DDMA Headline Animator

Friday, October 23, 2009

Sonatrach Announces Natural Gas Discovery in South of Algeria

By Ahmed Rouaba

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Sonatrach, Algeria’s state oil and gas company, announced a natural gas discovery in the Illizi basin in the south of the country. The discovery is the ninth in 2009, the company said in a press release.

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=aEayceJSrHTs.

El-Sherbini killer to stand trial

German national Alex W. is standing trial for stabbing a Muslim woman to death in a courtroom, where she was suing him for insulting her Islamic hijab.

Alex W. is to stand trial on Monday for stabbing Marwa El-Sherbini 18 times in front of an entire courthouse in Dresden, Germany, and is also charged with attempting to murder Elwi Ali Okaz, Marwa's husband.

Okaz was also shot and injured by a German police officer, while trying to help his fatally wounded pregnant wife.

"The veiled martyr's" husband said that he would also press charged against the police officer, who claimed to have "accidentally" shot him instead of the defendant — who was stabbing his wife.

The German media initially reported on the case at 'the back page', and only after thousands of protesters around the world condemned "the media silence in Germany over the killing."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed the Berlin government for El-Sherbini's murder, calling for international condemnation of Germany.

"This heartfelt incident of El-Sherbini's martyrdom is a clear evidence of corruption in German judiciary system and a disgrace to the United Nations," Ahmadinejad said back in September.

Iran expects 'positive' response on nuclear proposal

In response to an IAEA-brokered draft proposal to enrich uranium for the Tehran reactor, Iran says it prefers to buy the fuel from an international seller.

A senior member of the Iranian negotiating team called on the governments of Russia, France and the United States to respond positively to its recently-proposed deal involving the purchase of nuclear fuel.

He said Western powers should avoid past mistakes and work towards collaborative "trust-building efforts."

This comes shortly after the three western powers accepted an IAEA draft proposal to send most of Tehran's uranium abroad for further enrichment.

Under the proposal, Iran would export low-enriched uranium to Russia for further refinement, then onto France for fabrication into fuel assemblies that can be used in the Tehran research reactor.

The Tehran research reactor, which supplies medical isotopes for treating cancer to more than 200 hospitals in Iran, requires uranium enriched up to 20 percent.

Iran says it prefers to buy nuclear fuel for the research reactor under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog rather than ship uranium abroad.

An Iranian diplomat based in Vienna said Friday that Tehran "is the buyer of nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor and sellers should give a positive response to the buyer's proposal."

The Tehran government has repeatedly asserted that it would enrich uranium to the required level, if it cannot purchase it from abroad.

Ali-Akbar Salehi, the Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Thursday that the country needs to enrich uranium up to 20 percent because "more than 180 hospitals use radiopharmaceuticals daily."

Iran 'will make Jundallah pay' for bomb blast

Iran's defense minister vows to find and punish the terrorists, who staged a deadly bomb blast in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told Fars News Agency on Friday that he would do everything in his power to hunt down the Jundallah terrorists and bring them to justice.

"The Islamic Republic will locate these terrorists [wherever they are] and make them pay for their heinous crimes," said Vahidi. "We will not leave this incident without a crushing response."

"This very incident unveiled the true nature those who call themselves the pioneer in 'war on terrorism'," he said in a reference to the United States, which is accused of assisting the Jundallah terrorist group.

A number of leading newspapers in the West, such as The Sunday Telegraph, have declared Jundallah to be a CIA brainchild engineered to achieve the longstanding US goal of "regime change in Iran."

Vahidi also urged the Pakistani government to help Iranian officials in their efforts to rid the region of terrorist organizations.

Mindful of the West's refusal to acknowledge Jundallah as a terrorist cell, Vahidi said "it is most surprising how Jundallah militants, despite their many acts of crime against humanity, have yet to be declared as terrorists in European countries and the US."

More than 40 people, including senior commanders from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Nour-Ali Shoushtari and Rajab-Ali Mohammadzadeh, were killed on Sunday when a bomb exploded during a sit-down between Shia and Sunni tribal leaders.

The Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the bomb blast in the borderline region of Pishin.

Spearheaded by Abdulmalek Rigi, Jundallah terrorists have staged a tidal wave of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which left at least 25 Iranians dead in early June.

Abdulhamid Rigi, the apprehended brother of the Jundallah point-man, told Press TV in a recent interview that Abdulmalek had held several "confidential" meetings with FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad.

He added that during one of the meetings, two female US agents had offered weapons, safe bases in Afghanistan and professional trainers and had attempted to recruit volunteers.

Barak's embattled Labor ranks record low: Poll

Israel's decades-strong Labor party is taking a nosedive as poor poll results show its popularity far lower than its rivals Likud and Kadima.

According to a poll published in the Yediot Aharonot daily on Friday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak's center-left party would only get seven seats in Israel's 120-strong parliament if elections were held today.

The survey indicates a further fall for the traditionally-popular Labor whose plummeting approval earned it no more than 13 lawmakers in the February elections.

The Labor's fall seemed to be a gain for the hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ultra-rightist Likud party, which would get 33 seats, according to the poll.

Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima would get 28 and 12 would go to her successor Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beitenu, it added.

The survey was conducted among 500 people with an error margin of 4.5 percent.

The result takes Labor, which was in power in Israel from 1948 to 1977, down to Israel's fifth party, after the orthodox Shas and the far-right Israel Beitenu.

Possible scenarios for election crisis after failed reconciliation

by Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan

The recent declaration of President Mahmoud Abbas to go for elections on January 25, in response to the failure of reaching a reconciliation pact, had brought controversy among the Palestinians on the viability of this step and its expected scenarios.

Abbas' recent declaration to hold elections on time was made after his bitter rival Hamas hasn't yet signed the Egyptian-drafted pact for reconciliation.

Hamas has been asking for amending some points of the draft, while Fatah unilaterally signed on the pact with no reservations.

According to the amended Palestinian constitution, the four-year terms for the president and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) end on the night of January 24. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) president should issue a decree to confirm the election's date three month before it is held.

TWO CONTRADICTORY VIEWS

The Palestinian scene is divided into two contradictory views, the first calls for holding elections on time as a constitutional merit and a major solution for the current rift between Fatah and Hamas.

Rajab Abu Serreya, a Gaza-based political analyst told Xinhua that President Abbas will most likely issue a decree on October 25to announce holding the presidential and legislative elections on January 25.

The second view warns of the consequences of holding the elections before reaching a reconciliation agreement, and considers holding the elections amid the current feuds would deepen the rift.

"It (holding the elections before reaching a reconciliation) would deepen split among the Palestinians and would offer legitimacy to nobody," said Hani Habib, a Gaza-based think tank.

The differences of the views over holding the elections on time or postpone it, had emerged as Egypt set up October 25 as a date for signing the reconciliation pact, which calls for holding the elections on June 28 next year after Palestinian factions implement the pact.

ABBAS PLANS

Abu Serreya expected that Abbas would call for holding the elections depending on the full proportional system "to avoid Hamas' attempts to block the elections, while guaranteeing the participation of other factions which support his decision."

"According to his earlier statements, Abbas is convinced that holding the elections on time has become the only exit and solution for the current split," said Abu Serreya, adding "if there is no election on time, Abbas and his authority will be illegal."

Abbas is facing pressure from some figures in his Fatah movement to hold the elections upon its constitutional time, at the same time, he is also facing pressure from Egypt and Hamas to postpone the elections for another six months to give the internal dialogue an opportunity.

"Although not holding the general elections on time would be a violation of the Palestinian constitution, postponing it for another six months would keep the door open for reaching a national reconciliation," said Habib.

  FOUR SCENARIOS

Palestinian observers say there are four possible scenarios for holding the elections, the first scenario is to stand for election as one consolidated list of all Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) factions, the list will include candidates from Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to those who support this scenario, this would put Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, in an embarrassing position and will show it as the illegal power which prevents the enclave's population from voting.

This scenario is opposed by some figures from Fatah and other factions, who believe that this would make Hamas to hold its own elections in the Gaza Strip.

The second scenario is that Abbas would issue on October 25 a decree to hold the elections on January 25, then within the coming three months, Fatah and Hamas might reach a reconciliation deal, and then Abbas will issue another decree deciding that elections be postponed until June 28, 2010.

The third scenario is that Abbas issues a decree on October 25 to hold the elections on January 25, but before going to the ballots, Abbas would issue another decree saying that elections are postponed till a further notice, or till a reconciliation agreement is reached.

Those who support this scenario say the mandate of the president and the PLC does not end unless a new elected president and PLC are sworn in. However, those who oppose this scenario believe that this will be a yield to Hamas' demand to postpone the elections after two years.

The fourth scenario is that Abbas calls for holding the elections in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on January 25 without Hamas' participation, and leave an opportunity for the Gaza Strip to hold the elections later on to fulfill the seats into the PLC.

Palestinian officials say that all these scenarios will be on the table of the PLO central council that will convene on Saturday for debates. If the Palestinians fail to agree on holding the elections, then the PLO council will choose one of the four scenarios or choose another alternative to the crisis.

Critical habitat proposed for polar bears

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Designating 200,541 square miles of Alaska as critical polar bear habitat would not address the melting sea ice that threatens the bears, officials said.

The designation, announced Thursday, would be the largest protected habitat for any species and encompass the range of two polar bear populations, about 3,500 bears, in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, said Tom Strickland, assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

The plan requires oil drilling and shipping companies to prove their activity , would not harm the bears' habitat, but it would not slow oil and gas development or address melting sea ice caused by climate change, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Those steps must be addressed separately by Congress, Strickland said.

"The Endangered Species Act is not the tool to directly address carbon emissions, which are the root cause of climate change," Strickland told reporters in a conference call from Washington.

Melting sea ice has dramatically reduced ice floes the bears need for breeding, resting and hunting, conservationists said.

Holocaust-denying professor defiant

ROME, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A professor at a Roman university who argues there is no proof the Nazis killed Jews in gas chambers said Thursday he is a victim of "Zionist groups."

Antonio Caracciolo, a researcher on philosophy of law at Sapienza University, said he has a right to freedom of speech, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. He said the 10 students in his course on Carl Schmitt, a pro-Nazi philosopher, learn "to think for themselves."

''I'm in an iron-clad position," Caracciolo said.. "I am a researcher and I'm entitled to conduct research."

When the newspaper La Repubblica published excerpts from Caracciolo's blog, Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, and leaders in the Jewish community called for him to be suspended or dismissed.

''No one seriously believes any more that 6 million Jews died,'' Caracciolo said in one post.

After the calls for his job, Caracciolo blamed "Zionist groups" and said Jews are "exploiting the guilt they think the whole world owes them."

Separatists commander killed in Chechnya

Security forces in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya have killed a militant commander accused of attempting to kill the province's leader.

Chechnya police announced the death of Said-Emi Khizriev on Friday and noted that the separatists commander had sought to assassinate the republic's President Ramzan Kadyrov.

"In a private residence in Michurin village in Grozny a so called emir of Gudermes [Said-Emi] Khizriev was surrounded. Police made an attempt to arrest him, but he put up armed resistance and was killed with when fire was returned," RIA Novosti quoted a police statement as saying.

Khizriev was also accused of conspiring to blow local gas stations in southern Russia.

Recently there has been a spike in militancy in the North Caucasus Russian Republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, where security and political authorities have been targeted in conflicts between pro-independence Chechens and the local governments.

Cleric says enemy targeting Iran's security, unity

After the deadly terrorist attack on southeastern Iran, Tehran Friday Prayers Leader Kazem Seddiqi says the enemy is targeting the country's security and unity.

"Our enemies have made targeting our security and unity their ultimate goal," Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi said.

"They seek to destroy Iran by causing discord and disunity among Shia and Sunni," he added.

"They have miscalculated [the situation]. Their moves will only lead to the strengthening of our unity and solidarity," said the cleric.

"Iran is one of the safest countries [in the world]. Such acts of terror will inflict no damage on the Islamic establishment."

At least 41 people, including seven senior commanders from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), were killed in a Sunday bombing during a gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders in the borderline region of Pishin.

The Pakistan-based Jundullah terrorist group, lead by Abdolmalik Rigi, claimed responsibility for the bloody attack.

Seddiqi warned against the consequences of insecurity in the country and said, "Lack of unity and security will result in the spiritual and cultural growth of the Iranian people and their economic and cultural development to come to a stop."

He pointed to Iran's high capabilities demonstrated during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war and said, "It will not be difficult for the Islamic establishment to take revenge on a terrorist ring."

The Pakistan-based terrorist group Jundullah, which is closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization, has staged a torrent of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran.

In a recent interview with Press TV, Rigi's brother, Abdulhamid, confirmed that the Jundullah leader had established links with US agents.

His brother said that in just one of his meetings with US operatives, Rigi had received $100,000 to fuel sectarianism in Iran.

Bishops to corrupt African leaders: repent or quit

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – Bishops attending a Vatican meeting on Africa issued a blunt ultimatum Friday to corrupt Catholic political leaders in Africa: repent or leave public office.

In an unusually strong final message, the bishops said Africa needs "saints" in government "who will clean the continent of corruption, work for the good of the people," and end the evils of war and poverty that are devastating the continent.

They cited the late Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, the father of Tanzanian independence and a symbol of Africa's hopes as it emerged from the shadow of colonial rule, who is being considered for possible beatification, as an example.

While praising other Catholic leaders who are doing their public service well, they accused others of having "fallen woefully short in their performance in office."

"The synod calls on such people to repent, or quit the public arena and stop causing havoc to the people and giving the Catholic Church a bad name," the bishops wrote at the end of their monthlong synod.

The bishops didn't name names, but Zimbabwe's authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe, who has been blamed for presiding over a politically repressive regime that led to the economic collapse of the country, and Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, whose party swept elections last year that critics say were marred by fraud and corruption, are two well-known Catholic leaders.

The prelates, some 300 from Africa and other countries around the world, also condemned non-Catholic leaders and outside foreign interests for allowing their countries to fall into such devastation, saying "in most cases we are dealing with greed for power and wealth at the expense of the people and nation."

In particular they cited areas of conflict such as Somalia, the Great Lakes region, Sudan and Guinea.

"Whatever may be the responsibility of foreign interests, there is always the shameful and tragic collusion of the local leaders: politicians who betray and sell out their nations, dirty business people who collude with rapacious multinationals, African arms dealers and traffickers who thrive on small arms that cause great havoc on human lives, and local agents of some international organizations who get paid for peddling toxic ideologies that they don't believe in" — a reference to NGOs and humanitarian groups that promote abortion rights.

The results, the bishops wrote, are visible for the world to see: poverty, misery and disease, refugees within Africa's borders and beyond, brain drain, human trafficking, wars, child soldiers and violence against women.

"How can anybody be proud of 'presiding' over such chaos?" the bishops asked. "What has happened to our traditional African sense of shame? This synod proclaims it loud and clear: it is time to change habits, for the sake of present and future generations."

To be fair, the bishops said the Catholic Church had to get its house in order, too, saying it must serve as a model for good governance, transparency, good financial management and unity — a reference to the ethnic divisions that even mar relations between priests and bishops.

"Your example of living together in peace across tribal and racial lines can be a powerful witness to others," the bishops wrote to churchmen at home.

The message from the bishops is intended as their public statement at the end of their monthlong meeting on how the Church can help bring peace, justice and reconciliation to the continent.

On Saturday, the bishops will issue another document: a set of proposals to Pope Benedict XVI to use as he formulates a response to what the church should be doing in Africa.

Kashmir kids burn books as parents fail to pay fees

Srinagar, Oct 23 : Scores of students burnt their textbooks here after they were expelled from schools for failing to pay fees.

Parents have not been paid salaries for six months by the state transport department.

Children holding books in their arms and black flags started their rally from Transport Headquarters shouting slogans against the State Government for not paying salaries to their parents.

Children said they could not cope any further with the mental stress and burning their books seemed the only way out to express their anger.

"We were not getting admission in schools then what's the use of these books. That's why we are burning these books. We are having exams in schools but we have been expelled from there. We are compelled to walk the wrong path," said Usra Jan, daughter of a striking employee of the transport department.

The children demanded the State Government to release the salaries of striking employees of the Road Transport Corporation in Srinagar.

Tens of thousands of the transport employees in the past have staged many protests demanding the release of their salary pending for last six months and a pay hike as per recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

The protesters alleged that Kashmir Government was not taking any note of their demands.

The demands include enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60, regularization of contractual, ad-hoc and casual workers as per merit, amendment in the Wage Act including increase in wages of the daily wagers and casual laborers from current 2,100 rupees monthly to 5,000 rupees.

Pakistan fighting sparks exodus

October 22, 2009

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis have been forced to leave their homes in South Waziristan as the Pakistani military engages in fighting with the Taliban.

Many people have escaped to neighboring Dera Ismael Khan, the largest city outside the conflict zone, while about 38,000 ground and air troops are attempting to eliminate about 10,000 Taliban fighters in the region.

The exodus from the region has intensified since the ground offensive's launch six days ago, and more than 100,000 people are said to have been displaced so far.

More than 150,000 civilians had already left Pakistan's South Waziristan in recent months, as the Pakistani military prepared to launch its offensive in the remote, rugged region along the border with Afghanistan.

The authorities say up to 200,000 people may flee in the coming weeks, but the government does not expect to have to house them in camps, because most have relatives in the region.

Humanitarian challenge

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that humanitarian access to people in need remained the key challenge for agencies, given the volatile security environment in the displacement areas.

The UNHCR also reports that in addition to aid given to individual families, assistance will need to be extended to hospitals, schools and other public facilities that may come under strain with large influxes of people.

Arianne Rummery, a spokeswoman for UNHCR told Al Jazeera that, at present, there are about 125,000 refugees to whom gaining access was a key challenge.

"Even the areas that they are going to in Dir Khan and Tank districts, lower down in the North-West Frontier Province, are very volatile from a security point of view.

"People are mainly being hosted by their extended-kin networks in their host communities. The tribal elders are able to use their networks to ensure that people have somebody to stay with.

"So it is not a critical situation where people don't have shelter at the moment. But obviously as the situation goes on these communities will come under more strain."

Aid center beatings

Earlier on Thursday, baton-wielding police beat back refugees crowding an aid distribution centre run by Pakistani authorities in Paharpur town, about 45km outside Dera Ismail Khan.

"We came here for bread, but the police beat us up," said Rahmatullah Mehsud - one of the injured new arrivals in the town. "There the Taliban were messing with things and the army was showering bombs. Here we have to bear the clubs."

But Javed Shaikh, an aid administrator, said there was plenty of food, but refugees were "impatient".

"There are some policemen deployed who are fed up with the indiscipline of the people," Shaikh said.

Pakistan's offensive is considered a critical test against the Taliban, blamed for attacks inside the country and on Western forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

More than 170 people across the country have been killed over the past three weeks in a wave of attacks blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.

In the latest attack, Pakistan's police said unknown assailants killed an army brigadier and his driver on Thursday after firing on their military vehicle in the capital, Islamabad.

Qamar Ahmed, an official at the police emergency department, said witnesses saw two men on a motorcycle drive up to Brigadier Moin Haider's vehicle and unleash a hail of bullets at point blank range.

An army statement on Thursday reported two soldiers killed in the South Waziristan operation, bringing the army's death toll to 18, while 24 Taliban fighters were killed on Thursday, bringing to 129 fighters, their death toll during the offensive.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59245&s2=23.

Were the Elections not A Travesty?

Afghan Resistance Statement
Were the Elections not A Travesty?
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Dhu al-Qi'dah 3, 1430 A.H, October 22, 2009

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

It is now clear as the broad day light that the August 20 elections in Afghanistan was readily ludicrous and preposterous which caused more shame and disgrace to the surrogate regime in Kabul. Only a minuscule numbers of voters participated in the polling from among the 30 million Afghans. Still the elections were fraught with fraud, ballot stuffing and corruption.

A great number of Afghans observed a complete boycott. It is still a matter of extreme shame for the supporters of the sham democracy, that they were merely able to announce the results after the passage of two months.

Furthermore, the Independent Election Commission has no power to declare either the real winner on the basis of the data or at least say who is the culprit behind all these anomalies because backroom politics of main players are involved in the whole process.

The Afghan Mujahideen have been reiterating for the past eight years that the Americans and the coalition allies are never ready to render any service beneficial to the Afghans against their vital interests, let alone expecting them to work for the general prosperity and comfort of the Afghans.

The roads, which have been asphalted, is only for the facility of the invaders military logistic who want to reach their destinations on time and to prevent road side bombs. Still they have not asphalted the roads according to the international standard of road tarmac. Generally, these roads are unusable after the passage of a time. As to other rehabilitation and reconstruction work, they raise only empty slogans, which have not been materialized.

If the Americans and their allies had not their goals and hidden agenda, they would not have blocked the way of the elections results from being declared soon. But they did not achieve what they wanted to achieve as a result of the elections.

This is why they are themselves sacrificing the so-called democracy, which they are supposed to build. By doing so, they have manifested that they are abiding by the rules and the slogans as long as they correspond with their interests. Otherwise, they are not bound by any rule.

Generally, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan believes that August 20 elections were never in the interest of the Afghans but still the current squabbling and humiliation exposed the elections seem more ridiculous.

We believe the only way out of this vortex is that the Afghans should hold to their religious and national values and bravely confront and boycott the projects of the invaders categorically.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59239&s2=23.

America's Phoney War in Afghanistan

by F. William Engdahl

Global Research, October 22, 2009

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.

Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to "win" the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured.

Even during the 2008 Presidential campaign candidate Obama argued that Afghanistan not Iraq was where the US must wage war. His reason? Because he claimed, that was where the Al Qaeda organization was holed up and that was the "real" threat to US national security. The reasons behind US involvement in Afghanistan is quite another one.

The US military is in Afghanistan for two reasons. First to restore and control the world’s largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia. That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia.

Geopolitics of Afghan Opium

According even to an official UN report, opium production in Afghanistan has risen dramatically since the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. UNODC data shows more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004-2007), than in any one year during Taliban rule. More land is now used for opium in Afghanistan, than for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. This is no accident.

It has been documented that Washington hand-picked the controversial Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun warlord from the Popalzai tribe, long in the CIA’s service, brought him back from exile in the USA, created a Hollywood mythology around his "courageous leadership of his people." According to Afghan sources, Karzai is the Opium "Godfather" of Afghanistan today. There is apparently no accident that he was and is today still Washington’s preferred man in Kabul. Yet even with massive vote buying and fraud and intimidation, Karzai’s days could be ending as President.

The second reason the US military remains in Afghanistan long after the world has forgotten even who the mysterious Osama bin Laden and his alleged Al Qaeda terrorist organization is or even if they exist, is as a pretext to build a permanent US military strike force with a series of permanent US airbases across Afghanistan. The aim of those bases is not to eradicate any Al Qaeda cells that may have survived in the caves of Tora Bora, or to eradicate a mythical "Taliban" which at this point according to eyewitness reports is made up overwhelmingly of local ordinary Afghanis fighting to rid their land once more of occupier armies as they did in the 1980’s against the Russians.

The aim of the US bases in Afghanistan is to target and be able to strike at the two nations which today represent the only combined threat in the world today to an American global imperium, to America’s Full Spectrum Dominance as the Pentagon terms it.

The lost 'Mandate of Heaven’

The problem for the US power elites around Wall Street and in Washington is the fact that they are now in the deepest financial crisis in their history. That crisis is clear to the entire world and the world is acting on a basis of self-survival. The US elites have lost what in Chinese imperial history is known as the Mandate of Heaven. That mandate is given a ruler or ruling elite provided they rule their people justly and fairly. When they rule tyrannically and as despots, oppressing and abusing their people, they lose that Mandate of Heaven.

If the powerful private wealthy elites that have controlled essential US financial and foreign policy for most of the past century or more ever had a "mandate of Heaven" they clearly have lost it. The domestic developments towards creation of an abusive police state with deprivation of Constitutional rights to its citizens, the arbitrary exercise of power by non elected officials such as Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and now Tim Geithner, stealing trillion dollar sums from taxpayers without their consent in order to bailout the bankrupt biggest Wall Street banks, banks deemed "Too Big To Fail," this all demonstrates to the world they have lost the mandate.

In this situation, the US power elites are increasingly desperate to maintain their control of a global parasitical empire, called deceptively by their media machine, "globalization." To hold that dominance it is essential that they be able to break up any emerging cooperation in the economic, energy or military realm between the two major powers of Eurasia that conceivably could pose a challenge to future US sole Superpower control—China in combination with Russia.

Each Eurasian power brings to the table essential contributions. China has the world’s most robust economy, a huge young and dynamic workforce, an educated middle class. Russia, whose economy has not recovered from the destructive end pf the Soviet era and of the primitive looting during the Yeltsin era, still holds essential assets for the combination. Russia’s nuclear strike force and its military pose the only threat in the world today to US military dominance, even if it is largely a residue of the Cold War. The Russian military elites never gave up that potential.

As well Russia holds the world’s largest treasure of natural gas and vast reserves of oil urgently needed by China. The two powers are increasingly converging via a new organization they created in 2001 known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). That includes as well as China and Russia, the largest Central Asia states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The purpose of the alleged US war against both Taliban and Al Qaeda is in reality to place its military strike force directly in the middle of the geographical space of this emerging SCO in Central Asia. Iran is a diversion. The main goal or target is Russia and China.

Officially, of course, Washington claims it has built its military presence inside Afghanistan since 2002 in order to protect a "fragile" Afghan democracy. It’s a curious argument given the reality of US military presence there.

In December 2004, during a visit to Kabul, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld finalized plans to build nine new bases in Afghanistan in the provinces of Helmand, Herat, Nimrouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia. The nine are in addition to the three major US military bases already installed in the wake of its occupation of Afghanistan in winter of 2001-2002, ostensibly to isolate and eliminate the terror threat of Osama bin Laden.

The Pentagon built its first three bases at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, the US’ main military logistics center; Kandahar Air Field, in southern Afghanistan; and Shindand Air Field in the western province of Herat. Shindand, the largest US base in Afghanistan, was constructed a mere 100 kilometers from the border of Iran, and within striking distance of Russia as well as China.

Afghanistan has historically been the heartland for the British-Russia Great Game, the struggle for control of Central Asia during the 19th and early 20th Centuries. British strategy then was to prevent Russia at all costs from controlling Afghanistan and thereby threatening Britain’s imperial crown jewel, India.

Afghanistan is similarly regarded by Pentagon planners as highly strategic. It is a platform from which US military power could directly threaten Russia and China, as well as Iran and other oil-rich Middle East lands. Little has changed geopolitically over more than a century of wars.

Afghanistan is in an extremely vital location, straddling South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Afghanistan also lies along a proposed oil pipeline route from the Caspian Sea oil fields to the Indian Ocean, where the US oil company, Unocal, along with Enron and Cheney’s Halliburton, had been in negotiations for exclusive pipeline rights to bring natural gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to Enron’s huge natural gas power plant at Dabhol near Mumbai. Karzai, before becoming puppet US president, had been a Unocal lobbyist.

Al Qaeda doesn’t exist as a threat

The truth of all this deception around the real purpose in Afghanistan becomes clear on a closer look at the alleged "Al Qaeda" threat in Afghanistan. According to author Erik Margolis, prior to the September 11,2001 attacks, US intelligence was giving aid and support both to the Taliban and to Al Qaeda. Margolis claims that "The CIA was planning to use Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda to stir up Muslim Uighurs against Chinese rule, and Taliban against Russia’s Central Asian allies."

The US clearly found other means of stirring up Muslim Uighurs against Beijing last July via its support for the World Uighur Congress. But the Al Qaeda "threat" remains the lynchpin of Obama US justification for his Afghan war buildup.

Now, however, the National Security Adviser to President Obama, former Marine Gen. James Jones has made a statement, conveniently buried by the friendly US media, about the estimated size of the present Al Qaeda danger in Afghanistan. Jones told Congress, "The al-Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."

That means that Al-Qaeda, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan. Oops…

Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of Al-Qaeda are scarcely to be found. The Wall Street Journal reports, "Hunted by US drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. For Arab youths who are al Qaeda’s primary recruits, 'it’s not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,’ said a senior U.S. official in South Asia."

If we follow the statement to its logical consequence we must conclude then that the reason German soldiers are dying along with other NATO youth in the mountains of Afghanistan has nothing to do with "winning a war against terrorism." Conveniently most media chooses to forget the fact that Al Qaeda to the extent it ever existed, was a creation in the 1980’s of the CIA, who recruited and trained radical muslims from across the Islamic world to wage war against Russian troops in Afghanistan as part of a strategy developed by Reagan’s CIA head Bill Casey and others to create a "new Vietnam" for the Soviet Union which would lead to a humiliating defeat for the Red Army and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.

Now US NSC head Jones admits there is essentially no Al Qaeda anymore in Afghanistan. Perhaps it is time for a more honest debate from our political leaders about the true purpose of sending more young to die protecting the opium harvests of Afghanistan.

Turkey turns east as Europe clings to past

By Philip Stephens

Small incidents can illuminate a bigger picture. A couple of weeks ago, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey opened an exhibition of Ottoman treasures in Paris. The display is the centrepiece of an effort to promote Turkey’s rich heritage. Mr Gul was joined by Nicolas Sarkozy. The French president arrived chewing a piece of gum.

I was told this story during a visit to Istanbul. Mr Sarkozy’s gum-chewing, I heard, served as a metaphor for France’s disdain for Turkey’s European aspirations. The lack of respect set the tone for the two leaders’ working lunch at the Elysée Palace. The atmosphere was described as “polite”. We know what that means.

French officials will doubtless protest that the swaggering Mr Sarkozy had not intended any slight. The president of the French republic has never fully acquainted himself with diplomatic niceties. Yet the sensitivity of his guest was unsurprising. Mr Sarkozy has put himself in the vanguard of European leaders – they include Germany’s Angela Merkel – who are viscerally opposed to Turkish accession to the European Union.

It is half a century since Turkey first knocked on Europe’s door with a bid to join the Common Market. There were plenty of detours on the way to the start of formal accession talks in 2004. Often, it must be said, the fault lay with Turkey. Military coups and political repression did not help make the case for membership of Europe’s democratic club.

That was then. Turkey is still a long way from meeting the democratic terms of EU membership, but few can doubt that it has taken big steps in the right direction. It is the fear that Turkey is within sight of doing what has been asked of it that has led Mr Sarkozy and others to repudiate the original bargain. Admitting Turkey, Mr Sarkozy says, would “dilute” the Union. What he really means is that Europe does not want 70-odd million Muslims.

Unsurprisingly, Turkey’s political classes have run short of patience. They are not interested in the “privileged partnership” offered as a substitute for EU membership. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has decided to look eastwards.

Turkey is establishing itself as a power-broker and a peace-maker in the Middle East. It is fixing troubled relationships with its neighbors. And it is finding the respect it receives in Arab capitals a lot more convivial than the snubs it is accustomed to in Europe.

Mr Erdogan set out the strategy at the inaugural meeting this week of the Istanbul Forum, hosted by Turkey’s Centre for Strategic Communication, and supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The government, said Mr Erdogan, would continue to pursue its European vocation. But it has no intention of behaving as a helpless supplicant. Turkey is instead assuming a role commensurate with its status as a fast-rising power at the strategic crossroads of east and west.

The strategy has been a big success. A few years ago, Turkey massed tens of thousands of troops on its border with Syria because of that country’s support for PKK Kurdish separatists. Now, detente has seen the two countries open the frontier to visa-free travel. There has been a rapprochement with the Iraqi government and an effort to reach an accommodation with the Kurdish minority. Trade and economic ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are growing rapidly. Turkey, one forum participant told me, knows where the money is.

In the Caucasus, the government has reached an agreement with Armenia that, with luck and effort, could end a century of mutual hostility. Relations with Russia are cordial and with Greece stable.

Ignoring anxieties in western capitals, Turkey has engaged with the Palestinian Hamas and with the Iranian-sponsored Hizbollah in Lebanon. Next week, Mr Erdogan is due in Tehran as Turkey assumes the role of broker between Iran and the west. Ask high-ranking Turkish officials as to the wisdom of some of these relationships and they refer to Barack Obama. Had he not proposed to replace a clenched fist with an outstretched hand? Turkey has to deal with the region as it is, one of Mr Erdogan’s advisers told me.

On the other side of the ledger, the Israeli invasion of Gaza has led to a rupture in the long-standing relationship with Israel. Mr Erdogan sees an Israeli-Palestinian settlement as the sine qua non of strategic stability in Turkey’s back yard. But he has concluded that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has no interest in a deal.

Not everyone is happy with the eastwards turn. Those who have long carried the European torch see the Islamist character of Mr Erdogan’s administration as a serious threat to the secular settlement bequeathed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. They worry that the prime minister and his ministers seem more comfortable with regional despots than with the democratic leaders of Europe: that the Muslim may trump the European identity.

The focus and energy devoted to building Turkey’s influence in the Middle East, the critics say, has been at the expense of reforms to strengthen the democratic and secular character of the Turkish state. They point to curbs on free speech and the imposition of Muslim social mores. Mr Erdogan’s government stands accused of imposing a multi-billion-dollar fine on the Dogan group, the country’s leading media business, in a campaign to stifle opposition.

Disquiet is heard also among Turkey’s partners in the Nato alliance. Making peace with old enemies is one thing – Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, played a pivotal role in the deal with Armenia. But cuddling up to regional actors still committed to violence risks taking Turkey beyond a sensible good-neighbors policy.

This may be so. But the west is losing its leverage. US power is being challenged across the Middle East; and Europe seems intent on irrelevance. Mr Erdogan’s Turkey still wants to be part of Europe. And on every challenge – from energy, from terrorism, drugs and migration to trade and investment – Europe has an immutable interest in nurturing a democratic, west-facing Turkey. Its security is the west’s security. But Mr Sarkozy and his like want nothing more than to hold on to the past. Turkey speaks to the world as it is becoming.

NATO moves toward more troops for Afghan war

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that NATO allies are moving toward sending more troops and civilian aid to Afghanistan.

Gates said he was "heartened" by allies' commitment to the 8-year-old war even as the Obama administration mulls whether to order tens of thousands more U.S. troops to the fight.

The Pentagon chief cited a long-term commitment by NATO partners to remain in Afghanistan until the conflict is successfully resolved.

At a meeting of 28 NATO defense ministers in Bratislava, Gates said he did not seek specific promises of military assistance, and none was given. He described, however, "a renewed determination to see this through."

"There were a number of allies who indicated they were thinking about, or were moving toward, increasing either their military or their civilian contributions, or both," Gates said at a news conference. "And I found that very heartening."

He praised NATO nations for already doubling the number of troops they have sent to Afghanistan over the last 15 months. "People really have been stepping up to this," Gates said.

Gates also sought to assure allies that the United States also will remain in the fight, despite the Obama administration's ongoing indecision over a war strategy.

"We're not pulling out," He said. "I think that any reduction is very unlikely."

He said President Barack Obama would consider specific plans for moving forward over the next two to three weeks.

Speaking minutes earlier, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the defense ministers did not discuss precisely how many more troops might be sent. The U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has asked Obama for as many as 80,000 additional American troops to continue the current mission of countering the escalating Taliban insurgency and protecting the local population.

Rasmussen said McChrystal's request was being reviewed by NATO leaders, many of whom are reluctant to endorse large troop increases before Obama decides on a strategy.

"I have registered broad support from all ministers of this overall counterinsurgency approach, but without discussing resource implications of these recommendations," Rasmussen said.

The top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, also signaled that more NATO troops would soon be on the move. "I do believe that additional international troops will be needed in the future," he said.

Gates spoke before heading into a lunch meeting with officials from nations that have sent troops to Afghanistan. McChrystal also was at the meeting to brief the officials on his on-the-ground assessment of the war zone.

An estimated 104,000 U.S. and NATO troops will be in Afghanistan by the end of the year — two-thirds of which are American.

Other officials, however, expressed doubts about sending more forces amid widespread concerns of corruption tainting Afghanistan's government and its president, Hamid Karzai. Afghanistan will hold a runoff of its presidential election on Nov. 7 to settle allegations of fraud that marred an August balloting between Karzai and his chief rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Dutch Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop said his country, with 2,160 troops in Afghanistan, is awaiting the final election results "because the legitimacy of the Afghan government is key," as well as a decision by the Obama administration.

Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said allies won't increase troop levels until they're assured the new government in Kabul is committed to the NATO goals.

"I think whoever is going to send more troops to Afghanistan will put up some conditions," said Gade, whose country has 690 soldiers in Afghanistan.

"They need to see the new Afghan president and say: 'If we send more troops to your country, you have to deal with this, this and this.' We have to make sure the new government in Afghanistan are committed to their job before we send any more troops to Afghanistan."

Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung of Germany said he also doesn't expect his country to increase its troop numbers in Afghanistan when the soldiers' mandate from the German parliament comes up for renewal in December. The existing mandate allows the deployment of a maximum 4,500 soldiers, and Germany currently has just over 4,200 troops in Afghanistan.

Olympic Flame torch relay for Vancouver Winter Games starts at Olympia

The journey of the Olympic Flame towards Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics started on a sunny Thursday afternoon amid the ruins of Olympia's ancient Stadium, with the successful ending of the Lighting Ceremony.

Blessed by 22 actresses-priestesses praying to "Apollo, God of Sun, and Zeus, Father of Gods to light the torch for the hospitable city of Vancouver and give peace to all peoples on earth", the torch with the sacred flame which was lit by sun's rays during a ritual was given by the High Priestess to the first torchbearer, Greek slalom champion Vassilis Dimitriadis.

Under the cheers of hundreds of people and the wishes for best success from personalities like International Olympic Committee chairman Jacques Rogge who attended the ceremony, the proud 31-year-old athlete run out of the Stadium past Pierre De Coubertin's Grove, passing the Olympic Flame to the next torchbearer.

Starting from the birthplace of the Olympic Games, the sacred Flame will be traveling for the next four months until it reaches Vancouver on February 12th. On the Greek leg of the relay it will cover some 2,180 kilometers, about 650 kilometers further the torch race which took place for the Beijing Olympics, passing through archeological sites and ski centers.

On October 29 the flame will be passed over to the Canadian organizers inside Athens Panathenian Stadium where the first modern Olympics were revived in 1896.

During the Canadian part of the relay which will be the longest in Olympic history so far to take place in a single country, the flame will travel more than 45,000 kilometers by land, air and water until it reaches Vancouver on February 12th for the opening of the 21st Winter Olympic Games.

Iran supports Hariri in forming unity gov't

Iran has stressed that it will not spare any effort to support Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in forming a national unity government.

After a meeting with Hariri on Thursday, Tehran's ambassador to Beirut Mohammad-Reza Sheibani said that Iran considers successful the designation of Hariri to establish the unity government.

"Since the first moment Hariri was designated to form the cabinet, I expressed … Iran's official stance about that choice being successful … and appropriate,” the ambassador Sheibani added that he wished Hariri 'luck and success in this grave and sensitive responsibility laid on his shoulders.'

During the meeting, the Iranian envoy also expressed hope that the national unity government would be formed 'as soon as possible'.

Hariri, whose March 14 Alliance won a parliamentary election in June, has vowed to form a unity government to overcome the challenges facing Lebanon.

US lawmakers to toughen anti-Iran sanctions

Aiming to apply pressure on Iran over its nuclear work, US lawmakers have unveiled a new legislation that seeks to impose sanctions on non-US companies trading with Iran.

The new legislation, revealed on Thursday, is aimed at preventing major global telecommunications giants from doing business with Iran. It deprives the giants of lucrative US government contracts if they do sign a deal with Iran.

The legislation known as the Accountability for Business Choices in Iran Act, or ABC Iran Act, targets non-US firms that invest or operate in Iran's energy sector or export 'sensitive technology' that could be used by the Iranian government, AFP reported.

Under the legislation, those companies seeking a contract with the US government are to certify that they are not doing business with Iran. The companies would be banned from trading with the US if it emerges that they have undertaken business with the Islamic Republic.

The lead author of the legislation, Representative Ron Klein, Democrat, of Florida, said that companies should choose either to trade with Iran or the US.

If approved as law, non-US telecommunications giants such as Nokia and Siemens could be among those companies affected, the United Against Nuclear Iran advocacy group, which helped write the measure said.

Iran rejects allegations its nuclear work has a military agenda and defends its nuclear program as strictly peaceful and within the framework of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which it is a signatory.

Tehran which has also long been pushing for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction across the globe says US allegations against its nuclear program are politically motivated.

Iran has been under US unilateral sanctions for nearly three decades after an Islamic Revolution toppled the US-allied monarch in the country.

Blasts at Pakistan air base, wedding bus kill 24

By ASIF SHAHZAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber killed seven people near a major air force complex in northwest Pakistan on Friday, while an explosion killed 17 on a bus heading to wedding elsewhere in the region, the latest in a surge of militant attacks this month.

The bloodshed has coincided with the run-up and first week of a major army offensive in a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold along the Afghan border. About 200 people have died as the insurgents have shown they can strike in a variety of ways and places in the nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied nation.

The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra is the country's major air force maintenance and research hub.

Some foreign military experts have mentioned it as a possible place to keep planes that can carry nuclear warheads, but the army, which does not reveal where its nuclear-related facilities are, strongly denies that the facility is tied to the program in any way.

A lone suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up at a checkpoint on a road leading to the complex, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. Police officer Akbar Abbas blamed the Taliban for the attack.

The seven dead included two troops. Some 13 people were wounded.

Hours later, a blast struck the bus, which was traveling in the Mohmand tribal region. Four women and three children were among the 17 killed, said Zabit Khan, a local government official, who said the exact cause of the blast was still not certain.

"It appears to be a remote-controlled bomb, and militants might have hit the bus mistakenly," Khan told The Associated Press.

Mohmand, like other parts of Pakistan's tribal belt, has been a magnet for Taliban militants. The military has carried out operations there in the past aimed at clearing out insurgents but trouble still flares.

Also Friday, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot of a recreational facility in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest. Fifteen people were wounded. The facility includes a restaurant, a swimming pool, a health club and a marriage hall.

"It is part of the violence we are seeing across Pakistan these days," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the region's information minister.

There have been at least nine major militant attacks this month, most against police or army targets.

Some have been explosions, while others have involved teams of gunmen staging raids. In one of the most brazen attacks, gunmen attacked the army headquarters close to the capital and held hostages inside the complex for 22 hours.

Pakistan is under intense pressure to eliminate Islamist militant groups sheltering in its northwest that also attack U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The military has battled them in various districts, losing hundreds of soldiers, but questions remain about its overall strategic commitment to the fight.

It began its current offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region seven days ago.

A military statement Friday reported two more soldiers were killed, bringing the army's death toll to 20, and that 13 more militants were slain, bringing their death toll to 142. Reporters are blocked from entering the region, meaning verifying information is all but impossible.

The army has previously moved into South Waziristan three times since 2004. Each time it has suffered high casualties and signed peace deals that left insurgents with effective control of the region. Western officials say al-Qaida now uses it and neighboring North Waziristan as an operations and training base.

Iran wins 1st West Asian Shooting Championship

Iran's national shooting team has won the first West Asian Shooting Championship that was held in the Iranian capital Tehran.

The hosts came first after taking 24 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze medals.

Kuwait finished second with 8 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze medals while Qatar was placed third in the event earning 1 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze medals.

The event included stationary and moving targets in both the men and women's sections.

In all, two hundred and forty participants, from six West Asian countries took part in the event October 15-23.

Assad urges Lebanon to expedite cabinet formation

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad demands Lebanese officials speed up concerted efforts to form a national unity cabinet in Lebanon and restore order in the country.

"I confirmed the view of Syria on the necessity to speed up the formation of a national unity government, to bring the situation in Lebanon back to normal and to its natural role after years of turmoil and division," Assad said Thursday in Damascus during a joint press conference with Finnish President, Tarja Halonen.

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, abandoned his first bid to form a national unity cabinet last month after the opposition rejected the team he proposed.

Hariri's proposal for a national unity government gives his March 14 alliance 15 of 30 seats in the new cabinet and the minority opposition March 8 alliance 10 seats. President Michel Suleiman appoint the remaining five ministers.

The Syrian leader also stressed the support of Damascus for Palestinians reconciliation efforts, "This reconciliation paves the way for negotiations leading to establishing peace in the Palestinian territory as well as easing the suffering of Gaza Strip Palestinians,” Assad pointed out.

Hamas and Fatah have long been wrangling with each other over contentious issues, which have turned into internal Palestinian divisions..

Ever since Hamas won an outright majority in 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, the two factions have pursued bitter rivalry featuring sporadic fighting and tit-for-tat arrests.

Israel to close down main Gaza fuel terminal

Tel Aviv is moving towards gradual closure of the fuel terminal at the Nahal Oz crossing along the border with the Gaza Strip which has long been under a tight Israeli siege.

"The decision... was Israel's, and it's ultimately up to the occupation, whether or not Palestinians object. Israeli authorities were already transferring equipment that pumps fuel to the Kerem Shalom crossing in preparation for the shutting down of Nahal Oz," the Gaza crossings representative, Raed Fattouh, was quoted as saying by Ma'an news agency.

The decision to decommission the Nahal Oz crossing terminal had been taken several months earlier, but announced on Thursday after Israel announced it planned to transfer Nahal's responsibilities to the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The closure of the Nahal Oz fuel terminal will violate previously signed economic agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

According to agreements reached between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, Palestinians were guaranteed a role in operating the Nahal Oz crossing, but not Kerem Shalom, since it is on Israeli territory.

Palestinian officials warn that the fuel terminal at the Nahal Oz crossing between Israel and Gaza will be non-operational by November 1, 2009.

Algeria: Security Clampdown Conflicts With Bouteflika's Aims

By Amel Boubekeur
22 October 2009

The clashes between police and young people protesting poor housing conditions in Algiers earlier this week reflect growing efforts in recent weeks to stem public demonstrations by a government which, fearing terrorist threats, is determined to maintain a grip on order.

The unrest in the capital followed an incident earlier this month in which police prevented 300 human rights activists, students, journalists and NGOs from commemorating the uprising of October 1988, in which hundreds of people died and many young people were imprisoned and tortured.

That uprising eventually led to the end of 26 years of single-party rule by the National Liberation Front. A new constitution later endorsed more freedom to political parties, unions and the press. But the social agitation also ultimately helped trigger the Algerian civil war in 1991, and since it ended in 2002, demands for greater freedom have haunted Algiers.

Despite greater political freedom allowed by the constitution, in recent years a state of emergency has enabled the Interior Ministry to limit the activities of unionists, prevented the creation of new opposition parties and prohibited activists or writers from holding public lectures.

Public demand for dialogue over the current system is suppressed and criminalized. This was reflected on June 14, 2001, in the most significant public mobilization in Algeria since independence from France. A peaceful march which brought together two million people from across the country, mainly from the Berber area of Kabila, was suppressed by the authorities, who described the protesters as "a mob of thugs."

Even demonstrations of support for the people of Gaza, organized spontaneously in Algiers in January of this year, were restricted. In fact, the only opportunity for citizens to congregate freely on the streets is to celebrate football match victories – those parades, though often violent, are not perceived as a threat.

The ruling elite are not solely responsible for the difficulties Algerians face in taking back the streets as a place of political protest. Most opposition parties sidelined themselves when in November 2008 they supported a constitutional amendment allowing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to seek a third term.

Most ordinary Algerians, exhausted by years of conflict between Islamist groups and the armed forces, lack the strength to take to the streets and oppose government decisions. The only survival strategy for many is to reject party politics. Not seen as citizens by the system, they can only become its clients and negotiate individually with a corruption-ridden public administration in the hope of getting a house, a scholarship or consumer credit.

The security-oriented state's responses to street demands highlight its inability to devise a new political plan to revive the country. Its strategy of consolidating power through a state of emergency is faltering and is in conflict with the framework of national reconciliation established by President Bouteflika. His aim is to turn the page on terrorism, but the security restrictions of the last 20 years seem to have had the opposite effect.

Events of the last months have shown that the less the state engages in dialogue with the street, the more the street will resort to violence and abandon the tools of voting and peaceful demonstrations. Prohibited from displaying banners, taking part in processions or demonstrating their views, setting fire to urban areas is now seen by rioters as the surest way to secure social rights.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200910220440.html.

Bangladesh bans militant Islamic group

Dhaka - Bangladesh has banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group allegedly involved in subversive activities, on security grounds, media reports said Friday. The Home Ministry issued an order Thursday outlawing the international outfit, already banned in some other countries including Pakistan and the US for suspected links with militants.

"The operation of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Bangladesh has been banned," Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder was quoted as saying by the New Age newspaper.

The ban came a day after an unidentified group carried out a bomb attack targeting a ruling party lawmaker, Fazle Noor Tapas, who escaped unhurt.

Police on Friday prevented a press briefing called by chief coordinator of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bangladesh, Mohiuddin Ahmed, following the ban.

The government earlier banned four Islamist outfits - Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkatul Jihad al Islami, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al Hikma for their suspected militant connections.

Griffin attacks Islam on BBC show

British National Party leader Nick Griffin has used his Question Time appearance to criticize Islam and defend a past head of the Ku Klux Klan.

He also told a largely hostile audience that Winston Churchill would be a BNP supporter if he were alive, and insisted "I am not a Nazi".

Anti-fascist protesters scuffled with police outside BBC TV Centre in west London before the show was filmed.

Minister Peter Hain said the BBC had legitimized the BNP's "racist poison".

But the corporation defended the invitation to the leader of the anti-immigration party to appear, saying it had a duty to be impartial.

One of the panelists, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, said it had been a "catastrophic week for the BNP because for the first time the views of the BNP have been properly scrutinized".

And following the programme, other panelists said Mr Griffin had been exposed.

Baroness Warsi, the Conservative peer and shadow communities minister, said "he does not have any political views other than a hatred for certain groups of people".

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "I certainly think that his credibility - for anybody who sees the show - is going to be seriously damaged by his performance."

Mr Griffin told BBC News too much of the programme had been a "beat up Nick Griffin programme instead of Question Time".

He added that of the 25 or so allegations made against him in the programme - he was only allowed to answer four or five of them and that was "grossly unfair".

And a BNP spokesman complained that the programme had focused entirely on Mr Griffin's views and ignored newsworthy stories such as the postal strike, Afghanistan and Europe.

"This was not a normal Question Time," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It was 'let's have a go at Nick Griffin time'."

'Aborigines here'

The BNP leader was booed at the start of the recording and accused of trying to "poison politics" as he was attacked by fellow panelists and the audience.

During the show the panel covered topics including whether it was fair for the BNP to "hijack" images of Winston Churchill, whether immigration policy had fueled the BNP's popularity and whether Mr Griffin's appearance was an early Christmas present for the party.

He was asked by a member of the audience about why he had described Islam as a "wicked and vicious faith".

Mr Griffin said the religion had its "good points... it wouldn't have let the banks run riot" but it did not fit in with "the fundamental values of British society, free speech, democracy and equal rights for women".

His references to Britain's "indigenous people" prompted other members of the panel to challenge him to say he meant white people.

Mr Griffin said the color was "irrelevant" and said Mr Straw would not dare go to New Zealand and tell a Maori he was not "indigenous". "We are the aborigines here," he claimed.

Mr Straw said what distinguished the BNP from other parties was that other parties "have a moral compass... Nazism didn't and neither I'm afraid does the BNP."

He insisted his views had been widely misrepresented in the media and denied a string of statements attributed to him, including a quote from 2006 in which he said "Adolf went a bit too far".

"I am not a Nazi and never have been," he said, adding: "I am the most loathed man in Britain in the eyes of Britain's Nazis."

He admitted sharing a platform with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke - but described him as "almost totally non-violent".

He said he had been trying to win over "youngsters" Duke was trying to "lead astray".

Challenged on his views on civil partnership, he said: "I said that a lot of people find the sight of two grown men kissing in public really creepy. I understand that homosexuals don't understand that but that's how a lot of us feel, Christians feel that way, Muslims, all sorts of people."

Audience challenge

Asked about a quote attributed to him in which he equated six million deaths in the Holocaust with the flat earth theory he replied that "European law" stopped him explaining.

"I can't tell you why I used to say those things anymore than I can tell you why I have changed my mind," he said.

The justice secretary said when anybody put a specific quotation to Mr Griffin he tried to "wriggle out of it".

Asked whether immigration policy had fuelled the BNP, Mr Straw said he did not think it had and said he thought the BNP had been boosted by discontent with the main parties over issues like expenses.

But Baroness Warsi said politicians had a responsibility to take on the BNP on the issue of immigration: "Many people who vote for the BNP are not racist and therefore what we have to do is go out and say to these people as mainstream political parties we are prepared to listen."

Mr Griffin blamed the "political elite" for imposing "an enormous multicultural experiment on the British people".

But Mr Griffin was challenged by several black and Asian members of the audience.

One man asked Mr Griffin: "Where do you want me to go? I love this country, I'm part of this country."

Protests

While the programme was being recorded the anti-BNP protest continued. The Metropolitan Police say six protesters were arrested and three police officers injured in the protests.

Mr Griffin accused the protesters of "attacking the rights of millions of people to listen to what I've got to say and listen to me being called to account by other politicians".

But Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism accused the BBC of "rolling out the red carpet" to Mr Griffin and said his appearance on the flagship discussion programme "will lead to the growth of a fascist party" and promote violence against ethnic minorities.

About 25 people managed to get through the gates and run towards the BBC building when security guards opened them to let in a car. A few minutes later they were led, dragged or carried back outside.

There were also protests outside BBC buildings in Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Glasgow and Belfast.

Welsh Secretary Mr Hain, who had tried to stop the broadcast, said: "The BBC should be ashamed of single-handedly doing a racist, fascist party the biggest favor in its grubby history."

BBC Deputy Director General Mark Byford said it had been "appropriate" to invite Mr Griffin to appear given the support the BNP received in the last European elections when it gained its first Euro MPs.

He said: "He was scrutinized and challenged along with the other panelists heavily by the audience, that was right in our view.

"It would have been quite wrong for the BBC to have said 'yes, you are allowed to stand in elections, yes you have a level of support that now meets the threshold but the BBC doesn't think that you should be on'."

Afghanistan rejects Pakistan remarks over Rigi

Fri Oct 23, 2009

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ahmad Zahir Faqiri, has rejected claims that Jundallah leader Abdulmalek Rigi was in Afghanistan.

Faqiri made the remark in reply to Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik's earlier claims that Rigi was in Afghanistan.

"Malik's remarks that Rigi is in Afghanistan is completely baseless," the Afghan spokesperson said on Friday.

"We support Iranian officials viewpoint that Jundallah's masterminds are in Pakistan," he added.

"Terrorist groups' key hubs are outside Afghanistan," he further explained.

On Thursday, Pakistan's Interior Minister said that Rigi was in Afghanistan.

"We can even point out his exact location in Afghanistan," Malik said.

At least 41 people, including senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Nour-Ali Shoushtari and Rajab-Ali Mohammadzadeh, were killed in a Sunday morning suicide bombing at a gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders in the borderline region of Pishin.

The Pakistan-based Jundullah terrorist group, which is closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization, has claimed responsibility for the bomb blast.

Jundullah terrorists have staged a tidal wave of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which left at least 25 Iranians dead in early June.

In a recent interview with Press TV, Rigi's brother, Abdulhamid, confirmed that the Jundallah leader had established close ties with US agents.

His brother said that in just one of his meetings with the US operatives, Rigi had received $100,000 to fuel sectarianism in Iran.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109388.html.

Iran's Interior Minister in Pakistan over Jundallah

Fri Oct 23, 2009

Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar has arrived in Pakistan days after a terrorist attack which killed over 40 people in Iranian southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan .

The Iranian official left Tehran at the head of a political and security delegation on Friday morning and will be meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, as well as President Asif Ali Zardari.

The meeting will focus on ways to dismantle Jundallah, a group which took responsibility for the deadly attack in Iran.

"This is not the first time the terrorist cell have committed crimes. The Iranians are wondering how such a group easily commute in the neighboring Pakistan's soil," Mohammad-Najjar told reporters before leaving.

Tehran considers Jundallah as a terrorist group. Iran has asked Pakistan to capture and hand over Jundallah's leader Abdulmalek Rigi.

"I had a telephone conversation with Pakistan's Interior Minister [Rehman Malik] and asked him to immediately deliver the perpetrators," he added.

The Iranian minister further pointed out that Iran-Pakistan border areas have always been peaceful adding, "Today, Iran's border areas are the safest for Pakistan and the Iranian nation and government expect the Pakistani border areas be safe for us as well."

"Today, many countries are the victims of terrorism including Pakistan. It is high time we eradicate the roots of terrorism for ever," he explained.

Iran's interior minister says according to the Iranian intelligence the Pakistan-based terrorist group receives financial, intelligence, and political support from the West.

"We have some documents that show Rigi's group use advanced equipment which are provided by the world arrogant powers to sow the seeds of discord between Shia and Sunni." He noted.

At least 41 people, including ranking commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed by an explosion during a unity conference between Sunni and Shia tribal leaders in the borderline city of Pishin in Sistan-Baluchistan on Sunday.

The Pakistan-based Jundallah, led by Abdolmalik Rigi, has staged a torrent of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran.

In a recent interview with Press TV, Rigi's brother, Abdulhamid, confirmed that the Jundallah leader had established links with the US agents.

His brother said that in just one of his meetings with the US operatives, Rigi had received $100,000 to fuel sectarianism in Iran.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109387.html.

Algeria riots reveal anger of a generation

* Squalid housing at root of attacks on police

* One family of 12 living in a one-room apartment

* Anger at slum conditions, joblessness, felt across Algeria

By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - To Mohamed Kherfallah, the young men in his neighborhood who hurled rocks and petrol bombs at police in the Algerian capital this week are performing a service for their community.

Kherfallah, like his neighbors, is fed up of waiting for the government to re-house him. "It's always a nightmare here," the 66-year-old said as he stood in the tiny one-room flat he shares with 11 members of this extended family.

The Diar Echams district where he lives erupted this week into rioting over poor housing and unemployment. Police used tear gas and water cannon in failed attempts to disperse the rioters and several officers were injured.

The worst public disorder in the capital in several years, it highlighted a deep problem: the anger and frustration felt by millions of poor people in this energy producing country at a government they believe has let them down.

"The youth achieved what we could not achieve through peaceful means. They are listening to us because the youngsters made lot of noise," Kherfallah said.

The unrest is unlikely to threaten the government because opposition parties are weak and the state has a vast security apparatus to contain civil disorder.

But the frustration is growing, analysts say, widening the gulf between the government and the young, urban poor in a country that provides 20 percent of Europe's gas imports and is still emerging from a conflict with Islamist militants.

"Unrest is now routine in Algeria," said Nacer Jabi, a sociologist who teaches at Algiers University. "It is becoming a national sport simply because people see no improvement in their daily living conditions."

OVER-CROWDING

In the slums of Diar Echams -- Arabic for "houses of the sun" -- it is clear why the residents are angry.

The area is made up of apartment blocks built during French colonial rule in the 1950s, and next to them a shanty-town of crudely-built shacks.

Local people said there were 1,500 apartments for a community of about 25,000 people.

Because of the shortage of space, Kherfallah converted the balcony of his apartment into a bedroom for his 41-year-old son, Ahmed, and his daughter-in-law.

He said the son, Ahmed, was depressed. "When I want to have sex with my wife, I need to rent a room for a couple of hours in a hotel," Ahmed said.

In another apartment, 52-year-old Said Souakri told Reuters his three children were ill because of the unhealthy living conditions. "I am always afraid that a rat will eat my two-year-old boy," said his wife.

In the slum, groups of bearded men in long robes -- the customary dress of followers of the ultra-conservative Salafist branch of Islam -- could be seen in the background, keeping their distance from reporters.

Islamists have influence within local communities in Algeria, though they have been keeping a low public profile since a conflict broke out in the early 1990s between armed militants and security forces.

That conflict killed 200,000 people, according to some independent estimates. The violence has subsided in the past few years, but a hard-core of insurgents linked to al Qaeda still carries out sporadic attacks.

FRUSTRATED GENERATION

The conditions for people living in Diar Echams are repeated throughout Algeria, Africa's second-largest country by area and home to 35 million people.

Though unrest in the capital is rare, there are periodic riots in other cities and towns.

On Wednesday, hundreds of angry unemployed men protested in the eastern city of Annaba calling on the authorities for jobs, local media reported.

Last week, security forces used tear gas to clear 300 protesters blocking roads in the city of Biskra, about 500 km (310 miles) south of Algiers, according to media reports.

"A generation of Algerians is growing up frustrated, unable to find jobs (and) affordable housing, which is leading to social pressures as, for example, young people are unable to get married," a diplomat told Reuters.

"I do not see this as an immediate threat to the government," he said. "But it does highlight growing popular dissatisfaction with the government, which is only likely to increase."

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, re-elected to a third term in April with 90.24 percent of the vote, has said improving housing conditions and creating jobs is a national priority.

He has pledged to spend $150 billion on infrastructure and modernizing the economy in the next five years. That includes building 1 million new housing units by 2014.

However, critics of the government say the investment will not translate fast enough into jobs and housing because of red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency, and a Socialist-style economy that they say hinders private investment.

Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LM527287.htm.

Seven security guards shot dead in Algeria

Algiers/Paris, Oct 22: Seven security guards were killed early Thursday by a group of suspected Islamic extremists near the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou, local security sources said.

The victims were Algerians working for a company charged with guarding the waterworks site belonging to the Canadian public works company SNC Lavalin.

Renewed Interest Among OIC Nations To Look At Investment Opportunities

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- There is renewed interest among the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries to look at trade and investment opportunities within member countries.

"Due to the global economic downturn, there seem to be a shift in interest among investors from the Muslim countries, mainly oil and gas-rich countries," said Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.

Speaking at a press conference after officiating the MuslimBIG 2010 Business and Investment Gala here Thursday, he said OIC member countries were now reducing their participation in economic activities in developed nations and looking at developing countries.

"So, we have seen some good indicators that they are willing to invest in other Muslim countries. This is about time but unfortunately we have to wait for global economic recovery before that happens," said Mukhriz.

The MuslimBIG 2010, which will be held for the first time in Malaysia between June 4 and June 6, 2010, will be a ground-breaking event for the global Islamic business community to meet, interact and transact business.

To date, total trade among Islamic countries stood at a staggering US$2 trillion with the European Union, the United States and China controlling 84 per cent of the volume while Muslim nations controlled a meagre 16 per cent.

Stressing that the global halal market potential was about US$7 trillion, Mukhriz said intra-trade among OIC countries cannot be ignored, adding that it has always been Malaysia's policy to look at trading with lesser known economies such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

"Speculative investments such as in housing mortgages in the United States, created the economic crisis. That has brought a lot of attention to shariah-compliant economic activities and financial activities.

"We are hoping to see more trade and investment as well as other business activities coming out from that," Mukhriz said.

He said other economies, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States, which are not well-known, were developing and rich in natural resources and may be keen to trade with Malaysia.

"This is something we should exploit because the potential is great," he added.

Asked on the impact to the economy, Mukhriz said: "There is a compounding effect and the growth is quite substantial. Unfortunately, I am not able to give exact figures because it is very relative."

Mukhriz said one trade barrier among Muslim countries was the technology and innovation which in the West, provided good investment returns.

"There has been new and innovative technologies coming out from Malaysia, Pakistan and other Muslim countries, but it is very competitive. It is tough to convince, even among Muslim investors, to invest in Muslim-based technology," he explained.

Asked on Budget 2010, Mukhriz said incentives to attract foreign direct investments into Malaysia would be among the highlights of the budget in order to sustain the country's business environment.

"I will not be able to say what specific incentives the Prime Minister will announce tomorrow. Let's wait and see.

"But, what's for sure is, besides balancing both foreign direct investments and domestic investments, it is also important that the domestic sector must be developed internationally.

Mukhriz also said Malaysia should emulate South Korea, Japan and Taiwan in developing their domestic economies rather than being over dependent on international trade to spur economic growth.

In-flight delivery: Malaysian gives birth on plane

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – An official says a Malaysian woman has given premature birth to a boy on a domestic flight, minutes before it landed in Kuala Lumpur.

Liew Siaw Hsia gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia's flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday.

AirAsia spokesman Nazatul Mokhtar said Friday that the flight was diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Liew started labor pains.

A doctor on the flight helped the 31-year-old deliver while the plane was still 2,000 feet (600 meters) in the air in its final approach to land.

Nazatul says both the mother and baby are healthy and will get lifetime of free flights. He says Liew was 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term.

Al-Qa’ida and the Afghan Taliban: “Diametrically Opposed”?

Vahid Brown

October 21, 2009

Mullah Omar’s Afghan Taliban and al-Qa’ida’s senior leaders have been issuing some very mixed messages of late, and the online jihadi community is in an uproar, with some calling these developments "the beginning of the end of relations" between the two movements. Beginning with a statement from Mullah Omar in September, the Afghan Taliban’s Quetta-based leadership has been emphasizing the "nationalist" character of their movement, and has sent several communications to Afghanistan’s neighbors expressing an intent to establish positive international relations. In what are increasingly being viewed by the forums as direct rejoinders to these sentiments, recent messages from al-Qa’ida have pointedly rejected the "national" model of revolutionary Islamism and reiterated calls for jihad against Afghanistan’s neighbors, especially Pakistan and China. However interpreted, these conflicting signals raise serious questions about the notion of an al-Qa’ida-Taliban merger.

The trouble began with Mullah Omar’s message for 'Eid al-Fitr, issued on September 19, in which he calls the Taliban a "robust Islamic and nationalist movement," which "wants to maintain good and positive relations with all neighbors based on mutual respect." Mullah Omar further stated that he wishes to "assure all countries that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan … will not extend its hand to jeopardize others, as it itself does not allow others to jeopardize us." A week later, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, one of the most influential living Salafi jihadi ideologues, released an angry rebuke to these "dangerous utterances" of the Taliban amir, pointing out that they were of the same order as Hamas leader Khaled Mashal’s statement that the Chechen struggle is a Russian "internal matter." For a person of Maqdisi’s stature to equate the Taliban with Hamas, especially in light of the recent jihadi media onslaught against Hamas for its "crimes" against the Jund Ansar Allah, is an extremely serious charge. Maqdisi ends his statement with the hope that he has misunderstood Mullah Omar’s message and that some clarification from the Taliban leadership will be forthcoming; more on this below.

A week after the Maqdisi message was posted, al-Sahab issued Ayman al-Zawahiri’s eulogy for Baitullah Mehsud (on which, see my earlier post). Midway through that speech, Zawahiri turns to the Palestinian issue, arguing that the mujahidin in Palestine should destroy the "laws of Satan" being imposed upon them, among which he singles out the notion that there should be "national unity with the traitors and those who sold out the religion and the homeland." He goes on to lambast Hizbullah as representing a model of "turning jihad into a national cause," a model which "must be rejected by the umma, because it is a model which makes jihad subject to the market of political compromises and distracts the umma from the liberation of Islamic lands and the establishment of the Caliphate."

On October 6, Abu Yahya al-Libi’s al-Sahab video, "East Turkestan: The Forgotten Wound," was released, which calls for support for the defensive jihad in northwestern China, one of those neighbors with whom Mullah Omar expressed a hope for "good and positive relations." As in Zawahiri’s Baitullah eulogy, al-Libi emphasizes the dangers of dividing the umma into nations and ethnicities. He says that "East Turkestan [Xinjiang, China] is part of the Islamic lands that cannot be divided"; that it is the duty of all Muslims to support the Uighurs in their fight against the Chinese state; and that all who would appease China are "apostates." In these messages, then, both al-Libi and Zawahiri are denouncing, in the strongest possible terms, a political strategy being enunciated by the Taliban’s supreme leaders.

A week later, on October 12, Jordanian jihadi writer Ahmad Bawadi posted an exchange of correspondence that he’d recently had with the editors of the Taliban’s al-Sumud magazine. Bawadi, without naming names, points out that Mullah Omar’s 'Eid message had engendered significant controversy, leading some to say that the Taliban supported making the same sort of compromises as Hamas. The "clarification" sent in response by al-Sumud and posted by Bawadi pretty much dodged the question. Amid some tortuous sophistry about words being like a double-edged sword, the al-Sumud editors defended Mullah Omar’s position by comparing it to the Prophet Muhammad’s divide-and-conquer strategy of distinguishing between different groups of enemies: What’s wrong, as-Sumud asks, with saying we don’t want to fight the Buddhists (read: China) now, since the aim is to divide them from the Christians (read: ISAF/NATO forces) in order to weaken the latter? Regardless of how one reads the al-Sumud "clarification," any doubts that the controversies were causing the Quetta Shura to rethink its public relations strategy were laid to rest the following day, when the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan issued an open letter to the Shanghai Cooperation Conference, reiterating verbatim the "neighborly" sentiments from Mullah Omar’s 'Eid message. The SCO, it should be pointed out, includes China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, all countries that are directly targeted by al-Qa’ida-allied groups based in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

All of this has sparked a great deal of heated argument and anxious hand-wringing on several jihadi forums, but for reasons of space I’ll just single out one thread from the al-Hisbah forum. On October 14, "al-Najjar," in a post entitled "Mullah Omar and Zawahiri Diametrically Opposed: A plan, a problem, or…?!," contrasts the neighborly outreach of Mullah Omar’s 'Eid message with the aforementioned statements about the "laws of Satan" in Zawahiri’s Baitullah eulogy, and ends by asking Zawihiri, "Oh our Shaykh, how is it that these are 'Satanic laws’ when they are essentially the same as what has been mentioned by Mullah Omar, the Commander of the Faithful, to whom the mujahidin in Afghanistan and Pakistan have pledged their allegiance?" A later poster, "Abu Azzam 1," adds that Mullah Omar’s messages imply some level of recognition of the United Nations, an organization which al-Qa’ida has unequivocally labelled as "infidel," and that these opposing moves seem to him to signal "the beginning of the end of relations between al-Qa’ida and the Taliban." Another forum participant, "Abu Salam," agrees, writing yesterday that "this is a clear indication that al-Qa’ida and the Taliban movement are not of one mind, and that al-Qa’ida may turn on the Taliban in the near future." We shall see. But one thing is clear: the recent shift in the Quetta Shura’s strategic communications is not to al-Qa’ida’s liking, and it is raising serious concerns among the broader Salafi jihadi movement about the religio-political legitimacy of the Afghan Taliban’s leadership.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59201&s2=22.

Islamists accuse Jordanian authorities for not allowing activitiesin support of Al Aqsa

Jordan's Islamic Action Front (IAF) on Wednesday slammed the government's rejection of its request to set up a tent for a variety of activities in solidarity with Al Aqsa Mosque.

IAF, the political wing of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, said Wednesday it was told by Amman Governor Samir Mubaidin that it is not possible to approve its request for erecting the tent, according to the front's website.

IAF said the governor referred to authorizations given to him under the General Assembly Law.

The law, which the IAF and human rights activists repeatedly criticized, stipulates obtaining prior approval from local governor of each area for any gathering, a matter that deemed by the IAF and those activists as restrictive to public freedoms.

"The rejection of the request is not in line with Jordan's official position that supports the Palestinians in Jerusalem. What is the harm of setting up a tent where some pictures highlighting the Zionists' aggression on Jerusalem and the holy sites will be displayed," it said in the statement.

IAF was planning to set up a tent in an eastern neighborhood of the Jordanian capital of Amman, where it said will display some pictures of Al Aqsa Mosque, banners with words of support to Jerusalem and the Palestinians and other activities in show of solidarity.

In late September, clashes erupted between the Palestinians and the Israeli troops in Jerusalem resulting in the injury and arrest of many Palestinians. A number of Israeli soldiers were also reportedly injured in the clashes.

In its statement, the IAF said it submitted tens of requests for holding such activities but all were rejected.