November 2003 Archives

...If Israel's critics are truly opposed to anti-semitism, they should not repeat traditional anti-semitic themes under the anti-Israel banner. When such themes - the Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, linking Jews with money and media, the hooked-nose stingy Jew, the blood libel, disparaging use of Jewish symbols, or traditional Christian anti-Jewish imagery - are used to describe Israel's actions, concern should be voiced. Labour MP Tam Dalyell decried the influence of "a Jewish cabal" on British foreign policy-making; an Italian cartoonist last year depicted the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as an attempt to kill Jesus "again". Is it necessary to evoke the Jewish conspiracy or depict Israelis as Christ-killers to denounce Israeli policies?

The fact that accusations of anti-semitism are dismissed as paranoia, even when anti-semitic imagery is at work, is a subterfuge. Israel deserves to be judged by the same standards adopted for others, not by the standards of utopia. Singling out Israel for an impossibly high standard not applied to any other country begs the question: why such different treatment?...

A central figure in the suicide bombing of an Istanbul synagogue was captured while trying to slip into Iran, police said yesterday. He was charged with trying to overthrow Turkey's "constitutional order" — an offense equivalent to treason.

The suspect, whose name was not released, is believed to have given the order to carry out the Nov. 15 truck bombing of the Beth Israel synagogue — one of four suicide attacks that killed 61 persons in Turkey in November, Istanbul Deputy Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said...

...Western and Turkish officials say the suicide attacks bore the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda. Newspapers have said some of the bombers had been trained at the group's camps in Afghanistan or Iran.

In the past, authorities have accused Tehran of backing radical Islamic groups in Turkey, and said that members of an Islamic radical group suspected in a series of killings trained in Iran and received support from its government.

American counterterrorism officials said last month that a few senior al Qaeda operatives who fled to Iran after the Afghan war may have developed a working relationship with a secretive military unit linked to Iran's religious hard-liners.

Iran has said it has some al Qaeda operatives in custody, but has refused to identify them or provide other details.

A London-based Arabic newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, reported Friday that a man backed by Iran and linked in the past to the radical group Hezbollah was behind the Istanbul bombings.

...There have been dozens of cases of trafficking in radiological materials over the past three years, along with what some weapons experts describe as a disturbing new trend. While most sellers of such materials have traditionally been amateurs -- opportunists and lone actors in search of easy profits -- authorities are now seeing a surge of interest among criminal groups. In a string of incidents from the Caucasus and Eastern Europe to West Africa and South America, gangs have stalked and stolen radiological devices to sell for profit or to use in crimes ranging from extortion to murder.

The new interest in radiological material by smugglers and criminal networks complicates an already difficult task confronting governments: how to stop terrorists from obtaining any of the tens of thousands of powerful radiological sources around the world that are currently in private hands or have simply been discarded. In Georgia and other unstable corners of the world, radioactive materials are turning up on black markets alongside more traditional contraband, such as drugs or Kalashnikov rifles.

They are a currency of the global gray zone, a dangerous mixture of failed states, porous borders and weak law enforcement, where the tools of terrorism are bought and sold...

...People at the site said they believed that the soldiers, who were dressed in civilian clothes, were CIA agents or members of the Israeli intelligence service.

"Praise to the steadfast people!" several people shouted in unison. Others beckoned passing motorists to roll down their windows and then boasted: "Look what we have done to the Americans and the Zionists." It was the deadliest roadside attack on occupation forces since shortly after the capture of Baghdad...

At the site of the attack in Latifiya, not every passing motorist joined in the horn-honking and waving. The driver of a white Toyota sedan rolled down his window and castigated Ali Sarhan and his friends.

"You enjoy what you're doing?" the driver growled. "You're killers."

"We're not killers," replied Sarhan, a student. "We're defending our country."

"By killing innocent civilians?" the driver shot back.

"They're not civilians," Sarhan responded. "They're Zionists."

The driver shot a look of disgust at Sarhan. "You're not going to get rid of them by doing nasty things like this," he said. Then he drove away.

George Soros is a great financier who has made billions by audacious speculation on the stock markets of the world and praises Karl Popper. However, sadly there is another side to George Soros. A side that indulges in conspiracy theories, anticapitalism and astonishingly crude moral relativism.

His article in the Atlantic The Bubble of American Supremacy latest example of his moral failings...

Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze accused multibillionaire philanthropist George Soros of donating millions of dollars to an uprising earlier this month that forced him to resign.

Shevardnadze said in a newspaper interview that he could not point to specific countries that had backed the uprising. Instead, international groups, such as the Soros Foundation, had financed the opposition, he said...

"I am shocked how international organizations can get involved in the internal issues of a country in such a brash manner and to such a great extent," Shevardnadze told Yediot Ahronot. "I can't give you exact numbers, but one ambassador told me that we are talking about $2.5 million to $3 million."

Soros opened an Open Society branch in Moscow in 1987 with the aim of helping the Soviet Union make the transition to democracy. The group has been active in trying to bolster civil society and the rule of law in the former Soviet Union...

Palestinian Authority minister Kadoura Fares announced Sunday afternoon that Fatah officials who had signed the Geneva Accord would depart for the peace plan's launching ceremony in Geneva, scheduled to take place on Monday. Earlier in the day, Fatah officials said that they would not depart for the ceremony until Fatah institutions, namely the party’s central committee, formally announce acceptance of the peace plan.

Fares told Israel Radio that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat gave his consent for the Fatah members’ departure for the ceremony.

Four prominent Palestinians who negotiated a symbolic Mideast peace agreement had canceled their participation in a launching ceremony Monday in Switzerland this week after Arafat refused to offer written support and shots were fired at a negotiator's home, Palestinian officials said Sunday. [...]

In a further sign of opposition, about 200 Palestinians attacked Palestinian negotiators traveling Sunday to Geneva for the signing ceremony. Screaming "traitors," the angry Palestinians blocked the road near a crossing into Egypt and beat and kicked the Palestinian negotiators and dignitaries as they emerged from their cars. Unarmed Palestinian police had to restrain the demonstrators to allow the officials to get through.

The officials were traveling to Cairo, and from there would fly onto Switzerland. Raouf Barbakh, a Fatah leader in the Gaza Strip, said he opposed the document since it calls on the Palestinian refugees to relinquish their right of return to territories that are now part of the Palestinian state.

"The Switzerland document's proposals ... on Palestinian refugees are totally unacceptable," Barbakh said after the demonstration. "We condemn all those who conspired against the right of return."

On Saturday, about 150 Palestinians protested the treaty in the Balata refugee in the West Bank...

Dear Freedom Fighters, Bloggers & Patriots,

The Islamic Regime in Iran continues to defy the demands of the Iranian people for Free-Referendum, Justice & Human rights, while also threatening the United States and other nations that support a FREE and DEMOCRATIC Iran.

If you are not already aware - on Wednesday, December 3rd the American Enterprise Institute will host a panel discussion between Islamic Regime opposition leaders in the United States and in Iran via a video conferencing medium. The discussion will be in Farsi because it will be simultaneously broadcast into Iran, but it will also be simultaneously translated into English for everyone else! The program will likely be aired on C-SPAN, however you may want to check the C-SPAN page or ActivistChat.com for programming schedule updates. This will be an unprecedented event and it is likely to have a significant effect on the movement and it may also be a sign of the White House's support of the Iranian struggle and regime change. Please notify all your readers of this event. More information regarding the panel discussion can be found at this link.

Following are very important articles and news alerts you may want to read as well as pass on to your viewers! GOOD LUCK - and continue the GOOD FIGHT!

Articles:

(:)IRAN RUNAROUND by Peter Brookes
WITH $8 billion a year in trade and a deal pending to up that ante even more, the European Union is Iran's largest trading partner. And it appears that the E.U. - led by France, Germany and Britain - may now value those trade privileges over the principle of opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Rest of Article.

(:)REAL AXIS OF EVIL by Ardavan Bahrami (The Iranian)
Glenn Reynolds pointed out this piece over at The Iranian called Real Axis of Evil, by Ardavan Bahrami, which takes the EU to task for its support of those regimes in the Middle-East that continue to brutally repress their populations. His points are valid and certainly they deserve to be raised, I just wish the major media outlets would get off their duffs and start acting like real journalists instead of the intellectually lazy toads they've become. (Comment by http://americanscribbles.blog-city.com/)
Rest of Article.

(:)Iran Says Won't Shelve Uranium Enrichment Forever by Paul Hughes
Iran has no intention of scrapping its disputed uranium enrichment program, needed to provide fuel for at least one of eight nuclear reactors it plans to build, a top Iranian official said on Saturday.
Rest of Article.

...How much did the reception cost and who paid for it? 'It was a few thousand.'

How many thousand?
'A few.'

Who paid this few thousand?
'It came from the Project Development Budget.'

Who finances the Project Development Budget?
'The Greater London Authority.'

Who finances the Greater London Authority?
'Well, you know the answer to that.'

Perhaps, but please remind me.
'I've answered your question.'

Who paid for this political reception at City Hall?
'It was a recognition of representative groups who…'

I understand, but who paid for it? The public?
'Well, that's your interpretation.'

And so it went on till my interlocutor exhausted what was undeniably an impressive stock of circumlocutions. He undertook to send me an official answer to my questions.

Unfortunately he didn't. I thus phoned him again yesterday...

A week-old Iraqi infant has arrived in Israel to undergo an operation to correct a congenital heart defect, with the aid of the Israeli organization Save a Child's Heart.

Wrapped in a red and yellow blanket and held by her mother, tiny Bayan Jassem was met Tuesday by Israeli doctors at the entrance to the emergency room at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon with the Arabic greeting "Salam alaikum," or welcome.

Akiva Tamir, the director of pediatric cardiology at the hospital, took the baby in his arms and carried her to a hospital bed, where he hooked her up to a heart monitor.

The hospital room resounded with the monitored beeping of the baby's heart as Jonathan Miles, an American who traveled with the family from Iraq to Israel over the weekend, translated from Hebrew and Arabic for the doctors and parents.[...]

The journey would probably have been impossible before the U.S.-led military sweep into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, a bitter enemy of Israel. Saddam's forces fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf war. As early as 1948, Iraqi soldiers took part in the two-year war that followed Israel's establishment.

An American doctor working with the U.S. forces in Iraq who checks babies for heart defects discovered Jassem's problem a day after her birth in a hospital near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, said Simon Fisher, executive director of Save a Child's Heart.[...]

"This is an emergency condition," Miles said. "No child in Iraq has ever had this operation done," since there are no doctors trained for such an operation in the Arab country, he said.

Tamir, the Israeli doctor, instructed a doctor in Baghdad over the phone on how to perform a minor operation on Jassem to stabilize her condition before she flew with her parents to Amman, and then traveled by car to Israel.

Moshe Mashiah, director of the Wolfson Medical Center, said that as someone who immigrated from Iraq in 1951, he is very excited by the possibility of aiding the Iraqi infant.

"I hope that the surgery will be successful and that this baby girl will serve as a bridge between the two peoples," Mashiah said.

Save a Child's Heart was founded in Israel and receives most of its funding from donations in Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany. It has given medical treatment to almost 1,000 children since it was founded in 1995, including more than 300 Palestinians and several Jordanians.

The girl checked into an Israeli hospital Tuesday for an emergency heart operation after European hospitals refused to accept her for treatment.

NEW YORK - Faced with strong opposition, Israel on Wednesday withdrew a draft resolution it had presented to a UN human rights committee demanding protection for Israeli children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ambassador Dan Gillerman, head of the Israeli mission to the United Nations, withdrew the text before the human rights committee of the UN General Assembly had time to take action on it.

"It is with regret that we withdraw the draft resolution and we will not ask the committee for a vote," Gillerman told the committee.

Gillerman said some countries had proposed "hostile amendments (to the draft) which distorted and perverted the focus and intend of the draft resolution." [...]

Since it was presented to the committee in late October, the Israeli draft had been heavily amended by a group of countries, including Bahrain, Egypt, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. The amendments took away all references to Israeli children...

Professor Khaled Abou Al-Fadl, [1] originally of Egypt, was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Commission on International Religious Freedom, where he is the only Muslim member. Recently he gave an interview to the Egyptian government weekly October in which he strongly criticized the American president. The following are excerpts from the interview: [2]

'Bush is a Religious Fundamentalist like Former Colonialists in Muslim Countries'

Question: "What is the truth about the connection between the Islamic organizations in America and the American government, today and in the recent past?"

Prof. Abou Al-Fadl: "Unfortunately, because of shortsightedness and ignorance, the Islamic organizations helped Bush reach the White House. I met with many leaders of these organizations and I told them that I have known Bush well since he was governor of Texas, where I live, and I am familiar with his bad policy, which does not bode well.

"During the election campaign, Bush gave the Islamic leaders a certain status… They lost their equilibrium. They did not listen – not only to me, but also to someone like Ralph Nader, who was a presidential candidate of Arab origin. He met with them and all but pleaded with them not to vote for Bush. He all but kissed their hands so they wouldn't. We told them that he [Bush] is a Christian religious fundamentalist and that the group around him, of the likes of Paul Wolfowitz and others, hold the same beliefs that accompanied colonialism's entrance to the Muslim countries in the 19th century." [...]

A cartoon of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating the head of a Palestinian baby against the backdrop of a burning Palestinian city has won first prize in the British Political Cartoon Society's annual competition...

...In his acceptance speech, Brown thanked the Israeli Embassy for its angry reaction to the cartoon, which he said had contributed greatly to its publicity.

The FBI has subpoenaed records for dozens of bank accounts belonging to the Saudi embassy, in an unprecedented move that has strained relations with a close ally in the war on terrorism.

The move is part of an investigation into whether any of the $US300 million ($A415 million) the Saudi embassy spends in the United States each year ends up in the hands of Muslim extremists, US and Saudi officials said.

This year officials from the two nations established a joint taskforce to track terrorist financing in Saudi Arabia.

Although many Saudi entities have been investigated in the past, US officials said this was the first investigation to directly probe Saudi Government funds.

The probe, approved by the National Security Council working group on terrorist financing at the request of several congressional leaders, focuses on the financial activities of the Islamic and cultural affairs office of the embassy as well as the activities of Saudi consulates around the US, officials said.

The subpoenas outraged Saudi officials, who believe they were unnecessary...

WASHINGTON -- Under growing pressure to acknowledge the extent of casualties in Iraq, President Bush held private meetings with families of fallen soldiers yesterday, followed by a pre-holiday pep talk to troops at the Fort Carson Army base whom he thanked for "standing between our country and grave danger."

But as in the past, Bush's comments were largely overshadowed by the gruesome reality on the ground -- this time, a horrific attack on two US soldiers who were shot, then their bodies dragged from their vehicle and beaten in the northern city of Mosul over the weekend. About the attack, which had flooded the news coverage for more than a day, Bush said nothing.

"We face enemies that measure their progress by the chaos they inflict," he simply said.

But now Bush himself is coming under increasing pressure to acknowledge the losses in Iraq by attending military funerals or, at least, allowing cameras to record the homecomings of flag-draped coffins rolling off the cargo planes at Dover Air Force Base. Senator John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, told the Globe he is interested in pushing the administration to allow photographers to witness the arrival of caskets at Dover...

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini told lawmakers Tuesday that Europe could be "more balanced" in its approach to the Middle East, and rebuked European Union member states for not outlawing the Palestinian militant group Hamas sooner.

Speaking to the members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, Fini said that the EU had known for many years that Hamas was a terrorist organization, but had lacked the integrity to act upon that knowledge until Italy took over as EU president.

During talks with Fini on Monday, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom praised Italy's role in outlawing the militant group, and asked that Rome make the same efforts to add Hezbollah to the list of EU terrorist organizations...

LONDON - A German sociologist who led an unprecendented, comprehensive research study on the causes of anti-Semitism in Europe, has charged that an "overly-politically correct" European Union, which commissioned the research, "buried" the report for fear that it could spark civil war...

...The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) decided not to publish the research after clashing with its authors over
their definition of anti-Semitism, which included anti-Israel acts, the paper said.

Bergman's partner in conducting the study, Professor Wolfgang Benz, termed the EUMC's grounds for rejecting the study "absolutely ridiculous. From our standpoint it verges on slander."[...]

A deputy board member not named by the paper confirmed that the directors of the EUMC had regarded the study as biased, adding that they had judged the focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators to be inflammatory.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a leader of the Greens party in the European Parliament Tuesday strongly denounced the EUMC for shelving the report. "The completely mad thing is that they didn't want to continue bcause they were afraid to offend a certain Muslim opinion in Europe," he told Israel Radio. "This is a completely crazy and wrong approach."

Cohn-Bendit, a leader of the French student left in the late 1960s, is currently on a visit to Israel. He said the decision to shelve the study was a "big, big, error" and that his party would question the move in the European Parliament at the first opportunity.

"There is a danger of anti-Semitism in Europe, there is a danger of racism in Europe - both - and we must confront this reality, and we can't now postpone the debate on this," Cohn-Bendit said.

Bergman said of the EU panel: "It was very difficult for them to accept the conclusions" of the report. "They asked us again and again to re-write the drafts, to soften the conclusions, to balance the arguments."

In the course of the study, the researchers complained to those who commissioned the research that data from some of the 15 nations studies was incomplete or flawed. "But they instructed us to continue," Bergman said.

THE Europeans have got it wrong in thinking the terrorist threat can be contained by taking a localised, kid-gloved approach.

What the world is grappling with now is a new, globalised menace, one that has to be fought jointly by developed countries and moderate Muslims, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview with Newsweek.

'The Europeans underestimate the problem of Al-Qaeda-style terrorism,' he said. 'They compare it to their own many experiences with terror - the IRA, the Red Brigade, the Baader-Meinhof, ETA. But they are wrong.'

Describing Al-Qaeda-style terrorism as 'new and unique', he noted that an event in faraway Morocco was capable of provoking extremist groups in Indonesia.

'There is a shared fanatical zealousness among these different extremists around the world. Many Europeans think they can finesse the problem, that if they don't upset Muslim countries and treat Muslims well, the terrorists won't target them.'

But that is a fallacy, he said, bringing up the terror threat in South-east Asia as a case in point: 'Muslims have prospered here. But still, Muslim terrorism and militancy have infected them.'

He told Newsweek that both Singapore and Thailand had been targeted in recent years, even though neither had mistreated its Muslims...

The Turks, Italians & Us
by Michael Ledeen
****
Bin Laden in Iran?
FOX NEWS
****
Hezbollah, Has Established a Significant Presence in Iraq

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- A jury recommended the death penalty today for convicted sniper killer John Allen Muhammad, reaching a decision in less than 90 minutes after deliberations resumed this morning about the fate of the mastermind in last fall's terrifying sniper attacks.

As he has throughout the six-week trial, Muhammad showed no visible reaction as a court clerk read the decision aloud in a hushed courtroom. He stood behind the defense table, his hands clasped before him, and stared ahead impassively.

The jury of seven women and five men reached the decision after deliberating five and a half hours over two days. Virginia law requires that a death sentence be unanimous. The jury had shown signs of some division Friday, asking in a note to the judge what would happen if they could not reach a unanimous decision.

But whatever differences existed, they were gone today. The jury began its deliberations today just after 9 a.m. and announced it had reached a verdict a few minutes before 10:30...

"It seems to me to be set to take place over too long a period. It seems to me to be incomplete," Chirac told reporters at a London news conference.

He also commented on the aspirations by France and Germany for a new European Union defence system, saying they were compatible with the region's participation in the NATO military alliance.

"Neither the Germans nor the French wish to take any kind of initiative which contradicts NATO which... is at the heart of our defence system."

...Now comes a movement, calling itself conservative but emulating these very radicals in taking the cultural war into the heart of foundational framework, attempting to rewrite the Constitution (albeit by due process) in order to achieve its political goals. I am referring to the movement for a Federal Marriage Amendment that seeks to take an institution previously under the jurisdiction of the states and federalize it; that seeks to take an institution now contested as part of the culture war, and define it constitutionally as a way of resolving the conflict. In other words, it is a movement to achieve a Roe v. Wade decision in reverse...

ANKARA, Turkey--At the last count, and how tragic it is to count in this way, two synagogues, a British bank and the British Consulate General have been bombed in Istanbul, with much loss of life--Turkish-Muslim, Turkish-Jewish and British. And tragic it is, too, that some commentary has implied that somehow the Turks are to blame, for being anti-Semitic or anti-Western deep down. In short, that they are to blame for their misfortunes. This kind of calumny should have a familiar ring to American ears after 9/11. Such views can accrue against the balance of truth and dig roots in world opinion. So let us set the record straight.

What is behind the bombing of synagogues in Istanbul? It is not as if there is any overt anti-Semitism in Turkey, nor was there any in the former Ottoman Empire. Empires could not afford to be anti-Semitic; their Jews were too useful. The Turks, an imperial people, took in hundreds of thousands of Jews at quite an early date-- 1520--when they were being expelled from Spain. The then sultan said: Has the king of Spain gone out of his mind? The Turks gave these Jews refuge (they still, in the oldest generation, speak Ladino, which bears the same relationship to Spanish as Yiddish to German) and did very well out of them, just as England did. To this day, while there is often a sort of ritual Muslim muttering against Israel, there is no serious anti-Semitism applied to businesses or people, and the Jews of Turkish origin, living in Israel, are quite good allies of Turkey. For instance, when the Armenian diaspora (quite counterproductively, in my opinion) tries to blame today's Turks for massacres back in 1915, the Israeli Turks come to Turkey's defense, saying, entirely accurately, that what happened then was the outcome of a civil war. The alliance of Israel and Turkey makes a great deal of sense on the Near Eastern ground, and there simply is no evidence of anti-Semitism on the street. The area of Istanbul--Galata--in which I bought an apartment (once Jewish-owned) was very heavily Jewish, and there are two famous synagogues nearby, one of them the target of the bombers. The shopkeepers round about are migrants, mainly from the Black Sea coast. Signs of overt anti-Semitism? None. The elderly Jews are simply part of the landscape. The only problem is that the main brothel of Istanbul--to which I can see, from my balcony, sheepish young men plodding--is too close to one of the synagogues. There are regular complaints, but the owner, a formidable Armenian woman, defies them, saying she pays more taxes than anyone else in the country...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held a special meeting on the Iranian nuclear threat on Sunday, deciding that he would personally oversee Israel's efforts to scuttle Iran's plans to produce nuclear weapons.

Sharon also decided that the Foreign Ministry will concentrate diplomatic efforts to convince world leaders to take steps against the Iranian threat.

The Mossad will be responsible for all other issues connected to scuttling the plans.

The discussion on Iran had been postponed a number of times. Sunday's meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and senior officials from the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad and the National Security Council.

Last week, Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Iranian nuclear potential is an existential threat to the State of Israel.

"We believe the Iranians will continue developing nuclear military projects and in their hands such weapons pose, for the first time, an existential threat to Israel," he said...

The continuing detention of captured al Qaeda and Taliban members at Guantanamo is fast becoming the favored cause of international activists opposed to the aggressive prosecution of the war on terror. Even the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has traditionally maintained "neutrality" on such questions (declining even to publicly criticize the Third Reich's death camps during World War II), recently attacked the U.S. for failing to establish a timetable for trying, or freeing, the Guantanamo detainees. A few points should be made in defense of the administration's policy.

The ICRC's primary complaint is that "after more than 18 months of captivity, the internees still have no idea about their fate." As the ICRC knows very well, this is the case with respect to all captured enemy combatants in every war. The laws of war permit such individuals to be held for the entire duration of the conflict--primarily to ensure that they cannot rejoin the fight. Contrary to the claims of the ICRC, other activist groups and even some U.S. allies, the detainees are not being held "indefinitely." The length of their confinement is purely a function of how long the war lasts. The administration's critics might reflect how Churchill would have reacted if, during the Battle of Britain, the ICRC had asked him how long his Axis prisoners would be held.

The "war on terror" is not some perpetual struggle against international evil, comparable to the endless wars against crime and poverty. It is a conflict between the U.S. and al Qaeda, its associated groups and those states that choose to give it assistance. The war will end when al Qaeda is smashed and no longer capable of launching attacks against American targets. This may take years; wars often do. In previous conflicts, captured Americans have been held for years. Sen. John McCain, Adm. James Stockdale and their fellows spent much of their youth in the Hanoi Hilton.

Significantly, as the ICRC also knows, the right to detain captured enemy combatants, without trial, without lawyers and without an established release schedule, stems from one of the most important humanitarian advances in the law of the armed conflict, dating back at least to the 17th century--the rise of an obligation to "give quarter." Before this, except for a few wealthy or powerful individuals worth ransoming, captured soldiers could be, and very often were, put to the sword. This brutal practice was widespread as late as the 1580s when, for example, many sailors and soldiers of the Spanish Armada were summarily executed after their ships were driven onto the rocks in Ireland...

BAGHDAD, Iraq--It has been my privilege to preside over the Iraqi Governing Council during a month of momentous events. We now have an agreement for the transfer of authority between the coalition, the liberators, and the council, the representatives of the liberated Iraqis. President Bush has outlined an inspiring vision for a free and democratic Middle East. Our American friends are resolutely striking back at the vicious remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and damaging the network of Baathists and foreign Islamists attempting to destroy the Iraqi experiment in democracy. Yet these gains could easily be forfeited if we Iraqis do not bear the brunt of the fighting.

The enemies of Iraqi freedom are not "resistance," a word that evokes the heroism of Poles in the Second World War, nobly battling their occupiers. Nor can those who murder our American liberators, Red Cross workers, U.N. officials and Italian policemen be termed "guerrillas." Rather, they are terrorists. They are the thugs and torturers who repressed their fellow Iraqis for 35 years, the perpetrators of genocide, men who butchered hundreds of thousands of Kurds, Marsh Arabs and Shiite Arabs. The creation of an antidemocratic fascist counterrevolution of Baathists and foreign Islamic volunteers, some of whom are from al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam, is a classic unholy Middle Eastern alliance. These people have more support among the Arab media and in the studios of al-Jazeera than they do in Iraq.

The significance of this wave of terrorism is not military but political. On the battlefield the terrorists are losing. But the terrorists have grasped something that too few in the U.S. will admit: that Iraq is now the central front both in the war against terrorism and the struggle for a better Middle East. The terrorists will not stop fighting if the U.S. troops are withdrawn, rather they will become emboldened to believe that they can win this conflict...

Washington -- The FBI has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money, and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities such as recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities such as using fake documentation to get into a secured site.

FBI officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters...

Welcome to iriCRIMES.org site of Iranian Action Committee,

Supporters of IAC are committed to assist in pursuing the International Crimes of the IRI which include acts of torture and execution orders by the Kangaroo "Islamic Republic Revolutionary" courts.

We are determined to defend the most basic rights and freedoms of the Iranians and have no affiliation or ties with any particular political, social, economic or cultural group inside or outside of Iran.

[Bush and Blair] are the foremost international representatives of a view which makes [the war on terrorism] into a moral war, a struggle of good against evil. Blair just spoke of the "evil" terrorists in Istanbul represented. And Bush underlined the two countries' will to "fight and defeat this evil, wherever it may exist".

President Bush in particular has a habit of phrasing him self in this Old Testament way. It is no coincidence that it was he who presented the expression "the axis of evil" about the presumed enemies of the US. And he keeps using the word "evildoer" about both Saddam and other enemies.

Evil is such a strong word. How much better to say merely that we disapprove of terrorism, that we shall "fight and defeat this nuisance, wherever it may exist". We're not at war with terrorism. We're having an argument. Blowing up random strangers on the street is not evil, it's rude. That whole "moral" way of speaking is so out of fashion, haven't you heard? People keep telling me that "killing people is wrong", that "terrorism is evil", and I'm like "Hey, you, go thump your Bible on somebody else's head, ok? Am I thumping my books on your head? Stop oppressing me!"

...Had Napoleon Bonaparte been fatally hit by a musket ball as he entered Moscow, it was once pointed out, he would have been remembered by history as one of the greatest generals who ever lived. It would be cruel and unfeeling to say that Kennedy's luck and "charisma" did not desert him even in death, and in any case I prefer to blame this callous opinion on those who actually hold it--namely his hagiographers and mythologists. Who now seriously believes that Kennedy intended to undo his own rash commitment in South Vietnam? Can we not at least agree that his zeal for the assassination of President Diem--whom he had installed at some price in blood--was a somewhat contradictory indicator of any intention to disengage?

That would make a point, as it were, for the "left." But what of the pugnacious anticommunism that Kennedy also maintained when he thought it suited him? Having tried assassination and "deniable" invasion in Cuba, and having helped provoke a missile crisis on which he gambled all of us, he meekly acceded to the removal of American missiles from Turkey and to a pledge that Fidel Castro's regime would be considered permanent. He and his brother did not completely hold to the terms of the latter agreement, it is true, but as a result the United States became indelibly associated with mob tactics in the Caribbean, and Castro became in effect the president for life. In this sense, we may say that the legacy of JFK is with us still...

::::Where is the Middle East’s Sakharov?::::

::::Iran alone has 30,000 political prisoners::::

"The Muslim world accounts for some 80 percent of political prisoners in the world..."

::::Sugar Daddies to Dictators (Wall Street Journal)::::

"About two years ago my nephew traveled to Syria with a group from the German university where he studies. Since he looks German, speaks German, and was with a German organization, he 'passed' for German on the trip. He also speaks good Arabic, and talked to many Syrians. He was shocked by the number Syrians from all walks of life, who told him quite openly that the Germany and Hitler had the right idea when it came to the Jews. It was about the first thing out of their mouth when they discovered that he was visiting from Germany." Figures. Yet Europe looks the other way.

Glazov: Welcome gentlemen to Frontpage Symposium. Let's begin with a general question: Can we say still say with confidence that it was the right thing for the U.S. to go into Iraq? How do you read the current situation?

Hanson: Examine three points (1) no more scuds into Kuwait, Israel, invasions of Iraq and Iran; no more worry about petro-dollar-fed weapons programs; no more $20 billion/300,000 sortie no-fly zones; no more genocide of Kurds/Shiites; no more destruction of the Marsh Arabs; no more violations of the 1991 armistice agreements; no more troops in Saudi Arabia; et al.; (2) so far at a cost of less than 400 lives, America has destroyed the Taliban and Hussein regimes (the worst in the Middle East), offered a chance of freedom for 50 million people; suffered no more 9-11s; and changed the landscape of the region in a way that is quite unlike the old Cold War (just pump oil/keep out communists) Realpolitik that led to the appeasement or promotion of tyrants. (3) despite the current hysteria, systematic progress toward a civil society continues in Iraq, as power, schools, politics, trade, and infrastructure are getting better each month. If we really are in a terrible war against Islamofascists and their assorted autocratic abettors, then having such predisposed murderers collect in Iraq where they can be engaged and destroyed in the larger strategic picture of a global war is dangerous of course, but still not necessarily bad...

Yesterday's anti-American rallies in London failed in their goal to inspire leftists around the world to keep up the battle against the governments of Bush and Blair. Although Stop The War (STW), the coalition formally behind the protests, estimated 200,000 people took part in the rallies, Scotland Yard offered a more conservative estimate: 70,000, just over one-third of STW's figure. Moreover, most of those who attended had probably not heard of the attack on that morning's twin explosions in Istanbul, which claimed the life of British Consul-General Roger Short before setting out for the protest. No clear-headed Briton would be in the streets protesting against his own government after that very government had just come under attack. Hence, even these numbers are artificially high...

...If this was the best the capital city could do on the first day of the visit, it didn’t bode well for Thursday, the day of the main protest. Stop The War estimated some 200,000 people took part in anti-American demonstrations, many of them middle class. Official sources – those without a partisan axe to grind – tell a different story. Scotland Yard estimated 70,000 people. However, London’s Metropolitan Police figured the number of participants at only 30,000, nearly none of whom were middle class. In other words, not only did Stop the War overestimate its crowd by between 130,000 and 170,000 people, but the middle classes occupied themselves as they usually do, by going to work. Thus, the protests were pulled off by the usual suspects: leftist malcontents, Islamists, a few college students up for a laugh, full-time protesters and unemployed losers, the typical flotsam and jetsam that finds itself with spare time and a grudge to bear during the day in the middle of the work week. They were joined by truant schoolchildren, whose teachers looked the other way, and a few retirees -- at least, STW claims there were retirees present...

...So much of what (Iran) has said in the past year about its nuclear program has turned out to be false that there is no rational basis simply to assume the contrary now," Brill said.

Other European states have joined Washington in refusing to back a revised French, German and British draft resolution for being too weak in its condemnation of Iran's cover-up.

Washington hard-liners want Iran found in "non-compliance" with its international nuclear non-proliferation obligations and to be told that future breaches will bring Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Diplomats had hoped a final draft would be submitted to the IAEA's Board of Governors on Friday but an Agency spokeswoman said it would now be tabled next Wednesday at the earliest.

ANNOYANCE WITH THE "BIG THREE"

"The Americans are annoyed with the big three, the Europeans are annoyed with the big three and Tehran is annoyed with the big three," a Western diplomat told Reuters before the IAEA board began its second day of closed-door meetings on Friday.

Several diplomats said the French, British and Germans had annoyed other Europeans on the IAEA board by monopolizing the drafting process and refusing to strengthen it to express views of European capitals who feel closer to Washington's position.

"No one is happy with them," another Western diplomat said...

...Addressing delegates, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Brill assailed Iran for "violations and lies" that stretched over 18 years, including enriching uranium, processing small amounts of plutonium and other activities that Washington says point to a weapons agenda.

"Iran systematically and deliberately deceived the IAEA and the international community about these issues for year after year after year," he said. The purpose, he said, was "the pursuit of nuclear weapons."

Such conduct on the part of Iran "constitutes noncompliance with its safeguards obligations," Brill said, in language that indirectly accused Iran of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - an act that normally results in Security Council involvement.

In comments that provoked an unusually sharp response from IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, Brill suggested a statement in ElBaradei's report on Iran was "questionable" in saying there was no "evidence" that Iran had
tried to build nuclear weapons. No "proof" would have been the proper phrase, said Brill.

ElBaradei dismissed the argument as "disingenuous," said diplomats inside the
meeting. "In our dictionary, evidence is the same as proof," he said.

Fleming said Elbaradei "takes issue with the U.S. accusation that the agency has threatened its credibility," adding: "We believe that we are impartial and credible and that actually our credibility has been enhanced."...

About three dozen minuscule shards of rock unearthed in Antarctica may be the fragments of a meteor that killed most life on Earth 250 million years ago, scientists are reporting today.

The shards bolster theories that meteors caused several mass extinctions. Scientists generally agree that the most recent major mass extinction, 65 million years ago, which killed off the dinosaurs, was caused when a meteor struck near the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

The extinction 250 million years ago, in a period known as the Permian-Triassic boundary, was the largest of all. About 90 percent of species disappeared.

At present, the primary suspected cause for the Permian-Triassic extinction is giant eruptions in Siberia, which might have induced catastrophic ecological changes.

Writing in today's issue of the journal Science, the researchers report that they found the meteorite fragments in rocks in Antarctica that date from the Permian-Triassic boundary. The mineral composition of the fragments, each less than one-fiftieth of an inch wide, correspond to that of certain meteorites and is like nothing found naturally on Earth, they reported...

...Others are not yet convinced. Dr. Eldridge Moores, an emeritus professor of geology at the University of California at Davis, described the meteorite fragments as "the most interesting evidence for a meteorite event at this boundary that I've seen so far." But, he added, while the evidence for the dinosaur-killing meteor 65 million years ago is a convincing 10 on a 1-to-10 scale, the evidence for a killer meteor at the Permian-Triassic boundary is not nearly as solid.

"I think it's now up to 3 or 4," Dr. Moores said. "It's not 9 or 10."

Dr. Douglas H. Erwin of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington said, "It's suggestive, but it's hardly compelling."

Each piece of evidence offered so far has not by itself been compelling...

Today, the terrorists in Istanbul answered the “peace” demonstrators in London. Those who have eyes can see, and those who have ears can hear, but there are those whom “God has sealed their hearts for them with a mask, so that they are deaf, dumb and blind and thus can hardly comprehend anything” (Verses to this effect recur frequently in the Holly Quran ).

These London demonstrations, I know too well, Oh! Youth, and the Pint of Bitter later in the nearest Pub. All you peace lovers and humanitarians of trendy London town, spare a thought or two for the coalition soldier out there in the dark and wilderness guarding our hospitals, primary schools and orphanages from the bombers and assassins, and the Iraqi Police reporting everyday for duty under constant danger of death and mutilation with their poor equipment and meager $50 or so a month pay package. They number almost 100 000 by now and if enlistment is really opened up they would quadruple in number immediately. Why do you think they come? Saddamists pay anybody ten thousand dollars per explosion, and they are going around trying to recruit, and this is a fact that all people in Baghdad know. So why do they come, you think? But only those who have eyes can see, and ears can hear. Why do you think the crackle of celebratory gunfire ululated till dawn, on that sultry Baghdad summer night when the death of Uday and Qusay the monster brats of the tyrant was announced? This, the media did not dwell upon, although quite newsworthy and dramatic. That was the real Opinion Poll of the vast majority of the inhabitants of Baghdad. (P.S. I hope the word ululate exists in the English language, it means the sound that our women make in celebrations of marriages or when welcoming heroes and the like, if it doesn’t please add it to your dictionary)

But I see there were not as many of you as before. Yes, at that time, we all had our misgivings and fears about the surgery. Yes indeed, it was scary. But the surgeon had no doubt and he knew that he had to operate, and he did and it worked. So now what do you want? That he leaves the patient still in critical convalescence, to the mercy of the germs and microbes and goes home to watch TV and sleep in comfortable bed.

But enough of this and to cut a long story short. As long as America and her allies choose the side of the oppressed and downtrodden, as long as they remain on the side of the people, they will be invincible. When Might is coupled with Right, then expect great historical transformations...

Those militants don't understand any language except the language of force. Fuck human rights. Those aren't humans anyway. We desperately NEED to see some heads rolling. Believe it or not. Theres going to have to be some bloodshed for this to work. Bomb the hell out of Tikrit and Al-Awja. Massacre every last person of Saddam's tribe. Rape his women. Yeah. Let them taste some of what we have endured the last 30 years. I don't want to see my dreams ruined because of those trianglees. If the CPA doesn't want to do it, send in a force of IP and civil defense forces and turn your face the other way, they'll be more than glad to do it, believe me. [/rant]

When I read your e-mails and comments thoroughly (regarding the first article) I realized that many of you are eager to see the truth about what's happening in Iraq and you want to make sure whether things are going better or worse there. Some of you questioned the accuracy of news broadcasted by some media sources. To be honest, I won’t say that the media are lying but they are telling only one side of the truth. This side usually reflects the attitude of the funding source of that particular station or journal towards the events in Iraq. So I’ll try to show you the naked truth about daily life in Iraq. And I will try to show you the difference between pre. And post. Liberation Iraq. I will put it in some form of a series, discussing one aspect of life in each post. Let’s talk first about security and order in Iraq, as this is a major point of concern. Some TV channels try to show our streets like battlefields, actually they are not. the streets are relatively safe and one can walk in the streets with no fear greater than the one he feels if he was in any other country. People go to work regularly, stores and restaurants are open even to a late hour in the night. crime levels in Iraq according to IP reports are declining and they’re now much lower than they were In April or May this year. The main point that satisfies me is that I no longer fear the risk of death penalty because of something I said. Do you imagine that someone could get tortured and executed just because he laughed at a joke about Saddam or the Baath ? Statistics from the reports of the red-cross and the IP state that approximately 1570 Iraqis were killed in violent accidents in Baghdad during the first 5 months following the liberation. Some would say, well , this is sad. This is a large number of casualties. And this is true. But if you take any 5 months during the reign of Saddam you will find that the number will reach to an average of 30 000 kills in Baghdad alone , I don’t want to bother you with math.work but if someone thinks that I’m lying then I can show you the whole calculation steps...

Today, when I was going to the clinic, I’ve seen a guy, he is tall, with a black hair, cute face, but he has sad facial expressions. There was something that has attracted me……, It was his ear, his ear was cut from the upper portion.

At once I remembered Ali the man who was in our neighborhood, Ali had the same ear cut.

Also I remembered a mentally deranged man, he was hiking in Baghdad streets, he had the two ears cut and a burned forehead.

There are many others with those defects.

So, I’ve decided to write one of the heartrending stories in Iraq:
If my memory serves me right, that was in 1994, Saddam Hussien had given a command that said (( Any soldier who escapes from the conscription must be caught and his ear must be cut ))!!!

Then he had changed the command to be ((Any soldier who escapes from the conscription must be caught and his ear must be cut, and if he has escaped for the second time; the other ear must be cut. For the third time burn his forehead.))
!!!!!!

The burn should be a straight horizontal line in the middle of the forehead!!
I want to know if there is another monster in the world like the one that we had before 8 months !

Is there anyone who can give such an order? How can a man be punished by cutting parts from his body? Even if he was a murder, there is a jail.
What was the crime if they did not accept to serve Saddam Hussien?

Where are the human rights?

There are hundreds victims of that bestial command, some of them got insane, others died.

Do you know that there was another order said that anyone who would be heard says anything about Saddam or laugh on a joke about him or the government or complaining from anything related to Saddam , they would cut his tongue !!!

That order is applied to many people, some of them had died due to the brutish amputation WITHOUT anesthesia !Imagine the pain !

Many groups had their tongues cut because they laughed on a joke about Saddam when someone from his agents or Ba’athists had heard them and written a report that was reaching to the ministry of interior with a light speed !
Also any doctor who refused to apply the instruction would be imprisoned and banished from his job.

What was that bestiality? What was that tyranny?

How can we recompense those poor men ?

How can we make them forget those years?

If the medicine and surgery have succeeded to replace their lost parts , and treated them psychologically (for years), then how can we get them back their dignity and respect ??

Answer me.

This is my protest. It's not against the visit of President George Bush to the UK; it's against those who are protesting against his visit by marching in London today. And just to clear red herrings out of the way since I don't want to have to talk fish here, no, I don't deny anyone's right to protest, I just regret the way they're choosing to exercise it on this occasion. Like I don't have to deny your right to divorce your spouse if I think you're making a mistake in doing so, and you don't have to deny your uncle's right to his beliefs or deny the freedom of association if you think he's wrong-headed for belonging to a certain political organization...

Human rights violations in Iran, November 2-10, 2003

Sugar Daddies to Dictators [Wall Street Journal]
(Great article that discusses France's opposition to the US in more ways than one!!!!)

A free Iran will help build freedom in Iraq

Please … Call Me an Iranian, Not a Moslem

“From Green to Red … and Now Shades of Green?!”

...We are living in the heart of things -- in Trafalgar Square -- and, for what it's worth, can report that there is nothing of any substance going on at all. It's quite quiet -- people are going about their business, but the usual buzz of tourist activity has slackened a bit. The first round of scheduled protest events involved a big talk by prominent left-leaning activists, and drew about 2,000 people. Then, about 1,000 marched through Oxford Street to protest the Bush Administration's environmental policies. The thousands who were supposed to greet him at Buckingham did not materialize -- there were maybe 100. Right now (Wednesday afternoon), just after the President's big talk, there are a few hundred people milling around Trafalgar Square, a women's prayer circle, and some people congratulating themselves for putting red-dye in the fountains (get it?). The crowd is a little bigger than the crowd two days ago, who were protesting the ban on feeding the pigeons, but certainly smaller than the crowd last month, who were protesting tuition hikes at universities. The cops were cracking up. There was supposed to be a big "alternative state parade" of cyclists and other folks, but it seems to have fizzled. (There is a helicopter overhead right now.)...

It's a serious problem. It means that human rights advocates are seen solely as harping critics. We certainly need to be that; it's a very important role. But if we fail to engage with the very real, hard decisions that governments have to make about protecting the safety of their citizens, then we'll be dismissed as charlatans, or ideologues who are out of step with reality.

Amnesty International took no position on the military action itself. We had been highlighting for more than 20 years the human rights violations by Saddam Hussein. No one who cares about human rights can help but be grateful that he is no longer in power.

But the way in which the United States went about the overthrow, particularly in its thumbing of its nose at international institutions, and without an international sanction for the invasion, did in the long run, I'm afraid, enormous damage to the international support structure for human rights.

THOUSANDS of people will take to the streets in Britain next week to voice their anger, frustration and political opposition to President George W Bush's policies.

Some will criticize these protestors, writing off their views as knee-jerk anti-Americanism. But the critics should think before condemning them.

Thursday's rally is being organised by the Stop the War Coalition, which as I have documented from time to time on this blog is headed by a declared supporter of North Korea and run by the Socialist Workers' Party, the editor of whose monthly journal is the Coalition's 'convenor'. While the war was going on the SWP explicitly called for Saddam's victory over British and American troops. The SWP is a totalitarian party that opposes parliamentary democracy and campaigns for the abolition of Israel, a course that could be accomplished only by initiating a second Holocaust against the Jewish people.

Why? Because after almost three years of President Bush's "war on terror" many would argue that the world is now a more dangerous and divided place than it was immediately after 9/11.

Two years and two months is "almost three years?" Well, Amnesty has never, at least lately, let a fear of exaggeration get in the way of a good anti-American line.

Countries don't protect freedom by attacking hard-won civil liberties, locking up thousands of people without charge or trial, and rushing through ever-more draconian laws.

You don't win the hearts and minds of the doubters and the disaffected by riding roughshod over human rights.

But you DO provide terrorists and extremists with the kind of propaganda they could only have dreamt of a few years ago.

Take Guantanamo Bay. What is the impact of the image of the orange boiler-suited detainees crouching in submission behind Camp Delta's chain-link fences?

Most people in this country seem to be revolted that nearly 700 people are held without charge or trial and without access to lawyers or family for almost two years. They question our own government's weakness in failing to properly stand up for the rights of the nine British men imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

RIGHTLY, they wonder whether our government would have been more robust had these men been held by a country like Iran or Syria or almost any other country besides the US.

But, take the understandable outrage in this country and apply it to a Middle-Eastern country. When the manacled men from Guantanamo Bay flash up on Al-Jazeera television, for example, we can easily guess that outrage reaches new levels.

No Americans are being held at Camp Delta. Only non-US citizens.

John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban", was given a defense attorney and brought before an independent civilian court. Camp Delta's "enemy combatants", on the other hand, have to endure indefinite detention without charge or trial and no access to legal counsel or any court.

Hanging over them is the possibility of unfair trials, military tribunals with restricted rights of defence, no independent appeals and the threat of the death penalty.

It stinks. And that's why Amnesty International plans to make its point - on the streets of London dressed in orange boiler suits.

The journey from the Twin Towers to Guantanamo Bay has been a disastrous one - from an international atrocity to an international disgrace. It is a massive own goal in the war on terror and its sinister consequences are likely to haunt the world for years.

But it is not just Guantanamo Bay that is so worrying. Since September 11 the USA has used its over-arching "war on terror" as an alibi to create a parallel justice system to detain, interrogate, charge or try suspects under the "laws of war".

In mainland USA people have already been held under military procedures as "enemy combatants'. For example, Jose Padilla - the so-called Dirty Bomber - has been held for more than a year in solitary confinement at a naval prison in South Carolina. He is imprisoned without charge, trial or access to his lawyer or family.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, was arrested after flying back into the US from the Middle East where he had, according to officials, been plotting to use a bomb packed with radioactive waste on the US.

This is a virtually unprecedented suspension of the fundamental rights of a US citizen in US custody - not to mention a violation of international law.

In other countries people in the hands of US forces are seemingly classified as "enemy combatants" simply if Donald Rumsfeld's Defense `Department says they are. In Iraq as many as 10,000 people are being held, most without any legal process.

Beyond the high media visibility of Guantanamo Bay there also appears to be a shadowy network of "war on terror" detention sites.

At the US air base at Bagram in Afghanistan, for example, former inmates have spoken of a regime of forced stripping, hooding, blindfolding with blacked-out goggles, 24-hour lighting, sleep deprivation and prolonged restraint in painful positions.

As with Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International is not allowed into Bagram and not even the Red Cross has had access to all prisoners there.

Meanwhile, there are rumours of other prisons - on island military bases or in embassy buildings. These are unconfirmed, but the US already admits to holding people at "undisclosed locations".

Frighteningly, what we are seeing is the almost day-by-day erosion of the USA's commitment to human rights. Where once the world might have looked to America for inspiration, Bush's America is now actively undermining the international system for human rights protection.

On other issues the trend is the same - America ripping up the rulebook. The US is now by far the most active opponent of the new International Criminal Court, a court that the US should be celebrating as a historic attempt to deter and punish genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

INSTEAD it has embarked on a campaign of bullying weaker countries into agreeing exemptions for US personnel.

Next week the slogans of the protestors will be mixed - anything from anti-war messages on Iraq, opposition to "Star Wars" defence projects, environmental objections to America's gas-guzzling economy and protests at its trade policies.

But one thing unites these voices. A belief that the United States has strayed way off course and forgotten its own traditions of supporting human rights and fundamental liberties.

Crucially, Bush protests will also test our own government's commitment to freedom of speech and legitimate dissent in Britain.

This month a court controversially ruled that police use of terrorism powers to arrest peaceful protestors at an arms fair in Docklands, East London was reasonable. Why are ordinary people with a point of view on the arms industry considered a threat to the nation?

Mr Bush's three-day trip to Britain is a high-level visit with all of the pomp and ceremony of any such occasion.

However, the right to have your say is a proud British tradition and the government should see to it that policing during President Bush's visit is done with a light touch.

There should be no "exclusion zones" and Mr Bush should not be protected from protests.

Four years ago protestors during the visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin had flags and banners ripped from their hands. Then the Metropolitan Police behaved in a way more reminiscent of the Chinese secret police than the friendly British bobby.

This time let's hear it for peaceful, good-humoured free expression. Taking to the streets to protest during George Bush's visit will be pro-American and pro-human rights.

Exercising your legitimate right to protest is a core American - and British - value. It's what makes me proud to protest.

...After all, we are wealthy and have much to live for; our enemies are poorer and have little to lose. Thus Israel ponders trading 300 incarcerated terrorists for the life of one Israeli businessman. The world accepts that none of the former will be abjectly murdered in custody, while the latter of course could and probably will be. American prisoners are raped and shot with impunity; their Iraqi Baathist counterparts cannot be so much as frightened. We cannot and should not change our values; nor can we do much about the fact that we use technology and education to protect our soldiers while our enemies use fundamentalism and ignorance to expend theirs...

Nevertheless, the present public perceptions and political realities will likely persist, since recent popular ideologies like multiculturalism and utopianism have become embedded in the postwar Democratic party. Both notions tend to characterize the American military not as a force for good, but as an extension of American pathology that legitimizes if not promotes an oppressive globalism, racism, sexism, colonialism, and economic oppression.

If one finds that stereotype unfair, remember the pathetic scene of a Gen. Clark during the recent Democratic debate, who castigated the president of the United States at a time of war while deferring to the wisdom of Al Sharpton. Take out a mass murderer, free 26 million, and you will earn charges of incompetence if not treason; slander a DA, fabricate a crime, and fan the flames of riot and racial hatred, and you will win respect from a Democratic frontrunner. For Republicans who must resort to war, the primary challenge will not be the fighting itself, but rather the perception that the United States was inherently wrong to have fought in the first place.

[...]The demonstration is organized by a shadowy group called "Stop the War Coalition," part of the Hate-America-International, which has orchestrated a number of street "events" in support of the Taliban and the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein since 2001.

When I called the coalition to ask whether the idea was to stop all wars, a spokeswoman assured me that this was not the case.

She referred me to the first article of the coalition's charter that states: "The aim of the coalition is simple: to stop the war currently declared by the United States and its allies against 'terrorism.'"

"We really want to stop Bush and Blair from going around killing babies," she said. "Our objective is to force the U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan."

But what if a U.S. withdrawal means the return of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein?

"Anything would be better than American Imperialist rule," she snapped back.

Who are these nostalgics of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein?[...]

President George Bush's forthcoming state visit to Britain is being derided as an ill-advised trip at an even more ill-advised time. An American president, vilified by much of the British media, will meet a supposedly weak British prime minister. Tens of thousands of protesters plan to throng the streets. In a supposedly satirical rerun of events in Baghdad on April 9, a statue of George Bush will be hauled down in the center of London. Americans may find some of the vituperation heaped upon their president surprising and shocking; David Frum believes that for Bush the trip could turn into "one of the worst media debacles of his presidency." Britain, it might appear, is not quite the close ally many Americans would like to think that she is.

Yet the oddity of Britain is that while the press and public opinion have been volatile in their attitude towards the Iraq war, British political leaders, in government and opposition, are remarkably united in supporting the U.S. administration...

Interior Minister Otto Schilly removed the stop on decisions in the cases of asylum applicants from Iraq. A similar instruction was already issued by the SPD politician's ministry in mid-September to the Federal Bureau for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees. Earlier, because of the Iraq war, the bureau stopped sending decision letters to asylum applicants for months. The ministry now justifies the resumption of decisions on asylum cases with the statement that "at the time and in the near future political persecution in Iraq can be ruled out."

...Democrats who oppose the war in Iraq have discounted any link between Islamist fanatic bin Laden and secular Ba’athist socialist Hussein. As a political matter, if Saddam has been in cahoots with Osama (the psychopathic mastermind whose terrorists killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11-01) then the legitimacy of President George W. Bush’s attack on Iraq would be as hard to deny or defy as was his overthrow of the Taliban bin Laden pirate base of Afghanistan.

But President Bush in recent months has also downplayed any linkage between Hussein and al Qaeda, preferring instead to justify the overthrow of Saddam on grounds that the dictator possessed or was about to acquire weapons of mass destruction that would make him an intolerable threat to the peace of the region and world...

I'm sure you've read Joshua Marshall's comments on Korea over at Talking Points Memo, and if you haven't you can read the latest of them here. To make a long story short, Marshall calls Bush's policies toward North Korea "unilateralist" and "aggressive." Allow me to reprint below the meat of his argument, along with some of the reservations I have with it...

...What proved most effective in Vietnam were not large conventional operations but targeted counterinsurgency programs. Four — known as CAP, Cords, Kit Carson Scouts and Phoenix — were particularly effective.

CAP stood for Combined Action Platoon. Under it, a Marine rifle squad would live and fight alongside a South Vietnamese militia platoon to secure a village from the Vietcong. The combination of the Marines' military skills and the militias' local knowledge proved highly effective. No village protected under CAP was ever retaken by the Vietcong.

Cords, or Civil Operations and Rural Development Support, was the civilian side of the counterinsurgency, run by two C.I.A. legends: Robert Komer and William Colby. It oversaw aid programs designed to win hearts and minds of South Vietnamese villagers, and its effectiveness lay in closely coordinating its efforts with the military.

The Kit Carson Scouts were former Communists who were enlisted to help United States forces. They primarily served as scouts and interpreters, but they also fought. Most proved fiercely loyal. They had to be: they knew that capture by their former Vietcong comrades meant death.

Phoenix was a joint C.I.A.-South Vietnam effort to identify and eradicate Vietcong cadres in villages. Critics later charged the program with carrying out assassinations, and even William Colby acknowledged there were "excesses." Nevertheless, far more cadres were captured (33,000) or induced to defect under Phoenix (22,000) than were killed (26,000).

There is little doubt that if the United States had placed more emphasis on such programs, instead of the army's conventional strategy, it would have fared better in Vietnam. This is worth keeping in mind today as Sunni towns like Fallujah and Ramadi increasingly turn into an Arab version of Vietcong "villes." The Army is running some valuable counterinsurgency programs in Iraq, but too often it responds to major setbacks with big-unit sweeps (the ongoing one is called Iron Hammer). In a move reminiscent of some of the excesses of Vietnam, the military has taken to dropping 500-pound bombs and sending out M-1 tanks in a largely futile attempt to wipe out elusive foes...

It is the stuff of science fiction and bioethical debates: The creation of artificial life. Up until now, it's largely been just that. But an important technical bridge towards the creation of such life was crossed Thursday when genomics pioneer Craig Venter announced that his research group created an artificial virus based on a real one in just two weeks' time.

When researchers created a synthetic genome (genetic map) of the virus and implanted it into a cell, the virus became "biologically active," meaning it went to work reproducing itself.

Venter cautioned that the creation of artificial human or animal life is a long way off because the synthetic bacteriophage — the virus that was created — is a much simpler life form. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria.

The project was funded in part by the Department of Energy, which hopes to create microbes that would capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, produce hydrogen or clean the environment.

But the questions ethicists have raised about such work are numerous: Should we be playing God? Does the potential for good that new life forms may have outweigh the harm they could do?[...]

Under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, a rally was held in Tulkarem on Friday in honor of Sirhan Sirhan, the Fatah gunman who last year carried out the attack in Kibbutz Metzer, killing five people, including a mother and her two children.

Sirhan, a resident of the Tulkarem refugee camp, cold-bloodedly murdered Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, five, and Noam, four inside their home. He also killed Tirza Damari, 42, and Yitzhak Dori, 44, the kibbutz secretary before escaping back to the West Bank.[...]

Tulkarem governor Izz al-Din al-Sharif, who represented PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, delivered a speech before the crowd in which he heaped praise on Sirhan and described him as a "struggler and martyr." He also conveyed the condolences of Arafat and the Palestinian leadership to Sirhan's family.

"The Palestinian people will continue the resistance and struggle until we achieve our freedom and independent state," Sharif added...

OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

The memo, dated October 27, 2003, was sent from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith to Senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller, the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was written in response to a request from the committee as part of its investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the administration. Intelligence reporting included in the 16-page memo comes from a variety of domestic and foreign agencies, including the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency. Much of the evidence is detailed, conclusive, and corroborated by multiple sources. Some of it is new information obtained in custodial interviews with high-level al Qaeda terrorists and Iraqi officials, and some of it is more than a decade old. The picture that emerges is one of a history of collaboration between two of America's most determined and dangerous enemies...

After months of secret preparation, a delegation of radical Islamists was supposed to meet senior Saudi officials this week to find a way to end the campaign of terror that has shaken the kingdom for the past six months.

That meeting will now not take place.

The suicide attack in the capital Riyadh last Sunday ended all hopes of a compromise - at least for now.

"This is a violent divorce," says a Saudi official. "It is too late for marriage counseling."

That view is echoed by Saudi Islamists.

"This is war," says a statement by Jaish al-Ansar (Army of the Victors), one of a dozen terror groups dedicated to the destruction of the Saudi monarchy...

...The real cause of Israel's abject failure to combat anti-Semitism in Europe is our failure to see the big picture. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe because many members of the European political and intellectual elite believe that vilifying Israel and the Jews advances their interests. And what are these interests that are served by anti-Semitism? They have to do with the enhancement and projection of European power.

How has this been manifested? A month before the September 11th attacks on the US, French policy wonk Dominique Moissy published an article in Foreign Affairs under the title, "The Real Crisis over the Atlantic."

Moissy, an advisor to the French Institute for International Relations and a member of the Trilateral Commission explained that the rift between the US and the EU has to do with how Europe defines its role in the world. Using the example of European rejection of the US's right to use the death penalty, Moissy explained, "Traditional state-centered concerns are no longer as relevant in this age of interdependence. Instead, domestic issues such as the death penalty and abortion have emerged on the foreign policy agenda."

Moissy's argument, at base, was that the US needs to accept European cultural supremacy if it wishes to maintain its Atlantic alliance with a self-confident New Europe...

PARIS - A pre-dawn fire Saturday that destroyed part of a suburban Jewish school was likely an anti-Semitic act, France's interior minister said.

No injuries were reported in the blaze at the Merkaz Hatorah private school, located in suburban Gagny in the Seine-Saint-Denis region.

About 100 firefighters were called in to put out the flames, which destroyed some 3,000 square meters (32,290 square feet) on the school's second floor where work was underway, officials at the local prefecture said. The area was not being used by students.

The fire started in two separate places, local
officials said.

"The criminal origin of the blaze is more than strongly suspected which gives, for this Jewish school, an anti-Semitic and obviously racist connotation," said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy during a visit to the fire site...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - At least 20 people were killed and more than 250 wounded on Saturday when car bombers shattered two Istanbul synagogues as worshippers celebrated the Sabbath.

Turkish officials said al Qaeda might have had a hand in it.

"It is clear that this is a terrorist event with international links," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said as emergency services struggled to treat those caught up in the blasts, which wrecked cars and buildings over wide areas.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said he could not rule out a role by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda, blamed for attacks on other Jewish targets around the world in the past 18 months.

"It was like a battlefield," said Yavuz Guler, who dashed to one of the synagogues from the nearby restaurant where he works.

"The injured were in an awful state, moaning, but unable to speak. Some were screaming, there was a lot of blood and body parts on the street," the 24-year-old said.

The attackers could have been suicide bombers or may have detonated devices in the vehicles by remote control, Aksu said.

"In both cases, vans were driven by the attackers toward their targets. We believe they contained the same kind of explosives, they are the same kind of terror attacks," he said.

Istanbul health authorities said 20 people had been killed and 257 wounded in the two attacks, which hit the central Neve Shalom synagogue and another, Beit Israel, in the Sisli district around 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT). The Neve Shalom -- "Oasis of Peace" -- was especially busy for a bar-mitzvah coming of age ceremony.

But many of the casualties were not Jews but people passing by on the busy streets outside the heavily protected synagogues...

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom condemned the attacks Saturday at two Istanbul synagogues that killed at least 20 people and injured over 257, suggesting that the negative way in which Israel is portrayed in Europe ultimately contributes to attacks of this kind.

The harsh portrayal of Israel, he said, "encourages verbal terror, which leads to
physical terror, like that we witnessed today in Istanbul."

The Foreign Ministry released a statement calling the bomb blasts "criminal terror attacks."

"Once again, we see that terrorism is not only directed against Israel or the Jews, it is a global threat that has to be challenged and dealt with jointly by the international community," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled...

...The European Union expressed horror and condemnation after Saturday's attacks.

"The attacks close to the two synagogues are an unacceptable expression of intolerance and rejection that have to be eradicated," said a statement from Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign policy.

Solana's statement expressed "horror after the two terrorist attacks that killed many innocents." He offered condolences to the Turkish government and victims' families.

France condemned the "odious" attacks that President Jacques Chirac said would only strengthen the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism.

"France condemns with the greatest vigor the odious double attack" the Foreign Ministry said....

...Sabri Yalim, the head of Istanbul's fire department, told NTV that the scene outside the Neve Shalom looked like a war zone. "There is a huge pit on the ground. The houses and cars are completely destroyed, as if a huge earthquake hit the area," he said.

"There was huge panic, glasses exploding and metal pieces all over the place. There were lots of people injured," said Enver Eker, one eyewitness. "We saw someone put a head in a cardboard box."

The chief Rabbi of the Istanbul Jewish community, Isaac Haliva, who was praying with his family in the Neve Shalom synagogue at the time of the blast, said there were no words to explain the magnitude of the disaster...

One human chimera came to light when a 52-year-old woman demanded an explanation from doctors after tests showed that two of her three grown-up sons were biologically unrelated to her.

Although the woman, "Jane", conceived them naturally with her husband, tests to see if she could donate a kidney suggested that somehow she had given birth to somebody else's children.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr Margot Kruskall, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, showed that Jane is a chimera, a mixture of two individuals - non-identical twin sisters - whose cells intermingled in the womb and grew into a single body.

Dr Kruskall believes the most likely explanation is that Jane's mother conceived non-identical twin girls, who fused at an early stage of the pregnancy to form a single embryo, according to a report published today in New Scientist.

For some reason, cells from only one twin dominate in Jane's blood - used for tissue-typing. In her other tissues, however, including her ovaries, cells of both twins live amicably alongside each other, hence the apparently impossible genetics of her three sons.

One son came from an egg derived from the twin whose cells dominate Jane's blood, while his brothers came from eggs derived from the other twin's cells.

Around 30 similar instances of chimerism have been reported, and there are probably many more who will never discover their unusual origins. Most chimeras probably go through life unaware of their unusual constitution.

THE FRONT PAGE of the November 7 Washington Post says it all. The first headline, in large type: "Bush Urges Commitment to Transform Mideast." Below, in slightly smaller type: "Pentagon to Shrink Iraq Force." And below that: "Iraqi Security Crews Getting Less Training." It's a jarring juxtaposition. The president eloquently makes the case for a necessarily and admirably ambitious foreign policy. Yet his own administration's deeds threaten the achievement of his goals.

In his fine speech to the National Endowment for Democracy last Thursday, the president made the case for "a forward strategy of freedom" in the Middle East. He put the Iraq conflict in its proper context: "the establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event," but "the failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region." Or, as the president said earlier in the week: "The enemy in Iraq believes America will run. That's why they're willing to kill innocent civilians, relief workers, coalition troops. America will never run. America will do what is necessary . . ."

Except, apparently, increase American troop strength or take the time properly to train Iraqi security forces...

NABUTAUTAU, Fiji -- Villagers in a remote Fijian community staged an elaborate ceremony of apology yesterday for the relatives of a British missionary killed and eaten here 136 years ago.

The Rev. Thomas Baker and eight Fijian followers were killed and devoured by cannibals in 1867 in the village of Nabutautau, high in the hills of the South Pacific island of Viti Levu. Residents say their community has been cursed ever since.

In a mixture of ancient pagan and modern Christian rites, the villagers have staged a series of ceremonies hoping to erase the misfortunes they believe have kept them poor. The rituals -- which started about a month ago -- culminated yesterday with the offering of cows, specially woven mats, and 30 carved sperm-whale teeth known as tabua to 10 Australian descendants of Baker.

"This is our third apology but, unlike the first two, this one is being offered physically to the family of Mr. Baker," Ratu Filimoni Nawawabalavu, the village's chief, said.

Nawawabalavu is the great-grandson of the chief responsible for cooking the missionary in an earthen oven.

Past apologies have not helped. In 1993, villagers presented the Methodist Church of Fiji with Baker's boots -- which cannibals tried unsuccessfully to cook and eat.

There are differing accounts of Baker's demise. A villager said last month the incident started when the chief borrowed Baker's hat. Baker tried to take it back without knowing that touching a chief's head was taboo and punishable by death.

Others say the missionary lent the chief a comb, then touched his head as he tried to retrieve it from the chief's tight, curly hair.

Villagers believe that since 1867, either Baker's spirit or disapproving gods have made sure that modern developments like electricity, a school, piped water supply, and other essentials enjoyed by most Fijian villagers have been kept from them.

It was only two weeks ago that a logging company cut a track to the village. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who flew into the village by helicopter for the ceremony, is leading a campaign to improve life in isolated areas.

Fiji, a nation of 320 islands, is about 2,250 miles northeast of Sydney.

Is Iran producing nuclear weapons?

Tehran says: No.

Washington says: Yes

The European Union says: Maybe.

And next week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to say: Maybe yes, maybe not!

Why are there such divergent views on an issue that, given the wealth of data now at the disposal of the IAEA, should not be so hard to handle?

Part of the confusion is because the wrong question is asked.

Iran is right in saying that it is not producing nuclear weapons. What Iran is doing is to set up all the technical, industrial, and materiel means needed to produce such weapons, if and when it decides to do so.

In other words, while not producing nuclear weapons right now, Iran has a nuclear program designed to make such weapons within 18 months. It is like a chef who brings in all that is needed for making a soup but does not actually start the cooking until he knows when the guests will be coming...

"President Bush sketched an expansive vision last night of what he expects to accomplish by a war in Iraq. Instead of focusing on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, or reducing the threat of terror to the United States, Mr. Bush talked about establishing a 'free and peaceful Iraq' that would serve as a 'dramatic and inspiring example' to the entire Arab and Muslim world, provide a stabilizing influence in the Middle East and even help end the Arab-Israeli conflict."--editorial, New York Times, Feb. 27

"The White House recently began shifting its case for the Iraq war from the embarrassing unconventional weapons issue to the lofty vision of creating an exemplary democracy in Iraq."--editorial, New York Times, Nov. 13

...America's biggest lead, the "market" in which the U.S. has the best competitive advantage, now lies in the realm of long-range reconnaissance and strike capabilities. No other state or group of states can begin to match America's ability to identify a huge number of targets and to attack them from platforms thousands of miles away. The advantage in this area is greater than that in others. The U.S. has the best ground forces in the world, but China has larger ground forces, Germany has excellent tanks, Russia has large amounts of artillery, and so forth. America has the greatest ability to move and supply large forces to distant theaters, but Britain, France and Russia can project force halfway around the world as well. None of those states, however, can come close to matching America's ability to identify, track and destroy targets from great distances away.

Even if Mr. Rumsfeld had not been an enthusiastic supporter of Network-Centric Warfare, it was only natural that his application of business principles to war would lead him to focus on America's capabilities with precision-guided munitions. This is currently the area of America's greatest competitive advantage. By directing funding into it, the U.S. can obtain an even greater competitive advantage--perhaps even the "lockout" that NCW advocates seek. In business, "lockout" occurs when one company attains such a predominant position that it can not be challenged.

The watchwords for the Rumsfeld Pentagon have, therefore, been focus and efficiency. The Pentagon has repeatedly stated that all new weapons systems will be evaluated primarily on the degree to which they further the armed forces' ability to conduct Network-Centric Warfare. Systems that bring other capabilities to the force have received less attention and less funding, and have sometimes been canceled...

...Sept. 11 forced the U.S. and everyone else to recognize that Saudi Arabia has become a danger to itself and the rest of the world. Lest we forget, almost all the hijackers hailed from the kingdom. Individual Saudis, including some princes and their so-called charities, have sponsored--and continue to sponsor--terror groups, including their homegrown al Qaeda, in some 60 countries. Faced with the evidence, the ruling Saudis have preferred to prevaricate, often refusing to share intelligence, hampering investigations and the pursuit of justice.

Those who gave money to al Qaeda were hoping to buy off Osama bin Laden, insuring themselves against him. But that's not easy. Bin Laden wants to return to a tribal Wahhabi society in its purest form. In his eyes, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia was sacrilege, and he has been threatening to dethrone the Saudi royal family that permitted it. The relocation of U.S. troops elsewhere in the region removes that particular grievance but also leaves the country to its own devices. The ruling family, bin Laden, the Shiites, groups of dissidents and exiles, and everyone else are quite free to struggle for power as best they can without outside interference...

...On 12 July 2003, President Bush had to actually admit that the evidence for forbidden Iraqi weapons was just invented. To be more exact, the chief of the American intelligence-gathering agency, CIA, George Tenet admitted that his agents had made a mistake.

"War Lie" is what many newspapers have written since then because President Bush and his agents supposedly invented the whole story with the evidence in order to go to war with Iraq. Bush's opponents are of the opinion that the President may not lie to his people and many of the President's supporters are now disappointed with Bush and his way of conducting himself politically."

...I wrote that because I heard many Muslims got crazy when they heard that Jews are coming to get back their rights ,houses and possessions .

I’ve been in multiple arguments with many people and I told them :” consider that you were in a Jewish country and they drove you out of your estates and homes and out of the whole country ..then you got the opportunity to get back whatever was robbed from you , then what would you do? Wouldn’t you run and take your properties ? Why don’t you think in others ? What is this selfishness ?”

Another group said that we shall fight them !! I said “why?”

They told me that we are Muslims and they are Jewish and we must forbid them from entering our country !!

I said “ because of such poisonous and destructive thoughts that you believe in ; they are describing Muslims as terrorists,and they are correct ;because there is no religion in the world that encourage fighting and killing !!

You and many narrow-minded people are brains washed with such anti-social activities”.

There was another man who was a taxi driver ..said “How can we let Jewish and Christian people enter our mosques and holy places ?they are not clean ,not pure.”!!!, at once I stopped from talking to him because his face ,hair and clothes said that he did not see the bathroom 4 months ago !!!

So , as a result of these silly principles , the Muslims became faraway from the world and have a worrying delay in the development and the progress.

I am tired from the repetition of those debates with those people , and I lost a friend in a dispute regarding this subject.

On the other hand, there are many respectable and educated Muslims who are convinced by my ideas and thoughts...

...This was no isolated success. Coalition forces are routinely catching the men who are planning and carrying out attacks on soldiers and civilian infrastructure: • The 101st Airborne nabbed seven individuals suspected of perpetrating attacks on American troops on Nov. 7 by conducting a series of nighttime cordon and "knocks" (entering homes). The suspects also allegedly harbored weapons caches.

• The 82nd Airborne detained five anticoalition fighters--one a former Republican Guard lieutenant colonel--on Nov. 6. The five men are regime loyalists and were sought out by U.S. forces because they're believed to have planned and carried out attacks.

• On Nov. 6 coalition forces were monitoring the site of a seized weapons cache when they spotted two men looking for the rocket-propelled grenade launcher and other munitions. When the men spotted the soldiers, they ran. They were ordered to halt, but one--who was carrying an AK-47--opened fire instead. The soldiers shot back, killing him and catching three others.

• The 12th Infantry Regiment was attacked with 10 rockets on Nov. 7. Soldiers spotted where the rockets were coming from and returned fire. A patrol simultaneously closed in on the enemy's position. The attackers attempted to flee as the soldiers approached, but all three were shot down and killed as they ran...

Greek composer and cultural icon Mikis Theodorakis added his contribution to the anti-Semitic miasma rising in parts of the world by characterizing the Jews as the root of the world's evils.

Theodorakis, a towering figure in Greek music best known outside his native land for scoring the music for the film Zorba the Greek, took his shot at the Jews at a press conference to launch a new book.

"We, the Greeks, did not turn aggressive like them because we have more history," Theodorakis was quoted by Y-net as saying. "Today it is possible to say that this small nation is the root of evil. It is full of self-importance and evil stubbornness." [...]

The Senate agreed to broad new economic and trade sanctions on Syria Tuesday, citing Syria's long history of sheltering terrorists and its more recent failure to muzzle forces hostile to U.S. actions in Iraq.

The Senate measure, passed 89-4, mirrors legislation the House of Representatives passed last month by 398-4. The only difference, an amendment offered by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar, with input from the Bush administration, gives the president greater authority to waive sanctions for national security reasons.

The White House, which in principle opposes moves by Congress to restrict diplomatic options in dealing with problematic relations, has gone from opposing the Syria bill to accepting it as inevitable.

"We cannot have relationships with Syria and close our eyes to the truth, and the truth is that they are in fact supporting terrorism in ways that are very very clear," said Sen. Barbara Boxer...

Here’s a round-up of recent items from the world’s press you may have missed: Item 1: In the last two weeks, two Toronto-bound El Al flights had to be diverted to other airports after credible terrorist threats were made about using surface-to-air missiles against them. The Canadian transport minister, David Collenette, responded by suggesting that the Israeli airline’s service to Pearson International Airport might be ended.

Item 2: The Baghdad hotel in which Paul Wolfowitz was staying was blown up. Several people were killed, though the US deputy defence secretary emerged unscathed. Much of the death and destruction was caused by French 68mm missiles ‘in pristine condition’, according to one US officer who inspected the rocket tubes and assembly. In other words, they’re not rusty leftovers Saddam had lying around from the 1980s. The Baathist dictatorship had acquired these missiles from the French rather more recently.

Item 3: According to Le Nouvel Observateur, ‘D’après un questionnaire de la Commission Européenne, 59% des Européens pensent qu’Israël est le pays le plus menaçant pour la paix dans le monde.’

Item 4: In the Guardian, Tariq Ali ended this week’s column on the mounting American (and NGO) death toll in Iraq thus: ‘Iraqis have one thing of which they can be proud and of which British and US citizens should be envious: an opposition’.[...]

(CBS) Yasser Arafat diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to insure his political survival, but a lot more is unaccounted for.

Jim Prince and a team of American accountants - hired by Arafat's own finance ministry - are combing through Arafat's books. Given what they've already uncovered, Arafat may be rethinking the decision. Lesley Stahl reports...

Tom Friedman is an old Middle East hand, to say the least, and my four trips to the area are nothing compared to his, but there is something about his New York Times oped this morning that disturbs me. It isn’t just the extreme banality. He speaks of the “Humiliation Factor” (for the Islamic world principally) as if this might be news to us or to President Bush. He even goes so far as to say: “The single most under appreciated force in international relations is humiliation.”

Oh, please! We’ve heard about nothing more than the Humiliation Factor for the better part of two decades. Furthermore, whatever you think about the administration policy in Iraq, they have made great efforts (difficult and sometimes impossible as the task may be and more than any other occupying power that I can think of in history) to take into consideration local values and mores; Bush is always at pains to say we are not at war with Islam, etc., etc. Paul Wolfowitz, to pick just one name, but a key one in the administration, goes and solicits Iraqi citizen views with a dogged determination unheard of in an American official and Friedman bloody well knows this. Sure they make mistakes, but who wouldn't?[...]

..."Shoshana is getting the shaft, and people are outraged about it," said Mary Mason, a Philadelphia talk-radio host whose show was bombarded with callers complaining about the disparity. "It's ridiculous, and complete racism."

Johnson and her family in El Paso, Texas, say they have no proof that the issue is rooted in racism, but they've engaged the Rev. Jesse Jackson to press the Army to increase her disability benefits...

...The lot that is currently governing us feels bound by no law. You just have to ask yourself what these crooks are capable of after they already stole the election. This much I can tell you: They have no scruple about destroying everything that stands in their way, especially when they are in the process of making even more money. ...

Should such an ignorant people lead the world? How did it come to this in the first place? 82 percent of us don't even have a passport! Just a handful can speak a language other than English (and we don't even speak that very well.) ...

We approach life relatively openly and generously and without complication. When you ask us for help we come to help you. And when you tell us that donkeys can fly we believe it (when you say it on television.). ...

...Misgivings characterising Lynch's story are coming to a head: last week she accused the administration of manipulating her story for propaganda, saying she was not a heroine at all; accusations that she'd been raped were disputed by appalled Iraqi doctors who first treated her, and the army was accused of insensitivity and racism for awarding Lynch a full disability pension while others from her ambushed maintenance company, including Shoshana Johnson, the black cook wounded and captured by Iraqis, will receive barely a third of Lynch's discharge package.

While Johnson is living on $500 a month, Lynch stands to make millions from her book, I Am a Soldier, Too. She has been romanced as the media target of the moment, photographed by Annie Liebowitz for Vanity Fair, and stands to make millions more from a movie deal.

'There is a double standard,' said Johnson's father, Claude. 'I don't know for sure that it was the Pentagon. All I know for sure is the media paid a lot of attention to Jessica.'

And America is deter mined that Lynch will be a heroine, despite the fact that she never fired a shot, and instead got down on her knees to pray as her unit was surrounded by enemy forces. As she pointed out herself, it was her dead colleague Lori Piestewa, a Native American mother of two, who went down fighting.

Lynch says the circumstances of her rescue was dramatised and manipulated by the Pentagon. She was not rescued in a 'blaze of gunfire' as reported by Defence Department officials last April, but picked up from compliant Iraq doctors who had saved her life...

Iraq is not Vietnam. There is no popular, anti-colonial insurgency in Iraq. Our opponents, who number only in the thousands in a country of 23 million, are despised by the vast majority of Iraqis. The Iraqi insurgents do not enjoy the kind of sanctuary North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos provided. They do not have a superpower patron. These murderers cannot carry the banner of Iraqi nationalism, as Ho Chi Minh did in Vietnam for decades.

But if we are to avoid a debate over who "lost" Iraq, as we debated who lost Vietnam a generation ago, we must act urgently to transform our early military success into lasting political victory...

Well the State Dept opened there hand several days ago to their policy of catering to the Euro and Mullah's needs.. Bush, the Pentagon and others have struck back.. Lets just hope they can follow up their words with ACTION!

(*)"The regime in Tehran must heed the democratic demands of the Iranian people or lose its last claim to legitimacy,"

(*)"I think we may well see a regime change in Iran brought about by Iranians, but they need some help. They need more broadcasting so that communications are improved. We should be prepared to help them get newspapers published in their own country," Perle said.

(*)How To Combat Islamist Terrorism Without Combating Islam?

An investigative report by CBS television 60 Minutes will claim that Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat transfers $100,000 a month from funds directed to the Palestinian Authority to his wife Suha.

The report, to be aired across the United States on Sunday, alleges that Suha Arafat, who lives in Paris with the couple's daughter, receives the sum on a monthly basis.

According to the report, Arafat has accumulated in his private accounts more than $800 million from aid originally appropriated to the Palestinian authority.

PA Finance Minister Salam Fayad aided in the CBS investigation. Fayad is currently trying to track down all the PA-allocated money that never reached its intended destination.

...As changes come to the Middle Eastern region, those with power should ask themselves: Will they be remembered for resisting reform, or for leading it? In Iran, the demand for democracy is strong and broad, as we saw last month when thousands gathered to welcome home Shirin Ebadi, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The regime in Teheran must heed the democratic demands of the Iranian people, or lose its last claim to legitimacy. (Applause.)

For the Palestinian people, the only path to independence and dignity and progress is the path of democracy. (Applause.) And the Palestinian leaders who block and undermine democratic reform, and feed hatred and encourage violence are not leaders at all. They're the main obstacles to peace, and to the success of the Palestinian people...

I wish to elaborate on this topic which I mentioned two days ago. I didn't go into much details at that time because I had not prepared an entry, so I wrote it on the fly.

First, I have to explain to some western idealists that public demonstrations is an alien idea to the majority of Iraqis. We have been forced to demonstrate in favour of Saddam, the Ba'ath, Palestine, and Arab nationalism for 3 decades. Just to give you an idea on how that was like for us; party members would surround colleges, schools, and govt. offices. They block all outlets and shove people into buses which head to wherever the demonstrations are to be held. You simply cannot refuse to demonstrate. I remember hiding in the toilet back in high school whenever the buses came into the park to herd us to the demos. It wasn't a pleasant experience I can tell you. Once I got stuck and had to shout anti-imperialist slogans at one of these rallies just two years ago. You don't have the slightest idea of what it is like to live your life daily in fear...

Is it too early to adopt a revisionist view of the US war in Iraq and for this column to admit its mistake in having vehemently opposed it from the outset?

At issue here is whether the Iraqi people have benefited from the overthrow of the Baathist regime and whether the American occupation will eventually benefit their country even more. I’m convinced — and berate me here from your patriotic bleachers, if you must — that what we have seen in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates in recent months may turn out to be the most serendipitous event in its modern history.

One need offer no apology for saying that the supreme virtue of this war is that Saddam Hussein was gotten rid of. Period. The very man who had established arguably the closest approximation of a genuine fascist state in the Arab world, that sustained itself on fear, repression, genocide, cult of personality and wanton murder — a state whose law was that those who rule are the law...

...At a press conference yesterday, Mr. Bond and other black leaders portrayed Justice Brown as a "far right-wing extremist" and "outside the mainstream."

They were asked how Justice Brown could be described as a right-wing ideologue when 76 percent of California voters cast ballots to return her to the bench in 1998, the highest percentage of any justice in that retention election.

"It's inexplicable to me," Mr. Bond said. "I cannot think of a response. But nonetheless, that election does not invalidate any of the things [we] have said."

Mr. Sharpton echoed the concerns of many conservatives — especially black conservatives — that Justice Brown is being opposed because she doesn't conform to the Democratic ideology that many blacks espouse.

"We've got to stop this monolith in black America because it impedes the freedom of expression for all of us," Mr. Sharpton said in a television interview conducted by Sinclair Broadcasting yesterday. "I don't think she should be opposed because she doesn't come from some assumed club."

Mr. Sharpton compared the filibusters to the same sort of "pocket vetoes" used for so long against blacks.

Wade Henderson, director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, who attended the anti-Brown press conference, was later asked about Mr. Sharpton's remarks.

"I don't believe it. That can't be true," he said as he headed to a meeting in the Democratic leadership office. "It would be shockingly surprising."...

Remember you first read it here. Iran is now on course to force its way into the nuclear club within the next two to three years. When it does, it will owe part of its success to a European Union diplomatic manoeuvre that has spared Iran the prospect of direct confrontation over its illicit nuclear programme, with the international community.

The manoeuvre, which led to the signature of a memorandum between the Islamic Republic and three European Union members in October, appears to have defused the latest crisis. As things stand it is almost certain that the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, will soft pedal the procedure that could have led to a confrontation between Tehran and the United Nations over Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The European Union initiative has exacted no more than a vague promise from the leadership in Tehran to temporarily halt a secret project to enrich uranium and produce plutonium...

...Iran's nuclear programme started in 1956. The strategic decision to develop nuclear weapons was taken in 1989. The regime has spent an estimated $12 billion on all aspects of this ambitious programme so far. It is not something that Tehran will give up after a session of tea and sympathy with the EU trio.

The Pentagon has begun recruiting for local draft boards, dredging up painful memories of Vietnam era conscription at a time of deepening misgiving about America's occupation of Iraq.

In a notice posted on the defence department's Defend America website, Americans over the age of 18 and with no criminal record are invited to "serve your community and the nation" by volunteering for the boards, which decide which recruits should be sent to war.

Thirty years have passed since the draft boards last exerted their hold on America, deciding which soldiers would be sent to Vietnam. After Congress ended the draft in 1973, they have become largely dormant.

However, recruitment for the boards suggests that in some parts of the Pentagon all options are being explored in response to concerns that the US military has been stretched too thin in its occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although Pentagon officials denied any move to reinstitute the draft, the defence department website does not shirk at outlining the potential duties for a new crop of volunteers to the draft boards.

"If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 local and appeal boards throughout America would decide which young men who submit a claim receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service, based on federal guidelines," it said.

Pentagon officials were adamant that there were no plans to bring back the draft.

"That would require action from Congress and the president and they are not likely to do that unless there was something of the magnitude of the second world war that required it," said Dan Amon, a spokesman for the selective service department.

Bringing back conscription would be catastrophic for George Bush in an election year,

and at a time when parallels are increasingly being drawn between Iraq and Vietnam.

However, officials were not immediately able to explain how the advertisement appeared on the site.

Mr Amon said the notices were a response to the natural attrition in the ranks of the draft board, where some 80% of 11,000 places are now vacant. "It is the routine cycle of things," he said.

The idea of a draft has never entirely disappeared, and is contemplated by Democrats and some military experts.

In the run-up to the war, the New York congressman Charles Rangel argued for a draft on the grounds that the US military was disproportionately made up of poor and black soldiers, and that it was unfair for America's underclass to go off and die in wars.

In recent weeks, there has been growing concern within the defence department about relying too heavily on members of the National Guard and army reservists.

Some 60,000 of the 130,000 US soldiers in Iraq are members of the National Guard or the reserves. An opinion poll last month in the Pentagon-funded Stars and Stripes newspaper, showed 49% threatening not to re-enlist.

The families of reservists have become increasingly vocal in their complaints after the Pentagon's decision to extend duty tours to up to 15 months.

"Entire swaths of 20th-century history have been deleted," says Bill Evers, a US Defense Department employee, and one of three American advisers to the Ministry of Education.

. . . While US advisers don't want to be seen as heavy-handed in influencing the way Iraqis interpret history, neither do they want to be in the position of endorsing texts that could be anti-American, anti-Israeli, or radically religious.

As a result, some charge, in a matter of months Iraqi education has gone from one-sided to 'no-sided.'

"While the majority of Americans may at present be walking around in a state of semi-hypnotic denial concerning the war in the Middle East and the role of Israel in all of it, the rest of the world most assuredly is not. Elsewhere, in nations not as infected with the corrupting influence of Zionist power, the people have maintained with perfect clarity their understanding of the picture posed by the connecting dots of political events. The rest of the world has been able to note names like Perle, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Sharon, and a whole host of others of similar stripe going back 50 years, and whose ethnic and religious loyalties are no mystery. The “elephant in the room” described recently by a Jewish reporter at the New York Times, the elephant which America seems unwilling or unable to recognize is clearly visible to the rest of the world community whom America seems to disregard. Therefore, when Bush & Co. start talking about “freedom, liberation, and the war on terror,” the rest of the world which has not swallowed the blue pill knows that the marionette dancing in Washington DC is directed by hands attached to the centers of power in Tel Aviv."

I attended a doctor's party the other night with my partner. A film-maker myself, I always find this other world interesting to say the least - another "bubble". I settled into a chat with a young doctor, born in the US of Egyptian parents. He was charming and very 'LA' - well-coiffured, soft-spoken and well-dressed. We chatted a while about his world in the forensics department at LAPD which I found interesting as a film-maker. We started chatting a little about the Middle East. I assumed he knew I was Jewish. And I thought, wow, what a great place America is - I can chat with an Egyptian as a Jew without any of the sorry overtones of the current crisis in the mid-East; Jew and Arab are bonded by our common Western upbringing. I expressed reasons why I supported Israel, we both agreed Arafat was a bandit, but he explained why the Palestinian cause had such support in Arab countries. It was a very civil, pleasant conversation despite our differences... And then it started coming out...

My good friend Marc Christian was Rock Hudson’s last partner. Marc, like most other Americans, is appalled at the reported portrayal of the President, not only because he believes it to be an untrue portrait, but because he knows.

Marc wrote a letter to CBS entertainment head Les Moonves making clear his disgust at the portrayal of the President, especially the assertion that Reagan was a cruel homophobe. While Marc did not write his letter for public consumption, I found it important and asked it I could share it with you. He graciously agreed.

Here is the education Marc Christian gave Les Moonves:

"The notion that President Reagan was a homophobe strikes me as silly beyond belief. Not only did he have several gay men on his staff when he was Governor of California, he called my lover, Rock Hudson when he was on his deathbed just weeks before he died of AIDS and wished him well and voiced his and Nancy's concern and prayers.

"…The Reagans had known Rock for years and knew he was gay (as did most in Hollywood). The point is Reagan could have ignored Rock's illness and didn't. He could have just issued a public statement concerning his "official sorrow" but made a personal phone call instead.

"CBS used to be the network of class, now its the official arm of the Democrat party and its sources for information regarding truth below that of The National Enquirer. I bet President Reagan's phone call to Rock Hudson isn't in the screenplay or should I say smearplay, is it?"

Marc Christian.
Hollywood, CA

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a prominent Iraqi judge outside his home in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, a day after another judge was kidnapped and killed in the south of the country, police said.

A witness said a car with tinted windows suddenly pulled up outside the home of Ismail Youssef, a judge in Mosul's appeals court, at about 7:45 a.m. (12:45 a.m. EST) and men got out and shot him several times in the chest and side, police said.

The 60-year-old judge's family said they did not know why he had been attacked. Some judges with links to ousted president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath party were fired after the U.S.-led war, but Youssef remained on the judge's bench.

"He was a good and honest man. He wasn't a member of any political party," his brother-in-law Tarik Moussa said...

Frankly, as the allegations are so serious, it seems almost trite to call this post "French Perfidy Watch"--language which has become, pretty much, slightly jestful code for Dominique de Villepin gallivanting about Cameroon, Guinea, Angola and the like to scuttle UNSC resolutions.

This important Steve Coll WaPo piece contains much more serious allegations of possible French treachery than all that whirlwind travel through Africa and related Turtle Bay machinations.

The piece is a must read, not only because of potentially damning information about secret French contacts with Iraq before the war, but also because it contains further information about Saddam's purposeful intent to run afoul of Resolution 1441.

But one thing at a time...

If I live and breathe, and if--as Hank Williams used to say--the creek don't rise, in 2004 this Democrat will do something I didn't do in 2000, I will vote for George W. Bush for president.

I have come to believe that George Bush is the right man in the right place at the right time. And that's a pretty big mouthful coming from a lifelong Democrat who first voted for Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and has voted for every Democratic presidential candidate the 12 cycles since then. My political history to the contrary, this was the easiest decision I think I've ever made in deciding who to support. For I believe the next five years will determine the kind of world my four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren will live in. I simply cannot entrust that crucial decision to any one of the current group of Democratic presidential candidates.

Why George Bush? First, the personal; then, the political...

In response to Boston Herald articles dated 10/28/2003 & 10/29/2003

The articles published in the Boston Herald about the Islamic Society of Boston on the 28th and 29th of October are libelous. The Islamic Society of Boston hopes in this statement to rebut the defamatory and vilifying remarks included throughout these articles.

In the article written on 10/28 it is stated that the Islamic Society of Boston, “…has long-standing ties”… and “…has had a long association with…” Dr. Yousef Al-Qaradawi and Mr. Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi.

The Islamic Society of Boston does not maintain any significant or long-standing relationship with either individual.
Any administrative or official connection to either individual that was in existence more than a decade ago has since been dissolved, long before either individual was identified as controversial or as an alleged participant in illegal activities.
The Islamic Society of Boston is not accountable for the personal statements and actions of individuals who are not associated with the Society in any way.
The Islamic Society of Boston does not condone any action or speech that supports or encourages acts of terrorism on American soil or elsewhere in the world.
The article states that the Islamic Society of Boston was “…founded by Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi…”, an alleged supporter of terrorist organizations

Mr, Alamoudi was among many students of prestigious colleges and universities in the Boston area who felt the need to create a religious organization for the growing Muslim community in the 1980’s. Mr Alamoudi left Boston in 1984 and has had no contact with the Islamic Society of Boston since that time. In the 1990’s, Mr. Alamoudi was a visitor to the White House, and a good will ambassador for the US State Department, associations that are much more recent and significant than that with the Society during the same period.
Mr. Alamoudi certainly has no control or influence in the administration and policies of the Society.
The article states that “…public records indicate Al-Qaradawi and Alamoudi have both held leadership positions with the Islamic Society of Boston.”

Dr. Al-Qaradawi has never held a position of leadership with the Islamic Society of Boston
Dr. Al-Qaradawi was invited to become an honorary trustee of the Society because of popularity within the Muslim community. This invitation was extended long before he was considered a controversial figure and was refused per Dr. Al-Qaradawi’s apparent policy not to hold such positions.
For more information on Dr. Al-Qaradawi and his role in the Muslim community, please see the the Washington Post of February 14, 2003, entitled “Maverick Cleric is a Hit on Arab TV: Al-Jazeera Star Mixes Tough Talk with Calls for Tolerance” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5496-2003Feb13)
The article states that, Dr. Al-Qaradawi was, “identified…as one of [the Society’s] four directors on its income tax return…”

The Islamic Society of Boston admits to an administrative oversight in listing Dr. Al-Qaradawi as a member of the Board on its tax returns. This was subsequently corrected after the organization hired more paid staff members and more detailed administration policies could be implemented.
The article states that, “most, if not all of the project’s financing has come from the Middle East.”

The Islamic Society of Boston has fundraised vigorously within the Muslim community in Boston and has received a significant amount of its financial support from the American Muslim community.
The article states that, “The mosque is being paid for with money from the Middle East and it’s connected to a larger agenda.”

The Society has implemented a “Know Your Donor” program that requires background checks to be conducted on all donors whether local or international who give in amounts exceeding $5000. The donors are cross checked against the Federal Government’s Terrorist watch list to ensure that no ties whether alleged or founded are held with terrorist organizations before accepting donations.
The Society has a policy of only accepting donations that come “with no strings attached”
The Islamic Society of Boston approaches donors who are eager to improve the understanding of Islam in the United States and who themselves do not condone an interpretation of Islam that is fundamentalist, oppressive, radical, anti-Western or anti-Semitic. The Society’s donors all see the project as a forum for cooperation and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States.
The Islamic Society of Boston rejects any interpretation of Islam that is considered fundamentalist, oppressive, radical, anti-Western or anti-Semitic. The Society is well known for its moderate, comprehensive, participative view and practice of Islam.
The Islamic Society of Boston’s agenda is clearly stated in the mission and vision included in its constitution. The Society does not subscribe to any “larger agenda” dictated by any outside entity.
In order to formulate the vision of the new Cultural Center project in Roxbury, the Society has worked closely with the City of Boston and the Roxbury Community College.
The Islamic Society of Boston has forged meaningful relationships with many individuals and institutions including Temple Israel, Temple Beth Shalom, Trinity Church, Cambridge Peace Commission, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, among others.
The Islamic Society of Boston throws open its doors to visitors of all faiths and backgrounds and welcomes all those who wish to learn about Islam and Muslims and to engage in discussion about issues affecting our community as a whole.
With regards to the second article dated 10/29/2003

Dr. Osama Kandil has not now or ever been under investigation for any alleged links made to any suspected terrorists, terrorist supporters or terrorist financiers.
American Products International Inc. which lists Dr. Kandil as its registered agent ceased to function seven years ago.The Muslim Arab Youth Association which lists Dr. Kandil as a member is not considered by the federal government or the general public to be a controversial organization in the least and in any case is now defunct.
Steven Emerson, cited by the article as the source for claims that MAYA was an extremest organization, is not considered a credible expert on Islam and is instead considered a xenophobe, racist, and hatemonger by all mainstream American Muslim organizations, and by many outside the Muslim community as well (see http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/03/05/emerson/ and http://www.cair-net.org/html/emerson.htm for some examples)
Persons at Ptech have never been charged with any crime by the government and the Society sees no wrongdoing in emotionally supporting the individuals who were affected by negative media coverage surrounding that company, and who lost their jobs as a result.
The Islamic Society of Boston is indeed concerned about the racist and xenophobic tone of the articles and the implications it spells for the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States. The allegations are for the most part unsubstantiated or exaggerated. The Society strongly feels that the Herald, in its articles is contributing towards a potential increase in hate crimes and a decrease in tolerance.

-Jhon Iblih

...Putting more Iraqi soldiers and policemen on the ground makes sense. By taking care of routine policing and security, they will free up the American Army to conduct raids, pursue leads and fight the guerrillas. But the desperation to move faster and faster is going to have bad results. Accelerating the training schedule (which has already been accelerated twice before) will only produce an ineffective Iraqi Army and police force. Does anyone think that such a ragtag military could beat the insurgency where American troops are failing?

When we speak of sending “Iraqis” on raids into the Sunni Triangle, who would these soldiers be? Sunnis? They might not want to hunt down Baathists, or might easily be bought off. Shiites and Kurds? That would galvanize the Sunni populations in support of the guerrillas. If the goal is to stabilize Iraq, fomenting intragroup violence might not be the best path.

If the American footprint is reduced, it will not make the guerrillas stop fighting. (“Hey, Saddam, we’ve scared the Americans back into their compounds. Let’s ease up now and give them a break.”) On the contrary, the rebels will step up their attacks on the Iraqi Army and local politicians, whom they already accuse of being collaborators. Iraqification could easily produce more chaos, not less...

Are al-Qaeda fighters victims, robbed of their legal rights under the Geneva Convention by the repressive Bush Administration? Are terrorists victims of American oppression? That's what you might think if you believed the New York Times editorial page and the humanitarian bureaucrat-activists coloring the Times' coverage of postwar Iraq.

In an October 16 editorial ("The American Prison Camp"), the New York Times attacked the Bush Administration for maintaining its detainee camp for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Citing criticism of the Bush Administration by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the editorial claimed that Administration justifications for the have no foundation in the Geneva Convention. The NYT then demanded, in the name of justice, that unlawful combatants (in this case, terrorists) be granted civil rights that the U.S. in previous wars had not granted even to lawful combatants. Traditionally, unlawful combatants have been considered not soldiers, but criminals, spies or saboteurs, and as such, were executed or imprisoned for lengthy sentences...

IN ISRAEL, with the Geneva initiative in hand, we are waging a major campaign for a radically different tomorrow, one in which Israel's right to exist peacefully as a Jewish and democratic state will be secured. In the near future all citizens will receive in their mailboxes the draft of a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just days after release of some of the most salient details, a poll taken by the Israeli daily Ma'ariv found that nearly half of the respondents already supported the initiative.

The Geneva initiative is the culmination of negotiations between Palestinian moderates and moderate Israeli political leaders and security experts. It is a detailed accord that meets Palestinian needs for a just and viable state alongside Israel and Israeli needs for security and the promise of peaceful relations with its Arab neighbors.

Contrary to the claims of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, this plan entails neither surrender nor betrayal of Israel. Instead it offers the potential to realize the principles on which Israel was founded -- the creation of a democratic Jewish state...

...Are you afraid that there are still some of Saddam’s men around?

“There aren’t any more people linked to the dictator. What we have instead are Arab fighters who have entered Iraq, financed by fundamentalist movements in nearby countries, or maybe even by the governments. There are those who do not want Iraq to be open and free. Those responsible for the stream of attacks are loose cannons, without any popular support.”

Are you satisfied with the test of democracy in course, for example, at Mosul and Kirkuk?

“Yes. The people treasure freedom. Sometimes they criticize the decisions of the Americans, but the process underway is working. I myself was elected by popular vote as the vice-president of the interim council in Mosul. I have resigned from office, but being still part of the council. We have been working with the Americans since last May, and I am optimistic. Gradually roads and hospitals are being constructed, and I ask myself, Why should we resist? It’s useless! Of course, the United States made mistakes.”

Can you mention one of them?

“They are slow in acting, and above all, they do not understand the Iraqi mentality and habits, the history of the country. But they have undoubtedly done good things as well. The trouble is that, not knowing whom they can trust, they live in a state of perpetual suspicion; the soldiers tend to open fire at the first sign of danger.”

Why do you think the Americans do not understand the Iraqis?

“We are moderates by nature; the extremists who are operating are supported from outside. It is obvious that, if a democracy is born in Iraq, the surrounding countries will be worried.”...

Seventeen members of the US House of Representatives are signatories to a letter urging the Ford Foundation to halt funding to groups that promote anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hate.

Drafted by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the letter, addressed to Ford Foundation president Susan Berresford, was written after an investigation by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency found that the foundation provided millions of dollars to groups that promoted the destruction of Israel at the 2001 UN Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and it demands an immediate public review of grantees' activities.

The list of signatories includes 16 Democrats and one Republican.

Jewish leaders are applauding the introduction of a 'sense of Congress' resolution in the US House of Representatives last week that calls on the international community to recognize the plight of some 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

Sponsored by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the resolution, introduced into the US House of Representatives on Oct. 28, also urges the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to resettle Palestinian refugees rather than prologue their suffering in 50-year old refugee camps.

The Secretary-General of the World Jewish Congress, Avi Beker, praised the resolution's sponsors for "taking the steps necessary to assure that this balance is returned to the Mideast narrative." For the past year and a half, Beker has pressed for the recognition of the rights of Jews who faced persecution in Arab countries and ultimately fled their homeland following Israel's establishment. He has also argued that UNRWA is perpetuating the conflict by refusing to resettle the Palestinian refugees in their countries of residence or third country, and he recently distributed a report titled: 'UNRWA, Terror and the Refugee Conundrum: Perpetuating the Misery' to top UN officials...