To all people of religion

I just found this whilst surfing around , I have decided to post it as i found the tone and style of the piece very very funny , not being a person of religion i of course found no offence and if you are a person of faith and easily offended i suggest you do not read this .

Please note , I post this as a very strongly held opinion , the opinion is NOT mine , I do not endorse or condem the piece , i just post it , the only thing i do note is the author has a wonderfull ability to find new and exciting ways of creating insults that i found very amusing.

anyway , you have been warned , so at your own choice click away Here

Israel, Vatican put dispute behind them

ROME -- A dispute between Israel and the Vatican over Pope Benedict XVI's comments on terrorism appears to have been resolved, after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent a letter calling the pontiff ''a true friend of Israel," Israel's ambassador said yesterday.
Israel's top diplomat at the Holy See, Oded Ben Hur, brought the letter Tuesday to the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, in what the envoy called an ''amicable and intimate" meeting that signaled that ''we definitely see this thing behind us and are looking forward to improving our relationship."

The dispute erupted in July, when Israel complained that Benedict had deliberately failed to include a July 12 suicide bombing in Israeli in a list of countries recently hit by terrorist attacks.

The sides traded pronouncements that culminated with a harshly worded Vatican statement saying the pope couldn't condemn every Palestinian suicide bombing because Israel would so often retaliate with illegal actions that would also have to be condemned.

Good for the Pope standing up for himself , a bit of balance for once
will it last , I doubt it

Uzbekistan parliament backs move to evict US

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Uzbekistan's upper house of parliament yesterday backed the government's decision to evict US troops from their base in the Central Asian nation, dealing a blow to US interests in the region.
The unanimous vote by 93 Senate members present at the session reflects the souring of relations with the United States since Washington criticized a bloody government crackdown on unrest in eastern Uzbekistan.

President Islam Karimov's government said July 29 that the United States had six months to vacate the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in the country's south, one of two set up in the former Soviet Central Asia to support operations in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Uzbekistan has denied ordering the US withdrawal because the United States criticized the May crackdown on unarmed demonstrators in the eastern city of Andijan. The United States joined international demands for an independent investigation into the violence, which Karimov's government has rejected.

Uzbekistan is a perfect example of how the hawks control the Agenda

just take look at this report from the US state department Here on the terrible record of the Uzbek government , this report as you may imagine holds back on many of the accusations made by other governments and human rights groups on the country

but still if they are willing to let you put troops there then , guess what , we call them a friend

now , dont hold your breath , but how long will it be before the US administration recovers from amnesia and suddenly remembers that this is a sick sick country that should be condemmed not befriended , not long i say , not now the US has nothing to gain from them anymore

Livingstone launches bid to protect civil liberties

A new campaign is being launched by a coalition of different groups in a bid to ensure anti-terror measures do not unfairly criminalise or exclude.
Ken Livingstone, Muslim and Sikh groups, Liberty, trade unionists and MPs are just some of the signatories to a joint statement on fighting terror.

They call for a "broad consensus" in tackling the threat of extremism.

Labour MP Sadiq Khan warned there was "widespread concern" about some of the measures planned by ministers.

"There is a real danger that hastily drafted legislation could end up stifling the ability of Britons to stand up for those living under oppression abroad. Who decides if someone is a terrorist or a freedom fighter?" he said.

Spy craft takes to gull flight

Aviation researchers at the University of Florida have copied the wing action of seagulls to develop spy drones that can morph shape mid-flight.
The toy-sized drones are being developed for tricky urban missions so that they can zip around tight places.

They could fly into urban environments to detect biological agents.

Funded by Nasa and the US Air Force, the unmanned, sensor-packed craft in development could be on missions in two to three years, say researchers.

By watching how seagulls alter their wing shape, and using morphing techniques, the agile craft can squeeze through confined spaces, such as alleyways, and change direction rapidly.

The micro air vehicles (MAVs) could automatically find their way to monitor locations, such as apartment blocks, where suspicious activity is detected


Am i the only one concerned by this , it seems very BIG BROTHER to me , i know the benefits from catching terrorists and major criminals yes , but how long before this technology is used to watch people for political reasons such as

Cindy sheehan
the Democrats
some guy who just goes to get a book on al-qaeda from the library
and many more examples i am sure

where do we draw the line between civil liberties and fighting terrorism , there is no doubt that america at the moment has done it wrong , but there does have to be a line somewhere

Iraq constitution latest

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament has announced that an amended text on Iraq's new constitution will be presented to MPs on Sunday.
Hajim-al-Hassani said Shia and Kurd factions had reached agreement in principle on proposals put to them by Sunni Arab representatives.

"The Iraqi people have to give their word now and reject the constitution because this constitution is the beginning of the division of the country and the beginning of creating disturbance in the country," a sunni spokesman said.

The outstanding issues from the Shia-Kurdish draft submitted last Monday included:

federalism, and the way to form semi-autonomous regions

the terminology used in eradicating the influence of the former Baath regime - whether to use the term Baath party or Saddam's Baath

structuring of authority between the presidency, parliament and the government.
Sunnis have expressed concerns that allowing for federalism may lead to the creation of an autonomous Shia area in southern Iraq - like the Kurdish north but under Iran's influence.

The Sunnis fear greater autonomy for the Kurdish north and Shia south could compromise their share of revenues from those oil-rich regions.

A Different Take on Disengagement

If Ariel Sharon had been willing to negotiate a genuine peace agreement with the Palestinians in which Israel withdrew to the 1967 border (with slight border modifications along the lines suggested by Yossi Beilin in the Geneva Accord of 2003), one part of that agreement could have allowed all settlers to stay in their homes in Gaza and the West Bank as long as they agreed to be law-abiding citizens of the Palestinian state that would be governing that area.

If they were not willing to give up their Israeli citizenship and live in peace with their neighbors, they could voluntarily leave their homes and return to Israel. That is the same choice that Arabs faced once Israel was established in a land that they once governed. It should have been the choice offered to Israeli settlers as well.

There never had to be the horrible scene of people being dragged from their homes.
So why did it happen? Because Ariel Sharon's entire plan -- as explained to the Israeli public by his assistant, Dov Weisglass -- was to sacrifice the settlers of Gaza precisely in order to have the painful images that dominated the media, so that Sharon could argue "Of course no one can ask us to do this kind of thing to the 300,000 settlers in the West Bank, given the pain everyone has seen us go through in Gaza."
As Sharon's aides tried to tell the settlers, the Disengagement was intended to preserve the Occupation, not undermine it. And so, Sharon is moving ahead to finish construction of the Separation Wall and cut off from the West Bank the 150,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem (not to mention many other Palestinians living in proximity to the Wall), expropriate more and more Palestinian land, and "create facts" on the ground that will be hard to change.

There are some who celebrate this Gaza withdrawal as the first step in the process of dismantling settlements. Rabbi Lerner asks them the following: "At what point, how many years from now, while the Occupation continues of much of the West Bank, will you acknowledge that this was simply another part of the scheme that Sharon has--to hold on to close to 50 percent of the West Bank while offering Palestinians a state that will be neither economically nor politically viable, a state that, when they refuse it, or when they accept it and then ask for more, will be used as 'proof' that nothing will ever satisfy them?" So, Rabbi Lerner argues, we should understand that all the pain was part of an elaborate ruse--and though the immediate victims are the Gaza settlers, the real victims are all the peoples of Israel and Palestine who will have to endure the ongoing suffering that the continuation of the Occupation guarantees.

This was not a move toward reconciliation and open-heartedness between two peoples, but a unilateral move by a pro-occupation government, aided by an international media that systematically tells the story from the standpoint of the Israeli government. When was the last time the media gave this kind of attention to the systematic uprooting from their homes of Palestinians by the Israeli occupation, though the number of those who have been uprooted far exceeds those of Israelis uprooted? When was the last time the media raised the issue of how many Israelis today are living in homes that belonged to Palestinians before 1948?

We raise these issues not to challenge the right of Israel to exist or to flourish, but precisely for the opposite reason--because we believe that only when Israel opens its heart to the fate of the Palestinians and seeks a reconciliation based on justice and kindness and a spirit of generosity (not a unilateral decision by Ariel Sharon imposed on the Palestinian people) can Israel be truly secure.
This is the key lesson of a spiritual politics: that security comes not through power and domination, but through love and generosity. The forced withdrawal of settlers from their homes this past week did not generate a higher level of love or generosity of spirit from any of the different groups in the Middle East. Even the Palestinians in Gaza, relieved that they no longer will have to go through IDF checkpoints, couldn't feel that the withdrawal was a part of a new spirit of generosity by Israel.

Why have it imposed rather than negotiated as part of a peace agreement?, they asked. And how generous was it when Israel decided to destroy the houses of settlers lest Palestinians occupying those houses be seen by right-wing Israelis as a "provocation" that might lead to new acts of violence?

And how generous was it when Israel still insisted that it would control the borders of Gaza, including from the sea and by air, thus making Gaza an enclave without freedom of access to others in the world except through continued Israeli consent.

Is this what you'd call freedom? And if in this circumstance, Hamas would be able to say that it was not Israeli generosity but Israeli desire to avoid more conflict that had forced them to leave, and thus Hamas -- rather than Palestinian non-violence under Prime Mininster Abbas -- that deserved the credit for the withdrawal, would this really surprise Sharon, or rather be exactly what he wants -- a further 'proof' that abandoning territory to Palestinians would only lead to the extremists taking over, so certainly no one could ask for that in the West Bank?

article from alternet

Bush Calls Shia's to Urge Compromise

CRAWFORD, Texas Aug 26, 2005 — The White House withheld judgment on Friday on the latest proposal to break an impasse on an Iraq constitution despite an attempt by President Bush to move the process forward with a phone call to a top Iraqi Shiite leader.

Bush called Abdul-Aiz al-Hakim on Wednesday Thursday in Iraq Prodded by that call, Shiite negotiators Friday offered what they called their final compromise proposal to Sunnis Arabs to try to break the impasse. In his call to al-Hakim, Bush urged consensus over a draft that has thus far been opposed by minority Sunnis, a Shiite official, Abbas al-Bayati, told The Associated Press in Baghdad.
Al-Bayati said the new offer included concessions on the pivotal issues of federalism and efforts to remove former members of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath Party from public life. The Shiites were awaiting a response from the Sunnis, al-Bayati said.
Duffy would not elaborate on what the two leaders discussed, or whether Bush planned more such personal diplomacy as negotiations continue. The president made the call on Wednesday in Idaho, where he had given a speech to military families, before he returned to his Texas ranch

now I have just banged my head agaisnt the wall a few times to check that i am awake and not drunk , but if bush is trying to push the Shia to work harder to make the Sunni happy then for once , on this very narrow issue , i actually agree with the little alcoholic , dont worry regular readers , it wont last i am sure

Not the best way for a journalist to see Iraq's infamous prison

Reuters news agency called on the U.S. military on Wednesday to explain the detention of an Iraqi journalist working for the agency, who has been held incommunicado for two weeks, or release him immediately.

U.S. military spokesmen have refused to say why they are holding Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani, a 36-year-old freelance cameraman and photographer who has worked for the international news organization for a year in Ramadi, capital of Anbar region.
Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for U.S. detainee operations in Iraq, said the journalist was now in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison: "He will not be able to have visitors for the next 60 days," he added.

Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said: "We are very concerned and dismayed by this unexplained and prolonged detention of a journalist working for us and urge the U.S. military either to release him or provide a full account of the accusations against him

Iraq: Constitution , the latest at a glance

Some questions and answers about the effort: for those that wish to understand what exactly is going on.....

Q: What is the status of the constitution? Wasn't there a deadline Thursday?

A: Shiite and Kurdish parties presented a draft constitution to parliament this week but decided to postpone a vote on it for three days, until midnight Thursday, to make another pitch for support from Sunni Arabs. But parliament didn't meet before the deadline, underlining the deep differences that remain. Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani said talks would continue Friday in an attempt to find a compromise.

Q: Why don't the Sunnis support the draft constitution?

A: The main issue is federalism. Under the draft, Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north would each be able to organize themselves into oil-rich regions that would have considerable power over the central government. The Sunni Arab minority, concentrated in central and western Iraq, fears that means they will be squeezed out of oil revenues. While the Sunnis accept a Kurdish autonomous region, they fear a Shiite region will lead to the breakup of the country, domination from overwhelmingly Shiite Iran and a weakened central government.

Q: So what happens next?

A: The Iraqis say reaching agreement is more important than meeting deadlines, and talks could go past Friday. But Shiite leaders appear to be losing patience. Senior Shiite negotiator Ali Dabbagh said the Shiite alliance in parliament will resist any changes to the draft. The Shiites want to skip a vote in parliament and instead put the draft, as is, directly to an Oct. 15 referendum required by law.

Q: What's the significance of not holding a vote in parliament first?

A: Parliament is dominated by Shiites and Kurds so the draft would pass — but the vote would make embarrassingly clear the differences with the Sunnis. Sunni leaders, however, say a vote is required and feel that skipping it is just another sign of Shiites and Kurds running roughshod over Sunnis. Thursday night, Sunni leaders already were calling for voters to reject the draft in the referendum. The parliament speaker said a vote is not required by law.

Q: Is the draft likely to pass the Oct. 15 referendum?

A: It depends how vehement Sunni Arab opposition is. A simple majority of voters can ratify the constitution — and Shiites easily make up a majority, especially if backed by Kurds. But there's a hitch: If two-thirds of voters in any three provinces reject the draft, then it fails no matter what the overall vote. So if Sunnis can rally enough "no" votes in the provinces they dominate, then they can defeat it. They may have help from radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who has called on his followers to vote against the draft. Though Shiite, al-Sadr opposes the draft, feeling it will lead to the splintering of Iraq. Changes still could be made in the draft before the referendum in an attempt to ease opposition.

Q: What happens if voters reject the constitution?

A: Under the interim constitution, parliament will be dissolved and elections held by Dec. 15 to form a new one. The new parliament then starts drafting a new constitution "within a period not to exceed one year." That would significantly delay Iraq's political process at a time when Washington and many Iraqis feel political progress is vital to reducing support for the deadly insurgency. It would delay national elections that are supposed to be held in December under a permanent constitution for a new government.

A rejection also would be a setback for U.S. policy. Washington has been pushing hard for the Iraqis to meet the deadlines for writing the constitutions, only to see them repeatedly missed. Many have hoped that passing a constitution would make Sunnis — who form the backbone of the insurgency — feel included in the political process. But the bruising debate over the draft may have only increased Sunni alienation

36 executed bodies found in Iraq

Bodies found dumped south of Baghdad, gunmen kill two bodyguards of Iraqi president north of Iraqi capital.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi police on Thursday found the bodies of 36 men executed with a bullet to the head and dumped in a stream south of Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.

"Thirty-six bodies of men aged 25 to 35 ... all shot in the head, were found dumped in a stream in Oraida, 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Kut," 175 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad, said the source.

The decomposing bodies, all wearing civilian clothes, were thought to have been dead around five days and had their hands bound or handcuffed, he added.

Yet Another delay in Iraqi Constitution

Talks aimed at persuading Sunni Arabs to back the text of a new Iraqi constitution are to continue on Friday, the country's parliament speaker says.

Hajim Hassani made the announcement as a third deadline passed with no deal.

Earlier, the prime minister's spokesman said some changes had been made. But Sunnis remain opposed to federalism and a negotiator saw no prospect of a deal.

To Hell With Muslim Terrorism

An interesting piece , for once actually written by a muslim on an issue i have already seen aproached hundreds of times by non-muslims , i would advise anyone who wishes to comment to read the whole piece first and not just my snippet....

Pope Benedict’s lecturing Muslims today to hold their “fanatics” for a peaceful world is in a way paving the way for brining back to the Muslim world the scenes, which Mark Twain described in these words: “In many countries we have chained the savage and starved him to death... in many countries we have burned the savage at the stake... we have hunted the savage and his little children and their mother with dogs and guns... in many countries we have taken the savage’s land from him, and made him our slave, and lashed him every day, and broken his pride and made death his only friend, and overworked him till he dropped in his tracks.” In fact, worse than this sort of inhuman treatment is meted out to Muslims today. A proof of which lies in the fact that the US government is not releasing new pictures from Abu Ghraib because before them Mark Twain’s description of man’s inhumanity to man would pale by comparison.

It is too sad that those who are lecturing Muslims do not see what Director of Research of the California-based Institute for Economic Democracy, Dr. J. W. Smith, has observed. According to Dr. Smith, through the devastating historical process, Western civilization has been “responsible for violently killing 12 to 15 million people since WW II and causing the death of 100s of millions more as their economies were destroyed or those countries were denied the right to restructure to care for their people. Unknown as it is, and recognizing that this has been standard practice throughout colonialism, that is the record of the Western imperial centers of capital from 1945 to 1990.” He adds that, “One hundred and fifty thousand to 300,000 of these were tortured and killed by death squads set up by Western intelligence agencies, primarily the CIA.”[10]

Those who are lecturing 1.2 billion Muslims would do better to dig the root causes of present turmoil and realize the Muslims are not responsible for the present unjust global order.

full article Here

My quote for the day

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.


~ Pastor Martin Niemoller

Iraqi doctors cry 'foul'

08/23/05 "Iraq Dispatches" -- -- Doctors for Iraqi is calling for an independent investigation into the serious breaches of the Geneva Convention, the alleged killing of civilians and obstructing medical personal from carrying out there work. Continue.

Haditha, Rawa and Parwana have been under attack for the past three weeks with US/ Iraqi military activities intensifying over the past few days. The main hospitals in the area are reporting shortages of medicine oxygen, sugerical kits, anti-biotics and other basic medicines.

Civilians have fled to neighbouring towns and villages such as Ana and are in need of basic foods, water and shelter. Shop keepers are unable to open their premises because of the US/ Iraqi operation, and trucks with urgent food supplies are facing serious difficulties entering the seiged areas.

Eyewitnesses and medical personal have told Doctors For Iraq that snipers are operating inside some of the seiged cities. Haditha hospital estimates that at least eleven civilians were killed during the attack and 15 injured. The US military prevented ambulances from entering the areas and medics from working freely. The area remains under siege.

Local people say that US marines invaded the town of Rawa and carried out air strikes bombing many buildings and homes. It unclear how many civilians have been killed or injured in the areas where the military is carrying out operations A school building in Parwana was bombed with people inside the school. It is unclear how many people were inside the school and who they were.

Doctors for Iraq has organised for medical aid to reach some of the hospitals and a medical team has been sent to the affected areas.

The military operations in the West of Iraq have left the healthcare system paralysed. Hospitals in the area are unable to provide sufficient medical services for the population. The new military attacks are further compounding the suffering of people in the area.

Doctors for Iraq is calling for the immediate end of US/ Iraqi military attacks in the area.

Doctors for Iraqi is calling for an independent investigation into the serious breaches of the Geneva Convention, the alleged killing of civilians and obstructing medical personal from carrying out there work.

We need urgent medical supplies to be delivered to the hospitals in the area.

For more information or to find out how you can send medical aid to the areas contact:

Dr. Salam Ismael - Salam.obaidi@doctorsforiraq.org Or
Aisha Ismael Press.officer@doctorsforiraq.org

Shouts for the return of Saddam Hussein from angry Sunni's

BAGHDAD -- A new draft constitution that would transform Iraq into a loose federal union sparked celebrations yesterday in the streets of the Shi'ite south and an angry rally in the Sunni Arab heartland, where some chanted for the return of Saddam Hussein

Many Sunni Arabs want Iraq to remain under a strong central government. Sunnis dominated Iraq until the overthrow of Hussein in 2003, and extremists among them make up most of Iraq's insurgency. Sunnis overwhelmingly boycotted national elections in January, leaving them with little clout as Iraq writes its new constitution. Many fear federalism will complete their marginalization, stranding them in a weak, resource-poor region between the Kurdish north and Shi'ite southwest.

Although the draft constitution has yet to be approved, its presentation Monday kept Iraq roughly on a US-backed timeline that requires that the document be put to a popular vote by Oct. 15. Voter approval of the constitution would mean elections for a new, full-term assembly in December. Rejection would mean dissolving the current transitional government and parliament and electing new transitional bodies that would make another try at a constitution.

full article Here

First US soldier convicted of abuse in Afganistan

A soldier from a US military intelligence unit has been sentenced to two months in prison for abusing an Afghan detainee who later died.
It is the first custodial sentence given to any US soldier convicted of abuse in Afghanistan since 2001


US-based human rights group has condemned the sentence as too lenient.
The US has been under intense pressure for several months following allegations of abuse by its forces in US-run detention centres.
Specialist Glendale Wells pleaded guilty at a military court of pushing a detainee known as Dilawar against a wall.
He also admitted doing nothing to prevent other soldiers at the US base at Bagram from abusing him.

In December 2002, Dilawar died at the base - after suffering what an internal US investigation revealed were repeated beatings by American troops while chained to the ceiling by his wrists.

The punishment did not match the gravity of the crimes, said John Sifton, Human Rights Watch's lead researcher on Afghanistan.

He said it was another sign of what he called the US military's consistent failure to take abuse allegations seriously.

"These accused soldiers and their superiors were involved in numerous abuses and two detainee deaths," he said. "Yet all the officers so far have escaped punishment."

In May the deaths of Dilawar and another inmate, along with other allegations of abuse, were detailed by the New York Times, citing a 2,000-page document leaked from a US army investigation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was shocked and demanded action from the US.

Pakistan gives 'first details' of how Korea got Centrifuges

Disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan supplied North Korea with centrifuges and their designs, President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed.
Centrifuges enrich uranium which can be used for making nuclear bombs.

It is the first time Pakistan has given details about the type of technology Dr Khan transferred to Pyongyang.

But President Musharraf told Japanese news agency Kyodo that Dr Khan had not provided North Korea with the expertise for constructing a nuclear bomb.

Full story Here

Gun battle in Baghdad

At least 17 people have been killed and dozens injured as gun battles erupted in the Iraqi capital following a suicide car bomb attack on police.
After the bomber struck, up to 40 masked gunman opened fire with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades

full story Here

A Soldier Speaks: Kelly Dougherty

What were your feelings about the reasons for going to war with Iraq? Did they change once you were there?

Before I even found out I was going to Iraq, I was completely against the idea of going to war with Iraq and I couldn't believe the reasons that were being given -- the weapons of mass destruction and the league of terrorists and all of that. When I first got to Iraq, one of the things that I was really struck by was the poverty there -- and how poor the population was and how little they had, and how much had been destroyed by this war and previous wars.

And when I left, things hadn't much changed for them -- things actually got worse. Lots of people still didn't have any water. ... We weren't helping them at all. And to add, the continual degradation of the area -- not only by the insurgents -- but you don't hear every day how the Iraqi people are suffering at the hands of the U.S. military, and how so many people are arrested or detained, shot and killed, or whatever -- that are completely innocent, or that are trying to go about their daily business. So I think all that really solidified my views that the war was wrong, and first-hand how violence just creates more violence. We're really not accomplishing anything positive there

read the full article Here

leading U.S. Muslim group request to Bush

PLAINFIELD, Ind. Aug 24, 2005 — A leading U.S. Muslim group called on President Bush Wednesday to show his support for mainstream Islam in this country and worldwide by meeting with the group next week in Chicago.

Bush could make a powerful statement to the world's 1.2 billion Muslims by appearing at the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, just as he showed his support for adherents of the religion when he visited a Washington mosque a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Sayyid Syeed, the group's secretary general.

ISNA, an umbrella organization of largely immigrant Muslim organizations and mosques in the United States and Canada, will attract tens of thousands of Muslims to Chicago for its annual meeting over Labor Day weekend.

"His coming to Chicago would send a powerful message to the Muslim world and the world at large that America's fight is not against Islam, it is not against Muslims, it is against extremism and terrorism," Syeed said.

I will wait and see but i would advise them not to hold their breath !

full article Here

UK government reveals 'unacceptable behaviour' list

The Government's ongoing work to tackle terrorism and extremism took another step forward today as the Home Secretary published a list of certain types of 'unacceptable' behaviour.

Charles Clarke said this would form the basis for excluding and deporting individuals from the UK.

The list, finalised following a two-week consultation, makes clear that the Home Secretary will use his powers to deport and exclude from the UK those who engage in these types of behaviour.

It makes clear that those who 'would attempt to foment terrorism or provoke others to commit terrorist acts' are not welcome in the UK.

The list of unacceptable behaviours is indicative rather than exhaustive, said Mr Clarke.

It covers any non-UK citizen whether in the UK or abroad who uses any medium - including distributing material, preaching or running a website - to express views which:

foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs;
seek to provoke others to terrorist acts;
foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts; or
foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK


i find that last one quiet interesting myself , as it will be double edged , it will do the main job of helping to stop these 'terrorist web sites' which i support , and it will also put a stop to the far right in the UK using terrorism as a means to attack islam , hopefully once this goes through , a lot more care and thought (at least in the UK) will go into what people write and how it can be viewed


so good news all round i feel

No Accountability

No Accountability

By Charley Reese

08/22/05 -- -- What Americans should demand from their governments at all levels is accountability. Accountability is far more important than transparency, which can be easily faked.

Accountability is not complicated. It simply means people must take responsibility for their actions. If the actions are successful, take responsibility; if they are a failure, take responsibility. This principle applies daily to Americans in their private lives. It is the heart of the tort system. If we wrongly injure someone, we are held accountable.

Of all the sins one might list of the Bush administration, failure to be accountable is the worst. As a justification to go to war, the Bush administration insisted that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It did not. The Bush people insisted Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaida. There were none. They insisted Iraq was a threat to its neighbors. It was not, as all of its neighbors publicly said.

So, obviously, it was a case of lies or blunders — take your pick. In either event, people should have been held accountable for misinforming the American public and going to war on false pretenses. Not one single person, not a clerk or messenger or janitor even, has been held accountable. In fact, the people who made the blunders or told the lies have all been rewarded with promotions or medals.

This stone-cold refusal to admit mistakes and to be held accountable is what gives the Bush administration the eerie atmosphere of being totally disconnected from reality. Whatever President Bush says or does is always correct and successful, no matter how copious is the evidence to the contrary. Members of the administration just don't talk about the weapons or the ties to al-Qaida anymore. You must be mistaken, they say. We went to war because we love the Iraqi people so much, we wanted them to have a democratic government.

Excuse me. You want me to believe that you love a people — who for 13 years we bombed and impoverished with sanctions — so much that you will gladly spend 2,000 American lives to relieve them of a dictator the U.S. once supported? This is insane. The very gas attack against the Kurds that Bush so often trotted out in the buildup to war was defended and in fact blamed on the Iranians by an official U.S. investigation at the time it happened.

I can live with crooks. I can live with differences of opinion and of politics. After all, those are parts of a democratic society. But the Bush administration scares me because it seems on its face irrational. That's a fancy word for crazy. The world is too dangerous for us to have a president who seems unable to connect to reality and who surrounds himself with people whose chief qualification is that they agree with whatever he says.

I think there might be an arrogance gene in the Bush family. His father might well have been re-elected if he had gone to the American people, apologized for breaking his promise that he would veto any new taxes and explained why he thought it was necessary to do so. But, no. It was "read my hips" as he stalked away from reporters. Apparently, in the Bush family's eyes, it is impossible for anybody named Bush to make a mistake, tell a lie or do anything wrong.

Of course, in fairness, most American politicians refuse to be accountable. Members of Congress in particular will pass bad laws and then act as if they had been sneaked onto the books by Martians in the dead of night. I've been an observer and a participant in politics for a number of decades, and I honestly cannot recall a single politician ever saying: "You remember when I said such and such? Well, I was wrong, and I'm sorry."

But politicians don't take responsibility because the American people and the media don't demand it of them. If the American voters continue to act like ignorant sheep and the media continue to concentrate on trivia, you can't blame the politicians for taking advantage of them. As an outlaw said in an old cowboy movie: "It may even be sacrilegious (not to rob the villagers). If God did not want them sheared, why did he make them sheep?"

Indeed, why?

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years. Write to Charley Reese at P.O. Box 2446, Orlando, FL 32802

My first reaction to George W. Bush’s all-too-obvious politicizing of the memories of September 11, 2001, in his latest lame attempt to justify his illegal and immoral war in Iraq, was anger.

Than anger gave way to sadness.

Sadness over a morality-challenged politician’s use of the deaths of 3,000 plus Americans for his own political gain.

And even more sadness because there are still people out there stupid enough to fall for this kind of crap.

Bush has pulled this stunt before. He keeps 9/11 in his bag of tricks as a last-ditch effort to save his corrupt political hide when things go bad. And, according to polls, things are bad. An increasing majority of Americans no longer buy his lies about Iraq and oppose the war along with growing numbers who finally realize the President of the United States is a liar who cannot be trusted.

Reality, however, will not stop the dwindling numbers of Bushites from defending their failed leader to the end – and it is that maniacal devotion to Bush that may signal the end to America as we know it.

Sometimes it is difficult to decide who to fear the most – the ethically-bankrupt President whose madness drives what was once the greatest country on earth closer and closer to ruin or the blind, brain-dead lemmings who continue to follow him into the abyss.

In more normal times we might be able to dismiss Bush’s followers as just another gaggle of misguided political miscreants who bet on the wrong horse and now try to justify that mistake.

But these are not normal times and the wild-eyed fanatics who continue to buy this charlatan’s snake oil are, in too many ways, as dangerous as Bush himself.

Bush and his klavern of crooks, con-men and thieves have turned this nation into a monster that threatens world peace, an arrogant bomb-throwing bully who poses a far-greater danger than any Islam-spouting lunatic with a turban.

When you get past the hyperbole and sound bite rants of the rabid right, you are left with one sad fact – the United States of America, a nation that once prided itself in never, ever, being the aggressor in a conflict, invaded another nation on false pretenses, a nation that posed no immediate threat to us or our way of life.

It is no longer Osama bin Laden and his fanatical followers who pose the greatest threat to the future of this country. It is George W. Bush and his equally-fanatical, zoned-out legions who buy into his destructive, anti-American actions.

Osama’s still at large and still planning ways to attack this country but he remains at large because Bush ordered the military to all-but-abandon the search for the Al Qaeda leader and divert resources to an ill-conceived, ill-planned and ill-executed illegal invasion of Iraq.

Now the Army admits it is planning for “at least” four more years in Iraq as the death toll of young American men and women races headlong towards 2,000.

So a desperate George W. Bush goes to the well once more, invoking the memories of September 11, 2001 to try and save his political skin.

We can hope, of course, that this blatant political opportunism won’t work. We can hope that Americans will finally see through the sham that is Bush and the fanatics who follow him.

We can hope that Americans recognize that more than one terrorist seeks to destroy America and that the most dangerous terrorist of all lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

By Doug Thompson

08/22/05

Iraqis again fail to reach accord

BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite and Kurdish politicians beat a midnight deadline yesterday and submitted a draft constitution to Iraq's National Assembly, but lawmakers postponed voting on the document for three days in a final bid to gain the support of skeptical Sunni Arab leaders.

After months of negotiations and a one-week extension, lawmakers had been expected to either approve a draft constitution by yesterday, officially endorse another delay, or scrap the whole process and start over with new elections. Instead, visibly tired politicians muddled through to a half-resolution, presenting a document that left several key issues unsettled.

People who have viewed the document said it includes vague language weakening Iraq's strong central government, enshrining a federalist system, and addressing how oil revenue is to be split between Baghdad and the provinces.

Sunni Arab members of the drafting committee quickly rejected the Shi'ite-Kurd text, loudly denounced the process, and threatened to work against the document if the assembly endorses the current version and submits it to the public in an October referendum.

''This constitution is full of mines that are going to explode," Salah Mutlak, one of 15 Sunnis on the charter panel, said. ''The articles stipulated in this constitution will have grave consequences if they are submitted to a referendum. This constitution will lead to a weak Iraq that is unable to defend itself."

Full open enquiry into police shooting on London underground

Brazilian officials have said they do not believe there was a Scotland Yard cover-up over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.
But ambassador Manoel Gomes Pereira said he had been "perplexed" by leaks from the inquiry that contradicted early police and eyewitness reports.

He "completely" trusted the Independent Police Complaints Commission, he added.

The IPCC has said it will end its probe into the shooting this year. Mr Menezes died after being mistaken for a bomber.

The 27-year-old electrician was killed at Stockwell Tube station, south London, a day after the failed 21 July bombings.


What i think is most amazing about this story is a point that was picked up by the London evening standard today .

The enquiry has yet to begin but already in a similar way to how the right behave in america , the british right have already come forward warning that people should 'not be swayed by leftist influence into the enquiry' that 'people will try to use the enquiry for political gain' and other silly little attacks

The Enquiry has not started ! and the only political side i seen trying to gain from this is the right by making such comments

UN expert criticises UK terror plans

The BBC is reporting

UK plans to deport terrorism suspects to countries that may have committed human rights abuses in the past have been criticised by a UN expert.
The measure was one of those announced by Tony Blair in the wake of the July bombings of London's transport network.
Agreements will be sought to make sure returnees would not be tortured.

But Manfred Nowak, UN special rapporteur on torture, said such assurances were "not an appropriate tool to eradicate this risk".

In the past Mr Nowak has said the war on terror is undermining human rights.


read the rest of the article Here

Gaza , a rare story from the other side

In the breezy, far northwestern corner of the Gaza Strip, where the Mediterranean collides with golden sands and an in-sea barrier marking the border with Israel, there is a small Palestinian village.

Al-Siyafa, according to the residents of this area, was once a paradise with lush strawberry patches as far as the eye could see, guava and avocado trees that were the envy of every farmer, and citrus orchards that masked the salty coast humidity.

Now, it is a scorched, barren landscape that accommodates little more than the occasional wildflower.

For days, we have been bombarded with images of weeping settlers on our television stations. How hard it must be, we are told, for these settlers to give up the only homes many of them have ever known. How cruel and inhumane that they are being "forcefully evicted," children clutching dolls and mothers sobbing by their side.

But we do not hear of the village of al-Siyafa, sandwiched between the settlements of Dugit and Eli Sinai, their red-roofed, sea-front villas visible in the distance, safely set apart from their neighboring Palestinian village with barbed wire and acres of cleared earth.

It is for their sake, for their safety and pleasure, that this once flourishing land was cleared of its trees, and the Palestinians of their livelihoods.

In their name, millions of Palestinians' lives have been crippled, roads torn apart and sealed off, homes destroyed and Palestinians made homeless, hundreds of innocent lives lost, and acres of fertile farmland razed and annexed.

We do not hear of Um Ahmed al-Ghul, who lost her only son to the sniper tower that once overlooked this village, as he was picking mint leaves from their small garden.

Al-Siyafa has been turned into an open-air prison in recent years, sealed off from the rest of Gaza with barbed-wire fences, an Israeli sniper tower, tanks, and a complicated and arbitary permit-entry system for residents, all in the name of security for the settlements.

Residents have no access to health care inside their fenced-in village, no electricity, and no schools. In order to reach these facilities, they must pass through an Israel-imposed checkpoint, which opens at particular hours of the day, and often not at all.

But soon, the settlers will be gone. The red-roofs, the sniper towers, and the fences will gradually disappear. Gaza, we are told, will finally have the opportunity to thrive and prosper as an independent and free territory.

Or will it?

Just because the visible markers of occupation will be gone, it does not mean the occupation itself will end. Instead of controlling our lives from within, Israel will control our lives from without in a convenient, secure manner.

That is, after all, what disengagement was about: tactical maneuvering; isolating the Gaza Strip that Rabin hoped to wake up one morning and find swallowed by the sea; rendering a contiguous Palestinian state impossible and stopping a negotiated peace dead in its tracks.

In a few weeks, the Israeli army will simply be redeploying to outside of the Gaza border, taking control of Gaza's Palestinians like a prison warden in charge of his inmates.

Israel will also maintain its troop presence along the Philedelphi corridor in Rafah, where some 20,000 Palestinian lost their homes in a systemic policy of demolition to make way for this border buffer zone.

Where young children, like Iman al-Hims and Noran Deeb, lost their lives to an indiscriminate Israeli sniper.

Even the latest round of talks on the status of the Rafah crossing -- Gaza's only route to the outside world -- have been inconclusive.

Likewise, Palestinians will be unable to move freely to and from the West Bank. And without such a territorial link, a viable Palestinian economy, or state, is impossible.
Gazans' freedom of movement will continue, then, to be ultimately and arbitrarily controlled by the Israeli government.

But the story does not end there.

Two years ago, I wrote a long piece about al-Siyafa. In it were stern warnings from human rights experts that the neglected village was a model for what was to come in the West Bank. Al-Siyafa, and the Gaza Strip in it entirety for that matter, was a testing ground for Israel -- rather than getting your hands dirty, isolate Palestinian villages in the name of "security."

Now, weeks away from the end of disengagement, and two months away from the completion of the wall in the West Bank, we are closer to that reality than ever before.

The Wall, whose route was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice last July, is annexing some 52% of Palestinian land, much of it slated for settlement expansion for the 420, 000-some Israeli settlers who continue to reside there illegally.

Once completed, experts warn that unemployment and poverty will surge in the West Bank, just as it did in Gaza.

The barrier will also complete the isolation of East Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital, from 3.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, like those in al-Siyafa, will be forced to endure the uncertainty of checkpoints on a daily basis to attend school or work or receive medical care.
Last week, I was interviewed by several radio stations on my thoughts on the withdrawal. Over and over I was asked, as a Palestinian mother and journalist, was I hopeful about what was to come?

The optimist -- and mother in me -- prompted me to say, "One must always be hopeful even in the face of fences and walls."
But I fear the reality may be otherwise.

My parents grew up with Israeli foot soldiers patrolling their streets and neighborhoods, barging into their homes, detaining and beating young boys arbitrarily in the middle of the night;

but they could travel freely to the West Bank, Jerusalem, and even Israel.

I grew up with soldiers cocooned in tanks and Apache helicopters that wreaked havoc upon refugee camps and residential neighborhoods; in armored bulldozers that turned my grandfather's farm into a wasteland; in sniper towers bellowing orders through loudspeakers, controlling my every move in and out of Gaza.

I do not want my son growing up in another phase of this occupation; I do not want him to have to describe how his life and his childhood was hijacked by an occupier he could not see.
Rather, I want him to grow up with the freedom to move; with freedom from fear; and ultimately, with the freedom to live.

Laila El-Haddad is a Palestinian mother and journalist based in the occupied Gaza Strip. She reports for AlJazeera's English website and Pacifica Radio in the United States

please note : by placing this article here i am NOT by definition endorsing all the views contained within , i post this article as a means to balance the purely one sided views we get from the media and allowing the other side of the debate to express its voice , as they should be equally allowed to do

Bush Compares War on Terror to World Wars

President Bush compared the fight against terrorism to both world wars and other great conflicts of the 20th century !

With the anti-war movement finding new momentum behind grieving mother Cindy Sheehan, Bush acknowledged the fighting in Iraq is difficult and dangerous. But he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention the fight is necessary to keep terrorists out of the United States.

As he did in last year's election campaign and more recently as war opposition has risen, Bush reminded his listeners of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 reciting the date five times in a 30-minute speech.

do people really believe this crap ?

how exactly is this war on iraq keeping terrorists out of America or London or Spain or Bali etc etc etc ?

This site ... again

This site will begin posting again soon , for those interested , I was going for a job that would have prevented me from running this site

I have decided to pull out of the job , so i am free again to post ,

it is good to be back