22-Nov-13: Memo to self: Not everyone claiming to be against terrorism ought to be believed

In the war against the terrorists, there's a sharp distinction to be drawn between those who are for the terrorists and those against. A great shame that there is so much confusion on the matter in so many places.

From Reuters today:

Pakistani doctor who helped U.S. find bin Laden charged with murder
JIBRAN AHMED | Reuters | Peshawar, Pakistan | Fri Nov 22, 2013

Pakistan on Friday charged with murder the doctor who helped the United States track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in the latest development in a case that has strained ties between the two countries. Shakil Afridi, hailed as a hero by U.S. officials, was arrested after U.S. soldiers killed bin Laden in May 2011 in a secret raid that outraged Pakistan and plunged relations between the strategic partners to a new low.

Pakistan arrested Afridi and sentenced him last year to 33 years in jail for membership of militant group Lashkar-e-Islam, an accusation he denies. But in August, Pakistan overturned his conviction, citing procedural errors and ordering a retrial.

Friday's murder charge, relating to the death of a patient eight years ago, dims Afridi's chances of going free and could further sour ties with the United States. It centers on the death of Suleman Afridi, at a hospital in Pakistan's rugged Khyber Agency region in 2005, and was brought by the man's mother, a local official told Reuters. "A woman blamed Afridi for the death of her son," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "She stated that he operated on her son at a hospital in Khyber Agency even though he was not a surgeon, and that caused (her son's) death." No further details of the case were immediately available. Afridi is not a relative of the doctor, despite the shared surname.

The Khyber Agency, on the border with Afghanistan, is part of the semiautonomous areas where tribal law holds sway instead of Pakistan's judicial system, and the government is represented instead by a political agent.

Afridi's lawyer, Samiullah Afridi, also no relative, said Khyber officials had informed him about the murder charge on Friday morning.

Pakistan accused the doctor of running a fake vaccination campaign in which he collected DNA samples to help the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency track down bin Laden. Afridi is a last name shared by members of the Pashtun tribe of that name.

15-May-11: Tentacles: Terrorism charges and arrests in New York City, Florida

From yesterday's New York Daily News [link]

The Wall Street Journal today describes how Justice Department officials are busy trying to gain the trust of Muslim communities around the US while guarding against possible reprisal attacks following the killing of Osama bin Laden. But it isn't going so well for them.

Saturday, six perfectly ordinary people, good neighbours all, were arrested in Florida by federal authorities and charged with being part of the Taliban terrorist organization. The six "are charged with conspiracy and providing material support to murder, maim and kidnap" and include

"two imams at mosques in Florida, have been indicted on charges that include providing support to Pakistani Taliban terror plots, federal prosecutors said Saturday. Miami U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer announced the charges following the arrests of Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76-year-old imam of the Miami Mosque; his son Izhar Khan, 24 years old, an imam at Jamaat al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla., a nearby suburb; and another son, Irfan Khan, 37 years old. All three are U.S. citizens of Pakistani rigin and residents of south Florida. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Hafiz Khan after early morning services outside his Miami mosque and Izhar Khan was arrested in the parking lot of his mosque around the same time early Saturday, said John Gillies, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami office. Irfan Khan was arrested at a hotel in Los Angeles, he said. Also charged are Amina Khan, her son Alam Zeb, and Ali Rehman, all residents of Pakistan. They haven't been arrested. Ms. Khan is a daughter of Hafiz Khan, and Mr. Zeb a grandson." 

A law enforcement official is quoted saying:

"Despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today's charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming."

A little further north, two so-called "lone wolves" planned to dress up as Hasidic Jews and slaughter worshipers at city synagogues after selling guns and drugs to finance the diabolical plot, in the words of police quoted in the New York Daily News. Their goal was to hit so-far-unspecified New York City  synagogues using grenades and guns.

"Details of the mission were revealed Thursday after the Queens duo - whom neighbors called knuckleheads - were charged with terrorism and hate crimes... Cops say the ringleader, Algerian-born Ahmed Ferhani, 27, who sought asylum here with his family in 1999, also fantasized about blowing up the Empire State Building and a Queens church. Ferhani enlisted a Moroccan pal, Mohamed Mamdouh, 20, in a plan to sneak into "a major synagogue in Manhattan" disguised in Orthodox-style beards and side curls to plant a bomb. "He was committed to violent jihad, and his plan became bigger and more violent with each passing week," Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said. [According to NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg] "New York City police officers were watching them and were in position to take them into custody before they could maim and murder innocent New Yorkers"... Ferhani, a former cosmetics salesman at Saks Fifth Avenue, had discussed avenging the treatment of Muslims. "He was fed up with the way Muslims were being treated around the world," said Kelly, quoting Ferhani telling an undercover cop... Ferhani was arrested last year on charges he tied up and robbed a woman who invited him back to her room at the Park Central Hotel in midtown, but a grand jury declined to indict. He also has prior arrests for marijuana possession, disorderly conduct and weapon possession. Mamdouh has a burglary case on his rap sheet. He's a graduate of Flushing High School, the alma mater of several suspects implicated last year in a terror plot to bomb city subways." 

Suspects have never been charged before under the New York state anti-terror laws that were passed after the 9/11 attacks. It is reported that US federal prosecutors declined to press the case, saying the plan was more aspirational than operational.

It's clear that the ongoing lessons in this ongoing war, including those of 9/11, need to be relearned and retaught in an ongoing way because the threats are not diminishing. They're growing.

15-May-11: Speaking out against judicial double-talk

Merkel; Uthmann; Bin Laden

The permanent termination of Osama Bin Laden's career as a terrorist produced some disturbing responses but none quite as astonishing as that of a German judge, Heinz Uthmann.

Der Spiegel quoting Friday's edition of the Hamburger Morgenpost daily newspaper says he filed a criminal complaint against the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, in the past few days. The background is in this extract from a Christian Science Monitor report:

"“I am pleased that we managed to kill bin Laden.” That was German Chancellor Angela Merkel's response to a reporter's question about her reaction to Osama bin Laden's death. It wasn't a unique sentiment. Leaders around the world said the same thing. But criticism over Mrs. Merkel's comments in Germany is almost overshadowing news of the raid that killed Mr. bin Laden."

The Hamburger judge with too much time on his hands has come to the conclusion that the chancellor's statement was illegal, quoting section 140 of the German Criminal Code which forbids "rewarding and approving" of crimes. Spiegel says the judge accuses Merkel of having endorsed a homicide, a violation that in principle is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine.

We mention the background so that we can give a little well-deserved publicity to a statement released tonight by the International Alliance Against Terrorism (Alliance Internationale Contre le Terrorisme):

We are all Angela Merkel!
The German chancellor reacted in a similar manner to President Barak Obama and other Western leaders: she expressed her satisfaction at the news of the death of Bin Laden. Her reaction was human and motivated by a sense of solidarity with the victims.
The reactions by sections of the media, by politicians and by individuals condemning the Chancellor's reaction are strange and bigoted. Hypocritical claims have been put forward, without a shred of evidence behind them, alleging that Bin Laden was the victim of an execution. And now, astonishingly, a Hamburg judge, Heinz Uthmann,  has filed a criminal complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel, accusing her of abetting a crime!
We address this judge and say to him: Rather than the death of Bin Laden, what outrages us is the impunity of terrorist organizations who target civilians and have killed European citizens by means of terror bomb attacks, "suicide" bombings, kidnapping and murder. Your duty as a judge is to bring the terror organizations and their leaders to account !"

The spokesperson for the International Alliance Against Terrorism is Huguette Chomski Magnis (email: alliance.against.terrorism@gmail.com), phone +33.6.66.26.42.23. A German group called NzT Nein zum Terrorismus ("No to Terrorism") has created a Facebook page to galvanize opposition to Judge Uthmann's attack on Mrs Merkel.

UPDATE 15-May-11: There's an online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/weareallangelamerkel/
We hope you will consider showing your repugnance at the actions of the judge by signing it.

6-May-11: There's more to learn about terrorism via Bin Laden's personal example than most realize

When the Palestinian-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh addresses the subject of terrorism and the terrorists, readers can generally be assured of common sense insights that they will find elsewhere only rarely.

So much nonsense and double-talk about terrorism has been purveyed by journalists, analysts and politicians, that insight is about the last thing a rational consumer of news and analysis can expect to find.

Abu Toameh published an article called 'Muslim Terror Leaders Send Anyone But Their Own Family Members To Murder "Infidels"' earlier today. Here's how it starts:

Those who say they were surprised that Osama bin Laden had been leading a relatively comfortable life in his mansion in an affluent suburb in Pakistan obviously don't know anything about the leaders of Islamic terror groups. The fact that bin Laden was surrounded by women and children also should not come as a surprise to anyone -- nor should the reports that his men and he used some of the women as "human shields" during the US military raid on his compound..
In this regard, bin Laden was doing what many other Muslim terror operatives used to do in Afghanistan, Iraq and the West Bank and Gaza Strip: These operatives are good at sending anyone but their own family members to murder "infidels," "apostates" and any Arab or Muslim who dares to stand up to them. Bin Laden chose to live a good life surrounded by women, children and couriers who provided him with everything he needed. Like the rest of the terror leaders, bin Laden never sent any of his sons on jihad missions. He always made sure that his wives and sons and daughters stayed safe and happy.

Abu Toameh's general observations are especially true of the Palestinian Arab leadership, and in particular that part of which has driven the terror war against Jews and Israel for the last several generations.

Near the end of the piece he writes:

"This is the nature of the coward Muslim terror leaders; they do not hesitate to hide behind women and children and often choose to live in mansions instead of joining their men in the caves and mountains."

Please read Abu Toameh's entire article. It will take you no more than two minutes.

The people he describes here truly are cowards. So too are the analysts and commentators who, far from the danger and threat, relentlessly rip into Israelis who are conducting an existential war of self-defence against an enemy who see pizza restaurants, school yards and buses as their battlefield.

3-May-11: In a world where you are either for terrorism or against it, Fatah decides

The caption from this 2006 USA Today photo says it depicts members (members?!)
of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades supporting Mahmoud Abbas in Nablus.
When Abbas' gunmen say they are broken up over the death of Osama Bin Laden,
they ought to be believed. And we ought to understand what that tells us
about Fatah and Abbas. 

Mahmoud Abbas, in addition to being the head of the Palestinian Authority, serves as chairman of the organization called Fatah, the largest of the numerous factions making up the PLO.

Fatah's military branch is the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Yesterday the Brigades published a statement responding to the untimely demise of the arch-terrorist and mass murderer Osama bin Laden.

His death, they say, was a "catastrophe", no less. His killers, the anti-terror forces of the US military, are "gangs of heretics."

For an ostensibly secular group, as distinct from the fanatically Islamist Hamas with whom they signed a co-operation agreement this morning, it's an interesting turn of phrase.

Palestinian Media Watch today quotes the Brigades unit of Fatah saying its "Jihad fighters will not be deterred in their path".

The announcement ends with this less-than-secular vow:

"We say to the American and Israeli occupier: the [Islamic] nation which produced leaders who changed the course of history through their Jihad... is capable of restoring the glory of Islam and the flag of Allah's oneness, Allah willing."

Hamas, a fully-paid-up member of the forces of Jihadist terror, is of course heart-broken at the death in Pakistan. The Guardian today quotes the Gazan jihadists praising Osama bin Laden as an "Arab holy warrior" and condemns his killing by American forces in Pakistan. Presumably editorializing more out of hope than expectation, The Guardian adds:

The comments expose a clear gap between Hamas and their Palestinian counterparts, Fatah, with whom they are due to sign a reconciliation pact this week in Cairo.

That pact, as we noted, is now reality. But a clear gap? Not so much.

3-May-11: Sometimes it's important to know where your neighbours stand on an issue

From the Ynet site:

Dozens of Silwan [a neighborhood of East Jerusalem] residents rallied in east Jerusalem [last night] to support Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US Special Forces in Pakistan. A few protesters cast stones at police forces. 

Silwan, Monday 2nd May 2011

2-May-11: A terrorist is eliminated... but not terror

Although, as the LA Times and others are reporting, a CIA-led operation has killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and recovered his body after a tortuous decade-long hunt, terrorism was not halted, defeated or eliminated and will certainly continue. We salute the tenacity of the forces that stayed focused on this specific target and express the prayer that they and others will be tenacious and determined and - above all - successful in the far larger war against the practitioners of terror and their countless allies.

4-Dec-10: Should this man be accorded the respect due to an objective, professional journalist?

Is Abdel al-Bari Atwan the kind of person who should be given
public platforms in highly prominent settings?  

As newspaper editors go, slick Abdel al-Bari Atwan gets more than the average amount of prominence.

Given the nature of his bluntly-expressed political views, he gets a surprising amount of respect from mainstream media channels including NPR, Sky News, CNN and the BBC (who call him Abdel-Bari Atwan) who host him frequently and which, for reasons which leave us wondering, present him as an objective observer on events in this part of the world.

Knowing what's on the public record (see an earlier blog article of ours: "16-Mar-08: The unindicted co-conspirators"), this might be surprising. He's far from objective as a cursory look at his output shows.

Mr. Atwan edits a London-based Arabic-language newspaper called Al-Quds Al-Arabi. The paper takes a robustly nationalistic Arab line and has several notable scoops to its name. In August 1996, it was the first to publish a fatwa, or declaration of war, "Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places". The author was Osama bin Laden.

In October 2003, after Atwan wrote that the hatred directed towards the United States by the Arab world is the fault of the United States itself, a US-based, Yemenite journalist and liberal columnist called Munir Al-Mawari who writes for another London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, made some interesting observations:

"The Abd Al-Bari Atwan [appearing] on CNN is completely different from the Abd Al-Bari Atwan on the Al-Jazeera network or in his Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily. On CNN, Atwan speaks solemnly and with total composure, presenting rational and balanced views. This is in complete contrast with his fuming appearances on Al-Jazeera and in Al-Quds Al-Arabi, in which he whips up the emotions of multitudes of viewers and readers."

We have been pondering those two faces of Atwan since learning that he is going to be honored by being invited to lecture publicly at the London School of Economics this coming Monday. (Source: "Terror supporting' Arabic-daily editor to speak at LSE")

The honor extended to this rather edgy journalist has aroused some controvery. Indeed, on his own personal website (the one where he describes himself as a "highly respected author" - and he would certainly know), Atwan claims at least some the uglier quotations attributed to him are false:

"I did not say any of the things listed on the Wikipedia site... They are false allegations, part of a smear campaign against me".

So in the interests of an open public record, and in the hope that someone attending the Atwan lecture in London might get the great man to go on the record and actually repudiate them, here are some Atwan statements that can be found in various online locations.

On one hand:

"I do not endorse or in any way support al-Qa'ida's agenda… I utterly condemn the attacks on innocent citizens in the West". [Source: The Secret History of Al-Qa'ida, Abdel Bari Atwan, Abacus (2006), ISBN 978-0-34-912035-5, p1]

On the other:

"The events of 11 September will be remembered as the end of the US empire. This is because all empires collapse when they pursue the arrogance of power."
Source: BBC

Sadam Hussein (who murdered countless numbers of Arabs and Iraqi Kurds) should be honored for preserving "the unity of Iraq, its Arab and Islamic identity and the coexistence of its different communities". Source: Africa News, December 31, 2006

In the case of war, Iran will retaliate against its Arab neighbors, American bases in the Gulf and "Allah willing, it will attack Israel, as well... If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."
Source: Wikipedia, referring to an interview in Arabic on Lebanese ANB television station, June 27, 2007 (also referred to in this Jerusalem Post article). The actual video clip (in Arabic with English subtitles) can be seen here. (Keep in mind that Atwan explicitly denies he said what is recorded in this video. He calls them "false allegations, part of a smear campaign".)

Atwan said the March 2008 point-blank, cold-blooded shooting-massacre by a Palestinian Arab gunman of eight unarmed high school students, most of them aged 15 or 16, at Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav yeshiva "was justified." Their school is to blame, Atwan claims, by "hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists". Atwan says the celebrations in Gaza that followed the massacre symbolized "the courage of the Palestinian nation." Source: The Jerusalem Post

Depending on where you stand, justifying a terrorist massacre is not the worst of crimes. On the other hand, given what is at stake when it comes to defeating the practitioners of terror and their supporters, is Abdel al-Bari Atwan the kind of person who should be given public platforms in highly prominent settings?

Or is Abdel al-Bari Atwan simply the innocent victim of some atrocious misquoting?