Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief Rabi' al-Awwal 22, 1425/ May 13, 2004 #58
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NEW MOVE TO UNDERMINE SUDAN:

Attempts are underway to fuel a rebellion in the western Sudanese region of Dharfur. Owing to the earlier rebellion in the South, poverty has struck most of Sudan. The regime lacks resources to provide necessities.

Within that sitution, a new rebellion was started. The resulting fighting has started a wave of refugees into Chad. It's a perfect situation for Zionist propaganda. This time the people who started the story about "Arabs" fighting Black Africans are Hindus working for the UN. Most of the information has come from Mr. Ramcharan, a hard core Hindu. [Sudanese "Arabs" are themselves Black Africans. All the people of Sudan are Black, of various shades.]

As New Trend had predicted, the propaganda is being revved up by the Zionists. On May 12, Christiane Amanpour for CNN reported from Chad and blamed the Sudanese government for all kinds of atrocities. [The Sudan government has denied the stories.]
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STRIKE TWO AGAINST ISRAEL:

May 12, 2004: A second Israeli armored vehicle was blown up in the Gaza strip, this time near the Egyptian border. Five Israeli troops, including an officer, were killed and five wounded. Islamic Jihad took responsibility.

Israeli forces went berserk after the attack, used tanks to shoot into Palestinian homes, and shot at random with heavy machine guns up and down the streets. Israeli helicopters fired missiles into refugee camps.
[On May 11, six Israeli troops were killed when their armored track vehicle was blown up by Hamas.]
Observers say that the Palestinians are quite capable of defeating the Jews if they had at least a modicum of low level weaponry. Unfortunately, they say, the U.S. successfully stops the flow of ANY weapons to the Palestinians. The Islamic spirit of Jihad is the main weapon the Palestinians have.
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ASSAULT ON KERBALA:
May 13: Heavy fighting is underway in one of the holiest cities of Shi'ite Islam. U.S. media showed a mosque in Kerbala being repeatedly hit by U.S. gun fire. The U.S. says it has killed 22 more of Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, bringing the total killed to about 500.

Al-Sadr seems to be under intense pressure from pro-Iran Shi'as to stop his resistance to U.S. forces.
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THE TRAGEDY OF NICK BERG's BEHEADING
by our Media Monitor
President Bush has expressed horror at the beheading of Nick Berg, allegedly by Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi.

Something is very puzzling about Berg's visit to Iraq. Is it possible that he did not know that Jews are not welcome in Iraq? Was he totally unaware of the situation in the Middle East? Or was he being used by the CIA? It's a strange case with a horrifying ending. [Many Iraqis believe that the U.S. attacked Iraq at the behest of the Zionist lobby.]
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FORMER PRISONER OF TALIBAN SAYS .....

The more I see and read about US behaviour inside Abu Ghraib prison, the more I thank Allah that I was caught by the Taliban and not the Americans when I entered Afghanistan illegally in September 2001.

I almost want to laugh when I recall how George W Bush described the Taliban as the most evil, brutal regime in the world. At least they knew what the words courtesy and respect meant.

Sis. Yvonne Ridley
England
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MUSLIM ACTIVIST SISTER'S COMMENT ON NAKED IRAQIS...

...Just as the Africans were kidnapped and brought to America were stark naked throughout the journey across the Atlantic. Approximately 70% of the Africans kidnapped from Africa to be slaves were Muslims.

Hamdiyah [South Carolina]
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WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SADDAM'S OFFICERS NOT TRUE?

[Excerpts]

" I WOULD RATHER KILL MYSELF ................"

By Vivienne Walt, Globe Correspondent | May 11, 2004
BAGHDAD -- Zuher Al-Qubeisi seems the kind of man analysts have been saying American commanders could use as they battle armed militia in several Iraqi cities. He has fought in three wars and won 15 medals during a 20-year career, all without an injury. Lieutenant Colonel Qubeisi is also unemployed, and says he loves being a professional soldier.

There is one hitch, however.

"I would rather kill myself than fight other Iraqis," said Qubeisi, 37, standing outside Baghdad's officer-recruiting station on Saturday while applying for a slot in Iraq's new military. And would he defend Iraq alongside the 135,000 American troops in the country? "No way," he said.
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Israeli link possible in US torture techniques
In exchange for interrogation training, did Washington award security contracts?
By Ali Abunimah 
Special to The Daily Star
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
CHICAGO, Illinois: The head of the American defense contracting firm implicated in the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has close ties to Israel and visited an Israeli "anti-terror" training camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this year.

Jack London, chairman, president and CEO of CACI International Incorporated, traveled to Israel in January this year as part of a high-level delegation of US Congressmen, defense contractors and pro-Israel lobbyists, sponsored and paid for in part by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, a pro-Israel lobbying and fundraising group, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a prominent Washington law and lobby firm.

The purpose of the visit, according to a CACI press release, was "to promote opportunities for strategic partnerships and joint ventures between US and Israeli defense and homeland security companies."

As one of the highlights of the visit, London was presented with the Albert Einstein Technology Award by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at a gala dinner at Jerusalem city hall, for "achievements in the field of defense and national security."

Delegates also spent several hours in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with Housing and Construction Minister Effie Eitam, a former Israeli general, who is notorious for his view that Israel should "transfer" - that is, expel - all the Palestinians.

According to the official itinerary for the Jan. 11-17 Defense Aerospace Homeland Security Mission, obtained from the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, London's trip included a visit to Beit Horon, "the central training camp for the anti-terrorist forces of the Israeli police and the border police," in the occupied West Bank. The visitors were also "briefed by top experts," and were able to "witness exercises related to anti-terror warfare."

Two CACI employees, Steven Stephanowicz and John Israel, were named in the leaked report by US Major General Antonio M. Taguba on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. Taguba wrote that Stephanowicz, a "contract US civilian interrogator," "allowed and/or instructed MPs (military police), who were not trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate interrogations by 'setting conditions' which were neither authorized or in accordance with applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse."

John Israel, an interpreter, did not have the appropriate security clearance, according to Taguba.

Although Taguba recommended that Stephanowicz be terminated and his security clearance revoked, a May 5 statement from CACI confirmed, "at present, all CACI employees continue to work on site providing the contracted for services to our clients in that location." It added: "We have not received any information to stop any of our work, to terminate or suspend any of our employees."

Although no evidence has emerged directly linking CACI's involvement in the Abu Ghraib atrocities to Israel, it has long been known that the US military has been interested in "learning" from Israel's experience attempting to suppress the Palestinian uprising. In March 2003, for example, the AP reported that the "the (US) military has been listening closely to Israeli experts and picking up tips from years of Israeli Army operations in Palestinian areas and Lebanese towns."

This cooperation has included briefings of US personnel by Israeli officers, and, according to AP, "In January and February (2003), Israeli and American troops trained together in southern Israel's Negev Desert ... Israel has also hosted senior law enforcement officials from the United States for a seminar on counterterrorism."

Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged undermining the US thesis that the abuses at Abu Ghraib was the work of a "few bad apples." The Guardian reported that the "sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors."

This system, known to insiders as "R2I," short for resistance to interrogation, also includes such methods as "hooding, sleep deprivation, time disorientation and depriving prisoners not only of dignity, but of fundamental human needs, such as warmth, water and food." These are all techniques long employed by Israel.

The visit of the US delegation that included the CACI head exposes a rarefied web of influence sharing in which US government officials and congressmen, defense contractors and lobbyists parcel out huge contracts, and siphon significant portions off to Israel.

As Batya Feldman of Israel's Globes financial news service put it, the visit provided Israeli companies with "an excellent opportunity to encounter big bucks in homeland security."

To help Israeli companies pry some of these "big bucks" loose, the visit included seminars for Israeli companies given by US pro-Israel lobbyists called "How to Approach the Homeland Security Department," and "How to Sell to the US Defense Department."

Israeli participants would have had a chance to test the helpful tips, since present on the trip were Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Robert Liscouski and many leading US legislators, including top members of the US House and Senate Armed Services Committees, which jointly oversee tens of billions of dollars in military spending.
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FORGOTTEN AMERICAN DISSIDENT IMPRISONED in PERU

by Nadrat Siddique

An interesting news item I heard earlier this morning: Ramsey Clark, God reward him, really seems to have his finger in every pie. He appeared, in a wheel chair, to represent Lori Berenson before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Honduras. Berenson is a 30-year old American being held political prisoner in Peru. Eight years ago, she was charged with ties to the leftist MRTA (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru) and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a Peruvian military court for treason. Berenson's father and a Latino attorney accompanied Clark at the Commission hearing in Honduras.

Berenson's imprisonment by the Fujimori government is symbolic of the repression experienced by pro-democracy activists throughout much of Latin America. The Fujimori government, a staunch U.S. ally, has a record of imprisoning dissidents.
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Montreal Perspectives

By Jalaluddin S. Hussain

We want our cities back!

The Gazette, the only English daily newspaper of this metropolitan city, has the "de-merger" issue, as the main cover story in its Saturday, May 8 edition. For people living outside the merged municipalities of Quebec province this issue may not be of much significance, but for people living in many merged municipalities, after January 2000, it has meant reduced municipal services and higher taxes. Naturally those who are suffering from lack of services and higher taxes, want their independent cities back, so that they can get once again full municipal services as they were getting before the year 2000. If these groups are successful in getting a majority to vote against merger, in a referunduam, they might get their independent cities back ! Hopefully, an overwhelming number of people will vote for the demerger, which will in turn result in the revival of the abolished municipalities. June 20, 2004 is the referendum date. The pro de-merger forces are impattienty waiting to vote on that day!

Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim feelings causing concern!

Another cover-page story of The Gazette dated May 8, 2004, is entitled: Religion ranks first for social strife. For the first time in years, religion has surpassed language in Quebec as the expected cause of social strife, in the coming years, according to a poll, conducted for the Association for Canada Studies. Commenting on the results of this poll, Jack Jedwab, the Executive Director of this Association has said that there was a growing concern about the vulnerablity of religious groups. According to him, most Canadians polled this year (the poll was conducted by Environics between the period of March 29 to April 18, inclusive) were worried about the rising anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiments prevailing in Montreal. This rising anti-religious feeling is harmful and must be dealt with head-on before it gets too messy. Needless to mention that that the anti-immigration laws enacted to appease "terrorism-phobia" forces are having adverse effect. The new security legislations, both in the USA and Canada, need to be revised to make it more rational and pragmatic.

Looking forward to Pakistan trip

I am looking forward to an exiciting trip to Pakistan this year. I hope and pray that my stay in Pakistan will be without incident, and what happened a few days ago, in which 14 Muslims were killed and many injured, while praying, will prove to be an isolated incident. One wonders when the American and British soldiers are busy in humiliating and killing Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, why the Muslims should kill and injure their own Muslim brothers in Pakistan and other places. We will have to do a little critical and deep thinking ourselves and not always blame CIA of USA and RAW of India for everything going wrong in our Muslim countries.

Articles in The New York Times worth reading

In these times of media hypocrisy and press-promoted disinformation, I find The New York Times much better reading , for example, compared to some Canadian newspapers like The Gazette, the National Post and The Globe and Mail. I have particularly in mind the op-ed pages of TNYT dated May 11, 2004. All the three articles, Tourists and Torturers by Luc Sante, Just Trust Us by Paul Krugman and For Iraqis to Win, the U.S. must Lose, by David Brooks, are excellently written.

Briefly, these three articles made the following outstanding points:

- The possible consequences of the Abu Ghraib archive are numerous...Perhaps, though the digital camera (the work is attributed to specialist Jeremy Sivits) will haunt the future career of George W. Bush, the way the tape recorder sealed the fate of Richard Nixon.

- General Miller of Guantanomo is the new commander of the notorius Ghraib prison and Donald Rumsfeld, has accepted responsibility without paying the price. Still Paul Krugman has repeated in his article the American establishment wants the Americans to trust them.

- The third article, which basically makes the point that Iraqi victory is American loss correctly concludes: If the Iraqis do campaign this Fall (if they go through the general election as envisaged), they will jeer at the Americans!

In all fairness to some of the elements of the American media and that of course includes, The New York Times, it must be boldly accepted that the Arab world and the Muslim world cannot boast of a single newspaper which can so openly criticise its rulers and establishment's policies. Please show me if there is. Then we, as Muslims, should be proud of such a free press!
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Editorial note: Br. Hussain's last point needs correction on factual grounds. Nawa-e-Waqt of Pakistan, daily Inqilab of Bangladesh as well as some Iranian newspapers do criticize their establishments. The same is true of some Lebanese newspapers.
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NEWS from JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia

INDIA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL JEDDAH,STAFF AND STUDENTs are in very SAD CONDITION DUE TO A ROAD ACCIDENT WHICH TOOK the LIVES OF SEVEN GIRLS STUDENTS AND 27 were BADLY INJURED. AN IISJ BUS CARRYING 30 GIRLS STUDENTS LEFT MEKKAH FOR JEDDAH AT 06:30 AM and turned upside down AT BAHRA, NEAR JEDDAH. SEVEN GIRLS DIED AT THE SPOT AND ALL INJURED were SHIFTED TO NEARBY HOSPITALS. DEAD AND INJURED INCLUDE THREE DAUGHTERS OF THE DRIVER WHO IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION UNDER POLICE CUSTODY. INVESTIGATION IS ON AND REASON OF ACCIDENT IS STILL NOT CLEARLY KNOWN.

PRC, PAKISTAN REPATRIATION COUNCIL HELD AN INAUGURATION FUNCTION OF ITS MAGAZINE, "HISAR" . CHIEF ORGANIZER,PRC, EHSAN UL HAQ AND CHIEF EDITOR "HISAR", NASEEM SEHR EXPLAINED THE CREATION OF NEW MAGaZINE
DR. ABDULLAH OMAR NASEEF, HILAL-E-IMTIAZ, PRESIDENT WORLD MUSLIM CONGRESS AND PROF. FRANCIS LAMAND, PRESIDENT OF PARIS BASED ISLAM AND THE WEST, WERE THE CHIEF GUESTS and PRAISEd the EFFORTS DONE BY PRC MEMBERS FOR REPATRIATION OF STRANDED PAKISTANIS IN Bangladesh.

REPORT BY MAQBOOL R. ABBASI, JEDDAH
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2004-05-15 Sat 20:22ct