Here are the Blogs in the Artemis Gordon Glidden category.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
East Timor president does not want warcrimes tribunal
Why not? Why do genocides and mass-murder, when committed by Muslims on Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and not-Muslim-enough Muslims consistently go unpunished? Have the Muslims successfully used terror to strike fear in the unbelievers?
See here for more on the independence of East Timor. See here for more information on jihad in Indonesia. See here for more details on the assassination attempt on Catholic Timorese president Jose Ramos-Horta, by "rebels" whose "intentions remain unknown," and whose religion remain unstated.
DILI (AFP) – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Wednesday denied claims by Amnesty International that he would support a tribunal for abuses committed during Indonesia's occupation.
Amnesty had claimed he was in favour of the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes committed during the 1975-1999 occupation, should the UN Security Council set it up.
But Ramos-Horta said Amnesty International had "inaccurately reported and thus misrepresented" a discussion he had with Amnesty members at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom on March 5.
"I remain firmly unconvinced that the interests of the victims of my country and the cause of peace and democracy are best served with an international tribunal," he said in a statement.
The president said he told the meeting he would not oppose an international tribunal -- but he would under no circumstances push for it to be established.
East Timor gained formal independence in 2002 after a bloody 24-year occupation by neighbour Indonesia that led to the deaths of up to 200,000 people and there have been calls to try the perpetrators.
A reconciliation commission established jointly by East Timor and Indonesia found in 2008 that while gross human rights were committed by Indonesian forces, there should be no more trials and no further arrests.
In August, Ramos-Horta rubbished a call by Amnesty International for there to be an international tribunal set up.
"Why always should East Timor be an international experiment with international justice? I have opposed and continue to oppose an international tribunal for East Timor," he told reporters.
The president also said restoring good relations with Indonesia is more important than "prosecutorial justice".
Why is it a choice between investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the murder of more than 200,000 people on the one hand, or "restoring good relations" with Indonesia on the other? Why is it that in order to "restore good relations" with Indonesia, it is necessary to sweep 200,000 murders under the rug? Why is it a required precondition wherever non-Muslims attempt to maintain "good relations" with Muslim-majority nations that we "look beyond" their mass murders of us kufirs?
Excerpts from the F.B.I.'s file on W. D. Fard, a.k.a. Wallie Dodd Ford, a.k.a. Wallace Dodd, a.k.a., a.k.a. Wallace Farad, a.k.a. Prophet Fard Mohammed, a.k.a. F. Mohammed Ali, a.k.a. Muck-Muck, a.k.a. David El, a.k.a. Allah.
Fard is the founder of the Nation of Islam, and considered by followers to be the Mahdi. Prior to the founding of the Nation of Islam, during WWII, Fard was the Supreme Being of the Allah Temple of Islam in Chicago. He disappeared in 1934, and was succeeded by Elijah Mohammad.
"As of early August, 1942, it was noted that the Allah Temple of Islam met at 104 E. 51st. St., Chicago, on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. It was also noted that the Supreme Being of the organization, W.D. Farad, was reported to be in Mecca."
"On 7/27/42, (redacted) Chicago, was interviewed. At that time, she advised of her attendance at two Moslem meetings in Chicago. (Redacted) stated that the Moslems preached at their meeting that there was no God but Allah, that the white man's God was really the Devil and that the true Allah was a living individual who was presently the head of the Japanese army."
"The report stated that W. D. Farad, also known as "Muck-Muck", apparently was the Son of Man who was then in the East in the Holy City of Mecca, which was the one and only Heaven."
Exhibit No. 177, taken from the home of Elijah Mohammed during his arrest on 9/20/1942:
"Pen and ink sketch entitled "Calling the Four Winds" which was a picture of a US map containing a figure in the center identified as Fard. Guns, bearing the name Asia on the barrels, pointed to the US from each side. The drawing bore the signature of R. Sharrieff (an Islam Temple member)."
"In a signed statement, dated 9/20/42, [redacted] furnished information regarding his membership in the Islam Temple. He also stated his belief that the present war would be won by Japan at which time Japan would free all of the black people on earth. He advised that in such case he would assist the Japanese government in any manner with the exception of bearing arms, 'as the Japanese have been designated to do the fighting with arms by Allah W. D. Fard.'"
There are references in the document to Nation of Islam members as "Asiatics", and Fard is described as the "Finder of the Lost Nation of Asia." Fard's birth nation is not known (possibly Afghanistan), but Nation of Islam members may have used the term "Asian" as it is used in the U.K. The fact that Japan was also "Asian" may have had some significance, and caused them to feel some misplaced kinship with the Japanese, of course in addition to the fact that they were waging war against the U.S.
LAGOS, Nigeria – Nigeria's ruling political party has said it wants a Muslim from the north to stand as its candidate for the oil-rich nation's presidential election next year, blocking the country's Christian acting president from seeking the office.
The announcement by Vincent Ogbulafor, national chairman of the People's Democratic Party, late Tuesday appears to cut acting President Goodluck Jonathan adrift as he manages a nation that saw its elected president disappear into a Saudi Arabian hospital for three months. The country of 150 million people still have yet to see President Umaru Yar'Adua, who apparently returned to Nigeria's capital last week in an ambulance during a nighttime military convoy.
Nigeria splits roughly in half between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north. Under a power-sharing agreement in the PDP, candidates for the presidency must alternate between the two faiths. Yar'Adua, a Muslim, is still in his first four-year term. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a former dictator who became the civilian elected leader in 1999 and preceded Yar'Adua, is a Christian who served two terms.
"The south had the president for eight years and it is proper to allow the north to have the presidency," Ogbulafor told reporters late Tuesday night.
That statement appears to confine Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta, to his current role as custodian of the nation.
Yar'Adua left the country in late November to seek medical treatment for what his doctor described as acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. However, Yar'Adua did not follow the constitutional steps that would have put Jonathan in charge in his absence.
That would have required the Muslim president to allow a Christian to rule over Muslims in the north. It's not surprising that he balked.
Instead, the nation remained rudderless for months as oil contracts went unsigned and government largely ground to a halt. That standstill ended when the National Assembly empowered Jonathan to take over as acting president on Feb. 9.
Yar'Adua returned Feb. 24 to Nigeria, again causing confusion among the political elite despite a statement from his spokesman saying Jonathan would continue to serve as acting president. Access to Yar'Adua remains extremely limited, with his wife Turai Yar'Adua apparently controlling who sees and speaks with the ailing president.
Good luck to acting-President Goodluck Jonathan and the Christians of southern Nigeria in their quest to set up an equitable and stable power-sharing agreement with the Muslims of the north.
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A man who was freed from Guantanamo after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.
Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.
The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications U.S. President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo.
U.S. intelligence says 20 percent of suspects released from the Guantanamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and that the number has been steadily increasing.
[...]
"[Qayyum is] smart and he is brutal," said Abdul Razik. "He will withdraw his soldiers to fight another day," he said, referring to the Marjah campaign.
And U.S. officials will label this a victory, point to statistics showing a decrease in the number of attacks, and claim that this proves the Afghan peoples' lack of support for the Taliban, and their support for our "war on terror". And the jihadis will patiently lay low and re-appear when it is to their advantage.
Qayyum, who is about 36 years old, is close to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. He has been tipped as a candidate to replace the militia's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was among several Taliban leaders arrested recently in Pakistan.
A Taliban commander in the 1990s who was notorious for brutality and summary executions, Qayyum was captured in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo. According to interrogation transcripts, he identified himself to his American captors by his father's name, Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, and said he had been conscripted by the Taliban but left at the first opportunity.
According to a military transcript of his subsequent hearing, he said: "I want to go back home and join my family and work in my land and help my family."
"Family" as in "ummah". A relevant hadith about trust and treachery from Tabari:
Tabari VIII:90 “Abu Basir went out with his companions. When they stopped to rest he asked one of them, ‘Is this sword of yours sharp?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘May I look at it?’ Basir asked. ‘If you wish.’ Basir unsheathed the sword, attacked the man, and killed him. The other Muslim ran back to the Messenger, saying, ‘Your Companion has killed my friend.’ While the man was still there, Abu Basir appeared girded with the sword. He halted before Muhammad and said, ‘Messenger, your obligation has been discharged.’”
Whether or not Qayyum made a promise to forgo jihad, no-one familiar with the writings of the Qur'an and the ahadith should be surprised that he returned to jihad at the first opportunity. We trusted him by handing over his freedom, and he used that freedom to kill more of our troops. I would hope that the next time Qayyum comes into contact with Coalition troops, he will not be taken prisoner.
The Vigenère cipher was named after Blaise de Vigenère, although Giovan Battista Bellaso invented it earlier. It was thought to be unbreakable, but Friedrich Kasiski published a solution, unimaginatively named the Kasiski Examination, although Londoner Charles Babbage discovered it earlier.
An explanation of the Vigenère cipher can be found here.
An online Vigenère cipher cracking tool can be found here.
That's the original headline. It brings to mind the recent disasters in Haiti and Chile, but this collapse was not an act of G*d. By Ahmed Al-Haj for AP:
SAN'A, Yemen – Security officials in southern Yemen say a three-story building collapsed when explosives stored in its basement went off, killing at least eight people.
The ubiquitous disembodied passive voice: Explosives went off. Buildings collapsed. People died.
The officials said it was unclear what set the explosives off early on Tuesday in the southern town of Taiz. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
The officials say the basement was used by an arms dealer to store dynamite and other explosives. They say the blast was so strong the building, which had six apartments, totally crumbled.
The officials say rescue operations are still continuing and that 15 people were injured in the blast. Two nearby buildings were damaged and have been evacuated.
NAIROBI, Kenya – An extremist Islamic group is blocking food deliveries to hundreds of thousands of hungry Somalis, officials said Monday, after the militants accused aid agencies of secretly supporting those who have renounced Islam.
Britain also said Monday it will ban Somalia's most dangerous extremist Islamic group, al-Shabab, an action already taken by the U.S. State Department in 2008 when it designated the group a terrorist organization. Al-Shabab is believed to have links with al-Qaida.
[...]
On Sunday, al-Shabab said it would prohibit the U.N.'s World Food Program from distributing food in areas under its control because it says the food undercuts farmers selling recently harvested crops.
It also accused the agency of handing out food unfit for human consumption and of secretly supporting "apostates," or those who have renounced Islam.
How many non-Muslims will die now in Somalia, due to al-Shabab's blockade of food aid to kuffar? How many non-Muslims will convert to Islam, given the choice between starvation or Islam?
First, Sgt. Derwin Longmire was placed back on the streets with a badge and a gun, and now a trial of 4 defendents from the Your Black Muslim Bakery for assault and torture have resulted in zero (0, goose-egg, nada, zippo) convictions; three of the four are now released, at least temporarily.
Have I ever mentioned what a bang-up job the Oakland PD is doing, and what fine, delicious, wholesome products Your Muslim Bakery produces? Mmmm, mmm! I just want to welcome our Your Black Muslim overlords back, and suggest there may be a role for a certain blogger to play in the area of positive public relations for the bakery. In fact, he may well be more useful alive than lying on a sidewalk in a pool of his own blood. Just a suggestion! Bygones!
OAKLAND — A jury Monday deadlocked on assault charges against three men who once were members of Your Black Muslim Bakery and acquitted a fourth, ending a two-week trial with no convictions.
Jurors told Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner that they could not reach verdicts against Dahood Bey and Basheer Muhammad, who were accused of leading an attack Dec. 21, 2008, against a man who rented a room from Bey. Bey also was charged with torture.
Ajuwon Muhammad, the third defendant, was acquitted on a robbery charge; jurors said they could not agree on an assault charge against him. The fourth defendant, Jibrial Muhammad, Ajuwon’s brother, was acquitted of assault, the only charge he faced.
Ajuwon Muhammad was returned to jail because of a probation violation. Bey and Basheer Muhammad remain free on bail. The three are scheduled to appear in court March 1, when a second trial could be scheduled.
[...]
The defendants were charged with beating a man on Bey’s orders Dec. 31, 2008, at a house in East Oakland. The victim testified that as many as 12 men took part in the assault. He suffered four broken ribs, a badly swollen eye and other injuries.
Defense lawyers repeatedly had challenged the credibility of the victim, saying he had started a fight with Bey and Basheer Muhammad, lost it and invented a story out of ego and a hope that he could qualify for victim compensation funds to pay his medical bills.
They pointed out that he had once knocked out a Pittsburg police officer with a single punch and had hit a pregnant woman in a dispute over a parking place.
Michael Cordoza, Bey’s lawyer, told the jury in his closing argument that there was a lack of evidence in the case. Joseph Penrod, a public defender who represented Basheer Muhammad, called the victim a “very cunning” man adept at manipulating people. Moriarty argued that Bey was the captain of a paramilitary organization modeled on the Nation of Islam’s Fruit of Islam. Bey ordered the attack because the victim had disrespected one of his men who lived in the house and threatened to kill him, the prosecutor said.
Bey was a spiritually adopted son of late bakery founder Yusuf Bey. Basheer Muhammad was one of Yusuf Bey’s lieutenants.
The victim, whom Moriarity asked not be identified because he fears for his life, testified that he is a member of the Nation of Islam. Dahood Bey is the leader of a separate, local Black Muslim sect, as was Yusuf Bey.
Intra-Islamic violence includes not only Sunni-on-Shi'a, but also Nation of Islam versus other Black Muslim sects. This has been true since the 1960's, when Malcolm X was murdered by Nation of Islam members. Also, at least two leaders of Your Black Muslim Bakery became murder victims, possibly due to power struggles within Your Black Muslim Bakery: Waajid Aliawaad Bey in 2004, and Antar Bey in 2005.
At least the victim in this case was no angel himself, and evokes little sympathy. We'll have to wait and see how some of the upcoming murder trials go, and whether any of the other unsolved murder cases linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery are ever even brought to trial.
[...]
Bey IV is jailed without bail on three murder charges, including on charges of ordering the 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007. In a separate case, he also is charged with kidnapping and torture. His murder trial is scheduled to begin in May.
ALGIERS (Reuters) – The chief of Algeria's national police was shot dead on Thursday at his headquarters by another police official who was acting in a moment of insanity, the Interior Ministry said.
"The death of Ali Tounsi ... took place during a working session, in the course of which a police official, apparently gripped by an attack of madness, used his weapon and fatally wounded Colonel Tounsi," Algeria's official APS news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying.
There sure are a lot of Muslims suffering from "attacks of madness". If only we could see some sort of pattern developing.
Earlier, a security source told Reuters that Tounsi, who had been national police chief for more than a decade, was shot inside his office by a senior police official with whom he was having an argument.
"This guy was unhappy, he took out his pistol and he fired it," the source said. "Police officers nearby fired back."
The Interior Ministry statement said that after shooting the police chief, the attacker shot himself and was now in serious condition in hospital. It made no mention of police firing back.
A Reuters photographer outside national police headquarters, in the center of the capital, said an unusually large number of police were there, including elite armed-response officers.
No doubt they were there to diagnose and treat any passersby who showed similar signs of mental illness.
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Tuesday that its security forces have captured the leader of an armed Sunni group whose insurgency in the southeast has destabilized the border region with Pakistan.
The Jundallah group had no immediate comment on the reports that leader Abdulmalik Rigi had been seized. But reports carried by state-run media gave conflicting accounts of his capture.
Lawmaker Mohammad Dehghan told the official IRNA news agency that Rigi was flying over the Persian Gulf en route from Pakistan to an unidentified Arab country when his plane was ordered to land inside Iran. Dehghan gave no details.
State-run English-language Press TV said, without elaborating, that Rigi was captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.
[...]
Jundallah has claimed responsibility for bombing attacks that have killed dozens in recent years, including five senior commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard in October.
The group, which Iran claims is linked to al-Qaida, gained notice six years ago after it launched a campaign of sporadic attacks and kidnappings. It claims minority Sunni tribes in southeastern Iran suffer discrimination at the hands of Iran's Shiite leadership.
Rigi has said in the past that Jundallah did not seek to break away from Iran but that violence was necessary to draw attention to alleged discrimination.
Iran has accused the U.S. and Britain of supporting Jundallah in an effort to weaken the Iranian government, a charge they both deny.
Press TV quoted Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi as saying that Rigi was spotted at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his arrest.
State radio said Moslehi accused the U.S. of providing Rigi with an identity card and passport from an unidentified country. State television's Web site published photos of Pakistani and Afghan identity cards bearing Rigi's photo.
Pakistani authorities repeatedly had claimed Rigi was hiding in Afghanistan. At the same time, they say they have been cooperating with Iran and have handed over a dozen suspected militants in recent months, including Rigi's brother Abdulhamid Rigi.
If the U.S. is covertly supporting Jund'Allah in order to weaken Iran, then it is another ill-advised collaboration with jihadis that will someday spawn unintended consequences.
BAGHDAD — Assailants burst into the home of an Iraqi campaign volunteer before dawn Monday, fatally shooting the man before they stabbed his pregnant wife and their five daughters to death, relatives and authorities said. A sixth child, the only son, was found hanging from a ceiling fan with key arteries severed, a cousin said.
Over the last week and despite warnings that it was too dangerous, 47-year-old Hussein Majeed Marioush had been hanging campaign posters in the volatile mixed-sect district of Zafaraniya, a semi-rural area on the outskirts of southern Baghdad . He was a volunteer for Entifadh Qanbar, a secular candidate and longtime associate of the controversial politician Ahmad Chalabi . Both are running on the main Shiite Muslim ticket in parliamentary elections March 7 .
By late Monday, no clear motive had emerged in the killings. Iraqi authorities offered scenarios including a robbery, a financial dispute and sectarian violence. Qanbar and Marioush's family, however, think that the slayings were retaliation for his campaign work with the Iraqi National Congress , Chalabi's political party. The party has led the push to remove former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from state jobs and to disqualify them from running in elections.
"This is a completely political message," Qanbar said. "There's no family feud, no robbery, no case of someone hating someone so much that they kill a whole family with six children. This is political."
"This is political," only in the sense that Islam is raw political power, wrapped in bloodlust, boxed in sex-lust, tied up with a "religious" bow.
Qanbar provided McClatchy with cell-phone images taken from inside the house. One shows Marioush, the father, with a blood-soaked head. Another is a close-up shot of Widad Ibrahim Ali , the mother, with her throat slit so severely that she's nearly decapitated. Three of the five slain girls lie in blood-spattered clothing.
Ahmed, the 6-year-old boy, whose hands appear to have been tied behind his back in the photo, was found hanging from the ceiling fan.
Local news channels initially reported the deaths as beheadings, while other news agencies reported "some" beheadings among the dead. Security officials from various agencies gave statements that differed slightly from the family's version as to the manner of and possible motive for the killings, but no one disputed that a particularly savage attack had claimed an entire family. Four suspects were in custody late Monday, police said.
"This is a very clear message," said Abdullah Hassan Karim , a cousin of Marioush's who'd recruited him for the campaign. "The whole crime is related to his work. The enemies of the past and those who want to destroy Iraq are many."
That is, those who want to destroy the current collaborative kufirocracy of occupied Iraq and replace it with pure sharia are many. In fact, they claim against all evidence to the contrary that they are a majority of Iraq's population. They are devout, mainstream Sunni Muslims, attacking and killing the "Rafidite dogs".
Qanbar said Marioush had signed up to distribute posters for his campaign after an introduction through Karim, who'd attended high school with Qanbar. At a campaign meeting last week, Qanbar said, Marioush had seemed determined to hang posters in his neighborhood of Wahda even though others tried to dissuade him. Marioush and his family were Shiites and parts of his district are known for Sunni Muslim insurgent activity, including sectarian attacks on Shiites.
"He said, 'No, there's a Shiite area that's safe and a Sunni area that's bad, and I'll only hang them on the Shiite side.' He told us he could do it without anyone knowing," Qanbar said. "He took posters and other campaign stuff, and I got a call the next day that he was doing a great job."
As we await the outcome of Geert Wilder's trial in the Netherlands for the grievous crime of insulting Islam, we should remember that in the past the U.S. has also forbidden the discussion of certain sensitive subjects.
In the early 1800's, pro-slavery advocates in Congress had blocked any discussion of slavery in Congress. Abolitionist and former President John Quincy Adams used the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to defend the right to "petition the government for a redress of grievances", in this case to petition for the abolition (and therefore discussion) of slavery. In response, the Pinckney Resolution of 1836 stated:
Resolved, that all petitions, memorials, and papers touching the abolition of slavery or the buying, selling, or transferring of slaves, in any state, district, or territory of the United States, be laid upon the table without being debated, printed, read, or defined and that further action whatever shall be had thereon.
It remained in effect until 1844, when John Quincy Adams finally garnered enough votes to overturn the gag rules, and slavery could once again be discussed in Congress.
The various gag rules didn't resolve the issue of slavery one way or the other. They didn't prevent war, or even delay it. They didn't improve the working climate in Congress, or spare the hurt feelings of any one group.
Banning discussion of sensitive topics in the name of frail gentility or political expediency is unproductive. The underlying issues remain, unresolved and festering. If open and frank debate and discussion are impossible, the only remaining avenues to resolution are the less civilised.
The Netherlands needs to allow a rigorous examination of the core teachings of Islam, and the link between mainstream Islamic beliefs and Islamically-inspired violence. If there is no link and Islam truly is The Religion of Peace, then unfettered discussion will bear that out.
And on the other hand if there is a link, then that should be taken into account when setting public policy in many different areas.
Another possible case of torture and abuse of domestic servants by Saudis, this time taking place in London. From Arab News:
JEDDAH: Police in London are investigating the murder of a 32-year-old Saudi man whose body was found late Monday at the five-star Landmark hotel in London.
He had been strangled and beaten to death. A 33-year-old man was taken into custody on Tuesday evening but has not yet been charged.
It has been widely reported in the British press that the arrested is a minor Saudi prince who had employed the victim. However, the British police have not named or charged the man.
[...]
The cause of death was given as “manual compression of the neck and head injury.” A Saudi Embassy official said that the matter was in the hands of the police. The Landmark, next to London’s Marylebone station, is in an area popular with many Arab visitors to the city.
AUSTIN, Texas – A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday, officials said, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.
A U.S. law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack — whose home was set on fire just before the crash — and said investigators were looking at an anti-government message on the Web linked to him. The Web site outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer."
Federal law enforcement officials have said they were investigating whether the pilot, who is presumed to have died in the crash, slammed into the Austin building on purpose in an effort to blow up IRS offices. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
And now, the rest of the story, according to Artemis:
Law enforcement officials later clarified that Stack's published statements regarding the IRS were in no way related to the accidental plane crash. Reports that Stack was heard via radio with air-traffic controllers shouting "I'm going to crash my plane into the IRS building and kill them all!" have been dismissed as the panic-stricken cries of a pilot dealing with an unexpected midair emergency.
The fact that the threats against the IRS published on his website exactly corresponded to his coincidental plane crash into the IRS building could not immediately be explained by officials, who nonetheless declared, "This was not an intentional act of terrorism." A senior U.S. law enforcement official who has no training in psychology, and who has never met or even heard of Joseph Stack, said that Stack was suffering from mental illness, and that violent anti-tax protesters actually enjoy paying taxes.
El Baradei 'not panicky' over Iranian nuclear program
Melissa Block of 'All Things Considered' interviewed former IAEA head Mohammad El Baradei on National Public Radio:
Dr. ELBARADEI: Well, I'm not sure they [the Iranians] are building a bomb. There is a concern, Melissa, that their program needs to be clarified. There are, as you know, concern that they have been doing some studies on how to develop a weapon. I'm not sure this is the case, but Iran need to engage substantively where is the international community to clarify this concern. It's a very frustrating situation, Melissa, frankly because it has been on again off again for many, many years. When the Iranian were ready to talk, the Bush administration was not ready to talk and there were certain condition Iran has to fulfill before they start their dialogue.
When Barack Obama is now ready to talk them they are into certain domestic hype of some sort inside Iran, and they are not a position to put their act together.
BLOCK: You said that you do not believe - you're not convinced that Iran is building, or has intentions to build a nuclear bomb. Iran is certainly concealed its intentions in the past. I mean, it had a whole uranium enrichment facility that was not disclosed until this past fall, which surprised everyone. What makes you so convinced that their intentions are not exactly that - to build a nuclear weapon?
Dr. ELBARADEI: I'm not convinced that they're entirely clean, Melissa. But as I said I'm not panicky because I haven't seen any concrete evidence that Iran is actually building a nuclear weapon. But the solution is to try to see how to get Iran to turn around and make good in what they say that this is a program for peaceful purposes. There's a lot of psychology there. It's at the end of the day, I believe that Iran was using the nuclear program as a mean to an end, which is to recognize Iran as a regional power. Whether they're doing it the right way, whether the West is responding the right way, there is a lot to be said about that.
I'm not entirely convinced that Dr. El Baradei would be panicky if mushroom clouds started appearing over U.S. cities. His smug lack of concern does not instill confidence.
[...]
BLOCK: Dr. ElBaradei, you have been accused by your critics as having been too soft on Iran at the IAEA. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that you muddied the message to Iran. We're really engaging more in diplomacy than in the proper mission of nuclear safeguarding and verification. I wonder, as you look back on your time with the agency, did you do enough do you think? Did you pursue the right strategy to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power?
Dr. ELBARADEI: I think I did Melissa, everything I can within the authority I have. I don't have God's [erratum: Muslim El Baradei means "Allah's"] authority. I have a very limited authority and, you know, you cannot just go and give them order. You have to understand where they are coming from and you have to also try to provide them with incentive. And you cannot really separate diplomacy from verification. They are very much linked together as you see today.
BLOCK: And to those who would say that the time for dialogue and engagement is long past and that the only way to stop Iran would be through some kind of military intervention, you say what?
Dr. ELBARADEI: Well, I say that this is the way to Armageddon, you know. I say there is no military solution. I, you know, and I'm not the only one who's saying that. Secretary Gates said that couple of months ago, that maximum, if you use force you will delay the Iranian program for a couple of years, but then they will come back with a vengeance. You cannot bomb the knowledge. Iran could go easily underground if you will get every Iranian, even those who do not like the regime, rally around the regime policy. So, I don't see that to be a solution at all.
I don't understand the 'Iran is going to get atomic weapons sooner or later' fatalism from El Baradei and the Obama administration. You cannot "bomb the knowledge", as El Baradei puts it, but you can destroy their equipment, you can block their access to the raw materials, you can block their access to the technology, you can sabotage their sites, you can eliminate the few people onsite who have the required knowledge to build the weapons, you can block their access to our universities where they gain the required knowledge to build the weapons to use against us, and so on. You can make a clear statement, similar to JFK's declaration during the Cold War, that any nuclear attack on any Western city will result in the immediate concomitant retaliation against Mecca and Medina. You can instill in the Iranians a fatalism that no matter what they try, they will be eventually blocked from attaining nuclear weapons, that they must offer some sort of incentive in order for the suffering to end.
Despite El Baradei's bluster, it is a difficult task to construct a nuclear weapon. It is a comparatively simple task to throw a spanner into any of the myriad processes required to get there. It's a question of resolve, which is dangerously lacking at the moment. We as a nation are much better at responding to disasters than at preventing them.
Actually, it is Islamic discouragement of rational thought that stokes conspiracy talk, and Islamic hatred for kuffar that stokes "anti-American sentiment". Tim McGirk for Time:
From the Pakistani army barracks to the roadside chai stands along the Indus River where truckers gulp down cups of muddy tea, anti-Americanism is roiling across the country. It is whipped up by the often sensationalist, ratings-hungry Pakistani TV news talk shows - think of Fox News cranked up to full volume, in Urdu. It resounds from the mosques, in virulent anti-U.S. sermons during Friday prayers. But most ominously, according to Islamabad observers, this deep suspicion of America's intentions in the region seems to be shared by elements within Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence services.
Here's a sample of a few conspiracy theories making the rounds: the U.S. military has a secret plan to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal; more than 9,000 agents of Blackwater, the U.S. security company, now called Xe Services, are roaming the country like bogeymen, at the CIA's behest, kidnapping people and setting off bombs that are later blamed on Pakistani Taliban militants; B-52 bombers are constantly circling the skies over Pakistan, waiting to strike when the signal is given (to strike what is never exactly clear from the rumors).
[...]
This anti-U.S. resentment strikes many in Washington as a tad ungrateful - not to mention misplaced - given that last fall, Congress enacted the Kerry-Lugar bill granting Pakistan over $7.5 billion in economic aid over the next five years. In addition, Pakistan receives military hardware and training to combat Pakistani Taliban - whose wrath is focused on Islamabad - in the mountainous borderlands with Afghanistan.
So what gives?
Pakistan has long been characterized as a country whose rulers may be pro-American but whose people are decidedly not. In 1979, for example, Pakistani radio falsely reported that U.S. aircraft bombed Islam's holiest site in Mecca, prompting a mob to storm the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, killing five American and Pakistani staffers. This simmering hostility was stirred again after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and boiled over, more recently, with drone missile strikes inside Pakistan's tribal territory in which dozens of suspected terrorists - and civilians - died. The Feb. 3 conviction in New York City of a Pakistani woman scientist, Aafia Siddiqui, nicknamed Lady al-Qaeda, on charges of trying to shoot Americans in Afghanistan has also ignited anger in Pakistan against the U.S. The verdict was decried by Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and lawmakers and sparked anti-U.S. protest rallies in Lahore.
On top of that, Washington's latest act of largesse, the Kerry-Lugar bill, has unintentionally riled the Pakistani army. The billions came with strings attached. The generals opposed one of the conditions of the bill: that the U.S. must be satisfied that the Pakistani military was fighting terrorism and not, as the legislation said, "subverting the political and judicial processes of Pakistan." Says Talat Masood, a retired general and military analyst in Islamabad: "Some in the army think this is intrusive and a loss to our sovereignty."
Islamabad politicians and diplomats say that the military opposes any measure that might boost the current President, who was swept into power in 2008 on a sympathy vote for his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, assassinated the previous year. Zardari has been dogged by old corruption charges and his current administration has proved highly unpopular, allowing the army to take a commanding role in security and foreign affairs, and that includes dealing with Washington.
Unfortunately, Western politicians see all this as evidence that $7.5 billion is insufficient, therefore aid must be increased.
I wish the bit about the U.S. having a plan to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal were not a false conspiracy theory.
Farouk Shami: Whites don't want to work in factories
Farouk Shami is the "Palestinian"-American who is running for Governor of Texas as a Democrat. He believes that we don't really know who is responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but it is possible that the U.S. government was involved. He also says that his company hires mainly blacks and Hispanics, because whites do not work hard, and they do not want to work in factories. Shami was born in Ramallah, and says that he is not a member of any organized religion.
Video of his interview with Fox affiliate KVUE in Austin, TX can be seen here.
Turkey will try to clear the mystery surrounding the assassinations of dozens of intellectuals by setting up a new parliamentary commission to look into the murders in order to catch the perpetrators or, in some cases, their instigators.
The move came days after Nukhet Ipekci, the daughter of journalist Abdi Ipekci, assassinated by Mehmet Ali Agca in 1979, showed her father's bloody shirt, which she has kept for 31 years, on a television show.
[Of course, Mehmet Ali Agca later attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II. Agca was part of the far-right Turkish group the Gray Wolves. He trained in Syria as part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Agca assassinated Ipekci, a far-left journalist. Agca then, to my mind, seems an unlikely candidate for recruitment by the Soviet Union in a communist plot to kill the Pope. The Soviet desire to end the influence of the Polish Pope would make sense, but the choice of Agca by them does not.]
[...]
CHP [Republican Peoples' Party] deputy group leader Anadol said during his meeting with the relatives that “the perpetrator of all unsolved murders in Turkey is the state,” a remark that pleased delegation members. He said the state had played a role in some of these murders and not solving the cases meant it claimed responsibility for the murders. However, the CHP might still be against a change to the bylaws.
[...]
Family members of intellectuals assassinated for political reasons over the past few decades in unsolved murders visited Parliament on Thursday, where they met with political party representatives as well as with ?ahin.
The group included members of the families of many of Turkey’s brightest minds killed over a time span of more than six decades. The families who were at Parliament on Thursday include relatives of writer Sabahattin Ali, killed in 1948; academic Necdet Bulut, killed in 1978; prosecutor Do?an Öz, killed in 1978; journalist Abdi ?pekçi, killed in 1979; Police Chief Cevat Yurdakul, killed in 1979; academic Cavit Orhan Tütengil, also killed in 1979; journalist Ümit Kaftanc?o?lu, killed in 1980; Sevinç Özgüner, killed in 1980; union leader Kemal Türkler, killed in 1980; writer ?lhan Erdost, killed while in police custody in 1980; journalist Çetin Emeç, killed in 1990; Kurdish writer Musa Anter, killed in 1992; journalist U?ur Mumcu, killed in 1997; poets Nesimi Çimen, Metin Alt?ok and Behçet Aysan and musician Hasret Gültekin, burnt to death in the 1993 Sivas Massacre; writer Onat Kutlar, killed in 1994; archaeologist Yasemin Cebenoyan, killed in 1994; Hasan Ocak, killed while in police custody in 1995; journalist Metin Göktepe, beaten to death by police in 1996; and the Dink family. The family of Necip Hablemito?lu, a scientist killed in 2002, was also present. Hablemito?lu’s murder, initially blamed on religious groups, is now believed to be linked to the coup-plotting group Ergenekon.
'Only good foreign soldier on Afghan soil is a dead one': Myrdal
Swedish author and anti-war activist Jan Myrdal, 82, has sparked outrage following a public lecture in which he appeared to welcome the killing of Swedish, US and other soldiers.
"My anger is so strong that I can feel the taste of blood in my mouth when I see TV pictures of US marines, Swedish mercenaries or Nato soldiers in Afghanistan, " he told an audience at St Xavier's College in Mumbai, India.
"And my deepest personal feeling then is that the only good foreign soldier on Afghan soil is a dead one."
The comments were made on Saturday, a day before two Swedish soldiers were shot dead by an as yet unidentified attacker when they were patrolling in northern Afghanistan.
A couple of comments: Firstly, there is a difference between arguing against the appropriateness of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the one hand, and calling for the death of all soldiers stationed there. Soldiers who for the most part believe that they are there to "help" the Iraqis and Afghans find greater peace and prosperity, soldiers who repeatedly put their own lives at risk in order to avoid causing collatoral casualties among Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
Secondly, there is a difference between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Afghan government facilitated the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, while Iraq did not. Myrdal appears to think that the U.S. is morally unjustified to respond to the murder of more than 3000 of its citizens as they went about their daily lives inside the U.S.
Myrdal's odious world view is laid out in this interview with Hizb'Allah's Al-Intiqad newspaper from Feb. 2006. Here are some quotations, first on Sweden's uranium deposits and the U.S. conspiracy to take them by force:
Sweden has a rather small population, but we are sitting on 15 % of the worlds uranium resources. We have politically decided not to use this. The United States even once put great pressure on us not to develop our - at that time scientifically interesting - own atomic technology programme but to stay dependent on them. As I said in 1964: If Sweden tries to go her own way the United States and the Soviet Union will unite to bomb us!
But at a certain stage, the United States – when the oil resources are running low and their energy needs remain high - will surely try to grab these Swedish uranium deposits. Prospecting is already going on despite local protests.
On the morally corrupt "human rights" of the U.S. and the West:
As for human rights, you should remember that when the leaders of the West today talk about ”human rights”, the only human right they really care for is the right to property but not in the sense of individual property (a house, a savings account, a small shop) but of private control of natural resources and banks, monopolies, trusts. They are quite prepared to imprison and torture outside any legal framework as long as these their property rights are held sacred. Take their campaign against Cuba as an example. The leaders of the United States have never forgiven the Cubans that they lost the dominant United States suzerainty over Cuba (and that the brothels and gambling houses they owned there were closed down). But then you can look at the survival rate of Cuban children. The Cuban children live because the United States influence was abrogated (and their collaborators thrown out).
On the bizarre and unintelligible European conspiracy to flood Palestine with Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany:
There was a cynical use of the latent anti-Semitism in Europe in order to create a mass emigration to Palestine. Jews who had survived the German persecution were in Western Europe held in camps for Displaced Persons in miserable conditions. There were shameful pogroms in Poland and of the 80.000 surviving Jews in Poland 30.000 had already a year after the end of the war fled westward to these camps. No country in Europe - and decidedly not the United States - wanted the multitudes in the camps of DP:s. Of the 335.000 Jews in Romania and the 200.000 in Hungary the majority were destitute and - despite official governmental phraseology - were being pushed out towards Palestine. These poor and oppressed multitudes were used as tools to open Palestine for mass immigration. It was an extremely cynical policy.
The result has been that the new state was not created as a post-colonial state for the population of Palestine - people of different faiths - but as an artificial and racially defined colonial and dependent entity whose original population was driven out. The Palestinian people became refugees or subjugated natives. Israel thus was made into a strange racist state in perpetual conflict and expansion. This is an extremely unstable situation.
On the inevitable (and desirable) collapse of Israel:
The Palestinians are many - and they multiply like the indigenous population has done in Mexico and Bolivia. An entity such as Israel built on a race theory is not viable in the long run. In a hundred years - or two or three - it will crumble like the Crusader state or the South African republic crumbled. Not in the sense that the people living there will disappear; they will be assimilated as the remnants of the crusaders were assimilated and as the Afrikanders are being assimilated after their statehood vanished.
On the gleaming jewel that Afghanistan appears to be to the imperialist and colonialist powers, and how the Afghans have heroically managed to attain their independence (and what a glorious result that has been for the Afghans, eh wot?):
The imperial ambitions that led to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then the United States invasion are similar. The popular struggle is also similar and I fully trust that the end result will be similar - but the Afghan people will once more have had to pay a high price.
But neither the tsar nor the British King-Emperor, Bresjnev and Bush had other motives than pure greed. The Afghans fought and the British gentlemen considered them uncivilised and cruel - but they won their independence.
On his admiration for Hizb'Allah and their valiant struggle against "the imperialists":
I want you as Moslems to understand that from the outside - as a non-Moslem - I can see the role of an organisation like Hezbollah as mainly anti-imperialist. I can say that this is an objective reality. But I know and respect that the motivation for the anti-imperialist stance of Hezbollah is religious; the Divine Word. To say this is not to denigrate religion in any way.
And on it goes, the U.S. as the modern Nazi state, the U.S. invading Iraq for the oil and for the fortunes to be gained there, the meaninglessness of the term "democracy", the sinister conspiracies behind the sinking of a ferry boat in the Baltic, and on and on.
I love to see works like this, aesthetics aside, that simply re-enact the stories of the hadiths according to mainstream Islamic sources. The broader the audience, the better. Even the maudlin Steven Spielberg couldn't obfuscate the significance of, or sanitize, the well-documented events in Mohammad's life.
Many kuffar who are familiar with the teachings of Islam have read the story of Umm Qirfa. It would be quite another to see the entire incident played out, in the style of "Avatar", in 3-D on the big screen. This is merely one event among many from the life of Mohammad just begging to be re-enacted for the benefit of the kuffar.
Sex! Violence! Betrayal! Camel-chases knocking over melon stands! The script was written 1350 years ago, it just needs a little polish. Hollywood should be all over this. The only problem would be toning it down to keep the R-rating.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The world's tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.
[...]
The precise cause of the $1.5 billion Dubai skyscraper's temporary shutdown remained unclear.
In a brief statement responding to questions, building owner Emaar Properties blamed the closure on "unexpected high traffic," but then suggested that electrical problems were also at fault.
"Technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors and the public will be informed upon completion," the company said, adding that it is "committed to the highest quality standards at Burj Khalifa."
Despite repeated requests, a spokeswoman for Emaar was unable to provide further details or rule out the possibility of foul play. Greg Sang, Emaar's director of projects and the man charged with coordinating the tower's construction, could not be reached. Construction workers at the base of the tower said they were unaware of any problems.
I haven't ever read of any jihadi threats against the Dubai skyscraper, and don't know of any Qur'anic justification to damage the property, as long as Dubai's rulers are considered sufficiently Muslim. But maybe this was an allusion to a Mossad or CIA plot, or some other blame-the-kufar conspiracy theory. I think shoddy workmanship and incompetence is a far more likely explanation.
[...]
The opening date had originally been expected in September, but was then pushed back until sometime before the end of 2009. The eventual opening date just after New Year's was meant to coincide with the anniversary of the Dubai ruler's ascent to power.
There were signs even that target was ambitious. The final metal and glass panels cladding the building's exterior were installed only in late September. Early visitors to the observation deck had to peer through floor-to-ceiling windows caked with dust — a sign that cleaning crews had not yet had a chance to scrub them clean.
Vlad Tepes posted this interview with Dutch journalist Patrick Pouw, who spent one year attending a madrassa in Holland.
"We were told that Allah had declared war on the enemies of the Muslims. We were taught that all infidels are enemies of Allah, that anyone who does not adhere to Islam is an enemy of Allah. We learned that sincere love for Allah means that we must hate his enemies and view them as our enemies. That was no less than an obligation."
For those who don't follow U.S. sports, Bo Jackson was famous for simultaneously being a professional football player and professional baseball player.
"Bubble tea is a sweetly flavored tea beverage typically served cold. Drink recipes vary widely, but most bubble teas contain a tea base mixed with fruit (or fruit syrup) and/or milk and also contains tapioca balls. These teas are shaken to mix the ingredients and the "bubble" moniker refers to both the foam formed in this process and the tapioca balls added to the drink."
A 12-year-old Saudi girl unexpectedly gave up her petition for divorce from an 80-year-old man her father forced her to marry in exchange for a dowry, Saudi media reported yesterday.
Despite support from human rights lawyers and child welfare advocates, the girl and her mother, who originally sought the divorce, withdrew the case on Monday in a court in Buraidah, in Al Qasim province, newspapers said.
The girl told the court that her marriage to the man was done with her agreement, according to Okaz newspaper. “I agree to the marriage. I have no objection. This is in filial respect to my father and obedience to his wish,” she said.
Saleh al-Dabibi, a lawyer supplied by a charity group to help the girl, said her mother did not inform him of the change of heart, Okaz said.
An unnamed official of the government’s Human Rights Commission, which was originally asked by the mother to help in getting the marriage annulled, told Arab News they too were surprised by the mother and daughter dropping the case.
The influential daughter of King Abdullah, Princess Adela bint Abdullah, expressed concern over the girl’s marriage.
“I, personally, and many specialists in social and education fields, share the opinion” that it is in violation of children’s rights, Al Riyadh newspaper reported.
For all the good it will do, it's still nice that Princess Adela bint Abdullah is willing to speak out to the degree that she is permitted.
“A child has the right to live her childhood and not be forced to get married. Even an adult would not accept that,” she said.
According to reports, the girl’s father, who is separated from her mother, arranged her marriage to the 80-year-old last September in exchange for a dowry payment of 85,000 riyals ($22,667).
The case caused an uproar after Al Riyadh first reported it in early January, saying the marriage had been consummated and quoting the girl as pleading to the journalist to “save me.”
Her mother petitioned the court to annul the marriage and charged that the girl had been raped.
The case was to be heard on Monday, but reports said the mother dropped the complaint ahead of the hearing.
Another life has been destroyed by mainstream Islamic teachings.
After 8 years, the war in Afghanistan is not winding down, it is spreading. By Sherin Zada and Munir Ahmad for AP:
SHAHI KOTO, Pakistan – A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and partly destroyed a girls' school in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday in an attack that drew attention to a little-publicized American military training mission in the al-Qaida and Taliban heartland.
They were the first known U.S. military fatalities in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions near the Afghan border and a major victory for militants who have been hit hard by a surge of U.S. missile strikes and a major Pakistani army offensive.
The blast also killed three schoolgirls and a Pakistani soldier who was traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with more than 100 other people, mostly students at the school, officials said.
The attack took place in Lower Dir, which like much of the northwest is home to pockets of militants. The Pakistani army launched a major operation in Lower Dir and the nearby Swat Valley last year that succeeded in pushing the insurgents out, but isolated attacks have continued.
The Americans were traveling with Pakistani security officers in a five-car convoy that was hit by a bomb close to the Koto Girls High School.
The bomb was deliberately placed next to the girls' school. Two birds, one stone.
U.S. special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said it did not appear that the attack directly targeted the Americans.
But the blast, which police said was detonated by remote control, hit the vehicle in which the Americans were traveling along with members of the Frontier Corps, according to Amjad Ali Shah, a local journalist traveling with the convoy to cover the school opening.
Holbrooke also said the U.S. has not tried to hide its training mission with the Pakistani military.
"There is nothing secret about their presence there," he told reporters in Washington.
Is Richard Holbrooke possibly this stupid? Does Richard Holbrooke possibly think we are so stupid? The roadside bomb detonated by remote control not only targeted the Americans, it also shows that the route and timing of the convoy was known ahead of time by the jihadis. Elements of the Pakistani government are in collusion with the jihadis. The delusory rhetoric coming out of this Administration and the previous is fooling no-one, save possibly themselves.
We are in a mess, trying to make alliances ("secret" or otherwise) with governments that in no way share our goals or objectives. We try at every step to minimize the gravity of our predicament, while simultaneously increasing our involvement. Will we eventually spend 1 Trillion dollars there? Two? Will we be there for the next 5 years? 10? Are we fighting the Taliban, or are we working with the Taliban to restore order?
We deny the motivations that our enemies clearly lay out at every stage of their attacks, at home and abroad. We invent excuses for their actions, we attribute values to them that they explicitly rail against.
Are we in a war, or a police action, or an insurgency, or a humanitarian project, or a clash of civilisations, or peace-keeping? We dare not say. We dare not name our enemy. We dare not pull out, for fear of "abandoning" our good friends ther
