Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - September 2006

[nwctwx]

Five Years Later, We're Still Not Safe
-Full Story-

In the five years since terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans have accepted inconvenience, sacrificed personal liberties and paid billions of dollars for a security clampdown that touches virtually every aspect of their lives.

And we're still not safe.

A close examination of the federal government's homeland security effort shows that there have been major accomplishments since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But it also reveals how vulnerable the nation remains to catastrophe.

	Hunt for bin Laden Is Chasing Shadows and Raising Tensions
	Homegrown Terror Suspects Raise Concern
	New Video Coming from al Zawahri and American al Qa'ida
	> Adam Yahiye Gadahn

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[MamaDearest]

....they also discussed a separate plan by al-Qaeda to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan with 300 suicide bombers.

This is the part that concerns me most. Hoping and praying our nation's military leaders are prepared for this possibility - taking no prisoners and protecting our troops with extra precautions and by whatever means necessary to keep suicide bombers far from the troops, especially those coming at them in vehicles laden with explosives. May any who plan shahid on our troops be blasted into oblivion before they implement their evil plans.

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

Oh, no! I just talked to a relative this evening who is supposed to be deployed to Afghanistan in two weeks. continued prayers for ALL of our troops...

[STARWISE]

Thank you, Ian ... I fear something is coming .. praying a lot.

[MamaDearest]

Thanks Cindy - onward with research - so much to read, so little time.

Islamic militia to open "holy war" camps in Somalia

Snip: The hard-line Islamic militia that controls much of southern Somalia said Tuesday it will open training camps in schools to prepare students for holy war, an ominous development amid fears that a Taliban-style regime is emerging in eastern Africa.

FBI raids Missouri Islamic leader's home

Snip: FBI agents searched the home of a prominent Islamic community leader and Iraq war critic, a bureau spokesman said, declining to reveal any reasons for the search. A dozen agents searched the home of Shakir Abdul-Kaf Hamoodi and his wife on Monday, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said. Agents removed boxes and computer equipment throughout the day, neighbors said.

Pistachio exports up 128% in Iran (where were your pistachios grown?)

Snip: During the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21) some 49,000 tons of pistachios, with an estimated value of $313 million, has been exported,” said an official with the country’s Agricultural Jihad Ministry.

Muslim taxi drivers at Minneapolis International Airport subjecting fares to sharia

Snip: In another sign of increasing Muslim intolerance in the U.S., Islamic taxi drivers - primarily of Somali extraction - at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport are refusing to accept fares whom they suspect of possibly transporting alcohol.

Recent changes at the terminal have proved a boon for the drivers, forcing passengers to use the ubiquitous taxis to get around within the confines of the airport making them ripe for exploitation. Another angle is that such discrimination by Muslim drivers might make it possible for them to weed out the low fare inter-terminal travelers from those wishing to travel outbound at substantially higher fees, thus assigning themselves all the longer distance fares while the infidels are taking the short ones.

Why airport officials have caved to the unreasonable religious demands of an extremist minority is puzzling but the involvement of the Muslim American Society - an Islamist group whose name pretty much denotes their ultimate intent - in this process may help explain it, MAS being adept at injecting itself into such controversies and always on the side of the extension of Sharia into mainstream America.

[MamaDearest]

Me too GOP_Thug_Mom. A treasured friend's husband is stationed there. Keep those prayers coming; our troops need them in fighting this evil enemy.

[MamaDearest]

I used to LOVE sprouts.......now I don't touch them.

Voila - had a big discovery moment a couple of weeks ago. I too LOVE sprouts but haven't bought them since the last e-coli event with them. Went to a local health food store and discovered sprout seeds are for sale in regular vitamin type bottles that can be grown at home. I was euphoric and bought a bottle of alfalfa sprouts. There's enough seeds in the bottle for many "crops" of them.

[Cindy]

What a great question, MamaDearest. I didn't know Iran grows so many pistachios and exports them.

MamaDearest asks, "Where were your pistachios grown?"

[jer33 3]

Thank you, Cindy.

[Cindy]

You're very welcome Jer33 3.

[MamaDearest]

Much appreciated thanks DonnaLee. Yep, the extremists are among us, including some of them who are actors, some who are newscasters and some who are politicians (intentionally or not, they appear to be just as pro-Islamist agenda as the jihadists themselves).

The types of kufr

Virgins of Paradise

Chinese pigs fed illegal chemical poisoning 300

Cargo container security risks still high

Snip: If terrorists were to explode a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb in the Port of Long Beach, Rand Corp. researchers recently calculated, it could kill 60,000 people instantly, expose 150,000 more to hazardous levels of radiation and result in more than $1 trillion in economic losses, at least 10 times the financial loss in the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center five years ago.

[MamaDearest]

I didn't know Iran grows so many pistachios and exports them.

Thanks Cindy. IMHO it's one way to personally protest by declining to purchase if the labeled source of the product (Iran) is "unacceptable." We definitely seek this product labeled "grown in the USA."

[Cindy]

Ditto that.

[Cindy]

I just choked on my crackers.

Types of Kufr?

I've seen all versions of spellings and descriptions of infidels and kuffirs, but didn't know there were various types.


http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=kuffar&search_sort=video_date_uploaded&search_category=0


http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=kuffar&so=0

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=kufr&search_sort=video_date_uploaded&search_category=0


THANKS MamaDearest.
I learn lots of new things everyday.

P.S. I better put the crackers down if I'm going to click on your next link "Virgins of Paradise."

[Cindy]

Note: The following post is a quote:
---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1704616/posts


When Miranda Met Osama - Will terrorists get lawyers the moment they're captured on the battlefield?
Wall Street Journal ^ | September 19, 2006 | BRENDAN MINITER

Posted on 09/19/2006 7:01:15 PM PDT by neverdem

WASHINGTON--At the start of the congressional debate over military tribunals for terrorists, I offered House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter a prediction: Sen. John McCain would be the biggest obstacle to enacting rules to effectively prosecute al Qaeda operatives.

It was near the end of an hourlong interview, at the end of a hot August day. But Mr. Hunter was obviously piqued by the assertion that his friend and a man who was tortured at the hands of North Vietnamese captors would do anything to make it harder to win the war on terror. Sitting up, Mr. Hunter answered the assertion: "Well, I don't agree with that."

As we sat in his spacious office with its view of the Capitol dome, the chairman had been making the case for a hardnosed approach to national security and, somewhat surprisingly, giving a frank and at times critical assessment of the war on terror and the state of the U.S. military. In the past, Mr. Hunter has clashed with the Bush administration over defense spending and intelligence reorganization. As a combat veteran of Vietnam and father of a U.S. Marine lieutenant who fought in the battle for Fallujah, Iraq, Mr. Hunter understands both the anxiety of staying the course and also the danger involved in losing a war by undercutting the troops fighting it.

He was quick to point out his belief that the reason al Qaeda hasn't struck again on U.S. soil is that the response to 9/11 involved a lot more than bombing terrorist training camps: "We didn't just sit back in fortress America." By liberating Afghanistan and Iraq and pursuing a global war against al Qaeda and its affiliates, he said, "we've kept them off balance."

He also noted that it's impossible to know how many would-be terrorists...

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/TerenceJeffrey/2006/09/20/benedict_is_right

"Benedict is right"
By Terence Jeffrey
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013195print.html
"GAZAN MUSLIMS FORM GROUP TO ATTACK CHRISTIAN TARGETS"
Article Snippet: "The irony meter has shorted out from overload."
September 19, 2006

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http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=112348
"Gazan Muslims Form Group to Attack Christian Targets"
23:03 Sep 19, '06 / 26 Elul 5766
by Ezra HaLevi


ARTICLE SNIPPET: The group, which calls itself the “Army of guidance,” sent an announcement to news agencies based in Gaza saying that “every place relevant to Christians will be a target until the cursed infidel – the Vatican – apologizes to Muslims.”"

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http://press-release.blogspot.com/2006/09/statement-from-mujahedeen-shura.html

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2006
"Statement from the Mujahedeen Shura council of Iraq about the cross worshiper "Pope" declarations"

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http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_922.html

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520

This information is current as of today, Tue Sep 19 2006 16:51:50 GMT-0700.

ISRAEL, THE WEST BANK AND GAZA

August 29, 2006

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http://www.newswithviews.com/Kouri/jim77.htm
"ABC NEWS COMPARES POPE TO A ROTTWEILER"

Jim Kouri, CPP
September 19, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

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http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=12745
September 19, 2006
"AL-QAIDA IN IRAQ WARNS POPE THAT ISLAM WILL PREVAIL"
by Lee Keath
(AP WIRE)
Cairo, Egypt

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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013186print.html
September 19, 2006
"POPE AGAIN ASKED TO CONVERT TO ISLAM"
(AFP)
Tripoli

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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013185print.html
September 19, 2006
"MUSLIMS WANT FURTHER APOLOGY FROM POPE"
(AP)
Ankara, Turkey

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http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/jfessio_reflections_sept06.asp
"Is Dialogue with Islam Possible? Some Reflections on Pope Benedict XVI's Address at the University of Regensburg | Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. | September 18, 2006"

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1704084/posts
"Rushdie, Hirsi Ali, the Pope -- Who's Next?"
Der Spiegel ^ | 09/18/2006 | Claus Christian Malzahn

Posted on 09/19/2006 4:15:17 AM PDT by Republicain

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The pope has apologized for the outrage amongst Muslims sparked by his recent comments. But the episode proves once again that criticizing Islam is dangerous.

Twenty years ago in the German city of Bremen, Dutch comedian Rudi Carrell's life depended on police protection. His offense? In a satirical program on German television, he let fly with a lewd joke about the then leader of the Iranian revolution Ayatollah Khomeini. Mass demonstrations in Iran -- orchestrated, no doubt, by the government -- were the result. The threats of violence led to an apology by Carrell, and he never again made a joke about any Muslim -- at least not on television.

In February 1989, the Ayatollah then released a fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses." The book, he and other Muslim leaders claimed, was a grave misrepresentation of Islam. Rushdie's Japanese translator lost his life as a result of the fatwa and Rushdie himself went into hiding, though the Iranian leadership distanced itself from the fatwa in 1998. There remain, however, a number of fanatical Muslims who yearn to see Rushdie dead."

(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...

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http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3968

"Pope Benedict Criticizes Islam"

by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
September 19, 2006

"[NY Sun title: "The West Should Be Free To Criticize Islam"]"

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OFF TOPIC:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005955.htm
Michelle Malkin.com - blog: "MUSLIMS WILL EXECUTE CHRISTIANS" (Updated)
September 19, 2006

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/indonesia-releases-al-qaeda-linked.html
Gateway Pundit - blogspot: "Indonesia Releases Al Qaeda-linked Cleric, Will Execute Christians"
August 25, 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=319Q4lDyNWI&eurl=
YouTube.com: "3 Christian Women Convicted in Indonesian Court"
Added August 25, 2006

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

HOTAIR.com: "VIDEO: AHMADINEJAD ADDRESSES THE UN" (September 19, 2006)

IslamOnline.net: "IRAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES" (August 30, 2006)

"www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1694213/posts?page=1175#1175" (September 18, 2006)

YouTube.com: "IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD: 'DEATH TO ISRAEL'"(Added August 6, 2006)

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:
---

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06090093.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Religious tensions rising.

By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service

AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- This comprehensive posting on the rising ethnic-religious tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two parts: an examination of the present situation, and an overview of the history that has created its context.

While the recent religious incidents that triggered this posting might seem to be fairly insignificant, the issues and their potential to inflame conflict are not. In fact the issues emerging in Bosnia and Herzegovina today are reminiscent of those that led to war in 1992.

When sparks appear in the midst of an incendiary environment, then regardless of how small they appear, they must be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly with the goal of preventing an explosion. This posting submits that Bosnia and Herzegovina warrants the immediate, diligent attention of religious liberty monitors, advocates and intercessors, as well as peace-makers who can recognise romanticism, embrace realism, and care more about protecting flesh-and-blood than illusory political ideals.

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BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA: RELIGIOUS TENSIONS RISING

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On 11 August, an explosion damaged the tomb of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war-time Muslim President, Alija Izetbegovic.

While portrayed by his Western allies as a moderate, Izetbegovic was actually an up-front Islamist backed by Iran. His "Islamic Declaration", first published in 1970, was republished in Sarajevo in 1990 just as Yugoslavia was starting to break apart. Izetbegovic was awarded the King Faisal Award in 1994 and the Figure of the Year in the Islamic World in 2001.

Izetbegovic's Islamic Declaration clearly expresses his worldview: "There can be no peace or coexistence between Islamic faith and non-Islamic faith and non-Islamic institutions. The Islamic movement must and can take power as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough, not only to destroy the non-Islamic power, but to build up a new Islamic one." And, "Panislamism always came from the very heart of the Muslim peoples, nationalism was always imported stuff."

This is doubtless why, as conflict was escalating in Croatia and Yugoslavia was tearing apart, Izetbegovic withdrew his signature on 28 March 1992 from the 18 March 1992 Lisbon Agreement that had been constructed to prevent conflict in Bosnia by dividing the state into three autonomous entities: Bosniac, Croat and Serb. Two days after withdrawing his signature Izetbegovic illegally called for a referendum on secession despite the objections of the Bosnian Serb minority.

For a critique of Alija Izetbegovic and his role in instigating the Bosnia conflict see "Alija Izetbegovic, 1925-2003", by Damjan de Krnjevic-Miskovic, a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. (Link 1)

Izetbegovic's tomb is located in the Kovaci (Martyrs) Cemetery in Sarajevo's Old Town. Nobody was injured in the bombing, which occurred a little after 3 am, and damage to surrounding buildings was slight. Dejan Anastasijevic reported from Belgrade for TIME magazine (29 August), "Most Muslims blamed the Serbs, who for their part insisted that Muslims staged the explosion; the ongoing investigation has so far proved fruitless."

The following week, a group of Muslims forced their way into a Serbian church which has been built on the site of a mosque in eastern Bosnia. (Link 2)

MINOR INCIDENTS - SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The issues fanning tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina today bear a striking resemblance to the issues of 1992 that triggered the Bosnian war. In 1992, war was triggered by calls from Bosnian Islamists, led by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, for Bosnia to secede from Yugoslavia and become an independent, single, undivided state. This would have placed some 1.3 million Bosnian Serb Christians of the Eastern Orthodox tradition under Muslim and Croat domination in what Islamist openly planned would become an Islamic State. Serb resistance was met with jihad. Fighting was halted through the Dayton Accords (December 1995) which created the independent state of Bosnia and Herzogovina, but divided it into two autonomous entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic), each with its own government, parliament, army and police.

The issue today is that the West led by the US is agitating for Constitutional reform in Bosnia that will strengthen the central (Muslim dominated) government at the expense of the entities. Ekrem Krasniqi in Brussels and Anes Alic in Sarajevo, wrote for ISN Security Watch in November 2005, "In essence, the constitutional changes aim to reverse the international community's quick-fix measures to end the war, which entailed making ethnic division a political reality - a reality that is no longer feasible in a country hoping to join the EU." (See ISN's "Redefining Bosnia": Link 3)

While the US is not calling for the dismantling of the Republika Srpska, some Bosnian Muslim leaders are. Nicholas Wood reports for the the New York Times, "Haris Silajdzic, a Muslim, a former foreign minister and a presidential candidate, has campaigned against the proposed changes, saying they would leave the Serbian republic in place. The Serbian entity should be abolished and absorbed into a stronger Bosnian state, he contends. That idea, diplomats here say, is unrealistic, but it appeals to nationalist Muslim voters." (Link 2)

Prime minister of Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik, has said he will never agree to reform police and security forces as demanded by the European Union as a condition for EU association talks. Serb leaders have responded to Islamist calls for the abolition of RS by saying that if moves are made to dissolve RS, then RS will hold a referendum on secession. It is estimated that around 90 percent of Serbs in RS would vote to secede from Bosnia if a referendum were held.

Sulejman Tihic, the Muslim member of Bosnia's three-man rotating presidency said that Serbs wanting to secede could pack their bags and leave but they could not take one inch of Bosnian territory with them.
AKI reports: "RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik retorted that Tihic's statement represented a drastic example of 'hate and chauvinism' which will only further inflame ethnic passions in Bosnia. 'In Tihic's statement one can easily recognise an Islamic concept which sees Bosnia as its exclusive right,' said Dodik. 'Serbs are constituent people in Bosnia [and] claim the same right to the country and to live in it,' said Dodik." (Link 4)

The Islamist principle that "Islamic lands" cannot be seceded is why Bosnian Islamists regard any RS move towards a referendum or secession as unacceptable and doubtless as grounds for jihad. As in 1992, the Serbs would rather face jihad rather than be returned to dhimmitude (the subjugated state of non-Muslims living under Islamic domination).

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

The stated aim of the Constitutional reform is to move Bosnia from "stabilisation" to "transition". The Dayton Accords which ended the 1992-1995 war stabilised Bosnia by separating warring constituents into two entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republiska Srpska. Now, the West alleges, it is time for Bosnia to transition toward EU membership by strengthening its State institutions at the expense of the entities.

While the Islamists are anxious not to cement any degree of Serb autonomy, the Serbs are anxious not to lose their autonomy. Most Serbs are concerned that the Constitutional reform could simply be a slow road towards the dissolution of RS.

The appeal of Mr Dragan Cavic, the President of Republika Srpska, is simply that the stability brought by the Dayton Accords' division of Bosnia should not be sacrificed in the transition process. "We are committed to success [of transition into Europe] and we need success, but a clear prerequisite of our support should be keeping the Dayton's Entity Status of the Republic of Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina . . . European phase can not replace the Dayton phase. . . . These two cannot confront each other, they can supplement each other." (Link 5)

While economics is the primary subject being openly discussed by EU and US advocates of constitutional reform, behind the scenes the talk is equally of unity, democracy, eliminating ethnic divisions, religious tolerance and other fine-sounding ideals.

ECONOMICS

Bosnia's present set up of two autonomous entities, each with its own parliament, government administration, courts, police force and services, as well as a central government makes for a very expensive system. In fact, around 60 percent of Bosnia's GDP is spent simply maintaining state and entity apparatus, and this is contributing significantly to the weakness of the Bosnian state.

IDEALISM

The less talked about reason behind the US-led drive for constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina is more idealistic. The West still has a desire to "prove" that Muslims and Christians can live together in harmonious, tolerant, democratic, golden Islamic societies, as allegedly in history(!) and in Lebanon(!). And as they will in the new Iraq! It is important to Europe and the US that this human experiment, which is little more than a forced marriage, not fail. If the Bosnia experiment fails, then the prospects for London, Paris and other multicultural, pluralist democracies with rapidly growing Muslim populations are grim.

A hugely important address on this subject was given by Bat Ye'or on 31 August 1995 at the International Strategic Studies Association's Symposium on the Balkan War - "Yugoslavia: Past and Present". Bat Ye'or's address, entitled, "Myths and politics: Origins of the Myth of a Tolerant Pluralistic Islamic Society", is essential reading for understanding the politics of and international ideals behind Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Link 6)

While intended to unite Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs), Croats and Serbs under Bosnian nationalism, the proposed constitutional reforms are actually dividing the constituent peoples. A March 2006 nation-wide survey conducted by the International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (Ljubljana, Slovenia) revealed that only 29.3 percent of those surveyed supported the constitutional amendments while 59.8 percent disapproved. (Link 7)

Serbs in the Republika Srpska generally reject the reforms as they strengthen the Muslim-dominated central authority at the expense of the entities, lessening Serb autonomy. The Croats also reject the reforms and are voicing their preference to carve out their own autonomous ethnic entity. Most Bosniac Islamists either support the reforms or want them to be more radical because they conform to Islamist aspirations to strengthen the central (Muslim-dominated) government and extend its powers to all corners of Bosnia.

But Bosniac Islamists who advocate the forcible abolition of the Republika Srpska do not do this with shouts of jihad or with the language of Islamic imperialism. They do this by denouncing ethnic and religious separation and by extolling the virtues of unity, tolerance and democracy, in much the same way that Arab nationalism did. They do this by crying victim and saying the murderous, evil, demonic Serbs should not have any right to self- rule on "Bosnian" (read "Muslim") land.

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS: 1 OCTOBER

The proposed constitutional reforms failed to pass a vote in the Bosnian parliament on 27 April, so further discussion has been put off until after the 1 October 2006 parliamentary elections. However, constitutional reform is now an election issue. As the tension and rhetoric escalates, international voices are calling for calm. (Link 8)

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CREATING CONTEXT: HISTORY'S WEDGES

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ISLAMIC ERA

From the early 14th Century to the early 20th Century the Serbs and other Southern Slavs lived as persecuted dhimmis, cruelly subjugated under the Islamic imperialism of the Ottoman Empire. During that era most Bosnian Slavs converted to Islam.

As the Ottoman Empire started to crumble Christian Slavs fought for and won their liberation from Islamic rule through the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Yugoslavia was created in 1918 as a Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - all Southern Slavs. But the long history of Islamic repression and persecution and the trauma of the bloody wars that brought it to an end left a wedge between Christian Slavs and Muslims.

(Muslim Slavs live predominantly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They accounted for 8.9 percent of Yugoslavia in the 1981 census but are around 44 percent in modern-day Bosnia.)

WORLD WAR TWO

World War Two saw Yugoslavia split apart. The Axis powers annexed modern-day Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovenia, creating the fascist state of Croatia. They also occupied Serbia which was aligned with the Allies. The "lesser races" - the Serbs, Jews and Gypsies (Romas) - were targeted by the Nazis for extermination.

Some two million Serbs lived in Croatia at the beginning of WW2. Of that number, around one million were killed, around half the remainder were expelled while the other half were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism under threat of death. Of the Serbs killed, multitudes were murdered by the 20,000-strong Waffen-SS "Handschar" (scimitar) division. This was established in Bosnia by SS head, Heinrich Himmler, and the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini, and consisted of Bosnian and some Albanian Muslims. Around 390,000 Serbs were murdered by the fascist Croat "Ustasa", while between 300,000 and 700,000 Serbs, Jews and Romas, including 20,000 known, named children, were executed by Croat forces in Camp Jasenovac http://www.jasenovac.org/ .

The barbarity and horror of the WW2 holocaust in Yugoslavia is concisely documented at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum http://www.ushmm.org/ (with an excellent search engine). The terror of those days created a deep wedge between Serbs, and Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Nowhere is this wedge more evident than in Bosnia where Muslims, Croats and Serbs have lived interspersed for centuries.

Most Bosnian Serbs have been raised by parents or influenced by grandparents who are remnant survivors of the Bosniac-Croat attempted genocide of Serbs during the World War Two holocaust in Yugoslavia.

COMMUNIST ERA

After WW2, Josip Broz Tito's Partisans, a Communist-led, anti-Axis resistance movement, recreated Yugoslavia as a federal republic. Tito drew the Bosniacs into his Communist Partisan forces and fostered the creation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a separate Muslim republic.

Serbs were by far the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia and Tito, a Croat, was determined to destroy Serb hegemony. While Tito was hailed for uniting the warring Slavs under Communism, he actually carved up Yugoslavia, primarily along ethnic lines, but in a way that deliberately weakened the Serbs by ensuring that the republics had large Serb minorities. In fact 42 percent of Serbs were left outside Serbia proper. As Tito advanced his policy of decentralisation, Serb minorities grew anxious. Tito's carve-up of Yugoslavia deliberately created artificial, geographical wedges between Serbs.

ISLAMIST ASCENDENCY

In the early days of the Bosnian war, terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky and Vaughn S Forrest wrote "Iran's European Springboard?", a report for the task force on terrorism and unconventional warfare, the House Research Committee. This report is as hugely significant and relevant today as it was in September 1992. (Link 9)

Bodansky and Forrest describe in detail how Tito's pro-Arab policies unintentionally contributed to the radicalisation of Bosnian Muslims as early as the 1970s. After the Iranian Islamic Revolution, Izetbegovic "renewed his call to implement his Islamic Declaration, began organising an Islamist political movement, and within a few years was thrown in jail for subversion." By the 1980s Palestinian, Syrian and Iranian groups were using Yugoslavia as a base of operations, and Bosniacs were undergoing terrorist and ideological training in Lebanon and Iran.

"Meanwhile," wrote Bodansky and Forrest in 1992, "Iran has also consolidated a Muslim leadership network supportive of Tehran's world view. At the centre of the Iranian system in Europe is Bosnia-Hercegovina's President, Alija Izetbegovic, 'a fundamentalist Muslim and a member of the Fida'iYan-e Islam organisation,' who is committed to the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Bosnia-Hercegovina."

According to Bodansky and Forrest, Izetbegovic developed close cultural and economic ties with Iran. Bodansky and Forrest described the Bosnia War as " . . . a proxy battlefield for the future and fortunes of the growing Muslim community of Western Europe".
Terrorism experts including Bodansky assert that the Balkans is integral to Islamist plans for escalation of conflict against Israel, Europe and the USA. According to the experts, Muslim Slavs are being recruited to a "white al-Qaeda" (also known as "white devils") that can be easily deployed for terror operations in the West. (Link 10)

THE CONSEQUENCE OF UNHEALED WEDGES: DIVORCE

It was the deep and valid fear that Serb minorities had of Muslim and Croat domination that led Serb minorities in Croatia and Bosnia to react against Croatian and Bosnian calls for independence and secession. As Yugoslavia broke apart in the early 1990s, around 2 million Serbs faced the prospect of living as minorities under Muslim and Croatian rule.

Civil war erupted as Serbs sought to guarantee their future liberty and security by redrawing the borders to form a Greater Serbia. The Bosniacs and Croats, not believing a Greater Serbia had a right to exist, fought against the Serbs to ensure no territory was lost. As is common in war, atrocities and criminal acts were committed by all sides.

For a Bosniac Islamist such as President Alija Izetbegovic the fight was not primarily about nationalism but about Islamic lands. This was a jihad for which they had the support of their allies in Iran, Saudi Arabia and al-Qaeda. According to Bodansky, on 29 July 1992, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Hussayn Khamene'i gave a sermon in which he described the war in Bosnia as a US-led Western/Christian campaign "against the Islamic wave throughout the world", and he exhorted Muslims worldwide to mobilise and join the jihad for Islam in Europe.

And join they did, by the thousands. The Dayton Accords gave the foreign mujahideen 30 days to leave Bosnia. However, it appears that multitudes of mujahideen did not leave but instead were granted citizenship.

Today a Bosnian state commission is reviewing 1,500 citizenships granted post-war to foreign mujahideen. The commission head, Vjekoslav Vukovic, says many names on the list are linked to al-Qaeda and international terrorist organisations. So far 400 of the 1,500 names have been reviewed and 50 citizenships have been revoked. AKI reports, "Kadrija Kolic, a lawyer for several naturalised citizens, has said that it was a 'crime' to revoke the citizenship of the former fighters, as they had been granted by the wartime government of Bosnia's late president Alija Izetbegovic." (Link 11)

DEMONISATION: A WEDGE WITH THE WORLD

The Serbs as a people have been collectively demonised. This has resulted in a pervasive anti-Serb mindset that is irrational and unjust. Much like modern anti-Semitism, anti-Serbism has been built on the exaggerations, lies, disinformation, conspiracy theories and propaganda professionally churned out by expert Islamist PR and media agents to lazy, gullible, predominantly left-wing journalists.

It was primarily through strategic disinformation and propaganda the Islamists also managed to win the support of a US regime that was keen, (according to the opinion of some analysts), to repay debts incurred to Iran after supporting Iraq in the Iran Iraq war.

According to Bodansky and Forrest, the Serb siege on Sarajavo caused Izetbegovic to become convinced "that it was necessary to undertake drastic measures of a kind that had long been advocated by Tehran. The Iranians had argued that before any escalation in the fighting could take place, it was imperative to either gain the sympathies of the West or at the least to ensure that there existed a legitimate excuse that would enable the presentation of any action undertaken by Muslim forces as justifying revenge for Serbian atrocities.

"To that end, beginning in May 1992, a special group of Bosnian Muslim forces, many of whom had served with Islamist terrorist organisations, began committing a series of atrocities, including 'some of the worst recent killings,' against Muslim civilians in Sarajevo 'as a propaganda ploy to win world sympathy and military intervention.'

"A UN investigation concluded that several key events, mostly strikes against civilians, that had galvanised public opinion and governments in the West to take bolder action in Bosnia- Hercegovina, were in fact 'staged' for the Western media by the Muslims themselves in order to dramatise the city's plight. Investigations by the UN and other military experts count among these self-inflicted actions the 'bombing of the bread queue' (May 27), the 'shelling' of Douglas Hurd's visit (July 17), the 'explosion in the cemetery' (August 4), and the killing of ABC producer David Kaplan (August 13). In all these cases, Serbian forces were out of range, and the weapons actually used against the victims were not those claimed by the Bosnian authorities and the Western media."

The popular narrative of Srebrenica is just as fictional. "The Srebrenica Report" is essential reading for those seeking to understand Srebrenica, "the politics of war crimes" and how Islamists have turned strategic disinformation into both a weapon of war and an art form. It is a high-level report conducted over three years by professional researchers and former UN officials. The following information comes from various reports on their site. (Link 12)

According to General Sefer Halilovic, Commander of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 5,500 soldiers of the Muslim Army's 28th Division were stationed at "safe-haven" Screbrenica with sophisticated arms, including anti-tank weapons. He also confirmed to The Hague Tribunal that when the Serb force of some 200 men and five tanks entered the town on 11 July it was nearly empty.

In the weeks before the Serb capture of Srebrenica, the Bosnian government of President Izetbegovic in Sarajevo withdrew Srebrenica's most significant Islamist militant leaders (including the infamous mass-murderer, Naser Oric, who liked to be filmed torturing, beheading and mutilating his Serb victims) and sent them for retraining in Zenica. This left the 28th Division virtually leaderless.

Muslim soldiers were then ordered to launch provocations against surrounding Serb villages. When the Serbs responded, advancing from the south, the Muslim soldiers retreated north. Former UN Deputy Director of UN Monitors, Carlos Martins Branco, reports: "Muslim forces did not even try to take advantage of their heavy artillery . . . Military resistance would jeopardise the image of 'victim' which had been so carefully constructed, and which the Muslims considered so vital to maintain." Many UN and other observers concluded that Izetbegovic sacrificed the town for political purposes.

The Muslim claim that 8,000 unarmed civilian Muslim men and boys had been executed in Srebrenica by Serb soldiers triggered the American and NATO bombing raids on the Serbs. This in turn gave motivation for the Muslim-Croat alliance which effected - with US sanction - the August 1995 ethnic cleansing of up to 250,000 Serbs from western Bosnia in Operation Storm.

Today, 11 years after the Srebrenica massacre, that claim still stands despite the fact that the figure of 8,000 was only the Red Cross' list of "missing", the majority of whom were simply displaced. After 11 years of searching and of forensic investigations led by teams of international experts around 2,000 bodies have been found buried in Srebrenica, and that number is made up of victims of US and NATO bombs, Muslim Bosnian Army soldiers who died of battle wounds, Serbs, and Muslim victims of execution-style killing. (Between 200 and 300 blindfolds and ligatures were exhumed with bodies.)

Quoting former UN Civilian Affairs Co-ordinator Phillip Corwin, the senior UN civilian official in Bosnia at the time of the capture of Srebrenica, "What happened in Srebrenica was not a single large massacre of Muslims by Serbs, but rather a series of very bloody attacks and counterattacks over a three-year period which reached a crescendo in July 1995. Moreover it is likely that the number of Muslim dead was probably no more than the number of Serbs that had been killed in Srebrenica and its environs in the three preceding years by Naser Oric and his predatory gangs. But my point here is not to argue equivalence, but to expose distortion."

According to Corwin, the official version of events at Srebrenica has been a "campaign of disinformation that has all but buried the facts along with the bodies".

The American government perpetuates the myth of a massacre of unparalleled evil to justify its alliance with Islamist forces. It is highly probable though, that if the Islamic terror attacks of 11 September 2001 had occurred a decade earlier the US may have been less hasty to enter a conflict as allies of Iran and al-Qaeda- backed Islamists. They may have been less quick to bomb European Eastern Orthodox Christians based primarily on reports churned out by the same Islamist propaganda machines that have since given us "Genocide in Jenin" and other tall tales.

CONCLUSIONS

While the sectarian incidents that triggered this posting seem relatively insignificant, the issues are in fact highly significant and reminiscent of those that led to war in 1992.

If Tito's borders are inviolable and a Greater Serbia is not to be, then the Serbs of Republika Srpska need the assurance that they can maintain a high degree of autonomy in this forced marriage and not be returned to dhimmitude. They will face jihad (again) rather than be returned to dhimmitude.

The strategy of the Islamists on their road to the creation of an Islamic State, is to use disinformation to collectively demonise the Serbs so as to isolate them from those who should be their friends and allies. The Islamist aim is to ensure the world regards Serb peace as undeserved and Serb suffering as justice, establishing the foundation for Western support of the Islamist agenda.

Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au

Links

1) "Alija Izetbegovic, 1925-2003", by Damjan de Krnjevic-Miskovic. http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol2Issue41/Vol2Issue41dkm.html

2) Ethnic tensions rising as Bosnian vote nears
By Nicholas Wood, The New York Times. 27 August 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/27/news/bosnia.php
BOSNIA: late Muslim leader's tomb blown up. Sarajevo, 11 August (AKI)
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.329887870&par=

3) Redefining Bosnia. 15 Nov 2005
By Ekrem Krasniqi in Brussels and Anes Alic in Sarajevo for ISN Security Watch.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13521

4) BOSNIA: Serbs deem Muslim leader's comments 'irresponsible'. Sarajevo, 25 August 2006 http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.334008026&par=0

5) Welcoming speech of The President of the Republic of Srpska,
Mr. Dragan Cavic, At the opening of the Scientific Meeting,
"The Republic of Srpska – 10 years of the Dayton Peace Accords" 12 May 2005 http://www.predsjednikrs.net/engleski/stranice/govori/Dayton-2005.htm

6) BAT YE'OR, 31 August 1995
Myths and Politics: Origin or the Myth of a Tolerant Pluralistic Islamic Society
For the International Strategic Studies Association
Symposium on the Balkan War – "Yugoslavia: Past and Present"
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/pre-wwOne/Ye_Or.html

7) B-H Constitutional changes without citizens' support!
Author: IFIMES. Uploaded: Tuesday, 25 April, 2006
http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2193

8) BOSNIA: Top envoy appeals for calm ahead of poll. Sarajevo, 18 August 2006 http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.331777836&par=0

9) IRAN'S EUROPEAN SPRINGBOARD?
Yossef Bodansky & Vaughn S. Forrest. 1 September 1992
Task force on terrorism & unconventional warfare, House Republican Research Committee,
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/papers/civil_war/iran_springboard.html

10) Terrorism: Local manpower key to new al-Qaeda strategy, expert. Belgrade, 30 August 2006
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.334824252&par=0
Terrorists from Balkans could reach into Europe. 13 Sept 2006
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51954

11) 50 Al-Qaeda sympathizers lose citizenship. 5 Sept 2006
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.336787118&par=0
Bosnia rules to revoke citizenships
By Anes Alic in Sarajevo for ISN Security Watch (14/07/06)
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=16390

12) Srebrenica and the Politics of War Crimes
Findings of the Srebrenica Research Group into the allegations of events and the background leading up to them, in Srebrenica, Bosnia & Herzegovina, in 1995.
http://www.srebrenica-report.com/

Further reading: "Fitzgerald: The jihad in Serbia." Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses why all anti-jihadists should support Serbia today. 15 May 2006 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/05/011437print.html)

Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) www.worldevangelical.org/rlc.html. This article was initially written for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis mailing list.


Elizabeth can be contacted by e-mail at rl-research@crossnet.org.au.


** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Courage And Honor In Iran
Persecution Escalates As Iranian President Speaks At UN

OPEN DOORS USA
Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Coordinator
Phone: 616-915-4117
E-Mail: JerryD@odusa.org
Web Site: www.opendoorsusa.org

For Immediate Release

SANTA ANA, CA (ANS) -- (Last Friday the United States took Iran to task for its “harsh and oppressive treatment” of religious minorities, including Christians. In its annual “Report on International Religious Freedom” around the world, the State Department said it found a further deterioration in what it called “the extremely poor status of respect for religious freedom” in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on a three-day visit to New York City and addressed the United Nations General Assembly today. The following article is an update on the status of persecuted Christians in Iran).

The situation in Iran is very similar to that of the first century church: mass conversions, persecution, signs and wonders, visions and dreams and even multiple wives. Only God knows how many thousands of Iranian Muslims have come to Christ through Christian satellite TV broadcasts.
A typical story is that of Hanan. She was a devout Muslim asking God to show her the true path. She dreamt one night of a big building with lots of people speaking strange languages. She followed a beam of light coming from above and as she followed the beam outside, she understood that the building was a church and the beam of light was Jesus. After Hanan became a Christian, she changed for the better and her sisters also became Christians.

Most of the new believers are young and very passionate about their faith in Christ, although, out of fear, most remain “secret believers” not connected to any church or house church.

However, alongside this Christian revival is an Islamic revival determined to root out and destroy “corrupting” influences such as Christianity. Persecution has become state policy and is being implemented at all levels and in various forms throughout Iran.

Christians report that persecution has increased markedly and that believers are experiencing much greater hardship since the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in August 2005, who has pledged to restore an Islamic government in Iran.

Christians such as 31-year old Issa Motamedi Mojdehi have been charged with drug trafficking offenses, but even secret police officials admit that his real offense was converting from Islam to Christianity seven years ago. Unless Issa renounces his Christian faith and returns to Islam, officials told him, he would remain in jail and possibly face execution as conversion to Christianity carries the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Issa was released on bail after four weeks on August 24. He was told he is “free for the moment,” but the judge then introduced new accusations – that Issa’s 8-year old daughter Martha had been trying to lead other children to the Christian faith.

Hamid Pourmand, a former army colonel released recently after two years in jail, was warned that attending church services could land him back in prison.

Fifty-one-year old Ali Kaboli, was released in June, but could still face the death penalty for converting to Christianity 35 years ago.

While in jail, prisoners face strong psychological pressures, including threats to kill their family and other Christian believers, in order to force them to recant their Christian faith and return to Islam. Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji, imprisoned for six years, says that many prisoners of conscience are kept in solitary confinement on no legal grounds with no access to books, newspapers or telephone, legal representation or their families.

In recent months, Christians have also lost their jobs, had their shops shut down or had their livelihoods removed.

Depriving converts to Christianity of their means of employment is the government’s way of “trying to asphyxiate the church,” one Iranian source told Compass Direct. “A lot of believers lost their jobs after the intervention of the security police.” The officials’ objective, he said, is to force Christians to leave Iran permanently.

Compass also reports that, in at least five other incidents during August, Iranian police have harassed and mistreated local converts to Christianity, some of whom have fled their hometowns to live more inconspicuously in large cities.

Other Christians, such as two young women in a southern Iranian city, were beaten by police in their homes. One was also arrested for several days and was phoned by police every day following her release. Police threatened to re-arrest her and to arrest her brother and parents as well.

The few remaining Protestant leaders, who are still allowed to meet, are under relentless pressure to compromise with government investigators by providing the names of their members, particularly any who are converts from Islam.

Giving all for Jesus

Some pastors have given their lives for their faith. Last November, Ghorban Dordi Tourani, a 53-year old Muslim convert to Christianity, was arrested by the secret police and then just a few hours later, his stabbed and bleeding body was thrown in front of his home in Gonbad-e-Kavus, where he lived with his wife and four children, ages 3–23.

Wonderfully, a year before his death, Ghorban wrote this prayer: “Lord Jesus, please let me glorify your holy name in every moment of my life on this earth. I am willing to give my life that belongs to you, for the sake of you and your church.”

Within days of Ghorban’s murder, representatives of Iran’s dreaded secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), arrested and severely tortured 10 other Christians in several cities and raided the homes of all known Christians in Ghorban’s town.

The current Iranian deputy Minister of Interior Mahmoud Saeedi was formerly the director of the MOIS. He was however removed from office in 1999 following mounting pressure as it became clear that his department oversaw the brutal murders of three Iranian church leaders in 1994 and 1995. They included Mehdi Dibaj, who was released from prison in January 1994 following a worldwide outcry initiated by his friend and colleague Bishop Haik Hovspeian Mehr, who was himself abducted and murdered just three days after Mehdi’s release. Haik’s death was confirmed to his family by the authorities. Mehdi was similarly murdered in June that year and his body found in a west Tehran park.

Learning to forgive

Haik's widow, Takoosh, described how God helped her not only to forgive her enemies but to love them as well: At first she cried out to God, “Lord, you’re asking too much. How can I love them when they killed the love of my life?” However, she tells how God gently took her by the hand and helped her. Little by little, she came to the point where she realized one day that she could love her enemies. She began to see the Islamic extremists as lost sheep without a shepherd. She says God enabled her to love.

Takoosh also explains, “Worship is a powerful tool in overcoming hardship, but so is the reading of the Word of God, support from other believers, the empathy of people who visit or phone, and the love of brothers and sisters from around the world expressed in cards and letters.”

This is where organizations such as Open Doors which deliver Bibles and facilitate prayer and coordinate letter-writing campaigns, can be a lifeline for suffering and persecuted Christians.

“I could have become bitter because of what happened. Instead, I chose to obey God. He taught me to trust him 100% and to completely hand my life over to him,” Takoosh concludes.

Haik’s death was not in vain as many others took inspiration from his courage. Avin became a believer in Jesus at Haik’s funeral service. She said, if someone was willing to offer his life as Haik did, she realized that Christianity had to be true. In the last couple of years, God has used Avin to bring others to Jesus and thus the church continues to grow despite opposition.

Uniting with the Persecuted Church

On 9 June, Iranian church leaders issued a joint statement which says in part: “We cannot express how deeply encouraged and thankful Iranian Christians are that so many are standing with us in prayer. We believe the Lord will hear the cries of His people, so we urge everyone to carry on praying and spreading the word about this prayer effort. Let’s see millions praying for Iran and let us witness together how God can transform a nation.”

An estimated 200 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with another 200 to 400 million facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors, celebrating 50 years of service to persecuted Christians, serves and strengthens the Persecuted Church in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (524-2535) or go to our USA Web site at www.opendoorsusa.org. To request a complimentary six-month subscription to our monthly newsletter Frontline Faith, call 888-5-BIBLE-5 or register on-line.

(To set up an interview, please contact Jerry Dykstra at 616-915-4117 or email jerryd@odusa.org).

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

[Cindy]

RE: A Weather Public Announcement for PORTUGAL

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_portugal.html

[WestCoastGal]

Do they take much space? I'm limited and I seem to have lost my green thumb. :)