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 Friday, October 31, 2003

  ISRAEL and US: Biggest Threats to World Peace, Europeans Say

The European Commission sponsored a poll conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres/ EOS Gallup Europe, between 8 and 16 of October 2003, asking European citizens, on "the reconstruction of Iraq, the conflict in the Middle East and world peace".

According to the survey, Europeans believe the United States contributes the MOST to world instability along with Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Read HERE for more.....

Excerpts from article by Andrew Beatty in Euobserver.com

  • Over half of Europeans think that Israel now presents the biggest threat to world peace.

  • According to Spanish daily El Pais, a massive 59 percent of Europeans said they believed that Israel is the biggest obstacle to world peace

  • The European Commission is coming under fire for failing to publish the results which revealed the extent of mistrust of Israel and the United States in Europe.

  • A Commission spokesperson today (30 October) denied that the decision to withhold some of the results until next Monday was politically motivated, adding that some of the results not yet published are still "unstable".He did, however, add that a decision was made to publish a preview of the questions pertaining to the reconstruction of Iraq, to coincide with the Iraqi donors conference in Madrid, which took place at the end of last week. This admission has raised questions about whether the Commission sought to suppress the results which would have came at a particularly sensitive moment.

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      Malaysian PM Mahathir's Parting Shots at USA and Jews on Eve of Retirement


    Mahathir in his final appearance as Prime Minister in Federal Parliament


    Read HERE Joe Havely's article in CNN "Mahathir: A tough act to follow"
    Loved and loathed in equal measure, few would dispute that throughout his 22 years in power Malaysia's outgoing Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has been a man with a vision.

    Labeled at times as a reactionary, a racist and even dictatorial, even Mahathir's critics concede that Malaysia's fortunes owe much to the leadership of the man known by millions simply as "Dr M".

    Few would argue that after two decades in power Mahathir's impact on Malaysia has been anything less than impressive.

    Twenty years ago Malaysia was a slow-burner economically -- going steady, but not really going anywhere -- and heavily reliant on exports of tin and rubber.

    Today it is a Southeast Asian powerhouse, a key exporter of high-technology manufacturing and an influential voice among the world's developing nations.
    Extracts from News. Scotsman.com On Line News:

    On the eve of retirement, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took parting swipes at the US and compared Europe’s past ill-treatment of Jews to the way Israel treats Palestinians.

    At functions marking his last few public appearances before he steps down after 22 years in power, Mahathir restoked the controversy he triggered two weeks ago with comments alleging Jewish world dominance.

    The remarks, initially made at a summit of Islamic leaders, prompted the US Senate to tie £700,000 in military aid for Malaysia to a guarantee of religious freedom and tolerance for Jews.

    Mahathir told a crowd of about 10,000 gathered at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur that Malaysia’s constitution already guaranteed freedom of religion, and took an apparent swipe at the United States.

    Mahathir said.:
    “Some people say that we here have no freedom of religion.

    In reality, the people in that country are the ones who were forced to embrace a religion. (People ) who were abducted from Africa were brought to that country and made slaves, tortured and forced to change their religion, including Muslim slaves, were forced to convert. (He did not mention any country by name.)

    They (Jews) must never claim they are the chosen people, who cannot be criticised at all.

    They have taken land belonging to the Muslims. Suppose a part of Britain or a part of America was taken away and given to the Jews as Israel. Do you think the Americans are going to sit quietly and say ‘Welcome,’ and all that? They won’t.

    Why do you expect the Palestinians to accept being expelled from their own country ... given to the Jews.

    It is not religion at all, it is territorial.”
    Mahathir, who has urged Muslims to reject violence, including Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis, said the Middle East conflict was in essence a land dispute, not a religious one.

    Mahathir, 77, has been Muslim-majority Malaysia’s leader since 1981 and is credited with spearheading its transformation from a rubber and tin producing backwater to one of Southeast Asia’s most prosperous and modern countries.

    He has also earned a reputation as a blunt-speaking critic of the West and champion of poorer and Islamic nations.

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     Thursday, October 30, 2003

      Malaysia's Response to US Senate's US$ 1.2 Million Military Aid for Malaysia

    The US Senate on Monday unanimously agreed to place new conditions on a proposed US$1.2 million grant to Malaysia under the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program to show its displeasure over Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's recent criticism of the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States.

    The Senate Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said on Tuesday, "What could be more outrageous in 2003 for the prime minister of any country to make such unbelievably erroneous statements?

    The money will now be disbursed only after a determination by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that Malaysia supports and promotes religious freedom, including for Jews.

    Malaysia's Response ?



    Excerpt from article by Thalif Dean in Asia Online
    According to one South East Asian diplomat:
      "The United States is probably threatening the WRONG country.

      Malaysia is NOT a banana republic that depends on US economic or military grants for its survival.

      No degree of arm-twisting or economic threats will intimidate either Mahathir or Malaysia. In fact, they both need each other because they have strong economic and military ties."
    Although Mahathir was equally critical of Islamic ideologues and fundamentalists, the mainstream media in the United States highlighted only his criticism of Jews and Israel.

    The Bullying by US of Other Countries

    In July 2003, the administration of President George W Bush cut off military aid to 35 "friendly countries" for their refusal to exempt US soldiers from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They were mostly poorer nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, East and Central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

    Over the war on Iraq, the Bush administration lobbied hard to prevent an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the US-led invasion.

    Diplomatic pressure in world capitals was said to be so intense that no nation proposed the sitting.
    Mahathir's Supporters in the Arab World

    Meanwhile, Arab and Muslim leaders also continued to express support for Mahathir , who told an Islamic world conference last week that Jews run the world by proxy and that 1.3 billion Muslims will not be defeated by a few million Jews.

    Abed al-Wahed al-Hamid wrote in the Saudi newspaper Ar-Riyadh.
    “Mahathir only spoke the truth when he spoke of the power of the Jewish influence over the world.

    Moreover, he was braver than the others, since what he said publicly is what others in the West are saying secretly and do not dare to say ...”
    It was a brilliant speech! Very logical,” said President Mohammad Khatami of Iran.

    Read HERE Ghulam Mohammed's article "Mahathir Mohammad's Finest Hour".

    No Backing Off by Mahathir

    Mahathir continued his anti-Jewish campaign this week, saying the Islamic world has a right to condemn Israel and its supporters for killing Palestinians and for “taking Muslim land to give it to the Jews.”
    “Are we not allowed to say that we are angry with the Jews? Are the Jews some kind of creature who cannot be condemned in any way?

    I am not anti-Semitic ... I am against these Jews who kill Muslims and the Jews who support the killers of Muslims.

    I condemned the Europeans as much as I condemned the Jews. You say you are not under the influence of the Jews, and yet when I criticize the Jews, the whole of the European Union wants to condemn me.

    But when somebody condemns the Muslims, calls my prophet ‘terrorist,’ did the European Union say anything? Which shows that they are under the thumb of the Jews.”
    The Jewish Anti Defamation League's Anti-Mahathir Campaign Went Overdrive

    Anti Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman, declaring that Jewish leaders cannot afford to let Mahathir declare a holy war against the Jewish people, increased pressure on world leaders to clearly condemn Mahathir’s statements.

    In letters sent to 109 world leaders, Foxman urged them “to stand up, to say that you can no longer excuse or rationalize this kind of incendiary rhetoric, this kind of hatred and scapegoating, this blaming of Jews for the ills of the Muslim world.”

    The letter, co-signed by ADL national chairman Glen Tobias, was sent to countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.

    ADL already has communicated with 12 countries and recognizes others such as Germany, Italy, Britain and Spain for their strong condemnation.

    “Mahathir’s speech must be condemned by responsible leaders of the civilized world as an unacceptable outrage and an affront to civilized society,” the letter said.

    Media Comments from the ARAB and MUSLIM World . Read HERE for more...

    Mahatir Muhammad was courageous when he presented honestly and clearly the issue of the relations between Muslims around the world and western countries and compared it with its relations with a few Jewish organizations of great influence in our modern world. The Malaysian PM's sayings about this issue were not based on a theological research or a fanatic religious point of view as it was based on a very accurate and honest, historical political and realistic view".
    "Mahatir Muhammad's Speech and the Resolutions of the Islamic Summit"
    (Editorial), Al-Ahram, October 19, 2003 (Egypt)


    "Mahatir only spoke the truth….. The reality is that no one dares to criticize Israel, the Jews or the Zionists because then he will be blamed with 'anti-Semitism'…"
    Dr. 'Abed al-Wahed al-Hamid, "A Man Who Dares to Speak",
    Ar-Riyadh, October 20, 2003 (Saudi Arabia)


    "…This illogical and non-objective call for war (of the EU) confirms the pressure of the Zionist lobby in the USA and Europe in order that it be harmonized with Israel's claims and make it a power free from criticism…"
    "Al-Ahram's View (editorial): Not as a Defense of Mahatir Muhammad",
    Al-Ahram, October 21, 2003 (Egypt)


    'Nowadays, any criticism against the Jews and the Jewish policy is considered anti-Semitic. This proves how far Israel and its allies have succeeded in sanctifying Israel, preventing any side from criticizing it. "Such a common view proves Muhammad's comment on the extent to which the Jewish global influence has reached."
    Fahmi Huwaidi, an Egyptian political analyst,
    on Al Jazeera Arabic language satellite network (Qatar)


    "Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad urged Muslims to take a common stand on the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation, and against those who rule this world by proxy - meaning Jews. President Jacques Chirac of France sent a letter to the Malaysian Prime Minister, condemning his remarks... Israel accused both of anti-semitism... A pre-made and ready accusation thrown against anyone who says 'No to Israel.'

    To accuse a man like Mahathir Mohammad of anti-Israel and anti-Semitism is perhaps a normal Israeli practice... He is a Muslim... But to accuse a great world leader like president Chirac as anti-Semitic is something unimaginable... He was the first French President who accepted to bear the responsibility of the French state about what was called "transferring" French Jews during the World War II.

    Second: why did they outraged by Mahathir's remarks about ruling the world by proxy?... Isn't that one who plays the role of the world ruler a "Strategic ally... and the best friend of Israel?"
    Syria Times, Opinion, October 21, 2003 (Syria)

    "The current row between Israel and France over Mahathir Mohamad's remarks on Jews and their role in ruling the world by proxy is something unusual -- for the French people at least. Their greatly respected President Jacque Chirac was dubbed in Israel as the Face of French Anti-Semitism, and?representative of a France that is miserable and dangerous, contemptible and a collaborator with the most vile of ideas.

    The Israeli comments came as a front-page editorial in the Israeli Maariv daily, with an unflattering portrait of the French leader. The Israeli accusations went on to accuse the French people -- or a part of it at least -- of ?burning synagogues, desecrating Jewish cemeteries, persecuting Jews on the street and sullying the French public with severe expressions of anti-Semitic hatred.

    As Arabs and Muslims, we are accostomed to such ready and pre-made Israeli accusations. But for the French people, they should have been astonished and shocked. French charge d'affairs in Tel Aviv Michel Miraillet expressed ?consternation and said ?this is a totally gratuitous insult .. and we are surprised by the Israeli way of reaction.

    But a little advice may help: Be calm please ... you will hear a lot of such Israeli accusations as long as you call for realizing justice in this world... The accusations against you and against the Malaysian Prime Minister were directed to serve to deflect attention from Israeli acts of aggression against Arabs -- mainly Palestinians. What Mahathir said is no more than a call to ?stop violence against Palestinians and to study the situation with rationality and objectivity. And what is said about this call shows bad faith. These are lying allegations aimed at protecting Israel and deflecting attention from Israel's acts, an Arab foreign minister said as he was returning from Kuala Lumpur after attending the OIC Summit."
    Syria Times, opinion by Fouad Mardoud, October 21, 2003 (Syria)




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     Wednesday, October 29, 2003

      Israelis' Dilemma: Who to Believe?

    Incident in Gaza:Whom to Believe?

    By URI AVNERY
    October 28, 2003


    (Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom.)


    General Ya'akov Amidror on TV with subdued anger, asked:

    "Whom do you believe? The army spokesman or Hamas?"
    General (reserves) Amidror is the highest religious officer in our army. In the past he has raised several public storms with some utterances denigrating secular Israelis, saying that they are not real Jews.

    He has a sharp mind, much above the average in the army command, and his intellect is fully employed in serving his extremist views ­ both the extremist religious and the extremist nationalist ones.

    His question was intended to be rhetorical.

    After all, the answer is self-evident: on one side there is the IDF, "the most moral and most humane army in the world", as it calls itself, and on the other side there is a bunch of crazy murderers, so what's the problem?

    But, according to Amidror himself, the reverse is happening.

    The world believes Hamas and does not believe the IDF spokesman. The Israeli public believes Hamas. Even cabinet ministers and Knesset members believe Hamas and do not believe the army spokesman.

    The Gaza Incident

    The crisis of confidence was revealed in all its harshness by a series of events last week in the Gaza Strip.

    According to the Palestinians, the army fired air-to-surface missiles at a car in which there were two Hamas militants.



    When people from the neighborhood crowded around the smashed car to see if they could help the victims, they were attacked by another missile. All in all 14 Palestinians were killed, among them a doctor who had rushed there to help, and dozens of others, including many women and children, were wounded.

    "A big lie!" the Army Spokesman angrily announced. The army did not fire another missile at all. It did not hurt civilians! It's just another vicious Palestinian slander!

    So there are two opposing versions, which are completely incompatible. A matter of either-or.

    One of the two sides is lying. But who?

    The Palestinian version is supported by the TV and video coverage of the killed, the funerals, the wounded delivered to the hospitals, as well as by doctors and journalists, local and foreign.

    The army version is supported by the host of Israeli "military correspondents" and "Arab affairs reporters" on TV, the radio and the newspapers who, almost to a man, repeat the official line like robots, as if they themselves had investigated and come to this conclusion.

    This time even the heavy artillery joined the battle, headed by Haaretz military commentator Ze'ev Shiff, whose independent judgements are often uncannily similar to those of the army command. The Air Force commander, already up to his neck in the affair of the rebellious combat pilots, took an unprecedented step and had the official version, denying the Palestinian story, circulated at all Air force bases.

    To reinforce its own story, the Air Force published, after a delay of 24 hours, a clip shot during the action by an army drone (unmanned aircraft). It clearly shows two missiles fired at the suspect car, with hardly any civilians in the vicinity. The devoted military correspondents even used their stopwatches to measure the seconds between missile A and missile B.

    So here we have a perfect riddle. A factual clip against the eye-witness account of the journalists.

    What would Sherlok Holmes have said?

    Well. Perhaps a Palestinian propagandist of genius invented the whole thing. The civilians committed suicide or shot each other, dozens of others wounded themselves, all in order to besmirch the IDF with a monstrous lie. (By the same logic, the father of little Muhammad al-Dura killed his son, at the beginning of the present intifada, in order to slander our brave and upright soldiers).

    Another possibility is that not two, but three missiles were used ­ the two seen in the clip and a third one later on. In order to find out, one has to view the whole film, not just an excerpt. And perhaps we are dealing with two different events altogether.

    If the Israeli media were truly independent, instead of being a department of the security establishment, a dozen Israeli journalists would have rushed to Gaza on the same day, interviewed the dozens of wounded in the hospitals, compared the evidence, visited the families of the dead and taken testimony from eye-witnesses, confronting these with the army version.

    But apart from Amira Hass and a Palestinian correspondent of Channel 2, this kind of independent investigation has disappeared long ago from our media (and perhaps never existed.)

    There remains the rhetorical question posed by General Amidror: Whom to believe?



    The Minister of the Interior Avraham Poraz (Shinui party) and the Knesset member Zahava Gal'on (Meretz) chose, so it seems, the Palestinian version and acted accordingly. So did a large number of other public personalities. That was what raised the hackles of the army.

    But even if we take the official version on trust, we would have to raise another question:
    WHY do so many people, in Israel and throughout the world, believe the PALESTINIAN?

    In other words, why do they NOT believe the army spokesman?
    There were times when the army spokesman was believed without reservation.

    During the 50s, I was often asked by foreign journalists whether to believe the army statements. My answer invariably was: Sure, our army does not lie.

    These days are long gone. The occupation, which has corrupted everything, has corrupted the army statements, too.

    During the first intifada, the IDF published hundreds of statements that were manifestly mendacious. Children "lost their lives" when the army "shot into the air" (giving rise to bitter jokes about "flying children"). Palestinians were killed while "trying to wrest weapons from the hands of soldiers".

    Tall stories.

    Baron von Munchhausen would have been envious. Since then, the situation has become even worse.

    During the last 20 years I have followed the work of foreign correspondents, neutral, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli, and almost all of them trust the Palestinians more than official Israeli spokespersons.

    When things get tough, official spokespersons bring up the Jenin affair. The Palestinians claimed that during the "Defensive Shield" operation in April 2002 a massacre occurred there.

    This proved to be an exaggeration, but the things that did indeed happen there were terrible enough. For example, many houses were demolished by the drunken driver of a giant army bulldozer, without any idea whether the inhabitants were still inside. The terminological battle over the word "massacre" distracted attention from what actually happened.

    Credibility is worth more then gold. It takes years to build up, but just a few minutes to destroy. Now this affair shows that the credibility of the army spokesman has fallen into an abyss.

    "Whom do you believe?" the general asked. Wellhmmit's not pleasant to say, but...

    - Uri Avnery

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     Tuesday, October 28, 2003

      Revealed: Israeli War Planes Deliberately Sunk U.S.S. Liberty

    OUR 'FRIENDS,' THE ISRAELIS
    by Justin Raimondo
    October 27, 2003

    Retired Captain Ward Boston, a former U.S. Navy attorney who was senior legal counsel to the military investigation of the sinking of the U.S.S. Liberty by the Israelis, in 1967, has finally revealed the truth in a signed affidavit:

    "For more than 30 years, I have remained silent on the topic of the USS Liberty. I am a military man and when orders come in from the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States, I follow them….

    "The evidence was clear. Both [the late] Admiral [Isaac C.] Kidd, [Jr.] and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew.

    I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors who had ordered the attack, were aware that the ship was American….

    "I am outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this country to claim that this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.' …

    I know from personal conversations I had with Admiral Kidd that President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
    At a news conference, put on in the Rayburn House Office Building with the help of Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), retired Admiral Thomas Moorer, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thundered from his wheelchair:
    "Why in the world would our government put Israel's interest ahead of our own?"
    A good question, one that baffles patriots – and is especially relevant today.

    When Israeli war planes descended on the Liberty, which was parked in international waters in the Mediterranean, the crew was caught completely unawares: sailors were up on deck sunning themselves.

    It was a cowardly and vicious attack in which 34 U.S. sailors were killed, and 171 wounded.

    When the Israelis, after torpedoing the ship, came back in a second assault, they strafed the lifeboats as the crew tried to clamber aboard – a war crime.

    Those rafts are now on display in an Israeli museum, according to one account, and, as the [UK] Guardian points out:
    "No one was ever court-martialed, reduced in rank or even reprimanded. Israel chose instead to honor motor torpedo boat 203, which fired the deadly torpedo at the Liberty.

    The ship's wheel and bell were placed on prominent display at the naval museum, among the maritime artifacts of which the Israeli navy was most proud
    ."
    Ah yes, our friends, the Israelis.

    It takes a special kind of arrogance to memorialize such a wanton, brazen murder – especially when U.S. taxpayers paid for that memorial, as they pay for practically everything else in Israel, from helicopter gunships and tanks to special subsidies for religious schools and right-wing politicians.

    Apologists for Israel defend the attack, saying it was a "mistake," and, alternately (and often simultaneously) pointing out that the Liberty was spying on Israel in wartime, and so deserved its fate.

    But now, thirty-five years later, the truth has been uncovered at last. The question raised by Admiral Moorer is surely relevant, but beyond that, another issue arises: what else are they covering up?

    The official verdict was hardly challenged at the time – except by the survivors and the familiesof the dead – an attitude that reflected the generally pro-Israel bias of the American media, but there was one prominent exception: National Review.

    The flagship journal of the American conservative movement ran an article that gave "the inside story" on the incident. Author James Jackson Kilpatrick reported what many of the survivors were saying at the time: that the attack was deliberate.

    Now that NR has been vindicated, do you think they'll have a piece triumphantly pointing out that Jackson's reporting was right? Sadly, I rather doubt it.

    The NR of yesteryear was a patriotic nationalist magazine that put America first: the NR of today is Ariel Sharon's bitch. No, we won't be seeing so much as a note about this in the thoroughly neocon-ized National Review any time soon.

    -Justin Raimondo

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     Sunday, October 26, 2003

      Russia's RICHEST MAN Arrested for Theft and Fraud

    Russia's richest man, billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky , head of the Yukos oil corporation, was arrested and later charged with forgery and fraud amounting to more than a billion dollars.

    Officials said last night Mikhail Khodorkovsky was charged with large-scale fraud, personal and corporate tax evasion, 'persistent disobedience over a court decision, inflicting damage on property owners through deceit, repeated forgery of official documents, and embezzlement'.

    Mikhail Khodorkovsky belongs to the Russian elites of very rich "business ‘oligarchs".

    Almost all the oligarchs, including Khodorkovsky, are Jewish.

    Other Russian Jewish "oligarchs" include;

    • Platon Lebedev, a banker, and friend of Khodorkovsky and major shareholder in Yukos, who is now in prison;
    • Roman Abramovich, who controls the Sibneft oil group and Chelsea Football Club. Abramovich may be the most powerful man in Russia today. Born of Ukrainian Jewish parentage in Saratov, Abramovich was raised in the remote oil town of Ukhta in western Siberia.
    • Lev Chernoy, a Jewish aluminum mogul, and is a major shareholder in Russian Aluminium;
    • Oleg Deripaska, controls companies such as Basic Element, Russian Aluminium, Ruspromavto
    • Alexander Smolensky (Victor Korotayev) . His media interests comprise the business newspaper Kommersant Daily, shares in ORT television station, and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

    Others include Vladimir Goussinsky, once headed the Russian Jewish Congress, who had. until the end of 1990s, owned a set of influential newspapers and radio stations, including the national TV channel, NTV.

    Goussinsky's main media rivals was Boris Berezovsky, also Jewish, who had owned a number of influential newspapers, including controlling the state-owned national TV channel ORT. Berezovsky renounced his Israeli citizenship - which he had acquired in the early 1990s, and was baptized as a Christian. Moscow's chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, called him "a double traitor of the Jewish people."

    But to many ordinary Russians, Boris Berezovsky is the archetype of the opportunistic Jew who schemes behind the scenes with unclear but destructive goals.

    The two media barons were the first Russian Jewish oligarchs to be driven out of Russia and have their assets seized, within months of Putin's election.

    Other powerful Russian Jewish entities include:
  • Anatoly Chubais, Jewish on his mother's side.
  • Viktor Chernomyrdin, he was named Prime Minister to replace Yegor Gaidar. "Cherno" means "Schwartz" in Yiddish.
  • Yevgeny Primakov, was named Russian Prime Minister in September, 1998. His family name actually is Finkelstein, and his Jewish parents called him "Pinchas" -- Pinchas Finkelstein.

    Almost everybody in Russia thinks the oligarchs are crooks. Many Russians dislike the country's billionaires, or oligarchs, who got rich from buying up state resources at curiously low prices.

    Prominent non-Jewish oligarchs include Vladimir Vinogradov and Vladimr Potanin.

    Read HERE "The Russian Oligarchs of the 1990's" by Thayer Watkins

    Read HERE " Moscow Targets Another Russian Jewish Oligarch "

    Read HERE "The Russian Oligarchs... how did they make their money?"

    Read HERE "Russian Oligarchs Under Attack"

    Read HERE from Collection of Articles from Stanford University's Information Service. Excerpts from Cameron Sawyer's essay " Russia and the Jews":
    "As to Jewishness and Bolshevism it is true that the Old Bolsheviks were disproportionately Jewish, and this added to the divisiveness of the revolution. The resistance to Bolshevism by the Whites had religious overtones for many of the participants.

    But after Lenin s death the regime itself took a decidedly anti-Semitic turn (and Stalin pretty much killed off the Old Bolsheviks) which survived through the end of the Gorbachev period.

    The story is significant in any case, because Russia still has the second biggest Jewish community in the world, second only to that of the United States.

    Nowadays Jews are immeasurably better off than they were under Communism, and in fact there is a stream of immigrants returning from Israel back to Russia.

    Most of the so-called oligarchs (the really big capitalists created during the 90s) are Jews. "
    Ed Koch (Edward Irving Koch), of Polish Jewish immigrants, served three terms as New York's mayor, from 1978 to 1989, had written to Russian President, Vladimir Putin questioning Russian authorities' attack on the Jewish oligarchs



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     Saturday, October 25, 2003

      American Casualties in Iraq

    President George Bush declared end of Iraq War on 1st May 2003.

    Two U.S. soldiers were killed and four were wounded on 23rd October 2003 in a mortar attack on their base north of Baghdad, and another American died in a shootout in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said.

    The US deaths bring to 108 the number of American soldiers killed by hostile fire AFTER President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. 2003



    U.S. officials also said 13 soldiers, from the 4th Infantry Division, were wounded on 23rd October 2003, when a mortar round struck at hangar at Camp War Horse near Baqouba, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad.

    Lt. Col. George Krivo, the U.S. command spokesman, said attacks on coalition forces have averaged about 26 a day over the past two weeks.

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     Friday, October 24, 2003

      The Debate: "America's Foreign Policy does MORE HARM than Good"

    The debate was held on October 9, 2003 at venerable Trinity College in Dublin. Organized by the University Philosophical Society.

    Speakers for the Proposition:

  • William Blum, American author;
  • David Barsamian, American radio journalist and author; and
  • Tom Hanahoe, Irish author.

    Against the Proposition:
  • John Bruton, former Irish prime minister;
  • Bill Rammell, British MP and minister in the Foreign Office; and
  • Gideon Rose, Managing Editor of "Foreign Affairs", the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former member of the Clinton National Security Council.

    Excerpts from William Blum's presentation during the Debate ie American foreign policy does MORE HARM
    United States' engagement with the world from the end of World War II to the present:

    1. Attempting to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments.

    2. Unprovoked military invasion of some 20 sovereign nations.

    3. Working to crush more than 30 populist movements which were fighting against dictatorial regimes.

    4. Providing indispensable support to a small army of brutal dictatorships:
      • Mobutu of Zaire,
      • Pinochet of Chile,
      • Duvalier of Haiti,
      • Somoza of Nicaragua,
      • the Greek junta,
      • Marcos of the Philippines,
      • Rhee of Korea,
      • the Shah of Iran,
      • 40 years of military dictators in Guatemala,
      • Suharto of Indonesia,
      • Hussein of Iraq,
      • the Brazilian junta,
      • Trujillo of the Dominican Republic,
      • the Taliban of Afghanistan,
      • and others.

    5. Dropping powerful bombs on the people of about 25 countries, including:
      • 40 consecutive days and nights in Iraq,
      • 78 days and nights in Yugoslavia, and
      • several months in Afghanistan,

      All these three of these countries having met the first requirement as an American bombing target -- being completely defenseless.

      And not once ever has the United States come even close to repairing the great damage caused by its bombings. Afghanistan and Iraq are of course the latest examples.

    6. Increasing use of depleted uranium, one of the most despicable weapons ever designed by mankind, which produces grossly deformed babies amongst its many endearing qualities, and which, in a civilized world not intimidated by the United States, would be categorically banned.

    7. Repeated use of cluster bombs, another fiendish device designed by a mad scientist, which has robbed numerous young people of one or more limbs, and some of their eyesight, and continues to do so every day in many countries as the bombs remain on the ground.

    8. Assassination attempts on the lives of some 40 foreign political leaders.

    9. Crude interference in dozens of foreign democratic elections.

    10. Gross manipulation of labor movements.

    11. Shameless manufacture of "news", the disinformation effect of which is multiplied when CIA assets in other countries pick up the same stories.

    12. Providing handbooks, materials and encouragement for the practice of torture.

    13. Chemical or biological warfare or the testing of such weapons, and the use of powerful herbicides, all causing terrible effects to the people and environments of
      • China,
      • Korea,
      • Vietnam,
      • Laos,
      • Panama,
      • Cuba,
      • Iraq,
      • Afghanistan,
      • Serbia and
      • elsewhere.

    14. Encouragement of drug trafficking in various parts of the world when it served the CIA's purposes.

    15. Supporting death squads, especially in Latin America.

    16. Causing grievous harm to the health and well-being of the world's masses by turning the screws of the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and other international financial institutions, as well as by imposing unmerciful sanctions and embargoes.

    17. Much of the above has led to millions of refugees wandering homeless over the earth.
    And what do those who champion the mystique of "America" offer in defense of this record?

    Well, denial is the first line of defense -- Well-known and respected foreign policy analysts in the United States write entire books on American foreign policy with scarcely a hint of what I've just mentioned.

    When all else fails, they fall back on the argument that "The United States means well." It may sometimes blunder, even occasionally do a bit more harm than good as things turn out ... but the intention is always benevolent.

    AFGHANISTAN

    Let us look at a recent example of what some people would say was evidence of US foreign policy being a force for good -- Afghanistan, where the awful Taliban were overthrown.

    How can one argue against that?
    • Well, in the past the past two years, US bombings and ground combat have taken the lives of many thousands of innocent civilians in addition to killing many so-called combatants, who are simply anyone defending against the US invasion;
    • countless homes and other buildings have been demolished;
    • depleted uranium has begun to show its ugly face;
    • the warlords have returned to extensive power;
    • opium cultivation is booming anew;
    • crime and violence have once again become a daily fact of life;
    • the (Afghan) president is nothing less than an American puppet;
    • and the country is occupied by foreign troops (i.e., American) who often treat the population badly, including the use of torture;
    Afghanistan has become a protectorate of the US and NATO.

    The awful Taliban regime would never have come to power in the first place if the United States, in the 1980s and 90s, had not played an essential role in the overthrow of a secular and fairly progressive government, which allowed women much more freedom than they'll ever have under the current government.

    Washington's agenda in this case are secure oil and gas pipelines, military bases, and, if and when security can be instituted, the forces of globalization will march in.

    Meanwhile in Iraq, what the US bombing, invasion and occupation have brought to the people there is every bit as appalling.
    William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir. He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com

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     Wednesday, October 22, 2003

      Examples of Hate Speeches and Comments

    The Malaysian PM Mahathir said at the OIC Summit 2003: "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

    US President Bush took Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad aside during the economic summit in Bangkok and told Mahathir that what he said was 'wrong and divisive,' " according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

    According to Mr. McClellan, the President told Mahathir, "It stands squarely against what I believe in" .

    Here are sample hate speeches and comments by Israeli/Jewish leaders on Palestinians and Arabs:

    1. "There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies ­not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy."
      Israeli president Moshe Katsav. The Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2001

    2. "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more"....
      Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000

    3. " [The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs."
      Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

    4. "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls."
      Yitzhak Shamir, in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988

    5. "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."
      Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

    6. "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed."
      Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969

    7. "The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war."
      Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, 19 March 1972.

    8. Ben Gurion also warned in 1948 : "We must do everything to insure they ( the Palestinians) never do return. The old will die and the young will forget."

    9. "We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves."
      Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.

    10. "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." -
      Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

    11. "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours."
      Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983.

    12. "We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return"
      David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.

    13. "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
      Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum"

    14. "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."
      Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.

    15. Yitzhak Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. "We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters"
      Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas.

    16. "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."
      Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

    17. "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism,colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
      Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.

    18. "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."
      Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 [Source: N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]






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     Tuesday, October 21, 2003

      Blatant Hypocrisy of President Bush on Religiously Divisive Comments by his Deputy Undersecretary of Defense

    Excerpt from Editorial of Washington Post, October 21st, 2003

    " Mr. Bush took Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad aside during the economic summit in Bangkok "and told him that what he said was 'wrong and divisive,' " according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

    " It stands squarely against what I believe in," Mr. McClellan quoted the President as saying.

    Mr. Mahathir had told an Islamic conference last week that "the Jews rule the world by proxy" and urged Islamic nations to unite against being "defeated by a few million Jews." He received a standing ovation from his colleagues -- making Mr. Bush's expression of disapproval all the more necessary.

    But Mr. Bush has found nothing to criticize in remarks disparaging of Islam by Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, his Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.

    Gen. Boykin, in Army uniform, describes the United States as a "Christian nation" and says he knew he would capture a Somali warlord because "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

    Gen. Boykin casts the war against terrorism as a "spiritual battle," saying that "Satan wants to destroy this nation, he wants to destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy us as a Christian army."

    At the Good Shepherd Community Church in Sandy, Ore., last June, just after he received his third star and was named to his Pentagon post, Gen. Boykin said:
    " Don't you worry about what these courts say. Our God reigns supreme."
    But from the Bush administration, there has not been a syllable of criticism.

    Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that it didn't seem Gen. Boykin had violated any rules.

    "We're a free people," said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. On ABC's "This Week" Sunday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice ducked the question -- twice.

    The president ought to be forthright about comments that are wrong and divisive -- whether they're uttered by a foreign leader or by one of his own generals."

  • Religious conservatives in Congress are defending a Pentagon general who referred to the war on terror as a Christian fight against Satan.

    In remarks many consider demeaning to Islam, Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin has told church audiences his mission is "a battle with Satan." The struggle, Boykin said, is "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan."

    Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., drafted a letter Monday asking Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld not to discipline Boykin, saying that elected officials and military leaders have talked about God and spiritual matters throughout U.S. history. Read for more....


  • President Bush has wooed Muslim leaders at the White House. He declared Islam to be a peaceful religion, not the embodiment of Satan. Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin's remarks seemed almost designed to stir up the very radicals the President is trying quiet down.

    Yet Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld laughed off reporters' questions about the comments late last week. Boykin's statements would be comical if they were not so provocative and potentially damaging to international relations. Having spoken in uniform and as a high-ranking representative of the U.S. war on terror makes his actions all the more untenable.

    To those who know religious history, Boykin comes across as a 21st-century version of the European crusaders.

    That parallel is hardly a good one if the president's goal of eliminating terror is ever to be met. It does neither the U.S. nor this president in particular any good to inflame pre-existing misunderstanding and hatred of the West - just what Boykin's remarks succeeded in doing. Read more....


  • Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin is an intolerant extremist who has spoken openly about how his belief in Christianity has trumped Muslims and other non-Christians in battle. He has described himself as a warrior in the kingdom of God.

    When Boykin publicly spews this intolerant message while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army, he strongly suggests that this is an official and sanctioned view -- and that the U.S. Army is indeed a Christian army.

    Boykin is also in a senior Pentagon policymaking position, and it's a serious mistake to allow a man who believes in a Christian "jihad" to hold such a job.

    Appointing Jerry Boykin, with his visions of holy war in the Islamic world, to a top position in the United States military is no way to marginalize extremism. Read more.....

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      Princess Diana wrote 10 months before, predicting her death in a car accident

    The Daily Mirror (UK) published in an exclusive a handwritten note by Diana given to her butler predicting "they " will try to kill her in a car accident.

    Read HERE the full story in the Daily Mirror (UK)





    Excerpt from the article by Jane Kerr, Royal reporter for the Daily Mirror:
    PRINCESS DIANA claimed there was a plot to kill her in a car crash in a handwritten letter only 10 months before she died. She gave it to her butler Paul Burrell with orders that he should keep it as "insurance" for the future.

    The princess predicted: “This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous.” She said "XXXXXXXXXXX is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry”.

    In the letter, revealed by the Daily Mirror today, Diana named who she believed was plotting to kill her. But the Mirror is not able to repeat the allegation for legal reasons so we have blanked that part of the letter out.

    Before sealing the letter in an envelope marked “Paul”, the princess told him: “I’m going to date this and I want you to keep it ... just in case.”

    In the second paragraph of the document, written in October 1996, Diana explained in the plainest possible language that she was convinced of the plot to mastermind an accident.



    Diana and Dodi Fayed were killed in the early hours of August 31 1997 when a Mercedes S280 driven by drunken chauffeur Henri Paul careered into the Pont d’Alma tunnel in the French capital.



    An inquiry in 1999 by the French authorities blamed Paul, concluding that he had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs before losing control of the car because he was speeding.

    However, there has been a growing unwillingness by the public to accept the official version of her death.

    BURRELL admitted he shares the doubts. He said: “With the benefit of hindsight, the content of that letter has bothered me since her death.”

    “That letter has been part of the burden I have carried since the princess’s death. Knowing what to do with it has been a source of much soul-searching.”

    He insists that whether it is a wild coincidence” or an explanation for the tragedy is a matter for a coroner’s court.

    He adds: “It may be futile in what it achieves because it can do no more than provide yet another question mark.

    “But if that question mark leads to an inquest and a thorough investigation of the facts by the British authorities it will have achieved something.”


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      Malaysia PM Mahathir Says It Again in Bangkok :"The reaction of the world shows that they [Jews] do control the world''


    Read HERE article in Bangkok Post:

    (According to Mahathir), the European Union had done nothing when Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlesconi made a statement calling Muslims terrorists.

    "Did the European Union pass a resolution to say that this was against Muslims? Why is it that when people condemn Muslims the European Union does not try to say anything?''

    Dr Mahathir said his comments about Israel and Jews were true.

    "Israel is a small country. There are not many Jews in the world. But they are so arrogant that they defy the whole world. Even if the United Nations say no, they go ahead. Why? Because they have the backing of all these people.''
    Read HERE article by Paul Krugman in New York Times, "Listening to Mahathir" October 21, 2003.

    Excerpts from Krugman's article
    . "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

    So said Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister of Malaysia, at an Islamic summit meeting last week. The White House promptly denounced his "hate-filled remarks."

    And to understand why he made those remarks is to realize how badly things are going for U.S. foreign policy.

    The fact is that Mr. Mahathir, though guilty of serious abuses of power, is in many ways about as forward-looking a Muslim leader as we're likely to find. And Malaysia is the kind of success story we wish we saw more of: an impressive record of economic growth, rising education levels and general modernization in a nation with a Muslim majority.

    It's worth reading the rest of last week's speech, beyond the offensive 28 words. Most of it is criticism directed at other Muslims, clerics in particular.

    Mr. Mahathir castigates "interpreters of Islam who taught that acquisition of knowledge by Muslims meant only the study of Islamic theology." Thanks to these interpreters, "the study of science, medicine, etc. was discouraged. Intellectually the Muslims began to regress."

    A lot of the speech sounds as if it had been written by Bernard Lewis, author of "What Went Wrong," the best-selling book about the Islamic decline.

    So what's with the anti-Semitism? Almost surely it's part of Mr. Mahathir's domestic balancing act, something I learned about the last time he talked like this, during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.

    At that time, rather than accept the austerity programs recommended by the U.S. government and the I.M.F., he loudly blamed machinations by Western speculators, and imposed temporary controls on the outflow of capital — a step denounced by all but a handful of Western economists. As it turned out, his economic strategy was right: Malaysia suffered a shallower slump and achieved a quicker recovery than its neighbors.

    One reason Mr. Mahathir was so adamantly against I.M.F. austerity plans was that he feared that they would disrupt the carefully managed cronyism that holds his system together.

    Not long ago Washington was talking about Malaysia as an important partner in the war on terror. Now Mr. Mahathir thinks that to cover his domestic flank, he must insert hateful words into a speech mainly about Muslim reform.

    That tells you, more accurately than any poll, just how strong the rising tide of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism among Muslims in Southeast Asia has become.

    Thanks to its war in Iraq and its unconditional support for Ariel Sharon, Washington has squandered post-9/11 sympathy and brought relations with the Muslim world to a new low.

    And bear in mind that Mr. Mahathir's remarks were written before the world learned about the views of Lt. Gen. William "My God Is Bigger Than Yours" Boykin.

    By making it clear that he sees nothing wrong with giving an important post in the war on terror to someone who believes, and says openly, that Allah is a false idol — General Boykin denies that's what he meant, but his denial was implausible even by current standards — Donald Rumsfeld has gone a long way toward confirming the Muslim world's worst fears.

    Somewhere in Pakistan Osama bin Laden must be enjoying this.

    The war on terror didn't have to be perceived as a war on Islam, but we seem to be doing our best to make it look that way.



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      ..... Scanning....Scanning... Scanning......

  • Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin, newly appointed Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Bus Administration, in a speech in June, at the Good Shepherd Community Church in Sandy, Oregon, said:
    " (George Bush) is a man who prays in the Oval Office. He was appointed by God.

    Yes I believe that George Bush was placed in the White House by God as well as Bill Clinton and other presidents,

    There was a man in Mogadishu named Osman Atto. He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.'

    Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.

    Why do they hate us? The answer to that is because we're a Christian nation We are hated because we are a nation of believers." Read HERE for more....
  • An apology from Lt. Gen. William Boykin for casting the war on terrorism in terms that offended some Muslims originally included a promise that he would no longer speak at religious events, CNN has learned.

  • Read HERE Elaine Cassel's article "Let Boykin Preach:God's General Unmuzzled" - Over the past couple of years, Lt. General William Boykin, a self-described "born-again" Christian, has promoted "his" God over anybody else's "God" (particularly the Muslim God), and said that George Bush was put in the White House to lead the global fight against Satan disguised as Islam, and gave God the credit for protecting him and his troops in a bloody battle in Somalia in 1993 known as "Black Hawk Down." That battle was, he said, a fight between "the principalities of darkness" led by him and his soldiers at God's direction.

  • Israeli and US officials have admitted collaborating to deploy US-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads in Israel's fleet of Dolphin-class submarines, giving the Middle East's only nuclear power the ability to strike at any of its Arab neighbors. THE OBSERVER, Monday, Oct 13, 2003, Read more...

  • Prime Minister Ariel Sharon slammed the Geneva Accord proposal for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read More...

  • The "evangelical" belief of British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction pushed the country into war for false reasons, according to Robin Cook, Blair’s former foreign secretary. "The prime minister and fellow government members needed to believe that Saddam was a threat," Cook told BBC television’s Breakfast with Frost programme. "If they had not been so evangelical about their certainty, I think they could have seen that the intelligence before them was too thin to justify war," said Cook, who served as foreign secretary from 1997 to 2001. Read More....

  • The Hidden Truth of the Vietnam War: US elite unit (The Tiger Force) savaged civilians in Vietnam.
    The Tiger Force was a platoon created by a U.S. Army, - small, mobile, trained to kill.Promising victory to an anxious American public, military leaders in 1967 sent a task force - including Tiger Force - to the Central Highlands in Vietnam.

    Women and children were intentionally blown up in underground bunkers. Elderly farmers were shot as they toiled in the fields. Prisoners were tortured and executed - their ears and scalps severed for souvenirs.

    One soldier kicked out the teeth of executed civilians for their gold fillings.Two soldiers tried to stop the killings, but their pleas were ignored by commanders.

    The Army launched an investigation in 1971 that lasted 41/2 years - the longest-known war-crime investigation of the Vietnam conflict.The case reached the highest levels of the Pentagon and the Nixon White House.Investigators concluded that 18 soldiers committed war crimes ranging from murder and assault to dereliction of duty. But no one was charged.

    Since the war ended, the American public has been fed a dose of movies fictionalizing the excesses of U.S. units in Vietnam, such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon.

    But in reality, most war-crime cases focused on a single event, like the My Lai massacre.The atrocities by the Tiger Force took place over seven months, leaving an untold number dead - possibly several hundred civilians, former soldiers and villagers now say.One medic said he counted 120 unarmed villagers killed in one month.For decades, the case has remained buried in the archives of the government - not even known to America's most recognized historians of the war.Until now.
  • A Thin Line between Terrorists and National Heroes- depends who has the monopoly of HISTORY. Compare with Malaysia's exiled communist Chin Peng and Yasser Arafat. Western media influenced by Jewish lobby groups consider Arafat, fighting for a Palestinian homeland as a terrorist. Chin Peng, who fought against the Japanese and then the British for Malayan independence, is still considered by leaders of independent Malaysia, a terrorist. See below chart.



  • US Senator Robert Byrd on the US Senate Floor said:
    "This entire adventure in Iraq has been based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is too much to pay for the continuation of a war based on falsehoods. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth.

    Having misled the American people and stampeded them to war, this (US) Administration must now attempt to sustain a policy predicated on falsehoods.

    We misinformed and insulted our friends and allies and now this Administration is having more than a little trouble getting help from the international community. Read More....

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     Friday, October 17, 2003

      Malaysia PM Mahathir Says Jews Rule the World by Proxy in a Speech at OIC Summit

    Read HERE FULL text of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad's speech at the 10th OIC Summit in Kuala Lumpur, 16th October 2003

    Excerpts from Mahathir's speech:

    The whole world is looking at us. Certainly 1.3 billion Muslims, one-sixth of the world’s population are placing their hopes in us, in this meeting, even though they may be cynical about our will and capacity to even decide to restore the honour of Islam and the Muslims, much less to free their brothers and sisters from the oppression and humiliation from which they suffer today.

    I will not enumerate the instances of our humiliation and oppression, nor will I once again condemn our detractors and oppressors.

    If we are to recover our dignity and that of Islam, our religion, it is we who must decide, it is we who must act.

    To begin with, the governments of all the Muslim countries can close ranks and have a common stand if not on all issues, at least on some major ones, such as on Palestine.

    We are all Muslims. We are all oppressed. We are all being humiliated.But not only are our governments divided, the Muslim ummah is also divided, and divided again and again. We ignore entirely and we continue to ignore the Islamic injunction to unite and to be brothers to each other, we the governments of the Islamic countries and the ummah.

    There was not a single Muslim country which was not colonised or hegemonised by the Europeans. The Europeans could do what they liked with Muslim territories.

    It is not surprising that they should excise Muslim land to create the state of Israel to solve their Jewish problem. Divided, the Muslims could do nothing effective to stop the Balfour and Zionist transgression.

    We are now 1.3 billion strong. We have the biggest oil reserve in the world. We have great wealth.We are familiar with the workings of the world’s economy and finances. We control 50 out of the 180 countries in the world. Our votes can make or break international organisations.

    Today we, the whole Muslim ummah are treated with contempt and dishonour. Our religion is denigrated. Our holy places desecrated. Our countries are occupied. Our people starved and killed. None of our countries are truly independent. We are under pressure to conform to our oppressors’ wishes about how we should behave, how we should govern our lands, how we should think even.

    Today if they want to raid our country, kill our people, destroy our villages and towns, there is nothing substantial that we can do. Is it Islam which has caused all these? Or is it that we have failed to do our duty according to our religion?

    Our only reaction is to become more and more angry. Angry people cannot think properly. And so we find some of our people reacting irrationally. They launch their own attacks, killing just about anybody including fellow Muslims to vent their anger and frustration. Their governments can do nothing to stop them. The enemy retaliates and puts more pressure on the governments.

    And the governments have no choice but to give in, to accept the directions of the enemy, literally to give up their independence of action. With this their people and the ummah become angrier and turn against their own governments. Every attempt at a peaceful solution is sabotaged by more indiscriminate attacks calculated to anger the enemy and prevent any peaceful settlement. But the attacks solve nothing. The Muslims simply get more oppressed.

    There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people. They feel that they can do nothing right. They believe that things can only get worse. The Muslims will forever be oppressed and dominated by the Europeans and the Jews. They will forever be poor, backward and weak.

    Some believe, this is the Will of Allah, that the proper state of the Muslims is to be poor and oppressed in this world. It cannot be that there is no other way. 1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way.

    For well over half a century we have fought over Palestine. What have we achieved?

    Nothing. We are worse off than before.

    We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out.

    The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy.

    Over the past 50 years of fighting in Palestine we have not achieved any result. We have in fact worsened our situation. But think.

    We are up against a people who think. They survived 2000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking.

    They invented and successfully promoted Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also.

    Of late because of their power and their apparent success they have become arrogant. And arrogant people, like angry people will make mistakes, will forget to think. They are already beginning to make mistakes. And they will make more mistakes. There may be windows of opportunity for us now and in the future. We must seize these opportunities.

    But to do so we must get our acts right. Rhetoric is good. It helps us to expose the wrongs perpetrated against us, perhaps win us some sympathy and support. It may strengthen our spirit, our will and resolve, to face the enemy.

    There are many resources that we have at our disposal. What is needed is merely the will to do it . Insyaallah we will triumph in the end.

    I pray to Allah that this 10th Conference of the OIC in Putrajaya, Malaysia, will give a new and positive direction to us, will be blessed with success by Him, Almighty Allah, Arahman, Arahirn.


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     Sunday, October 05, 2003

     

    Latest Suicide Bomber :
    Palestinian Woman Lawyer's Revenge
    for Israeli Military's Murder of her Brother and Cousin



    Name: Hanadi Tayssir Jaradat, 29 years old.
    Profession: Lawyer
    Motive: Revenge for Murder of her Brother and Cousin

    From the West Bank town of Jenin.


    At least 19 people are dead after an explosion tore through a restaurant in the northern city of Haifa in Israel.Israeli police have said the blast was caused by a Palestinian human bomber

    Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

    In a statement, Islamic Jihad named the bomber as 27-year-old Hanadi Tayssir Jaradat from Jenin, of late the scene of daily raids by the Israeli occupation army.

    It said the attack was in revenge for the death of her brother and cousin, who were killed by Israeli troops in Jenin on 12 June.

    The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, had vowed in a statement after the June 12 killings that it would avenge the Israeli "crimes".

    Israeli troops later dynamited the West Bank family home of the suicide bomber, Palestinian security sources said.

    Aljazeera reports:
    There was little that was unusual about the way Hanadi Jarahat left home Saturday morning.

    Apart from the fact she departed slightly earlier than normal, there was nothing in her behaviour to suggest that she did not intend to come back.

    The 27-year-old apprentice lawyer slipped into Israel with one mission in mind: Revenge.

    Once in Haifa, she identified her target as the bustling seaside Maxim restaurant. Shooting a guard to get inside, Hanadi then detonated a load of explosives.

    Islamic Jihad's military wing, Saraya al-Quds, said later Hanadi had carried out the attack in retaliation for the deaths of several of its leaders in Israeli attacks.

    But family members said the motive was closer to home. "The only thing that would push her to do that would be to avenge my brother's death," her brother Thahir, aged 15, told AP.

    On 12 June, Israeli troops who had come to arrest her cousin Salah, a member of Islamic Jihad, killed him and her brother Fadi.

    Sources said Jaradat watched as Israeli troops shot and killed her brother and a cousin at the family home in June. She heard the shots and ran outside to help, but the soldiers forced her away.

    Hanadi had always been religious, fasting twice a week. After the killings, she fasted during daylight hours every day. She began reading the Quran as well.

    Hanadi finished her legal studies in Jordan five years ago and was supposed to finish her apprenticeship the following week before qualifying as a lawyer, said her family. They were shocked to hear she was responsible for the bombing.

    It is not known whether Hanadi would have acted differently had she been aware Maxim was frequented by Arabs as well as Jews. Whatever the case, at least four Arabs were among the 18 dead, according to Israeli police.

    Arabs, who make up 12% of Haifa's population, became citizens of Israel when the Jewish state was created in 1948 in parts of what had been British-mandate Palestine.

    "But we are receiving congratulations from people," Thahir said.

    "Why should we cry? It's like her wedding today, the happiest day for her," he said.
    In a separate incident today, Israeli occupation forces gunned dawn a nine-year-old Palestinian child and a resistance activist during a raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem.

    Mohammad Barahme, 9, was killed when an Israeli unit entered the camp and opened fire on three members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

    The youngster, who had happened to be in the vicinity, was shot in the chest, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

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