October 2003 Archives

A Malaysian official and his apologists must realize that gender apartheid, statism, tribalism, and the anti-democratic tendencies of the Middle East cause its poverty and frustration despite a plethora of natural resources (far more impressive assets than the non-petroleum-bearing rocks beneath parched Israel). But why call for introspection when the one-syllable slur "Jews" suffices instead?

And why would an Arab-American audience — itself composed of many who fled the tyranny and economic stagnation of Arab societies for the freedom and opportunity of a liberal United States — wish to hear a reasoned explanation of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian war when it was so much easier to hiss and moan, especially when mainstream observers would ignore their anti-Semitism and be impressed instead with the cadre of candidates who flock to Michigan?

How do you explain to an audience that Quentin Tarantino appeals both to teens and to empty-headed critics precisely because something is terribly amiss in America, when affluent and leisured suburbanites are drawn to scenes of raw killing as long as it is dressed up with "art" and "meaning"?

How could a Tony Judt write a reasoned and balanced account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when to do so would either alienate or bore the literati?

So they all, whether by design or laxity, take the easier way out — especially when slurring "Israel" or "the Jews" involves none of the risks of incurring progressive odium that similarly clumsy attacks against blacks, women, Palestinians, or homosexuals might draw, requires no real thinking, and seems to find an increasingly receptive audience...

Preaching on Saudi state television from the holy mosque in Medina, Shaykh Salah Bin-Muhammad al-Budayr recently hailed Ramadan, concluding his sermon (according to a translation at www.imra.org.il): "O God, support Islam and Muslims and destroy the enemies of Islam, including Jews, Christians and atheists. . . . O God, deal with the Jews for they are within your power. . . O God, shake the land under their feet, instill fear in their hearts and make them a booty for Muslims and a lesson to others."

Such sermonizing — quite common in the Muslim world — may show a commitment to something, but religious freedom isn't it..

The committee is Chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter. Sen Hillary Clinton, who is not a member of the committee, requested to participate after her meeting last week with Mr. Marcus, and seeing the documentation of the nature of PA indoctrination of their children. Her strong statement condemning PA education appears below.

Due to the importance of the topic the entire hearing, including the video documentary, was broadcast on C-Span

The following are the story in today's Jerusalem Post and the formal statement submitted by Mr. Marcus as a summary of his opening remarks...

Two captured members of Ansar al-Islam (search) have said Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is helping to coordinate their attacks, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

That information is the first solid evidence of links between remnants of Saddam's regime and the non-Iraqi fighters responsible for at least some of the attacks on U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies, the official said.

Pentagon officials say Ansar al-Islam, which operated in northern Iraq before its camp was destroyed during the war, poses one of the greatest threats in Iraq. Military commanders have said they believe hundreds of non-Iraqi fighters from Ansar have entered Iraq to fight the U.S.-led occupation, many of them through neighboring Iran.

Al-Douri is No. 6 on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis and was vice chairman of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council. He was one of Saddam's few longtime confidants and his daughter was married to Saddam's son, Uday (search), who was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in July.

NBC News first reported the al-Douri link to Ansar al-Islam Tuesday night. Asked Wednesday about the report, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said he did not know anything about it...

2) Time for a "Helsinki Accords" for Iran

The chairman of the board of trustees of the Islamic Society of Boston, which has city approval to construct a $22 million cultural center and mosque in Roxbury, was also a leader of an Indiana-based Muslim organization known for its anti-Western rhetoric and for providing a platform for radical Islamists, some of whom have been linked to terrorism.

The chairman, Osama M. Kandil, has been a leader of the Islamic Society of Boston for more than a decade. In addition to serving on the group's board of trustees for many years, public records show he has been a trustee of the group's real estate arm since 1993, when it purchased property for its current mosque in Cambridge.

Outside Massachusetts, however, Kandil is identified in a federal government affidavit as a member of what U.S. investigators have dubbed the ``Safa Group,'' a complicated array of individuals and interlocking for-profit and non-profit entities allegedly involved in financing Islamic terrorism...

The article by Dr. Walid Fitaihi was published in the daily newspaper al-Hayat shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and then translated into English and circulated on the Internet.

According to one translation, Fitaihi's article attacked the ``Zionist lobby'' in America, claiming it has incurred ``Allah's wrath'' and would evetually lose the support of the American people.

Fitaihi, who recently moved back to his native Saudi Arabia, is a longtime director of the Islamic Society of Boston, which plans to build the largest mosque in the Northeast in Roxbury...

Most of the troubles we have encountered in Iraq (and will in the future) are not because of "occupation" but because of "empowerment." The U.S. invasion has overturned a whole set of vested interests, particularly those of Iraq's Sunni Baathist establishment, and begun to empower instead a whole new set of actors: Shiites, Kurds, non-Baathist Sunnis, women and locally elected officials and police. The Qaeda nihilists, the Saddamists, and all the Europeans and the Arab autocrats who had a vested interest in the old status quo are threatened by this...

A recent Israeli delegation successfully lobbied Congress to approve the new funding package for the joint U.S.-Israeli Nautilus laser weapon project, said Israeli lawmaker Yuval Steinitz, who was part of the delegation.

Israel wants the Nautilus to help protect its northern border towns from Katyusha rockets, fired by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah during Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000. Israel claims that Hezbollah now has 11,000 rockets aimed at Israel.

Congress approved $57 million to fund the project, and Israel will also contribute funding, Steinitz said, but could not say how much...

According to the report, the pistol, produced by the Florida-based Corner Shot Holdings, is being tested by the Israeli military and has already been bought by a number of special forces around the world.

A spokesman for the Israeli branch of the company refused to comment on the report.

Pictures of the weapon show a gun composed of two parts -- the front, that can swivel from side to side, containing a pistol with a color camera mounted on top, and the back section which consists of the stock, trigger and a monitor.

The unique weapon allows the soldier to remain behind cover, with only the barrel of the rifle exposed in the direction of the hostile fire, even at a sharp angle.

Although the guest list included 92 persons, several Muslim organizations who differ vastly with the White House on political and religious issues complained they were left off the list.

Passed over, Mr. Bray said, was the Muslim Students Association, American Muslims for Jerusalem, the Islamic Society of North America, Project Islamic Hope, the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations of Greater Washington and the Council on American-Islamic Relations...

...Most of the guests were ambassadors from Muslim countries. Also invited were a few Muslim college professors, businessmen and representatives from Islamic organizations such as Karimah, a human rights group for female Muslim lawyers; the American Task Force on Palestine; the American Muslim Council; the Islamic Supreme Council of America; the Council of American Muslim Understanding; the Islamic Free Market Institute; and the Islamic Center in the District...

Following these two announcements, the series begins. The first scene, set in Frankfurt in 1812, shows the death of Amschel, the patriarch of the Rothschild family. Amschel Rothschild lies on his deathbed in what appears to be a cave illuminated by candles in Jewish candelabra. He instructs his "illegitimate" son to summon his four brothers, and when he leaves to call them, the following narration is heard: "Kill the best of the non-Jews, destroy their religion, annihilate their lands. Israel will not survive if the foreign peoples survive, the Jews are the offspring of God like the child is the offspring of his father. As man has hegemony [over the lower animals], thus the Jews are superior to all the peoples of the world, because the seed of strangers is like the seed of the ass. The delivering Messiah will not come until the peoples that are not Jews are extinct and control will be in the hands of the Jews alone."[...]

But there are still substantial disagreements even among people who want to see democracy and the rule of law in Iraq as promptly as possible. The U.S. sees the need for time to do the job right. France, Germany and Russia want both more U.N. participation and more speed--a pair of mutually exclusive objectives if there ever was one. Some Iraqis call for an elected constitutional convention, others for a rapid conferring of sovereignty, some for both. Many Middle Eastern governments oppose democracy and thus some support whatever they think will fail...

From a variety of backgrounds and constituencies, pressure is being placed on Congress and the Bush Administration to get serious about space.

Arguing that the problem is not so much any perceived threats from China, many seasoned industry professionals are pointing to the public fiscal responsibilities of Congress to oversee NASA's spending, and the mounting pressure from the commercial sector that wants a new deal for space vendors that sees the cosy big aerospace dominance of the industry - and funding - broken up.

In among all this is the assumption that the US cannot end its human spaceflight program. And if the money is to be spent, then it should be spent with specific national technology and industry goals in place - including measures to encourage new suppliers to offer services at what is hoped will be lower prices.

According to Space Lift Washington, President Bush may announce at Kitty Hawk a return to manned lunar exploration but without any specific massive new funding, forcing NASA to get serious about what it wants to do with it considerable human spaceflight assets and decades of experience.

The initiative by Bush follows a year-long review of the future directions of the American space program in the immediate decades ahead.

Space Lift's Frank Sietzen quoting Washington sources writes that a central recommendation maybe the "resumption of manned lunar flights to develop advanced technologies that can support U.S. astronauts working beyond Earth orbit to not only the Moon, but eventually to near-Earth asteroids and Mars."...

The Islamic Society of Boston, which has city approval to build a sprawling $22 million Islamic cultural center and mosque on Malcolm X Boulevard, has had a long association with Dr. Yusuf Abdullah al-Qaradawi, whose vocal support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas prompted the State Department to bar him from entering the U.S. four years ago.

The local religious organization, now headquartered on Prospect Street in Cambridge, was founded by Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi - a high-profile Washington, D.C. activist who has publicly supported Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations.

Alamoudi was arrested Sept. 28 at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and charged with making illegal trips to Libya and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Libyan government in violation of U.S. law.

Last Thursday, Alamoudi was indicted for his dealings with Libya and portrayed by prosecutors as a key financier for militant Islamic groups and terrorist organizations.

In that case, the U.S. government alleges Alamoudi funneled more than $230,000 to two front organizations for terrorist Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, as well as more than $100,000 to groups funding Hamas.

A lawyer representing the Islamic Society of Boston said the local group is not militant or extremist, and is in no way connected to Islamic terrorism.

However, public records indicate Al-Qaradawi and Alamoudi have both held leadership positions with the Islamic Society of Boston...

...A project update in the Islamic Society of Boston's May 2000 newsletter reported that in the previous month alone, the group raised $2 million in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.

One source familiar with the project who spoke on the condition he not be named said the leaders of the Islamic society have made it clear that virtually all the financing for the cultural center is coming from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Gulf states.

Many mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S. are funded by wealthy individuals and foundations in Saudi Arabia. Those financiers are almost without exception followers of Wahhabism, a harsh Saudi-based fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, and they make sure the American mosques they bankroll adhere to the sect's anti-Western ideology...

In May, the BRA sold the 1.9-acre lot to the group for the bargain price of $175,000, but construction has yet to begin. The Islamic Society of Boston's own newsletter said the land is worth $2 million.

Farrah said the ambitious project has been in the works for a decade. Now, he said, the Islamic Society of Boston has all the necessary building permits from the city and the start of work on the site is imminent...

This is the reality of life in North Korea--and the truth that Mr. Hwang will be telling in Washington this week.

President Bush has made clear that the only way to win today's war is to carry the fight to the enemy and roll back the terrorist threat to civilization, "not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power." He has it right. To understand why, one might consider what happened in Beirut two decades ago...

But she then added, "I don't think they are emblematic of the Muslim world." If only she were right about that.

In fact, Mahathir's views are precisely emblematic of current Muslim discourse about Jews - symbolized by the standing ovation his speech received from an all-Muslim audience of leaders representing 57 states. Then, a Saudi newspaper reports, when Western leaders criticized Mahathir, "Muslim leaders closed ranks" around him with words of praise ("very correct," "a very, very wise assessment")...

Why? I see 4 general reasons:

1. Psychological denial. Who wants to think, 60 years after the Holocaust, that a new, religious campaign against the Jews could be taking shape? We liked to think the hatred from the Arab world was "street talk" that would dissipate "when peace came." It probably won't.

2. Media's selective reporting: The media is reluctant to discuss the religious dimensions of the conflict in the Middle East, because its preferred prepackaged view is that this is a secular struggle for national liberation. It is also reluctant to report negatively about Islam. Steve Emerson is boycotted by PBS.

3. Jewish Politics: Many in the Jewish community want very much to think that the war in Israel is primarily over borders, where compromise is possible. To think that the conflict is about the Jewish right of self-determination in the Islamic realm is daunting. They are also concerned that examples of Islamic anti-Semitism may be used to justify certain Israeli policies.

4. Political correctness: We are a liberal people and do not want to speak badly about a race, religion or a people. We seem unable to distinguish between simple factual truth and bigotry. I our multicultural society, we have not yet developed a public language to describe Islamic anti-Semitism without potentially being accused of insensitivity or prejudice.

Wrong. When the Democracy Corps team asked whether voters in those three states wanted a Democratic nominee "who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning" or one "who supported military action against Saddam Hussein but was critical of Bush for failing to win international support for the war," voters in all three states chose the second alternative. Dean's position was preferred by only 35 percent of the likely voters in the New Hampshire Democratic primary -- fewer than supported it in Iowa or South Carolina -- while 58 percent chose the alternative...

And yet the attacks on Americans continue -- growing in number and sophistication. It's hard to fault Wolfowitz's Plan A. But after the reversals of the past six months, it's disturbing to realize that if it fails, there isn't a good alternative.

There is a political solution to three grave Mideast dangers facing the United States and its allies. These risks include expanded terrorism, the new Iraq coming under the control of pro-Iranian Shi'ite extremists and an Iran already armed with ballistic missiles obtaining nuclear weapons. Rather than using military force or relying only on diplomacy, providing political assistance to help the people of Iran establish constitutional democracy would be consistent with their wishes and would move the entire Middle East in a positive direction.
Rest of article.

(*)Intelligence: Divisions Inside Iran

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany last week congratulated themselves for persuading Iran’s ruling ayatollahs to “suspend” a suspected uranium-enrichment program and allow international inspection of dubious nuclear sites. But in Washington, even moderate Bush advisers question whether Iranian ministers and clerics who agreed to the deal have the power to deliver Tehran’s end of the bargain.
Rest of article.

(*)Of Mullahs and Their Nuke

A deadly problem out of Iran -- Until last spring, it seemed as if Iran and the United States were moving toward a discreet dialogue designed to defuse more than two decades of antagonism. Now, however, with the release of fresh evidence that Iran may be pursuing nuclear weapons, tensions between the old adversaries have reached a new high.
Rest of article.

But there are still many things to be said about it. First and foremost that, coming from a historian, it is bad history, and that’s not only because the facts he presents are usually wrong or twisted, but because even those he gets right are framed in a misleading way.

Here is his most misleading affirmation:

“The problem with Israel, in short, is not—as is sometimes suggested—that it is a European "enclave" in the Arab world; but rather that it arrived too late.”

This represents a total lack of understanding and an almost scandalous misreading of several facts that have to do with the birth of the modern nation-state and nationalism according (not only) to the European pattern...

[Marmot's note: column translated into English by yours truly - reader beware]...

It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning during the shoot.

Neither of them was badly hurt, according to the film's producer Steve McEveety.

Michelini had previously been struck during filming in Matera, Italy, when he suffered light burns to his fingers after lightning hit his umbrella.

Describing the second lightning strike, McEveety told VLife, a supplement of the trade paper Variety: "I'm about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see smoke coming out of Caviezel's ears."[...]

The past few years, he had been doing comedy at his club and played himself in an episode of NBC's "Scrubs." He also played himself in the David Spade comedy "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star."

Berry was 25 and a member of the pioneering break dance troupe the Lockers when "What's Happening!" cast him as the red beret-wearing, suspender-clad high schooler Rerun. After the 1976-79 series, Berry briefly reprised the role in the '80s.

Berry, who in recent years was 100 pounds lighter than in his prime-time heyday, said life after Rerun was a struggle.

"The stress of success got to me. The fat jokes got to me. And I got heavily into drugs and alcohol. I was empty inside," he told an interviewer in 1996.

Leo Standora

On Tuesday I asked six American Muslim organizations -- CAIR, the American Muslim Association, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Institute, the Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council -- whether they had any reaction to Mahathir's words. Three never replied; two replied by saying they had no comment. Only MPAC condemned Mahathir for his "extremely offensive, anti-Semitic comments."

The Muslim world suffers from many problems, but none is more crippling than its culture of intolerance. Rampant anti-semitism anywhere is always a sign of grave moral sickness. Until more Muslims are prepared to confront and conquer that sickness in their midst, the Muslim world will remain the benighted backwater that so many Muslims deplore.

(*)U.S. University Lecturer Still Being Held..
Authorities in Iran have arrested an Iranian-born lecturer at a top US university on suspicion of espionage and have been holding him for at least three months, colleagues said.

Rest Of Article.

(*)Iran Still Has Nuclear Deadline, U.S. Says

The Bush administration intends to press Iran to comply with an Oct. 31 deadline for opening the books on its past nuclear activities, senior officials said yesterday, as U.S. skepticism grew toward this week's surprise agreement by Iran to stop enriching uranium.

Rest Of Article.

(*)Al-Qaida in Iran - A glance [Which Members Are In Iran?]

A listing of some of the senior al-Qaida operatives who may be in Iran, according to U.S. officials:

Rest Of Article

(*)Bush: Even if Iran Comes Clean -- It Won't Be Enough..President George W. Bush said Wednesday he welcomed the news that Iran has said it will stop producing fissile material and will allow international inspections, but he stopped short of saying this alone will improve relations with the U.S.

Rest Of Article

Me: "Come on. Do they control your family's restaurant? Do they control your alderman? Mayor Daley?"

Masood's older brother: "They want nothing to do but destroy us. My restaurant does well inspite of their attempts with the Mayor and lobbying the Congress to discriminate against Muslims. You Christians just never see it."

Masood, surprising the hell out of me, was nodding his head in agreement: "Just like 9-11."

Me: "What?"

Masood: "Just like 9-11 where the Mossad flew planes into buildings."

WTF?!...

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita declined to comment specifically on the memo, but he said Rumsfeld's style is to "ask penetrating questions" to provoke candid discussion. "He's trying to keep a sense of urgency alive."

Among Rumsfeld's observations in the two-page memo:

• The United States is "just getting started" in fighting the Iraq-based terror group Ansar Al-Islam.

• The war is hugely expensive. "The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' cost of millions."

• Postwar stabilization efforts are very difficult. "It is pretty clear the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog."

The memo was sent to Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Douglas Feith, undersecretary of Defense for policy.

Rumsfeld asks whether the Defense Department is moving fast enough to adapt to fighting terrorists and whether the United States should create a private foundation to entice radical Islamic schools to a "more moderate course." Rumsfeld says the schools, known as madrassas, may be churning out new terrorists faster than the United States can kill or capture them.

The memo is not a policy statement, but a tool for shaping internal discussion. It highlights a Rumsfeld trait that supporters say is one of his greatest strengths: a willingness to challenge subordinates to constantly reassess problems. The memo prods Rumsfeld's most senior advisers to think in new ways about the war on terrorism at a time when many are preoccupied with the 7-month-old war in Iraq...

Miss Mylroie explains:

"Ordinarily, anthrax spores contain an electrostatic charge that makes the microscopic spores stick together in clumps that are too big to be inhaled into the lungs. But these spores had been coated with a Teflon-like substance containing silica. ... When U.S. Army experts tried to examine them, the spores refused to stay put on the glass microscope slide. ... It behaved like no sample the Army scientists had ever seen. ...

"The weightless, almost gaseous quality made this batch of anthrax particularly effective as a weapon. ... The Army's premier anthrax expert, John Ezzell, was especially worried. The evident level of expertise involved in the production of this weaponized anthrax powder suggested that the United States had been attacked by a sophisticated, ruthless and formidable foe."

Had the anthrax in either of those envelopes been put into the ventilation system at the World Trade Center, it would have killed more people than the hijacked airliners did.

On Oct. 25, 2001, an article in The Washington Post said only the U.S., Russia and Iraq were capable of weaponizing anthrax in the form found in the letters to the senators. And as we have seen, the FBI has been unable to duplicate it.

The Washington Post's editor Bob Woodward wrote in his book, "Bush at War," that CIA Director George Tenet believed the anthrax attacks were made by al Qaeda, with the backing of a state. Vice President Dick Cheney agreed, but said it was important not to talk about state sponsorship, "because we're not ready to do anything about it."

Miss Mylroie deftly summarizes evidence linking 9/11 hijackers to the anthrax letters. Mr. Woodward quotes Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Mr. Cheney's chief of staff, in explaining why the administration did not acknowledge an al Qaeda link, even though it thought there was one: "If we say it's al Qaeda, a state sponsor may feel safe and then hit us, thinking they will have a bye, because we'll blame it on al Qaeda."

The FBI's bizarre focus on Mr. Hatfill — against whom not a shred of evidence has been found — may be less political correctness run amok than a deliberate deception, a means of calming Americans until the real source of the problem can be dealt with.

If al Qaeda could all by its lonesome have produced the anthrax in the letters to the senators, surely they would have attacked us again by now.

But if the anthrax were manufactured by Iraq, we apparently have yet to find evidence of where and how. If Saddam didn't do it, we need — urgently — to find out who did.

Army Radio on Tuesday evening quoted military sources as saying that seven of the 14 Palestinians killed in the air strikes were positively identified as Hamas operatives. The other casualties were believed to be non-combatants.

Palestinians said the seven dead were civilians killed by an Israeli missile fired into a crowd at the Nusseirat refugee camp, while the Israel Defense Forces said only militants had been struck and released a video indicating there was no one on the street near the vehicle targeted in the attack.

According to video footage provided by the IDF, the target areas of at least two of the air force raids were empty of Palestinian bystanders at the time of the missile strikes.

The army released the video - filmed by a remote-control pilotless-plane flying above Gaza and screened on Israeli television news programs Tuesday evening - showing two missiles hitting a car about a minute apart after a brief chase.

"We didn't see any massive gathering of people. We will not allow munitions to be launched when there is a massive gathering of people," said a senior air force officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The grainy video showed a crowd gathering around the car about two minutes after the second strike, and the video ended some 40 seconds later. The military said an additional 10 minutes were recorded but didn't release the additional footage.[...]

You have probably been watching the news channels with their reports of dozens of Palestinian injuries from targeted bombs yesterday in Gaza (I'm not talking about what happened tonight in Ramallah where Israel is finally going after all the terrorist scum hiding out in Arafat's compound.) Yesterday, the Palestinians "reported" how the bombs injured and killed dozens of innocent bystanders. Saed Erekat told a gullible Fox News reporter it was one of the worst crimes ever committed. Members of the Knesset even offered to pay the poor victims.

Tonight we in Israel saw aerial photos released by the army of this attack. The car was alone on the road. A car containing terrorists and a suicide bomber equipped to go. No bystanders at all anywhere. It was targeted and hit. It rolled backwards. An ambulance came by. The plane waited until the ambulance passed. Then it hit the car again. Three bodies were seen after the attack.

Well, why aren't we surprised? Spread the word.

Naomi

Are Jews raiding Algerian villages at night to massacre entire families, including babies?

Are Jews murdering thousands of Muslim women each year in the name of "honor-killing"?

Are Jews throwing acid at girls who do not wear the hijab?

Is it "the other" who has arranged for Muslim countries to have almost half of all political prisoners in the world?

And who is carrying out those thousands of executions, sometimes by chopping people's heads in public or stoning them to death?

Are Jews preventing Muslims from choosing their governments in free elections? Are they arranging those elections in which government candidates always win with 99.99 percent of the votes?

Are Jews controlling the economies of the Muslim nations - or should we look to our own ruling elites, whose greed knows no bound? People often talk of the need for the separation of mosque and state in Muslim countries. A more urgent need is the separation of business from government.

Mahathir says Jews have persuaded others to fight and die for them. Who does he mean by "others"? If he means the West, let us not forget that Americans and Europeans fought and died to save the Muslim peoples of Bosnia and Kosovo from extermination. Not a single Muslim state provided any help.

Yet who was getting a hero's welcome at the Muslim summit? The Russian President Vladimir Putin, who publicly takes pride in having flushed Chechen Muslims "down the toilet."

During years of war, Putin's army has killed more than 100,000 Chechens and turned a further 300,000 into refugees. That is almost half the Chechen population. Yet Russia was admitted as associate member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, where Putin received a hero's welcome. Yet the same group refuses to admit India - which has more Muslims than all the Arab countries combined.

Mahathir presented Palestine as a religious conflict. He did not apply the same logic to Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao, Burma, Cyprus and East Turkestan, among the many places where Muslims are in conflict with non-Muslims...

The secretary of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council, Hasan Rowhani, said Iran would sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that would allow inspectors to enter any site they deem fit without notice.

"The protocol should not threaten our national security, national interests and national pride," he said...

A series of Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded about 100 others in the Gaza Strip on Monday. The military said the raids targeted members of a Palestinian terrorist squad.

The Foreign Ministry's statement offered condolences to the families of the civilian victims of the Israeli strikes.

"The disproportionate use of weapons as well as an exclusive emphasis on force won't bring peace to either the Palestinians, or the Israelis, and they won't stop terror," it said. "Just the opposite, it will trigger another round of confrontation, bring new tragedies and suffering."

The statement urged both Israel and the Palestinians to show political will and fulfill their obligations under a U.S.-sponsored "road map" peace plan for the region.

Russia co-sponsors the Mideast peace process along with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

As to precisely who those people are, the past twenty-five months have brought to light a bewildering array of terrorist organizations pursuing a variety of stated objectives, usually with help from this or that rogue state-sponsor. But one thing should be clear post-9/11: The most determined, numerous and dangerous of these enemies are radical, violent Muslims known as "Islamists." [...]

It is out of these new realities that the doctrine of unilateral pre-emption--so condemned by many allies--emerged. I believe an accurate translation of the doctrine is this: "If the U.S. has persuasive evidence that a country is either contemplating an attack on the U.S. or its allies, or harboring terrorists who might strike out at the U.S. or its allies, then the U.S. will--with Security Council approval or without--pre-emptively act to remove the offending government from office." And why is this doctrine so offensive to so many? Some fear the precedent, others the erosion of multilateralism, and others still a negative impact upon the United Nations.

Although the reality of pre-emptive action is new, so was the terrorist strike on America. What is also new is the suggestion that Security Council approval is--and has been--a sacrosanct precondition to action against a hostile state. The historical record is to the contrary. In any event, I would never have agreed to subcontract Canada's international security decisions and our national interest to 15 members of the Security Council. This would be a surrender of national sovereignty to which I'd never consent...

"Members of a group": This is the language of liberal identity politics. And note that this is a philo-Semitic prejudice, not an anti-Semitic one. Easterbrook's premise is that the suffering of the Jewish people ennobles Jewish individuals--or should--even if those individuals have not themselves suffered. Thus he presumes to hold Jews to a higher moral standard by virtue of their Jewishness--though in fact all he's doing is asking them to agree with his highly debatable opinion (does it really make any sense to liken stylized Hollywood violence to the Holocaust?).

Ideologically, Easterbrook's earnest criticism of Jewish studio executives is of a piece with Maureen Dowd's racist rant against Clarence Thomas. Because Thomas is black, Dowd, like other liberals, expects him to conform to liberal orthodoxy and thus treats his conservatism as a far greater offense than that of, say, Antonin Scalia. This kind of prejudice may not lead to pogroms and lynchings, but it's divisive and often ugly all the same.

"When Joe Lieberman got up, my blood was boiling," said a Republican from California, Michael Farah, who is chairman of the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce of North America. "The Israelis, if they want to build a wall, let them build it on their own damn land."

Mr. Farah referred to "the Israeli PAC, which is extremely powerful."

He wasn't the only one in attendance who seemed to have trouble differentiating between American Jews and Israelis. Samear Zaitoon of Baton Rouge, La., a civilian translator of Arabic for the Department of Defense who just returned from six months of service in the Middle East, sat next to this reporter Friday night at a dinner addressed by [Dick] Gephardt and by the chairman of the Democratic National Committee,Terry McAuliffe.

"You don't know about Americans of the Jewish faith having two passports?" Mr. Zaitoon asked. By way of explaining the Israeli-Arab conflict, he said, "Our problem is a civil war inside Judaism between Orthodox and Reform, and it's spilling over." A quick check of the Internet turns up a letter to the editor from a Samear Zaitoon of Baton Rouge, La., asserting that "the Zionists--Jewish and their misguided so-called 'Protestant Christian' supporters (who are really Jews in church pews)--have succeeded in hijacking not only Palestine but also America. . . . Jewish Zionist terrorists have hijacked two whole countries!"

Therefore, what is more worrying than the statement itself is a different phenomenon: that Mohamad's claim that, among other things, the Jews control the world, received the blessing of the Egyptian representative and aroused no reservations among the 57 states that participated in the conference and supported the renewal of the boycott of Israel. Indeed, the attitude of the Muslim world - Arab and non-Arab - toward both Israel and Jews, has become threateningly more extreme. Anyone who believes that it is necessary to make a supreme effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or to reduce its dimensions, will see in this development yet another reason to do so.

However, Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism also has an independent source and therefore it is difficult to believe that it will disappear even if the conflict ends...

(*)::::SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, Freedom Rally Against Terror & Tyranny:::::

WEST FRONT OF CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D.C. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2003

You can also take the image from http://www.activistchat.com/images/troops.gif and post it on your blog!!

::NEWS ALERTS:: ::NEWS ALERTS:: ::NEWS ALERTS::

(*)IRANIAN TV OFFICE IN BAGHDAD RAIDED

US troops assailed the Iranian Arabic TV network, Al-Alam's office in Baghdad Sunday morning...The move was sparked as the TV network aired footages of an American soldier who had been killed on Saturday, the US officials alledged...(It's likely this station was spreading propoganda and attempting to exert the Islamic Regime's Clerical influence and create problems for the coalitions efforts)
Link

(*)IRAN OPPOSED TO TURKISH TROOP DEPLOYMENT WITHOUT UN, IRAQI CONSENT.

Iran on Sunday for the first time voiced its reservations over the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq, saying such a move should not be made without the consent of the United Nations or Iraqi people. (Of course they don't want Turkish troops in Iraq --- another sign of the beginning of the end to the Islamic Mafia Clerical Regime of Iran!)
Link

(*)PROGRESS EXCEEDS PROGNOSTICATION IN IRAQ.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. – 'This may not be Vietnam, but boy, it sure smells like it," said Sen. Tom Harkin recently. The Iowa Democrat is but one of
a host of critics in Washington politics and the media who claim that US troops and administrators are "bogged down" in Iraq.

Having covered the war as an embedded reporter, having conducted the first national poll of the Iraqi people (in concert with Zogby International), and having remained in close touch with the military men and women who are temporarily the princes running the land of the Tigris and Euphrates, I believe this gloomy view is incomplete and inaccurate.
Link

(*)AL-QAEDA SUICIDE WILLS APPEAR ON NEW AL-QAEDA WEBSITE

The SITE Institute has tracked a new al-Qaeda website airing an unseen videotape of some of the bombers involved in the May 12, 2003, car
bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in which 25 people were killed. Amazingly, after speaking entirely in Arabic, two of the al-Qaeda bombers address the camera in English, threatening Americans. It appears to be the first time an al-Qaeda fighter reads some portions of his will
in English.
Link

(*)THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC HOODLUMS SNAP THEIR FINGERS AND THE THREE THIEVING STOOGES OF THE EU JUMP.
Link

(*)IMPORTANT ZAHRA KAZEMI PETITION

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE AND CONTINUE THE GREAT BLOGGING!!!!

In Unity & Struggle,
ActivistChat.com

A few months ago, Palestinian officials renamed the central square in Jenin after Ali Jafar al-Na'amani, the Iraqi suicide bomber who killed four US Marines at a checkpoint in Najaf on March 29. That is what Arafat and the Palestinian Authority think of spilled American blood.

There is only one rational response to the murder of Branchizio, Parson, and Linde last week: the destruction of the Palestinian Authority, a network of killers masquerading as a government. If that doesn't happen, this much is sure: the 49th, 50th, and 51st Americans to lose their lives to Palestinian terror will not be the last.

"Your remarks on the rule of Jews gave rise to very strong disapproval in France and in the world," said the letter. It added that "these remarks can only be condemned by all who
preserve the memory of the Holocaust."

Numerous nations and the European Union have condemned the remarks Thursday by Mahathir who said that Jews "rule the world by proxy" and suggested that Jews get "others to fight and die for them."

However, France came back with force Sunday after reports in Malaysian newspapers that Mahathir had expressed his gratitude to the French president for his "understanding" of Mahathir's speech, given at the opening of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference...

_The forces that remain will be more "expeditionary." They would be positioned in ways to enable American commanders to send them elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region. It's a major change, reflecting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's view that the fight against terrorism requires a more flexible approach to use of U.S. troops worldwide.

_Though smaller in number, the U.S. military presence would be more capable in important ways. By moving farther south of the Demilitarized Zone that has separated North and South Korea since the war ended in 1953, the U.S. Army would be able to respond more quickly to an attack by the North. As currently positioned, the Army would have to withdraw south of Seoul first, while in range of the North's long-range artillery, before organizing a counteroffensive.

"No longer will our forces be based near the DMZ as a political `trip wire,'" Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, told Congress this summer...

Mahathir provoked an outcry when he said that Jews controlled Western powers by proxy. The United States, Israel, Australia and the European Union accused Mahathir of anti-Semitism.

"It's most unfortunate, the reaction that has come out is terrible," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in an interview on Australian television.[...]

Mahathir has thanked French President Jacques Chirac for blocking a European Union declaration condemning his comments on Jews, news reports said Sunday.

Chirac, backed by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, stopped the EU from ending a summit Friday with a harshly worded statement deploring Mahathir's speech...

The French presidency denies supporting the Malaysian prime minister.

But Malaysian newspapers said Mahathir had expressed his gratitude to Chirac for his "understanding" of the speech he made at the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Muslim grouping, in Malaysia last Thursday.

Mahathir said he had feared Muslims would be more angered by the speech, which was also critical of Muslims.

"I never thought the Europeans would be against me," the New Sunday Times quoted him as saying.

"I can't understand them. I'm glad that Chirac at least understands. I would like to thank him publicly."...

The invitation, which came as a surprise to the Fatah officials, was extended on Saturday evening. Ahmed Ghnaim, Kadoura Fares, and Hatem Abdel Kader were issued visas by the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem. A fourth, Muhammad Hourani, was invited but did not plan to go.

Fares and Hourani were both key figures in the Palestinian delegation that hammered out the Geneva Initiative with an Israeli delegation comprising politicians and intellectuals led by Yossi Beilin in Jordan last week.

The invitation to Washington came a few days after Israel protested against the Swiss involvement in the initiative.

Former Labor Party leader MK Amram Mitzna said that the Israelis involved, including himself, would likely also travel to Washington in the coming weeks to discuss the initiative with top officials...

Occupy an entire country like Lebanon and the world snores, but bomb a terrorist camp and it snarls. Still, for all the bluster on spec, the "Arab world" is not sure it wishes to send its jets to sure paradise merely to avenge the honor of Bashar al Assad, who can't even provide air cover for the murderers' base that he subsidizes and whose ruins are off-limits to reporters. Disgusted with all this, most Americans flip the channel when any spokesman from the "Arab League" appears on screen to warn about "repercussions" to come.

The "world community" wishes that the dispute would simply go away — so messy, so disturbing are these televised images of body parts, charred gristle, and human hair that blow out from the flaming cafes of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, followed by macabre pronouncements and atrocious home videos from an array of primordial terrorist groups on the West Bank. Americans seek to interview Palestinians to offer them subsidized travel and study; as thanks they are blown up, and their rescuers stoned as they reach the murder scene — this from our "friends" to whom we give millions of dollars in aid and who cheered the news of 9/11...

EU leaders in a summit meeting Thursday and Friday were expected to release an unusually tough statement condemning the attack and demanding action by the Palestinian authorities.

Officials said the EU wants Arafat to "deliver on security" or hand over control of the security forces to the government led by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.

"I realize that Arafat is very sorry, but he has to change the system," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. "It's not good enough." [...]

Max Planck's revolutionary paper on quantum theory was published in 1900; he received the Nobel Prize for it in 1918. Albert Einstein's discovery of the photoelectric effect -- a 1905 achivement -- earned him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921. James Watson and Francis Crick figured out the structure of DNA in 1953; they didn't receive the Nobel Prize for medicine until 1962.

It is much the same with the literature Nobels. They aren't given for new writing or to an author in the first flush of acclaim. Almost always the prize has been made in recognition of a significant body of work produced -- and assessed -- over many years. In fact, many of the laureates received their Nobel only at the end of their lives. Albert Camus, Andre Gide, Pablo Neruda, and Boris Pasternak, to mention just a few, died less than five years after winning the prize.

All in all, there may be no testamentary instruction more regularly flouted than Alfred Nobel's stipulation that the annual prizes go to the people who had conferred the greatest benefit on mankind "during the preceding year." And a good thing, too. It means that before a scientist, author, or economist receives a Nobel Prize, his work has been sifted, weighed, put to the test of time. Its importance has been established, often through years of peer review. As a result, the science, literature, and economics Nobels rarely end up looking foolish or naive.

But the same can't be said of the peace prize.

While the other Nobels are awarded by committees of Swedish scholars and scientists, the peace laureate is chosen by a committee of Norwegian politicians. Like politicians everywhere, the peace prize committee tends to be more interested in what the headlines will say tomorrow than in what historians will believe 20 -- or 100 -- years from now. And unlike their Swedish counterparts, the Norwegians often intend their choice to have a political impact...

"The trumped up reasons for going to war have collapsed," Kennedy says in a speech that underscores his opposition to President Bush's request for $87 billion to fund military operations and rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan. An advance copy of the speech was obtained by the Globe.

"The administration still refuses to face the truth or tell the truth," Kennedy says, accusing the White House of misleading the public about every aspect of the war, from the financial costs to the motivation and the aftermath. "Instead the White House responds by covering up its failures and trying to sell its rosy version of events by repeating it with maximum frequency and volume, and minimum regard for realities on the ground."

Asked about the senator's planned remarks, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, "The United States and the world are safer today because of the actions that were taken in Iraq, because Sept. 11 taught us that we need to confront new threats before they reach our shores."[...]

Corrie's fatal game of chicken was the product of malice as well as idiocy. Her goal was to promote Palestinian terrorists' murderous campaign against Jews by obstructing Israeli efforts to destroy tunnels that are used to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into the Palestinian "refugee camp" in Rafah, on the Gaza Strip.

Today Palestinian terrorists murdered at least three Americans on the Gaza Strip, reports the Jerusalem Post:

A massive explosion demolished a US armored jeep carrying US diplomatic and CIA officials Wednesday, killing at least three Americans and critically wounding one.

Minutes after 10 am, a large road side bomb went off under a convoy of 3 US diplomatic vehicles, backed by a Palestinian police escort, driving pass a gas station on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli security sources confirmed the explosion killed at least three Americans, identifying them as US citizens acting as security guards in the targeted vehicle.

And where did the bombs come from? Here's a report from the Israeli group IMRA:

Brig. Gen (res.) Zvi Poleg told Israel Radio in an interview after the attack that the explosives could have been smuggled from Egypt through the smuggling tunnels. Poleg charged that Egypt was violated its treaty obligations in allowing the smuggling of weapons, explosives and ammunition from Egypt to the Palestinians via smuggling tunnels. He noted that members of the Egyptian Army have been involved in the smuggling and that the Egyptians are well aware of the operations but have not acted to stop the operations. He noted that over 60 smuggling tunnels were located and destroyed by Israel in the last year.

The Egyptians, who receive billions in American foreign aid as a reward for making "peace" with Israel a quarter century ago, have a lot of explaining to do. And it appears terror advocates like Rachel Corrie now have American as well as Israeli blood on their hands.

'Serious Moral Goals'
Somehow this is more infuriating than all the idiocy spouted by all the Michael Moores and Susan Sarandons and Noam Chomskys over the past two years. From the London Daily Telegraph:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, yesterday urged America to recognise that terrorists can "have serious moral goals."

He said that while terrorism must always be condemned, it was wrong to assume its perpetrators were devoid of political rationality. "It is possible to use unspeakably wicked means to pursue an aim that is shared by those who would not dream of acting in the same way, an aim that is intelligible or desirable."

He said that in ignoring this, in its criticism of al-Qa'eda, America "loses the power of self-criticism and becomes trapped in a self-referential morality."

In the same speech, Williams denounced the liberation of Iraq. So let's see if we have this straight: The head of the Anglican Church is telling us that the wanton murder of thousands of innocent people is a sign of "serious moral goals," while the liberation of millions from one of the world's most vicious dictatorships is, as he has put it, "immoral and illegal."

Is this really what Christianity is all about?

by Itamar Marcus

Introduction
PMW has been documenting the duplicity of the Palestinian Authority towards the United States for years. In its English statements, the PA presents itself as an American ally, while its Arabic messages incite its people to hate and kill Americans. Never has this hypocrisy been more striking than today, after the Palestinian ambush that targeted and killed three American diplomats in the Gaza Strip. The official PA rushed to condemn the attack -- even as the PA-controlled media continues its relentless campaign of anti-American indoctrination.

[Click here to view examples on Web site of hate America indoctrination broadcast on PA TV.]

During the war in Iraq, the PA actively endorsed the killing of Americans, and even produced a music video celebrating the deaths of US soldiers that was broadcast repeatedly on official PA TV. [Click here to view video] In the months before the Iraq war, the official PA daily published calls to Saddam Hussein to turn Iraq into a graveyard for American soldiers. At a pro-Iraq rally they “praised the role of Iraq and the Commander Saddam Hussein, and stressed that Iraq’s land will be a graveyard for the American soldiers...” [Al Hayat Al Jadida, Dec. 19, 2002]

Since the war, hatred of the USA has continued unabated in the official and tightly-controlled PA media. This morning’s political cartoon in the official daily Al Hayat Al Jadida attacks the US for trying to “paint” the entire world American.

[Click here top see PMW web site examples of hate - America cartoons in the PA press.]

A recent sermon on official PA TV described the US as “the foremost enemy of the Muslim nation” compared to Pharaoh of the Bible saying: “There is no God besides me”. [PA TV February 21, 2003]

This past Friday, the PA sermon broadcast on official PA TV included the following threats and warnings to the US:
“We hear statements by the little American President, oppressive statements. He says Israel has the right to defend itself… These statements carry destruction for America itself… This president sees himself like one who has ascended to the mountaintop and like one expecting someone to push him so that he falls into the abyss, he and his people with him. We warn the American people that this president is dragging them to the abyss… [Allah] take vengeance on Your enemies, our enemies, enemies of religion.” [PA TV Sheikh Ibrahim Madiras, Oct. 10, 2003]

A recent sermon on official PA TV told Muslim believers to anticipate the destruction of the US:

“If we go back 1400 years in time, we find that history is repeating itself, worshippers of Allah. The Prophet Mohammed was besieged by two powers, Persia in the east and Rome in the west. These represent the Soviet Union and America of today. Persia represents Russia in the east, and America stands for Rome in the west. Persia fell first in the east, just as Russia fell first in the east, and America will fall, may it be Allah’s will, just as Rome fell…”
[Official Sermon PA TV, September 5,2003,Sheikh Ibrahim Madiras.]

Clearly, the American diplomats were murdered today by Palestinians fulfilling their role in their war against Americans, as they have been taught by their leaders, through years of hate-mongering and calls for violence against Americans.

[Click here to see PMW reports reviewing years of PA promotion of hate of America.]

to SUBSCRIBE to PMW's reports send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

The chief government spokesman told a news conference that the money would be used to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure such as electricity and water supplies, as well as to restore basic services, including health care and education.

The commitment came just two days before the planned arrival of U.S. President George W Bush in Japan. The Bush administration has repeatedly called Tokyo to provide assistance for Iraq's rehabilitation.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hinted that the government was determined to show its commitment to Iraq before Bush's visit and an international donor's conference on Iraq to be held in Madrid later this month.

"We cannot fail in the reconstruction of Iraq. The decision (to commit 1.5 billion dollars) has nothing to do with the forthcoming general elections. We are prepared to do what's necessary. We thought it would be better to make the decision sooner rather than later," Koizumi told reporters Wednesday night...

The 57-39 vote, defeating an amendment to an $87 billion bill to fund military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the first test of the full Senate's sentiment on a financing idea that the White House has fought.

Just before the vote, the administration called about two dozen senators to the White House, urging them to reject that amendment and other proposals to have Iraq pay for some of the reconstruction.

Advocates said $87 billion was a high price for the United States to pay at a time when it is running deep in deficits.

But opponents of the amendment argued that it did not make sense to put additional financial burdens on Iraq

"There is no possibility that the Iraqi people could pay back any debt in the short term," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "It will send the wrong signal at the wrong time."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident, the first deadly attack on an official American target in the three years of the intifada. Three months ago, a roadside bomb was detonated beside an American convoy traveling in the same area, but without injury, Israel Radio reported.

The American officials were headed Wednesday to discuss the awarding of study grants to Gaza Palestinians.

The victims of the blast were security men hired from a private company, not U.S. government officials. Israel Radio reported that one of the victims was identified as an East Jerusalem resident who was the driver of the vehicle.

The blast went off around 10:15 A.M. Wednesday as a three-car U.S. diplomatic convoy drove near a gas station on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, along the main north-south road.

Both the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas movements denied responsibility for the attack...

...Later in the day, American security officials investigating the bomb attack left the scene abruptly after Palestinian youths threw stones and rocks at them. The investigators were taking pictures of the bloodied, twisted remains of the van when half a dozen kids threw stones and rocks at them as about 200
Palestinians looked on.

Palestinian police fired in the air to chase away the stone throwers, and U.S. officials rushed into their cars and sped off. Palestinian police beat some people in the crowd, while pushing the spectators back...

This may be the beginning of something big...Lets cross our fingers! Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi has returned to Tehran.. It appears from the latest news reports that thousands of women and others have descended on Tehran's Mehrabad airport for her homecoming... The masses have begun demonstrating in the face of the regimes killers (basiji) with slogans such as "Marg bar Estebdad" (Down with Dictatorship) "Rafsanjani boro gom sho" (Rafsanjani get lost) "Edalat, Azadi" (Justice, Freedom)...

Here are the latest news releases:

(**)Nobel winner Ebadi back in Iran, demands freedom for political prisoners

Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi returned to Tehran, immediately giving a call for the freeing of political prisoners as she was mobbed by thousands of well-wishers. "I hope that all political prisoners will be freed," Ebadi, the first Muslim woman and first Iranian to win the prize, told reporters after she stepped off an Iran Air Boeing 747 from Paris.
Rest of Story.

(**)Thousands descend on Tehran airport to greet Nobel laureate

As the area surrounding the city centre Mehrabad airport was brought to a standstill by bumper-to-bumper traffic, people were seen abandoning their vehicles and covering the final few kilometres (miles) on foot.
Rest of Story.

(**)Welcome Demonstration - END THE REGIME!!!!

Mehrabad Airport today at the 20:50 Local time was center of focus for Iranian who are fed up with this regime. Thousands of welcoming audience are present at the airport but the welcoming ceremony for the winner of Noble Peace Prize is just excuse. They are strongly asking for the end of Islamic Regime. Thousands of protesters are marching in the open area of airport and chanting slogans...
Rest of Story.

Stay tuned to ActivistChat.com for late-breaking developments!!!!

In Unity & Struggle,
ActivistChat.com Team

The personal attack against Amir Taheri, one of the most distinguished writers in the Muslim world today,by the gentleman who signs himself as "Ali" is both unjustified and irrelevant to the debate over Iraq.

For years Taheri fought on behalf of the oppressed in Iraq. Although an Iranian, he never allowed his judgement to be clouded by the memory of the war that Saddam Hussein launched against Iran in 1980.

This is why many Iraqis regard Amir Taheri as an honourary citizen of the liberated Iraq.

As an Iraqi I believe that the liberation of my people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein was a heroic and generous act on the part of the United States and Britain.

To be sure they may have had their own national interests in mind, which is only normal. But in this case their national interests perfectly coincided with ours which was to get rid of the butcher and his regime.

I will judge the US and UK to be " imperialists" only when and if they refuse to leave Iraq after being asked to do so by a freely elected Iraqi government in Bagdad. Jamila Sherian

A Chinese martial arts expert was in custody yesterday after turning the tables on four burglars armed with knives, killing two of them and seriously wounding a third.
The 28-year-old man, known as "the doctor" for his practice of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, managed to seize one of the two knives carried by his assailants and saw off the entire group with the ferocity of his reaction.

Magistrates in the central Italian town of Empoli are now seeking to establish whether his self-defence constituted an excessive use of force.

The butchery, worthy of a Quentin Tarantino film, began shortly before midnight on Friday when the four men knocked at the apartment of a Chinese hairdresser in the centre of Empoli.

The hairdresser, her assistant and "the doctor", who operated from the same premises, were reportedly overpowered and tied up before the group, all thought to be in their 20s and 30s, ransacked the apartment.

Disappointed by their meagre booty, the attackers allegedly threatened to rape the two women unless they told them where the rest of their money was hidden.

At this point the doctor managed to free himself, seize a knife from one of the aggressors and deliver a series of lethal stab wounds.

Investigators found the body of one man, who had been stabbed in the heart, sprawled on the staircase and another man bleeding to death in the street from a wound to his leg. A third man is recovering in hospital from a punctured lung.

The doctor was found crouching in the entrance to the building with cuts to his shoulder, face and hands.

Investigators are trying to determine whether he inflicted the injuries while defending himself inside the apartment, or hunted down the burglars after they had fled.

I think that anyone who also thought so, but abandons George Bush or Tony Blair after the fact to score simple political points is swine.

Human Rights Violations in Iran: an Update Blatant violations of human rights marked the end of September 2003.

With the parliament elections five months away, it appears that the hardliners, holding most positions of power (the judiciary, for example), are bent on stepping up their policy of repression against intellectuals, writers, students and political activists, especially those associated with the reformist bloc.

To Continue Reading Visit:
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287

(**)
EU to Call for Probe in Canadian's Death

European Union foreign ministers are set to ask on Monday for an investigation into the role of the Tehran prosecutor's office in the death of a Canadian journalist, a draft EU document seen by Reuters shows. Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, agreed to represent in Iran's courts the family of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian citizen of Iranian descent killed in custody in Tehran in June.

[NOTE: sign important petition]

To Continue Reading Visit:
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=289

(**)
Terrorism Headlines of the Week- 10/10/03

*A Strategy for Stemming Terrorists' Financing
*Homeland Security Dept. Planning 7 Offices Overseas to Screen Visas
*FBI Sent Money to Hamas in 1990s
*7 Canadians accused of links to terror still in foreign custody
*Report: Australia may boost funding for pro-Western schools in Indonesia
*US Says Former Suspect Tied To Chechen Terrorists
*Belgium investigates role of suspect Muslim couple in Al-Qa'idah network
*Italian-Moroccan gets 15 years jail for terrorism
To Read Complete Report:
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=288Reports:

(**)
Shirin Ebadi - BIOGRAPHY
[Source: The Norwegian Nobel Committee]
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=279

(**)
A Chance for Change in Iran

With its continued defiance of major international laws and world public opinion, is the international community prepared to confront the immediate threat that the clerical regime in Iran poses?
To Continue Reading Visit:
http://www.activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=260

For Daily News Updates Visit http://www.activistchat.com - and if you
know a blogger who supports the Iranians in their struggle inform him/her of the BLOG-IRAN Grassroots Campaign at http://wwww.activistchat.com/blogiran/

Also at MEI: David Mack, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs; Richard Parker, former ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco; William Eagleton, former ambassador to Syria; Joseph C. Wilson, career foreign-service office and former deputy chief of mission in Baghdad; David Ransom, former ambassador to Bahrain and former deputy chief of Mission in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Syria; and Michael Sterner, former ambassador to the UAE and deputy assistant secretary of Near Eastern affairs.

For Meridian and MEI, at least, the House of Saud is not the only government entity lining up to fund them; Foggy Bottom is as well. Meridian does significant amounts of work with State, particularly in coordinating the International Visitors Program, which determines the individuals and groups invited--and not invited--to Washington for a chance to curry favor with State officials in person. MEI last year was slated to handle a conference of Iraqi dissidents--which was going to exclude the umbrella organization of pro-democracy groups, the Iraqi National Congress--in London. (The conference was cancelled after public outcry over MEI's role.) The grant for holding the conference was a staggering $5 million--more than three times MEI's annual budget.

The money, the favors, and State's affinity for Saudi elites over the decades have all helped contribute to the "special relationship" between State and the House of Saud. Notes Hudson Institute senior fellow Laurent Murawiec, "This is a relationship that has been cemented by 40 years of money, power, and political favors that goes much deeper than most people realize."

Barak - who has not returned to the Knesset since he left office in 2001 after offering the Palestinians far-reaching concessions for peace during his tenure as Labor leader - told Israel Radio he was sorry that the Labor Party had permitted a few of its members to formulate such a "delusional" peace plan as the Geneva Accord.

"This is a fictive and slightly peculiar agreement... that clearly harms the interests of the State of Israel," said Barak.

Such a concession, which the Palestinians have agreed to exchange for Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount, comprises the core of the agreement, known as the Geneva Accord.

In reaction to Abd al-Raziq's remark, Meretz MK Haim Oron, a member of the Israeli negotiating team, said the Palestinians had agreed to concede the right of return and to solve the "refugee" issue outside the borders of Israel, Israel Radio reported.

However, Abd al-Raziq's statement appears to be partly a semantic comment on what the "right of return" actually means. Israel Radio quoted Abd al-Raziq as saying that those "refugees" who do return to Israel would be able to do so only with Israeli agreement, and that some Palestinians will remain in the countries where they now live or be absorbed by the Palestinian Authority - precisely the terms of the accord.

The agreement, though, also explicitly calls for the Palestinians to concede the right of return, and says that a decision to allow the limited number of Palestinians to settle in Israel will not be defined as realization of the right of return.

On a substantive level, Abd al-Raziq seems to be committing to the same treatment of "refugees" as the agreement specifies. However, his explicit rejection of a Palestinian concession of the right of return, despite the equally explicit wording of the agreement demanding such a concession, could be interpreted as a contradiction of the peace draft.

Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, is an ex-vigilante who repented from his past after the student uprising in 1999. His video of confessions which was given to the Iranian Nobel Peace Priize winner, lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi made the headlines, but also resulted in Shirin Ebadi's suspended sentence and ban from her profession.

Amir Farshad Ebrahimi escaped from the Islamic Republic few months ago. In this revealing interview he sheds some light on the role of Islamic Republic of Iran in the current wave of terror and assassination in Iraq, and in particular the assassination of Ayatollah Hakim.

Hakim was hosted by the mullahs in Iran during the Saddam years but welcomed the overthrow of Saddam by the Allied forces.

The following interview was carried out with AFE on 9th October.

Q- You said on Thursday that you received information from a person who was directly involved in the assassination of Hakim. How exactly did you receive this information?

A- I received an email a couple of days ago from someone whose name was familiar but I really got to recognise him from his photo. With more
correspondence I got to know more about him. He is one of the officers of the Ghods division. We were together during the training period. For now I just refer to him as the Najaf Witness.He claims he was part of the team that carried out the assassination of Hakim and his entourage.

Q- What does the Najaf witness claim?

A- He claimed that the Ghods division received a mission from the Supreme Leader's office within the framework of the "Abedoon" project. The project was to ensure that the Shiite clergy in Iraq remain under the influence of the Supreme Leader. Najaf Witness claims he and three others were assigned the task of assassinating Ayatollah Hakim.

They entered Iraq via the land borders under the cover of State Radio and TV broadcasting reporters. On the very last day of the mission another person joined their group and provided them with the explosives.

Q- Why has the Najaf witness now escaped from Iran?

A- He claims one month after the assassination he has witnessed the suspicious deaths of the three other members of the assassination team. The first died in Baghiollah hospital from food poisoning. The second one died in a driving accident in Babayii Highway on his return from the military college. The third one apparently died when accidentally shot by a guard.

After hearing about these suspicious deaths he decided to flee Iran and save his life. I also know the third person who was killed. His name was Asgari and he was also with me in the military college. The Kayhan daily also printed the
announcement of his wake.

Q- How genuine is his claims in your opinion?

A- There is no doubt that he is an officer in the Ghods division, he was in the military college with me during training and had I stayed on I would have been the same rank as him. I also sent his photo to Ayatollah Hakim's brother. They confirmed that they met up with him before the Friday prayer which led to Hakim's death.

Q- What information do you have about the present situation of the Najaf Witness?

A- I am in constant correspondence with him. He is extremely scared and is in hiding. He is convinced that his former colleagues have the orders to kill him too.

Regards,

P A

Speaking after a meeting of the Fatah central committee, Qureia would only say that a new government would be formed in three weeks "with a new prime minister, too."

Qureia currently heads an emergency Cabinet appointed a week ago by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Over the past week, though, he has clashed bitterly with Arafat about who would be the new security chief and whether Arafat had the power to appoint a Cabinet by decree.

On Sunday, Qureia told Fatah officials he did not intend to stay on as prime minister when the emergency government's term expires in three weeks.

If Qureia follows through, he would be the second Palestinian prime minister to give up the job since last month.

His predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, resigned last month after just four months in office, caught between Israeli demands for a crack down on militants and Arafat's refusal to give up any power over security forces.

Oil will eventually lubricate Iraq's financial revival. At least it will unless it provokes shortsighted American parsimony that could have costly political as well as economic consequences...

...It would be fun to forgive the debts contracted by a regime that ruled against the interests of the Iraqi people, money owed to nations that opposed the liberation of those people who are saddled with the debt. Fun, but improvident: Chaos in international finance would result from making the validity of nations' debts contingent on the virtues, or continuity, of nations' regimes.

Besides, McPherson says he has spoken with many Iraqis, and "they do not say we came to steal their oil. But if we load them with debt payable by oil revenues . . ." Enough said.

It's the same old story. The Red Sox behaved badly, and lost. The Yankees behaved badly, and won.

Which team would you rather be?

It also demonstrates that unglamorous workaday efforts -- like training a competent police force, judiciary, and civil service; building functioning educational and health care systems; and assuring that basic public services are delivered -- require as much advance planning and strategic thinking as a military campaign...

First, America is the land of immigrants: Where else but in America could an immigrant, a former bodybuilder turned Hollywood star, become governor? Second, as we know well, the word that defines Arnold is "discipline"; what he sets his mind to he gets. He would not be derailed by the lies that were told about him or by those dismissive of his abilities.

About the lies, let's be done with those right away. Not only is Arnold not a Hitler sympathizer; he actively helped both of us in our battles against neo-Nazis here in Austria. This help began very early in Arnold's teenage years and continued after he became a Hollywood star. Arnold did not forget us or his obligation to his hometown.

One of us (Alfred Gerstl) was a leader of the partisan resistance against the Nazi occupation and his grandfather was Cantor at a New York synagogue. On being released from prison in 1945, I determined to always make sure those around me understood the evil of Nazism. As Arnold was growing up, he used to listen intently to what I had to say. He worked out with my son Karl, and they and their friends would congregate at the Gerstl house afterward.

Once, in 1964, I took Arnold to see a lecture on Nazi crimes that a professor had organized here in Graz. Arnold was very affected by what he heard. Neo-Nazis had organized a demonstration against this professor, and I put together a counter-demonstration. There was an altercation, which was a foolish move for the other side since at that time Arnold had already begun working out with weights.

...Now a word about America. No one here was in the least surprised that America has embraced an immigrant in this way. America freed us from the Nazi period; America liberated the concentration camps. We Austrians are not just very fond of America, we admire it too. Nor is this just a generational thing for people with memories of the war. Our youth watches MTV and is every bit as influenced by the U.S. as we were. Our societies are very similar. So in Graz we're raising a toast to Arnold, our hometown boy, who now leads one of the most powerful states in our most important ally, the U.S.

The prisoners were lashed with cables. Clips were attacked to their earlobes, nipples and genitals and they were administered electric shocks. When they passed out, as they almost invariably did, they were dragged back to the corridor and cuffed again to the radiator, a dozen former prisoners recalled in interviews.

This torture continued for several days, hours at a time, even after the prisoners broke. Nearly all eventually signed forced confessions put in front of them and stamped them with a single fingerprint, their hands lifted to the paper by the guards because the prisoners no longer had the strength.

Prisoners who held out longer than expected were subject to further horrors. Faraj saw his mother dragged in front of him. His mother's gown was roughly lifted, exposing her bare legs and underwear as the police said they would rape her. The humiliation, he said, was unbearable. Kharqani and two other inmates were forced to watch three other prisoners killed with acid...

The interim report of chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay seems to support the Ekeus hypothesis. He found infrastructure, but as yet no finished product.

As yet, mind you. "We are not yet at the point where we can say definitively either that such weapons stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war and our only task is to find where they have gone," Kay testified last week.

This is fact, not fudging. How do we know? Because Hussein's practice was to store his chemical weapons unmarked amid his conventional munitions, and we have just begun to understand the staggering scale of Hussein's stocks of conventional munitions. Hussein left behind 130 known ammunition caches, many of which are more than twice the size of Manhattan. Imagine looking through "600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordnance" -- rows and rows stretched over an area the size of even one Manhattan -- looking for barrels of unmarked chemical weapons...

In what Middle East Newsline called a "last ditch effort," the Bush administration dispatched a senior State Department official to Riyadh earlier this week to discuss a draft of a report that detailed major Saudi violations of religious rights.

The envoy was said to have sought assurances from the Saudi government it would change its policy.

The State Department was to have relayed its annual International Religious Freedom Report to Congress by Sept. 30. The report was meant to have addressed demands by a panel mandated by Congress to deem Saudi Arabia as a "country of particular concern," a term reserved for a leading violator of religious freedom.

But, officials now say the State Department report will be delayed until at least mid-November.

The measure still faces additional hurdles on the House floor next week and more in the Senate. But if the bill, which passed the committee on a 47-14 vote, succeeds, Americans will shoulder the entire burden for continued military occupation there, as well as for rebuilding Iraqi roads, water systems and hospitals...

"If you want to be foolish, you have to believe that Iran is producing its nuclear bomb in order to attack Israel; you'll turn into a complete idiot if you believe it's producing it in order to confront the U.S. The Iranians are enriching uranium to produce nuclear weapons aimed, essentially, at its neighbors, mainly Pakistan. However, the danger encompasses the other neighboring countries as well, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan, which share with Iran a land border of 5,400 km and a sea border of 2,400 km.

"I don't need anyone to remind me that nuclear bombs are not artillery fired from across a border, and that with [suitable] launching facilities they are capable of reaching the end of the world. What I mean is that it is hard to believe the claim that Iran's purpose in producing nuclear weapons is to attain balance with Israel due to the enormity of the Israeli arsenal and [Israel's] technological superiority. Likewise, it is inconceivable that we believe Iran will do what the Russians – with the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world – were incapable of doing, and will enter into nuclear confrontation with Washington." ...

'We Have Used Conventional Weapons More Against Each Other Than Against Israel'

"We have used conventional weapons more against each other than against Israel, and this situation will not change tomorrow if we add nuclear bombs to our arsenals. I understand Iran's motivation for producing nuclear bombs. Iran saw the world's indifference over neighboring Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear weapons. And Pakistan itself produced them after India revealed its own nuclear arsenal. [These were considered by Iran as] sufficient reason to achieve regional balance. However, Iran, unlike the two countries of the Indian subcontinent, realized… that it is sitting on one of the most important and sensitive international centers of conflict.

"It would be a mistake to come to the defense of our neighbor Iran out of ignorance and on the pretext of deterring Israel. The Iranian nuclear danger threatens us, first and foremost, more than it threatens the Israelis and the Americans."

"Our source has been reliable in everything he's given us in the past," said a Time correspondent.

On Wednesday, The Guardian quoted an unidentified aide close to Arafat as saying he had a "slight heart attack" last week, adding that the incident was kept secret for fear of creating panic. A senior aide said however that "the report about the heart attack is a complete lie."

At the beginning of last week, Arafat was visited by doctors from Jordan after a three-day illness, reported to be flu.

"I turned the limb over and examined the sole of the foot, and I thought it looked unsual," Sergey Semenov, the mountain-climber who made the find, said.

"So I decided to bring it back with me."

Scientific tests and X-rays show that the bones are several thousand years old, but attempts to identify the creature they belonged to remain inconclusive.

Local opinion on the find, described as "surprisingly well-preserved", is divided.

There is a long tradition of alleged sightings in the area of what might - or might not - be the abominable snowman...

The 358-183 vote in the Turkish parliament seemed certain to improve ties with Washington that were badly strained by Turkey's failure to back President Bush in the war to oust Saddam Hussein...

"We believe any interference from a neighboring country, either north, south, west or east, is unacceptable," Mouwafak Al-Rabii, a Shi'ite council member and longtime human rights activist, told reporters in Baghdad. "This interference is unacceptable."...

by Itamar Marcus

Introduction
While the Palestinian Authority (PA) gives lip service in English to condemning PA terrorism, in Arabic its official TV continues to promote and glorify violence, presenting it this openly last week as the means to destroy of Israel.

PA TV started re-broadcasting a short clip that reaffirms the fundamental PLO- PA message, that the goal and end result of Palestinian violence will be Israel's destruction. In this visually powerful clip, the PA conquest of Israel is depicted by visual symbols accompanied by verbal messages in song.

The Visual depicts three stages.

Stage 1- A heart is dripping blood beneath a formation in the shape of Israel, symbolizing pain, loss or sacrifice because of or linked to Israel's existence.

Stage 2- Arms grasping stones sprout from the land all over Israel, symbolizing violent attacks throughout Israel.

Stage 3- The PA flag appears, covers all of Israel and then rests above Israel, symbolizing the PA conquest of all of Israel.

The words sung while the PA flag hovers over Israel, include:

"Allah Akbar! [Allah is Great] Oh, the young ones,
Shake the earth, raise the stones
You will not be saved, Oh Zionist,
From the volcano of my county's stones.
You will not be saved, Oh Zionist,
From the volcano of my county's stones.
You are the target of my eyes"

Click here to see the full video

This video was broadcast twice on PA TV** this week. [Sept. 29-30 2003]

[**PA TV is owned and totally controlled by the Palestinian Authority.]

The South Park Republicans are an incredibly diverse group encompassing a variety of nontraditional conservatives, such as the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bruce Willis supported Republicans because of their commitment to lower taxes and fiscal discipline. Rap artist and movie actor LL Cool J recently endorsed NY governor George Pataki.

Despite my google skills I cannot find the names of the murdered editors.

Contemporary discussion of Lebanese press freedom seems to be about minor trivia in a system that is entirely subservient to the Syrian secret police.
===
Dear Ms. Wertheimer:

Sunday morning 10/5/03 you interviewed Ziad Haidar, a Lebanese "journalist" based in Damascus.

As you surely must know, the free lebanese press was annihilated in the 1970's by Syrian secret police/Ba'ath party death squads that operated with impunity inside Lebanon in the period immediately preceeding that country's civil war.

In particular, the two leading moderate democratic newspaper editors/publishers--pillars of Lebanon's multi-cultural society-- were abducted and tortured to death. And unlike the situation in Argentina, where the torturers carefully concealed their crimes out of concern for world opinion, the Syrian death squads actually advertised their unspeakable actions. They dumped the bodies in downtown Beirut so that the marks of torture were plain for all to see. The rest of the press had to chose either flight or collaboration.

And now a generation later, here you are on NPR stepping over the mutilated bodies of those editors so you can interview one of the collaborators. By presenting this Quisling to your listeners as a free journalist you create a grossly misleading impression of Arab society, and you defile the memory of those Lebanese editors who gave their lives for freedom of the press.

Addendum:

Before I could finish composing this letter, you did it again. Bob Edwards interviewed Rami Khouri--an EDITOR in Beirut. No doubt these Lebanese "journalists" are articulate, urbane and seemingly moderate.

And this apparently is sufficient for you to ignore the fact that they serve at the pleasure of those who butchered their predecessors in full view of the world press.

-[x]
Salem, Oregon

Cristiano asked that Palestinians be informed that it was a rival Italian network, the privately owned Mediaset, that had shot and broadcast the footage. He assured the PA that his network would never act in such a way:[...]

Here we see The New York Times: "No Illicit Arms." The Washington Post: "No Banned Weapons." The Los Angeles Times: "No Illicit Iraqi Arms." USA Today: "No Illegal Weapons."

Is that what you found?

DAVID KAY: Well, we certainly found that — have not yet found illicit arms. But that's not the only thing the report says. In fact, I'm sort of amazed at what was powerful information about both their intent and their actual activities that were not known and were hidden from UN inspectors seems not to have made it to the press. This is information that, had it been available last year, would have been headline news...

President Bush could even say that this tax is his long-promised alternative to Kyoto, because the amount of energy conservation it would produce would result in a much greater reduction in U.S. energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, than anything Kyoto would have mandated.

The attack _ one day after an Islamic Jihad bomber killed 19 people _ threatened to widen three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence into neighboring countries and marked a dramatic new strategy in Israel's efforts to stop terror attacks.

Israel, which accuses Syria of harboring and funding Islamic Jihad, said it would strike at terrorists anywhere in the region. A statement from the military also accused Iran of funding and directing Islamic Jihad, saying Israel "will act with determination against all who harm its citizens."

"Any country who harbors terrorism, who trains (terrorists), supports and encourages them will be responsible to answer for their actions," government spokesman Avi Pazner said.

Syria's Foreign Ministry issued a terse statement saying it plans to lodge an "urgent complaint" against Israel with the United Nations. A Jihad spokesman denied the organization has any bases in Syria...

The early-morning blast rocked the ultra-popular Maxim restaurant off its heels, completely toppling the establishment which sat near Haifa (search)'s beach promenade on the southern edge of the city.

Paramedics estimated that at least forty others were injured in the bombing, several of them seriously. Authorities said the bomber walked into the restaurant with the device strapped to his body and, without warning, quickly pulled the plug on it.

Initially there were conflicting reports as to whether or not the assailant was also armed, shooting to death a security guard before entering the building. Police said they are still investigating that theory.

Hours after the explosion, the militant group Islamic Jihan claimed responsibility for the attack. Not long after, speculation grew that the attack could spark Israel to take action against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Israeli Cabinet threatened on Sept. 11 to "remove" Arafat, implying either expulsion or assassination, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested action would be taken against the Palestinian leader if there was another major suicide bombing with heavy casualties.

The incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (search), condemned Saturday's bombing as an "ugly attack" and urged all Palestinian groups to stop violence against civilians. The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said he appealed to international mediators to ensure that Israel does not retaliate. "We don't want Israel to add fuel to the fire," he said...

A more accurate word for President Bush's political condition is "normal." Mr. Bush has slumped in his third year in office just as most recent presidents have. A slump is the rule, not the exception...

I hope for all those ambitious politicians now screaming at the top of their lungs that those weapons don't end up in Chicago. I hope that for all our sakes.

"We have taken senior Iraqi leaders in detention to them," Kay said. The leaders were those who evidence indicated had been involved in the experiments.

"They were clearly shaken up by being taken there," he said, adding they were afraid that "we would make them face a lineup" of victims.

Kay has actually done more than simply justify the war to oust Saddam by demonstrating a past history of Iraqi violations. Kay has shown that Iraq never had any intention of complying with the demands of the U.N. inspectors....

With that in mind, Louis Brandeis, the first Jew to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, uttered the famous quote that still resonates today: "The remedy for bad speech is more speech."

For those offended by murals painted on the outside walls of Brahim "Abe" Ayad's East 55th Street deli, "more speech" might be the only recourse.

Ayad, 37, a Palestinian-American who owns Grandpa's Kitchen, has had dozens of controversial images painted on his business establishment over the last few years. Public officials and Jewish Clevelanders say these murals are blatantly offensive and antisemitic.

The newest signs, painted over the spring and summer at the deli, include a group of skullcap-wearing Jews counting money at a table while Jesus hangs on a cross above them, and a supposed talmudic endorsement of pedophilia. In the latter, a Jewish priest holds a small boy in his arms. The priest is quoted as saying, "Silly man, this is not my son, he's my wife." Below this is an alleged line from the Talmud. "Like the tear comes to the eye again and again so does ... virginity to a child under 3 years and 1 day."

Above this mural is contact information for Cong. Stephanie Tubbs Jones for those seeking reparations from Israel. The congresswoman's image has also unflatteringly appeared on past murals. Ayad was angry she never followed up on a letter she sent him over two years ago, claiming she would help him get back his father's land.

Another new sign shows Hitler with the Star of David branded into his upraised and bleeding hand. A larger Star of David superimposed with a swastika is painted to the right of this image.

In the past, Ayad's signs have portrayed Jews as monkeys and pigs, and repeated canards such as Jews control the media and Jews were behind the 9/11 terror attacks. The first signs appeared on a car wash Ayad owned at E. 55th and Cedar. The images were painted over after the City Mission bought the building.

Ayad, a father of eight who lives in North Olmstead, has said he does not support violence against Jews. The murals, he notes, are a protest against "evil-doing Zionists" who, among other offenses, he claims, took away his Palestinian father's land to make way for the state of Israel...

Police said on Friday the man was so embarrassed after the incident that he declined to seek treatment for the injury, and died days later.

"Following a disagreement over the husband's spending habits, his wife refused to give him his dinner and also decided to sleep alone," police in the western region of Wellega said.

"The husband was so angered by this affront by his wife that he tried to beat her. In the melee that followed, the wife grabbed and twisted his testicles causing serious damage."

Police said the unnamed woman, a resident of Wayu-Tuka district in Wellega, had had several arguments with her husband about the amount of money he spent on booze.

Proposition 54, the California Racial Privacy Initiative, occupies a quiet corner on the boisterous recall ballot. With limited exceptions, RPI would forbid state and local governments from ethnically classifying residents for public education, employment, or contracting. Although it has been overshadowed by the gubernatorial brawl, RPI enjoys surprising support among the Golden State's minority voters.

The 2003 Multilingual Survey of California Voters found that every ethnic group polled favors RPI. Hispanics endorse it 46 percent to 33 percent. Asian-descended voters are pro-RPI, 42 percent to 40, while blacks back it, 41 percent to 33. Whites, interestingly enough, support RPI 31 percent to 25 with a hefty 44 percent undecided.

Still, as Miami-based pollster Sergio Bendixen told the Sacramento Bee: "Mathematically, it is impossible for Proposition 54 to be defeated unless minorities oppose it." Bendixen's private company interviewed 1,608 voters between September 6-16 in Cantonese, English, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

"This poll gives me hope that a broad coalition of individuals can think outside the box and reject the racialist company line," says San Franciscan Kevin Nguyen, RPI's official proponent and a Saigon native whose father spent six months in a Vietcong reeducation camp...

Their devilish methods are entirely parasitic. Hamas or the Baathists can no more craft on their own an RPG, a tactical missile, or a nuclear weapon than they can build a cell phone or a Honda. Uday's stash of pills and cars was the logical counterpart to Saddam's imported arsenal — Western material goods without the inconvenient cargo that was responsible for their creation, whether democracy, rationalism, secularism, or individual freedom.

What then are the ultimate aims of terrorists and state killers? What exactly does a crackpot Iranian mullah, a crazed Taliban, the sons of Saddam, or one of bin Laden's executioners really want with us? A sort of alternative existence to the West, upon which they both feed and prey, like some sort of toadstool that, with sufficient rain and neglect, sprouts up amid an otherwise lush green lawn...

• Inspectors have not yet determined whether the research was tied to large-scale military weapons or to biological terror weapons.

• Scientists reported that work was under way with surrogate organisms that could have been adapted to organisms suitable for weapons.

• One vial was found containing the organism C. botulinum Okra B, from which a biological agent can be produced. It was hidden in a scientist's house.

• Inspectors were unable to prove that Iraq had mobile biological production trailers, but could not rule it out. "We are confident we will be able to get an answer," Mr. Kay said.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS

• Much of Iraq's ability to produce chemical weapons was destroyed during and after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, and there is little information so far on how many chemical weapons might have been retained.

• "Multiple sources" have suggested that Iraq "explored" the possibility of resuming production, perhaps as late as this year.

• The inspectors have not found evidence that Iraqi military units were prepared to use chemical weapons against invading American and British troops.

NUCLEAR PROGRAMS

• There is no evidence so far of significant steps to build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material for them.

• Scientists have said, "Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons."

• Iraq appeared to be maintaining the expertise to resume nuclear research, and may have considered rebuilding a centrifuge enrichment program.

DELIVERY SYSTEMS

• Ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and perhaps unmanned aircraft were being developed that, if completed, would have had ranges beyond the 90-mile limit imposed by the United Nations, perhaps up to 600 miles.

Compounding Washington's problems, the CIA official directing the weapons search in Iraq reported to U.S. lawmakers that no chemical or biological arms -- the main reason cited for the U.S.-led invasion in March -- had yet been found.

In Baghdad, the top U.S. general in the country, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said guerrilla attacks had become more lethal and casualties would continue rising...

The CIA sends about 50 such referrals per year. Few, if any, such probes ever identify the leaker in a way that results in public criminal charges. The Wilson referral was sent by the CIA's general counsel, not by agency Director George J. Tenet.

The CIA follows up such referrals with a second letter to Justice answering 11 standard questions, such as what damage was none to national security and who in government knew of the information. The CIA sent this letter in mid-September...

My son is in front of the TV
Watching American cartoons
About a good man with a rifle,
A bit slow but committed,
Trying to destroy an enemy
Who taunts and confounds him.
I sit at the dining room table,
Testing the charges, packing
In the rat poison and screws,
Hearing him laughing at
The Zionist propaganda,
Sympathizing with the prey
Instead of the hunter.
I know better. In those cartoons
Is the fate of our people:
1967 all over again
Each time the hunter sticks his gun
Down a hole and it comes up
Behind him, and shoots him
Right in the ass.
The device is ready. I stand up and
Press it to my waist to measure.
Small, much too small--but then
It wasn't made for me to wear, was it?
I call my son over and try to explain
In terms he can understand. He starts
Crying and screaming, but I know
What to say to him now, I know
How to calm him now, and as I
Lean in to tighten the belt 'round
His tiny waist and press the bus
Schedule into his tiny hands, I whisper
To him the words that will change
His political sympathies in a heartbeat:
"Be vewy, vewy quiet. You're hunting wabbits."

Robert told me that, through the radio, I became something of a -- I don't know the right word -- influence, inspiration, a hero to his son. Would I, asked Robert, take time from my busy schedule to visit his son?...

Eltantawi and I are interviewed sequentially here because I refuse to debate her or other representatives of the militant Islamic lobby. Who the television producers put on after me, however, I do not attempt to control.

Eltantawi says some pretty interesting things. Perhaps most so is her nonchalance that "less than a quarter of a percentage of American Muslims" serving in the U.S. military are accused of criminal violence.

The most amusing point is when Eltantawi gravely insists that "the Defense Department and the FBI know more about this [problem of Muslim criminality] than people like Daniel Pipes" and O'Reilly laughingly replies "Obviously they don’t. We have three people arrested at Guantánamo Bay at the terrorist camps. Obviously, the FBI doesn’t know."

And the most inaccurate point is when Eltantawi ascribes to me the view that "all American Muslims be suspended from their positions until they can, quote, prove their loyalty." What I wrote in my column this week was that "presently employed Muslim personnel who got their jobs through those [suspect] institutions" should be suspended until their loyalty can be confirmed. Even after O'Reilly demurred from her version of what I said, she insisted "It’s a quote from his article, Bill. It is a quote from the article."

Yours, Daniel Pipes

Front Line Voices Introduction

Since, as the saying goes, perception is nine-tenths of reality, those who control what we learn about the war in Iraq and other conflicts have an immense power. They can spin a victory into a failure, and a perceived failure in the fight against tyranny can only strengthen the resolve of tyrants.

It has increasingly been the complaint of many troops that the picture that the media is painting of the progress in the War on Terror is far from reality. The mission of this site is to get out the full story by posting first-hand accounts as written by men and women who have actually been to Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no editing or commentary by those who run this site, and we will print any letter or story submitted by a legitimate source who has served overseas. Our only goal is to offer you the opportunity to read these stories and to find out what the reality is.

What I saw and heard next was simply unbelievable. Scott Pelley interviewed an Iraqi who claimed to be part of the Fedayeen. This cretin went on to describe why he wanted to kill Americans and shared that he had been involved in 4 attacks already (my guess is that it's probably more). He went on to explain that he would cut the head off of any American soldier he might capture. It would make him "so happy". Though I didn't time it, this SOB had several minutes to spout his beliefs and Pelley was baiting him with questions like "what would you tell the American people?"

I have 2 cousins in Iraq & have one question for Pelley: Whose fucking side are you ON??!!

This moron (an American, in case he forgot) sat across from an enemy of America & DID NOTHING (aside from letting him spout his propoganda).

Cut to an interview with Paul Bremer & the exchange went something like this:

Pelley - I spoke with a man who claimed to be with the Fedayeen & was avowed to kill American soldiers. He...
Bremer (interrupting) - Did you arrest him??
Pelley (clearly taken aback) - Uh, we don't have the authority to arrest anyone.
Bremer - Did you turn him over to the authorities or military??
Pelley - Uh, we're just here to report...
Bremer - Well, listen. Next time you find someone like that, call me & I'll come arrest him.

Yea Paul!!! Give it to him!![...]

Chief Wiggles
c/o CPA Chaplain
CPA-C2, Debriefer
APO AE 09335

Address for those mailing from Australia

Chief Wiggles
CPA Chaplain
CPA C2
AFPO 20, CHTF-7 CPA
ADF NSW 2890

A website will soon be available for those that want to "one stop shop" and have your items sent to the Chief. More on this will be available soon.

Please note the buttons available for those that want to link to the toy drive on their site. Here, and here.

Some wonderful people created a flyer to pass out. Here is the flyer if you are interested. Again, thanks to Ree-C (mom), Libby Maddie and Jack (the kids).

Some no no toys:

Any guns of any kind
No violent action hereos
No violent toys
No barbie dolls or dolls skantily dressed
No toys that shoot something, no projectiles
No water guns
Lets just keep it simple, simple toys, just the basics, these kids have
nothing.
Crayons might melt, so probably not the best thing to send. It was 107 degrees in Baghdad today.
Quick update from the first comment, Colored pencils would be wonderful!

Right out of the box, Helen Thomas asked if "the President tried to find out who outed the CIA agent? And has he fired anyone in the White House yet?" OK, the point of this exercise is to get President Bush to fire someone. But whom? That answer became clear when the press corps quickly uttered, and kept uttering for nearly an hour, the name "Karl Rove."

Of course! The reason this is suddenly a story is because Mr. Rove, the President's political strategist and confidant from Texas, has become the main target. Joseph Wilson, the CIA consultant at the center of this mini-tempest, had recently fingered Mr. Rove as the official who leaked to columnist Robert Novak that Mr. Wilson's wife works for the CIA. Mr. Wilson has offered no evidence for this, and he's since retreated to say only that he now believes Mr. Rove had "condoned it." The White House has replied that the charge is "simply not true." But no matter, the scandal game is afoot.

The media, and the Democrats now slip-streaming behind them, understand that the what of this mystery matters much less than the who. It's no accident that Tony Blair's recent and evanescent scandal over WMD evidence concerned his long-time political aide and intimate, Alastair Campbell. We're also old enough to recall what happened to Jimmy Carter's Presidency once his old Georgia friend Bert Lance was run out of town. If they can take down Mr. Rove, the lead planner for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign, they will have knocked the props out of his Presidency...

"I've heard that we provide data they might dislike, that public opinion has to look better for the government than the way we represent it," lamented Yuri Levada, who created the government-owned All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, which for 15 years until last month enjoyed unusual autonomy to put out numbers that often irritated the Kremlin.

Putin called it a simple financial dispute, but many reformers and political analysts saw it as emblematic of a broader rollback of democratic gains of the post-Soviet period. In the past few months alone, the last independent national television network was shut down, new rules drastically restricting political coverage were imposed on surviving news organizations, challengers to the Kremlin favorite in next month's election in Chechnya were driven out of the race and a spate of investigations were launched against an oil tycoon who funded rival political parties.

Few if any of these issues will take a prominent place on the agenda when Putin meets President Bush at Camp David for a summit Friday and Saturday, according to officials from both governments. In the two years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Putin has positioned himself as a chief ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and, while he disagreed with Bush on the invasion of Iraq, the Russian president still occupies a special place in the White House's hierarchy of foreign friends...

To those who will decry this as censorship, they should be reminded of President Bush's injunction shortly after we were attacked two years ago: In the War on Terror, you are either with us or with the terrorists. It would be no more sensible for us to construe the masquerading of enemy propaganda, the communication and amplification of its calls to jihad and the legitimacy that attends transmission of such messages and images via television than it would be for us to regard bin Laden's messages, or Saddam's, as mere "news."

If we are serious about this war, we need a totally revamped information policy -- replete with much more concerted and effective efforts to win the hearts and minds of people who have no reason to fear us, let alone to attack us, but are being told to do so by Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. A place to start would be to rapidly start up a satellite television service of our own, capable of reaching millions of currently unserved viewers in Iraq.

Ahmed Mehalba, a civilian translator at the camp in Cuba, was arrested Tuesday at Boston's Logan International Airport after it was found that he was carrying classified documents.

He is the third person to be detained for possible security breaches at the naval base, where a largely Muslim, non-English-speaking population of about 660 suspected Al Qaeda (search) and Taliban (search) fighters are being held.

At a brief hearing Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mehalba entered no plea and was detained pending a probable cause hearing scheduled for Oct. 8. On the charge of making false statements, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.

Mehalba, wearing jeans and an orange golf shirt, said nothing during the hearing, except to tell the judge that he could not afford his own attorney.

Mehalba previously worked as a Boston cab driver. Two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks he applied for a job as a Logan Airport gate guard and was turned down, said Jose Juves, a spokesman for Massport, the agency that operates Logan.[...]

This is a story of two soldiers, one Christian, one Muslim. It's a cautionary tale that suggests how religious double standards and politically driven hypersensitivity threaten not only our troops, but us all.

Six months ago, Jack Moody tried to send his son, Daniel, a care package containing a Bible study and other Christian religious materials. Daniel is a 21-year-old Army National Guardsman serving in the Middle East. He had written home requesting spiritual support while he risked his life abroad. The literature his dad packed included Christian comic books. But when Daniel's dad approached the post office in the family's hometown of Lenoir, North Carolina, he was told he would not be allowed to send the items...