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November 27, 2007

US: Oakland's Black Muslims - Murder, Torture And Fraud

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Oakland's Black Muslims - Murder, Torture And Fraud

On August 2, 57-year old journalist Chauncey Bailey was walking to work when he was shot dead. Just before 7.30 a.m., a young man in dark clothing and wearing a ski mask shot Bailey three times with a sawn-off shotgun in 250 block of 14th Street, Oakland. After the killing, the gunman was driven away in a white van. Bailey's fiancee, Deborah Oduwa, saw his body in the funeral home. She claimed that the shotgun had sheared his face off. Oduwa said: "He died a horrible death. It's traumatic. I think it will damage me for the rest of my life."

At the time of his death, Bailey had been working on an investigation of the empire of the Black Muslims, a local group unconnected with the Nation of Islam. When he was shot, Oakland Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan had claimed that Yusef Bey IV, the heir to the Black Muslim empire, was possibly behind the killing.

The day after Bailey's murder, a raid was made upon the main building of the "empire", a bakery in San Pablo Avenue called Your Black Muslim Bakery. The raid on the bakery had been planned long before Chauncey Bailey was killed. Nineteen individuals were arrested, and weapons were recovered. Spent ammunition was found on the bakery's roof. Yusef Bey IV was among the people brought in for questioning. On Saturday, August 4, one of the arrested men, a 19-year old handyman employed at the bakery named Devaughndre Broussard, confessed to the killing of the journalist, who was also editor of the Oakland Post.

On Wednesday, November 21, a preliminary hearing took place, where evidence against Broussard was presented before Alameda Superior Court Judge Robert McGuiness. The judge decided that there was enough evidence to go ahead with a full trial. On December 7, Broussard is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of murder and possessing a firearm.

At the preliminary hearing, Broussard's taped confession was played. Additionally, two phone calls that Broussard had made from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin were heard. One of these, where Broussard was crying, was made to an unidentified man. "You aint ever going to see me again. They got me for murder," Broussard said. He said that he had confessed to the murder.

The man responded: "No you didn't you stupid ass n****! What is wrong with you? Ain't nothing we can do now... I told you to leave those f***ing Muslims alone. Why didn't you listen to me? If you would have you wouldn't be where you're at right now."

Broussard, when aged 15, had won a contest for young entrepreneurs set up by UC Berkeley. On October 31, 2005, he had robbed and assaulted Christopher Hall, a young traveler on the Municipal Railway in San Fransisco, fracturing his victim's nose and giving him blurred vision. Broussard was given a sentence of probation.

Two days before Broussard's hearing, another trial involving the Black Muslims had reached a verdict. On Monday, November 19, 22-year old Alfonza Phillips III was found guilty of the murder of Antar Bey a former leader of the Black Muslims. Phillips was also found guilty of car-jacking, possession of a firearm by a felon and also of enhancements which included the use of and discharge of a firearm.

In 2004, Antar Bey (pictured) had taken over the running of the Black Muslims' business empire that had been established by Yusef Bey senior. Yusef Bey had died of colon cancer on September 30, 2003. His empire had grown from humble beginnings in the 1960s, starting with the establishment of the bakery, and later involving real estate, security firms, small retail outlets and even a school. By the time Yusuf Bey had died, he had left at least forty offspring, and numerous "adopted" sons.

Yusuf Bey had officially handed over the running of his empire to one of these "adopted" sons, 51-year old Waajid Aljawaad Bey. On February 29, 2004, Waajid Aljawaad Bey disappeared. His decomposing remains were found on July 20, 2004. Bey had been interred in a shallow grave close to a trail in King Estates Park in the Oakland Hills. The case has never been solved. Before Waajid Aljawaad Bey had been discovered, and his death recorded as homicide, Antar Bey had assumed the mantle of power, calling himself Captain Antar Bey.

A month before the rotting body of his predecessor had been found, Antar Bey had been named in a restraining order issued by Farieda Bey, widow of Yusuf Bey senior. She claimed Antar Bey - born Akeem Brown - had intimidated her. He had sent men to break down a door and change the locks to a room in the "Your Black Muslim Bakery" where she had formerly lived with her late husband. Fareida Bey claimed that Antar Bey "has guns."

Antar Bey's leadership of the Black Muslim empire was marked by violence and threats. Ali Saleem Bey, a son-in-law of Yusuf Bey senior, admits to being Chauncy Bailey's main informant for stories about the inner workings of the Bey empire. Ali Saleem also maintained that Antar Bey had gained control of "Your Black Muslim Bakery" on San Pablo Avenue with a forged document. He ruled the empire with the assistance of thug henchmen

Before Yusuf Bey senior died, journalist Chris Thompson had written accounts of the violence and corruption among the Black Muslims. He also wrote of the charges which had been brought against Bey senior involving sexual assault of young girls. The abuses had been carried out for years, but Alameda County Child Protective Services had apparently ignored complaints. At the time of his death, Yusuf Bey senior was awaiting trial on 27 counts of sexual abuse.

Chris Thompson, as well as Chauncey Bailey, had been receiving death threats since 2002. After Waajid Aljawaad Bey's rotting corpse was discovered, the threats against Thompson increased. In June of 2005, another of the Bey "family" was ambushed. 41-year old John Bey was a senior manager at Universal Distributors Security, a lucrative company within the Black Muslim empire. As he left his home one morning in Indian Way, Montclair, he was attacked by a gunman and shot at several times with a shotgun. He was seriously wounded. Though he survived the apparent assassination attempt, John Bey was unnerved and left the neighborhood.

On the early evening of October 25, 2005, Antar Bey drove his black BMW 745i sedan into the Union 76 gas station at 55th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in North Oakland. As he waited for the fuel tank to fill, Bey stepped back from the vehicle, talking on his cell phone. A young man shot him in the back of the head with a .44 Magnum revolver, in what police claimed at the time was a failed attempt at car-jacking. At the time, journalists speculated that Antar Bey's killing had been an assassination, part of a power struggle for leadership of the Bey empire.

Shortly after Antar Bey's killing, Alfonza Phillips III was arrested. His trial had started on Monday October 29, 2007. The prosecution maintained during the trial that there had been no assassination attempt. It was stated that Phillips had intended to steal Bey's $75,000 BMW vehicle and to give its 22-inch rims to Althea Foy, his girlfriend who works for the postal service.

Leonard Ulfelder, Phillips' attorney, made a claim against a member of Oakland police's homicide squad, Sergeant Derwin Longmire. Ulfelder claimed that Longmire had pressured Foy, threatening that if she did not give a statement against Phillips, a "swarm of Muslims" would harm both her and her family. Althea Foy took the stand and claimed that her boyfriend had never told her he had killed Bey, as the prosecution alleged. She said Longmire had subjected her to pressure which caused her to tell him "everything I thought he wanted to hear". She also claimed that at an earlier court hearing, Antar Bey's relatives had photographed her with her mother, outside the courtroom.

Ulfelder argued during the trial that the killing of Antar Bey had been an assassination connected with a power struggle at the bakery. Colleen McMahon, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney, countered that as Ulfelder had provided no witnesses who claimed this, there was "not a shred of evidence" to support his claim. She said: "This incident was a hit? If that were the case, the shooter would have made darn sure that he (Bey) was dead and shot him multiple times."

McMahon played jurors a tape of a phone conversation which took place between Phillips and his girlfriend. He was speaking to her from jail. Phillips was heard to say "Stay silent. You hear me, stay silent n****r." Foy replied: "I know." In another part of the conversation, Phillips referred to a police informant who had claimed Phillips had told him he had killed Antar Bey. In the tape, Phillips said: "I heard that n****r. That n****r sounded like he was high as f*** when he went in there." When he was convicted, Phillips smirked.

The events which had led up to the August arrests had involved investigations into the killings of two men. On July 8, 2007. 31-year old Odell Robertson Jr. was gunned down. On July 12, 36-year old sous-chef Michael J. Wills Jr. was shot dead in San Pablo Avenue. Wills had addresses in Oakland and Freemont. Both had been killed with the same AK-47 assault rifle. Odell Robertson was the uncle of Alfonza Phillips III, killer of Antar Bey.

In September 2007, it was revealed that the shotgun which was used to kill Chauncey Bailey was also the same weapon which had been used in the attack on John Bey in June 2005. It was also used in an attack upon a car which took place in December 2006. The shotgun had blasted out the windows of the vehicle, which belonged to a former boyfriend of the girlfriend of the current leader of the Black Muslims of Oakland, Yusuf Bey IV, now aged 21.

Since the August 3 arrests at Your Black Muslim Bakery, Yusuf Bey IV has been kept in jail. He replaced his elder brother Antar Bey as head of the empire in November 2005, aged 19. Almost as soon as he had taken control of the group, he was accused of leading vigilante campaigns against stores owned by genuine Muslims (as opposed to adherents of the racist Bey creed inspired by Elijah Muhammad).

On November 23, 2005, two stores - the San Pablo Market and Liquor at 2363 San Pablo Ave. and New York Market at 3446 Market St were visited by about a dozen smartly-dressed black men. These told the store owners to stop selling liquor to black customers. They then smashed up the stores. Another store on Third Street was also vandalized. The manner of the attacks echoed an incident from 1993. Then, employees of a laundry owned by Yusuf Bey senior had attacked a store in North Richmond, knocking food and liquor onto the ground. Bey senior had then justified the incident by claiming the store had been a venue for drug dealers.

Following the 2005 attacks on the stores, the New York Market was apparently "punished" for not complying with its orders. Five days after being vandalized, the store was gutted in an arson attack. The 19-year old store clerk had been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car. Closed circuit video footage of the original attacks upon the stores allowed police to identify suspects and issue arrest warrants. Yusuf Bey IV was among those identified and subsequently charged.

Yusuf Bey IV gave a press conference in December 2005 (pictured), accompanied by Lorna Brown, the defense attorney who represents him and who had also defended his father against charges of sexual abuse. Instead of condemning the attacks against the stores, Yusuf Bey IV appeared to condone them, saying of the Yemeni store-owners: "In their home countries they'd be killed for selling alcohol."

Despite facing charges connected with the attacks upon the liquor-vending stores, as well as earlier charges of grand theft of a vehicle and obtaining property under false pretenses, (using someone else's credit card to obtain a $55,000 vehicle from a car lot in Solano County) Yusuf Bey IV continued to flout the law.

On March 30, 2006 he was due to attend a court in Freemont on charges of resisting a police officer, an event which had taken place in June 2005. When police were called to an incident where Bey had been arguing with the owner of a movie theater, he had refused to let a female police officer question him. Bey failed to turn up at the Freemont court, and an arrest warrant was served on him. On April 6, 2006, while driving without plates or registration, he was stopped by police and arrested over the warrant.

On April 28, 2006, a visit to a San Fransisco strip joint with his friends led to problems. His entourage was expelled from the venue for interfering with the entertainers, and then Bey apparently drove his BMW into one of the bouncers. This bouncer was injured, and then Bey allegedly tried to run over another bouncer. He was charged with aggravated assault.

In May of this year, Bey and some of his entourage were apparently involved in a case of kidnap and torture. On Thursday August 30 Bey and two associates from Your Black Muslim Bakery appeared in court. Bey pleaded "not guilty" to more than two dozen charges of felony, which included Kidnapping, torture and real estate fraud. Bey's two co-accused are 21-year old Joshua Bey and 20-year old Tamon Halfin (pictured)

On May 17, Bey was allegedly driving around in a black Ford Crown Victoria vehicle, made to look like a police car. They were apparently looking for people with money. They identified a woman and her daughter who had left a bingo session and were driving along Interstate 580. The two women's vehicle was stopped, and the women were taken in the fake police car to a house in Avenal Avenue, East Oakland. Here the daughter was handcuffed and tortured with a knife, in an attempt to make her give money or contact someone who had money. Her mother was kept locked in another car outside. The daughter's ordeal ended when a police officer saw the fake "police car" and went to investigate. The assailants fled on foot, and the woman could be heard screaming.

In October, DNA taken from the knife used to torture the young woman was used to add a fourth man to the three already charged. This individual is Yusuf Bey IV's half-brother, Yusuf Bey V. Twice in the courtroom, Bey V said that the case against him was "bullshit". Additional DNA samples cannot be ruled out as belonging to his half-brother, Yusuf Bey IV.

The charges of real estate fraud were made shortly before Yusuf Bey IV, Joshua Bey and Tamon Halfin were due to appear in court. Yusuf Bey IV is accused of stealing an identity and employing a fake driver's license to secure loans, which he then used to buy a house at 2514 61st Avenue, Oakland.

Tamon Halfin is accused of using a fake identity - Jason Peterson - to secure more than $1 million in mortgage loans for two properties in Oakland. He was said to have forged a Bank of America document.

Bey appears to be not the only person connected with the empire who is believed to have used real estate fraud to acquire properties. Esperanza Johnson, aka Noor Jehan Bey, has twice been accused of fraud. She and her husband Antron Thurman have gained $2 million of real estate in deals which are controversial, if not fraudulent.

After Chauncy Bailey was killed for investigating the illegal dealings of the Bey empire, a grouping of journalists was formed in October, to continue his investigations. Called the Chauncey Bailey Project, its members have examined the controversial land deals of Esperanza Johnson and her husband, transactions have led to other individuals claiming to have lost more than $1.77 million.

The San Pablo Avenue bakery was closed down by food inspectors when the August 3 raid took place, after unhygienic conditions were found inside. On September 6, Your Black Muslim Bakery was placed on the market. Originally, the company had tried to declare bankruptcy, which may have kept the building from being immediately sold off, but in late August the business's voluntary claim was reclassified as Chapter 7 liquidation. The bakery building was offered for sale at a price of $899,000. A bid, which will be ratified at a hearing set for November 29, has already been made for the bakery property. The bidder, Paulette Arbuckle, is a client of Esmeralda Johnson. Johnson's business registration was suspended in 2006, as she owed about $1 million in tax.

Yusuf Bey IV's mother is Daulet Bey, one of the many "wives" of Yusuf Bey senior. Daulet raised eight offspring of the founder of the empire. Tevis Thompson, the bankruptcy trustee who was selling off Your Black Muslim Bakery, has filed suit against Daulet Bey. It is claimed by Thompson that three bakery-owned properties, worth $2.28 million, were "gifted" to Daulet Bey in February 2006, before the business officially declared its "bankruptcy". In a legal statement, Thompson claimed that the gifting of the properties was an attempt "to hinder, delay or defraud creditors," and requested they be returned to the bakery and trustee.

last week, three of Yusuf Bey senior's "wives" testified that while the founder of the business empire established his companies, he also created an elaborate scheme of welfare fraud which involved the roughly 100 women whom he claimed as "wives".

The welfare fraud started in the 1970s, and only ended when Bey senior died. The three women claimed that the welfare fraud had been assisted by two employees of theAlameda County Social Services Agency, who were sisters-in-law to Bey senior. The two employees were responsible for selecting people who should become recipients of welfare assistance.

The three "wives" maintained that payments for children, fraudulently obtained, went into the bakery funds, along with Section 8 rent vouchers, and medical funds designed to assist the poorest inhabitants of California. By demanding that his "wives" refused to name him on their children's birth certificates, Bey's income was not revealed in the wives' claims.

The case of the Black Muslim empire under the leadership of Yusuf Bey senior, down to Yusuf Bey IV, reads like a script from a colorful gangster movie. Questions need to be asked about how such a violent and corrupt organization could flourish for so long in a region already troubled by violence and crime. The group had official patronage. According to journalist Chris Thompson, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and City Councilmember Larry Reid provided letters of support in 1995 when Nedir Bey, one of Bey senior's adopted sons, stood trial on charges of beating and torturing a Nigerian man, .

Tarika Lewis was the stepmother of two young girls. She alleged that Yusuf Bey senior beat and raped these children, but over five years of complaining to law enforcement and child welfare agencies, no action was taken.

State Senator Don Perata had written a letter of praise for Yusuf Bey senior. He wrote: "The leadership you provide should be an inspiration to all concerned over the city's future." The handwritten letter was displayed in Your Black Muslim Bakery, enclosed in a frame and hanging above the pie case.

Court records connected with Tarika Lewis' claims against Bey senior showed that at least two senior police officials claimed that Oakland Police turned a blind eye while members of the Bey empire enacted "vigilante justice".

The same allegations have resurfaced again, in the recent trial of Alfonza Phillips and also the preliminary hearing of Devaughndre Broussard. The lawyer acting for Broussard, LeRue Grim, has claimed that a senior police officer deliberately allowed his client to be left in a room with Yusuf Bey IV, and during this meeting, Broussard was ordered to "take the fall" for Chauncey Bailey's killing. Police reports maintain that it took only six minutes of being officially questioned before Broussard made his confession. Broussard has subsequently recanted.

The officer is 43-year old Sergeant Derwin Longmire. In a videotape seen by the San Francisco Chronicle, Yusuf Bey IV is heard saying: "The reason they didn't pin the (Bailey) murder on me was because of Longmire." Lorna Brown, the attorney for Yusuf Bey IV, has said that Longmire had acted as a "mentor" for her client. She said: "I always had the feeling that Longmire had Yusuf's best interests at heart, and that he was trying to help another young African American guy."

During her testimony at Alfonza Phillips' trial, Althea Foy had claimed that Longmire had said that he "hadn't slapped a young black bitch around in a long time," and told her that she was "lucky to still have her teeth," before warning her of a "swarm of Muslims" that would harm her and her family, should she decide not to cooperate.

The more that one looks into the dealings of the Bey empire and the activities of Oakland's Black Muslims, the more murky and seedy the picture becomes. And more questions emerge, such as how could members of the political elite in Oakland and Alameda County allow themselves to endorse a group that espoused racist and anti-Semitic views? A group that is now becoming revealed so obviously as a "front" for a long-running criminal enterprise, whose adoption of the title "Muslim" is an affront to every law-abiding American Muslim citizen.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2007

Denmark: Islamists Jailed For Bomb Plot

We reported earlier that nine men had been arrested in Odense, Denmark, on the night of September 4-5, 2006.

The men had all been apprehended in raids made in the suburb of Vollsmose. At the time, Lene Espersen, Denmark's Justice Minister, stated: "The clues police found indicate that they were very likely planning an attack somewhere in Denmark. It was the most serious matter I have had in my time as justice minister. Police went in and stopped the group as it was preparing an attack."

Lars Findsen, the director of the Police Intelligence Service (PET) said that the men "had acquired material... to build explosives in connection with the preparation of a terror act.... With the general terror situation, the Danish Security Intelligence Service didn't want to run any unnecessary risk."

Now, according to Jyllands-Posten, All Headline News, Associated Press, Agence France Presse and the Daily Times, two men were jailed yesterday at the conclusion of their trial.

Four men had been on trial since September 5, 2007. The eldest, 34-year old Mohammad Zaher, was given an 11-year jail sentence, as was 22-year old Ahmad Khaldhadi. 32-year old Abdallah Andersen, a Danish convert to Islam, was given a four-year jail term. The fourth man, 19-year old Riad Anwer Daabas, was acquitted.

At Zaher's home, a bomb-making manual had been recovered by police, along with two ounces of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), the same explosive which was used by four suicide bombers to kill 52 people on London Transport on 7/7 (July 7, 2005). TATP was also the substance used by Richard Reid in his failed attempt to blow up a Miami-bound plane in . About eight ounces of TATP had been concealed within Reid's shoe.

The men had been under surveillance before their arrests. They had been heard in wiretap messages played to the court discussing their possible bombing targets. These included the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, City Hall Square in Copenhagen, and the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen.

Adrian Morgan
________________

Below is the translation from the Jyllands-Posten account of the case, by our long-term contributor and friend, WIKING:

11 and 4 years in prison and expulsion forever.

These were the sentences in the Danish terror case.

Two men, Ahmad Khaldhahi and Mohammad Zaher were both sentenced to 11 years in prison for having planned terror strikes in Denmark. A third man, the Danish convert Abdallah Andersen was sentenced to 4 years.

Ahmad Khaldhahi was expelled forever back to his native Iraq. His defense attorney, Bjørn Elmquist says he will appeal the sentence to the supreme court.

The prosecution described the 34 year old Mohammad Zaher as the leader and the brain behind the plot to explode several bombs, while the 22 year old  Ahmad Khaldhahi was described as the tactician and the person who did the practical work. The prosecutor had asked for 14 years for both of them, but the court landed at 11 years in prison.

The subordinate, the 32 year old Danish convert  Abdallah Andersen participated willingly and unquestioning in the preparations according to the prosecutor. He asked for 10 to 12 years, but the court decided on 4 years, based on the subordinate position he did hold in the group.

One man was acquitted of the charges against him...

...Before the jury and the judges receded to decide the sentences, the accused were allowed the last word.
"I do understand the fear the Danes feel, but I would never commit any act of terror. You certainly don't think I am a good human being, but you don't know me" said Mohammad Zaher, who has a Syrian background.

He had just become a father when he was arrested by the PET in September.

Abdallah Andersen did not want to make a comment. He sat with wet eyes and an empty stare.

The 22 year old  Mohammad Khaldhahi from Iraq, implored the court not to expel him.

"I'll accept a sentence for the things I have done. I only hope I will not receive double punishment" was his vain plea. The court decided to expel him forever.

Translation by WIKING

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2007

Pakistan: Islam, Dictatorship, Corruption

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Pakistan: Going From Bad To Worse To Dangerous

Strategic Failures

On Saturday November 3, President Pervez Musharraf announced that he had imposed martial law in Pakistan. Earlier, I discussed the background events which led to the coup. Now, more than a fortnight after the situation began, it has reached a point from which there appears to be no easy solution. Musharraf has promised to introduce elections by January 9, 2008 but he has set no date for the removal of the state of emergency.

Musharraf had gained the support of the United States because he promised to act as an ally in the "war on terror". He vowed to clamp down on the Al Qaeda extremists who had hidden out in North Waziristan in the region adjoining the border with Afghanistan. Little has been achieved on that front. Decisive action was taken by the United States to target Al Qaeda extremists - as happened on January 13, 2006 when the U.S> mounted an airstrike on Damadola near the Afghan border, where an Al Qaeda meeting was taking place. The strike had been designed to hit Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al Qaeda. In practice, the strike killed Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, aka Abu Khabab, Al Qaeda's explosives and poisons expert.

On December 1, 2005, an explosion took place in Haisori, a village near Miranshah in North Waziristan. Pakistani authorities claimed that the explosion was caused by men in a house, preparing bombs. Days later, it transpired that one of those killed in the blast was Abu Hamza Rabia, the Egyptian-born third in command of Al Qaeda. Eyewitnesses claimed that the house had been targeted by missiles, apparently fired from a US Predator drone. When Hayatullah Khan, a local journalist, showed photographs of shrapnel from the blast which bore English wording, he was kidnapped the following day, apparently by Islamists. His body was found in July, 2006. Hayatullah Khan had been shot in the head.

There are reasons to doubt the official Pakistani version of events. It has been suggested that Hayatullah Khan was abducted and killed by members of ISI - the national intelligence agency. Reporters Sans Frontiers has claimed that at least 21 journalists have been kidnapped by the ISI since Musharraf came to power. Journalists who do not reside locally have been banned from working in Pakistan's tribal areas without official consent.

One of Musharraf's political opponents was the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Choudary, who had condemned arrests of thousands of civilians by the ISI. These had been made "without due process". On March 9 this year, and again during the recent state of emergency, Choudary was deposed by Musharraf.

Under Musharraf, the Taliban - which was assisted in its rise to power in Afghanistan by the intelligence agency ISI - has not only been able to flourish in North-West Frontier Province, but has grown in power and influence. Instead of acting to crush their influence, Musharraf allowed the Islamist parties of the MMA to broker a "peace deal" with the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan on September 5, 2006. This deal actually reimbursed members of the Taliban for their "losses" incurred in military battles.

After Britain's London bombings of 7/7, Musharraf had promised to stamp down on extremist madrassas. Two of the 7/7 bombers were believed to attend such an establishment in Pakistan. Musharraf ordered a clampdown, and demanded registration of all madrassas. One of the madrassas to offer violent resistance in 2005 was the Jamia Hafsa, from the Red Mosque complex in Islamabad, the capital. This year, students of the two madrassas from the Red Mosque were involved in kidnappings, arson and threats of suicide attack. Musharraf's plan to register all madrassas was eventually abandoned. Its main opponent was religious affairs minister Ijaz ul-Haq, son of the dictator Zia ul-Haq who had initially encouraged mass construction of madrassas. Zia ul-Haq had been a frequent worshipper at the Red Mosque. Until the disorder which began in January this year, senior figures from the ISI also worshipped at the Red Mosque.

Imran Khan

Former cricketer Imran Khan opposes the war on terror, but his case illustrates clearly just how far Musharraf is prepared to trash democratic values. The day after Musharraf announced martial law, Imran Khan was placed under house arrest. He was the first member of the parliament to be treated this way. Hs party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) has only one member in the National Assembly, Khan himself. Though Imran Khan is critical of U.S. foreign policy, he has never represented a threat to Musharraf's regime. The day after his house arrest was imposed, Khan escaped and went into hiding.

Using his vast wealth, Khan had established a cancer hospital, named after his late mother. The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital in Punjab province provides much-needed treatment and research in a country where reliable medical treatment is unavailable to many. For 75 percent of cancer patients, treatment at the hospital is free. On Friday November 9, Pakistani police surrounded the hospital, in case Imran Khan should choose to hide there.

The police move effectively closed down the hospital. That specialist cancer treatment should be denied to civilians, merely because Musharraf wants to make an example of his vocal critic, shows how morally destitute his regime has become.

On Wednesday, Imran Khan appeared in public for the first time since martial law was imposed. At Punjab University in Lahore, he surfaced on a campus, where hundreds of students were mounting a demonstration against the "emergency" measures. He was carried aloft on students' shoulders and then the situation changed. Members of the student wing of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party blocked his way, seized Khan and dragged him into the university's high-energy physics center, effectively holding him prisoner. Khan emerged shortly after with his captors, and was then placed into a police car and driven away.

Initially, it had been assumed that the official charges against Khan were to be based upon public order legislation. Later in the day, it was announced that Imran Khan, who has never condoned terrorism in his political career, has been charged under anti-terrorism legislation. If a high-profile public figure can be treated in this fashion, the situation for ordinary civilians is dire.

Two days before his arrest, Khan managed to send out a text message to his lawyer in Britain, where he claimed that his life was in danger. At that time, he was concerned more about the actions of the secular Muttahida Qaumi Moovement (MQM) party, whose leader Altaf Hussain is based in Britain. Hussain arrived in the U.K. in 1992 after fleeing from a murder charge which had been brought against him. Earlier this year, Khan had tried and failed to have the MQM head prosecuted in Britain for causing violence in Karachi. 42 people died in riots on May 12. In a SMS text mesage, Khan had written to his lawyer: "Once MQM [Mr Hussain] thinks he is safe then my Karachi workers and my own life will be at great risk."

Now, Khan's life is threatened by the military dictatorship. The potential sentence under Pakistan's anti-terrorism legislation is life imprisonment or death. Jemima Khan, Imran Khan's former wife, said on British television on Wednesday night that several lawyers who have been detained under Musharraf's state of emergency are "known to have been tortured."

The Army Act

When Musharraf imposed martial law, he suspended the constitution, removing key protections for civilians, such as freedom of speech, freedom of association, civilians' right to equality under the law and equal protection under the law, and even Article 9 of the national constitution - their right to life.

Already, TV cameras have shown on a daily basis civilian protesters being arrested for appearing in the streets to protest Musharraf's dictatorship. The police in Pakistan are notorious for corruption and partial enforcement of the law. In most cases, civilians were punched or beaten with batons as they were bundled into police vehicles. The full number of civilians placed in detention under the "state of emergency" is not known, but it runs into hundreds.

Musharraf's latest move in his battle against the citizenry of Pakistan is to revive the Army Act of 1953. This ruling was introduced after Islamist factions such as the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party had been attempting to attack and kill members of the peaceful Ahmadiyyah sect. The religious riots had led to the first imposition of martial law, only six years after Pakistan had become an independent and officially secular democracy.

The Army Act has not only been updated, it has also been back-dated. Now, any civilian accused of certain crimes will not have the right to be tried in a court of law. Instead, such civilians will face courts martial. The ordinance does not relate just to crimes committed in the present. Crimes which are said to have been committed since January 1, 2003, will now be tried under court martials.

The range of these crimes include categories imposed from the time when Pakistan was under British rule. Certain crimes listed under the Pakistan Penal Code will now automatically result in courts martial.

According to Pakistan newspaper Dawn, offenses ranging from libel to murder will now fall under the jurisdiction of the army. Asma Jahangir is chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She was among the first people to be placed under house arrest when the coup was announced. She said of the backdating of the Army Act: "This has also allowed the government to legitimize all illegal acts of disappearances carried out by intelligence agencies with impunity."

A former ambassador to the United States, Abida Hussain, was also arrested last week for "disturbing the peace". She said from jail: "Does George Bush see that now even sports heroes, leaders of mega-parties and humble servants of the republic are behind bars? It's a dangerous situation, and Musharraf is a dangerous and desperate man."

Already, journalists who have expressed concern at the coup are being detained, and as a result, reporting of events outside of the main cities has become unreliable and contradictory.

Benazir Bhutto

The U.S. State Department had encouraged Musharraf to allow former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to return to the nation. She arrived back in Pakistan on October 18, and at the time it was thought that she could stand for election as president. This scenario could conceivably have allowed Musharraf to be the president and Bhutto to be prime minister. It would not have been an ideal example of democracy, especially considering charges of corruption made against Bhutto, but it would have been a step along the way to true democracy.

On Friday November 9, Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest, to prevent her from attending a protest rally in Rawalpindi. An armed police cordon was set up around her home. Shortly after this, her house arrest was lifted. The United States welcomed the decision to lift her detention.

On Tuesday, November , Bhutto was once again placed under house arrest. She had been intending to engage in a protest march on Tuesday. This march by members of her party, lasting 185 miles, was called "The Long March". After she was placed under house arrest for a second time, the march failed to go ahead.

For Bhutto, this action appeared to be the last straw. The day before she was placed under house arrest, she had already ruled out any chance of power-sharing with Musharraf. She declared: "We are saying no to any more talks. We cannot work with anyone who has suspended the Constitution, imposed emergency rule, and oppressed the judiciary. That's why we are holding the 'long march'."

Though deeply disliked by Islamist parties, Bhutto has gained from a surge in popularity since Musharraf's coup d'etat. Her outspoken criticism of the man who had urged her to share power has been seen as patriotic. She plays up to this image, by claiming that she is acting "to save Pakistan... I know it is dangerous but what alternative is there when the country is in danger?"

On Wednesday, members of Bhutto's party were arrested.

Now, Bhutto has become so hostile to Musharraf that she is prepared to work together with another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. This individual had been ousted by Musharraf in his coup d'etat of December 1999. Nawaz Sharif had been in power when Pakistan carried out its first nuclear tests on May 28, 1998. Aware of potential economic sanctions, Nawaz had imposed his own state of emergency when the three initial nuclear tests took place, and had frozen all foreign investors' accounts in Pakistan's banks.

On Wednesday, Bhutto told the Washington Post: "I am now working with all political leaders, including Nawaz Sharif. We feel all the political forces should come together. We may work together or we may work side by side. The issue is that we both agree there should be democracy. The important thing is that Pakistan is returned to its people, that martial law is ended, that General Musharraf steps down."

Nawaz Sharif has been in exile. He tried to return to Pakistan recently, but was immediately deported to Saudi Arabia, in defiance of an August ruling issued by Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftekar Choudary, who was deposed when the coup took place. Nawaz is publicly declaring his approval of the notion of forming an official alliance with Bhutto.

Nawaz Sharif is not regarded by U.S. officials as a positive choice for leadership of Pakistan, but Musharraf's suspension of the constitution is forging some strange alliances.

From Tuesday to Thursday, demonstrators from Bhutto's PPP party had engaged in noisy protests about her detention in Karachi. On the morning of Thursday, three young people were shot dead. The youngest two were aged 9 and 12. Five other people were injured. Police denied any responsibility, with the Karachi police chief claiming: "It is possible that they were gunned down by protesters or by gangsters who are also rioting."

On Thursday, November 15, Benazir Bhutto's house arrest was lifted, as was the home detention of leading human rights activist Asma Jahangir. Bhutto was visited by US Consul General Bryan Hunt. He spoke to her about the possibility of her being able to work with Musharraf. She told reporters: "I told him that it was very difficult to work with someone who instead of taking us toward democracy took us back towards military dictatorship."

The Nuclear Threat

Pakistan's nuclear capacity was developed illegally using technology and equipment smuggled by Abul Qadeer Khan. There are an estimated 24 to 55 nuclear bombs in Pakistan, under the control of the army. The safety of these devices is a source of debate.

Muhammad Sadiq, spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Office maintained that the nation's atomic weaponry was safe and were not going to fall into the hands of extremists or terrorists. He said: "Our strategic assets are as safe as that of any other nuclear state." He added: "There are multiple layers of command and control and the weapons are not in danger of falling into any hands. Pakistan's nuclear program is very well-guarded."

The former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. State Department, Richard Armitage, claimed that the nuclear weaponry was safe. He said: "That nuclear arsenal is, one, dispersed, and second, carefully guarded by the army. I think - in the short or even medium term - should things turn badly, we are not going to worry about nuclear weapons in the first instance."

John Bolton of the American Enterprise Institute, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is less confident. He said: "It's a political issue. If the military comes unstuck, if it divides, then the technical fixes won't protect those weapons. Even the military is filled with Islamic fundamentalists. I'd have to put securing those weapons at the top of our agenda."

Geoff Morrell, press secretary at the Pentagon, has said this week: "At this point, we have no concerns. We believe that they are under the appropriate control."

During the first week of the coup, Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concerns about the security of the nuclear weaponry in Pakistan. He had said then: "Any time there is a nation that has nuclear weapons that has experienced a situation such as Pakistan is at present, that is a primary concern."

Currently, the U.S. sends much of its supplies to the military in Afghanistan via Pakistan. In the event of the current situation deteriorating further, the Pentagon is working on an alternative contingency plan to keep its troops in Afghanistan served with adequate supply lines.

Musharraf himself has claimed that the nuclear arsenal will remain safe, but only if they are under the control of the army. He said on Saturday: "They cannot fall into the wrong hands, if we manage ourselves politically... The military is there - as long as the military is there, nothing happens to the strategic assets, we are in charge and nobody does anything with them."

Nawaz Sharif, head of the rival wing to Musharraf's party, argued that the nuclear weapons would remain safe, whether Musharraf remained as president or not.

Opportunities For Islamists

The Jamaat-e-Islami party has traditionally opposed Musharraf, yet members of the student wing supported the imprisonment of the moderate politician Imran Khan. When Musharraf supervised a form of democracy which allowed the party and its Islamist allies to hold 65 seats in the National Assembly, they still led calls for revolution and for the death of Musharraf.

During the military dictatorship of General Zia ul-Haq, who ruled from 1977 until 1988, the Jamaat-e-Islami party benefited through the imposition of severe sharia-based legislation. Though the leading lights of the party, and also the MMA coalition of Islamist parties, oppose the imposition of martial law, they appear to be exploiting the situation to present themselves as defenders of the constitution - even though they wish to see Pakistan under sharia law.

The head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party is Qazi Hussain Ahmed. He instigated the so-called "peace accord" in Waziristan which gave concessions to the Pakistan Taliban. On Tuesday, the Daily Times claimed that reports had been received that Qazi Hussain Ahmed, described as a "Taliban commander" had sent suicide bombers to Lahore city in Punjab province. Qazi Hussain Ahmed is the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami and president of the MMA. He is known to support Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, and has previously been accused of sheltering members of Al Qaeda.

Benazir Bhutto has claimed that she has contacted Qazi Hussain Ahmed about mounting an official opposition to Musharraf. Whether the Islamist leader will join forces with Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and others is unknown, but he supports her calls for the restoration of the recently-deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Choudary. In early summer, Jamaat members protested with lawyers against Choudary's March dismissal. Qazi has announced: "We will launch country wide movement along with the lawyers and political parties to end military dictatorship."

Qazi has claimed that he had sent a member of his party to rescue Imran Khan from student members of the Jamaat party who had imprisoned him, but his envoy had arrived too late.

In Regal Chowk in volatile Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, several Jamaat-e-Islami activists were arrested on Monday for protesting the emergency rulings. On Friday, Qazi Hussain Ahmed claimed that the state of emergency was pushing Pakistan to the brink of civil war.

Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of the US-designated terror group Jamaat ud-Dawah (not banned in Pakistan) argued that the only solution to the national crisis was the imposition of Sharia. He said: "Islamic Sharia is the only possible solution to the current political crisis faced by the country. Freedom without giving sacrifices is not possible and many of us have now realized it."

The Regional Assembly of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) was entirely dominated by the MMA coalition. It was suspended during Musharraf's emergency decree, but NWFP is currently sliding into anarchy with local warlords and foreign Islamists attempting to impose Sharia law.

Swat is a district of NWFP which was formerly regarded as a popular tourist destination. Its lush valleys and mountains earned it the title of the "Switzerland" of Pakistan. This year, the situation of Islamists taking control of 59 villages in Swat was one of the factors which were blamed for the imposition of martial law. The emergency siatuation has done nothing to contain the actions of Islamists in this region. At sunset on Tuesday this week, the town of Alpuri in Swat fell under the control of local Taliban leader Maulana Muhammad Alam and 500 of his followers. Six out of Swat's eight sub-districts have now fallen under Islamist control.

The administrative capital of Swat, the town of Mingora, has been placed under a curfew, as has the adjoining district of Malakand. The army has been engaged in fierce fighting in the region. Some of the Islamists are said to be foreign. Some may be of Uzbek origin and connected with Al Qaeda, and others are known to be Afghan Taliban members.

On Thursday, the most recent Swat district to fall to the Islamists had been reclaimed by the army. The loss of life was high - over two days of fighting 53 militants were killed. According to eyewitness accounts, twenty civilians were killed in the fighting.

In Parachinar in Kurram Agency, one of the tribal regions near the Afghan border, at least ninety-one people have been killed in sectarian religious war. Eighty of these are civilians. After Friday prayers Sunni and Shia groups fought each other with rocket launchers and mortars. More than 100 people have been injured.

While the army acts to control the outbreaks of separate uprisings, the tribal regions of Waziristan where Al Qaeda and the Pakistan Taliban have a strong power base are less easy to contain. On Saturday night, a bomb exploded in a house in North Waziristan, killing a woman inside. The bomb had been placed near her bed, and had been triggered by remote control. The woman was the widow of murdered journalist Hayatullah Khan, whose photographs had caused embarrassment to both the Pakistani authorities and to the local Islamists. Her murder at this time raises again questions about who had kidnapped and murdered Hayatullah Khan - Islamists or the ISI?

International Criticism

Pakistan is a member of the Commonwealth (Commonwealth of Nations), a grouping of 51 nations which had previously been colonies of Britain, with the addition of Britain and Mozambique. After Musharraf had seized power in his 1999 coup, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth. The nation was only reinstated five years later, when Musharraf promised to step down as head of the army. The notion of a President wearing a military uniform appeared dictatorial.

Musharraf is still promising to step down as head of the army by the end of this month. He had earlier said that a former chief of the ISI, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, would assume the role of army chief on November 15. Kayani is pro-American and regarded as a moderate.

As a result of imposing martial law, the Commonwealth has once again threatened to suspend Pakistan's membership. On Monday, November 12, members of the Commonwealth met in London. They issued a statement condemning the situation in Pakistan. Additionally, they gave Musharraf until November 22, when the next Commonwealth meeting will take place, to place the nation back on course for democracy. If improvements were not to be made by then, suspension would ensue.

Individual nations within the Commonwealth, such as South Africa, have joined in the condemnation of Musharraf's actions. Alexander Downer, Australia's foreign minister, has argued that it does not care who runs the country as much as it cares about having democracy restored in Pakistan.

On Tuesday, Britain's prime minister Gordon Brown made his first speech on foreign policy. He deplored Musharraf's imprisonment of political opponents and urged their immediate release, and called for media restrictions in Pakistan to be lifted. He did not call for Commonwealth action to be taken against Pakistan.

Musharraf has eagerly grasped foreign aid, yet he has done little to improve the situation of civilians in Pakistan. Suspension from the Commonwealth would automatically reduce financial assistance given to the Pakistani regime. Since 9/11, America has donated an estimated $10 billion in aid. The European Union has urged Musharraf to step down and remove the state of emergency, but is unwilling to cut financial aid to the country.

Switzerland, which is not a member state within the European Union, has stopped a delivery of anti-aircraft systems to the Pakistani military on account of Musharraf's imposition of martial law. Six vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft units have been delivered in a deal worth a total of $121 million. The remaining 15 "Skyguard" units will not be sent until some sense of political "normality" resumes.

Shortly after Musharraf imposed martial law, President Bush urged him to leave his post as head of the army and to reinstate democracy. Mohammed Sadiq, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman told news agency Agence France-Presse that the situation was an "internal matter" for Pakistan. He said: "The president has stated that our friends should show understanding of the ground conditions and the serious challenges we face in the shape of extremism and terrorism."

On Tuesday, November 13, President Bush said of Musharraf: "He understands the stakes of the war, and I do believe he understands the importance of democracy... He's agreed to hold elections in January, and he's agreed to take his uniform off. And our judgment is that the sooner he can suspend his emergency decree, the faster Pakistan gets back on the road to democracy. When I talked to him, I said: 'You got to get Pakistan back on the road to democracy as quickly as possible.' And that means elections, and that means that, in my judgment, the road to democracy means you can't be the head of the military and the president at the same time."

The United States ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W Patterson, has urged a return to the principles of democracy, but like President Bush, she has stopped short of an outright condemnation. She said: "Pakistan's move toward democracy has been seriously set back by the events of November 3.. One of President Musharraf's greatest achievements was the flowering of a free and vibrant media. There is no way to put this genie back in the bottle by cutting off the media now... the November 3 imposition of a state of emergency put this economic growth of Pakistan and upward mobility at risk."

On Wednesday, officials from the State Department and Pentagon discussed the message to be taken on Friday to Musharraf by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Additionally, the officials considered the question of who would be the successor in power, should Musharraf be forced to quit.

Following his meeting with President Musharraf on Saturday, Negroponte said that he had told the Pakistani leader: "Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections, which require the active participation of political parties, civil society and the media. If those steps are not taken, it will certainly undermine elections."

Annually, America subsidizes the army with $1 billion. Threatening to remove this funding could cause Musharraf's support within the army to desert him. Members of the current U.S. administration view General Kayani favorably, and appear to approve him replacing Musharraf as head of the army. One State Department official said: "On the asset side of the ledger, we've got a really good relationship with Kiyani. People know him. He has long term political ambitions and he's patient enough to keep them in the long term."

During his visit to Pakistan, John Negroponte had separately met General Ashfaq Kayani and other key figures.

The End Of Government

One positive event has taken place. Before the imposition of martial law, the current government was due to wind up on Thursday, in preparation for proposed January elections. The dissolution of the existing government did take place. For the first time in Pakistan's 60-year history, a government managed to survive until the end of its natural five-year term - even though the country was in a state of emergency. Under Article 44 of the Constitution, Musharraf can remain as president until a new president is elected.

On Thursday, Musharraf announced the appointment of a caretaker government, to allow for preparations for elections. Mohammed Mian Soomro, the 57-year old chairman of the Senate, was made caretaker prime minister. He belongs to Musharraf's party, the Pakistan Muslim League.

Musharraf said: "An old cabinet is gone and a new cabinet - a caretaker government - has been sworn in. Life continues, no body is permanent. One comes, one serves, tries one's best in the interest of the nation ... and then when they have to go, that is the way of nature. They have to leave, and this is what is democracy."

Musharraf has not yet stepped down as head of the army, but he has changed the order by which - as army chief - he imposed the state of emergency and martial law. On Thursday, he amended the Provisional Constitutional Order so that - as president - he retains the power to revoke the state of emergency.

When Musharraf imposed the state of emergency on November 3, one of his first actions was to shut down transmission of independent television news channels. The two most important of these was Geo TV. On Thursday, AaJ TV and Dawn News, two independent news channels were allowed to broadcast. Geo TV also had its transmissions unblocked on Friday, but within 24 hours it was blocked again. Another station - Ary One World TV - was also blocked again. Ary and Geo are both based in Dubai. The blocking action against Ary and Geo was claimed in some news sources to have been instigated by Musharraf himself, even though the United Arab Emirates government has claimed that it acted on its own initiative.

The Pakistan-based news channels had been allowed to return to air, but only after they had signed an agreement to not be critical of the President. The international media monitor, Reporters Sans Frontieres, condemned the "self-censorship". The situation with Geo TV has been personalized, with the station being ordered to fire named journalists.

The prospect of Benazir Bhutto being able to stand in the January elections is now being placed under threat. Musharraf had ordered an amnesty for her, as she and her husband faced serious corruption charges. Five legal challenges have been mounted against the amnesty in the Supreme Court. Malik Muhammad Qayyum, the Attorney-General is himself unsure of the legality of the amnesty. He said: "Only the courts can decide to throw charges out, not governments... Before Bhutto came back the president had directed me to defend it (Bhutto's amnesty) to the maximum, but now I'm not sure what the stance will be. The thing is, they erred in drawing it up."

At the end of this month, President Musharraf will officially step down as head of the army. He has ensured that only he, and not his army successor, will be able to rescind the emergency decrees and the rule of martial law.

Musharraf is still denying the nation a free and unfettered media, and restrictions against public gatherings remain in place. The longer the state of emergency continues, then increasingly the hopes for a fair election in January are slipping away.

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:19 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2007

Saudi Arabia: More Muslim Injustice

On November 2, 2006, German news agency Deutsche-Presse Agentur reported on the case of a young Saudi woman who had been on the receiving end of a multiple gang rape.

Four of her attackers faced a Saudi court and were sentenced to jail sentences ranging from one to five years accompanied by lashes, ranging from 80 to 1,000 lashes. A fifth man who apparently took photographs with his mobile phone was facing investigation, and two other men had escaped capture.

What was most shocking was the fact that the (then aged 18) woman victim was also sentenced to 90 lashes.

Her "crime" had been to commit "khalwat" - she had been alone in a car with a man who was not her husband. While they were in the car, the pair had been abducted and taken to a remote farm, where the woman was raped.

Now, news comes from Arab News and the Daily Telegraph on what has since happened to the woman.

There has been an appeal hearing at the General Court at Qatif in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The woman's lawyer, Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, had called for an appeal as he felt that the sentence against his client was too harsh, and those for the rapists too lenient.

Though the rapists' sentences have been increased to between two years and nine years' each, the verdict against the rape victim has been that she should now have her lashes increased to 200. Additionally, she must now be imprisoned for six months.

Her lawyer has also been punished. Judge Soliman Al-Muhanna from the Qatif court suspended him from the case, and confiscated his lawyers' license. He has now been summonsed by the Judicial Investigation Department of the Ministry of Justice to attend a disciplinary hearing.

He claimed: "Actually this is the second time they have contacted me. They claim that I advertise my services and that that is against Saudi law."

The rape victim was told by the judges at the General Court that her sentence had been increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."

Obviously, as the media had reported on the case, it exposed an abuse of justice that the Saudi judiciary would rather happen in secret. And this is the same Saudi Arabia that recently lectured the European Union about "human rights".

The reason why the woman was alone in a car with a man was because he was her former boyfriend. They had arranged to meet as he was to hand over pictures he had of her. She had been due to marry another man. The woman was Shia - her rapists Sunni.

Lawyer Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem said: "My client is the victim of this abhorrent crime. I believe her sentence contravenes the Islamic Sharia law and violates the pertinent international conventions. The judicial bodies should have dealt with this girl as the victim rather than the culprit. The court blamed the girl for being alone with unrelated men, but it should have taken the humane view that it cannot be considered her fault."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2007

Media: The Libel Tourist

Back in June I wrote of the bizarre situation whereby the British libel courts have been unfairly used to prosecute books that highlight issues of terrorism funding. Under UK libel law, no intention malice is needed to prove a case, and the onus is upon the defendant to prove libel has not been made, rather than the plaintiff needing to prove libel.

The libel laws have been used particularly by Khalid Salim A. Bin Mahfouz. More than 30 publications, authors and publishers have been successfully sued in Britain - even though they produced literature that is not considered "libelous" in the United States. The only person to have challenged these prosecutions is the terror-financing expert (and a personal friend) Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld.

She refused to attend the UK High Court and refused to pay the default fine imposed upon her. She has been fighting Mahfouz in the US courts over issues of jurisdiction - in a suit that will set a precedent for future similar cases. As Mahfouz has acted to hand summons to her at her Manhattan home, demanding that she pay the UK fine, her lawyers have argued over the issue of jurisdiction. This would mean that Mahfouz would have to comply with "discovery" and reveal details of his financial history - the subject of the British libel suit. Additionally - Dr Ehrenfeld is fighting any attempts to pay British fines in the United States that have been imposed by laws that act counter to American rights.

The subject of Mahfouz's suit was the book "Funding Evil" by Rachel Ehrenfeld, which maintained that companies owned by the Saudi banker had sent money to fund terrorism.

The exploitation of another country (Funding Evil was not published in the UK) to prosecute a libel case that would fail in the country where the publication was made, is called "forum shopping" or "libel tourism".

Now a short 9-minute video documentary on Rachel's case has been produced. It is called "The Libel Tourist".

It can be found (English language version) HERE.

The Arabic language version can be found HERE.

Below are the documentary-maker's description and comments of the video.
_________________
ABOUT THE FILM

"The Libel Tourist" is a short-form documentary film produced by the Moving Picture Institute. MPI's short film program seeks to provide filmmakers with the opportunities to display their filmmaking skills while making an impact on behalf of human freedom.

Though it addresses one of the gravest subjects of contemporary political life, it is only 8 minutes long. In those 8 minutes, our eyes are opened to a new and chilling threat: the story of how Saudi petrodollars have cowed, silenced, and almost broken freedom of speech in the West.

The film documents the true story of how an American-Israeli author Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld was ordered to destroy all copies of her book in a country where it had never been published - England - after a notoriously litigious Saudi billionaire sued her in a British court. Ehrenfeld's book Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It, accuses the Saudi billionaire of funding of terrorism.

Now Ehrenfeld is fighting back, counter-suing him in New York, to defend her and our First Amendment rights. She speaks on film for the first time in "The Libel Tourist."

"This film is an eye-opening exposé," says Jared Lapidus, the film's director. "It deals directly with the issues of terrorism, Islamo-fascism, and how it is infringing on our rights in the West, and the U.S. in particular."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:44 PM | Comments (0)

France: 7 Suspected Islamists Arrested - 5 May Face Charges

News from Reuters, AFP via Expatica and (in French) Le Monde.

Seven suspected Islamists were arrested in France on Tuesday this week. All French nationals, the men had been under police surveillance for some time. The men came from the eastern city of Besancon, Doubs, which lies close to the Swiss border.

They had been regularly engaging in apparent combat training in woods, using high-caliber guns and dressed in camouflage clothing. Though seven people were initially arrested, according to Le Monde, today only five have been placed under investigation prior to indictment.

According to police who had questioned the men, they wanted to "make jihad" but had not finalized any specific plans.

Items seized during the arrests included 10 hand-guns, one Kalashnikov assault rifle, camouflage equipment and hunting paraphernalia.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:38 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

Pakistan: The Battle Against Oppression

I received this a few minutes ago from a journalist correspondent and friend in Pakistan, Qaiser Felix. As a Christian who regularly reports on the abuse of Pakistan's minority Christian (and Hindu and Ahmadi) population for AsiaNews.it, Qaiser runs the risk of imprisonment under the Army Act of 1953, which was revived by Musharraf a week after he suspended the constitution. I make no changes to what he has written, and can only applaud his bravery and forthright honesty by continuing to report from a country that has suspended certain articles from the constitution - even including Article 9 - the right to life.

Anyone who has a blog - please copy this and post it.

Adrian Morgan

The crucial final round towards democracy

Qaiser Felix

Islamabad, November 15, 2007: As the national assembly will be dissolved at midnight tonight (Thursday) after completing its five-year constitutional term and the provincial assemblies would also be dissolved on 20 Nov. and elections to be held before 9 January 2008, apparently, it is the start of final round towards democracy in the every day changing political situation of Pakistan.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will issue the schedule for the upcoming elections shortly after the dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies.

The government of general Musharraf is feeling proud that the assemblies are completing their complete five years time because it is not a common practice in the six decades old history of the country.

"This is a historic moment for all of us." This will be the first time for 22 years that an assembly completes its mandate, State Information Minister Tariq Azeem said on Wednesday.

He said a caretaker government will be sworn in on Friday to oversee the upcoming general elections. It is also likely that the name of the caretaker prime minister will be announced today, he added.

President General Pervez Musharraf has said he would step down as army chief after a Supreme Court ruling on the validity of his re-election, which he said was expected by the end of November.

Speaking with The Associated Press, he said he would then begin a new presidential term as a civilian.

But on the other hand, Former premier Benazir Bhutto said on Wednesday that election promised by President General Pervez Musharraf before January 9 could "hardly be fair".

"Musharraf will continue to be the head of the ruling party in an open field, while all other actors are behind bars," she said, referring to herself and other political leaders who were rounded up.

Finishing her 8 years self imposed exile, Ms Bhutto returned to Pakistan on October 18 after long talks and a power sharing deal with Musharraf government. Bhutto was welcomed warmly by tens of thousands of her supporters and on the night of 18 October two suicide bombers also welcomed Bhutto's massive welcome rally killing about 150 people.

Other opposition parties criticized the deal between Musharraf and Bhutto in strongest terms which finished all corruption cases against former premier in and outside the country.

But the whole picture was changed when General Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in the whole country and promulgated a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) holding the Constitution in abeyance on Nov. 3. All private local and foreign TV news channels were taken off air and merely state run TV is on air to propagate in favour of the general and his allies.

Musharraf also fired Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan with whom he had a long judicial war which concluded with Musharraf's defeat.

When general Musharraf announced the state of emergency on Nov. 3, he said on state run TV that emergency was in the interest of the state and it was to curb the rising Islamic militants and extremism in some parts of the country.

Whereas, practically Musharraf government immediately started crackdown on lawyers, judges, opposition politicians, rights activists and journalists. So far, government has been arrested thousands of these people.

The government's move, greeted with immediate condemnation at home by opposition parties, lawyers and human rights groups as well as by UN, US, UK and many other countries and organizations of the world.

According to many analysts actually Musharraf was worried about the Supreme Court's ruling about validity of his re-election as a president of Pakistan. And he was feared that most of the judges of the highest court of Pakistan would decree against him. That is why he took this extreme step.

Pakistani Christians also active against emergency rule

Pakistani Christians are dynamically contributing the struggle for the restoration of democracy, fundamental rights and freedom of expression after General Pervez Musharraf announced a country wide state of emergency suspending constitution of Pakistan on Nov. 3.

Pakistan Catholic Bishops Conference's human rights body, National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), has demanded that emergency must be lifted and constitution should be revived unconditionally and immediately, terming the imposition of emergency as a most unfortunate and misdirected step.

In a joint statement issued by Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha and Mr. Peter Jacob, the Chairperson and the Executive Secretary of NCJP said that the challenges faced by the country cannot be dealt by imposition of emergency and the respect for rule of law, independence of judiciary and the restoration of the fundamental rights can bring Pakistan to the path of democracy.

The NCJP statement demanded for the:

Restoration of the constitution and fundamental rights

The immediate return to the civilian rule

Immediate and unconditional release of the detainees throughout the country

Restoration of judges and independent judiciary

Restore the freedom of Press and Electronic Media and repeal the new ordinance.

Immediately after the emergency rule Christians were active to confront it. Four Christians Nadeem Anthony, council member of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and an active member of National Journalists' Fourm, Irfan Barkat, staff member of (NCJP), Miss Ayra Indreas from Women Desk of the Chruch of Pakistan's diocese of Lahore and her sister Miss Mona Indreas were arrested along with 54 rights activists when they were planning protests against emergency.

Many Christian members of All Pakistan Minorities alliance (APMA) were also arrested for taking part in protests. Many of APMA workers are still behind bars, APMA chief said.

Yesterday, about 100 APMA workers were baton charged and arrested in Lahore when they were trying to join Long March called by Ms. Bhutto, Shahbaz Bhatti said.

APMA head further said that Naveed Amir, member of Punjab Assembly (MPA) and active member of APMA was severely tortured and arrested by police yesterday.

National Journalists' Forum (NJF) Pakistan, a forum of Christian professional journalists has started an awareness campaign about the fundamental rights which have been curbed as a result of emergency. NJF is in process of publishing awareness and educational material for common people to enhance their understanding regarding this disturbed situation of the country, a statement by NJF stated.

Minorities Concern, a Christian advocacy group said in its statement that "although President Musharraf has announced the date of the forthcoming general elections, it is visible that under emergency no elections will have any moral or legal legitimacy and definitely will be rejected by the people of Pakistan. Moreover, no elections can be free without a free media and an independent judiciary."

Qaiser Felix

Secretary General

National Journalists' Forum (NJF) Pakistan

South Asian Catholic Press Association (SACPA) South Asia

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

Azerbaijan: Armed Islamists Who Plotted Embassy Attacks

From Interfax-Religion, Reuters, Xinhua News, Axis Globe and Moscow Times.

Two Islamists who had planned to attack the US embassy in Azerbaijan were arrested on November 9, hiding in woods in the district of Ismaillinsky, near Baku. Weapons were recovered. They did not offer resistance when captured. One of these individuals was a renegade member of the Azeri army called Kyamran Asadov, born in 1975.

Asadov had deserted from his army post at Hanlar in October, taking with him four rifles, a machine gun, twenty grenades and ammunition. He had been part of a group called by Azeris "Wahhabis". On October 28 and October 29, law enforcement officers had mounted operations against Wahhabis in the district of Zabrat in the capital, Baku, and also Ismaillinsky district. Acting on intelligence, on October 27, an operation had taken place at a house in a village on the outskirts of Tbilisi, several members of the Islamist group were captured. One who resisted capture was killed.

One of the men who was arrested was said to be an Al Qaeda fighter. At the time, Azeri Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu, had said: "The search for Asadov, who is, unfortunately, a follower of Wahhabism, will continue until he is caught."

Khyrdalan Vugar Aliyev and Elshan Mamedov, two of the individuals captured in the October raids, had informed authorities of the plans to attack the US embassy in Baku.

On October 30, Asadov and his remaining accomplice, Farid Dzhabarov, carried out a robbery at a Lukoil gasoline fueling station, seriously injuring one man who worked at the gas station.

In detention after being captured on November 9, Asadov and Dzhabarov were displayed on state TV stations. They claimed that they carried out the armed robbery with a third individual, Bakhtiyar Orudzhev. Whether he has been caught is not known. The men admitted plotting to attack the US embassy. Asadov was recorded saying: "Our aim was to kill U.S. citizens because they kill Muslims."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:25 AM | Comments (0)

Sweden: Mailing Company Refuses To Deliver Muslim Cartoon

News from the Local reports that a Swedish mailing company has refused to distribute a political newspaper called SD-Kurien, because it features an "offensivie" cartoon of Islam's prophet Mohammed. The newspaper is the publicity organ of the far-right Sweden Democrats, who already are involved in an anti-immigration campaign.

The current issue of SD-Kurien features a cartoon by artist Lars Vilks, depicting Mohammed as a dog. The cartoon is one of a series that Vilks created, which drew adverse publicity when one of these was reproduced in Swedish local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda on August 18. Vilks has received death threats for his drawings. An art gallery refused to display the series, for fear of attacks.

The company which is refusing to distribute the SD-Kurien newspaper is Posten, Sweden's largest direct marketing company. Their decision is not apparently based on morality, but upon fear of violent reprisals from fundamentalist Muslims.

Per Ljungberg, a spokesman for Posten, said: "We want to protect the safety of our mail carriers. This illustration has provoked reactions that have led to death threats."

Today, another direct marketing company, Svensk Direktreklam, has announced that it too is refusing to distribute the SD-Kurien newspaper containing the Mohammed "dog" cartoon.

Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrat party, issued a statement which said: "For both Posten and its main competitor to refuse to deliver information from a particular political party is a serious threat to free expression."

Meanwhile, Lars Vilks has decided to make the most of his death threats by working on a musical show based upon his Mohammed/dog cartoons. Echoing another stage musical called "Cats", Vilks has given a working title to the project - "Dogs".

Comparing his current oeuvre to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vilks said: "Muhammad is also a superstar in the modern sense of the term. We haven't decided yet if Muhammad will be portrayed by one or several people. Other characters featured will be the prime minister (of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt), Iran's president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and Al-Qaeda. They are best portrayed in musical form. We will also have an elegy by the "Choir of the Offended"."

Vilks brushed off the death threats, dismissing most of them as "scare tactics", and said that a sense of humor was necessary when dealing with the issue. He said to newspaper Dagens Nyheter: "It is part of the rules of the game to be able to criticize religion and politics. It is nothing personal and I do not have it in for anyone."

Another Swedish artist, 59-year old Stig Ramsing, decided to add to the climate of art, religion and offense by erecting a sculpture of Christ, depicted as a dog with oversized genitalia. The sculpture was placed on a traffic roundabout in the town of Skånes Fagerhult, in southern Sweden. Within hours of being set up, the sculpture mysteriously disappeared. It is highly unlikely that it "ascended into Heaven". No-one has claimed responsibility for the removing of the Jesus-as-dog statue.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:46 AM | Comments (1)

Pakistan: Taliban Islamists Take Control Of Town

News from Dawn and Pakistan's Daily Times.

Malakand district adjoins Swat, a region where Islamist unrest was one of the causes that supposedly triggered President Musharraf to impose a state of martial law throughout Pakistan. Both Malakand and Swat are in North-West Frontier Province, adjoining Pakistan. Swat has been called the "Switzerland" of Pakistan, as its mountainous scenery draws tourists from the rest of Pakistan. Since January, a firebrand cleric called Maulana Fazlullah has been in a state of war with the authorities. He has taken over 59 villages as part of his "independent" rulership. Fazlullah commands paramilitary units, which have kidnapped numerous Pakistani soldiers, and is linked to the Pakistan Taliban.

Malakand was where Winston Churchill was posted in the 1890s with the Fourth Hussars where he became a war correspondent. His book on those experiences (his first) was entitled Story of the Malakand Field Force, published in 1898.

Yesterday, immediately after sunset, 500 Taliban took over the town of Alpuri in Shangla district in Malakand Division. Shangla is the yellow area on the map. It used to be part of Swat district. The offices of the district police officer, district coordination officer, district courts and police lines were taken over in the operation by militants.

Militants in Swat had already openly vowed to take over Shangla, and Alpuri is the district's administrative center. Apparently there was no resistance to the takeover. A member of the Musharraf cabinet resides in Alpuri - federal Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam.

As a precautionary measure, a curfew was enacted in adjacent Malakand district. A curfew has also been imposed in Mingora, the administrative capital of Swat, which has not yet succumbed to the militants. Currently, six out of Swat's eight sub-districts have fallen under control of Islamist militants.

The Taliban leader behind the takeover of Alpuri is Maulana Muhammad Alam. He told residents of Alpuri: "We only struggle for the enforcement of Shariah," and promised that no-one would be hurt.

A senior Pakistan army source, Lt-Gen Muhammad Masood Aslam, has claimed that hundreds of foreign militants have been intensifying their operations in Swat. Earlier in the year, there was fighting between local Islamists in Swat and Islamists who came from outside Pakistan, particularly from Uzbekistan.

Aslam said: "Force is not the solution to anything. We want minimal application of force and not an indiscriminate military operation. We will use force in a selective and a very precise manner that is based on good intelligence and is most targeted."

The army has been attacking occupied centers in Swat since Sunday, using artillery shelling and helicopter gunships. Local people have claimed that six civilians were injured in yesterday's shelling, including a woman and a child.

The Pakistan army has claimed that four Islamist bunkers were blown up, along with an ammunition dump, in an attack on Sambat. The army claims that four Islamists were killed in the raid. Five militants were said to have been injured when a militant checkpoint was destroyed. In another raid, four local militants and one Afghan were captured.

The Islamists have set up checkpoints, where vehicles are stopped and "taxed" by militants.

Lt-Gen. Masood Aslam has said that the MMA (Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal or "United Front"), the combined Islamist opposition parties that ran NWFP's Regional Assembly, had prevented the army from using force when it was first deployed to Swat in July.

I will be compiling a larger report for FamilySecurityMatters.org on the situation in Pakistan since the state of martial law was imposed. This report will be published simultaneously on Western Resistance.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:57 AM | Comments (0)

Pakistan: Youth Killed By Islamist Bomb In Internet Cafe?

News from International Herald Tribune, Dawn and Pakistan's Daily Times is slightly contradictory, but the concurrent points are these:

In Peshawar in the troubled North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, a bomb exploded in an internet cafe in Gulbahar district. One person was killed. According to IHT and the Daily Times, the attack took place on Tuesday. However, Dawn (from Sunday 11 November) states the blast happened on Sunday.

Because of the state of emergency, it is to be expected that stories will not always be verified as they would normally be. The victim is said (IHT) to be 12, and according to the Daily Times, his hands were blown off, indicating he himself may have set off the bomb (according to Tahir Khan, chief of police in Gulbahar district).

Because of the confusion in the stories, I am here placing all three accounts, and when more substantial information comes in, I will update this post.

Dawn:

Bomb explodes in internet cafe

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR, Nov 11: A man was injured in a bomb blast in an internet cafe on the Ishrat Cinema Road in Gulbahar-4 on Sunday.

The owner of Cyber Point, Gohar Ali of the Sheikh Abad-1 area, was injured in the blast.

According to Mr Ali, the explosion took place at 4pm when he was taking his meal. He said he found himself under broken furniture and computers.

Two other people were working on a computer in the cafe when the low-intensity 300-gram local-made bomb exploded.

Daily Times:

One killed in cyber cafe blast

PESHAWAR: A man died when a bomb exploded in a cyber cafe in the Gulbahar police precincts on Tuesday, police said.

Gulbahar Police Station Investigation Officer Mirza Khan told Daily Times that the bomb was Russian made, weighed around 700-800 grammes, and went off at around 2.30pm in the Nihar Net Cafe located near the Gulbahar Police Station.

He said the identity of the man killed had not yet been verified and that the cyber cafe's owner, Nihar, had fled after the blast. An eyewitness told Daily Times that there were two or three people in the cyber cafe at the time of the explosion. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Tahir Khan told Daily Times that the blast had blown off both hands of the deceased, and "it seems that he was trying to plant the bomb". The SSP said police were trying to identify the deceased, who could not have been a suicide attacker as the amount of explosives was small. staff report

International Herald Tribune:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A bomb exploded inside an Internet cafe in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing a 12-year-old boy, police said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, where militants are waging a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign.

Islamic militants regularly target music and video shops, and sometimes Internet cafes, in the region in what they say is a drive against obscenity.

Tahir Khan, Peshawar's police chief, said the boy was alone in the cafe when the blast occurred. He provided no details.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:40 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

Switzerland: Muslim Shoots Worshipper At Mosque

News from Focus-Fen, Deutsche-Presse Agentur, and Reuters via Australia's Mercury and New Zealand's TVNZ.

Late on Monday, a solitary gunman entered a mosque in Crissier, Vaud canton, and opened fire with a military assault rifle. About 10 people were in the Islamic Center when the 23-year old man entered the building.

The gunman, aged 23, was a Muslim and a Swiss national who had undergone military service. The weapon and ammunition he possessed had been issued to him during his army service. Switzerland's militia system allows soldiers to keep weapons and ammunitions at their own residences, a move which has been criticized.

He had been spotted by police at nearby Bussigny-pres-Lausanne carrying a gun. They followed him, but by this time he had entered the prayer room on the first floor (US second floor) and had opened fire on the worshippers inside. A 43-year old worshipper had been shot in the abdomen. Thee gunman was overpowered on the floor by the other worshippers.

Police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said that no motive had been established for the gunman's actions.

Update: Kuwaiti News Agency reports that the gunman is of Kosovar origin. 12 shots were fired, but only one person was hit. The victim is now said to be out of danger.
_______

As the gunman is a Muslim, there appears to be no "religious antagonism" in his action. However, there have been problems in Switzerland recently with many Swiss objecting to the construction of minarets, changing the skyline of towns. This problem has also caused hostile reactions and concern in the Netherlands and Germany. An interesting report on this can be found in an article by Ian Traynor from last month, published in South Africa's Mail & Guardian.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)

Denmark: Muslim Tortures Woman For "Being Christian"

Another contribution from our Danish friend and correspondent, Wiking.

This is the shed where the woman was held captive and tortured

A 19 year old woman managed Sunday evening to escape from her torturer, a Danish citizen of Lebanese background.

She had been held captive for 9 days in a shed in the Sydhavnen district of Copenhagen where she had been beaten with an electric cable and subjected to other acts of violence by her boyfriend, a 19 year old Danish citizen from Lebanon. Sunday afternoon she managed to break out of her prison, climbed a fence and broke into a store, where she found a telephone and called her family.

The woman is now in hospital with extensive body damages. She had received almost nothing to eat and drink during the nine days. She has bruises from the beating and burns from cigarettes and from molten plastic that has been dripped onto her body. Her front teeth are knocked out, she has bleedings in both eyes, she has stab wounds all over her body and possibly a broken mandible. Part of her hair is burned away and her finger and toe nails are damaged, probably caused by pliers according to the police. A piece of her right thumb is missing.

She has extensive burn lesions on her legs from previous episodes of violence. The burns are caused by boiling water according to her own statement.

The violence has taken place over a period of one year, but has escalated drastically during the last month, according to the girl. The man threatened to kill her family if she reported him. Also, he has forbidden her to speak to her mother, because she is a Christian.

She is now under police protection, from fear that the family of the young man will try to harm her.

The full story (in Danish) comes from Jyllands-Posten

By WIKING

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:55 AM | Comments (0)

International: Actions Against Nuclear Iran - The Fallout

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Unilateral Sanctions

On October 25, the United States Department of State announced that actions were being taken against Iran. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) were designated under Executive Order 13382 for being parties to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Five named individuals and nine organizations connected to IRGC were also designated.

Three state-owned banks - Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat - with their branches and subsidiaries were also designated under Executive Order 13224. This order has been used since September 23, 2001 to designate numerous terrorist entities. Additionally a branch of the IRGC, the Al-Quds Force was designated by the State Department on October 25. This group supplies weaponry and finances to the Taliban, Hizbollah and to Shia insurgents in Iraq. The reasons for the designations were twofold, to stem Iran's supply of weaponry and logistics to terrorist groups in Iraq, and to hinder Iran's continuing efforts to acquire nuclear weaponry. Bank Mellat has given financial support to Iranian agencies connected with illegal nuclear proliferation.

US Treasury Department Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jnr. explained: "The Iranian regime's ability to pursue nuclear and ballistic missile programs in defiance of UN Security Council Resolutions depends on its access to the international commercial and financial systems. Iran also funnels hundreds of millions of dollars each year through the international financial system to terrorists. Iran's banks aid this conduct, using a range of deceptive financial practices intended to evade even the most stringent risk-management controls..."

"...We have been working closely and intensely with our international partners to prevent one of the world's most dangerous regimes from developing the world's most dangerous weapons. Part of that strategy involves denying supporters of Iran's illicit conduct access to the international financial system; these actors should find no safe haven in the reputable world of finance and commerce."

The upcoming designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was openly discussed in August, 2007. Former Ambassador Mark Ginsberg called the IRGC "Murder incorporated." President Bush warned: "When we catch you playing a non-constructive role, there will be a price to pay."

The Revolutionary Guards number 125,000, and the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was a former commander within the unit. They also control a squad of suicide volunteers called the Setad Pasdasht Shohadaye Nehzat Jahani Islam which has mounted recruitment campaigns in Europe. The IRGC is also believed to control up to one third of Iran's economy.

The unilateral sanctions announcement came days after the chief nuclear negotiator in Iran, Ali Larijani, resigned following policy differences with President Ahmadinejad. His successor, Saeed Jalil, is a close ally of the president and is known to be more "hard-line" than Larijani.

On September 3, 2007, Iran announced to the world that it was using more than 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium. On April 11, 2006, Iran's president had said that his engineers had developed enrichment of uranium to create nuclear fuel, but only on a "laboratory scale". At that stage Iran had only 164 centrifuges. On April 12, Iran announced that it would complete a farm of 3,000 centrifuges by the end of 2006. Once complete, construction then would start on a 54,000 centrifuge facility in an underground bunker in Natanz.

Ahmadinejad's announcement in September, in which he said: "We have more than 3,000 centrifuges working and every week a new set is installed," signaled a new departure for Iran's nuclear arms program. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited Natanz in August 2007 and then reported that 1,968 centrifuges were in action. Last week, on November 7 Ahmadinejad announced that the nuclear program was "irreversible". Speaking at the city of Birjand, Ahmadinejad declared: "Today, we have reached 3,000 centrifuges."

There seems to be confusion within Iran about how far it has progressed. The contradictory claims of when the 3,000 centrifuge target had been reached are one example of official confusion. Even though nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has disassociated himself from Ahmadinejad, he still works for the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameini. Soon after his "resignation" Larijani visited the European Union for talks with Javier Solana, the EU chief of foreign policy.

One thing is certain - the existing nuclear power plant under construction in Bushehr, southern Iran, which has been developed with help from Russia, is a pressurized water reactor. It has no need for highly enriched uranium, so the only possible purpose for building an industrial-scale factory for enriching uranium to high levels of purity is for the construction of material for nuclear weaponry. So far, the known purity of Iran's enriched uranium from 2006 is 3.6 percent pure. This is sufficient to produce electricity. To become viable for bomb production, uranium needs to be enriched to a purity of 90 percent.

Despite the visit by the IAEA to Nantaz in August, the nature of the centrifuge used in the existing "cascade" is so far unknown. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's chief nuclear scientist, has said: "As for more advanced machines - we indeed have plans to develop such machines. Having the advanced type of centrifuges and the new technology enables one to multiply production."

The development of what is called a P2 cascade would be extremely dangerous to international interests, as such a configuration would quadruple the speed at which uranium could be enriched. Ahmadinejad has announced that he is working on constructing a P2 centrifuge system, employing technological information made by Pakistani scientist Abul Qadeer Khan. According to Iranian opposition source the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), P2 development is being carried out in Ab-e Ali and Natanz, with assistance from North Korean and Chinese scientists.

Iranian Reactions

Since 2002, when Iran's nuclear plans were first revealed, Iran has consistently played cat and mouse with the international community - offering hopes of a cessation of operations and then back-tracking. Since 2005, Iran flouted resolutions from the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA. Since April 2006, the situation has become more urgent. On June 6, 2007, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China offered an incentive package to Iran. If the nation abandoned its uranium enrichment program, it would receive assistance to develop a nuclear power industry for civilian purposes. The offer of inducements was rejected.

A week before the American sanctions were anounced, President Bush had argued that Iran's possession of nuclear weapons could lead to "World War III." As soon as the sanctions were announced, Russian president Vladimir Putin suggested they may not be effective, and warned against further sanctions which might be made by the U.N. Security Council. On a visit to Portugal, he said: "Why worsen the situation by threatening sanctions and bring it to a dead end? It's not the best way to resolve the situation by running around like a madman with a razor blade in his hand." He suggested diplomacy as a solution, arguing that it had worked for North Korea.

Iran was characteristically belligerent. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the foreign ministry spokesman said: "The hostile American policies towards the respectable people of Iran and the country's legal institutions are contrary to international law, without value and - as in the past - doomed to failure. The ridiculous accusations by American officials cannot save them from the Iraqi crisis that they have themselves created."

Saeed Jalil claimed: "These sanctions are nothing new. Sanctions have been imposed on us for 28 years. The new sanctions, like all those before, will have no effect on Iran's policies. The sanctions will only isolate the US on the international stage."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's response was predictable. He said: "Unfortunately, our enemies cannot tolerate to see our success and try to throw obstacles in our way... Our enemies know that they are not able to take any action against us and world nations never listen to them... Victory belongs to our nation and defeat and humiliation are facing our enemies."

General General Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the IRGC, responded: "The Islamic Republic has the strength and power of its people's faith. This power is joined with experience, knowledge and technology in the realms of defence. We will reply to any strike with an even more decisive strike."

The Iranian press has made much of a report that former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton has claimed that Colin Powell had tried to derail unilateral sanctions. Posell was said to have tried to suggest offering incentives to Iran, rather than sanctions.

Shaky Alliances

The first round of U.N. sanctions was approved in December 23, 2006, adopting resolution 1737. The declaration had been made after Iran had failed to observe a demand made on July 31 that Iran should "suspend all uranium enrichment-related and reprocessing activities." China indicated that it viewed the 2006 sanctions as a "means to an end" - to urge Iran to return to negotiations. The 2006 sanctions were considered reversible, should Iran return to the negotiating table.

In March this year, the United Nations Security Council imposed its second round of sanctions against Iran. A travel ban was set against people or organizations involved in Iran's nuclear program, and a partial arms embargo was authorized. These generated a cool reaction from various nations.

In May, the European Union imposed sanctions that went beyond those decreed in March. A full arms embargo was made and more individuals were added to the list of banned travelers. Their EU assets were frozen.

In late August, before the United States issued its unilateral sanctions, Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been French President since May 2007, had urged for more UN sanctions against Iran. He argued that should the UN Security Council fail to impose sanctions, then the EU should impose its own unilateral sanctions. The EU has substantial trade with Iran. Germany, Austria and Italy were reported to object to this suggestion.

Currently, the European Union has neither condoned nor condemned the unilateral October 25 sanctions, though the EU is urging a third round of UN Security Council sanctions. On Thursday November 1, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened economic sanctions of its own, should the EU join with the American unilateral sanctions. He said: "If (the EU) wants to cooperate with the enemy (the US), we would consider this as an unfriendly act and will show the appropriate reaction. You are well aware what would happen to economic calculations if we made a serous turn."

This month, Javier Solana is due to report to the European Union on the Iranian nuclear situation. Even if the European Union does decide to join with the American sanctions, it is unlikely that a meeting of the relevant commissioners and leaders could take place before December.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, is also due to report on Iran's program of enrichment this month. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "If their reports are not positive, then we are headed to a third sanctions regime." He added that "any discussion of issues before the UN Security Council is going to lead to 'where does Russia stand?'."

At the end of October, Mohamed ElBaradei claimed that there was no evidence that Iran was building nuclear weapons. He described the American administration of adding "fuel to the fire" with warlike rhetoric. ElBaradei told CNN: "I have not received any information that there is a concrete active nuclear weapons program going on right now. Even if Iran were to be working on a nuclear weapon.. they are at least a few years from having such a weapon."

The French Defense Minister, Herve Morin, disputed the IAEA chief's claims. He said on October 29: "Our information, matching those of other countries, gives us the opposite feeling." He argued that if ElBaradei was correct, then there should be no reluctance for Iran to open its doors to IAEA inspectors.

On Tuesday November 6, Nicolas Sarkozy visited George W. Bush in Washington. The visit marked the end a period of frosty relations set in train by the disdain for US foreign policies voiced by Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac. The visit was amicable, and Sarkozy made reference to the historic friendships with France - recalling the Marquis de Lafayette, a friend of George Washington who took part in the American Revolution.

Thomas Jefferson helped to write the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886. French/U.S. relations only began to cool after World War II, when General de Gaulle opposed France joining NATO. In 2001 on the last state visit of a French president to the U.S., Jacques Chirac caused offense by asserting that France was the antidote to American "hyperpower."

During his Washington visit, Sarkozy said of Iran's nuclear situation: "The hypothesis of a nuclear weapon in the hands of the current leaders of Iran is for France unacceptable." However, he advised that "one must remain open to dialogue, with a hand extended."

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, visited George W. Bush at his private ranch in Crawford, Texas, on Friday November 9. Before she left Germany, she had told a Berlin newspaper: "The United Nations is the place where sanctions [against Iran] are negotiated... We need the international community to be united on this, including Russia and China. I will commit everything to achieving a diplomatic solution. I'm sure the American president will have an open mind when I say this."

Her visit is the first by any German leader during the Bush presidency. She said on Tuesday last week: "I am aware that given the particular threat to Israel of an Iranian nuclear program, these words [of support] must not be empty words. They have to be followed by deeds, and my government is following its words with deeds." She claimed that the European Union was considering "a diplomatic solution, and that also means that Germany is definitively prepared for sharper sanctions against Iran."

At Crawford on Sunday, Merkel said: "I'm deeply convinced that the diplomatic possibilities have not yet been exhausted." She spoke of the diplomatic moves made by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, but admitted that if these and IAEA moves failed, then "we need to think about further possible sanctions. And we do not only need to think about them, but we also have to then talk and agree on further possible sanctions.. Germany needs to look somewhat closer at the existing business ties with Iran."

On Friday November 9, an agreement was reached between Britain, France, Germany, America, Russia and China. They resolved to push for further rounds of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. The decision to go ahead and push for UN sanctions will be dependent upon Mohamed ElBaradei's official report. If the IAEA chief decides that Iran is making progress in "trying to address concerns" about its nuclear plans, then they will not move to impose such sanctions. The six nations' representatives will convene again on November 19 to discuss ElBaradei's findings.

Israel stands to become the first potential victim of Iran developing a nuclear arsenal. Ahmadinejad has marked his tenure as president with comments about "wiping Israel off the map". Other suggestions by Ahmadinejad involving a metaphor of a burned tree have hinted that he will use nuclear weapons to achieve his goals against Israel. On Thursday November 8, Israel's deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz said: "Replacing ElBaradei is the right option. He is saying that he doesn't know about an Iranian nuclear weapons program, it's as if he's not familiar with his job."

Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reassured doubters that the unilateral sanctions package was not a prelude to war against Iran. Referring to a September Senate decision to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, she said: "There is nothing in this particular resolution that would suggest that. This resolution is saying that there need to be strong measures taken against Iran, which we have definitely done."

Britain - The Weakest Link?

Germany's reluctance to engage in unilateral sanctions Iran are based upon the high commerce between German companies and Iran. Such a decision could affect her political status at home. Britain has few business links with Iran. Its soldiers in Iraq have been placed at risk by Iranian-produced weaponry and insurgents who have been funded from Iran.

On Wednesday, October 31, the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, expressed his distance from America's unilateral sanctions package. At a briefing in New York, he said: "The most important thing is that the unanimity of the international community is valued by all six [UN Security Council powers] and sends a very clear signal to Iran and we need to keep that going."

Miliband maintained that European banks and businesses were making their own moves to reduce suport for Iran. He said that European investment in Iran had fallen by 40 percent this year.

Before the American sanctions against Iran, Miliband had argued on September 7 that Britain would support tough measures against Iran. He refused to rule out the possibility of an armed confrontation with Iran, but maintained: "I think that the whole of the international community wants a non-military, diplomatic solution to this problem. I don't think it does any good to speculate any wider than that."

In August, it was reported that Gordon Brown would support military action against Iran. Senior Pentagon officials had said that Britain's unelected prime minister Gordon Brown had agreed in principle to supporting air strikes against Iran. Brown had apparently made the pledge only on the condition that Iran should mount large-scale insurgent attacks against British or American troops in Iraq. Brown's promise had apparently been made in July, shortly after he had become prime minister.

A former White House intelligence official, Vincent Cannistraro, had said: "The British understand there's a possible need to strike - not strategic bombing of nuclear sites but facilities in Iran in support of Iraqi elements. This understanding was reached shortly after Brown took office."

Brown took the reins of power on June 27. Initially he gained from a surge of popularity among the voting public, the so-called "Brown bounce". That popularity has diminished over the fall, with some polls placing Brown behind the main opposition party, the Conservatives (Tories). Brown gave strong hints that he would call an election, to legitimize his role as "prime minister by default". Negative polls apparently dissuaded him from this course of action.

It appears that Brown is now so fearful of the electorate's potential hostility to any rerun of the situation with Iraq that he has back-tracked on his July pledge to the American administration. On November 11, the Sunday Telegraph reported that the administration of George W. Bush is "losing patience" with Gordon Brown.

An official from the U.S. State Department with close ties to Condoleezza Rice said: "It would be helpful if he (Brown) took a tougher line in public. We've got to convince Iran that the West will not tolerate them developing nuclear weapons. At the moment, I don't think Iran takes the threat seriously. We need Iran, and the rest of the world, to realise that this is not just a bunch of crazy Americans on the one side and flaky Europeans on the other - that we are united on this one."

Under Tony Blair, the Labour party was a staunch ally of President Bush. Brown has demonstrated that he is more close to the traditional leftist roots of the Labour party, and he has been keen to distance himself from the Republican dominated U.S. administration. As soon as he came to power, Brown demonstrated this by banning his cabinet ministers from using the expression "war on terror".

Brown voiced his opinion on Iran on November 3, when he said: "We are not going to rule anything out. The road that we want is a diplomatic road and the sanctions, we believe, are an important element of persuading the Iranians about the strength of feeling in the international community."

The opposition Conservative party in Britain supports a tough line against Iran. In May 2007 David Cameron, Tory party leader, said: "Every week, every month that goes by brings Iran closer to possessing a nuclear weapon." Like the Labour party, the Tory party has chosen poor advisers. Labour has employed the services of the Muslim Council of Britain, whose leaders have espoused extremist causes. The Conservative Party had set up its own Muslim advisory body, the Conservative Muslim Forum.

In October, days before the United States announced its unilateral sanctions against Iran, the Conservative Muslim Forum issued a report which criticized Britain's relations with Israel and claimed: "Given Iran's position in the Middle East, facing a nuclear-armed Israel, Iran appears to have legitimate reasons for seeking nuclear weapons for defensive purposes."

Unless Britain can produce a leader with the passion and conviction of Tony Blair, or better still Margaret Thatcher, the future for the "special relationship" between Britain and America is looking decidedly bleak.

Update

Last night, Gordon Brown made his first Foreign Policy speech since he assumed power on June 27. He addressed dignitaries at the Lord Mayor's Banquet at the Guildhall in London, wearing a $6,000 suit and introduced by a fanfare of trumpets. Perhaps stung by criticism of his aloof position regarding the administration in the U.S., he spoke of his support for the United States.

He said: "It is no secret that I am a life-long admirer of America. I have no truck with anti-Americanism in Britain or elsewhere in Europe and I believe that our ties with America - founded on values we share - constitute our most important bilateral relationship. And it is good for Britain, for Europe and for the wider world that today France and Germany and the European Union are building stronger relationships with America."

Brown did not mention support for President Bush as he is known to have close links with members of the Democrat Party. Even the BBC's American correspondent Jonathan Beale has spoken of a "distinct autumn chill" in the relations between Britain and the U.S. Beale added: "The question is can relations with Gordon Brown be as close as with Tony Blair?"

Brown also spoke of Iran, without mentioning the American sanctions initiative of October 25. He said: "We will lead in seeking tougher sanctions both at the UN and in the European Union, including on oil and gas investment and the financial sector."

When questioned about the possible effect that such an approach would have on fuel prices, Brown's spokesman said: "When we are dealing with nuclear proliferation, this needs to be taken seriously."

The speech is the first time Brown has tried to sound like a statesman, but his comments indicate that his support for "America" is only generalized, and not an endorsement of the current actions of the U.S. State Department.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:11 AM | Comments (1)

Russia: Feds Shoot Up and Shut Down Dagestan Jihad Group

Russian Special Forces destroyed eight members of Buinaksky Jamaat, a group of devout Muslims seeking to establish Islamic rule in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.

Russian officials say the eight -- two woman and six men -- were killed in a brutal firefight that lasted for several hours. Two of the women and two men were married. On Monday they were caught in their hideout, a private residence, in an elite district of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. This fact has authorities concerned that Islamic jihad has supporters among the wealthy and elite in the region.

Officials say the devout Muslims were planning to take hostage a nearby school shortly before New Year's, which is the most important holiday in Russia. In September 2004 devout Muslims seized a school in Beslan in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, and massacred 360 hostages out of a total of about 1200.

For a detailed account (in Russian) of the Makhachkala firefight go to Newsru: http://newsru.com/russia/13nov2007/band.html

Posted by Jean de la Valette at 2:39 AM | Comments (0)

November 9, 2007

UK: Muslim Terrorism And The British Government

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

New Leader, Same Government?

The Labour Party, headed by Gordon Brown since June 27 this year, has been in power for more than a decade. When Labour was elected in May 1997, Gordon Brown held the post of chancellor and was regarded as second-in-command of the government. Islamic extremism was on the rise in British campuses and mosques when Labour came to power, but little was done to extinguish it.

One of the government's first laws to be introduced was the Human Rights Act of 1998. This enshrined the terms of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights into British law, trumping all existing legislation. The 1998 Act has been one of the biggest obstacles in countering terrorism. Many foreign terrorists have been allowed to seek asylum in Britain, even though they have been convicted in their home states for acts of terror that have included fatalities. They have been allowed to spread their extremism in Britain, and even plot terror acts abroad, with impunity.

The Human Rights Act has allowed Afghan terrorists and their families to be allowed permanent residence in Britain, and has prevented the deportation of known and suspected terrorists to their home countries, lest they be subjected to torture - a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR. Individuals like Abu Qatada, once described as "Al Qaeda's ambassador in Europe" remains in detention in Britain. Yasser al-Siri, convicted of terrorism and causing death in his native Egypt, walks free in Maida Vale, West London.

In November 2005, the Terrorism Act of 2006 was still undergoing review in the House of Lords (parliament's upper house). Four clauses of the Terrorism Act were opposed by the Association of Chief Police Officers. The controversial clauses were:

Amending human rights legislation to enable easier deportations

Making the glorification of terrorism (including acts of terror outside the UK) an offense

Automatically refusing asylum to anyone linked to terrorism anywhere

Banning Hizb ut-Tahrir and successors to the group Al-Muhajiroun

The only one of these clauses to remain when the terrorism law was finally passed was the offense of glorification of terrorism - Schedule 1, section 1 (3) of the Act. The 2006 Terrorism Act introduced penalties for the first time for engaging in terrorism training, either at home or abroad.

Even though the Human Rights Act 1998 protects the rights of terrorists and other criminals who are not even British citizens, a recent legal ruling declared that old people living in private care homes are not protected by the Human Rights Act.

In this week's Queen's Speech, outlining bills to be introduced during parliamentary session, a new Terrorism Act was mentioned. In all the proposed legislation produced by Gordon Brown's government, there are no reported plans to decrease the terms of the Human Rights Act to make deportations of terrorists or criminals easier, nor are there measures to extend the Act to protect vulnerable elderly people in private nursing homes. The Queen's Speech was widely expected to show Gordon Brown's promised "vision" for Britain. Various commentators have condemned the "lack of vision" in Brown's planned legislation.

When a major terrorism trial came to its conclusion on April 30, 2007, five individuals were given life sentences for plotting bombings on the UK mainland employing ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The most damaging evidence, which eventually secured convictions, was that produced by secret surveillance by MI5. Bugs had been placed in an apartment belonging to the cell's ringleader, Omar Khyam, and also in his car.

Even though secret electronic and video surveillance evidence is legally acceptable in a British court of law, evidence gained by phone-tapping is not allowed. For decades, successive U.K. governments have legally authorized phone-tapping of individuals. The majority of phone-tapping is enacted through the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

In December 1998, GCHQ monitored conversations made by hook-handed preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri. These took place on Hamza's newly purchased satellite telephone. Hamza was in communication with Abu Hassan, a terrorist in Yemen, leader of the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan. Hamza's words to Hassan indicated the preacher from Finsbury Park Mosque was aware of, and complicit in, the kidnapping of 16 Westerners in Yemen. During a botched rescue attempt on December 29 by Yemeni authorities, three Britons and one Australian died.

Though there was recorded evidence of Hamza's apparent involvement in the kidnapping of the Western tourists, it could not be used in court. The FBI has stated that the phone evidence will be used against Hamza in a U.S. court, if and when they succeed in having him extradited from Britain. Hamza remained free to continue preaching hatred of the West and encouraging international terrorism until his arrest in August 26, 2004.

If phone-tapping can be legally authorized by the British government, it is surprising that it cannot be used in a court of law in serious cases, particularly those involving acts of terrorism. If phone-tap evidence could have been submitted before a court, Abu Hamza may conceivably have been convicted long before he was finally given a seven-year jail sentence for "soliciting murder" on February 7, 2006. Stopping Hamza from preaching may have saved lives that were lost on 7/7.

There are apparently no plans in the Queen's Speech to allow phone-tap evidence in terrorism trials. Brown is known to support the notion, even though the security services, unwilling to prepare lengthy transcripts, have previously objected. Even Liberty, the UK civil rights group, supports the use of phone tap evidence in court.

Despite this, in July new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith quietly introduced a law, based on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, allowing anyone's personal phone details to be recorded. This law came into force on October 1, 2007. The details of any British citizen's calls (though not necessarily the content) are not only available to the government. The data can be shared by 795 public bodies, including local councils and unelected organizations such as the National Health Service. This law was introduced as a decree, with no discussion in the Upper House.

Recent Trials

Hamza's preachings were inspirational to a generation of budding Muslim radicals. Three individuals who went to hear Hamza preach at Finsbury Park Mosque were Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay. These three gained notoriety when they were part of the four-man cell that carried out the suicide attacks upon three London Underground trains and a Number 30 bus on July 7, 2005, killing a total of 52 travelers.

Exactly two weeks after the deadly 7/7 bombings, four individuals tried to identically repeat the attacks. On Thursday, July 21, 2005, on three Tube trains and a Number 26 bus, four young men attempted to detonate rucksacks containing an explosive mixture, using TATP as the detonator. This substance - triacetone triperoxide - was the same explosive used in the 7/7 attacks. Fortunately, the "chemist" for the group, Yassin Omar, had not prepared the chemicals properly. Even though members of the cell had purchased more than 208 US liquid pints of hydrogen peroxide to create the explosive, Omar's incompetence led to diluted H2O2 being used in his explosives, which also contained chapati flour.

As a result of the weakened recipe, when the rucksacks were detonated there was little damage. On one underground train, the mixture in Ramzi Mohemmed's rucksack spilled out and bubbled on the floor. He claimed to startled passengers: "what's the matter? It is bread, it wasn't me," before he fled. On the Number 26 bus in Hackney Road, East London, the rucksack belonging to Muktar Said Ibrahim (pictured above), the cell's leader, caused a window to shatter.

Even though Yassin Omar had failed to create full-strength explosive, during the trial, video evidence was presented to the court. Quantities of the explosive, weighing the same amount as those in the bomber's rucksacks, were placed in a quarry while scientists and legal observes watched from concrete bunkers. The movie footage of the blasts showed the extent of their devastation. Slowed down, a visible shock wave emanated from the center. Clifford Todd, principal forensic investigator from the Forensic Explosives Laboratory, said that such tests had never been carried out before, and on each occasion the devices exploded when triggered by detonators. He testified that if the 21/7 bombers' devices had detonated properly, their effects would have been as destructive as those on 7/7.

The four men who failed to carry out the bombings made their escapes, with Yassin Omar (who is six foot two inches tall) fleeing to Birmingham dressed in a burka and carrying a woman's purse. Hussain Osman fled to Italy and was deported back to Britain on September 23, 2005. On July 10, 2007 at Woolwich Crown Court after a six-month trial, the four failed suicide bombers - Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussain Osman, 28, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder. They were given life sentences. The jury could not reach a verdict on two other individuals, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Adel Yahya.

Two of the convicted men had been regular visitors to Finsbury Park Mosque while it was under the control of Abu Hamza. Adel Yahya (pictured) was also a frequent visitor to the Finsbury Park Mosque. He too had fled Britain after the bomb attacks failed. He was arrested in Ethiopia in November 2005. On Monday, November 5this week, 24-year old Adel Yahya was jailed for six years and nine months. He pleaded guilty to a charge of collecting information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.

Adel Yahya had pleaded guilty to this charge as it is less serious than charges he would have faced in a trial which is due to start next week at Woolwich Crown Court. He and 34-year old Manfo Kwaku Asiedu were to stand trial on charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. Yahya was told by the judge on Monday that as he had served 546 days in prison and as he will serve only half of his official sentence, he will be free in 22 and a half months.

Ghanaian-born Manfo Kwaku Asiedu will be facing a retrial next week on conspiracy charges. Two of those accused in the 21/7 trial - Muktar Ibrahim and Yassin Omar - had as their lawyer Mudassar Arani, who also acts as a lawyer for Abu Hamza and convicted terrorist Dhiren Barot. Ms Arani has been accused by trial judge Mr Justice Fulford QC of making "relentless and blistering" and "wholly unjustified" complaints against staff at Belmarsh prison, where the defendants were in custody, during the 21/7 trial.

During the court case, it was alleged that Ms Arani had sent payments totaling $1,200 to Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, who was not one of her clients. It was alleged that she did this to "persuade him to change his case to suit (Muktar) Ibrahim's." Manfo Kwaku Asiedu's lawyers claimed that while the defendants were in prison during the trial, Muktar Ibrahim had been threatening Asiedu to make his testimony match his own. Apparently in Belmarsh jail, Ibrahim would say to Asiedu: "I'm the emir (leader), shut up."

All of the 21/7 suspects were born in Africa. Muktar Ibrahim was born in Eritrea and as a child had arrived in Britain with his refugee family. He was granted British residency in 1992. He hated Britain, and acted as a thug. He committed street robbery to satisfy his marijuana habit, as part of a gang. One of the gang members claimed that: "Muktar never had a girlfriend. He liked white girls but he was into mistreating them and calling them bitches."

In May 2004, Muktar Ibrahim had been photographed while attending a terror training camp in the Lake District in northern England. On two weekends in May of that year, police had noticed a group of individuals who appeared to be engaging in "military-style" exercises. MI5 was contacted and the security agency would later engage in video surveillance of this "camp". Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorism squad photographed Muktar Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar, Hussain Osman, Adel Yahya and others praying at the farm site on May 3, 2004, shortly before they prepared to leave.

Osama Bin London and Abu Abdallah

The apparent jihadist training sessions which Muktar Ibrahim and the other 21/7 bombers attended are also the subject of another terrorism trial which began on Wesnesday, October 10, 2007. These training sessions were led by a man named Mohammed Hamid (now aged 50) who is on trial at Woolwich Crown Court with four other persons. Hamid admits that he organized trips to Great Langdale in Cumbria, but denies that they were for the purposes of terror training.

Mohammed Hamid, from Clapton, East London, had run a stall at Marble Arch outside Debenhams department store at the end of Oxford Street, central London. He sold Islamic pamphlets and books, and it was apparently here that he recruited young men to join him on "camping trips" and to attend Friday evening meetings at his home in the borough of Hackney. Hamid ran this stall with Muktar Ibrahim.

Another man was also placed on trial at a separate court, who is said to have been the ringleader behind these training sessions. This man is former soccer coach Attila Ahmet. After Abu Hamza had been arrested, he took over the running of Finsbury Park Mosque until evicted in February 2005, when mosque locks were changed. He is also known by the title Abu Abdallah.

Attila Ahmet had been arrested in London with 13 other individuals on September 1, 2006. His trial is taking place at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey). He is charged on eight counts, including soliciting to murder (advocating murder of non-Muslims) and publishing a statement urging people to commit acts of terrorism. On Monday October 10, 2007, the same day as Mohammed Hamid's trial began, 43-year old Attila Ahmed entered a plea of "guilty" on three counts of soliciting to murder.

What is important about both these ongoing trials - apart from their connections with Abu Hamza and the 21/7 bombers - is that they are the first to be brought under the terms of the 2006 Terrorism Act. In Woolwich Crown Court, Mohammed Hamid and his co-defendants are facing charges connected to terrorism training. Hamid is accused of providing weapons and terrorist training, soliciting murder, and possessing terrorist documents.

41-year old Mousa Brown from Walthamstow, East London, is charged with providing weapons training. 24-year old Kibley da Costa is charged with both giving and receiving instruction in terrorist training camps. 42-year old Mohammed Al-Figari and 20-year old Kader Ahmed, both of London, are accused of attending terror training camps.

The camp in Cumbria where the 21/7 bombers were photographed had been discovered by accident by an off-duty policeman while he was jogging.

In October 2004, Mohammed Hamid and Muktar Ibrahim were involved in a disturbance at their Islamic bookstall. The pair were said to have racially abused police who arrived at the scene. They had fled, but a member of the public had tripped up Ibrahim. They insulted two police officers, one a Hindu and the other of West Indian origin, about their backgrounds. When arrested, Mohammed said that he was "Osama bin London."

Prosecuting lawyer David Farrell told the Woolwich Crown Court that on his way to the police station, "Osama bin London" said to one police officer: "I've got a bomb and I'm going to blow you all up." Farrell said that the meetings at the Clapton home of "Osama bin London" were also attended by Attila Ahmet aka Abu Abdullah. "At meetings held at Hamid's home address and elsewhere, the methods of Hamid and Ahmet involved the encouragement of the use of unlawful violence in the name of Islam," Mr Farrell said.

From September 2005 onwards, Hamid's Clapton home was bugged by police. The surveillance allowed officers to hear the discussions and lectures that took place at the house. Hamid also called himself "Al-Quran". He would provide food for his visitors. The jury heard surveillance tapes from one of these meetings.

In this meeting, Hamid was discussing the attacks of 7/7 and asked: "How many people did they take out?" When told that fifty two people had been killed, he replied: "That's not even breakfast for me. That's not even breakfast for me in this country."

Woolwich Crown Court was told that Mohammed Hamid had been organizing training camps for 12 years before he was arrested. On his return from one of his training exercises, Hamid was passing high-security Paddington Green police station, where terror suspects are questioned. He shouted to the officers as he drove past: "Here is your terrorist, I'm here, come and get me."

The court was told that his colleague, Attila Ahmet, used to sing a song to a Calypso tune, whose lyrics stated: "Come mister Taleban, come implement Sharia... Come bomb England, before the daylight come."

Video evidence taken from the cellular phone of defendant Kibla da Costa was shown to the court. It showed footage taken during a training exercise in the New Forest between April 28 and May 1, 2006. More footage taken secretly by police camera of the same "session" was shown to the court.

On October 18, 2007, an MI5 agent code-named 1259 gave evidence to Woolwich Crown Court. He described training sessions which had taken place in the Lake District. Shielded from view, Agent 1259 said: "There were about 10 males leopard crawling - moving low and flat along the ground. They were doing press-ups and sit-ups - hard physical activity - and there was an anti-ambush drill, reacting to effective enemy fire."

When Attila Ahmet and other individuals had been arrested in September 2006, a search was made of a large school in Mark's Cross, near Crowborough in Sussex. This building, with more than 100 rooms, had become the Jameah Islameah boys' school in September 2003, though by 2005 an inspection showed that only nine pupils were registered. Abu Hamza had tried to purchase this building in the late 1990s. He had visited the building five times. He was also said to have set up camps in the 58 acres of the school grounds. Additionally, Hamza had considered buying sites for terror training in Wales and Lancashire before he decided to establish a terror training center in Bly, Oregon.

Four of the people arrested at the same time as Attila Ahmet had also been reported by Spanish authorities traveling to North Africa in April 2006, where they were though to have attended training camps. The same individuals had been in Spain in 2005. They were assumed be intending to set up a terror recruiting center in Granada province. Whether these four individuals are among the individuals currently on trial in London remains to be seen.

Errors of Policy

While Tony Blair was prime minister, the Labour government had as its adviser on Muslim policy issues the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). This body claims to represent 400 mosques and Islamic institutions across Britain, even though some of its senior figures support Islamist groups and the terror group Hamas. In late 2006, it appeared that the government had distanced itself from the MCB.

When Gordon Brown became unelected prime minister this year, he told his cabinet ministers not to mention the war on terrorism, in case it caused offense to Muslims in Britain. On July 25 he made a speech in parliament about security. He spoke of integrating terror watch lists with those of Interpol, and sharing information with European partners. He said that "more important even than consensus here in this house is the consensus we will seek in all the communities across this country." The MCB welcomed this move. It appears that under Gordon Brown, the MCB are again becoming closer to government.

While Brown was chancellor, the MCB had strongly influenced government policy. It urged the establishment of a bill which came into force on October 1, 2007. This was originally intended to outlaw any criticism of religion, imposing a 7 year jail penalty for such an offence. The upper house neutered this bill, only outlawing extreme cases of inciting religious hatred. The MCB argued against clauses in the Terrorism Act 2006, and refused to support Tony Blair's intention to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. It even caused the government to abandon plans to outlaw forced marriage.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and also the Metropolitan police get much of their advice from a group called the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), which was established in the wake of 9/11. A recent report has highlighted that four of the Muslim Safety Forum's affiliated organizations have been found to contain extremist literature. These are the the Regents Park Mosque, Al-Manaar (The Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre), Al-Muntada Al-Islami Trust and the UK Islamic Mission (the Euston Mosque).

It is not surprising that ACPO urged the government to withdraw key parts of the 2006 Terrorism Act, including a clause which would have meant that if a mosque allowed imams to "glorify terrorism" the mosque could be temporarily closed down. It is not surprising that the Metropolitan Police, again influenced by the Muslim Safety Forum, suggested in September 2006 that before terrorism raids could take place, they would first need to be approved by a panel of four Muslim leaders. This proposal was eventually scrapped this year.

The Metropolitan police and the Charities Commission (which contains many Muslim charities that support extremist causes) ensured that after Abu Abdallah (Attila Ahmet) was evicted from Finsbury Park Mosque, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) took over the running of the mosque. One of the five trustees is Mohammed Kassem Sawalha who was a former Hamas fundraiser. Sawalha is a leading figure in MAB, a group founded in 1997 by senior Muslim Brotherhood member Kemal al-Helbawy. Sawalha was known on the West Bank by his code-name Abu Abada. Another senior figure in MAB is Azzam al-Tamimi, who claims to be against terrorism in Britain, but said in November 2004 that he would become a suicide bomber against Israel "if I had the opportunity." MAB is widely regarded as a Muslim Brotherhood group.

The Labour government has supported engaging the Muslim Brotherhood through the Engaging With The Islamic World Group (EIWG), a division of the Foreign Office. Run by Mockbul Ali, a former student Islamist, this group has sponsored Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the MB's spiritual leader and supported him visiting Britain. EIWG continues to be funded by the government.

An essential part of national security is to maintain secure border controls. Labour has failed to secure Britain's borders. By its own estimates there are 570,000 illegal immigrants in the U.K., though the true figure is probably 800,000. Labour has not even been able to accurately give a figure for legal migration. Immigration under the Labour government has taken place with few restrictions and a recent poll shows that 72 percent think that the current administration is doing a "poor job" of managing this. Under Labour, 10,000 British passports were given to fraudulent applicants, with some going to known terrorists.

In Brown's current cabinet, the culture secretary is Hazel Blears. In August 2005, after Tony Blair had sent her on a fact-finding tour of Muslim communities, Blears announced that: "What we have discussed today is the need to teach the true nature of Islam, which is about peace and love." Ms Blears announced on October 31 last week that the government would be donating $140 million to Muslim groups. This is being done to stop the spread of extremism, with $50 million to be spent on training imams who can speak English (only six percent of imams speak English as a first language) and encouraging citizenship programs in British madrassas.

Already, many of the Muslim groups in Britain that are trusted by the government, police and the Charities Commission are known to have extremist literature on their premises, and have leaders who support extremism. The recently-announced funding makes no mention of which groups will receive the money, nor if such funding is conditional upon all existing extremist elements being purged from these organizations.

Labour under Tony Blair has wasted public resources on multicultural ventures. In December last year, it was found that the Foreign Office had been sending groups of British Muslims to visit 18 other nations, to "meet other Muslims". A spokesman said: "The idea is to promote British Muslims overseas, to try to get rid of the myth that British Muslims are oppressed, and to give Muslims in the UK the experience of how Muslims in other parts of the world live."

Poor choices of advisers and poor choices in funding have been the hallmark of government policy for the past decade.

Gordon Brown announced in November 2006 that he would donate $910 million to Pakistan. Most of that money was to be spent on madrassas, even though these establishments have encouraged violent extremism. It appears that now he is in power, Gordon Brown is prepared to not only repeat the mistakes of the Labour administration's past, but to compound them further.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 1:40 PM | Comments (0)

Denmark: Palestinian Policemen Harassed By Muslims

Story/translation submitted by our Danish correspondent, Wiking.

Two young police constables of Palestinian origin have been granted extended police protection according to a report in Jyllands Posten today.

After months of harassment, culminating in the bombing of one of the men's car, the police district of Østjylland has taken the unusual decision to grant the two extended protection, says chief inspector John Jacobsen.

The problems started in June when the two assisted in the arrest of a group of "youths" from the Gellerup area after a prison verdict against some of them. Later the constables were harassed in their private life and threatened with physical violence. Two young men were later arrested and imprisoned for the threats. That caused the "youths" in the area to file a formal complaint against the two police officers.

The "youths" have stated that they regard the two as traitors who use their inside knowledge in order to please the police.

The minister of Justice Lene Espersen in a commentary calls the incident embarrassing.
"It's unpleasant, but the police do right thing when they act preemptively. The police have a great and deserved support among the Danes" she says.

For many years the police have tried to recruit officers from among the immigrants, chief inspector John Jacobsen says. This is a big setback for this work. Policing is still regarded as a low status job among the immigrant "youths" *.

* "youths" is a euphemism for Muslims, used by the press in order not to hurt the sensitivity of the PC crowd.

With thanks to Wiking

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 1:25 PM | Comments (0)

November 8, 2007

MI5: British Muslim Terrorists More Numerous, Getting Younger

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

First Interview With A Working MI5 Agent

In fiction, such as James Bond movies and the BBC's drama show MI-5 (known as Spooks in the U.K. and currently in its sixth series), MI5 has been portrayed as glamorous, its agents living a life filled with action-packed adventure. The reality is obviously more prosaic.

On Tuesday (November 6), a serving MI5 agent gave an interview to Angus Walker of ITV News. This was the first time that an active MI5 officer was authorized to talk to the media. Her voice was disguised and she did not appear on camera. She said: "I've spent time in investigations, countering the threat from international terrorism. I've also worked in the counter-espionage section, as well as spending time in serious crime."

She spoke of MI5 reactions to 7/7, the suicide bombings of July 7, 2007, which killed 52 innocent people on London Transport. "Like most of the public, we were shocked. It was a huge event. What we had to do was pull ourselves together. On the 8th of July, our previous director-general, Eliza Manningham-Buller, called a meeting in our staff restaurant. She said that this was a big event, something terrible, but we must remember that we were trained to do this. This was what our job is, and this is what we're prepared to do."

The interviewer referred to revelations that the leader of the 7/7 attack (Mohammed Sidique Khan) had been bugged and watched by MI5 in the months preceding the bombings, but had not been stopped. MI5 had been severely criticized for this.

"I think sometimes we do get a bad press," the agent responded. "But I think that's understandable, given that we can't be open about methods that we use, and some of the work that we do. We naturally have to be secretive about some of the work that we do, because we don't want to compromise our methods."

When Angus Walker asked her: "Why work as a spy?," she answered: "I work with people who don't seek public recognition for what it is they do. We want to protect national security, and that is the satisfaction that I get from my job - knowing that I can go home at the end of the day, and that I , together with my colleagues, have played our part in helping to keep our country safe."

Though no great secrets were revealed on ITV News, the fact that the current head of MI5 had authorized this interview - the first of its kind - signals a new direction by MI5 - an attempt to become media-friendly. In part, this may be connected with the agency's long-standing attempts to recruit new members. It may also be an exercise in damage limitation. This year, MI5 received unprecedented media criticism.

On April 30, 2007 a trial concluded at the Old Bailey. Five British Muslim men were convicted of plotting terror attacks against various British targets using ammonium nitrate fertilizer as an explosive. The men were given life sentences. The MI5 and police surveillance of this group had been code-named "Operation Crevice". With the trial over, media restrictions were lifted, and MI5's surveillance of Mohammed Sidique Khan and his deputy, Shehzad Tanweer, was officially discolsed.

The current director-general of MI5, Jonathan Evans, publicly acknowledged that Khan and Tanweer had been under surveillance. On the MI5 website (now removed) was written: "It is true that the Security Service and Police did come across two of the 7 July bombers - Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - during the earlier investigation into the fertiliser plot. However, even with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been impossible from the available intelligence to conclude that either Khan or Tanweer posed a terrorist threat to the British public."

"Khan and Tanweer were never identified during the fertilizer plot investigation because they were not involved in the planned attacks. Rather, they appeared as petty fraudsters in loose contact with members of the plot. There was no indication that they were involved in planning any kind of terrorist attack in the UK."

Khan and Tanweer had met Omar Khyam and others from the Operation Crevice plot on at least four occasions between February 2, 2004 and March 23. A week after their last meeting, on March 30, 2004 Omar Khyam and other "Crevice" plotters had been arrested. A few weeks after the Crevice arrests a plot to build a "dirty bomb" (involving Dhiren Barot and his associates) and with resources diverted to this end, attention was drawn away from the activities of Khan and Tanweer.

MI5 had been so unprepared for the events of 7/7 that on the morning before the attacks, the then-director general, Eliza Manningham-Buller told senior members of parliament that there was no imminent terrorist threat to London or the rest of Britain. During her leadership of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller had argued for more funding for the service and for more recruits - particularly for its counter-terrorism wing, known as G-Branch.

Young Terror Suspects

The day before the ITN interview, on Monday, November 5, the current head of MI5, Britain's homeland intelligence service, gave his first public speech since his tenure began in April this year. Jonathan Evans was addressing the 2007 Manchester-based conference of the Society of Editors, a professional grouping of editors and publishers in print and broadcast media.

The speech was entitled "Intelligence, counter-terrorism and trust". Evans' full speech can be found here and on the MI5 website. The main details of this speech filled press and broadcast news reports over Monday and Tuesday.

The most important of Evans' revelations were his claims that the agency was now monitoring "at least 2,000" British potential terrorists, and that an increasing number of school-age young people were being recruited into "al Qaeda-related" terrorism. Some of these were as young as 15 and 16.

As Evans noted, his predecessor Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller had made a speech on November 9, 2006 at Queen Mary College, London. At this time she had said that MI5 were monitoring 200 cells involving 1,600 individuals. Four months before that, in July 2006, MI5 had been monitoring only 1,200 potential terror plotters, but maintained that these came from a larger base of 400,000 extremist "sympathizers" living in Britain. In April 2006 Manningham-Buller had claimed that at least 400 potential terrorists, and maybe even 600, were at large in Britain. In 2005, Lord Stevens, who had been the Metropolitan police commissioner, had claimed that there were only 200 potential Islamist terrorists in Britain.

It is obvious that estimates of the number of identified potential terrorists has increased dramatically since 2005, though not at a steady rate. Over the past 12 months, MI5 has increased its number of watched suspects by only 400, an increase of 125% from the number monitored a year ago. The figure is now "at least 2,000", but Evans added in his speech: "And we suspect that there are as many again that we don't yet know of."

Evans said: "This growth, which has driven the increasingly strong and coordinated government response, is partly because our coverage of the extremist networks is now more thorough. But it is also because there remains a steady flow of new recruits to the extremist cause. And it is important that we recognise an uncomfortable truth: terrorist attacks we have seen against the UK are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups. The majority of these attacks, successful or otherwise, have taken place because Al Qaida has a clear determination to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom. This remains the case today, and there is no sign of it reducing. So although MI5 and the police are investigating plots, and thwarting them, on a continuing basis, we do not view them in isolation."

On the issue of young people being drawn into terrorism, he said: "As a country, we are rightly concerned to protect children from exploitation in other areas. We need to do the same in relation to violent extremism. As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country. They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism. This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity."

The issue of young people becoming embroiled in terror has already been shown from court convictions. On July 26 this year, a young man from London named Mohammed Irfan Raja was sentenced to two year's detention. He had been found guilty of possessing extremist material on the hard drive of his computer. This offense had happened when he had been aged 17, and officially enrolled at school. He had run away from his home to join a cell of four Islamist students in Bradford, who were also convicted. Raja had left a farewell note that indicated he would be going off to fight jihad abroad.

Abdul Muneem Patel had been among several young people who had been arrested in August 2006, in connection with a plot to blow up several U.S. bound planes using liquid explosives. The plot had been broken as a result of cooperation between British, American and Pakistani intelligence agencies. Patel had been born on April 17, 1989, making him 17 at the time of his arrest. He was convicted a few weeks ago for possessing a document likely to be useful for terrorism. He was given a six month's custodial sentence.

Though Evans claims that "children as young as 15 and 16" are becoming recruited into terrorism, so far there are no publicly recorded cases of anyone of that age being arrested or convicted on terrorism charges.

Dangerous Influences

Jonathan Evans claimed that since 2002, much of Al Qaeda's influence on plans of terror attack which have been happening in Britain has derived from its bases in Pakistan. He also said that: "But worryingly, we have more recently seen similar processes emerging elsewhere."

"For instance, there is no doubt now that Al Qaida in Iraq aspires to promote terrorist attacks outside Iraq. There is no doubt that there is training activity and terrorist planning in East Africa - particularly in Somalia - which is focused on the UK. And there is no doubt that the extension of what one might call the 'Al Qaida franchise' to other groups in other countries - notably in Algeria - has created a significant upsurge in terrorist violence in these countries. It is no coincidence that the first suicide bombing in Algeria followed the creation of the new 'Al Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb'."

"This sort of extension of the Al Qaida brand to new parts of the Middle East and beyond poses a further threat to us in this country because it provides Al Qaida with access to new centres of support which it can motivate and exploit, including in its campaign against the UK."

There are, however, some fundamental flaws in Evans' account. There are several other individuals in Britain who belong to Islamist terror groups which are not directly linked to Al Qaida, even though they may share some similar aims. The Finsbury Park Mosque under Abu Hamza encouraged London to become a hub for terrorists with links to numerous Islamist groups from North Africa, Yemen, Chechnya and Kashmir. To label all these as "Al Qaeda" misleads both the press and the public.

As Melanie Phillips points out in the Spectator: "Astoundingly, he makes no mention of the words 'Islamic', 'Islamist' or 'Muslim' at all, and mentions 'Islam' only once at the end of his address - to explain why he has avoided all mention of the religion that actually drives the terrorism he has spent the past decade fighting."

Evans tries to explain this by saying: "We must also pay close attention to our use of language. It is easy to forget, in talking of actions, aims and approaches, how what is said affects what is done. Yet you will be as conscious as I am of the consequences of words. And we are tackling a threat which finds its roots in ideology, so words really do matter. This is not political correctness. We cannot create hard and fast rules but we must recognise the extremist message for what it is. Anything which enables it to claim to be representative of Islam; anything which gives a spurious legitimacy to its twisting of theology will only play into its hands. One of Al Qaida's key aims is to provoke divisions within and between communities, and we have seen their own media department - to which they attach great importance - seeking to do this. So we've got to be sure that what is said neither explicitly nor implicitly makes this easier for them. The terrorists may be indiscriminate in their violence against us, but we should not be so in our response to them."

Melanie Phillips describes this approach as "dangerous" and "absurd". She also states that division between communities is essential, creating a sharp division between the genuinely moderate Muslims and those that support extremism and terror.

On June 27, two months after Evans became director-general of MI5 (he had been deputy head of the group since 2005) the leadership of the British Labour government changed. The unelected prime minister Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair. Brown's political approach has been marked by extreme political correctness and a lurch to even more left-wing social policies. Brown has issued orders to his cabinet ministers not to mention the "war on terror", even though his predecessor Blair, as did Evans' predecessor Eliza Manningham-Buller, warned a year ago that the war on terror would last for at least a generation.

When Brown came to power, he brought in a new cabinet, which included a new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. She admits that she has avoided the mention of a "war on terror" when she spoke to Parliament after the car bomb plots of July 29-30. Smith said of the term: "It is not one that I used. It seems to me that what we should be doing is emphasising the values that we share which are under attack from terrorism, rather than trying to create a battle or war between those who oppose the terror and those who want to carry it out."

When one reads Evans' entire speech, the stamp of the Brown government's approved dogma makes itself plain. As I wrote earlier on FamilySecurityMatters.org, MI5 is directly accountable to the Home Secretary. Jacqui Smith gives her own introductory message on the MI5 website, and here, her language employs "Brownite" politically correct terminology: "The major threat which the UK faces today is from international terrorism. Groups inspired by or with links to Al Qaida are intent on causing indiscriminate injury to all communities in the UK, and seek to jeopardise our way of life. Events in the last 3 years have shown that this threat is real, serious and deadly."

When she addressed the UK Parliament in July in the aftermath of bomb attacks, Smith said: "Let us be clear - terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions." Such political correctness does not describe the terrorist threat accurately, as the only religion that currently has terrorist followers threatening the West (and also threatening moderate Muslim societies) while finding its justification from religious scriptures is Islam.

This evasive and unrealistic Labour government dogma, employing a censored lexicon, has also infected Jonathan Evans' speech. As a result, his speech is useless as a guide to where the country is in its battle to counter the current threats of terrorism. Not all Muslim terrorists are Al Qaeda-based, and to use the term Al Qaeda as a catch-all term to describe Islamist terrorism is dangerously misleading. Islamism as a term does not appear once in Evans' speech, even though at ground-level, potential Muslim terrorists are inspired by Islamist ideologues and are mostly drawn from groups and mosques that uphold or support Islamism.

Many of Britain's Muslim "representative groups" are closely linked with Islamist bodies. The Muslim Association of Britain is closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Its founder was Kemal al-Helbawy, who co-founded the Muslim Council of Britain, a body which has acted in an advisory capacity to the Labour government. The MCB has senior members who support the Muslim Brotherhood, the terror group Hamas, and also the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party.

There are hints in Evans' speech that he understands the root causes of extremism. He stated: "And the prognosis for the medium term? I do not think that this problem has yet reached its peak. Speaking after the London and Glasgow attacks earlier this year, the Prime Minister said that: 'our country - and all countries - have to confront a generation-long challenge to defeat... terrorist violence'."

"He is of course correct. And it means that the work of the intelligence and security agencies will not be enough. We will do our utmost to hold back the physical threat of attacks, but alone, this is merely containment. Long-term resolution requires identifying and addressing the root causes of the problem. This is not a job only for the intelligence agencies and police. It requires a collective effort in which Government, faith communities and wider civil society have an important part to play. And it starts with rejection of the violent extremist ideology across society - although issues of identity, relative deprivation and social integration also form important parts of the backdrop."

"This will not, however, happen overnight. I have been directly engaged in work against this violent extremist threat for most of the last decade, and I believe that terrorism inspired by it is likely to dominate the work of my Service well into the future."

Dealing With The Future

Tackling extremism, according to Evans, will include public cooperation. He stated: "My Service is grateful for all the offers of information that we receive on a daily basis. But we also need to maintain the wider trust and support of everyone in this country. In tackling this public threat, we are most effective when we are working with the grain of public opinion, not against it."

Unfortunately, there appears to be no consensus on what the public opinion really is in Britain as it now stands, infected by multiculturalism imposed from above, and reactionary attitudes proliferating at "street-level". Evans urges journalists to continue to act in ways that do not compromise security operations. He stated: "I am, on the whole, impressed with the media's sense of responsibility and its understanding of our concerns. And as the demand for news increases, we cannot afford to let this understanding fall away. Because there is no contract between the security and intelligence agencies and the media. There is no memorandum of understanding between us. It is a matter of trust."

There is already a system by which "sensitive" areas of reporting are highlighted by a government-sponsored body, the Defense, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee. These are called Defense Advisory Notices (DA-Notices). These indicate what can or can not be safely reported, with journalists advised to consult the committee for guidance.

Currently, there are 3,000 employees at MI5. In her introductory statement on MI5's website, Jacqui Smith stated that the government had increased resources for the Security service, and by the end of 2008 it will have more than 3,500 staff, more than twice the number it had in 2001. In Monday's speech to the Society of Editors, Jonathan Evans claimed that he wanted to see MI5 having 4,000 staff, with a quarter of these working outside of London. MI5 has established several regional offices in Britain in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow, Wales and the SouthWest.

Jacqui Smith wrote that: "The security Service would be keen to hear from anyone who feels they may be able to assist in their work, and you can contact them via their public telephone number or email - details of which are available on this website."

In Monday's speech, Evans reiterated the need to have more recruits. He did not mention Muslim recruits, though these are needed. He said: "The difficulty here, of course, will be to ensure we get not just more people, but more of the right people. It is important for us to have a diverse workforce. Without this breadth of experience, attitude and perspective, we will not be as effective as we can be. And I am encouraged by the numbers of black and minority ethnic recruits joining us. But I am concerned that we are seeing fewer female applicants to the service than we did during the 1990s - this is a paradox, considering that two of the last three directors-general were women."

His cautions of the "'quality" of recruits are based on real concerns. In April 2006, an unnamed government minister told the Sunday Mirror that extremists had applied for MI5 jobs: "The truth is that it has now been discovered that some of those people have strong links with al-Qaeda. There was always a risk that with such a speedy and widespread recruitment some would turn out to be bad eggs. But the recruitment has meant we are now in a much better position to stop al-Qaeda attacks than we have ever been before. Several planned attacks have already been stopped thanks to the high quality of our intelligence."

In his Monday speech, Evans also stated: "This year, yet again, there have been high levels of covert activity by foreign intelligence organisations in our country. Since the end of the Cold War we have seen no decrease in the numbers of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in the UK - at the Russian Embassy and associated organisations conducting covert activity in this country. So, despite the Cold War ending nearly two decades ago, my service is still expending resources to defend the UK against unreconstructed attempts by Russia, China and others, to spy on us. A number of countries continue to devote considerable time and energy trying to steal our sensitive technology on civilian and military projects, and trying to obtain political and economic intelligence at our expense."

Evans stated that these additional aggravations are causing a drain on MI5 resources. According to the Daily Mail, Evans' mention of Russia and China is "understood to have caused consternation at the Foreign Office. It could deal a blow to Gordon Brown's hopes to visit Beijing in the New Year."

On Tuesday, the Queen's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament outlined some of the Brown government's proposed bills for the upcoming parliamentary session. This stated that a new counter-terrorism bill would be introduced to parliament before Christmas. This would propose extending police powers to detain terrorism suspects for more than the current maximum of 28 days. On November 9, 2005, Tony Blair tried but failed to introduce a maximum detention limit of 90 days. It is believed the proposed bill would raise the limit to 56 days. Additionally this new bill will establish a register of people convicted of terrorism charges. Even after their release, such individuals would be legally required to inform police of any changes of their address or name, and they would be prevented from traveling overseas.

No matter how forward-thinking or original Evans and MI5 may be in their plans relating to terrorism, they are still employees of the government. And the Labour government, in power since May 1997, has made some appallingly bad decisions concerning how it deals with terrorism. Tomorrow I will show some of the recent blunders in anti-extremist policy made by the Brown administration. Additionally, using cases that have recently concluded or are currently continuing in British courts, I will show just how far extremism has been allowed to flourish in Labour's Britain.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:42 PM | Comments (0)

November 5, 2007

Russia: Devout Muslims Massacre 9 Men in Cold Blood

Russia awoke today to news* of a brutal massacre of 9 local men in the southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The men's `crime'? They just happened to wander near a hideout for devout Muslims seeking to establish a caliphate in the region. The group of nine consisted of four hunters and five foresters acting as guides.

Police said all the victims were found with their hands tied behind their back and a gunshot to the back of the head. A Muslim Chechen web site claims that the executions were of nine FSB Special Forces. While anything is possible, it is hard to believe that nine highly-trained FSB anti-terrorist soldiers would just walk into such a trap.

Tears and tragedy for some people, but another bloody `victory' ' for the devout followers of the brutal 7th century Arabian warlord Mohammed.

* also in RIA Novosti (in English)

Posted by Jean de la Valette at 12:01 PM | Comments (1)

Pakistan: Did Islamism Really Provoke Martial Law?

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Pakistan Imposes Martial Law - What Has Gone Wrong?

Late on Saturday, November 2 (local time), President Musharraf of Pakistan announced a state of emergency, suspended the constitution, and imposed martial law. The situation is causing alarm amongst his supporters in the United States and in Britain. The situation happening now means that the election which was due to take place in January 2008 is unlikely to happen.

There are genuine reasons to be concerned. At best, hopes for a transition to a superficial level of democracy are threatened. At worse, a nation with nuclear arms potentially going into political meltdown could lead to some unthinkable scenarios. Much now depends on public reactions over the next few days. If there is a reaction of strong protest on the streets, the army may counter-react and chaos could ensue.

Already some of Musharraf's political opponents are placed under house arrest. Early on Sunday, Benazir Bhutto, the nearest thing Musharraf had to a political colleague in the upcoming elections, was claiming on BBC TV News that she was in her house and the army was outside. She did not know if she was under house arrest. A few hours later she claimed that the soldiers had gone.

General Background

Pakistan has been in a state of civil turmoil since January, when Islamists in the capital, Islamabad, reacted to plans to demolish illegally constructed mosques by barricading themselves in a children's library and threatening to launch suicide attacks if disturbed.

In Northwest-Frontier Province (NWFP), adjoining the border with Afghanistan, Al Qaeda leaders, accompanied by their supporters from Uzbekistan and other nations, have been in hiding since the Taliban lost control of Afghanistan in November 2001. Since March 2006, the Pakistan Taliban has had almost complete control of North and South Waziristan. On March 27, 2006 the first death sentence was carried out by a Taliban sharia court in Wana, South Waziristan.

70,000 Pakistani troops have been posted in the seven "Federally Administered Tribal Areas" of NWFP since 2002, but over the last month there has been massive upheaval in Swat, one of these regions. Two police stations were taken over last week by the Pakistan Taliban, and there have been reports of many soldiers surrendering to the Taliban in this region.

Pakistan has been gradually teetering towards a national crisis for some time. On October 30 last year, when Musharraf's troops bombed a madrassa in Bajaur, one of the "Federally Administered Tribal Areas" in NWFP. 80 people died, and local politicians blamed the U.S. for the attack, a claim denied by the army and government. Members of the six-party opposition known as the MMA (Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal or "United Front") already have control of the regional Assembly in NWFP. They have 65 members in the National Assembly, and have frequently called for revolution against Musharraf. The Bajaur bombing led the MMA to promise retribution, which followed days later with a suicide attack upon an army barracks in Malakand district on November 9, 2006.

In April members of Pakistan's shady intelligence agency, ISI or Inter-Services Intelligence, were believed to be behind the developing crisis at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, where Islamists were threatening to make war on Musharraf's government if sharia law was not imposed. At that time, members of this mosque were burning bookstores containing Western CDs and DVDs, and kidnapping individuals. Similar actions were simultaneously being carried out in NWFP.

In March, Musharraf had sacked Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry, and lawyers and members of the Islamist opposition parties rioted in protest. Eventually, Musharraf was forced to reinstate the Chief Justice in July. Shortly before Musharraf imposed martial law at the weekend, he had once again sacked Iftikar Mohammed Chaudhry and replaced him with one of his stooges.

On July 3, after months of indecision, Musharraf ordered that the army should mount an attack against the insurgents in the Red Mosque. A full attack brought the mosque insurgency to an end a week later, costing at least 100 lives. Since that time, insurgents in NWFP have taken on the activities of the leaders of the Red Mosque.

The mosque officially reopened on July 27, an event accompanied by a suicide bombing which killed 14 people, which led it to be closed again. More suicide attacks followed across Pakistan, killing at least four hundred people. On October 2 the Supreme Court ruled that the mosque should be reopened. At the end of September, Osama bin Laden stated that there would be "retaliation" for the storming of the Red Mosque.

On July 15, the pro-Taliban tribal leaders of Waziristan declared that they had decided to abandon the peace accord which had been brokered on September 5, 2006. Though widely regarded as ineffective against Al Qaeda members sheltering in the region, the accord had created a shaky peace for 10 months. Violence erupted in this region.

At the time, U.S. intelligence maintained that Al Qaeda had managed to regroup and consolidate its forces. It was in a position as strong as it had been in 2001. John Kringen of the CIA testified to the House Armed Services Committee on July 12 that "They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven and the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan. We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications. We see that activity rising."

By late July, Musharraf was hinting at talks of sharing power with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who at that time was living in exile, facing potential corruption charges should she return. Eventually a deal called a "reconciliation ordinance" was made on October 5 which allowed Ms Bhutto, head of the Pakistan People's Party, to have charges of corruption waived.

On September 10, 2007, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived back in Pakistan from London. He had been in exile since 2000, after he was deposed in a coup led by Musharraf in 1999. This coup took place when Sharif had tried to sack Musharraf as army chief on October 12, 1999.

Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz party (PML N) was in Pakistan for barely a few hours before he was issued with an arrest warrant for corruption and promptly deported. Saudi Arabia issued a visa and Sharif was flown to Jeddah. According to Sharif's brother, the deportation happened in defiance of an order from the Supreme Court. This order, issued in August, had given permission for Nawaz Sharif to return from exile.

On September 28, the Supreme Court gave permission for Musharraf to stage an election for the presidency of Pakistan on October 6. Previously, it had been argued that Musharraf could not stand for president again while he still had the position of head of the army. Musharraf wanted to extend his eight year presidency but had refused to resign from his position as army chief. At the start of September, Musharraf had claimed that he would resign as chief of the army after November 15. By this date, the National Assembly is also due to cease functioning, to prepare for January's elections.

On October 2, Musharraf named his would-be successor to the post of head of the army. This individual is Lieutenant-General Ashfaq Kiyani, who is head of the ISI. He was to become deputy army chief of staff on October 8, assuming full control of the army on November 15 when Musharraf is due to resign as army chief and become sworn in as president.

The presidential election took place on October 6, and Musharraf won the vote. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the result could not be officially declared until a legal challenge to Musharraf's candidacy had been settled. This challenge had been mounted by Wajihuddin Ahmed, a rival presidential candidate. Some of Musharraf's officials hinted at this time that if the challenge against his extended presidency was upheld, the president would impose martial law. Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan's Daily Times, warned: "Musharraf has let it be known that he will resort to a swift and surgical strike if anyone puts up a roadblock. Whether it be for 10 days or three months, he will put the judges away."

On October 9, massive fighting was taking place near the Afghan border between the military and militants in North Waziristan. The army said 200 Islamist fighters had been killed along with 47 troops. 10,000 villagers had fled their homes to take refuge in towns.

On October 12 the Supreme Court hinted that an amnesty issued the previous week could be illegal. This amnesty would have meant that any politician in power from 1986 to 1989 would have been exempt from any charges of corruption. Iftikar Mohammed Chaudhry, the Chief Justice said that any politician "would not be entitled to claim any protection" if the ruling was in contravention of the constitution.

Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari still face corruption allegations in Poland, Switzerland, Spain and Britain. On April 15, 1999 the couple were convicted in absentia in Pakistan and sentenced to five years' jail for corruption. They had received illegal payments from inspection contracts to Swiss firms SGS and Cotecna. Ms Bhutto's case was until the military takeover being reviewed in Pakistan, but she is now facing the threat of being charged with "aggravated money-laundering".

Bhutto's Return and the Descent Into Disorder

This is the reconstructed head of the suicide bomber who attacked Benazir Bhutto's convoy. The head was put together from remains at the site in an eight hour operation. The individual was described as slightly chubby and aged 25 to 30. The forearms of the bomber were also recovered, and were sent off to the National Database and Registration Authority to ascertain if a match with their owner could be found.

On Thursday October 18, Benazir Bhutto arrived back in Pakistan from her eight-year exile. A rally was held in Karachi. Thousands of her supporters had traveled from Sindh, her native province, to welcome her back. She said upon her arrival: "The big thing is I'm back home and I'm glad that General Musharraf's regime has not interrupted my welcome. While there has been some small progress, there is a lot more yet that needs to be done."

There had been warnings of potential suicide attacks, and she had been advised to return later. She boarded a converted truck to stage a rally, which moved at a slow pace through the crowds. Police mounted a protective operation with more than 20,000 officers and troops patrolling the route of the vehicle, and bomb squads and sniffer dogs on standby. As the vehicle moved at a slow pace towards a shrine where she was due to give a speech, a grenade went off, and then a suicide bomber struck. 139 people were killed in the suicide attack, and hundreds were injured.

Bhutto blamed followers of the former dictator, General Zia ul-Haq for the attacks. This individual, who had hanged her father Ali Bhutto in April, 1979, ruled Pakistan with Islamist support from 1977 to 1988. He introduced Islamist laws on blasphemy and adultery, and worshipped at the Red Mosque. Bhutto said: "I know exactly who wants to kill me. They are dignitaries of General Zia's former regime who are behind extremism and fanaticism." She does not name these individuals that she accuses but she is thought to be politically most opposed to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pervaiz Elahiand the current religious affairs minister (who is Zia ul Haq's son).

While the political situation in Islamabad became strained, Islamists in Swat district in NWFP became more militant, under the leadership of a rebel cleric, Maulana Fazlullah. In January this year, this imam used FM radio to sabotage W.H.O. plans to vaccinate local children against polio. He claimed the vaccination policy was "a conspiracy of the Jews and Christians to stunt the population growth of Muslims." As a result of his pressure, 4,000 children were not vaccinated in Swat. In August in Khar in neighboring Bajaur agency, 11 polio health workers were kidnapped and their equipment smashed, effectively ending the vaccination campaign.

On September 21, Fazlullah declared war on the government again, after a four month official "truce". With 4,500 armed volunteers at his disposal, he set up his own government in the Swat Valley in mid-October. In July, after his militants had attacked police following the Red Mosque raid, extra troops were sent to the region. In October, as more troops were sent to the Swat Valley, Fazlullah used radio broadcasts to say soldiers were there to kill innocent villagers.

On Friday October 26, four military men were publicly executed by Islamists in a village in Swat. The four men were brought to the village with their hands tied. They were pushed onto the road, and their heads were cut off. One of the Islamists said before the killings: "Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or help the government. All sons of Bush will meet similar fate." While the military and militants fought, the National Assembly of NWFP tried to implement sharia law in the areas of Malakand and Swat.

On the same day, the government's religious affairs minister Ejaz ul Haq (son of the former Islamist general and dictator) threatened to lodge a police charge against Benazir Bhutto if she attacked any madrassas. He may have said this because in 1994-1995, an army operation forcibly seized madrassas owned by the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah.

When General Zia ul Haq came to power there were only 1,000 madrassas. By the time he had died there were 8,000 registered madrassas, and 25,000 unregistered. Currently there are 13,000 registered madrassas and far more that are unregistered. The Islamists have flourished in Pakistan because madrassas have been used as a substitute for real education. Poor families send their children to such establishments because they are free and food is provided to students.

Many of these madrassas are Saudi-funded. In November last year, Britain offered Pakistan a donor package of $910 million. The majority of this fund is not to be spent on basic education such as literacy and numeracy, but on madrassas where literacy and numeracy rarely feature on the curriculum. Six million children in Pakistan do not attend school.

Ejaz ul Haq, who said in June that suicide bombings could be justified, claimed that Bhutto had said that she would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have access to Abdul Qadeer Khan. A. Q. Khan illicitly developed Pakistan's nuclear bomb program, but was publicly forgiven by Musharraf in February 2004. He has received treatment for prostate cancer, and is regarded as a hero by Pakistan's Islamists. The religious affairs minister also claimed that Benazir Bhutto had said she would allow the U.S. to pursue Al Qaeda in the mountainous border regions of NWFP.

After numerous militants had been killed in Swat by the Pakistan army, a temporary ceasefire was requested. Militants in the region beheaded 14 people, including army members and civilians on October 28. On Monday October 29, Maulana Fazlullah announced on his FM radio station: "The ceasefire was reached to facilitate wounded persons' treatment. Later on we will hold negotiations with the government on establishing Sharia." The truce collapsed on Wednesday October 31, and fighting resumed.

On October 30 a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint at Rawalpindi, less than half a mile from where Musharraf was having a meeting with senior officials. Eight people died. The blast was condemned by the U.S. State Department, which pledged to continue assisting Pakistan against the threat of terrorism. Musharraf said on the same day that if terrorism was not stamped out, national integrity would be placed in jeopardy.

On the same day, Pakistan's senior judge Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry announced that the country's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, had broken the law when he had deported Nawaz Sharif. Chaudhry adjourned the hearing on the matter to November 8.

On Thursday, November 1, seven Pakistan Air Force officers were killed by a suicide attack.

On Friday November 2, Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, said that America opposed any attempts by Musharraf to impose martial law and urged him to continue with the planned elections in January 2008. She said: "I am not going to get into the details of our conversations but I think it would be quite obvious that the US would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means."

By this time, there were general fears that the crisis would lead to a dramatic solution. Meanwhile the situation in Swat deteriorated. On Friday, 48 captured soldiers were put on display to the media by militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah. The soldiers were said to have during fierce fighting during the week. The soldiers were released later in the day. At Khawazakhela in Swat, officers fled from the local police station as militants took control. Another police station was burned, and Matta police station was abandoned to the militants (pictured). Maulana Fazlullah said that he would only engage in talks if sharia law was imposed, that security forces left the Swat Valley, and that charges against his followers would be dropped.

Admiral William J. Fallon from U.S. Central Command offered the use of U.S. forces to Musharraf on Friday, to deal with the insurgency in Swat and other troubled regions of NWFP. Admiral Fallon was in Pakistan on a meeting that had been planned weeks before. He also visited the new deputy chief of staff of the army, Ashfaq Kayani, as well as Pakistan's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. He commended Musharraf's determination to combat terrorism, but his offer of troop assistance was not taken up.

Benazir Bhutto had left to go to Dubai on personal business. On Friday she saidthat Pervez Musharraf would not impose a state of emergency, despite encouragements of those whom she described as "political orphans". She claimed: "All the political parties will unite to oppose emergency if Gen Musharraf imposes it." She said that she had been threatened by extremists, and claimed: "Some groups are backing extremists with income derived from drugs."

Imposition of Martial Law

Musharraf made his public announcement about the imposition of martial law late on Saturday night on television. He said: "The extremism has even spread to Islamabad, and the extremists are taking the writ of the government in their own hands, and even worse they are imposing their obsolete ideas on moderates."

Perhaps as a sweetener to his American allies who have, since 2001, donated an estimated $10 billion in aid to support Pakistan, Musharraf alluded in his television speech to a letter made by Abraham Lincoln. Musharraf maintained that though Lincoln had sworn to uphold the constitution, he claimed he first had to preserve the nation.

Whether Musharraf is really acting to preserve the nation or merely trying to consolidate his personal position of power is a moot point. The general's real motives will be revealed as events unfold over the next few days and weeks.

Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan as soon as news came of Musarraf's putsch. She said: "We condemn this martial law. We will protest it." She said outside her home: "The country is going to dictatorship once again. It is an uncertain situation, and the Pakistani public and I are really very disappointed with this emergency announcement."

To legitimize his position, Musharraf issued a Provisional Constitutional Order, suspending the Constitution. The Senate and National Assembly will continue to function, and regional assemblies in Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan provinces will remain operational. The regional assembly in NWFP, which is dominated by Islamists of the MMA, appears to have been suspended.

Some fundamental rights of the Constitution have been abandoned. These include Article 9, which states: "Security of person. No person shall be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with law." Article 10 is also suspended, which provides safeguards for arrests and detention. As a result, no-one can expect to be told why they are arrested, nor do they need to be presented before a magistrate within 28 days of arrest.

Musharraf has suspended Article 15, thus restricting "freedom of movement", and also Article 16 (freedom of assembly) has been suspended. He has withdrawn citizen's rights to freedom of association (Article 17) and freedom of speech (Article 19) and he has also suspended Article 25, which states that "All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law."

Articles concerning the Federal Shariat (Sharia) Court have been retained, as have Articles in the Constitution relating to "Islamic Provisions".

The selective choices within the Constitution of which sections to remove and which to retain were not made spontaneously. Musharraf obviously knew beforehand what he intended to do - even if his potential ally Benazir Bhutto was never informed. The army's senior officials also must have known long before the act of seizing control was taken. Condoleezza Rice has claimed that she was unaware of his plans to impose martial law, even though she spoke to him from her visit to Turkey on Friday. She has said that the decision to impose martial law was "highly regrettable". She added: "The US has made clear it does not support extra-constitutional measures because they take Pakistan away from the path of democracy and civilian rule."

Gordon Johndroe, the U.S. National Security Council spokesman said: "President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office. All parties involved should move along the democratic path peacefully and quickly."

Britain's Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has condemned the military takeover and has said he is "gravely concerned". He added: "It is vital that the government acts in accordance with the constitution and abides by the commitment to hold free and fair elections on schedule which President Musharraf reiterated to the (British) Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) when they spoke on November 1."

The European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said of the move: "We regret the decision to declare the state of emergency. We recognise Pakistan's current difficult political and security situation. We express support for Pakistan's struggle against extremism. We urge a solution to be found within the constitution. We condemn any provisions of the state of emergency that are unconstitutional. In general, the rule of law must be respected... The democratic process should not be interrupted any further."

Human Rights Watch made a statement in which it called the emergency decree a "shameless attempt to prevent Pakistanis from enjoying their basic rights under the law and a brazen attempt at muzzling the judiciary."

Musharraf's placing of former cricketer and playboy Imran Khan under house arrest was one of the first actions made under the suspension of fundamental rights. Khan's house near Islamabad was raided by police in the early hours of Sunday morning. Khan has a political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice). He is a vehement opponent of Musharraf. Other opponents of Musharraf were also placed under house arrest.

Khan is furious at Musharraf's usurping of power at this time. He said: "He has committed high treason by negating the orders of the Supreme Court which bars him from taking any unconstitutional steps and by sending in troops after the Supreme Court decision. He is punishable by death... I urge every Pakistani people not to recognise this collaborator chief justice. I urge the people, lawyers, civil society to resist this move by Musharraf. I urge lawyers to boycott the court proceedings."

Before he made the announcement, Musharraf sacked Iftikhar Chaudhry, the Chief Justice who had thwarted so many of his personal political ambitions. When Chaudry was illegally suspended by Musharraf in March, lawyers and Islamists found common cause and created riots. Now again, according to Reuters, lawyers are angry that the Chief Justice has gone. There have been calls by lawyers for nationwide strikes to be mounted today (Monday). The former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Hamid Ali Khan said on Sunday: "We are launching our struggle from tomorrow. Lawyers will be observing a strike tomorrow. We will be holding protests and boycotting courts."

The Chief Justice was among nine judges at the Supreme Court who refused to ratify the Provisional Constitutional Order, claiming it was "unconsitutional". For this, Choudry and the dissenting judges were dismissed. Choudry's replacement is Supreme Court judge Abdul Hameed Dogar. This individual has been one of Musharraf's cronies, and he was appointed earlier in the year to the tribunal set up to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against Iftikhar Chaudhry. On Saturday, a roundup of several lawyers took place. Some members of the PML-N party of Nawaz Sharif were arrested, though some escaped and went into hiding. Even Asma Jehangir, the chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HCRP) has been placed under house arrest.

Troops were placed around the Supreme Court in Islamabad. Elsewhere in the capital, mobile phone networks and telephone lines were cut. A crowd gathered outside President House. SOme of these were supporters of Musharraf, and some were critics.

In his televised address on Saturday evening, Musharraf said that he had been forced by circumstances to make "some very painful decisions." He claimed: "I suspect that Pakistan's sovereignty is in danger unless timely action is taken... Extremists are roaming around freely in the country, and they are not scared of law-enforcement agencies." Addressing Western powers, he said: "Kindly understand the criticality of the situation in Pakistan and around Pakistan. Pakistan is on the verge of destabilization. Inaction at this moment is suicide for Pakistan and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide." He also had harsh words for the Supreme Court, saying that it had "punished government officers, including police, leaving the government semi-paralyzed."

From Saudi Arabia, illegally deported former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said: "In the past prime minister and the parliament were targets of martial law but now the Supreme Court is the target. The decision to impose an emergency is unprecedented. Never in history has such treatment been meted out to judges."

Private news channels were shut down as of 5.30 pm local time on Saturday. So far, the main online news sources including English editions of Dawn and the Daily Times are still operating and publishing.

Musharraf may have ruined whatever slim chances there may have been to create a peaceful pretense of democracy. If this venture fails, it will create massive civil unrest. It is too early to condemn him outright. If he does allow democratic elections to go ahead, he might partially redeem his image.

On April 14 this year, when Islamists from the Red Mosque were threatening to plunge the nation into violent chaos, Musharraf said: "The country is passing through the worst ever critical moment and is facing two major threats of religious extremism and sectarianism."

If he had acted then to impose a state of emergency, there would have been less room for cynicism about his motives. He waited a further three months before acting to confront the Islamists of the Red Mosque, and by this time it was too late. Networks of militants had established themselves throughout the nation and attacks proliferated as a result. For him to only now declare martial law, and to rearrange the Supreme Court days away from a decision that may have lost him his presidential election, it appears that he has been motivated by a personal greed for power. The sooner he acts to remove that impression, the sooner Pakistan can move towards some semblance of a modern working democracy.

Musharraf claims he is acting to protect democracy. If this is true, he should really do something now to control the Islamists who are running amok in so many parts of his nation. Failure to do so will only open the country up to more extremism and turmoil. Benazir Bhutto is now calling on other parties to protest martial law. Extremism has flourished in Pakistan where there have been gaps in education, opportunity and justice. If the nation has any hope of redeeming its place as a democracy, it must work on plugging those gaps. Musharraf is playing a dangerous game. Whether he makes the country safer or more dangerous remains to be seen.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:14 AM | Comments (1)

November 3, 2007

Spain: 10 Convicted Islamist Terrorists On Hunger Strike

The multiple train bombings which took place on 11 carriages on four trains at Madrid on March 11, 2004, took the lives of 191 people and injured 1,856. Investigators had argued that the attacks were carried out as "revenge" for Spain's support for the "war on terror" which meant that Spanish troops were based in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The government of Jose Maria Aznar lost the election three days later, even though it had previously been tipped to win. Aznar had rashly declared immediately after the bombings that the attacks had been the work of Basque separatist group ETA, even though eyewitnesses had stated seeing people of North African appearance leaving rucksacks on the trains which blew up. This caused a lack of credibility for his Popular Party, and when elections were held on March 14, 2004, the left-wing Socialist Workers Party, led by Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, won the vote. Within a matter of days of Zapotero coming to power, the Spanish troops in Afghanistan and Iraq returned home.

On April 3, 2004, the suspected main ringleaders of the Madrid cell, a Tunisian named Sarhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet (nicknamed "el Tunecino", or the Tunisian) and a Moroccan named Jamal Ahmidan ("el Chino", or the Chinese), were with five associates in an apartment in Leganes, a Madrid suburb, while police gathered outside, ready to raid the building. Rather than surrender, the Islamists detonated an explosive device (pictured left) killing themselves, one policeman, and at least 11 officers.

29 people were indicted in April this year on charges related to the March bombings. On Wednesday, October 31, 21 of these were convicted. The acquittals of some of the defendants who were suspected of major involvement in the attacks has caused outrage among the families of victims, and some have vowed to launch an appeal. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, aged 35, was widely assumed to have been a key planner of the attacks, but he was acquitted. This decision angered most commentators, although prime minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was quoted as saying that justice had been done.

Maria Jose Gutierrez, whose sister died in the atrocity, said: "There are far too few guilty verdicts for such a horrible crime." The Popular Party's foreign affairs spokesman Gustavo de Aristegui said to the BBC that further investigation is needed. He said that there were "certain details of these atrocious attacks we still think that are unknown. We still don't know who gave the order, we still don't know who built those bombs, and we still don't know who was the co-ordinator of these cells that carried out these attacks."

Before sentences were passed, defendants openly laughed and joked (pictured) inside the bullet-proof booth in the courtroom. Sentences were read out live on Spanish TV.

Two individuals - 33-year old Jamal Zougam from Morocco and 32-year old Otman el Gnaoui, also from Morocco - were convicted of actually carrying out bombings. Former Spanish miner Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, aged 30, was convicted of supplying the explosives used in the attacks. These three were given sentenced of up to 43,000 years in jail each, even though Spanish law prohibits any individual from remaining in jail for more than 40 years.

The Telegraph quotes trial testimony from 50-year old Luisa Alvarez, who was traveling to work, accompanied by her son, on March 11, 2004. She said: "Everything was normal and then in an instant the world was transformed. What we saw was horrific - heavy overcoats and clothes had just disintegrated off people. I saw men with tangled limbs and dead babies lying on the tracks. It was like walking through a war zone. We couldn't understand what was happening."

"Across the aisle from us there was one man whose entire face had been burned away. Everywhere I turned there was blood. The windows were smashed and there was moaning and crying but I couldn't see where it was coming from."

Isabel Presa lost her youngest son in the blasts. She said of the verdicts: "I'm not a judge or a lawyer, but this is shameful, outrageous." She claimed the attacks "condemned me and my husband to a life sentence, and these people get off scot-free."

The Sentences

Details from the BBC website:

Jamal Zougam (left), who ran a mobile phone shop in Madrid, was given 191 sentences of 30 years jail for each of the individuals who died in the attacks, and for each of the 1,856 individuals who were injured - for which he was convicted of attempted murder - he received 20 years. Additionally he received 12 years jail for belonging to a terrorist group.

Otman el Ghanoui was given 191 thirty-year sentences for murder, and 1,856 twenty-year sentences for attempted murder. He was given 12 years for belonging to a terrorist group and additionally was given 4 sentences of 15 years' duration for causing "terrorist carnage".

Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, the Spanish miner who provided the explosives was given 192 sentences of twenty-five years, for the 191 people who died in the train blasts, and also for the policeman who died when members of the terror group blew themselves up in the Madrid suburb of Leganes on April 3, 2004.

Abdelmajid Bouchar, a Moroccan, was given an 18 year sentence. He is said to have escaped the Leganes apartment before the fatal bomb explosion.

Basel Ghalyoun, a Syrian national aged 27, was given a 12 year sentence. He was accused of recruiting cell members.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, aged 35, aka "Mohammed the Egyptian" was widely expected to be convicted of multiple murder. He was found not guilty.

Youssef Belhadj, a Moroccan, was accused of multiple murder. He was instead found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organization, and was given a 12-year sentence.

Hasan el Haski, a Moroccan and suspected member of the Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain (GICM), was indicted on multiple murder counts and attempted murder, but was only convicted of belonging to a terrorist group. He was given a 15 year jail sentence.

30-year old Moroccan-born Hamid Ahmidan was given a 23-year jail sentence. Spaniards Sergio Alvarez Sanchez, aged 28, and 25-year old Antonio Ivan Reis were both sentenced to three years' jail.

28-year old Moroccan-born Rachid Aglif was given an 18 year sentence. Moroccan born Saed el Harrak, aged 34, was given a 12-year sentence, as was 28-year old Mohamed Bouharrat from Morocco.

47-year old Lebanese Mahmoud Slimane Aoun was given a three year sentence, as was 38-year old Algerian Nasreddine Bousbaa.

Fouad el Morabit Amghar, a Moroccan aged 34, was sentenced to 12 years' jail, as was Syrian-born Mouhannad Almallah "Dabas" aged 43. 30-year old Moroccan-born Mohamed Larbi Ben Sellam was given a 12 year sentence. 28-year old Moroccan Rafa Zouhier was given a 10-year sentence.

Not guilty

As well as Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, those who were found not guilty of charges laid against them were Spaniards Antonio Toro (30), Carmen Maria Tora Castro (26), Javier Gonzalez Diaz (55), Emiliano Llano Alvarez (47), Raul Gonzalez Pelaez (28) and Ivan Granados Pena (28). Also Moroccan-born Mohamed Moussaten, aged 23, was found not guilty.

Carmen Maria Tora Castro, the only woman who had been charged, was accused of trafficking explosives. She was the wife of Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, the former miner who was given a 4800 year sentence for providing the explosives. These had come from the mine in northern Spain where he had worked.

Hunger Strike

The convicted men were sent to various jails. On Friday it was reported in El Pais newspaper that nine of the convicted men had started a hunger strike. They were said to be protesting the "unjust" sentences. These included Jamal Zougam and Otman el Ghanoui (Othman el-Gnaoui).

Now, according to UK Press, Xinhua News and Reuters, that number has increased to ten of the convicted individuals, housed in four separate prisons. The hunger strikers are only receiving fluids, state Spanish prison officials.

A spokesman said: "They didn't all start at once. Some didn't have breakfast yesterday, others started at lunch and some at supper."

A hunger strike had been staged by 14 of the accused during the trial. This lasted for a few days, and had been held to protest the media and political pressures which they said were affecting the trial.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2007

UK: Saudi Methods Of Islamist Indoctrination

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

On Monday October 29, 2007, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia arrived in Britain for the beginning of a state visit. His retinue followed in five separate planes. As soon as the monarch arrived, he created controversy by claiming that Britain had ignored intelligence warnings given by Saudi Arabia before the suicide bomb attacks of 7/7 (July 7, 2005) in which 52 people were killed. Abdullah intimated that if Britain's intelligence services had taken note of the warnings, the events of 7/7 would not have taken place.

UK government officials issued denials. Information presented on the website of MI5 on April 30 this year stated: "The Saudis provided information about possible planning for an attack in the UK which was materially different from the attacks that took place in London on 7 July."

Apart from this controversy, and the inevitable protests about abuses of human rights in Abdullah's feudal kingdom, a report was published on the day of his arrival which has attracted widespread media attention. The center-right think-tank called the Policy Exchange issued the results of an investigation into extremist material, much of it provided by Saudi agencies, appearing in British mosques. The 202-page report is entitled "The Hijacking of British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK."

Four groups of moderate Muslims had been sent to almost 100 mosques and Islamic establishments in various British regions between 2006 and 2007. In a quarter of these establishments, extremist literature was found. Eighty books and pamphlets were collected, and of these 38 were in English, 36 in Arabic and 6 were in Urdu.

Schools And Charities

The report noted that extremist literature was found in the King Fahd Academy in Bromyard Avenue, Acton, West London. This is directly funded by Saudi Arabia's monarchical regime. This establishment educates children aged from 5 to 16, and has already been exposed several times in the UK media for having extremist texts. The Policy Exchange researchers found that the 19th century anti-Semitic forgery known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was being described as authentic in one of the school's textbooks. The textbook claims that the tenets of the Protocols - such as using gold and pornography to subvert the masses - has already been implemented by Jews.

As documented in the report (pp 51-58) textbooks produced under the aegis of the Saudi government encourage contempt for non-Muslims. One such text, called "Al-Tawhid" (monotheism) was produced in 2004 by the Saudi Ministry of Education, Learning and Educational Advancement. It states: "One of the great requirements for hating the unbelievers and showing enmity towards them is to stay away from their ceremonies and celebrations." The book advises against "using the solar calendar, because it establishes their Christmas holiday."

A book by the same Saudi ministry, produced in 2006-7, is entitled "Sharh Kitab al-Tawhid" (Commentary on the Book of Monotheism). The Kitab al-Tawhid is the only surviving book written by the founder of Saudi Wahhabism, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792). The "Commentary" teaches students at King Fahd Academy that if non-Muslims do not convert to Islam, then they must be fought: "The basis of Islam is the divine unity. This requires bearing witness that 'There is no god but God'; it therefore is incumbent on the people of Islam that their aim in jihad is to guide mankind to Islam, and to enter into it. It is, therefore, preferable to call them to Islam before fighting them, even if the summons had already reached them before that. But if it had not already reached them, it is necessary to summon them before fighting them."

Another book at the King Fahd Academy, aimed at 12 year olds and produced by the same Saudi education ministry in 2005-6, is called Al-Hadith wa'l-thaqafa al-Islamiyya (Prophetic tradition and Islamic culture). This book tells children that women complain too much, are never satisfied by their husbands' "favors" and are weak. It advises against mixing of the sexes socially (khalwat, which is punished in Saudi Arabia by lashes). A book on the Hadith produced by the Saudi education ministry in 2005-6 and aimed at 13-year olds states: "The Jews and Christians are the enemies of the Muslim, and they will never be pleased with the Muslims."

The Al-Muntada Al-Islami Trust is a registered charity (No: 293355) based in Parsons Green, West London. It was founded in 1986 and though it gains tax-emption from the British government, its area of benefit is "not defined" in its official records. It has branches in 20 African and Asian countries and promotes fundamentalist Islam.

Various books were found at this charity headquarters. One book called "Loyalty and Emnity" (published by Al Firdous Publications in 1993) cites scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah and Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Shaykh to advise that rulers who do not follow Islamic principles should not be followed. Another publication found at the charity advises: "A true believer loves the believers and takes them for friends, and shows hate towards the disbelievers and does not take them for friends." Yet another book tells readers: "Jihad is considered as the peak of Islam, and of the best acts or worship. Some scholars went as far as considering it as the sixth pillar of Islam."

A book on fatwas, produced by The Permanent Council for Knowledge and Edict Research in Saudi Arabia, was found at the charity. This book advises Muslims not to vote for non-Muslims and states "It is impermissable for a Muslim to seek judgment from a non-Muslim government." The second volume of this publication tells Muslims that they should not take holidays in non-Muslim countries, or to take citizenship in a country such as America, governed by non-believers.

The report notes that the King Fahd Academy has been visited by Prince Charles, and has previously claimed that it has removed books that refer to Christians as "swine" and to Jews as "apes and pigs". The school caters to 1,000 pupils, and has been in existence since 1978. When Colin Cook, a teacher who had been at the academy for 18 years, filed a complaint for unfair dismissal, some unsavory allegations were made at his tribunal.

Mr Cook had been sacked in December 2006. He claimed that Saudi textbooks described Jews as "repugnant" and Christians as "pigs". He said that he had heard pupils saying they wished to "kill Americans" and also idolizing Osama bin Laden. In January 2007, the female principal of the academy, Dr Sumaya Alyusuf, claimed that the Saudi curriculum had been dropped. The Policy Exchange report indicates that this has not happened.

In May 2006 US research group Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom published a 39-page report entitled Saudi Arabia's Curriculum of Intolerance. This examined textbooks created by the Saudi Ministry of Education, and found that these propounded "a belief that Christians and Jews and other unbelievers have united in a war against Islam that will ultimately end in the complete destruction of such infidels." Specific excerpts of passages from the books can be found here.

Following the 2006 publication of the Freedom House report, the Saudi education minister Dr Abdullah bin Salih Obeid held a press conference with Condoleeza Rice, in which he claimed that Saudi education was being subjected to root and branch reform. The recent Policy Exchange report indicates that such reforms have not included the Saudi books provided to children at the King Fahd Academy.

It should also be noted that the problem may be happening in at least one Saudi-funded school in the United States. On October 17 this year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom published a report. This highlighted concerns about the Islamic Saudi Academy with campuses in Fairfax and Alexandria, Northern Virginia. The report's authors recommended that if the Saudi-funded school did not hand over copies of its textbooks for examination, it should be closed down. The report stated: "Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the (school) promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States."

On Monday this week, it was announced that officials from Fairfax County were examining copies of the textbooks at the academy, which educates 1,000 students. The review of the books was requested by County Supervisor Gerald Hyland.

Mosques

The British Policy Exchange report highlights extremist literature, much of it Saudi in origin, which has been found at two British mosques which have prestigious reputations and were built with Saudi funding. These are the Regents Park Mosque (pictured) and the East London Mosque. The Regents Park Mosque (called the Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center) was built at a cost of $13 million, with funds including a donation of $3.95 million from the Saudi monarchy. It was built on land donated by King George VI in 1944. Construction began in 1969 and the mosque opened officially in 1977. It has been a registered U.K. charity (No: 231920) since 1965.

One of the books found at the Regents Park Mosque was entitled Four Essays on The Obligation of Veiling. This states that women "are obligated to stay in their homes and are forbidden to come out from them." It advised: "It is not permissible for a woman to ride in her car alone with a driver that is not a mahram (relative, spouse) to her because this is from the prohibited forms of privacy." The book stated that women should never go out with perfume, nor uncovered. It avowed that Muslim men had the power to force women to wear the veil. Additionally, a woman must cover her feet and even her fingernails when outside the home.

Another book from the mosque is Fatawa Islamiyah - Islamic Verdicts, volume 1 co-authored by the Saudi Permanent Council. This book reviles Freemasons for their links to Jews, and criticized Sufi Muslims and members of the peaceful Ahmadiyyah sect (who are barred from doing pilgrimage to Mecca). Volume 5 of this book series advocates polygamy, states that a boy as young as ten can marry, and forbids Muslim woman from marrying a Christian or "other disbeliever". Such a marriage is to be annulled, until the husband has proved he has converted to Islam. However, "if he apostasizes after that, his head should be chopped off according to the Hadith: 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him'."

The same book recommends that a Muslim employer who has a Muslim worker who does not pray should first urge the employee to pray. When that fails, the employee should be fired. Volume 8 of the same book's series states: "There are different kinds of Jihad - with one's self, wealth, supplication, teaching, giving guidance, or helpling others in good in any form. The highest form of Jihad, however, is with one's life... Jihad with one's life is the highest form."

Volumes 1, 5 and 8 of Fatawa Islamiyah - Islamic Verdicts were also found at the East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road. Another text was found at this mosque, with the intriguing title "Women Who Deserve To Go To Hell".

The East London Mosque was completed in 1985. Adjoining this mosque is now a six storey community center, which was officially opened in June, 2004. The community center cost $20 million to construct. At least $2 million was donated by Saudi Arabia. When it was opened, the star speaker was a Saudi. Sheikh Abdur-Rahman al-Sudays (Sudeis) is the senior imam at the grand mosque at Mecca.

Sudeis is a hate-spewing anti-Semite. He has called Jews "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs" and also "infidels, distorters of [others'] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race 'whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...' These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption..."

The chairman of the East London Mosque is Bangladesh-born Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari. In 2005, Bari was confronted by BBC journalist John Ware about his invitation of Sudeis to the opening of the mosque's community center. Bari's responses to charges that Sudeis condemned followers of other faiths was evasive to the point of dishonesty. Ware asked: "Do I take it that if you were satisfied he had said such things you would not have invited him over?" Bari replied: "Well of course if it was proved that he exactly said this thing that you mentioned then why do you invited people who would be saying like this?" Video of Ware's conversation with the evasive Dr Bari can be found here.

Dr Muhammad Bari has, since June 4, 2006 been the head of the Muslim Council of Britain. As I wrote earlier on FSM, the MCB's leadership has acted in an advisory capacity for the Labour government, even though its luminaries have Islamist tendencies. The MCB was co-founded in 1996 by Kamal Helbawy, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, shortly before the Labour Party was elected in May 1997.

There are 400 mosques and Islamic Institutions which claim to be represented by the Muslim Council of Britain. These include mosques and institutions listed in the Policy Exchange report, such as the Muslim Cultural Heritage Center (Al-Manaar) in West London. Here, a book by the Saudi Office for Da'wah in the UK, called "Loyalty and enmity concerning relations between Muslims and non-Muslims" was found. This book states: "it is mandatory to hate and dislike the unbelievers and polytheists, to never ask them for support against the Muslims, to never follow their example in any thing, to never obey them in matters of religion, to never imitate them. Actually it is mandatory to stay far away from them and to separate from them, and to do what is necessary in terms of jihad and its like against their fighters."

Another Saudi book, which claims to be a "gift" from the Saudi King Fahd, was found at the Al-Manaar center. This volume, entitled "Correct beliefs, their opposite, along with the treatise of the Divine presence" argues that it is permissable to kill apostates . Another book at the center, published by the Saudi Ministry of Affairs-funded Office of Da'wah in Britain, is called "Women and their scheming enemies." This argues that among the worst enemies of women are the Jews who "are of all people the keenest on corrupting humanity, and on destroying their beliefs and values. The reason why they work so hard to corrupt humanity is that they cannot see an existence for themselves except through the destruction of others, or corrupting them." The Muslim Council of Britain is affiliated with other mosques listed in the report.

When John Ware compiled his 2005 BBC documentary, he mentioned that the MCB supports a group called the Markaz Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, which has 41 mosques and faith schools under its influence. In 2005 its website claimed that Muslims should "be different from Jews and Christians" whose "ways are based on sick or deviant views." In January this year, a documentary on Britain's Channel 4 showed that at the Ahl-e-Hadith headquarters, the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, Saudi-trained preachers incited hatred of homosexuals, contempt for non-Muslims and argued for separation from non-Muslims. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia frequently had video-link appearances at this mosque. Bizarrely, West Midlands Police turned their attentions from the Saudi-trained hate preachers featured in the documentary to consider prosecuting the documentary makers.

The Markaz Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith featured in the Policy Exchange report for having extremist literature on its premises. The book "Correct beliefs, their opposite, along with the treatise of the Divine presence" was found at the Green Lanes Mosque, as well as at the Islamic Center of Edinburgh, Scotland, and at Birmingham's Central Mosque.

The author of the Policy Exchange report, Denis MacEoin, is critical of the Muslim Council of Britain and other similar "representative" bodies for allowing texts of hate to be in the mosques with which they are affiliated. He states on page 7: "The Government and other authorities should reassess whether it is right to place even a measure of responsibility for the future direction of policy towards Britain's Muslim communities in the hands of groups such as the MCB [Muslim Council of Britain] and the Islamic Foundation in Markfield, which are implicated in this report."

The Islamic Foundation in Markfield near Leicester was noted for promoting material by Syed Abul Ala Maududi (1903 - 1979), the Indian-born founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami Party, an extreme Islamist group with branches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Maududi's ideas are said to have influenced Sayyid Qutb, ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood. The foundation in Markfield was founded by Khurshid Ahmad, a senior figure in Jamaat-e-Islami.

In July 2006, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari welcomed Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Delwar Hossein Sayeedi to the East London Mosque. Sayeedi is a fanatic who has said that American soldiers should become Muslims or die. He supports the persecution of Ahmadiyyahs in his country and has called Hindus "excrement". Bari never explained why he welcomed Sayeedi to his mosque community center, nor has the British government explained why Sayeedi was given a visa. In 2000, Sayeedi's supporters beat up five Bangladeshi elders in Britain.

As was expected, senior members of the Muslim Council of Britain condemned the Policy Exchange report before they had time to read all of its 202 pages. Inayat Bunglawala of the MCB said: "Bookshops sell a variety of publications and we live in an open, democratic society where it is not illegal to sell books which contain anti-Western views." Bunglawala in 1993 described terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman as "courageous", a month before Rahman organized the first attack on the World Trade Center. When Rahman was arrested, Bunglawala said Rahman had only been apprehended because the blind Sheikh had called "on Muslims to fulfil their duty to Allah and to fight against oppression and oppressors everywhere."

Bunglawala has also said that the BBC is "Zionist-controlled". Shortly before 9/11, Bunglawala called Osama bin Laden a "freedom fighter". In August 2005 Bunglawala defended his comment, saying "At the time he was." Bunglawala has also said: "Maududi is a very important Muslim thinker."

It is strange that the MCB has had such a close relationship with the Labour government, considering the nature of its leadership. In August 2006 this group was one of many that signed an open letter, blaming the British government's foreign policy for encouraging terrorism and extremism. In June 2006 the MCB had pressured the government to abandon its plans to outlaw forced marriage, even though at least 200 British Muslim girls annually undergo this abuse of their rights.

Dr Bari's predecessor as head of the MCB was Iqbal Sacranie, who was knighted by Tony Blair in June 2005. Sacranie had said after Salman Rushdie's death fatwa that "Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him... his mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah.." Malawi-born Sacranie argued in 1996 that Osama bin Laden should be allowed to visit London to preach. At the time, Sacranie called bin Laden an "Islamic scholar." He has called Sheikh Yassin, founder of terror group Hamas, a "renowned Islamic scholar". Sacranie attended a memorial service for Sheikh Yassin, which was held in Regents Park Mosque.

Sacranie condemned the Policy Exchange report, saying: "The majority of Muslims will totally dismiss this because it is written by the Policy Exchange, who have an agenda to denigrate the mainstream of Islam in this country. If there is any material which falls foul of the law, then the law should take its course. We cannot accept messages of hate - there is zero tolerance on that. But it is irresponsible to target religious texts and take them out of context. These texts can be found not just in mosques but in ordinary bookshops - the report overlooks that."

Younes Teniaz of the trust that runs the Regents Park Mosque argued that the bookshop on its premises was run independently. He said: "The bookshop is franchised to a separate organisation. These books express their authors' opinions and not those of the London Central Mosque Trust." The same argument was used when Channel 4 revealed in January that the same bookshop had on sale DVDs which supported armed jihad and expressed hostility for Christians and non-Muslims.

Birmingham Central Mosque was mentioned in the report. The chairman of this mosque, Dr. Muhammad Naseem, has also condemned the report, even though he allowed extremist preacher Riyadh Ul Haq to be the senior mam at this mosque for years. Ul Haq's sermons argue that Muslims should be separate from non-Muslims. Dr Naseem himself is an extremist. He has argued that homosexuals should be killed. He has also condemned legitimate anti-terror operations carried out in Birmingham.

The Saudi government is using its wealth and influence to fund Muslim schools and mosques around the world. Saudi Education Minister Abdullah bin Salih Obeid appears to have reneged on his 2006 promise to overhaul the literature used in these establishments.

Perhaps the last words should come from Denis MacEoin, author of the report. He states: "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should also be pressed to give full disclosure as to the extent and character of the support which it provides to a range of Islamic institutions in the United Kingdom. The British Government must demand a far greater level of transparency from Saudi charitable institutions operating in this country - and these should be monitored, regulated and held to public account on a regular basis. Finally, the public must be told whether Islamic preachers and teachers in the United Kingdom are granted diplomatic status, as in the US - and if so, how many of them enjoy this."

"The Government and other authority figures - including politicians, members of the Royal Family and those in positions of influence more generally - need to set a higher standard for their public partners and stakeholder organisations. They must insist that those Islamic partners and stakeholders remove such extremist literature from their midst, even when they did not publish or distribute it themselves. The authorities should also urge that umbrella bodies must not tolerate such materials appearing in locations associated with affiliated bodies. For example, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Association of Chief Police Officers should reassess their willingness to embrace bodies such as the Muslim Safety Forum - the self-designated 'advisory body... on issues concerning British Muslims' - when some of their affiliate organisations have not cleansed their premises of the literature featured here. The terms of engagement with these bodies need now to be re-examined - and a proper audit conducted as to what is to be gained and lost by such engagement."

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:37 AM | Comments (1)