
elections. With shouting and hoarse throats, they combat the ruling
wolves who rig the elections every time, renew the emergency laws
every year, and bequeath power from every predecessor to his successor.
The Muslim Ummah must arm itself with an awareness guided by the light
of the Shari'ah, in order for it to determine: who are its helpers?
Who are its enemies? Who are the sincere ones who sacrifice their
lives for the glory of Islam and Muslims? And who are the traitors who
forfeit the Ummah's rights, lands and sacred things for power,
position, plunder and paychecks?
If the Ummah doesn't arm itself with this awareness, it will never
move on to victory, either because its sacrifices will be stolen from
it every time, or because it will obey leaderships unable to rise to
the level of the battle who spin their followers on the merry-go-round
of political mazes.
There is no solution without Jihad. All other solutions are not only
futile, but moreover, will exacerbate the state of collapse and
humiliation in which we live. They are like treating cancer with
aspirin. And even worse than that is that these fruitless, impotent
solutions give the Crusader-Zionist enemy plenty of time to strengthen
its presence and plenty of time for the collective consciousness of
the Ummah to become accustomed to the Crusader-Zionist occupation in
our countries and for the groups of hypocrisy and profiteering to
start repeating that there is no point in resisting, that the
occupation is a fact of life with which we must deal, and that we
can't overstep international law, and so on, to the last of the
dissonant notes in the recital of submissiveness and surrender.
The fact which our enemies realize before our friends is that the
thing which trimmed America's claws, broke its back, and aborted its
plans was neither the elections, nor trading in religion, nor beggary,
but rather, was the Mujahideen's love of martyrdom and their
sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a Jihadi resistance which the
people of whims and prejudice have for so long criticized.
And I tell the Muslim Ummah: if we don't resist, we shall be finished.
Resistance is a must, and this resistance can be nothing but a popular
one at the hands of the Muslim Ummah, because the governments are
treasonous and many of the organizations have fallen into the swamp of
impotence and going after scraps of the booty.
It is incumbent that the Muslim Ummah stand shoulder to shoulder –
Mujahideen, men, women, children, elderly, scholars, thinkers, leaders
and general public – to expel the Crusader and Jewish invaders from
the land of Islam and establish the Islamic state which rules by
Shari'ah and defends the rights of the Muslims, because the battle is
not the battle of a group or organization, but is the battle of the
entire Ummah. Therefore, it is imperative that we break the chains of
partisanship to the groups, parties and organizations which stand
between the sincere ones and their effective participation in the
fighting against the trespasser enemies of Islam, and that we rush,
before the opportunity passes us by, to stand in the column of Jihad
against the Zionist-Crusader aggression.
So we extend our hand and invite every independent and honorable one
striving to establish Allah's Law on His earth and earnestly working
to expel the Crusader and Jewish invaders from the land of Islam to
cooperate with us and with every sincere one to achieve this goal.
We must bear arms. And if we are unable to bear them, then we must
support those who carry them. This support comes in many forms and
guises, so we must exploit all Da'wah, student and union activities to
back the Jihadi resistance.
There is a critical and important role to be played by the inviters,
students and unionists in backing and supporting the Jihad. They must
make it easy for the Ummah's members to join the ranks of the
Mujahideen and raise funds for the Jihad. They must spread awareness
in the ranks of the Ummah. They must stake out targets and observe the
activities and most prominent aspects of the American-Zionist
presence, and gather data and pass it on to the Mujahideen. They must
support the families of the prisoners, and disseminate the
Mujahideen's public relations and rebut the fallacies of the
governments and their publicists. And they must strive to declare
general strikes in protest at the Zionist-Crusader aggression and the
governments' feebleness and their crushing of the demonstrations.
The popular forces must take part in rejecting the Crusader-Zionist
aggression against the Muslim Ummah, and not just through
demonstrations, many of whose times, places and programs are
prearranged with the security forces. Rather, the popular rejection
must build to applying pressure toward the expulsion of Crusader
forces from the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt and the
cancellation of the surrender accords with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and
Mauritania.
The Muslim Ummah must exploit all methods of popular protest, like
demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes, refusing to pay taxes, preventing
cooperation with the security forces, refusing to provide the
Crusaders with fuel, hitting traders who supply the Crusader forces,
boycotting Crusader and Jewish products, and other ways of popular
protest.
And here I remind my Muslim brothers that rights are taken and not
given, and that patience and diligence is a must in their extraction.
The ruling wolves – agents of the Crusaders and Jews – shall seek
to
suppress the popular actions in every way possible, and perhaps the
clampdown on the student demonstrations in Cairo (in protest at the
students of the Islamic movement being prevented from entering the
student elections) at the beginning of November is a clear example of
that. However, the students will not gain their freedom, nor will
anyone in Egypt or the Islamic world gain their freedom, as long as we
do not intimidate, because lambs have no place in the middle of a
world of wolves.
The students must take their anger to the streets, and they must make
the mosques, universities, colleges and high schools centers of
support for Jihad and resistance.
And in this context, I hail our Muslim brothers in Turkey on their
demonstrations rejecting the visit of Benedict the Charlatan, who
pretended to forget his own creed – full of fantasies and
contradictions – and attacked the Noblest Prophet, peace be upon him.
These demonstrations reflect the love the Muslims in Turkey have for
their Greatest Prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him), and reveal their
passionate Islamic sympathies and their zeal for the victory of Islam
in the confrontation with the secularist ruling clique loyal to Israel
and America. And perhaps the actions of the Crusaders have proven to
the Muslims in Turkey that the Crusaders will only be pleased with
them if they abandon their religion. The Truth, Exalted is He, says:
"The Jews or the Christians will never be satisfied with you unless
you follow their religion." (2:120)
Grandsons of Sultan Muhammad the Conquerer (Allah have mercy on him):
hold tight to your religion and your Islam, and know that love of the
Prophet (peace be upon him) is only fulfilled by following him and
observing his Shari'ah. The Truth, Exalted is He, says,
"So take what the Messenger gives you, and refrain from what he
prohibits you." (59:7)
And stand in the face of the enemies of Islam – the Crusaders abroad
and the Judaized secularists at home – and know that we and the
entire
Islamic Ummah are with you, with your Muslim brothers in Cyprus, and
with every persecuted Muslim everywhere. The Prophet, peace be upon
him, said, "The Muslims are equal in their blood and they are as one
against the others."
And just as I call on the grandsons of Sultan Muhammad the Conquerer
(Allah have mercy on them) to cling to their religion and Islam, and
to confront the secularist clique allied to Israel, I also call on the
grandsons of Salahuddin (Allah have mercy on them) to cling to their
religion and Islam, and to confront the secularist clique loyal to
Israel and dominating them with American money and aid.
And I tell them that the secularist traitors are striving to sow
discord between you and your brothers the Mujahideen, who sympathized
with you when you were hit by the crimes of the criminal, pagan
Ba'athists. And you know that your Mujahid brothers, especially in
Qaida al-Jihad, are – by the grace of Allah – the farthest people
from
ethnic fanaticism. They have pledged allegiance to the Commander of
the Believers, Mullah Muhammad Omar, as their commander, and he isn't
an Arab.
So O grandsons of Salahuddin, restore the glory of your forefathers,
and don't allow the secularist deserters to drive a wedge between you
and your brothers so they can continue to receive the funding of the
Americans and Jews.
I also remind our brothers who work in Islamic media of their crucial,
critical role in the Muslim Ummah's battle against the Zionist Crusade
in clarifying the facts, dispelling misconceptions and removing the
masks from the traitors.
And I remind every educated Muslim that his role in confronting the
Zionist Crusade is to bear arms. If he cannot, then he must support
and serve those who are bearing them, and he must speak the truth to
the faces of the idol-kings, tyrants and arrogant ones, and mention
them by name: i.e., he must say that Hosni Mubarak, Al Saud, and Ibn
Hussein are puppets and traitors. This is his role, and not to prattle
and prevaricate or seek his livelihood in writing and interviews, let
alone call for submission and obedience to the arrogant tyrants or
reconciliation with them and unleash his tongue against the Mujahideen
but swallow it if the corruptive idol-kings are mentioned.
"And say, `Work, and Allah, His Messenger and the believers will see
your work, and, and you shall be brought back to the Knower of the
unseen and seen: then He will inform you of all that you did.'" (9:105)
It is the duty of the Ummah's vanguard to strive for change, because
getting rid of these puppets is the doorway to deliverance and the
beginning of the serious Jihadi challenge to the Crusader invasion.
As I end my talk, I send my greetings and those of my brothers to our
brothers, the Mujahideen in Iraq. And I congratulate them on the
establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq, and encourage the Islamic
Ummah to back this young, fledgling state, for it – Allah permitting
–
is the gateway to the liberation of Palestine and the restoration of
the Islamic Caliphate. And I also encourage all my Mujahid brothers in
Iraq to join this blessed caravan to rescue Iraq of the Caliphate from
the schemes of the Crusaders and their agents, the traitorous
religion-traders, and to ruin what the beggar Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
conspired about in Washington with his master, the defender of the
defeated cross.
I also send my greetings and those of my brothers to our brothers, the
Mujahideen in Somalia, and I remind them that their duty in Somalia is
to defend the honor of Islam and Muslims on the Horn of Africa against
the Crusaders and Zionists, and to know that what is happening in
Somalia is an another installment of the Zionist Crusade which is
assaulting the Muslim Ummah everywhere.
Brothers in Islam and Jihad in Somalia: know that you are on the
southern garrison of Islam, so don't allow Islam to be attacked from
your flank, and know that we are with you, and that the entire Muslim
Ummah is with you.
"So don't lose heart, or fall into despair, for you must dominate if
you are true in faith." (3:139)
And know that you are fending off the same Crusade which is fighting
your brothers in Islam in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and
Lebanon. So be resolute, be patient and be optimistic, for by Allah
beside whom there is no other god, even if your enemies possess
thousands of tons of iron and explosives, in their chests lie the
hearts of mice. So be severe against them like Muhammad was:
"You have indeed in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example for he
who is expectant of Allah and the Final Day and remembers Allah much.
And when the believers saw the confederates, they said, `This is what
Allah and His Messenger had promised us, and Allah and His Messenger
told us what was true.' And it only added to their faith and their
zeal in obedience. Among the believers are men who have been true to
their covenant with Allah; of them some have died and some [still]
wait, but they have never changed in the least." (33:21-23)
And I sent my greetings and those of my brothers to the Chechen
people, in Jihad against the Russian Crusade for 400 years. O sons of
Imam Shamil (Allah have mercy on him), know that you are not alone in
confronting the Crusade against Islam. You are at the throats of the
Russians and their helpers, and we are at the throats of the Americans
and Jews and their followers. So stand firm and remember the statement
of the Truth, Exalted is He,
"How many of the Prophets fought, and with them were large bands of
godly men, but they never lost heart at what befell them in Allah's
way, nor did they weaken nor give in. And Allah loves those who
persevere. All that they said was, `Our Lord, forgive us our sins and
our transgression; establish our feet firmly; and help us against the
unbelieving people.' And Allah gave them a reward in this world, and
the excellent reward of the hereafter, for Allah loves those who do
good." (3:146-148)
And I also send my greetings and those of my brothers to our steadfast
brothers in Algeria in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat,
the guards of Islam's western garrison. I ask Allah to accept their
sacrifices, perseverance and resoluteness, to send down on them His
victory which He promised His believing worshippers, and to conquer
with them His enemies, the Crusaders and secularist sons of France.
And I give them the good news that the winds of victory are blowing,
that the Ummah has risen up, and that the era of humiliation has come
to a close. So stand firm, because your Lord says,
"O you who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy; vie in such
perseverance; strengthen each other; and fear Allah, that you may
prosper." (3:200)
And our final prayer is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the
worlds, and may peace and prayers be on our master Muhammad and upon
his family and companions. And may peace be upon you and the mercy of
Allah and His blessings.
Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
Dhu Qa'dah 1427 AH
December 2006 CE
I have posted a large number of posts, so did not ping them to you, you will need to check for these, more on the way.
the Earth Charter is housed in the "Arc of Hope"<<<
It is hard for me to keep in mind that the above is actually a religion, as is liberalism, traceable to Hitler and I do not know how far behind him, more than likely to before Christ was born.
Somali Islamists urge Muslims worldwide to join jihad
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-12-23T110414Z_01_L23110484_RTRUKOC_0_US-SOMALIA-CONFLICT.xml&W
TmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C1_%5BFeed%5D-3
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-
12-23T110414Z_01_L23110484_RTRUKOC_0_US-SOMALIA-CONFLICT.xml&WTmodLoc=IntNew
sHome_C1_%5BFeed%5D-3
Somali Islamists urge Muslims worldwide to join jihad
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamists urged foreign Muslim fighters on
Saturday to join their "holy war" against Ethiopia after days of heavy
fighting between Islamist and pro-government troops.
The Islamists and pro-Somali government fighters have been firing
artillery
and rockets at each other across frontlines since Tuesday, killing
dozens
and wounding hundreds. Though residents reported a lull in fighting
early on
Saturday.
"Our country is open to Muslims worldwide. Let them fight in Somalia
and
wage jihad, and God willing, attack Addis Ababa," said Islamisti
defense
chief Yusuf Mohamed Siad "Inda'ade", a hard-liner known for his
belligerent
rhetoric.
"We told the world to stop this problem. We told them to do something
before
it becomes a blazing fire that would engulf the region," he told
reporters
in the Islamist stronghold of Mogadishu.
The most sustained fighting to date between the two sides has
heightened
fears of a major regional war that would suck in Horn of Africa rivals
Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Diplomats fear the Somali conflict could also trigger suicide bombings
in
east Africa.
Ethiopia poured scorn on the Islamists' call for international support
from
foreign jihadists, saying it proved the "extremism" of a movement Addis
Ababa accuses of being run by militants linked to al Qaeda.
"If wishes were horses, the extremists in the Islamic Courts Union
would
have attacked Addis Ababa by now," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Ambassador
Solomon Abede told Reuters.
"Their declaration appealing to foreign Muslim fighters to help in war
against Ethiopia proves their extremist behavior."
APPEALS FOR PEACE
Residents reported quiet across the two main fronts near the
government's
encircled base at Baidoa early Saturday. The Islamists said they took
over
Tiyeglow late on Friday, meeting no resistance in the town some 70 km
(45
miles) southwest of Baidoa.
The Islamists took power in Mogadishu and across a swathe of southern
Somalia in June, challenging the Western-backed interim government's
aspiration to restore central rule for the first time since a military
dictator was toppled in 1991.
This week's combat started after Tuesday's expiry of a deadline the
Somalia
Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had given Ethiopian troops protecting the
government to leave the country or face war.
The African Union added its voice on Saturday to U.N. and Western
condemnation of the fighting and urged both sides to resume peace
talks.
The SICC accuses Christian-led Ethiopia, a U.S. ally in its war on
terrorism, of invading Somalia and has said it would wage holy war
against
the dominant Horn of Africa power.
Washington says the Islamists are led by an al Qaeda cell, which the
military-religious movement denies.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has publicly encouraged jihadists to
join
such a war.
Military experts estimate Ethiopia has 15,000-20,000 troops in Somalia,
while Eritrea has about 2,000 behind the Islamists.
Asmara denies the accusation, while Addis Ababa admits only having a
few
hundred military trainers in Baidoa.
Al-Qaeda : Kill The Cross Worshippers On Christmas
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/185821.php
Al-Qaeda : Kill The Cross Worshippers On Christmas(UPDATED)
ABCNEWS is reporting that al-Qaeda hopes to murder British civilians
over
Fordham.edChristmas.
ABC's
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/exclusive_al_qa.html
The Blotter:ABC News has learned that al Qaeda operatives in the
greaterLondon area are being encouraged to "strike during the Christian
holidays," according to intelligence and law enforcement sources.
Those sources say that Internet chatter and Web postings monitored by
authorities are behind the grave concern of an imminent al Qaeda
strike, one
that at least some law enforcement officials in Britain fear will again
target mass transit.
continued.
Who Owns Kirkuk? The Turkoman Case
by Yücel Güçlü
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2007
http://www.meforum.org/article/1074
The question of Kirkuk's final status remains among the touchiest issues concerning Iraq's future. The Iraqi Kurdish political parties seek to include Kirkuk in a federal Kurdish state, an outcome at odds with Iraqi Turkoman sensitivities. The Turkomans consider Kirkuk to be their own ancestral capital and cultural center. Understanding the Turkoman claim to Kirkuk is essential to defuse a potentially explosive problem.
Policymakers and commentators outside Turkey often ignore the Turkomans. Literature about them is scarce in Western languages; the little that exists is limited in academic rigor and utility.[1] Furthermore, in terms of enunciating their concerns and interacting with Western officials, the Turkomans themselves have not always been effective spokesmen for their cause.
For centuries, the Turkomans have been part of the urban elite in cities such as Baghdad, Mosul, and Kirkuk. They remain an integral part of Iraq although their population is debated. It is hard to come by adequate population numbers in Iraq. After the 1958 revolution and the Baath Party coup ten years later, successive Iraqi governments embraced Arab nationalism[2] and worked to subvert the rights of the Kurdish and Turkoman communities. The last reliable census in Iraq—and the only one in which participants could declare their mother tongue—was in 1957. It found that Turkomans were the third largest ethnicity in Iraq, after Arabs and Kurds. The Turkomans numbered 567,000 out of a total population of 6,300,000. Later polls dropped "Turkoman" as a category. Basing his estimate on the 1957 census data and a growth rate of 2.5 percent annually, Erþat Hürmüzlü, a Kirkuk-born Turkoman scholar, estimated Iraq's Turkoman population today at no less than two million Turkomans, out of a total population of 25 million.[3]
The City of Kirkuk
The status of Kirkuk remains one of Iraq's major flash points. A city of more than 750,000[4] in the center of northern Iraq, it sits adjacent to oil fields holding 40 percent of Iraq's reserves[5] and is surrounded by some of Iraq's richest agricultural land. Kirkuk's history is complex, replete with competing claims to suzerainty.
Kirkuk's history dates back thousands of years.[6] The Ottoman Empire incorporated Kirkuk—and much of what is now Iraq—into its domains in 1534. Kirkuk grew in importance in the eighteenth century when it became the capital of the Ottoman sanjak (county or sub-district) of Þehrizor, comprising the areas of Kirkuk, Arbil, and Sulaimaniya. With the reforms of Midhat Pasha, Baghdad's governor between 1869 and 1872, the name Þehrizor was given to the sanjak of Kirkuk (corresponding to the present areas of Kirkuk and Arbil). In 1879, the Ottoman government in Istanbul created the Mosul vilayet, which incorporated most of what is now northern Iraq. Kirkuk remained an important garrison town and, for reasons of language and the composition of the population, a valuable Ottoman recruiting center for civil servants and gendarmes. Ottoman culture thrived in the city.[7] The Turkomans dominated the merchant class and provided economic stability to the city.
Following its defeat in World War I, the Ottoman Empire forfeited much of its territory in the Middle East. But, because the majority of the area of Kirkuk was Turkish, the Ottoman government refused to renounce its claim. The Sublime Porte based its claim on President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, Article XII of which stipulated that the Turkish portions of the Ottoman Empire should be assured sovereignty. The Ottoman delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 argued that in "Asia the Turkish lands are bounded on the south by the provinces of Mosul and Diyarbekir, as well as a part of Aleppo as far as the Mediterranean."[8]
At this time, Kirkuk's leading families were Turkoman: the Neftçiler—whose name in Turkish means oil producer—had owned and exploited the oil seepages since a 1693 imperial decree; the Yakuboðullarý were landowners; and the Kýrdars were both landowners and merchants. In addition, the city was home to scores of soldiers and civil servants who had reached high office in the Ottoman service but retired to their home province after the Allies dismembered the empire. The Turkomans retained the position of social influence they had enjoyed under Ottoman rule.[9] Indeed, Turkish remained the language of communication not only within the sanjak but also in Baghdad. The only local newspaper was the Turkish Necme, and there was an association of Turkoman writers. A.F. Miller, the resident British assistant administrative inspector, could only speak Turkish; he had little need for Arabic or Kurdish. And the British vice consul in Mosul, H.E. Wilkie Young, wrote, "There are 7,000 houses in the town of Kirkuk, and the population is not less than 40,000, of whom about 2,500 are Jews and only 630 Christians. The rest are Moslems of Turkoman origin. The language of the place is consequently Turkish."[10] W.R. Hay, another British political officer in northern Iraq, likewise described a Turkoman crescent stretching from Mosul through Kirkuk and southward to Mandali. He described how "Kirkuk is the main centre of this Turkish population … Several villages in its vicinity are also Turkish-speaking, whereas the other towns are isolated communities surrounded by Kurds and Arabs. Large numbers of the middle-class Turks of Kirkuk and Arbil who possess some land, but wish to augment their incomes, learn to read and write, wear European clothes and undertake appointments in the government service. Kirkuk and Arbil, especially the former, provided large numbers of officials to the Ottoman government."[11] That the British government drew up its proclamations to the city's residents in the same Turkish language used at the time in Istanbul[12] was a testament to Kirkuk's Turkish character.
Britain, as the occupying power, sought to legitimize its imposition of the Hashemite monarchy on the country through popular vote. During the July 1921 referendum, the people of Kirkuk rejected both inclusion in the new kingdom of Iraq and Faisal, the British choice for king. Kirkuk officials did not take part in the August 23, 1921 proclamation ceremony for Faisal. Rather than turn toward Baghdad, Kirkuk's population continued to identify with Turkey.[13] Sir Arnold Wilson, the first British high commissioner of Iraq (1917-20) observed, "Kirkuk had always been a stronghold of Turkish officialdom, and pro-Turkish views here were a disturbing element for the occupation forces."[14] Gertrude Bell, who would serve as Oriental secretary to the British civil administrator and later to the high commissioner of Iraq, acknowledged Kirkuk's Turkish character: "The inhabitants of Kirkuk are largely of Turkish blood, descendants of Turkish settlers dating from the time of Seljuks." [15]
In order to persuade Kirkuk's notables to participate in elections for Iraq's new Constituent Assembly, the British high commissioner appointed a Turkoman sub-governor (mutasarrýf) and other Turkoman officials to top administrative posts in Kirkuk. London wanted Kirkuk to accede to 1923 elections organized by the British to bestow legitimacy upon the new rulers in Baghdad. The Kirkuk residents made their participation in the electoral process conditional on four provisions: (1) non-interference of the government in local electoral procedures; (2) the preservation of the district administration's Turkish character; (3) recognition of Turkish as the district's official language; and (4) the appointment of Kirkukis in all subsequent Baghdad cabinets.[16] When Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Gaylani formed his first Iraqi cabinet on October 25, 1920, his minister of education and health was Ýzzet Pasha, a retired Turkoman general from Kirkuk.[17]
In July 1923, Prime Minister ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Sa‘dun sent a telegram in Turkish to the sub-governor confirming that the Council of Ministers in Baghdad had accepted conditions two and three. While this did not go far enough for Kirkuk's local notables, it nevertheless constituted Baghdad's de facto recognition of their authority.[18]
On September 30, 1924, the League of Nations set up a commission to decide on the future of the Mosul vilayet. The commission spent some two months in the disputed area visiting the principal localities, speaking to local notables and other residents. It did not equate language with loyalty and, indeed, found that many Arabic speakers considered themselves loyal more to Turkey than Iraq. Nor did the commission find any merit to British claims that there was a distinction between Turks and Turkomans.[19] It was not until Turkish, British, and Iraqi representatives in Ankara signed a tripartite treaty on June 5, 1926, that the three countries finalized the status of the Mosul vilayet, assigning the region—including Kirkuk—to Iraq.
Prior to granting Iraq independence, the British-supervised Iraqi government sought to compel the Arab majority to respect minority rights. The Iraqi parliament enacted Local Languages Law No. 74, 1931, to make Kurdish and Turkish official languages in various northern districts including Kirkuk. The law also stipulated that the language of instruction should be that of the majority of pupils. The law acknowledged both Kirkuk and Kifri to be majority Turkoman.[20]
As condition of acceptance into the League of Nations, the Iraqi government on May 30, 1932, specified areas where minority languages, local administration, law courts, and primary education were to function. This declaration was incorporated into the constitution of 1925 with the reaffirmation of Iraq's undertakings toward minorities.[21]
Article 1 of the declaration stipulated that no law, regulation, or official action could interfere with the rights outlined for the minorities. Although Arabic became the official language of Iraq, Kurdish became a corollary official language in Sulaimaniya, and both Kurdish and Turkish became official languages in Kirkuk and Kifri. It stipulated that Iraqi officials assigned to Kirkuk should not only speak Arabic but also have competency in Kurdish and/or Turkish. The same article stipulated that Iraqi courts should accept testimony in Kurdish and Turkish. Article 10 placed these rights under the League of Nations' guarantee. When the league dissolved in 1946, the U.N. assumed responsibility for its guarantees.[22] These U.N. obligations remain in effect.
Kirkuk in the Post-Independence Period
Soon after Iraqi independence, and especially with the growth of the oil industry, the demography of Kirkuk began to shift. The late historian Hanna Batatu explains: "Kirkuk had been Turkish through and through in the not too distant past … [but] by degrees, Kurds moved into the city from the surrounding villages … By 1959, they had swollen to more than one-third of the population, and the Turkomans had declined to just over half." While the Kurds "Kurdified" Irbil, Kirkuk retained a greater sense of "cultural links with Turkey… [and] ethnic identity."[23]
This influx of Kurds into heavily Turkoman-populated areas upset the fragile demographic balance and laid the groundwork for decades of ethnic tension. On July 14-16, 1959, at the instigation of the Iraqi Communist Party, a disproportionately Kurdish mob supported by a Kurdish military unit rampaged through the city, targeting and killing prosperous Turkomans and Turkoman leaders. President Abdul Karim Qasim estimated the total death toll in the area at 120, with many executed and dumped in mass graves. The pogrom ended only with Baghdad's military intervention.[24] Still, the Turkoman identity remained intact. Reader Bullard, military governor of Baghdad in 1920, wrote in 1961 that "the largest of the Turkish towns in Iraq is Kirkuk."[25]
With the 1968 establishment of Baath Party control, the situation of the city's Turkomans grew more precarious as Kirkuk became a flash point in the struggle between the Iraqi central government and Kurdish rebel leaders. Disputes about whether Kirkuk should be included in an autonomous Kurdish-run zone led to the collapse of a proposed 1970 autonomy agreement between Iraqi Kurds and the central Iraqi government with whom they had been fighting. In 1974, the Baathist government gerrymandered provincial boundaries so as to dilute the Turkoman and Kurdish population of the Kirkuk governorate and divided Turkoman concentrations between different Arab-led provinces, and in 1975, the Iraqi army moved in to crush the Kurds.
The Baathist regime launched a new round of ethnic cleansing and oppression of minorities in the late 1980s and 1990s. A November 8, 1996 U.N. report detailed problems confronting the Turkomans. They faced arbitrary arrest, internal deportation or exile, and confiscation of personal property. Baghdad sought to change the demography of the city and its environs to scatter Kurds and Turkomans and replace them with Arabs. In addition, the central government forbade Kirkuk's Turkomans to purchase and sell real estate, unless to Arabs.[26] A subsequent U.N. report added detail to the ethnic cleansing campaign: it described "nationality correction" forms in which the Baathist regime compelled Turkomans to register themselves as Arabs prior to the 1997 census and the expropriation of Turkoman agricultural land.[27] A 1998 report filed by U.N. special rapporteur Max van der Stoel reinforced the severity of Baghdad's campaign against the Turkomans and Kurds in Kirkuk.[28]
Kirkuk: Whose Jerusalem?
Kurds have long claimed Kirkuk as their own. In a May 2001 interview with the Middle East Quarterly, Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan who would later become Iraq's first postwar president, called Kirkuk "the Jerusalem of Kurdistan."[29] Masoud Barzani, president of the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), has also claimed Kirkuk as an exclusively Kurdish city[30] and insisted that Kirkuk rather than Irbil should be capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government.[31] Both Talabani and Barzani consider the Kirkuk oil fields to be theirs[32] although Iraqi law defines the fields as part of the Iraqi national patrimony.[33]
On the eve of war, many outside observers recognized the Turkoman nature of Kirkuk's population. "Kirkuk is mainly Turkoman," observed correspondent Julian Borger in The Guardian.[34] In the months preceding Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Turkish government raised concern about the potential for Kurdish militias to expand their area of control unilaterally.[35] The U.S. government guaranteed that Kurds would not enter Kirkuk or Mosul.[36] Soon after the start of hostilities, however, 20,000 Kurds flooded into these cities; half stayed.[37] In the days following Saddam's fall, Kurdish militiamen sacked the Turkoman towns of Altýn Köprü, Kirkuk, Daquq, Tuzkhurmatu, and Mandali. U.S. forces did little to prevent the pogroms and looting.[38] The peshmerga plundered abandoned government offices in Kirkuk. They burned land deeds and birth registries so as to remove evidence countering their claim that Kirkuk is a Kurdish city.[39]
With U.S. red lines shown to be ephemeral, the Kurds continued their migration. In August 2004, journalists reported that as many as 500 Kurds a day streamed into Kirkuk, a move calculated to skew a pre-election census. U.S. military authorities estimated that 72,000 Kurds settled in Kirkuk between April 2003 and August 2004.[40] The Kurdish political parties encouraged the flight with subsidies[41] and, in some cases, denial of livelihood for those who refused to move from Sulaimaniya, Irbil, and other majority Kurdish cities to Kirkuk.[42]
U.S. authorities undercut the Turkoman response. Shortly after Iraq's liberation, Washington and London established the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to act as an interim administration of Iraq. L. Paul Bremer, its administrator, established a 25-member governing council to advise his rule. U.S. and British officials sought to make the council representative of Iraqi society. It filled these seats using often arbitrary calculations of Iraq's population. Because Bremer believed the Turkoman population to be less than 5 percent, the CPA allocated only one Turkoman representative. And, because of some U.S. diplomats' desires to fulfill gender quotas, they appointed Songul Chopuk, a young woman with no constituency, to represent this group.[43] The CPA excluded the Iraqi Turkoman Front, the most prominent Iraqi Turkoman organization. Iraqi Turkomans protested that this initial slight denied them proper input on their community's issues.[44] The Turkomans complained that their representative on the council did not adequately reflect their political views. Among those issues that most concern the Turkomans are recognition of Turkish as one of the official languages of Iraq, their acknowledgment as a component community within the country, and, most importantly, the status of Kirkuk. Washington's subsequent decision to appoint only one Turkoman minister—and only to the relatively minor portfolio of science and technology—in a 33-member cabinet compounded the problem.
Tensions rose as Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomans vied for control of the city. There have been riots[45] and assassinations.[46] The Kurdish political parties sought to monopolize government offices and, by extension, government services in the city. Turkoman officials say that Kurdish bureaucrats mandate exclusive use of Kurdish in government offices, even though the majority of the city's population does not speak the language. The Kurdistan Democratic Party's minister of peshmerga affairs declared, "We are ready to fight against all forces to control Kirkuk. Our share is very little. We will try to take a larger share."[47] Just as Saddam used his power to dispense patronage to a single ethnic and political group, so, too, do followers of Talabani and Barzani today. With fewer resources at their disposal, Iraqi Turkoman political parties have been unable to organize their constituency to the same extent.
It is incumbent upon both the international community and the new Iraqi government to protect the rights of the Turkomans now threatened by both Kurdish expansionism and the intolerance by some factions of the central government.
Conclusions
The Kirkuk issue will not go away. Kurds may feel they have a real claim to Kirkuk, or they may be guided more by a desire to attain its oil wealth. Ethnic cleansing cannot be justified, whether ordered by Saddam Hussein or Masoud Barzani. Nor will Iraq's Turkoman community renounce their historical claim and legal rights. "Kirkuk is to Iraq what Kosovo is to the Balkans,"[48] a U.S. military official has said.
So what can be done? There will not be peace or stability in Kirkuk if the rights or identity of any of the city's communities are trampled. Local Kurdish authorities have sought to impose their will through force. They have shown themselves unwilling to move beyond communal interests to represent all citizens of Kirkuk. As the Kurdish parties exploit and exacerbate ethnic tensions, the risk of instability in Kirkuk grows. The international community might respond by sending human rights monitors in Kirkuk until the local population can elect a representative government in the city and region. This will require a fair and impartial census under the monitoring and supervision of the United Nations.
The U.S. government and other coalition partners should also pressure the Iraqi central government in Baghdad to maintain the unity of state, constrain local militias, and prevent local ethnic or sectarian cleansing. For Iraq to remain viable, the Iraqi law and constitutional interpretations should address the core concerns of Iraq's diverse communities. To do otherwise, and allow Kirkuk to fester, will undercut Iraq's stability, provoke ethnic strife, and perhaps even lead to civil war.
Yücel Güçlü is a first counselor at Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. These views are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Turkish government.
[1] Perhaps the best Western-language treatment of the Turkomans is Scott Taylor, Among the "Others": Encounters with the Forgotten Turkmen of Iraq (Ottawa: Esprit De Corps Books, 2004).
[2] Eric Davis, Memories of State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
[3] Erþat Hürmüzlü, Türkmenler ve Irak (Istanbul: Kerkük Vakfý, 2003), pp. 81-4.
[4] Ibid., p. 81.
[5] Middle East Economic Survey, Apr. 4, 2005.
[6] Suphi Saatçi, Tarihten Günümüze Irak Türkmenleri (Istanbul: Ötüken Neþriyat, 2003), pp. 15-79.
[7] For the political history of northern Iraq, see Sinan Marufoðlu, Osmanlý Döneminde Kuzey Irak (Istanbul: Eren Yayýncýlýk, 1998), pp. 31-40; for Kirkuk's civic and administrative lives at the turn of the twentieth century, see Ebubekir Hazým Tepeyran, Hatýralar, 2nd ed. (Istanbul: Pera Turizm ve Ticaret, 1998), pp. 505-12. Ebubekir Hazým Tepeyran, a professional administrator, served as governor of the Mosul vilayet, 1899-1902.
[8] "Memorandum Concerning the New Organisation of the Ottoman Empire, 23 June 1919," in E.L. Woodward and Rohan Butler, eds., Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1960), pp. 647-51. For the full text of the Fourteen Points see Papers Relating to the Foreign Affairs of the United States. The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. 4 (Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1943), pp. 12-7.
[9] Tepeyran, Hatýralar, pp. 358-62, 521-7.
[10] "Notes by Vice-Consul Wilkie Young on the Mosul district," paragraphs 16 and 80; "Sir Gerald Lowther (Istanbul) to Sir Edward Grey (London) with enclosures and annexes, Apr. 5, 1910, notes on Mosul district," enclosure 2 in no. 1, FO 371/1008.
[11] W.R. Hay, Two Years in Kurdistan: Experiences of a Political Officer, 1918-1920 (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1921), pp. 81, 85-6.
[12] "Command Papers 1814," Lausanne Conference on Near Eastern Affairs, 1922-1923. Records of Proceedings and Draft Terms of Peace (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923), p. 342.
[13] Liora Lukitz, Iraq: The Search for National Identity (London: Frank Cass, 1995), p. 40.
[14] Arnold Wilson, Mesopotamia 1917-1920: A Clash of Loyalties (London: Oxford University Press, 1931), pp. 259-60.
[15] Extract from report prepared by Gertrude Bell under direction of civil commissioner, "Baghdad, Mesopotamia: Review of Civil Administration, 1914-1918," FO 371/5081, 1920.
[16] Lukitz, Iraq, p. 41.
[17] Cecil John Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs: Politics, Travel and Research in North-Eastern Iraq, 1919-1925 (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), pp. 266, 283, 342-3; Stephen Hemsley Longrigg, Iraq, 1900 to 1950: A Political, Social, and Economic History (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 127.
[18] Lukitz, Iraq, pp. 41-2.
[19] Report submitted to the council by the commission instituted by the Council Resolution of Sept. 30, 1924, document C. 400, M-147, 1925, VII, League of Nations, pp. 38, 46-7.
[20] Cecil John Edmonds, "The Kurds of Iraq," Middle East Journal, Winter 1957, p. 59; idem, "The Kurds and Revolution in Iraq," Middle East Journal, Winter 1959, p. 10.
[21] "Declaration of the Kingdom of Iraq, Made at Baghdad on 30 May 1932, on the Occasion of the Termination of the Mandatory Regime in Iraq, and Containing the Guarantees Given to the Council by the Iraqi Government," League of Nations Official Journal (Geneva: League of Nations, July 1932), Annex 1373, pp. 1347-50.
[22] For the assumption of the United Nations of the functions and powers belonging to the League of Nations under the international agreements, see League of Nations Official Journal, "Records of the Twentieth (Conclusion) and Twenty-first Ordinary Sessions of the Assembly, Texts of the Debates at the Plenary Meetings and Minutes of the First and Second Committees, Special Supplement No. 194," 1946, pp. 221-4. For the transfer to the United Nations of certain functions and activities of the League of Nations, see Yearbook of the United Nations, 1946-1947 (Lake Success, N.Y.: Department of Public Information, 1947), pp. 110-3.
[23] "Statistical Compilation Relating to the Population Census of 1957 (in Arabic), I, Part IV, 170," Iraq, Ministry of the Interior, in Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 913; David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B.Tauris, 1996), p. 3.
[24] George Kirk, Contemporary Arab Politics (New York: Frederick Praeger, 1961), pp. 162-3; Amb. John Jernegan's dispatches in Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers (1958-1960), vol. 12 (Washington D.C.: U.S. State Department, 1993), pp. 473-95; Majid Khadduri, Republican Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics since the Revolution of 1958 (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 124.
[25] Reader Bullard, The Camels Must Go (London: Faber and Faber, 1961), p. 100.
[26] "Situation of Human Rights in Iraq: Note by the Secretary-General," U.N. General Assembly, Fifty-first session agenda item 110 (c), A/51/496/Add.1, Nov. 8, 1996, p. 4.
[27] Ibid., agenda item 110 (c), A/52/476/Add.1, Oct. 15, 1997, p. 2.
[28] "Report on the Violations of Human Rights in Iraq Submitted by the Special Rapporteur Max van der Stoel in Accordance with Commission Resolution 1997/60," U.N. General Assembly, Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-first session agenda item (10), E/CN.4/1987/67, Mar. 10, 1998, p. 2.
[29] Jalal Talabani, "No Grounds for Relations with Baghdad" Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2002, pp. 19-23.
[30] Turkish Daily News (Ankara), July 17, 2002.
[31] International Herald Tribune, June 21, 2004.
[32] Middle East Economic Survey, June 14, 2004.
[33] Article 108, Iraqi Constitution, in The Washington Post, Oct. 12, 2005.
[34] The Guardian (London), Oct. 12, 2002.
[35] Michael Rubin, "A Comedy of Errors: American-Turkish Diplomacy and the Iraq War," Turkish Policy Quarterly, Spring 2005.
[36] See "Final Statement of the Meeting of Representatives of Turkey and the United States with the Delegations of Assyrian Democratic Movement, Constitutional Monarchy Movement, Iraqi National Accord, Iraqi National Congress, Iraqi Turkoman Front, Kurdistan Democratic Party, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq," Ankara, Mar. 19, 2003.
[37] The New York Times, Apr. 20, 2003.
[38] Reuters, Mar. 2, 2004.
[39] The Washington Post, Apr. 11, 2003; Los Angeles Times, Apr. 11, 2003; Hürriyet (Istanbul), Apr. 11, 2003; Radikal (Istanbul), Apr. 11, 2003.
[40] Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2004.
[41] Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2004.
[42] U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), Sept. 23, 2004.
[43] Rubin, "A Comedy of Errors."
[44] Anatolia News Agency, July 16, 2003.
[45] The Washington Post, Aug. 24, 2003.
[46] Associated Press, Jan. 26, 2006.
[47] International Herald Tribune, Jan. 3, 2005.
[48] Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2004.
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