WHAT DOES ANNIHILATION OF ISRAEL SUPPOSED TO MEAN?

Alexander Maistrovoy

amaist@lycos.com


A couple of weeks before the opening of the conference in Annapolis Saib Arikat, Head of Negotiations with Israel categorically rejected the opportunity of recognizing Israel, as the Jewish state. In other words, the body politic which PA is considered to be, negotiating for peace with its neighboring state, Israel, …denies the very existence of this state. Is it surrealism and absurdity? Undoubtedly. However, this is an integral part of the Middle Eastern reality. And in this context the statement of Arikat (the representative of "pragmatic" and “moderated" Palestinians) is not accidental at all.
From the very beginning of Oslo Palestinians did not camouflage their intention not to recognize Israel. I emphasize: they did not camouflage it. Yaser Arafat publicly declared: "Palestinians will return to all the houses which they have lost during the War for Independence - in Acre, Jaffa, Haifa, etc". He compared Oslo agreement to the peace treaty between Prophet Mohammed and the Koreish tribe. As you know, it was annulled by the Prophet at the moment of loosing its value.
Shimon Peres has called the acceptance of the amendment to the Charter PLO in 2002 (about recognition of the Jewish state) "one of the most significant events in the history of Israel". (The Charter had contained the item on "destruction of the Zionist state"). It was yet another illusion harbored by Peres, and Israel as a whole. "The Palestinian national Charter has not changed!” one of leaders of FATH Farouk Kaddoumi repeatedly declared. He only repeated the statement that "the moderate Palestinians" had many times said openly. As a matter of fact, the same has been told by Saib Arikat.
"We can temporarily recede or gain a tactical victory. It does not matter. Our eyes are turned to the future, to our strategic purpose, the name of which is Palestine from the river (Jordan) up to the sea (Mediterranean). No matter what we receive now, it will not force us to forget the prime aim" (Feisal Husseini, the former minister of Arafat for Jerusalem Affairs, the participant of peace talks in March, 2001).
In January, 2002, immediately after Peres's enthusiastic declaration, the director of the Department on the international parliamentary issues in PA National Council Zuhair Sanduka declared that the amendment to the Charter... was never and nowhere published. "There were publications about the decision to make this amendment. But there are no texts or paragraphs which should replace the existing ones or to change them”, he said.
There are a lot of similar declarations. They are made, we’d like to emphasize, by "pragmatists" with whom Israel has been negotiating for peace.
"It’s no use arguing about the percent of the ground that should be given to Palestinians if we don’t try to understand their driving motives first”, Asher Eder says in his interview. He is a historian from Jerusalem, who has been studying religious and historical aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict for many years. “The problem is not in Palestinians, the problem is in the specific approach of the Arab world to the conflict.
Till now Israel has not understood the main thing: the Arabian policy concerning "Zionist formation" is nothing but their sacred war, jihad. We are not talking separate appeals in separate countries of the Arab world. We are talking total jihad, the ultimate goal of which is the destruction of Israel. All means suit the purpose".
“This strategy”, Eder continues, "has no relation either to internal political struggle of the Arab world, or to the antagonism of the so-called "secular" and religious fractions. Moreover, the directive on total jihad against Israel was generated during the ruling of the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Naser who was known as a secular governor of the socialist sense. He, in particular, after the defeat in the Six-Day War called a conference of Arabian religious leaders where the concept of the anti-Israeli jihad was formulated. And since that moment Arabs have consistently and purposefully been realizing it", Eder expands his idea.
Is it possible to get out of this situation? Eder considers it is. However, it is a long and difficult way, and there are no easy solutions in it. "True peace can be reached by way of understanding the sacred texts of Islam. Islam is the soul of the Arabic society. Muslims do not separate religion from policy, outlooks, or daily life. Israel in the eyes of Arabs will be a "damned state" until the Muslim clergy bless it, authorize its right to exist. In fact peace is possible between Ishmael and Israel according to Koran. It recognizes the teachings of the Jewish Prophets and peculiarity of Israel. But Islam teaching is distorted be fanatics and until Muslim clergy conceal truth about Muslim prophecies regarding Jews, any political negotiations will make no sense", Eder exp! lains.
Meanwhile, during the wartime, all means are good. He quotes Arabic spiritual leaders. Grand Kadi of Jordan, Sheikh Abdullah Goshah has in his time defined the strategy of Muslims concerning Israel in the following words: “The Muslims are also free to break their covenant with the enemies if they are uneasy lest the enemy should betray them… Telling lies in war is permitted so as to comfort the Muslims when they are in need of it as in the time of fighting. Arrogance is disliked except in case of war”.
Syria’s Mufti Muhammad Azah Darwaza declaims: “The Quranic sentence is applied to make peace with an enemy who has his own country and state, but the Jews in Palestine are our enemies who have made their aggression upon counter the Arab Muslims”.
Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Sheich Hassan Khaled: “Particular this battle is not a mere combat between parties, but it is a battle between two religions”.
Such approach has only become stronger in our days.
The similar opinion I have heard from known Rabbi Menachem Froman from the settlement Tkoa. For many years Froman has been trying to establish a dialogue between the Arabic leaders and Israel. Rabbi Froman is convinced: the Israeli politicians, analysts, experts have not made the slightest effort to understand and study Islam. All their intensions are concentrated on the searching of superficial, political decisions. Moving religious motives were denied, as something irrational and consequently not essential. But actually, the religious factor is dominating for each Arab, and it is not very important, to which party or movement he belongs.
"Do you remember the slogan of the Left: "It is necessary to make peace with moderate, secular, progressive Palestinian leaders until extremists have not strengthened their influence there"? Do you remember?! Arafat in their eyes was a moderate, secular, progressive Palestinian leader of the kind. What nonsense! In the first place, Arafat was the Muslim, and a deeply religious one. I met him many times, went to him to Mukata. Once he told to me with pride: "For me to be a Muslim is more important, than to be a Palestinian, above all I‘m a Muslim!"
Rabbi Froman believes: peace with Arabs could be only achieved on religious basis. But nobody tries to do it, substituting a real dialogue by illusions and lies. The consequences of it can be fatal to Israel.
And at last, let’s give the floor to a representative of Arabs themselves. In virtual interview on the Internet the Arabic scientist and publicist from Kuwait D-r Sami Alrabaa, living in Germany, has answered my questions:
- What is the real cause for the Palestinian terror against Israel: occupation of territories or refuse to accept Israel? If Israel agrees to leave these territories, will Arabs (and Palestinians) really (not formally) accept it?
- To be honest, even if Israel evacuates all occupied territories, as it did in Gaza, the Palestinians, in particular Hamas and the other radical organizations will not stop their terror. As far as Arabs are concerned, I can tell form experience backed with empirical research, the majority of Arabs want peace with Israel. But they are intimidated by radical Islamists. Arab regimes, almost all of them, including Egypt and Jordan, do not want to have peace with Israel. These regimes have been trading with the “Palestinian Issues” for decades now. The “issue” is a pretext to distract from real issues like democracy, human rights, and less corruption.
- How do you estimate the Saudi initiative?
- Saudi Arabia uses two different languages, one for radical Muslims, for the Wahhabis and one for the West. It tells the Wahhabis, never, we can never have peace with the Jews, the Prophet had none. Hence the Saudi regime would have “peace” with its followers as the “Custodian of the two holy mosques”. To polish its fanatic and despotic image in the West and America, the Saudis have come up with a peace initiative. From historical record, the Saudis would ally with the devil if that guarantees their survivals.
…So what peace are we talking about? The “peace” between Prophet Mohammed and the Koreish tribe? The one which has ended with the total slaughter of the tribe.
...When Hitler declared, that he wished to annihilate Jews and grasp the world, smart intellectuals and politicians-pragmatists inquired in bewilderment: "What does he mean by this?” Indeed, what did he mean by that?

HOW LONG DO WE HAVE AS THE USA???

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.

There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. WINSTON CHURCHILL

How Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'

'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.' (Alan Note: Almost certainly an Islamic sharia law dictatorship like in Iran).

'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency; (appeasing our Jihadist enemy to avoid confronting them)
6. From complacency to apathy; (When we discover they have no intention of listening to us and we can do NOTHING about it)
7. From apathy to dependence; (and obedience to Islamic sharia laws of dress, behavior and servitude to Allah, even if only feigned as a majority of the population in Islamic Iran)
8. From dependence back into bondage' (Of our own doing and stupidity)

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election: (which should point out the accuracy of the above analysis)

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.

Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' (and the key voters for the Democrats this time around too)

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA (as we now know it) in fewer than five years.

THIN END OF THE ISLAMIC SHARIA LAW WEDGE

By Clare Dwyer Hogg and Jonathan Wynne-Jones
19/01/2008


Islamic courts meet every week in the UK to rule on divorces and financial disputes. Clare Dwyer Hogg and Jonathan Wynne-Jones report on demands by senior Muslims that sharia be given legal authority

Amnah is a modern British Muslim. She is dressed in a denim skirt and her head is covered in a hijab. Poised and self-assured, she has come to meet Dr Suhaib Hasan, a silver-bearded sheikh who sits behind his desk, surrounded by religious books.

· The origins and obligations of sharia law

"But why would I have to observe the waiting period?" she asks him. "What are the reasons?" There is an urgency to her questions.

Dr Suhaib Hasan is pushing for personal sharia law to be integrated into the British legal system.

"These reasons don't apply to me, that's what I'm very confused about. If you could give me the reasons why I have to wait three months, then I'll understand."

Amnah is going through a divorce and is baffled at being told that she must wait for three months to remarry, considering that she hasn't seen her estranged husband for two years.

Alan Note: the waiting period is to ensure that the divorced wife (which is how the sharia refers to her) is not pregnant from the former husband when she remarries.

She twists her sock-clad toes into the carpet, grasping one hand with the other in her lap, and fixes Dr Hasan with an intense look. He meets this with a simple reply: "These rulings are all in the Koran. The rulings are made for all."

Amnah has little choice but to comply: Dr Hasan is a judge, and this is a sharia court - in east London. It sits, innocuously, at the end of a row of terrace houses in Leyton: a converted corner shop, with blinds on the windows, office- style partitions and a makeshift reception area.

It is one of dozens of sharia courts - also known as councils - that have been set up in mosques, Islamic centres and even schools across Britain. The number of British Muslims using the courts is increasing.

To many in the West, talk of sharia law conjures up images of the floggings, stonings, amputations and beheadings carried out in hardline Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

However, the form practised in Britain is more mundane, focusing mainly on marriage, divorce and financial disputes.

The judgments of the courts have no basis in British law, and are therefore technically illegitimate - they are binding only in that those involved agree to comply.

For British Muslims who are keen to follow Islam, this poses a dilemma. An Islamic marriage is not recognised by British law, and therefore many couples will have two ceremonies - civil for the state, and Islamic for their faith.

If they wish to divorce, they must then seek both a civil and an Islamic divorce.

Dr Hasan, who has been presiding over sharia courts in Britain for more than 25 years, argues that British law would benefit from integrating aspects of Islamic personal law into the civil system, so that divorces could be rubber-stamped in the same way, for example, that Jewish couples who go to the Beth Din court have their divorce recognised in secular courts.

He points out that the Islamic Sharia Council, of which he is the general secretary, is flooded with work. It hears about 50 divorce cases every month, and responds to as many as 10 requests every day by email and phone for a fatwa - a religious verdict on a religious matter.

Alan Note: some such "requests" in other countries pose questions such as "is a young girl's urine clean or unclean"? A cleric replied to this that a boy's urine is considered clean in Islamic sharia law but a young girl's is dirty. Go figure.

Dr Hasan, who is also a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain on issues of sharia law, says there is great misunderstanding of the issue in the West.

"Whenever people associate the word 'sharia' with Muslims, they think it is flogging and stoning to death and cutting off the hand," he says with a smile.

He makes the distinction between the aspects of law that sharia covers: worship, penal law, and personal law. Muslim leaders in Britain are interested only in integrating personal law, he says.

Next page

FIRST LADY OR MUCK-MOUTH??

CLICK ON TITLE TO GO TO PAGE WITH HILLARY'S CONFIRMED SAYINGS (AND EPITHETS

LAW TO PROTECT NEW YORK AUTHORS

FRESH MEADOWS, NY (January 14, 2008) – Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Queens) and Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Long Island) introduced the "Libel Terrorism Protection Act" ( S.6687/A.9652) on the front steps of The New York Public Library yesterday (the entire press conference is viewable here: (Part 1 and Part 2 ).

The legislation will protect American authors and journalists from foreign lawsuits that infringe on their First Amendment rights.

Senator Skelos and Assemblyman Lancman were joined by Senator Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn), noted First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, Daniel Kornstein, Dr. Ehrenfeld's attorney, and Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, a New York author who was sued for libel in Britain by a Saudi businessman whom she identified in her book "Funding Evil – How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It" as a financial supporter of terrorist organizations.

In Ehrenfeld v. Mahfouz, New York State's highest court held last month that it would not protect Dr. Ehrenfeld from a British lawsuit filed by Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim Bin Mahfouz, where she was ordered to pay over $225,000 in damages and legal fees to Bin Mahfouz, as well as apologize and destroy existing copies of her books.

Dr. Ehrenfeld sought a court order to protect her constitutional rights, but in a ruling with national First Amendment implications sending legal shockwaves throughout newsrooms across America, as well as potentially undermining our ability to expose terrorism's financial and logistical support networks, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that it does not have jurisdiction to protect Americans – on U.S. soil – from foreign defamation judgments, which contradict the U.S. First Amendment rights.

"When American journalists and authors can be hauled into kangaroo courts on phony-baloney libel charges in overseas jurisdictions who don't share our belief in freedom of speech or a free press, all of us are threatened and our war effort is weakened," said Lancman.

"This legislation will give New York's journalists, authors and press the protection and tools they need to continue to fearlessly expose the truth about terrorism and its enablers, and to maintain New York's place as the free speech capitol of the world," said Lancman. "The ability to expose the truth about international terrorist activities is critically-important to the global war on terror," said Senator Skelos.

"These foreign courts are trampling the First Amendment protections guaranteed to American writers and journalists by our Constitution and this legislation will ensure that they cannot infringe upon our freedom," said Senator Skelos.

"Under the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, writers and journalists would have foreign defamation suits declared unenforceable in New York unless the foreign law provides the same free speech protections guaranteed under our Constitution.

In effect, we are giving New Yorkers a chance to have their fair day in court," said Senator Golden.

EXTREMIST JIHAD

Stephen Collins Coughlin
Major, Military Intelligence, USAR
NDIC Class 2007

Unclassified thesis submitted to the faculty of the
National Defense Intelligence College in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of
Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence

July 2007

http://www.strategycenter.net/docLib/20080107_Coughlin_ExtremistJihad.pdf

MUSLIM BRITAIN BECOMING "NO-GO" AS IN FRANCE & OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE

Muslim Britain is becoming one big no-go area

A bishop caused uproar last week by exposing ghettos of Islamist extremism. But Muslims everywhere are cutting themselves off from society in other, equally dangerous ways

Shiraz Maher

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3176455.ece

Perhaps it had to be someone like Michael Nazir-Ali, the first Asian bishop in the Church of England, who would break with convention and finally point out the elephant in the room.

His comments last week about the growing stranglehold of Muslim extremists in some communities revived debate about the future of multiculturalism and provoked a flurry of condemnation. Members of all three political parties immediately clamoured to dismiss him. “I don’t recognise the description that he’s talked about – no-go areas and people feeling intimidated,” said Hazel Blears, the communities secretary.

A quick call to her Labour colleague John Reid, the former home secretary, would almost certainly have helped her to identify at least one of those places. Just over a year ago Reid was heckled by the Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen in Leytonstone, east London, during a speech on extremism, appropriately. “How dare you come to a Muslim area,” Izzadeen screamed.

That picture is mirrored outside London. One of our country’s biggest and most deprived Muslim areas is Small Heath, in Birmingham, where Dr Tahir Abbas, director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture, was raised. With a dominant Asian monoculture, low social achievement and high unemployment, Small Heath is precisely the kind of insular and disengaged urban ghetto Nazir-Ali was talking about.

Reflecting on his experiences there, Abbas is critical of his peers who don’t stray beyond their area. “They haven’t seen rural Devon, a stately home or Windsor Castle,” he says. That refusal to engage with anything beyond the community is suffocating young Muslims by divorcing them almost entirely from Britain’s cultural heritage and mainstream life.

And their feelings of separation have been further reinforced by the advent of digital broadcasting, which has swelled the number of foreign language television stations in Britain, creating digital ghettos. Islamist movements such as Hizb ut-Tahrir (of which I was once a senior member) have been quick to spot the opportunities this affords them.

In 2004 the group launched a campaign aimed at undermining President Pervez Mush-arraf by broadcasting adverts on Asian satellite channels, calling on the Pakistani community in Britain to “stop Busharraf”.

Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Leicester-based Muslim Forum, is unequivocal about the dangers such Islamification poses. “We have a cultural and social apartheid which fun-damentalists thrive off,” he says.

The point was underscored last summer when Kafeel Ahmed, whom I once knew, was arrested after a Jeep laden with explosives crashed into Glasgow airport. I think Ahmed was first radicalised in Cambridge, where I saw his views become increasingly intolerant, even though the city has a negligible Muslim population. After being exposed to the Islamist culture of separation and confrontation there, he didn’t need to be living in an actual ghetto.

He was already sectioning himself off, by giving up his non-Muslim friends and eventually socialising only with those who shared his world-view.

It raises a compelling point that Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have largely tried to ignore: while the moral ambiguity of multiculturalism means Britain no longer knows what it stands for, our enemies are not just growing ever surer of themselves but are also winning the debate.

For almost three decades now, the witless promotion of cultural relativ-ism under successive governments means that our national identity can simply be reduced to the theme of a courtroom sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus – anything goes. Measuring the extent to which this ambiguity has affected perceptions within Britain’s already insular Muslim communities, Abbas told me he surveyed schoolchildren in Small Heath by asking them how many Muslims they thought lived in Britain.

“We had answers around 30m to 50m,” he says, with more than a hint of despondency in his voice (the true figure is 1.6m).

Moghal blames the mosques for this, saying: “They promote a conscious rejection of western values.” He has a point. In many places the prevailing attitude is that sporting a flowing Arab robe symbolises your religiosity while your piety is linked to the length of your beard.

Muslim groups have already reacted with predictable intemperance to the bishop’s comments. “Mr Nazir-Ali is promoting hatred towards Muslims and should resign,” said Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, while Ajmal Masroor of the Islamic Society of Britain said the church should “take serious action”.

Their anger vindicates him entirely and in many respects demonstrates that Nazir-Ali’s observations not only are valid, but don’t go far enough. The Glasgow bombings proved that the kinds of no-go area extremists are creating don’t always have to be physical locations.

Muslim attitudes are now so hyper-sensitive that anyone who dares to criticise Islam or Muslims has to think twice – and then some more – before doing so. Publishing a simple cartoon is enough to provoke a serious diplomatic crisis, the ransacking of embassies, mass global protest and at least several deaths.

But it’s not just nonMuslims for whom extremists reserve their hatred. After I wrote about the way British Islamists celebrated Benazir Bhutto’s assassination last month, a number of threats quickly appeared on the internet. “If I meet him I’m going to paste him in his face,” wrote Abu Junayd from Slough on a chat forum. Another commentator said I should “suffer severe punishments in this life and the hereafter”.

Their attitude springs from the Takfiri mind-set, which, in its most extreme forms, underwrites Al-Qaeda’s philosophy by suggesting that anyone who disagrees with Islamism (the extreme, politicised form of Islam) is a legitimate target for attack.

As if to emphasise the point, a statement released on a known Al-Qaeda forum last week specifically called for attacks on moderate Muslims in Britain. Citing the opinions of Muham-mad Ibn Alb al-Wahhab, whose followers are known as Wahhabis, it branded moderates as “aides of the crusaders”.

Seven years after the Cantle report first revealed the extent to which Britain’s different communities are living apart together, it’s still impossible to engage politicians seriously about the future of multiculturalism.

After being heckled by Izzadeen in Leytonstone for “daring” to visit a Muslim area, the home secretary told him: “There is no part of this country that any of us is excluded from.” The knee-jerk reaction to the bishop’s comments suggests we’re still a long way from realising that vision.

OLDER AND SMARTER

A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off.

The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, "watch this!" and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier.

The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?

The C-130 pilot said, "That was impressive, but watch this!"

The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said "What did you think of that?"

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, "What the hell did you do?"

The C-130 pilot chuckled. "I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, went to the bathroom , then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun."

When you are young and foolish - speed and flash may be a good thing !!!

When you get older and smarter - comfort and dull is not such a bad thing!!

NEW JERSEY BANS INVESTMENT RELATED TO IRAN -- BILINGUAL

در ایالت نیوجرسی، ت�­ریم های تازه ای علیه ایران تصویب شد
ايالت نيوجرسی در آمريکا، روز جمعه، چهارم ژانويه، سرمايه گذاری پول صندوق بازنشستگی اين ایالت را در شرکت هايی که با ايران تجارت می کنند، منع کرد.
اغلب شرکت های آمريکايی از داد و ستد با ايران منع شده اند، ولی مجلس ايالتی نيوجرسی، با تصویب مصوبه ای اين ايالت را از انجام معامله با ديگر شرکت های بين المللی که با ايران داد و ستد دارند نيز منع کرده است.
مجلس ايالتی نيوجرسی به دليل آنچه که «رابطه ايران با تروريسم و جاه طلبی هسته ای» اين کشور می خواند، خواستار افزايش فشار اقتصادی بر ايران شده است.
جان کورزين، فرماندار ایالت نيوجرسی، با امضای این مصوبه، این ایالت را از خريدن سهام شرکت هايی که با ايران تجارت می کنند، منع کرد.
به گزارش آسوشيتدپرس، آقای کورزين در اين مورد گفت: «من از فشار اقتصادی در رابطه با ايران پشتيبانی می کنم تا اين کشور سياست خود را تغيير دهد ولی از �­مله نظامی �­مایت نمی کنم.»
نيل کوهن از نمايندگان مجلس ايالتی نيوجرسی، از �­زب دموکرات، از خطر ايران برای موجودیت اسرائيل سخن گفت و افزود: «نيوجرسی پيام روشنی می فرستد که در فعاليت های ايران که می تواند به قتل عامی مانند هولوکاست مبدل شود، شرکت نمی کند.»
ايالت نيوجرسی در دهه ۱۹۸۰ نيز ممنوعيت هايی را برای سرمايه گذاری در آفريقای جنوبی اعمال کرده بود.
صندوق ۸۰ ميليارد دلاری
صندوق بازنشستگی ايالت نيوجرسی ارزشی معادل ۸۰ ميليارد دلار دارد و با وجود اين مشخص نيست چه مقدار از آن در شرکت هايی سرمايه گذاری شده است که با ايران داد و ستد دارند.
مصوبه مجلس ايالت نيوجرسی از مقام های م�­لی می خواهد تا با استخدام مؤسسات ت�­قيقاتی مستقل، سرمايه گذاران مورد نظر اين طر�­ را شناسايی کنند.
صندوق بازنشستگی ايالت نيوجرسی نهمين صندوق بزرگ در ايالات مت�­ده به شمار می رود و به تازگی از دو ميليارد و ۱۶۰ميليون دلار عايدات از ۱۷ شرکت دارای داد و ستد با سودان چشم پوشی کرد.
نيوجرسی پس از ايالات فلوريدا و کاليفرنيا سومين ايالت آمريکا است که چنين تصميمی می گيرد. ايالت فلوريدا اولين ايالتی بود که در اوايل سال جاری ميلادی چنين مصوبه ای را تصويب کرد.
ايالت فلوريدا، بر اساس همين قانون، سرمايه گذاری در سودان را نيز ممنوع کرده بود. مقام های م�­لی اين ايالت اجازه اعطای وجوه بازنشستگی کارمندان را به ۲۱ شرکت که در دو کشور (آمريکا و سودان) فعاليت اقتصادی می کردند ندادند و از عايدی يک ميليارد و ۳۰۰ ميليون دلاری خود صرف نظر کردند.
در ايالت کاليفرنيا نيز فرماندار آرنولد شوارتزنگر در ماه اکتبر مصوبه ای را امضا کرد که بر اساس آن به همکاری با شرکت هايی که با ايران داد و ستد دارند پايان می داد.
آمريکا از ديرباز جمهوری اسلامی ايران را دولت «�­امی تروريسم» ناميده است و طی سال های اخير کوشيده است با �­مايت از تشديد ت�­ريم های ايران مانع دستيابی اين کشور «به سلا�­ هسته ای» شود.
ايران همواره اين اتهامات را رد کرده و هدف برنامه هسته ای خود را توليد برق دانسته است.

January 5, 2008
For New Jersey Pension Fund, No Iran-Linked Investments
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON (AP) — New Jersey on Friday became one of the few states to prohibit state pension money from being invested in companies that do business in Iran.
Most American companies are already banned from doing business in the country, but Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, signed a measure restricting the state from buying stock in international companies that do business with Iran.
The move was intended to protest the country’s links to terrorism and its nuclear ambitions.
“I continue to support using economic means, not military means, to bring about policy changes in Iran,” Mr. Corzine said recently.
Florida and California have similar laws.
Assemblyman Neil M. Cohen, a Democrat from Union, a bill sponsor, cited Iranian threats against Israel.
“Divesting our finances from entities associated with Iran will send a clear message in the universal language of money that New Jersey will have no part in Iran’s pursuit of actions that would lead to Holocaust-like genocide and the complete destruction of a sovereign nation,” Mr. Cohen said.
The New Jersey measure resembles a 2005 bill that prohibited investing state pension funds in companies doing business in Sudan to protest what the United States has deemed a genocide there. New Jersey recently divested $2.16 billion from 17 companies doing business in Sudan.
New Jersey also passed a similar law in the 1980s banning investments in South Africa.
The state’s pension fund is worth about $80 billion, though it was unclear how much was invested in companies doing business in Iran. The law requires the state to hire an independent research firm specializing in global securities to identify such investments.
New Jersey’s pension fund is the nation’s ninth largest.

CHELSEA CLINTON EMULATES MOTHER

LOOK WHO TAUGHT ME!


27-year old Chelsea Clinton snubbed a 9-year old "reporter" who wanted to do a kid interview with her with a cold "I do not talk to the press!!

Sydney Rieckoff, a Cedar Rapids fourth grader and "kid reporter" for Scholastic News, has posed questions to seven Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls as they've campaigned across Iowa this year.


But when she approached the 27-year-old Chelsea after a campaign event Sunday, she got a different response.

"Do you think your dad would be a good 'first man' in the White House?" Rieckoff asked, but Chelsea brushed her question aside and snubbed the little girl.

Here's the answer to the question:

Looks better than her "multi-faced" mother

RUSSIA STUCK IN ARMS SALES

Pakistan thought Russia would give China permission to export the RD93 equipped aircraft But apparently India played hardball, and demanded that the Russians forbid the export of the RD93s from China to Pakistan.

India and China are both playing rough with their largest arms supplier; Russia. China and India both have price disputes with Russia, and India is also upset that Russia is supplying China with RD93 jet engines for Chinese-made fighters that are being sold to Pakistan.



Both China and India are threatening to halt purchases if Russia does not back off on attempts to raise prices on contracts that have already been agreed to.


China is playing a weak position here, because of a Western embargo on arms sales to China (because of China being a sometimes brutal police state and behaving badly by selling weapons to all manner of nasty people).


India is in a stronger position, and is buying more and more weapons from Western suppliers.


Currently, India is in the market for 126 top-line fighters. India has told Russia that if those RD93 equipped Chinese fighters keep going to Pakistan, Russia can forget about its chances of winning the competition (worth over $6 billion) for the 126 fighters.


How did it get to this?

In November, 2007, after changing its mind several times over the last few years, Russia finally agreed to allow the use of Russian made-engines in Chinese made JF-17 (also known as FC-1) jet fighters that are exported (to Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.) Lebanon, Burma, Iran and Sri Lanka have also shown interest in this low-cost fighter that is similar to early model F-16s.)

Earlier in 2007, Russia announced that none of the 500 Russian RD-93 jet engines China is buying could be exported to a foreign country. This was a problem, as China needs those engines for the 150 JF17 fighters it is building for Pakistan. What makes this particularly nasty is that Pakistan has invested $150 million in the development of the JF17.

Pakistan thought Russia would give China permission to export the RD93 equipped aircraft. After all, China was such a large customer for RD93 engines (originally designed for the MiG-29), and those 500 RD93 engines are worth $1.25 billion.
But apparently India played hardball, and demanded that the Russians forbid the export of the RD93s from China to Pakistan.

India is a major customer for Russian weapons, including cooperative development deals. China is a big customer for Russian weapons as well, but India buys more stuff, and is seen as less of a future threat to Russia than China. Pressure from many other nations interested in the JF-17 apparently caused the Russians to finally relent.

But it gets more interesting. China has been developing a similar (apparently identical) engine to the RD93, the WS-13. Actually, this effort is being aided by Russia, which is selling China technology needed for the manufacture of key engine components. Russia isn't happy about this, because they don't want competition in the low-cost jet engine market. Then again, China has a history of stealing technology it cannot buy, so the Russians are making the best of a bad situation.

China says the WS-13 is nearly ready for service. Maybe, maybe not. Building high performance military jet engines is difficult, and China has had problems mastering this kind of stuff. Not that they will not eventually acquire the skills, but until they do, they need the Russian-made RD93s.

China shipped two RD93-equipped JF-17s to Pakistan in March 2007, and informed the Russians that, according to the their interpretation of the 1992 RD-93 contract, China could re-export the RD-93 engines.

The situation sat, unresolved, until the Summer of 2007, when the Russians said that they believed that the 1992 contract was quite clear about China needing Russian permission, and China didn't have it. The Russians were playing hardball, at the behest of the Indians.

Apparently, India is expected to use this RD-93 veto to get Pakistan to offer up some appropriate in the current peace talks between the two countries.

Russians problems are largely of its own making. In several warship and fighter sales deals, they screwed up and quoted too low a price. Russia admits that, and wants to change to a higher price. Both China and Russia are not cooperating.

To further complicate matters, China has been shamelessly stealing Russian military technology, and producing copies, without compensating the Russians for the stolen technology. China denies this, but it's all pretty blatant.

No one knows how this will all turn out. All three nations believe they have strong negotiating positions, but eventually, someone will have to blink, and back off.

HARD TO SWALLOW THOUGHTS ON "allah"

This site sent us a visitor and when we checked it - out of curiosity - it became instantly apparent that while sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, in ths case it is an incisive poke at the truth.

CLICK ON THE TITLE/SUBJECT to visit the site and enjoy it.

BLASPHEMY GONE WILD

Hamza Yusuf is the prominent American moderate Muslim who once said, “There are times when you have to live like a sheep in order to live in the future like a lion.”

In "The Real Teddy Bear Tragedy" at the Newsweek/WaPo "On Faith" site, the sheeplike Hamza avows that the charge against the Muhammad Teddy Bear teacher, Gillian Gibbons, was "without merit," and that the Sudanese authorities' arrest of Gibbons left him "appalled."

That said, the leonine Hamza avers that the whole incident is the fault of the non-Muslim West:

Unfortunately, millions of Muslims all over the globe are humiliated and betrayed by the ignorance and lack of basic humanity that a small minority of Muslims too often exhibits.

Should I, however, bring this up with many of my Muslim brothers and sisters a common response is: "It's true, but look at what the West is doing to Muslims; 800,000 thousand dead in Iraq. And what about Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and the rest? Why don't Western people denounce these atrocities against us and only harp about how backward we are?"

I.e., change your foreign policies, and we will stop committing terrorist acts. The burden is all on you.

A famous Iraqi poet once wrote, "If one person is harmed it is an unpardonable sin, but a whole people's destruction is something to debate."

Indeed. Let's talk about the numerous affirmations by Islamic clerics of how they want to destroy Israel and kill all Jews. "Have no mercy on the Jews, murder them everywhere...” That was broadcast on Palestinian TV on October 13, 2000.

Care to denounce it, Hamza?

And Hizballah's Hassan Nasrallah has said that "if they [the Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”

Similarly, a 1992 Hizballah statement vowed “open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth.” Let's talk about that, Hamza.

Unfortunately, these Western horrors against the Muslims demand responses, but Muslims must also recognize and denounce these wrongs too often associated with our Prophet and our faith without always pointing fingers elsewhere.
Fair enough. I am giving you an opportunity to do so.

But to speak about alleged Western offenses as if they somehow justify the madness of imprisoning someone over a teddy bear -- well, I can't say that I find that quite rational.
Our current world can go one of two ways at this crossroad.

We can go down the path of more violence, more hatred and more alienation, or we can attempt to understand each other, recognize our real differences, and display mutual respect. True religion -- as well as the highest secular values -- demands we take the latter road.

Indeed, the situation in Sudan is a medieval misunderstanding and overreaction. So are the myriad cases of torture, rape and pillaging that are now part of our daily patch of foreign, and increasingly, domestic news. Indeed, our dark medieval past seems to be having an ironic renaissance in the West and the Muslim world.

So when we see an irrational or misguided reaction of some Muslims, as we now see in Sudan, it behooves us to reflect on the deeper reality causing it.

Very well. Let's do that. Let's reflect on blasphemy laws that are so sweeping and vague, and so irrationally applied, that they victimize harmless middle-aged British schoolteachers and rouse people to call for her blood.

Let's reflect on freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry, and why they are essential prerequisites for peace between people whose views differ. Would the sheeplike and/or leonine Hamza care to reflect on any of that?

Iranian Students Protest Over Arrests -BILINGUAL Farsi

link to original article

Iranian students staged a new demonstration at Tehran University on Sunday, damaging the main gate to allow outsiders into the campus and denouncing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, news agencies reported.

The protesters chanted slogans against the president and carried banners calling for the release of three fellow students who have been held since May in a high-profile case, the Fars news agency and state-run IRNA reported.

The reports did not disclose the number of students involved. Both news agencies said that the demonstration had been called by the radical wing of the Office to Foster Unity, a reformist student group. "The students marched on the gate and damaged it, and this allowed several non-students to enter the campus," IRNA reported.

There has been a string of demonstrations at Tehran universities in past months as students protest against the replacement of liberal professors, pressure on activists by the authorities and the detention of three students.

The demonstration Sunday was at least the second within a week at Tehran University after dozens of students held a similar protest on Tuesday.

Mehdi Arabshahi, a member of the central board of the Office to Foster Unity, said that 1,500 people joined the latest protest, although there was no confirmation of this figure from Iranian media. He told AFP that university security officials had initially shut the main gate in a bid to prevent large numbers gathering for the protest.

"But the students forced their way in and broke the gate so that others could enter. "They protested against the detention of the students, the oppressive policies of the government and advocated rights for all Iranians," he added, saying that the participants included liberals and ethnic Kurds.

Arabshahi said the protest lasted for more than two hours after starting at 12:00 pm (0830 GMT) and that it was peaceful. "We are gathered here to say students are alive and are critical of wrong polices," IRNA quoted another unnamed student as saying.

The demonstration came a day after the intelligence ministry said it had arrested an unspecified number of people using "fake student cards to hold an illegal demonstration" at Tehran University. The timing of those arrests was not given, but it is likely that they took place ahead of Friday which was annual students' day in Iran.

The case of the three detained students from Tehran's Amir Kabir University has become a major issue for the protesting students. Detained since May, the trio were given jail sentences of up to three years in October on charges of printing anti-Islamic images in four student newspapers -- accusations they vehemently deny.

Reformist leaders such as former president Mohammad Khatami have openly called for the three to be released, but hardliners have said the gravity of their crimes means they must stay behind bars.

دانشجویان درب دانشگاه را شکسته و وارد دانشگاه شدند

سایت حکومتی جهان: از ساعاتي پيش از محل دانشكده فني دانشگاه تهران برخي دانشجويان دست به تجمع در دانشگاه تهران زدند.
اين تجمع به مناسبت 16 آذر روز دانشجو برگزار شده است. تجمع كنندگان با سر دادن شعارهايي چون «حكومت زور نمي‌خوايم پليس مزدور نمي‌خوايم» و «شاهد قرباني شدن انسانيت در تحجريم» و... به تجمع خود ادامه مي دهند.
هم اكنون تجمع كنندگان با داشتن پلاكاردهايي در دست مبني بر آزادي دانشجويان بازداشت شده سرد «يار دبستاني من» را مي‌خوانند و در حال حركت به سمت درب اصلي دانشگاه تهران هستند.
همچنين برخي از آنان شعارهايي با زبان كردي سرداده كه مضامين‌ آن‌ها آزادي دانشجويان كرد از بازداشت و زندان است.
اين تجمع با حضور ماموران نيروهاي انتظامي در صحنه ادامه دارد و درگيري هاي پراكنده بين آنان و تجمع كنندگان بوجود آمده است.

تجمع هزاران دانشجو با شعار مرگ بر دیکتاتور
به رغم تدابیر شدید امنیتی و اقدامات سرکوبگرانه از سوی ماموران اطلاعات و حراست رژیم، ظهر امروز هزاران دانشجو با شعار 'مرگ بر دیکتاتور' در دانشگاه تهران تجمع کرده و خواهان آزاای دانشجویان دربند شدند. این گردهمايی در شرایطی صورت می گیرد که وزارت اطلاعات جمهوری اسلامی روز گذشته با انتشار بیانیه ای از دستگیری گسترده دانشجویان طی روزهای اخیر خبر داد.
گزارش خبرنامه امیرکبیر: تجمع بزرگ دانشجویان، دانشگاه آخرین سنگر آزادی، به دعوت دفتر تحکیم وحدت در دانشگاه تهران آغاز شد. گزارش ها رسیده حکایت از آن دارد جمعیتی بالغ بر ۱۵۰۰ نفر در لحظات ابتدایی این تجمع و تریبون آزاد در آن حضور یافته اند و رفته رفته به تعداد دانشجویان تجمع کننده نیز افزوده می شود.
از ساعات ابتدایی صبح امروز جمعی از نیروهای انتظامات و حراست دانشگاه های امیرکبیر، علامه و… جهت ممانعت از ورود دانشجویانی که از دیگر دانشگاه ها قصد ورود به دانشگاه تهران را داشتند، به این دانشگاه اعزام شده بودند و مقابل کلیه درب ها حضور داشتند.
گزارش های رسیده همچنین حکایت از آن دارد نیروهای حراست دانشگاه ها لیستی از دانشجویان فعال دانشگاه خود در دست داشتند تا دانشجویانی که امروز در این تجمع شرکت کرده اند را شناسایی کنند. نیروهای امنیتی و انتظامی به همراه گارد ویژه از ساعت ۸ صبح امروز در اطراف دانشگاه تهران حضوری چشمگیر داشتند و هر لحظه بر تعدادشان افزوده می شد.
به گزارش خبرنامه امیرکبیر هم اکنون نیروهای امنیتی و انتظامی در خیابان های اطراف دانشگاه تهران، از یک سو تا میدان انقلاب و از سوی دیگر تا تقاطع وصال حضور دارند. از ساعت ۱۱ نیز مقابل سردر اصلی دانشگاه تهران به وسیله چندین اتوبوس پوشانده شده است. حضور گسترده نیروهای انتظامی و ایجاد جو امنیتی در اطراف دانشگاه موجب ترافیک شدید در خیابان های حول دانشگاه تهران شده است.
دانشجویان ابتدا با تجمع در صحن دانشکده حقوق و خواندن سرود «یار دبستانی» به سمت سر در دانشکده فنی، محل برگزاری تجمع، حرکت کردند. تجمع کنندگان در حالی که تصاویر دانشجویان در بند را در دست داشتند شعار «دانشجوی زندانی آزاد باید گردد» و… سر می دادند.
با حضور دانشجویان مقابل دانشکده فنی، دانشجویان کرد دانشگاه های تهران در حالی که تصاویر دانشجویان زندانی کرد را در دست داشتند به جمعیت حاضر مقابل دانشکده فنی پیوسته که مورد استقبال تجمع کنندگان قرار گرفتند.
دانشجویان پلاکاردهایی با مضمون «تا که زندان هست، ما همه در بندیم»، «خواهان آزادی فعالان دانشجویی چپ هستیم»، «سلام بر سه آذر اهورایی، قصابان، توکلی، منصوری»، «می شونید؟! این صدای آزادی است»، «حقوق زن=حقوق بشر»، «دانشگاه زیر چکمه بنیادگرایان»، «سهم ما از مهرورزی، زندان، شکنجه و محرومیت از تحصیل»، «بشیریه را باز گردانید»، «تحصیل سهم من نیست، حق من است»، «حق تعیین سرنوشت اساس کرامت ملت ها»، «نابود باد دشمنی علیه مبارزات حق طلبانه ملت کرد» و… در دست داشتند.
تجمع کنندگان همچنین تصاویر دانشجویان در بند، یاسر گلی، هانا عبدی، روناک صفارزاده، هدایت غزالی، صباح نصیری، علی عزیزی، علی نیکونسبتی، احمد قصابان، مجید توکلی و احسان منصوری را در دست داشتند. تصاویر مهندس مهدی بازرگان، محمد مصدق، عمادالدین باقی و… را در دست برخی از دانشجویان بود.
دانشجویان سپس در حالی که شعار می دادند «دانشجو دانشجو اتحاد اتحاد» به راهپیمایی در صحن دانشگاه تهران اقدام کردند و به سمت درب ۱۶ آذر حرکت کردند. جمع کثیری از دانشجویان که قصد داشتند در این تجمع شرکت کنند پشت درب ۱۶ آذر مانده بودند.
دانشجویان با سر دادن شعارهای «مرگ بر دیکتاتور» و «دانشجو می میرد ذلت نمی پذیرد» اقدام به شکستن درب ۱۶ آذر کردند و دانشجویانی که پشت در بودند توانستند وارد دانشگاه تهران شوند. دانشجویان سپس به سمت درب خیابان قدس حرکت کردند و فشار جمعیت در دو سوی در باعث شکستن درب خیابان قدس نیز شد.
جمعیت حاضر در این تجمع بار دیگر به مقابل سردر دانشکده فنی حرکت کردند و تریبون آزاد «دانشگاه، آخرین سنگر آزادی» با حضور جمع کثیری از دانشجویان آغاز شد.
گزارشی از همبستگی بی نظیر دانشجویان در دانشگاه تهران
به رغم تدابیر شدید امنیتی و اقدامات سرکوبگرانه از سوی ماموران اطلاعات و حراست رژیم، ظهر امروز هزاران دانشجو با شعار 'مرگ بر دیکتاتور' در دانشگاه تهران تجمع کرده و خواهان آزادی دانشجویان دربند شدند. این گردهمايی در شرایطی صورت گرفت که وزارت اطلاعات جمهوری اسلامی روز گذشته با انتشار بیانیه ای از دستگیری گسترده دانشجویان طی روزهای اخیر خبر داده بود.
گزارش فعالان حقوق بشر در ايران: پس از شکسته شدن درب 16 آذر دانشگاه تهران ، دانشجويان دانشگاه هاي چون علامه و پلي تکنيک و دانشگاه هاي آزاد اسلامي با دانشجويان دانشگاه تهران به صورت متحدالشکل با سرود يار دبستاني به سمت دانشگاه فني حرکت کردند و مراسم را در آنجا برگزار نمودند. تريبون آزاد دانشگاه تهران به نمايندگي از 7 تن از طيف هاي مختلف آغاز شد و از تمامي گروه و قوميت ها سخنراني انجام شد و اتحاد وصف ناپذيري را به نمايش گذاشتند .
ابتدا نماينده دانشجويان کرد سخنان خود را آغاز کرد و به بيان مشکلات کرد هاي ايران پرداخت و با اشاره به اينکه کرد هاي ايران تجزيه طلب و جدايي طلب نيستند شهرهاي کرمانشاه و ايلام را اصلي ترين قربانيان مقابله با قوميت ها برشمرد.
در ادامه برنامه آقاي رشيد اسمائيلي در تائيد صحبت هاي نفر قبلي عنوان کرد " هر جا کرد هست آنجا ايران است " و در ادامه برنامه خانم مهديه گلکو به نمايندگي از دانشجويان علامه طباطبايي سخناني را ايراد کردند و همچنين نمايندگان دانشجويان امير کبير با اعلام انزجار از برخورد هاي اخير با دانشجويان به بازداشت دانشجويان اعتراض کردند .
نماينده دانشجويان چپ سوسياليت ضمن اعلام اتحاد نسبت به بازداشت دانشجويان در روز هاي 12 و 13 آذر ماه اعلام نگراني کرد و آقاي رشيد اسمائيلي به نمايندگ ياز دانشجويان ليبرال سخنراني نمود و با ديگر طيف ها اعلام همبستگي کرد و ابراز خرسندي کرد از اتحاد بين دانشجويان که از هر قوم و نژاد و اعتقادي در آن حضور دارند .
آقاي سلمان سيما به نمايندگي از دانشجويان دانشگاه آزاد اعتراض خود را نسبت به شرايط موجود در دانشگاه آزاد اعلام کرد و به حالت طئنه آميز اعلام کرد که آقاي جاسبي قصد دارد دانشگاه جديدي به نام دانشگاه آزاد اسلامي واحد اوين را افتطاح نمايد که اشاره به زنداني بودن 5 دانشجوي دانشگاه آزاد را داشتند .
در ادامه مراسم دانشجويان با خواندن سرود و سر دادن شعار هايي " رفراندوم رفراندوم اين است شعار مردم " ، " دانشجوي زنداني آزاد بايد گردد " ، " مرگ بر ديکتاتور " و ... به سمت درب اصلي دانشگاه حرکت کردند که با ممانعت انتظامات و حراست روبرو شدند ولي با هجوم دانشجويان سد انتظامت شکسته شد و دانشجويان به سمت درب اصلي دانشگاه حرکت کردند .
مامورين وزارت اطلاعات براي جلوگيری از اتحاد مردم با دانشجويان در خيابان انقلاب حدود 12 اتوبوس را پارک کرده بود تا مردم در حال عبور از خيابان تجمع اعتراضي دانشجويان را مشاهده نکنند .
در انتها دانشجويان با جمع شدن در ميدان اصلي دانشگاه تهران حلقه هاي را تشکيل دادند و همه گروه ها دست به دست هم دادند و در پايان به نشانه اعتراض به روزنامه کيهان به نمايندگي از رسانه اي که اقدام به شايعه پراکني و تهمت زدن ها در اقدامي سنبليک روزنامه کيهان را به آتش کشيدند .
همچنين بنا بر گزارش واحد زندانيان سياسي آقاي علي نيکو نسبتي نيز لحظاتي پيش از زندان اوين آزاد شد ، وي از اعضاي کادر مرکزي تحکيم وحدت بود که در 17 آبان ماه توسط مامورين وزارت اطلاعات بازداشت شده بود .
لازم به توضيح است که عده اي از دانشجويان دانشگاه هاي مختلف در مقابل درب 16 آذر ماه بازداشت شدند ، تا کنون از وضعيت ايشان اطلاعي در دست نيست اما به گزارش ايرنا و با تائيد وزارت اطلاعات دستگيري ايشان مسجل شده است .

MULLAH STYLE CORONATION

WHITE TURBAN IS A FOR NON-DESCENDANT OF THE PROPHET.

BLACK TURBANS ARE FOR SEYEDS, DESCENDED ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FAMILY FROM THE PROPHET.

NOTE: KHOMEINI WITH A BRITISH FATHER AND A KASHMIRI INDIAN MOTHER WORE A BLACK TURBAN TO WHICH HE HAD NO CLAIM.

THE OFFICIAL REPOSITORY OF RECORDS OF THE NAMES OF ALL THE DESCENDANTS OF THE PROPHET (IN EGYPT) DOES NOT NAME HIM AS SUCH.

WHY GOOD IRAQI NEWS DOES NOT GET REPORTED

Information about Iraq obtained at the Miramar Marine Corp air station in San Diego.

Writer is a retired Navy fighter pilot who flew out of Miramar.

I can't remember if I told you, but for about a year now and at the request of the Planning Board in Rancho Bernardo, I have been a member of the Miramar Community Leaders Forum. What a difference it is from 10 years ago.

The base is very open and provides us detailed statistics on air operations as well as informative briefings on what is going on in IRAQ and AFGANISTAN.

Last month, the guest speaker was a female 1st Lt who worked in public affairs. The military public affairs offices are the ones that handle the imbedded reporters from the national media.

According to her, 98% of the imbedded reporters are fair and do not have a liberal bias. They call it like they see it, but it can get edited back home (and does). She said that 2% of the imbedded reporters are jerks and really twist the reporting, but it is worth it to put up with these clowns in order to also have the other 98% who are fair.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, to me, there was some shocking information included in her briefing. It seems that the good news that we complain is never reported on is, in fact, censored by our very own military.

If a new school is opened and it is reported on in the press, the insurgents blow it up.

If a power plant comes back on line and it is reported, the insurgents blow it up.

If a local Sunni Sheik sits down with the Shiite leaders and precipitates an agreement between the parties
to try to get along (and it is reported), he is assassinated.

Every single news worthy event is pored over by the military public affairs people and fully 90% of the good news about IRAQ is never reported at the request of our military press or the local population.

They just don't want things blown up and people killed. We would much rather quietly bring a power plant back on line and tell no one. Even the locals realize it is in their best interest to just not mention it.

To me, this is an element of the war that few people (if any) are aware of. Just thought you might be interested.

ISLAMIC STATE OF NORTH AMERICA BY 2050

GLOBAL JIHAD



D.C. Imam declares Muslim takeover-plan



Washington-based cleric working toward 'Islamic State of North America' by2050



By Art Moore



A Washington, D.C., imam states explicitly on the website for hisorganization that he is part of a movement working toward replacement of theU.S. Government with "the Islamic State of North America" by 2050.



With branches in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento andPhiladelphia, the group As-Sabiqun – or the Vanguard – is under theleadership of Abdul Alim Musa in the nation's capital. Musa's declaration of his intention to help lead a takeover of America washighlighted by noted Islam observer Robert Spencer on his website JihadWatch.



Spencer told WND that figures such as Musa should not be ignored, "Notbecause they have the power to succeed, but because they may commit acts ofviolence to achieve their purpose."



Musa's website declares: "Those who engage in this great effort require ahigh level of commitment and determination. We are sending out a call to thebelievers: Join with us in this great struggle to change the world!"



Musa launched the group in the early 1990s at the Al-Islam mosque inPhiladelphia. His group says it is influenced by the writings and life workof Muslim thinkers and leaders such as Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasanal-Banna, Sayyid Qutb and Iranian revolutionary Ayatollah Khomenei.



The writings of Al-Banna and Qutb figured prominently in al-Qaida'sformation. Musa's organization says its leadership "has delivered numerous speeches inthe United States and abroad, contributing their analyses and efforts tosolve contemporary problems in the Muslim world and in urban America."



Abdul Alim Musa "The paramount goal of the movement is the establishment of Islam as acomplete way of life in America," the group declares. "This ultimate goal ispredicated on the belief – shared by many Muslims worldwide – that Islam isfully capable of producing a working and just social, political, economicorder."



The groups says it does not "advocate participation in the Americanpolitical process as an ideal method for advancing Islamic issues in the U.S; instead, it believes in a strong and active outreach to the people of theU.S." Spencer told WND he does not know of any direct influence Musa has onprominent Muslim leaders or on U.S.



Policymakers, but he says it's "unclearhow much 'mainstream' Muslim leaders harbor similar hopes – because no onedares question them about it." As WND reported, the founder of the leading Islamic lobby group CAIR, on Islamic-American Relations, reportedly told a group of Muslims in California they are in America not to assimilate but to help assert Islam'srule over the country. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper also has said, in a newspaper interview, he hopes to see an Islamic government over the U.S.Some day, brought about not by violence but through "education."



In London last summer, as WND reported, Muslims gathered in front of theLondon Central Mosque to applaud fiery preachers prophesying the overthrowof the British government – a future vision that encompasses an Islamictakeover of the White House and the rule of the Quran over America.



Musa says he wants to avoid what he calls an "absolutist" outlook on "theadvancement of Muslims." His group's philosophy is to stress unity between the various streams ofIslam "in the attainment of common goals." Although As-Sabiqun is a Sunni movement, it has publicly voiced support forShia movements and organizations such as the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iranand the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, which waged war on Israel in the summer of 2006.



Musa, the group says, repeatedly has "stressed that the tendency by someMuslims to focus on the differences between Sunni and Shia Islam at thisjuncture in history is counterproductive to the goals of the Islamicmovement as a whole." The group says it encourages social-political advancement concurrent with aprogram of spiritual and moral development according to the Quran and Sunnah compilations of stories from the life of Islam's prophet Muhammad.



The group says it has a six-point plan of action which is implemented ateach location where a branch of the movement is established. Establishing a mosque "as a place to worship Allah in congregation and as acenter of spiritual and moral training."



"Calling the general society" to embrace Islam.



Establishing a full-time school "that raises children with a strong Islamicidentity so they can, as future Islamic leaders, effectively meet and dealwith the challenges of growing up in the West."



Establishing businesses to "make the movement financially stable andindependent."



Establishing "geographical integrity by encouraging Muslims of the communityto live in close proximity" to the mosque.



Establishing "social welfare institutions to respond to the need forspiritual and material assistance within the community as well as thegeneral society." In addition to daily classes, each mosque in the movement "also providesyouth mentorship, marriage counseling, a prison outreach program, and employment assistance for ex-convicts."



As-Sabiqun says its branch in Los Angeles "was instrumental in creating afree health clinic in cooperation with other Islamic groups. The headquarters branch in D.C. has developed scout programs for young membersof the community."



The group says the inspiration for its name comes from Quran, 9:100:"The vanguard (as-Sabiqun) of Islam – the first of those who forsook their homes, and of those who gave them aid, and also those who follow them in all good deeds – well-pleased is Allah with them, as are they with Him:



For them hath He prepared Gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein forever: that is the supreme Felicity."

OUR SCHOOLS A TARGET

On Sept. 1, 2004, Chechens affiliated with al Qaeda seized a middle school in Beslan, Russia. In the three day siege, 334 people --most of them children -- were killed. Could something like that happen here?

U.S. forces seized in 2002 an al Qaeda training tape of a practice assault on an abandoned school in Mir Bach Kot in Afghanistan. The terrorists were barking commands in English.

U.S. forces in Iraq found on a captured al Qaeda computer building plans for schools in six states.

In May of 2006, two Saudi students at the University of South Florida boarded a school bus. They were "cagey and evasive" in explaining why they boarded the bus, said a spokesman for the Hillsborough County sheriff.

In March of 2007, the FBI issued a bulletin to law enforcement warning that Moslems "with ties to extremist groups" were signing up to be school bus drivers.

A Houston television station reported in August of this year that 17 large yellow school buses have been stolen.Al Qaeda prefers middle schools because the girls are old enough to rape, but the boys aren't big enough to fight back, says retired Army LtCol. Dave Grossman, who runs a private security firm.

Why would al Qaeda contemplate something so monstrous?Al Qaeda may lack the strength to attack a heavily defended target such as a military base or a nuclear power plant. But attacking a school would be child's play. Lt Col. Grossman thinks schools in rural areas are the most likely targets, because response time from law enforcement would be slower.

"The terrorists' primary objective is to instill fear in every one of us," former FBI agent Don Clark said on the Glenn Beck program last month. "What better way to attack our schools and murder our children?"Don't they realize that such an attack would make Americans very, very mad?

They're counting on that, says Brad Thor, a former Homeland Security official who's written a book about al Qaeda's threat to children. "They want to create something so horrible that we will lose control in our reaction, we will be lynching Moslem people in the streets and burning mosques," Mr. Thor told Glenn Beck.

"They want to reduce us to animals like them to get the Islamic world behind them and finally get the holy war that they want kicked off and ignited."The vast majority of Moslems in the U.S. would be as horrified as you or I by an attack on schoolchildren. But it only takes a few.

Simultaneous attacks on three or four schools could be conducted by as few as 100 Islamists who are willing to die in order to kill. Such attacks would garner enormous publicity and cause widespread panic. Attacking schools here would be a desperate move. But depending on how things go in Pakistan over the next few weeks, al Qaeda may be in need of the Islamist version of the "Hail Mary" pass.

It's gotten its clock cleaned in Iraq. The ambushes the Taliban has sprung recently in Afghanistan have resulted in casualties chiefly among the ambushers. Al Qaeda's street credo in the Moslem world is at an all time low.

I doubt Americans would respond as al Qaeda hopes to an attack on our schools. But if such an outrage were to occur, Democrats need to think more about how voters will react to a political party that's been trying to cripple the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to identify suspected terrorists, and to obtain useful information from them if they are captured.

Democrats attempted to block the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to be attorney general because he would not declare the interrogation technique of waterboarding as "torture," something Congress itself was unwilling to do last year.

Waterboarding simulates drowning. It's very unpleasant, but causes no permanent damage. Only a handful of al Qaeda suspects have been subjected to the procedure, which is routinely applied to American pilots and special forces soldiers in SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) training.

It is ludicrous to say we may not do to terrorists what we routinely put our own people through, but Democrats tend to define as "torture" anything terrorists find unpleasant.

This attitude plays well with moonbats such as Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, who has written that trimming the beards of detainees at Guantanamo constitutes "torture." But how well will it play after an American Beslan?

AL QAEDA'S NEW DISGUISE

1. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), the militant wing of the anti-Shia Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), is emerging as the new Trojan Horse of Al Qaeda to carry out operations on behalf of Al Qaeda in areas where Al Qaeda faces difficulty in operating directly or in those cases where it does not want to operate directly.

2. In the past, this role was being performed by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET). Both the LET and the LEJ are members of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People. Both are strongly Wahabi organisations, but whereas the LEJ is strongly anti-US, anti-Israel, anti-India, anti-Iran and anti-Shia, the LET is only anti-US, anti-Israel and anti-India, but not anti-Iran or anti-Shia.

3. There is no confirmed instance of the LET indulging in planned anti-Shia violence in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but the LEJ has been responsible for most of the targeted attacks on Shias and their places of worship in Pakistan and on the Hazaras---who are Shias---in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

4.The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), which are also members of the IIF, strongly share the anti-Shia feelings of the LEJ, but they do not indulge in targeted attacks on Shias and their places of worship.

Many of the leaders of these organisations, including Maulana Masood Azhar, the Amir of the JEM, started their jihadi career in the SSP, but later drifted away from it since they felt uncomfortable with its targeted attacks on Shias and their places of worship.

Despite being separate now, they do co-operate with the LEJ in its operations directed against US interests and the Pakistani armed forces. The LET prefers to operate independently without getting involved with the SSP or the LEJ. The LET avoids attacks on Pakistani security forces.

5. The strong action taken by the international community against known and suspected Arab members of Al Qaeda created difficulties for them in travelling freely and in carrying out operations in non-Muslim countries. Consequently, it startred depending increasingly on the Pakistani members of the LET for its operations.

Post-9/11, the LET emerged as the clone of Al Qaeda. It opened its sleeper cells in countries such as Australia, Singapore, the UK, France and the US to help Al Qaeda in its operations by collecting information, motivating the members of the Pakistani diaspora and other means.

6. In 2002-03, Western intelligence agencies did not pay much attention to LET activities in the Pakistani diaspora. They tended to disregard Indian evidence about the new role of the LET as the operational facilitator of Al Qaeda since they suspected that Indian officials and non-governmental analysts tended to over-project the LET's role in the West because of its activities in Indian territory.

However, the discovery of LET sleeper cells in the Western countries post-2002 changed this attitude and Indian evidence on the LET was treated with greater seriousness. Next to the Arab members of Al Qaeda, suspected Pakistani members of the LET were placed under close surveillance in many countries. This created difficulties in the movement and activities of the LET. The LET is no longer able to operate outside the Indian sub-continnt as freely as it used to do in the past.

7. Moreover, the LET is feeling uncomfortable over the anti-Shia violence unleashed by Al Qaeda and its surrogates in Iraq. While continuing to be a member of the IIF, it is trying to avoid being associated with Al Qaeda's anti-Shia and anti-Saudi policies.

Saudi charity organisations have been one of the main funders of the LET, which has an active branch in Saudi Arabia to recruit members from the Indian Muslim diaspora in the Gulf countries.

8.In view of these developments, Al Qaeda has started increasingly using the the SSP and the LEJ for its operations in Pakistan itself as well as in the non-Muslim countries. The LEJ was actively involved in supporting the students of the two madrasas of the Lal Masjid of Islamabad before they were raided by Pakistani military commandoes in July,2007.

Many of the women, who were targeted by the girl students for allegedly running a call girl racket, were reportedly Shias. It has been actively backing the tribals, who have taken to arms against the Pakistani security forces in North and South Waziristan and in the Swat Valley in the Provincially-Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of the North-West Frontier Province.

Under the influence of the LEJ, the tribals have been beheading or otherwise killing only the Shias among the security forces personnel captured by them. Well-informed Police sources say that all the para-military personnel beheaded so far by the tribals were Shias.

According to them, there has not been a single instance of the beheading of a Sunni member of the security forces though many Sunnis have been killed in explosions.

9. The JEM is also actively involved in supporting the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) in its fight against the security forces in the Swat Valley.There have been targeted attacks on members of the local Shia community.

The anti-Shia dimension of the current violence in the tribal areas has also been corroborated by the well-informed "Daily Times" of Lahore in an editorial titled "Two Oppressions" carried by it on November 10, 2007.

The editorial says: ' The latest news from Waziristan is that a well-known Shia personality has been gunned down. This is a part of the sectarian violence that Al Qaeda commits in the territories it captures.

Earlier, Shias among the captured Pakistani troops were casually beheaded while the Sunnis were returned. In the Shia-majority Parachinar in the Kurram Agency, suicide-bombers have been killing indiscriminately."

10. Thus, a new anti-Shia front has emerged inside the IIF consisting of Al Qaeda, the LEJ, the TNSM and the JEM. Al Qaeda's use of the LEJ is not confined to Pakistani territory.

The Police sources mentioned above say that in view of the difficulties now faced by suspected LET members in Western countries and in South-east Asia, Al Qaeda is encouraging the SSP and the LEJ to gradually take over the role of the LET as the motivators and mobilisers of members of the overseas Pakistani diaspora for assisting Al Qaeda in its operations.

They claim that some sleeper cells of the SSP and the LEJ have already come up in the US, the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Singapore and Australia. Since the foreign intelligence agencies do not have much information about the SSP and the LEJ, they are able to operate without creating suspicions about them.

11. The SSP and the LEJ have not come to notice till now for any activities in the Indian territory---either in Jammu & Kashmir or outside. In view of the recurring explosions targeting Muslims and Muslim places of worship in Delhi, Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer since last year, one has to look into the possibility of the involvement of the SSP and the LEJ in terrorism in Indian territory.

None of the Muslim places of worship targeted in India so far belonged to the Shias, but one must note that in Pakistan, the LEJ targets not only Shias and their places of worship, but also the Barelvi Sunnis and their places of worship.

The Barelvis are a more tolerant Sunni sect and have rejected Wahabism so far.

Despite the progress made by Wahabism and Deobandi sects, the Barelvis are still in a majority in the Indian sub-continent. Hence, the LEJ's attacks on the Barelvis, many of whom are descendents of converts from Hinduism.

The Wahabis/Deobandis are mainly descendents of Muslim migrants into the sub-continent from West and Central Asia.Indian investigators should not keep their focus exclusively on the LET and the HUJI. They should keep their mind open and look into the possibility of the involvement of other jihadi terrorist organisations too.

(This may please be read in continuation of my earlier article of July 1,2002, titled SIPAH-E-SAHABA PAKISTAN, LASHKAR-E-JHANGVI, BIN LADEN & RAMZI YOUSEF at http://www.saag.org/papers5/paper484.html

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com

AMARIYAH, BAGHDAD RETURNS TO NORMAL

BAGHDAD - Twilight brings traffic jams to the main shopping district of this once-affluent corner of Baghdad and hundreds of people stroll past well-stocked vegetable stands, bakeries and butcher shops.

To many in Amariyah, it seems little short of a miracle.

Just six months ago, this mostly Sunni neighborhood was one of the centers of al-Qaida in Iraq operations. The district in western Baghdad was hit by more than a dozen bombings and shootings some days. Few people dared to venture onto the streets.

On Tuesday, women shopped and men drank tea in sidewalk cafes. Occasionally, U.S. soldiers walking the streets were greeted with salaams and smiles.

What is happening here reflects similar trends across Baghdad and parts of Iraq, where civilian and U.S. military casualties have dropped sharply in the past two months. But the speed of the turnaround in places such as Amariyah has taken almost everyone — including U.S. military forces in the area — by surprise.

"The progress that we made is almost unbelievable," said Capt. Brendan Gallagher, 29, of Columbia, Md., who serves with the Army's 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

The neighborhood is still nowhere near its former gloss at the Beverly Hills of Baghdad, as it was called before the 2003 U.S. invasion. A six-foot-high concrete wall rings the two-square-mile neighborhood, many villas stand empty with broken windows and the streets are littered with trash. There is 70 percent unemployment, U.S. military officials say.

But residents are making the first small steps toward trying to rebuild.

Ismail Hussein mixed cement across the street from a line of shops blown up by the U.S. military after a huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives were discovered there in late summer.
Hussein greeted a passing U.S. military patrol as he rebuilt a curb in front of a relative's home, shaping the fresh concrete with a trowel. A few months ago, he might have been shot by insurgents for this modest effort, as they tried to discourage anything that smacked of reconstruction.

Now the violence has ebbed to the point that U.S. forces — in the absence of much help from Iraq's Shiite-dominated central government — have begun planning to rebuild.

Water mains have been ruptured or cracked by bombs and the passing U.S. tanks and 25-ton Bradley armored vehicles. Sewers are clogged with refuse and, Capt. Gallagher said, some human remains.

Sunni residents are afraid still to go to the area hospital, run by Shiites, complaining of poor treatment and the fear of Shiite death squads. So the U.S. military authorities plan to build a health center using a building designated for dental offices by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

U.S. officials say it's impossible to understand how far the situation improved in Amariyah without explaining how far it deteriorated.

"Amariyah was one of the first places where things got real bad," said 1st Lt. Schulyer Williamson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., part of Gallagher's unit. "My platoon sergeant and I would pick up six dead bodies a day."

Once, Williamson said, he was ambushed by snipers stationed in 12 positions along a stretch of road, trying to force the column to a choke point where insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades lurked.

"It rained," he said, describing the intensity of the shooting. "I grabbed my gunner out of the gunner's hole because he was taking too much fire." They managed to escape.

The violence peaked in May, U.S. officials said, as al-Qaida in Iraq fighters killed 14 U.S. military troops in a series of bombings. Six soldiers and their interpreter died May 19 when a massive bomb detonated in the road under their Bradley, flipping it over.

Several U.S. military officials here said the most important factor in reducing the violence in Amariyah was the U.S. troop increase, which quadrupled the number of U.S. military forces patrolling the neighborhood in mid-June.

Another key to progress, they say, was the formation in late May of a local anti-insurgent alliance, the Farsan al-Rafidayn, which in Arabic means "Knights of the Land of the Two Rivers."

The organization, called the FAR by the U.S. military, has recruited hundreds of Amariyah residents to fight against al-Qaida in Iraq — which takes inspiration from Osama bin Laden, though its direct links to his terror network are unclear. Similar groups have been formed across former insurgent strongholds in other parts of Iraq.

The FAR "Knights" are led by Abu Abed, the nom de guerre of a 40-year-old Amariyah resident who says he served as an officer in the Iraqi Army for 17 years before 2003, but otherwise is reluctant to talk about his background.

He has told friends in the U.S. military that he is the sole survivor of seven brothers, four of them victims of the sectarian violence in Baghdad in recent years.

Abu Abed started the revolt in Amariyah, he and U.S. military officials say, by confronting an al-Qaida in Iraq leader in one of Amariyah's main shopping districts. Abed told The Associated Press that the leader — known by the nickname "the white lion" — pointed a pistol at Abed and pulled the trigger, twice. Twice, the gun misfired.

The cigar-smoking commander said he wrestled the gun away from his adversary and shot him dead.

FAR has been so successful in disrupting operations of the terror group that al-Qaida in Iraq has put a $500,000 bounty on Abed's head, U.S. military officials say.

U.S. military leaders are currently paying FAR the equivalent of a $300 monthly salary for about 260 of its members to provide security. FAR has received permission to distribute the total grant among more than double that number of its members, the military says.

American officials and Abed, a Sunni, are also pushing to get FAR integrated into the Iraqi security services. But Abed said he was discouraged by recent conversations with a representative of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"She asked me how many Sunnis you have, how many Shiites," he said. "That's close to sectarianism."

Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, has said that at least two members of FAR were former allies of al-Qaida. Others, he has said, were part of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the 1920s Revolution Brigades and Tawhid and Jihad — all Sunni insurgent groups responsible for past attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.

Asked about this, Abed said that "not all" members of his group were former insurgents.

But Kuehl, 41, from Huntsville, Ala., and other military officials here argued that any successful counterinsurgency requires recruiting supporters from the ranks of former adversaries. Several U.S. military officers here said there had been no suspected insurgent attacks on U.S. troops in Amariyah since early August.

"I can live with that, I think," Williamson said.

At least in part, the FAR rebellion came in reaction to the brutal punishment the al-Qaida fighters meted out for violations of their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Militants cut off the thumb and forefingers of people who smoked, Abed and U.S. military officials said, allegedly raped and killed two women for wearing short skirts and slaughtered hairdressers who gave their clients Western-style haircuts.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil told reporters Tuesday that violence in many parts of Iraq began to decline in June and has "continued to come down steadily since then."

He offered several factors for the reduction in bloodshed. "Perhaps even most significantly, the Iraqi people have just decided they've had it up to here with violence," he said.

He said all but 12 to 13 percent of Baghdad is under control by the U.S. military and other security forces, and that there is no part of the city where the U.S. can't operate.

"But I also will say, Baghdad's a dangerous place," he said. "And al-Qaida, while on the ropes, is not finished by any means. And they could come back swinging if they're allowed to."

WHO'S AFRAID OF IRAN'S NUKES?

Who's Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?

Victor Davis Hanson (Addendum from Chas. Krauthammer) Israel Commentary

At first glance, it would seem a straightforward thing to stop a relatively weak but volatile Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. It would also seem to be something a concerned world community would be actively working to do.After all, the Sunni Arab states surrounding Iran don't want a Shiite nuclear power on their borders.

Europe, which isn't all that far from Tehran and lacks a missile-defense shield, certainly doesn't want to be in range of Iran's missiles.Israel can't tolerate an Iranian theocracy both promising to wipe it off the map and then brazenly obtaining the means to do so.

The Russians and the Chinese, both already concerned about India, Pakistan and North Korea, don't need another rival Asian nuclear power on their borders.And the United States, already worried about Iranian threats to Israel and involved in daily military battles in Iraq with pro-Iranian agents and terrorists armed with Iranian-imported weapons, doesn't want a nuclear Iran expanding its Persian Gulf influence.

But in truth, most players don't care enough to stop Iran from getting the bomb, or apparently don't think it's worth the effort and cost. Some may even see some advantages to a nuclear Iran.The Arab Gulf monarchies, for example, know that their enormous dollar reserves would likely buy them some reprieve from a nuclear Iran, or at least bring in the U.S. Navy to offer them deterrence from attack.

Meanwhile, the current tension and ongoing fear of disruption in the Persian Gulf sends billions in windfall oil profits the Gulf States' way.

Leaders of Arab states also have to fear their own populations' reactions to any action taken against Islamic Iran. Despite his religious Shiite background, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is far more popular among Sunni populations in the Gulf than George Bush -- and even perhaps more popular than the autocratic Arab thugs and dictators who run most of the Middle East.

The European Union, like the Arab states, believes as a last resort that its economic clout and deft diplomats can always work out some sort of arrangement with Tehran's clerics, who, after all, need customers to buy their high-priced oil.

So, most in Europe bristle at French President Nicolas Sarkozy's warnings about an impending war to stop an Iranian bomb. Instead, they feel it's an American problem to organize global containment of Iran.Israel also has reason to fear a war with Iran.

If Israel were to attack Tehran, it could find itself in three instantaneous wars -- and be hit with thousands of missiles from the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. That shower would make last year's Hezbollah barrage seem like child's play.In Russia, Vladimir Putin's foreign policy is nursed on grievances about a lost empire, America as the sole superpower and the independence of cocky former Soviet republics.

In the thinking of oil-exporting Russia, anything that causes America to squirm and world oil prices to soar is a win/win situation. That's why Russia supplies Iran with its reactor technology and stirs the nuclear pot.

China, like Russia, is a large nuclear power and doesn't fear all that much Iranian missiles that it thinks are more likely to be pointed westward anyway.

True, it would like calm in the Gulf to ensure safe oil supplies, but thinks it still could do business with a nuclear Iran.In addition, as in the case of Russia, anything that bothers the United States can't be all that bad for Beijing. While Ahmadinejad ties the U.S. down in the Middle East, China thinks it will have more of a free hand to expand its influence in the Pacific.

Then there's the complacent situation here at home. After Afghanistan and Iraq, most Americans don't feel we're up to a third war. Some point to nuclear Pakistan and believe we could likewise live with Iran having the bomb.

A few on the left even feel that a nuclear Iran would remind us of our own limitations in imposing our will and influence abroad. They belittle the current warnings of George Bush and Dick Cheney about Iran's nuclear program, shrugging that the two used to say similar things about Saddam and his nonexistent arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world, represented in the U.N.'s General Assembly, feels that a nuclear Iran offers comeuppance to a haughty United States, Israel and Europe without threatening anyone else. Ahmadinejad may be viewed across the globe as a dangerous religious nut.

However, to many, he, like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, also represents an anti-capitalist, anti-globalization popular front against America and therefore shouldn't be ostracized.So, who wants a nuclear Iran?

No one and everyone. (And, how very sad and terrifying)

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other:

How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War."

You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com .

Chas. Krauthammer October 25, 2007 on Fox News All-Star Panel said "I don't think that this administration will choose to leave office with the Iranian nuclear threat in place."