Syrian redeployment window dressing

A pullback of Syrian troops from hills near Beirut, set in motion Tuesday, aimed at appeasing the United States and avoiding further international action after the U.N. Security Council demanded their departure.

Syria is shifting only about 3,000 of its 20,000 soldiers in Lebanon - not bringing them home - and such redeployment is not likely to satisfy the U.S., Israel, the U.N. Security Council, or Lebanese critics of Syria's presence here.

A Lebanese military official confirmed the pullback had begun. But by Tuesday evening there was no outward sign of troop movement in the areas to be included in the first stage of redeployment: the hilly coastal towns of Aramoun, Chuwiefat, Damour, Doha and Khaldeh, south of Beirut, and Dhourt al-Chouair to the north.

At Dhour al-Chouair, 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Beirut, Syrian soldiers seen through the gate of the camp appeared to be going about usual chores - cooking dinner, gathering wood. Soldiers at the gate expressed surprise at the sudden appearance of journalists and ordered them to leave.

The Lebanese military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said troops in the Beirut area would be moved away from the capital to new positions still inside Lebanon. The redeployment should be complete within a few days, the official told The Associated Press."

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Palestinian Deported From Tampa Indicted

TAMPA, Fla. — The brother-in-law of Sami Al-Arian was indicted Tuesday in the terrorism financing case against the former University of South Florida professor.

Mazen Al-Najjar, a Palestinian, was deported from the United States in August 2002 and is believed to be in Lebanon.

Besides facing racketeering and conspiracy charges, Al-Najjar was specifically charged with perjury for denying to an immigration court judge that he was a member of the Islamic Jihad, knew other members or provided the group with financial support.

The U.S. Attorney's office declined comment. The Islamic Jihad is believed responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people in terrorist attacks in Israel.

Al-Najjar was named as an unindicted co-conspirator when Al-Arian and eight others were indicted in 2003. Prosecutors allege the men used an Islamic charity and academic think tank at the university as fund-raising covers for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Arian and three others are scheduled for trial in January. They have denied the charges.

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Islamonazism (Wikipedia)

Islamonazism and Islamofascism are terms describing the use of Nazi and/or fascist terminology, beliefs and propaganda by Islamic religious and political leaders, generally manifesting itself in calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and the genocide of its citizens and "infidels" (non-Muslims) in general.

Contents

1 Historical Background 1.1 Pre- and during WWII 1.2 Post-WWII 2 Modern Islamonazism 2.1 Quest for world domination 2.2 Palestinian Authority and Hamas 3 Further Reading 4 External Links

Historical Background

Pre- and during WWII

Grand Mufti Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini with Hitler.

Islamonazism began to develop during the time of the German Third Reich, as evidenced by the close relationship between Adolf Hitler-led Nazis and a number of Arab leaders, most notably, the Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini who was known as the "Arab Führer".

Dr. Serge Trifkovic documents the similarities between Al Husseini's brand of radical Islam and Nazism in his book The Sword of the Prophet. He noted parallels in both ideologies: anti-Semitism, quest for world dominance, demand for the total subordination of the free will of the individual, belief in the abolishment of the nation-state in favor of a "higher" community (in Islam, the ummah or community of all believers; in Nazism, the herrenvolk or master race), and belief in undemocratic governance by a "divine" leader (an Islamic caliph, or Nazi Führer).

According to documentation from the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, the Nazi Germany SS helped finance al-Husseini's efforts in the 1936-39 revolt in Palestine. Adolf Eichmann actually visited Palestine and met with al-Husseini at that time and subsequently maintained regular contact with him later in Berlin.

In 1940, al-Husseini requested the Axis powers to acknowledge the Arab right "... to settle the question of Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries in accordance with the national and racial interests of the Arabs and along the lines similar to those used to solve the Jewish question in Germany and Italy."

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini reviewing Bosnian-Muslim troops - a unit of the Handschar (Saber) division of the Waffen SS which he personally recruited for Hitler, 1943.

Muslim Croats from the Handschar SS division.

While in Baghdad, Syria, al-Husseini aided the pro-Nazi revolt of 1941. He then spent the rest of World War II as Hitler's special guest in Berlin, advocating the extermination of Jews in radio broadcasts back to the Middle East and recruiting Balkan Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina (the Handschar Division) and Albania (Skanderbeg Division) and smaller units from throughout the Muslim world from Chechnya to Uzbekistan as the German army SS units that tried to wipe out Jewish communities throughout the region. His Arab Legions later participated in the massacres of thousands of partisan Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. This was only taking the first step in Heinrich Himmler’s planned grand alliance between Nazi Germany and the Islamic world. One of his closest aides, Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, boasted that "a link is created between Islam and National Socialism on an open, honest basis. It will be directed in terms of blood and race from the North, and in the ideological-spiritual sphere from the East."

The Nazis provided Al Husseini with luxurious accommodations in Berlin and a monthly stipend in excess of $10,000. In return, he regularly appeared on German radio touting the Jews as the "most fierce enemies of Muslims," and implored an adoption of the Nazi "final solution" by Arabs. After the Nazi defeat at El Alamein in 1942, al-Husseini broadcast radio messages on Radio Berlin calling for continued Arabic resistance to Allied forces. In time, he came to be known as the "Führer's Mufti" and the "Arab Führer".

In the annual protest against the Balfour Declaration held in 1943 at the Luftwaffe hall in Berlin, the Mufti praised the Germans because they "know how to get rid of the Jews, and that brings us close to the Germans and sets us in their camp is that, up to today."

Echoing Muhammad after the battle of Badr, on March 1, 1944 the Mufti called in a broadcast from Berlin:
"Arabs! Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history and religion. This saves your honor."

At the Nuremberg Trials, Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war criminal) testified:
"The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan. ... He was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz."

With the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Mufti moved to Egypt where he was received as a national hero. After the war al-Husseini was indicted by Yugoslavia for war crimes, but escaped prosecution. The Mufti was never tried because the Allies were afraid of the storm in the Arab world if the hero of Arab nationalism was treated as a war criminal.

Post-WWII

During the war, Arab Nazi parties were founded throughout the Middle East. The most influential one was Young Egypt which was established in 1933. Young Egypt imitated the German Nazi party in their ideology, slogans, processionals, and anti-Semitic actions. When the war was over, a member of Young Egypt named Gamal Abdul Nasser led the coup in 1952 that overthrew the Egyptian government. He made Egypt a safe haven for Nazi war criminals and, in 1964, he established the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacare which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacares and the crusades." Arab League Secretary General Azam Pasha, May 15, 1948

It is no accident that a number of Nazi war criminals found refuge in Muslim nations. Take the notorious Otto Skorzeny, an SS officer who led the rescue of Mussolini from captivity, was described by the OSS, predecessor to the CIA, as "the most dangerous man in Europe," and later found service under General Nasser in Egypt.

Major Nazi sympathizers of this era also include Ahmad Shukeiri, the first chairman of the PLO; Anwar Sadat, future president of Egypt; and the founders of the Pan-Arab socialist Ba'ath party, currently ruling Syria and until recently Iraq. One of the Ba'ath founders, Sami al Jundi, has since recalled of this time: "We were racists, admiring Nazism, reading their books and sources of their thought... We were the first who thought of translating Mein Kampf."

Many of the Nazi sympathizers of this era have never repudiated their beliefs; some still openly parade them.

Palestinians holding a handmade Nazi flag.

Eventually the leadership of the PLO was taken over by a man named Rahman Abdul Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini. Al-Husseini was a nephew and great admirer of Haj Amin al-Husseini. He was born in Cairo in 1929 and grew up in the Gaza strip. His mother, Hamida, was a cousin of the Grand Mufti. Due to internal Arab strife, his father Abdul Rauf al-Qudwa was forced to flee Gaza where the family took refuge in Egypt.

Al-Husseini's cousin was Faisal al-Husseini who was the grandson of Haj Amin al-Husseini and the PLO representative in Jerusalem who has directed attacks on the Jews praying at the Western Wall.

When Rahman Abdul Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini enrolled at the University of Cairo in 1951, he decided to conceal his true identity and registered under the name Yasser Arafat. He would carry on the Mufti’s legacy in his goal of annihilating Israel.

Saddam Hussein was also a protégé of the Mufti through his uncle and father-in-law Khairallah Tulfah, who, along with Gen. Rashid Ali and the so-called "golden square" cabal of pro-Nazi officers, participated in the Mufti-inspired failed coup against the pro-British government of Iraq in 1941. (see "The Nazi Background of Saddam Hussein" (http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/20/145726.shtml))

Modern Islamonazism

1995 Arabic edition of Mein Kampf.

Today, it can be evidenced in the proliferation of Nazi or Judeophobic literature (Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion remain best-sellers in many Arab nations), propaganda (blaming the Jewish community for events it has no connection to such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks) and calls for genocide against the Jewish citizens of Israel and "infidels" (non-Muslims) in general.

Furthermore, many prominent Muslim leaders, whether officially in power or merely influential, have expounded Nazi ideology and used similar tactics to rouse their adherents in their pronouncements that Islam should be the world standard and strict lines of authority with heavy penalties for disobedience remain common. The brightest examples of employing these tactics and belief system is the deposed in the early 2002 Taliban regime in Afghanistan; genocide of non-Muslims in Darfur, Sudan by Janjaweed Islamic militias (see the Darfur Genocide website (http://www.darfurgenocide.org)) with the silent approval of the Sudanese Government; genocide of Christians in then Indonesian East Timor in the 1970s-1990s.

Quest for world domination

Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime is hailed by many in the Arab world, largely because of its genocidal approach to the Jewish community. Palestinians, locked in a decades-long battle with Israel, have even adopted Nazi paraphernalia. The association between today's Palestinians and the Nazi movement dates back to the early days of Hitler's Third Reich, when the Mufti of Jersualem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, forged close and lasting ties with the German Nazis, as described above.

The Arab world does more than just mimic the actions of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime, as shown here with the "Heil Hitler" salute, their religious and political leaders frequently employ Nazi rhetoric, mixed with radical Islamic fundamentalism, to foster hatred for the Jewish world and, particularly, Israel.

Muslims saluting Nazi style.

Throughout the western world, many have noted that extreme Islam bears much in common with Nazi ideology and political process. Politicians from major parties throughout Europe become aware of the dangers Islam brings to their countries. In the United States, the Chairman of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Omar M. Ahmad told a crowd of California Muslims in July 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran... should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."

Muslim demonstration in Luton, England.

As with the rise of the Nazis, extreme elements have captured the disaffected with familiar themes of placing blame and claiming superiority. Western sensibilities, it is often argued, have played a part - as they did in the rise of the Nazi regime - with many comparisons being made to the appeasement policies of the 1930s to the actions taken by current governments and world bodies.

Shaykh Rashid al Ghanuchi, Head of the Al-Nahda Islamic movement of Tunis, said in 2002 (http://www.ilaam.net/Opinions/IslamicMovements.html): "Many Islamists associate democracy with foreign intervention and non-belief. But democracy is a set of mechanisms to guarantee freedom of thought and assembly and peaceful competition for governmental authority through ballot boxes. The Islamic movement's negative attitude toward democracy is holding it back. We have no modern experience in Islamic activity that can replace democracy. The Islamization of democracy is the closest thing to implementing Shura (consultation). Those who reject this thought have not produced anything different than the one-party system of rule."

Islamic leaders are constantly trying to put a blame for the failure of their economical, political and ideological systems on the West and Israel inciting more violence and hate toward "infidels" or non-believers. The former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohammad in his opening speech at a 57-nation Islamic summit in Malaysia urged Muslims to unite against Jews who, he said, rule the world by "proxy" - comments criticized by Jewish and some of the Western leaders as an invitation to violence.

The Associated Press quoted Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California, as saying, "Mahathir's speech today is an absolute invitation for more hate crimes and terrorism against Jews. That's serious."

Palestinian Authority and Hamas

Palestinian forces under Arafat doing Nazi salute.

While there is discussion in many circles (political, historical, religious, semantics) over the use of the word "Nazi" in modern day society, with the term being applied frequently and incorrectly to virtually any leader, government or organization based on unpopular policies, the proliferation of genocidal rhetoric and aims of domination amongst some Arab groups argues for its inclusion in this instance.

Former Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, who orchestrated attacks against Israel, until his assassination by the IDF, praised a Palestinian bomber and gave insight into Hamas aims, telling followers, "she is not going to be the last (attacker) because the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only on the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe."

Palestinian boy wearing suicide belt.

This philosophy is also often seen in religious broadcasts, "A young man said to me: 'I am 14 years old, and I have four years left before I blow myself up'... We, the Muslims on this good and blessed land, are all - each one of us - seekers of Martyrdom... The Koran is very clear on this: The greatest enemies of the Islamic nation are the Jews, may Allah fight them... Blessings for whoever assaulted a soldier... Blessings for whoever has raised his sons on the education of Jihad and Martyrdom, blessings for whoever has saved a bullet in order to stick it in a Jew's head..." said Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi on a Palestinian television boradcast in August 2001. Months earlier, he had urged Palestinians to commit suicide bombings to kill Jews in the name of Islam, "Blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or on his sons' and plunged into the midst of the Jews, crying 'Allahu Akbar, praise to Allah, There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger."

Too, the Nazis would recognize the philosophy of indoctrinating the young. Palestinian textbooks make it quite clear that Islam is to be accepted by all people. "Islam is Allah's religion for all human beings. It should be proclaimed and invite [people] to join it wisely and through appropriate preaching and friendly discussions. However, such methods may encounter resistance and the preachers may be prevented from accomplishing their duty... then, Jihad and the use of physical force against the enemies become inevitable", proclaimed an 11th grade textbook, Islamic Culture, issued by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education in 2003.

Further Reading

• Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World, Regina Orthodox Press, 2002, ISBN: 1928653111
• Antonio J. Munoz, Lions of the Desert: Arab Volunteers in the German Army, 1941-1945, Axis Europa Books, 2002, ISBN: 1891227033
• Kenneth Timmerman, Arafat's Hitler-loving role model (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35563)

External Links

• Photos and Documents (http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/gallery/index.htm)
• Who was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini? (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php)
• Haj Amin al-Hesseini (http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/husseini.html)
• Foreign volunteers in the German army during WWII (http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=307)
• The Swastika and the Crescent: In the wake of Sept. 11, new light is thrown on the international ties increasingly linking Muslim and neo-Nazi extremists (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=132)
• The Far Right and Islamic Fundamentalists (http://www.afrocubaweb.com/news/islamright.htm)
• CAIR: 'Moderate' friends of terror (http://www.danielpipes.org/article/394)
• The Indoctrination of Palestinian children - Shahids (http://fp.thebeers.f9.co.uk/indoctrination.htm)
• Mahathir attack on Jews condemned (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/10/16/oic.mahathir/)
• Global Nazism and the Muslim Brotherhood

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Hamas Supports Chechen Terrorists

Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization whose members have murdered hundreds of Israelis over the past four years, supports the Chechen terrorists in Russia and Islamic terror worldwide.

Hamas literature captured by the Israel Defense Forces includes CD's and posters expressing admiration, solidarity and support for the Chechen and other Moslem terrorists. Correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that the Hamas organization disseminates these materials in schools and universities throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza, as part of their indoctrination program of the young generation.

The CDs that contain support for the Chechen terrorists - who just 18 days ago massacred over 400 school children and adults in an attack on a school in southern Russia - were disseminated in the American University in Jenin last November, in Hebron College this past February, and last month in the Hebron Orphanage.

The literature describes the Russian military operations against the Chechens as 'terrorist in nature,' while lauding the Chechen terrorist leaders such as Shamil Basayev and the man code-named Al-Hatab.

One of the posters disseminated by Hamas features Osama Bin-Laden together with Ahmed Yassin of Hamas and several Chechen terrorist leaders. The literature includes a message of brotherhood and international Islamic revival of Moslems living as an 'oppressed minority' under the rule of 'infidels.'
"

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Shin Bet: Terrorists recruiting more women, minors

Unlike in the case of the Jawabra clan in Assira e-Shamaliya near Nablus, most females recruited to carry out suicide bomb attacks are arrested in raids rather than handed over by their own families to security forces.

However, the Jawabra family turned daughters Lina and Adilah over to soldiers at an IDF checkpoint after they were warned that their houses would be demolished if the two girls carried out bombings in Tel Aviv.

Only in those instances where officials have knowledge of a pending attack and conclude that the only way to thwart it is by pressuring family members of would-be attackers are such tactics used.

According to Shin Bet officials, terrorist organizations continue to believe that women are less susceptible to checks by security forces and are therefore more likely to enter Israel without raising suspicions.

Since the outbreak of violence four years ago, 40 female terrorists were recruited to carry out suicide bombing attacks. Of that number, seven actually carried out attacks, while security forces arrested the remainder.

Thirty-four of the women were not married; three were divorced; two were married with children; and one was a widow. Between January and July this year 10 female suicide bombers were recruited by terrorist organizations compared with 14 for the entire year of 2003.

Most of the women recruited to the cause are in their mid-twenties, and represent a cross section of Palestinian society, ranging from the well-educated to the poor and uneducated. Of the 33 arrested since 2000, 16 had completed high school education, and 11 were university students.

In order to avoid being noticed the women usually change their external appearance and adopt a modern style of dress that blends in with local Israeli fashion. In some instances, they pose as pregnant women by stuffing a pillow underneath their garments.

Fatah is responsible for recruiting 21; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Islamic Jihad recruited 6 each; and one was recruited by Hamas in Gaza and blew herself up at the Erez crossing earlier this year.

Another worrying development relates to the increased use of children by terrorist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These children are dispatched not only with explosive belts or to transfer bombs between operatives, but also to compile information on troop movements in preparation for attacks – a tactic most-often used often by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

So far this year a total of 109 Palestinian minors have been arrested for their involvement in terrorist activities compared to a total of 102 in 2003, 54 in 2002, and 27 in 2001.

The youngest children sent by terrorists to launch an attack were two boys who were arrested in January 2003 by security forces in the Gaza Strip. Both carried knives and said they had been sent to place bombs in the area. One was eight years old and the other was 13.

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Underwear bomber planned to attack soccer stadium

The would be suicide bomber caught at the Erez crossing on August 31 wearing an explosive belt sewn into his underpants planned to blow up at the Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa during a football match three days later.

In an interview on Channel 10, Mohammed al Razak said he had been approached by Hamas terrorists in Gaza who asked him to carry out the attack and had received two payments of $200 but said he was not a member of the Hamas.

Razak - who lived for over thirty years in Jaffa and worked in Bat Yam, a Jaffa bakery and the central bus station in Tel Aviv - said that he was glad he had been caught, as he doubted he could have detonated the bomb when the time came.

He refused to divulge the reason why he agreed to go ahead with the plan but cited family reasons."

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Reuters Admits Appeasing Terrorists (HonestReporting)

As Islamic terror continues to spread worldwide, one major news outlet decided that enough is enough ― it's time to call terrorism by its name. CanWest, owners of Canada's largest newspaper chain, recently implemented a new editorial policy to use the 'T-word' in reports on brutal terrorist acts and groups.

So when CanWest's National Post published a Reuters report on Sept. 14, they exercised their right to change this Reuters line that whitewashes Palestinian terror:

... the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. (Jeffrey Heller, 9/13 'Sharon Faces Netanyahu Challenge')

to this, more accurate line:

... the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel.

Reuters didn't like the adjustment, and took the unusual step of officially informing CanWest that if it intended to continue this practice, CanWest should remove Reuters' name from the byline. Why? The New York Times reported (emphasis added):

"Our editorial policy is that we don't use emotive words when labeling someone," said David A. Schlesinger, Reuters' global managing editor. "Any paper can change copy and do whatever they want. But if a paper wants to change our copy that way, we would be more comfortable if they remove the byline."

Mr. Schlesinger said he was concerned that changes like those made at CanWest could lead to "confusion" about what Reuters is reporting and possibly endanger its reporters in volatile areas or situations.

"My goal is to protect our reporters and protect our editorial integrity," he said.

[Schlesinger repeated this statement in a recent radio interview with CBC, when he described the 'serious consequences' if certain 'people in the Mideast' were to believe Reuters called such men 'terrorists.']

This is a stunning admission ― Reuters' top international editor openly acknowledges that one of the main reasons his agency refuses to call terrorists 'terrorists' has nothing to do with editorial pursuit of objectivity, but rather is a response to intimidation from thugs and their supporters.

In every other news arena, western journalists pride themselves on bravely 'telling it as is,' regardless of their subjects' (potentially hostile) reactions. So why do editors at Reuters ― and, presumably, other news outlets ― bend over backwards to appease Islamic terrorists, using 'safe' language that deliberately minimizes their inhuman acts?

Scott Anderson, editor-in-chief of CanWest Publications, said that Reuters' policy 'undermine[s] journalistic principles,' and raised the key question: 'If you're couching language to protect people, are you telling the truth?'

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"Celebrating 9/11" Israelis Sue Dept. of Justice

Putting a "Blood Libel" to Rest by Steven Plaut

If you have been following the crackpot press these past couple of years, and by that I mean the assorted neo-Nazi web sites, white supremacy magazines, and the “anarchist” and anti-globalization “alternative” commie press, you will know that they have been filled with nutty conspiracy theories about how Israelis were somehow involved in 9/11.

Naturally, the Islamofascist crowd adopted these “theories.” Their “proof” was that a handful of Israelis working as moving men got themselves arrested under what the police at first thought were suspicious circumstances. This, asserted the lobotomy candidates, proved that the Mossad or other Jewish cabals were really behind 9/11 and not those 19 Arabs who actually carried out the atrocities. The standards of proofs and methodologies of evidence behind these “theories” might have made Barry Chamish proud.

Now, the four Israelis at the center of the incident are taking action to put these scurrilous rumors to rest.

In a statement dated September 14, the Israelis announced they have filed a law suit against the Department of Justice in the United States District Court in New York, alleging that law enforcement officers and officials of the Bureau of Prisons unlawfully incarcerated them for an extended period of time and violated their civil rights during their more than two month imprisonment in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in 2001. The four plaintiffs claim that they were held incommunicado without access to attorneys or family, subjected to rough interrogations, physically assaulted, deprived of sleep and subjected to racists taunting by guards. The law suit seeks millions of dollars in compensation.

The Israelis say they were working for a New Jersey moving company when their truck was stopped by police near the George WashingtonBridge. When it was discovered that they possessed foreign drivers licenses, the nervous officers placed them under arrest as suspects in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They were than handed over to federal agents for weeks of interrogation.

It was this arrest that got the conspiracy theorists in the Arab and Islamic world going, spreading reports that was behind the terrorist atrocities. Islamic and neo-Nazi groups pointed to the arrests of the Israelis as “proof” that the Mossad and Israel had perpetrated the attack on the World Trade Center. Hate groups around the world posted hundreds of stories centering on the arrests of the Israelis and their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks.

Eventually, the US Department of Justice came out of the closet and put an end to all the fruitcake anti-Semitic conspiracy nonsense But the fact that the four were eventually cleared of all suspicions and released did not put the libels to rest, and stories about the Israelis are still regularly appearing on the internet.

American human rights groups have also charged that the Bureau of Prisons violated the civil liberties of those detained by the United States following 9/11. And following an internal investigation the Department of Justice released a report in June, 2003, which, in part, found: “the evidence indicates a pattern of physical and verbal abuse by some correctional officers at the MDC against some September 11 detainees, particularly during the first months after the attack.”

But perhaps the last word should go to the plaintiffs’ Israeli counsel, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who goes to the heart of the law suit’s greater meaning. According to Leitner: “The infamous arrest of these young Israelis on 9/11 has been used by anti-Semites worldwide as ‘proof’ of Israel’s involvement in the World Trade Center attack. Our clients are seeking compensation for the harm they suffered in the MDC by prison officials. In addition, the law suit will serve as an important forum to debunk the lie that Israel or the Mossad was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It will show that there was no Jewish conspiracy as the Arab world continues to claim and put an end to this racist blood libel.

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Advanced weapons for Gaza terrorists turn security heads about retreat

A new missile threat has compelled Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter and IDF chiefs to openly challenge prime minister Ariel Sharon's plans for the accelerated removal of Israeli settlements, residents, and forces from the Gaza Strip.

The Luna-2 short-range ground-to-ground missile, based on the Soviet-era Frog-2, has already extended Hizballah's missile range from the north to cover Israel's coastal cities of Haifa and as far south as Netanya and Hadera.

With Tehran already playing a direct role in leading military operations of Hamas in Gaza, it is believed likely that these missiles eventually will be transferred to the Strip, especially if Israel retreats and loosens its grip on the border crossing with Egypt and Mediterranean Sea approaches. This would bring all of southern Israel, including the Tel Aviv metro region, within striking range.

Israeli intelligence sources believe that Syria has fitted the Lebanon-based missiles with chemical warheads, which can be attached in hours.

In July, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi ('Farkash'), head of Israeli military intelligence, said that Hizbullah possesses around 13,000 short-range rockets, some 500 of medium range and a few dozen long-range rockets capable of traveling 70 to 134 miles. The rockets appear to have granted Hizballah a strategic parity with Israel along the Blue Line, deterring the Israeli army from launching large-scale military operations against the group for fear of major strikes against northern Israel.

Hizbullah has already penetrated deep into terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli officials say Hizbullah plays a key role in providing funds, guidance and training to Palestinian terrorists there. In August, Yediot Aharonot daily quoted a senior army officer as saying that Hizbullah was involved in 75 percent of Palestinian military operations in the West Bank. 'The involvement of Hizbullah in Palestinian operations is no longer a secret matter, but is common knowledge and it is increasing and expanding,' he said.

Security chiefs fear that the Hizballah, working with Iran, is already shipping and prepositioning missiles in northern Sinai, anticipating the 'morning after' and Israeli retreat. Egyptian security authorities, who are concerned by the arrival of heavy weapons from Iran on their territory, have reportedly seized one shipment of Katyusha rockets before they could be smuggled into the Gaza Strip. But military intelligence sources believe that some such weapons have already reached their intended destination.

Iran and Syria have reportedly instructed Hamas to veto any Egyptian or other programs to secure the Gaza Strip after Israel's planned retreat. Senior security officials in Israel and Egypt have concluded that the implementation of Sharon's plan will transform Gaza into a second missile front against Israel's heartland, a 'South Lebanon to Israel's South, as one put it. "

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Bush's UN speech goes easy on Palestinians, tough on Israel

In what could be interpreted as a sharp rejection of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 'unilateral disengagement' plan and a slap at Israel and its leader, President George W. Bush on Tuesday said that the Jewish State must avoid 'unilateral actions that prejudice final negotiations.' He also accused Israel of 'daily humiliations' of the Palestinians. There were no positive statements about Israeli policies.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly at its opening session, Bush mildly encouraged Palestinians to adopt peaceful means to achieve the rights of their people. Bush said nothing about the need for Palestinians to fight terrorism or any other concrete step.

Without naming names, he suggested that 'world leaders should withdraw all favor and support from any Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays their cause.'

Bush was much tougher on Sharon's government. 'Israel should impose a settlement freeze, dismantle unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people, and avoid any actions that prejudice final negotiations.'

Coming at a time when Sharon is encountering great domestic resistance on his unilateral plans, the President's remarks may send a message that the Americans are growing increasingly nervous at a one-sided Israeli move that might bring sudden chaos in its wake.

Sharon has argued to the Israeli public that retreating from Gaza would enable Israel, with the support of the United States, to maintain large settlement blocs and enable them to grow naturally. He has argued that a unilateral pullout would encourage American flexibility on other issues. Bush's speech did not support Sharon's argument. "

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Syrian Professor: 'Terrorism Nests within Us as Muslims and We Must Exorcise It" (MEMRI)

Mundir Badr Haloum, a lecturer at a Syrian University, wrote a column in the Lebanese daily Al-Safir stating that Muslims today are responsible for terrorism around the globe, and calling for Islamic religious reform in order to bring Muslims back onto the stage of history not through suicide attacks, but rather by other means. The following are excerpts from the column:(1)

'Ignominious Terrorism Exists, and One Cannot but Acknowledge its Being Islamic'
'Twelve Nepalese citizens are slaughtered - Islam. A metro station is bombed - Islam. Civilian aircraft crash - Islam. A school is taken and the souls of 50 children [are lost] for the soul of [each] terrorist - Islam. A bus is bombed here, a railway train there, and before that there were hospitals and theaters, etc ... all of them Islamic acts. [Behind] the color green are exposed rivers red with blood, flowing in the streets and public squares. And Muslims everywhere.

'Islam is in the names of all of the organizations that decapitate using knives, all the while saying the Fatiha [the first chapter of the Koran, said as a prayer] before the slaughter. The victims are butchered in the Islamic way ... Christians, Buddhists, and Jews... After all, they are only infidels, fuel for the blaze, enemies, or potential enemies, or the friends of enemies, or their neighbors, and so on. The soul has no value and the body parts are laid out and displayed on the tables of Islam ... Islam ... Islam. The Islamic press searches for something that will absolve 'Islam' of the crimes of the Shahada [martyrdom]... It is Islam that adorns television screens with body parts... Islam - whether those who praise its mercies like it or not - is the foul odor of the putrefaction of Islamic history and its stench, as well as [being] other things that are honorable, which some people like and others do not...

'Ignominious terrorism exists, and one cannot but acknowledge its being Islamic. Anyone who is unable to bear its ignominy and wishes to absolve himself of the ugly mark of terror which is stamped in our soul ... must scrutinize the recesses of his mind and search out there the terror that conceals itself behind pretty and misleading names...'

'What Gets Passed on from One Generation to the Next is the Belief in Legal Rulings that Forbid Thought and Permit Killing'
'Self-examination ... would result in favor of abandoning Islam ... yet what gets passed on from one generation to the next is ... the latest version of Islam - Algeria, Afghanistan, Moscow, and New York, the version of the planes and the buses, the metro stations, the theaters and the residential complexes. What gets passed on from one generation to the next is the faith of Jihad that takes lightly the spilling of others' blood. How easy it is to shove someone into the category of the enemy. What gets passed on from generation to generation is the belief in legal rulings that forbid thought and permit killing... Religious Muslims prepare an offering to heaven - a fresh bit of human flesh, meant to be evidence of the truth and the proof of Jihad for the absolute truth.

'Indeed, we as Muslims produce terrorism, succor it, and praise it. We condemn it only when forced to. Motivated by considerations of power, interests, and diplomacy, we wear a pained expression on our faces but in our hearts we rejoice at the brilliant success - a large number of casualties. Unfortunately, in this black reality it does not matter if it is an American, Israeli, or Russian mind who is responsible for certain terrorist operations ... or whether those who kill themselves are poor, ignorant, or destitute ...'

'Reform is the Only Path to Our Return to History as Muslims and Not as Terrorists'
'This is a reality that must be acknowledged as a first step toward a non-terrorist Islam ... an Islam that teaches the values of truth and justice... Islam as a religious establishment is today in need ... of a precise definition of its position between earth and heaven, between this world and the next. If it chooses the earth, it must accept the laws of politics that regulate earthly affairs, and must leave the holy to those who occupy themselves with the affairs of heaven. If it chooses heaven, it must leave politics and earthly affairs to those who find interest in them. He who cleaves to both realms undoubtedly [chooses] terrorism and certain death...

'Islam is in need of true reform. Islam's need [for reform] - or, to be precise, our need for Islam's reform - is not less than the need for reform in the Arab political regimes... This is the need for people who are capable of fearlessly acknowledging that terrorism nests within us as Muslims and that we must exorcise it... Unfortunately, the meaning of delay is more death... The reform will take a long time and the price will be high, but it is the only path to our return to history as Muslims and not as terrorists...'

Endnote:
(1) Al-Safir (Lebanon), September 13, 2004.

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Palestinians still support Arafat

In spite of the growing state of lawlessness in the Palestinian territories and the criticism of senior Palestinian leaders such as Muhammad Dahlan, a new poll reveals that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat continues to enjoy a widespread popularity among his people.

The poll, which was conducted by the Bir-Zeit University among 1,197 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, was held ahead of the municipal elections that are expected to take place in November.

The participants were asked to choose their preferred leader out of a list of 11 names. 46% supported Arafat, while convicted Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti came in a distant second with 12%.

Other senior leaders such as Dahlan, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and even Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei (Abu Ala) won single digit support. Only half a percent voted for former PM Abu Mazen.

Among the senior leaders from the Islamic movements, Hamas chief Mahmud al-Zahar received the support of 9%, while another senior Hamas leader Isamail Haniya settled for 8%.

12% said they did not support any of the 11 candidates on the list.

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U.S. to sell Israel 5,000 smart bombs

The United States will sell Israel 5,000 smart bombs, for $319 million, according to a report made to Congress a few weeks ago.

The funding will come from the U.S. military aid to Israel, and the bombs range from airborne versions, guidance units, training bombs and detonators. The bombs are guided by satellite, in a system already in the Israel Defense Forces arsenal. The guidance unit receives a signal from a satellite, correcting the bomb's course to the target.

The Pentagon told Congress that the bombs are meant to maintain Israel's qualitative advantage, and advance U.S. strategic and tactical interests.

Among the bombs the air force will get are 500 one-ton bunker busters that can penetrate two-meter-thick cement walls; 2,500 regular one-ton bombs; 1,000 half-ton bombs; and 500 quarter-ton bombs.

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To Profile or Not to Profile?

by Daniel Pipes, New York Sun*
September 21, 2004

Should law enforcement profile Muslims?

Amnesty International USA answers emphatically no. It asserts in a report issued last week that "law enforcement's use of race, religion, country of origin, or ethnic and religious appearance as a proxy for criminal suspicion" has harmed some 32 million persons in the United States. It even claims that this practice "undermines national security."

Law enforcement, of course, categorically denies any form of profiling. But I agree with Amnesty that profiling takes place. Specifically, it has held terrorist suspects for whom there is no probable cause to arrest by calling them "material witnesses" to a crime.

Consider the case of Abdullah al Kidd, an American convert to Islam was held by American authorities as a material witness for two weeks in early 2003, then released. Asked why he was held, Norm Brown, an FBI supervisor, cited three "red flags":

* Mr. Kidd's having listed on a Web site jihad as an interest; the FBI interpreted this as a reference to a holy war.
* Mr. Kidd's having "sold tapes and books containing the teachings of radical sheikhs" when he lived in Idaho.
* Mr. Kidd's owning a video that "had to do with the hijacking and terrorist events on September. 11, 2001."

But I, a speci­alist on militant Islam, engage on a routine basis in all three of Mr. Kidd's "red-flag" activities. My website discloses a keen interest in jihad; I have personally and institutionally disseminated the teachings of radical sheikhs; and I have assembled an archive of materials about 9/11. As a non-Muslim, however, these activities have (so far) not aroused suspicions.

Clearly, Mr. Kidd was held in part because of his Islamic identity. Nor was he the only Muslim in America whose religion was a factor in his arrest.

*

Ayub Ali Khan and Jaweed Azmath, two Indian Muslims, were men arrested on 9/12 while riding a train and carrying about $5,000 in cash, black hair dye and boxcutters were detained for a year on suspicion of being part of the 9/11 operation. Eventually exonerated and freed, they claimed to have been profiled. This is self-evidently correct: Had the two not been Muslim, the police would have had little interest in them and their boxcutters.
*

Brandon Mayfield: the FBI had fifteen fingerprints that it thought might match the one sent from Spain and connected to the bombings there on March 11, 2004. Of the 15 potential suspects, it zeroed in on the Muslim, namely Mr. Mayfield, perhaps because of his multiple connections to Islamists and jihadists. Mr. Mayfield was released after 16 days in prison, when the fingerprint match proved faulty.
*

Abdallah Higazy: suspected with owning an air-to-ground transceiver found in a hotel across the street from the fallen World Trade Center, he was detained for a month before a pilot claimed the transceiver.

More broadly, Anjana Malhotra notes that of the 57 people detained as material witnesses in connection with terrorism investigations, "All but one of the material witness arrests were of Muslims." In the murky area of pre-empting terrorism, in short, it matters who one is.

So, yes, profiling emphatically does take place. Which is how it should be. The 9/11 commission noted that Islamist terrorism is the "catastrophic threat" facing America and, with the very rarest of exceptions, only Muslims engage in Islamist terrorism. It would therefore be a mistake to devote as much attention to non-Muslims as to Muslims.

Further, Amnesty International ignores that some instances of preemptive jailing have worked. It has foiled terrorism (Mohammed Junaid Babar, Maher Hawash, Zakaria Soubra, James Ujaama) and dealt with other crimes (Mohdar Abdullah, Nabil Almarabh, Omar Bakarbashat, Soliman S. Biheiri, Muhammad Al-Qudhai'een).

Plenty of material witness cases have yet to be decided, such as those of Ismael Selim Elbarasse, Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, Jose Padilla, Uzair Paracha, and Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, and could lead to convictions.

Amnesty International has laid down the gauntlet, placing a higher priority on civil liberties than on protection from Islamist terrorism. In contrast, I worry more about mega-terrorism – say, a dirty bomb in midtown Manhattan – than an innocent person spending time in jail.

Profiling is emerging as the single-most contentious issue in the current war. Western governmental authorities need to stop hiding behind pious denials and candidly address this issue.

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Eurabia - Interview with Bat Ya'or

Interview with Bat Ye'or

Excerpt from FrontPage interview:

FP: Tell us about the Prodi project where Tariq Ramadan and others have collaborated.

Bat Ye'or: Prodi's project is the fulfillment of Eurabia. It is called the "Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Area."

It was requested by Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, and accepted at the Sixth Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Foreign Affairs Ministers in Naples on 2-3 December 2003. It represents a strategy for closer Euro-Arab symbiosis to be implemented by a Foundation that will control, direct and monitor it. Last May the European ministers of foreign affairs accepted the creation of the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue of Cultures with its seat in Alexandria, Egypt. Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, murdered by an insane man, was a key advocate of the Palestinian cause and the boycott of Israel. Lindh was known for her criticism of Israeli and American policies of self-defense against terror. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was a close friend, calling her a "true European."



The Foundation will endeavor through numerous means to reinforce links of mutuality, solidarity and "togetherness" between the Northern and Southern shores of the Mediterranean, that is, Europe and the Arab countries. The authors of the project carefully avoid such characterizations since -- in the spirit of Edward Said -- they are judged anathema and racist. This is explained in the report's text, but I use them for clarification. It is the Eurabian context, representing a totally anti-American and anti-Zionist culture and policy, that explains the strong reaction against the war in Iraq -- itself integrated into the war against Islamic terrorism. A terrorism that Eurabia has denied, blaming Israel's "injustice and occupation" and America's "arrogance" instead. Eurabia has transformed Islamic terrorism into a cliche: "America is the problem" in order to consolidate the web of alliances that support its whole geostrategy.



FP: What is the significance of Solana's declaration?



Bat Ye'or: Solana is strongly implicated in the EU Arabophile and pro-Palestinian policy conducted intensively under Prodi as a European self-protective reaction to the American war against terror. If one examines the EC/EU declarations since 1977 on the Arab-Israeli conflict, one notices that they espouse Arab League decisions and positions: the 1949 armistice lines imposed on Israel, although never recognized as international boundaries; the creation on those boundaries of a Palestinian state not mentioned by UN resolution 242; the acknowledgement of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, and of Arafat as its leader, with the obligation for Israel to negotiate exclusively with him; and initially the refusal of separate peace treaties. The EU adopted all these Arab League requests as well as repeated threats of economic and cultural boycott against Israel, constantly demanded by the Europeans' close Arab allies and their powerful lobby, the Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation. On 3 March 2004, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, when asked about U.S. proposals to requested democratic reforms in Arab states, declared:



"The peace process always has to be at the center of whatever initiative is in the field. . . ­Any idea about (reform of) nations would have to be in parallel with putting a priority on the resolution of the peace process, otherwise it will be very difficult to have success." (Reuters, "Solana: Mideast peace vital for Arab reforms"; see also Neil MacFarquhar "Arab states start plan of their own Mideast", International Herald Tribune, March 4, 2004.)



Solana just repeated the opinion of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after his meeting with him. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa shared this opinion and refused to consider any reforms in Arab countries before the settlement of the Arab-Palestinian conflict¨Da settlement whose overall conditions imply Israel's destruction. Hence, any democratization and change of Arab societies demanded by the West are linked by the Arabs to its participation in Israel's demise. This link was rejected by Senior U.S. State Department official Marc Grossman when visiting Cairo on 2 March 2004. He said that the democracy plan should not depend on a settlement of the Middle East conflict. But Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, answered him:



"Egypt's position is that one of the basic obstacles to the reform process is the continuation of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and the Arab people."



According to Reuters, Amr Moussa, speaking at the opening session of a regular ministerial meeting, declared:



"The Palestinian cause...is the key to stability or instability in the region, and this issue will continue to influence in all its elements the development of the Arab region until a just solution is reached."



Eurabian notables, whether Chirac, de Villepin, Solana, Prodi, or others, have continuously stressed the centrality of the Palestinian cause for world peace, as if more European vilification of Israel would change anything in the global jihad waged in the US, in Asia, and from Africa to Chechnya the latest horrendous tragedy in Ossetia is but one example. In such a view, Israel's very existence, not this genocidal jihadist drive, is a threat to peace. The Euro-Arab linkage of Arab/Islamic reforms to Israel's stand is spurious and only demonstrates, once more, Europe's subservience to Arab policy. Numerous Arab and Islamic Summits have imposed the centrality of their Palestinian policy on the world and requested that all political problems should be subordinated to it. The EU likewise.

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