December 30, 2005: Why would anyone think this young Arab Muslim man who attacked a Chandler, AZ Home Depot was a terrorist?
The HomeDepot in Chandler, AZ was attacked by an Arizona State University student who is described as a "disgruntled employee".
But let's look at the facts for a moment:
Sounds like a suicide bombing to me, even if the only fatalities were a dog and a cat.
I can't imagine why anyone would think this young man might be a terrorist.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=56094
Message to kidnappers of French hostage: Dudes, France doesn't HAVE troops in Iraq. Let the guy go!
It appears that the terrorists who kidnapped French engineer Bernard Planche from his home in Iraq have come up with a sure-thing.
They kidnap a man from a country that has no troops in Iraq, and then demand that those non-existant troops be withdrawn as a condition for the hostage release.
They can't go wrong! Now they can release the hostage without losing face.
However, we expect to see a new decree to be released from Zarqawi shortly instructing his terrorist thugs to double check the list of coalition partners in the future before demanding that the troops be withdrawn.
On the other hand, now the French have a great opportunity to practice waving that white flag! And the jihadis can claim they drove the French troops from Iraq. Who cares if they were never there or not?
When in Rome?
One of the questions occupying this country and this administration is an exit strategy which, hopefully for some, includes winning the war in Iraq.
So how do you come up with a winning exit strategy? Well, military personnel will tell you that you study all of the great campaigns and strategists as well as all of the campaigns and strategies of your enemy and apply what you learn to the current situation.
In other words, sometimes you have to think like your enemy to defeat your enemy.
I’m confident that our military has studied all of the great campaigns and strategies of war, but I wonder how well they have studied those of our enemy in Iraq.
WWJD – What would the Jihadi do?
If I was a Jihadi, I’d take the first foreigner I could find – preferably not French – and parade them on TV to demand that their country of origin remove all forces from the country to save their life. I might even ask Michael Moore to produce the segment for Al Jazeera.
Obviously my commanding officers – at least I think they’re my commanding officers; I don’t know for sure because they’re all wearing masks – think this is a winning strategy and keep paying us to do it. (Then again, their fellow masked officers in Palestine take over government buildings demanding jobs and then don’t understand it the next day when they show up at the same government building without their masks asking for the promised jobs, but can’t prove they made the deal the previous day.)
Thus doesn’t it make sense to turn the tables to determine how well this strategy really works?
Instead of sending the next Jihadi to Abu Ghraib, we should parade them on TV and have the prisoner announce to the world that either his fellow comrades must leave Iraq or that their governments should withdrawal their foreign fighters from the country immediately or he will be executed.
This should elicit one of three possible responses:
1. The Jihadi commanders and the foreign governments will withdraw their fighters from Iraq because they recognize a winning strategy when they see it. This will bring an immediate end to the insurgency and lead to a quick stabilization of the country and eventually the region as this strategy could be adopted in every country.
2. The Jihadi commanders and foreign governments will laugh at us for employing such a strategy because it has no prayer of working and then realize that it’s their strategy and that there really isn’t a difference. They will immediately cease such operations deciding that they are better than us. This will increase the safety of all civilians in Iraq regardless of nationality and allow for direct confrontation to deal with the issue head-on.
3. The Jihadi commanders and foreign governments will seek revenge for our actions. Like the previous response, they should then realize that their strategy could backfire on them IF we realize the same thing. Maybe this fear of us unleashing our military ought to then scare them into not seeking revenge.
Some might say that this strategy is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war, but perhaps they’re not. The question is which laws take precedence when there is a conflict?
Think about it. Is it a violation of these accords if we are simply following the customs and upholding the religious and cultural norms of the host country?
Muslim kids no longer miss out on holidays: Islamic Supreme Council of Canada creates one!
You don’t celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa? No problem! You can always create your own holiday!
That’s what the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada has decided to do.
Apparently some Muslim children have been feeling let out while their Christian and Jewish friends celebrate their holy days in December. Although Muslim children regularly celebrate the two Eid’s, those dates revolve through the calendar year with the Islamic lunar calendar.
So, according to the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, the last 11 days of December are to be celebrated each year by Muslims living in the western world as the “Da’awa Festival”.
Da’awa, which translates to outreach, is usually used to refer to the Muslim practice of evangelizing their faith, in an attempt to teach others about Islam.
According to the Council, “the Da’awa festival is about communication and goodwill within the family and the community. Muslims will celebrate Da’awa festival by having family get-togethers and giving charity to the poor. Da’awa celebrations will require from Muslims to reach out to non Muslim families and individuals and invite them to their houses or community gatherings.”
The Council has even come up with a greeting to be used by Muslims as part of their celebration: “Da’awa Mubarak”, which translates to “Happy Da’awa.
Did someone say BOO?
Let me try and get this right.
We have a president who has identified radical Islam as a threat to national security.
We have a judge who has ruled that searches of those returning from this conference were legal and constitutional because "Homeland Security officials said they had intelligence indicating that some of those who planned to attend the conference were associated with terrorism."
We have the government so concerned about the threat of Islamist terror that they are checking out mosques, homes, and businesses of some Muslims for signs of radiation, out of a fear of nuclear or radiological terror.
Then CAIR comes along and asks the Muslims attending to report and document any issues they have with border agents.
Abracabra! Alakazzam!
No searches. No fingerprints. No problems reported by those attending the conference.
In fact we have the following quote:
Razi Jafri, 23, of Woodhaven said he and his friends were stopped and questioned for more than two hours after last year's conference. Jafri, who returned to Michigan on Monday night, said the customs officer asked a handful of questions before letting the car he was in pass into the United States.
Last week, CAIR, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group, advised Muslims attending the four-day conference in Toronto to report any incidents with customs officers.
Last year, dozens of conference attendees said they were targeted for hours-long security checks, fingerprinting and photographs. The New York Civil Liberties Union sought an injunction this year prohibiting border agents from stopping and searching American Muslims basely solely on their attendance at the conference.
Does this make any sense to anyone?
Raise your hand if this makes you feel any more comfortable about our national security.
I don't see any hands raised...
U.S. Muslims return smoothly
Feared border problems are avoided
BY SHABINA S. KHATRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
No news was good news Tuesday -- at least for American Muslims returning to the United States after a weekend convention in Toronto.
Despite a federal judge's ruling Thursday that empowered customs officers to conduct security checks on people who went to the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference, there were no reports of border-crossing difficulties, said Arsalan Iftikhar, civil rights director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Ron Smith, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, confirmed Tuesday that customs officers reported no border incidents.
"On behalf of the American Muslim community, it is heartening to see that, in this case, American Muslim citizens are finally being treated like other American citizens upon their return back to our country," Iftikhar said. "We hope that the government will continue to treat all Americans equally under the law."
Razi Jafri, 23, of Woodhaven said he and his friends were stopped and questioned for more than two hours after last year's conference. Jafri, who returned to Michigan on Monday night, said the customs officer asked a handful of questions before letting the car he was in pass into the United States.
Last week, CAIR, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group, advised Muslims attending the four-day conference in Toronto to report any incidents with customs officers.
Last year, dozens of conference attendees said they were targeted for hours-long security checks, fingerprinting and photographs. The New York Civil Liberties Union sought an injunction this year prohibiting border agents from stopping and searching American Muslims basely solely on their attendance at the conference.
But Judge William Skretny, in Buffalo, N.Y., refused to issue the order, ruling Thursday that the 2004 searches were constitutional because Homeland Security officials said they had intelligence indicating that some of those who planned to attend the conference were associated with terrorism. Whether there were terrorist concerns this year is not apparent.
The Islamic spirit convention, which was first held after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, attracted more than 10,000 people this year. Speakers included Malcolm X's daughter, Atalla Shabazz; the former prime minister of Mauritania, Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, and the founder of the Zaytuna Institute in California, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf.
The convention concluded Monday evening with a benefit concert for victims of the earthquake that struck Pakistan, India and Afghanistan in October.
Interpol issues arrest warrant for Zarqawi
LYON, France – Interpol has issued an international wanted persons notice for Ahmad Fadil Nazal Al-Khalayleh (alias Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi), one of the world’s most notorious terrorist suspects, wanted by police in several countries for a series of attacks on behalf of Al Qaeda.
The Red Notice was issued at the request of Algeria, through the Interpol National Central Bureau, which is seeking Al-Zarqawi’s arrest in connection with the kidnapping and murder of two Algerian diplomats in Iraq in July 2005. Al-Zarqawi is also wanted by authorities in Germany, in Iraq in connection with a series of terrorist offences, and in Jordan where he has claimed responsibility for attacks and bombings, including the triple bombs in Amman in November that killed more than 50 people.
Interpol Red Notices are distributed to all of Interpol’s 184 member countries using the organization’s global police communications system. They serve to communicate to the world’s police that a suspect is wanted by a member country and request that the suspect be placed under provisional arrest pending extradition.
Earlier in December, Interpol published the first Interpol-United Nations Security Council Special Notices for four individuals, including Al-Zarqawi, who are the targets of UN sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Those notices are aimed at helping a United Nations Security Council committee to carry out its mandate regarding the freezing of assets, travel bans and arms embargos aimed at groups and individuals associated with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
'We congratulate Algeria for being the first country to take the important step of requesting an Interpol Red Notice against Al-Zarqawi,' said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble. 'This will decrease the likelihood that such a notorious suspect will be able to evade detection.'
Mr. Noble noted that despite the fact that Al-Zarqawi was wanted for arrest by several countries, no other country had taken the important step of authorizing Interpol to issue a Red Notice and to have it placed on Interpol's public website for police and general public to see the various identities used by the suspect.
'It is time for all countries to discharge their international duty of due care to one another's citizens by providing police with every possible tool to detain and arrest dangerous terrorists and by providing citizens with information to help them alert police as to the whereabouts of such individuals,' Mr. Noble said.
An abridged version of the Al-Zarqawi Red Notice is available on Interpol’s public website www.interpol.int. The detailed version, including additional photographs of the suspect and his fingerprints, is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic on the restricted access police website and via Interpol’s I-24/7 global police communication system.
Senior Iranian Cleric Says US Seeks To Eliminate Some Verses From The Koran
I must be confused here. Let's rehash this:
The Ayatollah Nuri-Hamadani says the US has demanded that Islamic countries purge the Qu'ran of "verses relating to jihad and martyrdom, verses that forbid friendship and close ties with infidels, and verses relating to the promotion of virtue and the prohibition of vice".
I thought Islam was a religion of peace. I thought Muslims believe in the concept of universal love. I thought Islam had nothing against Christians and Jews aka Infidels.
I thought that jihad wasn't military - that it was a personal struggle and had nothing to do with killing or dying.
So how could there be veres in the Qu'ran, the authoritative source for Islam, which forbid friendship and close ties with infidels? How could there be verses promoting martyrdom and jihad if jihad is warfare.
This Ayatollah says the reason for American "hostility to the Koran was the presence of verses that condemn infidels, arrogant people and Zionists". But I thought Christians and Jews were people of the Book?
Does this guy think we can't read? Does he think that we haven't caught on to the fact that they pick and choose their verses, since the Qu'ran contradicts itself repeatedly.
Geez.
Senior Iranian Cleric Says US Seeks To Eliminate Some Verses From The Koran
Iranian Labor News Agency
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Tehran, 28 December: Ayatollah Nuri-Hamadani has said that global arrogance has placed the Koran at the top of the list of terrorist books and described it as a motive for distorting the Koran.
Speaking to a group of commanders of the (Islamic Revolution Guards) Corps' (IRGC) navy and members of the Martyr Meysami Koranic teaching centre, Nuri-Hamadani, a source of emulation (senior Shi'i cleric), spoke of global arrogance's inhuman actions and said: America has recently told some Islamic countries to eliminate from their teaching programs some of the verses relating to jihad and martyrdom, verses that forbid friendship and close ties with infidels, and verses relating to the promotion of virtue and the prohibition of vice; and, unfortunately, they have accepted, but those countries' learned people and free-thinkers have protested against this.
He added: It is because of these verses that Bush has said that the Koran heads the list of terrorist books, whereas the Koran is among the best-selling books in America and Europe. They are trying to impose colonialism and their culture on us; this is why they want to eliminate these verses from the Koran.
Nuri-Hamadani said: Just as the Koran prohibits domination, it also prohibits submission to domination. The punishment for domination and submission to domination are the same on Judgment Day, because submission to domination paves the way for the presence of dominators.
He said that the reason for global arrogance's hostility to the Koran was the presence of verses that condemn infidels, arrogant people and Zionists; expose their crimes; and firmly order Muslims not to submit to domination by infidels.
Finally, this source of emulation described the holy Koran as the Prophet's greatest miracle and, citing verses from the Koran, he said: God has promised to safeguard and protect the Koran.
(Description of Source: Tehran Iranian Labor News Agency in Persian - ILNA (Khabargozari-ye Kar-e Iran) was formally launched on 24 February 2003. Managing Editor Mas'ud Heydari claims that ILNA does not receive any financial backing from any center and operates under the supervision of the Labor Higher Education Institute. The founding members of the news agency are the secretary-general of the House of Labor 'Alireza Mahjub, the head of the Labor Higher Education Institute Seyyed Abutorab Fazel of Qazvin Unit; the head of the Labor Higher Education Institute Afshin Habib of Tehran Unit.)
