World News
12/17/01 - 12/23/01

Sunday 12/23/01

Attorneys Visit With Sundiata/Reflections on Organizing!  12/23/01 Afrikan Identity: Sundiata, along with many other political prisoners, was put in lockdown after 9-11. He is still heavily restricted, as per his attorney - "Sundiata was not informed that his social visits and mail was reinstated, so Soffiyah believe the administration may have lied to her. i'm encouraging everyone to continue to write Sundiata. He is only let out of his cage upon visits, he showers in the cage as well, anyone thats on his visiting list that can, please go and visit with him." Sundiata was in the car with Assata when they were assaulted by a Nazi cell in the NJ State Police.

New Bin Laden tape transcript offers more interesting details  12/23/01 Arab News: "The laugh that Americans heard from Osama Bin Laden on the videotape released by the Bush administration last week came as the Al-Qaeda leader described how his "pilots" did not tell their fellow hijackers until they were "walking fast" toward the airplane gate "that the operation is, we are going to hit the building," according to a new and more detailed translation of his words." So the hijacker was told and could have backed out, he was clearly committed to a martyrdom operation.

"I'm Not a Spy, I'm a Rabbi"  12/23/01 CubaNet: According to this Miami Mafia site, when Cuba detains a rabbi on suspicions of spying, it's a big deal, but their news outlet does not say a word about the up to 140 Israelis in US detention for suspicion of spying. Come to think of it, the US media has ignored the story and the one to break it, Fox News, has pulled it from their site!

American Taliban Called Out Nas and Hip Hop  12/23/01 Davey D: "Homeboy [Jonathan Walker] says he was introduced to Islam via Hip Hop websites, Hip Hop message boards and the Five Percent Nation. Does this mean all these outlets are going to somehow be blamed in some sensationalistic perverted way for this 'young' 'innocent' white guy who went to fight for the Taliban? If I hadn't seen such nonsense take place in other situations I wouldn't raise the red flag, but I have."

Africa Is Breeding Future bin Ladens  12/23/01 IHT: "But the fact that some of Islam's most radical and anti-American adherents are increasingly active from South Africa to Sudan, from Nigeria to Algeria, should be of great concern. Africa is an incubator for the foot soldiers of terrorism. Its poor, young, disaffected, unhealthy and undereducated populations often have no stake in government or faith in the future. They harbor an easily exploitable discontent with the status quo. For such people, nihilism is as natural a response to their circumstances as self-help. . Fighting this battle will not be swift or cheap. America needs to lead its partners in the developed world, both in the public and private sectors, to invest on a scale previously inconceivable. . The United States will have to open its markets completely to goods and services from the developing world, provide much more trade and investment financing, bridge the digital divide, bolster democratic institutions, invest more in debt relief, increase assistance for education, build health infrastructure, treat the infected and find a vaccine for HIV/AIDS."

Successful Taliban Guerilla Operation Launched Against US Forces  12/23/01 Kavkaz: scroll down for other stories in this vein, which some might consider pure propaganda when they fail to consider that the US has been caught flat out lying about its casualties in Afghanistan before, in the aborted Oct 12 raid on Kandahar: "Since the withdrawal of the Taliban, US forces were struck by the first Taliban guerilla operation, which resulted in the death of several US soldiers and others were injured. US soldiers disguised in Afghani dress, were travelling in two vehicles accompanied with Gul Agha's men in Irghisan, which is region between Spin Boldak and Takhta Pul. As they travelled, the Mujahideen launched a surprise attack on this convoy and eye witness accounts report that scores of US soldiers had been killed in this operation."

Funeralgate: The Skeleton in Bush's closet is back from the dead. This time it might bury him.  12/23/01 Reality News: "Here's a brand new scandal involving a Bush contributor and longtime family friend, Robert Waltrip. This time it's the desecration of dead bodies, and George W. Bush is directly linked to this scandal (as is current FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, GW's Chief of Staff while governor of Texas). According to Fox News, Waltrip's company, a cemetery company called Service Corporation International, was "recycling" graves, removing the bodies that were there originally and throwing them in the woods to use the space to house new customers."

Israel reveals secrets of how it gained bomb  12/23/01 Telegraph, UK: "A TELEVISION documentary in which Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, discloses for the first time details about Israel's acquisition of nuclear weapons is to be broadcast in the Arab world. It is intended, at a time of rising tensions, as a warning." Following Israeli 'retaliation' policies, can we expect that the first dirty bomb to go off in Israel will trigger nuclear devastation for a few Arab capitals? With about as much evidence as is used in retaliations in Palestine, no doubt.

The New McCarthyism  12/23/01 The Progressive: Good survey of recent attacks on civil liberties, including the firings of various columnist who do not toe the pro-war line.

Bin Laden has fled to Kashmir: TV Report  12/23/01 Times of India: "The informer, carrying documents said to belong to the Pakistani secret services, also said 2,000 men belonging to Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network had succeeded in fleeing Afghanistan to various places including Kashmir and the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya." And good luck to the Russians, who have repeatedly been hit hard by the Chechens.

Why Doves Must Fly  12/23/01 Village Voice

Saturday 12/22/01

Now You See It, Now You Don't  12/22/01 Antiwar.com: The links to the Cameron stories on the massive Israeli spying in the US have been updated to the back up site on Free Republic: "Israel's amen corner in the US is vocal, well-organized, and not averse to censorship when it advances their agenda, and so outside pressure on Fox News to pull the series cannot be ruled out."

The US: Rogue Nation  12/22/01 Centre for Research on Globalisation: interesting catalog of rogue activities

Afghan Interim Government Inauguration Blighted  12/22/01 Debka: From the Israeli psyops site: "DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it also gave away certain facts on the ground that Washington is not too keen to give out: 1. While the Tora Bora campaign to flush out al Qaeda is ostensibly over, it is now evident that most of the clashes were delaying tactics by al Qaeda to cover the escape of its main body east into Pakistan and north up into the Hindu Kush mountains. 2. Most of those who made it into Pakistan were flown out to the Persian Gulf and parts of Eastern Africa. The fugitives who reached Hindu Kush found waiting for them in underground fortified caves caches of heavy weapons not yet tried in the Afghan War: different types of missiles, including cruise missiles, medium range Scud surface missiles and ground-to-air missiles. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, addressing NATO defense ministers last Tuesday December 18, warned that cruise missiles had come into terrorist hands. On Friday, December 21, the Washington Times confirmed what DEBKAfilehas been reporting since early October, that Beijing was aiding the Taliban and al Qaeda. According to the Times, large quantities of weapons were handed over - even after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Indeed the week after, a shipment of Chinese-made Stinger-type shoulder-fired anti-aircraft was delivered to the two forces. Last week, al Qaeda fighters in the region of Kandahar were sighted for the first time firing missiles at low-flying US transports. That Osama bin Laden’s men are still in the field and only just beginning to fire off missiles for the first time in 2 and a half months of combat is another grim indicator that the war is far from over. Indeed, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the Pentagon was right about shooting from the ground preceding the US air raid on the Pashtun convoy. It was a cunningly-set al Qaeda trap to hit two birds with one stone: to provoke US air planes into striking at anti-Taliban Pashtun leaders and to make trouble between the Americans and their Afghan protégées. The facts established are that the column set out from Gardez Thursday, drove through Khost in eastern Afghanistan and continued on its westward journey through the night. It was then that the trucks ran into gunfire from al Qaeda fighters who knew they were coming, possibly from informers in Khost. The ambush was not meant to harm the Pashtun elders, but to divert their convoy from the main highway to roads winding through the mountains, where a second al Qaeda unit loosed SA-7 missiles against US planes overhead. The US regional commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, said later that the aircrews and their rear command were positive that the missiles were fired to secure an al Qaeda-Taliban convoy against US air attack. They were ordered to strike back and destroy the convoy. This they did Thursday night and Friday morning, killing 65 Pashtun leaders friendly to Hamid Karzai, with their bodyguards and attendants and local inhabitants. Embarrassingly, both Rumsfeld and Franks clung far too long to their original claim that the US bombers hit an enemy convoy. 3. Left behind in the caves of Tora Bora was evidence that al Qaeda is much more than a ragtag band of terrorists, but rather a quasi-military force, larger and far more efficiently organized than was known."

European press blames IMF and United States for Argentine bankruptcy  12/22/01 Granma

The Enemy Within: Israel’s gravest danger is not the Palestinians  12/22/01 In These Times: Israel and America - taking a page from Lynn Cheney - "Israeli intellectuals who criticize the government are often attacked, not only by the establishment inside Israel, but by its international proxies. Middle East Quarterly recently published an article titled “Israel’s Academic Extremists.” Written by “a watchdog team of researchers keeping an eye on Israel’s universities”—the actual author is not mentioned—the article goes after 20 Israeli professors (including this one) using lies and half-truths to defame and blacklist them."

Arthur Miller accuses Bush of abusing and curbing civil rights  12/22/01 Independent, UK

Locals reject US account of Afghan convoy attack  12/22/01 Media Workers Against the War: ""The people who got hit were going to congratulate Karzai on the transfer of power," villager Khodai Noor told Reuters Television in the first account of the bombing from the scene. "There are no members of al Qaeda or supporters of bin Laden here," he added, suggesting a local warlord might deliberately have misinformed U.S. forces about the convoy to settle a score."

U.S. Expatriate Is Seen Facing Capital Charge  12/22/01 NYT: "officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there was growing sentiment among top advisers that Mr. Walker, a 20-year- old Californian who fought in Afghanistan, should face the death penalty on at least one of the possible charges."

Locals Reject U.S. Account of Afghan Convoy Attack  12/22/01 Reuters

Prisoners 'killed not shifted'  12/22/01 Sidney Morning Herald

Gen. Franks' helicopter is fired upon during approach to Kabul  12/22/01 Stars and Stripes: Link to Stars and Stripes is now broken, but quote from the article is available on Democratic Underground.

Blair shames war weasels  12/22/01 Sun, UK: Nice try, Tony: "But in a clear swipe at wobblers and doubters, the Premier also detailed “10 media views which have proved to be wrong”.

So, the war is officially over. But who won?  12/22/01 Times, UK: from a conservative paper

Friday 12/21/01

THE SECRET WAR  12/21/01 Antiwar.com: "Starting in the third week of January, reports began to pour in to the National Counterintelligence Center (NCC) about "suspicious visitors to federal facilities." The NCC's bimonthly report for March 2001 states: "In the past six weeks, employees in federal office buildings located throughout the United States have reported suspicious activities connected with individuals representing themselves as foreign students selling or delivering artwork. Employees have observed both males and females attempting to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings."

Bush War on Terrorism Dividing Pundits, Pols From Traditional Allies  12/21/01 Forward: "But while pundits and politicians have been lining up against the president, most Jewish groups have rallied behind him. With the lone exception of the Reform movement, none have criticized any of the aggressive law-enforcement measures adopted by the administration since September 11. For example, of the more than 150 organizations that have signed on to a September statement on civil liberties issued by the American Civil Liberties Union, only one is a major Jewish organization: Women of Reform Judaism. The signers, said ACLU president Nadine Strossen, "are very diverse across the political, ethnic, racial and religious spectrum, but woefully short of Jewish organizations." "I think it matters very much," Ms. Strossen said of the Jewish groups' absence. "We want it to be clear that we are talking about core American values. Just as it's important to be able to cite Republicans as well as Democrats, conservatives as well as liberals, I want to be able to cite not only Arab-American groups, but also Jewish groups."

Americans in dark glasses cast an eye on Somalia  12/21/01 Guardian, UK: "Somalia watchers doubt Bin Laden would find a safe haven in the country, where rumour-mongering is considered good manners. News of the US mission was given on Mogadishu radio while they were in Baidoa." - los chismosos no pueden estar sordos!

Fox claims of Israeli spy ring in U.S. unproven and tendentious  12/21/01 Israeli Insider: Specious counterarguments on Israeli spying in the US, which is what you expect from this right wing Israeli publication. The technique is to cite the stories and quote denials from the Israeli government and the companies involved as some kind of 'proof'! Please… As to the charge that Fox was "trying to tie together many unconnected loose ends and suggest that they offered proof for Israeli spying in the United States," at least they started to enumerate the issues that have surfaced, which is more than the 'liberal' US press has done, for whatever reasons.

Trapped in the Land of the Free  12/21/01 Jewsweek: "Feldmann says that the word "terror" never came up. But the agents asked them bluntly "if they worked for the Mossad." Eventually Feldmann and his friend agreed to undergo polygraph tests -- which they did not pass."

Hate Crimes Have Soared Since Sept. 11  12/21/01 LA Times

Anthrax investigators focusing on strain from military facility  12/21/01 Miami Herald: "``This is complete nonsense,'' Michael P. Failey told The Herald Thursday. ``I have never been a researcher of anthrax. I've never had access to anthrax. I didn't even know it was a bacteria until I saw it on TV. All I did was mention the word, that's it. ``And I've got the FBI in here searching my house and taking my computer.''

Muslim student groups come under scrutiny  12/21/01 Nando Times

The ones that got away: almost the whole Taliban leadership  12/21/01 Sidney Morning Herald: "Virtually the entire top leadership of the Taliban has survived the United States bombing campaign and eluded capture by American-backed Afghan forces, according to US officials and people close to the Taliban."

Federal agents investigate Letters to the Editor in the Casper Star Tribune  12/21/01 Sierra Times, Nevada: The federal Joint Terrorism Task Force - JTTF - hard at work!

Activists Mobilize To Prevent Africa From Being The Next Target In Bush's War Against Terrorism  12/21/01 The Black World Today: "However, most people don't realize that this same Sharon, also operating as defense minister of Israel, a year earlier had visited then-apartheid South Africa and conspired with the racist state against the best interests of the African national liberation struggle in southern Africa. While there, in company of his hosts, Sharon paid a side visit to South Africa's border with Namibia where he spent a great deal of time hobnobbing with South African military forces deployed there. He conferred with them about ways to better defend their position against the "terrorists" who were attacking the racist regime from the then-South West Africa territory under Pretoria's harsh colonial rule. The "terrorists" that Sharon was concerned about were members of the People's Liberation of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of SWAPO, the South West Africa People's Organization - officially recognized by the United Nations as the "sole representatives of the people of Namibia." SWAPO and PLAN, along with FAPLA (the Peoples Armed Forces of Angola) and the Cuban Internationalist Forces sent to Angola by President Fidel Castro, had join forces to defend the Angolans and Namibians in their resistance against the brutal military force of Africa's most formidable nation state…. All those wanting to learn more about mobilizing to stop the Bush regime from targeting Somalia, Libya, Sudan, or any other African country to submit to the dictates of U.S. and European Union globalization, as well as forcing the U.S. to end its dishonest, one-sided policy regarding Israel over the Palestinians, or co-opting Afghan national interests into kowtowing to western political or economic interests, are encouraged to attend Friday's historic program. Additional information can be obtained by emailing elombeplc@aol.com [the phones listed are the wrong ones]."

US university fires Arab professor  12/21/01 Times of India

Moheli 'invaders' acted on orders from Comoran officials: PM  12/21/01 Yahoo: "Nine men killed or arrested after a bungled "invasion" of the Comoro Islands were French mercenaries acting on orders from disgruntled Comoran officials, the Comoran prime minister told AFP."

Thursday 12/20/01

Bin Laden Translation Omitted Sections  12/20/01 ABC News: "A new ABCNEWS translation of the Osama bin Laden videotape released last week reveals information that may be embarrassing to Saudi Arabia, a very important U.S. ally."

Trade Center Attack Reveals Drug Ring  12/20/01 ABC News: A glimpse into Israeli gangsters in the shadow of 9-11. The details - ecstasy worth $1.25 MM, guns - remind you of the Comverse linked Israeli gang in LA. Scroll down to get to the story.

Global Poll: US Policies Played "Significant Role" in Terror Attacks  12/20/01 AFP

In the dark valley  12/20/01 Al Ahram: "Faced with a growing and politically-loaded African refugee crisis, Egypt struggles to accommodate those who seek refuge. Gamal Nkrumah writes on the challenge and the hope"

Mission aborted  12/20/01 Al Ahram: "Since the suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa on 1 and 2 December, the US and Israel have focused on the Israeli victims, Mubarak said, "and forgot all about the daily Israeli provocations of the Palestinians." He added: "Nearly every hour the Israelis commit a grotesque crime against the Palestinians. The US and Israel have also ignored the Palestinian Authority's extraordinary efforts to contain the situation, which are hampered by the Israeli siege."

US Warplanes Attack Targets in Yemen  12/20/01 Azzam: More US terrorism sowing the seeds of future retaliation, as the Israeli terrorism has in Palestine. Do they want to live like the Israelis, always looking over their shoulder? This is not security. When will they be good pupils and learn their lesson? "However, the tribesmen were ready and prepared for such an encounter and they fiercely resisted the onslaught, killing eight Yemeni Special Forces troops and capturing 100. They also destroyed four armoured vehicles and captured nine Toyota 4WD jeeps in addition to an assortment of light and medium weapons with ammunition. The Yemeni forces thus retreated from the villages and called in American air support after suffering this heavy defeat. After Isha prayers on Tuesday night, US warplanes attacked the village, destroying the houses of Abu Ali Al-Harithi and Abu Asim in addition to the houses of two other Egyptian Mujahideen. Three women are confirmed to have been killed and dozens of civilians, including children, injured in this barbaric act of terrorism in a residential area. Exact details of casualties will be provided once possible."

We Are Also in the World: A Bulls-Eye View of Baghdad  12/20/01 Common Dreams: "In 1998 there was a year-long series of conflicts with Iraq over weapons inspections. The Iraqi government claimed that the U.S. was using the inspectors to "spy" on the regime, and the U.S. claimed that Iraq was making up stories to hide an active weapons program. In December 1998, this conflict culminated in "Desert Fox," an intense, three-day bombing campaign against Iraq that marked the end of weapons inspections. According to earlier Pentagon estimates, it also likely resulted in over 10,000 deaths. In January 1999, both the Washington Post ("Annan Suspicious Of UNSCOM Role," 1/6/99) and the Boston Globe ("US used UN to spy on Iraq," 1/6/99) reported that the Iraqi charges were in fact true, and that the U.S. had been lying and had used the weapons inspection program to spy on the regime."

Funeralgate  12/20/01 Democrats.com

The innocent dead in a coward's war  12/20/01 Guardian, UK: "Of course, Herold's total is only an estimate. But what is impressive about his work is not only the meticulous cross-checking, but the conservative assumptions he applies to each reported incident. The figure does not include those who died later of bomb injuries; nor those killed in the past 10 days; nor those who have died from cold and hunger because of the interruption of aid supplies or because they were forced to become refugees by the bombardment. It does not include military deaths (estimated by some analysts, partly on the basis of previous experience of the effects of carpet-bombing, to be upwards of 10,000), or those prisoners who were slaughtered in Mazar-i-Sharif, Qala-i-Janghi, Kandahar airport and elsewhere." In other words, the US has by now killed several times more innocent civilians in Afghanistan than they lost on 9-11. If the past prescribed hit ratio of US to "other" is any guide, we are only at the beginning of the slaughter.

American Taliban has no right to lawyer, insists White House  12/20/01 Independent, UK: Just take him out and shoot him.

Four Iranian TV reporters arrested in Rome  12/20/01 IRNA, Iran: "The Police Department of Rome has revealed the surnames of two of the detained reporters as "Sarmadi" and "Baqer-Hossieni" but the names of the other two reporters have not been mentioned yet. The police have not either referred to the reason behind arresting the Iranian reporters."

Israeli-based drug gang nabbed near WTC  12/20/01 Jerusalem Post

Jews worry that ‘baseless´ report on 9/11 could be a blow to Israel  12/20/01 JTA, US: JTA, Marty Petez, Edgar Bronfman, et al, weigh in on the Israeli spying: "American Jewish leaders and Israeli officials said they are holding conversations with Fox News representatives, but refused to elaborate." So does Fox news talk with other foreign governments when their stories are critical of them? The ToughtPol swings into action!

Assault by battery?  12/20/01 Orlando Weekly: "In the two-part report broadcast Dec. 6 and 7, a former Eagle-Picher employee, Richard Peoples, alleged the company knew of problems with its batteries' safety but covered them up through a series of fraudulent practices. Indeed, of the 3,500 hundred "smart bombs" used against the Taliban and al-Queda terrorists so far, dozens have missed their targets, including the mishap in which three U.S. soldiers were killed when a bomb carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives landed about 100 yards from their position. Was the accident caused by human error, or did the batteries malfunction?"

US build-up in the Middle East  12/20/01 Telegraph

Iran hits back after US 'attack' on tanker  12/20/01 Times, UK

FBI focusing on portable nuke threat  12/20/01 UPI: "Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the Research and Development Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that he was briefed by the FBI late last week and that the investigation of whether terrorist groups have weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear devices, is now a top priority at the bureau after years of indifference."

Masked troops invade isle in Comoros  12/20/01 ZA Now, South Africa

Wednesday 12/19/01

15 die as Yemeni troops attack Al-Qaeda men  12/19/01 Arab News, Saudi Arabia

Israeli troops given free hand to kill  12/19/01 Arab News, Saudi Arabia

Bin Laden traced to Iran  12/19/01 Asia Times: "However, extensive investigations by Asia Times Online indicate that bin Laden has crossed the southwest border into Iran, where he is being sheltered by dissident Iranian guerrilla fighters of the Mujahideen-i-Khalq, a group with strong Iraqi links and which is outlawed as a terrorist organization by the United States. Interviews with Pakistani jihadi who fought in Afghanistan, journalists and intelligence sources support this view."

Al-Qaeda captives fight guards  12/19/01 BBC

DIRT/Frank Jones Conviction and Probation Docs  12/19/01 Cryptome: "These are conviction and probation documents of Frank Jones, proprietor of Codex Data Systems, Inc., and producer of the D.I.R.T. covert computer surveillance program sold only to law enforcement and governmental agencies."

Berezovsky’s Party Office Looted  12/19/01 Gazeta, Russia: "Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, currently in self-imposed exile and on the federal wanted list in Russia, said on Friday that he has evidence that the Russian special services were involved in the atrocious apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999.Nearly three hundred people died when three apartment blocks were destroyed by powerful explosive devices."

Israel - Security brass: Targeted killings don't work; no military solution to terror  12/19/01 Haaretz: "Briefing reporters yesterday in Tel Aviv, a senior security officer shed the diplomatic wrapping which his colleagues ordinarily use to describe the situation in the territories. "All of the anti-terror measures which we've implemented during the past year can be compared figuratively to trying to empty the sea by using a spoon," he admitted, in one disarmingly frank moment."

Europe and America in bitter row over peace force  12/19/01 Independent, UK

Flashback: FBI Probes Espionage at Clinton White House  12/19/01 Insight: Insight is related to the moony inspired Washington Times…

the Assassination of Union Leader Casimiro Huanca Double Czech  12/19/01 NarcoNews: Bolivian state terrorists kill peaceful union leader.

U.S. Police and Intelligence Hit by Spy Network  12/19/01 NewsMax: Why only in the conservative media?

Bechtel Lawsuit Puts Squeeze on Bolivia's Poor  12/19/01 Pacific News: Bechtel is heavily CIA related, built Cam Ran Bay and other installations, and gave us many cabinet members in Reagan's administration: "Two years ago, Bolivians rioted when a subsidiary of corporate giant Bechtel tripled water rates in the country's third-largest city. Protests eventually ousted the local water utility. Now, Bechtel is suing the Bolivian government for $25 million in damages and lost future profits."

Envoy Can't Remember Insult  12/19/01 Reuters: les Francais: "Black's wife, journalist Barbara Amiel, wrote in her column in the Telegraph on Monday that "an ambassador of a major EU country" said the whole of the current international security crisis could be blamed on "that shitty little country Israel."

U.S. Boats Attack Iran Oil Tanker in Gulf - TV  12/19/01 Reuters

From the Irv Rubin Bust to the Stern Gang: The Rich History of Jewish Terrorism  12/19/01 Village Voice: "Once an enthusiastic Irgunist, Stern was appalled when the Irgun decided to make common cause with the British against the Nazis, and created the even more underground and more violent Lehi (Lohamei Herut Yisrael, or Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), also known as the Stern Gang, which held there was no greater threat to the Jews of Palestine than the mandate's British administrators. To this end, Stern actually made overtures to the Axis powers; September 1940 found him in dialogue with an emissary from Il Duce in Jerusalem, and in January 1941 he dispatched an agent to Vichy-controlled Beirut with instructions to convey a letter to representatives of the Reich. In it, Stern held that the "establishment of the historical Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, and bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East. Proceeding from these considerations, [the Lehi] in Palestine, under the condition [that] the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively take part in the war on Germany's side."

Opinion Leaders: U.S. Policies Major Reason for Terrorist Attacks  12/19/01 Washington Post: "Opinion leaders around the world say the United States is admired as the land of opportunity and democratic ideals, but large numbers see American policies as a major reason for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, according to a new survey of "elite" opinion in two dozen nations."

South African Jews Polarized Over Israel: Anti-Racism Leaders Equate Country's Treatment of Palestinians to Apartheid  12/19/01 Washington Post: "Written by two Jewish heroes of South Africa's liberation struggle against the white government's apartheid system, and signed by 220 Jews, the document asserts that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is the cause of the escalating violence in the Middle East and denounces Israel's campaign of violence. Titled "Not In My Name," the declaration acknowledges Israel's right to exist and its valid security concerns but compares Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the oppression of South Africa's black majority under apartheid."

Judge Throws Out Mumia Abu-Jamal's Death Sentence, Orders New Hearing  12/19/01 Yahoo: Yahoo's news page on this story, with late breaking developments.

Tuesday 12/18/01

Officials Back Low-Yield Nuke Strike  12/18/01 AP

A PALESTINIAN VIEW: The extremists are taking the day  12/18/01 Bitterlemons.org

Taqua Systems And Comverse Infosys Collaborate To Offer Calea Electronic Surveillance Solution To Telecommunications Service Providers  12/18/01 Comverse: This is one of the Israeli related companies at the heart of the developing spy scandal.

Terrorist leaders are still at large  12/18/01 Daily Telegraph

UN Report: Reporters bash UN, Pentagon and Israel  12/18/01 Final Call

Israel strives to import America's war on terror  12/18/01 Haaretz, Israel: "The Israeli political-security establishment is coming to the conclusion that the terror attacks on September 11 granted Israel and advantage; at a time when Israel was under increasing international pressure because of the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Osama bin Laden's September 11 attacks placed Israel firmly on the right side of the strategic map with the United States. At the same time it put the Arab world at a disadvantage as it now faces its own difficult decisions about its future. That's the impression left by the speeches given by Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy and National Security Council chairman Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, at this week's Herzliya conference on national security…."This is a fight for values, and victory is necessary," Dayan declared, offering the following definition for terrorism: "Any organization that systematically harms civilians, irrespective of its motives." Really!

Israeli Tourism Minister: If they lose war, Arabs will be expelled  12/18/01 Haaretz, Israel: Israel is not a racist state: "Tourism Minister Binyamin Elon of the far-right National Union said Tuesday that if the Palestinians continue their violence against Israel and are defeated, they will ultimately be expelled from their homes, adding that he personally was aiding "Judaization" in aiding Arabs in East Jerusalem and elsewhere to emigrate to the United States."

Nusseibeh held for `political activity' in Jerusalem  12/18/01 Haaretz, Israel: "The police yesterday briefly detained the top Palestine Liberation Organization official in East Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh, so as to stop him from holding a hotel reception for diplomats."

Fears of strike on Somalia from bases in Kenya  12/18/01 Independent, UK: The US seems bent on continuing its rampage, digging itself a deeper hole: "Few experts on the Horn of Africa region can see any good reason why Somalia, which has no national government and is largely run by rival warlords, could be perceived as a viable haven for terrorists."

Israel bans 'terrorist' party hosted by the PLO  12/18/01 Independent, UK: "A Muslim holiday reception in occupied east Jerusalem at which a senior British diplomat was a guest was cancelled by police before it began yesterday on the grounds that an Israeli minister believed it constituted "terrorist activity".

The Palestinian's myth  12/18/01 Israeli Insider: Foundation for the Israeli genocide against Palestinians: "Arab leaders rejected the notion of a unique Palestinian Arab identity, insisting that Palestine was merely a part of "Greater Syria." Not that they saw Palestine as much of a prize in any case. Until the Zionist enterprise got underway, Palestine was stagnant and mostly barren. Its Arab population was small and declining. With Jewish development, however, came economic opportunity and better living conditions, which, in turn, attracted huge numbers of Arab immigrants from beyond Palestine's borders."

For the real skinny on the Afghan story  12/18/01 Media Life: On Debka, the Israeli PsyOps site

Saudi Princess arrested in Florida for beating servant  12/18/01 Miami Herald

U.S. MIFFED BY TURKEY'S COOPERATION WITH IRAQ  12/18/01 Middle East Newswire: "On Wednesday, the State Department expressed opposition to a second border crossing between Iraq and Turkey. The border gate was meant to facilitate Iraqi oil exports -- most of them not under United Nations supervision -- to Turkey."

U.S. Intelligence Community Reaches Crossroads  12/18/01 National Defense: "“The terrorism discourse is inherently pejorative and hostile toward its research subject,” wrote David Brannan, Philip Esler and Anders Strinberg. “To discuss a person or organization within a terrorist framework entails a normative judgment. This judgment disposes the researcher to prejudicial views and attitudes. ... Terrorism is in fact a social phenomenon, and terrorists are human beings and groups of human beings with convictions, forming parts of society, regardless of political or religious convictions. The currently prevalent practice of refusing to take the subjects seriously and approaching them with contempt and derision is harmful to our knowledge of these groups."

Judge Overturns Death Sentence for Abu-Jamal  12/18/01 Reuters

The FBI's House Calls  12/18/01 San Francisco Chronicle: FBI interviews man for talking bad at the local gym - "Lucas Gutentag of the National ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project believes most people aren't concerned about what's going on with internal security in this nation because they're under the impression that the FBI is targeting and profiling mainly noncitizens. "It camouflages the full effects of the [Justice Department's] policies because [citizens] don't feel directly affected, " Gutentag said. "But the principles the government is relying on result in the same kind of practices against everyone." If you don't think it can happen to you in America, just ask Barry Reingold, an average American with a strong opinion."

Victory at all cost comes at a price for America  12/18/01 Sidney Morning Herald: "Washington: US secret agents seeking to bribe foreign officials and pay informants for intelligence have 10 times more money at their disposal since September 11, a Newsweek report has claimed. The weekly magazine cites an unnamed source as saying that rules restricting the CIA's ability to deal with torturers and murderers have largely been removed."

AntiSemitism at Durban  12/18/01 Tikkun: "On its face, the charge against Israel is ludicrous. Anyone visiting Israel is immediately struck by the fact that it is one of the most multiethnic societies in the world. It is, to be sure, a state for those who have accepted Judaism. But that includes black Jews from Ethiopia, Jews from India and China who bear all the racial characteristics of people in those societies, Jews who escaped persecution in Arab lands and are racially indistinguishable from Arab Muslims. The fact is that whatever your racial background, you can convert to Judaism and be accepted with full rights in Israel." But what if you aren't a patriarchal monotheist? Fact is, Jewish people of color are few and far between: it is primarily a religion of European Azkenazi (> 90%) who are bent on ethnic cleansing along the lines of the US final solution for Indians or the South African bantustan model, which is why the South African NGOs were so anti-Israel in Durban: they remember the South Africa - Israel alliance which supported Apartheid, financed it, sold it weapons, and helped the Apartheid terrorists develop weapons of mass destruction.

US to India: Beware, nukes ahead  12/18/01 Time of India

US suffers more unannounced casualties in Afghanistan  12/18/01 Ummah News: "Reports have come in of a huge explosion of an ammunition dump at Kandahar Airport on the morning of Eid-ul-Fitr, Sunday 16 December 2001, which is said to have claimed some 200 US casualies." May be a bit exagerated, but it would not be the first time the US has hidden casualties...

The Myth of Palestine as "A Land Without People"  12/18/01 Washington Report: "Herzl had every reason to understand the Arab population of Palestine, their numbers and their point of view. Prior to the Second Zionist Congress, he sent the student leader Leo Motzkin on a tour of Palestine. One passage in his report includes this statement: "Completely accurate statistics about the number of inhabitants do not presently exist. One must admit that the density of the population does not give the visitor much cause for cheer. In whole stretches throughout the land one constantly comes across large Arab villages, and it is an established fact that the most fertile areas of our country are occupied by Arabs..." (Protocol of the Second Zionist Congress, Pg. 103)."

Monday 12/17/01

Signs of Strain  12/17/01 ABC News: "The U.S. military campaign to crush Saudi-born terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his global al Qaeda network is impacting on America's relationship with one of its oldest and staunchest Middle East allies, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

Detained  12/17/01 Alternet: The sad lot of Israelis detained in the US - once again, no mention of extensive Israeli spying which would lead to such suspicions!

9/11 – WHAT WAS ISRAEL'S ROLE?  12/17/01 AntiWar.com

Group protests against U.S. military strikes  12/17/01 Chicago Daily Herald

CIA expands its watchful eye to the US  12/17/01 Christian Science Monitor: "The Central Intelligence Agency is poised to get involved in domestic surveillance and investigations in ways that are unprecedented in its history." - will they help their narcoterrorist assets market their products?

Part 4: Carl Cameron Investigates  12/17/01 Fox News: This story was pulled by Fox News from www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40981,00.html on around 12/21! Does Israeli intelligence have similar relationships with its narcoterrorists as the CIA does with its crews? "Los Angeles, 1997, a major local, state and federal drug investigating sours. The suspects: Israeli organized crime with operations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Canada, Israel and Egypt. The allegations: cocaine and ecstasy trafficking, and sophisticated white-collar credit card and computer fraud. The problem: according to classified law enforcement documents obtained by Fox News, the bad guys had the cops’ beepers, cell phones, even home phones under surveillance. Some who did get caught admitted to having hundreds of numbers and using them to avoid arrest."

April 14: Peace March, Washington, D.C.  12/17/01 IndyMedia

Jonathan Pollard Demands Apology from PM Sharon  12/17/01 Jonathan Pollard: "Mr. Sharon, I have no illusions about your intentions for me. Our mutual friend, the late Rechavam Ze'evi z"l, never recovered from the shock after you made it clear to him last Passover, that rather than expend any effort to seek my release, you prefer that I die in prison."

Heroin, Drug Warlords Reappear on Afghan Scene  12/17/01 Pacific News: by Peter Dale Scott, co-author of Cocaine Politics and author of Deep Politics and the Death of JFK - "Another dark indicator of a coming boom is the recent and unexpected release from a Pakistani jail of Ayub Afridi, once the Khyber Pass kingpin for a network of Pashtun drug warlords in Nangarhar Province. Some have interpreted his release as a boost to his former contacts such as Haji Abdul Qadir, Haji Mohammed Zaman and Hazrat Ali, who, according to the Asia Times Daily in Hong Kong, used to be the biggest heroin and opium mafia in Afghanistan's Pashtun belt. Haji Abdul Qadir is now the political leader in Nangarhar Province, west of Khyber Pass, while Hazrat Ali and Haji Mohammed Zaman are leading the Afghan ground attack against the al Qaeda holdouts in the nearby Tora Bora caves."

JEWISH EXTREMISTS THREATEN JEWS TOO  12/17/01 Pacific News: "The editor of the Jewish bi-monthly Tikkun in San Francisco says he is not surprised at the Jewish Defense League's alleged plan to destroy a Los Angeles mosque. "Tikkun and I have received death threats from right-wing Jews because of our support of Palestinian rights," says Michael Lerner. "There are people who identify themselves as supporters of Israel who have a web site that lists my home address and phone number. It lists me with five, so-called 'leading, self-hating Jews,' including Noam Chomsky and Woody Allen." There is never just one point of view in "the Jewish world," according to Lerner, who adds that recent polls estimate from 25 to 45 percent of American Jews disagree with Israel's stance on the rights of Palestinians."

Middle East Peace Report  12/17/01 Peace Now: Several interesting articles: Israeli Assault On Palestinian Moderation, Bitter Lemons

China Supports Palestine's Peace Efforts  12/17/01 People's Daily: "China said at the United Nations Saturday that it will continue to support Palestine and its leader Yasser Arafat in their continuous efforts to seek peace through negotiation. China backs President Arafat and his Palestine Authority's pursuit of peace through negotiation, said Shen Guofang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. China strongly condemn the present series of violent attacks on the civilians, Shen reiterated China's stance on the Middle East conflict."

Breaking Stories about Oil, Drugs, and War in Afghanistan  12/17/01 Peter Dale Scott: from the co-author of Cocaine Politics

Israel Reacts Warily to Arafat Speech  12/17/01 Reuters: Is that "waringly"? - "Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinians on Monday, including a Hamas member and a 12-year-old boy, drawing vows from militant groups to defy Yasser Arafat's demand for a halt to armed attacks on Israelis."

British plan 'stiletto' attacks on Yemen training camps  12/17/01 Sidney Morning Herald

Muslim peer says his phone calls were bugged  12/17/01 Telegraph, UK

Two Snippets of Israeli History  12/17/01 The Ethical Spectacle: "On April 9, 1948--thus five months prior to the killing of Count Bernadotte-- the combined forces of the Stern Gang and the Irgun (military arm of the Revisionist party, commanded by Menachem Begin, later Prime Minister) carried out reprisals in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. Like the Stern Gang, the Irgun was responsible for many horrors; but Deir Yassin may have been the worst. The villagers had actually signed a nonaggression pact with a nearby Jewish village when the Stern Gang decided to destroy Deir Yassin to teach the Arabs a lesson for over-running other Jewish settlements. As a senior Irgun officer later said: The clear aim was to break Arab morale and raise the morale of the Jewish community in Jerusalem which had been hit hard time after time... The villagers resisted the 120 Jewish attackers, as they had a right to, and a heavy machine gun and a mortar were brought up to end the battle. Then the raiding party entered the village and started behaving like a Nazi Einsatzkommando. Twenty-three men were led off to a quarry and executed in cold blood, and between 90 and 230 others were shot down in the village."

No clue to 300,000 IDPs in Tora Bora: UN  12/17/01 The News, Pakistan

ISRAEL'S APPROVED ETHNIC CLEANSING: PART 1, MAKING "FACTS ON THE GROUND"  12/17/01 Zmag: "Israel's treatment of the Palestinians has always presented a moral problem to the West, as that treatment has violated every law and moral standard on the books. Some 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in 1948-1949, and since then scores of thousands more have been pushed out by force, their houses demolished or taken over by Israeli Jews (not Israeli Arabs). Under the supposed "peace process" following the signing of the Oslo Agreement in September 1993, a UN Special Report of November 13, 2000, says that "In the past seven years...Israel's confiscation of Palestinian land and construction of settlements and bypass roads for Jewish settlers has accelerated dramatically in breach of Security Council Resolution 242 and of provisions of the Oslo agreements requiring both parties to respect 'the territorial integrity and unity of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.' Since 1993 the settler population in the West Bank and Gaza has doubled to 200,000 and increased to 170,000 in East Jerusalem." The report also describes and condemns the demolitions of Palestinian houses, the diversion of water to Israeli cities and settlements, the policy of closures that has damaged Palestinian social and economic life, and the "widespread violation of their [Palestinian] economic, social and cultural rights" both within Israel and in the occupied territories. It also assails Israel's use of excessive force against Palestinians and hundreds of Intifada killings, "most of them unarmed demonstrators."

ISRAEL'S APPROVED ETHNIC CLEANSING: PART 2, U.S. OFFICIAL PROTECTION  12/17/01 Zmag: "Thus, instead of having to leave the occupied territories Israel continues to push out the locals by force, uproot their trees, steal their water, beggar them by "closures" and endless restrictions, and it suffers no penalties because it has U.S. approval, protection, and active assistance (see below). The partners also deny Palestinians any right to return to land from which they were expelled, so 140+ contrary UN votes, and two Security Council Resolutions--both vetoed by the United States-- have no effect; and in a remarkable Orwellian process of doublethink--and double morality--Israel is free to expel more Palestinians in the same time frame in which their protector spent billions and great moral energy in a campaign to return worthy victims in Kosovo."

ISRAEL'S APPROVED ETHNIC CLEANSING: PART 3, HOW THE U.S. MEDIA PROTECTS IT  12/17/01 Zmag: "The U.S. mainstream media have followed closely their government's agenda of giving Israel carte blanche in dealing with their Palestinian subjects, both within Israel and in the occupied territories. This has involved a major intellectual and moral challenge, given the facts of serious racist discrimination, the long Israeli refusal to exit the occupied territories as demanded by an overwhelming international consensus, Israel's daily violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention requirements on treatment of people in occupied territories--including a massive ethnic cleansing openly designed to benefit the "chosen people"-- and their clear intention to create a Palestinian system of dependent and poor bantustans in the occupied territories, organized strictly for the advantage of the ethnic cleansing state."

World News

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to Democracies as against despots: suspicion." -- Demosthenes

Qawafil-ush-Shuhadaa http://www.shuhadaa.com [ARABIC]

Islam Question & Answer - Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid

Islaam Homepage

Islamic Assembly of North America [IANA on LINE]

Jam'iat Ihyaa' Minhaaj al-Sunnah Homepage

Nida'ul Islam/ The Call of Islam Magazine Online

Words Written in Blood. Arabic book collection of Shaheed Sheikh

Abdullah Azzam [ARABIC]

Maps & Weather

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/

A number of maps here
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/afghanistan.html

http://www.weatherhub.com/

Estimates of the total number of Muslims range from 0.7 to 1.2 billion worldwide and 3 to 6 million in the U.S. About 20% of all people on earth follow Islam. The religion is in a period of rapid growth.

Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world. It is followed by about 33% of all people -- a percentage that has remaind stable for decades. It is expected that, if current trends continue, Islam will become the most popular religion sometime in the mid-21^st century.

-- http://www.religioustolerance.org/islam.htm

Death from America

Iraq news: Soaring death rates among Iraqi children, 1999 BBC, UNICEF 500,000 child deaths

Ramsey Clark: Report to UN Security Council re: Iraq, 1/26/2000
1.5 million deaths

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