Thailand's explosion wounds at least 24

At least 24 people have been wounded after a bomb exploded on a crowded market in Thailand, according to authorities.

The attack on Monday morning was in front of the market in Yala town in troubled south. The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle.

The southern region, comprised of the three provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwas, and some parts of Songkla, was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate before predominantly Buddhist Thailand annexed it in 1902.

The South has been the scene of decades-long tensions ever since, but attacks by suspected separatists have risen sharply.

More than 3,900 people, including Buddhists and Muslims from different walks of life, have lost their lives in the violence over the past five years.

Trbic gets 30 yrs over killing 8,000 Muslims

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has sentenced a former Serb officer to 30 years in jail for the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

Milorad Trbic, a former assistant commander for security, was found guilty of taking part in the persecution of Bosnian Muslims in the Srebrenica region as well as attempts to cover up traces of the crime.

The court concluded that he was one of the senior Yugoslav officials responsible for the detention, mass execution, and burial of the victims.

The presiding judge, Davorin Jukic said that Trbic had taken part in a "joint criminal enterprise" with other Serb army officers and organized the forcible transfer of Muslims from Srebrenica between July 10 and November 30, 1995.

Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Srebrenica genocide by Serb forces which captured the eastern enclave on July 11, 1995. The massacre is regarded as Europe's worst atrocity following the World War II era.

At the time of the genocide the United Nations had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" and stationed 400 armed Dutch troops in the region.

However the UN peacekeepers from the Netherlands did not intervene to stop the massacre, choosing to stand by and watch. Since then, human rights groups have launched attacks on the UN for its lack of intervention in Srebrenica.

Bosnian Serb leader of the time Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic, are seen as the main perpetrators of the massacre, rape and torture of thousands of women and children, and ethnic cleansing in Srebenica.

After ten years on the run, Radovan Karadzic was finally caught in 2008 and handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague. Mladic, however, still remains at large.

Trbic, who also played a key role in the event, oversaw the detention of thousands of Muslims in several schools around Srebrenica, where they were kept in inhuman conditions, Jukic explained.

He then arranged their transportation to killing fields where they were executed in great numbers, the judge added.

He personally shot dead a group of "at least 20 Muslims" in the Grbavci School, and a group of "at least 5 Muslims" in the Rocevici School on two separate occasions.

The judge said that the former officer was involved in the removal of the victims' bodies from the mass graves they were originally buried in and their later transfer to "secondary mass graves" to conceal the crime.

Remains of more than 6,000 Srebrenica victims have been found in mass graves across eastern Bosnia. Up to 3,800 have been identified so far using DNA remains.

Despite finding him guilty of the above charges, Jukic refrained from referring to the crimes as genocide. This upset the victims' families who assumed that he had been acquitted of all such charges.

"The sentence was a reward for him. The court might as well have set him free," Hatidza Mehmedovic, who lost her husband and two sons in the massacre, told Reuters.

Although the court issued a statement clarifying the verdict later on, it failed to appease most of the relatives.

After the Bosnian 1992-95 war, Trbic escaped to the United States where he was detained and convicted for breaking immigration laws. In 2005 he was handed over to the ICTY.

The Hague-based court, which indicted Trbic on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of laws or customs of war, handed him over to the Bosnian war crimes court so that the prosecution could begin in June 2007.

Fourteen years after the Bosnian war, an almost complete list of the victims that has been compiled by the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (IDC) will soon be released to the public on the internet.

According to data collected by the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Centre 98,000 people were killed in the Bosnian war - 57,000 soldiers and 40,000 civilians. Muslims accounted for 66 percent of the dead, Serbs for 25 and Croats for eight. Other sources have reported figures of up to 250 thousand.

Survivor of Terror Attack Accepts Islam

Sunday, 11 October 2009

NEW YORK - An American Catholic Christian and survivor of a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India last November overcame hatred and opened his mind to learn and discover Islam and.. Becomes A Muslim.

Dennis O’Brien, a Catholic, wanted to comprehend the basis of faith of people accused of committing the attack in Mumbai. He discovered in fact, the gunmen were certainly not following Islam at all. In fact, anyone who might take the time to open their eyes, open their minds and open their hearts would have to come to the very same conclusion.

Sunday, just after Eid salat and standing before a crowd of thousands, Dennis O’Brien embraced Islam.
He declared..

..his belief - "There is only one God and the Prophet Muhammad is his last messenger".
O’Brien, who heads up the education committee of St Anthony’s Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, says this was a surprise, even to him. But said he was at peace with it.
“Today I feel free of sin,” he remarked.

After several months of studies and asking questions of Muslim friends and associates, “I feel comfort in Islam,” he said.
O’Brien also said he wanted to express solidarity with Muslims, even though extremists who say they practice the faith “tried to kill me”.

Pastor John McGinley, of St Anthony’s, said Sunday he had not heard of O’Brien’s embrace of Islam. McGinley said he knew O’Brien is inquisitive and has expressed concern about the young men involved in the Mumbai attacks.

He would not say if the declaration of another faith would affect O’Brien’s position at the church, noting he had not spoken to him about Sunday’s events. “I think this is part of his journey of faith and we can work with that,” McGinley said.

Police arrest 18 protestors in Manchester

Police have arrested at least 18 people in the English city of Manchester after about 2,000 protesters took to the streets in two political rallies.

Most of those arrested were accused of public order offenses, Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said in a statement on Saturday.

"Today we've made 18 arrests, many of whom were thought to be agitators and trouble-makers," said Shewan.

"The presence of so many protesters in the city has proved a challenge and while many have turned out to protest peacefully, the police reaction has been necessary in order to prevent the few hell-bent on violent confrontation," he added.

The English Defense League (EDL) staged a protest in Piccadilly Gardens to campaign against Islamic extremists. The rally prompted a planned counter-protest by Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

Both sides faced each other in Piccadilly Gardens but were separated by a line of police officers, dogs and mounted police.

UN rights monitor condemns Marwa's murder

In response to a letter form Iran's parliament, UN's top human rights monitor has condemned the death of an Egyptian woman brutally killed in a courtroom in the German city of Dresden.

Egyptian researcher, Marwa El-Sherbini was killed in early July when she sued her neighbor for insulting her and calling her a terrorist for wearing a headscarf.

The defendant approached the witness stand during the hearing, stabbed Marwa 18 times in front of her 3-year-old son while the whole jury and court officials stood by and watched.

Her husband, Elwi Ali Okaz, who attempted to shield his wife, was shot by security guards who said they had confused him with the assailant.

Iranian lawmaker, Fatemeh Alia had in July written to Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to express Iran's concern over the disturbing increase of Xenophobic sentiments in the West.

Alia who also heads the human rights committee of Iran's parliament, had called on the human rights monitor to take into consideration the circumstances of El-Sherbini's murder.

"I have read your letter of 14 July 2009 concerning the murder of Ms. Marveh Sharbini and I fully share your feelings of sadness and consternation," Pillay wrote in response.

The letter obtained by Press TV, also denounces all forms of "racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all parts of the world."

"I condemn all manifestations thereof," the UN official added.

Three detainees released from Guantanamo

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Three detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp have been freed -- one to Yemen and two to Ireland, the Obama administration said.

The transfer reduced the camp's prison population to 223, including an estimated 75 men the Obama administration has approved for future release, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.

The weekend transfer included Yemeni Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, 26, who was sent home in compliance with a federal court order that said the U.S. government lacked evidence to indefinitely detain him on grounds he fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan or conspired with al-Qaida in Pakistan.

In March 2002, Ahmed was captured in a raid in Pakistan along with alleged terrorist Abu Zubaydah, who remains at Guantanamo.

The two detainees transferred to Ireland were citizens of Uzbekistan who feared persecution if they returned home, Irish authorities said. One of the men is believed to be Oybek Jabbarov, 31, said through his lawyer he wanted to work as a shepherd in Ireland, the Herald reported.

French police bulldoze migrant camp near Calais

By NICOLAS GARRIGA, Associated Press Writer

CALAIS, France – French police bulldozed a squalid, sprawling forest camp known as the "jungle" near the northern city of Calais on Tuesday, detaining hundreds of illegal migrants who had hoped to slip across the English Channel into Britain.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson, who visited the site Tuesday, called it a "base camp for human traffickers" and said he would return the rule of law to the northern French coast.

The people camped here — mainly migrants from Afghanistan — have strained relations between Britain and France and become a symbol of Europe's struggle with illegal migration.

A total of 278 people — nearly half of them minors — were detained in the first part of the operation, said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, the top official for the Pas-de-Calais region.

"This operation is not targeting the migrants themselves, it is targeting the logistics of the human traffickers ... who exploit them," he said.

Refugees in jeans and sweatshirts, many appearing to be in their teens, carried knapsacks and blankets as they were led away in single lines by police. Activists yelled at the police with bullhorns, forming a human chain around some refugees, and briefly scuffled with police as they took the men and boys one by one.

Several refugees appeared despondent about their fate, sobbing quietly as they squatted in the sand or stood in police lines.

Besson said there was no violence in the operation and all personal belongings were collected and were being sorted out in the Calais mosque. Thirty interpreters and a medical team were helping authorities with the operation and 200 temporary beds were arranged for the migrants, the regional administration said.

After the people were cleared out, authorities brought in bulldozers to raze the maze of makeshift tents built from sticks and sheets of plastic amid the sand and brush. Workers with chain saws cut down the trees and scrub brush that had supported the tents.

Activist group Refugee Action called the police operation "horrific" and inhumane but agreed the camp should not have been permitted to sprout up in the first place.

"They should never have been allowed to rot there like this. It's appalling neglect and has allowed false expectation to be built up," said Sandy Buchan, the group's chief executive.

British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he was "delighted" that the camp was being closed. Britain has ruled out taking the migrants in, and Johnson said genuine refugees should apply for asylum in the country where they entered the EU.

Most of the migrants reached Calais after costly and dangerous clandestine journeys across Asia and Europe, by foot or hidden in trucks and boats.

The migrants try to elude the elaborate border security network, including heat sensors and infrared cameras, at the port of Calais or the Channel tunnel that carries Eurostar trains and other undersea traffic to Britain. Nearly a decade ago, many thousands made it across by slipping inside or under trucks traveling through the tunnel. Today only a few make it, but enough to sustain hope.

Britain is viewed as an easier place than France to make a life, even clandestinely, a view perpetuated by traffickers and family members or friends already there.

Besson said other, smaller camps scattered around the region — sheltering Iraqi Kurds and illegal migrants from other trouble spots — would also be cleared out Tuesday and in the coming days.

He said each migrant was being offered individual options, and that to date 180 have agreed to return to their countries and 170 started applying for asylum in France. The others will be expelled from France, primarily to Greece, the point where most of the migrants first entered the European Union.

Besson brushed off criticism that France was just passing the problem of illegal migrants on to Greek authorities.

French activist group CSP59 said, "Expelling them will do nothing, just disperse them."

As many as 1,000 people at a time have called the "jungle" their home, but after Besson's announcement their numbers dwindled.

In the camp before the raid, piles of garbage littered the scrubland. The illegal migrants, some as young as 14, baked flat bread over a fire in a tin drum. The only amenities were a spigot of water at the entrance, a homemade toilet hidden behind plastic and, in a scrupulously cleared area, a mosque made of blue tarp and ringed with pots of flowers.

In 2002, authorities dismantled a Red Cross-run camp in nearby Sangatte, which had been used by illegal migrants as a springboard for sneaking across the Channel. The migrants kept coming back even after the camp was shut down.

Countdown to destruction at French migrant camp

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

CALAIS, France – Hijrat Hotak's parents sold the family home in Afghanistan, paying a smuggler $15,000 (euro10,200.61) to help buy a bright future in Britain for their 15-year-old son.

Instead, after a long, perilous journey, he lives in "The Jungle," a squalid encampment in Calais where Hotak and hundreds of other hungry migrants nourish dreams of sneaking across the English Channel.

And even that will not last.

Hotak's humble shelter here will be gone within days, when the camp will be razed by French authorities who see it as a public-health nightmare, a haven for human traffickers and a point of contention with the British, who want the border to their country better sealed.

But critics say the effort to stop it through destruction is futile. They point to the dismantling in 2002 of a Red Cross-run camp in nearby Sangatte, which had been used by illegal migrants as a springboard for sneaking across the Channel in freight trains and trucks. The migrants kept coming back even after the camp was shut down.

Britain is viewed as an easier place than France to make a life, even clandestinely, a view perpetuated by traffickers and family members or friends already there. Calais became a magnet for migrants a decade ago when refugees from the war in Kosovo flocked here; today, it is a magnet for Afghans. That Afghan migrants sometimes speak at least broken English makes Britain all the more attractive.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson announced plans earlier this year to dismantle the camp. Last Wednesday, he said it would be razed by the end of the following week.

"This is a lawless zone and a logistical base for smugglers," Besson said on French TV. "We say that no one will be getting across the Channel from Calais."

Some migrants refuse to believe their risky, and costly, journeys to France were for naught. They hope that Britain or France will have a change of heart and take them in, or that the destruction will simply be called off.

"We are afraid, we are scared. But this is better than other places," said another Afghan, Mohammad Bashir, 24, who claimed he had been held last year by the Taliban but escaped.

Scores of makeshift tents built from sticks and sheets of plastic sprout from the sand and brush in the camp. Piles of garbage litter the scrubland.

The illegal migrants, mainly Afghan men and boys and some as young as 14, bake flat bread over a fire in a tin drum. The only amenities are a spigot of water at the entrance, a homemade toilet hidden behind plastic and, in a scrupulously cleared area, a mosque made of blue tarp and ringed with pots of flowers.

Smaller camps scattered about the region shelter Iraqi Kurds or illegal migrants from other trouble spots.

France's immigration minister has promised to offer options to migrants. If they leave voluntarily, they can get a stipend. If they meet the profile, they can demand asylum in France. Otherwise, they are to be expelled.

The migrants try to elude the elaborate border security network, complete with heat sensors and infrared cameras, at the port and the Channel tunnel that carries the Eurostar trains and other undersea traffic. Nearly a decade ago, many thousands made it across by hopping a ride to Britain. Today only a few make it, but enough to sustain hope.

French authorities have not said when they will move in, but a half-dozen border police exiting the camp Saturday said they had been counting heads.

Some 800 migrants were in the main camp as of June, officials say. However, the number has since dwindled to about 300, leading to speculation that border police have been turning a blind eye to illegal crossings to make it easier to clear out the jungle.

"Even if the jungle is shut down tomorrow, migrants will continue to arrive," said Jacky Verhaegen of aid group Secours Catholique. "Migrants are already en route, in Greece, in Italy, in Turkey. I don't think they'll stop in their tracks. Their goal is Britain."

Philippe Blet, president of the Calais region, said, "We are in a surrealistic and incomprehensible situation."

He criticized a 2004 accord signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, which authorized deployment of British immigration officers in Calais and Dunkirk.

"Today, the British border is effectively in Calais," Blet said.

In the encampment, tales abound of journeys by foot, in trucks and boats to reach Calais and of efforts to slip inside or under trucks crossing the Channel only to be tripped up by high-tech equipment or sniffed out by a dog.

But hope remains despite the announced crackdown.

"My family said you go to England and make your future by hard studying," said Hotak, who comes from Laghman province, where Taliban and U.S. forces have clashed. "My family is old. They said our life is finished ... You make our future."

Though the adolescent showed visitors his shelter, he refused to be photographed because "if my mother sees this is my home, she will cry."

For Blet, such reactions are normal. Young migrants often set off for the West with the family's blessing and "it's an honor," he said. "He will save the family. He has a mandate."

But in Calais, "They are all 40 kilometers (24.86 miles) from happiness. That's the real drama."

U.S. judge orders Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo freed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered the Obama administration to release another Kuwaiti detainee held at the controversial U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered that Fouad Al Rabiah be released from the detention facility where he has been held for more than seven years on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The U.S. government has accused Al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti Airlines manager, of providing money to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and helping to coordinate and support Taliban fighters in the mountainous Tora Bora region in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden is believed to have escaped through the area as U.S. forces and their allies overran Taliban and al-Qaeda positions.

But Al Rabiah's lawyers said the case was based on mistaken identity and that their client was in Afghanistan in October 2001 coordinating deliveries of aid supplies from Iran to refugees.

A Justice Department spokesman said the agency was reviewing the decision.

A U.S. federal judge ordered in late July that another Kuwaiti, Khaled Al Mutairi, be released from Guantanamo. But last month a third Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi Al Odah, had his petition to be freed from the detention camp denied.

A lawyer for Al Rabiah and Al Mutairi called for the Obama administration to send them back to their home country.

"We need the administration to respect the federal court's decision and return our clients to the care and custody of the government of Kuwait," said David Cynamon, their attorney.

President Barack Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo prison by January 2010, with some detainees being released and others expected to be tried in U.S. courts or in military commissions. The prison currently holds 226 detainees.

MEANINGS: Jihad is a struggle, not war

ABDUL GHAFFUR RAMLI, Petaling Jaya

I REFER to your report "Foundation's effort a jihad" (NST, Sept 16).


I am surprised that some Malaysian writers and editors are just parroting the Western media by putting in brackets the words "holy war" after the word "jihad" .

"Holy war" is a term that does not exist in Islamic terminology. Jihad, it must be emphasized, means "struggle", and specifically, struggle in the way of God. This struggle may take many forms, including the use of force. Though a jihad may be sacred in the sense of being directed towards a sacred ideal, it is not necessarily a "war".

Urgent Message from the Shabab of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan

The systematic torture meted out by the corrupt Karimov regime against the Shabab of the Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan has intensified greatly in recent times. We have received the following update from Central Asia.

"Indeed this oppressive ruler has instructed his cronies to imprison further Shabab and intensify their punishment and prolonging their prison sentences to a minimum of 10 years and over. Recently, 18 Shabab from Karasawa have been imprisoned, a further 10 from Tashkent and 15 from the North, all receiving sentences ranging from 10-13 years. This is on top of the many thousands of Muslims which already languish in the prisons. As a result of the torture, 3 shabab were recently martyred who include: Ghalib Malajanoth from the city of Andijan, Shadman from the city of Nahayat Asaka and Abdulraheem from the city of Karasawa.

Not withstanding the oppressive imprisonment of the Shabab, the corrupt regime has resorted to new tactics by imprisoning their relatives, some even under 15 years old! They have also imprisoned some of the wives and daughters of the Shabab, including some under the age 15! They have also imprisoned women whom their husbands are either already imprisoned or previously martyred! All this pressure is a result of the Shababs' refusal to surrender and leave their Deen!

Oh Brothers and Sisters! Please make dua for us against this corrupt ruler and his oppressive regime by asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to strike him down and humiliate him in this dunyah before the Hereafter. Pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى to relieve the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters and to retaliate against the oppressors and humiliate them so that everything between the heavens and earth curse them - Oh Allah the All-Mighty.

Please make dua for us during these last 10 blessed days of Ramadan; and Allah is All-Powerful, All-Mighty."

Gaddafi’s heir leaves clue to his world vision in his Phd

Buried away on the dusty shelves of a London library is a student’s vision for a new world order.

Doctoral dissertations are usually of little interest outside the world of academic research but this book casts an intriguing light on the beliefs of one of the Middle East’s most influential figures.

The publication by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the eldest son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife, is set to fuel the debate about the pace of democratic and economic reform in his homeland.

Perhaps because it is published under the surname Alqadhafi, the blue cover of the PhD thesis appears to have been little read since it was filed at the Senate House library of the University of London last autumn. Over 428 pages, the man seen as heir apparent to the socialist dictator who has ruled Libya for 40 years calls for democracy and greater influence for business in his vision of the world’s governing institutions.

Dr Gaddafi has become an increasingly powerful voice in the oil-rich country, which has influence in both the Muslim world and the African Union. Although dismissed by critics as a playboy prince for his frequent international travel and attendance at celebrity parties, Dr Gaddafi spent four years researching his thesis at the London School of Economics.

While other doctoral students struggled to survive with occasional lecturing, the multimillionaire Libyan was also negotiating the release of the Lockerbie bomber and $1.5billion compensation for his victims, opening up his country’s oil and gas fields to international businesses and restoring diplomatic links with the US.

Dr Gaddafi, 37, introduces his work by writing: “I shall be primarily concerned with what I argue is the central failing of the current system of global governance in the new global environment: that it is highly undemocratic.”

The comments will be read with interest in Libya, where his father has ruled since a military coup in 1969 and where opponents are still ruthlessly suppressed. Dr Gaddafi says that his dissertation “analyses the problem of how to create more just and democratic global governing institutions”, focusing on the importance of the role of “civil society”.

“Citizens in undemocratic states emphasise that they are not represented in the decision-making process of the IGO [intergovernmental organisation],” he writes. “Even if their governments are represented in some capacity, because their governments are authoritarian, abusive and unrepresentative of their people’s real interests. Others emphasise that even democratic states fail to consult adequately with their own citizens regarding their positions in international negotiations.”

He argues that the introduction of elected representatives of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) creates a more democratic global government and features a case study on the World Trade Organisation.

Dr Gaddafi says that there are “strong moral reasons” to explore reform of the World Trade Organisation because power is currently concentrated among a few northern states. Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, supported Libya’s entry to the WTO last year while he was the EU Trade Commissioner.

At home Dr Gaddafi, seen by many commentators as the favourite son of Colonel Gaddafi, has portrayed himself as a reformer. In 2006 the Libyan authorities suddenly announced that he was leaving the country after a two-hour speech to 15,000 youth activists that contained critical public comments of the regime.

Despite helping to end diplomatic hostilities with the United States during the final months of the Bush Administration, Dr Gaddafi is scathing of his impact on the former President.

He refers to the United States as the “new Leviathan” and writes that the “behaviour of the Bush Administration does not invalidate the liberal view that we can build meaningful international rule by law and institutions based on expectations and reciprocal obligations”.

Dr Gaddafi commissioned consultants to carry out a survey of leaders in NGOs, which provided the data used in his thesis, The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions: From Soft Power to Collective Decision Making?

The survey found that 91 per cent of respondents believed that there is a “democratic deficit” in intergovernmental institutions. Eighty-eight per cent believed that participation by NGOs would lead to better decision-making.

Dr Gaddafi concludes: “I believe that the evidence presented in this thesis suggests that the collective decision-making approach has real potential and deserves further examination.”

He was clearly satisfied with his experience at the LSE because in July the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation donated £1.5 million to the college’s work on global governance.

Hungary to accept Guantanamo detainee

By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary will accept a prisoner from the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military detention center, which President Barack Obama has pledged to close, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said Wednesday.

Bajnai said Hungary would choose from a short list of Guantanamo prisoners in the coming days and that he would participate in an 18-month integration program.

"According to our current expectations ... the chosen candidate will be a Palestinian man who will be able to start a new life in Hungary," Bajnai told reporters.

"I ask my fellow citizens to consider the difficult circumstances in which the detainee spent his latest years and help his future integration."

Bajnai said he had called U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to inform her of Hungary's decision.

Daniel Fried, the U.S. government's envoy in charge of closing the Guantanamo prison, thanked Hungary and said all detainees who had been included as candidates for resettlement have been cleared of "any residual security questions which may remain."

"We are very grateful for Hungary's decision," Fried told reporters, adding that so far France, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Belgium were among other European countries that had either accepted detainees or announced their willingness to do so.

Within the European Union, which long argued for the prison's closure, Portugal, France and Ireland have committed to taking specific prisoners.

"Closing the Guantanamo detention camp in a way that advances the security of the United States and of our allies as well as advances our values is one of President Obama's great priorities," Fried said.

Before the start of the war in Iraq, Hungary hosted a U.S. military training camp for Iraqi exiles and sent 300 noncombat troops to Iraq who carried out mainly transportation duties. The troops were withdrawn at the end of 2006.

UK troubled by anti-Islam rallies, counterprotests

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Violent clashes between anti-Islam demonstrators and Muslim counter-protesters in English cities are worrying the government, with one British minister comparing the disturbances to 1930s-era fascist incitement.

The violence that has hit Luton, Birmingham and London in the last few months has involved a loose collection of far-right groups — such as the previously unknown English Defense League — on one side and anti-fascist organizations and Muslim youth on the other.

In an interview published Saturday, Communities Minister John Denham accused the anti-Islam protesters of deliberately stirring up trouble.

"The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups," Denham was quoted as saying by The Guardian newspaper. "You could go back to the 1930s if you wanted to — Cable Street."

Denham was referring to a 1936 confrontation sparked by British fascist leader Oswald Mosley's decision to march through the then-heavily Jewish East End of London. Mosley's pro-Nazi followers were met at Cable Street by Jews, communists and anarchists, and a pitched battle ensued.

The English Defense League rejects the fascist label, arguing that it only opposes militant Islam. On its Web site, the group claims that the violence at its rallies has been provoked by Muslims and far-left groups.

The group did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.

Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said the League's stated opposition to militant Islam was just "a fig leaf" to hide the group's true anti-Muslim mission.

"These are not people who support community cohesion," he said.

Bunglawala added that Muslim Council, an umbrella group for British Muslim organizations, had seen a spike in anti-Muslim incidents — including arson attacks on mosques — in the past few months.

"These are extremely worrying developments," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.

British media have traced the origins of the League to Luton, an ethnically mixed town north of London which in March was the site of a small but widely covered protest against the British Army. Bearded Islamists picketed a homecoming parade for British soldiers returning from Iraq, holding up signs accusing the men of being "butchers" and "baby-killers."

Tensions boiled over in May, when a demonstration by a far-right group calling itself United People of Luton led to South Asian businesses being attacked and cars being smashed.

In August the group's successor, the English Defense League, tried to mount a protest in Birmingham, where they clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators. This month, the League's second attempt at a Birmingham protest quickly descended into violence, with some 200 people — many of them of South Asian descent — seen fighting, throwing projectiles and running from riot police. Police made 90 arrests.

On Friday, an openly Islamophobic group, Stop Islamification of Europe, promised an evening protest outside a northwest London mosque to coincide with the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11 and with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

Only a handful of demonstrators showed up — and they were vastly outnumbered by Muslims coming to defend the mosque.

Police hustled the protesters away from the angry crowd. But television footage showed Muslim youths racing through the streets shouting "Allahu Akbar!", waving Islamic banners and throwing projectiles at riot police. Scotland Yard reported 10 arrests.

"They gave the fascists and far-right what they wanted, and I think that's a shame," lawmaker Tony McNulty told Sky News television.

The far-right League, meanwhile, has promised more protests in London, Luton, Manchester and Leeds over the next few weeks.

Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years - and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on terror?

By Sue Reid

September 12, 2009

The last time we heard a squeak from him was on June 3 this year.

The world's most notorious terrorist outsmarted America by releasing a menacing message as Air Force One touched down on Saudi Arabian soil at the start of Barack Obama's first and much vaunted Middle East tour.

Even before the new President alighted at Riyadh airport to shake hands with Prince Abdullah, Bin Laden's words were being aired on TV, radio and the internet across every continent.

It was yet another propaganda coup for the 52-year-old Al Qaeda leader. In the audiotape delivered to the Arab news network Al Jazeera, Bin Laden said that America and her Western allies were sowing seeds of hatred in the Muslim world and deserved dire consequences.

It was the kind of rant we have heard from him before, and the response from British and U.S. intelligence services was equally predictable.

They insisted that the details on the tape, of the President's visit and other contemporary events, proved that the mastermind of 9/11, America's worst ever terrorist atrocity, was still alive - and that the hunt for him must go on.

Bin Laden has always been blamed for orchestrating the horrific attack - in which nearly 3,000 people perished - eight years ago this week. President George W. Bush made his capture a national priority, infamously promising with a Wild West flourish to take him 'dead or alive'.

The U.S. State Department offered a reward of $50million for his whereabouts. The FBI named him one of their ten 'most wanted' fugitives, telling the public to watch out for a left-handed, grey-bearded gentleman who walks with a stick.

Yet this master terrorist remains elusive. He has escaped the most extensive and expensive man-hunt in history, stretching across Waziristan, the 1,500 miles of mountainous badlands on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Undeterred, Barack Obama has launched a fresh operation to find him. Working with the Pakistani Army, elite squads of U.S. and British special forces were sent into Waziristan this summer to 'hunt and kill' the shadowy figure intelligence officers still call 'the principal target' of the war on terror.

This new offensive is, of course, based on the premise that the 9/11 terrorist is alive. After all, there are the plethora of 'Bin Laden tapes' to prove it.

Yet what if he isn't? What if he has been dead for years, and the British and U.S. intelligence services are actually playing a game of double bluff?

What if everything we have seen or heard of him on video and audio tapes since the early days after 9/11 is a fake - and that he is being kept 'alive' by the Western allies to stir up support for the war on terror?

Incredibly, this is the breathtaking theory that is gaining credence among political commentators, respected academics and even terror experts.

Of course, there have been any number of conspiracy theories concerning 9/11, and it could be this is just another one.

But the weight of opinion now swinging behind the possibility that Bin Laden is dead - and the accumulating evidence that supports it - makes the notion, at the very least, worthy of examination.

The theory first received an airing in the American Spectator magazine earlier this year when former U.S. foreign intelligence officer and senior editor Angelo M. Codevilla, a professor of international relations at Boston University, stated bluntly: 'All the evidence suggests Elvis Presley is more alive today than Osama Bin Laden.'

Prof Codevilla pointed to inconsistencies in the videos and claimed there have been no reputable sightings of Bin Laden for years (for instance, all interceptions by the West of communications made by the Al Qaeda leader suddenly ceased in late 2001).

Prof Codevilla asserted: 'The video and audio tapes alleged to be Osama's never convince the impartial observer,' he asserted. 'The guy just does not look like Osama. Some videos show him with a Semitic, aquiline nose, while others show him with a shorter, broader one. Next to that, differences between the colors and styles of his beard are small stuff.'

There are other doubters, too. Professor Bruce Lawrence, head of Duke University's religious studies' department and the foremost Bin Laden expert, argues that the increasingly secular language in the video and audio tapes of Osama (his earliest ones are littered with references to God and the Prophet Mohammed) are inconsistent with his strict Islamic religion, Wahhabism.

He notes that, on one video, Bin Laden wears golden rings on his fingers, an adornment banned among Wahhabi followers.

This week, still more questions have been raised with the publication in America and Britain of a book called Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?

Written by political analyst and philosopher Professor David Ray Griffin, former emeritus professor at California's Claremont School of Theology, it is provoking shock waves - for it goes into far more detail about his supposed death and suggests there has been a cover-up by the West.

The book claims that Bin Laden died of kidney failure, or a linked complaint, on December 13, 2001, while living in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains close to the border with Waziristan.

His burial took place within 24 hours, in line with Muslim religious rules, and in an unmarked grave, which is a Wahhabi custom.

The author insists that the many Bin Laden tapes made since that date have been concocted by the West to make the world believe Bin Laden is alive. The purpose? To stoke up waning support for the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To understand Griffin's thesis, we must remember the West's reaction to 9/11, that fateful sunny September day in 2001. Within a month, on Sunday, October 7, the U.S. and Britain launched massive retaliatory air strikes in the Tora Bora region where they said 'prime suspect' Bin Laden was living 'as a guest of Afghanistan'.

This military offensive ignored the fact that Bin Laden had already insisted four times in official Al Qaeda statements made to the Arab press that he played no role in 9/11.

Indeed, on the fourth occasion, on September 28 and a fortnight after the atrocity, he declared emphatically: 'I have already said I am not involved. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge... nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act.'

Within hours of the October 7 strikes by the U.S. on Tora Bora, Bin Laden made his first ever appearance on video tape. Dressed in Army fatigues, and with an Islamic head-dress, he had an assault rifle propped behind him in a broadly lit mountain hideout. Significantly, he looked pale and gaunt.

Although he called President George W. Bush 'head of the infidels' and poured scorn on the U.S., he once again rejected responsibility for 9/11.

'America was hit by God in one of its softest spots. America is full of fear, from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that.'

Then came a second videotape on November 3, 2001. Once again, an ailing Bin Laden lashed out at the United States. He urged true Muslims to celebrate the attacks - but did not at any time acknowledge he had been involved in the atrocity.

And then there was silence until December 13, 2001 - the date Griffin claims Bin Laden died. That very day, the U.S. Government released a new video of the terror chief. In this tape, Bin Laden contradicted all his previous denials, and suddenly admitted to his involvement in the atrocity of 9/11.

The tape had reportedly been found by U.S. troops in a private home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, after anti-Taliban forces took over the city. A label attached to it claimed that it had been made on November 9, 2001.

The tape shows Bin Laden talking with a visiting sheik. In it, he clearly states that he not only knew about the 9/11 atrocities in advance, but had planned every detail personally.

What manna for the Western authorities! This put the terrorist back in the frame over 9/11. The Washington Post quoted U.S. officials saying that the video 'offers the most convincing evidence of a connection between Bin Laden and the September 11 attacks'.

A euphoric President Bush added: 'For those who see this tape, they realize that not only is he guilty of incredible murder, but he has no conscience and no soul.'

In London, Downing Street said that the video was 'conclusive proof of his involvement'. The then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, added: 'There is no doubt it is the real thing. People can see Bin Laden there, making those utterly chilling words of admission about his guilt for organizing the atrocities of September 11.'

Yet Professor Griffin claims this 'confessional' video provokes more questions than answers. For a start, the Bin Laden in this vital film testimony looks different.

He is a weighty man with a black beard, not a grey one. His pale skin had suddenly become darker, and he had a different shaped nose. His artistic hands with slender fingers had transformed into those of a pugilist. He looked in exceedingly good health.

Furthermore, Bin Laden can be seen writing a note with his right hand, although he is left-handed. Bizarrely, too, he makes statements about 9/11 which Griffin claims would never have come from the mouth of the real Bin Laden - a man with a civil engineering degree who had made his fortune (before moving into terrorism) from building construction in the Middle East.

For example, the Al Qaeda leader trumpets that far more people died in 9/11 than he had expected. He goes on: 'Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the explosion from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. That is all we had hoped for.' (In reality the Twin Towers' completely fell down).

The words of the true Bin Laden? No, says Griffin, because of the obvious mistakes. 'Given his experience as a contractor, he would have known the Twin Towers were framed with steel, not iron,' he says.

'He would also known that steel and iron do not begin to melt until they reach 2,800 deg F. Yet a building fire fed by jet fuel is a hydrocarbon fire, and could not have reached above 1,800 deg F.'

Griffin, in his explosive book, says this tape is fake, and he goes further.

'A reason to suspect that all of the post-2001 Bin Laden tapes are fabrications is that they often appeared at times that boosted the Bush presidency or supported a claim by its chief 'war on terror' ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

'The confession tape came exactly when Bush and Blair had failed to prove Bin Laden's responsibility for 9/11 and both men were trying to win international public support, particularly in the Islamic world, for the anti-terrorist campaign.'

Griffin suggests that Western governments used highly sophisticated, special effects film technology to morph together images and vocal recordings of Bin Laden.

So if they are fakes, why has Al Qaeda kept quiet about it? And what exactly happened to the real Bin Laden?

The answer to the first question may be that the amorphous terrorist organization is happy to wage its own propaganda battle in the face of waning support - and goes along with the myth that its charismatic figurehead is still alive to encourage recruitment to its cause.

As for the matter of what happened to him, hints of Bin Laden's kidney failure, or that he might be dead, first appeared on January 19, 2002, four months after 9/11.

This was when Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf told America's news show CNN: 'I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a kidney patient. The images of him show he is extremely weak.'

In his book, Professor Griffin also endorses this theory. He says Bin Laden was treated for a urinary infection, often linked to kidney disease, at the American Hospital in Dubai in July 2001, two months before 9/11. At the same time, he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to Afghanistan.

How could Bin Laden, on the run in snowy mountain caves, have used the machine that many believe was essential to keep him alive? Doctors whom Griffin cites on the subject think it would have been impossible.

He would have needed to stay in one spot with a team of medics, hygienic conditions, and a regular maintenance programme for the dialysis unit itself.

And what of the telling, small news item that broke on December 26, 2001 in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Wafd? It said a prominent official of the Afghan Taliban had announced that Osama Bin Laden had been buried on or about December 13.

'He suffered serious complications and died a natural, quiet death. He was buried in Tora Bora, a funeral attended by 30 Al Qaeda fighters, close members of his family and friends from the Taliban. By the Wahhabi tradition, no mark was left on the grave,' said the report.

The Taliban official, who was not named, said triumphantly that he had seen Bin Laden's face in his shroud. 'He looked pale, but calm, relaxed and confident.'

It was Christmas in Washington DC and London and the report hardly got a mention. Since then, the Bin Laden tapes have emerged with clockwork regularity as billions have been spent and much blood spilt on the hunt for him.

Bin Laden has been the central plank of the West's 'war on terror'. Could it be that, for years, he's just been smoke and mirrors?

Algerians, Freed From Guantanamo, Still Paying The Price

Seven months after his release from Guantanamo Bay, Mustafa Ait Idr cautiously sips coffee in a Sarajevo cafe. His face is still partially paralyzed and numb from when guards pinned him onto gravel and jumped on him. He is nursing a broken finger - punishment for refusing to strip naked in his cell. On another occasion, his head was held in a toilet for prolonged periods of time.

Now a free man, Ait Idr proudly displays his Bosnian I.D. Card, which was only recently reinstated. He is still unable to find employment or access his bank accounts, which were frozen shortly after his arrest in 2001. He has seen his wife twice in the past seven years; upon his release, he met his youngest son for the first time.

Ait Idr is one of “The Algerian Six,” a group of Bosnian citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay for seven years, and recently released with all charges dropped. Their story is another in a long list of stories from Guantanamo of wrongful imprisonment on unproven charges.

The Algerian men came to Bosnia in the 1990s. At the request of U.S. officials, the men were arrested in October 2001 on allegations that they were planning an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. According to documents filed by the detainee's American lawyers in their U.S. federal court habeas action, Christopher Hoh, then the U.S. chargé d'affaires, told then Bosnian Prime Minister Alija Behmen that the U.S. would cut all diplomatic relations if the men were not arrested.

"If we leave Bosnia, God save your country," said Hoh, according to the documents. The U.S. Embassy temporarily closed during this time. Behmen, leader of a fragile, post-conflict country, acquiesced to the demand. He noted in an interview with the Washington Post, "The only way out was to deliver them" to the Americans … We were not interested in introducing a new period of instability in Bosnia."

Within a week, Bosnian police detained “The Algerian Six”: Hajj Boudella, Lakhdar Boumediene, Mustafa Ait Idr, Mohammad Nechle, Saber Lahmar and Bensayah Belkacem.

After a three-month Bosnian investigation found no evidence linking the men to terrorist activities or justifying their detention, the Bosnian Supreme Court ordered their release. High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch, the international community's top official in Bosnia at the time, said, "the U.S. put a tremendous amount of pressure” on Bosnia to deport the men. Vijay Padmanabhan, a lawyer for the State Department, denied the charge, claiming, "The U.S. does not threaten or intimidate." Hoh did not respond to requests for comment.

On Jan. 17, 2002, Bosnian officials drove the men from the courthouse. More than 150 people had gathered outside the courthouse to protest their surrender to American officials. It would be the last time that Boudella's wife, Nadja Dizdarevic, would see her husband for seven years.

"Through the car window, he said we were only little pawns in a big political game,” she remembered, blue eyes peering from behind her gray burqa.

Three days later, stripped of their Bosnian citizenship, the men arrived handcuffed and blindfolded at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, where they spent the following seven years.

“Virtually every claim made by the U.S. government to justify our clients’ illegal rendition was eventually dropped," said Stephen Oleskey, an attorney for Wilmer Hale, the Boston law firm that in 2004 agreed to take up the case, without charge. "There was never any real evidence.”

One detainee, Nechle, was flagged because of his mandatory service in the Algerian army a decade ago, as a cook. Ait Idr was presumed dangerous because he taught Bosnian orphans martial arts. Military tribunal transcripts reveal one U.S. officer saying, "At this point, we don't know why you are being accused of being a member of the Armed Islamic Group… Do you have any idea why you are being connected with this group?"

"I don't know," Boudella replied.

In June 2008, the landmark Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, allowed enemy combatants to seek judicial review of their detention, reinstating habeas corpus. Four months later, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon released five of the men and continued detention of the sixth, Bensayah Belkacem, stating, “To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court's obligation... This is a unique case.”

In a nod to the Obama Administration’s pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, French President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted the plaintiff, Lakhmar Boumediene, in May 2009, allowing him to settle in France.

Upon his release, Boumediene needed 11 days of treatment in a French hospital. During an interview in Paris, he revealed scars from shackles and nasal skin breakdown from forced tube-feedings.

“I lived in a nightmare for seven years. Even animals are treated better," he said.

Boumediene recalled the cold isolation rooms he endured without clothes and interrogation under bright lights, with Arabic translators who frequently made mistakes in translation. "I went to the bathroom shackled, with guards. They didn’t let me sleep for 16 days,” he said.

Still, Boumediene denies wanting revenge. “I have no problems with the American people. My problem is with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. I expected more from the great democracy of the U.S., but they failed me and played games with my life.”

The remaining detainee, Belkacem, is the only European citizen still in custody at Guantanamo.

In 2001, the U.S. reportedly tapped his mobile phone conversations with Abu Zabaydah, allegedly an al-Qaeda operative. In an interview in Bosnia, Anela Belkacem, Bensayah’s wife, claims they didn't have enough money to own a mobile phone. Oleskey, the detainees' American lawyer suggests there was no cell phone. "The Bosnian police couldn't even get this number to work," he said.

Anela claims her husband "has been sacrificed… No one wants to admit they made a big mistake in detaining these men.”

The released prisoners face overcoming psychological and physical trauma, reintegrating into society and returning to fragmented lives. Nadja Dizdarevic was an avid supporter of her husband during his internment, but within months of his return, the couple divorced. “We remain good friends. People change in seven years. My children grew up overnight. They didn’t watch cartoons, they watched the news.”

Despite complete exoneration, the men’s citizenship is uncertain. Bosnia has been dragging its feet in restoring citizenship. The men only recently received their I.D. cards, but have not yet gotten their passports. They've been unable to find jobs and claim to be followed by unmarked cars regularly.

Boumediene says, “My daughter does not recognize me. I didn’t see my wife for seven years. I lost everything. Who will give me these years back?”

Currently, Belkacem remains in Guantanamo Bay custody pending his appeal, Boumediene lives in France and Nechle in Algeria. Ait Idr and Boudella are unemployed in Sarajevo, awaiting reinstatement of their citizenship and bank accounts.

Bosnia acknowledged to the Council of Europe that it breached the European Convention on Human Rights by participating in extra-judicial extraordinary rendition at the request of the U.S. The Council has accused over 20 countries of collaborating with CIA rendition flights to secret prisons.

US storm as Mohammed cartoons edited out of book

by Jane Mills – Mon Aug 31

NEW YORK (AFP) – Editors of a new US book on the controversy over cartoons caricaturing Muslims and the Prophet Mohammed have triggered a storm by deciding not to reprint the 12 sketches for fear of new violence.

"The Cartoons That Shook the World," due out in November by Yale University Press, examines the reaction of the Muslim world to the 2005 publication of the cartoons by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Author Jytte Klausen, a Danish-born professor of politics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, reluctantly agreed to cut the cartoons from the book.

"I am sad personally because I feel it is a loss to the book to be published without the illustrations. It is also sad that we have a circumstance where an academic press feels compelled to go ahead and remove these illustrations," Klausen told AFP in a telephone interview.

Other images of Mohammed were also removed, including a 19th century Gustave Dore print illustrating a passage from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy of Mohammed in hell.

Director of Yale Press John Donatich made the decision after consulting with a "couple dozen" diplomats, intelligence and academic experts.

"I didn't feel this was a censorship issue," Donatich told AFP. "It had become a security issue," he said, adding he was concerned for the safety of Yale Press employees.

"I felt that the cartoons and the illustrations we are talking about here, they're not new information. It was gratuitous to publish them again if they were this troublesome. People were certain they would cause violence," he said.

The Mohammed cartoons originally appeared in Danish newspapers in September 2005, sparking protests across the Muslim world. Five people died in Pakistan in protests in February 2006.

But Klausen disputes the grounds for cutting out the cartoons.

"Security experts were asked to provide advice without having the manuscript, without having the context in which these illustrations were going to be reprinted," she said.

"I think it's very serious to suppress illustrations when not a single Muslim has protested the book and there were some Muslim reviewers."

In mid-August, the prestigious Yale University revealed that among the experts it had consulted were former US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte, and author and journalist Fareed Zakaria.

And in a written statement explaining Yale's to pull the cartoons, UN under secretary general Ibrahim Gambari is quoted saying: "You can count on violence if any illustration of the prophet is published. It will cause riots I predict from Indonesia to Nigeria."

Yale said the violence surrounding the cartoons continued pointing to a car bombing outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan in June 2008 which killed eight people.

"The next day Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it revenge for the 'insulting drawings,'" it said in its statement.

But Klausen countered: "I think it is ludicrous to think that an academic book written for undergraduate students as a case study of an international relations conflict could set off civil war in Nigeria."

The actions by Yale have triggered a storm of protest in the literary world.

Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens said in the online magazine Slate it was "perhaps the worst episode in the steady surrender to religious extremism -- particularly Muslim religious extremism -- that is spreading across our culture."

And Islam scholar Reza Aslan, author of "No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam," pulled his jacket blurb praising the book in a failed attempt to get Yale to change its mind.

Aslan said Yale's experts misunderstand the original controversy.

"It wasn't just the cartoons, it was a deliberate attempt by the newspaper in Denmark to provoke the Muslim minority in Denmark, to give them a sort of citizenship test. The cartoons were seen by two polarized camps as an argument as to whether, A, Europe is Islamophobic or, B, whether Muslims have any place in Europe," he said.

"The reason the anger erupted was because of the racism embedded in the cartoons, their deliberate provocation of the Muslim community and the way the cartoons were manipulated to say that Europe is racist. That's where the mistake lies here, to think that the cartoons in and of themselves have the power to create this global crisis," he said.

But Zakaria said he was "certain that the publication of the book would provoke violence."

"I think it is a very difficult call whenever you are contemplating any kind of restraint on freedom of expression but I think that the judgment call that Yale made is exactly the right one," he said.

Obama hosts Iftar, calls Islam a great religion

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised American Muslims for enriching the nation's culture at a dinner to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalogue because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country," Obama said at the iftar, the dinner that breaks the holiday's daily fast.

The President joined Cabinet secretaries, members of the diplomatic corps and lawmakers to pay tribute to what he called "a great religion and its commitment to justice and progress."

Attendees included Congress' two Muslim members -- Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Andre Carson, D-Ind., as well as ambassadors from Islamic nations and Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren.

Obama shared the story of Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, another invited guest, who broke a state record for most career points as a Massachusetts high school student.

"As an honour student, as an athlete on her way to Memphis, Bilqis is an inspiration not simply to Muslim girls -- she's an inspiration to all of us," he said.

Obama also noted the contributions of Muhammad Ali, who was not in attendance, though the president borrowed a quote from famous boxer, explaining religion.

"A few years ago," Obama said, "he explained this view and this is part of why he's the greatest, saying, 'Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams -- they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do -- they all contain truths.'"

Ramadan, a month-long period of prayer, reflection and sunrise-to-sunset fasts, began from August 22 in most of the Islamic world. It is believed that God began revealing the Quran to Muhammad during Ramadan, and the faithful are supposed to spend the month in religious reflection, prayer and remembrance of the poor.

White House dinners marking the holy month are nothing new. Former President George W Bush held iftars during his eight years in office.

Obama has made a special effort since taking office to repair US relations with the world's Muslims, including visits to Turkey and Cairo. In a June speech at the Egyptian capital, as well as in one to another important Muslim audience, in Turkey, Obama said: "America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam."

Obama also released a video message to Muslims before the start to Ramadan. In the video, he said Ramadan's rituals are a reminder of the principles Muslims and Christians have in common, including advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

Two Gitmo detainees sent to Portugal

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice says the Portuguese government has assumed control of two Guantanamo Bay detainees.


The Department of Justice said in a release that two Syrian nationals were transferred to Portugal from the U.S. detention facility in Cuba via an arrangement between the U.S. and Portuguese governments.

The U.S. government, which ensured all necessary security measures were in place for the detainee transfer, will maintain contact with Portugal regarding the two detainees, the department said. The prisoners' names and suspected crimes were not reported.

The detainee transfer was authorized by the Guantanamo Review Task Force and the U.S. Congress was made aware of the transfer plan, the Department of Justice said.

The two prisoners mark the most recent detainee transfer involving Guantanamo Bay prisoners. More than 540 Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to various countries worldwide since 2002. Less than 250 remain at the detention center, various news outlets say.

Soccer Star Benched for Fasting During Ramadan

By JEFF ISRAELY

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which falls each year on different dates of the Western calendar, began on Aug. 21, just in time for another event in Europe with near religious significance: the kickoff of soccer season. But the timing has sparked controversy in Italy, where in the last four days both a prominent coach and a team owner in the top Serie A league have linked the rigors of Ramadan's sunrise-to-sunset fasting to Muslim players' poor performance on the pitch.

Just 30 minutes into his team's disappointing 1-1 tie Sunday with Bari, Inter Milan's Portuguese-born coach Jose Mourinho pulled midfielder Sulley Muntari, a practicing Muslim, out of his home debut. "He was clearly struggling," Mourinho said of the 25-year-old Ghanian player during the post-game press conference. "It's the month of Ramadan and that's what affected his performance, which is why I took him out." (See pictures from EURO 2008.)

A top Muslim leader in Italy, Mohamed Nour Dachan, lashed out at the coach of the defending Serie A champions. "I think Mourinho should talk a little bit less," Dachan, president of the Italian Union of Islamic Organizations, told Sky Italia television. "We know from sports medicine that the mental stability of an athlete lets him give so much more on the field, and a player observant in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam definitely has a very tranquil psychology."

On Tuesday evening, the outspoken owner of the Rome-based Lazio club added to the polemics, saying he makes a point of avoiding the "problem" of Ramadan. "I respect religious freedom and the ways that it is expressed," Claudio Lotito told reporters after a meeting of Serie A officials in Milan. "But I try to prevent things that can slow down training and the playing of matches. I've never bought players that have this problem."

Italy's sports pages duly took note of other Muslim players who observe Ramadan with varying degrees of strictness, including Siena's Abdel Kader Ghezzal, an Algerian who scored a goal against AC Milan on Saturday. Though a practicing Muslim, Ghezzal says he does not fast on training and game days during Ramadan. Inter's Muntari is more observant, though he reportedly ate pasta at lunch on Sunday, while refusing water before the match. Most imams say there are just a few exemptions from the daytime fast, including pregnant women, the sick and the elderly. Though the Koran doesn't cite any excuses based on profession, as in all religions there are Muslims who are more and less observant of the letter of the law, with the requirements of their jobs sometimes playing a role.

Stefano Tirelli, the Milan-based personal trainer for Muntari and several other top soccer stars from Africa and the Middle East, says that depending on the playing conditions and the individuals, lack of food and water can limit performance. He recalls his experience working for the United Arab Emirates and Qatar national teams, which featured less robust players in 100 degrees F (40 degrees C) heat, saying that their speed and stamina were indeed affected by the Ramadan fast. But Tirelli, a professor of Integrated Sports Technique at Milan's Catholic University, warns against reducing athletic performance to a series of statistical charts. "It's right that we respect the values of science," he says. ""But mental strength, determination and, yes, religious force, for one month's time, can easily overcome the deficit in proper nutrition."

Italian journalist Massimo Donaddio noted in the daily Il Sore 24 Ore how Saudi Arabia's coach at the recent World Athletics Championships in Berlin had declared that his athletes would strictly follow the Ramadan fast during the competition. The Saudis won exactly zero medals, writes Donaddio, but, then, so did the Italians.