Posted on 12/20/2006 10:48:15 PM PST by Knitting A Conundrum
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Trust the ruskies to want to do things that make them feel good about themselves.
That doesn't necessarily include making you happy!
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke with US President George W. Bush on Thursday afternoon, focusing primarily on ways of making progress in Israeli-Palestinian channels.
Olmert also updated Bush on talks the prime minister held in Germany, Italy and Jordan.
The prime minister met on Thursday with US Senators John Kerry and Christopher Dodd, who have been on a tour of the region. The senators updated Olmert on their visits to Iraq, Lebanon and Syria; however, they did not relay any messages from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday also denied reports in the Palestinian media that a meeting had taken place between Olmert and his Lebanese counterpart, Fuad Saniora, in Sharm e-Sheikh.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881947576&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
This article's so long that even I won't post it, but go to the site and read it:
Introduction
The Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya organization, which perpetrated terror attacks in Egypt throughout the 1980s and '90s, has in recent years undergone an ideological reversal exceptional among Islamist organizations. The leaders of the organization have undertaken to forsake violence and have apologized for past attacks and now promote a new ideology of coexistence with the regime. In addition, they have gone to great lengths to argue against Al-Qaeda's ideology and to restrict its influence on Muslims.
The Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya leadership's ideological reversal is an outstanding example of a collective shift away from violence by leaders of a prominent radical Islamist organization. This paper has been an attempt to detail the chronological and ideological development of this reversal, to map the changes in the group's thought, and to explain the reasons for this change. The story of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya has an importance that extends well beyond Egypt, as it provides insight into the ideological structure of radical Islamism on the whole and the potential found in Islam itself to defuse the Islamist trend.
This paper reviews Al-Gama'a's cessation of violence and its aftermath as reflected in the Arab media.
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA30906
It does show how groups can evolve. Interesting. Not typical, but interesting.
"Trust the ruskies to want to do things that make them feel good about themselves."
I don't think it's about feeling good, I think it's all about $$$$, as discussed yesterday on this board. Of course, enough $$$$ can probably make some people feel good about themselves.
Mornin 4,
All-nighter, heh? LOL
BTW thanks for the pings and MELDT.com
From ITAR-TASS (So take everything with a grain of mistrust):
Russian ballistic missile hits designated target
21.12.2006, 13.19
MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - The trainer warhead of the RS-20V intercontinental ballistic missile /SS-18 Satan by western classification/ hit a designated target at the Kura range on the Kamchatka peninsula, a spokesman.
"The dummy warheads of the missile hit the designated targets at the range with preset precision. The launch was made by a Strategic Missile Troops /RVSN/ unit in Russia's Orenburg region on Thursday," RVSN spokesman Col Alexander Vovk told Itar-Tass.
The first launch of such a missile from the Orenburg region was made on December 10, 2004. It is launched from a silo by means of so-called mortar start - a powder high pressure accumulator shoots it at an altitude of up to 30 meters whereupon its first-stage cruise engine is activated.
According to open press reports, RS-20V is one of the most powerful missiles in the world.
The front part weighing some nine tonnes is comprised of ten self-homing warheads equipped with means of penetrating enemy air defense systems.
The system was added to the Russian army's arsenal and put on combat alert in December 1988, with initial service life of 15 years.
"The launch has confirmed the correctness of the design and technical solutions used in developing the R-36M2 missile complex, as well as its readiness for combat missions during extended service life period. As of the moment of launch, the missile has been in service for 19 years," Vovk said.
IMO the Russians always have and always will do whatever they feel is in THEIR best interests regardless of the outcomes for ANYONE else.
Mornin', 4...
18:18 Standing army NCO jailed for year and a half for shooting in air, hitting man (Haaretz)
18:05 Representative dollar rate set at $1 / NIS 4.1810 (Haaretz)
17:51 Iraq`s Shi`ite Alliance presses Iraq PM to crack down on Shi`ite militias (Reuters)
17:27 PM Olmert phones Bush to convey holiday greeting to the Americans (Haaretz)
17:19 Interior Ministry guard convicted of accepting bribe receives 6-year sentence (Haaretz)
16:51 European states distribute draft resolution for light sanctions on Iran at UN (Haaretz)
16:50 Palestinians agree to crack down on funds smuggling into Gaza (Haaretz)
16:40 France`s Le Pen says anti-Semitism can be `funny` (Reuters)
16:11 Livni: Israel must consider whether policy of restraint can be maintained (Reuters)
Talk about the banality of evil... There must be more ways to make money than killing people, destroying civilizations and wreaking havoc throughout the world... Does no one open pizza parlors any more????
Spy lifts lid on al-Qaeda (Inside The Jihad)
BBC ^ | 11/16/06 | Gordon Corera
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1756829/posts
Posted on 12/21/2006 11:08:27 AM EST by Valin
It is rare to get an insider's perspective on the emergence of al-Qaeda. It is also rare to get a glimpse of the world of spies and agents. To provide both is incredibly unusual. Omar Nasiri - not his real name but one chosen to protect his identity - says he spent seven years working as an agent for European intelligence services and as an al-Qaeda operative, part of the time in the UK. He provides a unique insight into how al-Qaeda was far more organised, coherent and determined in the 1990s than was appreciated at the time.
Nasiri's story begins in the mid 1990s in Belgium after his brother became involved with a group of Algerian Islamic activists. To make money, Nasiri began to supply the cell with guns. But after stealing some cash from the cell, he realised his life was in danger. He knew the French were taking the threat from the Algerian Islamists seriously and so he walked into the French consulate in Brussels. He met an officer from the DGSE, France's overseas intelligence service. Nasiri remembers that the officer offered him money - and protection - but at a price. "He said, 'To give you what you ask, a new identity, a future, you need to do more.'" That meant becoming a spy.
Nasiri's family's house was raided in March 1995. The material discovered in that raid proved to be one of the first signs of emerging links between jihadist groups - and of the role of al-Qaeda, according to Belgian police. As well as weapons, a training manual was found. The first page of it was dedicated to Osama bin Laden.
Key operative
Meanwhile, the French had begun to hear of training camps in Afghanistan. They wanted Nasiri to investigate. "My mission [was] to find the route of jihad through Pakistan and Afghanistan... No leads, no names, no address, Nothing. Just go find the route of jihad." Through a series of contacts he found his way to Peshawar where he met Abu Zubaydah, the gatekeeper of the Afghan training camps who would be captured soon after 9/11 and was recently transferred from a secret CIA prison to Guantanamo Bay.
His first stop was Khalden, one of al-Qaeda's key training camps. Amongst those who attended were Mohammed Atta - the ringleader of the 9-11 attacks - and Richard Reid, the so called "shoe bomber" who tried to detonate explosives on a transatlantic flight. Nasiri described how recruits were provided with intense and highly comprehensive military training - much of which was based on training manuals of UK and US special forces and also involved assassination and kidnapping techniques. Spiritual preparation was also an important part of the training, taking up as much, if not more of the time.
Intelligence experts believe he provides a convincing and unusually detailed portrait of camp life. "It's an extraordinarily complete story, and certainly I don't think there's anything to match it in terms of intelligence reporting," said Mike Scheuer, who was head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit between 1996 and 1999. Recruits were also trained how to resist interrogation and provide false information - Nasiri's mentor at the camps, Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, would go on to provide false evidence of links between al-Qaeda and Iraq after he was captured by the US.
Rabbits poisoned
This evidence was cited by both the US Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush in the build-up to the war with Iraq. From Khalden, Nasiri was sent to Darunta, the "graduate" school which focused on training individuals for operations. There, recruits learnt how to make explosives and detonators from scratch. Nasiri also witnessed chemical weapons experiments - including the use of gases and poisons on rabbits, evidence of an organised WMD programme far earlier than had previously been reported.
With his training complete, Abu Zubaydah despatched Nasiri back to Europe with instructions to set up a "sleeper" cell and to remain in contact. He asked me to go back... and begin to make a list of all targets," recalls Nasiri.
After resuming contact with his French handlers, Nasiri was sent to London. The French were worried that Islamic radicals were using London as a base. They called the British capital Londonistan. Nasiri was now run jointly by French and British intelligence. He began to infiltrate Finsbury Park Mosque and spy on its imam, Abu Hamza, as well as another radical, Abu Qatada. He passed messages back between the training camps and London, from those around Abu Zubaydah to Abu Qatada, with the British Security Service and the French listening in, he says. He was even sent a notebook he had compiled on how to make explosives. He was told by his handlers to focus on Abu Hamza rather than Abu Qatada, a decision he disagreed with.
Tensions
British police and security officials were focused on whether Islamic radicals posed a threat to the UK but not necessarily on the larger international picture and the connections going back and forth. "At the time we didn't think that the growing threat from al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden was sufficient to put more resources on it," says Bob Milton, who worked on the issue at the Metropolitan Police Special Branch between 1996 and 1998. "We were monitoring what he was doing, certainly working with the US and European colleagues to do that. But at that time we were still unsure what the threat would be."
In 1998, al-Qaeda's war against the west began in earnest as US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. But Nasiri's relationship with the intelligence services deteriorated rapidly. He felt they were not listening to him. They may not have trusted him and have been unsure of where his loyalties really lay. He was left without a role just as the threat was growing. But his story makes clear that al-Qaeda was far more organised, more determined and more coherent in the 1990s than anyone appreciated at the time. Thousands - probably tens of thousands - graduated from al-Qaeda's training camps in the 1990s and the spread of ideology has left an equally lasting legacy in terms of radicalisation.
(discussion at the link)
I posted my 500th FR thread this morning, and have been enjoying the day so far...It's the Winter Solstice, more or less, and all of a sudden, I feel in the holiday mood (I don't like to build up to it, but it never fails to hit eventually.)
Well if you can go on a money making spree when you feel like that, I'd say you've perfected the art of sublimation!! LOL
Glad to know you're feeling better. :-)
There must be more ways to make money than killing people, destroying civilizations and wreaking havoc throughout the world... Does no one open pizza parlors any more????
I don't know. Why don't you asked the Bonanno's and Gaetano Badalamenti?
Gaetano Badalamenti and the Pizza Connection
http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_271.html
LOL I'm congenitally a good speller, please don't hate me for it.
If you are a neat freak, though, come check out my work room, and you'll feel smugly superior! I can organize thoughts and people, but can't organize stuff to save my soul. :-/
FWIW, when I read other people's stuff, I read for content, not punctuation or grammar... :-)
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