"Best Medical Care" Being Provided for Peddler of Pakistani Nuclear Technology

In 1976 Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan came to Pakistan bringing "stolen uranium enrichment technologies from Europe," acquired through his position at the classified URENCO uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands. Put in charge of building, equipping and operating Pakistan's Kahuta facility, he developed an extensive clandestine network in order to obtain the necessary materials and technology to enrich uranium preparatory to developing a nuclear bomb. As a government sponsored program this project was kept under wraps for years, but Dr. Khan would - perhaps without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities (?) - eventually peddle his nuclear expertise to other countries, notably (as far as we know so far) to Libya, North Korea, and Iran. What was a state-sponsored clandestine activity in the 1970s became a private "shadow" enterprise unmonitored by any state in the 1980s and 1990s.

Evidence of the continued respect, even affection, for Dr. A. Q. Khan, mastermind of the Pakistani nuclear weapon, is evinced in the intense interest the public has in his health. That he is held under house arrest for contraband activities has been lost on the Pakistani public.

Domestic Policy in Iran: Intellectuals and Civil Society under Fire

Bahman Nirumand. Is pointing out that the more international pressure put on Iran the easier it is for the government to stir up citizens' suspicions of both internal and external enemies. The victims are intellectuals, artists, and journalists. The Iranian Writers' Association on August 16 put out a notice saying that "Censorship of literature and the press, filtering of websites, the confiscation of satellite dishes and censorship of film and theatre are mounting day by day." All politically “critical content is censured, but also anything that even hints at renewal, openness and diversity, at enlightenment and modernization.” Intellectuals are being ”publicly denounced and tortured into making false confessions.” In the past Iranian TV has portrayed popular artists, writers and intellectuals as traitors, Western puppets and corrupters whose primarily goal was to undermine Islam and the national culture. Torture has become more common: one of the “many demonstrators arrested during the student uprisings in Tehran in the summer of 1999” was recently tortured to death. The intent, of course, is to spread fear and to intimidate and silence critics and cultural practitioners. Journalists are of course intimidated: “One in five journalists has been imprisoned at least once. On average, journalists don't work longer than seven months for a newspaper, either because the newspaper ends up being banned or because the justice system or secret service recommends that the journalist be fired.” Even the Center for the Defense of Human Rights, presided over by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, was declared illegal and officially banned in early August, 2006. The government strategy to spread fear, incite hatred and stir the public's hostility can only be effective if the country is in a permanent state of crisis.
more…


By Bahman Nirumand
August 25, 2006 (Qantara de)

The biggest surprise is that it is a surprise

There has been a buz in the American and European media about the Chatham House report on Iran:
"The US government's "war on terror" has indirectly strengthened the position of Iran in the Middle East, according to a new report by leading British think tank Chatham House."

In fact, the biggest surprise in this discussion is that people in the West are just now discovering how much Iran has gained from American policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. This has been noted for, I suppose, a year among the Arabs -- and how could the Iranians have missed it? Are the media this slow on the draw? Yes, of course, by attacking the Taliban, mortal enemy of Iran, and by attacking Saddam, the other mortal enemy of Iran, the United States has given Iran more security than it ever could have had otherwise. The surprise is that for the western media this is news -- now, so late.

Pakistan's Wars

Recently there have been two articles with similar titles, “Afghanistan’s Other War” (The American Prospect July 12, 2006) and “Pakistan’s Other War” (Time, Asia Magazine edition, Jun. 19, 2006). Actually, they could both be entitled “Pakistan’s Wars”. It turns out that in both cases, Pakistan’s struggles -- with the Baluch in their own territories or with their neighbor, India – belong to the same bundle in the sense that they are critical issues for a government whose legitimacy is getting shakier by the month. It is hard not to see Pakistan as the most conflicted, even dangerous, place on earth. The Pakistanis are struggling with India over Kashmir – and as the articles indicate, they still resent the loss of East Pakistan (now Bagladesh) – and at the same time their future depends on connecting into the riches of Central Asia, which requires that they do everything possible to have a commanding presence in Afghanistan. In the mean time they have to deal with insurgent Baluch who believe they have been short-changed, and who in fact sit atride not only vital gas reserves but also the new port being built at Gwadar, in preparation for the day when it will be the terminus (and access point for the world) of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan. So, our friends who are supposed to be “fighting terrorists” must somehow balance crises on three fronts: Afghanistan, which is increasingly unstable, but in any case is resentful Pakistan's failure to control the Taliban who are spilling across their borders; India, for which Pakistan needs to keep producing a reserve of holy warriors to fight for Kashmir; and Baluchistan within its own borders, for which Pakistan must deploy a professinal army. Not one of these problems is new or will go away in the near future. A dangerous situation for the country, but also a dangerous situation for the world, as this is a nuclear power.

Shifting Sands: And Now, Islamism Trumps Arabism

In an earlier post I noted that a Pakistani leader of a violent group said they believed in "Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations' and they would be fighting until Islam becomes the dominant religion. I also quoted the President of Indonesia who feared that such a "clash" would be the "ultimate nightmare." Here is what they are saying in Egypt and the Arab Middle East in the context of the "victory of Hizbullah in Lebanon." According to one observer "The secular resistance movements are gone. Now there are the Islamists coming in. The new nationalism is religious nationalism, and one of the main reasons is dignity. People want their dignity back." And another commentator: "People have come to identify themselves more as Muslims during the last five years in response to the U.S.-led 'war on terrorism' which Egyptians frequently feel is a discriminatory campaign targeting Muslims and Islam worldwide." Note that this Islamic nationalism [in Egypt] is pitted against the regime in power whereas in some cases [Pakistan] Islamism is the tool of the state inorder to stay in power. RLC

August 20 (The New York Times)

By Michael Slackman

The prevailing view in the Middle East is that where Arab nations failed to stand up to Israel and the United States, an Islamic movement succeeded.

She grew up in Cairo with the privileges that go to the daughter of a military officer, attended a university and landed a job in marketing. He grew up in a poor village of dusty unpaved roads, where young men work long hours in a brick factory while dreaming of getting a government job that would pay $90 a month.
more...

THE ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE?

Samuel Huntington developed the thesis that “[C]ulture and cultural identities, which at the broadest level are civilizational identities, are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration, and conflict in the post-Cold War world.” “Of all the objective elements which define civilizations,” he says, “the more important usually is religion. … [P]eople who share ethnicity and language but differ in religion may slaughter each other …” (p. 20, 42, in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order (1996).

As far as I know, most scholars in the West have scorned Huntington’s thesis.

But in the Muslim world the notion is taken very seriously. Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Islamist group in Pakistan, Lashkar-i Taiba, has said, “We believe in Huntington’s clash of civilizations, and our jihad will continue until Islam becomes the dominant religion.” (Quoted in Hassan Abbas (2005) Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism, p 212). And the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has recently said that Middle East hostilities involving Israel “will radicalize the Muslim world, even those of us who are moderate today. From there, it will be just one step away to that ultimate nightmare: a clash of civilizations.” (Quoted by Scott Atran, “Is Hamas Ready to Deal?” The New York Times, August 17, 2006).

That Huntington’s notion is ignored or scouted in the West but embraced in the Muslim world, says much about the two cultural worlds. If we want to understand others we must begin by listening. What does it mean that one of the most violent Islamist groups in the world “believes in Huntington’s clash of civilizations”? Or that the President of the largest Muslim country in the world believes we could be “one step away” from “the ultimate nightmare: a clash of civilizations”?

Nation Building at Gunpoint

Even though this article is very long there is so much specific information here that I wanted it to be posted. It raises some questions: where do the Taliban get their money? No longer is money a problem for them. Dignifying and to laundering the reputations "of the worst war criminals in the country"? In the long run, much depends on how these people behave.
RLC

July 15 (Sydney Morning Herald)

By Paul McGeough

In a land where the Taliban will pay $US25,000 for the body of an MP, many question the Afghan parliament's ability to help build real democracy, writes Paul McGeough.

As a warlord with all the backing of his Alokozai tribal elders, Dad Mohammed Khan did not stoop to campaigning for his seat in Afghanistan's infant parliament. Suspicious electoral officials disallowed several ballot boxes in which the heavy- set candidate scored 100 per cent. But Khan still topped the vote in Helmand province, a parched southern wasteland that local opium farmers and smugglers call the valley of death. And within days of the poll, the spilling of more blood cruelly punctured Khan's air of expectation and his urge to celebrate - his brother Daoud, the security chief in the province's Sangin district, was mowed down in a hail of Taliban bullets as he and four of his bodyguards emerged from the local bazaar. All 350 members of the new parliament have been threatened or attacked for having the courage to take their place in Afghanistan's new American-sponsored democratic order. But none of their stories comes anywhere near the butchery the resurgent Taliban was storing up for Khan.
more...

Iran's Nobel Winner Risks Arrest

Shirin Ebadi's book "Iran Awakening" (2006) brings her experience in Iran up to a fairly recent time. Clearly the Iranian government is not pleased with the recognition she has received, and if they read her book they will be even less pleased. Their attempts to quench all open expression of dissent have been relentless. RLC

August 12 (The Age)

By Paul McGreough


AMID a new crackdown on human rights activists, the Iranian Government is attempting to isolate one of the country's most high-profile lawyers, the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi.
more...

A String of Intelligence Failures

This is a serious indictment against the intelligence agencies of the West, but it also reveals something of the attitude of the comfortable capitalist world toward the rest. Consider his critique: "A cultural arrogance seems to have set in with Western diplomatic services and intelligence agencies. They no longer take the trouble or time to understand why people would spend six years building tunnels or sending out suicide bombers." RLC

August 6 (International Herald Tribune)

By Ahmed Rashid


LAHORE PAKISTAN - What is it about the intelligence failures by Western armies and governments in the past few years? Despite being armed with the latest high-tech paraphernalia, the richest countries in the world have gone through stunning reversals of fortune when it comes to intelligence gathering and assessment.
more...

Pakistan's 'jihadi option' threatens regional peace: analysts

July 16 (Yahoo News)

By Danny Kemp

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan could jeopardise peace in South Asia by clinging to a "jihadi option" despite a high-profile crackdown on Islamic militants by President Pervez Musharraf, analysts say.
Military ruler Musharraf, a major US ally in the "war on terror", has also failed to tackle the so-called holy warriors because he needs Pakistan's hardline Muslim parties on-side, they say.
The result is worsening ties with India -- which says Tuesday's Mumbai bombings were carried out with "cross-border" help -- while Afghanistan is urging him to purge Taliban rebels allegedly based on Pakistani soil.
more...

Journalists thrashed in Kabul

Journalism in the modern world is one of the most vital and, as it turns out, dangerous professions. Sayyaf and his men have been abusive for years. His participation in the democratic process is, like many other of the former mujahedin leaders of the past, more appearance and pretense than reality. We can at least be thankful that the report of this beating has been reported. RLC

KABUL July 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Three staffers working with a private television channel were beaten by armed men while covering a demonstration against former Mujahideen leader and current Member of Parliament Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf in Paghman district of Kabul on Saturday.

Noorullah Rahmani, a reporter with the Tolo TV, said his cameraman Qais Ahmad and their driver were thrashed and their cameras were confiscated by seven gunmen 'loyal to Sayyaf'. Some 400 demonstrators staged the demonstration to protest against illegal grabbing of lands by Sayyaf. Residents of Paghman, west of Kabul and Sayyaf's native district, have held several demonstrations in the past against illegal land grabbing.

Rahmani said they were on the way to the police headquarters of Paghman to get officials' comments after covering the protest and taking photos of burnt photos when the gunmen intercepted them.

Confirming the thrashing of the Tolo workers, Police chief of Paghman Abdul Razzaq said the staffers were beaten by some unidentified gunmen. Sayyaf was not available for comment on the incident.

Head of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association Rahimullah Samandar also confirmed and condemned the beating of journalists. He said it was against all international laws and norms and that warlords were still disturbing journalists' works.

Liza Baron on the street in Damascus

Liza has graciously allowed me to put this up here. It was originally written to a few friends. It is a valuable testimony to the goodwill still out there, despite the many blunders of our government. Thanks, Liza, for this. RLC


After clumsily ordering my first falafel sandwich in uncertain Syrian-colloquial Arabic a few weeks ago, I braced for the inevitable question from the curious vendor: Where are you from? Say Canada, say Canada, my reason, rationality, street smarts, and instinct told me. “America,” I heard myself saying. He smiled broadly. “Where in America?” Say Alaska, say Wyoming, say Nebrasca - “Washington, D.C.,” my voice informed him and a growing crowd of Damascenes waiting for sandwiches. Bracing myself for boos, hisses, and flying falafels, I winced as the TV above his head trumpeted news of President Bush’s exasperated remark to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the conflict would end if the UN would only get “Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit.” The vendor winked and, grinning as he passed me my sandwich, said with gusto “Ahlan wa sahlan,” a phrase that conveys sincere welcome. It would be the most-repeated expression in the month and a half that I spent in Damascus, Syria, this summer.
Despite daily excoriations of Syria in the American media, I found Syria to be among the most hospitable countries I have ever visited. Exceptionally welcoming of foreigners, Syria has absorbed millions of neighboring refugees escaping violent conflicts. In addition to the constant flow of Palestinians (since 1948), and Iraqis (since 2003), hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have flooded Damascus in a matter of days. Hotel staffs are enduring round-the-clock shifts and filling rooms to the limit, Syrian students on summer vacation have returned to school to transform their classrooms into bedrooms for displaced families, and restaurants and street vendors spend the lull hours between meals producing food for the refugees. Ahlan wa sahlan. The official figure of distinct recognized religious sects within the country the size of North Dakota now numbers eighteen, and Syrians of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds live together without conflict in this stable, tolerant society. Since 2002, when President Bush added Syria to his roll call of rogue nations, a curious phenomenon has occurred in Syria: as its global image deteriorates, the quality of life has improved within the country. After the 2000 death of the iron-fisted Hafiz Al-Assad, his son, the current president Bashar Al-Assad, has opened the society, emphasizing tourism and connecting Syria with the modern world. High-speed internet is now available in cafes and homes with limited censorship, satellite television with channels from the Middle East and Europe is highly accessible, and recently a group of respected professors, journalists, and community leaders wrote an open letter to the President to ease his grip on the country. Jokes involving politics and the secret police, whose presence has eased slightly since Bashar assumed power, can be heard in cafes and in the streets.
Passing a sign commemorating the connection between the Al-Assad family and Syria, my Syrian companion shook his head disgustedly. “Damascus is the oldest city in the world,” he explained. “The Assad family came to power in 1970. There is more to Syria than that father and son.” A favorite joke asks who survives when a plane carrying the President, the Chief of Secret Police, and the Prime Minister crashes into the mountains. The punchline: the Syrian people, of course! Even so, Syrians I spoke to said that compared to other regimes in the Arab world, their government is the best of the worst. Without having much of a choice, Syrians plaster Al-Assad^Òs unsmiling picture on their cars, homes, and stores. In the past three weeks, another face appears next to the President’s, and another flag flies in tandem with the Syrian flag. Syrians have seized the passion of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, their Che Guevara. Before July 12th, the Damascenes I spoke with despised Nasrallah. My good friend deplores his politics, his strategies, and his religious views. After the campaign in Lebanon stretched into its first week, she enlisted me in hanging a distastefully large Hizbollah flag that cast her room in a garish gold and green light. I sent her a quizzical look as we tacked up the last corner and she shrugged sadly. “He’s all we have,” she explained.
In a region where innovative thinkers, advocates of democracy, and anyone who represents a challenge to the status quo disappear in the thick of the night or meet unpleasant fates in car “accidents,” Nasrallah symbolizes a force of change and a stark contrast to the current Syrian leadership, paralyzed by global alienation led by the United States. Theoretically, radical Shi’a Hizbollah should never enjoy the support it has recently garnered in moderate, primarily Sunni Syria. For example, the general public barely tolerates the presence in Damascus of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, and he is categorized as a liability and threat to personal security instead of being extolled as a local hero championing the Muslim cause. Realistically, the effects of wars in three of its five neighboring countries have taken their toll and Syrians are ready for an end to the fighting and a return to normalcy. Millions of Palestinians, Iraqis, and Lebanese have passed through or settled in Syria, and both the conflicts and the huge numbers of refugees have far-reaching effects on Syrian society.
The power of the secret police, for example, had ebbed since the death of the previous president but is now returning with a vengeance because of the tense international climate. Real estate prices have skyrocketed, making it virtually impossible for families to afford their apartments. Prostitution, previously comparatively rare in Syria, has become a disturbing phenomenon as desperate Iraqi women arrive with no income and no hope. The trend disrupts the delicate social equilibrium between Syrian men and women, and the Syrian women with whom I spoke reported feeling more nervous walking alone in the streets at night (a luxury Syrians of all ages and both genders usually enjoy as a benefit of living in a society with an extraordinarily low crime rate). These inconveniences, imbalances, and irregularities are directly associated with conflicts that are American-perpetuated or supported. In a countrythat has traditionally shunned extremism in favor of moderation and tolerance, the embracing of Nasrallah is significant but not surprising.
These days in Damascus, sympathy for the slaughter of innocents- Lebanese, Palestinians, Iraqis, and Israelis alike- reigns. But under the sorrow and anger is a poignant emotion: confusion. How exactly does the current American government picture its ideal Middle East? Baghdad before the US invasion eerily resembled today’s Damascus, which is to say it was a successful, self-sufficient, highly educated, peaceful society with a sizable middle class and an oppressive leader. Lebanon, just recently rebuilt after 15 years of bloody civil war which finally ended in 1991, before two weeks ago eerily resembled Miami, which is to say it was the chic, cosmopolitan party capital of an open democratic society. The Arab cities and countries that once boasted successful societies have been abruptly reduced to rubble. “What is it that your government wants in the Middle East?” asked an Iraqi refugee. “What system will ever be good enough here to escape the bombs of the US and her allies?”
Days after Israel began striking Lebanese cities in response to Hizbollah^Òs murder of eight soldiers and kidnapping of two soldiers, I spoke with a young Lebanese man who described his perilous journey from south Beirut to Damascus. The agony of the tale was horrifying, but the man shrugged and said, “Well, you know, that’s how war is.” Of course, as a 20 year-old college student from suburban Washington, I have no idea how war is and I told him so. He was incredulous: “You’ve never seen war? The US sends troops to every corner of the world to wage war, and you have no idea what it’s like?”
As President Bush and Condoleezza Rice repeat, it is time for a new Middle East. The Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Palestinians whom I met agree: they are ready for a democracy to choose leaders who will not “disappear” them in the middle of the night and leaders who will stand up to the West to protect their national interests. Remember that the majority of these people consider images of young radicals burning our flag, perpetuating violent acts against innocent Israelis, and blowing themselves up as sickening and detrimental to their national security as we do to ours. Unlike most Americans, they do know how war is. And almost everyone is ready for it to be over.

Neo-Nazis in the American military

In an Op-Ed comment [“A Vietnam Lesson, Unlearned,” 7/10/06] Bob Herbert points out that this administration “failed to learn from Vietnam … how utterly tragic it was to pull the trigger on an unnecessary war.”

One of the consequences of that failure, besides all the others already so evident, there has been the failure to maintain standards in recruiting for the military. Because of “lowered standards” there now is, as there were in Viet Nam, “breakdowns in discipline and a series of atrocities that are nothing less than a betrayal of the many honorable men and women in uniform and the country they serve.”

This is because “The Army has had to lower its standards because most young Americans want no part of George W. Bush's war in Iraq. Recruiters, desperate to meet their quotas, are sifting for warm bodies among those who are less talented, less disciplined and, in some cases, repellent.”

They have even allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" into the military. “Under intense pressure to fill the thinning ranks” recruiters "often look the other way" as militant white supremacists and anti-Semites make their way into the armed forces.”

“The pressure to put somebody — anybody — in uniform also led to the lowering of standards for admission to the junior officer ranks. For example, minor criminal offenses that previously would have been prohibitive could suddenly be overlooked.”

“Despite the administration's repeated attempts to put the best face on Mr. Bush's war, the predicament confronting the military is growing more, not less, dire. There are still not nearly enough American troops in Iraq to secure the country. Some troops are on their third or fourth tour of duty in the war zone, which is beyond unfair. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the military will be not be able to maintain its current force levels in Iraq for much longer.”

More evidence that the train wreck will be devastating as it unfolds before our eyes. It is hard to believe that it could get worse – but apparently it will.

A TRAIN WRECK IN SLOW MOTION

It has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. First, Iraq and now Afghanistan are increasingly out of control. In 2002 the talk about invading Iraq sounded so unreal I could not believe it was real. Why would the Bush administration want to attack Iraq before they had finished the job in Afghanistan? They had not, even after a year, found Osama. The Taliban were on the run but Osama was successfully eluding capture. Also, ominously, households all around Pakistan and elsewhere in the Middle East were naming their sons Osama. The war for “hearts and minds” was far from won.

I was involved in a meeting in Washington on how to rebuild Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban. There I met an old friend who then held a major position in the South Asia section of the State Department. At one point I asked him and other experienced hands what was behind Bush’s push to attack Iraq. They did not really know: they thought it arose from the old grudge against Saddam Husain because of his disdain for George Bush senior.

As talk about Iraq continued it became clear that the administration was going through with it. I did all I could to persuade friends that such an act was insane. I had no idea what the consequence of such madness would be, but I knew that the administration’s claim that Saddam Husain and Osama bin Laden were in league was a total fabrication. It was no secret that Saddam hated the Islamists, indeed wiped out any religious figure of any importance within his reach; also that Osama hated the secularism of the Ba’athists. As preparations advanced, as more claims were made about Saddam’s threat to the West I felt helpless, like so many other Americans. The idea of sending our troops into battle into another war before we had completed the first one seemed beyond reason. The war on terror was a fabrication: Osama’s Al Qaeda attack on 9/11/01 was deliberately conflated with Saddam Husain in order to persuade the American people that the attack on Iraq was necessary and urgent. The whole affair seemed bizarre – an administration lying, an American public being misled, a war in Afghanistan unfinished, an army being sent into an unknowable situation for false reasons.

I’m sure many people felt as helpless as I did. One needs to do something even if it isn’t much. This was when I started working on a website, a new experience for me. I didn’t know what else to do: I just started assembling all the evidence of the craziness I could find. The number of articles detailing the blunders, the distortions of truth, the dangers created by entering a region poorly understood by the administration has now grown far larger than I ever intended.

Now I realize I have been watching a train wreck in slow motion. What to do? No one seems remotely able to think of a realistic solution. And as always there is the continual reassurance by officials who claim to have secret information that we are going to make it, that was right to do it. Who can’t see now that the Bush administration is desperate? The course for them is already built in; they have no choice now: they have to lie. Once you start lying you have to keep on lying lest the whole stream of mis-statements, misunderstanding, misrepresentations, open and deliberate falsifications, become evident to all. And putrid to all, when the horror of it all will be unmasked. So many lives lost. So many beautiful young people destroyed. So many good men and women sacrificed for this arrogant folly. The tragedy is not over. The wreck is still happening. Day by day, frame by frame we are seeing it in slow motion.

I feel so helpless. So sad for my country, for our people, for those who in good faith have obediently served, risked their lives [and given them up, over 2500 now] for a boondoggle. I wonder if our country will ever live this down. So far the wreck is just now unfolding. In slow motion. And we watch helplessly.

Psalm 62:1-4. For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; … How long will you set upon a man to shatter him, all of you, …? They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.

Psalm 144: 5-8. Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down! … Stretch forth thy hand from on high, rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

Psalm 146: 3-7 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help. … Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith for ever; who executes justice for the oppressed; …

Reason to worry about the Christian Coalition

This movement was essentially a white movement, without respect to the perspective of the Afro-American church. Consider the following:
The Christian Coalition arose against Jimmy Carter, the only President who had a Bible class before being elected President and who returned to his Bible class afterward. He was abandoned by the "Christian Coalition" for this reason: [according to Ralph Reed:] "The greatest spark of the movement was not abortion but an attempt by the Carter-appointed head of the Internal Revenue Service to require Christian and parochial schools and academies to prove that they were not established to preserve segregation or they would risk losing their tax-exampt status. ... For conservative evangelicals it was nothing less than a declaration of war on their schools, their churches, and their children. More than any other single episode, the IRS move against Christian schools sparked the explosion of the movement that would become known as the religious right." [Active Faith, p. 105]

Compare the Christianity of the Bible. "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." {Colossians 3:11}

A Reagan Republican's Critique of Smear Tactics

<>In Today's New York Times [January 18, 2006] there is an important article on the way the Bush/Cheney people are using smear tactics against their critics. If no one calls them on this behavior, what will happen to our country?

Purple Heartbreakers

By JAMES WEBB

Arlington, Va.

IT should come as no surprise that an arch-conservative Web site is questioning whether Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has been critical of the war in Iraq, deserved the combat awards he received in Vietnam.

After all, in recent years extremist Republican operatives have inverted a longstanding principle: that our combat veterans be accorded a place of honor in political circles. This trend began with the ugly insinuations leveled at Senator John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries and continued with the slurs against Senators Max Cleland and John Kerry, and now Mr. Murtha.

Military people past and present have good reason to wonder if the current administration truly values their service beyond its immediate effect on its battlefield of choice. The casting of suspicion and doubt about the actions of veterans who have run against President Bush or opposed his policies has been a constant theme of his career. This pattern of denigrating the service of those with whom they disagree risks cheapening the public's appreciation of what it means to serve, and in the long term may hurt the Republicans themselves.

.....

Now the Cybercast News Service, a supposedly independent organization with deep ties to the Republican Party, has dusted off the Swift Boat Veterans playbook, questioning whether Mr. Murtha deserved his two Purple Hearts. The article also implied that Mr. Murtha did not deserve the Bronze Star he received, and that the combat-distinguishing "V" on it was questionable. It then called on Mr. Murtha to open up his military records.

Cybercast News Service is run by David Thibault, who formerly worked as the senior producer for "Rising Tide," the televised weekly news magazine produced by the Republican National Committee. One of the authors of the Murtha article was Marc Morano, a long-time writer and producer for Rush Limbaugh.

....

The political tactic of playing up the soldiers on the battlefield while tearing down the reputations of veterans who oppose them could eventually cost the Republicans dearly. It may be one reason that a preponderance of the Iraq war veterans who thus far have decided to run for office are doing so as Democrats.

A young American now serving in Iraq might rightly wonder whether his or her service will be deliberately misconstrued 20 years from now, in the next rendition of politically motivated spinmeisters who never had the courage to step forward and put their own lives on the line.

.....

James Webb, a secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration, was a Marine platoon and company commander in Vietnam.

fwd: MEET THE BIN LADENS

Hi, if for any reason you are tired of getting these forwards on the world
situation please let me know. I'll take you off my list.
This, I assume, appeared first in German.

> June 6, 2005
> MEET THE BIN LADENS
> Osama's Road to Riches and Terror
> By Georg Mascolo and Erich Follath
> DER SPIEGEL
>
>
> The Bin Laden family disowned black sheep Osama in 1994. But have
> they really broken with the mega-terrorist? Recently revealed
> classified documents seem to suggest otherwise. Osama's violent
> career has been made possible in part by the generosity of his
> family -- and by his contacts with the Saudi royals.
>
> In early spring 2002, American intelligence agents tipped off
> authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina that something wasn't quite right
> with the "Benevolence International Foundation." Their reaction was
> swift; special forces stormed eight offices of the Islamic foundation
> in Sarajevo and in Zenica. They found weapons and explosives, videos
> and flyers calling for holy war. More importantly, however, they
> discovered a computer with a mysterious file entitled "Tarich Osama" -
> - Arabic for "Osama's Story."
>
> After printing out the file -- close to 10,000 pages worth -- the
> intelligence experts quickly realized they had stumbled upon a true
> goldmine. They were looking at nothing less than the carefully
> documented story of al-Qaida, complete with scanned letters, minutes
> of secret meetings, photos and notes -- some even written in Osama
> Bin Laden's handwriting. CIA experts secured the highly sensitive
> material, dubbed "Golden Chain," and took everything back to the
> United States. To this day, only fragments of the material have been
> published. Now, however, SPIEGEL magazine has been given complete
> access to the entire series of explosive documents dating from the
> late 1980s to the early 1990s.
>
> During that time, Osama bin Laden, known as "OBL" in CIA parlance,
> was primarily interested in "preserving the spirit of jihad" that had
> developed during the successful Afghanistan campaign -- a fight which
> saw an international group of Muslim fighters stand up to the mighty
> Soviet army. Bin Laden wanted to expand the group's activities to
> battle "the infidels" in the West. A full decade before the attacks
> on the Twin Towers, the documents make horrifyingly clear, bin Laden
> was already dreaming of "staging a major event for the mass media, to
> generate donations."
>
> Finances are the focal point in these early al-Qaida documents. OBL,
> as one of the heirs of a large construction company, had a
> substantial fortune at his disposal, but it was still not enough to
> finance global jihad. The Saudi elite -- and his own family -- came
> to his assistance.
>
> "Be generous when doing God's work"
>
> The evidence lies in the most valuable document investigators managed
> to acquire: a list of al-Qaida's key financial backers. The list,
> titled with a verse from the Koran, "Let us be generous when doing
> God's work," is a veritable who's who of the Middle Eastern monarchy,
> including the signatures of two former cabinet ministers, six bankers
> and twelve prominent businessmen. The list also mentions "the bin
> Laden brothers." Were these generous backers aware, at the time, that
> were not just donating money to support the aggressive expansion of
> the teaching of the Islamic faith, but were also financing acts of
> terror against non-believers? Did "the bin Laden brothers," who first
> pledged money to Al-Qaida and then, in 1994, issued a joint press
> statement declaring that they were ejecting Osama from the family as
> a "black sheep," truly break ties with their blood relatives -- or
> were they simply pulling the wool over the eyes of the world?
>
> Vincent Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism for the CIA,
> says, "I tracked the bin Ladens for years. Many family members
> claimed that Osama was no longer one of them. It's an easy thing to
> say, but blood is usually thicker than water."
>
> Carmen bin Laden, a sister-in-law of the terrorist, who lived with
> the extended family in Jeddah for years, says, "I absolutely do not
> believe that the bin Ladens disowned Osama. In this family, a brother
> is always a brother, no matter what he has done. I am convinced that
> the complex and tightly woven network between the bin Laden clan and
> the Saudi royal family is still in operation."
>
> French documentary filmmaker Joël Soler even goes so far as to refer
> to the family as "A Dynasty of Terror," in his somewhat speculative
> made-for-TV piece.
>
> But could this really be possible? Are the bin Ladens
> (or "Binladins," as they more commonly spell it), with their 25
> brothers, 29 sisters, in-laws, aunts and, by now, at least 15
> children of Osama, nothing but a clan of terrorists? Or are relatives
> being taken to task for the crimes of one family member, all on the
> strength of legends and conspiracy theories?
>
> American celebrity attorney Ron Motley plans to file a lawsuit
> against alleged Saudi backers of al-Qaida on behalf of hundreds of
> families who lost relatives in the terrorist attacks of September 11,
> 2001. Listed among the defendants summoned by federal judge Richard
> Casey at Motley's request in January 2005 were Osama and one of his
> brothers, as well as the family's billion-dollar business in Jeddah,
> the "Saudi Binladin Group."
>
> Tracking the bin Ladens across the globe
>
> To form an impression of this rather unique extended family, one
> would have to travel to the desert kingdom, where it has its roots,
> as well as to Washington, Geneva, London and the border region
> between Pakistan and Afghanistan -- in other words, to all those
> places where the bin Ladens have left their tracks or where they live
> today. And the best way to get to the bottom of this clan is to piece
> together its many parts. Only then will it become more apparent
> whether the bin Ladens are a clan of terrorists or (with one well-
> known exception) a terribly affable family.
>
> The bin Laden story, with its dramatic twists and turns, almost comes
> across as an Arab version of Thomas Mann's novel "Buddenbrooks." In
> both cases, it's the story of an imposing patriarch, who has managed
> to hold the clan together, and of his sons, who cannot or do not wish
> to stop the family's moral decline.
>
> "We have a mayor and all kinds of political heavyweights. But the
> truly ruler of Jeddah is Bakr bin Laden," says an informer who agreed
> to speak only under condition of anonymity. "But Bakr is never seen
> in public, and when he does occasionally go to the Intercontinental
> Hotel for dinner -- usually with Osama's son Abdullah -- he has the
> entire restaurant closed. During a tour of the city, the source
> points out a glass and steel palace not far from the city's downtown
> area, with its twisting alleyways and smattering of restored old
> houses. It's the headquarters of SBG, the secretive realm of Bakr Bin
> Laden, 58, the son of the family's patriarch and chairman of the
> company's board of directors.
>
> Jeddah is the place where the clan's founding father began his
> astonishing career. And it's also the place where the first family
> member became connected with Islamic terrorism -- not Osama, but his
> older brother, Mahrus bin Laden. US authorities have also clearly
> linked another member of the clan, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, who is
> married to one of Osama's sisters, to terrorist attacks abroad.
>
> Although Bin Laden senior -- Mohammed bin Laden -- was practically
> illiterate, he was blessed with tremendous energy and keen sense of
> business. In 1930, he left his village, Ribat, in the desperately
> poor Yemeni region of Hadramaut, and headed north. In Jeddah, then a
> small city, he eked out a living as a porter for pilgrims,
> steadfastly saving his earnings to start his own company.
>
> A year later, when the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia gained its
> independence, the immigrant from the south was still struggling to
> make ends meet. But he quickly recognized the two factors that were
> becoming increasingly important in his adopted country: oil, which
> had been flowing from Saudi wells since 1938, and, with its enormous
> profits, was revolutionizing the country's traditional society and
> causing nomadic tribes to take up roots; and the country's
> authoritarian king, whose patronage sometimes determined survival,
> but always determined social advancement.
>
> A third factor that was critical to the success of the state, and was
> symbiotically linked with the monarchy from the very beginning, was
> the religious establishment in its uniquely Saudi form. The
> principles of Wahhabism-- as Saudi Islam is known -- have their roots
> with the 18th century radical zealot Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the Sauds'
> most powerful ally in their efforts to take control of the peninsula.
> After the founding of the Saudi state, fundamentalism became the
> official religion.
>
> The royal court builder
>
> Mohammed bin Laden had no quarrels with either the preachers or the
> princes; his only goal was to make it to the top, and the
> construction business was the ideal launching pad. The kingdom needed
> roads, railroads and airports. Bin Laden senior built ramps in the
> palace for the handicapped King Abd al-Aziz's wheelchair and highways
> into the mountains for his luxury cars. Bin Laden was later named
> Minister of Public Spending, and the royal family even awarded him
> the contract to renovate the country's holy sites. The family
> business, SBG, quickly developed into the court builder for the
> entire Saudi infrastructure.
>
> Following an old Islamic tradition, the bin Laden senior kept
> numerous wives. In 1956, he sired child number 17 with a Syrian woman
> from Latakia, and the boy was named Osama. It must have been
> difficult for the patriarch to keep track of his family; ten years
> later, child number 54 was born -- Mohammed bin Laden's last
> offspring. In 1968, the patriarch was killed when his Cessna, piloted
> by an American, crashed -- a foreshadowing of things to come.
>
> The king placed the family business, SBG, under the management of a
> trustee, making the bin Laden sons the de facto wards of the monarch.
> Osama was ten years old at the time and he was occasionally allowed
> to ride along on the company's bulldozers. But he had hardly known
> his father -- a deficit he recognized only later in life when he
> elevated the family's patriarch to the status of Spiritus Rector in
> matters of Islamic fundamentalism.
>
> Even as a boy, Osama was always considered the "holy one" in the
> family. He drew attention to himself when he denounced school soccer
> tournaments as a godless waste of time and assiduously monitored the
> houses of neighbors, taking it upon himself to enforce the state's
> prohibition of music. He enrolled in the economics program at
> Jeddah's King Abd al-Aziz University, where the curriculum was
> determined by anti-Western agitators from the Egyptian Muslim
> Brotherhood.
>
> The family became divided, into a more stationary branch, and
> an "international" branch that settled across the globe. One member
> of the latter camp was Salem bin Laden. He attended a British
> university, married a woman from an upper-class British family, and
> vacationed in Disneyland. In 1972, when the Saudi government
> relinquished control over SBG, Salem, as the family's eldest son, was
> named head of the company and quickly made it clear that he had no
> compunctions about doing business with the United States.
>
> Salem bin Laden established the company's ties to the American
> political elite when, according to French intelligence sources, he
> helped the Reagan administration circumvent the US Senate and funnel
> $34 million to the right-wing Contra rebels operating in Nicaragua.
> He also developed close ties with the Bush family in Texas. But
> Salem's successors, not Salem, were the ones who were able to fully
> capitalize on these connections. In 1988, Salem died in a plane crash
> near San Antonio, Texas, when the aircraft he was piloted became
> entangled in a power line. After Salem's death, Bakr took control of
> SBG.
>
> Brother terrorist
>
> In the meantime, trouble was brewing at home in Saudi Arabia -- in
> Mecca, of all places, and with the presumed involvement of a family
> member. In November 1979, insurgents occupied and barricaded
> themselves into Islam's holiest site, demanding an end to corruption
> and wastefulness in Saudi Arabia and charging the royal family with
> having lost its legitimacy by currying favor with the West. It was an
> act of terror that foreshadowed every major plank of the al-Qaida
> platform of radical fundamentalism -- and it was no coincidence that
> this radical group was lead by members of the Muslim Brotherhood with
> ties to Osama's professors.
>
> At the time, Osama was still entrenched in Saudi society, but his
> older brother, Mahrus, maintained ties to the fanatics. It's even
> speculated that he may have used his access to SBG's offices to
> obtain the renovation plans for the Great Mosque, together with all
> its secret passageways, and handed them over to the radicals. In any
> event, the fanatics forced their way onto the mosque's grounds in a
> truck that was later identified as a Binladin company vehicle.
>
> Mahrus bin Laden was arrested, but was then released for lack of
> evidence. The terrorist attack turned into a nightmare for the
> authorities. With the help of French special forces, the Saudis
> managed to overcome the attackers, but only after a two-week siege
> and a bloody battle claiming more than a hundred lives. For Mahrus's
> career, however, the affair proved to be nothing more than a minor
> speed bump and he later resurfaced as head of SBG's office in Medina.
>
> In late 1979, Osama, with the royal family's blessing, set off for
> Afghanistan to participate in the jihad against the Soviet Union,
> which had invaded its neighbor to the south. Both the CIA and Saudi
> Arabia helped fund the Mujahedeen's armed struggle against the
> communist "infidels." Prince Turki, head of the Saudi secret service,
> visited Osama several times in Afghanistan and heavy equipment
> provided by the SBG family business was used to excavate secret
> tunnels. For Osama, the support of the Saud family and the bin Ladens
> became a reliable source of funding.
>
> In 1990, after his triumph in Afghanistan, OBL offered the Saudi
> royal family the use of his troops to battle Saddam Hussein, whose
> forces had invaded Kuwait. But King Fahd decided instead to bring in
> American forces. The decision proved to be a financial coup for the
> family business, which helped build military bases for the outsiders,
> but it was turning point in Osama's life. Embittered, he went to
> Sudan in 1992, where he built training camps and organized attacks
> with his al-Qaida group, especially against "infidels" from the
> United States. He also made sure that the planning of terrorist
> activities remained in the family. His brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal
> Khalifa, was involved in the first terrorist attack on the World
> Trade Center in 1993. On his visa application for the United States,
> he had listed his occupation as an "employee of the Saudi Binladin
> Group." Khalifa was briefly detained in the United States, but was
> then deported to Jordan, where he was released because of formal
> legal errors. In the past, he had also been implicated as a financial
> backer of the Philippine Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization.
> © DER SPIEGEL 23/2005
>
> MEET THE BIN LADENS, PART II
> Tracking Osama's Kin Around the World
> By Erich Follath and Georg Mascolo
>
> Osama bin Laden's family has disavowed itself from its
> terrorist "black sheep," but the discrepancies are considerable. In
> interviews with his family that took our reporters to Paris,
> Arlington, Virginia, Geneva and the furthest-flung corners of
> Pakistan, we take a closer look and the ties he may or may not still
> have to his relatives.
>
> Editor's Note: This is the second in a two-part series. You can read
> the first installment here.
>
> Osama also stayed in touch with his friends from the Saudi
> intelligence agency, even after Libya issued a warrant for his
> arrest, charging bin Laden with alleged involvement in the murder of
> two Germans -- an official working for Germany's Federal Office for
> the Protection of the Constitution and his wife. Prince Turki sent
> Osama's mother, Hamida, and his brother Bakr to the Sudanese capital,
> Khartoum, several times to convince Osama to abandon his terrorist
> activities. The visits were so frequent that Israel's intelligence
> agency, the Mossad, believed at the time that Osama was a Saudi spy.
> Washington increasingly came under pressure to do something about
> OBL, especially after his involvement in attacks in Somalia and
> Yemen. The US government met with Saudi officials behind the scenes,
> confronting them with satellite images of al-Qaida training camps in
> northern Sudan. In April 1994, King Fahd finally revoked Osama bin
> Laden's Saudi Arabian citizenship. The bin Laden family followed
> suit, issuing a sparse, two-sentence statement, signed by Bakr,
> disowning Osama.
>
> Despite these actions, OBL was still far from being a "black sheep"
> with no ties to his native country. Saudi intelligence chief Prince
> Turki visited bin Laden several times after he had moved from Sudan
> to Afghanistan to join forces with the radical Taliban. Turki
> allegedly brought along expensive gifts to Kandahar, in the form of
> dozens of pickup trucks. According to a former member of the Taliban
> intelligence service, Prince Turki and OBL made a deal: The Saudis
> would support al-Qaida financially, but only under the condition that
> there would be no attacks on Saudi soil. (Prince Turki, now Saudi
> Arabia's ambassador to Great Britain, has denied these claims,
> telling SPIEGEL that they are "nothing but fantasy.")
>
> On Jan. 9, 2001, OBL attended his son Mohammed's wedding in Kandahar,
> accompanied, according to CIA sources, by his mother and two of his
> brothers. The CIA also claims that "two of Osama's sisters traveled
> to Abu Dhabi" a month later, where they met with an al-Qaida agent at
> the Gulf emirate's airport to deliver large sums of cash.
>
> In mid-January 2005, New York federal judge Richard Casey wrote, in
> his grounds for allowing the civil suit against SBG filed by the
> families of 9/11 victims, that "the Saudi Binladin Group maintained
> close relationships with Osama bin Laden at certain times," and that
> it remains "unclear" whether these ties continued when OBL became
> involved in terrorism.
>
> Can this global company, with its close ties to the Saudi royal
> family, truly be brought to trial, or will the US government,
> officially allied with Riyadh in its "war on terror," work behind the
> scenes to have the case dismissed? SBG has already demonstrated its
> willingness to work with the West by entering into joint ventures
> with Motorola and a deal with Disney, and has also been Porsche's
> official agent in the kingdom. Moreover, SBG is developing new
> airport security equipment in Saudi Arabia, as well as building
> housing for US managers working in the oil industry.
>
> In Kazakhstan, the Saudi Binladin Group is helping build the
> country's new capital, Astana. In Syria, SBG and a Spanish company
> jointly operate the country's biggest olive oil processing plant. And
> in Dubai, the family company has just submitted a bid for a portion
> of the construction of what will be the world's tallest building.
> Next to aircraft, it seems, the bin Ladens see towers as a special
> challenge.
>
> PARIS, AVENUE MONTAIGNE, NEAR THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES AND THE LUXURY
> HOTEL "PLAZA ATHÉNÉE". A dinner appointment with Yeslam bin Laden at
> one the French capital's most expensive and exclusive restaurants.
>
> He did not reserve a table. Was it because he doesn't like to
> identify himself as a bin Laden on the phone? "No no," says Osama's
> brother, "despite everything, I am proud of our family's name. But
> they know me here, so I don't need a reservation." Indeed, the staff,
> apparently accustomed to princely gratuities, practically bends over
> backward for bin Laden, a regular here, and seats us at the best
> table in the restaurant. Yeslam bin Laden, 55, orders a steak, medium
> rare. "Osama and I grew up very differently, and I never shared his
> system of beliefs," says Yeslam bin Laden.
>
> When Yeslam was six, his mother sent him to a school in Beirut,
> because it was far more liberal there than in Saudi Arabia. He later
> attended schools and universities in Sweden and England. Although he
> spent his vacations at home, he saw his father "rarely," and
> his "half-brother Osama no more than three or four times, the last
> time in 1987 or thereabouts." He says that his only clear memory of
> Osama is of his strict condemnation of music, and his religious
> fanaticism, which struck Yeslam as odd. Yeslam himself believes
> religion is a personal matter, and he refuses to take responsibility
> for others. "Am I my brother's keeper?" he asks, calling himself
> an "enlightened Muslim," clearly alluding to the biblical story of
> Cain and Abel.
>
> As a young man, Yeslam went to night clubs, drove a Porsche and
> earned his pilot's license. He studied business administration in Los
> Angeles. Photos from his college days show him with his Persian
> fiancée, a long-haired, happy hippy couple ensconced in the
> California lifestyle. He rarely received visitors from Saudi Arabia.
> One of these visitors was his devout brother Mahfus, who brought news
> of the bin Laden family, the Saudi royals and the Wahhabite clerics.
> But despite his worldly influences, Yeslam bin Laden retained his
> Saudi roots and insisted on a wedding in Jeddah. Against his wife
> Carmen's will, the women were fully veiled at the ceremony.
>
> After living in the United States, Yeslam spent more than a decade
> and a half in Saudi Arabia -- from 1977 to 1984 -- where he was one
> of the leading executives in the family company in Jeddah. After a
> dispute with his brothers over SBG's finances, Yeslam went to Geneva,
> where he founded an investment company that specialized in managing
> large fortunes. There were soon rumors that Yeslam had reconciled
> with Bakr and was involved once again in business dealings with the
> bin Laden family. He dreamed of the birth of a son, and probably of
> rising to the top of SBG management in Jeddah.
>
> When Yeslam's third daughter was born in April 1987 and he began
> spending long periods away from home, his marriage failed. According
> to his wife Yeslam, worried about his business, he became
> increasingly tense. Members of the Saudi royal family were now
> traveling to Geneva regularly and demanding his attention, especially
> the influential Prince Mishal. Yeslam bin Laden's divorce developed,
> as he himself says, into a bitter "War of the Roses." But in 2001,
> after years of troubles, he was finally successful on another front
> when he was granted Swiss citizenship. What is Yeslam's relationship
> with his brother Osama, who, as he claims, he last saw 18 years ago?
>
> "9/11 was a tremendous shock for me," says Yeslam, now an upstanding
> citizen of Geneva who has also donated many thousands of dollars to
> the local film festival. "Osama had long since become a stranger to
> me, nothing but a name one reads in the newspaper," he says. "I felt
> that I was being held responsible for the crimes of a relative." The
> offices of his Geneva-based Saudi Investment Company (Sico) and his
> properties near Cannes were searched by the authorities, "just like
> that, on the strength of suspicion," he says. In early 2001, he
> registered the name "Bin Laden" as a trademark. He planned to
> establish a fashion house that would sell Bin Laden jeans but then,
> heeding the advice of friends, he abandoned the idea after
> 9/11: "After the incidents in New York, it would have been seen as a
> label in poor taste."
>
> He developed a new business idea in the fall of 2004, a line of
> perfume. It's named "Yeslam," after its inventor and, according to
> its advertising, marries the scents of jasmine and lilies of the
> valley with an underlying note of sandalwood. In ads for the perfume,
> this combination of scents produces "a penetrating but gentle message
> for those who yearn for inner peace." The company plans to sell
> 60,000 bottles to its peace-loving customers.
>
> Everything could work out for the best in Yeslam's world -- if only
> these new, hateful accusations would go away. A shadow lies over the
> man who tries to be pro-American and anti-Osama with every fiber of
> his being. In late December 2004, the French paper Le Monde reported
> that examining magistrate Renaud von Ruymbeke plans to investigate
> the bin Laden family's allegedly dubious financial dealings.
>
> At the center of the investigation is an account that brothers Omar
> and Heidar bin Laden opened in 1990 with Swiss bank UBS with an
> initial deposit of $450,000. According to documents presented to the
> court, this account was still in existence in 1997, and only two
> people were authorized to conduct transactions: Yeslam and Osama bin
> Laden. The French court also intends to investigate information
> suggesting that €241 million were funneled from Switzerland to
> shadowy bank accounts in Pakistan through Akberali Moawalla, a former
> business partner of Sico and an acquaintance of Yeslam. Could all
> this have occurred with Yeslam's involvement or knowledge?
>
> "I am not involved in money-laundering, and especially not with al-
> Qaida," says Yeslam bin Laden, his voice becoming slightly hoarse and
> edgy. He says that he never used the alleged UBS account and,
> probably for this reason, forgot about it. He takes pains to point
> out that he has not been charged with anything, neither by the New
> York court nor the French judge. He says that he is "innocent until
> proven guilty" -- another Western concept that this man living
> between cultures values, knowing full well that it carries no
> particular weight in his native country.
>
> ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, HOME OF THE AMERICAN CEMETERY FOR WAR HEROES
> AND "HARRY'S TAP ROOM". It's a relatively inconspicuous burger-and-
> seafood restaurant conveniently located halfway between the White
> House and CIA headquarters in nearby Langley, Virginia. We are here
> for a meeting with the CIA agent who hunted down Osama, tried to shed
> light on the bin Laden family's business dealings, and probably knows
> a great deal about the mysterious departure of more than a dozen bin
> Laden family members from the United States after 9/11. This is the
> man who published the bestseller "Imperial Hubris" last year under
> the nom de plume "Anonymous."
>
> Anonymous now has a name and a face. His name is Mike Scheuer, and a
> gray beard partially covers his finely-chiseled academic face. He
> resigned from the CIA after 22 years of service, because he was no
> longer able to remain anonymous. Journalists were on the verge of
> uncovering his identity, and his book was facing harsh criticism from
> the White House. "That was when I did what had to be done," says
> Scheuer, 52, before taking a bite of his hamburger. He leaves his
> French fries untouched, glancing at his stomach. Being overweight
> isn't exactly part of the image someone wants to convey who, as a CIA
> field agent, helped arm the mujahedeen to fight the Russians in
> Afghanistan and who, in 1996, was placed in charge of "Alec," the top-
> secret unit authorized by former President Bill Clinton to hunt down
> bin Laden.
>
> It was the first time an entire CIA station focused on a single man.
> Scheuer headed the special unit for three years until his superiors,
> angered by his complaints that the hunt for the world's top terrorist
> was being conducted half-heartedly, reassigned him for the first
> time. But he was brought back after Sept. 11, 2001, when it became
> clear that his bleak predictions had come true. But Scheuer's
> criticism of the Iraq war ultimately destroyed his good standing with
> the White House. "Bush strengthened the terrorists with his invasion,
> but it was a truth that they didn't want to hear."
>
> Scheuer's axis of evil differs markedly from the president's. He
> believes that Pakistan and, even more so, Saudi Arabia are the
> epicenters of global violence. "Many Saudis support the terrorists in
> Iraq to this day - but we're the ones who are putting up the money --
> by paying $50 for a barrel of oil and making ourselves dependent on
> oil imports."
>
> Scheuer, an experienced intelligence expert, doubts that the entire
> bin Laden family has severed ties with Osama: "I haven't seen
> anything in the last 10 years that's convinced me that would be the
> case." In his view, SBG still derives some of its profits from
> business dealings in the Islamic world that can be linked to the
> family's supposed "black sheep." "He's treated as a hero almost
> everywhere over there," says Scheuer.
>
> The CIA came close to capturing OBL several times. On one occasion,
> during the al-Qaida leadership's hasty retreat from the Afghan city
> of Kandahar in the fall of 2001, family passports were inadvertently
> left behind. Saad, a son of Osama bin Laden, was supposedly sent back
> to al-Qaida headquarters to make sure the documents wouldn't fall
> into the hands of the Americans. When he realized he had forgotten
> the combination for the safe, he used a cell phone to get the
> information, directly violating his father's strict instructions.
> Several different intelligence agencies picked up the call, but by
> then it was too late to act.
>
> According to Scheuer, members of the bin Ladin family who were doing
> business in the United States or studying at US universities were
> almost completely inaccessible. "My counterparts at the FBI
> questioned one of the bin Ladens," the former CIA agent recalls. "But
> then the State Department received a complaint from a law firm, and
> there was a huge uproar. We were shocked to find out that the bin
> Ladens in the United States had diplomatic passports, and that we
> weren't allowed to talk to them."
>
> Scheuer believes that these diplomatic privileges also helped the bin
> Ladens get out of the United States quickly after September 11, in a
> bizarre episode that has even been probed by the US Congress and an
> investigative commission.
>
> Only two days after the attacks, when the US government had just
> reopened US air space, charter jets began taking off from various
> cities. Nine pilots flew 142 Saudi Arabians back to the kingdom. On
> Sept. 20, 2001, the "bin Laden jet" took off from St. Louis, making
> stops in Los Angeles, Orlando, Washington and Boston. At each stop,
> the plane picked up more half-brothers, nephews, nieces and cousins
> of public enemy number one. At that point, the FBI had already begun
> investigating two of the bin Ladens who were flown out of the
> country. They both lived in Falls Church, a suburb of Washington, and
> were officials in the "World Assembly of Muslim Youth."
>
> Richard Clarke, for many years the chief of counterterrorism at the
> White House, has revealed that he was responsible for the flights. He
> says that he grantedhis approval after having been asked to handle
> the issue. And by whom? Perhaps by Bush's chief of staff, Andrew
> Card, after coordinating the plan with Saudi ambassador Prince
> Bandar, a close friend of the First Family? "I would be happy tell
> you, but I don't remember," Clarke told a Senate investigating panel -
> - few believe he was telling the truth.
>
> Of course, former CIA agent Scheuer is well aware that the bin
> Ladens, as investors in and customers of the Carlyle Group, an
> investment company, had common business interests with the Bushs. In
> fact, until October 2003 George W.'s father and predecessor in the
> White House still worked as an "advisor" for Carlyle, which is also
> involved in the defense sector. Although Scheuer is no wild-eyed
> conspiracy theorist, he also believes that the US government
> was "unusually" accommodating to the bin Ladens. Does he regret
> leaving the CIA, and does he dream of returning? Scheuer, a father of
> four, says: "I liked my job. I wanted to protect the country against
> its enemies -- but not the president against his critics."
> Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
> © DER SPIEGEL 23/2005.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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fwd: Pakistani Terror Camps Scatter, Persist;

This whole episode has some strange elements to it. What it reveals about
Pakistan may be the most interesting part of it. RLC

Subject: Pakistani Terror Camps Scatter, Persist;
Date: Jun 20, 2005
--

> Los Angeles Times
> June 20, 2005 Monday
> Terror Camps Scatter, Persist;
> Recent arrests in Lodi, Calif., illustrate what authorities say is
> the failure of Pakistan to halt elusive militant training groups.
> by Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer
>
>
> U.S. counter-terrorism authorities say that the detention of a Lodi,
> Calif.-based group of Pakistani men this month underscores a serious
> problem: the Islamabad government's failure to dismantle hundreds of
> jihadist training camps.
>
> Long before the FBI arrested Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer Hayat,
> and accused the son of attending one of the camps, law enforcement
> and intelligence officials were watching the Pakistan-based training
> sites with increasing anxiety.
>
> Technically, they say, the Pakistani government was probably right
> when it declared this month that the younger Hayat could not have
> received training at a "jihadist" camp near Rawalpindi since that is
> the home to Pakistan's military and its feared intelligence agency,
> Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
>
> But that's because the Pakistani officials were referring to
> the "old" kind of Al Qaeda camp shown endlessly on TV, in which
> masked jihadists run around in broad daylight, detonating explosives,
> firing automatic weapons and practicing kidnappings, these officials
> say.
>
> Since the post-Sept. 11 military strikes on Al Qaeda strongholds in
> Pakistan's tribal territories, the jihadist training effort has
> scattered and gone underground, where it is much harder to detect and
> destroy, U.S. and Pakistani officials said in interviews.
>
> Instead of large and visible camps, would-be terrorists are being
> recruited, radicalized and trained in a vast system of smaller, under-
> the-radar jihadist sites.
>
> And the effort is no longer overseen by senior Al Qaeda operatives as
> it was in Afghanistan, but by at least three of Pakistan's largest
> militant groups, which are fueled by a shared radical fundamentalist
> Islamic ideology. The militant groups have long maintained close ties
> to Osama bin Laden and his global terrorist network, according to
> those officials and several unpublicized U.S. government reports.
>
> The groups themselves -- Harkat-ul-Mujahedin, or HuM; Jaish-e-
> Mohammed; and Lashkar-e-Taiba -- have officially been banned in
> Pakistan since 2002 and have been formally designated as terrorist
> organizations by the U.S. government. That has prompted occasional
> crackdowns by Islamabad, but the groups merely change their names and
> occasionally their leadership and resume operations, authorities say.
>
> The groups wield tremendous political influence, are well-funded and
> are said to have tens of thousands of fanatical followers, including
> a small but unknown number of Americans who have entered the system
> after first enrolling at Pakistan-based Islamic schools, or madrasas.
> U.S. officials also accuse them of complicity in many of the
> terrorist attacks against American and allied interests in Pakistan
> and other assaults in the disputed Kashmir region.
>
> Many U.S. officials say it's not surprising that Pakistani President
> Pervez Musharraf hasn't cracked down harder on the militant groups
> and what they describe as their increasingly extensive training
> activities.
>
> For years, the ISI itself has worked closely with the groups in
> training Pakistan's own network of militants to fight ongoing
> conflicts in Kashmir and elsewhere, and to protect the country's
> interests in neighboring Afghanistan. The militant groups also derive
> tremendous influence from their affiliations with increasingly
> powerful fundamentalist political parties in Pakistan.
>
> Until recently, the United States did not press the issue with its
> ally, believing that those trained in the Pakistani camps would be
> sent only to fight in Kashmir and other regional conflicts.
>
> But that's not the case anymore, according to U.S. and South Asian
> intelligence agencies.
>
> The U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and Bin Laden's
> campaign to forge a global jihad have caused many of the Pakistan-
> based terrorists to redirect their rage toward U.S. targets, both
> abroad and perhaps even on American soil, according to the
> intelligence cited by numerous U.S. officials and counter-terrorism
> experts.
>
> One of the men believed most responsible for this shift is Maulana
> Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a former leader of HuM, who has been connected
> to some of the detained men in the Lodi case.
>
> The group previously known as HuM is now called Jamiat-ul-Ansar, and
> Khalil continues to play an important but less public role in it,
> U.S. officials said. They also believe Khalil remains closely aligned
> with Pakistani intelligence services and senior Al Qaeda leaders.
>
> Khalil was one of the original signers of Bin Laden's 1998 fatwa, or
> holy decree, in which he told Muslims that it was their religious
> duty to kill Americans whenever and wherever they could. That same
> year, Khalil also vowed to attack America in retaliation for the U.S.
> bombing of two of HuM's Al Qaeda-affiliated training camps in
> Afghanistan, which killed dozens of his followers and some Pakistani
> intelligence officers.
>
> U.S. intelligence officials believe that over the last two years in
> particular, the three militant groups and some smaller ones have
> taken in thousands of Al Qaeda soldiers and senior operatives as well
> as Taliban officials who fled Afghanistan and Pakistan's border areas
> to escape the U.S.-Pakistani dragnet.
>
> During that time, the camps have also become magnets for would-be
> terrorists aspiring to commit attacks against U.S. interests, the
> American officials and other experts say. The result, they say, is
> that it has become nearly impossible to get a handle on what they
> fear is a serious and growing terrorism problem in Pakistan.
>
> "We once knew who the enemy was and what groups were the enemy. And
> it's become much more difficult to discern that now," said Bruce
> Hoffman, a chairman of the Rand Corp. and a counter-terrorism
> consultant to the U.S. government.
>
> "There is tremendous overlap, and that is the problem, between Bin
> Laden and Al Qaeda, the Pakistani authorities and the Kashmiri
> groups," said Hoffman, who has observed the Pakistani militant groups
> for decades. "The overt connections may have been broken but there
> are wheels within wheels, and who the group actually is affiliated
> with is hard to tell."
>
> Hoffman and several U.S. officials said the groups frequently
> splinter and re-form, but that increasingly, "it doesn't matter which
> group they join because they are all feeders to each other [and many
> have] bought in completely to Bin Laden's ideology" of waging war
> against the United States and its allies.
>
> In the Lodi case, the Hayats have been indicted on charges of lying
> to federal agents and are being held without bail in Sacramento
> County Jail. Their lawyers and relatives have said the two, who are
> U.S. citizens, had nothing to do with terrorism.
>
> Three other local men have been detained on immigration charges,
> including Muhammad Adil Khan, who some U.S. officials said was the
> original subject of the long-standing investigation because of his
> suspected ties to Pakistan-based militant groups.
>
> While authorities have said little about the case publicly, a
> detailed affidavit accidentally released by the Justice Department
> goes into great detail about the younger Hayat's time spent training
> at a camp described only as Tamal on the outskirts of Rawalpindi,
> which itself is just a few miles from the Pakistani capital,
> Islamabad.
>
> In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Pedro Tenoch Aguilar said that
> after the younger Hayat arrived in San Francisco on May 29 after two
> years in Pakistan, he was interviewed at length and eventually
> admitted attending "a jihadist training camp in Pakistan."
>
> Hayat, who was born in San Joaquin County in 1982, described to
> agents how he trained for six months in 2003 and 2004 in a camp run
> by Al Qaeda, and how he was taught paramilitary
> training, "ideological rhetoric" and "how to kill Americans."
>
> Hayat's father, Umer, who drives an ice cream truck in Lodi, told
> agents that on a visit to Pakistan, a relative who is connected to
> the camps arranged for him to tour several of the training
> facilities. Authorities also contend the father provided funding for
> his son's attendance at the camps.
>
> The federal complaint identified the head of the camp as Maulana
> Fazlur Rehman, which is the name of a Pakistan government opposition
> party member. But several U.S. officials said that most likely, the
> leader of the camp is the similarly named Maulana Fazlur Rehman
> Khalil, the longtime Bin Laden associate and former leader of HuM,
> who Pakistani authorities said has gone into hiding after news of the
> Lodi case broke.
>
> Despite the affidavit, the indictments returned last week against the
> two men do not actually charge them with attending the camp or with
> any terrorism-related charges, prompting speculation in the Lodi
> community that the FBI was backing away from allegations contained in
> the draft affidavit.
>
> The U.S. counter-terrorism officials said there were many unanswered
> questions in the Lodi case, including who -- if anyone -- intended to
> commit a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
>
> A senior FBI official said he could not comment on the specifics of
> the case but did say, in an interview, that the constantly shifting
> nature of jihadist training networks at various locations overseas
> had made the FBI's job exponentially harder than it was even just a
> few years ago.
>
> "The lines are blurred, there is a lot of crossover" between Al Qaeda
> and the other [militant] groups, he told The Times. "There is a lot
> of like-mindedness, a lot of like-minded individuals who see this as
> a means to an end and [this commonality of purpose] is what makes it
> less blurry. We have to look across group lines."
>
> The existence of the camps and their ties to Pakistan's militant
> organizations pose delicate diplomatic problems for the Bush
> administration.
>
> Publicly, the administration has praised Musharraf for his help in
> the U.S.-led fight against terrorism, particularly for helping to
> apprehend more than 700 suspected Al Qaeda members, including some of
> the group's most senior leaders.
>
> But privately, some U.S. officials and counter-terrorism experts say
> Musharraf has not done enough to clamp down on militant organizations
> and that his government's reliance on those groups for support has
> allowed the camps to flourish as never before.
>
> "The Pakistan military and intelligence [agency] are well-aligned
> with the radical fundamentalists," said a senior U.S. counter-
> terrorism official. "Musharraf, he's in [a] pickle ... he's trying to
> play it at both ends."
>
> The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity, given the
> sensitivity of U.S.-Pakistani counter-terrorism efforts.
>
> One Washington-based senior Pakistani official complained about such
> criticism.
>
> "We've lost more people in the war on terrorism than anybody. We've
> suffered badly in taking these people on and continue to do so," the
> official said. "So why would we play a double game?"
>
> The Pakistani government official conceded, however, that the
> militants are so much a part of society that it is hard to combat
> them, both logistically and politically. "If you go in guns blazing
> or bomb them from 30,000 feet, we can't do that," said the
> official. "It is so difficult to get these people."
>
> *
>
> Special correspondent Mubashir Zaidi in Islamabad contributed to this
> report.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ********************************************************************
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> Afghaniyat Listserver Newsgroup, Afghanistan's Largest Email
> Newsgroup with over 4000 members worldwide.
>
> By joining the server, you will recieve "One Daily Digest" containing
> news articles, essays, announcements from Afghanistan officials, international
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fwd: Guilty plea for money transfers;

Hawala transfers of money have been going on for generations, but when they try
to do it in this country it is against the law. RLC

Subject: Guilty plea for money transfers;
Date: Jun 20, 2005
--

> The San Francisco Chronicle
JUNE 20, 2005, MONDAY, FINAL EDITION
Guilty plea for money transfers;
Pizzeria owner sent funds to Pakistan and Afghanistan
By Henry K. Lee

A Hayward pizzeria owner has pleaded guilty to charges that he
> illegally transferred nearly $1 million to people in Afghanistan and
> Pakistan.
>
> Some of the money went to a bounty hunter and former U.S. Army
> special forces member named Jonathan "Jack" Idema, who is serving
> five years in prison for torturing Afghan detainees, Virginia Kice,
> regional spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
> said Sunday.
>
> Idema, a former Green Beret, claimed to Afghan officials that he was
> working with the American government to hunt down al Qaeda leader
> Osama bin Laden. U.S. military authorities have denied any
> involvement with Idema, who is being held by Afghan authorities at
> Pul-e Charkhi prison near Kabul.
>
> Noor Alocozy, 41, a native of Afghanistan, said Sunday that he didn't
> know Idema and never investigated the source or recipient of any of
> the funds that people transferred through his company, Noor Transfer
> Money.
>
> "Good people, bad people give me money. It's not my business," he
> said in an interview at Liberty Pizza on West A Street in Hayward,
> nestled in a small strip mall a stone's throw from Interstate 880. "I
> do not know who takes the money."
>
> Alocozy ran the money-exchange business, known as a hawala in the
> Middle East, from July 2002 to October 2003. Hawalas are fairly
> common in the Bay Area, but their informal nature often makes it
> difficult for authorities to confirm their legitimacy.
>
> On May 20, Alocozy admitted to U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen
> in Oakland that he transferred nearly $1 million to people
> in "Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere" without a license, court
> records show. He will be sentenced Aug. 26 on a federal charge of
> operating an unlicensed money-transfer business.
>
> Court papers did not specify the amounts sent abroad or the
> individuals who received money sent by Alocozy.
>
> But Kice said, "We uncovered receipts or documents indicating that
> (Alocozy) had conducted transactions for (Idema), and (Alocozy)
> readily admitted it."
>
> Alocozy's attorney, Stephen Shaiken of San Francisco, said his client
> never knew who received the money. Shaiken noted that Alocozy wasn't
> convicted of money laundering but of operating a money transmitting
> business without a state license and without registering with the
> U.S. Department of Treasury.
>
> "Obviously, any unlicensed business -- or licensed -- that transmits
> to that part of the world is going to be looked at," Shaiken
> said. "But if you don't know what the receiver does when they get the
> money, how is that different than doing it through Western Union?"
>
> Alocozy said he didn't realize he needed a state license until he
> received a letter from the Bank of America telling him that he wasn't
> in compliance. He shut down the money-transmitting operation in
> October 2003.
>
> Kice said authorities had developed a "money trail" showing that, in
> some cases, money being moved through unlicensed businesses such as
> Alocozy's pizzeria "support activities that are potentially
> problematic."
>
> Alocozy is the second person to face such charges in federal court in
> the East Bay, where there is a sizable Afghan population, especially
> in Fremont's Little Kabul neighborhood.
>
> Eltaib Yousif, 41, of Castro Valley was indicted May 11 on charges
> that he transferred more than $1.5 million outside the country from
> September 2001 to November 2003 without a license. The investigation
> of Yousif, who has pleaded not guilty, began after San Francisco
> Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents received a tip from New
> York authorities about suspicious deposits being made into accounts
> at several Citibank branches there and in the Bay Area, authorities
> said.
>
> The USA Patriot Act of 2001 enhanced the ability of federal officials
> to combat the international movement of funds through unlicensed
> money services businesses, Kice said.
>
> Since the act's passage, investigators have arrested 140 people
> nationwide for allegedly participating in unlicensed hawalas and
> seized $25.5 million in funds they said were intended for militants
> or terrorists.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ********************************************************************
> Please inform those interested in Afghanistan to join the
> Afghaniyat Listserver Newsgroup, Afghanistan's Largest Email
> Newsgroup with over 4000 members worldwide.
>
> By joining the server, you will recieve "One Daily Digest" containing
> news articles, essays, announcements from Afghanistan officials, international
experts,and Afghans worldwide.
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> Send an email to: afghaniyat-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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> <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
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>