Easter, The Pope & A Muslim Converts to Christianity

By Philip Pullella
Reuters Sunday, March 23, 2008; 1:27 PM
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict called in his Easter message on Sunday for an end to injustice worldwide and expressed joy at continuing conversions to Christianity hours after he baptized a prominent Italian Muslim convert.
The pope celebrated an Easter Mass for tens of thousands of people in driving rain in St Peter's Square as Christians around the world commemorated Christ's resurrection.
The wind and rain that has whipped most of Europe did not spare Rome as the German pontiff, wearing white and gold vestments, said Mass while the crowd huddled under umbrellas.
The mass came some 12 hours after an Easter vigil service on Saturday night where, in a surprise move, the pope baptized Muslim-born convert Magdi Allam, 55, an outspoken journalist and fierce critic of Islamic extremism.
At the morning Mass, the pope read a prayer saying that after Christ's resurrection some 2,000 years ago "thousands and thousands of people converted to the Christian faith" and he added: "This is a miracle that still renews itself today."
The Egyptian-born Allam's conversion to Christianity -- he took the name "Christian" for his baptism -- was kept secret until the Vatican disclosed it in a statement less than an hour before the Saturday night service began.
Allam, who is a strong supporter of Israel and who an Israeli newspaper once called a "Muslim Zionist," has lived under police protection following threats against him, particularly after he criticized Iran's position on Israel.
Writing in Sunday's edition of the leading Corriere della Sera, the newspaper of which he is a deputy director, Allam said he realized that he was in greater danger but he has no regrets.
"INNATE EVIL"
Allam wrote: "... the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual."
His conversion, which he called "the happiest day of my life," came just two days after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused the pope of being part of a "new crusade" against Islam.
The Vatican appeared to be at pains to head off criticism from the Islamic world about the conversion of Allam, who defended the pope in 2006 when the pontiff made a speech that many Muslims perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.
"Conversion is a private matter, a personal thing and we hope that the baptism will not be interpreted negatively by Islam," Cardinal Giovanni Re told an Italian newspaper.
Still, Allam's highly public baptism by the pope shocked Italy's Muslim community, with some leaders openly questioning why the Vatican chose to shine such a big spotlight it.
"What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion," Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, told Reuters. "Why could he have not done this in his local parish?"
In his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message delivered after the Mass, the pope decried "the many wounds that continue to disfigure humanity in our own day."
"These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters," he said.
He called for "an active commitment to justice ... in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person continues to be scorned and trampled," mentioning Darfur, Somalia, the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon and Tibet.
He then wished the world a happy Easter in 63 languages.

Obama's Speech: A Brilliant Fraud

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, March 21, 2008; Page A17

The beauty of a speech is that you don't just give the answers, you provide your own questions. "Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes." So said Barack Obama, in his Philadelphia speech about his pastor, friend, mentor and spiritual adviser of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright.

An interesting, if belated, admission. But the more important question is: which"controversial" remarks?

Wright's assertion from the pulpit that the U.S. government invented HIV "as a means of genocide against people of color"? Wright's claim that America was morally responsible for Sept. 11 -- "chickens coming home to roost" -- because of, among other crimes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? (Obama says he missed church that day. Had he never heard about it?) What about the charge that the U.S. government (of Franklin Roosevelt, mind you) knew about Pearl Harbor, but lied about it? Or that the government gives drugs to black people, presumably to enslave and imprison them?

Obama condemns such statements as wrong and divisive, then frames the next question: "There will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?"

But that is not the question. The question is why didn't he leave that church? Why didn't he leave -- why doesn't he leave even today -- a pastor who thundered not once but three times from the pulpit (on a DVD the church proudly sells) "God damn America"? Obama's 5,000-word speech, fawned over as a great meditation on race, is little more than an elegantly crafted, brilliantly sophistic justification of that scandalous dereliction.

His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt.

(a) Moral equivalence. Sure, says Obama, there's Wright, but at the other "end of the spectrum" there's Geraldine Ferraro, opponents of affirmative action and his own white grandmother, "who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." But did she shout them in a crowded theater to incite, enrage and poison others?

"I can no more disown [Wright] than I can my white grandmother." What exactly was Grandma's offense? Jesse Jackson himself once admitted to the fear he feels from the footsteps of black men on the street. And Harry Truman was known to use epithets for blacks and Jews in private, yet is revered for desegregating the armed forces and recognizing the first Jewish state since Jesus's time. He never spread racial hatred. Nor did Grandma.

Yet Obama compares her to Wright. Does he not see the moral difference between the occasional private expression of the prejudices of one's time and the use of a public stage to spread racial lies and race hatred?

(b) White guilt. Obama's purpose in the speech was to put Wright's outrages in context. By context, Obama means history. And by history, he means the history of white racism. Obama says, "We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country," and then he proceeds to do precisely that. What lies at the end of his recital of the long train of white racial assaults from slavery to employment discrimination? Jeremiah Wright, of course.

This contextual analysis of Wright's venom, this extenuation of black hate speech as a product of white racism, is not new. It's the Jesse Jackson politics of racial grievance, expressed in Ivy League diction and Harvard Law nuance. That's why the speech made so many liberal commentators swoon: It bathed them in racial guilt while flattering their intellectual pretensions. An unbeatable combination.

But Obama was supposed to be new. He flatters himself as a man of the future transcending the anger of the past as represented by his beloved pastor. Obama then waxes rhapsodic about the hope brought by the new consciousness of the young people in his campaign. Then answer this, Senator: If Wright is a man of the past, why would you expose your children to his vitriolic divisiveness? This is a man who curses America and who proclaimed moral satisfaction in the deaths of 3,000 innocents at a time when their bodies were still being sought at Ground Zero. It is not just the older congregants who stand and cheer and roar in wild approval of Wright's rants, but young people as well. Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?

+ Maclean's annual How the World Sees Canada poll shows deep admiration for a country we don't seem to like so much ourselves. What gives?

+ The future belongs to Islam

+ Tibet vs. China: It's All About Money

Canada Fights in Afghanistan Until 2011

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - After three intense days hurtling around by helicopter and armoured vehicle in the Canadian army's area of responsibility in Kandahar, Defence Minister Peter MacKay rejected assertions the situation in the province had become worse.

"I'm seeing tremendous success when it comes to the army, and that is my primary focus," MacKay said shortly before his fifth visit to Afghanistan ended Wednesday with a brief airfield celebration amid a group of NHL oldtimers who brought the Stanley Cup on a goodwill visit.

"As far as some of the infrastructure, for example, we're seeing roads being built, bridges completed in areas where, because of the security situation, those projects couldn't have occurred just a year ago."

Pressed further about the current security situation, the minister, who was in Afghanistan for three days this visit, said "the insurgency remains a real challenge, but you have to look at it in relative terms. You have to do a retrospective occasionally, look at where we were five short years ago, two years ago."

Asked about an allegation by at least one prisoner that Kandahar's governor was involved in human rights violations of detainees, MacKay replied that he understood the matter was under investigation by Afghan authorities and that as "an internal governance matter" it had to be handled by Afghans.
The minister met support troops at the main Canadian base at the Kandahar airfield as well as combat troops at remote forward operating bases and at even more isolated police sub-stations. Mac-Kay said last week's parliamentary vote to extend Canada's Afghan mission to 2011 was seen as a popular move. More.

Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia Trains Children

Some comments on YouTube:

110notruf (1 week ago) :
yes all world will be islamic
abd yes all jewish will be death
and yes all this chidlren will killed all jewish
and yes islam is the right religion
and yes america and jewish will be down
and we will see
we will see a big day ,big than 9-11
and fuck all jewish and christian

110notruf (1 week ago) :
allah akbar
this children will killed all jewish inscha allah
islam is th winner

+ In Seized Video, Boys Train to Fight in Iraq, U.S. Says
+ China: Orthodox Christians seek recognition

Iraq: Priest Paulos Rahho Body Found

(LA Times): Iraq's scared and dwindling Christian community has nothing to do with the sectarian or ethnic troubles afflicting the country. No Christian Iraqi took up arms against anybody or formed a militia or set roadside bombs or even tried to block the formation of a government.

More than anyone else, Iraq's Christians have been struggling just to survive against a torrent of troubles. All of which makes the death of the 67-year-old Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho all the more tragic and troubling. His half-buried corpse was discovered in Mosul on Thursday, apparently the victim of gunshot wounds he sustained during a Feb. 29 kidnapping that left three of his guards dead, Mosul police told the Los Angeles Times in today's article by Baghdad correspondent Ned Parker and Rome bureau chief Tracy Wilkinson.
Chaldeans are part of the Catholic Church. Chaldean parishes around the world grieved the loss of Rahho.

UPDATE, 2 p.m. PST: From Baghdad, Parker has filed a report about Rahho's funeral service in Mosul:
"I ask the people of the church to be steadfast and patient," Iraq's Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, told mourners in an emotional ceremony. "He became a martyr because of his great faith, and his love for his service."

+ The great Turkish hypocrisy and 2,994 rockets fired into Israeli territories

+ 2007: Chaldean priest Fr Ragheed Ganni and three deacons killed in Mosul

Nothing much a man may want ...

There’s nothing much a man may want
but to be quiet and innocent

a little food a little wine
at Christmas and at Easter time

wherever he may build his nest
may no one there disturb his rest.

But everything has all gone wrong
they wake him up at break of dawn

then come and drag him to and fro
eat up what little he has and lo

from out his mouth from out of sight
and in a moment of great delight

they snatch his morsel in an evil hour.
Hip hip hurrah for those in Power!

Hip hip hurrah for those in Power
for them there is no ‘I’ or ‘our’.

Hip hip hurrah for those in Power
whatever they see they must devour.

-- The Sovereign Sun by Odysseas Elytis

IDF Kill Muhammad Shahade, Organizer of Mercaz Harav Attack

Bethlehem sources say IDF forces operating in town kill Muhammad Shahade, Islamic Jihad operative believed to be responsible for attack on Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem; three other militants killed in raid (www.ynetnews.com) -- Muhammad Shahade, an Islamic Jihad operative who Palestinian sources say was behind the terror attack in Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem last week, has been killed by IDF forces in Bethlehem Wednesday afternoon, local witnesses reported. According to reports, another three militants have been killed in the raid, one of them an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member. Military sources said that the four men were responsible for a series of terror attacks against Israel in the years 2000-2001, but did not attribute the Jerusalem attack to Shahade.

Shahade, a former Fatah member and an Islamic Jihad operative, has been known to have extensive ties with Hizbullah. Palestinian sources reported that IDF forces have operated in the city, close to the Mukataa compound, and that several Palestinians have been injured. He said that Shahade was the target of the raid. A senior wanted terror suspect, Muhammad Balbul, has reportedly been injured in the clashes. Two days after the Jerusalem attack, which was carried out by Alaa Abu Dheim and left eight students killed, the police reported they have arrested eight people suspected of involvement in the attack.

Indonesian Intel: Fugitive Terrorist in Singapore

JAKARTA, March 12, 2008 (news.xinhuanet.com) -- Indonesian intelligent chief Syamsir Siregar said on Wednesday that he believed that the fugitive terrorist leader Selamat bin Kastari, who escaped from Singapore's prison last month, was still in Singapore. Kastari was the top leader of the Southeast Asia terrorist network of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) for Singapore and was jailed for plotting to blow up Changi airport in Singapore in 2001. Many believed that he had entered into Indonesian territory which make him easier to escape from police hunting rather than in Singapore.

"I am confident that he is still in Singapore," Siregar told reporters after a meeting on security at the office of coordinating ministry of politics, legal and security affairs here. He refused the suspicion that the terrorist leader had already entered Indonesia. On March 8, Singaporean Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that Kastari might go to Indonesia for consolidation as he was a leader of the JI. "Should he be in Indonesia, we had already arrested him," the intelligent chief said.

Muslim Terror Plots in China Discovered

[Associated Press] BEIJING –Chinese police killed alleged terrorists plotting to attack the Beijing Olympics, while a flight crew managed to prevent an apparent attempt to crash a Chinese jetliner in a separate case just last week, officials said Sunday. Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in a January raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, had described a plot with a purpose "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."

"Their goal was very clear," Wang told reporters in Beijing. Wang cited no other evidence and earlier reports on the raid had made no mention of Olympic targets. Speaking at the same meeting, Xinjiang's governor said a flight crew prevented an apparent attempt to crash a China Southern flight from Urumqi on Friday. Nur Bekri did not specifically label the incident a terrorist act, saying it remained under investigation. No passengers were injured and police were investigating, he said.

+ Full story.

Alisher Usmanov: "a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist"

Reposted from Craig Murray (Original post date was 6th September 2007)
"I thought I should make my views on Alisher Usmanov quite plain to you. You are unlikely to see much plain talking on Usmanov elsewhere in the media becuase he has already used his billions and his lawyers in a pre-emptive strike. They have written to all major UK newspapers, including the latter:
“Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.” Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke "Gorbachev", a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue.
Usmanov's pardon was nothing to do with Gorbachev. It was achieved through the growing autonomy of another thug, President Karimov, at first President of the Uzbek Soviet Socilist Republic and from 1991 President of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered the "Pardon" because of his alliance with Usmanov's mentor, Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov. Far from being on Gorbachev's side, Karimov was one of the Politburo hardliners who had Gorbachev arrested in the attempted coup that was thwarted by Yeltsin standing on the tanks outside the White House.
Usmanov is just a criminal whose gangster connections with one of the World's most corrupt regimes got him out of jail. He then plunged into the "privatisation" process at a time when gangster muscle was used to secure physical control of assets, and the alliance between the Russian Mafia and Russian security services was being formed.
Usmanov has two key alliances. he is very close indeed to President Karimov, and especially to his daughter Gulnara. It was Usmanov who engineered the 2005 diplomatic reversal in which the United States was kicked out of its airbase in Uzbekistan and Gazprom took over the country's natural gas assets. Usmanov, as chairman of Gazprom Investholdings paid a bribe of $88 million to Gulnara Karimova to secure this. This is set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand.
Alisher Usmanov had risen to chair of Gazprom Investholdings because of his close personal friendship with Putin, He had accessed Putin through Putin's long time secretary and now chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski. Usmanov and Jastrzebski were roommates at college. Gazprominvestholdings is the group that handles Gazproms interests outside Russia, Usmanov's role is, in effect, to handle Gazprom's bribery and sleaze on the international arena, and the use of gas supply cuts as a threat to uncooperative satellite states.
Gazprom has also been the tool which Putin has used to attack internal democracy and close down the independent media in Russia. Gazprom has bought out - with the owners having no choice - the only independent national TV station and numerous rgional TV stations, several radio stations and two formerly independent national newspapers. These have been changed into slavish adulation of Putin. Usmanov helped accomplish this through Gazprom. The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, he bought personally. He immediately replaced the editor-in-chief with a pro-Putin hack, and three months later the long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov, mysteriously fell to his death from a window.
Full Story
+ Craig Murray site
+ Wiki article on Alisher Usmavov

Added to Blog Roll

Added to blog roll:

Greek In Argentina (Cypriot Greek)

I Don’t Forget (Cyprus)

Terror plot to destroy New York airport foiled

NEW YORK — Four Muslim men were foiled from carrying out a plot to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighbourhoods, authorities said Saturday.

Three men were arrested and one was being sought in Trinidad on Saturday. In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the plot would “cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks.”

One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and retired JFK employee, said the airport was a symbol that would put “the whole country in mourning.” Full article.

Other news:

+ Iran president sees "countdown" to Israel's end
+ More vigorous Fidel Castro shown on Cuban TV

Alan Johnston

British reporter Alan Johnston, kidnapped in Gaza on March 12, appeared for the first time Friday in a video posted on an Islamic militant website.
The 45-year-old BBC reporter is seen in the video wearing a red sweatshirt and says he has been treated well by his captors. He then goes on to denounce Israel and blast British and U.S. Mideast policy.

"There are some who think this might signal that some sort of deal is in the works for Alan's release, that as part of the deal the group needed to give some sign of life as a show of good faith in negotiations," CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer said Friday from Jerusalem. There is no indication of when the video was recorded. Full article.

Other News
+ The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States increased by 16 this week to 1,760.

+ 4 Oil Workers Kidnapped in Nigeria

+ Fighting rages at Lebanese camp: About 30 soldiers have been killed, along with about 50 militants and one civilian, Lebanese officials have said. Palestinian sources reported that between 17 and 25 militants and 20 civilians have died.

Cpl. Matthew McCully

Cpl. Matthew McCully, the Canadian soldier killed Friday by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan, died alongside the Afghan soldiers he helped mentor.

He was a member of Canada's Operational Mentor and Liaison Team, which trains Afghans how to fight as organized units.

McCully, who was based in CFB Petawawa, was killed while taking part in Operation Hoover -- a large offensive launched against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Full article.

Other News:
+ Troops kill 18 militants in Afghanistan
+ New Taliban commander threatens bombings
+ PM hints Canada may stay in Afghanistan past 2009
+ Afghanistan wants Canada's help, Harper says

2 Ontario Men Lose Citizenship For Lying About Nazi Pasts

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (North): The Canadian government stripped two Ontario men of their citizenship Thursday, saying they lied about their Nazi ties when they came to Canada after the Second World War.

"These cases have been under consideration for a very long time," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement. "Due process was followed according to the laws of Canada. It's time to move forward."

Both men — Helmut Oberlander of Kitchener and Jacob Fast of St. Catharines — can have the government's decision reviewed by the Federal Court. The decision puts them at risk for deportation. Immigration Minister Diane Finley has the final say on whether they are deported or not. Both men have been involved in lengthy citizenship battles.

In 2000, the Federal Court ruled that Oberlander didn't reveal his involvement with a notorious mobile Nazi police unit when he immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in 1954. The mobile unit, called the Einsatzkommando, allegedly killed more than a million people, mostly Jews, in the former Soviet Union. The court found that Oberlander, a retired developer who is in his 80s, was not personally involved in the executions but worked as a translator for the Einsatzkommando.

Fast's case landed in the Federal Court in 2003. The court concluded that when the retired General Motors employee immigrated to Canada in 1947, he lied about his German citizenship and his involvement with a German security police force attached to the notorious Schutzstaffel, or SS. The court didn't find any evidence suggesting Fast, who is now in his 90s, committed war crimes.

"Today in Israel, we have had enough"

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel pounded Hamas targets with air strikes Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens. It had stepped into intense fighting between the Islamic militants and the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Israeli attacks followed Hamas rocket barrages on southern Israel...

Israel unleashed the air campaign — a hit on a Hamas command centre, on a trailer housing bodyguards and two vehicles — after Gaza militants fired more than 50 rockets on the Israeli border town of Sderot in three days. “Today in Israel, we have had enough. Israel will take every defensive measure to stop these rocket attacks. We will defend our citizens against the rockets, against the weapons, against the Iranian-backed Hamas who are attacking Israel,” said Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisen.

Other news:
+ US forces kill 6 insurgents in Iraq
+ Syria urges Hamas and Fatah to halt fighting
+ Taliban ambush: ‘Get us out of here'



+ Wolfowitz to Delegate Authority to Senior Officials (Update2)
+ Blast, clashes in India kill 13; alert is issued
+ European Union to Russia: "Don't try to divide us,"
+ Canadians favour role in ending Darfur violence, poll

+ Israel kills 8 in air raid on Hamas politician's home

+ 48 killed as Lebanese army fights Islamists

Hunt On For Missing U.S. Troops in Iraq

Associated Press, BAGHDAD ~ Massive air, house-to-house hunt for 3 soldiers after Al Qaeda group in Iraq says it captured the Americans. An Al Qaeda front group announced yesterday it had captured American soldiers in a deadly weekend attack, as thousands of U.S. troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

The statement from the group came on one of the deadliest days in Iraq in recent weeks, with at least 126 people killed or found dead. A suicide truck bomb tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq, killing 50 people, and a car bombing in a Baghdad market killed another 17.
U.S. Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell said 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft and intelligence units were scouring the farming area as the military made "every effort available to find our missing soldiers. Full story.

+ Gunfight breaks out at meeting involving U.S., Afghan and Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan on Monday, and a number of soldiers were killed and wounded

+ Making a Case for Iraqi Progress, in the U.S.
+ Hicks Pleads Guilty to Supporting Terrorism
+ Wounded Iraqi Forces Get Little or No Aid
+ Rift Appears Among Iraq Insurgent Groups
+ Is the Iraq Surge Strategy Working?

+ Strike paralyses Karachi, Pakistan
+ Afghans, Pakistanis skirmish
+ Bomb hits NATO vehicle in Afghanistan
+ Spain to send 14 officers to Afghanistan police mission

+ Canadian Muslim was on suicide mission: Afghanistan
+ 55 Taliban militants killed in E Afghanistan


Camp Nathan Smith, Kandahar ~ A member of the Royal 22e Régiment, presently deployed as the Force Protection (FP) Company for the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT), provides security in a village outside of Kandahar City, Afghanistan. The FP Company provides a security perimeter so members of the Civil Military Co-operation (CIMIC) team can work to assess a village’s needs.

The KPRT is an integral part of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan (JTF-AFG), which is Canada’s military contribution to Afghanistan. Canadian operations will focus on working with Afghan authorities to improve security, governance and economic development. About 2500 members of the Canadian Forces (CF) are currently serving as part of TF-AFG. They play a key role in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force mission whose goal is to improve the security situation in Afghanistan and assist in rebuilding the country. Photo by Sgt Roxanne Clowe, Canadian Forces Combat Camera

Taliban Commander Dadullah Killed

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's top operational commander in southern Afghanistan, was killed during a clash with Western and Afghan forces in Helmand province, officials said on Sunday.

The death of Dadullah represents the biggest setback to the Taliban command since the insurgency began, after its Islamic militia government was toppled by U.S. backed forces in 2001.

"He was killed last night and right now I have his body before me," Assadullah Khalid, governor of neighboring Kandahar province, told Reuters. Full article.

1 Million Turks: "No To Sharia"

Paul De Bendern, The Australian: At least 1 million Turks took to the streets of Izmir today to demand their country remain a secular state, stepping up pressure on the Islamist-rooted government before July elections.

Organisers hoped the fourth major anti-government protest in a month would unite the Opposition ahead of the poll. People flocked to Izmir from across Turkey, undeterred by a bombing in the port city that killed one man and injured 14 yesterday. It was not clear who was behind the market attack. Streets and buildings in Turkey's third largest city, including army barracks, were covered in a sea of red Turkish flags and portraits of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey.

“Turkey is secular and will remain secular,” the protesters, predominantly middle class youths at this festive rally, chanted. “No to sharia (Islamic law).” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's reformist AK Party Government has been forced to call a parliamentary election months ahead of schedule to defuse a deep conflict with Turkey's secularists over a presidential vote.
Turkey's secular elite, including opposition parties, top judges and army generals, successfully blocked Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's election. They feared the ex-Islamist might try to undermine Turkey's separation of state and religion, a claim Gul and his AK Party strongly deny.

“The AK Party will most likely win the elections but they will have to take into account these demonstrations and what people are saying. They can't remain arrogant any more,” said Haluk Berk, a doctor who also teaches at an Izmir university. “The silent majority is finally coming out,” he said, standing alongside his son. Turkey's main opposition centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) and the smaller leftist Democratic Left Party (DSP) - which are in talks to form an alliance - hope to use the rally to build momentum ahead of the July 22 election.
Police told Reuters at least 1 million people attended the seaside rally, with no major incidents reported. Organisers, mainly left wing groups, had hoped to attract 2 million people. The protest began to wind down by late afternoon.

The success in derailing the AK Party's plans to have Gul elected president has given opposition parties new confidence, analysts say, but added that they were racing against time to come up with a credible election manifesto. The political crisis has brought about mergers between opposition parties in the hope that in July they can win more than the 10 per cent of votes needed to enter Parliament.

Afghanistan: 70 Taleban Killed

VOA News: An Afghan security official says Afghan and international troops have killed more than 70 Taleban insurgents during a week-long operation in southern Helmand province.

The official, who spoke anonymously, said five Taleban commanders are among the dead in Nahri Saraj district. He said troops have re-taken control of the area, and he added that Nahri Saraj is now "cleared" of Taleban fighters.
NATO and the U.S.-led coalition were not able to immediately confirm the Afghan official's statement. Troubled Helmand province is a hotbed of insurgent activity. It is the hub of Afghanistan's booming illegal drug industry.
Elsewhere in the south, authorities say eight police officers were killed when a roadside bomb tore through their vehicle in Kandahar province.

+ Violence Leaves 27 Dead in Pakistan as Political Crises Worsens

+ Venice Meeting Seeks Ways to Combat Islamic Terrorists

Car Bomb Kills 16 in S. Iraq

+ National Post: British police arrested the widow of one of the London suicide bombers of July 7, 2005, along with three other suspects on Wednesday, a source familiar with the operation said

+ CAMDEN, New Jersey (Reuters) - Six suspected Islamic radicals were detained on Tuesday on charges of plotting to attack the U.S. army base at Fort Dix in New Jersey with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. The group, which is not believed to have links to any foreign organisations, had amassed semi-automatic assault rifles, shotguns and handguns while trying to acquire the more sophisticated weaponry, federal authorities said.

+ US air strikes kill 21 civilians in Afghanistan: official

+ Fort Dix trained military for 90 years

+ The miracle of Belfast

Iraqi Sunni Backlash Against al Qaeda

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN):...reports have emerged this year of tensions between Sunni fighters and the Sunni-dominated al Qaeda in Iraq, particularly from Anbar province, long a favored turf for indigenous Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from Syria.
The unconfirmed reports from tribal leaders to Iraqi government officials indicate that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed Tuesday in fighting between al Qaeda militants and Sunni tribal fighters from Abu Ghraib and Falluja...

Sunni insurgents and the so-called Sunni resistance are still forces that must be reckoned with, as well," Petraeus said. "However, while we continue to battle a number of such groups, we are seeing some others joining Sunni Arab tribes in turning against al Qaeda in Iraq and helping transform Anbar province and other areas from being assessed as lost as little as six months ago to being relatively heartening."

Petraeus said the United States "will continue to engage with Sunni tribal sheikhs and former insurgent leaders to support the newfound opposition of some to al Qaeda, ensuring that their fighters join legitimate Iraqi security force elements to become part of the fight against extremists." He said it is part of the effort to "reach out to moderate members of all sects and ethnic groups to try to drive a wedge between the irreconcilables and the reconcilables, and help the latter become part of the solution instead of part of the problem."

...One Iraqi villager, Abu Miriam, told CNN that locals have tired of al Qaeda. He says his people began fighting U.S. forces, but foreigners infiltrated their ranks. "If you talk against them, they let you go at first, then come back and behead you later," he said. Asked what would become of him if al Qaeda knew he was talking, Abu Miriam replied, "I will be killed. In fact, slaughtered, slaughtered with a knife." These tensions provoke the tribes' Salvation Council to work alongside U.S. Marines and soldiers. Full story.

+ The escalating tensions between al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni groups.

+ Against the Odds, Army Meets Recruiting Goals

+ Special Forces soldier receives German medal

+ Young Australian Muslim women will be targeted to join the Army Reserve and prove they are part of the national security "solution"

Above: UK 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers (1RHF) annual exercise, Band of Sisters. Held at Episkopi, Cyprus.

Above: The first major combat operation of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) in Afghanistan, El Dorado, coincided with the last in the ULYSSES-series missions.

Iraq: Spanish forces prepare to board a ship.

Turkish Court: Islamic-leaning Presidential Vote Invalid

By Hidir Goktas ~ ANKARA (Reuters): Turkey's top court ruled the first round of presidential elections invalid on Tuesday, raising the possibility of early national elections. The government said another round of presidential polls would be held in parliament on Wednesday. The Constitutional Court upheld an appeal from the secularist opposition that wants to stop the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party's candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, becoming head of state. "


A decision was taken to stop the process," Hasim Kilic, deputy head of the top court, told a news conference. The Constitutional Court ruled 367 members of parliament had to be present during voting for it to be valid. A total of 361 deputies voted in last Friday's ballot, 357 of them for Gul, the sole candidate. The court ruling was binding. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan could now propose a different candidate for the top job. Turkey has been rocked by the presidential poll standoff, an army threat to intervene and an anti-government rally of up to one million people.

The army, which sees itself as the final guarantor of the secular state, has ousted four governments in the last 50 years, most recently in 1997 when it acted against a cabinet in which Gul served. Turkish financial markets recorded their biggest falls in a year on Monday and the currency lost more ground on Tuesday. The lira recovered some ground on the news late in trade. Economy Minister Ali Babacan said the economy was ready for early elections, a comment seen as an attempt to calm markets. The secularist establishment fears if the AK Party secures control of the presidency it will chip away at Turkey's secular system. The party denies the charge. Parliament, in which the AK Party has a big majority, elects the president for a seven-year term in predominantly Muslim Turkey. Analysts say early national polls are the only way to defuse the standoff.

+ Photo: Taliban condemned for using boy, 12, to conduct video beheading

+ Bush issues veto in historic showdown

+ Insurgents reported to have killed al-Qa'ida commander
+ CIA Retirees Denounce Tenet's Account of War

+ SULTAN, in order to spite his wife Shahidabanu, who had recently separated from him, along with his friend raped and murdered his two-year-old daughter at Sayla town in Khambhalia taluka of Jamnagar district.

+ Suicide bomber kills 32 at Iraq funeral

+ A US lieutenant colonel accused of the capital offense of "aiding the enemy" let detainees use his cell phone to make unmonitored calls and approved buying Cuban cigars for Saddam Hussein, witnesses testified Tuesday.

Turkish Military Warns Islamic-rooted Gov't

(Sorry folks. Work's been keeping me busy lately.)

Herald Sun reporting from Ankara: TURKEY is facing a political crisis after the Islamist-rooted Government clashed with the army over the latter's threat of action to defend the country's secular regime.

The row erupted after Parliament began voting on Friday on a new president in a process where the sole candidate is a former Islamist fielded by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party. The prospect of the candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, becoming head of state alarmed secularists about Islam creeping into all fields of life and prompted the opposition to boycott the vote, robbing the Government of the required two-thirds majority.

The staunchly secularist Turkish army then issued a harsh warning against questioning the country's secular system and said it would “openly display its position and attitudes when it becomes necessary.” Full story.

+ NPR: Turkey's Military on Guard Against Islam in Politics

Other news:
+ Pakistan Suicide Bomber Kills 22, Wounds Interior Minister
+ Russia cries blasphemy as statue to war dead is taken down

+ Al-Qaeda attacks on military bases foiled: Scotsman - 20 hours agoAL-QAEDA terrorists suspected of plotting spectacular suicide attacks using hijacked aircraft against western military bases in the Gulf were foiled by a huge security sweep by Saudi forces yesterday.
+ Saudis Arrest 172 Militants in Oil Plot


Afghanistan: NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Minuto Rizzo talking to Canadian Forces Lieutenant-General Rick Hillier, ISAF Commander.


Hellenic Air Force: Vought A-7E Corsair II. Treviso, Italy (Sep 6 2005)


Diversion from a mad, mad world.

Egypt Convicts Egyptian-Canadian al-Attar of Spying For Israel

Egypt's State Security Emergency Court has convicted an Egyptian-Canadian of spying for Israel and has sentenced him to 15 years in prison. In his ruling, the judge said Mohammed el Attar was "seduced by Satan into selling out his country". Leslie Boctor has more for VOA from Cairo.

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Mohammed al-Attar flashes a victory sign as he is led into the Egyptian State Security Emergency Court in the New Cairo suburb of Cairo, 21 Apr 2007Attar, who had pleaded not guilty, flashed a victory sign when he entered the Cairo courtroom. Surrounded by dozens of security personnel, Attar grasped the bars of his prison cage as he awaited the court's decision. After the judge read out the verdict, Attar was whisked to a waiting police van.

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Three Israelis, also charged in the case, were tried in absentia and also received 15-year sentences. Attar, who is 30, was fined the equivalent of $1,700. Full article.

+

Other news:

+ Israel and Palestinians Trade Fire in Gaza and West Bank

+ Gates Looks to Boost Mideast Support for Iraq

+ Group Says It Killed BBC Reporter in Gaza

+ Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Soldier Faces Ostracism

+ Dozens Killed in Mortar Attack in Somalia

1 Wahabi killed and 2 Injured by Serbian MUP

Photo: MUP remove terrorist POS body of Ismail Prentic
+
As posted by AK-Lover on MilitaryPhotos.net:

B92 News Society Crime & Justice: "Wahhabi killed in clash with police" 20 April 2007 09:54 -> 18:53 Source: B92, Beta
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NOVI PAZAR, BELGRADE, PRIŠTINA -- One person was killed, and two wounded early Friday in a clash between police and a group of Wahhabis near Novi Pazar. Police officers remove Ismail Prentić's body Around 4:50 a.m. Friday police arrived in the village of Donja Trnava near Novi Pazar, to search a house there, acting on a tipoff that the leader of the militant Islamic sect was hiding there, a MUP statement said.
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A hand grenade was thrown at the police officers as they approached the house, injuring one, the statement said.“As the police officers approached the house, ten dogs were released at them, and as they were entering the premises, the suspected terrorist group members threw a hand grenade and opened fire at the officers, injuring one,” the statement said.“Policemen then retreated to a secure point, while the Islamic extremists, in a bid to flee the scene, continued to shoot and throw hand grenades,” the statement continued.Police responded with machine-gun fire, killing the group leader Ismail Prentić. Prentić is the brother of Mirsad Prentić, arrested on March 17, when Gendarmerie forces discovered a Wahhabi terrorist camp near Novi Pazar and made five arrests. A policeman sustained minor injuries, while the injured Wahhabi, identified as Senad Ramović, was taken to a hospital in Novi Pazar and his condition remains stable."
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Police will work to eliminate terrorist threat"Special Organized Crime Prosecution has taken over the case against Novi Pazar Wahhabis charged with terrorism, a spokesman has said. He added the content of the case will remain official secret for the duration of the investigation. Meanwhile, Serbia’s Minister of the Interior Dragan Jočić issued a statement after this morning’s raid. “Police will act with determination to suppress and eliminate the terrorist threat and secure peace and safety for all the citizens of the Novi Pazar region. The Serbs and Bosniaks there are building and will continue to build friendly relations. We need to work together to prevent all extremist groups from jeopardizing our peaceful future together,” Jočić said.
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Western intelligence reports leaked recently have suggested that Sandžak, as well as Muslim-dominated regions in neighboring Bosnia, could be an ideal recruitment spot for the so-called "white al-Qaida" — Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or U.S. cities and execute terrorist attacks, the Associated Press reports.
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Several incidents have been reported in Sandžak within the Muslim community, with the Wahhabis accusing local Muslim clerics of failing to practice "true" Islam, and disrupting prayers at local mosques.Reuters reported Friday that a United Nations official in Kosovo, where Prentić was wanted for firearms offences, said MUP "believed that he, along with another person, was planning possible suicide bomb attacks on mosques in Novi Pazar".

Other News:
+ The manager who became a McThief: When Strike Force Maraket officers began investigating the robbery at the bustling Enfield fast food outlet last October, Iad El Masri didn't even register on their radar.

+ Ramallah: Fugitive threatens to blow himself up: Fatah member entrenches himself at police station with explosive belt after his weapon was confiscated by PA officers, threatens to commit suicide if it is not returned to him. Officers manage to gain control over him

+ Palestinian forces suffering from emotional issues: Infighting, tensions between Palestinian and Muslim groups, leads security forces to seek counseling for tension, depression

Canadian-Chinese Uighur Muslim ~ Life in Prison

Montreal (eCanadaNow) - A simmering diplomatic row between Canada and China has been exacerbated Thursday after a Canadian human rights campaigner was sentenced to life in prison on terrorism charges in a Chinese provincial court...

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The father of four came to Canada in 2001 as a refugee after spending several years in a Chinese prison, accused of dissidence, and became a citizen in 2005.

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China has never recognized Celil’s Canadian citizenship and have repeatedly admonished Canada for inquiring about the case, arguing that the issue is domestic and that Canada has overstepped its authority by attempting to intervene. Chinese officials charge that Celil is ‘a key member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.’ They have long accused militants in the Uighur community of using terrorism to attain an autonomous Islamic state in the resource-rich region... Full article.

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+ East Turkestan Islamic Movement (China, separatists), Council on Foreign Relations

+

+ Xinjiang raid (January 2007)

Cho Sueng Hui aka Ismail Ax

The Jawa Report: For some, becoming a Muslim is a public renunciation of America and the West. In choosing between us and them, these converts choose them.

Many others, though, never become Muslim. Instead, these fellow travellers--Marxists, mainly--identify with them as "the downtrodden". They've already chosen them. Any them will do. The them of choice these days just happens to follow Islam and, oddly enough, disdain Marx more than Adam Smith...

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Was Cho a Muslim? I doubt it and have been saying so since day one--despite being called "hater" by the nitwits at the Arabisto who didn't bother reading the post they link to. But in his warped mind Cho was someone who was setting the crooked world straight and bringing justice to those responsible. He was the downtrodden, and American society the oppressors. Cho was no Muslim, but he chose a Muslim name to make a statement. That statement was that he was not one of us. And if that is accurate, then Muslims in America are going to need to more vocally reject groups like CAIR, MAS, and the ISNA to 'speak for them'. Because as long as these groups speak for Muslims, then the perception that Muslims are them rather than us will continue. Full article.

+

Other news ~ NPR audio:

+ U.S. Troops in Baghdad Caught Between Sunnis, Shia

+ Gates Looks to Boost Mideast Support for Iraq

+ Iraq Officials Begin Drafting Oil Legislation

+ Bush to Confer with Democrats on War Funding

+ Large Car Bombs Kill at Least 170 in Iraqi Capital

+ Iraq Security Measures Failing, Iraqis Say

+

+ Group Says It Killed BBC Reporter in Gaza

+ The Evolution of Iran's Revolutionary Guard

+ Gaza Clans Overwhelm Palestinian Security Efforts