text:
A man kept a vast library of terrorist instruction manuals on how to make bombs and suicide vests, the Old Bailey has heard. Musse Yusuf (31) allegedly stored more than 200,000 files relating to topics ranging from waging guerilla war to fitness training for al-Qaeda recruits. The titles included The Mujahideen Terrorist Handbook, Instructions on How to Attack Jewish People, The al-Qaeda Manual and Promoting Jihad.Yusuf, who is Somalian, was arrested by police at his home in Higgs Close, Crown Hills, Leicester, at 6am on May 28, 2008.Prosecutor Max Hill said: "These two hard drives were found to contain very large quantities of material. They are terrorist videos and terrorist manuals or handbooks. The videos contain practical information on the making of suicide vests, improvised explosive devices or bombs and the manuals are entitled the Mujahideen Terrorist Handbook and the Mujahideen Explosives Handbook. Among this material was material that suggested support for the cause of al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Crown say this material contains wide-ranging instructions on how to carry out military activity through the use of bombs, guerilla warfare, firearms, improvised explosive devices among many others."
Category Archives: war on terrorism
Niger: AQIM releases hostages' tape
A tape released Thursday on a jihadist forum shows the first images of a group of hostages including five French citizens since they were seized two weeks ago in Niger by an al-Qaida offshoot and taken into the desert.
The four-minute tape shows still images of the hostages sitting cross-legged in the sand with a gently sloping dune behind them. French officials believe the seven hostages are now in the bordering West African nation of Mali.
7 foreigners kidnapped near uranium mining site.
Bin Laden: AQ leader calls for creation of new relief body to help… Muslims
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for the creation of a new relief body to help Muslims in an audiotape released Friday, seeking to exploit discontent following this summer's devastating floods in Pakistan by depicting the region's governments as uncaring.
It was the third message in recent weeks from al-Qaida figures concerning the massive floods that affected around 20 million people in Pakistan, signaling a concentrated campaign by the terror group to tap into anger over the flooding to rally support.
But while the earlier messages by subordinates were angry, urging followers to rise up, bin Laden took a softer, even humanitarian tone – apparently trying to broaden al-Qaida's appeal by presenting his group as a problem-solving protector of the poor.
"What governments spend on relief work is secondary to what they spend on armies," bin Laden says on the 11-minute tape titled "Reflections on the Method of Relief Work."
"If governments spent (on relief) only one percent of what is spent on armies, they would change the face of the world for poor people," he said.
Interesting. Will AQ leader give the money he spents on terrorism to "the poor of the world"? I guess not. If he wouldn't have "listened to Allah's calling", he will be living amid luxury as all the others Saudi multi-millionaires. He's just exploiting (again) Western leaders' culpability complex.
Photo: 20minutes.fr.
Tajikistan: AQ-linked group ambushes, kills 40 troops
Al-Qaeda linked Islamic militants armed with automatic weapons ambushed a military convoy killing at least 40 Tajik government troops including five officers in the mountainous Rasht area, close to the Afghan border. The convoy was ambushed in the Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, some 250 kilometers east of capital Dushanbe yesterday at 12:30 pm local time, Tajik Defence Ministry said in a statement.
It, however, put the toll at 23 and said several others were wounded. Quoting official sources independent 'Azia Plyus' (Asia Plus) agency reported that at least 40 servicemen of the Ministry of Defence, including five officers, were killed and more than ten others wounded in the attack.
The attackers were suspected to be led by Mullo Abdullo and militants from the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which is based in Pakistan's tribal areas. The Tajik authorities say Abdullo may have entered the country from Afghanistan recently.
President Emomali Rahmon, who is currently in New York to attend the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, has ordered the Ministry of Interior, the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and the Ministry of Defence to track down and punish the masterminds and executors of the crime, Tajik Presidential Press Service said.
The soldiers of the ambushed convoy were going to replace troops deployed on road-blocks in the remote valley, who are manning a high vigil to nab al-Qaeda linked terrorists.
Al-Qaeda: Ayman Al-Zawahiri speaks on the 9th anniversary of 9/11 bombings
On the 9th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks
Today is the 9th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks. The first thought is always for the victims and their families and that precise thought makes us consider what is the situation now, after nearly a decade has passed since the attacks took place. This anniversary has been marked with the "I will burn some Korans" from Terry Jones and the projected building of a mosque near Ground Zero. So, is it respectful for the victims that a mosque, the religious buuilding where Allah (the god on whose name the attacks were made) is worshipped), is built there? Americans think that it isn't: Most Americans object to planned Islamic center near Ground Zero, poll finds:
"Two-thirds of those polled object to the prospective Cordoba House complex near the site of the former twin towers, including a slim majority who express strongly negative views. Eighty-two percent of those who oppose the construction say it's because of the location, although 14 percent (9 percent of all Americans) say they would oppose such building anywhere in the country.
The new results come alongside increasingly critical public views of Islam: 49 percent of all Americans say they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say they have favorable ones. That's the most negative split on the question in Post-ABC polls dating to October 2001.
Nearly a third of all Americans see mainstream Islam as encouraging violence, little changed from recent years. More, a slim majority, say it's a peaceful religion."
But Obama yesterday made an emotional defense of right to build the Islamic center (mosque included) on Ground Zero:
"This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights," Obama said, citing the Declaration of Independence. "One of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely.
"And what that means is that if you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on the site."
But does Islam consider that all men and women have "certain inalienable rights"? And why Obama hasn't refer himself to this statement?
"You can't say that Islam is a religion of peace. Islam does not mean peace, Islam means submission. So a Muslim is the one who submits. You know, there is a place for violence in Islam. There is a place for jihad in Islam."
"The Qur'an is full of – you know – jihad is the most talked about duty in the Qur'an after tawhid (belief). Nothing else is mentioned more than fighting."
And, Why Obama hasn't mentioned non-Muslims' persecution in Islamic countries?
Related: Fla. pastor will "not today, not ever" burn Koran @ WaPo.
Photo: Wikimedia.
Spain: Jihadist website threatens to repeat "if it's necessary" March 11th bombings
(Translation: T&P).
Spanish police has received several complaints after a post in a Jihadist Website threatened directly Spain to "repeat, if necessary March 11th bombings". The author also remembers the Spanish troops' presence in Afghanistan and "Spanish occupation of Ceuta and Melilla".
"I am writing this letter to the Crusader Kingdom of Spain (the Middle Ages aren't over yet for these morons)
This is for you, pigs: We are sending our greetings through the air, dipped in blood. Your blood, which we have savored before and which has a flavor we can't easily forget, specially because you haven't understood or simply because you have ignored us, and you continue with your war against Islam and Muslims, enrolling yourselves in NATO (Note: it looks like that Spain is a NATO member since March 11th 2004…) and taking part in the bloodshed of our brothers in Afghanistan".
Is this the next chapter of the Vampire Chronicles or a press release from a Jihadist? No, seriously, that line about savoring Spanish blood seems to be written by a very, very bad terror novels' author.
This is how the threatening message begins. Its author, was published on last Sept, 1, on the Jihadist website "Atahadi Islamic Network". After that, he accuses Spain of "capturing and imprisoning dozens of innocents, fabricating against them non-existent evidence and locking them up in your racist prisons".
He continues referring to the Spanish Government's alliances with "puppets' regimes" like Morocco or Argelia, countries that receive Muslims "turned in" by Spain and where they suffer "every type of tortures in their prisons". The menace remembers too "the ocupation of our lands in Ceuta and Melilla".
This is worrying: the minute they are making a difference between them and Moroccan regime, the latter will need to act even more violently against their subjects, to prevent revolts, and its evolution towards a much more extreme version of Islam would be another probable consequence.
He also remembers the descendants of Tariq Ibn-Ziyad -the Berber general that lead the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in the VIIIth century- who "gave you a lesson" on March 11th 2004. "But it seems that you have forgotten it, and if it's necessary to repeat it, it will be repeated".
The text was published in arabic, and received several comments of other users, assuring him "Allah's payback". The author wrote afterwards if someone could translate it to Spanish. Someone called "Moroccan Karim" accepted soon afterwards.
A very good example that caving into terror, doesn't stop it at all. I hope they are tracked down and arrested, but it's probable they don't live at all in Spain.
Philippines: Bishop fears for Christians' lifes after Basilan's attacks
This is an update on this story:
Following an April 13 Islamist terrorist attack that destroyed 70% of his cathedral, a Philippine bishop says that he and the other Christians of the city fear for their lives.
"It is the first time we are attacked so directly and with such force," said Bishop Martin Jumoad of the Territorial Prelature of Isabella. "In the past, I received several threatening letters and intimidation. There have been other smaller attacks, but now it is very different. This could be a tragedy. I seriously fear for my life and the lives of the faithful."
"I have prepared a pastoral letter calling on Catholics to stay in Basilan, which is our home, and asking them to remain calm, not to react to violence, and to pray for peace," he added. "Today, a procession of people carrying candles as a sign of peace lit the city. Our hope must not die."
81% of the Philippines' 88.7 million people are Catholic. However, the territory in which Bishop Jumoad ministers is predominantly Muslim, with only 27% of residents being Catholic.
CNA has more on the Bishop's statements:
Sta. Isabel Cathedral via.
The 53-year-old prelate said he does not know how to rebuild the cathedral (left), constructed in 1970 with a capacity for 1,400 worshipers.
…The blasts shattered the cathedral's stained glass windows and damaged the priests' rectory. Several priests' service vehicles were also destroyed.
Regional military chief Lieutenant General Ben Dolorfino said military intelligence had received reports of an impending attack, but not its details, AFP says.
"They were planning something big. This was well planned and apparently they were well funded."
Authorities suspect that politicians who hired mercenaries may have been behind the attacks.
LWJ reports on other aspects of the attacks:
Five civilians, five Philippine Marines, a policeman, and four Abu Sayyaf Group fighters were reported killed in the ensuing clashes, and five Abu Sayyaf fighters were captured. Police and Philippine troops are currently pursuing the remaining Abu Sayyaf fighters.
Today's attacks in Isabela are reminiscent of recent terror assaults by the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other al Qaeda-associated groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Yemen.
A reasonable cause to attack his Cathedral, isn't it?
Philippines: military battling Abu Sayyaf in Basilan after attack on Cathedral
Government militiamen clashed on Wednesday with Abu Sayyaf militants tagged in deadly attacks in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, police said. Fighting broke out in the village of Begang in Isabela City, Basilan's capital where at least 25 Abu Sayyaf militants wearing police and military camouflage uniforms on Tuesday set off two bombs that blew up a van and damaged the 40-year-old Santa Isabel Cathedral, in the worst attacks by the group in months. A third bomb placed near a judge's house and a bus terminal was safely detonated by soldiers.
Senior Supt. Antonio Mendoza, the Basilan police chief, said that the militiamen clashed with at least seven militants who were part of the group that launched the attacks.
It was not known whether any of the attackers were wounded in the fighting, but they were able to escape toward a rubber plantation which soldiers and policemen have surrounded. One villager was taken hostage by the fleeing gunmen and were using the civilians as shield, Mendoza said.
As ever, attacking civilians on purpose, using civilians as shield, taken hostages. Same ideology, same procedure with very little variations.
Who said China wasn't dangerous?, religious offenses, Bangladesh cartoon arrest and other items
Iran's interior minister said China renewed its support Friday for negotiations over his country's disputed nuclear activities, and he warned that new U.N. sanctions could force Tehran to adopt "other means."
Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said he had reached a consensus on the issue in meetings in Beijing with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and senior foreign policy adviser Tang Jiaxuan. "The two sides agreed that other methods such as sanctions are inappropriate and ineffective," Pour Mohammadi told reporters at the Iranian Embassy. Asked whether China had urged more active cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pour Mohammadi replied, "It's natural that our friends in other countries hope that talks conclude successfully."
China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted Yang as saying China supported a negotiated settlement and opposed the spread of nuclear weapons. "China would like to continue its efforts to push forward the peaceful resolution of Iran's nuclear issue," Xinhua quoted Yang as saying. China, one of five permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, has urged Iran to cooperate with U.N. inspectors but has thwarted attempts by fellow permanent Security Council membersthe U.S., Britain and Franceto impose harsh U.N. sanctions on Iran.
Iran Says Chinese Give Support on Nukes
So China is supporting Iran. It makes sense.
Kouchner, after saying "the world must be prepared to go to war over Iran's nuclear program" (what a brave French man I am! ), now he is saying that he "is ready to go to Teheran", if he was invited and to "give the necessary time" for the International Agency for Atomic Energy verifies if they are fulfilling the aggreements.
Ahmadine-jihad in a clearly propgandist photo: I'm so good that I go to have a meal with some orphans… politicians are the same wherever the country you look at!!!! (In the case of Ahmi there are some very distinctive qualities, that's true ).
Ahmadinejad with some orphans on Ramadan's 1st day.
All photos found at Kamangir.net.
Plateau has emailed me with some tips. Very important ones (thanks! ). Ahmadeni-jihad has also promised to get rid of the Infidel's influence at University (wow, the infidels, uuuhhhhhhhh… ) mobilising a special militia to ensure it (well, both the Infidel and the influence… ) disappears:
The radical president refers to his "academic cleansing" plan as "The Second Great Islamic Cultural Revolution." The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini closed the universities and launched the first "Great Islamic Cultural Revolution" in 1980. A committee created to "cleanse" academia purged more than 6,000 professors and lecturers, virtually destroying Iranian academia. Dozens of academics were executed as hundreds fled into exile. The committee also expelled thousands of students on charges of monarchist or leftist tendencies. It also censored or totally rewrote dozens of textbooks to conform to the Khomeinist ideology.
Iran also has an important place in WOT. The problem is the strategy built to fight terrorism, is mainly built to fight Al-Qaeda, but "is not prepared to fight Hizbollah":
Ever since its start six years ago, the United States has been waging the War on Terror chiefly on the Sunni side of the religious divide within Islam. The principal targets have been Al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
By contrast, the vision articulated by the president in his 2007 State of the Union Address is substantially broader. It encompasses not only Sunni extremists, but their Shi'a counterparts as well. And, for the first time, it clearly and unambiguously identifies not just "terrorism" but a specific state sponsor — the Islamic Republic of Iran — as a threat to U.S. interests and objectives in the greater Middle East.
So far, however, this shift is still more rhetoric than reality. "Our strategy to combat terrorism is really only a strategy to combat Al-Qaeda", Congressman Jim Saxton (R-NJ) pointed out in these pages not long ago. "We are not prepared to deal — in the event hostilities occur — with terrorist organizations that are built differently, like Hizballah."
Related news: Iranian police takes vicious criminals to the state into custody. You know, very vicious ones…
Iran's Internet restrictions. Read it all.
From NYT:
"Even though we've prevented one terrorist attack, we know that there are still people in Denmark and abroad that have the capacity, the will and the ability to carry out terrorist attacks in Denmark," Jakob Scharf, the head of Danish intelligence, said in an interview in his office here.
[...] With Europe again focused on the threat posed by terrorist plots, Denmark illustrates the powerful interplay between foreign agitation and domestic discontent. The country became a target of foreign Islamist terrorist groups two years ago after a conservative newspaper here published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, drawing worldwide attention. At home, the children of Muslim immigrants complain of job discrimination and integration problems, feeding the disenchantment of the small but growing Muslim population.
"In the schools, Danish teachers are always talking about democracy and human rights, but now they see what Denmark is doing in Afghanistan and what they did here with the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad," said Imran Shah, 31, who leads a youth group at a local mosque. "They ask themselves, is this a democracy or are they talking about double standards?"
Double standards?? I don't know what they are teaching them to consider that "w
hat Denmark is doing in Afghanistan" (why not in Iraq??) is against democracy and Human Rights. And about the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad:
- it's normal in democratic and free country to laugh and make jokes about beliefs. That way, no one thinks he/she is above the rest, and those jokes makes us question ourselves about our own ideas something that is extremely good.
- Is someone of another religion asking to kill the cartoonists which draw that cartoons? I have not heard of any. And in any case, if there are, the own believers are going against them.
Some days ago, my friend Cruzcampo () from Spanish blog "How to be a right-winger and not die trying", sent me this link:
In her speech, Griffin said: "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."
Kathy Griffin poses backstage with her Emmy after her show 'Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List' won Outstanding Reality Program at the 2007 Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Chris Pizzello/AP)
She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-colour remark about Christ and proclaim: "This award is my god now!"
The comedian's remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League president Bill Donohue, who called them a "vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech."
Well, he asked me what I thought about it. And I answered:
1st this speech speaks more about Kate Griffin than about the religion in itself. Looks like she is more happy because of telling others that they are wrong thanking Jesus because of an award, than because she has been awarded with it.
And secondly, paying attention to that kind of speech, made precisely to arouse criticism, is making her achieving his objective. If I would have been Bill Donohue -and I have a lot of respect for this guy, he is in the first front of the fight against Islamism- I would have said: "Hey, some Catholic Bishop has said some days ago that God can be called Allah. Why she did not say "This award is my Allah now?". But not considering it as a matter of high importance. Certainly, it's vulgar but I do not think this is "hate speech", is more an idiot and inmature speech of someone who wants to attract attention.
So is there a double standard? Yes, but because people are so afraid of Muslim fundamentalism that they dare not say anything against them….
To continue with the subject: In Spain now, there is an exhibition in which late Pope John Paul II is pictured as the passive man in an homosexual trio, in pedophile attitudes, etc. The Ibiza's Bishop has answered that "he condemns this as an offense to Catholics", because the exhibition is held in a Catholic church, Santa María de Gracia (if it was not sufficient). So he has threatened the Major with legal measures to end the agreement to use that church to make exhibitions, as they have not fulfilled the terms of use. He added that never "this Bishop or the Foundation -that manages the exhibition if the church- would have given permission for such an exhibition". But the Culture responsible of City's Majorship, has said "she would never use censorship against this…
I maintain my position: a) this people only want publicity and no risk: that's why they are always touching the balls of Catholics but never of Muslims. b) the bad things here are two: first this is an exhibition paid with the money of all citizens including Catholics and secondly, that perversion of exhibiting these pictures in a Catholic Church is of very bad taste.
As Mª Luisa Cava de Llano, First Advisor to the Spanish Ombudsman Adjunta Primera del Defensor del Pueblo, says:
It's not very much provoking or brave, pretend to offend the people who have been educated not only to forgive every time they are insulted but also to love the ones who offend them. What merit would there be if we would love only the people who do us some good?
But not only Western cartoonists are been prosecuted, detained… just because of the humor they use in their cartoons: Bangladesh authorities arrest cartoonist.
* Boy, what is your name?
- My name is Babu.
* It is customary to mention Muhammed before the name.
* What is your father's name?
- Muhammed Abu
* What's this in your lap?
- Muhammed cat
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi authorities Tuesday arrested a cartoonist after drawings that Muslims said insulted their religion were published in a national newspaper, police and the government said.
A Home Ministry statement said Arifur Rahman's sketches — titled "Name" — that came out Monday in a weekly supplement of the Prothom Alo — "hurt the religious sentiments of the people."
[...] "This is a grievous offense, this is dangerous," said Obaidul Huq, head cleric of the National Baitul Mukarram Mosque.
For saying what?? Muhammad cat?? Uuuuhhhh, what an offense!! Look here, you're all ridiculous. The problem is that you have power. If not, these stories would be good in a Groucho Marx's movie.
Other news:
- Big Pharaoh (who is posting again!) is angry at Daily Kos' gleeing over the death of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the Iraqi sheik who confronted Al-Qaeda and was killed because of that. Another crazy Western bunch of moobats!
- Condolezza Rice is called "black snake" by Hamas' TV. Hmm, yeah. I really think that Muslims get really impressed that she is sexy, intelligent -yes, she has screwed up sometimes, but she is intelligent-, is single (so, she has never married, no need of a man to be Secretary of State ), is a woman -very important fact- and is Black. Hmm, yeah, doh!! She is a liberated Western Black woman! What a danger!!!
China, Russia, new Mohammed's cartoon, Islamism in US, Sarko & Merkel, France regarding Turkey in EU and other items
From Financial Times h/t China Daily:
China criticised Taiwan's ruling party on Sunday for mobilising its supporters in a rally demanding United Nations membership for the island.
A day after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in two rival marches in support of UN membership, the Taiwan Affairs Office – the Chinese government's policy body – said that the Beijing authorities were "preparing for a serious situation" without giving any further detail.
China has a standing threat to take military action against Taiwan if the island were to declare formal independence.
Chinese values exist in a parallel universe, one in which our white is their black and their black our white. The United States and China can form a symbiotic relationship, one that benefits mankind and stabilizes the rest of the century, but only if the U.S. rejects cultural absolutism. When we open our eyes to how they perceive things, we will not like what we see. But we have no choice, unless we prefer conflict to co-existence.
China is not evolving towards democracy in the Western sense (i.e., one-man-one vote, not merely distaste for corruption). Even more unsettling to Americans is that "new generation" Chinese, in some ways so much "like us," do not want democracy. Advertising folk fancy themselves as quasi-anthropologists, perched at the intersection of Commerce and Culture. During my nine years in Shanghai, I have learned how to sell Nikes to mainland teenagers (avoid brash, U.S.-style rebellion) and HSBC Premier accounts to the nouveau riche (alchemize superior service into life advancement). By probing minds for "insight" – i.e., deep motivations that explain behavior – we can sell more Kellogg's cold cereal and Lipton milk tea. But we can also, almost inadvertently, uncover riddles that lie at heart of China's surging, irrepressibly dynamic economy.
Hmm, interesting defense of relativism. If we consider that our values are the best, why on earth are we not going to defend them?
If we assume that we have no choice but to recognise our values are not universal, that our values are not natural to human beings, that they are not given by birth to each and all human beings just because they are such, then we are recognising that we consider that not all human beings are equal. And that we can divide them between 1st class ones and second class ones.
And that would be against human dignity and, as such, totally unjust.
Whatever this professor says about China -and knowing that the reality is that Chinese are both very nationalistic and have a culture of more than 3000 years-, Western countries must stick to our values, and defend them wherever they can be defended. The rest of the world is not going to do it. If we value our civilization and its values and consider that they are worth the effort, that is.
At the same time, China does not want an open conflict with the Vatican and is going to install the new Vatican-approved Catholic Bishop.
From Russia: after Putin, is going to be another ex-KGB in the Kremlin?
The Russian wanted by Britain on suspicion of killing Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko said on Monday he would stand for election to parliament and would like to become president of Russia.
Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB security service officer, said he would represent the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), which is headed by ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. (that moron who wanted to oblige single Russian women to marry in polygamy with Russian men, because that way Russian blood was not mixed with foreign people and Russian single women would marry at last... and supported Chechen #@€#@€ Kadyrov in polygamy. I repeat: WHAT A MORON! -un badulaque total - ).
He denied seeking immunity from prosecution that election to parliament would give him. Russian prosecutors have said there was no basis for a criminal case against him, he said.
When asked by a reporter what other political aspirations he had beyond being a member of parliament, Lugovoy said with a smile: "Like any other citizen of the Russian Federation, I would like to be president."
You get the picture. :mad:
American Thinker Blog compares Lugovoy with Catherine de Médici. :lol:
Interview (very interesting) to Rostislav Vylegzhanin, the founder of Real.info news, the first Russian citizen journal in the internet:
Can you tell me about your Citizen Journalism activities? How did it get started? How is it doing? How does traditional media view what you are doing?
If it is ok, I will quote my report for OhmyNews International Forum 2007. [Shel note: I did some extracting and condensing to the following portion-SI]
Practically all Russian TV is state-owned and "censored" (I use quote marks because censorship is Constitutionally prohibited but exists de facto). Most Russian national newspapers are also controlled by authorities. Most regional media is controlled by regional governments.
There are only a few independent national radio stations, as well as a few national independent newspapers. Some regions have independent media, but practically all of them are under pressure.
Freedom of press has been gradually worsening since 2000, when Vladimir Putin took office.
I have to state that we have no freedom of expression and freedom of press in today's Russia. It means that mass media doesn't play a watchdog role for democracy and doesn't serve public interest as they must.
Only the Internet still remains as an absolutely free mediasphere in Russia where all viewpoints can be expressed, where all political leanings are represented. [well, this is familiar to me… in Spain happens more or less the same… ).
I don't know why authorities haven't tried to control the Internet yet. Maybe because only one-third of Russians use it, so the Internet is less influential than TV.
Thus, it's not surprising that blogs became popular for hosting public discussions on topics t
he traditional mass media ignore and for spreading information that cannot be published or broadcast by Big Media.
The American blog-hosting service LiveJournal.com has become especially popular in Russia. Today it hosts about one million Russian blogs who come form intellectual elite, journalists, politicians, active citizens and so on. LiveJournal represents Russian civic society as it is. That's why the roots of citizen journalism and citizen reporting in Russia are in LiveJournal.
Until last November, there were no citizen journalism sites in the Russian part of the Web, ones like OhmyNews and many other sites that attract user-created news stories just weren't here.
I graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in summer of last year. My diploma work was about blogs and citizen journalism. Being inspired by successful examples of citizen journalism sites in the US and, of course, by OhmyNews, I had strong desire to launch the first Russian site that would attract citizen reporting and become a mass-medium without any kind of censorship that affects traditional media.
[...] 3. So, is there a future for citizen journalism in Russia?
What makes me optimistic is the speed of growth in the Russian blogosphere.
But still, there is a long way to go before we can bring the culture of citizen journalism to Russia. Because citizen journalism isn't only blogging.
Realno.info will continue work in this sphere. Now we're preparing the second Moscow conference on citizen media, which will take place in Moscow next spring. I hope, we'll be able to invite some of you to this conference to speak about your own experiences in citizen journalism.
Real.info news (in Russian).
And both China and Russia are spying heavily on US:
- China and Russia are spying on the United States nearly as much as they did during the Cold War, according to the top U.S. intelligence official.
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says in testimony prepared for a Tuesday congressional hearing that a law passed last month expanding the U.S. government's eavesdropping power is needed to protect not just against terrorists but also against more traditional potential adversaries, such as those two Cold War foes.
"China and Russia's foreign intelligence services are among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems, facilities and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels," McConnell says in his testimony. "Foreign intelligence information concerning the plans, activities and intentions of foreign powers and their agents is critical to protect the nation and preserve our security."
I have written about the new Mohammed cartoons, Muslims have protested about. Al-Qaeda has menaced the cartoonist "with slaughtering him like a lamb", peaceful and merciful and … way of expressing dissent. Now the cartoonist has been obliged to go into hiding.
The Swedish cartoonist at the centre of a row over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad says police have taken him to a secret location for his own safety.
Lars Vilks said he was only able to pick up a few things when he returned from Germany at the weekend before police escorted him from his home.
The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered $100,000 (£49,310) to anyone who kills Mr Vilks.
Muslims regard visual representation of the Prophet as blasphemous.
Several Muslim countries have protested against the cartoon.
Mr Vilks said the Swedish secret services considered the threat against him as "very serious".
"The police guard was non-existent before this. It's 100% now," Mr Vilks said in a telephone interview with Associated Press agency.
"I can't live in my home, I've only been allowed to pick up some things."
Makes me feel wonderful…. :mad: Mr Fundamentalist/Muslim/ whatever you want to call yourself, look quietly and directly into my eyes: It is only a cartoon. Don't you think that Allah, if he was really angry, would not kill him immediately, without any of you meddling in the affair?
From Counterterrorism Blog: there are some questions to make about this affair:
1. Why would al Qaeda Iraq and not another branch offer such a bounty? The Cartoonist is Swedish and the al Qaeda Iraq fights against the US in Iraq. Where is the link here? Many voices in the debate on the War on Terror have been saying that al Qaeda came to Iraq just because the US invaded the country. What about Sweden? (No, Sweden is not in Iraq :roll: ).
2. Why is al Qaeda-Iraq offering a bounty for the killing of an editor in Scandinavia? Why offering money for Jihad? Well, when a Jihadi group begins to offer financial rewards, it means that the ideological reward isn't enough. Hmmm….
3. Will such a call be heeded in Sweden? Does al Qaeda have cells -dormant or not- that far north? Reports tells us that the Salafists are propagating this ideology across Scandinavia. Very few realized that an assassination of a film maker in Amsterdam was imaginable before Theo Van Gogh was killed.
4. Will al Qaeda or other Jihadists attack Swedish companies or individuals worldwide? In fact orders were given but it depends on whom would consider themselves the "infantry" and actually take action. It will also depend on what the Swedish Government and Multinational Corporations would state in public or do in private. Sweden has had decades of neutrality regarding many challenges in international relations, and its foreign policy wasn't comparable at all to NATO countries in their struggle against Terror. However, this is the greatest litmus test yet to be addressed.
We will see how this evolves.
American Thinker blog writes about US swifting slowly into the Umma (my goodness):
One small step at a time, America is joining the umma, the global community of nations dominated by Islam.
The latest example comes from Indianapolis, where the new billion dollar-plus airport terminal will include foot bath facilities designed specifically for the use of Muslim cab drivers performing ritual ablutions.
The blog Advance Indiana raises the right questions about this misguided enterprise:
If the foot baths are for everybody's use, as [airport spokesman] Dawson contends, why aren't they being installed in all of the bathrooms at the new airport? And if they are being installed to accommodate Muslim taxi cab drivers as is obviously the case, then why aren't similar accommodations being provided for Muslim airline passengers who patronize the airport? It looks like a slippery slope to me. What do you think?
[...] While it may seem harmless to some to enable Muslim cab drivers to perform this ritual, the fact is that similar accommodations would never be tolerated for other religious groups (how about Holy Water founts for Catholic passengers praying for safety prior to boarding flights?). This is evidence that will be understood by Muslims seeking to establish the Global Caliphate that America lacks the will to oppose their domination, so long as it takes one step at a time. Treating Islam more favorably than other religions is demanded by Muslims and accommodated whenever they attain a critical mass. It is a sure indicator of Dhimmitude.
As Dumb OX says "We're surrounded by idiots. Defend yourself".
Jihad against schools: Jihad Boom Postcards with threatening cartoons sent to nine schools h/t Pamela:
Investigators in Marion County, Fla., are searching for the author of nine postcards sent to different schools on the same day with the words Jihad-Boom and handwritten cartoons of a building apparently exploding with people inside.
Investigators released the postcards with the threatening drawings on them Monday in hopes of generating leads in the case. Officials said that the postcards are made up of various and traditional themes, and each one has a distinctive hand-drawn cartoon on it. Several of the threats arrived on postcards featuring Walt Disney World. Detectives said the threat-maker crossed his or her No. 7s and attached a suffix to the address. Six of the nine postcards spell the word "Jihad" correctly, while the others are incorrect.
Go and read her post.
Related post: Could US suffer a new Beslan?
This would be a slight modification from the plan…
And no, nothing has been said of this in Spain.
Sarko offers nukes to Germany but Merkel refuses citing Non Proliferation Treaty h/t I think therefore I err:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy didn't mention the bomb right away. Instead, he took a little detour by way of atomic energy: Whoever is serious about averting global warming should build more nuclear power plants, he told Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during last week's informal meeting in Meseberg palace (more…), the German government's guest residence north of Berlin. Then came the surprise offer.
Seeing as they were discussing the benefits of all things atomic, the French president continued, he had another suggestion as well: Because the French nuclear umbrella protected France's neighbors as well as La Grande Nation itself, perhaps the Germans would consider taking a political stake in the French atomic arsenal?
Both the chancellor and her foreign minister were speechless. The idea of possessing nuclear weapons is taboo in Germany. Sarzoky's predecessor Jacques Chirac cautiously brought up the issue 12 years ago, but he quickly realized it was pointless to pursue it.
Steinmeier was the first to regain his composure, explaining that Germany did not seek to become a nuclear power, which is why the country had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1975. Merkel offered a friendly smile and backed up her foreign minister.
Hmmm, don't know what to make of this really…
From Gallia Watch:
An article in Le Figaro brings us the not-unexpected news that France may be actively aiding and abetting the entry of Turkey in the EU. Until now, article 88-5 of the French Constitution required a referendum before a new candidate country could be officially admitted to the body. However that may be changing:
During a meeting of Edouard Balladur's committee on institutional reform, secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet's suggestion that article 88-5 of the Constitution be eliminated came as a bolt out of the blue.
The referendum had been sought by Jacques Chirac, then voted on by French parliamentarians at a convention in 2005 in Versailles, and is supposed to apply to all new memberships following that of Croatia in 2010, hence Turkey in particular. "Is it necessary to keep this requirement, or should we eliminate it?" asked Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who quickly added that it would be rather "delicate" to go back on a commitment that lies at the heart of the Constitution. The secretary of State declared that he was expressing his own personal opinion. Huh!
Related news: Kouchner, French FM, says world must be prepared to go to war over Iran's nuclear program. The ayatollahs answer:
"The occupants of the Elysee (the French presidential palace) have become the executors of the will of the White House and have adopted a tone that is… even more inflammatory and more illogical than that of Washington," IRNA news agency said.
On Monday Mr Kouchner said even in the absence of UN action, the European Union should prepare its own sanctions against Iran.
Following talks in Paris, his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen said his government would be willing "to apply EU sa
nctions in common with the United States sanctions".
Mr Kouchner later travelled to Moscow, where he is to hold talks with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday.
Russia has a UN Security Council veto over any new sanctions, and its support is seen as vital for any new approach to try to force Iran to give up enrichment.
But, hey, from Deustche-Welle:
In a bid to play down the controversy, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Monday, Sept. 17, that tensions with Iran were "extreme" but insisted there was still room for diplomacy in the nuclear stand-off.
"Everything must be done to avoid war," Fillon told reporters. "The Iranians must understand that tension has reached an extreme point."
While saying that Kouchner was right to call the situation with Iran dangerous, Fillon added that a confrontation was "the last option that any political leader would want."
The French foreign minister called on the European Union to impose economic sanctions on Tehran outside of those imposed by the United Nations.
"These would be European sanctions that each country, individually, must put in place with its own banking, commercial and industrial system," Kouchner said.
And now, the hilarious part, considering that Iran keeps on menacing Israel (and please take a look at the photo in the link ):
Iranian Vice-President Reza Aghazadeh, who is also the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Western countries "have always chosen the path of confrontation instead of the path of understanding and cordial relations."
Of course Ahmi has ever chosen the peaceful way with Israel….
And lastly, two photos. A lady reciting a poem to Ahmadine-jihad (how many whiskies, ehh, well, you understand me, has she had before that…):
Uuuyyyyyyyy, Ahmi, what a smile…. :mrgreen: You must be careful: Do you remember Khatami shaking hands with a young lady in Italy and the following scandal? Well, he has a legal suite awaiting for him at court. :lol:
And now the ayatollah (I think it's Rafsanjani…), learning to use a computer:
Hmm, take care, it's a Western computer. What are you going to search with that? :mrgreen:
Both pictures thanks to Kamangir.net.
About Syrian-North Korean affair, read this entire post by One Free Korea, because it analyses the different theories about the Israeli strike on Syria last week. I'm only reproducing an excerpt which is interesting enough about what we really know:
North Korea is believed to be the source of North Korea's SCUD-C missiles and precursors for its chemical weapons, but the transfer of nuclear weapons, equipment, or technology would be a major escalation of that relationship. Diplomats have noted considerable escalation in the cooperation betweent the two nations recently. Both the Times of London, quoting Israeli sources, and Fox News, quoting American sources, note increased sightings of Syrians moving in and out of North Korea by air and by rail, via China . It wasn't all whispers and surveillance, either:
On August 14, the North Korean minister of foreign trade, Rim Kyong Man, was in Syria to sign a protocol on "co-operation in trade and science and technology." His delegation held the fifth meeting of a "joint economic committee" with its Syrian counterparts. No details were disclosed. [Times of London]
We had previously heard that Iranians were present at the July 4, 2006 missile tests in North Korea. The Times now reports that Syrians were present, too (you can't help wondering how they know that). Readers may even recall that after the Ryongchon explosion, one theory had it that the explosive substance was Syrian-bound missile fuel, and that the explosion killed several Syrian scientists.
Finally, the Times claims that Syria has served as a transshipment conduit for missiles components and technology headed from Iran for Syria. IMHO, that one just defies logic. Iran has plenty of perfectly fine seaports, while Iran and Syria don't even share a land border. (doesn't seem very logical, no… )
The world's going nuts… And what suprises are in the making?
Other news:
- Augean Stables wants you to sign this petition.
- Instapundit: GOOD THING WE HAVEN'T abandoned them yet. "American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against Al Qaeda." :lol:
Dialogue with Al-Qaeda?, EU Dhimmi Franco Frattini, Six Taliban Killed, AQ in Islamic Maghreb recruiting teenagers, Pakistani lawyers threaten w/ suicide bombing and NYT reporter freed in China
Some "experts on negotiation", that Spanish Reuters edition qualifies as "cautious", are asking why we don't negotiate with Al-Qaeda (in Spanish), because "history shows that the extremist movements are better neutralised using negotiation and not force".
Specially dedicated for them this video:
See how Hitler answered to negotiations?? This is what Annakin Skywalker, in Chapter II: The Attack of the Clones, before being Darth Vader, calls "aggresive negotiations", so aggresive that in fact was WWII.
The article also states:
- "There are also rational ingredients in Al-Qaeda, but it also attracts psycos" (Of course, every rational and normal human being is inclined to commit suicide bombing… ).
- The negotiator, Jan Egeland, is a reknown anti-Israeli Norwegian, who claims having taken part in secret negotiations between Israel and PLO, Colombian "guerrilla leaders" (that is, FARC) and in Uganda (Lord's Resistance Army: 20,000 children abducted to serve as soldiers or as sex toys, 12,000 killed directly by war, plus the non-accounted by desertification, illnesses…). All conflicts have been solutioned as you see.
- "Al Qaeda is not an organization, it's an idea". You see? That's why thinking is not good for your health, because ideas can kill you.
- "Al Qaeda wants to restore the Muslim Global Caliphate". How on earth can be restored something that has never existed before?
In the end they have to recognise that there are serious difficulties in negotiating with Al-Qaeda because of their goals (creating an Islamic Global Caliphate and convert everyone -including USA- to Islam) which of course is not very realistic and would imply that all the world's Governments had to agree on the plan.
There is no place for another moonbat in this world…
Just this day AlQaeda has menaced Iraqi Sunnis…:
An al-Qaeda front group warns it will hunt down and kill Sunni Arab tribal leaders who cooperate with the U.S. and its Iraqi partners in the wake of the assassination of the leader of the revolt against the terror movement.
In a separate statement, the Islamic State of Iraq announced a new offensive during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting that began this week. The statement said the offensive was in honor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in June 2006.
But hey, just put a little flower power in your life … And let's dialogue!!
New cartoon of Mohammed the Dog: VH writes Mo's Days of Summer. Al Qaeda has offered a bounty of $100.000 to kill artist (in their words, to "slaughter him like a lamb"). Let's dialogue….
Stop this world; I'm getting out of it (Groucho Marx).
"War cannot be avoided; it can only be postponed to the other's advantage". Niccolo Machiavelli (I'm not a fan of him, but he was really a bright guy).
But there are other idiotic moonbats around. Take for example EU Dhimmi Vice-President Commissioner Franco Frattini, the one who, in the midst of the Mohammed's cartoons' furore, stated in an interview to Britain's Daily Telegraph, that EU will be writing down a code of conduct which "would encourage the media to show "prudence" when covering religion". And he added:
"The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," he told the newspaper. "We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."
Afterwards, he repented:
Mr Frattini thinks I misconstrued what he said. He has issued a stern press release, putting his side of the story….
Eeh, no, he just blamed the journalist.
Well, now he doesn't want you to use Internet to search for "dangerous words, like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorist"… h/t Ignacio and la Frase Progre.
Internet searches for bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European Union, the bloc's top security official said on Monday.
Internet providers should also prevent access to any site giving instructions on how to make a bomb, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said in an interview.
"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector … on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.
The EU executive is to make this proposal to member states early in November as part of a raft of anti-terrorism proposals.
So, if I search for "Armenian genocide" that means I want to make one myself. And if I search for "Islamic/Islamist terrorist" is that I am also one of them…. And searching for "Sex bomb" (remember the Tom Jones hit?) will also be forbidden.
Do they really think that someone who is in a terrorist cell doesn't have any other preparation so he/she has to search in Internet how to do a bomb?
But it continues:
The Internet has taken on huge importance for militant groups, enabling
them to share know-how and spread propaganda to a mass audience, as well as to link cell members.
Oh, yeah, and also it has a huge importance for anti-EU groups. Or more accurately to anti-this EU group, hasn't it? So today we block terrorist and bomb and tomorrow we block information that we don't want the people to know.
He is so damned politically correct that he does not use "terrorist" but "militant"…
In France Rights groups slam plans for immigrant DNA tests h/t Hodja:
French rights groups and left-wing politicians Thursday slammed an amendment to a new immigration bill that would introduce DNA testing for would-be immigrants seeking to join their relatives in France.
The National Assembly's legislative committee Wednesday approved an amendment that would offer long-term visa applicants the option of a DNA test to prove their family ties.
The amendment's author Thierry Mariani, a deputy from President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, says it aims to root out bogus visa requests, arguing that in parts of Africa up to 80 percent of identity papers submitted by applicants were fake.
He says the tests would be a voluntary way to speed up visa procedures for immigrants' relatives.
But Socialist deputy George Pau-Langevin, the only black MP from mainland France, called the plans "unacceptable." "This is a significant and unacceptable step in the violation of the right to a private family life, out of all proportion with the goal of fighting paperwork fraud," she said. "Would we consider doing the same for French people?"
Right to a private family life??? This is just a measure whose aim is to prevent that people who do not belong to the same family, come to Europe claiming the right of reagroupment.
And what is more: the test is OPTIONAL. If you want, you do it and the process ends quicker. If you don't, well, everthing is slower… Just your own decission, mate.
Remember the South Koreans who were kept as hostages by the Talibans?
Afghan and US-led troops on Friday raided the hideout of a Taliban commander linked to the July abduction of 23 South Koreans, killing six militants, police said.
Taliban commander Abdullah Jan however escaped the raid in the southern province of Ghazni, provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP.
The US-led coalition confirmed there had been an operation in the province but said only that "several suspected militants" had been killed and one arrested.
"Abdullah Jan fled the raid but six of his associates were killed and an unknown number were detained by the coalition forces," Ahmadzai told AFP.
The bodies of three of the dead were left at the site, he said.
The coalition said one person was detained in the operation in the Qarabagh district, the area where the South Korean aid workers were abducted on July 19.
Troops kill six Taliban linked to alleged SKorean abductor – Yahoo! News
Some days ago I wrote that Al Qaeda had recruited teenagers for the suicide attacks and that they were educated to be like "little A-Zarqawis". Well, over 50 have been recruited and trained by now:
The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb between December and April recruited over 50 children aged under 16, the pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday, quoting Algerian intelligence sources.
Police were alarmed that a 15-year-old suicide bomber carried out a deadly attack earlier this month in the Algerian port city of Dellys. The boy managed to pass unnoticed through security checks.
Radical imams have recruited to al-Qaeda around 15 under-16s from poor districts of the capital, Algiers, to join its fighters hiding in the mountains of Algeria, police said.
Police said the US-led war in Iraq was being used as pretext to radicalise youngsters in Algeria and persuade them to join militants. They said many had been given training in carrying out suicide attacks either in Iraq or in Algeria.
The al-Kalitius neighbourhood of the village ofBourama on the outskirts of southern Algiers is a particular 'hotspot' for Jihadi recruiters, according to police.
After being taken into the mountains, the youngsters have come into contact with Tunisian and Libyan militants and have been trained alongside them to carry out car and truck bomb attacks, police said.
Speaking of children abuse…. What outrage in the MSM and in NGO's there is after knowing this?
And seeing that the suicide attacks are feared, what do you think Pakistani lawyers plan to do if colleagues are tortured? Exactly…
Peshawar High Court Bar Association President Abdul Latif Afridi on Thursday warned intelligence agencies and the army to avoid torturing lawyers or "face suicide attacks by lawyers at forces' headquarters".
At an emergency meeting, the PHCBA passed a resolution denouncing a report that intelligence agencies arrested Advocate Ghulam Nabi on Thursday night and tortured him at a detention cell. Afridi said that if the army and spy agencies did not change their attitude towards lawyers and citizens, the people would "ban the entry of military and agencies personnel to bazaars and main roads". He said the lawyers would charge secret agencies under sections 6 and 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act as
"they tried to terrify the entire lawyers' community by torturing a lawyer". The lawyers later staged a protest outside the corps commander house in Peshawar.
I do not like torture, but I also don't like suicide bombings…
A Chinese journalist jailed while working for the New York Times has been released. Zhao Yan had been sentenced to three years in prison for fraud in August 2006. He was detained in 2004 on charges that included leaking state secrets. International human rights groups had severely criticised his imprisonment, saying the Communist Party was using secrecy laws to stifle news.
For a retrospective on Zhao Yan, see HRW:
July 2004
Zhao Yan writes a four-line note for the New York Times sketching out a reported conflict between President Hu Jintao and ex-President Jiang Zemin over senior military appointments.
September 7, 2004
The New York Times publishes an article predicting that former President Jiang Zemin will step down from his position of head of the military. A reference to political jockeying between Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao is included as background material in one of the final paragraphs of the article.
[...] October 5, 2005
The Washington Post reveals that Zhao's case relies almost entirely on a copy of an internal New York Times memo obtained by the State Security Ministry, according to a confidential ministry document urging prosecutors to indict the researcher. It is unclear how the agents gained access to the memo, of which a copy is included in an inventory of evidence collected in the case. [Who gave that copy then? ]
But at the same time detains other two AFP reporters h/t Status of Chinese People:
The arrest of two Agence France-Presse reporters on 12 September is the latest in a string of cases of foreign journalists being obstructed in their work. They show that the less stringent regulations introduced in January are being applied erratically and only when less sensitive issues are involved. At least 32 foreign journalists have been detained or prevented by police from doing reports since January.
"The way the authorities have treated journalists from Agence France-Presse, the BBC World Service and other international news organisations in recent weeks do not bode well for the ability of the foreign media to work during the Olympic Games," the press freedom organisation said.
"These are not unfortunate blunders," Reporters Without Borders continued. "They are the result of a clear lack of goodwill on the part of the police, who refuse to let reporters travel and investigate freely. We call on the International Olympic Committee to intervene with the Chinese authorities to ensure that the rules introduced in January are finally respected."
Just keep waiting…
Sri Lankan soldiers killed 15 Tamil Tiger rebels in a clashes in the north and east of the island while six military personnel were also killed, the military said on Saturday.
The latest spike in violence in the country's long-running civil war follows the launch of a new offensive by government forces to drive guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the northwesterly Mannar area.
Just in case, Tamil Tigers are the "inventors" of suicide bombings. It's said that Bin Laden copied them.
In 1987 the LTTE established the notorious Black Tigers, an elite unit of the LTTE responsible for conducting suicide attacks against political, economic and military targets,[9] and launched its first suicide attack against a Sri Lanka Army camp, killing 40 soldiers, still its not conformed.
Of course, they are only "militants"…
Other news:
- Selling and drinking alcohol is still legal in Iraq, but since the rise of religious parties in this predominantly Muslim country, the trade has come under severe pressure. Aside from legal restrictions, many liquor shops have been bombed in the past four years. But the people still but it…
- Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Austria for a three-day pilgrimage, saying Christianity was not just the legacy of Europe's past but "the way to the future."
- Japanese Shinzo Abe's resigned. The main reason of his decission is that the Liberal party's candidate had different views about the way to conduct negotiations about the continuation of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling operations in the Indian Ocean in support of the Global War on Terrorism. The front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister vowed Saturday to extend his nation's support for U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan. Ruling party veteran Yasuo Fukuda also said he would take a softer line with North Korea over its past abduction of Japanese nationals, a row that has threatened to upset negotiations over the communist country's nuclear weapons.
- Putin, again: British and Norwegian jets intercepted Russian military aircraft Friday after they breached NATO airspace close to the U.K. and Finland, defense officials said. So far!!! Surprise, surprise: Putin does not rule out presenting himself to 2012's elections. But this is not hurting his sucessor's perspectives… No…
- After I wrote these last days about the Deobandi sect in Britain and its overwhelming influence there, we have some fresh ne
ws about Tablighi Jamaat and their London's mega-mosque: "The mega-mosque complex would become a flagship for Tablighi Jamaat's mission to indoctrinate Muslims with a hatred of the West and the kuffar [non-Mulims]." But wasn't the Mega-mosque cancelled? But there is more: Irfan al Alawi, international director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, says the missionary work of Tablighi Jamaat acts as "a recruitment agency for jihad" in Afghanistan, the occupied territories and Iraq. "They go around deprived areas of British towns and cities, knocking on doors and urging young Muslims to come to their gatherings," he said.
Sent to Open Trackbacks by Dumb Ox.
Another Christian tortured to death in Eritrea, AlQaeda kills Sunni leader, Saudi Arabia vs Syria, Algerian bomb (3rd in 1 week), ex-Jihad speaks against Al-Qaeda and other items
More and more keep dying in Eritrea. The deaths are going up. Eritrea is located south of Saudi Arabia, in North Africa. The people who are imprisioned there, are placed in train like karts, in the desert. The believers imprisioned there are dying of the heat, and starvation. More than 10% of the believers in the country are in jail. On 9-11 another Saint got her crown of Matyrdom, and the headline doesn't show anywhere. Another imprisoned Christian in Eritrea has been martyred. Voice of the Martyrs' Canada's Bernie Daniels says, "Nigsti Haile, aged 33, was tortured to death by Eritrean authorities in the Wi'a Military Training center in Massawa."
She died September 5 after refusing to sign a letter recanting her faith, according to a report from Open Doors USA. Haile, an active member of the Rhema church, was one of ten Christian women who were arrested at a church gathering in Keren eighteen months ago and who have been under severe pressure to deny Christ.
Arabs for Christ – Another Christian tortured to death in Eritrea
How many newspapers are going to publish this??
Al Qaeda group claims killing Iraqi Sunni leader and, instead of asking for justice to be done upone the killers, mourners vow revenge at sheik's funeral.
Some 1,500 mourners called for revenge Friday as they buried the leader of the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, who was assassinated by a bomb after meeting with President Bush earlier this month.
[...] "We will take our revenge," the mourners chanted. "We will continue the march of Abu Risha."
The sheik was buried one year to the day after he organized Sunni Arab clans into an alliance to drive al-Qaida in Iraq from sanctuaries in Anbar province where the terror movement had flourished since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the second-highest ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, and several high-ranking government officials attended the funeral, including Iraq's interior and defense ministers and National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie.
"We condemn the killing of Abu Risha, but this will not deter us from helping the people of Anbar — we will support them more than before," al-Rubaie declared. "It is a national disaster and a great loss for the Iraqi people — Abu Risha was the only person to confront al-Qaida in Anbar."
So, instead of confronting Al-Qaeda for a change and to really continue his march, they are going to take revenge.
Oops, you know, Saudi Arabia is not very happy with Syria about the new US-hosted Israel-Palestine talks:
Saudi Arabia is showing increasing signs of displeasure as Palestinian-Israeli preparatory discussions on a US-hosted multinational peace conference in November meander on without apparent achievements.
According to Agence France Presse (AFP) Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal warned Wednesday, "If this conference does not tackle the key issues such as Jerusalem, the borders, the Palestinians and other issues that were clearly stated in the Arab peace initiative, then the conference will be pointless."
With time running out for the establishment of a firm basis for the conference, a deepening crisis in relations between Syria and the Saudis is throwing a pall over the upcoming discussions and Lebanese presidential vote.
Frosty relations
Fraught Syrian-Saudi relations plumbed new lows this week with the announcement Tuesday that a scheduled visit by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem to Riyadh had been called off.
Al-Mouallem was scheduled to meet Saudi King Abdullah II and other Saudi officials during a visit designed to ease tensions between the two regional powers in the wake of a public falling out last month.
Ties between Syria and the Saudis have been troubled for some time, with the kingdom feeling that its role in seeking to reconcile Lebanese and Palestinian factions has been undermined by Damascus. [Could it be because Syria is not interested in having peace between its neighbours?? What is gaining Syria with this confrontation?].
Nadim Shehadi from the UK-based think tank Chatham House told ISN Security Watch , "There has been a break in Saudi-Syrian relations for two years, which were sort of restored during the Arab [League] summit in March when President Assad was invited to Riyadh."
But what do you know? There is also Iran-Iraq question between them:
Both Syria and Saudi Arabia are deeply involved in Iraq, where the correspondence or dissonance between their interests are far from clear, despite Syria's close relationship with Iran.
Asked if there are differences between the Saudis and Syrians over Iraq, a source close to the situation told ISN Security Watch on the condition of anonymity, "Probably, but it is harder to say because neither of them has very transparent policies […] To the extent that Syria has a relationship with Iran it creates a problem for Saudi Arabia, but it doesn't seem that in Iraq Syria has been backing the same parties as Iran."
[...] Saudi Arabia saw the July-August 2006 Lebanon war and subsequent Lebanese political meltdown as opportunities to expand its sphere of political and economic influence in Lebanon, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into government reconstruction funds controlled by the rump anti-Syrian Fouad Siniora administration.
A leaked October 2005 draft report of the UN probe into the murder of al-Hariri fingered prominent Syrian officials with close ties to the Syrian president as involved in the murder plot.
According to the anonymous source, "Saudi Arabia was extremely close to the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated. They suspect a Syrian hand, if not more, in his assassination […] And I think that was a turning point in their relations with the Syrians."
The fight for Islamic rule is back…
After the two attacks which took place last week, another bomb attack in Algeria:
A bomb has exploded in front of a police compound in Algeria, killing three people and wounding five others, officials say.
The attack happened in the town of Zemmouri, about 50km (31 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.
It is the latest in a series of bombs attacks in Algeria that have killed more than 50 people in the past week.
The militant group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it was responsible for the earlier blasts.
In the latest attack, the bomb was placed in a plastic bag at the entrance to the compound where police officers and their families live, Algeria's security forces say.
They said two people had to have their legs amputated after the incident. [INCIDENT!!! You're a bunch of stupid morons. Three people get killed and five others wounded, including the two which have had their two legs amputated and you call that an INCIDENT??? ]
So far no group has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Speaking against Al-Qaeda from Saudi Arabia:
Ahmad al Shayea today.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ahmad al Shayea is the rarest of truck bombers — he survived his suicide mission in Iraq even though the blast from his bomb was strong enough to kill 12 bystanders.
Ahmad al Shayea survived his truck bomb attack, but not without scarring to his face and hands.
Al Shayea, who was disfigured during the attack, claims al Qaeda tricked him into becoming a bomber by asking him to deliver a tanker truck, which they had rigged with a bomb.
"They told me to take it to an address in Baghdad. As soon as I got there the truck exploded," said the native of Saudi Arabia. He survived by jumping out of the truck.
Al Shayea renounced terrorism and returned to Saudi Arabia, where he works to convince would-be insurgents and terrorists to give up their deadly ways. [At least that is something...].
"I think God took me out of death to show others what can happen," he told CNN. "If you join al Qaeda, they will use you, and maybe you will die."
Hear why al Shayea turned his back on al Qaeda »
Al Qaeda propaganda videos glorify so-called foreign fighters in Iraq like al Shayea. It has recruited them from countries all across the Middle East.
Ahmad Al Shayea just after the bombing as he appeared in the Iraqi TV.
Other news:
Alexander Pichushkin has confessed to killing at least 62 people, with the goal of marking all 64 squares on the chessboard. He has been charged with 49 murders, most committed over the course of five years in a sprawling park on the edge of Moscow. Pichushkin's first victim was his school friend, whom he strangled and threw into a sewage pit in 1992 because he was "upset" by the friend's refusal to kill people together with him, said Moscow Chief Prosecutor Yuri Syomin.
Even if the Muslims are challenging the Orthodox Church, Patriarc Alexei is worried about Russia being proselytised by Catholic Church.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II has repeated his insistence that a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI (bio – news) should only take place after adequate preparation– and after the Vatican has complied with demands from the Moscow patriarchate to curb Catholic "proselytism" in the historically Orthodox countries of eastern Europe.
[...] Catholic officials have repeatedly denied such a goal. [...] Catholic Church leaders explain that missionary workers aim not to convert Orthodox believers, but to attract the vast majority of Russian people who are not currently active in any church. But the Moscow patriarchate takes the stand that the Russian people are Orthodox, even if they do not attend any church servives.
So, instead of confronting the real danger, he is just quarrelling with other Christian denomination. Just work, Patriarc! If you believe your religion is the best, promote it, instead of groaning every year several times about it…
This is dedicated specially to blablablabla Chávez, than man…
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas has urged the Venezuelan government to show respect for critics of constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez.
Cardinal Urosa insisted that "no persons of groups should be disregarded or execrated simply because they disagree with the proposal." He said that the proposed constitutional amendments deserve serious discussion, and encouraged a respectful hearing for all reasoned points of view.
In an implicit criticism of Chavez, who has charged that the country's Catholic hierarchy is stirring up opposition to his government, the cardinal said that dissident political views should be heard without rousing "the ghosts of insurrection and destabilization."
Eat that Chávez, you, moonbat!
Remember the F1 scandal?
McLaren received a systematic flow of information from a spy within rivals Ferrari for nearly three months this year, the FIA has revealed.
Drivers Fernando Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa were aware of the information.
Hey, what a coincidence!!! Only the Spanish drivers were aware of the information. Why not the rest of them?? Oh, yeah, there's Hamilton "I'm-calling-my-father-to-defend-me-from-Fernando-Alonso"…
Hmm, this does not smell very good to me…
Islamic terrorism update: German and Austrian plots, Saudi donors and Pakistani inaction against Al-Qaeda, 3rd Bin Laden's tape announced and 15-year-old trained suicide bomber
I have been writing about the German Al-Qaeda plot for some days now. Militant Islam Monitor.org has a magnificent summary about some other aspects which are terribly significant about what happened. Here is an excerpt, below is the link.
Operation Alberich began last October, when the US National Security Agency, the NSA, began intercepting suspicious emails between Germany and Pakistan. It ended last week in the central German Sauerland region, with the arrests of two German converts to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz, 28, the son of a southern German doctor, and 22-year-old Daniel S., who had learned how to handle weapons during his military service in the western German city of Saarlouis. His neighbors in nearby Saarbrücken had noticed that he prayed to Allah "often and very loudly." The third man arrested in the sting was Adem Y., a 28-year-old Turkish national. The trio was caught in the act of mixing chemical ingredients to make explosives at a vacation house in the mountainous Sauerland region.
When they searched the house, German investigators found military detonators from Syria that a courier had smuggled into Germany, as well as 60 liters of hydrogen peroxide. The materials were apparently intended for use in three car bombs that the group may have planned to detonate in front of a US military base in Germany, a nightclub or possibly a major airport. When troops from the GSG 9 elite commando unit stormed the house last Tuesday, the pungent stench of chemicals was already in the air. According to investigators, what the men were planning could have been one of the bloodiest attacks in European postwar history — worse than London or Madrid. In addition to the three terror suspects, German authorities are investigating more than 45 people.
Since the conversation with Bush during the G-8 summit, the Chancellor knew that the diabolic plot not only threatened people's lives, but that if US soldiers were killed in Germany, it would endanger the trans-Atlantic relations that were so important to her. America feared a new spectacular attack from a resurgent al-Qaida — possibly even a second Sept. 11. Another attack against America planned on German soil had to be prevented.
These experiences and fears explain why Operation Alberich was conducted from both Berlin and Washington, with a joint CIA and German task force set up in Berlin. US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff told SPIEGEL last week that cooperation between the two countries was "the closest it's ever been."
But from the US perspective the German investigation was also a trial by fire. American authorities kept ramping up the pressure on the Germans, with both CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and US Ambassador William R. Timken meeting with authorities in Berlin. In early June Chertoff traveled to German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble's hometown of Gengenbach and over dinner urged him to do everything he could to prevent a possible attack. "We care," Schäuble assured him.
Operation Alberich :How the CIA helped foil the German terror plot – 45 suspects still being sought – Militant Islam Monitor – Militant Islam Monitor
Read it all…
Austria arrests three in latest Islamist Terror Plot in Europe.
Austrian Interior Minister Günther Platter said on Wednesday, Sept. 12, that the trio suspected of producing the video had confessed to having links to al Qaeda. The video demanded German and Austrian soldiers leave Afghanistan.
The three, however, had not established an independent terrorist cell, and at no time was Austria directly in danger, he added.
"Austria was not under threat of an attack at any time," Platter told a news conference. "We could determine that based on the actions of the three."
Video relates to Afghanistan mission
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Austrian Interior Minister Güther Platter said there were no concrete threats against Austria
The three, who were under covert police surveillance for months, were arrested by anti-terror forces in Vienna. All of them are second-generation Austrian citizens with Arab origins. They include a 20-year-old man, his 21-year-old wife and another man of 26.
The online video, aired in March this year, showed a masked speaker urging Austria and Germany to cease their support of the United States in Afghanistan.
Of course, US authorities are concerned:
During an interview yesterday with ABC's "Good Morning America," National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell stated that U.S. authorities are concerned about "sleeper cells" of Islamic terrorists inside the United States and admitted that since 9/11, several plots against the United States have been thwarted. "We're safer but we're not safe," stated McConnell about the current threat environment.
[...] This and other non-governmental web sites have been recently urged by intelligence agencies to alert the public to report any instance of suspicious activity that including individuals taking video, photographing, or sketching various locations, including but not limited to federal buildings, law enforcement locations, areas of critical infrastructure such as subway and train stations, dams, bridges, airports, railways, power facilities, military bases and recruiting locations, and sea ports.
In this climate, it's normal that there are people writing some theories about what Al-Qaeda is going to do now. The other day I linked to an article in The Midnight Sun, in which they consider the probability of a nuclear attack in US soil.
Yesterday I found in Hyscience and Noisy Room.Net another theory: Could US (and the rest of Europe…) suffer an attack like Beslan?
Glenn Beck is running a series on CNN called "The Per
fect Day," in which Glenn describes a plan that the DHS, FBI, and CIA have been following and for the most part sitting on for some time. Apparently, these agencies have discovered several bits of evidence that point to the possibility that a plan for a Beslan type assault on schools in America is very real, so real that it is in motion as we speak.
[...] Beslan was a first attempt. There are aspects of the assault on the Russian School that have heretofore not been revealed to the public. First and foremost, the assailants were not Chechens as have been described, there were several nationalities there, including Pakistanis, Taliban Afghans, and others. Secondly, All the female children were raped and tortured before being killed. Beslan was intended to inflame the Russians into committing retaliatory attacks on muslims of all stripes.
Continue reading. The link contains a disturbing video about what happened in Beslan. WARNING: IMAGES DISTURBING. THE VIDEO WAS FILMED OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL.
Noisy Room.Net has more.
From my point of view -and I am no expert-, I really believe that all measures must be taken to prevent such things, though I also believe that if there are published reports that mention it, the terrorists may (not must) change strategies, because this one has been uncovered. If a terrorist plot is clear, then it's no plot.
Anyway, it's interesting this information is released to have more information about how they act. Just to be prepared…
Al-Qaeda's Saudi donors are still not pursued by Saudi authorities:
Despite six years of promises, U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia continues to look the other way at wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to al Qaeda.
"If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing, told ABC News.
Despite some efforts as a U.S. ally in the war on terror, Levey says Saudi Arabia has dropped the ball. Not one person identified by the United States and the United Nations as a terror financier has been prosecuted by the Saudis, Levey says.
"When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terrorist organizations, and knowingly done so, then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is," Levey says.
Among those on the donor list, according to U.S. officials, is Yasin al Qadi, a wealthy businessman named on both the U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda financiers one month after the 9/11 attacks.
Al Qadi, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, remains free, still a prominent figure in Saudi Arabia.
Al Qadi's London-based attorney, Guy Martin of Carter-Ruck law firm, said the United States has never produced any evidence in support of the allegations against his client.
The best thing in that link is when the Al-Qadi's attorney – - says his client is in a "financial Guantanamo". Can they please change the motto?
But Pakistan is not trusted either:
U.S. officials say they are equally frustrated with what they call the empty promises of Pakistan to go after al Qaeda's sanctuaries in their country.
Pakistan says it is willing to take action if the U.S. provides details.
"If they had specific information, they should share it with us, and we would go after them," Pakistani Ambassador to the U.N. Munir Akram told ABC News.
When asked whether the U.S. can trust his country, Ambassador Akram said, "Well, if the U.S. doesn't trust Pakistan, how can Pakistan be an ally of the U.S.?"
A question echoed by many in the U.S.
With fresh funds and a safe haven, al Qaeda has been able to recruit and train a new class of terrorists as well as send out a stream of new propaganda tapes.
After the 1st and the 2nd tape, Al-Qaeda (this time without Bin Laden, I wonder why… Must be his dyed beard was not at all fashionable… ) is going to release another tape .
Al-Qaeda will release a third video to mark the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to postings on Islamist websites on the Internet on Wednesday.
The websites said that the video will be entitled, "The two expeditions to New York and Washington, causes and motives", and is expected to be a documentary which will explain the reasons why the terrorist group carried out the attacks on 11 September 2001 in the United States that killed close to 3,000 people.
Other reports, quoting US monitoring groups, say that the new video will will show Al-Qaeda's chief in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said.
But in Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden is more popular than Musharraf! Now I understand why Pakistan should not be trusted. Remember they have nukes!!
"We have conducted 23 polls all over the Muslim world, and this is the most disturbing one we have conducted," said Ken Ballen, the group's head. "Pakistan is the one Muslim nation that has nuclear weapons, and the people who want to use them against us — like the Taliban and al Qaeda — are more popular there than our allies like Musharraf."
Well, Musharraf is not Bin Laden, but he is not my idol either…
Al-Qaeda in Algeria: accused of recruiting teenage bombers (speaking about children abuse… )
Al-Qaeda has been accused of recruiting 40 teenage youths in Algeria for suicide attacks in Iraq.
According to a report in the Algerian newspaper, al-Khabar, the youths were being trained to become 'little Zarqawis'.
It said one 15-year-old boy who had joined the group at the beginning of April was one of two bombers blown up in last week's suicide bombing in Dellys.
Where is the international outrage here? I repeat: ONE OF THE SUICIDE TERRORISTS
Other news:
Putin threatens Czechs over US missile shield. Putin wants POland and Czech Republic to wait for 2008 because he does not exclude "that a new administration in the United States will re-evaluate the current administration's decisions on missile defence".
Russia tests the "mother of all bombs" (video inside) and announces it is environmentally friendly.
Ahmadine-jihad pushes peace for all, except Israel. Of course, it's logical… from his point of view…
Killed 45 Talibans in Afghanistan and 30 in Pakistan.
Spain, Catholic (¡!) Bishop Muskens, 2nd Bin Laden's video and Sudanese Government's attack (+)
Around 1.200 people who wanted to cross the frontier from Melilla to Morocco caused the closing of the frontier post of Beni Enzar after some incidents were registered between Moroccans.According to the Government's Delegation of Melilla, yesterday in the main frontier post of the autonomous city, a large concentration of Moroccans gathered in the gate. They wanted to cross to Spanish land to go to the last day of Melilla's local holidays.It was then when, after the Police stopped them and did not allow them to pass, when it was discovered they lack any identification, they began throwing stones, and as a result the gate was closed.[So, who they were throwing stones at? It was not between them, it was at Spanish police... speaking about MSM accuracy :twisted: ].
According to the Government's Delegation, and considering the facts that were happening, they asked for the collaboration of the Moroccan police, who arrived at the place, "in great numbers" and helped to end the incident.
ABC.es: nacional – nacional – Una aglomeración de personas provoca el cierre de la frontera en Melilla
Hmm, they had no identification. And they say they were going to a party. Yes, of course…
From Catalonia:
Ciutadans (the party of the Citizens) announced that during this week they will present several complaints, similar to the ones they have already presented in Tarragona, in other cities such as Sant Cugat, Pallejà or Vilassar de Mar, who also do not have the Spanish flag displayed.
Imagine this in your own country: there are parts of Spain where official buildings don't display the Spanish flag! They are not fulfilling the law and say they are not going to do it at all. So how on earth they are asking citizens to do it?? (specially with taxes…)
And then if I don't like you, I'm just going to menace you, but telling you, you're the culprit of the menaces, not me. A real swap in the responsibility, isn't it? Well, that happened last week-end and again yesterday.
The façade of Catalonian PP's central office in Barcelona –located in Urgell st.- appeared on Monday totally stained of red paint. The facts happened throughout the night and were recorded by the 2 security cameras located in the office's front doors. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Autonomous Community police) are seeing the recordings to identify the culprits. PP is linking this attack to their participation this Thursday, after three years of absence, in the National Diada of Catalonia (the regional holiday).
And after transport competences have been transferred to other Autonomous Communities , now it's Madrid the one which is going to receive it. Really? Well, we don't know. In the first place:
Madrid's Autonomous Community will have a share in the management of the outskirts trains which travel inside its territory, and of the Barajas airport. It also will have the management of the M-40 motorway with a total State funding of €400 millions to make all the "necessary public works" of connections and windenings.
Those are some of the commitments that Madrid's AC President, Esperanza Aguirre, succeded to snatch away from Zapatero during their meeting.
The Minister for Public Adminsitration, Elena Salgado, has assured that the Government is ready to give the Autonomous Community a "share in the management" of the net of outskirt trains of the region but not to give Madrid the competence in that respect
Salgado has underlined that in Madrid's Autonomy Statute does not figure that as a competence of the Community, while it appears on the Catalonian's one.
So, as Catalonian statute has it (it is contested before the Constitutional Tribunal), the rest are asking for it…From my point of view, this is insane. It's good to transfer some competences but not ALL, as the equality for all citizens is not really guaranteed then. And the citizens get confused…
Some days ago, a polemic erupted when Bishop Muskens told a television audience that Catholics (for example, me) should call God, Allah (Not in a Million Years! ). The Catholic Education Resource Center has an article by Kathleen Turner about this "idea". An excerpt:
as Muskens pointed out, Allah is a lovely sounding word. Thus, in the spirit of Christian charity and Western tolerance, I've been trying it out with mixed results.
The Doxology of my Protestant childhood is problematic with the two-syllable Allah instead of the monosyllabic God, but not impossible: Praise Allah, from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Not perfect, but workable.
Changing Western language, symbols and making other accommodations to ease relations between old Europe and new isn't only a conciliatory gesture or even mere appeasement. It is submission by any other name.
America 's familiar childhood blessing is downright euphonious: Allah is great, Allah is good, let us thank him for our food. But the Apostle's Creed is a mess: I believe in Allah the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son … . Oops.Contrary to Hooper's one-God claim, Christians and Muslims don't really worship the same God. Although both religions are monotheistic — and if there's just one God, there's just one God — Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God and Muslims think otherwise.That's not a small doctrinal difference. In fact, at the risk of exhausting the obvious, Christianity doesn't exist without, um, Christ. Of course we could rewrite the Apostle's Creed to include Muhammad: "I believe in Allah the Father Almighty … and in Muhammad, his favorite prophet …
My God -not Allah-! Praying for Muskens' sanity… Because if it weren't for Christian charity, this would be my own answer: .
Luis says something basic about examples like Muskens': The root of the Islamist problem in Europe is not on Muslims' groups. We have to search for it in European circles, as a result of Appeasement. [...] It is only our cowardice, our absolute fault of civil courage, of determination, of faith in ourselves and our own capacities. Muslims are not responsible for that.
Al-Qaeda has announced that sleepy-with-my-speech" Laden, is going to appear in another video… And, accordingly to latest reports, he appears in it (Bin Laden wants a caravan of martyrs) praising the sept 11 bombers. As he did not succeed the first time in his objective of terrifying everyone with his youthness (false: his hair was dyed ), and considering that another loooooooooooooooong speech quoting Noam Chomsky, would definitely get all the human beings to sleep , he has decided that it's better to let one of the suicide terrorists speak.
The latest videotape, of the hijacker's testament, had not yet been posted on extremist web sites. But IntelCenter, a monitoring group in suburban Washington, said it had obtained the 47-minute video and provided it to Associated Press Television News.
In the tape, bin Laden praised al-Shehri, saying he "recognized the truth" that Arab rulers were "vassals" of the West and had "abandoned the balance of (Islamic) revelation."
"It is true that this young man was little in years, but the faith in his heart was big," he said.
"So there is a huge difference between the path of the kings, presidents and hypocritical Ulama (Islamic scholars) and the path of these noble young men," like al-Shehri, bin Laden said. "The formers' lot is to spoil and enjoy themselves whereas the latters' lot is to destroy themselves for Allah's Word to be Supreme."
"It remains for us to do our part. So I tell every young man among the youth of Islam: It is your duty to join the caravan (of martyrs) until the sufficiency is complete and the march to aid the High and Omnipotent continues," he said.
Bin Laden:
is re-emerging to tout his leadership — whether symbolic or effective — of the jihad movement. While past anniversary videos featured old footage of bin Laden, the latest appears likely to include a newly made speech.
Bin Laden had not appeared for nearly three years until a new video was released over the weekend. In that video, he addressed the American people, telling them the war in Iraq is a failure and taking on a new anti-globalization rhetoric. He urged Americans to abandon capitalism and democracy and embrace Islam.
Al-Qaida's media arm, Al-Sahab, announced the impending second video Monday with an advertising banner posted on an Islamic militant Web forum where the group often posts its messages.
The video was likely to be released within 24 hours to coincide with Sept. 11, said Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors and analyzes militant messages.
He even has not changed clothes:
The Web banner included a still image of bin Laden from the upcoming video. Shown raising his finger, he wears the same dyed-black beard and the same clothes — white robe and round cap and beige cloak — that he had on in the video posted on the Web on Saturday.
Well, err, not impressed yet. That beard does not make you more attractive… Or is it that bitter expression?
Anyway, what really impresses me is the never-ending birth of more heads to the Al-Qaeda hydra -and the lack of fight against the Islamist ideology…-:
Six years after the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network is bleeding the U.S. military in Iraq while regrouping with an avowed aim of another strike on the United States. U.S. intelligence agencies and other analysts say security improvements and international efforts against al Qaeda have helped prevent another major U.S. attack.
But the network's ability to attack the West is rebounding, they say, and already it has met what some analysts describe as a goal of luring the United States into a damaging Middle East war that would cripple U.S. influence in the region.
Al Qaeda has inspired cells and sympathizers who may be unable to strike on the scale of September 11 but can nevertheless cause death and destruction.
"They have regained a significant level of their capability," National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell said of al Qaeda during a Senate hearing on Monday, the eve of the sixth anniversary. "The threat is real," he said.
And well, not attacking his ideology in the war of ideas happening just now, just condemns the rest to fight these jihadis for a long time. See:
"To us, war is a finite undertaking with a clear beginning and a clear end," says Brian Jenkins, a senior adviser to the president of RAND Corp. in Arlington, Va. "To our jihadist foes, war is a perpetual condition."
[...]In Western media much time and space has been devoted to analyzing the appearance of the terrorist leader himself, notes author and former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer. Was his black beard – which was obviously dyed – a sign of some sort? Did it mean his health was better, or worse?
But the debate on cable TV news might better have focused on bin Laden urging Americans to embrace Islam, says Mr. Scheuer.
In the US, that rhetoric might be rejected as silly; in the Islamic world, it could be seen as an offer that goes the extra mile. It might allow bin Laden to later say that he did all he could before he launched further attacks.
"From their perspective the world is going their way. It was a very confident speech," says Scheuer, a former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden tracking unit.
"it could be seen as an offer that goes the extra mile"… let me see, yeah, "I'm going to make you an offer you could never reject", The Godfather. Well, Bin Laden, even if you dye your beard, you're no Marlon Brando (and no, I do not like Marlon Brando very much, but compared with Bin Laden… ).
Osama bin Laden himself has not attended this council in two years, says Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. Instead, it is run by his long-time deputy, Mr. Zawahiri.
Zawahiri now has placed key allies in charge of such crucial missions as communications with the outside world. He has engineered affiliations with radical Islamic groups in Algeria and elsewhere.
"He has become the driving force behind Al Qaeda, an
d is probably content that we are still obsessed with Osama bin Laden," says Mr. Hoffman.
Al Qaeda's rebuilt organizational capacity may be revealed by the recent arrests in Germany that alledgedly derailed a plot to bomb US-related targets.
Hmmm, so basically, Zawahiri is hiding after Bin Laden. Dangerous…
Related news:
Thompson: due process for Bin Laden, though he needs to be caught and killed.
US man jailed for Al-Qaeda links. A US federal judge has sentenced a Californian man to 24 years in jail for attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan and lying about it. The judge said Hamid Hayat, 25, had returned home ready and willing to wage violent jihad (hmm, is there another one in terms of security? ). He was arrested in 2005 after returning from a two-year trip to Pakistan. Prosecutors said he received terrorist training and plotted against targets in California, including banks, hospitals and government buildings.
(+) Red Alerts reports that a lot of Jihadi websites have been deleted, even the one who had a post titled "Happy 9/11 to All the Muslims of the World".
More in The Midnight Sun. A must read. Don't know if it's true or not but, at least, it's logical.
Sudanese Government, just peacefully acting in Darfur, while conversations are on motion:
Sudanese government planes have bombed the town of Haskinita in North Darfur, a rebel official has told the BBC.
Rebel Justice and Equality Movement official Abdel Aziz said the aerial attacks had killed at least 25 civilians and three of his fighters.
He said the bombardment had started on Monday afternoon and then ground forces entered the rebel-controlled town.
Sudan's government was not available for comment. African Union peacekeepers could not confirm the reports.
The Jem official said most of town's residents had fled.
At least there are 12 people killed, in another flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire approved by UN.
So Sudan's government at first was not available for comment BUT afterwards it has denied all of these facts -as it ever does-. So what is going to do Ban "I'm-impressed-for-what-I've-seen-although-I-have-known-it-for-years-but-it's-good-to-say-it-now" Ki-Moon now?" Because:
The African Union spokerperson –African Union has deployed 7.000 soldiers in Darfur–, Noureddine Mezni, confirmed he has received similar reports about what happened. An African Union soldier in Haskanita confirmed to AP that "real combats" happened there during all day.
"We heard air bombings and constant shootings very near", the soldier explained, asking to be kept annonymous. "I don't know how many victims there are, but the city was severelly attacked", he added. He also confirmed that the AU contingent did not take part in the fight, justifying that measure because of the redeploymeny of all forces to a reduced complex in Haskanita since June and due to the violence in the region.
So, just to explain here: soldiers, sent to ensure there is no fighting, do not meddle between the fighters because there is violence in the region. Hmm, so what are they doing there then??? Speaking about international organizations effectiveness…
Now playing: Hans Zimmer – King Arthur – All Of Them! (1
via FoxyTunes
September 11 (+)
Because the Pentagon was also attacked on Sept 11. (I know that the Twin Towers are a symbol, but everyone I have read is remembering them. And the people who died on the Pentagon also deserve a remembrance).
:oops: I was forgetting. A group of young ex-Muslims are launching today a campaign for the right to abandon Islam, without reprisals. h/t O Insurgente.
Ehsan Jami, the committee's founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack.
(+) Lawhawk has a magnificent post with updates about Ground Zero. h/t Carl in Jerusalem.
Venezuelan opposition, German terrorist plot and an antisemitic crime, Spain, Pakistan and Sandmonkey
Superb post from Kate about the situation of Venezuelan oposition. An excerpt:
These guys cannot get it through their skulls that there needs to be some sort of united front against Chavez, if for nothing else to create a legitimate opposition. Honestly, if I were chavista, I wouldn't even bother to write about the opposition; I'd be laughing way too hard to be able to sit down and write something coherent. Primero Justicia wants to vote article by article; the student movement –which has been called sifrino by many in the elite political class– continues, albeit intermittently; COPEI wants to get rid of article 141; AD is nowhere to be found. All the meanwhile, chavistas and the administration are giving opposition forces the run-around by entertaining futile opposition attempts. The saddest part of it all? The opposition are buying into it! They are what my Italian grandmother calls stunods, which are essentially thick-headed people who are gluttons for punishment.
A colombo-americana's perspective: Trouble in el dizque paraiso de Chavezuela?
You should read it all.
The accused conspirators in a bombing plot disrupted last week in Germany were part of what the authorities say is a small, but growing, flow of militants from Germany and other Western countries who are receiving terrorism training at camps in Pakistan.
Beginning early last year, at least five of the suspects traveled to the tribal regions of Waziristan, where they learned to prepare chemical explosives and military-grade detonators that they intended to use to build three car bombs, according to German officials and a confidential German intelligence document that details the allegations.
[...] As further evidence of traffic between Germany and the tribal areas of Pakistan, intelligence officials said six other men from Germany who had received similar training had been detained in Pakistan, and they suspect that numerous other Germans have attended the camps without being identified by the authorities.
German officials say they are troubled by evidence that Al Qaeda and other groups are training Western-born recruits whose passports allow them easy access to other Western countries.
"They started to look especially for people from Europe, because they wanted to train them and later to use them here in Germany for operations," said a high-ranking German intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
The accusations in Germany contain similarities to two high-profile cases in Britain.
[...] This summer militants released a 46-minute videotape depicting some 250 graduates of a Taliban training camp near the Afghan-Pakistan border, which included speeches in English by recruits who were grouped by the countries they had been trained to attack, including Germany and the United States.
"We are not only fighting in Afghanistan," the Taliban leader, Mullah Mansoor, said at the end of the ceremony. "Those American, British, German, French, Canadian and others who have come to finish us, if God wills, we will destroy them with the power of strong faith in God. We will commit suicidal attacks and we will destroy their national assets."
Read it all.
This also happens in Spain by the way, and specially in Catalonia.
For Islamist terrorist organizations this is something necessary… as they avoid better the police control and the possible suspicions from the neighbourhood.
Also in Germany a rabbi has been stabbed in the stomach:
A rabbi was stabbed in the stomach by another man on a Frankfurt street in what appeared to be a spontaneous attack, police said Saturday.
The 42-year-old rabbi, whose name was not disclosed, underwent surgery after the Friday night attack and appeared to be out of danger, police said.
The rabbi was walking with two other people when they encountered the assailant accompanied by two women, a police statement said. Witnesses said the attacker spoke to the rabbi — who was wearing a yarmulke — in what sounded like Arabic.
The rabbi did not understand, and the attacker then threatened in German to kill him and stabbed him once, police said. The attacker fled and the women who were with him ran in different directions.
So who is the murderer? De Der Spiegel (aquí el link en alemán a la noticia):
Here in Spain:
a) ETA has accused the Government of "not fulfilling their pacts" (oops, but the Government says there weren't any…) and that they will continue with the "armed struggle". Zapatero said that this year was going to be better that the previous one, and the next day the Barajas' T4 terminal exploded after an ETA's device went off, killing two persons. Just a few days ago, Zapatero in the independent diary of the morning, that is, EL País, in an interview, blamed on Popular Party the lack of success of the peace process. And today he is accused of not fulfilling his pacts with ETA… Now, that for those who deny Zapatero is a jynx. And a liar….
And on Monday 10th, a car has exploded in Logroño, although no one has been killed or hurt…
b) the Government wants to impose on the citizens a new subject, which would be taught at the schools: Education for Citizenship. Roughly speaking, this is a subject whose aim is to teach children, leftists are lovers of the arts, peaceful, good in essence, while right-wingers are militarists, professional haters and so on. I will write about that, as it is an important thing to consider for next generations. But if you speak Spanish, you can go here to know more about it.
c) the same foundation which is training the Education for Citizenship's teachers has advised that the Civil War's History must be re-written. Hilarion, in Valea's blog, (to both!) wrote this comment [my translation]:
it was about time that someone tells us the truth about what happened. I am going to advise them to include, at least, these fundamental facts which had been systematically manipulated or hidden:
1) Calvo Sotelo was not killed by assault guards who were supporters of Socialist PSOE. He committed suicide shooting himself twice in the back of his own head.
2) Franco made his Moor forces cross the Strait of Gibraltar in makeshift vessels (=pateras).
3) Carrillo had nothing to do with Paracuellos. He was at a program in El País newspaper's radio Cadena Ser speaking in a program.
4) Andreu Nin escaped to Brasil with the Bank of Spain's gold. Only the fascist propaganda said that he dissapeared because the stalinists have killed him and that he gave the gold to Stalin so that the latter could guard it.
5) The Republicans (Reds, communists…) won the Ebro's Battle. But when they were attacking it, they positioned themselved on the wrong side of the river.
6) The Republic won the war, but the Franco's propaganda achieved its goal: no one had been able to discover that till now.
7) It is not true that Hemingway and Dos Passos ended with all the reserves of gin in Madrid. What is true is that they were stinking with a known smell, because, when they have just arrived in Madrid, an unknown and not very careful waiter, stinked their clothes with a Beefeater Gin's bottle and, considering the bad state of finances in the capital then, they weren't able to change their clothes throughout all the war.
d) the agressions against PP members continue: a New Generations' militant (New Generations is the association for youths of PP) has been hurt after being beaten heavily. A group of violents have already attacked the PP stand in Alcorcón (celevrating now its patron's holidays). The party's spokerperson in Alcorcón, Fernando Díaz, has also suffered some contusions in the face, arm and hand, and has denounced the facts to the Police.
According to their statement, at 7:30 pm, around 15 youths began "to insult and menace the people who were there working inside the stand. When the latter considered what was happenning, they abandoned what they were doing and scaped running", he said.
But the agressors run after them, pursuing the hurt man, an Italian national, who was beaten severely, and was later driven to Hospital, although he was discharged from hospital later.
The agressors were identified as okupas, "belonging to anti-system groups who came from another caseta with republican flags".
e) the Prince of Asturias' daughter has begun going to school. But not to a normal/ordinary school. After repeating in all TV shows, that the Prince and his family are "youths of their age" (though they don't have to pay mortgage..), the Infanta Leonor is going to a school built for her, whose companions are sons and daughter of the Civil Guard. The school has been built by the Defense Ministry (as if it had a huge budget…) and a third part of it is paid by the Autonomous Community of Madrid (as if they were Kings only of it, instead of Spain… something which would not reduce the general criticism against "the capital", just because it is the capital…). :roll:
f) On Sunday, the victim no. 56 (of this year) as a result of domestic violence was killed. The Fundación Mujeres (Women Foundation) has released a video to make the women aware of the emotional blackmail a majority of them suffer. That same emotional blackmail is the root of some of them stopping the criminal processes against their husbands/lovers/…
If this proves something is that the Law of Full Protection against Gender Violence has had very little effect in preventing this kind of acts. From my point of view, there are two very interesting things in this law: first, that if a woman beats her husband he has not the same protection as she would have in the same situation; and that if it is a same-sex marriage, the partners are also excluded from the law. And secondly, considering the measures the law imposes, the budget to really make them possible should be enormous. But the budget is not so important as to make that possible…
In fact, this is not a problem of huge budgets or of engaging more policemen or civil servants, but of education. Intelligence, goodness, beauty, honesty, etc. are valors which are not given by nationality, height or sex, but that appear in some individuals while are not present in others. But if both chauvinists and feminists keep on saying their sexes are above the other -while neither of them is right-, the situation will be maintained in the long run. Situation which is aggravated by the immigration which normally comes from places which are even more chauvinistic than Spain.
According to the report from the Spanish General Council of Judicial Power h/t Desde Mi Rincón, these are the numbers:
|Protection orders
|Presented accusations
|Spanish minor
|Foreign minor
|Spanish minor
|Foreign minor
|Spanish man
|Foreign man
|Spanish woman
|Foreign woman
So some men are suffering mistreatment in silence, aren't they? No one speaks about this… and campaigns are normally aimed at mistreated women, but no mistreated man is mentioned. And in the present state of things I feel we will have to wait to see that This is not equality, really. At least, from my point of view.
g) The socialist Major of Sevilla has supported the Chaves' initiative of giving free apartments in Andalucía and has announced that he will raise the Tax on Real State a 50% to the unnoccupied houses. He maintains that his objective is "to make more attractive the renting market" to ensure that the appartments are a "fundamental right" and not a "business". He has not outlined what criteria will be used to decide if a house is or not occupied. From PP, Javier Arenas considers the Chaves' initiative a "joke of the worst taste".
NOTE: Chávez is the Venezuelan Bolivarian blablabla President. Cháves is the President of the Autonomous Community of Andalucia. I know, I also mix them up.
Noblesse Oblige writes about Pakistan and the return of Nawaz Sharif, scheduled for Monady 9/10. And… Nawad Sharif was arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia:
After landing in Islamabad he was charged and put on board a plane bound for Saudi Arabia, Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul-Haq told BBC News.
Mr Sharif says he wants to challenge President Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in a 1999 coup, ahead of elections.
Mr Sharif arrived in Pakistan weeks after the country's Supreme Court affirmed his right to return.
On board the plane which flew him to Pakistan from London, Mr Sharif told the BBC he wanted to help restore the rule of law.
"It's democracy versus dictatorship," he said.
Once the plane arrived in Islamabad, paramilitary troops surrounded it and there was a stand-off on board as Mr Sharif refused to hand over his passport to immigration officials for nearly two hours.
Eventually he agreed to leave the plane and was escorted to the airport's VIP lounge.
But shortly afterwards, he was separated from his entourage, returned to the tarmac and put on board a helicopter. Later, he was transferred to a plane bound for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Officials said he had been charged with money-laundering and corruption.
So, Musharraf wanted reconciliation, didn't he?
Oh, and last but not least, Sandmonkey, the best -for me- of Egyptian bloggers is back. Sooo, go there and read…
Terrorism update: Algeria, Pakistan, Germany and Bin Laden's new hair color (+) (+)
At least 28 people have been killed and many others injured after a car bomb exploded at a barracks housing coastguard officials in Algeria. The country's official news agency quoted local officials who said the explosion occurred in the northern coastal town of Dellys. That's about 50 kilometres from Algiers. The attack came just two days after another bombing killed at least 20 in a crowd of people in eastern Algeria who were waiting to see visiting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Car bomb kills 28 in Algeria | At a Glance | Deutsche Welle | 08.09.2007
Forbes – 3 hours ago
By HASSANE MEFTAHI 09.08.07, 2:39 PM ET A car bombing killed 28 coast guard officers in Algeria on Saturday, just days after a blast ripped through a crowd waiting for the president.
[...] Although there was no claim of responsibility in either attack, al-Qaida's North African affiliate has carried out a spate of recent bombings that have shattered the Algerian government's efforts – successful until recently – to restore calm after a 15-year Islamist insurgency.
The government has responded by intensifying military crackdowns on Islamic militants hiding out in remote scrubland. Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni warned terrorists Friday that they have "one choice: turn themselves in, or die."
In Saturday's blast, explosives planted in a van ripped through barracks in the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 30 miles from the capital, Algiers. The bombing appeared timed to kill as many officers as possible, when they were grouped together to raise the flag.
It was not immediately clear whether the bomber was killed in the blast or escaped.
The 28 victims were all coast guard officials, hospital authorities said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. About 20 others were injured.
Suicide bomb kills 28 in Algeria AFP
Second bombing hits Algeria CNN
Euronews.net – magharebia.com – Xinhua – Voice of America
all 738 news articles
According to abc.es, it has killed 30 and wounded 47.
Noisy Room.Net has more.
UN has condemned the attack. The terrorists must be trembling … :(
About North African affiliate, the Al-Qaida organization for the Islamic Maghreb, click here. (+) It has already claimed both attacks.
For implications for Spanish national security, click here.
For other attacks on Maghreb by the same group, click here.
Related news about Algeria: 5 sentenced for preaching Christianity. "Five people were sentenced earlier in June for charges related preaching Christian doctrine and public order offences by virtue of the law on the religious practice in Algeria approved by the government in 2006. The sentences vary between one year sentence with no remission and one year suspended sentence with a 5000 AD fine."
Pakistan has been placed on high alert:
Pakistan's airports have been placed on high alert, with officials saying the threat of a terror attack is imminent. The government has also banned gatherings of five or more people near Rawalpindi's international airport. The moves come just days before exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to return to Pakistan to challenge President Pervez Musharraf in elections, despite a call from a Saudi official urging him to stay away.
About the German plot:
German media report that the three suspected Islamist militants accused of planning attacks against American targets in Germany had orders to act by September 15 and knew police were hot on their trail before their arrest. According to surveillance details published in Der Spiegel magazine, the men were given a two-week deadline for their planned strikes in a call from northern Pakistan that was monitored by German police in late August. The plan was foiled on Tuesday when police arrested two German converts to Islam and a Turkish national in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Prosecutors say the men had obtained material to make bombs with power equal to 550 kilograms of TNT.
As a result of the plot, Germany considers increased spying on Muslims.h/t Stefania.
This was "something new, and not in a good way," said Col. Christopher Langdon of London's International Institute for Strategic Studies . They "came from the white German population. They were very traditional German residents who converted and radicalized. These bombers were not Pakistani or Moroccan. That is raising eyebrows."
Anti-terror forces had been concerned primarily with first or second generation Muslim immigrants – not white Europeans.
Guenther Beckstein , the interior minister in the German state of Bavaria and a conservative leader of the southern wing of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party , has called for a new law authorizing online surveillance of Islamic converts.
"Germans converting to Islam should be watched because they tend to show particular fanaticism in order to prove worthy of their new religion," he said Thursday.
The number is growing, according to the German Islam archive. In the last decade, only about 300 Germans each year converted to Islam. But in 2005, the number rose to 1,000, and it jumped to 4,000 in 2006.
Well, the fanatism in new converts is not new. Normally they were used to guard the non-converts, as they were much more cruel than the Muslims themselves. And for the same reason…
And Bin Laden has been searching for "blue-eyed terrorists" since the beginning: less police control, less suspicions arisen in the neighbourhood…
US intercept key in German terror plot
Police News – 22 hours ago
By Dirk Laabs, Sebastian Rotella and Josh Meyer BERLIN, Germany – A US intelligence intercept of suspicious communications between Pakistan and Stuttgart was the initial break that ultimately led to the arrest this week of three suspected Muslim accused of plotting massive car bomb attacks here against Americans, U.S. and German officials said Thursday.
The communications detected last year referred to apparent terrorist activity, the German and U.S. officials said in interviews. The German officials characterized the communications as specific and alarming. All the officials asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
American authorities passed the lead to German police, who conducted a painstaking investigation that led to the arrests of the three suspects, two of whom are German converts to Islam. Police here suspected that militants were communicating with Pakistan from an Internet cafe, a frequent strategy to avoid detection, but they did not know which one. So they deployed surveillance teams at several dozen Internet cafes around the city, officials said.
The stakeouts paid off when police spotted a 28-year-old convert who was already known as an associate of Islamic militants and has been identified as Fritz Gelowicz.
About 300 investigators worked round-the-clock for nine months to monitor the alleged plotters. Using sophisticated eavesdropping equipment of their own, the Germans watched and listened as the suspected cell coalesced and amassed a stash of bomb-making materials.
Oops, they were listened! For months! And they only had some hairdresser's equipment to dye hairs! (perhaps bin Laden's… :mrgreen: ) .
You'll never guess who is thought to be the author of the new Bin Laden's video…. :mrgreen:
Osama bin Laden's latest message is a hodgepodge of anti-capitalist vitriol, impassioned Islamic evangelism and what can best be described as a twisted attempt at reconciliation: Join us, or we'll kill you.
Analysts say the video that came out days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is more about timing than substance, an attempt by history's most wanted fugitive to thumb his nose at the forces arrayed against him and remind the world that he hasn't been caught.
He ridiculed President Bush on Iraq, saying events there have gotten "out of control" and comparing the American leader to "one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure.
infidels are Cool has the video with its complete transcription. Hmm, by the way, Mr. Bin Laden (looks like a Castro's speech, soooooooooooooo boring), could you just name Al-Mansur's razzias? Oh, yeah, the Inquisition was a very bad invention, BUT at least they had tribunals. Al-Mansur -to name one of the worst- killed people with no tribunals, Mr, and when it was a woman with a baby, he ordered that her breasts should be cut, so that if she survived, the boy was to be killed by hunger, under the attentive (and painful) look of his/her mother. So, just spare that tone of moral superiority. Spain knew what was like that kind of "we are morally superior, so pay jizya or die". Although that was long enough and… a lot of people have forgotten…
There was another thing that is very interesting, Mr Bin "even-the-flies-get-sleepy-with-my-speech" Laden, and that you forgot to name it. Spain was, during most of the Islamic "ruling" considered as "apostate", "heretic"… because it "independenced" itself from Damascus/Baghdad's rule. So our Muslim brethren from Morocco came here twice (almoravids and almohads) to teach aborigines morals, peaceful way. You know, whether they were Muslims, Jews, Christians or just weren't interested in religion, they were killed because they were not in the same line of thought.
It's curious, Mr Bin "even-the-flies-get-sleepy-with-my-speech" Laden, almoravids and almohads are, ideologically speaking, your ancestors. They also had Mujahideen, they wanted to get the Earth into a Global Caliphate and so on. The only difference is that they did not have Internet, nor TVs, etc, so once they got here, they got tempted by wine, beach and the sunshine, and in one generation, they had totally became like the aborigines…. :mrgreen:
Yeah, I know, very disagreeable for you, isn't it? You're stuck in the XIth century while the rest have evolved.
And no, I don't get at all impressed by your hairdresser's work as I told you yesterday… :twisted:
By the way, it's curious who was the man who told you about 9-11:
The idea of using suicide pilots to obliterate the skyscrapers of Manhattan originated in 1940s Berlin. "In the latter stages of the war, I never saw Hitler so beside himself as when, as if in a delirium, he was picturing to himself and to us the downfall of New York in towers of flame," wrote Albert Speer in his diary. "He described the skyscrapers turning into huge burning torches and falling hither and thither, and the reflection of the disintegrating city in the dark sky."
Not only Hitler's fantasy but also his plan of action foreshadowed September 11: He envisioned having kamikaze pilots fly light aircraft packed with explosives and with no landing gear into Manhattan skyscrapers. The drawings for the Daimler-Benz Amerikabomber from the spring of 1944 show giant four-engine planes with raised undercarriages for transporting small bombers. The bombers would be released shortly before the planes reached the East Coast, after which the mother plane would return to Europe.
:shock: Well, well, well… who could have guessed that Al-Qaeda was not even original? Just copying Hitler theories…
(+) An Osama's cartoon:
Related news: Someone told me once, being mentioned here was like being on CNN. Well, I would never run this show…
Look who says is going to be very tough on Pakistan… You guessed it right, it is Mr. "I-use-a-SUV-but-citizens-cannot-to-protect-the-environment"… Bwahahahahaha! :lol:
My goodness, what a foolish world we live in… :roll:
"'Radical' changes for EU neighbours", China, Somalia, Bin Laden's new hair color, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, homosexual paedophiles sheltering children, Pakistan and the Muslim Cinderella (+)
Alarming news indeed:
The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, on Monday outlined what it called "radical" changes to its relations with the countries that border on the union.
Addressing a conference that included ministers from the 16 neighbour countries and the 27 EU members, European Commission Vice President Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the Commission proposes to open up the European markets to workers, services and goods from the EU's neighbours.
The Commission's proposal calls for instance for better legal migration, a tougher approach to illegal immigration. In the area of energy, it tables the idea of regional energy partnership that would eliminate the need for the bilateral pacts currently in place with some countries.
EUX.TV – Brussels Minute: 'Radical' changes for EU neighbours h/t Millenium Notes.
So, they are going to open all the borders to mainly our Mediterranean brothers, just in case they were not crossing the Mediterranean fast enough. :mad:
This is released about the same time in which a suicide bomber has blown up himself in Algeria, killing at least 22 people. The suicide attack aimed at President Bouteflika. When he saw he has been detected by the people around him, he exploded himself before the scheduled moment. (En español)
From BBC:
Doctors in China have discovered 26 sewing needles embedded in the body of a 31-year-old woman.
They think they were inserted into Luo Cuifen's body when she was a baby by grandparents upset she was not a boy. :shock:
[...] The needles were discovered only when Ms Luo went to hospital complaining of blood in her urine. She was given a routine X-ray, which revealed the needles. Up until then she had been in good health.
Some of these needles have penetrated vital organs, such as the lungs, liver and kidneys. One has even broken into three pieces in the woman's brain.
[...] But there is no way to confirm this theory, as the grandparents are now dead.
In many rural areas boys were – and still are – valued more highly than girls. One reason is that they can carry on the family name.
Well, the main reason is not that rubbish about the family name, but the one-child policy which favoured during a lot of time, the boys over the girls. The consequence is that there is a great disproportion between the percentage of women and men in China nowadays.
A problem aggravated with a return to an ancient past within China, when mistresses were normal in the higher circles:
Chinese anti-graft investigators have found that 90 percent of the country's most senior officials brought down in corruption cases in recent years had kept mistresses, drawing a link between sex and misconduct.
Mistresses and "second wives" are common among government officials and businessmen in China and are often blamed for driving officials to seek money through bribes or other abuses of power.
A report by China's top prosecutor's office said that of 16 provincial-level officials punished for "serious" graft in the last five years, most were involved in "trading power for sex", along with gambling, money-laundering and shady land sales to developers, the Beijing News said on Monday.
"Nearly 90 percent kept mistresses, some keeping several," the paper said.
In Somalia, while the insurgents (err, well, Al-Qaeda linked tipes…) and the Government are going to talk, one of the insurgents hideouts has been raided:
Nine people have been killed and 20 others seriously injured in Somalia's capital during a raid on a house by government forces targeting insurgents.
Explosions and gunfire rocked Bakara market in Mogadishu as security forces battled insurgents defending the house thought to be sheltering their leader.
On Wednesday six people were killed during another raid against insurgents.
Mogadishu has seen a rise in violence since Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted Islamists last December
The UN refugee agency says some 400,000 people have fled the fighting in the capital in the past four months.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says most of those injured during the fighting are civilians who were caught in the crossfire.
Transitional government forces have been carrying out operations against insurgents for the past two months, but this was the first time a house was targeted, our correspondent says.
Bin Laden urges American to convert ( :lol: ). Well, I really feel that he is not cool enough no matters how much henna he uses… I mean, with that look, he is not going to be a masses' idol:
It appears that a texture effect has been added over the entire image. Perhaps the intent is to hide what appears to me to be a very sickly man. The shoulders are pronouncedly slumped, as if he has lost all muscle tone. It shows serious wasting which many times occurs in Alzheimer patients. (As if we didn't already know that he was demented). The flesh of his face is sagging. I think this IS a new picture. In November of 2001 Salon.com conjectured that Osama might be suffering from Marfan syndrome.
Well, perhaps for some leftists-Chomsky-lovers, and such… he is attractive.
(+) More on Bin Laden's hairdresser's work.
Characteristically, no one is picking up on the significance of the dye job. The Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black "except when the intention is jihad…as a show of strength to unbelievers" ('Umdat al-Salik e.4.4). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, says essentially the same thing: "Some of the early Muslims, including some sahabah [companions of Muhammad] such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, 'Uqbah ibn 'Amr, al-Hassan, al-Hussein, Jarir, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars, on the other hand, do not consider the use of
black dye as permissible except during time of war, when the enemy might be impressed by the fact that all the soldiers of the Muslim army look young."
As I said, I am not impressed by his
hairdresser's work youthness..
What is significant though is that he thinks he is in war… Now, let's see if the rest also begin realising we are in a war too…
President Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan) revived the possibility of an alphabet switch last fall, requesting that the Ministry of Education and Science examine the experiences of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have all changed to Latin letters. The ministry's proposed action plan is based primarily on the model used in Uzbekistan. It calls for a six-step program, outlining cost estimates for retraining the country's workforce to read Latin script, and changing signs on streets and public buildings. The overall cost of switching is estimated at US$300 million.
Turkmenistan's role in energy:
The pipeline expansion, provided it actually comes into being, could deal a substantial blow to western interests in Turkmenistan. In particular, it has the potential to deter a long-held goal of the United States – construction of a Trans-Caspian Pipeline that would carry Central Asian energy to Azerbaijan, where it would be distributed to the West.
As one Pentagon official said prior to the announcement of the Russian-Turkmen pipeline agreement: "If there is a new Great Game being played in Central Asia, the most important part is Turkmenistan."
Western officials in Turkmenistan, however, deny that they have "lost" anything to Russia. "We don't see it as a zero-sum game, as Russia and other countries in the region do," said one Western diplomat.
But the diplomat acknowledges that Russia has an advantage in dealing with Turkmenistan; that Moscow doesn't make the same demands on human rights and democratization as do Washington and Brussels. "We would love to know the real reason [that Russia was awarded the pipeline deal], but that seems to be the logical explanation," the diplomat said.
Another Western diplomat said a major factor was connected to the fact that Russia devotes more high level attention to Turkmenistan than does the United States or European countries. "When Berdymukhammedov calls the Kremlin, it's [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who picks up the phone; when he calls Washington it's a deputy assistant secretary of state. And the presidential level is where you get things done," the diplomat said.
Exactly the same as China in Sudan, about HR and democratization… :mad:
Two maids beaten to death in Saudi Arabia, accused of practising "black magic" h/t NMJ:
The brutality of attacks on four Indonesian maids last month in the Saudi town of Aflaj shocked even the most hardened observers in this kingdom, where employers have a long history of mistreating their domestic workers.
Accused of practicing black magic on the son of their Saudi employers, these domestic helpers were beaten over a period of two days beginning Aug. 3. Siti Tarwiyah Slamet and Susmiyati Abdul Fulan were killed. Tari Tarsam and Ruminih Surtim survived, but were taken away by Saudi police from the hospital just days after being admitted once they were deemed well enough to be questioned.
Since then, seven Saudi males from the same family have been arrested and are under investigation. The Saudi government never officially informed the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh of the crime, and only after migrant groups and relatives of the maids held two demonstrations outside the Saudi Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, did the Saudi ambassador to Indonesia issue a statement saying that authorities in Riyadh needed more time to complete their investigation before they could send the two surviving maids and the remains of the two slain women home.
:shock: Speaking of transparency of the Government… And of inaction:
The brutal killings of these Indonesian domestic helpers occurred in an atmosphere of impunity fostered by government inaction," says Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in New York. "Not only do the authorities typically fail to investigate or prosecute abusive employers, the criminal justice system also obstructs abused workers from seeking redress."
Go and read it all: it's shameful. And this people want to teach others morals and good behaviour??
Hmm, more cowards. And who pays it? The people who are less strong… in this case the children:
A homo-sex-ual foster couple were left free to sex-ually abuse vulnerable boys in their care because social workers feared being accused of discrimination if they investigated complaints, an inquiry concluded yesterday.
G-ay couple left free to abuse boys – because social workers feared being branded hom-ophobic
… one of the first homo-se-xual couples in the country to be officially approved as foster parents.
With no previous convictions, they came across as respectable men who simply wanted to help boys with a variety of problems.
In reality, they were paed-ophiles, who repeatedly abused the children in their care.
My reaction was of :shock: at first, but after reading it entirely (and once I realize what had happened -af first, I could not believe my eyes) was of :mad:
And please, go and see the photos. I have not posted them, because I do not want any reader killed after seeing them…
Not all homosexuals are like this, BUT if someone makes such acts must be stopped before it's too late. What are going to be the consequences for the poor child, hein?
My Pet Jawa links to other case, as gruesome as this one:
Judge Christopher Critchlow heard last week that Howitt and Rae, lovers for more than 10 years, repeatedly sexually abused the tot over a four-year period – simulating sex acts with him and forcing him to have oral sex while he slept.
Look here, I don't care the sexuality, the gender or whatever. We are very careful about not upsetting grown-ups, just in case they get offended. And the little boys? What happens with them? They get not offended, but raped. What is a bigger problem, then? ________________________________
Suspected Islamic militants in north-western Pakistan have beheaded two women they accused o
f being prostitutes, police say.
The bodies of the two women were found by villagers on the outskirts of the city of Bannu.
A note found on the bodies accused the women of "acts of obscenity", a term that usually refers to prostitution.
The region is a known base for militants who want to impose their interpretation of Islamic law.
Police said the women were travelling in a three-wheeled vehicle when masked and armed men overpowered them and bundled them into a car.
Senior district police officer Dar Khattak told Reuters news agency it was the first time militants had directly targeted and killed women in the region.
The note read: "We have started doing this to end obscenity in the area."
First, they even don't know if the women were actually prostitutes.
But in case they were, prostitutes don't make "acts of obscenity" alone, but with men (in a 99% of the cases…) and because the men pay for them to do such "acts". So, if they really want to fight obscenity, just don't use them. Oohh, yeah, I know, err, yes, well, then don't blame prostitutes!! You, hypocrites… :mad:
Cinderella, Muslim style h/t Kate: "I'm not going to be able to contradict him. But this is a fairy tale come true" says the bride ( :shock: ). The bridegoom is already married and has five children. He belongs to Dubai Royal House. She is a hotel waitress. Both are Muslims.
South Korean hostages, German plot, UK, Islamic extremism, Mother Theresa, Iranian human bombs and UNSC in Sudan
More on the liberation of South Korean hostages: remember the guy who was killed by 10 shots and whose death was blamed on natural causes? Well, really it was not because of natural causes, it was because he did not submit himself to Allah.
The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.
"Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten," reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages' home church, Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital Seoul.
"I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death," he added, according to Christian Today Korea. "Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban's demand to convert."
Infidels Are Cool » Blog Archive » Convert or Die: South Korean Pastor chose death
Is there anything wrong about this??? Well, yeah, have you considered that there is no video showing us the faces of these hostages during their kidnapping asking for release?
But hey, what do you know?? There are idiots -this time is Canadian, but intelligence is not a consequence of nationality so tomorrow it would be from other country- saying that this should be the signal for other countries to start negotiating with the Talibans.
The hostage agreement reached last week between the Taliban and South Korea has profound implications for all countries fighting in Afghanistan. It puts the lie to those, including the current Canadian government, who say it is impossible or counterproductive to strike a deal with the Islamist insurgents. Clearly South Korea found the talks quite productive.
Hey, the Talibans are going to be exultant because of the results of their actions… What a moron!!!
Hehe: at least, one of the kidnappers has had what he deserved. He was already preparing an assault on a police post.
About the German plot: German police is searching for 10 more people, both inside Germany and abroad:
BERLIN (AFP) – German police have launched an international hunt for 10 accomplices of the three men held over a foiled Islamist plot to blow up airports and US installations in Germany, a top official said Thursday.
"Terrorist attacks need preparation. We are trying to identify all of those who were working in the shadows," Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning told ARD television.
Police were searching for "the 10 people who were behind this" within Germany and abroad, he added.
The arrests were made at a vacation home, pictured, in Oberschledorn. The suspects had rented the house to store chemicals to make explosives, officials said, and were preparing to leave when security forces swooped in.
But there is more about the already detained:
Newspapers reported on Thursday that investigators believed Fritz Martin G. to have been the ringleader of the plotters.
He had been living in Neu-Ulm, a town in southern Germany seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicals, and was involved in a mosque there which German police have long believed to be a base for extremists planning attacks.
Investigators said an Islamic centre in nearby Ulm was among more than 30 places the police raided early Wednesday. Offices seized documents and computers they hope can point them to those who helped to organise and finance the well-advanced bomb plot.
The three main suspects, pictured in the press wearing blue prisoner overalls, appeared before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany on Wednesday.
The authorities have said the men gathered at their Sauerland hideaway on Sunday to start making bombs to use in "massive attacks" with the 12 drums of hydrogen peroxide (left) they had stashed in the garage.
Sources close to the case told AFP the police were looking into the group's plans to use military detonators to set off bombs because this could provide important clues in the investigation.
They also phoned British colleagues.
Several calls to British numbers are said to been made from mobile telephones linked to two of the men being questioned in Germany. One is said to have been a "known" number.
Remember that there were also 8 people detained in Denmark accused of preparing more Islamist terrorist attacks? Well:
"On August 31, 2007, the Islamist website {name removed}, hosted by SiteGenie LLC in Rochester, Minnesota, posted a document calling for "martyrdom [i.e., suicide] operations" in Denmark. The author, who identified
himself as a member of Al-Qaeda, urged the Muslims not to forget the incident of the Danish cartoons, and promised the people of Denmark that the "brigades of martyrdom seekers are on their way… and will soon carry out blessed operations" in their country. He called on the Muslims to register on the site as candidates for these suicide operations.
Once again this means only one thing: they can go from one place to another and they can communicate to each other, very easily. And we are all menaced, whatever the policy our Governments make.
Elder of Ziyon has an appaling story which happened in London. A woman enters a café in Edgware Road near Marble Arch and asks for a juice. She sits down and waits for it, noticing she is the only female customer. When the waitress brings it to her, she complaints because it was fermented and tells the woman it needed to be conserved in a refrigerator.
But the waitress answers "No– English". So exasperated, she shouts:
Is there no-one working here who speaks English? This is Paddington – this is still a London neighbourhood.'
A well-dressed man came over and said 'I speak English.' I thought he was going to intervene on my behalf but instead came out with this astonishing observation:
'You are a racist! You are a racist ape! Look at you– you are an ape!'[...] Shocked, I glared at him, but he had to finish things off : 'You want them to speak Hebrew, don't you?'
:shock: This man has a problem with geography…
I got up from my seat and went over to him and at the top of my voice said I would be proud to speak Hebrew if I could, it being the language of the Torah and of an ancient culture going back six-thousand years. [Heh, imagine the face of the moron...:twisted: ].
He then embarked on a tirade at me about the 'five million Indians' slaughtered in genocide in America. [Of course, Muslims have never killed a poor fly in their whole history...]. Meanwhile, the men in the café were in various states of laughter at me, and exhibiting great admiration for him.
Believe it or not, the server had in the meantime brought me a fresh juice which I calmly drank with my very un-Hebrew ham and cheese sandwich, and then I left. I wandered over to the flower shop and found myself commiserating with what seemed to be two Englishwomen who lived in a permanent state of fear in a neighbourhood they had called their own for generations. They told me I must have been mad going into that shop, as 'all the establishments in Edgware Road are off-limits to us now.'
:shock: Not surprised then that the British are going abroad in something very similar to an stampede.
Once again all of these stories makes this come true:
ejem… I feel this is insulting for the poor pig…
NYT has run a story critisizing Mother Theresa, and feeling disgusted because normal US nationals know Calcutta not because of its beautiful buildings and educated middle class, but because of her. So what is the problem with her and the liberal media around the world?
As a doctor, I can only shake my head at those sophisticated critics that lament her hospices don't meet the year 2000 standards of university hospitals. They ignore the question: If Mother Teresa's hospice was not there, where would the people go? To other Indian hospices? To University hospitals, with private beds and gourmet meals?
… The rest off the criticisms similarly show a strange envy of the good. But why Mother Teresa? Why not slime American born Ram Dass and the Indian doctors and who helped wipe out small pox in India? Or slime Mother Wichiencharoen, a Buddhist nun, for her shelters in Bangkok?But we all know why, don't we? The NYTimes doesn't like Catholics.
It's the sex stupid.
Mother Teresa opposed abortion and promoted chastity. How dare she impose her rigid Catholic morality on poor Hindus, (whose religion, by the way, also opposes abortion and promotes chastity).
But the editors of the NYTimes can't have a rich American slime Mother Teresa, so they find an Indian born woman to do it.
So let's destroy the reputation of Mother Teresa, and we won't feel so guilty at our next cocktail party.
SC&A writes:
We are not all Mother Teresa. That said, because we are not all Mother Teresa, we ought not diminish her status so that we might be her equal. The ability to reach within and bring the very best of who we are isn't easy. If it were, we'd all be heroes.
We live in a world that trivializes goodness and and character. The virtues of money, sex and inflexibility are celebrated and extolled. 'Take no prisoners' has come to define not only political agendas, but moral ones as well. Success often means trading in values that might actualize the very best of who we are, for values that will clearly enslave us.
We do have the ability to reach that part of ourselves that is the best of ourselves and if we choose, we can make that self actualization as natural as breathing. Who we are won't change- in fact, we can choose to reach out to our own unique potential and evolve into our best selves. Each of us has within our grasp, the opportunity to be our own expression of Mother Teresa.
Read it all: it's really worth your time.
I have said around the world because in Spain it was El País (yes, you all know how much I love that newspaper) the liberal MSM which was worried about how on earth someone with doubts could be made saint… because she had lost her faith. :shock: Of course, what the article's writer did not know is that Nowak -secretary of the Congregation for the Saints' Cause- said: "It is a phenomenon which happens to every great mistic and spiritual teacher, as Saint Teresa of Jesus or Saint Juan de la Cruz, called spiritual night or senses' night. They are special periods of the spiritual life of the people who feel themselves abandoned by a God who they feel is very far from them".
:twisted: Oh, yeah, but they are independent and objective. Yeah, without doubt…
And, while these liberal media are critisizing and diminishing her so much, the Feast the Missionaries of Charity have given in her honor and her tomb were full of people to mark the 10th anniversary of her death. In the ocassion, Sister Nirmala Joshi, her succesor as Head of the MofC, said:
Only those of an advanced level of spirituality" experience this, Sister Nirmala said, calling it a sign of being close to God. It is like being close "to the sun and so blinded by the brilliance," she explained.
Iranian 40.000 human bombs. See the video inside (in English). Is this what gender equality means for the Iranian aytollahs?
Lastly, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he was "shocked and humbled" by a visit to a refugee camp in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region. Hmm, for someone who has been for so many years in the UN, saying that is errr, well, not very trustful… How on earth he did not know this? For a complete roundup of news regarding this, you can read Passion of the Present.