Posted on 06/19/2007 4:43:36 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
TERRORISM PREVENTION
US Steps-up Effort to Stop EU Firms Trading with Iran (back)
July 20, 2007
by Ewn MacAskill
An escalating crackdown by the US on foreign companies and banks doing business with Iran is provoking opposition in Britain and Europe, where diplomats say the action could lead to a trade war.
Congress wants all international companies to end their investment in Iran and is pushing through a bill that would penalise companies which fail to do so. The British, along with other European governments, see the US approach as draconian and are lobbying against it.
The American move reflects frustration at the failure, so far, of western diplomacy to persuade Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme which the US, Britain and others suspect is a step towards a nuclear weapons capability.
Iran denies it has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon.
A senior British banking source said yesterday there was a great deal of annoyance in the City with the US approach. The two British banks most frequently mentioned in Washington in relation to Iran are HSBC and Standard Chartered. The source said both banks have scaled down their operations in Iran and maintain a modest presence in Tehran.
But much of their former business, which consisted principally of managing payments between companies, has been picked up by German and French banks whose governments have resisted pressure from Washington, the source said.
The state department has been pressing for disengagement for months. But the move is being given added impetus by the Iran counter-proliferation bill going through Congress that would penalise the American interests of companies that continue to have a presence in Iran. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, said: ‘Our goal must be zero foreign investment.’
The bill appears to have overwhelming support in Congress. Congress passed the Iran and Libya sanctions act in 1996 that threatened action against foreign governments and companies, but gave the state department discretion over when to implement it. The new legislation proposes to remove that discretion. The state department prefers persuasion to coercion, fearing the latter would alienate allies, and opposes the legislation.
The security council has imposed limited sanctions on Iran, mainly economic and travel bans, and a third round of sanctions is being discussed.
The White House sees it as inconsistent for European countries to support sanctions but to allow companies to continue trading. Britain says it has no legal basis to order the banks to close their Iranian operations. European diplomats say the US is aiming at the wrong targets and should focus on Arab and far east companies that have a greater exposure to the Iranian market.
Any penalties imposed by the US would be in breach of World Trade Organisation rules, they argue.
A senior US official said there have been discussions between Stuart Levey, the under-secretary of state at the treasury, and the British government, though he acknowledged that the involvement of British banks and companies was not as deep as some on the continent.
He said the EU had £11bn in export credits to Iran in 2005, the latest figure available. ‘So we have been in discussions with many of the leading governments - Germany, France, Italy, Spain - the four largest countries with exposure to export credits. This is really quite inconsistent with where we are going with UN sanctions,’ he said. ‘We have had two sanctions resolutions: so why would you be promoting trade with Iran?’
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2130839,00.html
If You See Something, Report It (and Get Sued) (back)
July 20, 2007
...but if what you report implicates a minority, the Democrats want to make sure that you can be sued. After the CAIR sued numerous ‘John Does’ in their lawsuit against US Air in the ‘flying imams’ case, there was a huge push to get immunity for reporting suspicious behavior anonymously.
Makes sense right? There’s people out there who are trying to kill us, and we would like anything suspicious to be reported without fear of retaliation. Well apparently it doesn’t make sense to the Democrats. From the Washington Times:
Congressional Democrats today failed to include a provision in homeland security legislation that would protect the public from being sued for reporting suspicious behavior that may lead to a terrorist attack, according to House Republican leaders.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, initially opposed the legislation, expressing concern that it would lead to racial profiling.
And if people die from a terrorist attack, well that’s better than having Muslims profiled. Sheesh, trust the American people, trust the cops. The flying imams case raised warning bells on all sorts of levels CAIR wants it to be about racial profiling, but many people suspect they acting suspicious on purpose in order to test America’s judicial system.
Bottom line is that the Democrats just handed the Republicans another club to beat them with on the national security issue. The Democrats always seem to prefer their own liberal sensitivities over doing anything real about terrorism and they are true to form here.
Source: http://news.aol.com/elections-blog/2007/07/20/if-you-see-something-report-it/
Two Arrested in Bristol under Terrorism Act (back)
July 20, 2007
Avon and Somerset police have arrested two men in Bristol under the Terrorism Act after carrying out a house search.
Police searched an address in Stapleton Road after arresting a man on July 18th on suspicion of drug-related offences.
During the search police found a substance that they believe may be linked to potential terrorist activity.
The substance will now be analysed by a forensics team and a further search has also begun.
After investigating the matter further, police also arrested a second man also under the Terrorism Act.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Mortimore said that the investigation was still in its ‘very early stages’.
‘We hope to clarify the situation at the earliest possible opportunity,’ he added.
‘Our message to the public for some time now has been that while we don’t want people to be unduly afraid, everyone should be aware of the potential risks and be vigilant.’
The incident is not related to any specific threat, but police are undertaking an extensive investigation.
Community leaders have also met with police to discuss cooperation with the matter and Ass Ch Con Mortimore welcomed this response as ‘positive’.
Source: http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/crime/two-arrested-in-bristol-under-terrorism-act-$1111049.htm
[25 miles from me]
TERROR ON TRIAL
Terrorism Charge Filed against Arizona Man (back)
July 23, 2007
A Bullhead City man already facing 13 felony counts was indicted Thursday on four new charges including an alleged plot to blow up the Bullhead City offices of an Arizona gang task force.
A Mohave County grand jury indicted Leroy Montoya, 41, on charges of terrorism and participating in a street gang in one case and two counts of misconduct with weapons in a second case.
The terrorist charge states that on July 10, Montoya allegedly solicited others to commit an act of terrorism by use of a deadly weapon or a weapon of mass destruction in Bullhead City. The participating in a street gang charge states that he incited others to engage in violence with the intent to promote a street gang, according to the felony indictment.
The terrorism charge states that he allegedly conspired to blow up the Gang Intelligence and Team Enforcement Mission office in Bullhead City. GITEM is a gang task force consisting of officers from the state highway patrol office and other law enforcement agencies. Further details on the plot were not made available. However, other people may also be involved, Bullhead City Police Lt. Steve Smith said.
The two weapons charges state that he allegedly illegally possessed a deadly weapon Oct. 30 in the 400 block of Long Avenue and Nov. 1 in the 1600 block of Balsa Road, the indictment stated.
Montoya is expected to be arraigned on the new charges Friday before Superior Court Judge James Chavez. He is in custody on a $250,000 bond for the new charges.
In a recent trial, Montoya was convicted of theft and fraudulent schemes and artifices. The fraud charge stated that Montoya defrauded a Bullhead City hardware store by failing to return a carpet cleaner between October 2006 and January 2007. The theft charge states he stole the carpet cleaner Oct. 18. He is expected to be sentenced July 31 on those charges.
Montoya is also charged with theft and criminal damage. He is charged with allegedly stealing appliances and causing damage to a rented home in on Escalera Road. He is also charged with allegedly draining a pool that caused damage to a foundation of a porch as well as causing damage to a ceiling.
Montoya is also charged with aggravated assault on a minor, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and participating in a street gang in a third case. He is charged with allegedly assaulting a teenage boy in January, according to the Bullhead City Police Department.
Montoya is also charged with attempted fraudulent schemes and artifices. The charge states that from July and August 2006, he allegedly attempted to get payment for construction work done that was already paid for and placing property liens on properties and then requiring payment before he would release the liens.
Montoya is also charged with two counts of criminal damage, first-degree trespassing, fraudulent schemes and artifices and participating in a street gang. He is charged with allegedly damaging a home on River Gardens Drive.
Source: http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2007/07/22/news/local/local3.txt
Funds for the Defense (of Troops in Combat) (back)
July 21, 2007
Conservative Christians and military veterans are part of an emerging group of Americans who say they are upset by the recent prosecutions of soldiers and Marines in Iraq on war crimes charges, and they are coming to their defense with words, websites and money. In the past year, more than a dozen websites have been developed to solicit donations to hire lawyers for service members who have been charged with violent crimes for actions taken in the confusion of combat or counterinsurgency operations. They have raised more than $600,000, organizers say, from grandparents, business executives and college students, among others. The average donation is $25 to $50.
Virtually all donations come with handwritten or e-mail messages full of encouragement for the troops in Iraq and laced with frustration at the government and the news media.
‘I wonder if you are supposed to check out each enemy to see if they have a gun or wait for them to shoot first,’ wrote a 98-year-old woman from Grand Junction, Colo., who recently sent $25 to the Military Combat Defense Fund, a group outside Boston that has provided more than $85,000 to smaller funds set up for individual Marines accused of murder and other crimes in Haditha and Hamdaniya, Iraq. ‘Bible says that the country will always be fighting. We have been praying for all you boys and girls.’
In interviews, organizers and contributors said they believed that many of the prosecutions were based on feeble evidence and gauzy recollections of Iraqis sympathetic to the insurgency and hostile to the U.S. military mission.
They point to the case against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, who was charged with killing three unarmed Iraqi men at point-blank range in Haditha in 2005. This month, a Marine lawyer investigating the charges recommended dismissing them, for lack of evidence, and warned that pressing flimsy cases against combat troops ‘sets a dangerous precedent’ that will further erode public support for the war and could cause infantrymen to hesitate when fighting a determined enemy.
There is no denying that some U.S. troops have committed violent crimes against Iraqi civilians during more than four years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military prosecutors have won convictions against soldiers and Marines in more than 200 cases of violent crimes, including murder, rape and assault, military records show.
In more than a dozen interviews, organizers and contributors said they were motivated by anger at the Bush administration and the military for prosecuting combat troops and commanders just for doing their jobs, they say, in life-or-death circumstances, as they were trained.
‘The insurgency has found a new weapon, besides the bomb, and that’s to accuse these young men of wrongdoing, because we throw the book at them,’ said Maralee Jones, 45, a mortgage loan officer in Utah who taught herself how to build a website, www.marinedefense, to raise money to help several accused Marines pay for civilian lawyers, who are generally regarded as more experienced and aggressive than military defense lawyers.
‘We all feel like the big brass have eaten their young here,’ said Jones, whose son is serving with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, the same unit as the Marines accused in the Hamdaniya case. ‘You just can’t put people under a microscope when the lines of combat are so blurred.’ So far the fund has raised $78,000, she said.
Outside Boston, a group of Vietnam War veterans — retired police officials, postal workers, lawyers and others — established the Military Combat Defense Fund and recently surpassed $152,000 in donations to their website, said Patrick Barnes, a former radio reporter who is the group’s treasurer.
Religious conviction plays a role in much of the giving, Barnes said. ‘They believe the military’s work is God’s work,’ he said. ‘That’s what’s been indicated in the letters.’
Much of the strongest criticism from many defense funds is directed toward mainstream news organizations, which they say portray the concerns of Iraqis more sympathetically than the plight of U.S. troops.
‘From the magazines and newspapers that I read, it seems that many of them are too condemning of our own guys,’ said Jacqueline Batcha, 44, of Atlantis, Fla., who sent $100 to the website for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is charged with 13 counts of murder in the Haditha case.
Source: http://www.startribune.com/484/v-print/story/1316759.html
Bank Denies Involvement in Terrorism (back)
July 20, 2007
The Habib Bank Ltd on Thursday officially denied any responsibility in the murder case of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter slain by terrorists in 2002.
Pearl’s widow, Mariane, had named the bank in a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly conducted financial services on behalf of charities linked to extremist groups.
A top HBL executive Zaffar Aziz Osmani told the media that the bank had not been informed about the lawsuit and it was not involved in any acts of terrorism.
The suit named the al-Rashid Trust as a defendant among many other charities.
When contacted, the State Bank also maintained that it had not been informed about the lawsuit officially and only came to know of it through the media.
Some bankers said the proceedings of the ‘highly politicised’ case would be observed carefully by the local banking industry.
Source: http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/20/top12.htm
The Cover Up? (back)
July 21, 2007
During the investigation into the Madrid blasts of March 11, 2004, in which 191 civilian suburban train commuters were killed, the Madrid Police had arrested two Indians and questioned without arrest two Spanish citizens of Indian origin on suspicion that the SIM cards used by the terrorists for triggering the explosions had been bought by the terrorists from their shops. All the four were Hindus. The investigation indicated that they were not aware of the background of the persons to whom they had sold the SIM cards. They were, therefore, not charged and released from detention..
There was no campaign against the Madrid Police in India at that time. The Indian media did not try to create a drama over the issue. The Indian intelligence and investigative agencies did not adopt an un-cooperative attitude. No attempt was made by the government of India to exercise pressure on the government of Spain in order to secure the release of the detained Indians before the completion of the investigation.
Western counter-terrorism experts have expressed concern and resentment over the manner in which the government of India has been trying to exercise pressure on the government of Australia to release, before the completion of investigation, Dr.Mohammad Haneef, who has been arrested in Brisbane and charged with the offence of providing ‘reckless support’ to a terrorist organization by allegedly giving his SIM card to his cousin Dr. Sabeel Ahmed of Liverpool, who has been charged by the British Police under Section 38(B) of the Terrorism Act 2000 that he had information which he ‘knew or believed may be of material assistance in preventing the commission by another of an act of terrorism’.
Kafeel Ahmed, the brother of Sabeel Ahmed, tried to drive a jeep filled with petrol, gas canisters and nails into the Glasgow airport on June 30, 2007, in order to cause an explosion. He was not able to do so. There was a fire in which he was badly burnt. He is still unconscious and has not yet been charged.
The investigation in the UK and Australia is still in the initial stages. The computer and its hard disc and other documents seized from Mohammad Haneef are still under technical examination. His friends and contacts in Australia are being identified and questioned systematically. Enquiries are being made about his stay in the UK before he migrated to Australia in September,2006.
There are many worrisome questions about him and his relatives. Why did he decide to migrate to Australia when he was professionally doing well in the UK? At the same time, Kafeel Ahmed and Sabeel Ahmed had also reportedly wanted to migrate to Australia, but they could not since the Australian Immigration reportedly had some reservations about their papers. Why did the three want to migrate together? Were they planning to start their sleeper cell in Australia? Did Kafeel Ahmed and Sabeel Ahmed set up the cell in the UK when their efforts to migrate to Australia failed? Finding answers to these questions would take time.
Moreover, any investigation would be incomplete without details regarding their background in India. What were Sabeel Ahmed and Kafeel Ahmed doing in Bangalore when they came home for some months before they went back to the UK and started planning for their strikes in London and Glasgow? Where was Haneef at that time? Was he in touch with them?
There is an impression in Western counter-terrorism circles that whereas the Indian authorities co-operated readily when the suspects or perpetrators were Arabs or Pakistani nationals or Indian Muslims of foreign nationality, they have been dragging their feet when they found the suspected involvement of Indian Muslims with Indian nationality in global jihad for the first time.
The Indians were detained in Madrid almost for the same reason as Haneef in Australia. In Madrid, they were detained for selling SIM cards to terrorism suspects. Haneef has been detained for handing over his SIM card to a relative, who has subsequently been charged with an offence under the UK’s Terrorism Act.
Whereas the Madrid detentions, where the suspects were Hindus, did not lead to any campaign or controversy in India, the Australian detention has been over-dramatised and the Australian Federal Police has been sought to be demonised in India just because the detained suspect is an Indian Muslim.
This has, unfortunately, been giving rise to an impression that the Indian political leadership and officials want to cover up the full extent of the alleged involvement of Indian Muslims in global jihad. If this impression persists and if the intelligence and
counter-terrorism officials of Western countries share with their respective Congressional or parliamentary over-sight committees their concerns over the perceived unco-operative attitude of the Indian authorities, this could come in the way of the final Congressional approval of the 123 agreement on Indo-US Nuclear Co-operation as and when it is signed and Australia supporting the agreement when it comes up before the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group.
Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070721&fname=raman&sid=1
Hizballah’s Youth (back)
July 21, 2007
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- In a small office which also doubles as a temporary Hezbollah media center in the southern fringes of Beirut, Ali, 23, tries to explain the complexities of his relationship with Hezbollah’s weapons.
Ali has witnessed the Israeli occupation firsthand and has remained loyal to the resistance movement. He carried food to the soldiers in their trenches, and helped them move weapons from one hiding place to another.
Next to Ali sat some of his colleagues in what is known as Hezbollah’s ‘educational mobilization’ department. There, they talked about the dual nature of Hezbollah’s youth, which is what renders them capable of adapting to so many different circumstances, unlike other youth.
This is because Hezbollah’s youth, according to these young men, are university students, employees, and professionals at the same time. All the while they are also Mujahideen [fighters for the cause of Islam] who are ever-ready to exchange their civilian clothes for a military uniform serving a greater military cause, the dimensions of which are not understood fully by everyone.
Hezbollah’s youth are men who are capable of adapting to two lives, that of the military man and that of the civilian. The educational mobilization department is just one of Hezbollah’s organizations. It is a military organization that emerged in the 1980’s during the Israeli incursion into Lebanon [summer of 1982] under the name ‘Islamic Amal,’ [it seceded from the Amal Movement and was led by Nabih Berri].
As the organization evolved, it expanded to resemble a basic military nucleus that offers a number of social and political services. It also assumes dual tasks in that it repairs the social fabric so that it complements Hezbollah’s ideology and offers a myriad of social services, as well as assuming its military role.
However, the organization’s military role is far less important than that played by those at the top of the pyramid, i.e. the veteran frontline fighters, or Hezbollah’s Elite Fighters, as they are known. The Elite Fighters, according to consistent estimates, form a group that ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 members of highly-trained village dwellers who have no other job. These soldiers have accumulated much expertise in the field of fighting that goes back to the 1980’s, (the average age of the members is 40 years old). It is most likely that these fighters played a key role in the most recent war’s frontline, and hence made up the bulk of casualties.
Alongside the Elite Fighters, there are the men of the reserve apparatus, who are no longer active in the role of fighting. This is either due to old age or their occupation of other posts. Their previous experiences coupled with the intensified training courses that had taken part in allow these men to carryout sideline tasks in times of war. Such tasks include sending messages, weapons, and food to different units, as well as observation and communication tasks. These are significant duties that do not require physical fitness and military readiness, both of which are imperative for professional fighting.
The military dimension of Hezbollah is ever-apparent on all three levels, [the social, the military, and the Elite Fighters]. It manifests itself, however, according to the situation and how much military preparation is required.
In the small office where we met, the young men of Hezbollah’s Educational Mobilization department, who introduced themselves as Ali, Husayn, Rida, and Bashar, avoided referring to the military dimensions of their posts. Whenever one of them slipped up and began to discuss security issues, for example, the female media official interrupted to kindly remind us of our agreement, namely to restrict this interview to personal experiences and nothing more.
When asked whether they participated in the most recent war, the young men decided to answer, “When it is time for studies, we study. But we are all trained and ready to confront our enemies if and when the need arises.”
The young men continued to dodge military questions so much that it would seem that they were living by the Arabic proverb, ‘Every situation hath its statement, and every incident its dialogue,’ which Husayn happened to repeat ardently. Instead, the young men decide to laughingly tell the story of an instance when they took their uniforms off and replaced them with that a janitors uniform. In those clothes, they say, they helped remove the rubble from the streets after the war ended. They believed that, when required, there would be no shame in carrying a broom. Still, they contended, carrying a rifle remains the ‘highest honor.’
After I persisted to ask them military-related questions, the young men gave me a simple explanation: Hezbollah in its entirety is a society of resistance. Hezbollah’s youth have the ability to adjust to many different circumstances. No one can match Hezbollah in this regard, they say.
‘No one knows the full military structure of Hezbollah,’ explained the boys, ‘because no one knows absolutely everything about the other. For instance, one of our colleagues was martyred during the war while we did not even know he was fighting. Each one of us has a private side that no one else knows about, even though we are very close to one another.’
The social backgrounds of these young men vary, despite the fact that share similar ages. Husayn comes from a family with close ties to the Shia political spectrum; he joined Hezbollah when he was 13-years old. His family was opposed to this and had even beaten him for his decision.
Bashar, on the other hand, did not perform his five daily prayers [Salat] until he reached the age of 17. He also claims to have been influenced, at one point in his life, by Marxist dialectics.
Rida, who despite having been brought up in Hezbollah’s Imam al Mahdi Scouts [a youth wing of Hezbollah], claims that he only recently joined Hezbollah, after becoming more religious.
Lastly, Ali, who was born in the south, grew up in a home of resistance. His parents and neighbors have all fought in the war, some of whom he has had to say goodbye to throughout the years. In his own words, Ali claims he ‘defied and rebelled’ when he was younger, until, as years went by, this rebelliousness turned him to religion.
Bashar, who holds a senior position in the educational mobilization department and is responsible for youth activities, describes belonging to Hezbollah as, ‘A bare necessity to survive, like eating and drinking. Hezbollah and I are inseparable.’
This quiet young man, who barely speaks but whose colleagues never interrupt him when he does, says of his commitment to Hezbollah’s ideology that he was inspired to join it upon hearing a story that one member wrote ‘Be free, O men of Hussein,’ in his own blood, before dying on the battlefield.
‘I felt that this gave new meaning to concepts such as ‘life’ and ‘freedom’. These people gave me new meaning even as they were dying,’ he explained. ‘It was a turning point in my life; I felt that I wanted to find God.’
Ali, on the other hand, says that he experienced the suffering of occupation firsthand. His elder brothers were members of the resistance. His cousins were martyred in a battle. He passionately went on to explain that even his own mother was a mother to all members of the resistance. Ali soon became consumed by the ideology of resistance. As a young boy, he helped young soldiers move their weapons from one place to another. He waved goodbye to the soldiers as he watched them brave the battlefields, knowing that some if not many of them would never return.
Ali says that he joined the ‘Imam al Mahdi scouts’ when he was a child and grew up as part of it. ‘However, I reached a stage in life where I asked myself: Do I really want to join Hezbollah?’ he explained. ‘I kept asking myself questions that challenge Hezbollah’s ideology, in order to test my faith and identity. Instead of being mired with doubt, I found that my faith was only being reaffirmed.’ ‘Now, I thank God for an upbringing like mine, despite the fact that I was deprived of the delight of discovering Hezbollah, for the first time, like my friends,” Ali added.
“Unlike my colleagues, my relationship with the resistance is not merely that of a shared ideology. It is also a relationship of spirituality. I have experienced the suffering firsthand, and thus as a Lebanese from the south, I understand our need for resistance,” concluded Ali, a student of political science at Beirut’s Universite Libanaise.
Still I had to ask, does the phrase ‘Lebanese resistance’ still carry the same connotation now that the south has been liberated for over 7 years, and now that we hear talk of Arab states negotiating with Israel?
‘This question irritates me!’ snapped Husayn bitterly. ‘You say that Arab states do not care about the resistance. In that case, I shall be a role model for the Arabs. As a young Arab man, I do not accept to see our mothers being humiliated and the Israelis rape and humiliate them on a daily basis. My own aunts were raped and killed by the Israelis.’
‘My blood is boiling!’ he continues. ‘I won’t take this lying down. I will fight if I have to?’ At this point, Husayn’s colleagues try to calm him down, but their efforts soon prove futile.
‘My problem with Israel,’ says Bashar, ‘is not only that it marched into Lebanon uninvited and stole parts of our land but is that we cannot survive as long as Israel exists. It is a foul entity that is consistently ever-ready to attack. I believe it to be the cause of all conflict in the Middle East.’
‘In fact it is because of Israel that a civil war erupted in Lebanon, and it is because of it that dictatorial regimes dominate the region. Shia-Sunni tensions are also a result of Israeli tactics. The weakness of the Arab world can thus be blamed on Israel,’ he concludes.
I couldn’t help but ask, ‘Do you want to annihilate Israel in that case?’
Bashar quickly contains himself and says, ‘I may aspire to wipe Israel off the map, but I realize that this is not our responsibility. My responsibility as a young Lebanese is to liberate my land, and bring our prisoners of war back home.’
Husayn, who was keen to express his gratification for the ‘educated environment’ within the organization, tells us that since his early years he has dreamt of dying a martyr. This is only underpinned by the fact that he is the son of a martyr from the Amal movement.
Husayn, who is a teacher by day and a salesman by night, says: ‘When the war broke out, my mother told me and my brothers off saying that we should be fighting. She said, ‘What are you doing at home? Go and fight, you are men!’ She kicked us out of the house.’
Rida, a law student who usually takes part in Hezbollah’s educational processes, says that he was brought up in Hezbollah schools and as such was much more familiar with Jihad rhetoric than his colleagues. ‘This, however, does not mean that they tell us to go kill ourselves,’ he clarifies. ‘They only guide us to the right path.’
‘Martyrdom is not the end, it only opens the gates to immortality,’ he contends. ‘Martyrdom is but a means through which one guarantees two lives; one for himself and another for the people. This is because a martyr declares victory for the people, and salvation for himself on the Day of Judgment,’ explained Rida.
Ali, on the other hand, expresses that he very much misses a friend of his who was martyred during last year’s war. ‘I have never before felt that I was this close to him. The experience has made me discover feelings I never knew I had. Sometimes, I feel that he is with me, and I can talk to him.’ ‘I felt sad at first. But now I believe he should be congratulated,’ Ali said.
Bashar decides to explain to me what a ‘loving life’ should entail according to Hezbollah doctrine. ‘The muezzin [a person who leads the call to prayer] calls ‘Come to prayer,’ and we believe that when he does this he is calling us to live through prayers.’
With regards to other aspects of life, Bashar suggests: ‘Every place has its own set of circumstances. While we are at our university, we are students. While we are in jihad, we are Mujahideen.’ He continued, “A brother from the Mujahideen tells us that while he was preparing ammunition once, he heard a shepherd playing his flute. Can you imagine that while he was fighting, the sound of the flute was still playing in his head?”
The young men suddenly began to contend over who gets to explain the concept of martyrdom to me, but I was interested in other issues such as the losses that this concept bears and the husbands, brothers and relatives it takes away. What about human emotions such as love, longing, and melancholy?
One of the young men offers the following: ‘Have you not heard the Arabic proverb: ‘To be the widow of a hero is better than to be the wife of a coward?’ The rest nod in agreement.
The image that the people of Lebanon’s South present of Hezbollah’s youth is identical to that presented by the young men of Hezbollah’s educational mobilization department. They describe their flexibility with particular amazement, and of course, their matchless ability to adjust to all kinds of different situations, from situations of peace to that of war.
With regards to the identity of Hezbollah’s members, they all agree that their most general characteristic would be that they were born and raised in one of the villages of the region. They do not, however, take part in social gatherings and the like. In fact, their families and neighbors do not know much about their lives. In most cases they do not ask questions about it either, despite their long and questionable absences.
In many Shia villages, which in most cases are incubators of resistance movements, the people of the village say that they know that so-and-so would belong to Hezbollah, but that they do not know the exact post that they would fill. They did not know, for example, that many of their neighbors were trained soldiers until the most recent war, in which they participated.
While the people of the Shia villages talk about them with some familiarity, as they refer to them as ‘our young men,’ Hezbollah’s youth is not granted the same ease among Christian and Sunni villages, where they almost seem more like ghosts than humans in their description.
In response to my questions about the members of Hezbollah, the people of Christian and Sunni villages say that they have seen some of them on motorcycles. They have not seen anyone carrying weapons. They also talk about chance encounters they have had with them.
One woman says that she once, during a night of shelling, heard the sound of footsteps in her garden. When she looked through the window, she saw shadows. Others say that in the few times they dared to look through their windows during shelling, they saw individuals crossing the road, or that they found remnants of food when they returned to their houses after the end of the battles.
Secrecy is a big part of Hezbollah’s identity, which at its inception was but a humble cell of fighters from an array of political parties, including individuals who seceded from the Amal Movement, members of the Palestinian Fatah Movement, individuals influenced by the Islamic revolution in Iran, and remnants of the Al Daawa Party.
At the time, Husayn al Musawi, a splinter who was the deputy leader of Amal Movement just before, played a key role in founding this cell. Al Musawi had close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Another notable figure was Sayyid Ibrahim Amin al Sayyid, who did not carry the title of Hezbollah’s secretary general, but who was instead given the title of ‘official spokesperson’. In February 1985, al Sayyid read the foundation statement of Hezbollah, which was entitled ‘An Open Message to the People of Lebanon.’
This foundational cell is the cell that was linked to the attacks on the US Marine Corps headquarters as well as the attacks on the French forces in 1983, despite the fact that it never officially confirmed this.
The first major suicide attack claimed by the movement was the attack on an Israeli military post in Tyre in 1983. Preparations to launch the very first military cell of Hezbollah began in Lebanon’s al Biqa, particularly in Baalbak, which was a Hezbollah stronghold and was the largest source of soldiers. This was partly due to Amal’s declining influence in the region, which was once considered competition; unlike south Lebanon, where Amal held sway.
Hezbollah’s influence slowly trickled down to the southern fringes of Beirut, which was then transformed from a predominantly Christian area of multiple faiths to a shelter for the displaced people of the south. Hezbollah settled the battle against Amal and diminished its presence in the southern fringes completely by the end of 1986.
Organizations of social welfare geared to look after soldiers’ families ensued after the growth of Hezbollah’s military units. Hezbollah built new schools, as well as Husayniyas, and took control of the existing ones.
Hezbollah’s organizations started to expand and its roles grew when it publicly declared itself official in 1985. Most of these organizations are tributaries from the mother organization in Iran. One such tributary is the Jihad al-Bina foundation which is concerned with the reconstruction of towns hit by Israel. Another is the Imam Al-Mahdi School, which is considered one of the biggest educational institutes in the predominantly Shia region. Lastly, the Al Shahid Institution, which plays the most significant role among Hezbollah’s organizations, as it provides comprehensive care for the families of martyrs. Some of its services include: housing, education, health care, and monthly salaries.
The growth in Hezbollah’s social welfare organizations was followed by trade union participation, and the development of media departments. These media departments played a key role in spreading Hezbollah’s message. Some examples include: al Manar TV, the al Ahd Bulletin, and the al Nur radio station. In 1992 and 1996 Hezbollah decided to partake in the parliamentary elections, which revealed just how influential this group had become.
Perhaps the main factor that has kept this massive organization together is the special tie that binds its members, which have proven able to even transform the region’s social fabric. The region has now become, thanks to Hezbollah’s influence, a full fledged militant incubator. It has even paid the price for this: being a target of Israeli attacks.
In his book ‘The Nation of Hezbollah’ [Dawlat Hezbollah] the author, Wazzah Shararah argues that in order for Hezbollah to have achieved what it has against Israel, the soldiers, on the one hand, must have freely dispersed and taken shelter among civilians. On the other hand, they must have also moved without restraint among them as well, until they locked themselves up in hideouts and shelters.
‘The soldiers must have had to rely on the people to store weapons, communication equipment, supplies and first aid materials,’ says Wazzah. ‘They cannot spread among the people without at first appealing to them, guaranteeing their cooperation, and cementing their place there by recruiting some of them, especially the youth.’
Wazzah Shararah, a Lebanese Shia writer, and one of Hezbollah’s harshest critics, believes that Hezbollah has two inseparable faces. ‘In times of peace, it blends in with the people, and shares their rights. In time of war, however, it is a military force in its own right, whose members are capable of defending themselves, moving and coordinating with one another.’
For his part, Ali Fayyad, president of Hezbollah’s Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation [CCSD], believes that Hezbollah’s uniqueness ‘stems from the nature of the challenges witnessed by the region during the 22 years of Israeli occupation, along with the threats that came from them after that.’
‘When a Lebanese man is both a soldier and a civilian at once,’ explains Fayyad, ‘this is due to the special circumstances of his region coupled with the human need to socialize. He is a civilian by nature, but a soldier if the need for that arises.’
Fayyad says that Hezbollah’s organizations will go back to their previous ways of assuming public activities. The military organizations, however, have never gone public, as they have always been kept a secret. According to Fayyad, military organizations might even, in fact, become ‘more cautious’ than they have been in the past.
‘The nature of our organizations will not change, but we will benefit from the lessons learned from the previous war, chief among these lessons is that defeating the enemy is the easy part. What is tough is the extent to which the enemy is willing to uncontrollably destroy [us],’ he explained.
Hezbollah has not made any official estimates with regards to the number of its soldiers who were killed in last summer’s war. In response to questions about this, the answer given by Hezbollah’s media official was, ‘There is no justification for this. We just do not give any figures. These martyrs were seen off to their final havens and that is that.’
Ibrahim Bayram, a journalist and researcher, offers an approximate number ranging from170 to 200 soldiers. This journalist, who has close ties with Hezbollah, says that the reason Hezbollah did not reveal any official figures is that it did not want to confuse those of the elite with other Hezbollah members or even mere supporters on the streets who were killed during the war.
Bayram believes that the professional rank was heavily affected due to the fact that fighting on the frontlines was restricted to these soldiers. He also contends that this great loss was also due to what he called ‘the independence’ of the resistance body from Hezbollah’s other organizational bodies so that no one actually knows what happened to the fighting units other than these units themselves.
‘In the beginning, Hezbollah announced the names of its martyrs,’ says Bayram. ‘However, later on, it no longer had all the information required to do that, because of the independence of every group, each determining its own tactics accordingly.’
On the other hand, Wazzah Shararah rejects these figures, and believes Israeli figures to be more accurate [Israeli sources announced a figure that is close to 600 dead].
According to Shararah this is but a ‘minimum number’ of Hezbollah’s dead; as this is based on the news circulated by the people about the death of their sons, without funerals or even proper places of burial.
Shararah also believes that the sole funeral that was held for Hezbollah’s dead gave evidence to what he believed was ‘Hezbollah’s great losses from the ranks of the professional soldiers,’ as the funeral that was held was for seven soldiers with ‘great honors.’
This soon became a widely discussed media topic among news agencies. Even the Israeli officials called them ‘the generals’ out of respect.
Source: http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=9649
al-Qaeda Indoctrinated over 1,000 Engineers and Doctors in Bangalore (back)
July 21, 2007
Accusing the Karnataka Government of not doing enough to uproot the terror network in the state, a website has claimed that over 1, 000 engineers and doctors were indoctrinated by al Qaeda.
‘On instructions of command and control of al Qaeda’s Al Zawahiri 1, 000 terror doctors and engineers were recruited and indoctrinated, ‘ claims in a report.
It further claims that these recruits are in direct contact with Al Zawahiri, and have been paid 10 million rupees each.
The website blames the Janata Dal (Secular)-BJP Government for not allowing the police to arrest and interrogate these doctors and engineers.
The Bangalore Police have, on its own, undertaken some investigation and identified a large list of Muslim terror suspects, but the H D Kumaraswamy led coalition State Government is not taking any strict action in this direction, as it is keen to woo Muslim votes, the website opines.
Indian Media must not become communal by patronising communal attitudes. Media’s sympathy must not be with the families of terrorists, said the website.
The website has urged that the Union Government to impose President’s Rule in Karnataka and comprehensively deal with the terror network functioning in Bangalore.
Foreign Ministry Worried about Iran- S.America Ties (back)
July 22, 2007
The Foreign Ministry is concerned about Iran’s activities in South America including a high number of embassy officials who could be taking part in terror, according to an evaluation by the ministry.
Last week marked 13 years since the attack on the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed. A few months ago an Argentine judge determined that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for the attack and asked Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for seven senior Iranian officials and Imad Mughniyeh, head of the Islamic Jihad unit at Hezbollah and responsible for its activities abroad.
Interpol is expected to make a final decision in November and issue warrants.
The defense establishment has for years seen the border areas between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil as a focus of Iranian and Hezbollah terror. Iran, meanwhile, has opened embassies in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Chile, and increased commercial ties and visits by senior officials. Iran has also enlarged its missions in Venezuela, Uruguay, Mexico and Colombia.
The Foreign Ministry says these embassies have an ‘astronomical number’ of diplomats, in no proportion to their needs. In Nicaragua, for example, there are 30 Iranian diplomats, with a similar number in Venezuela and other countries. Israel fears that these are intelligence operatives also involved in terror.
Jerusalem is also concerned at the emerging alliance between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Over the past two years, Chavez has been in Tehran six times and Ahmadinejad has visited Caracas twice. A direct flight between Tehran and Caracas, which refuels in Damascus, has carried thousands of Iranians.
The Foreign Ministry notes that according to international media reports, Venezuela intends to sell uranium to Iran to advance Iran’s nuclear program, and that Venezuela is forging shipping documents for equipment involving Iran’s nuclear program.
Venezuela also intends to help ease Iran’s energy crunch by selling it oil distillates. Because of Iranian concerns that its assets abroad might be frozen, Tehran is transferring some of its accounts to Venezuelan banks. Iran is to supply weapons to Venezuela and support Chavez’s arms program.
Israel has told some Latin American countries that Iran is endangering world peace through terror and its nuclear program. Some of the countries share Israel’s concerns and have asked for intelligence and counter-terror assistance.
Other countries have reacted coolly due to their commercial connections with Iran and their need for cash. A senior government official in Jerusalem said ‘no matter what sanctions the U.N. Security Council imposes, it’s not certain that the countries in that continent will not break them because of closer ties with Tehran.’
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/884493.html
Haleh Esfandiari (back)
July 23, 2007
by Mark Steyn
How do you feel about the American hostages in Iran?
No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now.
What? You haven’t heard about them?
Odd that, isn’t it? But they’re there. For example, for two months now, Haleh Esfandiari has been detained in Evin prison in Tehran. Ms. Esfandiari is a U.S. citizen and had traveled to Iran to visit her sick mother. She is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, which is the kind of gig that would impress your fellow guests at a Washington dinner party. Unfortunately, the mullahs say it’s an obvious cover for a Bush spy. Among the other Zionist-neocon agents currently held in Iranian jails are an American journalist, an American sociologist for a George Soros-funded leftie group, and an American peace activist from California, Ali Shakeri, whose capture became known shortly after the U.S. and Iran held their first direct talks since the original hostage crisis.
Two months in an Iranian jail is no fun. Four years ago, a Montreal photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, was arrested by police in Tehran, taken to Evin prison, and wound up getting questioned to death. Upon her capture, the Canadian government had done as the State Department is apparently doing — kept things discreet, low-key, cards close to the chest, quiet word in the right ears … By the time Zahra Kazemi’s son, frustrated by his government’s ineffable equanimity, got the story out, it was too late for his mother.
Still, upon hearing of her death, the then Foreign Minister of Canada, Bill Graham, expressed his ‘sadness’ and ‘regret,’ which are pretty strong words. But then, as Reuters put it, this sad regrettable incident had ‘marred previously harmonious relations between Iran and Canada.’ In his public pronouncements, Mr. Graham tended to give the impression that what he chiefly regretted and was sad about was that one of his compatriots had had the poor taste to get tortured and murdered on to the front pages of the newspapers. With an apparently straight face, he passed on to reporters the official Iranian line that her death in jail was merely an ‘accident.’ The following year, Shahram Azam, a physician who’d examined Ms. Kazemi’s body, fled Iran and said that she had broken fingers, a broken nose, a crushed toe, a skull fracture, severe abdominal bruising, and internal damage consistent with various forms of rape. Quite an accident.
The longer American prisoners are held in Evin, the more likely it is they’ll meet with a similar accident. It would be nice to think the press has ignored these hostages out of concerns that they might inflame the situation. (To date, only National Review, Bill Bennett on his radio show and various doughty Internet wallahs have made any fuss.) Or maybe the media figure that showing American prisoners on TV will only drive Bush’s ratings back up from the grave to the rude health of intensive care. Or maybe they just don’t care about U.S. hostages, not compared to real news like Senate sleepovers to block unblocking a motion to vote for voting against a cloture motion on the best way to surrender in Iraq.
But I’ll bet the mullahs wouldn’t really care if everyone put Haleh Esfandiari on the front pages 24/7. It’s only a few months since they seized a bunch of Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines in international waters (an illegal act) and paraded them all over Iranian TV (in breach of the Geneva Conventions) and dressed up the female sailor in Islamic garb (another breach).
And the U.N. and the EU and all the other transnational arbiters of global order sent a strong message: ‘Whoa, you guys really need to tamp things down, de-escalate, defuse the confrontation…’ Er, but for some reason, they sent the strong message to the British government, not the Iranians. And, with the sailors’ humiliation all over the media, the British public was inclined to agree. Almost to a man, they rose up and told Tony Blair: ‘This is all your fault for getting us into Iraq.’
But outrage at Iran? There was none. The ayatollahs figure that’s how it usually goes with a plump, complacent western world that just wants to be left alone and wishes these crazies would stop trying to catch its eye. Officially, Iran is ‘negotiating’ with the European Union over its nuclear program. If this were a real negotiation, instead of a transnational pseudo-negotiation, the Iranians would be concerned to stop any complicating factors coming into play. Instead, every week they gaily toss new provocations into their EU chums’ laps: In recent days, they’ve stoned to death various fellows for adultery and homosexuality, two activities to which Europeans are generally very partial. But why let a few stonings throw your negotiations off track? And, if the Americans are so eager to get a seat at the negotiating table, why not remind them of the rules of the game? Last week, the Iranians paraded their U.S. hostages all over TV as they confessed to engaging in espionage, along the way fingering the Woodrow Wilson Centre and George Soros as key elements in the plot to overthrow the ayatollahs. If only.
The week before, Iran captured 14 spies near the Iraqi border whom it claimed were agents of American and British intelligence equipped with surveillance devices. The ‘spies’ in question were squirrels — as in small furry animals very protective of their nuts (much like the Democratic Party re Mr. Soros). I’m prepared to believe that a crack team of rodents from NUTS (the Ninja Undercover Team of Squirrels) abseiled into key installations in Iran and garroted the Revolutionary Guards, but not that the U.S. and British governments had anything to do with it. If they have any CIA or MI6 training at all, they must be rogue squirrels from the Cold War days who’ve been laid off and gone feral.
In America, public opinion is in no mood for war with Iran. In Washington, Congress is focused on finding the most politically advantageous way to lose in Iraq. In Europe, they’ve already psychologically accepted the Iranian nuclear umbrella. In the western world, where talks are not the means to the end but an end in themselves, we find it hard despite the evidence of 30 years to accept that Iran talks the talk and walks the walk. Once it goes nuclear, do you think there will be fewer fatwas on writers, stonings of homosexuals, kidnappings in international waters, forced confessions of American hostages, and bankrolling of terror groups worldwide? These latest hostages are part of a decades-old pattern of behavior. The longer it goes without being stopped, the worse it will be.
Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/58902
PROPAGANDA
Preferential Treatment - Jihadist Speech in Canada (back)
July 23, 2007
VisionTV says it will monitor one of its shows more closely after it broadcast a lecture by an Islamic preacher who said scripture requires Muslims to either fight jihad or finance it.
The multi-faith channel, available in 7.8 million Canadian homes, said it took the precaution following a complaint about last Saturday’s broadcast of a lecture by the Pakistani fundamentalist.
In the hour-long talk, Israr Ahmad said, ‘Jihad in the way of Allah, for the cause of Allah, can be pursued either with your financial resources or your bodily strength when you go to fight the enemy in the battlefield.
‘So jihad, the highest form, is fighting in the cause of Allah.’
Mr. Ahmad runs a seminary and bookstore in Lahore, Pakistan, and his writings foresee the ‘global domination of Islam,’ compare Jews to ‘parasites,’ describe the Holocaust as ‘divine punishment’ and predict the ‘total extermination’ of Jews.
His followers in Canada include terror suspect Qayyum Abdul Jamal, who was arrested last summer for his alleged role in a plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.
According to Mr. Jamal’s wife, Mr. Ahmad was her husband’s teacher and mentor.
The television program left some wondering how the Pakistani preacher, who claims that Jews control the world through a secret conspiracy involving financial institutions, made it on to Canada’s government-regulated airwaves.
‘Israr Ahmad is widely known for his hateful words and vilification of Jews,’ said Canadian Jewish Congress spokesman Bernie Farber. ‘We are deeply concerned that Vision would give this individual the imprimatur of Vision’s credibility. It was a mistake in judgment and ought to concern all of us.’
VisionTV’s code of ethics forbids the broadcast of programs that glorify or incite violence or ‘have the effect of provoking or abetting domestic or international religious or political conflicts.’
The broadcaster acknowledged that the show, Dil Dil Pakistan, had talked about jihad and fighting but said it did not contravene the station’s policies against incitement because the comments were made in a historical context. But it said the show would be monitored more closely.
‘We have essentially a system of flagging shows when complaints are made, where we’ll watch subsequent episodes even more carefully than we otherwise do, and take extra care and caution. So that’s certainly the case here,’
said Mark Prasuhn, VisionTV’s chief operating officer and vice-president of programming.
Toronto resident Mindy Alter, however, said the message came through loud and clear when she tuned in to the show, which aired from 3 to 4 p.m. on July 14.
‘The part about the jihad, he said very specifically that it is incumbent upon Muslims to wage jihad against their enemies until Islam rules supreme over the world,’ Mrs. Alter said.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t think that belonged over the airwaves of Canadian TV.?
You can put that in whatever context you like. To me that’s preaching jihad.’
Responded Mr. Prasuhn: ‘Definitely, the viewer is correct. [Mr. Ahmad] does make the point about, you either contribute financially or through your body, and he uses the word fight. But none of this, as far as I could see, is in any way correlated or referenced to the present day. It is strictly a historical context and reading of the Koran by a Koranic scholar.’
Mr. Ahmad is not just a religious scholar. He heads a self-described ‘revolutionary’ organization called Tanzeem-e Islami, which wants to turn Pakistan into a fundamentalist Islamic state.
In his book Lessons From History, he writes that the revival of Islam will begin in Pakistan, because it is the only country that ‘has the potential for standing up against the nefarious designs of the global power-brokers and to resist the rising tides of the Jewish/Zionist hegemony.’
Islam will come to rule in four stages, he claims: the Ultimate World War in the Middle East, the appearance of the anti-Christ, the extermination of the Jews and the ‘domination of Islam, over the entire globe.’
Canadian Muslim Congress founder Tarek Fatah said Mr. Ahmad ‘is allied to the ultraconservative Islamists of Pakistan. His weekly TV rants are targeted primarily at fellow Muslims, urging them to segregate themselves from non-Muslims. He is also a promoter of the doctrine of jihad, as in armed warfare against non-Muslims.’
Mr. Prasuhn said the show was screened before it was aired and that no problems were identified. He said he watched the show again after receiving a complaint on Monday and did not see a problem.
‘He is saying that Muslims have a duty to propagate their faith,’ Mr.
Prasuhn said.
‘Then it goes a little further. It isn’t directly connected to the word jihad, but in the same paragraph or whatever he then gets into talking about [how] this is accomplished — and again he’s kind of referencing Koran and history — accomplished through jihad, which means these two things, financial contribution or fighting.
‘So there’s a line of thought there, but it’s going a bit beyond what’s actually there to say he’s [saying] if you respect the Koran, you need to today engage in jihad and violence and fighting with non-Muslims. That’s not said.
‘At no point did I hear him say anything that would reference the present day or that would reference what a practitioner of Islam should do today.
Now, that’s an inference one might draw, I suppose, but I did not hear it in his words.’
THE DOCTRINE
THE WRITINGS OF ISRAR AHMAD
‘It would of course be unfair to make sweeping generalizations because individual persons vary greatly, but as far as the collective psyche of the Jewish nation is concerned, it is undeniable that they have developed a deeply ingrained tendency to conspire and to man-oeuvre things surreptitiously for their own gain, without ever appearing on the stage.’
‘This is how the Jews were able to take control of the affairs of the world without really exposing or endangering themselves. This unnatural and artificial alliance between the Jews and the Christians — the basis of the New World Order —is actually nothing more than the relationship between a parasite and its host.’
‘The Western and predominantly Christian countries of the world, as we have discussed above, are virtually being controlled by a very powerful Jewish minority —a recent accomplishment of which was the destruction of the military might of Iraq in the Gulf War. The next item on the Jewish agenda is the creation of Greater Israel.
‘The condemned Children of Israel are going to be completely destroyed at the hands of their own prophet, Prophet Isa, just as numerous other nations were removed from the face of the Earth because they committed the crime of rejecting their respective messengers.’
‘Prophet Mohammad has prophesied that a time would come when the Muslims, though great in number, would be as weak and ineffective as the scum on the surface of flood waters. One can hardly doubt that we are living in that age?. It’s time to wake up; it is also the time to act.’
Source: Lessons from History, Israr Ahmad, Lahore, Pakistan, 2004
THE RESPONSE
FROM VISIONTV
Our position is as follows: It is important to keep in mind that the starting point in our evaluation (of the July 14 broadcast) is based on the fundamental freedoms of religion and expression enshrined in the Charter.
The program in question is offering an interpretation of the Koran. Many Islamic scholars would agree that fighting is the highest form of jihad.
Such a statement does not, in and of itself, incite violence. As noted in the program, there are other forms of jihad as well.
We are certainly sensitive to current events when evaluating programs for broadcast on VisionTV. The concept of jihad is a difficult one. In this case, the tone and content of the program were acceptable within the framework established by our Code of Ethics and the fundamental freedoms of Canadian society.
With regard to your question about Mr. Ahmad’s past writings: Our role and responsibility as a broadcaster is to evaluate the content going to air.
While the broader views of an individual can be taken into account when making that evaluation, it would be an extreme response to deny someone the right to express their religious beliefs when the specific expression is within the parameters of our Code of Ethics.
Source: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=70857df8-db2b-49f2-8d69-51842b429af8p
you got that right!! Spain and Southern France are the only places where the Islamic invasion was pushed out. All of the other Crusades failed to recover lands taken by force by the Muslim hoards. After Israel is removed they are headed for the easy targets.
history reveals Islams goals clearly
you got that right!! Spain and Southern France are the only places where the Islamic invasion was pushed out. All of the other Crusades failed to recover lands taken by force by the Muslim hoards. After Israel is removed they are headed for the easy targets.
history reveals Islams goals clearly
[The local indians, suggested that Bill eat a couple of Jalapeno peppers each day, to keep him from getting a cold. It worked.
He had one lung full of scar tissue, from a WW2 german bullet, so a cold was deadly for him.
The early herb books said that red pepper was a blood purifier and
if you think about it, putting cayenne pepper on your food, in about 10 minutes, you will flush and have a hot flash.
This was in the Indian group newsletter, no url.
granny...
Cultivated Medicine: Finding Health Benefits in a Fiery Food
By Matthew Shulman
Posted 7/20/07
Six millennia ago, farmers living in modern-day Mexico made a wise
health move: They domesticated the chili pepper. Last week,
researchers at the Smithsonian Institution announced the discovery
of a 1,000-year-old (and very dried out) stash of more than 100
cultivated chili peppers, indicating that the Zapotec people who
once occupied Mexico’s Mitla River Valley ate a cuisine very similar
to the spicy fare of the region’s modern inhabitants. The kick that
fruit added to prehistoric salsas and stews—and that it perhaps now
adds to your favorite spicy dish—endows those whose mouths can stand
it with health benefits, recent research suggests. The fiery
chemical that makes peppers hot also seems to combat diabetes and
other health problems.
What gives chili peppers their characteristic punch, and makes our
faces turn red and sweaty, is a compound called capsaicin. Foraging
mammals give capsaicin a wide berth, which usually prevents the
plants from being gobbled up. But some people can’t seem to get
enough of it.
Beyond its flavor-enhancing qualities, capsaicin may hold clues to
fighting diseases as varied as diabetes and prostate cancer, recent
research indicates. In a study published last year in the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, for example, Australian researchers
found that adding chili peppers to a person’s diet reduces the
amount of insulin that appears in the blood after eating. High post-
meal insulin levels can lead to type 2 diabetes, so the insulin-
blunting effect of the peppers may be protective, the researchers
concluded.
The study’s 36 participants tried two different kinds of diets—one
bland, except for a spicy meal at the end, and one in which each
meal contained some chili pepper. Blood tests showed how each
volunteer’s body responded to the final, spicy meal, and how they
responded to a bland meal. In both comparisons, the spicy meal muted
the production of insulin. The study also showed that the beneficial
effect of chili peppers was greatest in people who were most
overweight, suggesting that they might benefit most from adding
spice to their diets, says study coauthor Kiran Ahuja of the
University of Tasmania.
The Australian research team also analyzed capsaicin’s effects on
cholesterol oxidation, which can lead to the formation of dangerous
plaque in blood vessels. “We found that after adding chili to the
diet, the LDL, or bad cholesterol, actually resisted oxidation for a
longer period of time, [delaying] the development of a major risk
for cardiovascular disease,” Ahuja says. The team reported that
finding last year in the British Journal of Nutrition.
In other studies published in the past two years, researchers
working in rodents found evidence that capsaicin injections can
inhibit the development and progression of type 2 diabetes and can
assist in killing prostate cancer cells.
The promising new research doesn’t mean that simply eating chili
peppers will prevent or cure diabetes and cancer, however. Getting
the dose of capsaicin that induced cell death in the recent prostate
cancer study would require eating about three habanero peppers, one
of the hottest chilies in the world. But it might be possible to get
capsaicin’s benefits without ingesting impractically large
quantities of the chemical at each meal, suggests Roberta Anding, a
dietitian at Baylor College of Medicine and a spokesperson for the
American Dietetic Association. “Consider all the fabulous benefits
of spinach, broccoli, turmeric, and capsaicin-perhaps these foods
have a synergistic effect, so that the combination of eating a
variety of plants will contribute to your overall health,” she says.
The Zapotec people who lived in the caves along the Mitla River may
not have been aware of that, but it seems as though they understood
it intuitively. The Smithsonian researchers speculate that the
caves’ inhabitants used fresh peppers to make zesty salsas and used
ground, dried peppers to flavor stews and sauces similar to moles—
much as many Mexicans use them today. Lead researcher Linda Perry
suggests that ever since humans began domesticating chilies around
6,000 years ago, they’ve cultivated increasingly large—and
increasingly spicy—peppers. In doing so, they created a food that’s
only now revealing its true medicinal properties.
Apricot Upside - Down Cornmeal Cake
Serving Size : 8
1 (16-ounce) can unsweetened apricot halves — undrained
8 whole almonds — toasted
1 tablespoon stick margarine — melted
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup stick margarine — softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350º.
Drain apricots in a colander over a bowl, reserving 8 halves and 3/4
cup
juice; set juice aside. Reserve remaining apricot halves for another
use.
Place 1 almond in each of 8 apricot halves.
Coat bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan with melted margarine. Sprinkle
the
brown sugar over the margarine. Arrange almond-filled apricot halves,
cut
sides down, over brown sugar; set aside.
Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (flour through salt) in a bowl;
stir
well. Set aside. Beat 1/4 cup margarine and 1/2 cup granulated sugar
at
medium speed of a mixer until well-blended. Add lemon rind, vanilla,
and
egg; beat well. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with
reserved apricot juice, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat
well
after each addition. Pour batter over apricots.
Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center
comes
out clean. Combine 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and lemon juice;
stir
well, and drizzle over warm cake. Let cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire
rack.
Loosen cake from sides of pan, using a narrow metal spatula. Invert
onto a
cake plate; cut into wedges. Serve warm
http://www.petroleumworld.com/SF07072201.htm
World’s Most Dangerous Leaders
These four pose the greatest threat to America
Illustrated by Roberto Parada
Four figures who threaten America’s security. From left, Kim Jong-il,
Bashar al-Assad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chávez.
By Dale Van Atta
Hugo Chávez
Any roll call of the world’s despots is depressingly long. But only a handful of leaders threaten the security of countries well beyond their borders. Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, is the latest ruler to emerge from this pack. Rabidly anti-American, Chávez is intent on stirring up trouble — and he’s getting the help of some menacing thugs he counts as friends.
Last September, Americans got a surreal introduction to Hugo Chávez. In an address before the UN General Assembly in New York, Venezuela’s president launched into a tirade against the previous day’s speaker, George W. Bush.
” Yesterday,” he intoned, “the devil came here. Right here.” He made the sign of the cross, then added, “And it smells of sulfur still today.” Many of the diplomats laughed and applauded. Chávez went on to charge that the United States “doesn’t want peace” and denounced its “system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.”
continued..............
Agree, grabbing it for the file is a good idea.
It would be a good one to google, but I wasn’t up to tackling it.
We know that lots of tests went on, who knows what they were.
[Calpernia sent this to us, note the 3 lines repeated, just as it was in the last messages, OBL wanted to be a martyr 3 times and others.......granny]
The Media Committee of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb has issued a warning to Muslims in Algeria stay away from locations or gatherings of “apostates and the infidels”. The group claimed that they are ready to strike the enemy, and are warning the Muslims to avoid spilling innocent blood.
A translation follows:
Call to our Muslim brothers: Avoid the headquarters and gatherings of the infidels and the apostates
Praise be to God, Lord of all creation, and prayers and peace be upon the master of the messengers, and the imam of the mujahidin, and upon his family and companions, and all those who followed him until Judgment Day.
The attacks of the mujahidin in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb has become a real concern that keeps the apostate groups worried inside, and a lump in the throats of the enemies of the Muslims outside, causing them to hold conferences and to resolve to fight it, and spend billions to reduce its impact, but how far fetched that is!
The mujahidin have been able, with success and guidance from the Almighty, to reorganize and restructure their ranks, and rectify their plans. By the power and strength of God, they have in store for the enemies of God in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb many future surprises, which will com, God willing, in a series of events in an escalating manner, so that the enemies of the religion of God will realize that there is no shelter or salvation for them except through repentance, and return to Him (God), and the discontinuation of their war against Islam and the Muslims.
Therefore, the Al-Qa’ida Organization in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, in carrying out the duty of advice to all the Muslims, and in order to clear its conscience before the Almighty, and to protect prohibited Muslim blood, it reiterates the following:
We call upon all our Muslim brothers to stay away from the official and security centers and gatherings of the infidels and the apostates belonging to the army, the gendarmerie, the police and the national guard, and to avoid getting close to them or mixing with them, because the mujahidin are planning to target their headquarters and centers, as well as their barracks, with every available mean of bombing, shelling, and destruction, to eliminate them or to turn them back to the right path.
We notify our Muslim brothers that their mujahidin brothers are very concerned about the safety of the Muslims, and it was for the sake of defending them that they abstained from the pleasures of life, and for the sake of supporting the weak, they sacrificed their own lives. Only God knows how many military targets the mujahidin were compelled to avoid, because there were Muslims in them for one reason or another. Muslims must fear God in their mujahidin brothers, and must not be a reason for any delay in carrying out effective strikes against our enemies and theirs out of neglect.
Lord we have notified, be our witness
Lord we have notified, be our witness
Lord we have notified, be our witness
The Media Committee of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb
Monday, 9 Rajab 1428
23 July 2007
For more translations and news on terrorism, visit http://www.lauramansfield.com
Stay alert back later....the curve is in
Dow Slides More Than 200 Points
Jul 24 03:57 PM US/Eastern
By LAUREN VILLAGRAN
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street pulled back sharply Tuesday as investors dealt with disappointing earnings reports and renewed concerns about the mortgage lending market. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 200 points.
DuPont Co. was the Dow’s biggest loser after the chemical maker reported its second-quarter profit growth was flat, as improving sales abroad balanced the ongoing weakness in the U.S. housing and automotive markets. Fellow Dow component American Express Co. said late Monday its quarterly profit climbed 12 percent on record card member spending. However, the nation’s third-largest credit card brand said cardholders are also shirking more payments.
Following the Dow’s move last week over 14,000 for the first time, it “seems logically like the market needs to have some profit-taking,” said Joe Ranieri, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Canaccord Adams.
The stock market will likely be driven by company earnings reports over the next two weeks, he said, as investors try to get a sense of how well corporate profits will hold up in the second half of the year.
Tuesday’s retreat was not surprising considering that the market’s move into record territory came before profit reports were released in earnest. Many investors bet that reports would be more upbeat than they have turned out to be. In addition, a profit warning from mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. Tuesday reminded investors that troubles in the subprime market persist.
Shortly before the close, the Dow gave up 228.58, or 1.64 percent, to 13,714.84.
Broader stock indicators declined. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index shed 30.65, or 1.99 percent, to 1,510.92. The Nasdaq composite index lost 54.96, or 2.04 percent, 2,635.62.
Meanwhile, oil prices receded further from last week’s 11-month highs. Light, sweet crude gave up $1.33 to end at $73.56 on the Nymex. Gasoline futures fell.
“We’re all over the place but the market is doing its best to try to hang in there on day when there’s not much positive news, other than oil being down,” Ranieri said.
The steady flow of earnings reports dictated Wall Street’s direction on Tuesday, after five back-and-forth sessions that saw markets rise one day only to fall the next.
The shifts may have seemed sharp at times. But Todd Leone, managing director of equity trading at Cowen & Co. notes that, as a percentage of the whole, 100-point swings in the Dow don’t register the way they used to, when the index traded at less than 10,000.
“I think we’re in a range here,” he said. “The market doesn’t know what it’s looking for.”
DuPont and American Express both sank after their earnings reports. DuPont tumbled $3.39, or 6.4 percent, to $49.87, while American Express dropped $3.63, or 5.6 percent, to $61.03.
McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, posted a loss after taking a charge for the sale of its Latin American outlets. Excluding that charge, it reported earnings per share that matched Wall Street expectations. The Dow stock fell 85 cents to $51.65.
Dow component AT&T reported a 61 percent increase in second-quarter earnings, lifted primarily by its buyout of BellSouth Corp. At the same time, the telecommunications company reported fewer activations of Apple Inc.’s iPhone than analysts expected when the much-touted device debuted just before the quarter’s end.
AT&T shares fell 35 cents to $39.68, while Apple’s stock dropped $8.25, or 5.7 percent, to $135.45. Apple is scheduled to report quarterly results on Wednesday.
In what is perhaps a signal to Wall Street of more woes to come in the mortgage lending market, Countrywide Financial posted sharply lower second-quarter profit and slashed its earnings forecast as mortgage banking earnings were cut in half. Its shares declined $4.01, or 11.8 percent, to $30.05. The largest U.S. mortgage lender is used as one of the barometers of the housing industry, which has continued to slump amid delinquencies and defaults in subprime loans, or those made to borrowers with weak credit.
The troubles among subprime mortgage lenders have periodically rattled Wall Street this year, leading to sudden plunges as investors feared that the sector’s problems would spread to other parts of the economy. The market has generally recovered in a short period of time, but as Tuesday’s trading showed, it remains vulnerable to any bad news about mortgages or housing.
In other corporate news, Texas Instruments Inc. said late Monday that profit fell from a year ago which was boosted by one-time gains. The largest supplier of chips used in mobile phones saw its shares lose $1.91, or 5 percent, to $36.27.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by roughly 10 to 1 one on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.7 billion shares.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dipped 24.50, or 2.93 percent, to 811.12.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.21 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.90 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 1.73 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.69 percent.
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8QJ5K782&show_article=1
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