World News
12/24/01 - 12/30/02

Sunday 12/30/01

Numbers of US Al Qaeda investigations by FBI tops 150  12/30/01 Boston Globe

MI5 blunders over bomber  12/30/01 Guardian, UK: "The Observer can reveal that MI5 agents intercepted phone calls between Reid and the suspect, Zacarias Moussaoui, which directly linked Bromley-born Reid to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda net work, but did not realise their implication until it was too late. This was condemned last night as a serious breakdown in intelligence."

Tensions rise as foreign activists again confront Israeli army  12/30/01 Israeli Insider: "The IDF declared sections of the Jerusalem-Hebron highway a "closed military zone" Sunday morning, barring the passage of four busloads of foreign activists who planned to stage a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Hebron. The group, primarily British, French, and Italian protesters, spoke with police and soldiers at the Gush Etzion roadblock in attempts to receive permission to continue to Hebron. The IDF refused to rescind the military restriction and took measures to prevent a repeat of violence in a confrontation with the demonstrators near Ramallah on Saturday."

Le Web, meilleur allié des pacifistes américains  12/30/01 Le Monde, France: partial survey of US antiwar efforts on the web

Author links Bush family to Nazis  12/30/01 Sarasota Herald Tribune: This story came out 11/11/00 and was completely ignored. And Loftus knows what he is talking about: "The president of the Florida Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush's grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank. John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department's Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research found that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Leading Nazi industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time, Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a second bank in Holland even after the United States declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in 1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank as part of that dissolution."

US missile shortage delays Iraq strike  12/30/01 Telegraph, UK

Saturday 12/29/01

Kabul Asks U.S. to End Bombing But Bush Vows to Continue War  12/29/01 IHT: "Washington said Thursday that, in the first strike in three days, its planes had destroyed a compound used by members of the former ruling Taliban southwest of Kabul. A Pakistan-based press agency said 25 villagers had been killed by bombs in the same vicinity." How to win finds and influence people: bomb the hell out of 'em.

US tribunals to allow hearsay in terrorist trials  12/29/01 Independent, UK: New Bushism: "Whatever the procedures are for military tribunals, our system will be more fair than the system of bin Laden and the Taliban." How reassuring.

INTERPOL Seeks Bolivia's Banzer, General Cancels Washington Trip  12/29/01 Narco News: "The complicity of United States media correspondents in Latin America in the silence that protects those war criminals supported by Washington has never been clearer than this week. Buenos Aires, Argentina, is crawling with U.S. correspondents, due to the recent upheavals caused by the failure of the dollarization of the Argentine economy that had been imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and led Argentine president Fernando de la Rua to resign and flee. This week, right under the noses of this overpopulation of North American reporters, a Federal Judge in Argentina ordered the arrest and capture of former Bolivian dictator-turned-"president" Hugo Banzer, for his participation in the brutal alliance of South American dictators in the 1970s known as Operation Condor. But has a single United States newspaper or North American wire service reported this inconvenient news in English? No, and through its silence, the North American media -- and its inauthentic journalists, as individuals -- make themselves complicit in crimes against humanity."

Sharon's chief of security ruled unfit  12/29/01 Sydney Morning Herald

Paris Reporters Say Bush Threatened War Last Summer: The French Connection  12/29/01 Village Voice: "Under Clinton, few thought they could ever deal with the Taliban, and some wanted to pile on sanctions. But under Bush, talks started up once more. The purpose was legitimate at the start, Brisard notes. "It was for the U.S. to negotiate that bin Laden be given to them," he says. "Then it shifted to the point where advisers thought that the economic arguments would make the difference with the Taliban and accelerate the negotiations. They started to put the oil subsidies that would be given to the Taliban on the table. At the end of July, the negotiations broke down, because the U.S. threatened to go to war with the Taliban if they didn't accept the deal."

Friday 12/28/01

STRANGE SYMBIOSIS – ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM  12/28/01 Antiwar.com

Bush OKs Intelligence, Defense Bills  12/28/01 AP: We'll never know anything about Emperor Bush: "In signing the intelligence bill, Bush objected to a provision that he said ``purports to require'' the administration to file written reports to congressional committees on intelligence failures."

Fox claims Israel knew of Sept. 11 attacks in advance  12/28/01 Arab News: "The report, ignored by mainstream American media, has put Fox News in the unusual situation of having to defend itself against charges of anti-Israeli bias. The irony here is that Fox News, owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is viewed as pro-Israeli by many pro-Israel activists."

Al Qaeda planning next phase  12/28/01 Christian Science Monitor: The Russians took Kabul in 2 days in 1979, the Americans took it by proxy in a month and are crying victory.

Going Nuclear in Iraq  12/28/01 Counterpunch: Genocide, or why muslims hate Americans: "What's the source of this epidemic? According to Abdul-Hamid the problem is depleted uranium. Depleted uranium, or "DU", is an extremely dense, heavy metal, and a waste product of atomic bomb production. It has a half-life of over 4 billion years. It contains trace amounts of plutonium and is 60 per cent as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium. The US military uses it as ballast in their missiles, and they use it to coat shells and pellets. Because of its density, it is armour piercing - so it is used as an anti-tank weapon. DU is also aerosolising. When a shell coated with DU hits, it burns, releasing uranium oxide dust. This dust then rises in the air, is carried by the winds, and contaminates the entire surrounding environment. The Pentagon admits to dropping 320 tonnes of DU in Iraq. The environmental organisation Greenpeace puts the estimate at over 800 tonnes. Hospitals throughout Iraq have reported as much as a 10-fold increase in overall cancer rates and birth defects over the last 11 years."

Stun grenades used on West Bank  12/28/01 Daily Telegraph, Australia: "SOLDIERS have fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of European protesters a few hundred metres from a West Bank compound where Yasser Arafat has been marooned for more than three weeks. No injuries were reported. The day before, demonstrators from the same group said police punched and wrestled them to the ground as they tried to enter the Gaza Strip for a two-day solidarity visit with Palestinians. The police said no violence was used to turn them back."

Critics Charge Racism As Jewish State Places 'Quota' on Ethiopians  12/28/01 Forward: "Critics are claiming racism is behind what they say is the Israeli government's establishment of a 400-person monthly quota on immigration from Ethiopia — even for those who qualify under the Law of Return. Ethiopian Jewry activists complain that the quota and what they cite as a lack of humanitarian aid from American Jewish philanthropies are doubly offensive because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent calls for a mass immigration of Jews from Argentina, France, Australia and South Africa. The plight of Ethiopian Jews is being ignored, activists charge, even as Israel and the quasi governmental Jewish Agency for Israel, the main overseas recipient of monies raised by federations within the United Jewish communities system, are investing millions of dollars to encourage immigration from those countries and the former Soviet Union." The drive on Russian Jews is to compensate rising Arab demographics within Greater Israel. See our page on Beta Israel.

American Jews Seeking To Aid Israel's Arabs  12/28/01 Forward, US: "The Human Rights Watch findings are similar to those posted by Israel's own Central Bureau of Statistics, which reported in 1999 that "while the situation and conditions of education in Israel are similar to other Western countries, gaps exist in the teaching, education levels, the provision of education services and household expenditure on education between Jews and Arabs." If such reports are picked up by the American media, it could be "a horrible embarrassment for the Israeli government," said Leonard Fein, a consultant to the New Israel Fund and a founder of Americans for Peace Now (and a columnist for this newspaper). "There are few issues more resonant in America than state-supported discrimination."

Alto por ciento de israelíes a favor de acuerdo con palestinos  12/28/01 Granma, Cuba

Afghan jailers beat confessions from men  12/28/01 Guardian, UK: "Afghanistan's new authorities are brutalising Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners to soften them up before handing them over to American forces."

U.S. seeks Israeli responses for human rights report  12/28/01 Haaretz, Israel: "The U.S. State Department has requested explanations from the Foreign Ministry on a number of issues due to be included in its upcoming annual report on human rights. These issues include assassinations of Palestinian terrorists, administrative detentions, and various incidents involving Israel Defense Forces troops in the territories."

Israeli soldiers beat Bethlehem housewife to death  12/28/01 Islamic Association For Palestine

Fox News: Israel Spying on the US  12/28/01 Israel National News: Interesting reading of the Fox articles in Israel: "The report stresses repeatedly that US officials are not concerned that Israeli is making wrongful use of the data against the United States, but is very concerned the data could fall into the wrong hands." So, it's OK what Pollard & co. did? Now if they were Cubans…

Dhaka Imam defends anti-US remarks  12/28/01 Khilafah: "Bangladesh's top religious leader said on Thursday he had committed no crime by showing sympathy to the people of Afghanistan for the suffering caused to them by the United States bombing. Maulana Obaidul Huq, imam at Dhaka's Baitul Mukarram mosque, accused the US of crossing all limits by calling him a "misguided" person in an interview published by the widely circulated daily, Ittefaq. Huq stirred up a controversy by allegedly terming the US and its President George Bush the greatest terrorists in the world for attacking Afghanistan on the plea of hunting out Osama bin Laden." He is saying out loud what the majority of the people on the planet think!

What Are They Hiding About Flight 93?  12/28/01 NewsMax: "When American Flight 587 crashed in New York shortly after takeoff, the government released detailed information from the CVR within 36 hours. What are they hiding about United Flight 93?"

LONG HISTORY OF VIOLENT THEFT OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN-OWNED LAND  12/28/01 Radio Havana

U.S. bombing reported to kill up to 40 in east Afghanistan  12/28/01 Reuters

U.S. cooking up a coup in Venezeula?  12/28/01 San Francisco Examiner: "Early last month, the National Security Agency, the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department held a two-day meeting on U.S. policy toward Venezuela. Similar such meetings took place in 1953, 1963, and 1973, as well as before coups in Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina. It should send a deep chill down the backs of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the populist coalition that took power in 1998. The catalyst for the Nov. 5-7 interagency get-together was a comment by Chavez in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. While Chavez sharply condemned the attack, he questioned the value of bombing Afghanistan, calling it "fighting terrorism with terrorism." In response, the Bush administration temporarily withdrew its ambassador and convened the meeting. The outcome was a requirement that Venezuela "unequivocally" condemn terrorism, including repudiating anything and anyone the Bush administration defines as "terrorist." Since this includes both Cuba (with which Venezuela has extensive trade relations) and rebel groups in neighboring Colombia (to whom Chavez is sympathetic), the demand was the equivalent of throwing down the gauntlet. The spark for the statement might have been Sept. 11, but the dark clouds gathering over Venezuela have much more to do with enduring matters -- like oil, land and power."

China cautions Israel against selling AWACS to India  12/28/01 Times of India: Hence the Debka reports on Chinese support for al Qaeda…

Osama jingle catches children's fancy  12/28/01 Times of India

Terror plot on US carrier foiled  12/28/01 UPI

U.S. man admits nuke-linked sale to Israel  12/28/01 UPI: "At the time the 30-count indictment was issued, the Israeli government maintained that it had purchased the krytrons sent by Smyth's Orange County firm from Heli Trading Corp., an Israeli vendor, for purely conventional research purposes and not for use in nuclear weapons. Tel Aviv also said it was not aware of U.S. export restrictions, however U.S. prosecutors said Smyth had been well aware of them. The Los Angeles Times said Friday that the plea agreement requires Smyth to answer any lingering questions U.S. investigators may have about his dealings in krytrons." The Tweety Bird said so.

Thursday 12/27/01

Osama bin Laden  12/27/01 Anti Defamation League: bin Laden is frequently accused of coming late to an anti-Israel, pro-Palestine position. But the bottom of this ADL page (up for now) shows: "July 1996 - Bin Laden warns that the terrorists who bombed American soldiers in Saudi Arabia will also attack British and French military personnel. He said "[the bomb in Dhahran] was the result of American behavior against Muslims, its support of Jews in Palestine, and the massacre of Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon."

Secret Graves Uncovered in El Salvador  12/27/01 AP: State sponsored terror, courtesy of Bush the 1st, Otto Reich, John Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, & Co., all re-enlisted for Bush II.

Heavy fighting erupts in Somalia  12/27/01 BBC

Transcript: Bin Laden video excerpts  12/27/01 BBC: "We say that the end of the United States is imminent, whether Bin Laden or his followers are alive or dead, for the awakening of the Muslim umma (nation) has occurred. It is important to hit the economy (of the United States), which is the base of its military power...If the economy is hit they will become preoccupied."

The Real Story Behind America's War  12/27/01 Black World Today

An Analysis of Al-Qaida Tradecraft  12/27/01 Metatempo

Más victimas civiles de la aviación norteamericana  12/27/01 Notinet, Cuba

Full text of Osama bin Laden's videotaped comments  12/27/01 Reuters: ""How many villages were annihilated without committing any crime? How many, if we calculate, millions of people were made homeless during the biting cold, and how many of these oppressed men, women and children are now sheltering in tents in Pakistan? They have not committed any crime. America launched this campaign based on a suspicion. Those who claim to uphold humanitarian values and freedom, we saw their true criminal nature. A shell weighing seven grams is sufficient and actually more than sufficient (to kill) a human being but America, because it loathes the Taliban and Muslims to such an extent, used on our brothers on the frontlines projectiles weighing as much as seven tonnes and those who can calculate know that this is equivalent to seven million grams when seven grams are sufficient for a human being." And the gullible Americans hand him this stuff for free, as dictated in his 9-11 script.

Israeli troops employ Nazi methods says Knesset member  12/27/01 Umma News: "Meanwhile the Israeli bar association today described the "assassinations" of Palestinian political activists and leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "war crimes" and "extra-judicial executions." Following deliberations lasting for several days, the association said in a statement published Thursday that assassinations and other acts of premeditated murders were "war crimes unlawful under international law." The statement warned Israeli soldiers and officers who are involved in these assassinations that they would be held responsible for their crimes and treated as "war criminals." Advocate Yosef Arnon, head of the Law sub-committee in the association, urged "the men and women of law" in the Zionist state to take a leading role in combating the phenomenon of assassinations. He added that these crimes would boomerang in the future and that Israelis could find themselves under arrest when they travel to European countries. He said the fact that the soldiers were carrying out instructions was not an excuse. "There is no excuse to carry out orders to murder."

Somalia's president pleads with US not to attack his country  12/27/01 Umma News

Mujahideen claim mounting successes in Tora Bora  12/27/01 Ummah News: sounds like a bit of boasting, but there may be a few unreported casualties among the Americans, as is their custom so as not to harm their internal support.

Military Action Against Terror Begins  12/27/01 World News: "Speaking to The Associated Press Tuesday on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, Franks said overt and covert U.S. military operations are ``going on in a great many places.'' Those operations ``are designed to do away with these pockets of terrorism,'' Franks said without giving details. ``I think General Franks was being vague for an obvious reason,'' said Army Col. Richard Thomas, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which Franks heads. ``There's a lot of stuff going on. Some of it you get to report, some of it you don't.'' Such as recent reports of US activity in Yemen, Somalia, the Phillipines, Indonesia, etc

Wednesday 12/26/01

Shoe bomb suspect 'one of many'  12/26/01 BBC: The numbers are increasing: "Mr Baker said there were perhaps as many as 1,000 extremist Muslims in the UK, of whom at least 100 were ready to become suicide bombers. He said: "Those propagating the extreme views are relatively few in number but in the last four or five years we have witnessed that number grow quite frighteningly."

Evoking shadow of apartheid, letter illuminates Jews' angst  12/26/01 Boston Globe: "Anti-Israel tract splits community in South Africa"

From hot conflict to Cold War  12/26/01 Boston Globe: "US made moral compromises in using former Nazi spy network against Soviet threat" - somewhat sweetened up, as is the custom in the American media, but some interesting details. Part of a series, scroll

The Secret History of WWII  12/26/01 Boston Globe: The whole series here

Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act CALEA Implementation Section  12/26/01 CALEA: CALEA is the US federal wiretap system supported by Comverse Infosys, an Israeli firm

Bin Laden calls Sept. 11 attacks 'blessed terror'  12/26/01 CNN: "It has become crystal clear that the West in general, led by the United States, are full of hatred against Islam. Hatred that cannot be defined." "It has become crystal clear that the West in general, led by the United States, are full of hatred against Islam. Hatred that cannot be defined."

Veteran takes up pen for peace  12/26/01 Denver Post: "He e-mailed copies of his letter to friends. Within weeks, it had been beamed through the ether to nearly every corner of the globe. It inspired a group of peace activists in Japan to raise most of the $100,000 needed to pay for a full-page advertisement in the Oct. 9 edition of The New York Times."

In Curious Battle: An Expert Recants on Why WTC Collapsed  12/26/01 Emperor's New Clothes

Afghan prisoners recognize Reid  12/26/01 MSNBC

US propaganda war in danger as hunt for bin Laden drags on  12/26/01 New Zealand Herald: "But he might almost equally easily be imagined, without beard and hair, wearing coloured contact lenses and modern clothes, waiting at tables in Soho."

Arrested Pashtun leader killed in mystery helicopter crash  12/26/01 Out There News: This story, ignored by the western media, suggests a high level of infighting.

College professors call report a prelude to blacklist, stifling academic freedom  12/26/01 Seattle Times: "Others are concerned that the report will be used to pressure college trustees to adopt a required curriculum of U.S. history and civics with a nationalistic bent. "That agenda is serious, too, because it has to do with what gets taught," said Barbara Foley, a Rutgers University English professor quoted in the report. "This report is another installment in the Lynne Cheney culture wars."

Tuesday 12/25/01

U.S. Muslims hunker down as hate crimes soar, immigrants are rounded up  12/25/01 AFP

Arrest report dismissed as baseless  12/25/01 Arab News: "The Saudi Embassy in Washington denied a report that appeared in the Kansas City Star newspaper on Friday which said former Makkah Governor Prince Majed, 64, was a captive in Afghanistan."

What is happening to Saudi society?  12/25/01 Arab News: "...some 1,000 young men gathered near Al-Nawras roundabout on Jeddah’s Corniche. They were harassing women in cars; they hit the cars and smashed the windows and even prevented other cars from passing through the area. Their rage and violence seemed unstoppable as they had gone so far as to smash the rear window of a police patrol car. The police called for back up as they found it impossible to control so large a group. The back up arrived and as they did so, the young men fled. Some people were injured as the police forces dispersed the large crowds."

Poll: Muslims Say U.S. Foreign Policy Led to Terrorist Attacks  12/25/01 Belief Net

Jackson Alleges Media Blackout on Civil Liberties Protests; Activists Plan March to 'Raise a Voice'  12/25/01 Black Press USA

MIRAGE OF PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD: Demographic stakes  12/25/01 Le Monde Diplomatique: "At this rate the Palestinians will make up the majority in mandatory Palestine between 2007 and 2013, a lot sooner than former Prime Minister Shimon Peres had predicted (2018). By then they will account for 52% to 56% of the population. For Israel this means a tough choice between demography and democracy: either there is proper democracy (in which case the Palestinians will dominate) or Israel will be forced into apartheid-like rule." Perhaps this explains the current anti-Palestine campaign, which when you look at it in all its dimensions, is ethnic cleansing.

Irgun Terrorism 1931-1948  12/25/01 On War: A very small part of the rebuttal to the assertion that there was no Jewish terrorism in the founding of Israel.

Washington Times Report "Groundless": FM Spokesperson  12/25/01 People's Daily

Out the Door in Oneida: Anatomy of a Newsroom Fiasco  12/25/01 Poynter.org: Contains the editorial which caused the firing of two veteran newspersons. The offending lines: "Until 1948, there was no Israel. The United Nations took Palestinian land and gave it to a number of Jewish terrorists to rule -- Jewish terrorists who had bombed and killed Palestinians and others in an effort to force hands of power to see an Israel formed. Today's freedom fighter, in many cases, was yesterday's terrorist. Old Testament writings in the Christian Bible speak of the Israelis of that day roaming the desert and often slaughtering the local populations wherever their travels took them, all on God's say-so, of course, but not endearing themselves in the hearts of the Arabs who inhabited that part of the world… …. In the words of John Lennon, "Give peace a chance." This is factually incorrect? The only fact that is questionable is calling Old Testament Israeli victims Arabs, who were not then in the majority. But victims of that old war god Yahweh there most certainly were, in abundance!

RESPONSES TO THE SEPT. 19 ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH EDITORIAL  12/25/01 Poynter.org: Includes letter from the mayor and from the attorney, Randy Schaal, who initiated the actions that led to the firings of two veteran journalists. This gem from Schaal: "The fact is bin Laden hates the United States, not because of Israel and the Jews, but because of our freedoms, and because we stationed troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War." Is that the freedom to kill thousands of Iraquis and now Afghans directly and Palestinians by paid proxy?

The ticking Palestinian bomb that Israel can't defuse  12/25/01 Salon: "In 2020, Jews will be a distinct minority in "Greater Israel," the land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing both the internationally-recognized state of Israel and the occupied territories, comprising the West Bank and Gaza. According to recent predictions, Arabs will form 58 percent of the total population, up from 49.5 percent today. In Israel proper, Jews will remain a majority but their percentage will drop from 73 percent today to 68 percent in two decades."

Comverse SEC Complaint, 2001  12/25/01 SEC

US finds bin Laden's uranium  12/25/01 The Age, Australia: "US investigators believe Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network has enough radioactive materials to build what experts call a "radiological dispersal device", according to Newsweek magazine"

1984 by George Orwell  12/25/01 The Memory Hole

US forces at Kandahar Airport face fresh attack  12/25/01 Ummah News: "US soldiers fled their positions around Kandahar Airport when they were attacked by heavy artillery at around 10am on Sunday, 23 December 2001. The firing came both from a village named Khoshab, situated to the south of airport and a mountainous region adjacent to this village. Eyewitness, driver Ahmad Ali, said he heard heavy artillery fire coming from the region for almost half an hour. There was then a distinct sound of the firing of both light and heavy weapons. American soldiers in the base were seen panicking and fleeing their positions. Soon after this attack, US warplanes carried out heavy indiscriminate bombing of Khoshab and the neighbouring mountain peaks. The civilian casualties in this attack have yet to be determined."

Program for DNA testing of inmates is scrapped  12/25/01 USA Today: Ashcroft denies inmates the possibility of correcting judicial errors - consistent with his reputation for being ultra racist.

Cheney's Rich streak  12/25/01 WorldNet Daily: all this is forgotten!

Warlords reject new peace pact between Somali factions, transitional govt  12/25/01 Yahoo

Monday 12/24/01

Beta-Israel History and Culture  12/24/01 Almaya, Israel: Ethiopian Jewry in Israel, with special attention to recent history, through the time of the immigration into Israel: "The Beta-Israel immigrants found that Israel is not the biblical Holy Land. They did not find what they expected. There was not a steady flow of "milk and honey", nor were Israelis angels. They were in shock from the journey, from the deaths of close family members, the hardship and suffering. Many young people, who left their extended families behind in Ethiopia and trekked alone to Sudan, lost all contact with their families. On top of the existing trauma and shock from the journey and their arrival, began the difficulties of absorption. Israel was a Western country that they did not understand and was very different from what they knew or expected. Knowledge in Israel about Ethiopian Jews, their history, habits, foods, language, way of life and hardships was almost nonexistent. The Beta-Israel absorption difficulties were far greater than those faced by newcomers from Europe, Asia, North Africa and North and South America."

Don't Mention It: The US State Department's Human Rights Reports on Israel and the Occupied Territories  12/24/01 AntiWar.com: "Because it is no secret that Israel commits serious human rights abuses (indeed, Senator Russ Feingold [D-WI] called the most recent State Department human rights report on Israel "disturbing" in a letter to me dated 31 October 2001) one has to wonder how it is that this public record is virtually unknown to, or ignored by, our major media and intellectual classes. Could it be that our reasons for supporting Israel have nothing to do with valuing those who believe in "progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom"? (George W. Bush; 20 September 2001) We may need to redefine what "civilized" means. Or perhaps we should simply urge Attorney General Ashcroft to suppress such information in the future."

The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts  12/24/01 Bible and Interpretation: Polytheist like the rest of us at the start…

It Happened This Morning: Believe It or Not  12/24/01 Counterpunch: what happens when the Israelis use Lebanese Falangistas at their checkpoints.

Cryptome attacked by FBI bots  12/24/01 Cryptome: "A caution on bots: There is no objection to anybody -- gov, mil, edu, com, or individual -- downloading all the files here wanted without limitation, the whole 8,000+ if desired, preferably no more than a hundred per day. However, malconfigured bots and spiders that repetitively download mindlessly, or generate thousands of error messages for files already downloaded, and in doing so exluding others' access, are not welcome and will be blocked in perpetuity. The FBI bot cited here recently was doing that and demonstrates that a malconfigured machine was operating without human control or a human was deliberating attacking by pretending to be a bot or demon hacker (pretty common these flush days of inept cybersecurity peddling -- none of the ept gov bots has screwed up here like the FBI's MAS). Uncontrolled bots are attackers for they produce destruction as if intentionally. Don't use bots unless you know for sure they are not causing damage. Test them on your own site before bombing the net as if cowardly B52s begging for payback."

Yanked Fox News Reports on Israeli US Spying  12/24/01 Cryptome: All 4 Fox News stories on this issue, with some interesting links

Israeli settlers on the West Bank and Gaza: the numbers  12/24/01 Defense and the National Interest, US: Crucial graphics needed to understand the Intifada

West Bank: Facts on the Ground 2000  12/24/01 Defense and the National Interest, US: This map illustrates how the Israeli occupation is part of a colonial war.

Muhammad Ali joins the fight with TV message to win over Muslims  12/24/01 Guardian, UK

MY TEXAN CONTACT IN AFGHANISTAN HAS BEEN SHOT  12/24/01 Guerrilla News Network

The War Conspiracy  12/24/01 Guerrilla News Network: "In his review of the book, Noam Chomsky remarked on Scott's "meticulous and fascinating analysis of intelligence conspiracies and the links between the 'intelligence community' and corporate power."

Americans 'duped' into attack on convoy  12/24/01 Independent, UK: "But it has now been claimed that "intelligence" had been supplied to the Americans by a Paktia warlord, Pacha Khan, who had a score to settle with members of the nomadic Kochi clan – who have a reputation for lawlessness – travelling in the convoy. Local villagers said he had deliberately misinformed the Americans that the vehicles contained al-Qa'ida fighters and engineered the air attack. Mr Khan is a powerful man whose brother is a minister in Mr Karzai's new cabinet. He is also said to be close to the American commanders. According to the locals, his men blocked the convoy from the main road between the towns of Khost and Gardez, forcing it to get on to a remote mountain pass, thus making it appear it was attempting to avoid detection."

Unlike their American counterparts, Russian Jews unafraid to visit Israel  12/24/01 JTA, US

ETHIOPIAN JEWRY PAGE  12/24/01 North American Conference on Ethiopean Jewry: Jews in Ethiopea by Jews in Ethiopea

Israeli Settler Runs Over Old Man  12/24/01 Palestine Chronicle,: A colonial war, which perhaps the Americans approve of as this was how they conquered the Indians: "While settler attacks are widely reported and publicized, Israeli occupation authorities have done very little to halt settler violence against Palestinians. No settler has yet been arrested, charged, or convicted of the numerous attacks against Palestinian civilians that have taken place in the past fifteen months."

WATCH GROUP WARNS OF RACISM ON THE RISE IN EUROPE  12/24/01 Radio Havana

Tribal leader warns Karzai of war over US raids  12/24/01 Times of India: If the Israeli psyops site Debka is to be believed, al Qaeda lured the gullible but brutal Americans into a trap by firing missiles at their planes from near a large Afghan pro-government convoy. Now the reaction: "A tribal leader in eastern Afghanistan threatened to launch a war against new Afghan leader Hamid Karzai if US jets launched another attack on his area, Afghan Islamic Press reported. The warning from Gulab Din, head of the Zadran tribe in Paktia province, came as the US government struggled to shake off accusations that its jets had attacked a convoy taking tribal elders and other local officials to Karzai's inauguration in Kabul on Saturday."

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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