The Jews Are Not A Race!

Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal, historian, journalist and lecturer, is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia Law School. During the Second World War, he served with the US Army in the Middle East. He later served with the Department of State, and as a consultant to the American delegation at the organizing meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco.

Since 1947, he has been at the forefront in the struggle for a balanced US policy in the Middle East. He is the author of several acclaimed books on the Middle East, including The Zionist Connection. He now lives in Washington, DC.

On December 18, 1993 Dr. Lilienthal celebrated both his 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of his first book, What Price 'Israel'? Dr Lilienthal, who is a courageous anti-Zionist Jew, was joined by more than 200 guests who traveled from all over the United States to attend. The following excerpt is taken from this first book, What Price 'Israel'?


Today, to trace anyone's descent to ancient Palestine would be a genealogical impossibility; and to presume, axiomatically, such a descent for Jews, alone among all human groups, is an assumption of purely fictional significance. Most everybody in the Western world could stake out some claim of Palestinian descent if genealogical records could be established for two-thousand years. And there are, indeed, people who, though not by the widest stretch of imagination Jewish, proudly make that very claim: some of the oldest of the South's aristocratic families play a game of comparing whose lineage goes farther back into 'Israel'. No one knows what happened to the Ten Lost Tribes of 'Israel', but to speculate on who might be who is a favored Anglo-Saxon pastime, and Queen Victoria belonged to an 'Israelite' Society that traced the ancestry of its membership back to those lost tribes.

Twelve tribes started in Canaan about thirty-five centuries ago; and not only that ten of them disappeared - more than half of the members of the remaining two tribes never returned from their "exile" in Babylon. How then, can anybody claim to descend directly from that relatively small community which inhabited the Holy Land at the time of Abraham's Covenant with God?

The Jewish racial myth flows from the fact that the words Hebrew, 'Israelite', Jew, Judaism, and the Jewish people have been used synonymously to suggest a historic continuity. But this is a misuse. These words refer to different groups of people with varying ways of life in different periods in history. Hebrew is a term correctly applied to the period from the beginning of Biblical history to the settling in Canaan. 'Israelite' refers correctly to the members of the twelve tribes of 'Israel'. The name Yehudi or Jew is used in the Old Testament to designate members of the tribe of Judah, descendants of the fourth son of Jacob, as well as to denote citizens of the Kingdom of Judah, particularly at the time of Jeremiah and under the Persian occupation. Centuries later, the same word came to be applied to anyone, no matter of what origin, whose religion was Judaism.

The descriptive name Judaism was never heard by the Hebrews or 'Israelites'; it appears only with Christianity. Flavius Josephus was one of the first to use the name in his recital of the war with the Romans to connote a totality of beliefs, moral commandments, religious practices and ceremonial institutions of Galilee which he believed superior to rival Hellenism. When the word Judaism was born, there was no longer a Hebrew-'Israelite' state. The people who embraced the creed of Judaism were already mixed of many races and strains; and this diversification was rapidly growing...

Perhaps the most significant mass conversion to the Judaic faith occurred in Europe, in the 8th century A.D., and that story of the Khazars (Turko-Finnish people) is quite pertinent to the establishment of the modern State of 'Israel'. This partly nomadic people, probably related to the Volga Bulgars, first appeared in Trans-Caucasia in the second century. They settled in what is now Southern Russia, between the Volga and the Don, and then spread to the shores of the Black, Caspian and Azov seas. The Kingdom of Khazaria, ruled by a khagan or khakan fell to Attila the Hun in 448, and to the Muslims in 737. In between, the Khazars ruled over part of the Bulgarians, conquered the Crimea, and stretched their kingdom over the Caucasus farther to the northwest to include Kiev, and eastwards to Derbend. Annual tributes were levied on the Russian Slavonians of Kiev. The city of Kiev was probably built by the Khazars. There were Jews in the city and the surrounding area before the Russian Empire was founded by the Varangians whom the Scandinavian warriors sometimes called the Russ or Ross (circa 855-863).

The influence of the Khazars extended into what is now Hungary and Roumania. Today, the villages of Kozarvar and Kozard in Transylvania bear testimony to the penetration of the Khazars who, with the Magyars, then proceeded into present-day Hungary. The size and power of the Kingdom of Khazaria is indicated by the act that it sent an army of 40,000 soldiers (in 626-627) to help Heraclius of the Byzantines to conquer the Persians. The Jewish Encyclopedia proudly refers to Khazaria as having had a "well constituted and tolerant government, a flourishing trade and a well disciplined army."

Jews who had been banished from Constantinople by the Byzantine ruler, Leo III, found a home amongst these heretofore pagan Khazars and, in competition with Mohammedan and Christian missionaries, won them over to the Judaic faith. Bulan, the ruler of Khazaria, became converted to Judaism around 740 A.D. His nobles and, somewhat later, his people followed suit. Some details of these events are contained in letters exchanged between Khagan Joseph of Khazaria and R. Hasdai Ibn Shaprut of Cordova, doctor and quasi foreign minister to Sultan Abd al-Rahman, the Caliph of Spain. This correspondence (around 936-950) was first published in 1577 to prove that the Jews still had a country of their own - namely, the Kingdom of Khazaria. Judah Halevi knew of the letters even in 1140. Their authenticity has since been established beyond doubt.

According to these Hasdai-Joseph letters, Khagan Bulan decided one day: "Paganism is useless. It is shameful for us to be pagans. Let us adopt one of the heavenly religions, Christianity, Judaism or Islam." And Bulan summoned three priests representing the three religions and had them dispute their creeds before him. But, no priest could convince the others, or the sovereign, that his religion was the best. So the ruler spoke to each of them separately. He asked the Christian priest: "If you were not a Christian or had to give up Christianity, which would you prefer - Islam or Judaism?" The priest said: "If I were to give up Christianity, I would become a Jew." Bulan then asked the follower of Islam the same question, and the Moslem also chose Judaism. This is how Bulan came to choose Judaism for himself and the people of Khazaria in the seventh century A.D., and thereafter the Khazars (sometimes spelled Chazars and Khozars) lived according to Judaic laws.

Under the rule of Obadiah, Judaism gained further strength in Khazaria. Synagogues and schools were built to give instruction in the Bible and the Talmud. As Professor Graetz notes in his History of the Jews, "A successor of Bulan who bore the Hebrew name of Obadiah was the first to make serious efforts to further the Jewish religion. He invited Jewish sages to settle in his dominions, rewarded them royally... and introduced a divine service modeled on the ancient communities. After Obadiah came a long series of Jewish Chagans (Khagans), for according to a fundamental law of the state only Jewish rulers were permitted to ascend the throne." Khazar traders brought not only silks and carpets of Persia and the Near East but also their Judaic faith to the banks of the Vistula and the Volga. But the Kingdom of Khazaria was invaded by the Russians, and Itil, its great capital, fell to Sweatoslav of Kiev in 969. The Byzantines had become afraid and envious of the Khazars and, in a joint expedition with the Russians, conquered the Crimean portion of Khazaria in 1016. (Crimea was known as "Chazaria" until the 13th century). The Khazarian Jews were scattered throughout what is now Russia and Eastern Europe. Some were taken North where they joined the established Jewish community of Kiev.

Others returned to the Caucasus. Many Khazars remarried in the Crimea and in Hungary. The Cagh Chafut, or "mountain Jews," in the Caucasus and the Hebraile Jews of Georgia are their descendants. These "Ashkenazim Jews" (as Jews of Eastern Europe are called), whose numbers were swelled by Jews who fled from Germany at the time of the Crusades and during the Black Death, have little or no trace of Semitic blood.

That the Khazars are the lineal ancestors of Eastern European Jewry is a historical fact. Jewish historians and religious text books acknowledge the fact, though the propagandists of Jewish nationalism belittle it as pro-Arab propaganda. Somewhat ironically, Volume IV of the Jewish Encyclopedia - because this publication spells Khazars with a "C" instead of a "K" - is titled "Chazars to Dreyfus": and it was the Dreyfus trial, as interpreted by Theodor Herzl, that made the modern Jewish Khazars of Russia forget their descent from converts to Judaism and accept anti-Semitism as proof of their Palestinian origin.

For all that anthropologists know, Hitler's ancestry might go back to one of the ten Lost Tribes of 'Israel'; while Weizmann may be a descendant of the Khazars, the converts to Judaism who were in no anthropological respect related to Palestine. The home to which Weizmann, Silver and so many other Ashkenazim Zionists have yearned to return has most likely never been theirs. "Here's a paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox": in anthropological fact, many Christians may have much more Hebrew-'Israelite' blood in their veins than most of their Jewish neighbors.

Race can play funny tricks on people who make that concept the basis for their likes and dislikes. Race-obsessed people can find themselves hating people who, in fact, may be their own racial kith and kin.

Iran's police chief acknowledges prisoner abuse

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's police chief acknowledged Sunday that protesters detained in postelection unrest were abused in custody but said the deaths of prisoners were caused by illness, not torture.

Iran's opposition has seized on claims of abuse at Kahrizak detention center, saying young people protesting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election were tortured to death there.

More troubling for the government, however, is that some prominent figures in its own conservative support base also say murders were committed in the prison and that those responsible should be brought to trial.

The issue has come to the fore as Iran presses forward with a mass trial of more than 100 prominent reformist figures, opposition activists and others accused of offenses ranging from rioting to spying and seeking to topple the country's Islamic rulers.

The trial, which has included televised confessions that rights groups say are likely extracted through pressure, is the government's latest attempt to crush the opposition.

A senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday called for the arrest and trial of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, his ally former President Mohammad Khatami and another reformist who ran for president, Mahdi Karroubi.

Yadollah Javani said the three men have led what he called a "velvet coup" aimed at toppling Iran's clerical rulers.

"If Mousavi, Khatami ... and Karroubi are the main elements of a velvet coup in Iran, which they are, it is expected that judicial bodies and intelligence officials go to them to put out the fire of sedition, arrest, try and punish them," he was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Guantanamo Uighurs to move to Palau by January: president

KOROR (AFP) – Up to nine Chinese Muslims held in Guantanamo Bay for the past seven years will be moved to the remote Pacific territory of Palau by the end of the year, President Johnson Toribiong has confirmed.

Residents in the archipelago have expressed unease at having the Uighurs in their midst, and Beijing has demanded they be sent back to China, but Toribiong said he was in the process of finalizing an agreement with the United States.

Between four and nine of the remaining 13 Uighurs at Guantanamo will likely be transferred to Palau "before January of next year," he said Saturday.

A lawyer representing the Uighurs said they could be transferred as soon as late August or early September.

Toribiong said Palau would accept the Uighurs as a "humanitarian gesture" and to strengthen ties with the United States.

The detainees were among 22 Uighurs living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led invasion of the country began in October 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks that year.

They said they had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution in their vast home region of Xinjiang in western China.

They were cleared of any wrongdoing four years ago and have been in legal limbo ever since with the United States declining to return them to China, fearing they could be tortured.

Four of the Chinese Muslims were flown from the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba to Bermuda in June. Another five were released to Albania in 2006.

US President Barack Obama has promised to shut down Guantanamo by January, and Washington has been pushing for other countries to accept inmates with no charges against them.

What future lies ahead for the people of Gaza?

Peter Eyre

To give some comparison as to how harmful DU can be, we can revisit the report that was published late last year, as per below. The reader will clearly see the medical status pre-Balkans War, and the post evidence. This comparison has been repeated in so many areas of conflict with the best example being the pre and post medical reports from Southern Iraq, centered on the Basra area. We see time and time again the UN fail in its ability to represent its members and their respective populations. Simple logic has now revealed that Low Level Radiation (LLR), such as DU, is certainly a major health hazard and that an independent enquiry is urgently required. It must be carried out without any involvement by the respective governments, departments of defense, military or representatives from the nuclear industry. It should be monitored under the watchful eye of a select committee with total media transparency.

This article was published in Croatian "Javno" 2008:

NATO - Still killing People in Kosovo

Back in 1999 NATO carried out a 78-day shelling of Serbia and Kosovo. They allegedly used depleted uranium which continues to kill people.

Nine years after NATO's bombing of Serbia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is still taking lives in Kosovo, Serbia's Press online reported. The NATO allegedly used shells with depleted uranium which are still today causing an increase in the number of cancer patients. Prior to 1999, the number of Serbs who suffered from malignant tumors was three times lesser, according to the statistics of Serb hospitals. In Kosovo's Kosovska Mitrovica in 2005 there were 38 percent more cancer patients than in 2004.In those two years, a total of 3,500 cancer cases in Kosovo Albanians were diagnosed. Globally, six people out of a thousand suffer from malignant tumors on average. In the Kosovska Mitrovica hospital, there are 200 cancer patients to 1,000 people.

NATO used weapons banned by international conventions?

After 2000, groups of experts in atomic energy tested water, food, air, plants and animals to establish the damage caused by radiation from NATO shells. Beta and Gamma radiation was higher than the permissible level and radiation was discovered in the soil, water, plants and animals. After it gets into the soil, it takes some 250 years for depleted uranium to degrade.

The conclusions of the studies were that the environment on 100 locations in Kosovo was not safe for animals or people, but no bans or moving of the population was carried out.

European peace troops stationed in Kosovo knew there was great danger of radiation in these areas. Italian military experts concluded in 2005 that 34 soldiers had died from leukemia and various malignant tumors. Since then 150 soldiers from Kosovo were sent home.

In mid-2000 NATO published a map with 112 marked locations that had been shelled with depleted uranium. Over the 78 days of NATO bombing, a total of 31,000 shells with depleted uranium, weapons banned by international treaties, were dropped in Kosovo. Objavljeno: 17.11.2008. u 12:04h.

It is interesting to note that only one country so far as attempted to address this major world DU contamination problem. Belgium voted unanimously on the 22nd of March 2007 to ban DU ammunition from the 20th of June 2009. It was stated that the Belgium Ministry of Defense had said that they haven't bought any and won't buy them in the future. The Foreign Minister was asked whether a ban would be possible, he replied "We can't do it, because NATO and the UN aren't encouraging it. So long as there is no international ban, it isn't possible for a small country like ours to ban them".

The fact that Belgium has embarked on this path is truly a remarkable achievement. The Port of Antwerp has in the past played a major role in both receiving and dispatching weaponry. It is even more remarkable that this small country houses the NATO Headquarters, in Brussels and is the political headquarters of the Alliance and the permanent home of the North Atlantic Council NATO' as well as US Nuclear Weapons. Belgium has managed to reach this wonderful decision despite the Belgium Prime Minister receiving a call from the US Government asking him not to let the ban go through.

A lot of money has been spent on poor quality research and the propaganda machine to reassure the public that Low Level Radiation (LLR) is no threat to health despite the fact that other independent experts have said the opposite.

The following is an extract from http://www.counterpunch.org/du.html dated 5th February 2001: Months of bombing of Iraq by US and British planes and cruise missiles has left behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. In all, the US hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles.

More than 10 years later, the health consequences from this radioactive bombing campaign are beginning to come into focus. And they are dire, indeed. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent.

"The desert dust carries death," said Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member England's Royal Society of Physicians. "Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population around Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima."

This is part of a larger horror inflicted on Iraq that sees as many as 180 children dying every day, according to mortality figures compiled by UNICEF.

So what is the future for Gaza and all the people in the region? Only time will tell. The coming months and years will reveal the truth through medical statistics and by taking further samples from victims, bomb sites and fragments. Will the IDF be forced to admit it has used such weapons on both Lebanon and Gaza.......I don't think so!

Barn owls making welcome return to Cheshire

Aug 3 2009

Chester Chronicle

THE number of barn owls in Cheshire has been steadily rising over the last 10 years, according to a conservation group.

Recorded breeding pairs increased from 61 in 2003 to a record 160 breeding pairs and 650 chicks in 2007. However, 2008 had only 59 successful breeding pairs.

The Mid Cheshire Barn Owl Conservation Group says current indications for 2009 are far more promising with over 100 breeding pairs anticipated.

Fluctuations are mainly due to the region’s variable weather and the breeding cycle of the barn owl’s main prey of small mammals.

The Afghans should not Boost up the Invaders' Project with their Votes

Sha'aban 15, 1430 A.H, August 07, 2009

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

The constant setbacks and defeats of the invading alliance under the leadership of USA in both military and other fields; their retreats; the historical victories of Mujahideen in Helmand and other parts of the country in recent days; the resistance of Mujahideen, all in all contributed to dealing a crushing blow at the military might, vanity and arrogance of America and Britain. They will not embark on extensive military operations as easily as they used to.

The American and British public closely followed the developments on field. The authorities of these countries had assured them that they would certainly break the Taliban�s power and create a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for the conduct of the elections. They did not achieve this objective. Contrarily, they faced tremendous casualties in this short period of time which has no precedence in the whole year.

The American and British authorities and their alliance have lost their credit with their people because all their exaggerations, bragging and slogans did not prove to hold water. Now they want to compensate for their fiasco by raising slogans and expectations about the coming elections to be held in August.

The Afghans and all the public of the world know that political process conducted in an atmosphere of occupation, oppression and on the order of America and her allies does not reflect the needs of the Afghans nor it realizes their aspirations. Never will emerge personalities after the elections who will be loyal to vital interests and values of the Afghans or ever they will bring about a system, which will be acceptable to the Afghans. The Afghans tested the consequences of the elections four years ago.

They saw the so-called transparency and results of the elections. They cast a minuscule number of ballots from among the 30 million Afghans votes. They vastly rigged the votes and brought about an administration which worked more as espionage agency for Americans to massacre and torture the people.

They destroyed many Afghan villages and houses with the aerial coordination given by them. They filled the prisons with the people and trampled on the Islamic and Afghani values. They had hands in the re-enforcement of thousands of foreign troops who flooded to our country. Immorality spread in their reign and they resorted to every mean and way to mislead the new Afghan generation etc.

The American are trying to throw dust into the eyes of the Afghans once again. They want to give power to the characters already tested by the people and want them to rule over the fate of the Afghans once again. They want the Afghans to land in the swamp of bloodbath for some more years.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers the current political drama a sacrilege to the genuine Islamic and national Afghan aspirations. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan urges the Afghans to stop nurturing any hope for any prosperity and good that may come as a result of this election and should prevent the process from being accomplished.

They should avoid casting their votes and should not strengthen the ranks of the infidels, the mischief and the invaders who have invaded their land. Finally, they should not go to the centers, which will be targeted by Mujahideen.

Nine killed in clashes over Somalia land

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Clashes have broken out on Somalia's eastern coast over a land dispute, leaving at least nine people dead and seven injured, local officials said on Saturday.

The clashes erupted on Friday in Harardhere, some 300 kilometers (188 miles) north of Mogadishu, between clan factions, the officials said.

"The worst fighting occurred late Friday on the outskirts of the town," Ahmed Abdulahi, a local elder, told AFP by phone.

"We have collected the dead bodies of nine people, most of them combatants who were killed during the clashes."

Another elder in Mogadishu, Moalim Dahir Adan, said the clan factions "have been arguing about land for the past weeks and that is the reason they fought."

He said elders had been sent in to mediate.

Somalia has been mired in unrest since 1991 and is currently in the grip of a fierce insurgency, with hardline Islamist militias waging a campaign to topple the African Union-backed government.

Israel recalls Boston envoy over critical memo

JERUSALEM – Israel's Foreign Ministry says it has summoned for consultation a senior Israeli diplomat who in a confidential memo criticized the government for harming ties with the U.S.

A ministry statement said Saturday that Israel's consul-general in Boston would arrive in Jerusalem next week to give a "clarification" to the ministry's director-general.

It said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the summons.

Consul-general Nadav Tamir wrote an internal memo that was leaked to Israel's Channel 10 TV. It said that Israel's public clashes with Washington over the U.S. demand for a settlement construction freeze is causing "strategic damage to Israel" and undermining the special relationship between the two countries.

French woman, embassy staff confess in Iran trial

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – A young French academic and local staff of the British and French embassies stood trial Saturday with dozens of Iranian opposition figures and confessed to being involved in the country's postelection unrest.

Iran's opposition and rights groups have condemned the trial as a sham and say such confessions are coerced and scripted. Britain, which seemed caught off guard by the appearance of its embassy employee, called it an outrage, while France demanded the immediate release of its citizen.

Saturday's second hearing at Tehran's Revolutionary Court involved a new group of detainees and focused on testimony from the French academic and the two other foreign-linked defendants, demonstrating the government's resolve to taint Iran's pro-reform movement as a tool of foreign countries — particularly Britain and the United States.

The prosecutor accused the two countries of fomenting the unrest in an attempt to engineer a "soft overthrow" of the government.

The French academic and the two embassy employees took turns standing at a podium in the large, wood-paneled courtroom to make confessions before a judge seated between two large portraits for Iran's supreme leader and the Islamic Republic's founder.

The French Embassy employee, Nazak Afshar, cried as she admitted she was involved in postelection disturbances. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue and said that "brothers at the Intelligence Ministry made me understand my mistake," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Such confessions — whether coerced or not — have become the centerpiece of Iran's mass trial of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, which began a week ago.

The defendants are accused of crimes including rioting, spying and plotting to overthrow the regime during the massive street demonstrations denouncing the official results of the June 12 election.

The prosecutor read out an indictment at Saturday's session that accuses Britain and the U.S. of planning to rouse the unrest with the aim of toppling Iran's Islamic rulers through a "soft overthrow," the IRNA news agency reported. The indictment also accused the two powers of providing financial assistance to Iran's reformists to undermine hard-line ruling clerics.

Hossein Rassam, a political analyst at the British Embassy who was arrested shortly after the election, told the court that Britain was involved in fomenting the unrest, according IRNA.

He said a budget of 300,000 pounds — or about $500,000 — had been allocated to establish contacts with Iranian political groups, influential individuals and activists, IRNA reported.

The news agency quoted him as saying that he established contacts before the election with the campaign headquarters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the pro-reform candidate who says he was robbed of victory through fraud.

"My main responsibility was to gather information from Tehran and other cities by setting up contacts with individuals and influential parties and political groups and to send reports to London. ... The British Embassy, due to its hostile policies in Iran and fear of exposure of its contacts inside Iran, employed local staff to establish such contacts. I established such contacts based on orders from embassy officials," IRNA quoted Rassam as saying.

Rassam has been charged with espionage and "acting against national security," IRNA reported.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the trial and said the British government had raised the matter with the Iranian ambassador in London and Iran's deputy foreign minister.

"Hossein is a member of our staff going about his legitimate duties," Miliband said in a statement. It added that the trial against him and other embassy staff "only brings further discredit to the Iranian regime."

An earlier Foreign Office statement said Rassam's appearance in court was an outrage and contradicted assurances from senior Iranian officials.

Eight other British Embassy staffers arrested along with Rassam were released after about a week in custody.

Seated in the front row of the courtroom with a scarf over her hair was 24-year-old French academic Clotilde Reiss, who was reportedly arrested July 1 at Tehran airport.

According to IRNA, she told the court that she made a mistake by attending a demonstration.

"I had personal motives for joining gatherings to see what was happening out of curiosity but I admit that I made a mistake and should not have attended," IRNA quoted her as saying.

Reiss has been charged with acting against national security by joining protests, gathering information, taking photos and sending them abroad.

The French Foreign Ministry on Saturday called for the immediate release of both Reiss and embassy employee Afshar, saying that the charges against them were without basis.

The ministry statement also objected to the conditions under which Reiss and Afshar were being tried, and "deplored" that neither woman was represented by a lawyer.

Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed concern over the trials and noted that actions against one EU country — citizen or embassy staff — is considered action against all EU member states.

Iranian defendants appearing Saturday included Ali Tajernia, a former reformist lawmaker; Shahaboddin Tabatabaei, a prominent leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist political party; and Ahmad Zeidabadi, an outspoken journalist opposing hard-liners.

A reformist Web site said riot police attacked family members of the defendants and others gathered in front of the court to denounce the trial.

As Algeria grows more Islamic, nightlife suffers

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU (AP)

ALGIERS, Algeria — All through the 1990s, when Islamic militants waged a ferocious war on the Algerian state and nightlife died in the city that once called itself "The Paris of Africa," the Hanani bar and restaurant stayed open. It was "an act of resistance," says owner Achour Ait Oussaid.

Yet today, at a time when the bloodshed has ebbed, local authorities have shuttered the hole-in-the-wall bar. "This same state has done what the Islamists never managed to do," Ait Oussaid said, standing amid abandoned tables and empty shelves gathering dust.

At least 40 bars, restaurants and nightclubs have been closed in the past year around Algiers alone, according to local media. The government insists that the closures are strictly a matter of safety and hygiene, but suspicion is widespread that Muslim conservative pressure is to blame.

Ait Oussaid, a Muslim like almost all of Algeria's 32 million people, contends that officials caved in to a petition circulated in his seaside neighborhood of La Perouse demanding that the Muslim prohibition of alcohol be enforced.

Many see this as one of a series of measures the government is taking in Algiers and other cities to soothe Muslim sensitivities and isolate the militants who still carry out bombings and assassinations.

The North African country has a history of tolerance and secular-leaning government, but its nightlife has gone through several ups and downs.

When it was a French colony it boasted countless classy nightclubs and restaurants. The fun went on in the early years of independence in the 1960s, lost its flair when doctrinaire socialists ran the country, made an exuberant comeback, and then was devastated by the so-called "Black Decade" of Islamic violence and government countermeasures that left up to 200,000 dead.

The fighting erupted in 1992 when the army canceled elections that Islamic candidates were expected to win. In the ensuing years, bars, nightclubs and anything else the militants deemed Western could be targeted.

Ait Oussaid says he defied death threats to keep Hanani open. "For me, it was an act of resistance, a way to defend the Algerian state," he said.

Youcef Kerdache, a construction entrepreneur who still drops by Hanani for old times sake, calls the bar a victim of "the ostentatious Islamization of Algerian society."

Mohamed El Kebir, Algiers' regional governor, declined to comment for this report, but speaking to the French-language Liberte newspaper, he said safety regulations are the only consideration, not "religion or other pressures."

Still, other signs point to increasing enforcement of a stricter, more visible version of Islam. Several workers were prosecuted last fall for smoking in public during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Groups of Algerian Muslims have recently been put on trial for converting to Christianity.

Censorship of sexual content on national TV has become stricter, and although women aren't officially obligated to cover their heads, students at provincial universities complain of being pressured to wear head scarves.

While the affluent elite can unwind at Algiers' costly private clubs or international hotels, the closures appear to be hitting lower-income neighborhoods hardest.

In the Boumerdes province next to Algiers, Gov. Brahim Merad has pledged not to approve a single liquor license. "Even better; I won't miss a single opportunity to close the existing establishments," the French-language El Watan newspaper quoted him as saying in June.

Rundown Boumerdes remains one of Algeria's most violent areas, with several killings and roadside bombings a week on average, blamed on Al-Qaida-linked militants.

The program of "national reconciliation" put forward by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2005 is widely credited with ending the worst of the civil strife. But Rachid Tlemcani, a political science professor at Algiers University says: "We're witnessing the slow growth and triumph of Islamism through society."

Conservatives, he charged, "are nibbling at Algerian values, and authorities are following suit."