Thursday, August 25, 2011
The CIA-NYPD nexus
NEW YORK (AP) — In New Brunswick, N.J., a building superintendent opened the door to apartment No. 1076 one balmy Tuesday and discovered an alarming scene: terrorist literature strewn about the table and computer and surveillance equipment set up in the next room.
The panicked superintendent dialed 911, sending police and the FBI rushing to the building near Rutgers University on the afternoon of June 2, 2009. What they found in that first-floor apartment, however, was not a terrorist hideout but a command center set up by a secret team of New York Police Department intelligence officers.
From that apartment, about an hour outside the department's jurisdiction, the NYPD had been staging undercover operations and conducting surveillance throughout New Jersey. Neither the FBI nor the local police had any idea.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NYPD has become one of the country's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. A months-long investigation by The Associated Press has revealed that the NYPD operates far outside its borders and targets ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government. And it does so with unprecedented help from the CIA in a partnership that has blurred the bright line between foreign and domestic spying.
Neither the city council, which finances the department, nor the federal government, which contributes hundreds of millions of dollars each year, is told exactly what's going on.
The department has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.
Many of these operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit.
A veteran CIA officer, while still on the agency's payroll, was the architect of the NYPD's intelligence programs. The CIA trained a police detective at the Farm, the agency's spy school in Virginia, then returned him to New York, where he put his new espionage skills to work inside the United States.
And just last month, the CIA sent a senior officer to work as a clandestine operative inside police headquarters.
While the expansion of the NYPD's intelligence unit has been well known, many details about its clandestine operations, including the depth of its CIA ties, have not previously been reported.
The NYPD denied that it trolls ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. In a city that has repeatedly been targeted by terrorists, police make no apologies for pushing the envelope. NYPD intelligence operations have disrupted terrorist plots and put several would-be killers in prison.
"The New York Police Department is doing everything it can to make sure there's not another 9/11 here and that more innocent New Yorkers are not killed by terrorists," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. "And we have nothing to apologize for in that regard."
But officials said they've also been careful to keep information about some programs out of court, where a judge might take a different view. The NYPD considers even basic details, such as the intelligence division's organization chart, to be too sensitive to reveal in court.
One of the enduring questions of the past decade is whether being safe requires giving up some liberty and privacy. The focus of that debate has primarily been federal programs like wiretapping and indefinite detention. The question has received less attention in New York, where residents do not know for sure what, if anything, they have given up.
The story of how the NYPD Intelligence Division developed such aggressive programs was pieced together by the AP in interviews with more than 40 current and former New York Police Department and federal officials. Many were directly involved in planning and carrying out these secret operations for the department. Though most said the tactics were appropriate and made the city safer, many insisted on anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak with reporters about security matters.
The story begins with one man.
___
David Cohen arrived at the New York Police Department in January 2002, just weeks after the last fires had been extinguished at the debris field that had been the twin towers. A retired 35-year veteran of the CIA, Cohen became the police department's first civilian intelligence chief.
Cohen had an exceptional career at the CIA, rising to lead both the agency's analytical and operational divisions. He also was an extraordinarily divisive figure, a man whose sharp tongue and supreme confidence in his own abilities gave him a reputation as arrogant. Cohen's tenure as head of CIA operations, the nation's top spy, was so contentious that in 1997, The New York Times editorial page took the unusual step of calling for his ouster.
He had no police experience. He had never defended a city from an attack. But New York wasn't looking for a cop.
"Post-9/11, we needed someone in there who knew how to really gather intelligence," said John Cutter, a retired NYPD official who served as one of Cohen's top uniformed officers.
At the time, the intelligence division was best known for driving dignitaries around the city. Cohen envisioned a unit that would analyze intelligence, run undercover operations and cultivate a network of informants. In short, he wanted New York to have its own version of the CIA.
Cohen shared Commissioner Ray Kelly's belief that 9/11 had proved that the police department could not simply rely on the federal government to prevent terrorism in New York.
"If anything goes on in New York," one former officer recalls Cohen telling his staff in the early days, "it's your fault."
Among Cohen's earliest moves at the NYPD was making a request of his old colleagues at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. He needed someone to help build this new operation, someone with experience and clout and, most important, someone who had access to the latest intelligence so the NYPD wouldn't have to rely on the FBI to dole out information.
CIA Director George Tenet responded by tapping Larry Sanchez, a respected veteran who had served as a CIA official inside the United Nations. Often, when the CIA places someone on temporary assignment, the other agency picks up the tab. In this case, three former intelligence officials said, Tenet kept Sanchez on the CIA payroll.
When he arrived in New York in March 2002, Sanchez had offices at both the NYPD and the CIA's station in New York, one former official said. Sanchez interviewed police officers for newly defined intelligence jobs. He guided and mentored officers, schooling them in the art of gathering information. He also directed their efforts, another said.
There had never been an arrangement like it, and some senior CIA officials soon began questioning whether Tenet was allowing Sanchez to operate on both sides of the wall that's supposed to keep the CIA out of the domestic intelligence business.
"It should not be a surprise to anyone that, after 9/11, the Central Intelligence Agency stepped up its cooperation with law enforcement on counterterrorism issues or that some of that increased cooperation was in New York, the site of ground zero," CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said.
Just as at the CIA, Cohen and Sanchez knew that informants would have to become the backbone of their operation. But with threats coming in from around the globe, they couldn't wait months for the perfect plan.
They came up with a makeshift solution. They dispatched more officers to Pakistani neighborhoods and, according to one former police official directly involved in the effort, instructed them to look for reasons to stop cars: speeding, broken tail lights, running stop signs, whatever. The traffic stop gave police an opportunity to search for outstanding warrants or look for suspicious behavior. An arrest could be the leverage the police needed to persuade someone to become an informant.
For Cohen, the transition from spying to policing didn't come naturally, former colleagues said. When faced with a decision, especially early in his tenure, he'd fall back on his CIA background. Cutter said he and other uniformed officers had to tell Cohen, no, we can't just slip into someone's apartment without a warrant. No, we can't just conduct a search. The rules for policing are different.
While Cohen was being shaped by the police department, his CIA background was remaking the department. But one significant barrier stood in the way of Cohen's vision.
Since 1985, the NYPD had operated under a federal court order limiting the tactics it could use to gather intelligence. During the 1960s and 1970s, the department had used informants and undercover officers to infiltrate anti-war protest groups and other activists without any reason to suspect criminal behavior.
To settle a lawsuit, the department agreed to follow guidelines that required "specific information" of criminal activity before police could monitor political activity.
In September 2002, Cohen told a federal judge that those guidelines made it "virtually impossible" to detect terrorist plots. The FBI was changing its rules to respond to 9/11, and Cohen argued that the NYPD must do so, too.
"In the case of terrorism, to wait for an indication of crime before investigating is to wait far too long," Cohen wrote.
U.S. District Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. agreed, saying the old guidelines "addressed different perils in a different time." He scrapped the old rules and replaced them with more lenient ones.
It was a turning point for the NYPD.
___
With his newfound authority, Cohen created a secret squad that would soon infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods, according to several current and former officials directly involved in the program.
The NYPD carved up the city into more than a dozen zones and assigned undercover officers to monitor them, looking for potential trouble.
At the CIA, one of the biggest obstacles has always been that U.S. intelligence officials are overwhelmingly white, their mannerisms clearly American. The NYPD didn't have that problem, thanks to its diverse pool of officers.
Using census data, the department matched undercover officers to ethnic communities and instructed them to blend in, the officials said. Pakistani-American officers infiltrated Pakistani neighborhoods, Palestinians focused on Palestinian neighborhoods. They hung out in hookah bars and cafes, quietly observing the community around them.
The unit, which has been undisclosed until now, became known inside the department as the Demographic Unit, former police officials said.
"It's not a question of profiling. It's a question of going where the problem could arise," said Mordecai Dzikansky, a retired NYPD intelligence officer who said he was aware of the Demographic Unit. "And thank God we have the capability. We have the language capability and the ethnic officers. That's our hidden weapon."
The officers did not work out of headquarters, officials said. Instead, they passed their intelligence to police handlers who knew their identities.
Cohen said he wanted the squad to "rake the coals, looking for hot spots," former officials recalled. The undercover officers soon became known inside the department as rakers.
A hot spot might be a beauty supply store selling chemicals used for making bombs. Or it might be a hawala, a broker that transfers money around the world with little documentation. Undercover officers might visit an Internet cafe and look at the browsing history on a computer, a former police official involved in the program said. If it revealed visits to radical websites, the cafe might be deemed a hot spot.
Ethnic bookstores, too, were on the list. If a raker noticed a customer looking at radical literature, he might chat up the store owner and see what he could learn. The bookstore, or even the customer, might get further scrutiny. If a restaurant patron applauds a news report about the death of U.S. troops, the patron or the restaurant could be labeled a hot spot.
The goal was to "map the city's human terrain," one law enforcement official said. The program was modeled in part on how Israeli authorities operate in the West Bank, a former police official said.
Mapping crimes has been a successful police strategy nationwide. But mapping robberies and shootings is one thing. Mapping ethnic neighborhoods is different, something that at least brushes against what the federal government considers racial profiling.
Browne, the NYPD spokesman, said the Demographic Unit does not exist. He said the department has a Zone Assessment Unit that looks for locations that could attract terrorists. But he said undercover officers only followed leads, disputing the account of several current and former police and federal officials. They do not just hang out in neighborhoods, he said.
"We will go into a location, whether it's a mosque or a bookstore, if the lead warrants it, and at least establish whether there's something that requires more attention," Browne said.
That conflicts with testimony from an undercover officer in the 2006 trial of Shahawar Matin Siraj, who was convicted of planning an attack on New York's subway system. The officer said he was instructed to live in Brooklyn and act as a "walking camera" for police.
"I was told to act like a civilian — hang out in the neighborhood, gather information," the Bangladeshi officer testified, under a false name, in what offered the first narrow glimpse at the NYPD's infiltration of ethnic neighborhoods.
Officials said such operations just made sense. Islamic terrorists had attacked the city on 9/11, so police needed people inside the city's Muslim neighborhoods. Officials say it does not conflict with a 2004 city law prohibiting the NYPD from using religion or ethnicity "as the determinative factor for initiating law enforcement action."
"It's not profiling," Cutter said. "It's like, after a shooting, do you go 20 blocks away and interview guys or do you go to the neighborhood where it happened?"
In 2007, the Los Angeles Police Department was criticized for even considering a similar program. The police announced plans to map Islamic neighborhoods to look for pockets of radicalization among the region's roughly 500,000 Muslims. Criticism was swift, and chief William Bratton scrapped the plan.
"A lot of these people came from countries where the police were the terrorists," Bratton said at a news conference, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. "We don't do that here. We do not want to spread fear."
In New York, current and former officials said, the lesson of that controversy was that such programs should be kept secret.
Some in the department, including lawyers, have privately expressed concerns about the raking program and how police use the information, current and former officials said. Part of the concern was that it might appear that police were building dossiers on innocent people, officials said. Another concern was that, if a case went to court, the department could be forced to reveal details about the program, putting the entire operation in jeopardy.
That's why, former officials said, police regularly shredded documents discussing rakers.
When Cohen made his case in court that he needed broader authority to investigate terrorism, he had promised to abide by the FBI's investigative guidelines. But the FBI is prohibited from using undercover agents unless there's specific evidence of criminal activity, meaning a federal raking program like the one officials described to the AP would violate FBI guidelines.
The NYPD declined to make Cohen available for comment. In an earlier interview with the AP on a variety of topics, Police Commissioner Kelly said the intelligence unit does not infringe on civil rights.
"We're doing what we believe we have to do to protect the city," he said. "We have many, many lawyers in our employ. We see ourselves as very conscious and aware of civil liberties. And we know there's always going to be some tension between the police department and so-called civil liberties groups because of the nature of what we do."
The department clashed with civil rights groups most publicly after Cohen's undercover officers infiltrated anti-war groups before the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. A lawsuit over that program continues today.
During the convention, when protesters were arrested, police asked a list of questions which, according to court documents, included: "What are your political affiliations?" ''Do you do any kind of political work?" and "Do you hate George W. Bush?"
"At the end of the day, it's pure and simple a rogue domestic surveillance operation," said Christopher Dunn, a New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer involved in the convention lawsuit.
___
Undercover agents like the rakers were valuable, but what Cohen and Sanchez wanted most were informants.
The NYPD dedicated an entire squad, the Terrorist Interdiction Unit, to developing and handling informants. Current and former officials said Sanchez was instrumental in teaching them how to develop sources.
For years, detectives used informants known as mosque crawlers to monitor weekly sermons and report what was said, several current and former officials directly involved in the informant program said. If FBI agents were to do that, they would be in violation of the Privacy Act, which prohibits the federal government from collecting intelligence on purely First Amendment activities.
The FBI has generated its own share of controversy for putting informants inside mosques, but unlike the program described to the AP, the FBI requires evidence of a crime before an informant can be used inside a mosque.
Valerie Caproni, the FBI's general counsel, would not discuss the NYPD's programs but said FBI informants can't troll mosques looking for leads. Such operations are reviewed for civil liberties concerns, she said.
"If you're sending an informant into a mosque when there is no evidence of wrongdoing, that's a very high-risk thing to do," Caproni said. "You're running right up against core constitutional rights. You're talking about freedom of religion."
That's why senior FBI officials in New York ordered their own agents not to accept any reports from the NYPD's mosque crawlers, two retired agents said.
It's unclear whether the police department still uses mosque crawlers. Officials said that, as Muslims figured out what was going on, the mosque crawlers became cafe crawlers, fanning out into the city's ethnic hangouts.
"Someone has a great imagination," Browne, the NYPD spokesman, said. "There is no such thing as mosque crawlers."
Following the foiled subway plot, however, the key informant in the case, Osama Eldawoody, said he attended hundreds of prayer services and collected information even on people who showed no signs of radicalization.
NYPD detectives have recruited shopkeepers and nosy neighbors to become "seeded" informants who keep police up to date on the latest happenings in ethnic neighborhoods, one official directly involved in the informant program said.
The department also has a roster of "directed" informants it can tap for assignments. For instance, if a raker identifies a bookstore as a hot spot, police might assign an informant to gather information, long before there's concrete evidence of anything criminal.
To identify possible informants, the department created what became known as the "debriefing program." When someone is arrested who might be useful to the intelligence unit — whether because he said something suspicious or because he is simply a young Middle Eastern man — he is singled out for extra questioning. Intelligence officials don't care about the underlying charges; they want to know more about his community and, ideally, they want to put him to work.
Police are in prisons, too, promising better living conditions and help or money on the outside for Muslim prisoners who will work with them.
Early in the intelligence division's transformation, police asked the taxi commission to run a report on all the city's Pakistani cab drivers, looking for those who got licenses fraudulently and might be susceptible to pressure to cooperate, according to former officials who were involved in or briefed on the effort.
That strategy has been rejected in other cities.
Boston police once asked neighboring Cambridge for a list of Somali cab drivers, Cambridge Police Chief Robert Haas said. Haas refused, saying that without a specific reason, the search was inappropriate.
"It really has a chilling effect in terms of the relationship between the local police department and those cultural groups, if they think that's going to take place," Haas said.
The informant division was so important to the NYPD that Cohen persuaded his former colleagues to train a detective, Steve Pinkall, at the CIA's training center at the Farm. Pinkall, who had an intelligence background as a Marine, was given an unusual temporary assignment at CIA headquarters, officials said. He took the field tradecraft course alongside future CIA spies then returned to New York to run investigations.
"We found that helpful, for NYPD personnel to be exposed to the tradecraft," Browne said.
The idea troubled senior FBI officials, who saw it as the NYPD and CIA blurring the lines between police work and spying, in which undercover officers regularly break the laws of foreign governments. The arrangement even made its way to FBI Director Robert Mueller, two former senior FBI officials said, but the training was already under way and Mueller did not press the issue.
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NYPD's intelligence operations do not stop at the city line, as the undercover operation in New Jersey made clear.
The department has gotten some of its officers deputized as federal marshals, allowing them to work out of state. But often, there's no specific jurisdiction at all. Cohen's undercover squad, the Special Services Unit, operates in places such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, officials said. They can't make arrests and, if something goes wrong — a shooting or a car accident, for instance — the officers could be personally liable. But the NYPD has decided it's worth the risk, a former police official said.
With Police Commissioner Kelly's backing, Cohen's policy is that any potential threat to New York City is the NYPD's business, regardless of where it occurs, officials said.
That aggressiveness has sometimes put the NYPD at odds with local police departments and, more frequently, with the FBI. The FBI didn't like the rules Cohen played by and said his operations encroached on their responsibilities.
Once, undercover officers were stopped by police in Massachusetts while conducting surveillance on a house, one former New York official recalled. In another instance, the NYPD sparked concern among federal officials by expanding its intelligence-gathering efforts related to the United Nations, where the FBI is in charge, current and former federal officials said.
The AP has agreed not to disclose details of either the FBI or NYPD operations because they involve foreign counterintelligence.
Both Mueller and Kelly have said their agencies have strong working relationships and said reports of rivalry and disagreements are overblown. And the NYPD's out-of-state operations have had success.
A young Egyptian NYPD officer living undercover in New Jersey, for example, was key to building a case against Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte. The pair was arrested last year at John F. Kennedy Airport en route to Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabab. Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
Cohen has also sent officers abroad, stationing them in 11 foreign cities. If a bomber blows himself up in Jerusalem, the NYPD rushes to the scene, said Dzikansky, who served in Israel and is the co-author of the forthcoming book "Terrorist Suicide Bombings: Attack Interdiction, Mitigation, and Response."
"I was there to ask the New York question," Dzikansky said. "Why this location? Was there something unique that the bomber had done? Was there any pre-notification. Was there a security lapse?"
All of this intelligence — from the rakers, the undercovers, the overseas liaisons and the informants — is passed to a team of analysts hired from some of the nation's most prestigious universities. Analysts have spotted emerging trends and summarized topics such as Hezbollah's activities in New York and the threat of South Asian terrorist groups.
They also have tackled more contentious topics, including drafting an analytical report on every mosque within 100 miles of New York, one former police official said. The report drew on information from mosque crawlers, undercover officers and public information. It mapped hundreds of mosques and discussed the likelihood of them being infiltrated by al-Qaida, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.
For Cohen, there was only one way to measure success: "They haven't attacked us," he said in a 2005 deposition. He said anything that was bad for terrorists was good for NYPD.
___
Though the CIA is prohibited from collecting intelligence domestically, the wall between domestic and foreign operations became more porous. Intelligence gathered by the NYPD, with CIA officer Sanchez overseeing collection, was often passed to the CIA in informal conversations and through unofficial channels, a former official involved in that process said.
By design, the NYPD was looking more and more like a domestic CIA.
"It's like starting the CIA over in the post-9/11 world," Cohen said in "Securing the City," a laudatory 2009 book about the NYPD. "What would you do if you could begin it all over again? Hah. This is what you would do."
Sanchez's assignment in New York ended in 2004, but he received permission to take a leave of absence from the agency and become Cohen's deputy, former officials said.
Though Sanchez's assignments were blessed by CIA management, some in the agency's New York station saw the presence of such a senior officer in the city as a turf encroachment. Finally, the New York station chief, Tom Higgins, called headquarters, one former senior intelligence official said. Higgins complained, the official said, that Sanchez was wearing both hats, sometimes acting as a CIA officer, sometimes as an NYPD official.
The CIA finally forced him to choose: Stay with the agency or stay with the NYPD.
Sanchez declined to comment to the AP about the arrangement, but he picked the NYPD. He retired last year and is now a consultant in the Middle East.
Last month, the CIA deepened its NYPD ties even further. It sent one of its most experienced operatives, a former station chief in two Middle Eastern countries, to work out of police headquarters as Cohen's special assistant while on the CIA payroll. Current and former U.S. officials acknowledge it's unusual but said it's the kind of collaboration Americans expect after 9/11.
Officials said revealing the CIA officer's name would jeopardize national security. The arrangement was described as a sabbatical. He is a member of the agency's senior management, but officials said he was sent to the municipal police department to get management experience.
At the NYPD, he works undercover in the senior ranks of the intelligence division. Officials are adamant that he is not involved in actual intelligence-gathering.
___
The NYPD has faced little scrutiny over the past decade as it has taken on broad new intelligence missions, targeted ethnic neighborhoods and partnered with the CIA in extraordinary ways.
The department's primary watchdog, the New York City Council, has not held hearings on the intelligence division's operations and former NYPD officials said council members typically do not ask for details.
"Ray Kelly briefs me privately on certain subjects that should not be discussed in public," said City Councilman Peter Vallone. "We've discussed in person how they investigate certain groups they suspect have terrorist sympathizers or have terrorist suspects."
The city comptroller's office has audited several NYPD components since 9/11 but not the intelligence unit, which had a $62 million budget last year.
The federal government, too, has done little to scrutinize the nation's largest police force, despite the massive federal aid. Homeland Security officials review NYPD grants but not its underlying programs.
A report in January by the Homeland Security inspector general, for instance, found that the NYPD violated state and federal contracting rules between 2006 and 2008 by buying more than $4 million in equipment through a no-bid process. NYPD said public bidding would have revealed sensitive information to terrorists, but police never got approval from state or federal officials to adopt their own rules, the inspector general said.
On Capitol Hill, where FBI tactics have frequently been criticized for their effect on civil liberties, the NYPD faces no such opposition.
In 2007, Sanchez testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee and was asked how the NYPD spots signs of radicalization. He said the key was viewing innocuous activity, including behavior that might be protected by the First Amendment, as a potential precursor to terrorism.
That triggered no questions from the committee, which Sanchez said had been "briefed in the past on how we do business."
The Justice Department has the authority to investigate civil rights violations. It issued detailed rules in 2003 against racial profiling, including prohibiting agencies from considering race when making traffic stops or assigning patrols.
But those rules apply only to the federal government and contain a murky exemption for terrorism investigations. The Justice Department has not investigated a police department for civil rights violations during a national security investigation.
"One of the hallmarks of the intelligence division over the last 10 years is that, not only has it gotten extremely aggressive and sophisticated, but it's operating completely on its own," said Dunn, the civil liberties lawyer. "There are no checks. There is no oversight."
The NYPD has been mentioned as a model for policing in the post-9/11 era. But it's a model that seems custom-made for New York. No other city has the Big Apple's combination of a low crime rate, a $4.5 billion police budget and a diverse 34,000-person police force. Certainly no other police department has such deep CIA ties.
Perhaps most important, nobody else had 9/11 the way New York did. No other city lost nearly 3,000 people in a single morning. A decade later, police say New Yorkers still expect the department to do whatever it can to prevent another attack. The NYPD has embraced that expectation.
As Sanchez testified on Capitol Hill: "We've been given the public tolerance and the luxury to be very aggressive on this topic."
____
Associated Press writers Tom Hays and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Thursday, August 31, 2006
A Semblance of Justice
An Op-Ed by OCRegister upon release of Abdel Jabbar Hamdan after his two years unjust detention by the US Government.
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Thursday, August 3, 2006
A semblance of justice
Editorial: Release of Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan was overdue
An Orange County Register editorial
Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan of Buena Park said his arrest and detention for two years in federal custody came from the "paranoia" of an overzealous government in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We're not qualified to make psychiatric diagnoses, but his detention at Terminal Island in San Pedro for two years certainly seems unjustified. It was right that U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter finally ordered him released.
Mr. Hamdan does not deny he was a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas-based Muslim charitable organization that the U.S. government says is a front for Hamas, the Palestinian organization the State Department has classified as terrorist but which recently won elections in the Palestinian territories. The U.S. government shut the Holy Land Foundation's U.S. operations down in 2001, but Mr. Hamdan says that all his work was strictly charitable in nature, not related to supporting terrorism.
That claim might be disingenuous. Money is fungible; money contributed to an organization for one purpose can be diverted to other purposes. But the U.S. government did not document any claim that Mr. Hamdan was knowingly supporting a terrorist group.
He was not arrested for or charged with supporting terrorism, but on charges he overstayed a student visa he got 27 years ago to attend USC. He had appealed deportation and would ordinarily have been released while the appeal was heard. But the government claimed he was a national security threat.
Shakeel Syed, executive director, Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, sees it this way: "It looks to us as if the government is making examples of people who speak out or are prominent in the community. Otherwise, this was a simple immigration violation case."
Assuming Mr. Hamdan did overstay his 27-year-old visa, he had not been in trouble with the law (before this), according to one of his attorneys, and there was an amnesty in 1986. The attorney believes it unlikely the government will be successful in deporting him to Jordan.
If the government was going to make a claim about national security, it should have at the very least have filed charges that backed up the accusation. Keeping people in prison because somebody in government says they're a national security threat is the way of tyrannies, not of constitutional republics governed by the rule of law. The fact that the judiciary finally recognized this injustice is encouraging, but the fact that Mr. Hamdan could be imprisoned for two years on such frivolous grounds suggests that American traditions of fair play and due process are shakier than we might have hoped.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/editorials/article_1231652.php
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Thursday, August 3, 2006
A semblance of justice
Editorial: Release of Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan was overdue
An Orange County Register editorial
Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan of Buena Park said his arrest and detention for two years in federal custody came from the "paranoia" of an overzealous government in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We're not qualified to make psychiatric diagnoses, but his detention at Terminal Island in San Pedro for two years certainly seems unjustified. It was right that U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter finally ordered him released.
Mr. Hamdan does not deny he was a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas-based Muslim charitable organization that the U.S. government says is a front for Hamas, the Palestinian organization the State Department has classified as terrorist but which recently won elections in the Palestinian territories. The U.S. government shut the Holy Land Foundation's U.S. operations down in 2001, but Mr. Hamdan says that all his work was strictly charitable in nature, not related to supporting terrorism.
That claim might be disingenuous. Money is fungible; money contributed to an organization for one purpose can be diverted to other purposes. But the U.S. government did not document any claim that Mr. Hamdan was knowingly supporting a terrorist group.
He was not arrested for or charged with supporting terrorism, but on charges he overstayed a student visa he got 27 years ago to attend USC. He had appealed deportation and would ordinarily have been released while the appeal was heard. But the government claimed he was a national security threat.
Shakeel Syed, executive director, Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, sees it this way: "It looks to us as if the government is making examples of people who speak out or are prominent in the community. Otherwise, this was a simple immigration violation case."
Assuming Mr. Hamdan did overstay his 27-year-old visa, he had not been in trouble with the law (before this), according to one of his attorneys, and there was an amnesty in 1986. The attorney believes it unlikely the government will be successful in deporting him to Jordan.
If the government was going to make a claim about national security, it should have at the very least have filed charges that backed up the accusation. Keeping people in prison because somebody in government says they're a national security threat is the way of tyrannies, not of constitutional republics governed by the rule of law. The fact that the judiciary finally recognized this injustice is encouraging, but the fact that Mr. Hamdan could be imprisoned for two years on such frivolous grounds suggests that American traditions of fair play and due process are shakier than we might have hoped.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/editorials/article_1231652.php
Beware the Tax Collector, Cometh!
Beware, the Tax Collector Cometh!
By Shakeel Syed, Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council
Romans craftily taxed small farmers, artisans and businesses but exempted the senatorial class, the descendants of anyone who had served in the Roman Senate. Farmers who could not pay their taxes were enslaved (along with their wives and children) and had to give their lands and themselves to the local members of the senatorial class, losing both their freedom and their farms.
History shows us that tax collection is often used by the state as a chief instrument of power. From the ancient Egyptians and Romans to the recent British Empire and now to the emerging Empire of the United States of America, both taxes or the lack there-of is meant to demonstrate power.
The state is now using that power against All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena over a 2004 sermon by Rev. Dr. George Regas in which he said Jesus would have told President Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine [that] has led to disaster.”
Beware, the Tax Collector Cometh!
The Tax Collector claims Regas’s sermon implied endorsement of the then presidential Democratic nominee for president, John Kerry. Such discourse from the pulpit is evil, said the Tax Collector and threatened to take away the church’s 501C3 status, one of the key benefits awarded by the state.
Hypocrisy of the tax collector of our time, a.k.a. the I.R.S. (I Are Us as in With Us or Against Us), cannot be but at its worst.
The spiritually and socially responsible All Saints Church is being threatened, for merely calling for justice to the destitute and impoverished while the multi-million dollar 700 Club of the infamous Pat Robertson can continue to get richer in spite of calling for the assassination of a head of state, using the tele-pulpit!
Such are the hypocrisies of the I Are Us; very similar to the Roman inequities. When commoners could not bare the injustices, they rebelled, leading to the downfall of empires. The emerging American Empire should learn from history. Downfall is near.
The role of tax agencies all along in history was to serve as the bullies of the monarchs and dictators. The IRS is no different. Selective enforcement of good law is a demonstration of such corrupt power. A moral audit of IRS is imperative for the health of our society.
501C3 or not. The call to redress inequities and injustices often begins from the pulpit. And that never has, nor will ever change. Else, the Mayflower would never have sailed.
Much before man created the I.R.S. and such three-letter acronyms, the three-letter word, God, always has and always will remain simply supreme. Pulpit or no pulpit, 501C3 or no 501C3, man will always be inspired, like George Regas, to speak for justice and equity for the destitute and impoverished. No I.R.S. can ever succeed in auditing the word of truth to the power.
---------
An Op-Ed in support of All Saints Church, Pasadena and the threats it received from IRS.
By Shakeel Syed, Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council
Romans craftily taxed small farmers, artisans and businesses but exempted the senatorial class, the descendants of anyone who had served in the Roman Senate. Farmers who could not pay their taxes were enslaved (along with their wives and children) and had to give their lands and themselves to the local members of the senatorial class, losing both their freedom and their farms.
History shows us that tax collection is often used by the state as a chief instrument of power. From the ancient Egyptians and Romans to the recent British Empire and now to the emerging Empire of the United States of America, both taxes or the lack there-of is meant to demonstrate power.
The state is now using that power against All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena over a 2004 sermon by Rev. Dr. George Regas in which he said Jesus would have told President Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine [that] has led to disaster.”
Beware, the Tax Collector Cometh!
The Tax Collector claims Regas’s sermon implied endorsement of the then presidential Democratic nominee for president, John Kerry. Such discourse from the pulpit is evil, said the Tax Collector and threatened to take away the church’s 501C3 status, one of the key benefits awarded by the state.
Hypocrisy of the tax collector of our time, a.k.a. the I.R.S. (I Are Us as in With Us or Against Us), cannot be but at its worst.
The spiritually and socially responsible All Saints Church is being threatened, for merely calling for justice to the destitute and impoverished while the multi-million dollar 700 Club of the infamous Pat Robertson can continue to get richer in spite of calling for the assassination of a head of state, using the tele-pulpit!
Such are the hypocrisies of the I Are Us; very similar to the Roman inequities. When commoners could not bare the injustices, they rebelled, leading to the downfall of empires. The emerging American Empire should learn from history. Downfall is near.
The role of tax agencies all along in history was to serve as the bullies of the monarchs and dictators. The IRS is no different. Selective enforcement of good law is a demonstration of such corrupt power. A moral audit of IRS is imperative for the health of our society.
501C3 or not. The call to redress inequities and injustices often begins from the pulpit. And that never has, nor will ever change. Else, the Mayflower would never have sailed.
Much before man created the I.R.S. and such three-letter acronyms, the three-letter word, God, always has and always will remain simply supreme. Pulpit or no pulpit, 501C3 or no 501C3, man will always be inspired, like George Regas, to speak for justice and equity for the destitute and impoverished. No I.R.S. can ever succeed in auditing the word of truth to the power.
---------
An Op-Ed in support of All Saints Church, Pasadena and the threats it received from IRS.
Governor of California's selective representation
The Governor's Cold Shoulder to Muslims
Rebuffing California's Islamic leaders sends a message of intolerance.
By Shakeel Syed. SHAKEEL SYED is the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California.
August 25, 2006. EARLIER THIS MONTH, with war raging in the Middle East, I saw that my governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was meeting with rabbis and others who support Israel. As executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, a federation of more than 75 mosques and Muslim organizations serving half a million Muslims, I thought that such a high public official should also meet with members of my community. I wrote to him on Aug. 7.I wanted to talk to the governor about three important points. I wanted him to know that my community felt that the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians from the rockets of Hezbollah were painfully tragic, and just as tragic as the deaths of innocent Lebanese people and the destruction of their country's infrastructure by the Israeli bombing. I wanted to ask him to listen to another, equally important side of the story. And I wanted to urge him to remember that the governor should represent and listen to all the people of California.After waiting for more than a week, and following up with at least 10 phone calls to the governor's office, I had gotten no response. I felt it was my duty and my right as a citizen to avail myself of a public forum to reach the governor. When a reporter from the L.A. Times called, I spoke with him and, on Aug. 16, The Times correctly reported my perspective: The fact that the governor had ignored my request to meet was disrespectful and insulting. I believe what I did comes under the heading of Democracy 101. Politicians govern and win elections by responding to the populace. And when they do not, the populace has two remedies: the power of the vote and the power of public opinion. Finally, when the governor agreed to meet with two Muslims, it was as individuals, not on behalf of any organization. He refused to meet with me. His communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, was forthright in a public statement: "We did not meet with Mr. Syed [because] it was inappropriate for the governor to meet with someone who uses the media to demand meetings and threaten political retaliation." I think the governor's communications director needs work on his communication skills. What he calls demanding a meeting, I call paying attention to constituents; what he calls political retaliation, I call voting.I think that deliberately avoiding a meeting with me solely because I made use of my 1st Amendment rights is simply un-American. This isn't a personal matter between me and the governor. It's about making sure that the half a million people I represent are heard in Sacramento. Marginalizing Californians who are Muslims subtly reinforces anti-Muslim stereotypes, which all too often cast us as outsiders. This is not principled, it's not good politics and it's not good for the state. In these volatile times, with attacks on Muslims and our mosques, we cannot afford to be ignored by our governor; we can't stand by when his actions deepen religious and cultural divisions. Californians are, by and large, decent and well-intentioned. They want to solve problems; they want to break down barriers.Shouldn't their governor be helping them bring down the walls that separate us rather than building them higher?
----------
Published as an Op-Ed in Los Angeles Times on Aug 25, 2006.(http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-syed25aug25,0,2973237.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail)
Rebuffing California's Islamic leaders sends a message of intolerance.
By Shakeel Syed. SHAKEEL SYED is the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California.
August 25, 2006. EARLIER THIS MONTH, with war raging in the Middle East, I saw that my governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was meeting with rabbis and others who support Israel. As executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, a federation of more than 75 mosques and Muslim organizations serving half a million Muslims, I thought that such a high public official should also meet with members of my community. I wrote to him on Aug. 7.I wanted to talk to the governor about three important points. I wanted him to know that my community felt that the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians from the rockets of Hezbollah were painfully tragic, and just as tragic as the deaths of innocent Lebanese people and the destruction of their country's infrastructure by the Israeli bombing. I wanted to ask him to listen to another, equally important side of the story. And I wanted to urge him to remember that the governor should represent and listen to all the people of California.After waiting for more than a week, and following up with at least 10 phone calls to the governor's office, I had gotten no response. I felt it was my duty and my right as a citizen to avail myself of a public forum to reach the governor. When a reporter from the L.A. Times called, I spoke with him and, on Aug. 16, The Times correctly reported my perspective: The fact that the governor had ignored my request to meet was disrespectful and insulting. I believe what I did comes under the heading of Democracy 101. Politicians govern and win elections by responding to the populace. And when they do not, the populace has two remedies: the power of the vote and the power of public opinion. Finally, when the governor agreed to meet with two Muslims, it was as individuals, not on behalf of any organization. He refused to meet with me. His communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, was forthright in a public statement: "We did not meet with Mr. Syed [because] it was inappropriate for the governor to meet with someone who uses the media to demand meetings and threaten political retaliation." I think the governor's communications director needs work on his communication skills. What he calls demanding a meeting, I call paying attention to constituents; what he calls political retaliation, I call voting.I think that deliberately avoiding a meeting with me solely because I made use of my 1st Amendment rights is simply un-American. This isn't a personal matter between me and the governor. It's about making sure that the half a million people I represent are heard in Sacramento. Marginalizing Californians who are Muslims subtly reinforces anti-Muslim stereotypes, which all too often cast us as outsiders. This is not principled, it's not good politics and it's not good for the state. In these volatile times, with attacks on Muslims and our mosques, we cannot afford to be ignored by our governor; we can't stand by when his actions deepen religious and cultural divisions. Californians are, by and large, decent and well-intentioned. They want to solve problems; they want to break down barriers.Shouldn't their governor be helping them bring down the walls that separate us rather than building them higher?
----------
Published as an Op-Ed in Los Angeles Times on Aug 25, 2006.(http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-syed25aug25,0,2973237.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Callous Cartoons
Callous cartoons
Images depict a growing Islamophobia in the West
10:07 PM PST on Tuesday, February 7, 2006
By SHAKEEL SYED
Freedom of speech is an inherent right and, in many societies, is legally protected. But that doesn't make every expression of it right. The inflammatory content of the Danish cartoons -- comparing Prophet Muhammad to a terrorist -- belies the claim that it was an exercise in "freedom of the press." Muslims worldwide see it as anti-Semitism reborn as "Islamophobia" in a Europe that gave the world the Inquisition, the Holocaust and the recent Bosnian genocide.
From the Islamic perspective, freedom of speech and expression ( hurriyyat al-qawl wa bayan) is "vindication of truth" and "protection of human dignity," with embedded maxims of morality and legality. Slander and libel are not protected under free speech.
The outcry over the Danish cartoons didn't emerge overnight. After their first publication in September, Muslim and Arab envoys tried to persuade the publishers that the cartoons were at best insensitive and at worst inciting hatred toward an entire community. The Danish courts refused even to admit the case on the grounds of freedom of expression; and the Danish prime minister cried off, citing freedom of press in his country.
Diplomacy Failed
After such efforts failed, the envoys turned to the EU and the United Nations and, finding no response even as more papers printed the insulting cartoons, only then were diplomatic withdrawals and economic boycotts started and demonstrations seen from London to Jakarta. But it is regrettable that some elements have used this issue to stage violent protests.
Why have Muslims pursued the matter? Islamophobia is a clear and growing trend throughout the West, and Muslim immigrants bear the brunt of this animosity and atmosphere of hatred and mistrust. In this context, the motive of a small, right-wing Danish paper in printing such drawings is highly questionable. Would the same champions of press freedom approve reprinting of anti-Semitic cartoons from 1930s Germany?
Also, Muslims are aware of the double standards of freedom of expression in the West. Al-Jazeera's offices are bombed and shut down for showing the "collateral damage" of U.S. invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 21st century has divided the world into two camps -- the secular and the religious, living together without knowing one another. What is sacred in one camp is deranged in the other. These are the two civilizations clashing, not East and West.
The Closed Circle
Fostering an environment where nothing is sacred in the name of freedom of speech will not help anyone understand the values of a civilization in which the sacred is all that counts. Many Christian and Jewish leaders recognize this and have decried the Danish cartoons.
Failing to see beyond oneself will result in a life that sees all within the closed circle as good and all outside as evil. In an ever more interconnected and interdependent world, this is a sure recipe for a disaster of biblical proportions.
All strands of artists and academics, journalists and politicians must engage in a thoughtful discourse to advance the understanding of Isaac and Ishmael. The world belongs to both and they belong to one another.
Shakeel Syed is executive director of the Islamic Shura Council, a federation of more than 70 mosques in Southern California ( www.shuracouncil.org).
Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/localviews/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_08_syed_loc.628d7e0.html
Images depict a growing Islamophobia in the West
10:07 PM PST on Tuesday, February 7, 2006
By SHAKEEL SYED
Freedom of speech is an inherent right and, in many societies, is legally protected. But that doesn't make every expression of it right. The inflammatory content of the Danish cartoons -- comparing Prophet Muhammad to a terrorist -- belies the claim that it was an exercise in "freedom of the press." Muslims worldwide see it as anti-Semitism reborn as "Islamophobia" in a Europe that gave the world the Inquisition, the Holocaust and the recent Bosnian genocide.
From the Islamic perspective, freedom of speech and expression ( hurriyyat al-qawl wa bayan) is "vindication of truth" and "protection of human dignity," with embedded maxims of morality and legality. Slander and libel are not protected under free speech.
The outcry over the Danish cartoons didn't emerge overnight. After their first publication in September, Muslim and Arab envoys tried to persuade the publishers that the cartoons were at best insensitive and at worst inciting hatred toward an entire community. The Danish courts refused even to admit the case on the grounds of freedom of expression; and the Danish prime minister cried off, citing freedom of press in his country.
Diplomacy Failed
After such efforts failed, the envoys turned to the EU and the United Nations and, finding no response even as more papers printed the insulting cartoons, only then were diplomatic withdrawals and economic boycotts started and demonstrations seen from London to Jakarta. But it is regrettable that some elements have used this issue to stage violent protests.
Why have Muslims pursued the matter? Islamophobia is a clear and growing trend throughout the West, and Muslim immigrants bear the brunt of this animosity and atmosphere of hatred and mistrust. In this context, the motive of a small, right-wing Danish paper in printing such drawings is highly questionable. Would the same champions of press freedom approve reprinting of anti-Semitic cartoons from 1930s Germany?
Also, Muslims are aware of the double standards of freedom of expression in the West. Al-Jazeera's offices are bombed and shut down for showing the "collateral damage" of U.S. invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 21st century has divided the world into two camps -- the secular and the religious, living together without knowing one another. What is sacred in one camp is deranged in the other. These are the two civilizations clashing, not East and West.
The Closed Circle
Fostering an environment where nothing is sacred in the name of freedom of speech will not help anyone understand the values of a civilization in which the sacred is all that counts. Many Christian and Jewish leaders recognize this and have decried the Danish cartoons.
Failing to see beyond oneself will result in a life that sees all within the closed circle as good and all outside as evil. In an ever more interconnected and interdependent world, this is a sure recipe for a disaster of biblical proportions.
All strands of artists and academics, journalists and politicians must engage in a thoughtful discourse to advance the understanding of Isaac and Ishmael. The world belongs to both and they belong to one another.
Shakeel Syed is executive director of the Islamic Shura Council, a federation of more than 70 mosques in Southern California ( www.shuracouncil.org).
Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/localviews/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_08_syed_loc.628d7e0.html
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Beware of The Pied Piper
Beware of The Pied Piper
By Shakeel Syed
During a typical in-flight neighborly conversation, a Frenchman sitting next to me protested, “Too many American made programs are being shown on French television.” To a casual observer this may sound strange. After all, what is the difference between French and American television? True, the French consider the Americans ‘uncultured’, but the matter goes beyond culture.
The Frenchman argued that American television series were undermining their values and that the effect of American programs, which depict and glorify violence, would impact French society. Even when sharing common philosophical roots, people are concerned about preserving their own values. Imagine the situation when people approach life from very different perspectives.
The Islamic value system is rooted in the belief in One God, Allah, and the belief that the Qur’an is the revelation of Allah communicated through Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). Muslims, also, believe in family values. This means no premarital sex; an abhorrence of violence and waste; no drugs, including alcohol; love for honesty and justice; respect for the rights of all; respect and caring for elders; and love for young ones.
Often, what has come to be popularly identified as the “Western value system” stands at odds with Islamic, and other faith-based, values. Popular culture in North America, including television, is overwhelmingly produced and controlled by those who believe and indeed enjoy popularizing what they believe is the “Western value system.” This raises the question: are Muslim parents in North America aware of the challenge facing them?
Like all youth, Muslim children are, also, subliminally assimilated into the American society through one of the most powerful tools, television. Television with its overwhelming presence offers “processed thinking.”
A parent’s worst nightmare is a six year old to thirteen year old television addict who watches television in the morning before going to school; fixes himself/herself in front of the box as soon as he/she gets home in the afternoon; and has another dose in the evening. Today, electronic gadgets like DVD players have turned favorite shows and movies into an endlessly repeatable pastime. Computer and video games have added to the home box’s allure. The popular ‘Sesame Street’ ©, nothing more than a highly amusing business filled with cute critters and special effects, offers a type of learning that consists solely of watching. A child may learn the alphabet, but will never learn to think. As a result of the indoctrination by television, children have little patience to pursue anything that requires a steady stream of thought or the linking of one thought with another. Television is potentially so addictive that it can undermine the child’s imagination.
The passive experience, also, crowds out other, more active endeavors, such as congregational prayers at home, playing indoors and outdoors with family members, reading, etc. These traditional forms of interaction are most definitely not passive. They are all physically, mentally and spiritually active. A child watching television cannot simultaneously build a model or let his/her imagination soar with a good book. Instead, they are cut off from participation, imagination and the rest of the family. The child’s facial expression is transformed; the jaw is relaxed and hangs open slightly, the tongue rests on the front teeth (if there are any) and eyes develop a glazed, vacuous look.
Television, also, reveals to children the “backstage” activities of adults, exposing them to behavior that adults have spent centuries trying to hide. The average child who watches television routinely sees adults hitting or killing each other or breaking down and crying. Revealing the “secrets” of adulthood has virtually destroyed the notion of childhood as a discrete period of innocence. There are now more adult-like children and more childlike adults!
RealVision, an initiative to raise awareness about television’s impact on America, is a project of the Washington, DC TV-Turnoff Network. This year, its 11th annual TV-Turnoff Week was observed April 18-24, 2005. According to RealVision, an average child will have watched over 2,000 hours of television by the time he/she enters first grade and over 20,000 hours by the end of high school. This is more time than he/she will spend in a classroom. They will spend 28 hours a week watching television, more time than they spend doing any other single activity except sleeping. These 28 hours do not include time spent watching DVDs, videotapes, playing video games, or listening to records, audiotapes or CDs.
Research by RealVision has shown that prolonged television viewing by children is associated with more aggressive behavior (a.k.a. violence); excessive commercialism; sedentary lifestyles; and lack of creativity, patience, imagination, participation, and physical, mental and spiritual development. So who will correct it and how?
No institution plays a bigger role in shaping the attitudes of children than the family. The ultimate responsibility rests with the parents. It is necessary to strictly limit TV watching time and other electronic amusements and to continually monitor children’s behavior. At the same time, the influence and impact of the short time they spend watching television should be counterbalanced with other healthy activities such as Qur’an, seerah, lessons in Islamic history, Islamic board games and other indoor/outdoor activities with the family. In this way, TV can be put into proper focus, if not completely out of the picture, Insha’Allah.
Talking with children, also, helps: ‘Not to them, but with them’. Encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas and to think things through. Let them know that both logical reasoning and creative thought are wonderful accomplishments. Encourage children to read books and to consider their significance in the larger scheme of things. Avoid ‘drilling’ your children or forcing them to ‘listen’ to you. Rather, you should listen to them!!
Shakeel Syed, a freelance writer on sociopolitical issues, lives in California with his 4 pre-teen children in a TV-free home.
By Shakeel Syed
During a typical in-flight neighborly conversation, a Frenchman sitting next to me protested, “Too many American made programs are being shown on French television.” To a casual observer this may sound strange. After all, what is the difference between French and American television? True, the French consider the Americans ‘uncultured’, but the matter goes beyond culture.
The Frenchman argued that American television series were undermining their values and that the effect of American programs, which depict and glorify violence, would impact French society. Even when sharing common philosophical roots, people are concerned about preserving their own values. Imagine the situation when people approach life from very different perspectives.
The Islamic value system is rooted in the belief in One God, Allah, and the belief that the Qur’an is the revelation of Allah communicated through Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). Muslims, also, believe in family values. This means no premarital sex; an abhorrence of violence and waste; no drugs, including alcohol; love for honesty and justice; respect for the rights of all; respect and caring for elders; and love for young ones.
Often, what has come to be popularly identified as the “Western value system” stands at odds with Islamic, and other faith-based, values. Popular culture in North America, including television, is overwhelmingly produced and controlled by those who believe and indeed enjoy popularizing what they believe is the “Western value system.” This raises the question: are Muslim parents in North America aware of the challenge facing them?
Like all youth, Muslim children are, also, subliminally assimilated into the American society through one of the most powerful tools, television. Television with its overwhelming presence offers “processed thinking.”
A parent’s worst nightmare is a six year old to thirteen year old television addict who watches television in the morning before going to school; fixes himself/herself in front of the box as soon as he/she gets home in the afternoon; and has another dose in the evening. Today, electronic gadgets like DVD players have turned favorite shows and movies into an endlessly repeatable pastime. Computer and video games have added to the home box’s allure. The popular ‘Sesame Street’ ©, nothing more than a highly amusing business filled with cute critters and special effects, offers a type of learning that consists solely of watching. A child may learn the alphabet, but will never learn to think. As a result of the indoctrination by television, children have little patience to pursue anything that requires a steady stream of thought or the linking of one thought with another. Television is potentially so addictive that it can undermine the child’s imagination.
The passive experience, also, crowds out other, more active endeavors, such as congregational prayers at home, playing indoors and outdoors with family members, reading, etc. These traditional forms of interaction are most definitely not passive. They are all physically, mentally and spiritually active. A child watching television cannot simultaneously build a model or let his/her imagination soar with a good book. Instead, they are cut off from participation, imagination and the rest of the family. The child’s facial expression is transformed; the jaw is relaxed and hangs open slightly, the tongue rests on the front teeth (if there are any) and eyes develop a glazed, vacuous look.
Television, also, reveals to children the “backstage” activities of adults, exposing them to behavior that adults have spent centuries trying to hide. The average child who watches television routinely sees adults hitting or killing each other or breaking down and crying. Revealing the “secrets” of adulthood has virtually destroyed the notion of childhood as a discrete period of innocence. There are now more adult-like children and more childlike adults!
RealVision, an initiative to raise awareness about television’s impact on America, is a project of the Washington, DC TV-Turnoff Network. This year, its 11th annual TV-Turnoff Week was observed April 18-24, 2005. According to RealVision, an average child will have watched over 2,000 hours of television by the time he/she enters first grade and over 20,000 hours by the end of high school. This is more time than he/she will spend in a classroom. They will spend 28 hours a week watching television, more time than they spend doing any other single activity except sleeping. These 28 hours do not include time spent watching DVDs, videotapes, playing video games, or listening to records, audiotapes or CDs.
Research by RealVision has shown that prolonged television viewing by children is associated with more aggressive behavior (a.k.a. violence); excessive commercialism; sedentary lifestyles; and lack of creativity, patience, imagination, participation, and physical, mental and spiritual development. So who will correct it and how?
No institution plays a bigger role in shaping the attitudes of children than the family. The ultimate responsibility rests with the parents. It is necessary to strictly limit TV watching time and other electronic amusements and to continually monitor children’s behavior. At the same time, the influence and impact of the short time they spend watching television should be counterbalanced with other healthy activities such as Qur’an, seerah, lessons in Islamic history, Islamic board games and other indoor/outdoor activities with the family. In this way, TV can be put into proper focus, if not completely out of the picture, Insha’Allah.
Talking with children, also, helps: ‘Not to them, but with them’. Encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas and to think things through. Let them know that both logical reasoning and creative thought are wonderful accomplishments. Encourage children to read books and to consider their significance in the larger scheme of things. Avoid ‘drilling’ your children or forcing them to ‘listen’ to you. Rather, you should listen to them!!
Shakeel Syed, a freelance writer on sociopolitical issues, lives in California with his 4 pre-teen children in a TV-free home.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Our Abu Gharaib
Nine Eleven "changed everything" has become popular. In fact, nothing has changed since 1775. The imperialist mindset remains the same. The then founders killed the native American Indians and believed they are giving themselves a free America.. The (hopefully outgoing) current President shamelessly apologizes to a King, instead to the victims and compounds their pain by distancing himself with the "wrongdoing of a few".
The popular press joins the imperial masters in debating pictures, prison guards and chain of command with the Generals and Colonels. Attacker's perspective is inundated while the victims' perspective is completely blotted out. They do not understand, no tragedy could ever be understood without the victims perspective.
Their Abu Gharaib was guarded by the Brigadier General Janis Leigh Karpinski, a Jewess from New York replaced with the Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander in charge of the prison at Guantánamo. One can soar high or dive deep to imagine the possible improvements that the Guantánamo chief may have now brought to Abu Gharaib!
The very little that we now know about Guantánamo and by extension it's Commander in charge, Major General Geoffrey Miller is through the interviews given by the "Tipton Three" of UK (Shafiq Rasul, Ruhal Ahmed and Asif Iqbal) to Guardian Newspaper. They all survived three whole months of solitary confinement for acts they did not commit. Guardian reports Ahmed saying "all the time I was kneeling with a guy standing on the backs of my legs and another holding a gun to my head." The Tipton Three are yet to have the privilege of getting a simple five letter "sorry" from neither the Cowboy of Crawford nor the No:10 Dud of Downing!
Another Abu Gharaib that is yet to be discovered is within and amidst us. America's patronage to the pornographic "industry" made it one of the most profitable business with a domestic annual revenue of $12 Billion. The glamour of defense industry lures growing minds and turns them into the likes of Brigadier General Karpinski who said, "I think what attracted me originally was that the Army offered the opportunities to do all the exciting things I could never do as a school teacher or in any other capacity."
The end products of such a society are the likes of Lynndie England, her boyfriend Charles Grainer, Steven Stefanowicz, John Israel (prison guards at Abu Gharaib) and others, such as the infamous young men of Columbine. With the blooming industries of pornography, gambling, drugs and violence, our home made Abu Gharaib will unfold itself sooner or later.
The discourse that is equally important if not more, is to genuinely explore the deep rooted causes for such inhumane behavior by the soldiers and the leaders of the USA.
The rare courageous journalist, Seymour Hersh reports in a recent piece in New Yorker that Mr. Rumsfeld chafed over what he saw as the reluctance of senior Pentagon generals and admirals to act aggressively. By mid-2002, he and his senior aides were exchanging secret memorandums on modifying the culture of the military leaders and finding ways to encourage them “to take greater risks.” One memo spoke derisively of the generals in the Pentagon, and said, “Our prerequisite of perfection for ‘actionable intelligence’ has paralyzed us. We must accept that we may have to take action before every question can be answered.”
Contrary to Seymour Hersh is a Lt. Gen. William Boykin, an evangelical Christian (under review) for saying "his God was superior to that of the Muslims", is now linked to the abuses of detainees in Iraq.
Islamophobia today is as much a reality as anti-Semitism was during the Nazi Germany. Assimilated Muslims in the Yugoslavia were challenged to drop their pants and the Muslim women in France are made to reveal their hair, both to prove their patriotism. The West is rarely content with the Muslims.
The founding leadership killed native American Indians and later generations thrived on plantations and the current leadership also wants to assure its place in history. They shamelessly articulate to convince the citizenry that smaller nukes that can actually be used are better than the big ones that cannot be used. Simple Economics 101.
Talking of economy, our defense department finds itself helpless in spite of a budget six times bigger ($400 billion) than the budget of education department ($70 billion). They award millions of dollars worth of contracts to Private Contractors run by former government (defense department) employees who then become 'interrogators' at places like Abu Gharaib.
Titan Corporation is one such organization. It is based out of San Diego with approximately 12,000 employees and annual sales of approximately $2.0 billion. 95 percent of its revenues comes from the U.S. government defense contracts. Their clientele includes the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and all branches of the armed services. Their A to Z product line includes products such as "Advanced Training Solutions", "Affordable Weapon", to a X-Craft.
Steven Stefanowicz of Titan Corporation is an alleged "interrogator" of Abu Gharaib. The ex-generals and colonels who started Titan Corporation perhaps trained him. The Titan, that could either be as the Titanic (in size) or the other Titan whose ideological white supremacist doctrine was that all civilization was created by the "white" race, led in particular by the "Nordic" race and that the civilizations of Greece and Rome declined due to mixture with the African and Middle-Eastern slaves. Therefore, Stefanowicz may have believed that the Abu Gharaib enslaved prisoners must be treated as such. Urinating at and keeping human beings in a leash can be done only with such twisted titanic beliefs.
Unlike those who seemingly enjoyed torture, rape & sodomy, a courageous young man (a.k.a. whistle blower) from within, Army Specialist Joseph Darby slipped an anonymous note under the door of his commander. His simple and quiet act has become the single biggest reason to expose the heinous acts of US soldiers at Abu Gharaib. Joseph Darby is a hero to some but not to all. His wife now fears retaliation for a noble act of her husband, in the land of the free!
Joseph Darby and other such courageous people proves that actions that are genuine and sincere does make a difference. The Generals and Colonels can only perpetuate death and destruction with their new toys of smaller and more lethal nukes. The Army and War Colleges must remember the words of Margaret Mead who once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples -- faraway peoples -- so that Americans might better understand themselves."
The popular press joins the imperial masters in debating pictures, prison guards and chain of command with the Generals and Colonels. Attacker's perspective is inundated while the victims' perspective is completely blotted out. They do not understand, no tragedy could ever be understood without the victims perspective.
Their Abu Gharaib was guarded by the Brigadier General Janis Leigh Karpinski, a Jewess from New York replaced with the Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander in charge of the prison at Guantánamo. One can soar high or dive deep to imagine the possible improvements that the Guantánamo chief may have now brought to Abu Gharaib!
The very little that we now know about Guantánamo and by extension it's Commander in charge, Major General Geoffrey Miller is through the interviews given by the "Tipton Three" of UK (Shafiq Rasul, Ruhal Ahmed and Asif Iqbal) to Guardian Newspaper. They all survived three whole months of solitary confinement for acts they did not commit. Guardian reports Ahmed saying "all the time I was kneeling with a guy standing on the backs of my legs and another holding a gun to my head." The Tipton Three are yet to have the privilege of getting a simple five letter "sorry" from neither the Cowboy of Crawford nor the No:10 Dud of Downing!
Another Abu Gharaib that is yet to be discovered is within and amidst us. America's patronage to the pornographic "industry" made it one of the most profitable business with a domestic annual revenue of $12 Billion. The glamour of defense industry lures growing minds and turns them into the likes of Brigadier General Karpinski who said, "I think what attracted me originally was that the Army offered the opportunities to do all the exciting things I could never do as a school teacher or in any other capacity."
The end products of such a society are the likes of Lynndie England, her boyfriend Charles Grainer, Steven Stefanowicz, John Israel (prison guards at Abu Gharaib) and others, such as the infamous young men of Columbine. With the blooming industries of pornography, gambling, drugs and violence, our home made Abu Gharaib will unfold itself sooner or later.
The discourse that is equally important if not more, is to genuinely explore the deep rooted causes for such inhumane behavior by the soldiers and the leaders of the USA.
The rare courageous journalist, Seymour Hersh reports in a recent piece in New Yorker that Mr. Rumsfeld chafed over what he saw as the reluctance of senior Pentagon generals and admirals to act aggressively. By mid-2002, he and his senior aides were exchanging secret memorandums on modifying the culture of the military leaders and finding ways to encourage them “to take greater risks.” One memo spoke derisively of the generals in the Pentagon, and said, “Our prerequisite of perfection for ‘actionable intelligence’ has paralyzed us. We must accept that we may have to take action before every question can be answered.”
Contrary to Seymour Hersh is a Lt. Gen. William Boykin, an evangelical Christian (under review) for saying "his God was superior to that of the Muslims", is now linked to the abuses of detainees in Iraq.
Islamophobia today is as much a reality as anti-Semitism was during the Nazi Germany. Assimilated Muslims in the Yugoslavia were challenged to drop their pants and the Muslim women in France are made to reveal their hair, both to prove their patriotism. The West is rarely content with the Muslims.
The founding leadership killed native American Indians and later generations thrived on plantations and the current leadership also wants to assure its place in history. They shamelessly articulate to convince the citizenry that smaller nukes that can actually be used are better than the big ones that cannot be used. Simple Economics 101.
Talking of economy, our defense department finds itself helpless in spite of a budget six times bigger ($400 billion) than the budget of education department ($70 billion). They award millions of dollars worth of contracts to Private Contractors run by former government (defense department) employees who then become 'interrogators' at places like Abu Gharaib.
Titan Corporation is one such organization. It is based out of San Diego with approximately 12,000 employees and annual sales of approximately $2.0 billion. 95 percent of its revenues comes from the U.S. government defense contracts. Their clientele includes the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and all branches of the armed services. Their A to Z product line includes products such as "Advanced Training Solutions", "Affordable Weapon", to a X-Craft.
Steven Stefanowicz of Titan Corporation is an alleged "interrogator" of Abu Gharaib. The ex-generals and colonels who started Titan Corporation perhaps trained him. The Titan, that could either be as the Titanic (in size) or the other Titan whose ideological white supremacist doctrine was that all civilization was created by the "white" race, led in particular by the "Nordic" race and that the civilizations of Greece and Rome declined due to mixture with the African and Middle-Eastern slaves. Therefore, Stefanowicz may have believed that the Abu Gharaib enslaved prisoners must be treated as such. Urinating at and keeping human beings in a leash can be done only with such twisted titanic beliefs.
Unlike those who seemingly enjoyed torture, rape & sodomy, a courageous young man (a.k.a. whistle blower) from within, Army Specialist Joseph Darby slipped an anonymous note under the door of his commander. His simple and quiet act has become the single biggest reason to expose the heinous acts of US soldiers at Abu Gharaib. Joseph Darby is a hero to some but not to all. His wife now fears retaliation for a noble act of her husband, in the land of the free!
Joseph Darby and other such courageous people proves that actions that are genuine and sincere does make a difference. The Generals and Colonels can only perpetuate death and destruction with their new toys of smaller and more lethal nukes. The Army and War Colleges must remember the words of Margaret Mead who once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples -- faraway peoples -- so that Americans might better understand themselves."
Monday, April 25, 2005
Monotheism versus Moneytheism
Monotheism versus Moneytheism
By Shakeel Syed
The claimants of monotheism have become adherents of moneytheism!
The perpetrators of this new paradigm must be held accountable. We define our character when we say a word of justice to an oppressive royal or a ruler. And if we do not we also become accountable.
A recent news magazine reports a headline "Geneva caters to an ailing king". A water-front feast on caviar, kebab and coffee while their maidens are guarded by Swiss soldiers and their toddlers are dandled by Filipino nannies. The 80+ year old wheel-chair confined patriarch with an entourage of 350 is heard to be re-tracking his princely wild days in Geneva & Marbella, Spain, his two most loving cities. This is the self-proclaimed custodian of the two most Holy Mosques, Fahd bin Abdul Aziz!
Across the waters in France was the other 80+ year old octogenarian gulf ruler, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He is claimed to have been elected as first President of the UAE in 1971 with five successive (re-elected) five year intervals. The year of 1971 must be an auspicious one for the "elected rulers." The Prime Minister of Dubai, Sheikh Maktum ibn Rashid al-Maktum also happens to be serving his prime ministerial terms since 1971 with an interim absence between 1979 & 1990.
While a war of the United States upon Iraq looms over, they are busy on the streets of Geneva and Marbella. The Saudis have clogged the Geneva streets with Mercedeses, delighting the merchants on the elegant Rue du Rhone. The local tourist bureau estimates the royals spending a whopping $10 million a day. And this is just the beginning!
Fahd flew into Geneva with two 747s, a Boeing 757 mobile hospital, a Boeing 777, a Falcon 900 and a couple of Gulfstreams. His entourage took more than 400 rooms in the city's five-star hotels and rented 600 Mercedes limos exhausting Geneva's entire auto rental inventory. An additional 150 Mercedeses were imported from Germany to cater to the wheel-chair bound ailing guest.
One of the royal family's staff member is reported to have said "domestic concerns are for another day, another place. I am more worried about the diabetes from all the rich food, pinching a roll of fat at his waist."
Tensions between royals and the people have grown as they are tired of the financial bloat and moral laxity of the royals. These ailing kings, rulers and presidents must completely be stripped of their titles and completely removed from their ornate palaces. Their hereditary successors must be made to realize that their real inheritance is to resume the life like everyone else and struggle on the streets to make an earnest living.
They mistakenly believe that they are securely unchallenged and supreme. They have falsely made themselves think that it is permanent and invincible. Monotheistic Islam is the very state of nature. Every part of it is capable of regenerating all other parts. It is only a matter of time that it happens. It is only then that there will be the restoration of a just order, where the monotheistic belief is properly valued and practiced.
The claimants of monotheism must question and expose such obnoxious excesses of unprecedented magnitude from the adherents of moneytheism. This discourse is completely missing from our intellectual and political dialog. Voluminous scrolls have documented the ills of others but no one cares to speak, write or debate about our own. There is a clear absence of descriptive and analytical political thought from the massive intellectual industry of the Muslims.
Without a paradigm of political thought that describes and explains the present political situation, we cannot even begin to work towards the regeneration of monotheistic political power. The original model at Madinah had to defeat the power of falsehood, which was then local, or at best regional, and there were no vast disparities in the areas of technology and economy. In the contemporary situation the false and secular civilization is globally organized in a world economy with inter-linking political systems, that includes the corrupt systems of Muslim rulers and regimes. Monotheism, therefore, has to repeat itself in a vastly more complex world than existed 1,400 years ago. This difference between the two historical situations has to be bridged by sincere leadership and profound contemporary thought in absence of Prophethood and Divine Revelation in the original model.
Monotheism has no frontiers and is fervently preached to the entire humanity by all the Prophets from Abraham to Muhammad (peace be upon all of them) and this must now be intensely continued by its' claimants. And, the adherents of Moneytheism has to be sent and sent away quickly in the dustbin of forgotten history.
Shakeel Syed is a freelance writer on socio-political issues and lives in California.
By Shakeel Syed
The claimants of monotheism have become adherents of moneytheism!
The perpetrators of this new paradigm must be held accountable. We define our character when we say a word of justice to an oppressive royal or a ruler. And if we do not we also become accountable.
A recent news magazine reports a headline "Geneva caters to an ailing king". A water-front feast on caviar, kebab and coffee while their maidens are guarded by Swiss soldiers and their toddlers are dandled by Filipino nannies. The 80+ year old wheel-chair confined patriarch with an entourage of 350 is heard to be re-tracking his princely wild days in Geneva & Marbella, Spain, his two most loving cities. This is the self-proclaimed custodian of the two most Holy Mosques, Fahd bin Abdul Aziz!
Across the waters in France was the other 80+ year old octogenarian gulf ruler, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He is claimed to have been elected as first President of the UAE in 1971 with five successive (re-elected) five year intervals. The year of 1971 must be an auspicious one for the "elected rulers." The Prime Minister of Dubai, Sheikh Maktum ibn Rashid al-Maktum also happens to be serving his prime ministerial terms since 1971 with an interim absence between 1979 & 1990.
While a war of the United States upon Iraq looms over, they are busy on the streets of Geneva and Marbella. The Saudis have clogged the Geneva streets with Mercedeses, delighting the merchants on the elegant Rue du Rhone. The local tourist bureau estimates the royals spending a whopping $10 million a day. And this is just the beginning!
Fahd flew into Geneva with two 747s, a Boeing 757 mobile hospital, a Boeing 777, a Falcon 900 and a couple of Gulfstreams. His entourage took more than 400 rooms in the city's five-star hotels and rented 600 Mercedes limos exhausting Geneva's entire auto rental inventory. An additional 150 Mercedeses were imported from Germany to cater to the wheel-chair bound ailing guest.
One of the royal family's staff member is reported to have said "domestic concerns are for another day, another place. I am more worried about the diabetes from all the rich food, pinching a roll of fat at his waist."
Tensions between royals and the people have grown as they are tired of the financial bloat and moral laxity of the royals. These ailing kings, rulers and presidents must completely be stripped of their titles and completely removed from their ornate palaces. Their hereditary successors must be made to realize that their real inheritance is to resume the life like everyone else and struggle on the streets to make an earnest living.
They mistakenly believe that they are securely unchallenged and supreme. They have falsely made themselves think that it is permanent and invincible. Monotheistic Islam is the very state of nature. Every part of it is capable of regenerating all other parts. It is only a matter of time that it happens. It is only then that there will be the restoration of a just order, where the monotheistic belief is properly valued and practiced.
The claimants of monotheism must question and expose such obnoxious excesses of unprecedented magnitude from the adherents of moneytheism. This discourse is completely missing from our intellectual and political dialog. Voluminous scrolls have documented the ills of others but no one cares to speak, write or debate about our own. There is a clear absence of descriptive and analytical political thought from the massive intellectual industry of the Muslims.
Without a paradigm of political thought that describes and explains the present political situation, we cannot even begin to work towards the regeneration of monotheistic political power. The original model at Madinah had to defeat the power of falsehood, which was then local, or at best regional, and there were no vast disparities in the areas of technology and economy. In the contemporary situation the false and secular civilization is globally organized in a world economy with inter-linking political systems, that includes the corrupt systems of Muslim rulers and regimes. Monotheism, therefore, has to repeat itself in a vastly more complex world than existed 1,400 years ago. This difference between the two historical situations has to be bridged by sincere leadership and profound contemporary thought in absence of Prophethood and Divine Revelation in the original model.
Monotheism has no frontiers and is fervently preached to the entire humanity by all the Prophets from Abraham to Muhammad (peace be upon all of them) and this must now be intensely continued by its' claimants. And, the adherents of Moneytheism has to be sent and sent away quickly in the dustbin of forgotten history.
Shakeel Syed is a freelance writer on socio-political issues and lives in California.
Friday, March 15, 2002
Proclaim Good and Forbid Evil
Proclaim Good and Forbid Evil, always and at all costs !"If you do not march forth, Allah will chastise you grievously and will replace you by another people, while you will in no way be able to harm Him. Allah has power over everything". 9:39.
No people can live successfully, fruitfully and triumphantly without strong memory of their past. 10th of Moharram is one such occasion. Muslims attempt to recall the tragic event around the 60th year after Prophet Muhammad migrated from Makkah to Madinah. This time it was his family led by his noble grandson Imam Hussain (peace & blessings be upon all of them).
Reciting Divine words, reflecting Prophetic advises and studying history enables us crystallize our insights. However, when we attempt to draw the imagery of Karbala, no heart could be so hard as not to be pierced with piteous feeling while replaying the Day of Ashura. Words can simply not do justice to the sacrifices made on that day. They kept their heads high, faces bathed in blood and tears, looking one upon another. Others stood in dolorous pain, looking up to the highest heavens, fixing their eyes upon it, crying out, asking help from the Only Helper; while others made lamentations in the manner of dirge.
Today we try to recall their pain, suffering and sacrifices, as they happened, to inspire ourselves and to understand the concept of sacrifice for a noble cause.Regrettably, sacrifice as is generally understood today, is to give up something that should not have been touched in the first place. Selfless and unasked giving is a rarity and unheard of. Giving one's entire self and off springs for His pleasure is unimaginable.
Muslims must spiritually survive from the unparallel yesterdays of Prophet's progeny.We have been largely overwhelmed by a culture that has emptied our memories, made us apologetic for who we are, and stripped us along the way of the sheerest hope of self-definition. We alone are presumed past less and are left to repair our self-esteem. Imperative it is for us today, to define ourselves by our ongoing tribulations and those who mete them out to us. Otherwise, we cannot be collectively successful if we have no idea or, worse, have the wrong idea of who we were and who we are. Getting replaced, then seems to be only logical and deserving (refer 9:39).
The intent of this writing is to stimulate, not to sate -- to pose the question and to invite reflection -- to cause ourselves to act for an almost forgotten legacy of the sacrifices made by our beloved Prophet (pbuh) and his progeny.O Allah (swt) bestow upon us the courage to enjoin, proclaim and enforce Good and patience and perseverance to forbid and stop Evil for and by all.
Ameen Ya Rabb.------
It is with deep regrets that we like to record yet another attempt to silence Muslim activism in the USA. The ongoing witch hunt started by the US Government around Oct/Nov 2001, continues!
Nov 2001: the funds of 3 major Relief Organizations (Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief Foundation & Benevolence International) were frozen.
Dec 2001: 1 Board member of GRF continues to remain in prison.
March 2002: 14 Muslim organizations & some of the top Muslim leaders living in the Virginia area were raided, under the pretext of aiding and abetting terror.
No people can live successfully, fruitfully and triumphantly without strong memory of their past. 10th of Moharram is one such occasion. Muslims attempt to recall the tragic event around the 60th year after Prophet Muhammad migrated from Makkah to Madinah. This time it was his family led by his noble grandson Imam Hussain (peace & blessings be upon all of them).
Reciting Divine words, reflecting Prophetic advises and studying history enables us crystallize our insights. However, when we attempt to draw the imagery of Karbala, no heart could be so hard as not to be pierced with piteous feeling while replaying the Day of Ashura. Words can simply not do justice to the sacrifices made on that day. They kept their heads high, faces bathed in blood and tears, looking one upon another. Others stood in dolorous pain, looking up to the highest heavens, fixing their eyes upon it, crying out, asking help from the Only Helper; while others made lamentations in the manner of dirge.
Today we try to recall their pain, suffering and sacrifices, as they happened, to inspire ourselves and to understand the concept of sacrifice for a noble cause.Regrettably, sacrifice as is generally understood today, is to give up something that should not have been touched in the first place. Selfless and unasked giving is a rarity and unheard of. Giving one's entire self and off springs for His pleasure is unimaginable.
Muslims must spiritually survive from the unparallel yesterdays of Prophet's progeny.We have been largely overwhelmed by a culture that has emptied our memories, made us apologetic for who we are, and stripped us along the way of the sheerest hope of self-definition. We alone are presumed past less and are left to repair our self-esteem. Imperative it is for us today, to define ourselves by our ongoing tribulations and those who mete them out to us. Otherwise, we cannot be collectively successful if we have no idea or, worse, have the wrong idea of who we were and who we are. Getting replaced, then seems to be only logical and deserving (refer 9:39).
The intent of this writing is to stimulate, not to sate -- to pose the question and to invite reflection -- to cause ourselves to act for an almost forgotten legacy of the sacrifices made by our beloved Prophet (pbuh) and his progeny.O Allah (swt) bestow upon us the courage to enjoin, proclaim and enforce Good and patience and perseverance to forbid and stop Evil for and by all.
Ameen Ya Rabb.------
It is with deep regrets that we like to record yet another attempt to silence Muslim activism in the USA. The ongoing witch hunt started by the US Government around Oct/Nov 2001, continues!
Nov 2001: the funds of 3 major Relief Organizations (Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief Foundation & Benevolence International) were frozen.
Dec 2001: 1 Board member of GRF continues to remain in prison.
March 2002: 14 Muslim organizations & some of the top Muslim leaders living in the Virginia area were raided, under the pretext of aiding and abetting terror.
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
High Tech Bully
High Tech Bully!
At moments of national peril or national exaltation, patriotic emotions rise and people enthusiastically subscribe to any cause put forth to them. But these moments pass, the process of disengagement begins, and it usually does not take long for disengagement to eventuate in alienation. Another lunar cycle of thirty days has completed it's course (US bombing on Afghanistan started on Oct 8) and the might is yet to prove itself. The process of frustration and demands of disengagement has begun.
British ministers privately expressed frustration yesterday with the US prosecution of the war against terrorism, the first sign of serious differences between London and Washington since the attacks on September 11. (Guardian, Nov 9)
The German government came to the brink of collapse yesterday when Joschka Fischer, the Foreign Minister, threatened to resign over his Green party's reluctance to support the country's first combat mission since the Second World War. (Independent, Nov 9)
The United Nations is warning of a "disaster of tremendous proportions" after US planes bombed a hydro-electric power station close to a vast dam in southern Afghanistan. (Independent, Nov 8)
It seems to be our privilege today to prove ourselves right in the thesis that the world is our enemy; for if we reiterate this frequently enough and makes it the background of our conduct we are bound eventually to be right. Each one of us may have a different answer to the questions "who is whose enemy" and "who is waging a war against whom and why"?
We wage a war to save civilization itself. (President Bush - Nov 8 Address to the nation)
'Brutality smeared in peanut butter' America must stop the war now. (Arundhati Roy, Oct 20, MSNBC)
Hidden Agenda Behind War on Terror (John Pilger, Former Mirror chief foreign correspondent)
What creates a community of people who believe in 'reason', as against a mere aggregate of individuals, is the fact that they think objectively. This faculty permits them to interpret the past, make sense of the present and outline a shape for the future. Many believe that the political personality of US, as is known today, is the product of "imperial mentality", because what it does not do is just as significant, and just as consequential, as what it does. New set of rules are being laid out for the world to subscribe to.
"Murder of values and universally accepted fundamental human principles is taking place on such a wide scale that if the world leaders still choose not to remove the blindfold of American influence from their eyes the whole world will turn into a perpetual inferno of violence and chaos." (Mufti Taqi Usmani, Nov 4)
Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned that the US should avoid giving the perception to the Muslim world that it is a "high tech bully". Senator Biden's assessment needs to be given due consideration, because through just and moral actions can the US create a positive image in the World.
Behind the general fog that the ideology of dissent generates, the outlines of a very material sociological and political problem are emerging. This is not a popular war, indeed. It is among the people of reason that extreme dissatisfaction is rife. It is among them that the isolationist ideal is experiencing its final convulsive agony.
Conscientious people must offer alternate policies relevant to the reality that can sustain a system based on justice and address the harsh and nasty imperatives of imperial powers. Until that happens, mothers will continue their silent cries and children will not stop to sob and the world will remain restless and explode!
At moments of national peril or national exaltation, patriotic emotions rise and people enthusiastically subscribe to any cause put forth to them. But these moments pass, the process of disengagement begins, and it usually does not take long for disengagement to eventuate in alienation. Another lunar cycle of thirty days has completed it's course (US bombing on Afghanistan started on Oct 8) and the might is yet to prove itself. The process of frustration and demands of disengagement has begun.
British ministers privately expressed frustration yesterday with the US prosecution of the war against terrorism, the first sign of serious differences between London and Washington since the attacks on September 11. (Guardian, Nov 9)
The German government came to the brink of collapse yesterday when Joschka Fischer, the Foreign Minister, threatened to resign over his Green party's reluctance to support the country's first combat mission since the Second World War. (Independent, Nov 9)
The United Nations is warning of a "disaster of tremendous proportions" after US planes bombed a hydro-electric power station close to a vast dam in southern Afghanistan. (Independent, Nov 8)
It seems to be our privilege today to prove ourselves right in the thesis that the world is our enemy; for if we reiterate this frequently enough and makes it the background of our conduct we are bound eventually to be right. Each one of us may have a different answer to the questions "who is whose enemy" and "who is waging a war against whom and why"?
We wage a war to save civilization itself. (President Bush - Nov 8 Address to the nation)
'Brutality smeared in peanut butter' America must stop the war now. (Arundhati Roy, Oct 20, MSNBC)
Hidden Agenda Behind War on Terror (John Pilger, Former Mirror chief foreign correspondent)
What creates a community of people who believe in 'reason', as against a mere aggregate of individuals, is the fact that they think objectively. This faculty permits them to interpret the past, make sense of the present and outline a shape for the future. Many believe that the political personality of US, as is known today, is the product of "imperial mentality", because what it does not do is just as significant, and just as consequential, as what it does. New set of rules are being laid out for the world to subscribe to.
"Murder of values and universally accepted fundamental human principles is taking place on such a wide scale that if the world leaders still choose not to remove the blindfold of American influence from their eyes the whole world will turn into a perpetual inferno of violence and chaos." (Mufti Taqi Usmani, Nov 4)
Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned that the US should avoid giving the perception to the Muslim world that it is a "high tech bully". Senator Biden's assessment needs to be given due consideration, because through just and moral actions can the US create a positive image in the World.
Behind the general fog that the ideology of dissent generates, the outlines of a very material sociological and political problem are emerging. This is not a popular war, indeed. It is among the people of reason that extreme dissatisfaction is rife. It is among them that the isolationist ideal is experiencing its final convulsive agony.
Conscientious people must offer alternate policies relevant to the reality that can sustain a system based on justice and address the harsh and nasty imperatives of imperial powers. Until that happens, mothers will continue their silent cries and children will not stop to sob and the world will remain restless and explode!
Tuesday, September 25, 2001
USA vs. WORLD
Since World War II, the United States have dropped bombs on 23 countries.
They include:
China 1945-46, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954, Indonesia 1958, Cuba 1959-60, Guatemala 1960, Congo 1964, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Vietnam 1961-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Grenada 1983, Lebanon 1984, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1980s, Nicaragua 1980s, Panama 1989, Iraq 1991-1999, Sudan 1998, Afghanistan 1998, and Yugoslavia 1999.
Post World War II, the United States has also assisted in over 20 different coups throughout the world, and the CIA was responsible for half a dozen assassinations of political heads of state. The following is a comprehensive summary of the imperialist strategy of the United States over the span of the past century:Argentina - 1890 - Troops sent to Buenos Aires to protect business interests.Chile - 1891 - Marines sent to Chile and clashed with nationalist rebels.Haiti - 1891 - American troops suppress a revolt by Black workers on United States-claimed Navassa Island.Hawaii - 1893 - Navy sent to Hawaii to overthrow the independent kingdom - Hawaii annexed by the United States.Nicaragua - 1894 - Troops occupied Bluefields, a city on the Caribbean Sea, for a month.China - 1894-95 - Navy, Army, and Marines landed during the Sino-Japanese War.Korea - 1894-96 - Troops kept in Seoul during the war.Panama - 1895 - Army, Navy, and Marines landed in the port city of Corinto.China - 1894-1900 - Troops occupied China during the Boxer Rebellion.Philippines - 1898-1910 - Navy and Army troops landed after the Philippines fell during the Spanish-American War; 600,000 Filipinos were killed.Cuba - 1898-1902 - Troops seized Cuba in the Spanish-American War; the United States still maintains troops at Guantanamo Bay today.Puerto Rico - 1898 - present - Troops seized Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War and still occupy Puerto Rico today.Nicaragua - 1898 - Marines landed at the port of San Juan del Sur.Samoa - 1899 - Troops landed as a result over the battle for succession to the throne.Panama - 1901-14 - Navy supported the revolution when Panama claimed independence from Colombia. American troops have occupied the Canal Zone since 1901 when construction for the canal began.Honduras - 1903 - Marines landed to intervene during a revolution.Dominican Rep 1903-04 - Troops landed to protect American interests during a revolution.Korea - 1904-05 - Marines landed during the Russo-Japanese War.Cuba - 1906-09 - Troops landed during an election. Nicaragua - 1907 - Troops landed and a protectorate was set up.Honduras - 1907 - Marines landed during Honduras' war with Nicaragua.Panama - 1908 - Marines sent in during Panama's election.Nicaragua - 1910 - Marines landed for a second time in Bluefields and Corinto.Honduras - 1911 - Troops sent in to protect American interests during Honduras' civil war.China - 1911-41 - Navy and troops sent to China during continuous flare-ups.Cuba - 1912 - Troops sent in to protect American interests in Havana.Panama - 1912 - Marines landed during Panama's election.Honduras - 1912 - Troops sent in to protect American interests.Nicaragua - 1912-33 - Troops occupied Nicaragua and fought guerrillas during its 20-year civil war.Mexico - 1913 - Navy evacuated Americans during revolution.Dominican Rep 1914 - Navy fought with rebels over Santo Domingo.Mexico - 1914-18 - Navy and troops sent in to intervene against nationalists.Haiti - 1914-34 - Troops occupied Haiti after a revolution and occupied Haiti for 19 years.Dominican Rep 1916-24 - Marines occupied the Dominican Republic for eight years.Cuba - 1917-33 - Troops landed and occupied Cuba for 16 years; Cuba became an economic protectorate.World War I - 1917-18 - Navy and Army sent to Europe to fight the Axis powers.Russia - 1918-22 - Navy and troops sent to eastern Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution; Army made five landings.Honduras - 1919 - Marines sent during Honduras' national elections.Guatemala - 1920 - Troops occupied Guatemala for two weeks during a union strike.Turkey - 1922 - Troops fought nationalists in Smyrna. China - 1922-27 - Navy and Army troops deployed during a nationalist revolt.Honduras - 1924-25 - Troops landed twice during a national election.Panama - 1925 - Troops sent in to put down a general strike.China - 1927-34 - Marines sent in and stationed for seven years throughout China.El Salvador - 1932 - Naval warships deployed during the FMLN revolt under Marti.World War II - 1941-45 - Military fought the Axis powers: Japan, Germany, and Italy.Yugoslavia - 1946 - Navy deployed off the coast of Yugoslavia in response to the downing of an American plane.Uruguay - 1947 - Bombers deployed as a show of military force.Greece - 1947-49 - United States operations insured a victory for the far right in national "elections."Germany - 1948 - Military deployed in response to the Berlin blockade; the Berlin airlift lasts 444 days.Philippines - 1948-54 - The CIA directed a civil war against the Filipino Huk revolt.Puerto Rico - 1950 - Military helped crush an independence rebellion in Ponce.Korean War - 1951-53 - Military sent in during the war.Iran - 1953 - The CIA orchestrated the overthrow of democratically elected Mossadegh and restored the Shah to power.Vietnam - 1954 - The United States offered weapons to the French in the battle against Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh.Guatemala - 1954 - The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz and placed Colonel Armas in power.Egypt - 1956 - Marines deployed to evacuate foreigners after Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.Lebanon - 1958 - Navy supported an Army occupation of Lebanon during its civil war.Panama - 1958 - Troops landed after Panamanians demonstrations threatened the Canal Zone.Vietnam - 1950s-75 - Vietnam War.Cuba - 1961 - The CIA-directed Bay of Pigs invasions failed to overthrow the Castro government.Cuba - 1962 - The Navy quarantines Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.Laos - 1962 - Military occupied Laos during its civil war against the Pathet Lao guerrillas.Panama - 1964 - Troops sent in and Panamanians shot while protesting the United States presence in the Canal Zone.Indonesia - 1965 - The CIA orchestrated a military coup.Dominican Rep- 1965-66 - Troops deployed during a national election.Guatemala - 1966-67 - Green Berets sent in.Cambodia - 1969-75 - Military sent in after the Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia.Oman - 1970 - Marines landed to direct a possible invasion into Iran.Laos - 1971-75 - Americans carpet-bomb the countryside during Laos' civil war.Chile - 1973 - The CIA orchestrated a coup, killing President Allende who had been popularly elected. The CIA helped to establish a military regime under General Pinochet.Cambodia - 1975 - Twenty-eight Americans killed in an effort to retrieve the crew of the Mayaquez, which had been seized.Angola - 1976-92 - The CIA backed South African rebels fighting against Marxist Angola.Iran - 1980 - Americans aborted a rescue attempt to liberate 52 hostages seized in the Teheran embassy.Libya - 1981 - American fighters shoot down two Libyan fighters.El Salvador - 1981-92 - The CIA, troops, and advisers aid in El Salvador's war against the FMLN.Nicaragua - 1981-90 - The CIA and NSC directed the Contra War against the Sandinistas.Lebanon - 1982-84 - Marines occupied Beirut during Lebanon's civil war; 241 were killed in the American barracks and Reagan "redeployed" the troops to the Mediterranean.Honduras - 1983-89 - Troops sent in to build bases near the Honduran border.Grenada - 1983-84 - American invasion overthrew the Maurice Bishop government.Iran - 1984 - American fighters shot down two Iranian planes over the Persian Gulf.Libya - 1986 - American fighters hit targets in and around the capital city of Tripoli.Bolivia - 1986 - The Army assisted government troops on raids of cocaine areas.Iran - 1987-88 - The United States intervened on the side of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War.Libya - 1989 - Navy shot down two more Libyan jets.Virgin Islands - 1989 - Troops landed during unrest among Virgin Island peoples.Philippines - 1989 - Air Force provided air cover for government during coup.Panama - 1989-90 - 27,000 Americans landed in overthrow of President Noriega; over 2,000 Panama civilians were killed.Liberia - 1990 - Troops entered Liberia to evacuate foreigners during civil war.Saudi Arabia - 1990-91 - American troops sent to Saudi Arabia, which was a staging area in the war against Iraq.Kuwait - 1991 - Troops sent into Kuwait to turn back Saddam Hussein.Somalia - 1992-94 - Troops occupied Somalia during civil war.Bosnia - 1993-95 - Air Force jets bombed "no-fly zone" during civil war in Yugoslavia.Haiti - 1994-96 - American troops and Navy provided a blockade against Haiti's military government. The CIA restored Aristide to power.Zaire - 1996-97 - Marines sent into Rwanda Hutus' refugee camps in the area where the Congo revolution began.Albania - 1997 - Troops deployed during evacuation of foreigners.Sudan - 1998 - American missiles destroyed a pharmaceutical complex where alleged nerve gas components were manufactured.Afghanistan - 1998 - Missiles launched towards alleged Afghan terrorist training camps.Yugoslavia - 1999 - Bombings and missile attacks carried out by the United States in conjunction with NATO in the 11 week war against Milosevic.Iraq - 1998-2001 - Missiles launched into Baghdad and other large Iraq cities for four days. American jets enforced "no-fly zone" and continued to hit Iraqi targets since December 1998.
These **100** instances of American military intervention did not include times when the United States:
(1) deployed military police overseas;(2) mobilized the National Guard;(3) sent Navy ships off the coast of numerous countries as a show of strength;(4) sent additional troops to areas where Americans were already stationed;(5) carried out covert actions where American forces were not under the direct rule of an American command;(6) used small hostage rescue units;(7) used American pilots to fly foreign planes;(8) carried out military training and advisory programs which did not involve direct combat.U. S. Government Assassination Plots: Following is a list of prominent foreign leaders whose assassination or planning for same the United States has been involved in since the end of Second World War. The list does not include several assassinations in various parts of the world carried out by anti-Castro Cubans employed by CIA and headquartered in the United States:LIST A: NON MUSLIMS1949 - KIm Koo, Korean opposition leader1950's - CIA/Neo-Nazi hit list of numerous political figures in West Germany1955 - Jose' Antonio Remon, President of Panama1950's Chou En-lai, Prime Minister of China, several attempts on his life1951 - Kim Il Sung, Premiere of North Korea1950s (mid) - Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader1955 - Jawar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India1959 and 1963 - Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia1950s-70s - Jose Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts on his life1961 - Francois "Papa Doc"Duvalier, leader of Haiti1961 - Patrice Lumumba , Prime Minister of Congo (Zaire)1961 - Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic1963 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam1960s - Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, more than 15 attempts on his life1960s - Raul Castro, high official in government of Cuba1965 - Francisco Caamanao, Dominican Republic opposition leader1965 - Pierre Ngendandumwe, Prime Minister of Burundi1965-6 - Charles de Gaulle, President of France1967 - Che Guevara, Cuban leader1970 - Salvadore Allende, President of Chile1970 - General Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile1970s and 1981 - Gen. Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama1972 - General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence1975 - Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire1976 - Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica1983 - Miguel d'Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua1984 - The nine commandantes of the Sandanista National Directorate1980's - Dr. Gerald Bull, Canadian Ballistics Scientist assassinated by Mossad in Belgium.Partial List of Muslim Leaders Assassinated or Attempted Assassinations1950's Sukarno, President of Indonesia1957 Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt1960 Brigadier General, Abdul Karim Kassem, Leader of Iraq1980-86 Muammar Qaddafi, Leader of Libya, several plots and attempts upon his life1982 Ayatullah Khomeini, Leader of Iran1983 General Ahmed Dlimi, Moroccan army Commander1985 Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadllallah, Lebanese Shiite Leader (80 people killed in that attempt)1991 Saddam Hussein, Leader of IraqReference: Blum, William, "KILLING HOPE - U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II," Appendix IIIU.S. Government Assassination Plots, page 453, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine 1995. ISBN 1-56751-052-3Very likely Victims:April 4, 1979 - Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Leader of Pakistan, for pursuing making of Nuclear Bomb.August, 1988. General Ziaul Haq, Military Leader of Pakistan.1995 - Murtaza Bhutto, Son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Anti-American would-be Leader - Pakistan.March 25, 1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia through his Nephew, Saudi Arabia for imposing 1973 Oil Embargo.August 24, 1999. Mullah Mohammad Omar, in Kandhar, Afghanistan.
---------------------
It seems that 4 or 5 of the alleged dead terrorists are alive. One turned himself in to Florida FBI his brother who was also alleged to be a terrorist turned out to be dead a year ago. Both FBI and CNN printed a retraction.Another 3 or 4 have turned up alive in Saudi Arabia who said their ID's have been stolen.
At this point the real face behind the terrorist is still not known.
While the plane crashes and burns so thoroughly that even the black box is destroyed yet the passport of one of the hijackers flutters to the ground with no scratch.
Some of the terrorists went to a bar the night before which is hardly like religious radicals.
The FBI investigator has said in pursuing this case that for a crime so carefully choreographed the trail is quite clear. The terrorist used their real ID's (read stolen IDs) and they kindly left Arabic flight instructions and Quran in a rental car. The Actual quote of the investigator said it's as if somebody was deliberately leading us.
The crime involved some mole inside the Whitehouse which called the Whitehouse and gave secret password. In addition some people were astute enough to know the stock market and were able to short shares in Airlines and insurance stocks.
The Terrorist had to conspire for several years and were able to avoid detection by any number of intelligence agencies including NSA and echelon. The only way this would be possible is if they were supported by a foreign intelligence network say the KGB (They had Robert Hanson head of FBI counter intelligence on their payroll). The KGB could conceivably provide cover.
The other intelligence agency is of course the Mossad which had Jonathan Pollard give NSA monitoring techniques and frequencies.
The third possibility is US internal agencies. It is already well known that US military leaders proposed a secret plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans including the shooting down of a civilian airliner so as to provide a Causus Belli to invade Cuba. Included in the plan were to distribute passenger lists from all corners of the country so as to generate maximum hate and revulsion. This are detailed in a book By author James Bamford in book titled Body of Secrets.
The fourth possibility is China although one can doubt their intelligence.
It is also possible that these people were in fact Muslims but were infiltrated by one of these agencies and provided money and shelter.
In terms of motive the Russians would love to see US jump into Afghanistan (Estimated cost $100 Billion + 10,000 casualties). In fact the Russians are even willing to give its military bases to US. It shouldn't surprise anyone in the least if Russians started to secretly get weapons stolen from their depot's and given to Taliban.
The motive for Mossad is of course obvious but extremely risky. If they can get the war going quickly then the investigation results will be ignored. If however war is delayed and the investigation picks up steam they may at some point dump it on "rogue" agents.
In fact five Israeli's were picked up taking pictures of the WTC and celebrating and giving high fives. Note that the results of the voice from the Black boxes are still missing even for the one plane that crashed in Pennsylvania
References:
Suicide Hijacker: Alive & Well - Independant UK 17 September 2001 (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=94438)
Stolen IDs - Tehran Times Sep 19 (http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=9/19/01&Cat=4&Num=020)
Stock Manipulation - Independant UK 18 September 2001 (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=94609)
"Mole in White House" Alive & Well - Independant UK 14 September 2001 (http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=93993)
Saudi Suspects in US Attacks Were Not in the US - Islamonline and Alwatan Jeddah (http://www.islam-online.net/english/news/2001-09/18/article10.shtml)
US planned to down plane as pretext for invading Cuba - Baltimore Sun, Book on NSA "Body of Secrets" by James Baumford (http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.md.nsa24apr24.story)
Body of Secrets - Random House (c)2001 (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html)
"Questions raised about identity of hijackers" Alive And Well - Dawn 17 Sep 2001 (http://www.dawn.com/2001/09/17/int2.htm)
"5 Israelis Detained for 'Puzzling Behavior' - HAARETZ (Tel Aviv, Israel) Tuesday, September 18, 2001 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1053)
"The Sophistication of the Attackers" - Stratfor (Strategic Forign intelligence Tuesday, September 12, 2001 (http://www.stratfor.com/home/0109121640.htm)
"Hijacking Clues May be Red Herrings" - Stratfor (Strategic Forign intelligence Wednesday, September 13, 2001 (http://www.stratfor.com/home/0109132130.htm)
They include:
China 1945-46, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954, Indonesia 1958, Cuba 1959-60, Guatemala 1960, Congo 1964, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Vietnam 1961-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Grenada 1983, Lebanon 1984, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1980s, Nicaragua 1980s, Panama 1989, Iraq 1991-1999, Sudan 1998, Afghanistan 1998, and Yugoslavia 1999.
Post World War II, the United States has also assisted in over 20 different coups throughout the world, and the CIA was responsible for half a dozen assassinations of political heads of state. The following is a comprehensive summary of the imperialist strategy of the United States over the span of the past century:Argentina - 1890 - Troops sent to Buenos Aires to protect business interests.Chile - 1891 - Marines sent to Chile and clashed with nationalist rebels.Haiti - 1891 - American troops suppress a revolt by Black workers on United States-claimed Navassa Island.Hawaii - 1893 - Navy sent to Hawaii to overthrow the independent kingdom - Hawaii annexed by the United States.Nicaragua - 1894 - Troops occupied Bluefields, a city on the Caribbean Sea, for a month.China - 1894-95 - Navy, Army, and Marines landed during the Sino-Japanese War.Korea - 1894-96 - Troops kept in Seoul during the war.Panama - 1895 - Army, Navy, and Marines landed in the port city of Corinto.China - 1894-1900 - Troops occupied China during the Boxer Rebellion.Philippines - 1898-1910 - Navy and Army troops landed after the Philippines fell during the Spanish-American War; 600,000 Filipinos were killed.Cuba - 1898-1902 - Troops seized Cuba in the Spanish-American War; the United States still maintains troops at Guantanamo Bay today.Puerto Rico - 1898 - present - Troops seized Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War and still occupy Puerto Rico today.Nicaragua - 1898 - Marines landed at the port of San Juan del Sur.Samoa - 1899 - Troops landed as a result over the battle for succession to the throne.Panama - 1901-14 - Navy supported the revolution when Panama claimed independence from Colombia. American troops have occupied the Canal Zone since 1901 when construction for the canal began.Honduras - 1903 - Marines landed to intervene during a revolution.Dominican Rep 1903-04 - Troops landed to protect American interests during a revolution.Korea - 1904-05 - Marines landed during the Russo-Japanese War.Cuba - 1906-09 - Troops landed during an election. Nicaragua - 1907 - Troops landed and a protectorate was set up.Honduras - 1907 - Marines landed during Honduras' war with Nicaragua.Panama - 1908 - Marines sent in during Panama's election.Nicaragua - 1910 - Marines landed for a second time in Bluefields and Corinto.Honduras - 1911 - Troops sent in to protect American interests during Honduras' civil war.China - 1911-41 - Navy and troops sent to China during continuous flare-ups.Cuba - 1912 - Troops sent in to protect American interests in Havana.Panama - 1912 - Marines landed during Panama's election.Honduras - 1912 - Troops sent in to protect American interests.Nicaragua - 1912-33 - Troops occupied Nicaragua and fought guerrillas during its 20-year civil war.Mexico - 1913 - Navy evacuated Americans during revolution.Dominican Rep 1914 - Navy fought with rebels over Santo Domingo.Mexico - 1914-18 - Navy and troops sent in to intervene against nationalists.Haiti - 1914-34 - Troops occupied Haiti after a revolution and occupied Haiti for 19 years.Dominican Rep 1916-24 - Marines occupied the Dominican Republic for eight years.Cuba - 1917-33 - Troops landed and occupied Cuba for 16 years; Cuba became an economic protectorate.World War I - 1917-18 - Navy and Army sent to Europe to fight the Axis powers.Russia - 1918-22 - Navy and troops sent to eastern Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution; Army made five landings.Honduras - 1919 - Marines sent during Honduras' national elections.Guatemala - 1920 - Troops occupied Guatemala for two weeks during a union strike.Turkey - 1922 - Troops fought nationalists in Smyrna. China - 1922-27 - Navy and Army troops deployed during a nationalist revolt.Honduras - 1924-25 - Troops landed twice during a national election.Panama - 1925 - Troops sent in to put down a general strike.China - 1927-34 - Marines sent in and stationed for seven years throughout China.El Salvador - 1932 - Naval warships deployed during the FMLN revolt under Marti.World War II - 1941-45 - Military fought the Axis powers: Japan, Germany, and Italy.Yugoslavia - 1946 - Navy deployed off the coast of Yugoslavia in response to the downing of an American plane.Uruguay - 1947 - Bombers deployed as a show of military force.Greece - 1947-49 - United States operations insured a victory for the far right in national "elections."Germany - 1948 - Military deployed in response to the Berlin blockade; the Berlin airlift lasts 444 days.Philippines - 1948-54 - The CIA directed a civil war against the Filipino Huk revolt.Puerto Rico - 1950 - Military helped crush an independence rebellion in Ponce.Korean War - 1951-53 - Military sent in during the war.Iran - 1953 - The CIA orchestrated the overthrow of democratically elected Mossadegh and restored the Shah to power.Vietnam - 1954 - The United States offered weapons to the French in the battle against Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh.Guatemala - 1954 - The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz and placed Colonel Armas in power.Egypt - 1956 - Marines deployed to evacuate foreigners after Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.Lebanon - 1958 - Navy supported an Army occupation of Lebanon during its civil war.Panama - 1958 - Troops landed after Panamanians demonstrations threatened the Canal Zone.Vietnam - 1950s-75 - Vietnam War.Cuba - 1961 - The CIA-directed Bay of Pigs invasions failed to overthrow the Castro government.Cuba - 1962 - The Navy quarantines Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.Laos - 1962 - Military occupied Laos during its civil war against the Pathet Lao guerrillas.Panama - 1964 - Troops sent in and Panamanians shot while protesting the United States presence in the Canal Zone.Indonesia - 1965 - The CIA orchestrated a military coup.Dominican Rep- 1965-66 - Troops deployed during a national election.Guatemala - 1966-67 - Green Berets sent in.Cambodia - 1969-75 - Military sent in after the Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia.Oman - 1970 - Marines landed to direct a possible invasion into Iran.Laos - 1971-75 - Americans carpet-bomb the countryside during Laos' civil war.Chile - 1973 - The CIA orchestrated a coup, killing President Allende who had been popularly elected. The CIA helped to establish a military regime under General Pinochet.Cambodia - 1975 - Twenty-eight Americans killed in an effort to retrieve the crew of the Mayaquez, which had been seized.Angola - 1976-92 - The CIA backed South African rebels fighting against Marxist Angola.Iran - 1980 - Americans aborted a rescue attempt to liberate 52 hostages seized in the Teheran embassy.Libya - 1981 - American fighters shoot down two Libyan fighters.El Salvador - 1981-92 - The CIA, troops, and advisers aid in El Salvador's war against the FMLN.Nicaragua - 1981-90 - The CIA and NSC directed the Contra War against the Sandinistas.Lebanon - 1982-84 - Marines occupied Beirut during Lebanon's civil war; 241 were killed in the American barracks and Reagan "redeployed" the troops to the Mediterranean.Honduras - 1983-89 - Troops sent in to build bases near the Honduran border.Grenada - 1983-84 - American invasion overthrew the Maurice Bishop government.Iran - 1984 - American fighters shot down two Iranian planes over the Persian Gulf.Libya - 1986 - American fighters hit targets in and around the capital city of Tripoli.Bolivia - 1986 - The Army assisted government troops on raids of cocaine areas.Iran - 1987-88 - The United States intervened on the side of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War.Libya - 1989 - Navy shot down two more Libyan jets.Virgin Islands - 1989 - Troops landed during unrest among Virgin Island peoples.Philippines - 1989 - Air Force provided air cover for government during coup.Panama - 1989-90 - 27,000 Americans landed in overthrow of President Noriega; over 2,000 Panama civilians were killed.Liberia - 1990 - Troops entered Liberia to evacuate foreigners during civil war.Saudi Arabia - 1990-91 - American troops sent to Saudi Arabia, which was a staging area in the war against Iraq.Kuwait - 1991 - Troops sent into Kuwait to turn back Saddam Hussein.Somalia - 1992-94 - Troops occupied Somalia during civil war.Bosnia - 1993-95 - Air Force jets bombed "no-fly zone" during civil war in Yugoslavia.Haiti - 1994-96 - American troops and Navy provided a blockade against Haiti's military government. The CIA restored Aristide to power.Zaire - 1996-97 - Marines sent into Rwanda Hutus' refugee camps in the area where the Congo revolution began.Albania - 1997 - Troops deployed during evacuation of foreigners.Sudan - 1998 - American missiles destroyed a pharmaceutical complex where alleged nerve gas components were manufactured.Afghanistan - 1998 - Missiles launched towards alleged Afghan terrorist training camps.Yugoslavia - 1999 - Bombings and missile attacks carried out by the United States in conjunction with NATO in the 11 week war against Milosevic.Iraq - 1998-2001 - Missiles launched into Baghdad and other large Iraq cities for four days. American jets enforced "no-fly zone" and continued to hit Iraqi targets since December 1998.
These **100** instances of American military intervention did not include times when the United States:
(1) deployed military police overseas;(2) mobilized the National Guard;(3) sent Navy ships off the coast of numerous countries as a show of strength;(4) sent additional troops to areas where Americans were already stationed;(5) carried out covert actions where American forces were not under the direct rule of an American command;(6) used small hostage rescue units;(7) used American pilots to fly foreign planes;(8) carried out military training and advisory programs which did not involve direct combat.U. S. Government Assassination Plots: Following is a list of prominent foreign leaders whose assassination or planning for same the United States has been involved in since the end of Second World War. The list does not include several assassinations in various parts of the world carried out by anti-Castro Cubans employed by CIA and headquartered in the United States:LIST A: NON MUSLIMS1949 - KIm Koo, Korean opposition leader1950's - CIA/Neo-Nazi hit list of numerous political figures in West Germany1955 - Jose' Antonio Remon, President of Panama1950's Chou En-lai, Prime Minister of China, several attempts on his life1951 - Kim Il Sung, Premiere of North Korea1950s (mid) - Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader1955 - Jawar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India1959 and 1963 - Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia1950s-70s - Jose Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts on his life1961 - Francois "Papa Doc"Duvalier, leader of Haiti1961 - Patrice Lumumba , Prime Minister of Congo (Zaire)1961 - Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic1963 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam1960s - Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, more than 15 attempts on his life1960s - Raul Castro, high official in government of Cuba1965 - Francisco Caamanao, Dominican Republic opposition leader1965 - Pierre Ngendandumwe, Prime Minister of Burundi1965-6 - Charles de Gaulle, President of France1967 - Che Guevara, Cuban leader1970 - Salvadore Allende, President of Chile1970 - General Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile1970s and 1981 - Gen. Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama1972 - General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence1975 - Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire1976 - Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica1983 - Miguel d'Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua1984 - The nine commandantes of the Sandanista National Directorate1980's - Dr. Gerald Bull, Canadian Ballistics Scientist assassinated by Mossad in Belgium.Partial List of Muslim Leaders Assassinated or Attempted Assassinations1950's Sukarno, President of Indonesia1957 Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt1960 Brigadier General, Abdul Karim Kassem, Leader of Iraq1980-86 Muammar Qaddafi, Leader of Libya, several plots and attempts upon his life1982 Ayatullah Khomeini, Leader of Iran1983 General Ahmed Dlimi, Moroccan army Commander1985 Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadllallah, Lebanese Shiite Leader (80 people killed in that attempt)1991 Saddam Hussein, Leader of IraqReference: Blum, William, "KILLING HOPE - U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II," Appendix IIIU.S. Government Assassination Plots, page 453, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine 1995. ISBN 1-56751-052-3Very likely Victims:April 4, 1979 - Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Leader of Pakistan, for pursuing making of Nuclear Bomb.August, 1988. General Ziaul Haq, Military Leader of Pakistan.1995 - Murtaza Bhutto, Son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Anti-American would-be Leader - Pakistan.March 25, 1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia through his Nephew, Saudi Arabia for imposing 1973 Oil Embargo.August 24, 1999. Mullah Mohammad Omar, in Kandhar, Afghanistan.
---------------------
It seems that 4 or 5 of the alleged dead terrorists are alive. One turned himself in to Florida FBI his brother who was also alleged to be a terrorist turned out to be dead a year ago. Both FBI and CNN printed a retraction.Another 3 or 4 have turned up alive in Saudi Arabia who said their ID's have been stolen.
At this point the real face behind the terrorist is still not known.
While the plane crashes and burns so thoroughly that even the black box is destroyed yet the passport of one of the hijackers flutters to the ground with no scratch.
Some of the terrorists went to a bar the night before which is hardly like religious radicals.
The FBI investigator has said in pursuing this case that for a crime so carefully choreographed the trail is quite clear. The terrorist used their real ID's (read stolen IDs) and they kindly left Arabic flight instructions and Quran in a rental car. The Actual quote of the investigator said it's as if somebody was deliberately leading us.
The crime involved some mole inside the Whitehouse which called the Whitehouse and gave secret password. In addition some people were astute enough to know the stock market and were able to short shares in Airlines and insurance stocks.
The Terrorist had to conspire for several years and were able to avoid detection by any number of intelligence agencies including NSA and echelon. The only way this would be possible is if they were supported by a foreign intelligence network say the KGB (They had Robert Hanson head of FBI counter intelligence on their payroll). The KGB could conceivably provide cover.
The other intelligence agency is of course the Mossad which had Jonathan Pollard give NSA monitoring techniques and frequencies.
The third possibility is US internal agencies. It is already well known that US military leaders proposed a secret plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans including the shooting down of a civilian airliner so as to provide a Causus Belli to invade Cuba. Included in the plan were to distribute passenger lists from all corners of the country so as to generate maximum hate and revulsion. This are detailed in a book By author James Bamford in book titled Body of Secrets.
The fourth possibility is China although one can doubt their intelligence.
It is also possible that these people were in fact Muslims but were infiltrated by one of these agencies and provided money and shelter.
In terms of motive the Russians would love to see US jump into Afghanistan (Estimated cost $100 Billion + 10,000 casualties). In fact the Russians are even willing to give its military bases to US. It shouldn't surprise anyone in the least if Russians started to secretly get weapons stolen from their depot's and given to Taliban.
The motive for Mossad is of course obvious but extremely risky. If they can get the war going quickly then the investigation results will be ignored. If however war is delayed and the investigation picks up steam they may at some point dump it on "rogue" agents.
In fact five Israeli's were picked up taking pictures of the WTC and celebrating and giving high fives. Note that the results of the voice from the Black boxes are still missing even for the one plane that crashed in Pennsylvania
References:
Suicide Hijacker: Alive & Well - Independant UK 17 September 2001 (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=94438)
Stolen IDs - Tehran Times Sep 19 (http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=9/19/01&Cat=4&Num=020)
Stock Manipulation - Independant UK 18 September 2001 (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=94609)
"Mole in White House" Alive & Well - Independant UK 14 September 2001 (http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=93993)
Saudi Suspects in US Attacks Were Not in the US - Islamonline and Alwatan Jeddah (http://www.islam-online.net/english/news/2001-09/18/article10.shtml)
US planned to down plane as pretext for invading Cuba - Baltimore Sun, Book on NSA "Body of Secrets" by James Baumford (http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.md.nsa24apr24.story)
Body of Secrets - Random House (c)2001 (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html)
"Questions raised about identity of hijackers" Alive And Well - Dawn 17 Sep 2001 (http://www.dawn.com/2001/09/17/int2.htm)
"5 Israelis Detained for 'Puzzling Behavior' - HAARETZ (Tel Aviv, Israel) Tuesday, September 18, 2001 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1053)
"The Sophistication of the Attackers" - Stratfor (Strategic Forign intelligence Tuesday, September 12, 2001 (http://www.stratfor.com/home/0109121640.htm)
"Hijacking Clues May be Red Herrings" - Stratfor (Strategic Forign intelligence Wednesday, September 13, 2001 (http://www.stratfor.com/home/0109132130.htm)
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