Afghanistan: Explain it, Mr. President

By PATRICK CUNNANE

BARACK Obama’s presidency may hinge on the future of the Afghanistan war and a sound understanding of Islamic extremists and the world in which they operate.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Adam Gadahn, a US convert to Islam and al-Qaeda, also appeared in the video [IntelCenter via AFP]

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second man in charge, has warned the US administration that it will be defeated at the hands of the Muslim world.

In a new video released on Tuesday, al-Zawahiri said the government of Barack Obama, the US president, would be brought down by the Mujahid youths of the Muslim Umma (nation).

“God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies,” he said.

The 106-minute video, called The West and the Dark Tunnel, is part of a series of messages by al-Qaeda marking the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The message also featured Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, an American who converted to Islam and joined al-Qaeda.

He was charged with treason in 2006 and there is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

“The important question is, will Obama and his Democrats learn from his predecessor’s mistakes or will they go on repeating them until they too leave office in humiliation and disgrace?” Adam Gadahn said in the video. ”Unfortunately for the Democrats, and judging by their first seven and a half months at the helm of the sinking American ship, the prognosis doesn’t look good.”

The video also included footage of what appeared to be an American torturing an Afghan for information by dunking his head into a bucket of water.

Nationalists criticised

In his message, al-Zawahiri criticised what he called “the Arab nationalism movement” for being responsible for the situation in Palestine.

He said the election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of Fatah “is considered as a shameless announcement by the nationalism trend to give up its people’s rights and turn from a trend of Arab nationalism to that of the international legitimacy, or most appropriately that of the American-Zionist domination”.

He condemned a number of Arab countries that have agreed to normalisation of relations with Israel.

The tape comes more than a week after Osama bin Laden warned the US over its close ties with Israel in an audio tape posted on as Islamist website.

Analysts suggested that the posting of Tuesday’s tape may have been delayed by nearly two weeks after the anniversary of the September 11 attacks because websites have been jammed or because al-Qaeda is finding it harder to operate.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are thought to be in the mountainous territory along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where US forces and the Pakistani military are locked in conflict with groups allied to al-Qaeda.

Un video è stato diffuso da il sito web As Sahab che vede una sorta di consultazione dibattito tra i capi terroristi dell’organizzazione di Al qaida, il medico egiziano Ayman al Zawahiri torna a minacciare fondamentalmente gli USA e l’occidente.Quello di cui stiamo parlando in quest’articolo è una specie talk show in cui si predice di tutto su il presidente Obama da parte del numero due di Al Qaida .

Il messaggio, cui ambientazione è riferita all’anniversario dell 11/09 è difatto una specie di documentario con il titolo «L’Occidente e il Tunnel Nero» della durata di più di un’ora e mezza, è stato rinvenuto nove giorni fa.Il video-documentario  presenta membri della leadership di Al Qaidaparlano della grave crisi economica mondiale e della azione politica di Obama per superarla oltre che del modo che ha lo stesso di gestire la situazione riguardante la politica estera USA e dell’occidente.Nel documentario inoltre sono contenute frasi che minacciano in maniera più o meno eloquente il presidente personalmente.

Jetzt hat Al-Qaida doch noch eine Jahresbotschaft zum 11.09 veröffentlicht. Diesmal handelt es sich um ein 106 Minuten langes Video von as-Sahab mit dem Titel “The West and the Dark Tunel”.  Das Video ist nur auf Arabisch. Ich vermute, dass das Video noch übersetzt wird.  Auszüge des Videos können Sie bei youtube angucken. Siehe hier: http://www.youtube.com/user/BentOsamaBenLaden.

Das Video zeigt Filmausschnitte von Ayman al-Zawahiri und dem Amerikaner Adam Gadahn, der auch unter dem Pseudonym “Azzam the American” bekannt ist. Es gibt zudem Ausschnitte von einem US-Soldaten in Afghanistan, der am 30. juni 2009  von den Jihadisten gekidnappt wurde.

Unter youtube gibt es allerdings nicht alle Auszüge des Videos!

Americans have been conditioned to fear Islamic terrorism, but most Americans have been told little about how much of the international terror web was created by the former Soviet Union. The roots of Soviet sponsorship of international Islamic terrorist organizations go all the way back to the beginning. And the beginning of “Islamic” terrorism can be laid at the feet of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Former Romanian intelligence officer Ion Pacepa claimed outright that in 1964:

The PLO was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for “liberation” organizations. There was the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created by the KGB in 1964 with help from Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Then there was the National Liberation Army of Colombia, created by the KGB in 1965 with help from Fidel Castro, which was soon deeply involved in kidnappings, hijackings, bombings and guerrilla warfare. In later years the KGB also created the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which carried out numerous bombing attacks on the “Palestinian territories” occupied by Israel, and the “Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia,” created by the KGB in 1975, which organized numerous bombing attacks against US airline offices in Western Europe.

…The PLO/Fatah movement remains true to its communist roots today, with Moscow-trained Mahmoud Abbas serving as chairman of the PLO. Abbas studied for a doctorate from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, finishing in 1982. KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov explained back in 1984 that Patrice Lumumba University was “under the direct control of the KGB and [the] Central Committee, where future leaders of the so-called ‘National Liberation Movements’ are being educated and selected carefully…. They were dispatched back to their countries to be leaders of the so-called ‘National Liberation Movements,’ or, to be translated into normal human language, leaders of international terrorist groups.” Abbas then defended his thesis at the Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was then headed by former KGB General Yevgeny Primakov.

…Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had been a student communist in the 1970s, a member of the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and jailed for two years for his role in killing a member of a Maoist factional split in the party. Hekmatyar was pardoned by Daoud Khan after Daoud staged a 1973 coup d’état while his cousin King Zahir was in Italy receiving medical treatment. Daoud proclaimed himself “president” of a republic, but the coup had been backed by the Soviet-sponsored PDPA. Hekmatyar’s loyalty to the PDPA got the young communist out of prison, but he soon professed a conversion to Islam and, after joining up with radical Muslim youth organizations, fled to exile in Pakistan.

…From the Taliban’s Afghanistan, Osama had state sponsorship for worldwide terrorist financing. But some of his associates had other state support. His second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, trained in Russia in 1996, according to Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, who said “Ayman al-Zawahiri trained at a Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) base in Dagestan in 1998.” “He was then transferred to Afghanistan,” the defector said, “where he became Osama bin Laden’s deputy.” Litvinenko was killed in November 2006 after being poisoned in London with radioactive polonium 210, presumably by the Russian FSB (the KGB successor).

… Although Hamas’ ties to Moscow are not as transparent as those of the PLO, they are considerable nonetheless, for a supposedly fundamentalist Islamic organization. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, as well as other top Hamas leaders, lives in the terror-sponsoring state of Syria, which has long been one of the most important surrogates in the global (Soviet) Russian terror war. Meshaal and his lieutenants have made repeated visits to Moscow, where they are regularly accorded high honors by Putin and the Kremlin hierarchy. Russian Internet providers host Hamas’ Internet sites, and Putin’s intelligence operatives have helped make Hamas websites effective recruiting and propaganda outlets. Hamas’ role should be viewed as a current adaptation of the earlier example we cited of Abu Nidal. It serves as a more militant variant of Fatah, which makes the PLO/Fatah look moderate, while at the same time also appealing to religious Muslims who would avoid a secular party like Fatah.

via The Soviet Roots of Terrorism.

This Day In History Aug. 7 1998

In the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings (August 7, 1998), hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks, linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list.

Along with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, the Embassy Bombing is one of the major anti-American terrorist attacks that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Motivation and preparation

The bombings are widely believed to have been revenge for American involvement in the extradition, and alleged torture, of four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ} who had been arrested in Albania in the two months prior to the explosions and extradited to Egypt.[1] On June 28, Ahmed Ibrahim Assyed al-Najr, believed to be the militant group’s commander in Albania, was arrested along with compatriot Majed Mustapha. With the help of the CIA, they were extradited to Egypt. In July, Mohammad Hassan, leader of the Foundation for Rebirth of Islamic Heritage, was arrested in Tirana and similarly extradited to Egypt. The following month, a communique was issued warning the United States that a “response” was being prepared to repay them for their interference.

The bombings were scheduled for August 7, the eighth anniversary of the arrival of American troops in Saudi Arabia, ostensibly a deliberate choice by Osama bin Laden.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 1998 United States embassy bombings

“ Kata-kata yang kami ucapkan tidak kamu hiraukan. Maka, saya akan berbicara dalam bahasa yang kamu pahami. Dengan darah kami, akan kami hidupkan kata-kata yang telah mati itu. ”

Itulah pernyataan Mohammad Sidique Khan (30), warga negara Inggeris berdarah Pakistan, yang direkam dengan kamera video. Khan bersama tiga rekannya kemudian melakukan aksi bom bunuh diri di kereta bawah tanah dan bus bertingkat di pusat kota London, Inggeris (7/7/2005).

Sedikitnya 52 orang tewas dan ratusan orang lainnya cedera dalam peristiwa bom bunuh diri pertama di Inggeris. London, kota supermodern dan pusat gaya hidup, dilanda panik dan ketakutan. Selama hampir satu bulan penduduk dihantui spekulasi akan munculnya serangan susulan.

Empat pemuda pelaku – tiga berdarah Pakistan dan satu Jamaika – besar di lingkungan keluarga menengah. Mereka pernah bergabung dengan pengunjuk rasa menentang perang Irak dan menuntut penarikan pasukan Inggeris. PM Tony Blair saat itu tidak meresponsnya. Maka, tidak ada pilihan lain bagi mereka, kecuali melalui “jalan akhirat”.

Rakyat Inggeris terguncang, nyaris tidak percaya di negara dengan tradisi demokrasi, warganya meledakan diri untuk membunuh saudara sebangsa. Sama seperti Presiden AS George W Bush, PM Tony Blair menolah disalahkan kebijakan invasi militernya di Afganistan dan Irak.
Alhasil, lembaga pendidikan menjadi sasaran dan dituding tidak becus menanamkan nilai-nilai demokrasi, toleransi, dan cinta negara kepada anak-anak imigran.

Dua tahun lalu kalangan pengamat dan pejabat intelojen asing memuji prestasi Indonesia dalam mengatasi masalah terorisme. Mereka optimistis episode Kelompok jemaah islamoyah (KJI) dan jaringannya telah berakhir. Kini Indonesia aman dari serangan teroris dan aman bagi investasi.

KJI sendiri hanya nama setelah pasukan antiteror Mabes Polisi, Densus 88, menangkap para pentolannya dan mengobrak-abrik orhanisasi mau pun jaringan KJI. Sejauh ini Densus 88 telah membekuk tersangka teroris ataupun mereka yang terkait.

Aktifitas terorisme akhirnya redup dan selama hampir 5 tahun Indonesia aman dari serangan bom KJI dan jaringannya. Berbeda dengan di Filipina selatan, Thailand selatan, Pakistan, Aljazair, India, dan beberapa negara lain, ledakan bom justeru makin keras dan kerap terdengar.

Akan tetapi, Jumat (17/7)  pagi lalu, warga Jakarta yerperanjat oleh aksi serangan bom bunuh diri yang menggetarkan Hotel Ritz Carlton dan JW Marriott di kawasan Mega Kuningan, Jakarta. Peristiwa ini menewaskan 9 orang dan lebih dari 60 lainnya cedera. Di antara korban tewas termasuk beberapa warga asing.

Bukan isu domestik

Bertentangan dengan laporan-laporan sebelumnya, peristiwa kali ini menunjukan kelompok teroris justeru berhasil meningkatkan kemampuannya dalam taktik, perencanaan, koordinasi, dan eksekusi. Dana bukan masalah karena kelompok pelaku mampu menyewa kamar di hotel berbintang lima, target serangannya.

Lantas apa sesungguhnya yang terjadi ?

Tiga bulan setelah Muhammad Sidique Khan meledakan dirinya di London, tiga bom bunuh diri menggetarkan kawasan wisata Kuta dan Jimbaran, keduanya di Bali (1/10/2005). Seperti dilakukan Sidique Khan dan rekannya, tiga pelakunya di Bali menyembunyikan bom di ranselnya dan berjalan santai ke lokasi sasaran.

Sedikitnya 20 orang tewas dan 129 cedera dalam peristiwa yang dikenal sebagai bom Bali II. Di antara korban tewas termasuk empat wisatawan Australia dan satu warga Jepang. Dr Azahari dan Noordin M Top dosebut-sebut sebagai dalangnya.

Dalam rekaman video yang ditemukan polisi sesaat setelah penyergapan Dr Azahari di kawasan Batu, Malang (9/11/2005), Noordin M Top mengancam tidak akan berhenti menyerang kepentingan AS, Australia, dan sekutunya, kecuali jika seluruh pasukan asing ditarik dari wilayah Afganistan dan Irak.

Kedua peristiwa di atas berdiri sendiri dan tidak ada komunikasi antara kelompok London dan Bali II. Namun, karena motivasi, metode, dan tujuannya sama, peristiwa itu menjadi suatu rangkaian yang tidak terpisahkan. Dampak psikologisnya menjadi lebih besar.

Sejak invasi militer AS dan sekutunya di Afganistan dan Irak, bom bunuh diri menjalar ke berbagai negara. Kelompok Al Qaeda menyebutnya sebagai jihad perang global.

Celakanya, laporan-laporan mengenai terorisme di Indonesia cenderung mengarahkannya sebagai isu dalam negeri, yakni sebagai aksi teroris untuk mendirikan negara Islam, yang kelak jadi khalifah di Asia Tenggara.

Dalam hal ini fenomena terorisme diidentikan dengan KJI. Setiap peristiwa serangan teroris selalu dikait-kaitkan dengan KJI. Entah itu sebagai faksi, sempalan, pelakunya eks KJI, menantu anggota KJI, kakek pelaku dekat dengan tokoh KJI, dan seterusnya. Kemudian diletakan dalam konteks perjuangan mendirikan negara Islam. Dengan sendirinya masalah terorisme menyangkut isu domestik.

Tali-temali inilah yang terus menerus disodorkan sebagai gambaran utuh terorisme di Indonesia. Namun, soal bagaimana tali-temalinya dengan kelompok-kelompok jihad di Pakistan dan Timur Tengah tidak disinggung.

Abaikan fakta

Perspektif demikian jelas mendistorsi pemahaman kita mengenai realitas terorisme di Indonesia, termasuk dalam menganalisis dan memprediksi kemungkinan serangan teroris. Namun, itulah yang dikehendaki Presiden AS George W Bush dan PM Tony Balir pada masa lalu agar kesalahannya tidak terlihat di negara berpenduduk Muslim terbesar di dunia.

Alhasil, kita mengabaikan fakta bahwa semua peristiwa serangan bom bunuh diri di Indonesia tidak terkait urusan dalam negeri. Bom Bali I, Hotel Marriott I, Kedubes Australia, dan bom Bali II merupakan aksi terhadap invasi militer AS dan sekutu-sekutunya.

Bom Bali I diawali dengan bom bunuh diri di Paddy’s café, disusul dengan bom mobil di depan Sari Club di kawasan wisata Kuta, Bali (12/10/2002). Di depa sidang pengadilan, Amrozi, Imam Samudera, dan Mukhlas mengatakan bahwa bom tersebut untuk membalas kezaliman pasukan AS dan sekutunya di Afganistan.

Ancaman Ayman Al-Zawahiri

Hampir bisa dipastikan serangan bom bunuh diri di Hotel Ritz Carlton dan JW Marriott yang keduanya berpisat di AS, juga terkait dengan isu yang sama, termasuk operasi militer besar-besaran Pakistan di perbatasan Afganistan dan juga AS di Afganistan selatan belum lama ini.

Atau, seandainya pun merupakan reaksi atas eksekusi tiga terdakwa bom Bali I – Mukhlas, Amrozi, dan Imam Samudera – ia tetap dalam konteks pembalasan terhadap AS dan sekutunya.

Memang, dalam video yang dirilis As-Sahab Media (1/12/2008), corong resmi Al Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, orang kedua dalam jajaran kepemimpinan Al Qaeda, memuji ketiganya sebagai pahlawan Islam.

“ Dalam perjalanan panjang menghadapi penyiksaan, penjara, dan tekanan lainnya, ketiganya tetap tabah. Saya memperingatkan AS, membunuh saudara kami justeru lebih memperkuat tekad kami mengganggu kepentingan AS dan mengusirnya dari tanah Islam.”

Dalam perspektif Al Qaeda, Pemerintah Indonesia sama seperti rezim murtad di Timur Tengah, yang mengabdi kepada kepentingan AS. Masalahnya, apakah kita masih melihat fenomena terorisme terkait isu lokal dan mengabaikan peringatan Al-Zawahiri ?

Sumber : Antara London – Bali dan Jakarta, Maruli Tobing – Kompas, 02.08.2009

Undoubtedly, the scientists will next find that they all carry a defective Jihadist gene…

July 16. 2009
by Mickey McCarter
 

DHS hopes to correlate language of extremist groups to acts of terrorism

A privacy assessment filed by researchers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has thrown some light on a project to study “radical rhetoric” and how extreme language relates to violent activities in acts of terrorism.

The research effort, formally titled Comparative Case Studies of Radical Rhetoric, aims to examine whether characteristics of rhetoric used by extremists have a relationship with how likely they are to engage in violence.

The Human Factors/Behavioral Sciences Division (HFD) of the DHS Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) undertook the project to see if it could determine whether analyzing rhetoric could distinguish between groups that do and do not engage in violent attacks or could assist in predicting upcoming violent attacks by specific groups, HFD said in a privacy report made public Wednesday.

The HFD division is providing funding to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to carry out the work to correlate radical rhetoric with acts of violence. Researchers on the project use open source intelligence sources to examine the speeches, statements, and papers of four foreign extremist groups: al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Hizb ut-Tahir, and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia.

“Central” al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, engage in terrorism against nations and institutions they oppose, the report noted. Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia follow the same ideology and goals but do not engage in terrorism, researchers said.

So the HFD division has broken the four groups into two control groups to examine their rhetorical differences and then to see if any conclusions can be drawn from the differences. By comparing the al Qaeda groups to the other two groups, researchers expressed hope they could determine who would engage in violent acts based on what they have to say.

Researchers plan to search the Open Source Center, provided by the US director of National Intelligence, and Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Web sites for documents. From the Open Source Center, researchers will pull documents that reference al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. From Hizb ut-Tahrir, researchers will use documents issued only by its central office in Jordan to focus their study on the leadership of the groups, the report said.

The rhetorical analysis undertaken in the study will examine the imagery, tone and context of rhetoric as well as the literal meaning of the words, researchers said.

The HFD division and Oak Ridge National Laboratory also plan to assemble a timeline of violent activities of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula through use of other open source intelligence sources, such as the State Department’s Country Reports on Global Terrorism, reports developed by the Congressional Research Service, academic databases, newspaper reports, and others.

The privacy impact assessment filed by the S&T Directorate was a routine filing meant to determine if information will be shared and, if so, how it will be protected. The S&T Directorate noted there were no privacy concerns related to the foreign extremists.

Security is being heightened in Metro Manila’s 5-star hotels in the wake of this morning’s twin hotel bombings in Jakarta with the death toll going up to 9, with dozens wounded.

It looks like  Ritz Carlton Jakarta sustained heavier damage but the nearby J.W, Marriot also sustained considerable damage.

Marriot Jakarta is sister facility of Makati’s Renaissance New World Hotel.

What’s troubling is suspicion in the Jakarta blasts is falling on the radical Al Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah group from whom the Abu Sayyaf draws ideological guidance and training in bomb-making and bombing techniques.

The Jemaah Islamiyah had been tagged as responsible for the 2003 bombing of the Philippiune embassy in Jakarta which severely wounded our ambassador Leonides Caday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemaah_Islamiyah

Here’s part of the Associated report in the today’s incident:

The attacks came ahead of a high-profile trip by the Manchester United football team to Indonesia. The team was scheduled to stay at the Ritz on Saturday and Sunday nights for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars, the Indonesian Football association said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said the likely perpetrators were from the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah.
“The only group with the intention and capability to mount attacks upon Western targets in Jemaah Islamiyah. I have no doubt Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for this attack,” he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iq-RSvjSDopV724MnWihBs7hYbpwD99G18D83

Malacanang  just yesterday reversed its earlier inclination to declare an amnesty for the murderous group, bowing to criticism from various sectors.

That the Jakarta blasts occurred just 5 minutes apart showed their close coordination with those responsible clearly part of sleeper cells already in the heart of the Indonesian capital.

The risk to Metro Manila is probably lesser if we are to believe the assurance of police and military officials.

But today’s events could point to a possible change in the security situation in the region.

UPDATE

Anti-terrorism experts of the Interpol and member nations of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are going to have a busy weekend of back-channel consultations to assess the imlications of yesterday’s twin hotel bombings in Jakarta.

Analysts should not miss the fast that the Jakarta bombings came exactly one week after Al Qaeda’s number two leaderAyman al-Zawahiri issued an on line audio message directing Al Qaeda jihadists to come to the aid of their comrades in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While Zwahiri did not address his call to Jemaah Islamiyah the message certain bore general portions that could be taken as a ’signal’ by JI cells in Jakarta and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

It must also be noted that US State Secretary Hillary Clinton is set to meet with ASEAN ministers in te next several days.

Zwahiri in his July 15 audio message said in part:

If we stand by passively without offering due support to the mujahedeen, we shall not only contribute to the destruction of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we shall also deserve the painful punishment of almighty God.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/15/pakistan.al.qaeda.message/

The Asian Wall Street Journal’s latest online update on the jakarta bombings yesterday notes:

Until Friday, there hadn’t been a major terrorist attack in the country since the second round of bombings in Bali in 2005, and the Jemaah Islamiyah group, which has expressed a desire to create an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia, had appeared to largely fall apart.
Scores of operatives have been captured or killed in shootouts, while others fled to the nearby Philippines, where they linked up with Muslim separatists to stage fresh bombing campaigns and deepen a decades-old insurgency that is still under way despite U.S. efforts to train and support the Philippine military. Jemaah Islamiyah’s former operations chief, Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, was tracked down in Thailand in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo Bay, where he remains in U.S. detention.
At the same time, Indonesia has moved steadily toward embracing democracy after years of authoritarian role under the late President Suharto. Some security analysts began worrying more about the Philippines’ ability to clamp down on organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf group and Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which are fighting for an independent Islamic state in the south of the predominantly Christian Philippines. Both the Philippines-based groups have their own links to al Qaeda and previously helped train militants from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124784895479658909.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Most telling is this assessment made by Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and author of “Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror:

The attacks clearly demonstrate the group’s resilience and ability to adapt, as well as its determination to continue despite the arrest of some top leaders.

2nd UPDATE

Both Malacanang and the national police issued statements affirming the heightened concern, including the possibility that the incidents in Jakarta could spill over to the Philippines:

Philippine national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina: “We are in touch with security details of hotels and places of heavy public convergence like malls and terminals. The PNP has deputized community watch groups “to check for all suspicious looking persons” and vehicles in public places. We are on heightened alert in Metro Manila and full alert in Mindanao. “

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo:  “These dastardly and inhumane acts all the more reinforce the need for vigilance and greater and deeper cooperation regionally and globally, to counter, prevent and suppress all acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”

Tawfik Hamid

In one of our earliest features we wrote about the Three Stooges of Islamophobia: Walid Shoebat, Zachariah Anani and Kamal Saleem who represent Larry, Curly, and Mo, but in the same way as there is Shemp, there is also Tawfik Hamid.

Tawfik Hamid, like his counterparts, describes himself as an “ex-terrorist” but as we will come to see his claims are as vacuous and silly as the other three.  The difference between the other three and Tawfik Hamid is that the other three claim to be converts to Evangelical Christianity while Hamid vacillates between claiming to be not only a Muslim and an Islamic Reformer but also a follower of Judaism and Christianity and in other instances a non religious person.

In 2007, Hamid served as a keynote speaker for the neo-Conservative  Intelligence Summit and now sits on their advisory board. Amongst the other speakers at the summit, such as Steven Emerson, Joe Kaufman, Nonie Darwish and Walid Phares, there was David Gaubatz, a white supremacist, who led the now defunct Mapping Sharia project (under the tutelage of Society of Americans for National Existence or SANE) which stated that Black people are predisposed to violence,

Is there something unique about the Black American…that leads him to murder so disproportionately and to most often kill and victimize his own? Do we see patterns of Black culture that arise out of Africa and the wanton murder of blacks by blacks there? Why have the colonized blacks of the African continent, after having acquired their freedom and independence, so willingly slaughtered their own and live in despicable disease and squalor despite a land of enormous riches while Indians of the Indian sub-continent have successfully moved from British rule to democracy and relative civility even in a country that still maintains social inequalities as a fact of their culture?

Gaubatz, in 2007, was a leading member of SANE which declared on its now password protected site that, “adherence to Islam as a Muslim is prima facie evidence of an act in support of the overthrow of the US.” It wants the government to ban adherence to Islam and put Muslims under surveillance as stated in its rules, “It shall be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.”

If this sounds unbelievably deranged, that’s because it is. We don’t make these facts up. Why would any sane, normal Muslim let alone Muslim reformer as Tawfik proclaims himself to be — speak at a hostile summit in which one of the participants wants to ban him from practicing his faith and make it a punishable offense? One answer is that Tawfik isn’t a Muslim and in fact hates Islam and Muslims which would also mean he is a charlatan. The other answer, which is related to the first, is that this is just part of the strange and twisted world that is produced when those chasing the Islamophobic cash cow converge together and let their strange and contradictory pathologies manifest like an insane asylum having a picnic (apologies to insane asylum’s).

Hamid says that he is a former member of the terrorist organization GI (Gamaa’ Islamiyya) and was a friend of Ayman Al-Zawahri, the number two man in Al-Qaeda. A claim that is not corroborated by any independent sources or governmental law agency. Again the million dollar question is, If this guy is a former terrorist then why aren’t the CIA and FBI all over this guy, watching his movements and interrogating him? Wouldn’t it be a point of interest for our government that someone who was a friend of Ayman Al-Zawahari, the number two of Al-Qaeda, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is roaming around the country giving speeches? Either Tawfik is lying or our government has missed a big one.

On his new website, Tawfik identifies himself as “a Muslim by faith…Christian by the Spirit…a Jew by heart…and above all I am a human being.” This is a sharp departure from his previous statements in which he stated, “I am a Muslim by birth, a Christian by spirit, a Jew by heart, and above all I am a human being.” Someone must have told Tawfik that it might help his claim to be a “Muslim reformer” if he actually claims Islam as his “faith” instead of just something he was “born” into.

Richard Silverstein, who runs Tikun Olam, did a piece on Hamid after getting an email from Walid Shoebat’s list-serve that Tawfik Hamid would be speaking at Georgetown University. In it he devastatingly highlights the contradictions as well as obvious hate that Tawfik Hamid has for Islam and Muslims.

In Richard’s piece we also see a description of Tawfik on Shoebat’s website that is not there anymore. Notice the similarities between the biographies of Tawfik and Walid,

Here’s what Shoebat’s website tells you about Hamid:

Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family. At the age of 16 young Hamid started to search for answers to the universal questions about creation and life’s meaning.

Later on, Tawfik started to read the bible as an attempt to criticise it in the ongoing religious debates between Muslims and Christians, but ended up studying the Bible with increased vigour and genuine interest.

If you compare that last paragraph to Shoebat’s own biography at the same site you have to wonder whether a single person is writing their ad copy:

Walid studied the Tanach (Jewish Bible) in a challenge to convert his wife to Islam. Six months later, after intense study, Walid realized that everything he had been taught about Jews was a lie. Convinced he was on the side of evil, he became an advocate for his former enemy.

It seems that these two “ex-terrorists” weren’t creative enough to come up with differing stories and instead didn’t think anyone would see the similarities in their testimonials. As Richard wrote, “you have to wonder whether a single person is writing their ad copy.”

Tawfik Hamid at the time of Richard’s article was charging $13, 500 for “speaking out against Islamic Fundamentalism that prevails in the world today.”

Yet it seems that Tawfik like his Christian Zionist counterparts doesn’t stop at speaking out against Islamic Fundamentalism but instead also speaks out against mainstream Muslims. For instance on the Orla Barry Radio Show he stated that,

There are different degrees of evil [within Islam]. Jemaah Islamiya represents the active evil or active terrorists let us call them who are ready to commit violent acts and all such atrocities. But the majority of Muslim are all passive terrorists. They believe in this evil. They support it either by money or emotionally they are not against it.

According to Tawfik the majority of Muslims are what he terms passive terrorists. This reveals a great contempt for Muslims who he views as nothing more than terrorists in one form or another. For him most Muslims are not law abiding individuals and even if they don’t commit violence or preach it then secretly they are still terrorists. This trope that is used by Islamophobes pretty much assumes Muslims are all guilty before proven innocent and that they are inherently violent.

Tawfik’s bumbling and inconsistent story in which at times he is a Muslim reformer, at other times a Muslim only by birth, then a Christian and a Jew or his declarations that most of his coreligionists are passive terrorists, his sharing the stage with white supremacists and well known Islamophobes and becoming a member of their advisory council is hard to follow let alone comprehend. It is contradictory and as we see quite lucrative — he fits in perfectly as Shemp to the Larry, Curly and Mo of Islamophobia.

]]> http://maghrebinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/stratfor-on-aqim-and-algeria/ Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:38:39 +0000 ibnkafka http://maghrebinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/stratfor-on-aqim-and-algeria/

Stratfor.com is one of the too many think-tanks or institutions whose newsletter I keep subscribing to. The amount of mails that end up unread in my Yahoo bin is simply astronomical. I’ve however saved from perdition the following update from Stratfor on Al Qaeda in the Maghrib and Algeria, for whatever it’s worth. Personnally, I’ve never been too impressed by their analysis in areas of the world I know something about, i.e. North Africa and the Middle East. While not overtly ideological in the way that makes most US op-eds or editorials so laughably irrelevant to understand these regions off the world, Stratfor presents itself as being composed of “intelligence professionals“, and I don’t think they’ll sue me for libel if I describe their views as representative of much of the thoughts and perspectives that float around in the US intelligence, security and foreign affairs community. They tend however to be keen on facts – although I’m not always sure they get them right – in the intelligence services tradition that has something to recommend it compared to current mainstream media or think-tank practices.

Here is anyway an article they ran a few weeks ago on Al Qaeda in the Maghrib and the security challenge it poses to the countries in the region, mostly Mauritania and Algeria. The links were provided in the original text but the passages in bold are mine.

Algeria: Taking the Pulse of AQIM
June 24, 2009

By Scott Stewart and Fred Burton

Late in the evening of June 17, 2009, militants affiliated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) detonated two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against a convoy near Bordj Bou Arreridj, Algeria, which is located in a mountainous area east of Algiers that has traditionally been an Islamist militant stronghold. The convoy consisted of Algerian paramilitary police vehicles escorting a group of Chinese workers to a site where they were building a new highway to connect Bordj Bou Arreridj with Algiers. After disabling the convoy using IEDs, the militants then raked the trapped vehicles with small-arms fire. When the ambush was over, 18 policemen and one Chinese worker had been killed. Another six gendarmes and two Chinese workers were wounded in the attack.

It was the deadliest attack of any type in Algeria since an Aug. 19, 2008, suicide vehicle-borne IED (VBIED) attack against a line of job applicants outside a police academy in Les Issers that killed 48 and injured another 45. AQIM regularly launches armed ambushes and roadside IED attacks in Algeria, and ambushes were frequently used by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) before it announced in September 2006 that it had become part of al Qaeda’s regional franchise — AQIM. Indeed, we have seen four other ambush and IED attacks since May 20, 2009, but the death tolls in such attacks have usually been smaller than the June 17 attack.

In light of this anomalous attack, we thought it would be an opportune time to take the pulse of AQIM and try to get a sense of where the group stands today and where it might be going over the next few months.

History and Trends

The GSPC began as a splinter of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in 1998 as the civil war in Algeria was winding down. At that time, Hassan Hattab led a group of other disaffected GIA members who disagreed with GIA’s targeting of unarmed civilians. Hattab and his followers wanted to distance themselves from the large-scale massacres that had taken place while continuing their struggle against the Algerian government. They formed the GSPC to give themselves a fresh name and a new start.

Hattab eventually ran into disputes within the GSPC as the group was increasingly drawn to the transnational jihadist campaign espoused by al Qaeda. He “resigned” (though he was effectively deposed) as the group’s leader in 2001 and was succeeded by Nabil Sahraoui, who declared the GSPC’s allegiance to al Qaeda. Security forces killed Sahraoui in 2004.

In a message issued on Sept. 11, 2006, al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al Qaeda in a union he hoped would be “a thorn in the neck of the American and French Crusaders and their allies, and an arrow in the heart of the traitors and apostates.” On Sept. 13, GSPC acknowledged the merger on its Web site with a message from its emir, Abu Musab Abd al-Wadoud, who wrote, “We have full confidence in the faith, the doctrine, the method and the modes of action of [al Qaeda’s] members, as well as their leaders and religious guides.”

The newly-established al Qaeda franchise in Algeria was not idle for long. On Oct. 19, 2006, it conducted two IED attacks, one against a police station in El Harrach, an eastern suburb of Algiers, the second against a fuel storage site belonging to the French company Razel in Lakhdaria. On Oct. 29, 2006, the group conducted near-simultaneous VBIED attacks against two Algerian police stations in Reghaia and Dergana. While simultaneous VBIED attacks were something seen in al Qaeda operations, these attacks involved vehicles parked near their targets rather than suicide vehicles and, as such, resembled past GSPC attacks, as did the selection of police stations as targets. Because of these features, the attacks were seen as examples of a hybrid, or transitional, kind of attack.

Other transitional attacks continued into early 2007, such as the twin attacks on March 5, 2007, which targeted foreign oil workers and Algerian security forces, indicating AQIM was incorporating the security-force targets of the GSPC with the foreign-influence targets of al Qaeda.

The focus on foreign interests and the energy sector was seen in several other attacks and attempted attacks against foreign oil workers and pipelines in late 2006 and early 2007. In spite of this focus, to date, AQIM has not been able to launch any truly disruptive attacks against the Algerian energy sector.

On April 11, 2007, AQIM passed another threshold when the group employed two suicide VBIEDS in attacks against separate targets in Algiers. One device was directed at the prime minister’s office in the city center and the second targeted a police station near the international airport in the eastern part of the city. At least 33 people reportedly were killed in the blasts and more than 150 wounded. These attacks marked the first suicide attacks in Algeria connected with GSPC or AQIM and signified a change in tactics.

However, the group’s increased operational tempo and less discriminate target selection came with consequences. In mid-2007 the Algerian government launched a massive operation against AQIM that resulted in large losses of men and materiel for the group. AQIM’s shift in targeting strategy also caused disagreements within the insurgency’s leadership. The schism arose between members who favored the tradition GSPC target set and opposed killing civilians, and those members who were more heavily influenced by al Qaeda and wanted to hit foreign and symbolic targets with little regard for civilian casualties.

In spite of the government crackdown, and in the face of growing internal dissent, AQIM accelerated its suicide bombing campaign, and there were several other suicide attacks during the last three months of 2007. These attacks included the Sept. 6 bombing of a crowd waiting to greet Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika in Batna that killed 22 people and injured more than 100; a Sept. 8 suicide VBIED attack against a naval barracks in Dellys that killed 30; and twin suicide VBIED attacks on Dec. 11 that targeted the constitutional court and the headquarters of the U.N. refugee agency in Algiers that killed 47 people, including 17 U.N. employees.

AQIM conducted six suicide bombing attacks against military and police targets between January 2008 and the Aug. 19, 2008, VBIED attack against the police academy in Les Issers. During this time, military and law enforcement pressure by the Algerian government continued, as did the public criticism of AQIM for killing innocents. The criticism reached a crescendo after the Les Issers attack, which killed largely poor people looking for employment with the police. AQIM has only conducted one suicide attack since August 2008, and the bulk of its operations have been in sparsely populated areas instead of cities. It is unclear at this point whether these observable shifts are in response to the criticism of AQIM’s tactics or if they are a result of the government’s efforts to dismantle the group.

Large VBIEDs are resource intensive. In fact, the explosives required to construct one large VBIED could be used to manufacture many smaller IEDs or suicide vests. Since the Les Issers attack, AQIM has conducted several IED attacks but these have all involved smaller IEDs, and the number of bystander deaths has dropped as the attacks have appeared to have been more carefully aimed at government or foreign targets. Of course, suicide bombers are also a resource that can only be used once, and it takes time and effort to recruit new bombers.

We will be watching carefully to see if the current trend away from the employment of large VBIEDs in urban areas is a temporary lull caused by government pressure and a lack of resources, or if it is an intentional shift designed to assuage public anger. It is very difficult for an insurgent organization to thrive in an environment where the local population turns against it, and perhaps the AQIM leadership has learned a lesson from the high cost the GIA paid after it began killing civilians and lost public support.

In addition to the military and law enforcement pressure, the Algerian government has been very busy in its efforts to apply ideological pressure to AQIM. One way this pressure has been applied is in the form of former militant leaders associated with the group criticizing its change in targeting and tactics. For example, after the Les Issers bombing in August 2008, GSPC founder Hassan Hattab called on the militants to lay down their arms and surrender. There is also talk that the government may soon expand an amnesty offer to include members of the organization who have been excluded from the current amnesty offer because they were deemed to have too much blood on their hands. Like previous amnesty offers, this expansion could serve to further weaken the organization as members choose to turn themselves in.

Regional Franchise?

By design, AQIM incorporated the GSPC with elements of Morocco’s Islamic Combatant Group, Libya’s Islamic Fighting Group, several Tunisian groups, most notably the Tunisian Combatant Group, and jihadists in Mali, Niger and Mauritania. However, in practice, the vast majority of the group’s infrastructure came from the GSPC, and attacks since the founding of AQIM in 2006 have reflected this. Indeed, in spite of the many high-profile Libyan and Moroccan militants who serve as part of the al Qaeda core leadership, Libya and Morocco have been extremely calm since the emergence of AQIM, and the group has remained an Algeria-based phenomenon.

In Mauritania, attacks linked to AQIM began as early as December 2007, but AQIM militants there have not displayed the capability to carry out sophisticated attacks. Most attacks in Mauritania involve amateurish small-arms assaults such as the attack on French tourists on Dec. 23, 2007, or the Feb. 1, 2008, shooting at the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital. As we were writing this, we learned of the June 23 shooting of an American teacher in Nouakchott. The man was reportedly gunned down outside the school where he taught, and Mauritanian officials are blaming the attack on AQIM rather than criminals.

The attacks in Mauritania have shown rudimentary tactics with poor planning, and the militants associated with AQIM in Mauritania simply have not displayed the ability to mount a large-scale, coordinated attack. The group’s activities in Mali and Niger are also mainly constrained to low-level attacks against government or military outposts and foreign mining sites and personnel in the northern stretches of those countries. AQIM also conducts training and engages in smuggling and kidnappings for ransom in this deserted region.

This means that, in the end, in spite of all the hype associated with the AQIM name, the group is essentially a rebranded GSPC and not some sort of revolutionary new organization. It has adapted its target set to include foreign interests, and it did add suicide bombing to its repertoire, but aside from that there has been very little movement toward AQIM’s becoming a truly regional threat.

That said, AQIM has received a lot of attention from the al Qaeda core leadership, which has sought to support it however it can and spur it on beyond Algeria. On June 23, 2009, al Qaeda media wing As Sahab released a 35-minute video statement from Abu Yahya al-Libi entitled “Algeria Between the Sacrifice of Fathers and Faithfulness of Sons.” As his name implies, al-Libi is himself from Libya, and one of the things he does in the video is urge militants in Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco to mobilize and join under the “banner, command and emirate” of AQIM. The video appears to be an attempt by the al Qaeda leadership to counter ideological attacks by the Algerian government as well as AQIM’s regional stagnation.

Coming Home to Roost?

In addition to fighting against the regime in Algeria, Algerian militants have also been very conspicuous on jihadist battlefields such as Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. Some studies have even concluded that Algerians were the single largest group of foreign jihadists who fought in Iraq during the height of the insurgency.

One of the things we have been anticipating for several years now is a boomerang effect as foreign jihadists leave places such as Iraq and Pakistan and return home. While many foreign jihadists have been killed in such places, those who survive after fighting sophisticated foes like the American military are not only hardened but also possess insurgent tradecraft skills that make them far more lethal when they leave those battlefields than when they entered them. Indeed, we have seen a migration of IED technology and tactics from Iraq to other theaters, such as Afghanistan.

With developments in Iraq over the last few years that have made Iraq increasingly inhospitable to foreign jihadists, and with Pakistan now quickly becoming less friendly, many of the Algerian militants in those places may be seeking to return home. And this brings us back to the anomalous vehicular ambush on June 17.

That operation, while a common type of attack in Algeria, was uncharacteristically deadly. It is plainly possible that the high death toll was merely a fluke. Perhaps the AQIM militants got lucky or the Algerian gendarmes targeted in the attack made a fatal mistake. However, the increased death toll could also have been a result of superior IED design, or superior planning by the operational leader of the ambush. Such a shift could indicate that an experienced operational commander or bombmaker has come to AQIM from someplace like Iraq or Pakistan. It will be very important to watch the next few AQIM attacks to see if the June 17 attack was indeed just an anomaly or if it was the beginning of a new and deadly trend.

This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com

A few comments:
1- As a transnational venture, AQIM has thus far been a dismal failure. As stressed by Stratfor, AQIM is an Algerian enterprise with some foreign expatriates added in for good measure. It has tried to spin off subsidiaries in Mauritania, but to no great avail – at least in view of the objectives it has set out for itself. Morocco, otherwise a solid provider of jihadi terrorists abroad and with quite a few strong local brands, has hitherto been spared. Interesting to see whether this will affect the official discourse on the terror risk in the Sahara, which for different reasons fits the short-term objectives of the states in the region – and of the US (but does anyone know if the new administration has brought any changes to the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative?).
2- Interestingly, as the French saying goes, “l’histoire ne se répète pas, elle bégaïe” (“history doesn’t repeat itself, it stutters“). AQIM had burgeoned out of the GSPC, which itself splintered out of the GIA due to the barbaric massacres committed in 1997/98. It would however appear that the bloody and undiscriminate terror attacks launched by AQIM, in contradiction to the targeted killings à l’israëlienne favored by the GSPC, have led to new tensions within AQIM, and given the Algerian security forces some room for manoeuvre in their psychological campaign against AQIM. While I have not a single shred of sympathy for the Algerian government, it is indeed a good thing that the “bad guys” are so inept at remembering the lesson that the Algerian security forces taught them a few years ago…
3- Interestingly, AQIM substantially differs from the GIA in attacking with some insistence oil and gas industry targets in Algeria. In a way noted by most observers, the GIA never went serious in its attacks against the vital gas infrastructure without which the Algerian state would would find itself with the same amount of foreign exchange as Burkina Faso or Eritrea. This fuelled some conspiracy theories pointing to the strange coincidence that no US target had been hit by the GIA – ergo, GIA=CIA. While I’m not adverse to conspiracy theories myself, this one seemed a trifle far-fetched. I take it that this theory has lost some of its appeal now…

]]> http://mcauleysworld.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/obamas-policy-with-iran-fails-history-repeats-itself-iranians-detain-british-embassy-staff/ Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:32:04 +0000 mcauleysworld http://mcauleysworld.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/obamas-policy-with-iran-fails-history-repeats-itself-iranians-detain-british-embassy-staff/

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Karin Laub, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago

EDITOR’S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

Iranian authorities have detained several local employees of the British Embassy in Iran, a move that Britain’s foreign secretary Sunday called “harassment and intimidation.”

Iranian media reported Sunday that eight local embassy staff were detained for an alleged role in post-election protests, but gave no further details. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the employees were detained Saturday, but did not say how many were taken into custody.

The detentions signaled a further hardening of Iran’s stance toward the West which has become increasingly vocal in its condemnation of a crackdown on opposition supporters.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has alleged massive fraud in the June 12 presidential election and says he is the rightful winner, not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Miliband, who is on the Greek island of Corfu for a foreign ministers’ meeting, said Britain has lodged a protest with the Iranian authorities over the detentions. He described the step as “harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable.”

“The idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran. … is wholly without foundation,” he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election

In November 1979 radical student revolutionaries, supported by the radical Islamic Cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, seized the American Embassy and held American Diplomats hostage for the next 444 days. The Embassy was seized during the presidency of Jimmy Carter and the hostages were not released until just minutes after President Ronald Reagan was sworn in on January 20, 1981.  

The act of seizing an Embassy or doing harm to Embassy personal violates both International Law and the teachings of the Quran as relayed by the Prophet Muhhamad, peace be upon him, the founder of the Islamic religion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad#Other_religious_traditions  (see: Al-Harith bin ’Umar Al-Azdi) 

Once again, the political leaders in Iran demonstrate, by their actions, their belief that they are “above” the teachings of the Quran and exempt from its directives.

Former Iranian President Bani Sadr (Abolhassan Banisadr – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolhassan_Banisadr ) the first Elected President of Iran following the “Islamic Revolution” has identified current Iranian President Mammoud Ahmadinejad as one of the leaders of the Group who seized the American Embassy and while Ahmadinejad may have had doubts about seizing the embassy, he did nothing to stop the action and did, in fact, fully support the continued detention of the Embassy Staff after the Ayatollah Khomeini “endorsed” the seizure. Five of the American hostages have identified Ahmadinejad as one of their captors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_the_1979_Hostage_Crisis

Obama has mishandled the “New Iranian Crisis” as badly as Carter mishandled the first Iranian Crisis 30 years ago. A failure to understand history is leading to it being repeated or extended …. the current crisis is clearly tied to the original of some 30 years ago.

Talk rather than action. Slogans over substance. Obama and Carter. History repeating itself.

30 years ago a small and violent group of demonstrators seized power in Iran. Now 30 years later, the Iranian people are attempting to reclaim their freedom while the repressive Iranian Government violates both International Law and the basic tenants of Islam.

Islam is a just religion. Islam does not permit the supression of it’s people for the sake of securing power for the few. Tyrants are tyrants because their actions are unjust and self serving.

Obama’ narcissism leads to the dangerous delusion that the tyrants in charge in Iran will be swayed from their course of violent supression of the Iranian people or be dissuaded from their reckless course of nuclear weapons production by the pure “force” of Obama’s rhetoric.

The “Free World” needs more from its leader than his narcissism.

On November 20 1979 a group of ”Islamic militants” seized the Grand Mosque, the holiest site in Islam, located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  The seizure was timed to take place during the haji or annual pilgrimage. November 20 marked the 1st day of the Islamic New Year and the seizure took place as 50,000 worshipers were preparing for morning prayer. At the time the Saudi bin-Laden Group (yes that bin- Laden family) was involved with renovating the Mosque. 500 armed “militants” or terrorists took control of the mosque and executed both security staff and worshippers. By the time the mosque was retaken from these terrorists, hundreds of worshippers had been killed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_Seizure

The Iranian Government falsely claimed that the U.S. Government was behind the attack on the Grand Mosque, triggering anti American attacks around the world. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/21/newsid_4187000/4187184.stm   

The Grand Mosque was seized less than 2 weeks after the US Embassy was seized. The Grand Mosque was seized as international pressure was mounting against the “revolutionary” activities in Iran.  The seizure of the Grand Mosque was not a protest against the United States, it was a coldly calculated action aimed at gaining false support for Khomeini and his “Revolutionary Guards” in Iran.

What type of leaders conduct themselves in this manner? Seizing one of the worlds holiest sites during a religous holiday! Slaughtering innocent worshippers! What does this tell us about the belief system of  those who planned the seizure?

In 1933, Hitler’s Nazi Party set fire to the Riechstag, the German equivalent of the Capital Building in Washington D.C. The Nazi’s then blamed the act on their political enemies and declared martial law, eliminating many of the freedoms previously enjoyed by the German people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree                                                                                                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqw1R2oA9KA&NR=1  

The ”revolutionaries” who continue to run Iran this day, used a lie concerning their desecration of the Grand Mosque to consolidate their power in Iran. To this day the Iranian’s have been denied a “free election” and have never regained the personal freedoms taken from them under the guise of ”revolution”.  

The Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made the following comment in 2005, “They have created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets,”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4527142.stm

In October 2005  Ahmadinejad said this,                                                                                                                                                                                                  

“The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world,” during a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism. “The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land,” he said. “As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini. Addressing about 4000 students gathered in an Interior Ministry conference hall, Ahmadinejad also called for Palestinian unity, resistance and a point “where the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come“. “The Islamic umma (community) will not allow its historic enemy to live in its heartland,” he said in the fiery speech that centred on a “historic war between the oppressor and the world of Islam”.  http://canadiancoalition.com/aljazeera01/IranCallsForDestructionIsrael.html 

The “oppressor” is not Israel but the United States. 

Where was this historic speech reported? Aljazeera.net, not by some Pro-Israel or Pro-West news organization - check the site above for yourself.

These are not isolated statements byAhmadinejad:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9zcElqetqk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel#Statement_during_2005_Muslim_Summit

The ruling elite in Iran are not the true face of Islam, they are the most recent reincarnation of  World War II’s Nazi Party. 

“Once I am really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. As soon as I have the power to do so, I will have gallows built in rows – at the Marienplatz in Munich, for example – as many as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged indiscriminately, and they will remain hanging until they stink; they will hang there as long as the principles of hygiene permit. As soon as they have been untied, the next batch will be strung up, and so on down the line, until the last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit, precisely in this fashion, until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.” (1)  Adolph Hitler, 1922. http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/hitler-1922.html

http://cghs.dade.k12.fl.us/holocaust/fsolution.htm

No wonder the Iranian people want “change”.

All of these events, speeches, proclamations and threats took place prior to Obama’s inauguration. So why then, did Obama chose to embrace Ahmadinejad at Israel’s expense? http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87271 . In Israel there is a growing consensus that Obama’s policies are hostile to Israel and that like his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, Obama favors Hamas over Israel.

Hamas is the Palestinian based Terrorist organization, funded by Iran and Syria,  that is intent on the total destruction of Israel and its replacement by a Fundamentalist Islamic State. A state modeled after the current Government in Iran.  

So much for the Quranic teachings that, “The teachings of the Qur’an favour mutual respect and coexistence with other religions. According to the Qur’an, the Prophet Mohamed told the non-believers “Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion (CIX: 6).” In another verse, the Qur’an declares, “Let there be no compulsion in religion (II: 256).” http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/536/in7.htm

 Ahmadinejad’s current “rants” are just another example of man perverting religion for self enrichment and self promotion. The same thing Hitler did in WWII.

Can Hamas be trusted?  Hamas is an off shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On March 26,1979 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a negotiated Peace Treaty with Israel. http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_egypt_israel_peace.php  The Treaty is the only one to be negotiated between Israel and it’s Arab neighbors. On October 6, 1981, Sadat was assassinated. Sadat’s killers were linked to Hamas through the Muslim Brotherhood. The killers stated that Sadat was killed for entering into the Peace Treaty with Israel. http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_sadat_assassination.php , http://middleeast.about.com/od/egypt/a/me081006a.htm

And after the Jews and “Zionists” are gone who is next on Ahmadinejad’s list?

After Sadat’s assasination Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was later convicted of conspiring to blow up the World Trade Towers in New York City and Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants, were arrested in Egypt and jailed for their part in the assassination.  http://middleeast.about.com/od/egypt/a/me081006a.htm .

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the 1920’s by Hassan Al-Bana at the same time Hitler’s Nazi Party was coming into being. The two, Hitler’s Nazi party and the Muslim Brotherhood were allies during World War II. Remember, there was no State of Israel at this time, just a shared anti-semitism between the groups, a hatred of Western style Democracy and a desire to rule the world. The leader of the Brotherhood’s Palestine operations was the “Grand Mufti of Jerusalem”, Muhhamed Amin el- Husseini. The Mufti spent much of WWII in Berlin furthering the Nazi cause. The Mufti helped form an Arabic Division of the SS, a Division responsible for war crimes throughout the Balkan states and Yugoslavia.  http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php . The Mufti was convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World WarII, but escaped punishment as he had been granted asylum in Egypt by future Egyptian President Gamal Abd’el Nasser. Nasser was a member of  a group of young military officers who overthrew the Egpytian Monarchy in 1952. On November 17, 1954 Nasser became Egypt’s 2nd President. Nasser remained as Egypt’s Pesident until his death in 1970, when he was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat had been a close confidant of Nasser’s and had been a member of “Free Officers Group” which had led the overthrow of Egypt’s Monarchy in 1952.  How ironic that Sadat, Nasser’s confidant and second in command, the man to bring peace to Egypt after 30 years of unsuccessful war against Israel, would die at the hands of the Grand Mufti’s supporters, when the Grand Mufti would have been executed for “crimes against humanity”, like so many other Nazi’s, had it not been for Nasser’s asylum.     

In 1940’s, the Mufti requested that the Axis powers acknowledge the Arab right, “to settle the question of Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries in accordance with the national and racial interests of the Arabs and along the lines similar to those used to solve the Jewish question in Germany and Italy”. Rhetoric eerily similar to that spouted by Ahmadinejad today.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d51poygEXYU

The “conflict” started long before Obama was “chooming” on the street corners of Hawaii. It started in the 1920’s and continued in the run up to World War II. In some circles it continues unabated today. The Jewish question is not the only “question” the militants want to eliminate. Like Hitler, the desire to eliminate is founded in unbridled, irrational and pathological hatred.

How bizarre that today, Jimmy Carter embraces Hamas, the very group responsible for killing Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat. That Hamas killed Sadat for making peace with Israel, a peace that Carter desparately tries to associate himself with and claim credit for.

Prior to World War II, as Hitler was consolidating his power, and making his first conquests in Europe, many politicians adopted a policy of what is now called “appeasement”. The last act of “appeasement” was the surrendering of the “Sudetenland”, a large part of Czechoslovakia, to Hitler’s Germany in 1938. This act of appeasement occurred on September 29, 1938. http://www.johndclare.net/EII3.htm

Upon returning from Munich on September 30, 1938, where he had given away the “Sudetenland”, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed, “”My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.” http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1938PEACE.html ,                                                                                                                                  http://german-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/appeasement_and_adolf_hitler_in_1938

Less than 1 year later, on September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and launched World War II. 

In September of 1939 there were Americans who agreed with the policy of appeasement and actually supported Hitler. These Americans represented a very small minority of  the country. Many of America’s rich and famous supported appeasement, including Joseph P. Kennedy, the American Embassador to England at the start of World War II and father of future President John F. Kennedy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy

President Kennedy on the other hand, authored a  thesis his senior year at Harvard (1940 – a year after the war in europe had started, but prior to America’s entry into the war) titled, “Why England Slept”, (originally titled ”Appeasement in Munich“) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/While_England_Slept) in which future President Kennedy critized the British Government’s attempts to prevent World War II. The thesis was later published as a book and is available on Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/Why-England-Slept-John-Kennedy/dp/0313228744 . The United States did not enter World War II until  December 7, 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Between Spetember 1, 1939 and December 7, 1941 the “appeasers” in America hoped to avoid conflict with the tyrants by “giving them their way”.

Winston Churchill, Britian’s Prime Minister during World War II, published his book, “While England Slept” in 1938, one year before  WWII started.

Hitler published his infamous work “Mein Kampf”, or “My Battle” in 1925. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/kampf.htm 

Churhill’s predictions in “While England Slept” proved prophetic. What made Churchill prophetic? He took Hitler at his word, both the words he pubished in 1925 and those he spoke afterward.

Just how much of history need we repeat in 2009 and 2010? At what cost later?

Unfortunately, the current leader of the Free-World may in fact be a “megalomaniac” and his narcissistic personality disorder may embolden America’s foes. Empty political slogans and flowery speeches won’t dissuade a tyrant. Neville Chamberlain learned as much. Despite Chamberlain’s proclamation of “peace in our time”, the tyrant had to be stopped by force.

Unfortunately for the Iranian people, he has not, to date, been stopped through the ballot box. Free and fair elections in Iran are about as likely as free and fair elections in Hitler’s Germany.

Footnotes

1. Josef Hell, “Aufzeichnung,” 1922, ZS 640, p. 5, Institute fuer Zeitgeschichte. The retired Major Josef Hell was a journalist in the twenties and in the beginning of the thirties, during which time he also collaborated with Dr. Fritz Gerlich, the editor of the weekly newspaper Der Gerade Weg, as cited in Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. p. 17

]]> http://unityconquer.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/born-to-jihad/ Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:49:43 +0000 Admin http://unityconquer.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/born-to-jihad/ http://jihadisalafismus.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/neue-videobotschaft-von-ayman-al-zawahiri/ Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:32:51 +0000 jihadisalafismus http://jihadisalafismus.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/neue-videobotschaft-von-ayman-al-zawahiri/

Ayman al-Zawahiri hat über die Al-Sahab Media Production eine neue Videobotschaft verschickt. In seiner Botschaft richtet er sich diesmal gegen den geplanten Besuch Barack Obamas in Ägypten. Der Titel der Videobotschaft lautet “Egypt and American agents welcome Barack Obama” und al-Zawhiri kritisiert erneut den Versuch von Obama, eine Rede an die muslimische Welt zu richten, um ein positiveres Bild der USA unter Muslimen zu erreichen. Al-Zawahiri deutet allerdings daraufhin, dass Obama schon seit längerem eine klare Botschaft an die Muslime gesendet hat, die darin besteht, den Krieg im Irak und in Afghanistan  weiterzuführen.

So äußert sich al-Zawahiri zu Obamas Besuch in Ägypten:

The White House said that Obama would send a message to Egypt from the Islamic world, but they are forgetting that the letters had already arrived, it arrived in his message to the Muslim world when he visited the Wailing Wall, and a Jewish skullcap on his head, and the blessings of their prayers, which claims to be Christian. The message arrived for the Islamic world to order when the Zionist lobby (AIPAC) speech, in which the survival of a unified Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, which also pledged the full support of Israel, and with the support of natural Jewish Israel. And his message to the Muslims arrived as agreed and approved by the Zionist aggression in Gaza, and his message to the Muslims arrived as promised and threatened to send more troops to Afghanistan, and further shelling in Pakistan’s tribal areas, reaching as he conducted his bloody campaign against the Muslims in Swat, and his message to the Muslims arrived from the private and public prisons, which oversees the management, but also to expand existing prisons such as Bagram prison in Afghanistan, to receive more of the victims of Muslims and of Muslims arrived for his continued refusal to apply the Geneva Conventions for prisoners of war on the Muslims in the Crusader war against Islam, which they call the war on terrorism.

As for the Muslims refused to attend his  anti-racism conference in Geneva in order to the feelings of Israel, and his message to the Muslims arrived in what threatened to intervene in Pakistan to maintain nuclear weapons. That is, it considers that those weapons belong to the United States and under its control, and to maintain it. And his message to the Muslims arrived in the barrels of guns across the vast armies of America, which is the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and Iraq. His blood is still reaching up to the Muslims, will not be overshadowed by public relations campaigns and visits the play of words and rhetoric. These messages that arrived before arriving to Egypt, and the choice of Turkey and Egypt to send them a message to the Islamic world, as alleged, by making a clear message to other Muslims who were satisfied with the Crusaders, who leave Islam and embrace secularism, those who recognize Israel, and holding them security agreements, and share in the military exercises to fight under the banner of the Crusaders in Afghanistan.

It is a message to the Muslim nation that America stands unequivocally with the executioners of criminals clients, who besiege the Palestinians, and tortured, and hunting them down, and who have turned their country into a huge prison. It is a clear message that America is not with the reform and change, and other words of the U.S. false propaganda, but it is the continuation of authoritarian regimes with the rotting, and backed and supported by, and issued with torture devices and the detection of tunnels and detonate it over the heads of our people in vulnerable Palestine. This is the real Obama, the actual letters, which came to the Muslims, regardless of what we can say of quackery and lies and empty propaganda.

Weitere Informationen zur Videobotschaft unter:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hPtm1yvXGJVcqVpQdQfpQLY8L-cwD98IOKJO0

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8080311.stm

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/02/zawahiri.obama/

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Qaida-deputy-Zawahiri-slams-Obama-/articleshow/4610730.cms

]]> http://jihadisalafismus.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/geruchte-uber-den-aufenthalt-von-ayman-al-zawahiri/ Tue, 12 May 2009 20:45:49 +0000 jihadisalafismus http://jihadisalafismus.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/geruchte-uber-den-aufenthalt-von-ayman-al-zawahiri/

Laut dem pakistanischen Journalisten Jasmeen Manzoor soll sich Ayman al-Zawahiri, die Nr. 2 der Al-Qaida, zurzeit in der Nähe von Quetta/ Pakistan aufhalten. Quetta ist der Rückzugsort der afghanischen Taliban von Mullah Omar, die einigermaßen unbehelligt dort leben können.
In dem Artikel wird von Manzoor detailiert dargelegt, wo sich al-Zawahiri in dem letzten Jahr aufgehalten haben soll.
So schreibt Manzoor:
“He was positively identified in the North Waziristan Agency of Pakistan in June 2008, and the locations pinpointed where he conducted high-level meetings.

Subsequent U.S. drone attacks forced him to move to South Waziristan Agency in August 2008. Thereafter he moved south to Baluchistan and crossed into Afghanistan from the border city of Zhob. He returned to the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) sometime in December or January. A well-placed source in Pakistan’s intelligence service tells me that he may have relocated recently to somewhere outside of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.”

In den letzten Jahren gab es allerdings auch Gerüchte, dass al-Zawahiri wahrscheinlich in einer Großstadt wie Karachi leben würde, weil er sich  u.a. sehr oft in Videobotschaften an seine Anhänger wendet. Eine regelmäßige Produktion wäre angeblich nur in Großstädten möglich.

Entscheidend ist, dass das CIA angeblich schon mehrere Drohnenangriffe gegen al-Zawahiri geführt hat und somit ihn scheinbar ständig verfolgt.

Quelle: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/al-qaeda-no-2-hiding-in-quetta/print/

]]> http://rightaislereview.com/2009/05/05/politically-incorrect/ Tue, 05 May 2009 16:28:48 +0000 belmontrar http://rightaislereview.com/2009/05/05/politically-incorrect/